INDIANAPOLIS – For the second time in his career, Indiana University School of Science at IU Indianapolis Earth & Environmental Sciences professor Lixin Wang was named among Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researcher list on Nov. 19, 2024.
This esteemed accolade, based on rigorous analysis by the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, recognizes researchers who have authored multiple Highly Cited Papers which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) and publication year in the Web of Science over the past decade.
“It’s a great recognition, I feel lucky to be able to work with a group of very dedicated and motivated students and collaborators,” Wang said. “It’s fulfilling to know the work you’re doing is something meaningful.”
The son of two literature teachers, Wang grew up realizing from a young age that, unsimilar to his parents’ interests, he held a deep interest in nature, insects, animals and, most of all, science. That passion carried him to a career researching water-vegetation interactions in water-stressed environments, and the responses of those ecosystems to future climate and land use change scenarios.
“I think the nature of this research is quite important because how vegetation grows will determine how much carbon we remove from the atmosphere,” Wang said. “With vegetation being our food source, how it responds to climate change will determine food security.”
A recipient of Indiana University’s 2020 Research Frontiers Trailblazer Award, Wang has authored or been featured in 110 academic publications since 2020, and 21 since the start of 2024. In May, Wang, along with School of Science Ph.D. student Yu Peng, was highlighted in Elsevier’s Field Crops Research journal for their global meta-analysis of cover crop impacts on main crop yield.
For future work, Wang intends to look into vegetation water interaction in water limited systems like drylands, which cover 40% of Earth. From a regional standpoint, Indiana isn’t considered a dryland, but does experience periodical drought. Wang wants to understand the impacts on the local environment under those drought conditions.
Additionally, he’s interested in exploring the role vegetation serves for cooling urban settings, and how the increased frequency of fires interacts with the water cycle and vegetation dynamics.
“I hope this recognition will inspire more people to get interested in these lines of research,” Wang said. “We need to put more people and more resources to tackle this because it has both applied value and serious benefits towards humanity’s future.”