Jensen Huang's Largest-Ever Gift Supports University Arts
Vanderbilt University has announced that Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, have pledged a $75 million matching gift to support the establishment of a new College of Art, Architecture and Design at the university's San Francisco campus. In recognition of the Huangs' extraordinary generosity, Vanderbilt announced that the new school will be officially named the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design. According to the university, it is highly unusual for an academic college to be jointly named after both members of a couple. The Huangs' $75 million contribution is structured as a matching gift, meaning Vanderbilt must raise an equivalent amount from other sources by December 31, 2028. The initiative has already generated significant momentum: the San Francisco campus has raised more than $100 million to date, achieving over 40% of the matching goal. Donors include Tipping Point Community, the nonprofit organization founded by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. "San Francisco offers an extraordinary environment for learning across art, architecture, design and culture," Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said. "With the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design, Vanderbilt is positioning these branches of creation as the heart of our San Francisco campus. This college, together with additional academic programming under development, will prepare creative leaders to shape culture, industries and communities in San Francisco's thriving economy, nationally and around the world. In partnership with the city and surrounding community, we will blend Vanderbilt's distinctive excellence with San Francisco's distinctive excellence to build something truly remarkable, together." "Technology expands what we can build. Art and design determine why we build it. Together they shape civilization. We are delighted to partner with Vanderbilt University to cultivate the next generation of creators and help San Francisco remain one of the world's great centers of creativity, innovation and culture," Jensen Huang said. The donation comes at a particularly significant moment. In January of this year, the California College of the Arts (CCA)—a 120-year-old institution and Northern California's last remaining nonprofit college dedicated to art and design—announced that it would close in 2027, citing years of declining enrollment and a $20 million budget deficit. The school has long served as one of California's leading incubators of artistic talent. Shortly after CCA announced its closure, Vanderbilt University, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, reached an agreement to acquire CCA's 4.5-acre Potrero Hill campus in San Francisco, establishing its first major foothold on the U.S. West Coast. It was at this pivotal moment that the Huangs' landmark gift laid the foundation for what will become the flagship college of Vanderbilt's new San Francisco campus. This is not Jensen Huang's first major philanthropic contribution to higher education. In 2025, when CCA first faced severe financial difficulties, he donated $22.5 million in an effort to help preserve the historic institution. The new $75 million commitment from Jensen and Lori Huang represents their largest single gift to a university to date, surpassing the at least $50 million they previously donated to Huang's alma mater, Oregon State University. Vanderbilt's San Francisco campus is expected to open in 2027 and plans to enroll approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design will serve as the campus's flagship academic unit and foundational institution. The university has already launched a nationwide search for the college's inaugural dean. At the same time, Vanderbilt will establish the California College of the Arts Institute within the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design. The institute will preserve and advance CCA's longstanding traditions of experimentation, collaboration, and creative inquiry while remaining deeply connected to the cultural life of San Francisco and the broader Bay Area.
How Peking University Became a Global Powerhouse in Mathematics
July 23–30, 2026: The 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) was held in Philadelphia, United States. At the opening ceremony on July 23, the recipients of the 2026 Fields Medal were officially announced. Four mathematicians—Hong Wang, Yu Deng, John Pardon, and Jacob Tsimerman—received the award. Among them, Hong Wang and Yu Deng are Chinese mathematicians, making China the first country in Asia to produce two Fields Medalists in the same ICM. Notably, Hong Wang and Yu Deng are both alumni of the Class of 2007 in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University. The School has long been regarded as the "premier department of China's premier university." At this year's ICM, 14 Peking University faculty members and alumni were invited to deliver lectures, setting a new institutional record and accounting for more than half of all invited talks by Chinese scholars. Each ICM features approximately 200 invited speakers, who present major advances and breakthroughs in their respective fields. These invited lectures represent the highest level of contemporary mathematical research. Being invited to speak at the ICM is considered one of the highest academic honors in mathematics and serves as an important mark of international recognition. With alumni Hong Wang and Yu Deng receiving the Fields Medal and 14 faculty members and alumni delivering invited lectures, Peking University made an outstanding showing at the 2026 ICM, highlighting its leading role on the international mathematical stage and its exceptional strength in cultivating world-class mathematical talent. The 14 Invited Speakers Songxi ChenSongxi Chen received his B.S. (1983) and M.S. (1988) in Mathematics from Beijing Normal University, and his Ph.D. in Statistics from the Australian National University in 1993. He previously served as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, and tenured Associate Professor and Professor at Iowa State University. He joined Peking University in 2008, holding appointments in both the Guanghua School of Management and the School of Mathematical Sciences. In 2021, he was elected a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on ultrahigh-dimensional statistics, environmental statistics, and nonparametric statistical methods. At the ICM, he delivered a 45-minute invited lecture titled "Signal Detection in High-Dimensional Statistics." Xinyi YuanXinyi Yuan studied at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, from 2000 to 2003, earning his B.S. in Mathematics, and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2008. He was a Clay Research Fellow (2008–2011), Assistant Professor at Princeton University (2011–2012), Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (2012–2020), before returning to Peking University as Professor in 2020. His research interests include number theory and arithmetic geometry, particularly Arakelov geometry, algebraic dynamical systems, Diophantine geometry, Shimura varieties, and special values of L-functions. His ICM lecture was titled "Quantitative Questions in the Mordell Conjecture." Xin SunXin Sun earned his B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2007–2011), and his Ph.D. from MIT in 2017. He subsequently spent three years as a Simons Fellow at Columbia University. In 2020, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as Assistant Professor, spent 2022–2023 as a visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), and returned full-time to Peking University in 2023. He is currently Professor at the Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research (BICMR). His research centers on probability theory and mathematical physics, with emphasis on random geometry, statistical physics, and quantum field theory. His ICM lecture was "Liouville Quantum Gravity: From Random