Australia's Top 2% Scientists 2021

Australia has 7,138 scientists on the 2021 single-year Top 2% list, up 17.0% from 6,100 in 2020. That places Australia 6th in the world by number of listed scientists. The University of Queensland has the most listed scientists (515), followed by The University of Sydney (431).

Single Year

7,138

+1,038 (+17.0%) vs 2020

Career Data

6,369

+928 (+17.1%) vs 2020

World rank by count

No change vs 2020

Institutes

504

+133 (+35.8%) vs 2020

Scientists in Australia on the list, by year

The single-year count has grown 17% since 2020.

Single-year list, change on the previous year

2021+17.0%

2022+3.0%

2023+3.4%

2024+5.7%

2025+6.5%

Show the numbers

Year	Single Year	Change	Career Data	Change
2020	6,100		5,441
2021	7,138	+17.0%	6,369	+17.1%
2022	7,349	+3.0%	6,623	+4.0%
2023	7,600	+3.4%	7,002	+5.7%
2024	8,032	+5.7%	7,447	+6.4%
2025	8,555	+6.5%	8,025	+7.8%

Top 10 institutes in Australia

By number of listed scientists

Single-year list2021

Show the list

1The University of Queensland515
2The University of Sydney431
3University of Melbourne395
4UNSW Sydney367
5Monash University347
6The University of Western Australia232
7The Australian National University225
8University of Technology Sydney190
9The University of Adelaide189
10Queensland University of Technology162

All 7,138 scientists

Single-year list2021

The first 100 are free to browse.

