They have shot themselves in the foot,” said Luque, who attributed his suspension to “pure envy.”

“Without me, the University of Córdoba is going to drop 300 places. Institutions all over the world compete to hire scientists like Luque, who can move a center up hundreds of positions in international academic rankings such as the influential Shanghai ranking, thusly attracting more students and more funding. He has featured on the list of the world’s most cited researchers, compiled by the specialist company Clarivate, for five years. So far this year, Luque has published 58 studies at a rate of one every 37 hours. He has published some 700 studies, mainly in the field of so-called green chemistry, which aims to synthesize products such as drugs and fuels while generating less waste. Luque, 44, is one of the most prolific scientists in Spain. The university has sanctioned Luque for working as a researcher at other centers, such as the King Saud University in Riyadh and the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, despite holding a full-time publicly funded contract with the Spanish institution.

One of the most cited scientists in the world, the Spanish chemist Rafael Luque, has been suspended without pay for the next 13 years, according to Luque himself and the institution where he worked until recently, the University of Córdoba in Spain.

Group on telegram