Planar Maps to Conformal Field Theory." Junyi XieJunyi Xie received his undergraduate degree from the University of Science and Technology of China, pursued graduate studies at the École Normale Supérieure and Université Paris Diderot, and earned his Ph.D. from the École Polytechnique in 2014. He left a tenured position at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 2021 to join BICMR at Peking University. His research spans arithmetic dynamics, Diophantine geometry, algebraic geometry, and complex dynamics. His ICM lecture was "Rigidity in Complex Dynamics: Multiplier Spectra and the Dynamical André–Oort Conjecture." Yongchang ZhuYongchang Zhu studied at the Department of Mathematics, Peking University (1980–1984), earning his B.S., and received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1990. After graduation, he held positions at Caltech, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn. His research covers conformal field theory, loop groups, and automorphic forms. His ICM lecture was "Automorphic Forms on Loop Groups and Explicit Constructions." Feng XuFeng Xu earned both his B.S. and M.S. from the Department of Mathematics, Peking University (1984–1990), and later completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Early in his career, he participated in the Chern Study Program in the United States. His research focuses on mathematical physics. He was a plenary speaker at the 2021 International Congress on Mathematical Physics. His ICM lecture was "Entropy in Quantum Field Theory." Jianfeng LuJianfeng Lu received his B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2001–2005), and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Princeton University in 2009. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University (2009–2012). He is currently the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor at Duke University, with joint appointments in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. His research lies at the intersection of computational physics, theoretical chemistry, materials science, high-dimensional partial differential equations, and machine learning. His ICM lecture was "Quantitative Hypocoercivity Estimates for the Underdamped Langevin Equation." Lin LinLin Lin earned his B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2003–2007), and his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Princeton University in 2011. He is Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research focuses on mathematical modeling and numerical methods for quantum many-body problems, advancing interdisciplinary research in quantum chemistry, quantum physics, materials science, and quantum information. His ICM lecture was "Mathematics and Numerical Analysis of Quantum Signal Processing." Yu DengYu Deng studied at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2007–2009), before transferring to MIT, where he completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2015. He previously held positions as a postdoctoral researcher at the Courant Institute, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California, and joined the University of Chicago in 2024. His research focuses on partial differential equations, particularly dispersive equations, and their interactions with probability theory and mathematical physics, especially statistical physics, kinetic theory, and quantum field theory. His ICM lecture was "Hilbert's Sixth Problem: Particles and Waves." Yunqing TangYunqing Tang earned her B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2007–2011), and her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2016. She has held positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay, and Princeton University before joining the University of California, Berkeley as Associate Professor in 2022. Her ICM lecture was "Integrality Bounds and Diophantine Approximation." Hong WangHong Wang entered Peking University in 2007, initially enrolling in the School of Earth and Space Sciences before transferring to the School of Mathematical Sciences in 2008. She received her B.S. in Mathematics in 2011, earned both the Diplôme d'Ingénieur from the École Polytechnique and a master's degree from Université Paris-Saclay in 2014, and completed her Ph.D. at MIT in 2019. After a postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study, she joined UCLA as Assistant Professor in 2021. She is currently Silver Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, and a permanent Professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES). Her ICM lecture was "Restricted Orthogonal Projections." Ruixiang ZhangRuixiang Zhang earned his B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2008–2012), and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2017. After postdoctoral appointments at the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he joined the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on Fourier analysis, analytic number theory, and additive combinatorics. His ICM lecture was "Where Can Free Waves Concentrate?" Junliang ShenJunliang Shen received his B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2009–2013), and his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in 2018. He served as a C.L.E. Moore Instructor at MIT (2018–2021) before joining Yale University as Assistant Professor in 2021 and being promoted to Associate Professor in 2025. His research interests include Gromov–Witten theory, moduli spaces, and derived algebraic geometry. His ICM lecture was "The Topology of Abelian Fibrations." Ziquan ZhuangZiquan Zhuang earned his B.S. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University (2010–2014), and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2019. He was a C.L.E. Moore Instructor at MIT (2019–2022) and is currently Professor of Mathematics at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on algebraic geometry, particularly singularity theory, the minimal model program, and birational geometry. His ICM lecture was "Local Volumes of klt Singularities and K-Stability." Explore More from ICM 20262026 Fields Medal Winners Announced: Four Mathematicians Honored Where Have Fields Medalists Studied and Worked? ICM 2026 Announces Fields Medal and Major IMU Award Winners The List of Speakers at ICM 2026
ICM 2026 Announces Fields Medal and Major IMU Award Winners
On July 23 (U.S. Eastern Time), the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2026 officially announced the recipients of the Fields Medal, the IMU Abacus Medal, the Chern Medal Award, the IMU Gauss Prize, and the Leelavati Prize. Fields MedalThe Fields Medal is awarded every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and exceptional promise for future accomplishments. To be eligible, a candidate must not have turned 40 before January 1 of the year in which the Congress is held. 2026 Fields MedalistYu Deng is awarded the 2026 Fields Medal for his work in partial differential equations, including the rigorous derivation of the Boltzmann equation from hard-sphere dynamics for rarefied gases, the derivation of wave kinetic equations from nonlinear dispersive systems, and probabilistic approaches to nonlinear Schrödinger dynamics. John Pardon is awarded the 2026 Fields Medal for his achievements in symplectic geometry, including new approaches to virtual fundamental cycles, Fukaya categories of Liouville manifolds and counting holomorphic curves, and for his contributions to other areas of geometry and topology, including group actions on 3-manifolds and knot theory. Jacob Tsimerman is awarded the 2026 Fields Medal for his role in the vast extension of the scope of o-minimal techniques within arithmetic and complex algebraic geometry, including the proof of Griffiths' conjecture on the algebraicity of images of the period maps. Hong Wang is awarded the 2026 Fields Medal for her work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, including applications of multiscale and decoupling techniques to the local smoothing conjecture for the planar wave equation, and