United States' Top 2% Scientists 2021

The United States has 66,247 scientists on the 2021 single-year Top 2% list, up 10.8% from 59,785 in 2020. That places the United States 1st in the world by number of listed scientists. Harvard Medical School has the most listed scientists (1,056), followed by University of Washington (909).

Single Year

66,247

+6,462 (+10.8%) vs 2020

Career Data

75,908

+7,890 (+11.6%) vs 2020

World rank by count

No change vs 2020

Institutes

5,785

+630 (+12.2%) vs 2020

Scientists in the United States on the list, by year

The single-year count has grown 11% 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%

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 list2021

Show the list

1Harvard Medical School1,056
2University of Washington909
3University of Michigan, Ann Arbor814
4Stanford University802
5University of California, San Francisco691
6Massachusetts Institute of Technology660
7University of California, Berkeley637
8University of California, Davis605
9University of California, Los Angeles603
10Mayo Clinic596

All 66,247 scientists

Single-year list2021

The first 100 are free to browse.

Export CSV

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	Bandura, Albert	Stanford University	Social Psychology	Rank 1
3	8	NM Newman, M. E.J.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 1
4	10	KR Kessler, Ronald C.	Harvard Medical School	Psychiatry	Rank 1
5	11	IJ Ioannidis, John P.A.	Stanford University School of Medicine	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 2
6	13	PJ Perdew, John P.	Temple University	Applied Physics	Rank 2
7	14	ZL Zadeh, Lotfi A.	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 3
8	18	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	SG Semenza, Gregg L.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 1
11	23	BL Breiman, Leo	University of California, Berkeley	Statistics & Probability	Rank 1
12	25	AI Ajzen, Icek	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Social Psychology	Rank 3
13	26	GR Girshick, Ross	Facebook Research	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 5
14	27	DE Diener, Ed	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Social Psychology	Rank 4
15	28	HF Hu, Frank	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 1
16	30	GJ Gross, James J.	Stanford University	Experimental Psychology	Rank 1
17	31	LR Lal, Rattan A.	The Ohio State University	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 1
18	32	MB McEwen, Bruce S.	Rockefeller University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 2
19	33	MD McClements, David Julian	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Food Science	Rank 1
20	37	WW Willett, Walter C.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 1
21	38	OE Ostrom, Elinor	Indiana University	Political Science & Public Administration	Rank 1
22	40	WE Witten, Edward	Institute for Advanced Studies	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 1
23	42	WG Whitesides, George M.	Harvard University	General Chemistry	Rank 1
24	43	JR Jain, Rakesh K.	Massachusetts General Hospital	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 2
25	44	GY Gogotsi, Yury	Drexel University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 3
26	45	TD Tilman, David	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	Ecology	Rank 1
27	46	LH Li, Heng	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Bioinformatics	Rank 1
28	48	TD Teece, David J.	UC Berkeley Haas School of Business	Business & Management	Rank 1
29	50	MC Murray, Christopher	University of Oregon	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 5
30	51	MA Manthiram, Arumugam	The University of Texas at Austin	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 5
31	52	LP Libby, Peter	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 2
32	54	RP Ridker, Paul M.	Brigham and Women's Hospital	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 3
33	59	ER Edgar, Robert C.	GigaGen, Inc.	Bioinformatics	Rank 2
34	65	LR Langer, Robert	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Biomedical Engineering	Rank 1
35	66	DE Deci, Edward L.	University of Rochester	Social Psychology	Rank 6
36	67	Yaghi, Omar M.	University of California, Berkeley	General Chemistry	Rank 2
37	68	BA Barabási, Albert László	Northeastern University	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 2
38	69	KM Karin, Michael	University of California, San Diego	Developmental Biology	Rank 3
39	70	PR Petersen, Ronald C.	Mayo Clinic	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 4
40	71	BG Buzsáki, György	NYU Langone Health	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 5
41	73	YR Yager, Ronald R.	Machine Intelligence Institute	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 9
42	74	Acemoglu, Daron	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Economics	Rank 1
43	75	TR Tibshirani, Robert	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 3
44	77	HM Holick, Michael F.	Boston University School of Medicine	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 2
45	78	WJ Wang, Joseph	Department of NanoEngineering	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 1
46	80	GA Gelman, Andrew	Columbia University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 4
47	81	FN Fierer, Noah	University of Colorado Boulder	Microbiology	Rank 1
48	84	LY LeCun, Yann	New York University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 10
49	86	CJ Cohen, Jacob	Aging and Dementia Research Center	Psychiatry	Rank 2
50	87	KR Kalluri, Raghu	University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 3
51	89	DD Donoho, David L.	Stanford University	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 1
52	90	JA Jain, Anil K.	Michigan State University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 11
53	91	MD Mozaffarian, Dariush	Tufts University	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 4
54	92	BP Bentler, Peter M.	University of California, Los Angeles	Social Sciences Methods	Rank 1
55	93	LE Lander, Eric S.	Broad Institute	Developmental Biology	Rank 4
56	94	VV Venkatesh, Viswanath	Virginia Tech, Pamplin College of Business	Information Systems	Rank 1
57	97	FJ Friedman, Jerome H.	Stanford Law School	Statistics & Probability	Rank 5
58	98	MM Mattson, Mark P.	Johns Hopkins School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 6
59	101	FB Fredrickson, Barbara L.	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Social Psychology	Rank 8
60	105	MR Medzhitov, Ruslan	Yale School of Medicine	Immunology	Rank 4
61	106	PD Pardoll, Drew M.	The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center	Immunology	Rank 5
62	107	PM Pesaran, M. Hashem	University of Southern California	Econometrics	Rank 1
63	112	CE Candès, Emmanuel	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 6
64	115	JA Jemal, Ahmedin	American Cancer Society	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 4
65	118	MJ Massagué, Joan	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	Developmental Biology	Rank 6
66	119	DK Deb, Kalyanmoy	Michigan State University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 12
67	120	BJ Barney, Jay B.	The University of Utah	Business & Management	Rank 3
68	121	KD Kahneman, Daniel	Princeton University	Experimental Psychology	Rank 2
69	122	LB Logan, Bruce E.	Pennsylvania State University	Environmental Sciences	Rank 1
70	123	ZS Zahra, Shaker A.	Carlson School of Management	Business & Management	Rank 4
71	124	SD Selkoe, Dennis J.	Harvard Medical School	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 7
72	126	PM Porter, Michael E.	Harvard Business School	Business & Management	Rank 5
73	127	SC Serhan, Charles N.	Harvard Medical School	Immunology	Rank 7
74	128	LD Lovley, Derek R.	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Microbiology	Rank 2
75	129	PB Popkin, Barry M.	The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Nutrition & Dietetics	Rank 2
76	130	RP Reich, Peter B.	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	Ecology	Rank 2
77	134	FB Fischl, Bruce	Massachusetts General Hospital	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 8
78	136	TK Trenberth, Kevin E.	National Center for Atmospheric Research	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Rank 1
79	137	MJ Morris, John	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 9
80	139	BM Barsoum, Michel W.	Drexel University	Materials	Rank 1
81	140	KE Koonin, Eugene	National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)	Developmental Biology	Rank 7
82	141	RS Rosenberg, Steven A.	National Cancer Institute (NCI)	Immunology	Rank 8
83	144	HG Hotamisligil, Gökhan S.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 3
84	146	YC Yancy, Clyde	Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 7
85	148	SA Shleifer, Andrei	Harvard University	Economics	Rank 2
86	156	HA Hayes, Andrew F.	The Ohio State University	Communication & Media Studies	Rank 1
87	157	BA Beck, Aaron T.	University of Pennsylvania	Clinical Psychology	Rank 1
88	159	MR Mittler, Ron	University of Missouri	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 2
89	161	RM Raichle, Marcus E.	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 10
90	162	BR Bagozzi, Richard P.	Stephen M. Ross School of Business	Marketing	Rank 1
91	163	RA Ribas, Antoni	David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 7
92	164	GS Grundy, Scott M.	UT Southwestern Medical Center	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 8
93	165	CY Cui, Yi	Stanford University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 8
94	166	RR Reiter, Russel Joseph	University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 11
95	168	MT Moffitt, Terrie E.	Duke University	Developmental & Child Psychology	Rank 2
96	169	MR Mayer, Richard E.	University of California, Santa Barbara	Education	Rank 2
97	170	YZ Younossi, Zobair M.	Inova Health System	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 1
98	174	EH El-Serag, Hashem B.	Baylor College of Medicine	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 2
99	175	AB Aggarwal, Bharat B.	Inflammation Research Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 9
100	177	NM Nei, Masatoshi	Pennsylvania State University	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 1
No scientists match this filter.

