Mark Nieuwenhuijsen and Payam Dadvand, on the Highly Cited Researchers List

Two ISGlobal researchers, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen and Payam Dadvand have been included in the Highly Cited Researchers list, the prestigious ranking drawn up each year by a team of experts in bibliometrics at the Institute for Scientific Information (Web of Science group). The list identifies scientists whose journal articles have been among the most highly cited publications within their specialities over the past year.

Mark Nieuwenhuijsen is on the list for the third consecutive year, and in two of the 21 award categories: Environment and Ecology and Social Sciences. He is Director of the Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative at ISGlobal, where he also leads the Air Pollution and Urban Environment research programme. He has authored more than 480 journal articles and 35 book chapters. In 2018, he received the John Goldsmith Award, the highest honour awarded in the field of environmental epidemiology. An expert in environmental exposure assessment, epidemiology and health impact assessment, Nieuwenhuijsen has focused on the study of healthy urban living throughout this career.

“It is great that the work of my team and I is highly cited by our peers,” commented Nieuwenhuijsen, “but my greatest wish is that it will be put into practice. We urgently need to improve our cities and make them more sustainable, liveable and healthy.”

Nieuwenhuijsen has written books on exposure assessment and environmental epidemiology, the integration of human health into urban and transport planning, the relationship between transport and health, and traffic-related air pollution. In October, he published COVID-19 and the City, a book in which he analyses how the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a reassessment of the urban model. The book includes some of the following articles, originally published on ISGlobal’s blog:

Post-COVID-19 Cities: New Urban Models to Make Cities Healthier

Radical Changes in Urban and Transport Planning Are Needed for a Healthier Barcelona: The New Plan Cerdà for the 21^st Century

Building Resilience to COVID-19

Why Do Cities Need Green Space More than Ever?

After the Lockdown, How Are We Going to Commute to Work—by Car or by Bicycle?

COVID-19 and the City: How Is the Pandemic Affecting Urban Health?

Payam Dadvand, natural environments and health

Payam Dadvand is a medical doctor by training and has a PhD in environmental epidemiology. For the last decade he has conducted pioneering studies on the impacts of both environmental stressors (e.g. air pollution) and environmental mitigation measures (e.g. green spaces) on maternal and child health applying his expertise in using remote sensing data, GIS-based spatial analytical methods, and spatiotemporal modelling approaches. He is currently an editor for the Environmental Pollution and co-coordinator of the Barcelona Life Study Cohort (BiSC).

"I hope this 'influence' would be translated into action for real changes in the world, making it a better place for not only Homo Sapiens, but also other species", Dadvand commented.