Four ANSTO scientists among world’s most accomplished chemists

Published on the 11th May 2026 by ANSTO Staff

Four ANSTO scientists have been included in the 2026 Ranking of the Best Chemistry Scientists in the World, a leading academic platform for researchers.

Gu Avdeev Peterson and Gilbert — (Left to right) Dr Qinfen Gu, Prof Max Avdeev, Prof Vanessa Peterson and Prof Elliot Gilbert

The ranking is grounded in extensive bibliometric data primarily sourced from OpenAlex and CrossRef, supplemented by multiple other reputable databases. These sources collectively provide comprehensive and accurate metadata reflecting scholarly outputs, ensuring a robust foundation for evaluation.

ANSTO’s top chemists include Dr Qinfen Gu, Prof Max Avdeev, Prof Vanessa Peterson, and Prof Elliot Gilbert. The data below highlights, world ranking, national ranking, and D-index. The D-index is a measure that quantifies the dependence degree between authors on their research environment through their scientific publication history.

This ranking lists all leading researchers affiliated with ANSTO. Other current ANSTO scientists in the world ranking included Dr David Fink, Dr Quan Hua, Dr Geraldine Jacobsen, Dr Dioni Cendón, and Dr Scott Chambers.

The total number of all publications by leading scholars at ANSTO is 3,875 with a mean value for publications per scientist of 323.

The total number of citations by prominent scientists at ANSTO is 146,102 with a mean value for citations per researchers of 12,175.

The top chemist in Australia is Prof Shi-Zhang Qiao. 2026 Shi-Zhang Qiao: Chemistry Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards | Research.com.

The world’s leading chemist is Prof Michael Grätzel is a Swiss chemist and professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, renowned for inventing dye-sensitized solar cells, or Grätzel cells, which mimic photosynthesis to create low-cost, flexible photovoltaics. His work pioneered molecular photovoltaics, advanced perovskite solar cells, and inspired new energy storage and solar fuel technologies, earning him numerous international awards and over 500,000 scholarly citations.

Powder Diffraction

The Powder Diffraction beamline at the Australian Synchrotron is optimised for carrying out structural investigation under non ambient conditions and as a function of time.

Echidna - High Resolution Powder Diffractometer

Neutron powder diffraction is particularly useful for materials with light elements in the presence of heavy ones and for magnetic materials such as superconductors, pharmaceuticals, aerospace alloys and much more.

Wombat - High-Intensity Powder Diffractometer

Wombat is a high intensity neutron diffractometer that is primarily used as a high-speed powder diffractometer, but has also expanded into texture characterisation and single-crystal measurement, particularly diffuse scattering.

Quokka - Small Angle Neutron Scattering

The QUOKKA instrument provides the powerful technique of small-angle neutron scattering which can look at sizes and structures of objects on the nanoscale including soft matter.