KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct 27, 2025 – Two dozen University of Rhode Island faculty members, across a broad range of disciplines, have been recognized by Stanford/Elsevier as being among the world’s top scientists and most influential researchers.

Stanford University’s Top 2% Scientists list is considered the most prestigious in the world. The listing is based on bibliometric factors contained in the Scopus database provided by Elsevier, a global information analytics company and academic publisher. 

“It’s a wonderful honor to see so many members of our URI community included among Stanford’s list of top scientists and researchers,” said URI Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Wolfe. “Their scholarship reflects the impact of URI and the exceptional opportunities our students have to learn alongside the best in their fields.”  

The rankings consider scholars who have published multiple highly cited papers and use various metrics to evaluate the citation impact of researchers’ work over their career and a single year. The rankings are based on citations from 2024.

Among the University of Rhode Island faculty members recognized are:

College of Arts and Sciences:

• Renee Hobbs, professor, communication studies 
• Michael Pürrer, computational scientist and adjunct associate professor, physics
• Yana K. Reshetnyak, professor, physics

College of Business:

• Mahtab Kouhizadeh, assistant professor, supply chain management
• Lauren Isabelle Labrecque, professor, marketing 
• Dara G. Schniederjans, professor, supply chain management

College of Engineering:

• Ashutosh Giri, associate professor, mechanical, industrial and systems engineering
• Michael L. Greenfield, associate professor, chemical, biomolecular and materials engineering
• Stéphan Grilli, distinguished professor and chair, ocean engineering
• Haibo He, professor, electrical, computer and biomedical engineering 
• Arun Shukla, Simon Ostrach Professor, mechanical, industrial and systems engineering
• Chengzhi Yuan, associate professor, mechanical, industrial and systems engineering 

College of the Environment and Life Sciences

• David Bidwell, professor, marine affairs
• Elizabeth Mendenhall, associate professor, marine affairs
• H.M. Putnam, associate professor, biological sciences
• Alan L. Rothman, research professor, cell and molecular biology

College of Health Sciences:

• Nicole Holland Weiss, professor, psychology
• Jing Jian Xiao, professor, human development and family science

College of Pharmacy

• Peter J. Snyder, professor, biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences

College of Education

• Julie Coiro, professor, literacy education 
• Annemarie Vaccaro, associate dean and professor, college student personnel

Graduate School of Oceanography

• Steven L. D’Hondt, interim dean and professor, oceanography
• Katherine Kelley, professor, oceanography
• Rainer Lohmann, professor, oceanography

This story was written by Kiera Wrage, a senior majoring in public relations at the University of Rhode Island. Kiera is interning in URI’s Department of Communications and Marketing.