Potsdam scientists have a great influence on the field of plant research

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology are among the world's most cited researchers in 2020

Scientists publish their research results in scientific journals. The success of a publication can be measured by how often it is cited by other scientists. The more often this happens, the more successful and influential these authors are. This year, nine scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPI-MP) - including five current members, one associated member and three former members - are among the most frequently cited and thus most influential scientists among international plant and animal scientists.

The most cited researchers are named by the Web of Science group, which today published its "Highly Cited Researchers List 2020". Here the citation behavior over the last 11 years is analyzed in 21 different categories.

As in the previous years, 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 among the most cited scientists in the category of animal and plant research. This year, Takuya Yoshida, postdoctoral researcher in the group of Alisdair Fernie, is newly listed. Ralph Bock, also director at the MPI-MP, was listed in the category "Cross Field". He is thus one of the researchers who have contributed to highly cited papers across several different fields.

Furthermore, 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 are honored on the "Highly Cited Researcher 2020 List". The latter are Björn Usadel, now Professor at Aachen University of Technology, Takayuki Tohge, at present Professor at NIST/Chiba University in Japan, and Francesco Licausi, currently Associate Professor at University of Oxford.

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

In total, the list of highly cited scientists contains over 6300 scientists of more than 60 countries. Germany is again the fourth-placed country in the world, with 345 of the listed scientists working in Germany. The Max Planck Society is the fifth most highly cited scientific institution in the world, with 70 highly cited scientists from all fields of research. In the field of plant and animal sciences, 220 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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