major advances in Fourier restriction, Falconer distance sets, Furstenberg sets in the plane, and the Kakeya problem in three dimensions. Read more stories about the 2026 Fields Medalists. IMU Abacus MedalThe IMU Abacus Medal is awarded every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians to recognize outstanding contributions to the mathematical aspects of information sciences, including: All mathematical aspects of computer science, including complexity theory, logic of programming languages, analysis of algorithms, cryptography, computer vision, pattern recognition, information processing and modelling of intelligence, scientific computing and numerical analysis, computational aspects of optimization and control theory, and computer algebra. As with the Fields Medal, recipients must not have turned 40 before January 1 of the Congress year. 2026 Abacus MedalShayan Oveis Gharan is awarded the 2026 IMU Abacus Medal for his landmark contributions to the theory of algorithms, taking the analysis of algorithms beyond combinatorics and probabilistic analysis into the theory of the geometry of polynomials and related topics. This theory has led to deeper understanding of distributions on spanning trees and matroid bases in general. Oveis Gharan’s work improved the approximation of the metric travelling salesperson problem, breaking the limit on the approximation factor in Christofides’ 3/2-algorithm from 50 years ago, and led to a revolution in the understanding of Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithms (proving the Mihail-Vazirani conjecture and giving a self-contained proof that resolved the strongest version of Mason's conjecture) through spectral independence. Chern Medal AwardThe Chern Medal Award is presented every four years during the International Congress of Mathematicians to honor individuals whose lifetime achievements represent the highest level of excellence in mathematics. Established in 2010, the award consists of a medal and a US$500,000 prize. It is open to all living individuals, regardless of age or profession. 2026 Chern Medal AwardGraeme Segal is awarded the 2026 Chern Medal for his visionary mathematical insights that have had an enduring influence in a wide range of fields, including topology, mathematical physics, representation theory and category theory. IMU Gauss PrizeFirst awarded in 2006, the IMU Gauss Prize recognizes mathematicians whose research has had a significant impact beyond mathematics itself, including applications in technology, business, and everyday life. 2026 IMU Gauss PrizeThe Gauss Prize is awarded to Yurii Nesterov for his groundbreaking work on mathematical optimization that provided the theoretical foundation and algorithmic backbone for many numerical and data-driven fields, enabling practical computations that were previously too time-consuming to be feasible. Leelavati PrizeSponsored by Infosys, the Leelavati Prize recognizes outstanding contributions to increasing public appreciation and understanding of mathematics and its importance across diverse areas of human endeavor. The prize was first awarded in 2010. 2026 Leelavati PrizeHannah Fry is one of the foremost global ambassadors for mathematical thinking. She has become a voice for mathematics that resonates far beyond the public audience normally interested in science communication. Through a wide range of media—including books, videos, and television programs—she has used outstanding creativity and originality to translate mathematics into a language of wonder and relevance for the public without diminishing its scope and importance. Explore More from ICM 20262026 Fields Medal Winners Announced: Four Mathematicians Honored Where Have Fields Medalists Studied and Worked? The List of Speakers at ICM 2026
Where Fields Medalists Studied and Worked?
On July 23, the 2026 Fields Medal, widely regarded as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics," was announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM). Four mathematicians were awarded this year's prize: Hong Wang, Yu Deng, John Pardon, and Jacob Tsimerman. Awarded once every four years, the Fields Medal recognizes up to four mathematicians under the age of 40 who have made outstanding contributions to the field. It is widely considered the highest honor in mathematics. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal is awarded to only a handful of recipients and follows a four-year selection cycle. To better understand the global landscape of mathematical talent, WorldHE compiled data on all 67 Fields Medal laureates since the prize was first awarded in 1936, examining both their institutional affiliations at the time of the award and their undergraduate, master's, and doctoral education. Princeton University Has Produced the Most Fields Medal AffiliationsThe data show that Fields Medal winners have been affiliated with 42 institutions at the time of receiving the award. Princeton University ranks first with 9 laureates, followed closely by the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) in France with 8, while the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton ranks third with 7. These three world-renowned research institutions alone account for nearly 30% of all Fields Medal affiliations, demonstrating a remarkable concentration of elite mathematical talent. One of this year's winners, Hong Wang, is a tenured professor of mathematics at IHÉS and the institute's first tenured Chinese faculty member. Founded in 1958, IHÉS is a leading research institute specializing in mathematics, theoretical physics, and related disciplines. Of its current five tenured mathematics professors, three are Fields Medalists: Hong Wang, Maxim Kontsevich, and Hugo Duminil-Copin, who won the Fields Medal in the previous cycle. Another 2026 laureate, Jacob Tsimerman, is the first Fields Medal winner from the University of Toronto and the first Fields Medalist based in Canada. The Fields Medal itself is named after John Charles Fields, a professor at the University of Toronto. At the national level, the United States and France dominate the rankings, together accounting for more than two-thirds of all Fields Medal affiliations. In the United States, Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study form a twin powerhouse of mathematical research. France, meanwhile, has built a strong ecosystem through institutions such as IHÉS, Paris-Saclay University, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), attracting many of the world's leading mathematicians. Notably, looking only at the last ten Fields Medal cycles (1990–2026), IHÉS and the IAS each produced five laureates, overtaking Princeton University (four laureates), with the University of Cambridge following closely behind with three. The global geography of mathematical excellence is becoming increasingly dynamic. University of Cambridge Has Educated the Most Fields MedalistsThe educational backgrounds of Fields Medalists provide another perspective on universities' ability to cultivate mathematical talent. Overall, 60 universities have educated at least one Fields Medal winner. The University of Cambridge ranks first with 14 alumni, maintaining a balanced strength across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral education. Princeton University follows with 13 alumni, including nine doctoral alumni, reflecting its deep tradition in advanced mathematical research training. Lomonosov Moscow State University ranks third with 12 alumni, followed by the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) with 10, while Harvard University rounds out the top five. At the national level, the United States and France continue to lead, with 45 and 28 alumni respectively. The United Kingdom ranks third with 20, while Russia, benefiting from the Soviet Union's long-standing mathematical tradition, ranks among the top tier with 17. Together, these four countries have educated more than 60% of all Fields Medalists. The four recipients of the 2026 Fields Medal are distinguished alumni of Peking