German science magazine ‘Laborjournal’ covered my work in a recent citation analysis

Laborjournal is a German magazine that focuses on life sciences, particularly the fields of molecular biology, biomedicine, and biotechnology. It is widely read among researchers, scientists, and laboratory professionals in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The magazine provides news, commentary, and practical advice related to scientific research and lab work. In their 06/2024 issue they provided a citation analysis in which I am included as well. Articles from the years 2013 to 2022 were considered, with at least one author having an address in the German-speaking region. The figures for citations and articles were provided by the ‘Web of Science’ database […]

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I am among the 2023 Highly Cited Researchers

Today I received the achievement “Highly Cited Researcher 2023” from Clarivate™ / Web of Science™. It is the fourth time in a row that I have received the title “Highly Cited Researcher” and I am glad to see that my work of the last decade is still making a difference in the scientific community worldwide. The online analysis shows that Germany contributes 336 researchers to the overall list of 6,849 individual researchers. The University of Augsburg, where I am working now, published a press release. The selection process is quite rigorous and involves quite a number of exclusion criteria such […]

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I am now working at the University of Augsburg

After 13 years at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ I have moved to the University of Augsburg. Augsburg, located in Bavaria, Germany, is a historic city with a rich cultural heritage. Renowned for its well-preserved medieval architecture, Augsburg was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. The city’s historical significance, including its role in trade and the Fugger banking empire, contributes to its status as a cultural gem in southern Germany. The University of Augsburg is a relatively young campus university with approx. 20,000 students in October 2023. Here, I am working at the Chair of Biomedical Informatics, Data […]

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Paper published on how to establish a universal virus taxonomy

In a previous post from last year I reported on a workshop in Oxford (UK) which I attended in April 2022 to discuss various questions on how to establish a universal virus taxonomy, in view of the (post-)genomic age we are currently in. Finally, last week, our consensus view of that meeting was published in PLoS Biology. The consensus view is the result of both the workshop and longer discussions via email during the drafting phase of the manuscript. My co-authors are renowned experts from various fields (virology, taxonomy, bioinformatics etc.) such as Eugene Koonin, Christian Drosten or Peter Simmonds. […]

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I received the title “Highly Cited Researcher” for the third time in a row

Today I received the achievement “Highly Cited Researcher 2022” from Clarivate™ / Web of Science™. It is the third time in a row that I have received the title “Highly Cited Researcher” and I am very happy to see that my work of the last decade is still making a difference in the scientific community worldwide. The online analysis shows that Germany contributes 369 researchers to the overall list of 6,938 researchers. Here is today’s email from Clarivate™: “Each year, Clarivate™ identifies the world’s most influential researchers ─ the select few who have been most frequently cited by their peers […]

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Conference in Oxford, UK, on the future of virus taxonomy

From April 6th-8th, 2022, I was invited participant of the ICTV Workshop – Virus Classification in a Metagenomic Age. My expertise in this field is closely linked to the bioinformatic method VICTOR for genome-based virus classification which I have published some years ago. About 40 experts from the field of (genome-based) virus taxonomy and general virology were invited to discuss various topics either via Zoom or on-site in Oxford, UK. The list of participants included renowned experts such as Christian Drosten, Peter Walker, Eugene Koonin etc. The workshop was split into two parts and roughly followed this outline: Workshop 1 […]

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I have been awarded the title “Highly Cited Researcher 2021”

  The list of Highly Cited Researchers 2021 from Clarivate TM identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence, reflected in the publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade. 6,602 researchers are named Highly Cited Researchers in 2021 – 3,774 in specific fields and 2,828 for cross-field performance. This is the fourth year that we have identified researchers with cross-field impact. The number of researchers selected in each field is based on the square root of the population of authors listed on the field’s highly cited papers. The number of […]

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Our paper on the TYGS and LPSN databases was just published in Nucleic Acids Research

Our paper “TYGS and LPSN: a database tandem for fast and reliable genome-based classification and nomenclature of prokaryotes” was recently published in Nucleic Acids Research! The paper presents the current state and recent advancements of the TYGS and LPSN databases and provides insights on how these two databases are interconnected in a synergistic manner. Here is the abstract: Microbial systematics is heavily influenced by genome-based methods and challenged by an ever increasing number of taxon names and associated sequences in public data repositories. This poses a challenge for database systems, particularly since it is obviously advantageous if such data are […]

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Web of Science included me in their list “Highly Cited Researchers 2020”

I am humbled to be included in the Web of Science list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2020“. The list of Highly Cited Researchers 2020 from Clarivate / Web of Science identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence, reflected in the publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade. 6,389 researchers are named Highly Cited Researchers in 2020 – 3,896 in specific fields and 2,493 for cross-field performance.

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Paper on our new Type (Strain) Genome Server published in Nature Communications

Many years of work have now finally concluded in the publication of our TYGS platform in Nature Communications. Executive summary TYGS, the Type (Strain) Genome Server, is a user-friendly high-throughput web server for genome-based prokaryote taxonomy. Microbial taxonomy needs genome-based analyses but these can be complex and require expert knowledge. TYGS fills this gap. TYGS is as reliable as the GGDC but offers way more features. Citation Meier-Kolthoff JP, Göker M. TYGS is an automated high-throughput platform for state-of-the-art genome-based taxonomy. Nat Commun. 2019;10: 2182. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10210-3 Weblink https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10210-3

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