12 Australian researchers and 16 Australian universities are world leaders

Twelve Australian researchers and sixteen Australian universities are world leaders in specialised fields of research.

12 Australian researchers and 16 Australian universities lead the world in certain fields of research

It’s a measure of the talent of Australian researchers that they lead the world in 12, or nearly 5 per cent, of the 250 fields of research which we list in the Research 2025 magazine. Australian universities have even more prominence. They lead in 16, or over 6 per cent of the 250 fields. Four of the world-leading researchers come from the University of Sydney. Anthony Gill is No.1 globally in the field of pathology, David Hensher is first in transportation, Deborah Jackson is first in nursing and Barbara Mintzes is first in primary health care.

Monash, another powerhouse research university, has two global leaders – Nathan Eva is first in the field of human resources and organisation, and Ben Willem Mol is first in reproductive health.

Other universities home to world-leading researchers are Deakin, Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne, UNSW, Adelaide and RMIT.

Many of these universities feature again in the list of institutions whose collective research makes them the world-leading institution in a particular field.

But four universities – Deakin, Melbourne, Queensland and UNSW – stand out by each leading globally in two fields. These are academic and psychological testing, and higher education for Deakin, gender studies and international law for Melbourne, dispersion chemistry, and audiology, speech and language pathology for Queensland, and architecture and archaeology for UNSW.

The global field leaders are identified in the same way as Australian field leaders except we are casting the net world-wide. First, we calculate an impact index, which is the number of citations received for papers published in the last five years in the top 20 journals in each particular field of research. Them the individual, and the institution, with the highest impact index is declared the global leader in that particular field.

12 Australian researchers who lead the world

David Boud Deakin University. Field: Higher Education

Nathan Eva Monash University. Field: Human Resources & Organisations

Anthony Gill Univerity of Sydney. Field: Pathology

David Hensher University of Sydney. Field: Transportation

Debra Jackson University of Sydney. Field: Nursing

Jeremy Kerr Queensland University of Technology. Field: Visual Arts

Barbara Mintzes University of Sydney. Field: Primary Health Care

Ben Willem Mol Monash University. Field: Reproductive Health

David Moss Swinburne University. Field: Optics & Photonics

Samad Sepasgozar UNSW Sydney. Field: Architecture

Shaobin Wang University of Adelaide. Field: Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis

Annan Zhou RMIT. Field: Environmental & Geological Engineering

16 Australian universities which lead the world

Australian National University Field: Asian Studies & History

Australian National University Field: Evolutionary Biology

DeakinUniversity Field: Academic & Psychological Testing

Deakin University Field: Higher Education

Macquarie University Field: Accounting & Taxation

Monash Field: Rehabilitation Therapy

Queensland University of Technology Field: Visual Arts

University of Melbourne Field: Gender Studies

University of Melbourne Field: International Law

University of Queensland Field:Dispersion Chemistry

University of Queensland Field: Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology

University of Sydney Field:Physical Education & Sports Medicine

UTS Field: Water Supply & Treatment

University of Wollongong Field: Nursing

UNSW Sydney Field: Architecture

UNSW Sydney Field: Archaeology