Showing 1 to 100 of the first 100 Show

Paid plans

See all 66,247 scientists in the United States

You are seeing the first 100. 66,147 more are on the 2021 single-year list.

Ranks 101 to 66,247The whole list, not only the top 100.

Every year since 2020Single Year and Career Data.

Search the full listBy name, institute or sub-field.

CSV exportDownload the list for your own work.

View Plans & Upgrade Compare plans

Cancel anytime · Secure billing

Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2021

China16,611 scientistsin 2021

United Kingdom15,844 scientistsin 2021

Germany9,436 scientistsin 2021

Canada7,479 scientistsin 2021

Australia7,138 scientistsin 2021

Italy6,126 scientistsin 2021

Explore other countries

Single-year list2021

Brazil1,132 scientistsin 2021

Mexico364 scientistsin 2021

Chile222 scientistsin 2021

Argentina178 scientistsin 2021

Colombia74 scientistsin 2021

Peru27 scientistsin 2021

All countries on the world map

Frequently asked questions

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

66,247 scientists affiliated with the United States are on the 2021 single-year list, and 75,908 are on the career-long list.

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

On the 2021 single-year list, Harvard Medical School has the most listed scientists from the United States, with 1,056. It is followed by University of Washington with 909.

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 66,247 in 2021, a change of +10.8%.

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.