United States' Top 2% Scientists 2020: Career-Long List

The United States has 68,018 scientists on the 2020 career-long Top 2% list. That places the United States 1st in the world by number of listed scientists. University of Washington, Seattle has the most listed scientists (979), followed by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (953).

Single Year

59,785

First year listed

Career Data

68,018

First year listed

World rank by count

First year listed

Institutes

6,769

First year listed

Scientists in the United States on the list, by year

Career-long list, change on the previous year

2021+11.6%

2022+4.0%

2023+2.9%

2024+3.8%

2025+4.3%

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

Career-long list2020

Show the list

1University of Washington, Seattle979
2University of Michigan, Ann Arbor953
3Stanford University792
4Harvard Medical School789
5University of California, Berkeley725
6University of California, Davis672
7University of California, San Francisco668
8University of California, Los Angeles627
9University of Wisconsin-Madison624
10Massachusetts Institute of Technology606

All 68,018 scientists

Career-long 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	2	WW Willett, Walter C.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 1
2	3	KR Kessler, Ronald C.	Harvard Medical School	Psychiatry	Rank 1
3	4	WE Witten, Edward	Institute for Advanced Studies	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 1
4	5	Wang, Zhong Lin	Georgia Institute of Technology	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 2
5	6	WG Whitesides, George M.	Harvard University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 3
6	7	MB McEwen, Bruce S.	Rockefeller University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 1
7	12	KM Karin, Michael	University of California, San Diego	Developmental Biology	Rank 1
8	13	FJ Folkman, Judah	Children's Hospital Boston	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 1
9	16	PJ Perdew, John P.	Temple University	Chemical Physics	Rank 1
10	17	RP Ridker, Paul M.	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 2
11	18	SG Semenza, Gregg L.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 2
12	21	LR Langer, Robert	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Biomedical Engineering	Rank 1
13	22	LP Libby, Peter	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 3
14	23	SD Selkoe, Dennis J.	Harvard Medical School	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 3
15	24	NM Newman, M. E.J.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 1
16	25	Bandura, Albert	Stanford University	Social Psychology	Rank 1
17	27	MM Mattson, Mark P.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 4
18	29	KW Kannel, William B.	National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 4
19	30	JR Jain, Rakesh K.	Harvard Medical School	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 3
20	31	MJ Massagué, Joan	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	Developmental Biology	Rank 2
21	32	TB Trost, Barry M.	Stanford University	General Chemistry	Rank 1
22	33	ZL Zadeh, Lotfi A.	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 1
23	34	GS Grundy, Scott M.	UT Southwestern Medical Center	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 5
24	35	RJ Reed, John C.	Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 2
25	36	AA Alivisatos, A. Paul	University of California, Berkeley	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 4
26	37	LE Lander, Eric S.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 3
27	38	HF Hu, Frank B.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 1
28	39	WJ Wang, Joseph	Department of NanoEngineering	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 1
29	40	NM Nei, Masatoshi	Pennsylvania State University	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 1
30	41	IJ Ioannidis, John P.A.	Stanford University	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 2
31	43	FN Ferrara, Napoleone	Moores Cancer Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 4
32	46	BE Braunwald, Eugene	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 6
33	47	BD Bartel, David P.	Howard Hughes Medical Institute	Developmental Biology	Rank 5
34	50	GJ Goodenough, John B.	The University of Texas at Austin	Applied Physics	Rank 2
35	51	RS Rosenberg, Steven A.	National Cancer Institute	Immunology	Rank 4
36	52	JA Jain, Anil K.	Michigan State University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 2
37	53	WR Weinberg, Robert A.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 6
38	56	GE Giovannucci, Edward	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 5
39	57	HM Holick, Michael F.	Boston University Medical Center	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 2
40	58	KE Koonin, Eugene V.	National Library of Medicine	Developmental Biology	Rank 7
41	59	CG Colditz, Graham	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 6
42	60	TE Topol, Eric J.	Scripps Research Translational Institute	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 7
43	61	BD Barker, D. J.P.	Oregon Health & Science University	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 3
44	62	KK Kendler, Kenneth S.	Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics	Psychiatry	Rank 2
45	63	TD Tilman, David	University of Minnesota	Ecology	Rank 1
46	64	KG Koob, George F.	National Institute on Drug Abuse	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 5
47	65	TC Thompson, Craig B.	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	Developmental Biology	Rank 8
48	67	DR DeFronzo, Ralph	University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 4
