Twelve scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2025 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes researchers and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence, as reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade.
Among those twelve are climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences professor Atul Jain and civil and environmental engineering and CliMAS affiliate professor Lei Zhao.
Atul Jain
Jain’s research expertise is in building and applying the climate modeling systems necessary to understand and quantitatively predict the bidirectional interactions between human activity and the global climate system. He contributes to major assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is also affiliated with the U. of I. Center for Global Studies, the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partners Institute.
Lei Zhao
Lei Zhao’s research focuses on the physical and engineering processes in the atmospheric boundary layer, with a particular focus on built surfaces and urban environments. He combines theory, Earth system modeling, remote sensing, and in situ observation, and AI/machine learning methods to study land-atmosphere interactions and environmental fluid mechanics that relate to urban climate and climate change, and urban sustainability and resilience. He is an affiliate of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences and a professor in the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.