Simon Williams

11.1k total citations · 7 hit papers
142 papers, 8.2k citations indexed

About

Simon Williams is a scholar working on Geophysics, Geology and Atmospheric Science. According to data from OpenAlex, Simon Williams has authored 142 papers receiving a total of 8.2k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 96 papers in Geophysics, 36 papers in Geology and 24 papers in Atmospheric Science. Recurrent topics in Simon Williams's work include Geological and Geochemical Analysis (74 papers), earthquake and tectonic studies (59 papers) and High-pressure geophysics and materials (42 papers). Simon Williams is often cited by papers focused on Geological and Geochemical Analysis (74 papers), earthquake and tectonic studies (59 papers) and High-pressure geophysics and materials (42 papers). Simon Williams collaborates with scholars based in Australia, United States and China. Simon Williams's co-authors include R. Dietmar Müller, Maria Seton, Sabin Zahirovic, Joanne M. Whittaker, Kara J. Matthews, John Cannon, Nicolas Flament, Kayla Maloney, Michael Gurnis and Sascha Brune and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Communications and PLoS ONE.

In The Last Decade

Simon Williams

136 papers receiving 8.0k citations

Hit Papers

5 papers align trajectories

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.

Ocean Basin Evolution and Global-Scale Plate Reorganization Events Since Pangea Breakup

2016 809 citations R. Dietmar Müller, Maria Seton et al. profile →
Global plate boundary evolution and kinematics since the late Paleozoic

2016 581 citations Sabin Zahirovic, Simon Williams et al. profile →
A full-plate global reconstruction of the Neoproterozoic

2017 521 citations Andrew Merdith, Simon Williams et al. Gondwana Research profile →
GPlates: Building a Virtual Earth Through Deep Time

2018 505 citations R. Dietmar Müller, John Cannon et al. profile →
A Global Plate Model Including Lithospheric Deformation Along Major Rifts and Orogens Since the Triassic

2019 414 citations R. Dietmar Müller, Sabin Zahirovic et al. Tectonics profile →
Extending full-plate tectonic models into deep time: Linking the Neoproterozoic and the Phanerozoic

2020 317 citations Andrew Merdith, Simon Williams et al. profile →
A Global Data Set of Present‐Day Oceanic Crustal Age and Seafloor Spreading Parameters

2020 223 citations Maria Seton, R. Dietmar Müller et al. profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Simon Williams Australia	45	6.1k	1.8k	1.5k	1.3k	942	142	8.2k
Wim Spakman Netherlands	63	16.1k 2.6×	1.9k 1.0×	1.7k 1.1×	911 0.7×	1.2k 1.3×	150	17.8k
Michael Gurnis United States	70	14.6k 2.4×	2.2k 1.2×	2.0k 1.3×	1.0k 0.8×	934 1.0×	230	17.1k
Kevin Burke United States	51	9.0k 1.5×	1.6k 0.9×	1.3k 0.9×	936 0.7×	1.6k 1.7×	148	10.9k
W. R. Roest Canada	34	6.2k 1.0×	1.7k 0.9×	986 0.7×	340 0.3×	575 0.6×	106	7.3k
R. S. White United Kingdom	61	12.7k 2.1×	2.8k 1.5×	1.6k 1.1×	448 0.3×	1.1k 1.2×	235	14.1k
Norman H. Sleep United States	67	10.4k 1.7×	1000 0.5×	2.1k 1.4×	1.1k 0.8×	835 0.9×	206	14.5k
Bjørn Jamtveit Norway	52	6.1k 1.0×	766 0.4×	1.4k 0.9×	1.3k 1.0×	990 1.1×	156	9.0k
David A. Clague United States	63	9.5k 1.5×	1.2k 0.7×	3.8k 2.6×	958 0.7×	1.3k 1.4×	258	12.6k
Joann M. Stock United States	46	7.8k 1.3×	1.0k 0.6×	2.0k 1.3×	398 0.3×	1.0k 1.1×	160	9.0k
Maria Seton Australia	40	6.1k 1.0×	1.9k 1.1×	1.6k 1.1×	1.2k 0.9×	684 0.7×	84	8.3k

Countries citing papers authored by Simon Williams

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Simon Williams'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 Simon Williams with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Simon Williams more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Simon Williams

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Simon Williams. 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 Simon Williams. The network helps show where Simon Williams may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Simon Williams

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Simon Williams. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Simon Williams 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 Simon Williams. Simon Williams is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Williams, Simon, et al.. (2025). Linking detrital zircon record and supercontinent over the past 3.5 billion years. Precambrian Research. 420. 107680–107680.

