Professor Sir Alan Fersht, the University of Cambridge's Herchel Smith Professor of Organic Chemistry, is the UK's highest-ranked chemist in a new league table of living chemists.
Professor Sir Alan Fersht, the University of Cambridge's Herchel Smith Professor of Organic Chemistry, is the UK's highest-ranked chemist in a new league table of living chemists.
The list, compiled by Henry Schaefer and his colleague Amy Peterson at the University of Georgia, USA, places Professor Fersht 13th in the world in this new table. The table also features Professor Sir David King, Professor Steve Ley, Professor Chris Dobson and Professor Jeremy Sanders from the Department of Chemistry.
The league table was compiled using the h-index, a system devised by physicist Jorge Hirsch to quantify an individual's research impact. An h-index score is the highest number of published papers that have each amassed that number of citations. For example, Professor Fersht has an h-index of 98, meaning he has published 98 papers that have each been cited at least 98 times.
This new scoring system combines quantity and quality and distinguishes truly influential scientists from those who publish numerous papers.
Professor Fersht's research focuses on the folding, stability and activity of proteins using a wide range of methods including protein engineering, DNA cloning, sequencing and mutagenesis and numerous imaging techniques.
Dr Bill Jones, Head of Chemistry, said: "We are delighted by this recognition of Alan Fersht's distinction. He has applied fundamental chemical principles to uncover, in exquisite detail, how proteins fold and act as molecular factories, and he helped to create the field of protein engineering. We are also pleased to see that our colleagues Professors Chris Dobson, David King, Steve Ley and Jeremy Sanders appear in this list of globally influential chemists."
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