49	68	MK Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof	Carnegie Mellon University	Polymers	Rank 1
50	71	KP Kamat, Prashant V.	University of Notre Dame	Chemical Physics	Rank 5
51	72	GF Gage, Fred H.	Salk Institute for Biological Studies	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 6
52	75	DD Donoho, David L.	Stanford University	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 1
53	77	AP Anderson, Philip W.	Princeton University	General Physics	Rank 1
54	80	HA Heeger, Alan	University of California, Santa Barbara	Applied Physics	Rank 5
55	81	BA Barabási, Albert László	Harvard Medical School	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 2
56	82	XY Xia, Younan	Georgia Institute of Technology	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 5
57	83	AB Aggarwal, Bharat B.	Inflammation Research Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 7
58	84	DE Diener, Ed	University of Virginia	Social Psychology	Rank 2
59	85	ML Melton, L. Joseph	Mayo Clinic	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 5
60	86	HT Hunter, Tony	Salk Institute for Biological Studies	Developmental Biology	Rank 10
61	88	HJ Hartwig, John F.	University of California, Berkeley	General Chemistry	Rank 2
62	89	CJ Cummings, Jeffrey L.	University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 8
63	92	ST Springer, Timothy A.	Harvard Medical School	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 4
64	93	LD Lovley, Derek R.	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Microbiology	Rank 1
65	94	NE Nestler, Eric J.	Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 9
66	95	JW Jorgensen, W. L.	Yale University	Chemical Physics	Rank 6
67	96	WR Weissleder, Ralph	Massachusetts General Hospital	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 9
68	97	RR Ross, Russell	University of Washington School of Medicine	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 9
69	98	GD Green, Douglas R.	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	Developmental Biology	Rank 11
70	99	RR Reiter, Russel J.	University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 10
71	100	ST Südhof, Thomas C.	Stanford University School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 11
72	101	SR Steinman, Ralph M.	Rockefeller University	Immunology	Rank 5
73	103	AB Ames, Bruce N.	Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 5
74	104	OE Ostrom, Elinor	Indiana University Bloomington	Economics	Rank 1
75	107	RG Reaven, Gerald	Stanford University	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 6
76	108	BM Beal, M. Flint	Weill Cornell Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 12
77	109	BG Buzsáki, György	NYU Langone Health	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 13
78	110	LR Lal, Rattan A.	The Ohio State University	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 1
79	111	PS Prusiner, Stanley B.	University of California, San Francisco	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 6
80	112	LJ LeDoux, Joseph E.	New York University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 14
81	116	WS Weinberg, Steven	The University of Texas at Austin	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 2
82	118	MT Mosmann, Tim	Strong Memorial Hospital	Immunology	Rank 7
83	120	HR Hynes, Richard O.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 13
84	121	YR Yager, Ronald R.	Machine Intelligence Institute	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 4
85	123	PR Petersen, Ronald	Mayo Clinic	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 15
86	124	TR Tsien, Roger Y.	University of California, San Diego	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 7
87	125	CK Chou, Kuo Chen	Gordon Life Science Institute	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 8
88	126	KM Karplus, Martin	Harvard University	Chemical Physics	Rank 7
89	127	ID Ingber, Donald E.	Harvard University	Developmental Biology	Rank 14
90	128	MT Moffitt, Terrie E.	Duke University	Psychiatry	Rank 4
91	129	SS Snyder, Solomon H.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 16
92	130	VD Vanderbilt, David	Rutgers University–New Brunswick	Applied Physics	Rank 7
93	131	MR Medzhitov, Ruslan	Yale School of Medicine	Immunology	Rank 8
94	132	RE Ruoslahti, Erkki	Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 10
95	133	MB Maron, Barry J.	Tufts Medical Center	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 10
96	134	HM Hallett, Mark	National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 17
97	135	CC Croce, Carlo M.	The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 11
98	136	WD Weinberger, Daniel R.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Psychiatry	Rank 5
99	137	DH Dai, Hongjie	Stanford University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 6
100	143	BE Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth	Department of Family Medicine and Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 7
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Countries with a similar count

Career-long list2020

United Kingdom14,999 scientistsin 2020

Germany8,792 scientistsin 2020

Canada7,225 scientistsin 2020

Japan6,316 scientistsin 2020

Australia5,441 scientistsin 2020

China5,273 scientistsin 2020

Explore other countries

Career-long list2020

Brazil600 scientistsin 2020

Mexico291 scientistsin 2020

Argentina171 scientistsin 2020

Chile127 scientistsin 2020

Colombia33 scientistsin 2020

Puerto Rico21 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 career-long list, University of Washington, Seattle has the most listed scientists from the United States, with 979. It is followed by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with 953.

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.