FHI researchers among the world’s most cited
Four scientists from the Fritz Haber Institute are on the list of Highly Cited Researchers 2025 published by Clarivate Analytics: the Director of the Interface Science Department, Prof. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya; two group leaders of the same Department, Dr. Janis Timoshenko and Dr. Arno Bergmann, and former Director Prof. Robert Schlögl. This result underscores the FHI’s internationally leading role in physics, chemistry, and materials science.
Highly Cited Researchers is a list annually published by Clarivate Analytics recognizing scientists whose work has been cited at exceptionally high rates in journals indexed by Web of Science. In 2025, 7,131 Highly Cited Researcher awards have been bestowed. The awarded researchers account for around 0.1% of the global scientific research community. Thus, being included on the list is an important recognition for researchers, as the high frequency with which their articles are cited clearly underscores an exceptional impact on their respective fields.
We are pleased to announce that this year, four researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute are among the world’s most cited. We congratulate Prof. Dr. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya, Director of the Interface Science Department, Dr. Janis Timoshenko and Dr. Arno Bergmann, both group leaders in the Interface Science Department and Prof. Robert Schlögl, who was the Director of the Inorganic Chemistry Department until 2023. Prof. Roldán Cuenya appears on the Influential list for the fifth time in a row, this year in the category chemistry. Also Prof. Schlögl and Dr. Bergmann have been awarded in chemistry while Dr. Timoshenko appears in the cross-field category.
The honored researchers are spread across 21 subject categories and one cross-disciplinary category. In international comparison, the largest number of Highly Cited Researchers come from the United States (37%), followed by China (20%) and the United Kingdom (8%). Germany ranks fourth in Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers ranking, with 5% of the Highly Cited Researchers. The highest-ranked German research institution is the Max Planck Society with 66 highly cited scientists.
About the Clarivate Ranking
Clarivate is a British-American analytics company that offers a range of services in the fields of bibliometrics and scientometrics. It has been publishing the Highly Cited Researchers list yearly since 2001. The methodology for determining the ranking of influential researchers is based on data and analyses conducted by bibliometrics experts and data scientists of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) at Clarivate.
According to Clarivate Analytics, the Highly Cited Researchers demonstrate significant influence in their research fields as evidenced by their authorship of multiple papers ranked in the top 1% by citations for their field and year in the Web of Science over the past eleven years. Yet, citation activity is not the only selection indicator: The citation data are is refined using other quantitative metrics, as well as qualitative analysis and expert judgment.
The selection process begins with a ‘longlist’ of about 200,000 articles and reviews that, by citation count, rank in the top 1% of their field. The ISI team then removes retracted works and those with more than 30 authors. This yields a list of around 9,000 leading authors, which is further refined by excluding authors with certain patterns, such as hyper-prolific publishing or excessive self-citation. In addition, new mechanisms were introduced this year to exclude authors suspected of violating research integrity; works coauthored with researchers who were excluded in 2024 for integrity reasons were also removed. The breakdown of the ranking into 21 academic categories takes into account the differing citation practices of the individual scientific disciplines.
