New Zealand's Top 2% Scientists 2026

New Zealand has 971 scientists on the 2026 single-year Top 2% list, up 1.8% from 954 in 2025. That places New Zealand 37th in the world by number of listed scientists, down 2 places. University of Auckland has the most listed scientists (236), followed by University of Otago (113).

Single Year

971

+17 (+1.8%) vs 2025

Career Data

1,224

+57 (+4.9%) vs 2025

World rank by count

#37

down 2 places vs 2025

Institutes

142

+12 (+9.2%) vs 2025

Scientists in New Zealand on the list, by year

The single-year count has grown 28% since 2020.

Single-year list, change on the previous year

2021+19.2%

2022+0.4%

2023+3.0%

2024+1.6%

2025+0.7%

2026+1.8%

Show the numbers

Year	Single Year	Change	Career Data	Change
2020	756		803
2021	901	+19.2%	974	+21.3%
2022	905	+0.4%	1,029	+5.6%
2023	932	+3.0%	1,076	+4.6%
2024	947	+1.6%	1,132	+5.2%
2025	954	+0.7%	1,167	+3.1%
2026	971	+1.8%	1,224	+4.9%

Top 10 institutes in New Zealand

By number of listed scientists

Single-year list2026

Show the list

All 971 scientists

Single-year list2026

Showing the 2026 single-year list. Looking for career rankings? See the career-long list

The first 100 are free to browse.