University, École Polytechnique, Paris XI University (now Paris-Saclay University), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Princeton University, Stanford University, and the University of Toronto. Hong Wang and Yu Deng were classmates in the 2007 undergraduate cohort of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University. The school has long been known as "the premier department of China's premier university." Among the students who studied there around the early 2000s emerged a remarkable generation of mathematicians, including Chenyang Xu, Ruochuan Liu, Zhiwei Yun, Xinyi Yuan, Wei Zhang, Xinwen Zhu, and Liang Xiao, among others. This cohort has often been celebrated as a legendary "golden generation" of Chinese mathematics. In addition, Shing-Tung Yau, the first ethnic Chinese mathematician to receive the Fields Medal and now a professor at Tsinghua University, earned his bachelor's degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. This year, with Hong Wang and Yu Deng winning the Fields Medal and 12 Peking University alumni invited to present at the International Congress of Mathematicians, one message is unmistakable: mathematical talent trained in China is emerging as an increasingly influential force at the very center of the global mathematical community. Data Notes: Since Grigori Perelman declined the 2006 Fields Medal, he is excluded from the statistics. Institutional affiliations have been standardized where universities have officially changed names or merged; if a historical institution later split into multiple independent universities, the original name has been retained. Alumni statistics are based on attendance rather than degree completion, with each bachelor's, master's, and doctoral enrollment counted separately. If a laureate held appointments at multiple institutions when receiving the award, each institution is counted once. The data were collected manually and are not exhaustive.
WorldHE NS Watch: Three NS Papers a Week Separates the Global Elite
Against the backdrop of intensifying global competition in scientific research, publication output in Nature and Science has become one of the most important indicators of a university's capacity for original innovation and its global academic influence. WorldHE continuously tracks the latest and rolling 12-month publication data from universities worldwide, using Nature and Science output to reveal the evolving landscape of global higher education and scientific research. Click to access the complete university NS publication data. Global University NS Publications: July 13–19, 2026The past week saw a surge in top-journal publications, with 47 universities worldwide publishing papers in Nature or Science. Among them, 21 universities were from the United States and 17 from China Mainland, far outpacing other countries and regions and underscoring the remarkable research momentum of both scientific powerhouses. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) delivered the strongest weekly performance, each publishing four papers in Nature. All four papers from both institutions listed them as the corresponding-author affiliation, highlighting their continued leadership in high-impact research. Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley each published three Nature and Science papers, with all papers listing the universities as both the first-author and corresponding-author institutions, further reinforcing the research leadership of top U.S. universities. Meanwhile, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the University of Copenhagen, Cornell University, Tsinghua University, Stanford University, Zhejiang University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Science and Technology of China, CAS each published two NS papers during the week. Global University NS Rankings: July 19, 2025–July 19, 2026Looking at the past 12 months, 68 universities worldwide have published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science, reflecting increasingly intense competition at the highest level of scientific research. Among the Top 10 universities by combined Nature and Science output, the United States accounts for seven institutions, China Mainland for three, and the United Kingdom for two, forming the current leading tier of global top-journal publishing. Harvard University remains the clear global leader with 143 papers, averaging nearly three Nature and Science papers per week. These included 91 in Nature and 52 in Science. Harvard was the corresponding-author institution on 139 papers, meaning Harvard researchers served as corresponding authors on nearly every publication. The figures underscore the university's exceptional capacity for independent research leadership. Stanford University, with 99 papers, ranked second, followed closely by MIT with 98 papers. Together, the three universities form an elite research cluster approaching or exceeding the 100-paper mark. The University of California, Berkeley ranked fourth with 64 NS papers. Although its total output remains below that of the top three, Berkeley is the only university in the global top 10 to publish more Science papers (35) than Nature papers (29), reflecting its long-established strengths in astrophysics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a university in China Mainland, ranked fifth globally with 54 papers, making it the highest-ranked non-U.S. institution. The University of Cambridge ranked sixth with 46 papers, followed by Tsinghua University in seventh with 45 papers. Peking University and the University of Oxford placed eighth and ninth, respectively. Three U.S. universities—the University of Washington Seattle, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)—tied for tenth place with 36 papers each. US Dominance Continues, China Mainland Strengthens Its PositionBeyond the very top of the rankings, the United States continues to dominate global Nature and Science publishing. Of the 30 universities worldwide with more than 20 NS papers, 18 are based in the United States, accounting for more than half of the total. Universities including Princeton University, Cornell University, and Yale University each consistently produced around 30 NS papers, demonstrating the depth and resilience of the U.S. research ecosystem. Universities in China Mainland have firmly established themselves as the second major force in global top-journal research. A total of 13 universities in China Mainland published more than 10 NS papers over the past year, with overall output significantly surpassing that of traditional research powers such as the United Kingdom and Germany. This sustained performance is underpinned by China's continued investment in research and development, with China ranking second globally in R&D expenditure. Global Research Shifts Toward a US–China-Led LandscapeEurope continues to maintain a broad and highly diverse research ecosystem, with universities across the continent making important contributions to Nature and Science. However, Europe still lacks a single institution capable of matching the publication scale and research leadership of Harvard or MIT. The latest data suggest that the global research landscape is undergoing a structural transformation—from a U.S.–Europe bipolar model toward a system led primarily by the United States and China, with Europe playing a complementary role. Methodology For Nature, only publications classified as Article and Review Article were included. For Science, the analysis includes Research Article, Special-Issue Research Article, and Review. Only the physically affiliated first author was counted as the first author. All corresponding-author affiliations were included, with each affiliated institution counted once. If the first-author institution and the corresponding-author institution were the same, the publication was counted only once for that institution. Only formally published articles were included in the analysis. Advance online publications and papers in pre-publication status were excluded.
