Nine Freiburg scientists have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2025
Freiburg, 13/11/2025
Nine scientists from the University of Freiburg have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2025 in the ranking of the same name. They are among the authors who have been cited most frequently worldwide in their fields of research over the past eleven years.
Nine Freiburg scientists have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2025. Image: University of Freiburg
Prof. Dr Jürgen Bauhus from the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources has been included in the ranking for the seventh consecutive time. Bauhus heads the Chair of Silviculture and is spokesperson for the Future Forests Cluster of Excellence. Prof. Dr Rolf Backofen and Dr Björn Grüning from the Bioinformatics Group at the Faculty of Engineering are also included in the ranking; this is Grüning‘s third appearance. The following scientists from Medical Centre – Unviersity of Freiburg were honoured as Highly Cited Researchers: Prof. Dr Bertram Bengsch, Prof. Dr Janbernd Kirschner, Prof. Dr Jörg Meerpohl, Prof. Dr Marco Prinz, Dr Roman Sankowski and PD Dr Florian Scherer.
Bengsch is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine II and has been included in the Highly Cited Researchers list for the fourth time since 2020. Kirschner is a professor and medical director at the Department of Neuropaediatrics and Muscular Diseases. Meerpohl is a professor at the Institute for Evidence in Medicine in the Department of Biometry, Epidemiology and Medical Bioinformatics and has been included in the ranking for the eleventh consecutive time. Prinz was once again named a Highly Cited Researcher in two different research fields in this year’s ranking. He is a professor at the Institute of Neuropathology at the Department of Neurology and Neurophysiology and has been listed in the ranking for the eighth consecutive time. Sankowski is a scientist at the Institute of Neuropathology at the Department of Neurology and Neurophysiology. He has been included in the ranking for the second time in a row. Scherer is a scientist at the Department of Haematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at the Department of Internal Medicine I.
About the ranking
Clarivate Analytics has been honouring Highly Cited Researchers annually since 2001 and is considered an important indicator of the influence of scientists and their publications. The ranking is based on an evaluation of the most frequently cited works in the Web of Science literature database, as well as qualitative analyses conducted by experts from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ at Clarivate. The ranking includes authors of research papers that have been among the top 1% of the most frequently cited in their field and year of publication in the Web of Science citation index over the past eleven years. Publications published and cited between January 2014 and December 2024 were taken into account in 2025.
In total, the ranking lists 6,868 individual researchers from 61 countries and regions. Some outstanding researchers are being honoured in multiple research fields this year, resulting in a total of 7,131 Highly Cited Researcher awards being given to 6,868 individuals.