The Canada-based international new agency Thomson Reuters has created a system to identify and rank the world’s top climate scientists that have the biggest impact on the climate-change debate.
The results of this exercise is a hot list of the 1,000 most influential academics based on a combination of three rankings, as well as a series sharing insights from their lives, their work and their influence on other scientists, the public, activists and political leaders.
To identify the 1,000 most influential scientists, Reuters created the Hot List by basing their ranking on
- how many research papers scientists have published on topics related to climate change;
- how often those papers are cited by other scientists in similar fields of study, such as biology, chemistry or physics; and
- how often those papers are referenced in the lay press, social media, policy papers and other outlets.
Prof. Pete Smith, the co-creator of the Cool Farm Tool occupies a place far at the front of the Reuters Hot List. As the Professor of Soils and Global Change at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK) and Science Director of the Scottish Climate Change Centre of Expertise (ClimateXChange), we’re proud to see the recognition of his work. Pete’s inclusion on the list, shows the importance of the science that sits behind the Cool Farm Tool developed by him and his former student, Dr. Jonathan Hillier – a methodology that is fully based on leading academic research conducted amongst others by the Universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Wageningen and that includes a broad range of published data sets and IPCC methods. The Cool Farm Alliance maintains strong collaboration with research institutions to ensure a credible methodology and user experience.
Find the full list of the top climate scientists and report series at Reuters Investigates.