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Rank in New Zealand	World rank	Scientist	Institute	Sub-field	Rank in sub-field
1	94	BV Braun, Virginia	University of Auckland	Gender Studies	Rank 1
2	191	TK Trenberth, Kevin E.	University of Auckland	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Rank 1
3	237	FV Feigin, Valery L.	Auckland University of Technology	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 13
4	274	HC Hall, C. Michael	Massey University Auckland	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 4
5	293	ZF Zhu, Fan	University of Auckland	Food Science	Rank 2
6	791	BA Boretti, Alberto A.	Independent Scientist	Energy	Rank 21
7	937	AM Anderson, Marti J.	Massey University Auckland	Ecology	Rank 24
8	1,035	VM Visser, Matt	Victoria University of Wellington	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 12
9	1,079	HP Hulme, Philip E.	Lincoln University	Ecology	Rank 30
10	1,498	PP Phillips, Peter C.B.	University of Auckland	Econometrics	Rank 11
11	1,530	PG Prayag, Girish	University of Canterbury	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 8
12	1,717	WC Winterbourn, Christine C.	University of Otago, Christchurch	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 21
13	2,147	PR Poulin, Robert	University of Otago	Mycology & Parasitology	Rank 4
14	2,415	XX Xu, Xun W.	University of Auckland	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 21
15	3,323	ND Nield, D. A.	The University of Auckland	Mechanical Engineering & Transports	Rank 28
16	3,683	RI Reid, Ian R.	University of Auckland	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 60
17	3,816	JD Jones, David T.	University of Otago	Bioinformatics	Rank 15
18	3,894	LS Lavorel, Sandra	Bioeconomy Science Institute	Ecology	Rank 108
19	3,972	SR Sibson, Richard H.	University of Otago	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 36
20	4,789	Zhang, Lawrence Jun	University of Auckland	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 38
21	4,927	SH Singh, Harjinder	Massey University	Food Science	Rank 37
22	5,141	GD Gabauer, David	Lincoln University	Finance	Rank 30
23	5,142	BR Bouckaert, Remco R.	University of Auckland	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 287
24	5,205	Milfont, Taciano L.	University of Waikato	Social Psychology	Rank 142
25	5,325	LT Lumley, Thomas S.	University of Auckland	Statistics & Probability	Rank 44
26	5,470	DJ Duckitt, John H.	University of Auckland	Social Psychology	Rank 151
27	5,666	WH White, Harvey D.	Auckland City Hospital	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 170
28	6,076	BE Broadbent, Elizabeth A.	University of Auckland	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 71
29	6,270	CG Cheung, Gordon Wai Hung	University of Auckland Business School	Business & Management	Rank 193
30	6,699	MD Mellor, David J.	Massey University	Veterinary Sciences	Rank 1
31	6,817	SB Swinburn, Boyd Anthony	University of Auckland	Public Health	Rank 65
32	7,133	WG Waterhouse, Geoffrey I. N.	University of Auckland	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 232
33	7,179	GJ Galbreath, Jeremy	University of Auckland	Business & Management	Rank 228
34	7,284	DM Dutta-Bergman, Mohan Jyoti	Massey University Auckland	Communication & Media Studies	Rank 29
35	7,401	CJ Crump, John A.	University of Otago	Microbiology	Rank 112
36	7,432	AB Ahmed Bekhit, Alaa El Din	University of Otago	Food Science	Rank 65
37	7,550	GD Granato, Daniel	Auckland University of Technology	Food Science	Rank 70
38	7,712	SR Scheyvens, Regina A.	Massey University	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 38
39	8,297	TF Thabtah, F. Abdeljaber	Manukau Institute of Technology	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 447
40	8,326	Brown, Gavin T.L.	University of Auckland	Education	Rank 136
41	8,605	FM Farid, Mohammed M.	University of Auckland	Energy	Rank 220
42	8,648	ZD Zhao, Dan	University of Canterbury	Energy	Rank 224
43	8,925	KM Kah, Melanie	University of Auckland	Environmental Sciences	Rank 193
44	9,065	BJ Butcher, John C.	University of Auckland	Numerical & Computational Mathematics	Rank 13
45	9,069	LL Lebreton, Laurent C.M.	The Modelling House	Marine Biology & Hydrobiology	Rank 35
46	9,099	WC Ward, Colleen A.	Victoria University of Wellington	Social Psychology	Rank 213
47	9,152	GP Gluckman, Peter David	Liggins Institute	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 151
48	9,484	HA Habib, Ahsan	Massey University Auckland	Accounting	Rank 20
49	10,037	FC Farquhar, Cindy M.	University of Auckland	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 183
50	10,117	BS Barker-Collo, Suzanne Lyn	University of Auckland	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 186
51	10,178	WT Ward, Tony	Victoria University of Wellington	Criminology	Rank 13
52	10,181	TW Thomson, W. Murray	University of Otago	Dentistry	Rank 33
53	10,314	SC Sibley, Chris G.	University of Auckland	Social Psychology	Rank 236
54	10,641	RV Ravindran, Velmurugu	Massey University	Dairy & Animal Science	Rank 17
55	10,973	DA Drummond, Alexei J.	University of Auckland	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 84
56	11,552	BG Barkhuizen, Gary P.	University of Auckland	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 79
57	11,610	DP Denny, Paul C.	University of Auckland	Education	Rank 186
