United States' Top 2% Scientists 2025: Career-Long List

The United States has 87,861 scientists on the 2025 career-long Top 2% list, up 4.3% from 84,209 in 2024. That places the United States 1st in the world by number of listed scientists. College of Engineering has the most listed scientists (1,107), followed by Harvard Medical School (1,014).

Single Year

73,020

+1,560 (+2.2%) vs 2024

Career Data

87,861

+3,652 (+4.3%) vs 2024

World rank by count

No change vs 2024

Institutes

9,549

+1,729 (+22.1%) vs 2024

Scientists in the United States on the list, by year

The career-long count has grown 29% since 2020.

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 list2025

Show the list

1College of Engineering1,107
2Harvard Medical School1,014
3University of Michigan, Ann Arbor827
4University of Washington779
5University of California, Berkeley719
6Stanford University693
7University of California, Los Angeles654
8Mayo Clinic599
9University of California, Davis571
10Massachusetts Institute of Technology569

All 87,861 scientists

Career-long list2025

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	3	WW Willett, Walter Churchill	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Epidemiology	Rank 1
2	5	KR Kessler, Ronald C.	Harvard Medical School	Psychiatry	Rank 1
3	8	MB McEwen, Bruce S.	Rockefeller University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 2
4	9	WG Whitesides, G. M.	Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences	General Chemistry	Rank 1
5	10	WE Witten, Edward	Institute for Advanced Study	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 1
6	12	PJ Perdew, John P.	Tulane University School of Science and Engineering	Applied Physics	Rank 2
7	13	Bandura, Albert	Stanford University	Social Psychology	Rank 1
8	16	LP Libby, Peter A.	Harvard Medical School	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 2
9	17	KM Karin, Michael J.	UC San Diego School of Medicine	Developmental Biology	Rank 1
10	18	SG Semenza, Gregg L.	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 2
11	20	IJ Ioannidis, John P.A.	Stanford University School of Medicine	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 2
12	21	NM Newman, Mark E.J.	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 1
13	22	LR Langer, Robert Samuel M.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Biomedical Engineering	Rank 1
14	24	HF Hu, Frank B.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 1
15	27	FM Folkman, M. Judah	Boston Children's Hospital	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 1
16	28	MM Mattson, Mark P.	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 3
17	29	ZL Zadeh, Lotfi A.	University of California, Berkeley	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 1
18	30	JR Jain, Rakesh K.	Massachusetts General Hospital	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 2
19	31	DC Dinarello, Charles C. A.	University of Colorado Cancer Center	Immunology	Rank 2
20	33	WJ Wang, Joseph	University of California, San Diego	Analytical Chemistry	Rank 1
21	35	SD Selkoe, Dennis J.	Harvard Medical School	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 4
22	37	GJ Goodenough, John B.	Texas Materials Institute	Applied Physics	Rank 3
23	38	TR Tibshirani, Robert	Stanford University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 1
24	40	LR Lal, Rattan A.	The Ohio State University	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 1
25	41	TB Trost, Barry M.	Stanford University	General Chemistry	Rank 2
26	42	GS Grundy, Scott M.	UT Southwestern Medical Center	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 4
27	43	MJ Massagué, Joan	Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences	Developmental Biology	Rank 2
28	47	KW Kannel, William Bill	National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 5
29	48	LE Lander, Eric S.	Broad Institute	Developmental Biology	Rank 4
30	49	DE Diener, Edward F.	The University of Utah	Social Psychology	Rank 2
31	50	BD Bartel, David P.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 5
32	51	JA Jain, Anil K.	College of Engineering	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 4
33	52	BE Braunwald, Eugene B.	Brigham and Women's Hospital	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 6
34	53	PA Paul Alivisatos, A. Paul	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 3
35	54	KE Koonin, Eugene V.	National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)	Developmental Biology	Rank 6
36	55	MD McClements, David Julian	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Food Science	Rank 1
37	56	LC Lieber, Charles M.	Harvard Medical School	Gastroenterology & Hepatology	Rank 1
38	57	HM Holick, Michael Francis	Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 2
39	58	RS Rosenberg, Steven Aaron	National Cancer Institute (NCI)	Immunology	Rank 4
40	59	TD Tilman, David G.	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	Ecology	Rank 1
41	60	TE Topol, Eric J.	Scripps Research Institute	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 7
42	63	GE Giovannucci, Edward Luciano	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 3
43	64	RJ Reed, John C.	Pharmaceuticals RandD	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 3
44	65	NM Nei, Masatoshi	College of Science and Technology	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 1
45	68	FN Ferrara, Napoleone M.A.	Department of Pathology	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 4
46	71	KK Kendler, Kenneth S.	Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics	Psychiatry	Rank 2
47	72	OE Ostrom, Elinor	Indiana University Bloomington	Political Science & Public Administration	Rank 1
48	74	WR Weinberg, Robert A.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Developmental Biology	Rank 7
49	75	MK Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof	Carnegie Mellon University	Polymers	Rank 1
50	76	DR D’Agostino, Ralph B.	Boston University	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 9