Judge Blocks Trump's Blanket Justification for Cutting Grants
A federal judge in Boston ruled on Friday, July 17, that the Trump administration cannot rely on a White House budget office regulation to cancel billions of dollars in federal grants simply because the programs no longer align with the president's priorities. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, granted summary judgment in favor of a coalition of 20 states, the District of Columbia, and the governors of Kansas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. The lawsuit, led by the attorneys general of New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York, targeted the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), OMB Director Russell Vought, and eleven federal grant-making agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Agriculture, and Homeland Security, the EPA, FEMA, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The case centered on a "Termination Clause" in federal regulations — a provision added in 2020 during Trump's first term and later revised under the Biden administration — that allows agencies to end a grant if it no longer serves current program goals or agency priorities. Since returning to office, the Trump administration had cited that clause repeatedly to cancel grants it associated with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and climate-related programs, triggering a wave of related litigation nationwide. Judge Talwani found that the clause does not give agencies authority to terminate grants based on priorities identified only after the awards were already made. The plaintiff states said $5.4 billion in existing grants had been at risk, on top of funding already cut from universities, crime-prevention programs, and school lunch initiatives. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said the ruling put an end to the administration's weak justification for the cuts, while New York Attorney General Letitia James also criticized the funding terminations. Not every recent ruling has gone against the administration, however. In a separate case decided the same week, U.S. District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan — a Trump appointee — declined to order the National Science Foundation to restore STEM diversity grants canceled since April, ruling that such claims belonged before the Court of Federal Claims rather than his court. The rulings add to a broader pattern of legal battles over the administration's efforts to reshape federal research and grant funding, with outcomes so far varying depending on the court and the specific legal theory at issue.
US-China Research Papers Down 40%
Recently, Nature reported that on July 15, U.S. Republican Representative John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, chaired a congressional hearing on U.S. research funding. The hearing came just one week after the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a new policy prohibiting NSF-funded American scientists from collaborating with international institutions that the federal government has designated as posing a threat to U.S. national security—a list that includes several of China's leading universities. During the hearing, Moolenaar praised the NSF's new policy and urged other U.S. research agencies represented at the hearing to adopt similar restrictions. By contrast, representatives from other agencies took a more cautious stance. Officials from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE) said their agencies are reviewing the NSF's approach, while emphasizing that both organizations already have their own research security oversight mechanisms in place. Democrats argued that although scientific collaboration with China carries legitimate risks, the Trump administration's cuts to staffing and funding at U.S. research agencies are making the situation worse. Rebecca Keiser, head of the NSF's Office of Research Security Policy and Strategy, confirmed during the hearing that her office currently has only five staff members, down from ten in 2024, before President Trump took office. Over the past two decades, as China's global influence has grown, scientific cooperation between the United States and China has become increasingly strained. During Trump's first term, the administration launched the controversial China Initiative, under which a number of Chinese American scholars were arrested. Many of those cases were later dropped or dismissed. In Trump's second term, Republicans have adopted an even more aggressive stance toward limiting scientific cooperation with China. They have repeatedly called on the Department of Energy to prohibit ethnically Chinese researchers who are not U.S. citizens from working at U.S. national laboratories. Last year, Moolenaar attempted to advance the SAFE Research Act, but the bill failed to pass. The proposed legislation would have barred federal research funding for U.S. researchers who had collaborated within the previous five years with scientists affiliated with Chinese entities designated as "restricted." Growing political pressure in the United States is already having a tangible impact on U.S.–China scientific collaboration. A Nature analysis found that between 2020 and 2025, the number of preprints and research papers co-authored by U.S. and Chinese researchers and funded by the DOE, NIH, or NSF declined by approximately 40%. A genetics researcher at Guilin Medical University said that most U.S. researchers he knows who previously collaborated with Chinese partners have now scaled back or ended those partnerships. As a result, there are now virtually no active U.S.–China collaborative projects in his field. Chinese scientists, however, continue to maintain strong research partnerships with colleagues in Europe and other regions. Steven Kivelson, a physicist at Stanford University, warned that policies such as the NSF's would sever productive international collaborations and ultimately harm the development of fundamental research in the United States, while being unlikely to achieve their intended objectives. As he put it: "So this notion that having Chinese nationals coming to US campuses opens us up to intellectual-property theft is just completely wrong."
