Colombia's Top 2% Scientists 2021

Colombia has 74 scientists on the 2021 single-year Top 2% list, up 54.2% from 48 in 2020. That places Colombia 59th in the world by number of listed scientists, up 1 place. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical has the most listed scientists (9), followed by Universidad Nacional de Colombia (8).

Single Year

+26 (+54.2%) vs 2020

Career Data

+9 (+27.3%) vs 2020

World rank by count

#59

up 1 place vs 2020

Institutes

+14 (+77.8%) vs 2020

Scientists in Colombia on the list, by year

The single-year count has grown 54% since 2020.

Single-year list, change on the previous year

2021+54.2%

2022+9.5%

2023+18.5%

2024+6.2%

2025+25.5%

Show the numbers

Year	Single Year	Change	Career Data	Change
2020	48		33
2021	74	+54.2%	42	+27.3%
2022	81	+9.5%	46	+9.5%
2023	96	+18.5%	54	+17.4%
2024	102	+6.2%	55	+1.9%
2025	128	+25.5%	78	+41.8%

Top 10 institutes in Colombia

By number of listed scientists

Single-year list2021

Show the list

All 74 scientists

Single-year list2021

Everyone on the list, free to browse.

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Rank in Colombia	World rank	Scientist	Institute	Sub-field	Rank in sub-field
1	5,634	Rodriguez-Morales, Alfonso J.	Fundación Universitaria Autónoma de las Américas	Microbiology	Rank 117
2	7,957	BC Béné, Christophe	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Development Studies	Rank 4
3	10,923	CB Campbell, Bruce M.	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Ecology	Rank 277
4	17,832	MN Muñoz, Nubia	National Cancer Institute of Colombia	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 654
5	23,408	AJ Anaya, Juan Manuel	Universidad del Rosario	Arthritis & Rheumatology	Rank 145
6	25,136	LP Lopez-Jaramillo, Patricio	Universidad de Santander	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 771
7	26,878	AP Arbeláez, Pablo	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 673
8	32,481	JA Jarvis, Andy	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Rank 623
9	35,416	BS Beebe, Steve	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 498
10	61,663	CJ Cardenas, Juan Camilo	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Agricultural Economics & Policy	Rank 78
11	61,949	GA Garcés, Alejandro	Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira	Energy	Rank 1,307
12	65,918	VL Verchot, Louis	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 430
13	67,402	FC Fauquet, Claude Maurice	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 1,018
14	68,038	DG De Gutiérrez, Ruby M.	Universidad del Valle, Cali	Building & Construction	Rank 361
15	71,324	KV Kouznetsov, Vladimir V.	Universidad Industrial de Santander	Organic Chemistry	Rank 1,006
16	75,629	RF Ruiz, Francisco J.	Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz	Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology	Rank 203
17	75,820	SL Silva, Luis F.O.	Universidad de la Costa	Environmental Sciences	Rank 969
18	76,932	FA Friedman, Adam J.	The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences	Dermatology & Venereal Diseases	Rank 291
19	79,016	HJ Hurtado, Jorge E.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Civil Engineering	Rank 301
20	80,123	CA Cardona Alzate, Carlos Ariel	Universidad Nacional de Colombia Manizales	Chemical Engineering	Rank 544
21	85,533	RI Rao, Idupulapati M.	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 568
22	87,040	PG Poveda, Germán	Universidad Nacional de Colombia Medellin	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Rank 1,654
23	91,024	SA Sanabria, Alvaro	Universidad de Antioquia	Otorhinolaryngology	Rank 132
24	99,545	LM Linares-Vásquez, Mario	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Software Engineering	Rank 166
25	103,684	TR Torres-Palma, Ricardo A.	Universidad de Antioquia	Environmental Sciences	Rank 1,373
26	112,171	SO Sarmiento, Olga Lucia	Facultad de Medicina	Public Health	Rank 1,215
27	114,643	MJ Martínez, Juan Daniel	Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana	Energy	Rank 2,574
28	125,795	GL García, Luis F.	Universidad de Antioquia	Microbiology	Rank 2,808
29	126,248	CO Cardona, O. D.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia Manizales	Strategic, Defence & Security Studies	Rank 234
30	131,210	FL Fajardo, Luis F.	Pontificia Universidad Javeriana	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 4,688
31	140,602	EM El-Sharkawy, Mabrouk	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 2,226
32	140,871	AN Alvis-Guzman, Nelson	Universidad de Cartagena	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 1,463
33	140,904	DV de Vries, Esther	Pontificia Universidad Javeriana	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 5,050
34	142,624	GF Guhl, Felipe	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Tropical Medicine	Rank 255
35	143,942	BO Barbosa, Oveimar	Universidad del Tolima	Biotechnology	Rank 644
36	145,196	LP Laissue, Paul	Universidad del Rosario	Genetics & Heredity	Rank 556
37	147,505	VA Viloria, Amelec	Universidad de la Costa	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 3,325
