Three University of Delaware professors — Yushan Yan, Wendy Smith and Kelvin Fu — have been named Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, the analytics company, for demonstrating “significant and broad influence in their fields of research.”

Each researcher has authored multiple scientific papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication year over the past decade in the Web of Science, a bibliographic database of scholarly articles from 22,000 peer-reviewed journals worldwide. An international and wide-ranging network of authors also needed to cite the work. 

This is the sixth consecutive year that Smith and Yan have been named Highly Cited Researchers and the third consecutive year that Fu has received the honor. 

“Being selected as Highly Cited Researchers underscores the global impact these University of Delaware scholars are making to advance science and technology for the greater good,” said Miguel Garcia-Diaz, UD’s vice president for research, scholarship and innovation. “We congratulate Yushan, Wendy and Kelvin on this latest recognition and celebrate our entire research community for the critical and inspiring work they are leading every day.”

UD’s 2024 Highly Cited Researchers 

Yushan Yan, the Henry Belin du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is founding director of the Center for Clean Hydrogen at UD. His research focuses on green hydrogen, fuel cells and carbon capture using polymer hydroxide exchange membranes (HEMs). 

Yan has a powerful motivation for his research: “I wish to work on technologies that matter for a better planet,” he said. 

Among a long list of academic honors, Yan is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Electrochemical Society. He also is the founder and CEO of Versogen and a co-founder of RepAir.  

Wendy K. Smith, the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management in UD’s Lerner College of Business and Economics and faculty director of the Women's Leadership Initiative, studies how leaders and organizations manage competing demands. 

Her research challenges traditional approaches to decision making. While people most often frame challenges as an “either/or” proposition, her research has shown the value of “both/and” thinking for leaders to make more impactful decisions.

“My work helps leaders and organizations more effectively address some of the grand challenges in our world,” Smith said. “It is inspiring when I stand in front of an audience of leaders, share my latest research, and know that these ideas offer them a path to find better solutions to our world’s toughest problems.” 

Smith has received multiple honors for her research, including the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award. She is the only person to have twice won the Academy of Management Review Decade Award for most-cited paper in a decade. Smith is a fellow of the Academy of Management.

Kelvin Fu is the Terri Connor Kelly and John Kelly Career Development Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering, an affiliated faculty member of the Center for Composite Materials and director of the Composites and Additive Manufacturing (CAM) Laboratory. 

He works at the forefront of advanced materials design and manufacturing to improve their performance, sustainability and cost-efficiency, impacting the automotive to aerospace industries.

He said he is driven by the potential of these technologies to solve real-world problems, create more sustainable manufacturing processes and contribute to cleaner energy solutions. 

“Knowing our work can shape the future of materials, benefit lives and be financially rewarding keeps me engaged every day,” Fu said.

He has led projects exceeding $8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, including initiatives supported by the Office of Fossil Energy, ARPA-E OPEN and the Advanced Manufacturing Office.