2019 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

The 2019 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2017 Share 2018 Count 2018 Change in Share 2017–2018
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 185.89 223.57 913
20.3%
2 Max Planck Society, Germany 203.13 197.52 812
-2.8%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 162.29 153.85 1187
-5.2%
4 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 142.97 131.34 456
-8.1%
5 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 110.34 129.44 667
17.3%
6 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 115.73 117.31 640
1.4%
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 100.18 95.42 460
-4.8%
8 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 89.99 93.09 339
3.4%
9 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 61.58 89.35 520
45.1%
10 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 74.38 87.24 299
17.3%
11 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 95.13 84.30 398
-11.4%
12 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 64.59 80.27 378
24.3%
13 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 68.14 78.85 420
15.7%
14 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 70.51 76.45 406
8.4%
15 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 85.94 69.03 295
-19.7%
16 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 55.57 68.73 429
23.7%
17 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 58.38 67.04 288
14.8%
18 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 79.59 64.62 298
-18.8%
19 University of Maryland (UMD), United States of America (USA) 55.37 64.53 445
16.5%
20 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 62.15 60.98 245
-1.9%
21 Kyoto University, Japan 59.39 59.37 237
0.0%
22 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 43.93 57.45 356
30.8%
23 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 75.43 57.25 284
-24.1%
24 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 63.89 57.19 564
-10.5%
25 Nanjing University (NJU), China 41.19 56.00 245
36.0%
26 Peking University (PKU), China 56.03 53.62 390
-4.3%
27 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 51.50 53.59 182
4.1%
28 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 34.54 52.19 372
51.1%
29 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 56.27 52.03 309
-7.5%
30 Tsinghua University, China 48.85 50.66 407
3.7%
31 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 42.88 47.70 297
11.2%
32 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 42.99 45.66 110
6.2%
33 RIKEN, Japan 44.66 44.13 214
-1.2%
34 Tohoku University, Japan 26.44 43.75 215
65.5%
35 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 42.90 43.11 293
0.5%
36 Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), Germany 26.87 41.85 192
55.8%
37 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 50.59 41.71 257
-17.5%
38 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 37.72 41.09 194
8.9%
39 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 26.56 40.96 245
54.2%
40 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), Canada 47.45 40.85 115
-13.9%
41 University of Paris-Saclay, France 41.90 40.81 394
-2.6%
42 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 34.35 39.59 186
15.3%
43 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 40.56 38.82 158
-4.3%
44 Fudan University, China 17.17 38.42 109
123.7%
45 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 36.27 38.42 286
5.9%
46 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 44.30 38.33 192
-13.5%
47 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 32.67 37.63 248
15.2%
48 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 48.21 37.58 187
-22.1%
49 Sorbonne University, France 36.28 37.49 455
3.4%
50 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 37.10 37.40 152
0.8%
51 Leibniz Association, Germany 34.26 35.77 183
4.4%
52 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 30.31 34.98 149
15.4%
53 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 36.86 33.43 220
-9.3%
54 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 34.20 32.84 209
-4.0%
55 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 29.42 32.14 173
9.2%
56 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 25.60 31.89 121
24.6%
57 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 30.80 31.65 162
2.8%
58 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA) 24.08 30.91 229
28.4%
59 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 22.93 30.74 167
34.0%
60 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 26.32 30.68 178
16.6%
61 The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA) 20.07 30.59 216
52.4%
62 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 29.42 30.39 187
3.3%
63 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 27.03 30.28 183
12.0%
64 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 34.05 30.15 129
-11.5%
65 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 27.92 29.66 273
6.2%
66 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 16.18 29.14 52
80.1%
67 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 26.89 29.14 214
8.4%
68 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 31.98 28.81 264
-9.9%
69 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 22.71 28.29 180
24.6%
70 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 22.06 28.18 139
27.8%
71 The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada 20.40 28.10 141
37.8%
72 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 20.37 28.05 229
37.7%
73 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India 31.89 27.75 191
-13.0%
74 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 24.17 27.44 159
13.5%
75 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 22.23 27.41 163
23.3%
76 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 22.28 27.20 197
22.1%
77 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 22.86 27.20 83
19.0%
78 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 30.37 27.18 73
-10.5%
79 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 27.81 26.93 173
-3.2%
80 Beihang University (BUAA), China 17.91 26.79 182
49.6%
81 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 28.70 26.34 154
-8.2%
82 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 25.07 26.25 114
4.7%
83 National Research Center Kurchatov Institute (NRCKI), Russia 17.13 25.55 325
49.1%
84 Purdue University, United States of America (USA) 23.53 25.50 175
8.4%
85 Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea 25.97 25.44 182
-2.1%
86 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 27.46 25.37 117
-7.6%
87 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 24.27 25.23 301
3.9%
88 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 29.54 25.03 133
-15.3%
89 Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan 29.11 24.60 149
-15.5%
90 University of Bonn (Uni Bonn), Germany 26.53 24.42 141
-7.9%
91 University of Lisbon (ULISBOA), Portugal 20.20 24.24 141
20.0%
92 King's College London (KCL), United Kingdom (UK) 20.54 24.24 108
18.0%
93 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 20.66 24.12 260
16.7%
94 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 20.62 24.01 218
16.5%
95 Leiden University, Netherlands 20.91 23.98 99
14.7%
96 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 20.27 23.53 173
16.1%
97 Nagoya University, Japan 17.03 23.14 163
35.9%
98 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 26.53 23.00 408
-13.3%
99 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 20.73 22.89 294
10.4%
100 University of Warsaw (UW), Poland 14.53 22.33 171
53.7%
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Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country/territory’s publication output in 82 high-quality natural science publications. The publications were chosen by an independent group of researchers. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and the data in the above table is published under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the research leaders tables.

Research Leaders tables from previous years are also updated annually to reflect any changes to the database. This means rankings and metrics may differ from the table when first released.


Numerical information only (in the tables above) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.