United States' Top 2% Scientists 2026

The United States has 73,638 scientists on the 2026 single-year Top 2% list, up 0.8% from 73,020 in 2025. That places the United States 1st in the world by number of listed scientists. Harvard Medical School has the most listed scientists (1,134), followed by College of Engineering (823).

Single Year

73,638

+618 (+0.8%) vs 2025

Career Data

90,922

+3,061 (+3.5%) vs 2025

World rank by count

No change vs 2025

Institutes

7,243

+135 (+1.9%) vs 2025

Scientists in the United States on the list, by year

The single-year count has grown 23% since 2020.

Single-year list, change on the previous year

2021+10.8%

2022+3.5%

2023+1.2%

2024+3.0%

2025+2.2%

2026+0.8%

Show the numbers

Year	Single Year	Change	Career Data	Change
2020	59,785		68,018
2021	66,248	+10.8%	75,908	+11.6%
2022	68,565	+3.5%	78,907	+4.0%
2023	69,386	+1.2%	81,159	+2.9%
2024	71,460	+3.0%	84,209	+3.8%
2025	73,020	+2.2%	87,861	+4.3%
2026	73,638	+0.8%	90,922	+3.5%

Top 10 institutes in the United States

By number of listed scientists

Single-year list2026

Show the list

1Harvard Medical School1,134
2College of Engineering823
3Stanford University731
4University of Michigan, Ann Arbor703
5Mayo Clinic653
6University of Washington595
7University of California, Berkeley589
8Massachusetts Institute of Technology557
9Stanford University School of Medicine502
10University of California, Los Angeles489