British Academy Elects 92 New Fellows for 2026
July 17, 92 distinguished scholars have been elected to the British Academy’s Fellowship in 2026 in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences. This year’s newly elected Fellows come from 28 universities across the United Kingdom, alongside 32 International Fellows and two Honorary Fellows who have been elected in recognition of their exceptional achievements in law and international affairs. The new Fellows of the British Academy represent a broad spectrum of expertise from macroeconomics and art history to ancient Greek philosophy and environmental archaeology. They join a community of over 1,800 scholars who share a commitment to advancing the humanities and social sciences. Professor Susan J. Smith PBA, President of the British Academy, said: “I am delighted to welcome our newest Fellows to the British Academy. Each has made an outstanding contribution to their field, and together they reflect the remarkable breadth and depth of scholarship across our disciplines.” "At a time when society is grappling with radical uncertainty in the face of technological, economic and environmental change, the humanities and social sciences have never been more important. Insights from economics, geography and political studies help us navigate geopolitical tensions, while literature, history and philosophy – to name a few of the disciplines the Academy represents – fuel our creative industries and help people to better understand themselves and each other.” The full list of new British Academy Fellows for 2026 is: Professor Lila Abu-Lughod FBA, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Department of Anthropology and Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender, Columbia UniversityProfessor Neil Adger FBA, Professor of Human Geography, University of ExeterProfessor Seema Alavi FBA, Professor at the Department of History, Ashoka UniversityProfessor Jo Applin FBA, Professor at the Courtauld Institute of ArtProfessor John Arnold FBA, Professor of Medieval History, University of CambridgeProfessor Alfredo J. Artiles FBA, Lee L. Jack Professor of Education at Stanford UniversityProfessor Manuel Barcia FBA, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement at the University of BathProfessor David Barnett FBA, Professor of Theatre, University of YorkProfessor Mia Bay FBA, Paul Mellon Professor of American History, University of CambridgeProfessor Matthew Bell FBA, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, King’s College LondonProfessor Sonia Bhalotra FBA, Professor of Economics, University of WarwickProfessor Sandra Black FBA, Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Texas at AustinProfessor Katherine Brickell FBA, Professor of Urban Studies and Associate Dean for Impact and Innovation, King’s College LondonProfessor Antony Brown FBA, Professor at the Tromsø University Museum, Arctic University of NorwayProfessor Jill Burke FBA, Chair of Renaissance Visual and Material Culture, University of EdinburghProfessor Eamonn Carrabine FBA, Professor of Sociology, University of EssexProfessor Rebecca Cassidy FBA, William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of CambridgeMr Hassoum Ceesay ORG FBA, Director General, National Centre for Arts and Culture, The GambiaDr Brett Christophers FBA, Professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala UniversityProfessor Deborah Cohen FBA, Leopold Professor of History and Director at the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern UniversityProfessor Chantal Conneller FBA, Professor of Early Prehistory, Newcastle UniversityProfessor Adam Crawford FAcSS FBA, Professor of Policing & Social Justice, University of York; Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Leeds; Deputy Associate Dean for Research (Impact & Engagement), University of York; Co-Director of the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, Universities of York and LeedsDr Kimberlé Crenshaw FBA, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and Distinguished Professor of Law and the Promise Institute Chair on Human Rights at UCLA School of LawProfessor Joy Damousi AM FAHA FASSA FBA, Dean of Arts and Director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversityProfessor Nandini Das FBA, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Exeter College, University of Oxford.Professor Lorraine Dearden FAcSS FBA, Professor of Economics and Social Statistics, University College LondonProfessor Nicola Dibben FBA, Professor of Music, University of SheffieldProfessor Zoltan Dienes FBA, Professor of Psychology, University of SussexProfessor Dimo Dimov FBA, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of BathProfessor Karen Douglas FBA, Professor of Social Psychology, University of KentProfessor Anne Duprat FBA, Professor at Université de Picardie Jules Verne and Senior Member of Institut universitaire de FranceProfessor Carolin Duttlinger FBA, Professor of German Literature and Culture, University of Oxford, and Ockenden Fellow in German, Wadham College OxfordProfessor Paula England FBA, Dean of Social Science and Professor at New York University, Abu DhabiProfessor Jane Falkingham FAcSS FBA CBE, Director, ESRC Centre for Population Change, and Vice President (Engagement & International) at the University of SouthamptonProfessor Elizabeth Fisher FBA, Professor of Environmental Law, Faculty of Law and Corpus Christi College, University of OxfordProfessor Judy Fudge FRSC FBA, Professor Emeritus, McMaster UniversityProfessor Dorian Fuller FLS FSA FBA, Professor of Archaeobotany, University College LondonDr Michele Gelfand FBA, The John H Scully Professor in Cross-Cultural Management and Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Stanford Graduate School of Business; Professor of Psychology by courtesy at Stanford UniversityProfessor Robert Gleave FBA, Professor of Arabic Studies, University of ExeterProfessor Haneda Masashi FBA, Emeritus Professor, the University of Tokyo, President at the Toyota Foundation, and President, Mishima Kaiun Memorial FoundationProfessor Susan Harrow FBA, Ashley Watkins Chair of French Language and Literature, University of BristolDr