University of North Texas College of Science professors Richard Dixon and Vladimir Shulaev have so much expertise in their respective fields they’ve become the go-to source for expert researchers. In short, the duo are literally the experts’ experts. 

The two UNT faculty were recently listed among the top one percent of researchers in their field to be cited by other researchers, according to Clarivate Analytics, a company dedicated to helping companies and universities sort and examine big data and apply it to their research needs.

Dixon, a Royal Society Fellow and Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, is a world-renowned plant scientist. Since 1988, he has been cited more than 70,000 times, 21,706 in the last five years alone. He is one of the 10 most-cited authors in the plant and animal sciences and has published more than 460 papers in national and international journals. He is currently working on a method to make alfalfa a more environmentally friendly feed for cattle.

Shulaev’s research focuses on the cutting-edge field of metabolomics and its application to various research areas such as stress response, cancer development, synthetic biology and precision medicine. Metabolomics is a global analysis of all or a large number of small cellular molecules and is critical to understanding chemical processes in the cell. This allows scientists to tailor medical treatments to small groups or even individual patients based on their genetics, environment or lifestyle through precision medicine. 

“As a Tier One research university, we focus on innovation and scholarship,” said UNT President Neal Smatresk. “It is a wonderful testament and not surprising to have the work of our top caliber faculty consistently recognized by their peers and cited in leading publications.”

Both Dixon and Shulaev work in the Department of Biological Sciences at UNT. To see a list of some of UNT’s other most-cited scholars, visit the UNT section on Google Scholars.