Zongfu Yu selected for 2025 highly cited researchers list

Zongfu Yu, the Grainger Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is included on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list for 2025. 

The annual list recognizes researchers whose contributions have demonstrated broad and significant influence in their fields. Clarivate is a data analytics firm focusing on academia and government, intellectual property, and life sciences and healthcare.

In total, 6,868 researchers from 1,300 institutions in 60 countries made the 2025 list for significant influence in specific fields or impact across several fields. To determine the 2025 honorees, Clarivate analyzed papers published over the last 11 years, determining which authors ranked in the top 1% of cited papers. This year, the process included a new enhanced screening process to address problematic issues in academic publishing including hyper-prolific authorship, excessive self-citation, and anomalous citation patterns. 

Yu was selected in the cross-disciplinary category. He has appeared on the list every year since 2018.

Yu’s optics and photonics research spans the areas of classical computation, quantum electrodynamics, quantum optics, visual perception, topological photonics, integrated photonics, and radiative cooling. He is a Fellow of Optica and recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and DARPA Young Faculty Award. He is listed on more than 10 patents and patent applications. He is also co-founder of Flexcompute, a company developing high-fidelity physics simulations to accelerate and enhance hardware design and development. 

 “We celebrate the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 for advancing innovation and inspiring the global research community to tackle society’s greatest challenges with creativity and ingenuity,” says Bar Veinstein, president of academia and government at Clarivate. “As research environments become more complex, we are committed to upholding the highest standards of research integrity by continuing to strengthen the foundations of our Highly Cited Researchers program.”

In total, 19 researchers across the University of Wisconsin-Madison appear on the 2025 edition of the list.