Clarivate has named 26 academics from the University of Sydney on its annual Highly Cited Researchers list. The Clarivate list recognises the most influential researchers who have published multiple papers frequently cited by their peers that rank in the top one percent of citations for their field and year in the Web of Science.
Professor Julie Cairney, interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), congratulated the Sydney researchers recognised as world-leaders in their fields.
“The University of Sydney takes pride in the excellence of its research, driven by our outstanding academics and their commitment to addressing the greatest challenges and contributing to the common good,” said Professor Cairney.
“This year’s Sydney cohort comprises both established researchers like Professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer – joint Australians of the year – and emerging academics such as our Horizon Fellows, ARC DECRA fellows, and the NSW Young Tall Poppy of the year.”
Sydney’s 2024 highly cited academics
Professor Astell-Burt is a leading expert in urban planning and policy and its effects on health and wellbeing. He is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, studying nature-based solutions for wellbeing and loneliness and is a founding co-director of the PowerLab (Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab).
For more than 30 years Professor Bauman has been a world leader in the study of chronic disease prevention and the development and assessment of prevention research methods. He has worked extensively in the fields of physical activity, obesity, smoking and cardiovascular disease prevention and is currently the co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity.
Associate Professor Carlino specialises in melanoma, complex non melanoma skin cancer and gastrointestinal cancers. He is a medical oncologist at Westmead and Blacktown Hospitals and a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. He has been a principal investigator in over 50 clinical trials.
Professor Cullen is a chemical and biomolecular engineer. He works with plasma and the ultimate goal of his research is the adoption of plasma technologies to move away from the current reliance on traditional chemicals towards more targeted and environmentally friendly solutions to a range of global social, environmental and industrial challenges including food, water and climate issues.
Dr Fardouly leads a research program investigating positive and negative social media content for users’ body image. She holds a prestigious Sydney Horizon Fellowship on improving social media for users’ body image via interventions among individuals, social groups, social media influencers and policy initiatives. She was named NSW Young Tall Poppy of the Year for 2024 .
Professor George is a renowned hepatologist and liver research scientist who studies the causes of and mechanisms for the development of liver disease and liver cancer. Professor George’s work has made significant contributions to clinical practice. His team first identified the role of interferon lambda 3 gene polymorphisms for predicting treatment response in chronic hepatitis C, and a second gene polymorphism that interacts with interferon lambda 3. These discoveries are considered major advances in the field and the finest examples of ‘personalised medicine’.
Professor Halliday is one of the world’s leading experts on neurodegeneration, having dedicated her career to research critical to improving the lives of those with Parkinson’s, dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. Her research has directly influenced clinical practice by providing the evidence base for understanding the pathologies underlying neurodegenerative diseases, clarifying the trajectory of the diseases over time and exploring any potential variability. She was awarded the 2021 Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson’s Research by the Michael J Fox foundation, which recognises scientists who make an exceptional research contribution to improve treatments for Parkinson’s patients.
Professor Hensher is Professor of Management, and Founding Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) His research focuses on smarter door-to-door transport solutions that reduce car use and our environmental footprint, and make getting to work cheaper and simpler. In January 2023, David was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (OA).
Professor Ho-Baillie is the John Hooke Chair of Nanoscience at the University of Sydney. Her research interest is to engineer materials and devices at nanoscale for integrating solar cells onto all kinds of surfaces generating clean energy. She has been identified as one of the leaders in advancing perovskite solar cells. Her achievements in setting solar cell energy efficiency world records in various categories have placed her research at the forefront internationally.
Professor Holmes is a recognised leader in the study of viral evolution. He was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for his transformative role in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with international collaborators at Fudan University in Shanghai, Professor Holmes was the first person to publicly share the entire genome of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. As well as his work on coronaviruses, he has pioneered the study of how viruses evolve and jump between species, including to humans, to spread and cause disease. His work has laid the foundations for the study of virus evolution, ecology and emergence.
Professor Kalantar Zadeh is the Head of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. As an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow, he specialises in chemical engineering, materials sciences, biomedical engineering, and electronics. His work is helping to address global challenges through advancements in materials and chemical engineering.
Professor Lenzen is a physicist and renewable energies expert. He has contributed major methodological advances and applications in the areas of embodied energy, greenhouse gas emissions, input-output analysis and life-cycle assessment. Professor Lenzen is an international leader in economic Input-Output Analysis and Life-Cycle Assessment, is Associate Editor for the Journal of Industrial Ecology, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Economic Systems Research.
