Vanderbilt researchers De-en Jiang, the H. Eugene McBrayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and professor of chemistry, and Shihong Lin, professor of civil and environmental engineering, are on this year’s list of scientists whose papers have been cited the most frequently by other researchers globally. It’s the third time for Jiang and the second for Lin to receive this honor.
They are among 7,331 “highly cited researchers” around the world who have produced multiple publications ranking in the top 1% of citations for their fields of research and publication year in the Web of Science citation index over the past decade, according to the global analytics firm Clarivate, which released the 2025 list on Nov. 12. Inclusion in this group—about 1 in 1,000 researchers—demonstrates experts who have a “significant and broad influence” in their fields.
Fourteen of the researchers named in this year’s report are affiliated with Vanderbilt or Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“Congratulations to Prof. Jiang and Prof. Lin for their impactful research and for shaping their scientific fields,” said Krish Roy, the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering and University Distinguished Professor. “This is another testament to the tremendous impact the School of Engineering faculty is making in advancing scientific knowledge in service to society.”
Jiang, who was recognized in 2023 and 2024 by Clarivate, joined the School of Engineering faculty in fall 2022. His research focuses on applying state-of-the-art computational methods to important chemical systems and energy-relevant problems. He has authored and co-authored more than 430 peer-reviewed publications in such journals as Science, Nature Materials, Nature Energy, Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Chemical Reviews, and Journal of the American Chemical Society. “I’m deeply honored to be recognized in the field of chemistry this year,” Jiang said. He is one of just 50 researchers in the United States acknowledged for their impact in chemistry.
Among his awards and honors are a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award and an early career award from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jiang is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lin, who joined Vanderbilt in 2015, was cited by Clarivate in 2022. His interests are advancing aqueous separation processes to address critical challenges of sustainability at the water-energy-food nexus. His research group develops new processes, theories, and materials to enable more efficient and capable aqueous separations for water treatment, desalination, brine management, and resource recovery and extraction.
Among his awards and honors are a Chancellor Faculty Fellow, Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, Paul L. Busch Award, CAPEES Young Investigator Award, and VINSE High Impact Paper Awards. Lin is associate editor of Environmental Science & Technology, the flagship journal in the field of environmental engineering and science.