Top-cited scientists by field in the United States

20 fields · 174 subfields · United States

Search fields and subfields

In which fields are the top 2% scientists in the United States?

73,724 researchers whose current affiliation is in the United States are in the 2025 list of top-cited scientists, the annual ranking often called the Stanford–Elsevier top 2% scientists list, across 20 fields and 174 subfields. Clinical Medicine has the most (28,460, 38.6%), followed by Biomedical Research (7,198) and Physics & Astronomy (5,845); the largest subfield is Neurology & Neurosurgery (3,503). A row opens its scientists in the table of all authors.

Field and subfield	Listed authors	Share	Top 100k	Highest-ranked author
Clinical Medicine · 28,460 listed authors (38.6%)
Neurology & Neurosurgery	3,503	4.8%	2,006	McEwen, Bruce S. #60
Oncology & Carcinogenesis	3,372	4.6%	1,488	Kalluri, Raghu K. #77
Cardiovascular System & Hematology	2,096	2.8%	1,040	Libby, Peter A. #28
General & Internal Medicine	1,898	2.6%	402	Ioannidis, John P.A. #24
Immunology	1,700	2.3%	894	Medzhitov, Ruslan M. #166
Surgery	1,372	1.9%	212	Pawlik, Timothy M. #4,218
Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging	1,153	1.6%	214	Weissleder, R. #827
Orthopedics	996	1.4%	260	Armstrong, David G. #2,364
Pediatrics	846	1.1%	142	Plotkin, Stanley Alan #3,260
Urology & Nephrology	838	1.1%	299	Levey, Andrew S. #294
Endocrinology & Metabolism	802	1.1%	547	Hu, Frank B. #74
Gastroenterology & Hepatology	767	1.0%	377	Younossi, Zobair M. #82
Ophthalmology & Optometry	755	1.0%	222	Spaide, Richard F. #1,481
Obstetrics & Reproductive Medicine	736	1.0%	202	Azziz, Ricardo #2,105
Psychiatry	729	1.0%	607	Kessler, Ronald C. #27
Respiratory System	654	0.9%	259	Raghu, Ganesh R. #1,383
Otorhinolaryngology	579	0.8%	53	Lin, Frank Robert #2,795
Pharmacology & Pharmacy	579	0.8%	136	Torchilin, Vladimir P. #435
Anesthesiology	501	0.7%	124	Sessler, Daniel I. #1,031
Dentistry	499	0.7%	118	Ferracane, Jack L. #3,137
Dermatology & Venereal Diseases	427	0.6%	140	Silverberg, Jonathan I. #398
Pathology	345	0.5%	102	Fletcher, Christopher D.M. #5,127
Emergency & Critical Care Medicine	326	0.4%	98	Kellum, John A. #532
Arthritis & Rheumatology	286	0.4%	158	Singh, Jasvinder A. #224
Tropical Medicine	230	0.3%	29	Hotez, Peter J. #1,076
Sport Sciences	195	0.3%	108	Hagger, Martin S. #1,063
Allergy	151	0.2%	90	Sampson, Hugh A. #2,699
General Clinical Medicine	124	0.2%	10	Brewer, George J. #25,203
Geriatrics	89	0.1%	49	Inouye, Sharon K. #1,212
Environmental & Occupational Health	84	0.1%	9	Howard, John J. #31,664
Legal & Forensic Medicine	54	0.1%	3	Butler, John M. #17,507
Complementary & Alternative Medicine	53	0.1%	6	Langevin, Hélène M. #28,236
Biomedical Research · 7,198 listed authors (9.8%)
Developmental Biology	1,841	2.5%	1,141	Stockwell, Brent R. #51
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	1,771	2.4%	659	Semenza, Gregg L. #107
Microbiology	1,576	2.1%	681	Fierer, Noah G. #97
Virology	785	1.1%	175	Larson, Heidi Jane #1,263
