William S. Harris, PhD, FASN, Founder of OmegaQuant, and president of the newly-formed Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) has been ranked in the top 2% of scientists worldwide. In an exhaustive list of nearly 160,000 scientists, Harris landed at 2,164 for his overall scientific impact. “Impact” was essentially defined as the number of times other researchers referred back in their papers, or cited the published work, of a given scientist.
 
For the rankings, Stanford University researchers analyzed data from the mid-1990s through 2019, covering millions of scientists worldwide in all fields of science. The study created a public database of standardized citation metrics for the top scientists in the world, classified into 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields. The findings were published in PLOS Biology.
 
In the fatty acid field specifically, Harris was in good company, with fellow researchers Philip Calder, PhD (University of South Hampton, UK), and Dariush Mozaffarian, DrPH (Tufts University, Boston), raking at 250 and 502, respectively.
 
Harris has been researching fatty acids for more than 40 years and to date has published more than 300 papers on these nutrients. Since co-inventing the Omega-3 Index in 2004, it has been used by him and many others in hundreds of other research papers.
 
“WE continue to build the evidence base for the importance of the Omega-3 Index in human health by working with some of the most prestigious research institutions in the world. To date, we’ve worked with more than 100 of them including Harvard, Tufts, Columbia, Stanford, Oxford, and even the U.S. Army,” Harris said.
 
In late 2020, Harris founded FARI, a nonprofit research and education foundation that will focus single-mindedly on publishing high-quality research studies on the multiple relationships between fatty acid levels and human and animal health outcomes. “These studies will improve our ability to predict risk for disease, and more importantly, suggest ways to reduce risk by changing our diets and/or supplementation regimens,” he said.
 
“This achievement is also a testimony to how important the identification of a biomarker like the Omega-3 Index was (and continues to be) as a stimulus to expanding research and publications in the field.”