Fiona Hill CMG FRSA HonFBA, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Chancellor at Durham University (Honorary)Professor Kirsty Hooper FBA, Professor of Hispanic Studies, University of WarwickProfessor Christopher Insole FBA, Professor of Philosophical Theology and Ethics, Durham UniversityProfessor David R. M. Irving FAHA FRHistS FBA, ICREA Research Professor in Musicology at the Institució Milà i Fontanals de Recerca en Humanitats, CSICProfessor John Jackson FBA, Emeritus Professor of Comparative Criminal Law & Procedure, University of NottinghamProfessor Mark Jackson FBA, Professor of the History of Medicine, University of ExeterProfessor Will Jennings FBA, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences, University of Southampton and Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Social Sciences, University of SouthamptonLady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, The Right Honourable Dame Siobhan Keegan DBE KC HonFBAProfessor Roshini Kempadoo FBA, Media Artist and Photographer and Professor of Photography and Visual Culture at the University of WestminsterProfessor Anna Korhonen FBA, Professor of Natural Language Processing, University of CambridgeProfessor Miriam Leonard FBA, Professor of Greek Literature and its Reception, University College LondonProfessor Stephan Lewandowsky FBA, Professor of Cognitive Science, University of BristolProfessor Béatrice Longuenesse AAAS FBA, Julius Silver Professor, Professor of Philosophy Emerita, New York UniversityProfessor Morwenna Ludlow FBA, Professor of Christian History and Theology, University of ExeterProfessor Celia Lury FBA, Professor at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of WarwickProfessor John Ma FBA, Professor of Classics, Columbia UniversityProfessor N. Gregory Mankiw FBA, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics, Harvard UniversityProfessor Lutz Marten FBA, Professor of General and African Linguistics, SOAS University of LondonProfessor Anita McGahan FBA, University Professor and George E. Connell Professor of Organisations and Society, University of TorontoProfessor Benjamin Moll FBA, Sir John Hicks Chair and Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political ScienceDr Miranda Morris FBA, Independent ResearcherProfessor Mark Olssen FAcSS FRSA FBA, Emeritus Professor of Political Theory and Higher Education Policy, University of SurreyProfessor Patricia Owens FBA, Professor of International Relations, University of OxfordProfessor Richard Pettigrew FBA, Professor of Philosophy, University of BristolDr Mary Louise Pratt FBA, Silver Professor Emerita, New York University and Olive H. Palmer Professor of Humanities, Emerita, Stanford UniversityProfessor Lucia Prauscello FBA, Senior Research Fellow, All Soul College, OxfordProfessor Ronit Ricci FBA, Sternberg-Tamir Chair in Comparative Cultures, Hebrew University of JerusalemProfessor Stephanie Rickard FBA, Professor of Political Economy, London School of EconomicsProfessor Joel Robbins FBA, Sigrid Rausing Professor of Social Anthropology, University of CambridgeProfessor Hartmut Rosa FBA, Full Professor of Sociology and Social Theory at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena and Germany Director of the Max-Weber-Centre, University of ErfurtProfessor Elinor Saiegh-Haddad FBA, Full Professor, Bar-Ilan UniversityProfessor Pamela Sammons PRSA FBA, Professor (Emeritus) of Education, University of OxfordProfessor Salvatore Settis FBA, Emeritus Professor of the History of Classical Art and Archaeology at the Scuola Normale SuperioreProfessor Nicholas Shea FBA, Professor of Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of LondonProfessor Jackie Stacey FBA, Professor of Cultural Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture, University of ManchesterProfessor Robert Stam FBA, University Professor (equivalent of Distinguished Profesor) New York UniversityProfessor Chloë Starr FBA, Professor of Asian Christianity and Theology, Yale UniversityProfessor Emma Tarlo FBA, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of LondonProfessor Joshua Tenenbaum FBA, Whitehead Professor of Computational Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyProfessor Stephen Tierney KC (HON) FRSE FBA, Professor of Constitutional Theory, Edinburgh School of Law, University of EdinburghProfessor Elizabeth Tyler FBA, Professor of Medieval Literature, Department of English and Related Literature, University of YorkProfessor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen FLSW FBA, Professor, School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff UniversityProfessor James Warren FBA, Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Corpus Christi CollegeProfessor Lisa Wedeen FBA, Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College, The University of ChicagoProfessor James Q. Whitman FBA, Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law, Yale UniversityProfessor Jane Whittle FBA, Professor of Economic and Social History, University of ExeterProfessor James Williams FBA, Professor of Modern French Literature and Film, Royal Holloway, University of LondonProfessor Anders Winroth FBA, Professor of History, University of OsloProfessor Youngjin Yoo FBA, Professor of Management, The London School of Economics and Political ScienceProfessor Hirokazu Yoshikawa FBA, Courtney Sale Ross Professor of Globalization and Education and University Professor, New York UniversityProfessor Noam Yuchtman FREcon FBA, Hayek Professor of Political Economy, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political ScienceAbout the British AcademyFounded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It is a Fellowship consisting of over 1,800 world-leading leading scholars in these subjects from the UK and overseas. Current Fellows include the classicist Professor Dame Mary Beard, the historian and China expert Professor Rana Mitter and philosopher Professor Baroness Onora O’Neill, while previous Fellows include Dame Frances Yates, Sir Winston Churchill, Seamus Heaney and Beatrice Webb. The Academy is also a funder of both national and international research, as well as a forum for debate and public engagement.
