On March 27, 2024, Elsevier released the 2023 "Highly Cited Chinese Researchers" list. The scholars selected for this list come from 496 universities, enterprises, and research institutions, covering 10 disciplinary fields and 84 first level disciplines of the Ministry of Education. Among them, 308 are from clinical medicine, and Academician Xie Lixin from the Ophthalmology Research Institute affiliated with Shandong First Medical University is on the list.

The 2023 "Chinese Highly Cited Scholars" list uses Elsevier's citation and index database Scopus as the statistical source, and adopts the method developed by Shanghai Soft Science Education Information Consulting Co., Ltd. to deeply analyze and identify Chinese scholars at different stages of their scientific research careers from multiple dimensions, and systematically display their scientific research achievements. It accurately presents top talents in key technology research and various key fields, with important reference value, and has received high attention from domestic and foreign media and scholars. At the same time, this list fully reflects the world influence of scholars in their disciplinary fields.

Academician Xie Lixin is mainly engaged in basic research and clinical diagnosis and treatment of corneal diseases and cataracts. He has made outstanding contributions in the application theory of corneal endothelial cells, infectious corneal diseases, improvement of cataract surgery technology, and intraocular implantation of sustained-release drugs. He is a leader in the field of corneal diseases in China, a pioneer in minimally invasive cataract phacoemulsification surgery, and one of the main founders of China's eye bank construction. He returned to his home country and founded the Shandong Ophthalmology Research Institute. After more than 30 years of entrepreneurial development, the Institute has become a well-known domestic ophthalmology professional institution that integrates scientific research, teaching, medical treatment, blindness prevention, and optometry industry.

In recent years, Academician Xie Lixin's team has continued to carry out high-quality translational medicine research in the direction of corneal donor materials, diabetes keratopathy, etc., and achieved achievements transformation and clinical application in bioengineered cornea, intraocular implantation of slow release drugs, etc. It has successively won the first prize for scientific and technological progress and technological invention in Shandong Province. The core members of the team have successively won the support of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the Yangtze River Scholars Award Program, and has trained more than ten Shandong provincial talents.

In 2024, under the leadership of Academician Xie Lixin, the Affiliated Ophthalmology Research Institute of Shandong First Medical University is actively laying out and promoting the acceptance and use of new platforms such as its affiliated high-tech campus and ophthalmology college. It is strengthening in-depth cooperation and achievement transformation with well-known ophthalmology institutions and leading enterprises at home and abroad, continuing to promote the construction of high-quality talents, accelerating the cultivation of more high-quality scientific research talents with international perspectives, and building a national level ophthalmology research, teaching, training, and engineering technology transformation base to further enhance international recognition and influence.