58	11,658	BB Bradley, Brendon A.	University of Canterbury	Strategic, Defence & Security Studies	Rank 17
59	12,077	DN Dalbeth, Nicola D.	University of Auckland	Arthritis & Rheumatology	Rank 69
60	12,544	MS Muthukumaraswamy, Suresh D.	University of Auckland	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 606
61	12,922	KM Kirschbaum, Miko Uwe Franz	Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 84
62	13,278	PM Petrov, Maxim S.	University of Auckland	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 159
63	13,283	DL Day, Li	AgResearch Grasslands	Food Science	Rank 131
64	14,071	JP Janssen, Peter H.	AgResearch Grasslands	Microbiology	Rank 241
65	14,342	CM Corballis, Michael C.	University of Auckland	Experimental Psychology	Rank 212
66	14,431	KH Koh, Hwee Ling Joyce	University of Waikato	Education	Rank 224
67	14,727	VC Villiers, Charl De	University of Auckland Business School	Accounting	Rank 35
68	14,760	SC Stinear, Cathy M.	University of Auckland	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 697
69	14,776	AW Abrahamse, Wokje	Victoria University of Wellington	Social Psychology	Rank 300
70	14,856	MB Melville, Bruce W.	University of Auckland	Environmental Engineering	Rank 75
71	15,482	GW Giggenbach, Werner F.	Earth Sciences New Zealand	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 207
72	15,948	YA Ye, Aiqian	Massey University	Food Science	Rank 155
73	16,046	CJ Crick, James M.	Waikato Management School	Marketing	Rank 106
74	16,691	HJ Haar, J. M.	Massey University Auckland	Business & Management	Rank 504
75	16,801	PK Pickering, Kim Louise	University of Waikato	Materials	Rank 321
76	17,189	BC Bartneck, Christoph	University of Canterbury	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 181
77	18,024	GE Gane, Edward John	University of Auckland	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 211
78	18,096	HJ Holmes, Janet	Victoria University of Wellington	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 122
79	18,109	MW Ma, Wanglin	Lincoln University	Economics	Rank 276
80	18,455	RI Rana, Irfan Ahmad	University of Waikato	Strategic, Defence & Security Studies	Rank 34
81	18,492	LY Lu, Yuqian	University of Auckland	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 194
82	18,635	MD Mackenzie, Darryl I.	Proteus Research and Consulting Ltd	Ecology	Rank 407
83	18,856	RC Ryan, Chris A.	University of Waikato	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 97
84	18,909	SS Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain	University of Waikato	Economics	Rank 283
85	18,916	Tylianakis, Jason M.	University of Canterbury	Ecology	Rank 411
86	19,525	SA Sarmah, Ajit K.	University of Auckland	Environmental Sciences	Rank 422
87	19,624	MP Moughan, Paul James	Massey University	Nutrition & Dietetics	Rank 124
88	19,638	BR Brodie, Roderick J.	University of Auckland Business School	Marketing	Rank 132
89	19,819	NP Nation, Paul	Victoria University of Wellington	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 131
90	20,265	Bifet, Albert	University of Waikato	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 1,041
91	20,839	FH Fathabadi, Hassan Salehi	HFAT Private Technical Co. Ltd.	Energy	Rank 560
92	21,027	SL Smith, Linda Tuhiwai	Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi	Education	Rank 303
93	21,095	VJ Veale, Jaimie F.	University of Waikato	Public Health	Rank 200
94	21,410	KW Knechel, Walter Robert	University of Auckland Business School	Accounting	Rank 52
95	21,437	CF Collins, Francis L.	University of Auckland	Geography	Rank 106
96	21,458	NI Noy, Ilan	Victoria University of Wellington	Economics	Rank 321
97	21,640	MR McDowell, Rich W.	AgResearch	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 156
98	21,892	PR Poulton, Richie G.	University of Otago	Psychiatry	Rank 405
99	21,921	DB Daniel, Ben Kei	Otago Business School	Education	Rank 319
100	22,100	TH Thorpe, Holly	University of Waikato	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 115
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Ranks 101 to 971The whole list, not only the top 100.

Every year since 2020Single Year and Career Data.

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Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2026

South Africa1,033 scientists

Ireland996 scientists

Russia989 scientists

Malaysia941 scientists

United Arab Emirates806 scientists

Czech Republic572 scientists

Explore other countries

Single-year list2026

Australia8,971 scientists

Singapore1,461 scientists

Thailand508 scientists

Vietnam280 scientists

Indonesia272 scientists

Philippines74 scientists

All countries on the world map

Frequently asked questions

How many scientists from New Zealand are in the 2026 Stanford Top 2% list?

971 scientists affiliated with New Zealand are on the 2026 single-year list, and 1,224 are on the career-long list.

Which institute in New Zealand has the most Top 2% scientists?

On the 2026 single-year list, University of Auckland has the most listed scientists from New Zealand, with 236. It is followed by University of Otago with 113.

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

On the single-year list, New Zealand went from 756 scientists in 2020 to 971 in 2026, a change of +28.4%.

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.