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TOP 10: UCPH scientists with the most articles in Nature and Science

UCPH has published a list showing which university researchers have published the most articles in Nature and Science journals and subsidiaries. Eske Willerslev is on the list. But he is far from top spot.

The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is that research institution in the Nordic region which has the most articles published in the leading journals Nature and Science. This is according to the university’s own tally of the numbers.

UCPH also published a memo showing the 10 researchers who published the most articles in the two journals in the years 2013-2016.

See which researchers top the list with links to some of their articles in Nature and Science below. (For a discussion of what can be deduced from the numbers, we refer to this article).

8-10th: Ludovic Orlando

Employed at: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark
Faculty of Science.

Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, agricultural science and biotechnology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 15

The Top 10 list includes several researchers from the Eske Willerslev-led Centre for GeoGenetics. Ludovic Orlando was recruited to the centre in 2010, and has since then led his own group. The Orlando group has mapped the genome of a prehistoric animal (a 700,000 year old horse from what is now Canada) and shed new light on how horses were domesticated. Read more about the group’s research here – and about a current multidisciplinary research project that, through the study of mollusk shells, can offer new insights into past marine environments.

8-10th: Tom Gilbert

Employed at: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark
Faculty of Science.

Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, agricultural science and biotechnology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 15

Like Ludovico Orlando, Tom Gilbert is at the Centre for GeoGenetics, where he leads the 35-man Gilbert group which played a key role in the international project that mapped the genetics of birds, showing their evolution since the land-based dinosaurs’ extinction. Read about the group’s research here.

8-10th: Søren Brunak

Employed at: Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, medicine.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 15

After 25 years at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Søren Brunak arrived at the University of Copenhagen in 2015 to lead a large project on so-called ‘big data medicine’. Read more about the Brunak group’s work here.

7th: Rasmus Nielsen

Employed at: Natural History Museum of Denmark, Faculty of Science.
Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, agricultural science and biotechnology.
Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 16

Winner of the Elite Researchers Prize in 2007. Rasmus Nielsen is a professor at Berkeley and the University of Copenhagen and has (among other things) worked with Eske Willerslev on investigating the so-called Kennewick man. Read more here.

6th: Niels Glarup

Employed at: Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Research areas: Medicine, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 17

Niels Grarup took his medical exam at UCPH in 2003 and has since then researched the genetic variation associated with type 2 diabetes. He has helped show how genetic studies can predict the side effects of drugs. See his research profile at ku.dk here, and read more about the Grarup group’s work here.

5th: Guojie Zhang

Employed at: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science.

Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, agricultural science and biotechnology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 19

Guojie Zhang was employed by the Beijing Genomics Institute when he worked with Tom Gilbert on the mapping of bird species’ evolution (see Gilbert’s profile above). He has since come to the University of Copenhagen where he continues his research as an associate professor on a tenure track position. In the video above, he talks about a research project financed by the Lundbeck Foundation.

4th: Oluf Borbye Pedersen

Employed at: Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Research areas: Medicine, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 24

Oluf Borbye Pedersen’s team is investigating the causes of type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, and the professor has played a key role in Danish diabetes research. His name has also appeared in the domestic press in recent years in connection with his studies of the effects of intestinal bacteria on health and disease risk. Read Oluf Borbye Pedersen’s research profile on ku.dk here.

3rd: Eske Willerslev

Employed at: Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Faculty of Science.

Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, agricultural science and biotechnology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 25

“Watch out for the super researchers Rane and Eske Willerslev. The identical twins are said to be the next big thing in international science,” Berlingske wrote prophetically in 2006. UCPH’s third-biggest Science / Nature publishing researcher hardly needs an introduction. His mapping of DNA has shed new light on human development and on migration patterns. This New York Times article has an overview. Eske Willerslev, the head of the Centre for GeoGenetics, is a professor at Cambridge and represents academic staff on the University of Copenhagen Board of Directors.

2nd: Torben Hansen

NOTE: It is not Torben Hansen on the still photo – but if you press play, you see a video with him.

Employed at: Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Research areas: Medicine, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 27

Since the 1990s, Torben Hansen has researched the importance of genes for the development of diabetes and obesity – with a particular focus on childhood obesity. Read more about the Hansen Group’s work here.

1st: Jun Wang

Employed at: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science.

Research areas: Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, agricultural science and biotechnology.

Number of articles in Nature or Science publications: 83

The most widely published UCPH researcher in Nature and Science (and in the Nordic region) is, by far, the 40-year-old Chinese professor Jun Wang. As a 22-year-old, he joined the Beijing Genomics Institute, where he later became director, and together with his team mapped the DNA of Asian people, rice plants, SARS, pandas, silkworms, bacteria in our digestive system, and more. Since 2009 he has held an Ole Rømer professorship at the University of Copenhagen and in recent years has moved his focus towards the encounter between artificial intelligence, big data and DNA research. Read more about Jun Wang in this profile from Berlingske (needs a subscription).

 

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