For this survey, Science Watch identified the 200 most-cited chemistry papers published in each year between 1994 and 1996, with citations tallied through 1997. From the resulting group of 600 high-impact papers, Science Watch ranked the top 25 institutions (those that published at least six of these hot and highly cited papers) according to total citations and impact. The table on page 2 ranks the individual researchers who wrote or cowrote at least four high-impact reports during the three years.

   With the inclusion of citations recorded in 1997, this survey updates and expands on a study, published last summer, of six highly cited authors in chemistry (see Science Watch (8[4]:1-2, July/August 1997). As in the previous report, Science Watch selected the most-cited papers from journals representing a range of subfields within chemistry and materials science, including "Chemistry," "Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics," "Inorganic & Nuclear Chemistry," "Organic Chemistry/Polymer Science," "Materials Science & Engineering," and "Metallurgy." The analysis also included pertinent papers published in the multidisciplinary journals Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

   With six high-impact papers, Matthias Mann shares the upper reaches of the list with Nicolaou. Mann, who recently moved from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany to Odense University, Denmark, has been a familiar presence in Science Watch's Top Ten lists--often in collaboration with another researcher on the list, EMBL colleague Matthias Wilm. One of their papers, for example--"Analytical properties of the nanoelectrospray ion source," Analyt. Chem., 68[1]:1-8, 1996--was ranked #4 in the Chemistry Top Ten in the issue before last (see Science Watch, 9[2]:7, March/April 1998). Mann also contributed to a still-hot biology paper, a report on the identification of FLICE, a protein involved in programmed cell death.

   Other Top Ten stalwarts on the list include Robert H. Grubbs of Caltech, who recorded four high-impact papers on the use of catalysts in organic transformations. One of his papers, "Synthesis and applications of RuCl₂(=CHR')(PR₃)₂: the influence of the alkylidene moiety on metathesis activity,"J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 118(1):100-10, 1996, written with colleagues P. Schwab and J.W. Ziller, was a fixture in the Chemistry Top Ten during the spring of 1998. And Kryzysztof Matyjaszewski of Carnegie Mellon University tallied four highly cited papers on living polymerization. Two of his more recent papers on this topic are currently parked in the Chemistry Hot Ten.

   One of the high-impact reports from Graham R. Fleming, of UC Berkeley (R. Jimenez, et al., "Electronic excitation transfer in the LH2 complex of Rhodobacter sphaeroides," J. Phys. Chem., 100[16]:6825-34, 1996) scored a #2 placement in the Chemistry Top Ten early in 1998. Fleming and colleagues fielded four more high-impact reports on the dynamics of liquids and other systems. One of these--M. Cho, et al., "Instantaneous normal-mode analysis of liquid water," J. Chem. Phys., 100[9]:6672-83, 1994--was written in collaboration with another of the featured authors, Richard M. Stratt of Brown University. In all, Stratt posted five high-impact papers between 1994 and 1996 on molecular phenomena in liquids.

   Investigation of a particular liquid--water--accounts for the presence of yet another UC Berkeley chemist on the list: Richard J. Saykally. His four highly cited reports contribute to a detailed picture, on a time scale of trillionths of a second, of the complex interactions of water molecules.

   New methods for synthesis and assembly bring the remaining high-impact chemists to the list. J. Fraser Stoddart, University of Birmingham, has investigated self-assembly in a variety of molecular compounds, including interlocked ring components known as "catenanes" and "rotaxanes." One of his four papers, "Interlocked and intertwined structures and superstructures," Chem. Rev., 95(8):2725-8, 1995 (with first author D.B. Amabilino), has been cited nearly 140 times. Nanoscale materials have also occupied Geoffrey A. Ozin of the University of Toronto, whose four papers discuss mesoporous silica films and the synthesis of inorganic materials. And the third Scripps chemist on the list, Chi-Wuey Wong, published four high-impact papers on enzymes in organic synthesis.