Five University of Bristol academics have been named by Thomson Reuters as among the top one per cent of scientists who are “the world’s leading scientific minds” and whose publications are among the most influential in their fields.

The five academics listed are:

• Jeremy O’Brien, Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics and Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering;
• Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Engineering Mathematics;
• George Davey Smith, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the School of Social and Community Medicine;
• Stephen Mann, Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry;
• Dr Wendy McArdle, Head of DNA Collections in the School of Social and Community Medicine.

Thomson Reuters identified the best and brightest scientists by analysing citation data over the last 11 years [2002 to 2012]. The resulting report, The world’s most influential scientific minds: 2014 (PDF, 1,959kB), lists 3,200 individuals across 21 fields who have published the highest-impact work that is most frequently acknowledged by their peers. These papers rank in the top one per cent by citation for their field and year of publication. It is precisely this type of recognition by peers, in the form of citations that makes this recognition meaningful.

Thompson Reuters, in their report, said: “The identification of these individuals is rooted in the collective, objective opinions of the scientific community. Fellow scientists, through their citations, give credit to these people and their work.”

Professor Jeremy O'Brien holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and is Director of the .  In April he was awarded the 2014 EPSRC RISE Leadership award and last year he was awarded the Institute of Physics Bates Prize for achievements in the field of quantum effects in optical systems.  In October 2013 he was identified by The Financial Times as one of the next big names in physics. 

To learn more about the methodology behind the listing of Highly Cited Researchers, visit http://highlycited.com/.