Senior scientist in the Department of Geoinformatics, secured 508th place globally and first place in Austria,

Universität Salzburg is represented in Research.com’s 2026 Best Rising Stars of Science rankings, with one university-affiliated researcher included among the internationally ranked scientists. Omid Ghorbanzadeh, a senior scientist in the university’s Department of Geoinformatics, secured 508th place globally and first place in Austria, highlighting the international visibility of research conducted at the institution.

The results are presented in Research.com’s  2026 Best Rising Stars of Science in the World ranking and its  Best Rising Stars of Science in Austria ranking. The rankings assess individual scientists through their scholarly publication and citation records, bringing attention to researchers who have established a substantial scientific presence within a relatively short period of publishing activity.

Omid Ghorbanzadeh Leads Austria’s Rising Stars

Omid Ghorbanzadeh ranks 508th worldwide and first nationally in Austria in Research.com’s 2026 Rising Stars ranking. His inclusion makes him the university’s sole representative in this edition of the global ranking and places him at the top of the Austrian list. Ghorbanzadeh serves as a senior scientist and co-lead of the Geospatial Sustainability Compliance research group within Universität Salzburg’s Department of Geoinformatics. His research develops geospatial artificial intelligence methods that combine Earth observation and machine learning to investigate environmental change, natural hazards, human impacts on ecosystems, and associated environmental risks. His work belongs to a growing area of scientific inquiry that uses geographic information, satellite observations, and computational approaches to better understand interactions between human activities and the natural environment.

The ranking offers international visibility for this research area and acknowledges the publication and citation record Ghorbanzadeh has developed through his scientific work. His position at the top of the Austrian Rising Stars list is particularly noteworthy within an evaluation spanning multiple scientific disciplines and research institutions.

Additional information about the university’s wider research community is available through  Universität Salzburg’s Research.com profile.

About Research.com

Research.com is an international research information platform that publishes rankings and data about scientists, research institutions, and universities. Its Best Rising Stars of Science ranking focuses on researchers who have developed notable publication and citation records within the earlier years of their scientific publishing careers.

The 2026 global ranking is the fifth edition of the initiative. According to Research.com’s published methodology, eligibility is restricted to researchers whose earliest scientific publication dates back no more than 12 years. This criterion concerns publication history rather than a researcher’s age, academic title, or employment status.

Ranking positions are determined primarily through the H-index, a bibliometric indicator that reflects both scientific publication output and the frequency with which that work is cited by other researchers. Research.com identifies OpenAlex and CrossRef as principal sources of bibliometric information.

For the 2026 edition, the platform examined approximately 280,000 researcher profiles across major scientific disciplines. Researchers were required to meet discipline-specific H-index thresholds, generally 30 or 40, and profiles underwent manual verification. Scientific achievements and awards were also considered as supplementary information.