Last week my academic citations crossed 1000. It’s a number I’ve been watching approach for a while - a quiet milestone that means more to me than I expected. For someone who has moved from pure research into IT, it’s a reminder that scientific work has a long tail.
Why Citations Matter
Citations are science’s way of saying “this work was useful.” Each one represents another researcher who found something in your work worth building upon. It’s not a vanity metric - it’s evidence that your contributions became part of the ongoing scientific conversation.
For an industry scientist, reaching this number is of note. Academic researchers live or die by publication metrics. Industry scientists often don’t. Our work can disappear into proprietary processes, internal reports, or products that never carry our names. The fact that my research remained visible, citable, and apparently useful says something about the environment I was fortunate to work in.
This Wasn’t Me
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about scientific publication: While the glory often goes to the first or last author, the work belongs to everyone.
Every one of those cited papers represents days in the labs I shared with colleagues. Conversations over coffee that unlocked problems. Technicians who kept equipment running. Managers who fought for resources. Collaborators at universities who brought expertise we didn’t have. The citations count under my name, but the work was never mine alone.
Science is fundamentally collaborative. The lone genius narrative makes for good films but poor reality. My most-cited work came from projects where I was surrounded by people smarter than me in their respective domains. I brought my piece; they brought theirs. The whole was greater than any individual contribution.
The Right Environment
The views below are my own, not an official company position.
The vast majority of the work that lead to this engagement was done either while I was funded by, or working directly for, JM.
Some firms guard research as competitive advantage. Others simply don’t value academic engagement.
Johnson Matthey - a company with over 200 years of history rooted in science and technology - clearly values publication of scientifically interesting work. There is an understanding that letting scientists explore, publish, and engage with the wider research community isn’t a distraction from commercial success - it’s a driver of it. Publishing keeps researchers connected to cutting-edge thinking. It attracts talent who want to do meaningful work. It builds the company’s reputation as a serious scientific player.
I was given time and resources to pursue questions that were both of scientific value but also commercially interesting. I had access to world-class facilities and the freedom to collaborate with universities and research institutions globally. That combination is rare in industry.
If you’re a scientist wondering whether industry can offer the intellectual freedom you’d find in academia - it can.
Watching those citations accumulate years after I left the lab is deeply satisfying. The research from my PhD and post-doc days is still being built upon - and that’s a credit to everyone who made that work possible.