• Carlos Garbisu, a specialist in environmental microbiology, and Ramón Juste, an expert in animal health, repeat for the fifth consecutive year in the Ranking “World’s Most Influential (Top 2%) Scientists”, and Inma Estévez, a renowned scientist in ethology and animal welfare, does so for the second time.
• This recognition is especially commendable taking into account the limited number of research staff that NEIKER has in comparison with other entities that appear on the list and the fact that NEIKER shares its research work with the service and transfer to the Basque primary sector in order to provide added value and improve its competitiveness.

Stanford University has once again updated its list of the best researchers in the world based on the citations of their scientific publications on the Scopus portal.

Once again this year, the prestigious American university has included in this index Dr. Carlos Garbisu, NEIKER’s Scientific Director, Dr. Ramón Juste, researcher at the Department of Animal Health, and Dr. Inma Estévez, researcher at NEIKER’s Department of Animal Production.

The most cited researchers in the world are part of this list, which is a huge recognition for those who are part of it. In fact, this ranking is currently considered to be the most prestigious scientific reference document at international level for ascertaining the impact of the work carried out by scientists.

The recognition therefore reflects NEIKER’s scientific excellence, especially meritorious considering the small number of researchers at NEIKER, compared to many other centres also included in the Stanford ranking, and the fact that NEIKER shares its research work with the service and transfer to the Basque primary sector in order to provide added value and improve its competitiveness.

Professional trajectory

This year, Dr. Garbisu, current Scientific Director of NEIKER, has once again been included in the Top 1% of the aforementioned Stanford ranking, according to the data corresponding to the year 2022. Dr. Garbisu has made important advances in the knowledge of the microorganisms that inhabit soils, with special emphasis on agricultural soils and contaminated soils, and has made a pioneering contribution to the development of Soil Microbial Ecology in the Basque Country. He has also contributed relevant theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of the recovery of degraded soils. Currently, an important part of his research is focused on the risk of emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance in the environment.

Dr. Ramón Juste, researcher at NEIKER’s Animal Health Department, has developed his scientific activity in the field of animal health. His main scientific contributions focus on the study of mycobacteriosis, having developed the first mathematical model of epidemiological and economic effectiveness of paratuberculosis control and demonstrated the specific and non-specific protection of vaccination. His current main interest is to continue this line, unravelling the innate immune mechanism common to slow inflammatory diseases and its application to control by active immunotherapy.

Finally, Dr. Inma Estévez, researcher at NEIKER’s Animal Production Department, has a degree in Zoology and a PhD in Ethology (animal behaviour) from the University of Cordoba. Throughout her long professional career she has worked as a researcher at Agriculture Canada, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, at INRA (France) and at the University of Maryland (USA) where she obtained a Full Professor degree. In 2008 she joined NEIKER as a Senior IKERBASQUE Researcher. She has received several awards such as the Junior Faculty Award (University of Maryland), the Hy-Line International Research Award and the Poultry Science Association Research Award in Production Poultry Welfare. In his career he has received awards such as the “Junior Faculty Award” (University of Maryland), the Hy-Line International Research Award and the Poultry Science Association’s Production Bird Welfare Research Award. He has led numerous competitive research projects both in the USA and in Europe, always focused on behavioural and welfare aspects of production poultry. His research work has always been developed from a basic perspective of behavioural ecology, with special emphasis on social dynamics, but easily combining its applications to the production field.