The most important scientists of UPV / EHU

Ninety-two researchers from the University of the Basque Country are among the most influential scientists in the world, according to the prestigious Stanford University. Its ranking of world scientists, which focuses on the top 2% -190.000 of the nearly 8 million out there, this year includes 81 UPV/EHU among the most cited in 2020 and 59-48 of them duplicates – among the most cited. Cited between 1996 and 2020. “Having nearly a hundred researchers on that list is something to be proud of. This is very important from a quantitative point of view, but from a qualitative point of view, we have representatives from many areas of knowledge. We have already seen the latter in the Shanghai ranking,” highlights the university’s president, Eva Ferreira.

In science, impact is measured by output — articles published in peer-reviewed journals — and the number of times those works are cited. The Stanford University Ranking is based on information from the Scopus bibliographic reference base and takes into account the importance of the journal in which the article appeared, the number of times it has been cited by other researchers, and other factors. 92 scientists from the University of the Basque Country work in 37 knowledge areas, from linguistics to food sciences, through oncology and artificial intelligence. “Being in this ‘ranking’ is very good, but there are very good people in their area who are not. This is due to the expectations that different districts have,” says the rector, who believes we are facing “another indicator” that UPV/EHU It works better and better.

The top ten ranked by citations between 1996 and 2020 are biophysicist Felix Goni, physiologist Inigo Mujica, chemist Vadim A. Solochonok, physicist Konstantin Y. Guslenko, chemist Maria Dolores Guillen, chemist Claudio Palomo and chemical engineer. Olazar, chemist Humberto González-Díaz, oncologist Marta Sánchez-Carbayo and ecologist Peter B. Pearman. Among the top ten cited last year, as well as four of its predecessors — Mojica, Olazar, Johnny and Guillen — include linguist Jason Senos, economist Inaki Heras-Cesarpetoria, linguist Dork Gorter, psychologist Mighty Garigordobel, linguist David Lasagbaster and chemist Teofilo Rojo.

“It’s all numerology!” Felix Goni (San Sebastian, 1951) told this newspaper with a laugh yesterday, which debuted in September as Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “With other numerical combinations, the result was completely different,” says this pioneer of biophysics, a discipline that studies biology using the methods of physics. Goñi appears on both lists: he is first on Veteran Detectives and fourth on the corresponding 2020 list.

“Science is my greatest passion. I wanted to be honored to continue doing science. I am very amused and entertained by designing the experiments and seeing the results. I see it as a “hobby”. As a colleague said at a conference: How does one retire from a “hobby”? , among other establishments. “One thing I’ve always done is what I wanted. My mother already said that. Fortunately, what I wanted was a relatively harmless activity, such as searching.

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