All 73,638 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 the United States	World rank	Scientist	Institute	Sub-field	Rank in sub-field
1	4	Bandura, Albert	Stanford University	Social Psychology	Rank 1
2	7	AI Ajzen, Icek	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Social Psychology	Rank 2
3	11	GJ Gross, James J.	Stanford University	Experimental Psychology	Rank 1
4	13	PJ Perdew, John	Tulane University School of Science and Engineering	Applied Physics	Rank 2
5	14	MD McClements, David Julian	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Food Science	Rank 1
6	15	LR Lal, Rattan A.	The Ohio State University	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 1
7	16	BL Breiman, Leo	University of California, Berkeley	Statistics & Probability	Rank 1
8	17	LH Li, Heng	Harvard Medical School	Bioinformatics	Rank 1
9	21	TR Tibshirani, Robert John	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 2
10	22	TD Teece, David J.	University of California, Berkeley	Business & Management	Rank 1
11	24	IJ Ioannidis, John P.A.	Stanford University School of Medicine	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 4
12	25	GY Gogotsi, Yury G.	Drexel University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 2
13	26	DE Diener, Edward	University of Virginia	Social Psychology	Rank 4
14	27	KR Kessler, Ronald C.	Harvard University	Psychiatry	Rank 1
15	28	LP Libby, Peter A.	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 1
16	29	Acemoglu, Daron	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Economics	Rank 1
17	30	NM Newman, Mark E.J.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 1
18	34	OE Ostrom, Elinor	Indiana University Bloomington	Political Science & Public Administration	Rank 1
19	36	ZL Zadeh, Lotfi A.	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 5
20	38	MC Murray, Christopher J.L.	University of Washington	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 5
21	39	VV Venkatesh, Viswanath	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	Information Systems	Rank 1
22	40	CJ Cohen, Jacob	New York University	Psychiatry	Rank 2
23	41	RD Rubin, Donald B.	Harvard University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 3
24	42	HJ Hair, Joseph Franklin	University of South Alabama	Marketing	Rank 1
25	43	DE Deci, Edward L.	University of Rochester	Social Psychology	Rank 5
26	45	WE Witten, Edward	Institute for Advanced Study	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 1
27	47	MA Manthiram, Arumugam	Texas Materials Institute	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 3
28	49	Floridi, Luciano	Yale University	Philosophy	Rank 1
29	51	Stockwell, Brent R.	Columbia University	Developmental Biology	Rank 2
30	53	VT VanDerWeele, Tyler J.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 1
31	54	BJ Barney, Jay Bryan	The University of Utah	Business & Management	Rank 3
32	56	GJ Goodenough, John B.	Texas Materials Institute	Applied Physics	Rank 3
33	57	FJ Friedman, Jerome H.	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 4
34	58	FB Fredrickson, Barbara L.	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Social Psychology	Rank 6
35	60	MB McEwen, Bruce S.	Rockefeller University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 2
36	61	MR Mayer, Richard E.	University of California, Santa Barbara	Education	Rank 2
37	65	TD Tilman, David G.	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	Ecology	Rank 1
38	69	PR Petersen, Ronald C.	Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 3
39	73	Yaghi, Omar M.	University of California, Berkeley	General Chemistry	Rank 1
40	74	HF Hu, Frank B.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 1
41	76	WW Willett, Walter Churchill	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 2
42	77	KR Kalluri, Raghu K.	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 2
43	80	LY Lecun, Yann Le	Meta Ai	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 7
44	82	YZ Younossi, Zobair M.	The Global NASH Council	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 1
45	83	GA Gelman, Andrew E.	Columbia University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 5
46	85	DF Davis, Fred D.	Texas Tech University	Information Systems	Rank 2
47	86	ER Edgar, Robert C.	Independent researcher	Bioinformatics	Rank 3
48	88	CJ Cummings, Jeffrey L.	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 4
49	89	TE Topol, Eric J.	Scripps Research Institute	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 5
50	97	FN Fierer, Noah G.	University of Colorado Boulder	Microbiology	Rank 1
51	98	SC Shannon, Claude E.	MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 1
52	99	PM Packer, Milton P.	Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 6
53	102	RP Reich, Peter B.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Ecology	Rank 3
54	105	BP Bentler, Peter M.	University of California, Los Angeles	Social Sciences Methods	Rank 1
55	106	HS Horvath, Steve M.	Altos Labs, Inc.	Developmental Biology	Rank 4
56	107	SG Semenza, Gregg L.	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 1
57	108	HK He, Kaiming	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 8
58	109	MR Mittler, Ron	University of Missouri	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 2
59	110	WH Wickham, Hadley	PBC	Statistics & Probability	Rank 6
60	113	DK Deb, Kalyanmoy	Department of Computer Science	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 9
61	115	BA Barabási, Albert Lásló	Northeastern University	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 2
62	116	LR Langer, Robert Samuel M.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Biomedical Engineering	Rank 1
63	118	WJ Wang, Joseph	University of California, San Diego	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 1
64	121	WG Whitesides, G. M.	Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences	General Chemistry	Rank 2
65	123	MD Mozaffarian, Dariush	Tufts University	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 7
66	125	JM Jordan, Michael I.	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 12
67	127	CY Cui, Yi	Stanford Engineering	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 6
68	132	KD Kahneman, Daniel	Princeton School of Public and International Affairs	Experimental Psychology	Rank 2
69	135	MC Murray, Christopher J.L.	Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 8
70	137	KK Kroenke, Kurt K.	Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 9
71	140	RR Ritchie, Robert O.	Department of Materials Science and Engineering	Materials	Rank 4
72	142	BD Bartel, David P.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 5
73	143	JR Jain, Rakesh K.	Massachusetts General Hospital	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 4
74	145	VN Volkow, N. D.	National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 6
75	146	HS Hobfoll, Stevan E.	Anxiety-Resilience	Psychiatry	Rank 3
76	147	HM Hernán, Miguel A. Ángel	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 3
77	148	MJ Morris, John C.	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 7
78	151	FB Fischl, Bruce R.	MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 8
79	152	BM Barsoum, Michel W.	Drexel University College of Engineering	Materials	Rank 5
80	156	WD Williams, David Rudyard	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Public Health	Rank 1
81	158	CN Chandel, Navdeep S.	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	Developmental Biology	Rank 6
82	161	BG Buzsáki, Gÿorgy	NYU Grossman School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 9
83	166	MR Medzhitov, Ruslan M.	Yale School of Medicine	Immunology	Rank 2
84	168	SA Shleifer, Andrei	Harvard University	Economics	Rank 2
85	169	PM Porter, Michael E.	Harvard Business School	Business & Management	Rank 5
86	170	ZS Zahra, Shaker A.	Carlson School of Management	Business & Management	Rank 6
87	171	KN Kock, Ned Florencio	Texas A and M International University	Information Systems	Rank 4
88	173	WG Wu, Guoyao Yao	Texas A&M University	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 3
89	174	FB Feldman Barrett, Lisa Feldman	Harvard Medical School	Experimental Psychology	Rank 3
90	179	FN Frangogiannis, Nikolaos Georgios	Albert Einstein College of Medicine	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 8
91	180	KM Karin, Michael J.	Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	Developmental Biology	Rank 7
92	182	AD Audretsch, David B.	Indiana University Bloomington	Business & Management	Rank 7
93	183	MM Mattson, Mark P.	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 10
94	188	JA Jain, Anil K.	Michigan State University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 14
95	189	SJ Sarkis, Joseph	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	Business & Management	Rank 8
96	194	FS Fiske, Susan T.	Princeton University	Social Psychology	Rank 9
97	197	YR Yager, Ronald R.	Iona College	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 15
98	198	KE Koonin, Eugene V.	National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)	Developmental Biology	Rank 8
99	199	PJ Preskill, John P.	AWS Center for Quantum Computing	General Physics	Rank 1
100	201	BD Buysse, Daniel J.	University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 11
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Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2026

China37,203 scientists

United Kingdom18,300 scientists

Germany10,938 scientists

Australia8,971 scientists

Italy8,537 scientists

Canada8,528 scientists

Explore other countries

Single-year list2026

Brazil1,510 scientists

Mexico468 scientists

Chile288 scientists

Argentina217 scientists

Colombia135 scientists

Puerto Rico46 scientists

All countries on the world map

Frequently asked questions

How many scientists from the United States are in the 2026 Stanford Top 2% list?

73,638 scientists affiliated with the United States are on the 2026 single-year list, and 90,922 are on the career-long list.

Which institute in the United States has the most Top 2% scientists?

On the 2026 single-year list, Harvard Medical School has the most listed scientists from the United States, with 1,134. It is followed by College of Engineering with 823.

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

On the single-year list, the United States went from 59,785 scientists in 2020 to 73,638 in 2026, a change of +23.2%.

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.