Toxicology	529	0.7%	151	Schwartz, Joel D. #750
Genetics & Heredity	372	0.5%	95	Quinlan, Aaron R. #1,620
Nutrition & Dietetics	372	0.5%	200	Popkin, Barry Michael #272
Physiology	244	0.3%	92	Brooks, George A. #1,593
Biophysics	174	0.2%	31	Berman, Helen M. #4,217
Mycology & Parasitology	109	0.1%	21	Dubey, Jitender P. #701
Anatomy & Morphology	52	0.1%	3	Witmer, Lawrence M. #53,798
Microscopy	29	0.0%	8	Liu, Jingyue(Jimmy) Jingyue #7,485
Physics & Astronomy · 5,845 listed authors (7.9%)
Applied Physics	1,589	2.2%	553	Perdew, John #13
Nuclear & Particle Physics	982	1.3%	414	Witten, Edward #45
Astronomy & Astrophysics	779	1.1%	592	Hopkins, Philip F. #397
Chemical Physics	754	1.0%	391	Jorgensen, William L. #287
General Physics	527	0.7%	197	Preskill, John P. #199
Optics	497	0.7%	141	Boyd, Robert W. #681
Fluids & Plasmas	417	0.6%	226	Newman, Mark E.J. #30
Acoustics	226	0.3%	59	Wang, Deliang L. #6,624
Mathematical Physics	30	0.0%	9	Ma, Wenxiu #694
Information & Communication Technologies · 4,496 listed authors (6.1%)
Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	2,531	3.4%	1,249	Girshick, Ross B. #8
Networking & Telecommunications	889	1.2%	245	Shannon, Claude E. #98
Computer Hardware & Architecture	243	0.3%	36	Roy, Kaushik #5,944
Computation Theory & Mathematics	215	0.3%	100	Dwork, Cynthia #288
Medical Informatics	206	0.3%	71	Cook, David Allan #1,084
Software Engineering	188	0.3%	74	Karras, Tero #1,558
Information Systems	160	0.2%	145	Venkatesh, Viswanath #39
Distributed Computing	92	0.1%	10	Plimpton, Steven J. #256
Engineering · 3,537 listed authors (4.8%)
Aerospace & Aeronautics	650	0.9%	93	Spalar̀t, Philippe R. #2,265
Industrial Engineering & Automation	544	0.7%	260	Lewis, Frank Leroy T. #829
Mechanical Engineering & Transports	488	0.7%	180	Reddy, Junuthula Narasimha #509
Biomedical Engineering	482	0.7%	157	Langer, Robert Samuel M. #116
Electrical & Electronic Engineering	349	0.5%	65	Chua, Leon O. #312
Environmental Engineering	348	0.5%	136	Singh, Vijay P. #833
Geological & Geomatics Engineering	310	0.4%	224	Gitelson, Anatoly A. #620
Operations Research	173	0.2%	113	Saaty, Thomas L. #421
Civil Engineering	172	0.2%	76	Bažant, Zdeněk Z. #565
Chemical Engineering	165	0.2%	91	Sloan, Earl Dendy #3,403
Mining & Metallurgy	48	0.1%	5	Thomas, Brian G. #26,864
Automobile Design & Engineering	4	0.0%	0	MacAdam, Charles C. #489,980
Enabling & Strategic Technologies · 3,204 listed authors (4.3%)
Energy	882	1.2%	402	Xu, Kang W. #353
Materials	832	1.1%	390	Ritchie, Robert O. #140
Optoelectronics & Photonics	720	1.0%	74	Fan, Shanhui #360
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	587	0.8%	581	Gogotsi, Yury G. #25
Bioinformatics	216	0.3%	132	Li, Heng #17
Strategic, Defence & Security Studies	194	0.3%	61	Slovic, Paul #577
Biotechnology	176	0.2%	60	Robbins, Paul D. #6,256
Social Sciences · 2,775 listed authors (3.8%)
Education	930	1.3%	540	Mayer, Richard E. #61
Political Science & Public Administration	423	0.6%	420	Ostrom, Elinor #34
