Atmospher Sci & Global Chg
Staff Awards & Honors
December 2017
Ghan, Rasch, McDowell Named to 2017 Highly Cited Researchers List
Scientists' citations rank in top 1 percent of their respective research fields
Once again, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory atmospheric scientists Steven Ghan and Philip Rasch made Clarivate Analytics' list of the world's most highly cited researchers.
Clarivate Analytics (formerly part of Thomson Reuters) annually releases a list of scientists from around the world whose citations rank in the top 1 percent within 21 subject areas. It features the most frequently cited researchers as determined by the extent to which their papers have supported, influenced, inspired, and challenged other researchers around the globe.
For this year's list, Clarivate Analytics analyzed publication and citation statistics from 2005 to 2015. Ghan and Rasch, both Laboratory Fellows at PNNL, were recognized in the Geosciences category for their ongoing work to better understand the impact of clouds and small particles in the atmosphere on climate. Rasch made the list in 2014, 2015, and 2016, while Ghan also appeared on it in 2015 and 2016.
They are joined on the list by new PNNL Atmospheric Sciences & Global Change Division colleague Nate McDowell. A plant physiologist who came to PNNL from Los Alamos National Laboratory in March 2017, McDowell appeared on the highly cited list in the Plant & Animal Science category for the second consecutive year.
Ghan's work involves a combination of development, evaluation, and application of simplified representations for climate models. He works with other team members to understand the atmospheric processes that drive regional and global Earth systems, with a primary focus on climate, aerosol, and cloud physics. Ghan has more than 175 publications cited more than 11,000 times.
Rasch, chief scientist for climate science at PNNL, is internationally known for his work in general circulation, atmospheric chemistry, and climate modeling. He is particularly interested in the role of aerosols and clouds in the atmosphere. Rasch has worked to illuminate the processes that govern these atmospheric components, the computational details that are needed to describe them in computer models, and their role in Earth's climate system.
McDowell's research focuses on plants and ecosystems, including internal and external controls over their carbon-water balance and their responses to environmental changes. He is an expert on the planet's trees and studies the many factors that collectively determine tree health and vulnerability.
McDowell, Rasch, Ghan, and six other PNNL scientists are among more than 3,300 researchers on the 2017 Highly Cited Researchers list.
Read the PNNL news release: "Science influencers: PNNL scientists among world's most highly cited."