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Rank in Australia	World rank	Scientist	Institute	Sub-field	Rank in sub-field
1	24	Ryan, Richard M.	Australian Catholic University	Social Psychology	Rank 2
2	61	BR Baumeister, Roy F.	The University of Queensland	Social Psychology	Rank 5
3	79	GM Green, Martin A.	UNSW Sydney	Applied Physics	Rank 5
4	117	MH Marsh, Herbert W.	Australian Catholic University	Education	Rank 1
5	138	WS Wang, Shaobin	The University of Adelaide	Chemical Engineering	Rank 1
6	181	SG Smyth, Gordon K.	Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research	Developmental Biology	Rank 8
7	219	DL Dai, Liming	UNSW Sydney	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 12
8	326	Jorm, Anthony F.	Melbourne School of Population and Global Health	Psychiatry	Rank 8
9	334	BG Burnstock, Geoffrey	University of Melbourne	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 25
10	337	Pradhan, Biswajeet	University of Technology Sydney	Geological & Geomatics Engineering	Rank 1
11	379	CR Costanza, Robert	The Australian National University	Ecology	Rank 9
12	388	SJ Sweller, John	UNSW Sydney	Education	Rank 3
13	397	KJ Kanis, John A.	Australian Catholic University	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 7
14	469	ML Morawska, L.	Queensland University of Technology	Environmental Sciences	Rank 4
15	526	NP Narayan, Paresh Kumar	Monash Business School	Economics	Rank 10
16	538	SM Santamouris, Mat	UNSW Sydney	Energy	Rank 15
17	565	LW Laurance, W. F.	James Cook University	Ecology	Rank 14
18	615	MR Munns, Rana	The University of Western Australia	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 5
19	653	HD Hutmacher, Dietmar W.	Queensland University of Technology	Biomedical Engineering	Rank 3
20	663	HA Huete, Alfredo	University of Technology Sydney	Geological & Geomatics Engineering	Rank 3
21	666	HG Hankey, Graeme J.	The University of Western Australia	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 53
22	713	KY Kivshar, Yuri	The Australian National University	Optics	Rank 4
23	797	HD Hensher, David A.	The University of Sydney Business School	Logistics & Transportation	Rank 3
24	851	MJ Mattick, John S.	UNSW Sydney	Developmental Biology	Rank 32
25	852	VP Visscher, Peter M.	The University of Queensland	Developmental Biology	Rank 33
26	859	HT Hughes, Terry P.	James Cook University	Ecology	Rank 25
27	862	NS Nakagawa, Shinichi	UNSW Sydney	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 9
28	872	BR Bellomo, Rinaldo	University of Melbourne	Emergency & Critical Care Medicine	Rank 4
29	888	WM Westoby, Mark	Macquarie University	Ecology	Rank 27
30	906	SM Santosh, M.	The University of Adelaide	Geology	Rank 1
31	924	LD Lupton, Deborah	UNSW Sydney	Public Health	Rank 10
32	950	Buyya, Rajkumar	School of Computing and Information Systems	Distributed Computing	Rank 1
33	1,099	LM Lenzen, Manfred	The University of Sydney	Environmental Sciences	Rank 11
34	1,100	CR Connell, Raewyn	The University of Sydney	Sociology	Rank 2
35	1,125	MM Maes, Michael	Deakin University	Psychiatry	Rank 25
36	1,131	HO Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove	The University of Queensland	Marine Biology & Hydrobiology	Rank 4
37	1,135	HA Hoffmann, Ary A.	Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 12
38	1,144	ZP Zimmet, P.	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 21
39	1,176	AM Alvesson, Mats	Lunds Universitet	Business & Management	Rank 27
40	1,190	MP McGorry, Patrick D.	ORYGEN Youth Health	Psychiatry	Rank 27
41	1,198	MJ Monaghan, Joe J.	Monash University	Applied Mathematics	Rank 6
42	1,264	AR Aitken, R. John	The University of Newcastle, Australia	Obstetrics & Reproductive Medicine	Rank 2
43	1,266	HE Holmes, Edward C.	The University of Sydney	Virology	Rank 5
44	1,274	BJ Bünzli, Jean Claude G.	University of Technology Sydney	Inorganic & Nuclear Chemistry	Rank 7
45	1,279	GA Gandomi, Amir	University of Technology Sydney	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 64
46	1,280	LD Lindenmayer, David B.	The Fenner School of Environment & Society	Ecology	Rank 34
47	1,288	CP Cawood, Peter A.	Monash University	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 11
48	1,297	BA Bauman, Adrian	The University of Sydney School of Public Health	Public Health	Rank 14
49	1,300	PD Paterson, David L.	UQ Centre for Clinical Research	Microbiology	Rank 21
50	1,313	FR Frankham, Richard	Macquarie University	Ecology	Rank 35
51	1,317	SS Shabala, Sergey	University of Tasmania	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 10
52	1,329	SR Shine, Richard	Macquarie University	Ecology	Rank 36
53	1,340	BR Bryant, Richard A.	UNSW Sydney	Psychiatry	Rank 33
54	1,368	GM Ghayesh, Mergen H.	The University of Adelaide	Mechanical Engineering & Transports	Rank 20
55	1,409	WS Wilde, Simon A.	Curtin University	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 15
56	1,445	FM Fenech, Michael	University of South Australia	Toxicology	Rank 4
57	1,459	RJ Reeve, Johnmarshall	Australian Catholic University	Education	Rank 10
58	1,478	DS Dolnicar, Sara	The University of Queensland Business School	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 6
59	1,546	SP Shi, Peng	The University of Adelaide	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 11
60	1,569	NJ Nie, Jian Feng	Monash University	Materials	Rank 35
61	1,582	JS Jiang, San Ping	WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering	Energy	Rank 35
62	1,600	HW Hopkins, Will G.	Victoria University Melbourne, Institute for Health and Sport	Sport Sciences	Rank 2
63	1,623	TM Tiggemann, Marika	Flinders University	Social Psychology	Rank 58
64	1,632	NJ Nicholson, Jeremy K.	Murdoch University	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 7
65	1,635	TV Tam, Vivian W.Y.	Western Sydney University	Building & Construction	Rank 8
66	1,656	BA Bush, Ashley I.	University of Melbourne	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 105
67	1,659	SM Smyth, Mark J.	QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute	Immunology	Rank 47
68	1,701	BM Berk, Michael	Deakin University	Psychiatry	Rank 42
69	1,714	BR Buchbinder, Rachelle	Monash University	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 32
70	1,756	FR Frost, Ray L.	Queensland University of Technology	Chemical Physics	Rank 40
71	1,827	HW Hall, Wayne D.	The University of Queensland	Substance Abuse	Rank 8
72	1,841	DL Degenhardt, Louisa	National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre	Substance Abuse	Rank 9
73	1,848	HJ Hattie, John	Melbourne Graduate School of Education	Education	Rank 12
74	1,868	HQ Han, Qing Long	Swinburne University of Technology	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 15
75	1,892	MJ McGrath, John J.	Park Centre for Mental Health	Psychiatry	Rank 47
76	1,925	HD Hunter, David J.	Kolling Institute of Medical Research	Arthritis & Rheumatology	Rank 13
77	1,935	GT Gabbett, Tim	University of Southern Queensland	Sport Sciences	Rank 4
78	1,944	TN Talley, Nicholas J.	The University of Newcastle, Australia	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 23
79	1,979	HN Haslam, Nick	University of Melbourne	Social Psychology	Rank 68
80	1,998	SP Sachdev, Perminder S.	UNSW Medicine	Psychiatry	Rank 53
81	2,006	BN Bolan, Nanthi S.	The University of Newcastle, Australia	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 11
82	2,041	MT Marwick, Thomas H.	Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 59
83	2,084	MD MacFarlane, Douglas	Monash University	Energy	Rank 44
84	2,094	BM Barnett, Matthew R.	Deakin University	Materials	Rank 42
85	2,099	ST Seemann, Torsten	University of Melbourne	Microbiology	Rank 37
86	2,115	HR Hobbs, Richard J.	The University of Western Australia	Ecology	Rank 68
87	2,123	HR Hyndman, Rob J.	Monash University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 24
88	2,132	FG Farquhar, Graham D.	ANU Research School of Biology	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 16
89	2,153	PA Piquero, Alex R.	Monash University	Criminology	Rank 4
90	2,155	MC Moritz, Craig	ANU Research School of Biology	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 26
91	2,182	PS Parker, Sharon K.	Curtin University	Business & Management	Rank 49
92	2,233	HP Hodges, Paul W.	The University of Queensland	Orthopedics	Rank 5
93	2,235	TS Taylor, Stuart Ross	The Australian National University	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 30
94	2,236	ZJ Zhao, Jian	Monash University	Geological & Geomatics Engineering	Rank 10
95	2,255	GM Goddard, M. E.	University of Melbourne	Dairy & Animal Science	Rank 2
96	2,278	MP Marschner, Petra	The University of Adelaide	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 12
97	2,279	CB Chappell, Bruce W.	University of Wollongong	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 32
98	2,308	AM Ashokkumar, Muthupandian	University of Melbourne	Organic Chemistry	Rank 34
99	2,313	ER Ellis, Rod	Curtin University	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 4
100	2,334	SS Sloan, Scott W.	The University of Newcastle, Australia	Geological & Geomatics Engineering	Rank 11
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Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2021

