The Popstars of Science

Highly cited researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology named in global Highly Cited Researchers 2019 List.

Similar to musicians whose success is measured by how often their songs are heard, scientists' success is measured by how often their publications are read, but above all quoted by other scientists. The more often this happens, the more successful and influential these researchers are. In the recently published "Highly Cited Researcher 2019 List" of the Web of Science Group, those researchers have been identified for all scientific fields whose publications have been the most highly cited by their colleagues worldwide in the last ten years.

This year, seven scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) - including four former or institute-associated scientists - are among the most cited and thus most influential scientists on the international scene. In addition to Mark Stitt, one of the institute´s directors, the group leader Alisdair Fernie and the project leader John Lunn from the MPI-MP were listed again in 2019 as highly cited plant researchers. The list also includes Bernd Müller-Röber from the University of Potsdam, who has an associated research group at the MPI-MP, and three scientists who published highly cited work during their time at the MPI-MP and have now received professorships in Germany (Björn Usadel, TU Aachen) or abroad (Takayuki Tohge NIST/Chiba University, Japan) or are working in startups at the Potsdam Science Park (Marc Lohse, Targenomix).

"We are very proud and delighted to see that our scientific contribution is so visible and well-recognized by other scientists," explains Mark Stitt. "We also congratulate our colleagues from the Max Planck Institutes in Jena, Cologne and Tübingen who also do excellent work in the field of plant research."

In total, the list of highly cited scientists contains over 3.700 scientists who work in 21 different research fields. Germany is the fourth-placed country in the world, with 327 of the listed scientists working in Germany. The Max Planck Society is the fourth most highly cited scientific institution in the world, with 73 highly cited scientists from all fields of research. In the field of plant and animal sciences, 196 highly cited scientists were identified, including 19 scientists working in Germany.

The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology is one of the world's leading facilities for plant research. We conduct basic research with a focus on studying various metabolic processes, their interplay, and how they are influenced by the environment. The goal of our research is to understand plant growth and predict plant behavior.

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