Four WSL researchers are among the most influential in their field in 2023

The "Highly Cited Researchers" list, published by Clarivate Analytics, recognises researchers who have had a significant impact on their field by publishing several frequently cited papers in the last decade. This year's list includes 7125 researchers from 67 countries. Switzerland fell out of the top ten with 103 researchers, down from ninth place last year (112 researchers).

The newly included WSL ecologist Arthur Gessler researches the adaptability of plants, especially forest trees, to changing environmental conditions. He was nominated in the "Plant and Animal Science" category, as one of 189 researchers worldwide. At WSL, Gessler heads the Ecosystem Ecology research group, the SwissForestLab research network and the Long-Term Forest Ecosystem Research programme. He is an adjunct professor at ETH Zurich and has co-authored around 300 scientific articles.

Last year's three "highly cited researchers" at WSL are once again on the list:

Niklaus Zimmermann was nominated in the field of environmental sciences. Here he is in fact one of the 200 most distinguished researchers, seven of whom work in Switzerland.

Zimmermann's research investigates the causes of large-scale to global patterns in plant and animal biodiversity. He uses various computational models to analyse and explain these patterns. In 2023, he received an SNSF Advanced Grant to research global vegetation zones (biomes). Niklaus Zimmermann is an adjunct professor at ETH Zurich. He has co-authored around 250 scientific articles, including two of the most cited in the field of ecology and environment, as well as a widely acclaimed textbook.

Matthias Huss is included in the cross-field list together with 27 other researchers in Switzerland.

Huss researches the response of glaciers to climate change and the corresponding effects on water runoff and landscape change. He heads the Swiss glacier monitoring network GLAMOS. He has published around 170 papers to date and has been honoured with various awards for young researchers. Due to his popular research topic, he is also very present in the public media.

Peter Verburg is another of the most cited scientists, who also conducts some of his research at WSL. He is one of the 230 most influential researchers in the social sciences. The geographer works for a small part of his time at WSL and further at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands on the development of land use.