Franco Widmer

12.4k total citations · 2 hit papers
133 papers, 9.1k citations indexed

About

Franco Widmer is a scholar working on Plant Science, Molecular Biology and Ecology. According to data from OpenAlex, Franco Widmer has authored 133 papers receiving a total of 9.1k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 78 papers in Plant Science, 51 papers in Molecular Biology and 39 papers in Ecology. Recurrent topics in Franco Widmer's work include Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology (33 papers), Entomopathogenic Microorganisms in Pest Control (25 papers) and Insect Resistance and Genetics (25 papers). Franco Widmer is often cited by papers focused on Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology (33 papers), Entomopathogenic Microorganisms in Pest Control (25 papers) and Insect Resistance and Genetics (25 papers). Franco Widmer collaborates with scholars based in Switzerland, United States and Germany. Franco Widmer's co-authors include Martin Hartmann, Marcel G. A. van der Heijden, Cameron Wagg, S. Franz Bender, Beat Frey, Josef Zeyer, Jochen Mayer, J. Enkerli, Paul Mäder and Manuel Pesaro and has published in prestigious journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The Journal of Cell Biology and Environmental Science & Technology.

In The Last Decade

Franco Widmer

132 papers receiving 8.8k citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories sort by overperformance

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Soil biodiversity and soil community composition determine ecosystem multifunctionality

2014 1.7k citations Franco Widmer, Marcel G. A. van der Heijden et al. profile →
Distinct soil microbial diversity under long-term organic and conventional farming

2014 1.0k citations Martin Hartmann, Beat Frey et al. profile →

Author Peers

Peers are selected by citation overlap in the author's most active subfields. citations · hero ref

Author						Papers	Cites
Franco Widmer	4.1k	3.2k	2.6k	2.5k	1.4k	133	9.1k
Michael Bonkowski	4.8k 1.2×	4.1k 1.3×	3.1k 1.2×	2.7k 1.1×	778 0.6×	216	10.3k
Scott T. Bates	4.3k 1.1×	4.6k 1.4×	2.2k 0.8×	3.0k 1.2×	1.2k 0.8×	40	10.5k
Anders Tunlid	3.1k 0.7×	2.6k 0.8×	2.7k 1.0×	1.4k 0.6×	1.5k 1.1×	89	8.0k
Samiran Banerjee	4.1k 1.0×	4.5k 1.4×	3.8k 1.4×	2.5k 1.0×	594 0.4×	88	10.3k
Joana Falcão Salles	3.6k 0.9×	4.1k 1.3×	1.4k 0.5×	3.0k 1.2×	645 0.5×	144	9.0k
Wietse de Boer	7.3k 1.8×	4.8k 1.5×	3.8k 1.4×	2.6k 1.0×	1.8k 1.3×	203	14.2k
Bryan S. Griffiths	6.2k 1.5×	4.5k 1.4×	5.9k 2.2×	2.2k 0.9×	1.1k 0.8×	243	13.3k
Pankaj Trivedi	6.6k 1.6×	2.6k 0.8×	2.3k 0.9×	2.0k 0.8×	722 0.5×	111	10.3k
Philippe Lemanceau	5.7k 1.4×	3.0k 0.9×	2.3k 0.9×	2.0k 0.8×	478 0.3×	74	9.4k
Michael S. Strickland	2.1k 0.5×	3.9k 1.2×	3.9k 1.5×	1.2k 0.5×	929 0.7×	79	7.6k

Countries citing papers authored by Franco Widmer

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Franco Widmer's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Franco Widmer with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Franco Widmer more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Franco Widmer

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Franco Widmer. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Franco Widmer. The network helps show where Franco Widmer may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Franco Widmer

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Franco Widmer. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Franco Widmer based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Franco Widmer. Franco Widmer is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

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20 of 20 papers shown

Cuartero, Jessica, María J.I. Briones, Beat Stierli, et al.. (2025). Earthworm and enchytraeid indicator taxa of different land-use types identified using soil DNA metabarcoding. Applied Soil Ecology. 206. 105891–105891. 3 indexed citations

Fuchs, Jacques G., M. Maurhofer, Barbara Thuerig, et al.. (2025). Analyses of 37 composts revealed microbial taxa associated with disease suppressiveness. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 91(11). e0110025–e0110025. 1 indexed citations

Widmer, Franco, et al.. (2025). Pathogenicity of the fungus Beauveria pseudobassiana for Popillia japonica depends on the developmental stage of the insect. Biological Control. 210. 105887–105887.

