Lancaster University researchers are included in a new prestigious list of the world’s most highly influential academics.

Professor Christina Hicks, Professor Peter Atkinson, Professor Constantin Blome, and Professor Nicholas Graham are all listed in this year’s Highly Cited Researchers 2023 – a list drawn from highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index over the past decade.

Other Lancaster-affiliated researchers on the list included Professor Alfredo de Massis of the Management School.

Compiled by experts at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, the list includes people from around the world who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their chosen field.

This year 6,849 individual researchers from institutions in 67 countries and regions have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2023.

Professor Christina Hicks leads work on fisheries governance and conservation, nutrition from fisheries, and food justice with a focus on East and West Africa. A previous recipient of the prestigious Leverhulme Prize and the Gill Memorial Award from the Royal Geographical Society, she is an interdisciplinary social scientist and marine conservationist who examines the interactions between people and their environments. Professor Hicks is a professor within the Political Ecology group at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre.

Peter Atkinson, Executive Dean of Lancaster University’s Faculty of Science and Technology, is a Distinguished Professor of Spatial Data Science in the Lancaster Environment Centre. Professor Atkinson's research involves the application of space-time statistics and geostatistics, machine learning and AI, and dynamic numerical modelling, to Earth observation and other spatio-temporal data, to answer a wide range of inter-disciplinary science questions. Professor Atkinson has published around 400 peer-reviewed international scientific journal articles on these topics, and authored or edited nine books. He has led or co-led around 50 research projects and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Science of Remote Sensing.

Professor Nick Grahamis a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a Chair in Marine Ecology based in Lancaster University’s Environment Centre. His research tackles the challenges facing coral reef ecosystems, using large scale ecological and social-ecological approaches to understand and better manage climatic impacts and human use. He is also an adjunct professor at James Cook University, Australia.

Professor Constantin Blome is Academic Dean of Lancaster University Leipzig and also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Operations & Production Management. Professor Blome's research interests include supply chain management, procurement and operations management with strong focus on sustainability, innovation and risk issues. He is particularly interested in topics that shape managerial practice and reactions of firms to internal and external supply chain challenges. In recent years this led to extensive research in risk management and sustainability topics.

Professor Alfredo De Massis is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy, Lancaster University Management School and IMD. He has been Director of the School's Centre for Family Business, and is involved in collaboration and scientific advisory activities by offering intellectual contributions within the Wild Chair in Family Business at the International Institute for Management Development.

Professor Stephen Long of the University of Illinois and a Visiting Professor of Crop Sciences at Lancaster University is also included in this year’s list.

Professor Louise Heathwaite, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research & Enterprise at Lancaster University, said: “Many congratulations to those on the 2023 list of Highly Cited Researchers as due recognition on the international stage of their dedication, hard work and calibre of their research outputs. I am truly delighted to see Lancaster’s research excellence rewarded in this way and notably the spotlight it places on the global research standing of our Lancaster Environment Centre.”

David Pendlebury, Head of Research Analysis at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate said: “The Highly Cited Researchers list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at Lancaster University whose significant and broad influence in their fields translates to impact in their research community and innovations that make the world healthier, more sustainable and more secure. Their contributions resonate far beyond their individual achievements, strengthening the foundation of excellence and innovation in research.”

More information about the Highly Cited Researchers 2023 list is available here