2024 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions in Earth & environmental sciences (2024)

The 2024 Research Leaders are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023.

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Position	Institution	Share 2022	Share 2023	Count 2023	Change in Adjusted Share* 2022–2023
1	Nanjing University (NJU), China	114.45	125.43	368	9.9%
2	Peking University (PKU), China	94.54	107.23	410	13.7%
3	Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China	87.73	91.62	241	4.7%
4	University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China	89.20	90.58	478	1.8%
5	China University of Geosciences (CUG), China	62.21	76.82	199	23.8%
6	Zhejiang University (ZJU), China	65.02	75.64	175	16.6%
7	Tsinghua University, China	57.41	73.85	275	29.0%
8	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland	68.72	70.80	227	3.3%
9	Tongji University, China	79.96	65.99	224	-17.3%
10	Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China	42.20	61.37	124	45.8%
11	Beijing Normal University (BNU), China	38.06	54.30	295	43.0%
12	University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China	62.29	54.08	161	-13.0%
13	University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA)	42.17	52.54	145	24.9%
14	California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States of America (USA)	58.84	50.22	208	-14.4%
15	Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China	49.83	48.54	128	-2.4%
16	Stanford University, United States of America (USA)	49.50	47.34	143	-4.1%
17	University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA)	48.47	46.40	164	-4.1%
18	University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), United States of America (USA)	44.73	44.78	212	0.4%
19	University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA)	45.77	43.32	171	-5.1%
20	Ocean University of China (OUC), China	31.87	41.39	187	30.2%
21	Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA)	47.37	41.13	165	-13.0%
22	Yale University, United States of America (USA)	33.62	39.69	155	18.3%
23	Nankai University (NKU), China	32.17	37.92	73	18.1%
24	Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST), China	39.19	37.36	162	-4.4%
25	The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan	29.54	37.31	134	26.6%
26	China University of Geosciences, Beijing (CUGB), China	35.40	37.27	90	5.5%
27	Tianjin University (TJU), China	30.41	37.02	218	22.0%
28	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA)	39.41	36.41	150	-7.4%
29	Wuhan University (WHU), China	45.34	35.48	71	-21.6%
30	Colorado State University, United States of America (USA)	31.57	35.11	115	11.5%
31	Fudan University, China	26.31	34.85	117	32.8%
32	Hohai University (HHU), China	19.72	34.67	93	76.2%
33	Shandong University (SDU), China	25.64	32.33	195	26.4%
34	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA)	46.14	32.18	139	-30.1%
35	Princeton University, United States of America (USA)	32.00	31.68	121	-0.8%
36	The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), United States of America (USA)	42.74	31.26	108	-26.7%
37	Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China	31.66	30.64	92	-3.0%
38	Cornell University, United States of America (USA)	19.01	29.69	104	56.6%
39	The University of Arizona (Arizona), United States of America (USA)	27.00	28.74	109	6.7%
40	University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA)	24.30	28.72	100	18.5%
41	The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia	34.13	28.17	75	-17.3%
42	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), China	19.53	27.98	102	43.6%
43	University of Alberta (U of A), Canada	21.31	27.74	74	30.5%
44	Harvard University, United States of America (USA)	33.28	27.07	120	-18.5%
45	Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands	29.28	27.00	105	-7.6%
46	The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), United States of America (USA)	27.69	26.97	106	-2.4%
47	University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK)	29.85	26.62	122	-10.6%
48	University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States of America (USA)	23.51	26.59	97	13.4%
49	University of Leeds, United Kingdom (UK)	21.41	26.13	112	22.3%
50	Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom (UK)	24.91	26.10	99	5.1%
51	Lanzhou University (LZU), China	32.98	26.06	70	-20.8%
52		15.75	25.75	90	63.9%
53	University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UH Mānoa), United States of America (USA)	30.50	25.10	113	-17.5%
54	University of Minnesota (UMN), United States of America (USA)	28.89	24.85	105	-13.8%
55		27.06	24.83	97	-8.0%
56	University of Toronto (U of T), Canada	32.88	24.83	82	-24.3%
57	University of California, Riverside (UCR), United States of America (USA)	20.99	24.13	62	15.2%
58	University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia	28.33	23.42	81	-17.1%
59	East China Normal University (ECNU), China	23.37	23.40	79	0.4%
60	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), United States of America (USA)	26.27	23.39	80	-10.7%
61	University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark	17.70	23.39	120	32.4%
62	University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), United States of America (USA)	24.91	22.71	80	-8.6%
63	University of Exeter, United Kingdom (UK)	18.38	22.22	98	21.2%
64	The University of Hong Kong (HKU), China	23.22	21.75	86	-6.1%
65	Xiamen University (XMU), China	20.88	21.50	64	3.2%
66	Arizona State University (ASU), United States of America (USA)	27.95	21.49	91	-22.9%
67	University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), United States of America (USA)	22.07	21.44	140	-2.6%
68	Australian National University (ANU), Australia	17.18	21.25	82	24.0%
69	Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark	20.17	21.16	72	5.1%
70	University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK)	35.37	20.36	107	-42.3%
71	The University of Oklahoma (OU), United States of America (USA)	15.59	19.94	98	28.2%
72	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany	13.00	19.59	50	51.0%
73	Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), United States of America (USA)	18.10	19.57	90	8.4%
74	Hokkaido University, Japan	11.84	19.17	55	62.3%
75	Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA)	20.96	19.16	58	-8.4%
76	University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States of America (USA)	15.20	19.13	76	26.1%
77	University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), United States of America (USA)	14.91	18.88	74	26.9%
78	University of Vienna, Austria	12.86	18.85	54	47.0%
79	University of California, Irvine (UCI), United States of America (USA)	20.69	18.71	80	-9.4%
80	Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China	11.13	18.66	40	68.0%
81	Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China	12.15	17.64	28	45.5%
82	Purdue University, United States of America (USA)	18.45	17.57	64	-4.5%
83	Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands	18.67	17.54	55	-5.8%
84	UCL, United Kingdom (UK)	14.92	17.47	106	17.4%
85	Tohoku University, Japan	22.21	17.29	53	-21.9%
86	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), United States of America (USA)	13.50	16.69	59	23.9%
87	University of Bristol (UoB), United Kingdom (UK)	17.42	16.60	82	-4.5%
88		17.12	16.45	30	-3.7%
89	University of Bern (UniBE), Switzerland	13.87	16.40	70	18.5%
90	Sichuan University (SCU), China	19.29	16.25	37	-15.5%
91	McGill University, Canada	19.41	16.18	75	-16.4%
92	South China University of Technology (SCUT), China	13.86	16.12	30	16.6%
93	Oregon State University, United States of America (USA)	21.62	16.05	76	-25.6%
94	Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore	22.93	16.01	41	-30.0%
95	University of Oslo (UiO), Norway	21.54	15.94	65	-25.8%
96	North Carolina State University (NCSU), United States of America (USA)	13.67	15.89	71	16.6%
97	Kyoto University, Japan	14.93	15.81	60	6.2%
98	Jinan University (JNU), China	18.69	15.78	43	-15.4%
99	National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), China	8.93	15.62	25	75.3%
100	Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel	10.11	15.62	44	54.8%

Footnote

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

The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences and health 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).
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’s publication output in 145 natural-science and health-science journals. The journals were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields. 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.
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.
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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 frozen research leaders.

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