The Australian's 2026 Research Magazine recognises outstanding researchers at the University of Sydney including 21 researchers named as leaders in their respective fields nationally.

Now in its eighth year, the magazine identifies the top research performers and institutions in 250 fields in Australia.  

The University of Sydney ranks as the top research institution in Australia in 21 research fields. 

Quoted in the magazine, Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said:  

“Australian universities punch above their weight in research. Australia is only 0.3 percent of the world’s population, but we do three percent of the world’s research – and that includes Nobel-level research.”

Notably the University secured both top institution and top researcher nationally in eight fields:

• Power Engineering (Professor Joe Zhu)
• Transportation (Professor David Hensher) 
• Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Professor Jacob George )
• Pathology (Professor Anthony Gill )
• Physical Education & Sports Medicine (Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis)
• Primary Health Care (Professor Barbara Mintzes) 
• Literature and Writing (Professor John Frow)
• Health Policy and Medical Law (Dr Karen Lee). 

In a new feature the magazine also used artificial intelligence analysis of research papers over five years to identify which Australian universities are providing the most research support to achieving the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. 

The feature quotes the University’s  Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost,   Professor Annamarie Jagose: 

“Research intensive, comprehensive universities like Sydney have a really strong ethical obligation to ensure that Australia is making a decent and equitable contribution to the sustainable development goals.” 

The University is named as one of the top five Australian universities supporting the UN SDG goals of:  No poverty (SDG 1), Zero hunger (SDG 2), Gender equality (SDG 5), Reduced inequalities (SDG 10) and Life on land (SDG 15). 

The University of Sydney is named as the leading research institution nationally in the following 21 fields of research. 

•  Power Engineering 
•  Transportation 
•  Bioethics 
•  Gastroenterology & Hepatology 
•  Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine 
•  Obesity 
•  Pain & Pain Management 
•  Pathology 
•  Physical Education & Sports Medicine 
•  Primary Health Care 
•  Public Health 
•  Radiology & Medical Imaging 
•  Transplantation 
•  Urology & Nephrology 
•  Veterinary Medicine 
•  Literature & Writing 
•  Biophysics 
•  Mycology 
•  Mathematical Optimisation 
•  Physics & Mathematics (general) 
•  Health Policy & Medical Law

These 21 University of Sydney researchers are named as the Australian leaders in the following fields of research:

•  Inorganic Chemistry – Professor Deanna D'Alessandro
•  Computing Systems – Professor Albert Zomaya
•  Power Engineering – Professor Joe Zhu
•  Textile Engineering – Dr Milad Razbin
•  Transportation – Professor David Hensher
•  Gastroenterology & Hepatology – Professor Jacob George
•  Heart & Thoracic Surgery – Professor Paul Bannon
•  Nursing – Professor Debra Jackson
•  Pathology – Professor Anthony Gill
•  Physical Education & Sports Medicine – Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis
•  Primary Health Care – Professor Barbara Mintzes
•  Psychology – Dr Kit Double
•  History – Professor Warwick Anderson
•  Literature & Writing – Professor John Frow
•  Sex & Sexuality – Professor Alan McKee
•  Animal Husbandry – Professor Peter Selle
•  Soil Sciences – Professor Budiman Minasny
•  Algebra – Professor Kevin Coulembier
•  Education – Dr Lisa Kim
•  Health Policy & Medical Law – Dr Karen Lee  
•  Science & Engineering Education – Professor Annette Burgess

 The 2026 Research Magazine is produced by The Australian and its partner League of Scholars. 

Methodology: 

The Top 250 research leaders are created by giving Australian researcher and every Australian university or research organisation an impact score based on their research output in each of 250 fields of research. The score is equal to the number of citations for papers published – by the individual and the institution – in the top 20 journals of each field over the past five years. The score is designed to reward research quality, impact and volume.

Publicly available information on Google Scholar is used.