Lam-Son Phan Tran, a Texas Tech expert in biotechnology and biological sciences, has once more been named among the world's most highly cited researchers in their respective fields for 2021. The annual list is compiled by Clarivate Analytics, a company that provides scientific research and analytic services. 

The highly anticipated annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in Clarivate's Web of Science citation index.

“Dr. Tran is recognized worldwide as an expert in plant signaling and resilience to plant stress, and his continued recognition as one of the top scientists in the world is justified by his exceptional work,” said Glen Ritchie, chair of Tech's Department of Plant and Soil Science. “We're fortunate to have scientists of his caliber at Texas Tech University, and he is a recognized leader and collaborator in our department.”

Ritchie noted that this isn't the first time Tran has made it to the elite analytics listing. He was also named in 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2016.

Tran, a professor in Tech's Department of Plant and Soil Science, stepped into his new research and teaching post with Tech's new Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance last year. Led by Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella, the high-profile research group examines how plants adapt to thrive in the presence of environmental stresses, such as extreme heat and cold, drought and in the presence of brackish water sources.

Prior to arriving at Texas Tech, Tran served as unit leader of the Stress Adaptation Research Unit at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Yokohama, Japan. Today, his Texas Tech research program broadly focuses on regulatory network and crosstalk among signaling molecules in plant responses to environmental stresses, as well as translational genomics for improvement of crop productivity in the era of global climate change. 

His basic and applied research programs will contribute to some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, which include maintaining sustainable production of crops for food, biomass and industrial uses.

One of his primary goals here at Tech is to further promote the research on plant functional genomics and regulatory roles of signaling molecules, leading to development of crop cultivars with enhanced environmental stress resistance. Importantly, he wants to pass his knowledge and research experiences to the next generation through teaching and training.

Clarivate Analytics officials noted that researchers on the list are selected for their exceptional influence and performance in one or more of 21 fields or across several fields. The methodology that determines the “who's who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these scientific elite are based. 

CONTACT: Glen Ritchie, Chair, Department of Plant and Soil Science, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-4325 or glen.ritchie@ttu.edu 

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