Five Years Of The Asian Scientist 100 (2016-2020)

Science is booming across Asia. Combined, the region accounted for around 44 percent of global research and development (R&D) spending in 2016, with China, Japan, South Korea and India leading the pack. Fueled by the meteoric rise of China, as well as smaller countries like Singapore and Vietnam, the region has also witnessed a significant growth in the number of papers published in the world’s most prestigious journals. Yet, even until now, international visibility of the Asian scientific landscape and the researchers driving its development remains diminished.

To fill this gap and give scientists in Asia much-needed recognition, the Asian Scientist 100, an annual listing of the region’s scientific superstars, was launched in 2016. This white paper, written as COVID-19 rapidly spread across the world in 2020, draws on five years of celebrating Asia’s best and brightest and takes a deep dive into their remarkable stories of discovery and innovation.

As the world’s scientific center of gravity shifts towards Asia, this report also seeks to examine Asian research in five sub-sectors: agricultural and environmental sciences; biomedical sciences; chemistry and materials sciences; engineering; and physics and mathematics.