CW3E’s Ming Pan Named to Clarivate’s 2025 Highly Cited Researchers List

June 17, 2026

Dr. Ming Pan, senior research hydrologist at CW3E, has been named to Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, an annual honor recognizing the small fraction of the world’s scientists and social scientists whose published work has had the broadest and most sustained influence on their fields.

Ming’s recognition reflects the breadth and reach of his research on the terrestrial water cycle. Since earning his Ph.D. in Hydrology and Water Resources from Princeton University in 2006, he has worked at the intersection of land surface hydrologic modeling, hydrologic remote sensing, and data assimilation, developing widely used global datasets and modeling frameworks that quantify water availability, streamflow, soil moisture, and drought and flood risk from local to global scales. His work has informed research and applications across hydrology, climate science, and water resources management worldwide, and underpins tools used by researchers far beyond his own collaborations.

Ming was recognized in Clarivate’s Cross-Field category, which honors researchers whose Highly Cited Papers span multiple research fields rather than concentrating in a single discipline. The designation reflects the inherently interdisciplinary nature of his work, which bridges hydrology, climate science, remote sensing, and water resources engineering, and is used by research communities across those fields.

The 2025 list, released by Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information in November, recognized nearly 6,900 individuals from more than 1,300 institutions across 60 countries and regions. Selection is based on having authored multiple papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication year in the Web of Science Core Collection. This recognition adds to a strong showing for the University of California San Diego, which tied for 18th in the world on the 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list with 50 recognitions.

For more on the Highly Cited Researchers program and this year’s list, visit Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2025 page and its evaluation and selection methodology. Ming’s full publication and citation record is available on his Google Scholar profile.