Five University of Delaware professors have been named to the 2025 list of Highly Cited Researchers, an international designation by Clarivate, a global analytics company. This honor recognizes scholars whose publications rank among the top 1% in citations worldwide.

Their work spans multiple disciplines and has had a profound impact on the research community and beyond, expanding what we know about the world and driving solutions to global challenges.

"This global recognition reflects the caliber of inquiry and innovation at the University of Delaware," said Miguel Garcia-Diaz, vice president for research, scholarship and innovation. "It's a wonderful accomplishment, and we honor this distinguished group and the entire UD research community for their hard work and contributions to society."

To explore the scope of their influence, UDaily asked each honoree: What is the most significant way your research has impacted the world - or will impact it in the future? Here's what they shared:

Wendy K. Smith
Lerner College of Business and Economics
"My research investigates how leaders manage complexity," said Smith, the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management. "By advancing the study of paradox theory, my research shows that leaders make more effective, creative decisions when they engage opposing forces as paradoxes - such as purpose and profit, stability and change, collaboration and competition - and apply both/and rather than either/or thinking."

Her research has shaped global management thinking, inspiring executives, policymakers and people in their personal lives to move toward more creative, human-centered solutions.

A fellow of the Academy of Management, Smith received the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award and was named one of the Thinkers50 Top 50 Management Thinkers for 2025. Earlier this year, she was named the 2025 recipient of the Francis Alison Award - UD's highest faculty honor.

This is the seventh consecutive year that both Smith and Yushan Yan, Henry Belin du Pont Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, have been named Highly Cited Researchers.

Yushan Yan
College of Engineering
Yan, founding director of the Center for Clean Hydrogen, conducts research on reducing the cost of hydrogen, fuel cells and carbon capture. He is focused on a global challenge: delivering affordable power for the data centers that drive today's intensive AI use.

"PiperION, discovered at the University of Delaware and commercialized by the UD spin-out company Versogen, has become a global benchmark for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis," Yan said. "Our research shows that water electrolysis - a process that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen - produces clean hydrogen. When combined with batteries, fuel cells and low-cost underground hydrogen storage, this technology allows solar and wind energy to deliver reliable, affordable power to large data centers operating at full capacity, without waiting for gas turbines or new grid connections."

Yan is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Electrochemical Society. He also is founder and CEO of Versogen.

Kelvin Fu
College of Engineering
Fu, the Terri Connor Kelly and John Kelly Career Development Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering, has now been named to the global list four years in a row.

An affiliated faculty member of the Center for Composite Materials and director of the Composites and Additive Manufacturing (CAM) Laboratory, he works at the forefront of advanced materials design and manufacturing.

"My research explores how architected matter - materials whose structures are designed across scales - can control mechanics and energy flow," Fu said. "By linking structure to function, we aim to create lighter, stronger and more efficient systems for manufacturing, transportation and energy technologies."

He has received multiple young researcher awards from the American Society of Composites, American Chemical Society, and Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Xiang-Gen Xia
College of Engineering
Previously named to the global list in 2023 and 2020, Xia is the Charles Black Evans Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

"My research is on signal processing, with applications in wireless communications and sensing," Xia said. "I hope that my research results from my publications will have both theoretical and practical value for the world."

Xia is a past recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Weisong Shi
College of Engineering
This is the first time that Shi, Alumni Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, has been named a Highly Cited Researcher.

"My pioneering work in edge computing - including co-authoring the seminal paper that coined the term 'edge computing' - reshaped how the world thinks about where computation should happen, enabling low-latency, privacy-aware, and energy-aware intelligence at the network edge," Shi said. "Building on that foundation, my current work on autonomous driving systems and indoor autonomy platforms will help define the next generation of safe, sustainable, edge-native mobility for the real world."

Shi directs the Connected and Autonomous Research (CAR) Laboratory at UD and currently serves as honorary director of the National Science Foundation eCAT Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, which focuses on electric, connected and autonomous mobility technologies.

He is a fellow of IEEE and a distinguished scientist of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Globally, the United States leads the 2025 Highly Cited Researcher list with 37.4% of honorees, followed by China (19.7%) and the United Kingdom (8%). Other countries in the top 10 include Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland and France.