United Kingdom15,844 scientistsin 2021

Germany9,436 scientistsin 2021

Canada7,479 scientistsin 2021

Italy6,126 scientistsin 2021

Japan5,416 scientistsin 2021

France5,274 scientistsin 2021

Explore other countries

Single-year list2021

New Zealand901 scientistsin 2021

Singapore1,130 scientistsin 2021

Malaysia549 scientistsin 2021

Thailand263 scientistsin 2021

Vietnam146 scientistsin 2021

Indonesia58 scientistsin 2021

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Frequently asked questions

How many scientists from Australia are in the 2021 Stanford Top 2% list?

7,138 scientists affiliated with Australia are on the 2021 single-year list, and 6,369 are on the career-long list.

Which institute in Australia has the most Top 2% scientists?

On the 2021 single-year list, The University of Queensland has the most listed scientists from Australia, with 515. It is followed by The University of Sydney with 431.

How has the number of Top 2% scientists in Australia changed since 2020?

On the single-year list, Australia went from 6,100 scientists in 2020 to 7,138 in 2021, a change of +17.0%.

What is the difference between the single-year and career-long lists?

The single-year list ranks scientists on the citations their work received in one year. The career-long list ranks them on citations across their whole career. Both lists are published every year, and a scientist can be on one, both or neither.

What is the official source of this data?

The rankings come from the science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators published by Ioannidis et al. in the Elsevier Data Repository, updated every year. TOPSCINET, an independent platform, organises that data by country, year, institute and field, so you can compare and explore it.