Haitian-born sleep scientist ranked among world’s top researchers

Girardin Jean-Louis, a Haitian-born scientist and professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has been named among the world’s top 2% scientists for producing more than 400 published works cited by others. The university announced the global distinction of “leading minds in science,” which recognizes researchers whose work has had exceptional influence across disciplines, in a LinkedIn post.

For Jean-Louis, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Miller School of Medicine, the recognition caps decades of leadership in sleep and circadian science, with research spanning psychiatry, neurology, psychology and public health. In addition to teaching, Jean-Louis directs the Center on Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences and the Sleep Research Society’s Program to Increase Diversity in Behavioral Medicine & Sleep Disorders Research (PRIDE). His work focuses on how sleep deficiency affects cardiovascular and brain health, particularly in communities that face structural barriers to care.

According to published reports, Jean-Louis’s studies have helped redefine how sleep is measured outside clinical settings, including early contributions to algorithms that underpin today’s wearable sleep-tracking technologies. Jean-Louis has led or contributed to numerous studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, resulting in more than 400 publications across peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters. His research has appeared in 215 scientific conference proceedings and book chapters and 235 peer-reviewed scientific journals — including The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Neuroscience Methods and SLEEP.

Born and raised in Haiti, Jean-Louis immigrated to New York City as a teenager. His early interest in engineering eventually led him to sleep science. In 1996, he earned his doctoral degree in psychology, sleep medicine and neurocognition from the City University of New York. He then completed postdoctoral training in sleep medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

Jean-Louis’s leadership has been recognized repeatedly. In 2020, he was named a Pioneer in Minority Health and Health Disparities and selected as one of the most inspiring Black scientists in America. He received the Sleep Research Society’s Mary A. Carskadon Outstanding Educator Award in 2021, followed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leadership Award in 2022. In 2023, he was elected to the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

Jean-Louis has also served on several national advisory boards, including the NIH Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board and the National Advisory Council for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, helping shape federal research priorities.

The annual ranking of most-cited scientists is based on Scopus and Elsevier bibliometric data and compiled by a team led by Stanford University scholar John P.A. Ioannidis. It uses a composite set of indicators, including total citations, h-index and sustained research impact, to identify scholars whose work shapes their fields worldwide.

The post Haitian-born sleep scientist ranked among world’s top researchers appeared first on The Haitian Times.