51	77	MC Murray, Christopher J.L.	Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 5
52	78	CJ Cummings, Jeffrey L.	Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 5
53	79	KG Koob, George F.	National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 6
54	80	BD Barker, David J.P.	Oregon Health & Science University	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 6
55	81	DR DeFronzo, Ralph Albarado	Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 3
56	82	PJ Phillips-Cremins, Jennifer E.	University of Pennsylvania	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 7
57	85	BA Barabási, Albert Lásló	Northeastern University	Fluids & Plasmas	Rank 2
58	86	GJ Gross, James J.	Stanford University	Experimental Psychology	Rank 2
59	89	DD Donoho, David L.	Stanford University	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 1
60	90	RR Reíter, Rüssel J.	The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 8
61	93	KP Kamat, Prashant V.	Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory	Chemical Physics	Rank 3
62	94	CG Colditz, Graham A.	Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 5
63	95	RD Rubin, Donald B.	Harvard University	Statistics & Probability	Rank 2
64	96	AI Ajzen, Icek	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Social Psychology	Rank 4
65	100	AB Aggarwal, Bharat Bhushan	Inflammation Research Center	Oncology & Carcinogenesis	Rank 6
66	101	TC Thompson, Craig B.	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	Immunology	Rank 6
67	102	HJ Hartwig, John F.	Berkeley College of Chemistry	General Chemistry	Rank 3
68	104	BG Buzsáki, Gÿorgy	New York University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 9
69	105	YR Yager, Ronald R.	Machine Intelligence Institute	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 5
70	106	LD Lovley, Derek R.	University of Massachusetts Amherst	Microbiology	Rank 1
71	107	GF Gage, Fred H.	Salk Institute for Biological Studies	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 10
72	109	XY Xia, Younan	Georgia Institute of Technology	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 4
73	111	GD Green, Douglas R.	St. Jude Children's Research Hospital	Immunology	Rank 7
74	112	HA Heeger, Alan J.	University of California, Santa Barbara	Applied Physics	Rank 7
75	113	WR Weissleder, R.	Harvard Medical School	Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging	Rank 1
76	114	BP Bentler, Peter M.	University of California, Los Angeles	Social Sciences Methods	Rank 1
77	116	ST Súdhof, Thomas Christian	Stanford University School of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 13
78	118	NE Nestler, Eric J.	Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 14
79	119	AP Anderson, Philip Warren	Santa Fe Institute	General Physics	Rank 1
80	121	JW Jorgensen, William L.	Yale University	Chemical Physics	Rank 5
81	122	MT Moffitt, Terrie Edith	Duke University	Psychiatry	Rank 3
82	124	ID Ingber, Donald E.	Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences	Developmental Biology	Rank 9
83	125	MR Medzhitov, Ruslan M.	Yale School of Medicine	Immunology	Rank 8
84	128	ML Melton, Lee Joseph	Mayo Clinic	Endocrinology & Metabolism	Rank 4
85	130	JJ Jankovic, Joseph J.	Baylor College of Medicine	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 15
86	131	AP Ajayan, Pulickel Madhava	Rice University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 6
87	132	GY Gogotsi, Yury	Drexel University	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 7
88	133	MB Maron, Barry J.	Lahey Hospital & Medical Center	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 11
89	135	MA Manthiram, Arumugam	Cockrell School of Engineering	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 8
90	136	HM HALLETT, MARK	National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 16
91	138	VD Vanderbilt, David H.	Rutgers University–New Brunswick	Applied Physics	Rank 8
92	144	Acemoglu, Daron	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Economics	Rank 1
93	145	SJ Schwartz, Joel D.	Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Toxicology	Rank 1
94	146	PB Popkin, Barry Michael	Department of Nutrition	Nutrition & Dietetics	Rank 2
95	147	HT Hunter, Tony R.	Salk Institute for Biological Studies	Developmental Biology	Rank 11
96	148	LJ LeDoux, Joseph E.	New York University	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 17
97	154	WS Weinberg, Steven	The University of Texas at Austin	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 3
98	155	LB Logan, Bruce E.	Penn State College of Engineering	Environmental Sciences	Rank 1
99	156	BA Beck, Aaron T.	Beck Institute	Clinical Psychology	Rank 1
100	157	GS Greenland, Sander	University of California, Los Angeles	Epidemiology	Rank 3
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Countries with a similar count

Career-long list2025

United Kingdom20,571 scientists

China12,375 scientists

Germany12,166 scientists

Canada9,589 scientists

Japan8,730 scientists

Australia8,025 scientists

Explore other countries

Career-long list2025

Brazil1,195 scientists

Mexico420 scientists

Argentina263 scientists

Chile230 scientists

Colombia78 scientists

Puerto Rico44 scientists

All countries on the world map

Frequently asked questions

How many scientists from the United States are in the 2025 Stanford Top 2% list?

73,020 scientists affiliated with the United States are on the 2025 single-year list, and 87,861 are on the career-long list.

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

On the 2025 career-long list, College of Engineering has the most listed scientists from the United States, with 1,107. It is followed by Harvard Medical School with 1,014.

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

On the career-long list, the United States went from 68,018 scientists in 2020 to 87,861 in 2025, a change of +29.2%.

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.