Jón Atli Benediktsson, rector of the University of Iceland, and Kári Stefánsson, CEO of deCODE genetics and professor at the University of Iceland Faculty of Medicine, are still ranked on the Clarivate Analytics list of the most influential researchers in the world that was published this week. Both have been placed on the list for the past few years. Three guest lecturers at the University of Iceland are also listed.
Highly Cited Researchers has been published since 2014, ranking the top 1% by citations for each field of study and publication year in international science journals. The list is based on the Web of Science database; this year taking note of citation from 2009 to 2019. The list includes around 6,400 research scientists in 21 fields of study
Jón Atli Benediktsson is a professor of electrical engineering and took office as rector of the University of Iceland on 1 July 2015. He is the author of over 400 scientific articles and book chapters and is among the leading research scientist in the field of remote sensing, which involves, for example, taking digital images from planes and satellites and using these to extract data regarding the Earth's surface. Jón Atli is widely cited and has received numerous acknowledgements at home and abroad for his research, the most recent being the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) award for his contribution to education in remote sensing.
Kári Stefánsson is founder and CEO of deCODE genetics, a global leader in analysing and understanding the human genome. Kári has been a professor at the University of Iceland since 2008. He has been awarded various international acknowledgements for his work, and has been at the forefront in COVID-19 research and response in Iceland.
In addition to Jón Atli and Kári there are three guest lecturers at the University of Iceland placed on the list of the most influential researchers in the world. These are Bernharð Örn Pálsson, Jocelyn Chanussot and Ian F. Akyildiz. Bernharð Örn Pálsson is professor of bioengineering and medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and his specialisation lies in systems biology. He was one of the instigators of the University of Iceland Post-genomic Institute a decade ago.
Jocelyn Chanussot and Ian F. Akyildiz are guest lecturers at the University of Iceland Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Chanussot is professor at the Grenoble Institute of Technology in France and has specialised in remote sensing. He has been a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2013. Akyildiz is professor emiritus at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and has a successful career in telecommunication research. He became a visiting professor at the University's Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering this autumn.
