This summer, Richard Dixon, Distinguished Research Professor of biological sciences, and Ron Mittler, professor of biological sciences, were named to the Thomson Reuters 2014 list of highly cited researchers. The list represents the world's leading scientific minds, recognizing researchers who have published influential articles ranking among the top 1 percent of the most cited works in their fields.

Both Dixon and Mittler are world-renowned plant biologists. Dixon specializes in the metabolic engineering of plants to improve forage crops and to find renewable fuel sources and potential solutions for treating diseases. Mittler specializes in the oxidative stress in plants and how plants identify stress factors, such as heat, to signal their defenses against them.