2020 Research Leaders: Leading institutions in physical sciences

The 2020 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019.

Table criteria

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Position Institution Share 2018 Share 2019 Count 2019 Change in Share 2018–2019
1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China 223.57 233.36 945
4.4%
2 Max Planck Society, Germany 197.52 205.00 832
3.8%
3 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France 153.85 163.19 1170
6.1%
4 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 131.34 136.38 461
3.8%
5 National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy 129.44 129.57 668
0.1%
6 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Germany 117.31 120.86 623
3.0%
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 95.42 102.10 481
7.0%
8 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 84.30 95.55 432
13.3%
9 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 93.09 88.70 350
-4.7%
10 Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russia 89.35 87.87 488
-1.7%
11 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 67.04 86.84 350
29.5%
12 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 87.24 78.11 243
-10.5%
13 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 69.03 77.08 303
11.7%
14 Princeton University, United States of America (USA) 80.27 75.52 347
-5.9%
15 California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA) 78.85 69.18 376
-12.3%
16 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 64.62 66.16 314
2.4%
17 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 52.19 65.39 477
25.3%
18 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States of America (USA) 52.03 60.88 323
17.0%
19 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 57.25 59.89 275
4.6%
20 University of Maryland (UMD), United States of America (USA) 64.53 59.33 404
-8.0%
21 Tsinghua University, China 50.66 57.76 382
14.0%
22 Peking University (PKU), China 53.62 57.61 365
7.4%
23 University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA) 60.98 56.72 227
-7.0%
24 Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain 57.19 56.37 538
-1.4%
25 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 76.45 55.40 375
-27.5%
26 University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA) 57.45 53.65 325
-6.6%
27 Nanjing University (NJU), China 56.00 52.37 260
-6.5%
28 European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland 68.73 51.97 345
-24.4%
29 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 43.11 51.04 308
18.4%
30 Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Israel 53.59 49.95 176
-6.8%
31 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 40.96 46.17 250
12.7%
32 Durham University, United Kingdom (UK) 45.66 45.08 128
-1.3%
33 Kyoto University, Japan 59.37 44.47 190
-25.1%
34 Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK) 47.70 44.21 247
-7.3%
35 The University of Chicago (UChicago), United States of America (USA) 41.71 42.97 258
3.0%
36 Heidelberg University (Uni Heidelberg), Germany 37.63 42.61 218
13.2%
37 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 30.39 42.42 191
39.6%
38 University of Paris-Saclay, France 40.81 42.00 395
2.9%
39 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States of America (USA) 37.40 41.80 160
11.8%
40 Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany 34.98 41.46 184
18.5%
41 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), Canada 40.85 40.61 124
-0.6%
42 RIKEN, Japan 44.13 39.56 191
-10.4%
43 University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark 39.59 39.47 177
-0.3%
44 Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), India 37.58 38.67 157
2.9%
45 Sorbonne University, France 37.49 38.10 431
1.6%
46 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland 38.82 37.86 146
-2.5%
47 Tohoku University, Japan 43.75 36.00 207
-17.7%
48 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States of America (USA) 38.42 35.78 264
-6.9%
49 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 29.66 34.89 254
17.7%
50 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), United States of America (USA) 41.09 34.52 194
-16.0%
51 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea 27.18 33.54 85
23.4%
52 University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland 22.23 32.80 154
47.6%
53 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 27.20 32.71 195
20.2%
54 University of Southampton (Soton), United Kingdom (UK) 31.65 32.26 138
1.9%
55 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany 38.33 31.79 178
-17.1%
56 Beihang University (BUAA), China 26.79 31.61 213
18.0%
57 Fudan University, China 38.42 31.28 122
-18.6%
58 UCL, United Kingdom (UK) 27.44 30.59 159
11.5%
59 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA) 33.43 30.31 200
-9.3%
60 Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), United States of America (USA) 30.28 30.15 165
-0.4%
61 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India 27.75 30.11 160
8.5%
62 Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), United States of America (USA) 28.29 29.80 199
5.3%
63 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 30.68 29.77 150
-3.0%
64 National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy 30.15 29.71 163
-1.5%
65 University of Hamburg (UHH), Germany 32.84 28.88 187
-12.1%
66 Uppsala University (UU), Sweden 27.41 28.86 144
5.3%
67 University of Würzburg (JMU), Germany 26.25 28.75 128
9.5%
68 The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), France 23.00 28.12 368
22.3%
69 University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA) 23.53 28.08 151
19.3%
70 Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain 24.12 27.93 239
15.8%
71 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 15.25 27.89 123
82.9%
72 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 27.20 27.71 84
1.9%
73 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 30.74 27.62 168
-10.2%
74 University of Amsterdam (UvA), Netherlands 28.81 27.51 257
-4.5%
75 The Ohio State University (OSU), United States of America (USA) 22.89 27.23 279
19.0%
76 The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA) 32.14 27.19 172
-15.4%
77 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 25.37 27.18 115
7.1%
78 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 26.93 26.93 149
0.0%
79 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 22.29 26.32 230
18.1%
80 National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan 21.64 26.19 105
21.0%
81 Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan 24.60 26.09 147
6.0%
82 National Research Council (CNR), Italy 26.34 25.98 133
-1.4%
83 The University of Osaka (UOsaka), Japan 19.68 25.89 136
31.5%
84 Leibniz Association, Germany 35.77 25.83 195
-27.8%
85 Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea 19.52 25.81 84
32.2%
86 State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY Stony Brook), United States of America (USA) 29.14 25.76 220
-11.6%
87 Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (IIT), Israel 31.89 25.45 105
-20.2%
88 University of Barcelona (UB), Spain 15.77 24.74 140
56.9%
89 University of Warsaw (UW), Poland 22.33 24.74 150
10.8%
90 Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore 19.55 24.57 96
25.7%
91 University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA) 21.02 24.16 234
14.9%
92 University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland 24.01 24.11 194
0.4%
93 The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA) 30.59 23.86 218
-22.0%
94 Leiden University, Netherlands 23.98 23.83 107
-0.6%
95 University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA) 25.23 23.29 260
-7.7%
96 University of Waterloo, Canada 14.92 23.29 79
56.0%
97 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 28.18 23.18 141
-17.8%
98 Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands 28.05 23.15 221
-17.5%
99 Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain 25.03 22.94 125
-8.3%
100 Boston University (BU), United States of America (USA) 13.60 22.80 249
67.6%
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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, health, applied and social 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 178 high-quality natural, health, applied and social science publications. The publications were chosen by an independent group of researchers. The list is reviewed periodically and journals may be removed or added. Articles from eLife were no longer included in the Nature Index from 2023 after the journal changed its publishing model.
  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 available 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.