Dr Li is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney, where he joined in April 2020. His research aims for a “greener”, carbon-neutral future relying on electrochemical energy. His post-doctoral research focused on developing catalysts and systems for the conversion of carbon dioxide to value-added fuels and chemicals. Dr Li has published more than 90 research articles in top-tier journals including Nature, Science, Nature Catalysis, Nature Materials, Angewandte Chemie, and Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Professor Li ‘s recent research is focused on computational design and multidisciplinary optimisation of nonlinear and time-dependent multifunctional and lightweight structures and materials with applications in aerospace, automotive, mechanical, manufacturing and biomedical engineering. His research expertise covers the areas of data science, computational mechanics, structural crashworthiness, additive manufacturing, biomechanics, scaffold tissue engineering and biofabrication. Professor Li has collaborated with domestic and global industry including Cochlear, Stryker, Allegra, SDI, Sirona, 360 Med Care, Optimize Ortho and Corin.
Professor Li is Director of Wireless Engineering Laboratory in School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney. He is the recipient of theAustralian Research Council (ARC)Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in 2008 and ARC Future Fellowship in 2012. He is an IEEE Fellow for contributions to cooperative communications technologies.
Professor Long is co-director of Melanoma Institute Australia. She leads an extensive clinical trials team and laboratory, with a focus on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology in melanoma. Professor Long was named joint NSW Australian of the year in 2023. She was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (2020) and has received several awards, including the Research Australia, GSK Research Excellence Award (2018) and prestigious Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Prize for Discovery in Medical Research (2016). In October 2020 she was ranked the world’s 5th, and Australia’s 1st melanoma expert in all fields and discipline.
Professor Macia is Academic Director of Sydney Cytometry and Head of the Nutritional Immunometabolism Lab. Professor Macia is exploring the connection between nutrition and immune response. As a Beckett Fellow at the School of Medical Sciences/Physiology, she researches the benefits of balanced nutrition, regular exercise, and stress reduction. And how nutrition and immunity might influence multiple sclerosis (MS), investigating how diet modifications could re-educate the immune system.
Director of the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, Professor McBratney is a world-leading soil scientist. He has made major contributions to soil science and agriculture through the development of the concepts of Pedometrics, Digital Soil Mapping and Precision Agriculture. He was awarded the VV Dokuchaev medal by the International Union of Soil Sciences, the highest honour in the soil science discipline.
Professor Menzies is a medical oncologist. He has a subspecialty interest in melanoma and breast cancer. His main research interests are clinical trials of new systemic therapies for melanoma and breast cancer, biomarkers of response and resistance to systemic therapy, and immunotherapy-related toxicity. Since 2009, he has been an investigator on over 100 sponsored and investigator-led Phase I to III clinical trials of systemic therapies in melanoma and breast cancer.
Soil scientist Professor Minasny is passionate about the role of soil in managing climate change, food, water, energy security and maintaining biodiversity. He is the theme leader of Soil, Carbon, and Water at Sydney Institute of Agriculture. He has won numerous awards and is recognised as the leader in digital soil mapping and modelling. He is also a member of three of the University’s multidisciplinary initiatives, the Sydney South East Asia Centre and the China Studies Centre.
A geophysicist, Professor Muller leads the University’s EarthByte research group. He has received numerous awards, including an NSW Premier’s Prize, for his lifelong dedication to, and innovations in, building a deep time travel machine, a virtual laboratory to see deep into the Earth in four dimensions, through space and time. By modelling the Earth’s history we are better able to predict its future – for example, how it will respond to climate change.
Dr Pei’s research interests include elecrocatalysis, aqueous batteries, and hydrogel electrolytes. He was recognised as one of the Australian Research Top 40 Rising Stars in 2019 and 2020. Currently he works on functional materials for sustainable energy conversion and storage.
Co-director of Melanoma Institute Australia, Professor Scolyer is a world-leading expert in melanoma diagnosis and research. He consults on more than 2000 cases annually which are difficult to diagnose. According to Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge, he is the highest-ever published scientist in the world in the field of melanoma pathology and he also has the highest H index in this field. In September 2019, he was ranked as the leading Australian Pathologist in the entire field of pathology by League of Scholars. He is a member of the University’s multidisciplinary initiative, the Charles Perkins Centre.
Professor Stamatakis leads a program of research examining the health effects of physical activity and sleep using cohort studies and international consortia of wearable device data. He is Theme Leader for physical activity and exervise at the Charles Perkins Centre (CPC), Director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub@CPC, and an NHMRC Leadership 2 Fellow. He was named Field Leader in the Sports Medicine category of Australia’s Top Researchers 2024, published in The Australian.
Associate Professor Stockings is an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow and Program Lead of ‘Smoking, Vaping and Mental Health’ at the Matilda Centre. He research focuses on e-cigarette use in young people and vulnerable populations, surveillance of e-cigarette purchase trends and consumer behaviour, clinical practice change interventions for improving routine screening for smoking and other drug use in mental health and substance use settings.
Dr Zhang studies clean energy, water and the environment, and materials and structures. He is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow, working on Plasma-driven electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction.