38	149,547	YC Yaguna, Carlos E.	Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 1,896
39	151,005	RJ Ramírez, Juan David	Universidad del Rosario	Microbiology	Rank 3,361
40	152,623	SM Sánchez-Silva, Mauricio	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Civil Engineering	Rank 595
41	154,771	CJ Coronado, John Jairo	Universidad del Valle, Cali	Mechanical Engineering & Transports	Rank 1,447
42	154,796	CC Castañeda-Orjuela, Carlos A.	Instituto Nacional de Salud	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 1,599
43	156,228	LM Lorieux, Mathias	Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 2,468
44	157,680	MF Martínez, Fleming	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Chemical Engineering	Rank 1,216
45	166,526	OJ Orozco, Jahir	Universidad de Antioquia	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 1,310
46	167,631	MJ Moreno-Piraján, Juan Carlos	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Organic Chemistry	Rank 2,528
47	167,936	OM Oliveira, Marcos L.S.	Universidad de la Costa	Environmental Sciences	Rank 2,370
48	169,619	CL Caraballo, Luis	Universidad de Cartagena	Allergy	Rank 374
49	177,772	SE Stashenko, Elena	Universidad Industrial de Santander	Medicinal & Biomolecular Chemistry	Rank 700
50	181,919	OC Ortiz, Claudia C.	Universidad Industrial de Santander	Biotechnology	Rank 854
51	186,352	GF González, Fabio A.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 4,190
52	188,340	BN Bernal, Nicolás	Universidad Antonio Nariño	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 2,288
53	191,883	GJ Garcia-Sucerquia, Jorge	Universidad Nacional de Colombia Medellin	Optics	Rank 878
54	196,776	AN Alexander, Neal D.E.	Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas	Tropical Medicine	Rank 395
55	197,770	Rangel-Buitrago, Nelson	Universidad del Atlántico, Colombia	Fisheries	Rank 538
56	202,588	BL Barrero, Lope H.	Pontificia Universidad Javeriana	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 2,040
57	215,512	CF Cortés, Farid B.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia Medellin	Energy	Rank 5,157
58	234,326	CC Cadena, Carlos Daniel	Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia	Ornithology	Rank 104
59	247,201	RJ Rada, Juan	Universidad de Antioquia	General Mathematics	Rank 1,603
60	264,254	SF Stiles, F. Gary	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Ornithology	Rank 120
61	270,099	FC Franco, Camilo A.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia Medellin	Energy	Rank 6,612
62	272,565	MO Montoya, Oscar Danilo	Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas	Energy	Rank 6,681
63	297,242	FA Falconar, Andrew K.	Universidad del Norte	Tropical Medicine	Rank 620
64	316,819	DJ Daes, Jorge	Department of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Clinica Portoazul	Surgery	Rank 2,200
65	322,441	DG Diaz, Gonzalo J.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Dairy & Animal Science	Rank 1,114
66	350,063	BJ Baena, Juan D.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 3,506
67	371,977	OC Ordonez, Carlos	Fundación Valle del Lili	Surgery	Rank 2,650
68	382,802	RJ Rosero, Javier A.	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Electrical & Electronic Engineering	Rank 1,561
69	394,631	GJ Gomez-Marín, Jorge E.	Universidad del Quindio	Tropical Medicine	Rank 873
70	424,865	SJ Sachs, Jurgen	Universidad Nacional de Colombia	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 4,380
71	456,874	DN Díaz, Nelson L.	Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas	Electrical & Electronic Engineering	Rank 1,912
72	487,170	Florez, Ivan D.	Universidad de Antioquia	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 4,482
73	560,780	DD Delgado, Daniel Ricardo	Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia	Chemical Engineering	Rank 5,013
74	604,407	FJ Fernandez-Lucas, Jesús	Universidad de la Costa	Biotechnology	Rank 3,764
No scientists match this filter.

Showing 1 to 74 of 74 Show

Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2021

Cyprus85 scientistsin 2021

Iraq85 scientistsin 2021

Croatia77 scientistsin 2021

Ethiopia68 scientistsin 2021

Lebanon67 scientistsin 2021

Estonia63 scientistsin 2021

Explore other countries

Single-year list2021

Brazil1,132 scientistsin 2021

Chile222 scientistsin 2021

Argentina178 scientistsin 2021

Peru27 scientistsin 2021

United States66,247 scientistsin 2021

Canada7,479 scientistsin 2021

All countries on the world map

Frequently asked questions

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

74 scientists affiliated with Colombia are on the 2021 single-year list, and 42 are on the career-long list.

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

On the 2021 single-year list, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical has the most listed scientists from Colombia, with 9. It is followed by Universidad Nacional de Colombia with 8.

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

On the single-year list, Colombia went from 48 scientists in 2020 to 74 in 2021, a change of +54.2%.

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.