Skip to main content

Professor Carlos Frenk

A world-leading Durham cosmologist has been recognised as being “of Nobel class” for his work on the evolution of the universe.

Professor Carlos Frenk is one of 24 Clarivate 2020 Citation Laureates announced worldwide. These are researchers whose work is deemed to be “of Nobel class”, as shown by analysis carried out by the Institute for Scientific Information.  

Carlos receives the honour for his fundamental studies of galaxy formation and evolution, cosmic structure, and dark matter halos.

Influential and transformative

Clarivate’s annual Citation Laureates recognise world-class researchers across all areas of science whose work has been highly-cited by fellow scientists and whose contributions to science have been extremely influential and transformative. 

So far, 54 researchers listed in Clarivate’s Hall of Citation Laureates have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize. 

Cold dark matter

Carlos is one of the world’s foremost scientists behind the theory of cold dark matter – the mysterious substance thought to make up a large part of the universe - the foundation of the current view of galaxy formation, and the cosmic large-scale structure.

He also holds the Royal Astronomical Society’s highest honour, the Gold Medal for Astronomy, whose previous recipients include Albert Einstein, Charles Babbage and Edwin Hubble.

And he is one of five Durham researchers included in the Highly Cited Researchers 2019 list from Clarivate.

This listing puts Durham first in the UK, third in Europe and joint fifth in the world for the strength of our research in Space Science.

Find out more

  • Out of some 50 million articles indexed in the Web of Science since 1970, only 5,700 (or 0.01 per cent) have been cited 2,000 times or more by fellow academics. Carlos is the author of five such papers, a testimony to the impact of his research. Learn more about the Clarivate 2020 Citation Laureates.