UNSW’s leading researchers recognised in national lists

Four UNSW researchers have been recognised for their career-long contributions and 20 more have been named as leaders in their fields.

Twenty-one UNSW researchers have been recognised in The Australian’s Research 2020 magazine, profiling the top 250 researchers in the country. UNSW was also named as the top institution in 24 fields.

Scientia Professor Andrew Martin led the way for UNSW researchers, listed as the global field leader for Educational Psychology & Counselling. Only eight other Australian-based researchers were recognised as being the world’s best.

Prof. Martin was also named among the country’s top 40 researchers on the Lifetime Achievers Leaderboard, alongside Scientia Professor Louisa Degenhardt (Health & Medical Sciences – Addiction), Dr Fengyl (Jeff) Jin (Humanities, Arts & Literature – Sex & Sexuality), and Professor Andrey Miroschnichenko (Physics & Mathematics – Optics and Photonics).

“Our researchers performed really solidly in this largely Google Scholar-based analysis of citations. Andrew Martin’s recognition as the global leader in his field is a stand-out, and a well-deserved accolade,” said Professor Nicholas Fisk, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research.

“This year UNSW rose to 2nd in the Go8, up from 5th last year, for the number of fields where it is the lead institution and came in equal 3rd for number of individual field leaders.  Congratulations to all our listed researchers, who in these uncertain times, continue admirably to exceed the goals set out in our ambitious 2025 Strategy.“

In addition to the individual accolades, UNSW was named as the top performing institution in 24 of the 252 disciplines, including six disciplines in Health & Medical Sciences and five in Engineering & Computer Science.

What are the criteria?

Using publicly-available data with the assistance of research analytics firm League of Scholars, the list of field leaders is compiled by taking Australian-based researchers whose papers published in the 20 top journals in their field in the past five years have had the most citations by other researchers.

The top Australian institution in each field is determined by the most citations from research published in the top 20 journals in that field in the past five years.

The full list of UNSW representatives is below. Congratulations to all those who have been recognised for this commendable achievement.

Global research field leaders

• Social Sciences

Field Educational Psychology and Counselling | Global Field leader Andrew Martin

Lifetime Achievers Leaderboard

• Health & Medical Sciences

Field Addiction | Field leader Louise Degenhardt

• Humanities, Arts & Literature

Field Sex & Sexuality | Field leader Fengyi Jin

• Physics & Mathematics

Field Optics and Photonics | Field leader Andrey Miroschnichenko

• Social Sciences

Field Educational Psychology and Counselling | Field leader Andrew Martin

Australia’s best - Australia’s research field leaders

• Business, Economics & Management

Individual Leader in Field

Field Game Theory and Decision Science | Field leader Haris Aziz

• Chemical & Material Sciences

Individual Leader in Field

Field Organic Chemistry | Field leader Thanh Vinh Nguyen

Institution Leader in Field (UNSW)

Field Analytical Chemistry

Field Ceramic Engineering

Field Crystallography & Structural Chemistry

Individual and Institution Leader in Field

Field Combustion & Propulsion | Field leader Evatt Hawkes | Lead institution UNSW

• Physics & Mathematics

Individual Leader in Field

Field Probability and Statistics with Applications | Field leader Robert Kohn

• Institution Leader in Field (UNSW)

Field Mathematical Analysis

Field Physics & Mathematics (general)

Individual and Institution Leader in Field

Field Acoustics and Sound | Field leader Nicole Kessissoglou | Lead institution UNSW

Field Mathematical Optimisation | Field leader Guoyin Li | Lead institution UNSW

• Engineering & Computer Science

Individual Leader in Field

Field Manufacturing and Machinery | Field leader Sami Kara

Field Ocean and Marine Engineering | Field leader Ian Turner

Field Radar, Positioning & Navigation | Field leader Jinling Wang

Field Sustainable Energy| Field leader Robert Taylor

Institution Leader in Field (UNSW)

Field Engineering and Computer Science (general)

Field Mechanical Engineering

Field Multimedia

Field Operations Research

Individual and Institution Leader in Field

Field Computer Networks and Wireless Communication | Field leader Jinhong Yuan | Lead institution UNSW

• Health & Medical Sciences

Individual Leader in Field

Field Epidemiology | Field leader Mary-Louise McLaws

Field Gastroenterology and Hepatology | Field leader Behzad Hajarizadeh

Field Ophthalmology and Optometry | Field leader Fiona Stapleton

Institution Leader in Field (UNSW)

Field Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

Field Hospice and Palliative Care

Field Psychiatry

Field Virology

Individual and Institution Leader in Field

Field Addiction | Field leader Louisa Degenhardt | Lead institution UNSW

Field AIDS and HIV | Field leader Matthew Law | Lead institution UNSW

• Humanities, Arts & Literature

Individual Leader in Field

Field Music and Musicology | Field leader Emery Schubert

• Social Sciences

Individual Leader in Field

Field Educational Psychology and Counselling | Field leader Andrew Martin

Institution Leader in Field (UNSW)

Field European Law

Field Social Sciences (general)

Lead Social Work

Individual and Institution Leader in Field

Field International Law | Field leader Heng Wang | Lead institution UNSW

• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences

Individual Leader in Field

Field Forests and Forestry | Field leader Jason Sharples

Individual and Institution Leader in Field

Field International Law | Field leader Heng Wang | Lead institution UNSW