Jos Raaijmakers on the “Highly Cited Researchers” list for 2025

Clarivate publishes an annual list of the top 1% most cited researchers worldwide. For the eighth year in a row, NIOO researcher Jos Raaijmakers is included in this list. Raaijmakers is the head of the Microbial Ecology department at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW).

To compile the list, Clarivate looks at the number of cited publications from Web of Science, a collection of citation indexes covering more than 11,000 scientific journals. Clarivate: ‘The list of Highly Cited Researchers identifies and recognises exceptional individual researchers at NIOO-KNAW whose significant and broad influence in their field translates into impact in their research community.’

According to Raaijmakers, he is not on the list because of one specific, widely cited article, but because of various publications. The articles on the plant microbiome in particular have made a significant contribution. For example, he has conducted extensive research into the effects of plant domestication on the plant microbiome and into the microbiomes in the original habitats of crops such as potatoes, rice and tomatoes. Researchers at the NIOO collaborate with institutes in these areas of origin.

Additionally, a great deal of work has been done to investigate the influence of the plant microbiome on how plants respond to stress in their environment, and major strides have been made in the development of sustainable control of the parasitic weed Striga on cereal crops in sub-Saharan Africa.

Until last year, Wim van der Putten (2018 - 2024) was also on the list. NIOO researchers Paolina Garbeva (2024), Marcel Visser (2015, 2016 and 2017), Hans van Veen (2001) and Martijn Bezemer (2022) have also appeared on the list in the past. Once a scientist has been selected as a “Highly Cited Researcher”, Clarivate states that he or she will always retain that title.