Five UC Merced Researchers Named to Clarivate's 2025 Highly Cited List
Five UC Merced scholars were recognized on Clarivate's 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list - a distinction for the top 1% of researchers whose work has influenced their fields over the past decade. It's a strong signal that the campus is producing research that other scientists depend on and build from.
Citations are one of the clearest measures of scientific use. Researchers publish in peer-reviewed journals, map their studies to prior work, and cite the papers that shaped their thinking. High citation rates mean the field keeps returning to your work for methods, data, and explanations that hold up.
At UC Merced, that impact reflects focus areas rooted in the Central Valley - water, wildfire, climate resilience and equitable innovation - with growing strength in areas such as artificial intelligence. As Clarivate's Bar Veinstein noted in announcing the 2025 list, the honorees "advance innovation and inspire the global research community to tackle society's greatest challenges with creativity and ingenuity."
Student-faculty collaboration is a core part of the engine. Labs regularly bring undergraduates into publishable projects - a hands-on path that tightens mentorship and accelerates the work.
Ming-Hsuan Yang - Computer Vision and Vision-Language Models
Recognized annually since 2018, Professor Yang's contributions span face detection, object tracking and representation learning. His group is now moving into vision-language models that connect images and text and are increasingly used in generative systems and reasoning tools.
"I'm still doing the work," he said. "I'm still making a good impact. I'm glad people use my work and build on top of it. On the other hand, I also build on other people's work, so it goes both ways." Yang remains active in industry collaborations while leading a productive UC Merced lab in computer vision.
Martin Hagger - Health Behavior, Self-Control and Theory Integration
The only honoree from the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, Distinguished Professor Hagger earned a fourth consecutive year on the list. His research connects beliefs, motivation and habits to real behavior change, with broad applications in social and health psychology.
One widely cited line of work challenged the ego depletion idea - that self-control is a limited resource that runs out. "Highly cited authors might contribute to a department's research reputation - having authors whose research is highly cited is a hallmark of a research-intensive culture at a university and suggests that the department and the university conduct very high-impact research," he said. He also noted the significance of UC Merced reaching R1 status and what that means for research credibility and output. Carnegie Classifications
Henry Jay Forman - Free Radical Biology and Redox Signaling
Emeritus Distinguished Professor Forman, a founding faculty member, continues to be highly cited for pioneering work in free radical biology and redox signaling. He has held national leadership roles and remains active in publishing and advancing the field.
John Abatzoglou and Crystal Kolden - Climate and Wildfire Resilience
In a year marked by severe wildfire impacts in California, both Abatzoglou and Kolden were widely cited and turned to for expertise. Abatzoglou appears in both environment and ecology and geosciences, reflecting contributions that include datasets and tools for understanding climate variability and anticipating regional impacts.
Kolden, a pyrogeographer and director of UC Merced's Fire Resilience Center, focuses on the human-environment dimensions of wildfire - from mitigation and prescribed fire to recovery planning. "We're public servants to the people of California first and foremost, especially at a school like UC Merced," she said. "It's always an honor when your peers cite your research, because it means your work has impact. But my goal is always to reduce the potential for the wildfire disasters that destroy peoples' lives."
Why This Recognition Matters for Research Teams
Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers list is a good signal, but it isn't assembled on citation counts alone. The organization refines selections using quantitative metrics, qualitative review and expert judgment, with explicit attention to research integrity - a standard that aligns with how these UC Merced teams operate. Clarivate: Highly Cited Researchers
Across these labs, the through-line is practical impact: open datasets and tools for agencies and land managers, tested theory for health behavior interventions, and AI systems that support new applications in healthcare, agriculture and education. The work is collaborative, mentor-driven and openly engaged with peers and communities.
What's Next
Yang underscored the role of trainees in sustained impact: "I have had a lot of great graduate students, and I really have to thank them. They're doing well, and I hope that making this list and helping raise the university's profile draws even more highly qualified graduate students to our labs."
For researchers building AI skills that translate to lab workflows and analysis, you can review curated learning paths here: Latest AI Courses.
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