News, research · 24 October 2026 · 2 min read
AUB says 63 of its faculty members are on the 2026 Stanford and Elsevier list of the world's most cited scientists, up from 56 last year, with 8 of them in electrical and computer engineering.
The American University of Beirut said on 16 October 2026 that 63 of its faculty members have earned a place in the 2026 Stanford and Elsevier database of the world's most cited scientists, widely known as the world's top 2 percent scientists list. Last year the number was 56. AUB says 63 is its highest total in the seven years from 2020 to 2026.
The database measures citation impact over two periods. The career-long list counts the accumulated impact of a researcher's work through the end of 2025. The single-year list counts citations received during 2025, whenever the cited work was published.
| List | AUB faculty members | Of whom in the top 1 percent of their field |
|---|---|---|
| Career-long | 48 | 18 |
| Single year, 2025 | 41 | 20 |
Twenty-six faculty members appear on both lists and are counted once in the total of 63. Seven are on AUB's roster for the first time this year, a mix of longstanding faculty and recent recruits.
The Faculty of Medicine has the largest share, with 30 faculty members, 15 of them in internal medicine and 4 in surgery. The Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture follows with 13, including 8 in electrical and computer engineering. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has 12, across biology, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, education, physics and psychology. Four are in the Faculty of Health Sciences and three in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. The Suliman S. Olayan School of Business is represented in business information and decision systems.
For this record, the line to watch is electrical and computer engineering and computer science. AUB's article does not name the individuals, and neither do we.
The 2026 database was released on 7 October 2026 and draws on a snapshot of Scopus author profiles taken on 1 August 2026. Its composite citation indicator combines several measures of citation impact and accounts for co-authorship and authorship position. A researcher qualifies by ranking among the top 100,000 scientists on that indicator, or within the top 2 percent of their subfield. It covers 20 fields and 174 subfields.
AUB's university librarian, Dr Lokman Meho, added a caution in the same article: citations show that research is noticed and used, but they do not tell the whole story of its value, which also shows in books, teaching and public engagement.
Lebanese research institutions, builders and events, each with its source, are on the register.
Written for Club Cedro. If something here is wrong, say so and it gets corrected with the correction left visible.
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