Thomson Reuters, the firm responsible for the Web of Science database, has released a list of the 3,200 most influential scientists of recent years, the ones who have published articles that were cited extremely frequently, from 2001 to 2012, in 21 fields of knowledge. Five names on the list are from Brazil. One of them is Paulo Arturo, professor at the Physics Institute of the University of São Paulo (USP) and member of the Area Panel of the FAPESP Research Program on Global Climate Change. His articles received more than 10,000 citations. One of his most recognized works discusses the effect that aerosol particles emitted during the burning of forests in the Amazon Region have on climate and clouds. “We demonstrated the key role those particles play in cloud development in the region and in the atmospheric radiation balance,” explains Artaxo, who calls attention to the poor showing by Brazilians in that compilation. “We still have a lot to do to increase the international significance of articles published in Brazil,” he says. Cardiologist Álvaro Avezum, director of the research division of the Dante Pazzanese Institute in São Paulo, is the author of 156 indexed articles and had more than 16,000 citations. Those of his works that had the greatest impact are connected with collaborative research studies that followed the progress of hundreds of thousands of patients in different countries and demonstrated the associations between certain risk factors—for example, acute myocardial infarction and CVA. Ernesto Gonzalez, professor at the São Carlos Chemistry Institute at USP, published about 220 articles and received more than 5,000 citations. His research focuses on ethanol fuel cells. “We achieved a nearly 50% conversion of ethanol to carbon dioxide, which makes ethanol more effective as a fuel,” Gonzalez says. Agronomist Adriano Nunes-Nesi, of the Federal University of Viçosa, completed between 2004 and 2010 a “sandwich” of doctorate and post-doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, in Germany, where he participated in a comprehensive study of the physiological roles of Krebs cycle enzymes in tomatoes. The group of which he was a member was able to use the results to increase tomato production. Sven Wunder, a German researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), has published several articles on forestry policy during the 10 years he has been working in Brazil. In 2009, he coordinated a study on the Amazon region that was commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment.
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