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PML Scientist named as a Highly Cited Researcher
26 November 2019
Professor Penelope Lindeque, PML Head of Science for Marine Ecology and Biodiversity, has been named as a Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Environment and Ecology in the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list from the Web of Science group.
The highly anticipated list identifies scientists and social scientists across the world who produced multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication, demonstrating significant research influence among their peers. Professor Lindeque is one of the researchers in the UK who make up 8.3% of the list this year.
Professor Lindeque, who has been at PML for nearly 20 years, has been an author on 51 research papers, which have been cited in other research more than 3000 times, and became the Head of Science for Marine Ecology and Biodiversity in December 2019. She also held the post of Head of Postgraduate Studies at PML since 2014, and has supervised several MSc, MRes and PhD students during her career.
In the last ten years, her work has focused on the impact of plastic pollution on marine life and she has developed and now leads the PML microplastics research team. This team was the first to show that microplastics are ingested by zooplankton, a landmark work which received much attention in academia and beyond.
They also filmed the first ever footage of a zooplankton eating microplastic, which received global media attention and was included in the final episode of Blue Planet II. Last year, she was also part of a team that won both the Societal Impact category and overall prize in the Natural Environment Research Council Impact Awards.
Professor Lindeque said: “I am so delighted to have been recognised by Web of Science as one of the most highly-cited researchers of the past decade. It is a real testament to the excellent science undertaken by the microplastics team and molecular team here at PML.
“Such recognition wouldn’t be possible without all the hard work undertaken by my students and colleagues, including Dr Matthew Cole, Dr Helen Parry, Rachel Coppock, Dr Sarah Nelms, Zara Botterell and Chris Walkinshaw. Our work has been recognised not only for being highly cited but also for its impact and will, I hope, contribute to a cleaner, more sustainable future.”