United States' Top 2% Scientists 2020

The United States has 59,785 scientists on the 2020 single-year Top 2% list. That places the United States 1st in the world by number of listed scientists. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has the most listed scientists (910), followed by Harvard Medical School (866).

Single Year

59,785

First year listed

Career Data

68,018

First year listed

World rank by count

First year listed

Institutes

5,155

First year listed

Scientists in the United States on the list, by year

Single-year list, change on the previous year

2021+10.8%

2022+3.5%

2023+1.2%

2024+3.0%

2025+2.2%

Show the numbers

Year	Single Year	Change	Career Data	Change
2020	59,785		68,018
2021	66,247	+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%

Top 10 institutes in the United States

By number of listed scientists

Single-year list2020

Show the list

1University of Michigan, Ann Arbor910
2Harvard Medical School866
3University of Washington, Seattle859
4Stanford University819
5University of California, Berkeley645
6Massachusetts Institute of Technology617
7University of California, San Francisco596
8University of California, Davis583
9University of California, Los Angeles558
10University of Wisconsin-Madison550

All 59,785 scientists

Single-year list2020

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	1	Wang, Zhong Lin	Georgia Institute of Technology	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 1
2	5	NM Newman, M. E.J.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 1
3	6	Bandura, Albert	Stanford University	Social Psychology	Rank 1
4	9	KR Kessler, Ronald C.	Harvard Medical School	Psychiatry	Rank 1
5	10	IJ Ioannidis, John P.A.	Stanford University	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 2
6	12	PJ Perdew, John P.	Temple University	Chemical Physics	Rank 1
7	13	ZL Zadeh, Lotfi A.	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 3
8	17	BD Bartel, David P.	Howard Hughes Medical Institute	Developmental Biology	Rank 1
9	19	GJ Goodenough, John B.	The University of Texas at Austin	Applied Physics	Rank 3
10	20	DE Diener, Ed	University of Virginia	Social Psychology	Rank 2
11	21	MB McEwen, Bruce S.	Rockefeller University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 2
12	23	HF Hu, Frank B.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 1
13	24	GJ Gross, James J.	Stanford University	Experimental Psychology	Rank 1
14	26	BL Breiman, Leo	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 4
15	27	SG Semenza, Gregg L.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 1
16	29	WG Whitesides, George M.	Harvard University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 3
17	36	OE Ostrom, Elinor	Indiana University Bloomington	Economics	Rank 1
18	37	GR Girshick, Ross	Facebook Research	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 8
19	39	MD McClements, David Julian	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Food Science	Rank 1
20	41	WW Willett, Walter C.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 1
21	42	TD Tilman, David	University of Minnesota	Ecology	Rank 1
22	43	RP Ridker, Paul M.	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 2
23	44	LR Lal, Rattan A.	The Ohio State University	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 1
24	48	WE Witten, Edward	Institute for Advanced Studies	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 1
25	50	JR Jain, Rakesh K.	Harvard Medical School	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 2
26	51	DD Donoho, David L.	Stanford University	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 1
27	52	ER Edgar, Robert C.	GigaMune, Inc.	Bioinformatics	Rank 1
28	53	GY Gogotsi, Yury	Drexel University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 6
29	54	JA Jain, Anil K.	Michigan State University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 9
30	56	MC Murray, Christopher J.L.	University of Washington, Seattle	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 5
31	58	LH Li, Heng	Harvard Medical School	Bioinformatics	Rank 2
32	59	YR Yager, Ronald R.	Machine Intelligence Institute	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 11
33	61	BR Baumeister, Roy F.	University of Queensland	Social Psychology	Rank 5
34	63	BA Barabási, Albert László	Harvard Medical School	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 2
35	64	DE Deci, Edward L.	University of Rochester	Social Psychology	Rank 6
36	65	CE Candès, Emmanuel	Stanford University	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 2
37	67	LR Langer, Robert	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Biomedical Engineering	Rank 1
38	68	MA Manthiram, Arumugam	The University of Texas at Austin	Energy	Rank 1
39	69	LP Libby, Peter	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 3
40	70	LE Lander, Eric S.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 3
41	72	BG Buzsáki, György	NYU Langone Health	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 4
42	73	PR Petersen, Ronald	Mayo Clinic	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 5
43	74	WJ Wang, Joseph	Department of NanoEngineering	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 1
44	76	CK Chou, Kuo Chen	Gordon Life Science Institute	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 3
45	77	TD Teece, David J.	University of California, Berkeley	Business & Management	Rank 1
46	78	CJ Cohen, Jay L.	VA Medical Center	Clinical Psychology	Rank 1
47	80	KM Karin, Michael	University of California, San Diego	Developmental Biology	Rank 4
48	83	BP Bentler, Peter M.	University of California, Los Angeles	Social Sciences Methods	Rank 1
49	85	HM Holick, Michael F.	Boston University Medical Center	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 2
50	86	GA Gelman, Andrew	Columbia University in the City of New York	Statistics & Probability	Rank 2
