Top US universities for Top 2% scientists 2026: Harvard Medical School, Stanford, and Michigan
Live Directory analytics: Harvard Medical School lists 1,131 USA Top 2% scientists in the 2026 single-year snapshot, ahead of Stanford University (730) and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (703).
Which US universities have the most Top 2% scientists?
Direct answer: In ABS Nexora’s United States country profile (usa, single-year 2026), the largest named institutional cohort is Harvard Medical School with 1,131 listed Top 2% scientists. Stanford University follows among named universities with 730, then University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with 703. The raw affiliation College of Engineering sits second on the live top_institutions panel (820) — that string is not one campus; the Elsevier / Stanford–Ioannidis file often collapses many engineering colleges into the same label.
The United States lists 73,459 Top 2% scientists in this snapshot (~29.7% of the single-year country-analytics cohort of 247,376), across 7,237 distinct affiliations. This page is the institution cluster post; the national overview is the USA Top 2% directory hub.
Top US institutions by listed Top 2% scientists
| # | Institution (dataset affiliation) | Listed scholars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard Medical School | 1,131 |
| 2 | College of Engineering raw affiliation string | 820 |
| 3 | Stanford University | 730 |
| 4 | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | 703 |
| 5 | Mayo Clinic | 653 |
| 6 | University of Washington | 595 |
| 7 | University of California, Berkeley | 585 |
| 8 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 557 |
| 9 | Stanford University School of Medicine | 502 |
| 10 | University of California, Los Angeles | 488 |
Affiliation coding follows the underlying dataset. Harvard Medical School and Harvard University are separate rows; Stanford University (730) is separate from Stanford University School of Medicine (502). Do not add those rows together and call the sum “Harvard” or “Stanford.”
Harvard Medical School Top 2% scientists
Harvard Medical School is the densest US affiliation in this snapshot: 1,131 listed scholars, average citations about 1,670, best global rank 17. 954 of those scholars are in Clinical Medicine and 131 in Biomedical Research.
Leading HMS profiles in the institution top_researchers panel:
| Researcher | Field | Global rank | Citations (all) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Li, Heng | Enabling & Strategic Technologies | 17 | 21,786 |
| Libby, Peter A. | Clinical Medicine | 27 | 14,652 |
| Feldman Barrett, Lisa Feldman | Psychology & Cognitive Sciences | 174 | 4,698 |
| Woolf, Clifford J. | Clinical Medicine | 594 | 4,457 |
Open the live Harvard Medical School institution page to verify counts.
Stanford University and the Elsevier / Stanford–Ioannidis list
Queries such as “Stanford Elsevier United States” and “Stanford University Top 2% scientists” refer to two different things: the Stanford–Ioannidis / Elsevier source list, and Stanford University as an affiliation. On ABS Nexora, Stanford University lists 730 single-year scholars (best rank 4 — Bandura, Albert, Psychology & Cognitive Sciences). Other Stanford-affiliated leaders include Gross, James J. (rank 12) and Tibshirani, Robert John (rank 22).
Ioannidis, John P.A. — a namesake of the Ioannidis list — appears under Stanford University School of Medicine (global rank 23; Clinical Medicine).
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor lists 703 Top 2% scientists. The institution profile’s leading scholar is Newman, Mark E.J. (Physics & Astronomy; global rank 34; 7,458 citations). Clinical Medicine is Michigan’s largest field slice (166), then Social Sciences (63) and Physics & Astronomy (60).
Mayo Clinic, Berkeley, MIT, and Washington
| Institution | Listed scholars | Leading profile (single-year) |
|---|---|---|
| Mayo Clinic | 653 | Jack, Clifford R. (rank 223) |
| University of Washington | 595 | see USA top researchers |
| University of California, Berkeley | 585 | Breiman, Leo (rank 15) |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 557 | Acemoglu, Daron (rank 29) |
Mayo Clinic is almost entirely Clinical Medicine (616 of 653). That is a hospital-research footprint, not a comprehensive university mix.
How to use these university counts
- Treat each affiliation string as the dataset wrote it.
- Switch single-year vs career on the institution page — career USA totals 90,855 scholars and a different institution order (College of Engineering 1,171, HMS 1,025, Michigan 845, Stanford 722).
- Open a scholar profile, then the certificate page if you need a printable overlay.
- For journal-level context when you cite their papers, use the Journal Quality Report.
USA cluster and related Directory pages
- USA Top 2% universities 2026 (this page)
- USA top researchers 2026
- USA self-cited scientists 2026
- USA field strengths 2026
- Find, verify, and cite a USA Top 2% scientist
- United States Top 2% directory 2026 (hub)
- Journal Quality Report on ABS Nexora
- Directory home
- Directory search
- United States country analytics
- Analytics workspace
FAQ
Which US university has the most Top 2% scientists in 2026? Harvard Medical School, with 1,131 listed scholars in the United States single-year country profile.
How many Top 2% scientists does Stanford University have? 730 under the Stanford University affiliation, plus a separate 502 at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Is “College of Engineering” a real university? It is a raw affiliation label in the Elsevier / Stanford–Ioannidis file (820 USA-listed scholars). It is not a single named campus.
How many Top 2% scientists are at the University of Michigan? 703 at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in this snapshot.
Where do I verify a Harvard Medical School Top 2% name? Open Directory search, the HMS institution page, or a scholar URL such as Li, Heng.
Does Stanford issue the Top 2% list as a diploma? No. The source is the Ioannidis / Elsevier standardized citation-indicator database. ABS Nexora certificates are a Directory overlay — see how to find, verify, and cite.
How does the USA university mix compare with China or the UK? China’s largest institution in its country profile is Tsinghua University (821); the UK’s is the University of Oxford (808). HMS (1,131) is larger than both in this snapshot. Field mix differs — see USA field strengths.