Kyle Bibby, professor and associate chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, and Jason Rohr, Ludmilla F., Stephen J., and Robert T. Galla College Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, were named 2025 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate/Web of Science.
The distinction recognizes researchers whose scholarly publications are among the top one percent most cited in their fields worldwide over the past decade, which demonstrates their broad influence on global scholarship. Selection is based on an analysis of citation data across Clarivate’s Web of Science, focusing on authors whose research demonstrates significant impact across disciplines.
Bibby, who also received a highly cited researcher designation two years ago, has worked on wastewater surveillance, environmental virology, and pathogen detection. He directs the Genomics & Environmental Research in Microbiology (GERM) Lab, investigating how microbial communities in environmental systems can inform responses to emerging public health challenges, and is affiliated with Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative, the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, and Eck Institute for Global Health.
He has authored 175 publications, and has been cited by others almost 11,000 times, according to Web of Science. His highly cited researcher designation was awarded in the Environment and Ecology category.
One of his papers helped establish wastewater-based epidemiology as a critical tool for tracking viral spread at the community level, bringing new visibility to the role of environmental engineering in public health preparedness.
“Wastewater-based epidemiology was a niche field prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bibby said. “Now, it is being expanded to monitor for a broad array of infectious diseases.”
Rohr researches how environmental stressors — such as pesticides, pollution, climate change, and habitat alteration — affect wildlife populations and disease dynamics. His research provides insight into how ecological disruptions influence the health of both animals and humans, with implications for biodiversity, disease, and policy.
One of his papers was awarded the 2024 International Frontiers Planet Prize for innovative public health and sustainability research. Published in Nature in 2023, Rohr’s research focuses on reducing schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease affecting more than 250 million people worldwide that causes organ damage and death, and is transmitted to humans from freshwater snails that are infected with parasitic flatworms.
He is affiliated with the Eck Institute for Global Health and the Environmental Change Initiative, among others. Rohr has authored 245 publications and has been cited by others more than 13,000 times, according to Web of Science. His highly cited researcher designation was awarded in the Cross-Field category.
Bibby and Rohr noted that the designation is often the result of team work, and that they may have been named on the award, but didn’t earn the honor on their own.
“Modern science is a team enterprise, so I’d like to give a lot of credit to all of the co-authors, graduate students, and postdocs involved too,” Bibby said. “It’s great for everyone to get this type of highlight.”
Originally posted at science.nd.edu by Deanna Csomo Ferrell and Eva Williams on December 1, 2025.