Professor Jian Feng Ma from the Group of Plant Stress Physiology at Okayama University Institute of Plant Science and Resources (IPSR) has been named on the Global Highly Cited Researcher 2018 list, announced by Clarivate Analytics (the former IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters).
He was also listed as one of the “Highly Cited Researchers” in 2015, 2016 and 2017, making this the fourth straight year.

Prof. Ma has clarified many transport mechanisms for various minerals essential for plant growth and has been highly rated internationally as one of the world’s most influential scientific researchers in the field of plant & animal science.

Acclaimed worldwide each year, this list presents a selection of about 4,000 distinguished researchers (of whom about 90 belong to Japanese research institutes) whose published papers in 21 natural and social science research fields during the 11 years from January 2006 to December 2016 have been cited a very high number of times. Exceptionally large numbers of citations is considered one of the scientific community’s criteria for determining a paper’s significance and utility.

In August 2013, Okayama University was selected as one of 19 universities in Japan by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to participate in the Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities, which is designed to help Japanese universities and research institutes improve their research capabilities and increase their international research competitiveness. As a research university, Okayama University has excellent research capabilities. One of the University’s research institutes IPSR has the highest percentage of top 10 percent most highly cited papers published (the highest Q value) among natural science sub-organizations of Japanese universities, and Prof. Ma is a major driving force in enhancing the University’s research capabilities.