UK Universities Cut Nearly 4,000 Humanities, Social Science Jobs
A new British Academy analysis of official workforce data reveals that financial strain across the UK higher education sector is now reaching well beyond traditionally vulnerable subjects, pulling business studies, law and English into the wave of cuts. Britain's universities eliminated close to 4,000 academic positions in the social sciences, humanities and arts over the twelve months to December 2024, according to a new British Academy analysis prepared for The Guardian. The breakdown shows roughly 3,000 social science posts, 820 humanities posts and 240 arts posts disappeared in that period alone. Nearly all of the losses — all but around 110 positions — occurred outside the elite Russell Group — a coalition of the UK's leading research-intensive universities — concentrating the impact on students at less selective institutions and raising concerns about widening inequality in subject access. Social work suffered the steepest proportional decline at nine percent, followed closely by English and classics, each down eight percent, with anthropology and linguistics also posting significant losses. In raw numbers, business and management — a field that also captures accounting, finance, hospitality, HR and marketing — lost the most posts of any subject area, shedding roughly 930 jobs, a five percent drop in just one year. Education and social work combined lost close to 1,000 positions, while English lost 440, media and journalism 235, performing arts 230, languages 225 and law 215. British Academy chief executive Hetan Shah framed the findings as extending far beyond campus budgets, warning that the damage touches social mobility, the career prospects of young people and the skill base the wider economy depends on. He noted that pressure once confined to the humanities and arts has now spread into subjects like English and business, and is increasingly being felt even at Russell Group institutions. The analysis also mapped growing regional "cold spots," where entire subject areas are becoming effectively inaccessible outside a handful of highly selective universities. Language degrees with below-average entry requirements have all but vanished from the south-west, north and east of England and the East Midlands, while cuts to language staff and course closures have clustered in the south-east. More than 1,000 additional job losses have been proposed at Russell Group universities including Exeter, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow — a trend the report warns will deepen these cold spots further. Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, described the humanities as being systematically eliminated by university leadership nationwide, and called for emergency government intervention to halt the decline of Britain's universities. Universities UK chief executive Vivienne Stern acknowledged that acute financial pressure is forcing institutions into difficult staffing decisions. Shah urged policymakers to treat the findings as a warning sign, arguing that continued erosion of these disciplines threatens not only student choice but also the research base that underpins Britain's economy, democratic institutions and international standing.
WorldHE NS Watch: US Dominance Meets China's Rise
Publication output in Nature and Science has become one of the clearest indicators of a university's research strength, original innovation and global academic influence. WorldHE tracks the latest and rolling 12-month Nature and Science publication data of universities worldwide, offering a real-time view of the changing global research landscape. Click to access the complete university NS publication data. Weekly Global University NS PublicationsBetween July 6 and July 12, 2026, a total of 33 universities worldwide published papers in Nature or Science. The United States accounted for 11 universities, while China Mainland contributed six—well ahead of other countries and regions and highlighting the strength of research output in both major scientific powers. Harvard University was the standout performer of the week, publishing two papers in Nature and two in Science. Harvard was listed as both the first-author and corresponding-author institution on all four papers. The research covered HSPC transplantation, large language models in social and behavioural science, dendritic cells and targeted protein degradation. The breadth of the research highlights Harvard's strength at the intersection of life sciences and AI, as well as its ability to lead research across the full innovation chain. MIT and Stanford University each published two Nature papers and one Science paper, further reinforcing the dominance of leading U.S. universities in top-journal research. Global University NS Rankings: The Past 12 MonthsThe longer-term data reveal an increasingly competitive global research landscape. Between July 12, 2025 and July 12, 2026, 69 universities worldwide published at least 10 papers in Nature or Science. Among the Top 10 universities by combined Nature and Science output, the United States accounts for six institutions, China Mainland for three, and the United Kingdom for two. Harvard University ranks first globally with 141 papers, including 88 in Nature and 53 in Science. Harvard was the corresponding-author institution on 137 papers, highlighting its exceptional capacity for independent research leadership. Stanford University ranked second with 99 papers, followed by MIT with 95. Together with Harvard, the three universities form an elite research cluster approaching or exceeding the 100-paper mark. The University of California, Berkeley ranked fourth with 62 NS papers. Berkeley is one of the few universities in the global top 10 to publish more Science papers than Nature papers, with 34 compared with 28. The balance reflects the university's traditional strengths in astrophysics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked fifth globally with 53 papers, making it the highest-ranked non-U.S. university. Tsinghua University and the University of Cambridge tied for sixth with 45 papers each. Peking University ranked eighth with 41 papers. The University of Oxford, University of California, San Francisco, and University of Washington Seattle completed the next three positions. The United States continues to dominate global Nature and Science publishing beyond the very top of the rankings. Of the 31 universities with more than 20 NS papers over the past year, 18 are based in the United States. Universities including UCLA, Princeton University and Cornell University each produced more than 30 papers in Nature and Science, demonstrating the depth and consistency of U.S. research output. Universities in China Mainland have firmly established themselves as the second major force in global top-journal research. A total of 13 universities in China Mainland published more than 10 NS papers over the past year. Their combined output has moved significantly ahead of traditional research powers such as the United Kingdom and Germany. This performance is supported by China's sustained investment in research and development. China ranks second globally in R&D expenditure. Europe continues to offer a broad and diverse research ecosystem, with universities across the continent making significant contributions to Nature and Science. However, Europe currently lacks a single institution operating at the scale of Harvard or MIT. The latest data point to a structural shift in global research power—from a U.S.–Europe bipolar model toward a landscape led primarily by the United States and China, with Europe playing a supporting role. Methodology For Nature, only publications classified as Article and Review Article were included. For Science, the analysis includes Research Article, Special-Issue Research Article, and Review. Only the physically affiliated first author was counted as the first author. All corresponding-author affiliations were included, with each affiliated institution counted once. If the first-author institution and the corresponding-author institution were the same, the publication was counted only once for that institution. Only formally published articles were included in the analysis. Advance online publications and papers in pre-publication status were excluded.
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