Dr. Stephen Leblanc

University of Guelph dairy cattle health researcher Dr. Stephen LeBlanc has once again been named to the prestigious Clarivate Analytics list of “Highly Cited Researchers” for 2021.

This is the third time LeBlanc has been named to the list, which comprises international researchers who have demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields by ranking in the top one per cent by citations for field and publication year.

A professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College, LeBlanc studies studies metabolic and reproductive health and management in dairy cows, including field validation of precision technologies.

His work has resulted in more than 165 peer-reviewed papers and he has given invited talks in 20 countries.

He aims to improve livestock health and fertility through disease prevention and treatment and by developing reproductive management programs.

Working with colleagues in Dairy at Guelph – The Centre for Dairy Research and Innovation and at other institutions, he integrates animal science, applied physiology and nutrition with veterinary medicine.

“It’s an honour to once again be included in this list. It’s gratifying to see that others working on dairy cow health and fertility find our work relevant and useful,” he said.

“Much of my highly cited work represents collaborations with colleagues and mentors and is the result of the work of exceptional graduate students and postdocs with whom I have worked.”

LeBlanc’s interdisciplinary research uses emerging concepts and tools to understand the interplay of metabolism, inflammation and the microbiome in reproductive health and fertility in dairy cows.

His current research includes investigating links between transition period health and estrus expression detected with activity monitors, determinants of antimicrobial use by farmers and veterinarians, and the relationship between systemic and uterine inflammation in dairy cows.

This year’s “Highly Cited Researchers” list identifies more than 6,600 researchers in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences and cross-field categories were selected based on the number of highly cited papers they produced over an 11-year period from January 2010 to December 2020.

Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top one per cent by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.

The methodology that determines the “who’s who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these citation elite are based.