51	87	Acemoglu, Daron	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Economics	Rank 2
52	88	MD Mozaffarian, Dariush	Tufts University	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 4
53	92	DK Deb, Kalyanmoy	Michigan State University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 12
54	93	SD Selkoe, Dennis J.	Harvard Medical School	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 6
55	96	TR Tibshirani, Robert	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 3
56	100	LB Logan, Bruce E.	Pennsylvania State University	Environmental Sciences	Rank 1
57	101	FB Fredrickson, Barbara L.	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Social Psychology	Rank 7
58	102	ZS Zahra, Shaker A.	Carlson School of Management	Business & Management	Rank 3
59	103	MJ Massagué, Joan	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	Developmental Biology	Rank 5
60	104	FJ Friedman, Jerome H.	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 4
61	106	KD Kahneman, Daniel	-	Economics	Rank 3
62	107	MR Medzhitov, Ruslan	Yale School of Medicine	Immunology	Rank 3
63	108	LD Lovley, Derek R.	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Microbiology	Rank 1
64	109	LY Lecun, Yann	Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 13
65	111	FN Fierer, Noah	University of Colorado Boulder	Microbiology	Rank 2
66	112	VV Venkatesh, Viswanath	University of Arkansas	Information Systems	Rank 1
67	113	PM Porter, Michael E.	Harvard Business School	Business & Management	Rank 4
68	115	PD Pardoll, Drew M.	The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 3
69	116	MM Mattson, Mark P.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 7
70	118	KP Kamat, Prashant V.	University of Notre Dame	Chemical Physics	Rank 5
71	120	HG Hotamisligil, Gökhan S.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 3
72	121	AA Alivisatos, A. Paul	University of California, Berkeley	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 8
73	122	FB Fischl, Bruce	Massachusetts General Hospital	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 8
74	125	TK Trenberth, Kevin E.	National Center for Atmospheric Research	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Rank 1
75	126	KR Kalluri, Raghu	University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 4
76	127	BJ Barney, Jay B.	The University of Utah	Business & Management	Rank 5
77	130	PB Popkin, Barry M.	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Nutrition & Dietetics	Rank 1
78	132	LD Lowe, David G.	Google LLC	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 14
79	135	NM Nei, Masatoshi	Pennsylvania State University	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 1
80	136	RJ Reddy, J. N.	Texas A&M University	Mechanical Engineering & Transports	Rank 2
81	140	SA Shleifer, Andrei	Harvard University	Economics	Rank 4
82	143	KE Koonin, Eugene V.	National Library of Medicine	Developmental Biology	Rank 7
83	144	JA Jemal, Ahmedin	American Cancer Society	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 5
84	145	RM Raichle, Marcus E.	Washington University in St. Louis	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 9
85	146	HJ Hartwig, John F.	University of California, Berkeley	General Chemistry	Rank 2
86	149	BD Barker, D. J.P.	Oregon Health & Science University	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 4
87	151	DL Dai, Liming	Case Western Reserve University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 9
88	152	RS Rosenberg, Steven A.	National Cancer Institute	Immunology	Rank 6
89	154	GS Grundy, Scott M.	UT Southwestern Medical Center	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 6
90	155	BR Buckner, Randy L.	Massachusetts General Hospital	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 10
91	157	XY Xia, Younan	Georgia Institute of Technology	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 10
92	159	EH El-Serag, Hashem B.	Baylor College of Medicine	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 1
93	160	AP Ajayan, Pulickel M.	Rice University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 11
94	161	BM Barsoum, Michel W.	Drexel University	Materials	Rank 1
95	163	KM Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.	Northwestern University	Materials	Rank 2
96	164	FE Fama, Eugene F.	The University of Chicago	Finance	Rank 1
97	165	BD Blei, David M.	Columbia University in the City of New York	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 15
98	166	RW Ren, Wei	University of California, Riverside	Industrial Engineering & Automation	Rank 1
99	168	RA Ribas, Antoni	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 8
100	169	IJ Israelachvili, Jacob N.	University of California, Santa Barbara	Chemical Physics	Rank 7
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Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2020

United Kingdom13,805 scientistsin 2020

China12,955 scientistsin 2020

Germany8,177 scientistsin 2020

Canada6,602 scientistsin 2020

Australia6,100 scientistsin 2020

Italy4,746 scientistsin 2020

Explore other countries

Single-year list2020

Brazil853 scientistsin 2020

Mexico303 scientistsin 2020

Chile166 scientistsin 2020

Argentina146 scientistsin 2020

Colombia48 scientistsin 2020

Bermuda2 scientistsin 2020

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Frequently asked questions

How many scientists from the United States are in the 2020 Stanford Top 2% list?

59,785 scientists affiliated with the United States are on the 2020 single-year list, and 68,018 are on the career-long list.

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

On the 2020 single-year list, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor has the most listed scientists from the United States, with 910. It is followed by Harvard Medical School with 866.

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.