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Subfield · Physics and Astronomy

Acoustics and Ultrasonics research

Acoustics and Ultrasonics is a subfield of Physics and Astronomy. Science Explorer counts 11k research works in it since 1951. 16.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound.

Research works
11k
fractional, since 1951
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
16.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+39%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Acoustics and Ultrasonics research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, China and the United States rank highest in Acoustics and Ultrasonics. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1k and 305 works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China · #2 all time 17.2% top 10% · 1k works
  2. 2 United States · #1 all time 16.3% top 10% · 304 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 2 countries ranked in Acoustics and Ultrasonics. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Acoustics and Ultrasonics

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 1k works
  2. 2 United States 305 works
  3. 3 France 111 works
  4. 4 Germany 86 works
  5. 5 Japan 85 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 85 works
  7. 7 Russia 80 works
  8. 8 India 76 works
  9. 9 Italy 57 works
  10. 10 South Korea 51 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 52.6%United States: 15.4%France: 5.6%Germany: 4.4%6 others listed: 22.0%53%largest
China1,039 · 52.6%United States305 · 15.4%France111 · 5.6%Germany86 · 4.4%6 others listed434 · 22.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Acoustics and Ultrasonics research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Beijing Institute of Technology publishes the most Acoustics and Ultrasonics research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 36 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 28 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 25 works
  4. 4 Tsinghua UniversityChina 24 works
  5. 5 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 22 works
  6. 6 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong 21 works
  7. 7 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 20 works
  8. 8 University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 20 works
  9. 9 Zhejiang UniversityChina 19 works
  10. 10 Sichuan UniversityChina 18 works

Who are the leading researchers in Acoustics and Ultrasonics?

Among the most productive authors in Acoustics and Ultrasonics, David R. Smith, J. B. Pendry and Hans Christian Andersen rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 David R. Smith United States · #94 worldwide 6.3k citations · 145 works
  2. 2 J. B. Pendry United Kingdom · #926 worldwide 3.5k citations · 121 works
  3. 3 Hans Christian Andersen United States · #1,224 worldwide 3k citations · 86 works
  4. 4 Richard G. Baraniuk United States · #1,264 worldwide 4.4k citations · 213 works
  5. 5 N. Bloembergen United States · #2,137 worldwide 1.9k citations · 106 works
  6. 6 Willie J. Padilla United States · #2,226 worldwide 2.4k citations · 79 works
  7. 7 Michael Berry United Kingdom · #2,317 worldwide 2.1k citations · 148 works
  8. 8 Samuel D. Stranks United Kingdom · #2,760 worldwide 2.7k citations · 81 works
  9. 9 David A. B. Miller United States · #2,992 worldwide 2.8k citations · 227 works
  10. 10 Jón Atli Benediktsson Iceland · #3,544 worldwide 2.7k citations · 151 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 3,107 highest-output authors in Acoustics and Ultrasonics. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Acoustics and Ultrasonics researchers

Where is Acoustics and Ultrasonics research done?

The largest centres of Acoustics and Ultrasonics research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Taiyuan and Hefei.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 219 works
  2. 2 Shanghai China 79 works
  3. 3 Nanjing China 62 works
  4. 4 Paris France 54 works
  5. 5 Hangzhou China 53 works
  6. 6 Xi'an China 51 works
  7. 7 Hefei China 50 works
  8. 8 Chengdu China 50 works
  9. 9 Changsha China 42 works
  10. 10 Guangzhou China 38 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. TaiyuanCN · 26.0 works6.5×
  2. HefeiCN · 49.9 works5.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Acoustics and Ultrasonics than the world average.

See Acoustics and Ultrasonics on the map

Acoustics and Ultrasonics research by country

The best places for Acoustics and Ultrasonics research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Acoustics and Ultrasonics?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Beijing Institute of Technology and Hefei University of Technology score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 24.85%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechnic University: 21, 34.0%Beijing Institute of Technology: 36, 15.8%Hefei University of Technology: 12, 37.6%National University of Defense Technology: 22, 13.9%Tsinghua University: 24, 27.9%Shandong Normal University: 11, 23.6%University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: 25, 21.9%University of Glasgow: 11, 23.3%Taiyuan University of Technology: 9, 31.6%École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: 10, 18.9%Hefei University of …Hong Kong Polytechni…Beijing Institute of…National University …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong 89.534.0%10.1×21 +521.0%
2 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 73.015.8%12.8×36 +288.1%
3 Hefei University of TechnologyChina 64.237.6%9.1×12 —
4 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 63.113.9%11.7×22 +434.1%
5 Tsinghua UniversityChina 62.027.9%5.2×24 +256.6%
6 Shandong Normal UniversityChina 62.023.6%19.1×11 +177.0%
7 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 61.221.9%6.4×25 +268.1%
8 University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom 57.523.3%7.8×11 +180.4%
9 Taiyuan University of TechnologyChina 57.231.6%9.6×9 —
10 École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland 56.418.9%10.4×10 +83.2%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Acoustics and Ultrasonics research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 39% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Random lasers and scattering media.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

What does Acoustics and Ultrasonics include?