Sociology	268	0.4%	267	Brubaker, Rogers #1,002
Criminology	186	0.3%	136	Nagin, Daniel S. #1,085
Law	159	0.2%	51	Sunstein, Cass R. #233
Geography	109	0.1%	108	Anselin, Luc E. #406
Information & Library Sciences	109	0.1%	26	Chen, Chaomei #296
Social Sciences Methods	99	0.1%	99	Bentler, Peter M. #105
Social Work	98	0.1%	20	Berger, Roni B. #14,162
International Relations	80	0.1%	80	Acharya, Amitav #1,543
Family Studies	76	0.1%	36	Amato, Paul R. #6,356
Cultural Studies	63	0.1%	16	Chakrabarty, Dipesh #2,726
Science Studies	44	0.1%	42	Jasanoff, Sheila S. #1,431
Demography	32	0.0%	25	Bongaarts, John P.M. #8,618
Gender Studies	21	0.0%	21	Acker, Joan #4,791
Biology · 2,518 listed authors (3.4%)
Plant Biology & Botany	759	1.0%	364	Mittler, Ron #109
Ecology	684	0.9%	662	Tilman, David G. #65
Marine Biology & Hydrobiology	350	0.5%	168	Paerl, Hans W. #728
Entomology	287	0.4%	78	Douglas, Angela Elizabeth #1,681
Evolutionary Biology	281	0.4%	231	Nowak, Martin A. #399
Zoology	93	0.1%	8	Janzen, Daniel H. #19,840
Ornithology	18	0.0%	1	Mayr, Ernst #54,936
Earth & Environmental Sciences · 2,448 listed authors (3.3%)
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	899	1.2%	830	Emanuel, Kerry A. #263
Geochemistry & Geophysics	774	1.0%	520	Stern, Robert James #1,133
Environmental Sciences	281	0.4%	230	Elimelech, Menachem #316
Oceanography	149	0.2%	45	Millero, Frank J. #2,121
Paleontology	140	0.2%	77	Erwin, Douglas H. #7,627
Geology	83	0.1%	29	Syvitski, James P.M. #5,016
Economics & Business · 2,422 listed authors (3.3%)
Business & Management	787	1.1%	784	Teece, David J. #22
Economics	621	0.8%	619	Acemoglu, Daron #29
Marketing	226	0.3%	223	Hair, Joseph Franklin #42
Finance	213	0.3%	213	Fama, Eugene F. #323
Logistics & Transportation	163	0.2%	88	Cervero, Robert B. #1,318
Sport, Leisure & Tourism	116	0.2%	115	Gursoy, Dogan #855
Accounting	98	0.1%	96	Campbell, John L. #3,578
Agricultural Economics & Policy	65	0.1%	53	Barbier, Edward B. #466
Econometrics	47	0.1%	47	Imbens, Guido W. #247
Development Studies	35	0.0%	30	Doss, Cheryl R. #7,468
Economic Theory	16	0.0%	7	Myerson, Roger B. #30,998
Industrial Relations	9	0.0%	4	Kaufman, Bruce E. #37,324
Chemistry · 2,290 listed authors (3.1%)
Organic Chemistry	606	0.8%	236	Schreiber, Stuart L. #978
General Chemistry	376	0.5%	97	Yaghi, Omar M. #73
Analytical Chemistry	337	0.5%	84	Wang, Joseph #118
Medicinal & Biomolecular Chemistry	323	0.4%	66	Roth, Bryan L. #1,622
Polymers	318	0.4%	145	Andrady, Anthony L. #413
Inorganic & Nuclear Chemistry	187	0.3%	45	Toby, Brian H. #3,700
Physical Chemistry	97	0.1%	58	Chen, Jingguang #816
Psychology & Cognitive Sciences · 2,211 listed authors (3.0%)
Social Psychology	572	0.8%	562	Bandura, Albert #4
Experimental Psychology	528	0.7%	509	Gross, James J. #11
Developmental & Child Psychology	433	0.6%	418	Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen #265
Clinical Psychology	212	0.3%	187	Beck, Aaron T. #236
Human Factors	204	0.3%	143	Endsley, Mica R. #737
Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology	114	0.2%	60	Blumstein, Daniel T. #2,641
General Psychology & Cognitive Sciences	70	0.1%	37	Lent, Robert W. #1,708
Psychoanalysis	39	0.1%	8	Kernberg, Otto Friedmann #7,916
Public Health & Health Services · 1,996 listed authors (2.7%)
Public Health	873	1.2%	535	Williams, David Rudyard #156
Nursing	486	0.7%	88	Sandelowski, Margarete J. #336
Substance Abuse	248	0.3%	126	Sinha, Rajita #1,910
Rehabilitation	228	0.3%	60	Bohannon, Richard Wallace #596
Health Policy & Services	224	0.3%	94	Ware, John Emerson #948
Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology	151	0.2%	47	Deng, Li #632
Gerontology	136	0.2%	89	Ferrucci, Luigi G. #377
Epidemiology	133	0.2%	67	VanDerWeele, Tyler J. #53
Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry · 1,789 listed authors (2.4%)
Veterinary Sciences	597	0.8%	39	Suchodolski, Jan S. #10,696
Agronomy & Agriculture	390	0.5%	165	Lal, Rattan A. #15
Dairy & Animal Science	348	0.5%	72	Patra, Amlan Kumar #4,369
Fisheries	204	0.3%	51	Bennett, Nathan J. #1,774
Forestry	167	0.2%	31	Nowak, David J. #5,155
Food Science	160	0.2%	106	McClements, David Julian #14
Horticulture	59	0.1%	7	Kader, Adel A. #26,760
Mathematics & Statistics · 933 listed authors (1.3%)
General Mathematics	508	0.7%	172	Brézis, Haîm #1,780
Statistics & Probability	260	0.4%	236	Breiman, Leo #16
Applied Mathematics	118	0.2%	74	Karniadakis, George Em #206
Numerical & Computational Mathematics	105	0.1%	46	Wazwaz, Abdul Majid 1. #539
Communication & Textual Studies · 560 listed authors (0.8%)
Literary Studies	215	0.3%	20	Mignolo, Walter D. #1,049
Communication & Media Studies	204	0.3%	197	Entman, Robert M. #1,980
Languages & Linguistics	149	0.2%	139	Suresh Canagarajah, A. A. #1,005
Historical Studies · 477 listed authors (0.6%)
Archaeology	152	0.2%	28	Zeder, Melinda A. #9,266
History	151	0.2%	11	Maldonado-Torres, Nelson #15,549
Anthropology	122	0.2%	73	Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt #3,844
Classics	27	0.0%	1	Scheidel, Walter #17,271
History of Science, Technology & Medicine	21	0.0%	1	Shapin, Steven A. #30,177
History of Social Sciences	18	0.0%	6	North, Douglass C. #5,075
Philosophy & Theology · 269 listed authors (0.4%)
Philosophy	163	0.2%	100	Floridi, Luciano #49
Religions & Theology	106	0.1%	11	Campbell, Heidi A. #19,510
Applied Ethics	47	0.1%	36	Whyte, Kyle Powys #1,618
Built Environment & Design · 234 listed authors (0.3%)
Building & Construction	120	0.2%	95	Li, Victor C. #248
Urban & Regional Planning	81	0.1%	81	Brenner, Neil #1,490
Design Practice & Management	74	0.1%	21	Dorst, Kees H. #12,409
Architecture	12	0.0%	2	DeLanda, Manuel #34,563
Visual & Performing Arts · 62 listed authors (0.1%)
Music	41	0.1%	1	Hess, Juliet #53,235
Art Practice, History & Theory	37	0.1%	0	Gray, Jonathan #129,220
Drama & Theater	15	0.0%	0	Auslander, Philip #120,482
Folklore	9	0.0%	1	Bauman, Richard W. #99,221

73,724 listed scientists in the United States

See all 73,724 in the interactive table →