Bursky Public Health faculty among world’s top 2% of scientists in 2026

Thirty-one primary and secondary faculty members at the Bursky School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis have been named to the 2026 Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists List for their lifetime scientific achievements, and another 21 have been recognized as among the top 2% of scientists in 2025. This means that about a quarter of all faculty affiliated with the Bursky School are included on this list. Inclusion on the list is an honor reserved for those who have made significant and influential contributions to their fields.

Every year, a Stanford University-Elsevier research team uses citation data from the Scopus database to rank the most-cited scientists across 20 fields and 174 subfields, evaluating both single-year and career-long impact. The ranking measures scholarly influence using the number of citations, taking into consideration co-authorship, self-citations and authorship position.

“One of our goals as a school is to attract leading scholars whose scientific contributions advance public health and create the conditions for everyone to live healthier lives,” said Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean and Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor at Bursky Public Health, and the vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at WashU. “This is a testament to the quality and impact of the research produced by the faculty at Bursky Public Health and across WashU.”

Bursky Public Health primary and secondary faculty members whose scientific contributions over the course of their career place them among the 2% most impactful scientists in the world are:

• Ross Brownson, PhD, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at Bursky Public Health
• Jeffrey Catalano, PhD, a professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Arts & Sciences
• Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, the Niess-Gain Professor at WashU Medicine
• Victor Dávila-Román, MD, a professor of medicine at WashU Medicine
• Hillary Anger Elfenbein, PhD, MA, the John K. Wallace, Jr. and Ellen A. Wallace Distinguished Professor at Olin Business
• Bradley Evanoff, MD, MPH, the Richard A. and Elizabeth Henby Sutter Professor of Occupational, Industrial, and Environmental Medicine at WashU Medicine
• Peter U. Fischer, PhD, a professor of medicine at WashU Medicine
• Matthew Gabel, PhD, MA, a professor of political science at Arts & Sciences
• Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean and the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor at Bursky Public Health, and the vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at WashU
• Paz Galupo, PhD, the Audre Lorde Distinguished Professor of Sexual Health & Education at the Brown School
• Elvin Geng, MD, MPH, the Virginia Minnich Professor of Medicine at WashU Medicine
• Daniel Giammar, PhD, the Walter E. Browne Professor of Environmental Engineering at McKelvey Engineering
• Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at WashU Medicine
• Barton Hamilton, PhD, the Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Economics, Management & Entrepreneurship at Olin Business
• Mark Huffman, MD, MPH, the William Bowen Endowed Professor of Medicine at WashU Medicine
• Feng Jiao, PhD, the Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor at McKelvey Engineering
• Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at WashU Medicine
• Tristram (TR) Kidder, PhD, Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor at Arts & Sciences
• Samuel Klein, MD, the William H. Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science at WashU Medicine
• Matthew Kreuter, PhD, MPH, the Kahn Family Professor of Public Health
• Margaret Kruk, MD, MPH, the Distinguished Professor of Health Systems and Medicine at Bursky Public Health
• Walter Kukull, PhD, a professor of neurology at WashU Medicine
• Chenyang Lu, PhD, MS, the Fullgraf Professor at McKelvey Engineering
• Joan Luby, MD, the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Psychiatry at WashU Medicine
• Douglas Luke, MA, PhD, a Distinguished Professor in Public Health Systems Science at Bursky Public Health
• Mark Manary, MD, the James P. Keating Professor of Pediatrics at WashU Medicine 
• Mary McKay, PhD, a professor at the Brown School
• Catherine Oldenburg, ScD, MPH, a professor and the associate dean for research at Bursky Public Health
• Mary Politi, PhD, a professor at Bursky Public Health
• William Powderly, MD, the Larry J. Shapiro Distinguished Professor in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at WashU Medicine
• Denise Wilfley, PhD, the Scott Rudolph University Professor at WashU Medicine 

In addition to the above, other faculty members who ranked among the top 2% most impactful scientists in 2025 are:

• Salma Abdalla, MBBS, DrPH, an associate professor at Bursky Public Health
• Joanna Abraham, PhD, a professor of anesthesiology at WashU Medicine
• Carrie Breton, ScD, a professor at Bursky Public Health
• Ana Baumann, PhD, MA, an associate professor of surgery at WashU Medicine
• Sumanth Gandra, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at WashU Medicine
• Burel Goodin, PhD, a professor of anesthesiology at WashU Medicine
• Richard Griffey, MD, MPH, a professor of emergency medicine at WashU Medicine
• Ross Hammond, PhD, a Distinguished Professor in Public Health Systems Science at Bursky Public Health
• Patrick Hill, PhD, MA, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Arts & Sciences
• Lora Iannotti, PhD, MA, a Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor at Bursky Public Health
• Kim Johnson, PhD, a professor at the Brown School
• Allison King, MD, PhD, MPH, the Fred M. Saigh Distinguished Professor in Pediatric Research at WashU Medicine
• Jennifer Layden, MD, PhD, a professor and the associate dean for practice at Bursky Public Health
• Stephen Liang, MD, MPHS, a professor of medicine at WashU Medicine
• Xinyi Liu, PhD, a professor of archeology at Arts & Sciences
• Aaloke Mody, MD, an associate professor of medicine at WashU Medicine
• Byron Powell, PhD, a professor at the Brown School
• Rodrigo Reis, PhD, MS, a professor at Bursky Public Health
• Rachel Sachs, JD, MPH, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at WashU Law
• Lindsay Stark, DrPH, MPH, a professor at Bursky Public Health
• Susy Stark, PhD, MS, a professor at Bursky Public Health

Methodology

The World’s Top 2% Scientists List is a publicly available database of highly cited scientists. It provides standardized citation metrics for each scientist, including total number of citations; the h-index, a measure of productivity and impact that includes both the number of papers and the number of times each paper was cited; the hm-index, a form of the h-index modified to account for co-authorship; and the number of citations broken down by authorship position (single, first or last author). Separate figures are given for career-long impact and for the most recent calendar year. Metrics are shown both with and without self-citations. Papers that are in the Retraction Watch database as retracted are flagged, as well as citations to and from those papers. 

Scientists are classified into fields and sub-fields using the Science-Metrix classification. All researchers with at least five published papers are assessed with these metrics and included in the total and the field- and subfield-specific global count of scientists. 

The metrics are combined into a composite citation score called a C-score. Scientists whose C-score ranks them in the top 100,000 scientists globally or in the top 2% of their sub-field are named on the World’s Top 2% Scientists lists. The lists can be searched here and the full dataset can be downloaded here.