Twenty-one ‘Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates’ Recognized for Their Contributions to the Advancement of Science
PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, Oct. 3 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters today announced the 2008 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates-researchers likely to be in contention for Nobel honors -- in anticipation of this year's Nobel Prize winners to be announced in October.
Each year, data from ISI Web of KnowledgeSM, a Thomson Reuters research solution, is used to quantitatively determine the most influential researchers in the Nobel categories of Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. Because of the total citations to their works, these high-impact researchers are named Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates and predicted to be Nobel Prize winners, either this year or in the future.
Last year, five Citation Laureates were awarded Nobel Prizes. Since 2002, of those named Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates, 12 have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.
"A strong correlation exists between citations in literature and peer esteem. Professional awards, like the Nobel Prize, are a reflection of this peer esteem," said David Pendlebury, Research Services, Thomson Reuters. "We choose our Citation Laureates by assessing citation counts and the number of high-impact papers while identifying discoveries or themes that may be considered worthy of recognition by the Nobel Committee."
The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters is the only organization to use quantitative data to make annual predictions of Nobel Prize winners.
The Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates typically rank among the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of researchers in their fields, based on citations of their published papers over the last two decades.
To select the 2008 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates, total citation counts and number of high-impact papers in the Nobel science fields were examined. These data were applied to categories within those scientific fields considered worthy of special recognition by the Nobel Committee: Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. Based on these criteria, possible winners -- leaders within a particularly noteworthy area of study within each field -- were selected.
The 2008 Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates by Nobel Prize category are as follows:
Chemistry
Charles M. Lieber
Mark Hyman, Jr., Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA
-- For his transformational research on nanowires, nanomaterials, and their applications.
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski
J.C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry,Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pa., USA
-- For his development of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and other methods of "living" polymerization.
Roger Y. Tsien
Professor of Pharmacology and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, Calif., USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
-- For his development and application of fluorescent protein probes as visual indicators of cellular function.
Physics
Andre K. Geim, F.R.S.
Langworthy Research Professor, Chair of Condensed Matter Physics and Director of Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
-and-
Kostya Novoselov
Royal Society Research Fellow, Department of Condensed Matter Physics, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
-- For their discovery and analysis of graphene.
Vera C. Rubin
Senior Fellow, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C., USA
-- For her pioneering research indicating the existence of dark matter in the universe.
Sir Roger Penrose, O.M., F.R.S.
Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
-and-
Dan Shechtman
Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
-- For their related discoveries of, Penrose-tilings and quasicrystals, respectively.
Physiology or Medicine
Shizuo Akira
Professor, Department of Host Defense, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
-and-
Bruce A. Beutler
Professor and Chairman, Department of Genetics, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif., USA
-and-
Jules A. Hoffman
President, French Academy of Sciences, Paris, France
-- For their research on toll-like receptors and innate immunity.
Victor R. Ambros
Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Mass., USA
-and-
Gary Ruvkun
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA
-- For their discovery and analysis of the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in gene regulation.
Rory Collins
Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology and Co-director of the Clinical Trial Service Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
-and-
Sir Richard Peto, F.R.S.
Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology and Co-director of the Clinical Trial Service Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
-- For their contributions to clinical medicine and epidemiology through the development and application of meta-analysis.
Economics
Lars P. Hansen
Homer J. Livingston Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., USA
-and-
Thomas J. Sargent
William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business, Department of Economics, New York University, New York, N.Y., USA; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., USA
-and-
Christopher A. Sims
Harold B. Helms Professor of Economics and Banking, Department of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., USA
-- For their contributions to dynamic econometric models.
Armen A. Alchian
Emeritus Professor, Department of Economics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., USA
-and-
Harold Demsetz
Arthur Andersen UCLA Alumni Emeritus Professor of Business Economics, Department of Economics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., USA
-- For their publications on property rights and their contributions to the theory of the firm.
Martin S. Feldstein
George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA; President Emeritus, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass., USA
-- For his research on public economics, including taxation, social security, health economics and many other topics.
For detailed information about each of the Citation Laureates, including information about their areas of study, and to read about previously named Citation Laureates, visit the Thomson Reuters Citation Laureates website at http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/nobel .
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Notes to Editor:
If you are interested in scheduling an interview with David Pendlebury to discuss this year's picks and the methodology for choosing Citation Laureates, please contact Sue Besaw at +1-215-823-1840 or susan.besaw@thomsonreuters.com .
CONTACTS:
Susan Besaw
Scientific
Tel: +1-215-823-1840
Email: susan.besaw@thomsonreuters.com
Pamela Lim (Asia Pacific)
Scientific
Tel: +65-6411-6737
Email: pamela.lim@thomsonreuters.com
Web site: scientific.thomsonreuters.com