Blanchard, Marc, et al.. (2025). Decoupling of High‐Pressure H ₂ Production From Serpentinization and Magnetite in Subduction Zones. Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth. 130(9).

Williams, Simon. (2025). What MAHA’s new Making Children Healthy Again report says—and what it doesn’t. BMJ. 390. r1922–r1922. 2 indexed citations

Williams, Simon. (2025). Surviving the aid cuts: how countries are sustaining health services. BMJ. 390. r1961–r1961. 1 indexed citations

Williams, Simon, et al.. (2024). Mapping paleoelevations along active continental margins with igneous geochemistry: A case study from South America. Gondwana Research. 134. 285–297. 1 indexed citations

Liu, Shaofeng, et al.. (2024). Craton deformation from flat-slab subduction and rollback. Nature Geoscience. 17(9). 936–943. 15 indexed citations

Mortimer, N., Simon Williams, Maria Seton, et al.. (2023). Reconnaissance Basement Geology and Tectonics of North Zealandia. Tectonics. 42(10). 4 indexed citations

Mather, Ben, R. Dietmar Müller, Sabin Zahirovic, et al.. (2023). Deep time spatio‐temporal data analysis using pyGPlates with PlateTectonicTools and GPlately. Geoscience Data Journal. 11(1). 3–10. 9 indexed citations

Cermeño, Pedro, Carmen García‐Comas, Alexandre Pohl, et al.. (2022). Post-extinction recovery of the Phanerozoic oceans and biodiversity hotspots. Nature. 607(7919). 507–511. 21 indexed citations

10.

Gubbins, David, et al.. (2021). Application of Vector Spherical Harmonics to the Magnetization of Mars' Crust. Geophysical Research Letters. 49(1). 1 indexed citations

11.

Yang, Ting, Louis Moresi, Michael Gurnis, et al.. (2019). Contrasted East Asia and South America tectonics driven by deep mantle flow. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 517. 106–116. 31 indexed citations

12.

Tetley, Michael G., Simon Williams, Michael Gurnis, Nicolas Flament, & R. Dietmar Müller. (2019). Constraining Absolute Plate Motions Since the Triassic. Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth. 124(7). 7231–7258. 52 indexed citations

13.

Müller, R. Dietmar, Sabin Zahirovic, Simon Williams, et al.. (2019). A Global Plate Model Including Lithospheric Deformation Along Major Rifts and Orogens Since the Triassic. Tectonics. 38(6). 1884–1907. 414 indexed citations breakdown →

14.

Ulvrová, Martina, Sascha Brune, & Simon Williams. (2018). Breakup Without Borders: How Continents Speed Up and Slow Down During Rifting. Geophysical Research Letters. 46(3). 1338–1347. 27 indexed citations

15.

Wright, Nicky M., Maria Seton, Simon Williams, & R. Dietmar Müller. (2017). Global sea level fluctuations and uncertainties through a Wilson cycle based on ocean basin volume reconstructions. EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts. 6977. 1 indexed citations

16.

Williams, Simon, et al.. (2016). A reconstruction of the Eurekan Orogeny incorporating deformation constraints. Tectonics. 36(2). 304–320. 37 indexed citations

17.

Butterworth, N. P., Daniel Steinberg, R. Dietmar Müller, et al.. (2016). Tectonic environments of South American porphyry copper magmatism through time revealed by spatiotemporal data mining. Tectonics. 35(12). 2847–2862. 19 indexed citations

18.

Whittaker, Joanne M., Simon Williams, Sheona Masterton, et al.. (2013). Interactions among plumes, mantle circulation and mid-ocean ridges. AGUFM. 2013. 2 indexed citations

19.

Williams, Simon & Alan Bridger. (2013). Spectral Line Selection in the ALMA Observing Tool. ASPC. 475. 373. 2 indexed citations

20.

Williams, Simon, Nicolas Flament, Christian Heine, et al.. (2012). Geodynamic modeling of passive margin systems from tectonic reconstructions with deforming plate boundaries. EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts. 6830. 1 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.

Explore authors with similar magnitude of impact