Durham University: Durham researchers named among world’s best

Three of our professors have been named among the world’s best for the quality and influence of their research, highlighting the global strength of Durham’s research.

Cosmologists Carlos Frenk, Adrian Jenkins and Tom Theuns were recognised in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2021 list.

The Clarivate list identifies scientists and social scientists who have published multiple research papers that rank in the top one per cent for citations in their field.

Space Science
The listing of Carlos, Adrian and Tom puts Durham joint first in the UK, joint second in Europe and joint third in the world, for the strength of our research in Space Science.

Carlos is the one of the original proponents of the theory of cold dark matter which has now become the standard model of cosmology. He is one of the world’s foremost researchers in this field, and this year was awarded the Rumford Prize for Physics from the Royal Society, following the award of the Paul Dirac Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics last year.

Adrian is a leading expert on cosmological simulations and the nature of dark matter, and has pioneered techniques that are now in widespread use across the world.

Finally, Tom is a foremost expert on cosmological simulations of the formation of galaxies and has carried out ground-breaking investigations into the evolution of gas – the raw material of stars in the universe.

List of success
The Clarivate list identifies scientists and social scientists who have published multiple research papers that rank in the top one per cent in their field in the Web of Science citation index.

In total, 6,602 researchers from more than 70 countries and regions have been recognised by Clarivate this year.

Our Vice-Provost (Research), Professor Colin Bain, congratulated the trio for their high-quality research work, which, as shown by the Clarivate list, is highly regarded by fellow researchers globally.