Mayerhofer, Johanna, Aaron Fox, Franco Widmer, et al.. (2025). Impact of grassland management intensity on associations between bacterial, fungal and plant communities. European Journal of Soil Biology. 126. 103754–103754. 2 indexed citations

Rehner, Stephen A., et al.. (2025). Partial ecological niche partitioning between Beauveria brongniartii and Beauveria pseudobassiana entomopathogens at Melolontha melolontha infested sites. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 211. 108356–108356. 1 indexed citations

Collatz, Jana, et al.. (2023). Assessing potential hybridization between a hypothetical gene drive‐modified Drosophila suzukii and nontarget Drosophila species. Risk Analysis. 43(10). 1921–1932. 1 indexed citations

Braun-Kiewnick, Andrea, et al.. (2021). Apple Blossoms from a Swiss Orchard with Low-Input Plant Protection Regime Reveal High Abundance of Potential Fire Blight Antagonists. Phytobiomes Journal. 5(2). 145–155. 7 indexed citations

Lutz, Stefanie, Barbara Thuerig, Johanna Mayerhofer, et al.. (2020). Harnessing the Microbiomes of Suppressive Composts for Plant Protection: From Metagenomes to Beneficial Microorganisms and Reliable Diagnostics. Frontiers in Microbiology. 11. 1810–1810. 44 indexed citations

Romeis, Jörg & Franco Widmer. (2020). Assessing the Risks of Topically Applied dsRNA-Based Products to Non-target Arthropods. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11. 679–679. 57 indexed citations

10.

Widmer, Franco, et al.. (2017). Effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on soil microbial communities and wheat biomass. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 111. 85–93. 72 indexed citations

11.

Kempf, Karl G., Carsten S. Malisch, Christoph Grieder, Franco Widmer, & Roland Kölliker. (2017). Marker-trait association analysis for agronomic and compositional traits in sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia). Genetics and Molecular Research. 16(1). 7 indexed citations

12.

Hersemann, Lena, Daniel Wibberg, Jochen Blom, et al.. (2017). Comparative genomics of host adaptive traits in Xanthomonas translucens pv. graminis. BMC Genomics. 18(1). 35–35. 20 indexed citations

13.

Enkerli, J., et al.. (2014). Molecular diversity of the entomopathogenic fungal Metarhizium community within an agroecosystem. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 123. 6–12. 63 indexed citations

14.

Frey, Beat, et al.. (2010). Changes in rhizosphere bacterial populations during phytoextraction of heavy metal contaminated soil with poplar. Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology. 144(2). 392–395. 4 indexed citations

15.

Enkerli, J., et al.. (2008). A PCR-based tool for the cultivation-independent monitoring of Pandora neoaphidis. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 99(1). 49–56. 13 indexed citations

16.

Hartmann, Martin & Franco Widmer. (2008). Reliability for detecting composition and changes of microbial communities by T-RFLP genetic profiling. FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 63(2). 249–260. 66 indexed citations

17.

Studer, Bruno, B. Boller, Eva Bauer, et al.. (2007). Consistent detection of QTLs for crown rust resistance in Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) across environments and phenotyping methods. Theoretical and Applied Genetics. 115(1). 9–17. 34 indexed citations

18.

Enkerli, J., et al.. (2007). Development of 16 microsatellite markers for the European cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha. Molecular Ecology Resources. 8(1). 158–160. 3 indexed citations

19.

Enkerli, J., et al.. (2006). Objective criteria to assess representativity of soil fungal community profiles. Journal of Microbiological Methods. 68(2). 358–366. 34 indexed citations

20.

Herrmann, Doris, B. Boller, Bruno Studer, Franco Widmer, & Roland Kölliker. (2005). QTL analysis of seed yield components in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics. 112(3). 536–545. 61 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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