The Top 100

Researchers active on the twin prime conjecture, bounded gaps between primes, and prime pair sieve theory

Table Details

Columns

# overall rank (lower is better)
Name the researcher
Institution current affiliation
Ctry country
aX arXiv rank
OA OpenAlex rank
zM zbMATH rank
h h-index (citation impact)
Source databases that list them
YSP years since PhD (2026 minus the Math Genealogy PhD year; a dash when the PhD year is not known)

How it works. arXiv, OpenAlex and zbMATH each rank a researcher; the three ranks merge into one, weighted toward each person's strongest. Recent work counts more. Lower is better. Click any header to sort. A rank in [brackets] is an estimate, not measured. Full method.

#	Name	Institution		aX	OA	zM	h	Source	YSP
1	Janos Pintz	Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics	HU	2	5	2	26	all_three	50
2	Kaisa Matomäki	University of Turku	FI	1	9	35	16	all_three	17
3	Daniel A. Goldston	San Jose State University	US	8	15	9	21	all_three	45
4	Terence Tao	University of California, Los Angeles	US	3	17	40	101	all_three	30
5	Henryk Iwaniec	Rutgers University	US	[38]	[71]	3	50	zb_only	54
6	Joni Teräväinen	University of Cambridge	GB	4	19	147	9	all_three	8
7	K. Soundararajan	Stanford University	US	11	38	76	33	all_three	28
8	John B. Friedlander	University of Toronto	CA	67	73	4	34	all_three	54
9	Alessandro Languasco	University of Padua	IT	9	30	113	12	all_three	30
10	Paul Pollack	University of Georgia	US	19	41	32	13	all_three	18
11	Runbo Li	The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China	CN	17	32	[59]	-	arx+oa	-
12	D. R. Heath-Brown	University of Oxford	GB	86	62	6	45	all_three	47
13	William D. Banks	University of Missouri	US	13	42	77	21	all_three	32
14	James Maynard	University of Oxford	GB	16	103	21	11	all_three	13
15	Harold G. Diamond	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	US	[37]	[72]	16	19	zb_only	61
16	Glyn Harman	Royal Holloway University of London	GB	[40]	133	7	19	oa+zb	44
17	Etienne Fouvry	Université Paris-Saclay	FR	[37]	[72]	17	28	zb_only	45
18	Kevin Ford	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	US	18	[83]	30	-	arx+zb	32
19	Alessandro Zaccagnini	University of Parma	IT	10	57	103	14	all_three	32
20	Ofir Gorodetsky	Technion - Israel Institute of Technology	IL	14	77	[56]	5	arx+oa	5
21	Vivian Kuperberg	ETH Zurich	CH	15	26	146	3	all_three	4
22	Stephan Baier	Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute	IN	43	138	12	14	all_three	26
23	M. Ram Murty	Queen's University	CA	[41]	169	11	25	oa+zb	46
24	Giovanni Coppola	University of Salerno	IT	[28]	31	65	6	oa+zb	-
25	Carl Pomerance	Dartmouth College	US	75	136	8	39	all_three	54
26	Yoichi Motohashi	Nihon University	JP	78	[82]	15	19	arx+zb	-
27	Jie Wu	Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne	FR	47	85	24	19	all_three	36
28	Brad Rodgers	Queen's University	CA	20	106	[57]	8	arx+oa	13
29	Olivier Ramaré	Aix-Marseille Université	FR	[37]	[73]	31	15	zb_only	35
30	Yu-Chen Sun	University of Turku	FI	21	[92]	[64]	-	arxiv_only	-
31	Hugh Lowell Montgomery	University of Michigan	US	[37]	[73]	33	32	zb_only	54
32	Cem Yalçın Yıldırım	Boğaziçi University	TR	32	76	50	2	all_three	36
33	Chaohua Jia	Chinese Academy of Sciences	CN	[37]	[74]	36	11	zb_only	39
34	Andrew Granville	Université de Montréal	CA	66	87	27	32	all_three	39
35	Jean-Louis Nicolas	University of Lyon	FR	[37]	[74]	38	16	zb_only	57
36	Adolf Hildebrand	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	US	[37]	[74]	39	19	zb_only	43
37	Alberto Perelli	University of Genoa	IT	[33]	84	41	20	oa+zb	50
38	Tsz Ho Chan	Case Western Reserve University	US	[26]	49	[50]	8	oa_only	24
39	Jörg Brüdern	University of Göttingen	DE	[32]	[74]	46	19	zb_only	38
40	Michael Th. Rassias	Hellenic Military Academy	GR	44	61	[56]	24	arx+oa	12
41	Jori Merikoski	University of Helsinki	FI	23	113	108	2	all_three	5
42	Stephan Ramon Garcia	Pomona College	US	42	98	[56]	27	arx+oa	23
43	Jesse Thorner	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	US	41	[92]	[64]	9	arxiv_only	10
44	Emmanuel Kowalski	ETH Zurich	CH	[32]	[73]	53	29	zb_only	28
45	Lior Bary-Soroker	Tel Aviv University	IL	33	171	[54]	10	arx+oa	18
46	Hao Pan	Nanjing University of Finance and Economics	CN	37	112	70	17	all_three	20
47	Adrian Dudek	University of Queensland	AU	26	101	140	5	all_three	10
48	Roger C. Baker	Brigham Young University	US	116	160	19	34	all_three	55
49	Fred B. Holt	Independent	US	38	[84]	99	6	arx+zb	30
50	Valeriia Starichkova	UNSW Canberra	AU	45	[92]	[64]	2	arxiv_only	3
51	Xuancheng Shao	University of Kentucky	US	22	108	167	10	all_three	12
52	J. P. Keating	University of Oxford	GB	27	200	[77]	40	arx+oa	37
53	Will Sawin	Princeton University	US	39	163	[56]	10	arx+oa	10
54	Tristan Freiberg	University of Waterloo	CA	31	100	136	4	all_three	16
55	Alina Carmen Cojocaru	University of Illinois Chicago	US	[34]	[73]	60	14	zb_only	24
56	Helmut Maier	Universität Ulm	DE	96	71	47	18	all_three	45
57	Hongze Li	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	CN	[34]	[73]	63	-	zb_only	36
58	Mithun Kumar Das	National Institute of Science Education and Research Bhubaneswar	IN	50	132	[56]	-	arx+oa	5
59	D. Bazzanella	Politecnico di Torino	IT	[34]	[73]	66	-	zb_only	30
60	Doychin Tolev	Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"	BG	[34]	[74]	68	10	zb_only	25
61	Robert J. Lemke Oliver	University of Wisconsin-Madison	US	51	161	[54]	11	arx+oa	13
62	Douglas Azevedo	Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Parana	BR	59	[92]	[64]	5	arxiv_only	13
63	Lasse Grimmelt	University of Cambridge	GB	60	[92]	[64]	2	arxiv_only	7
64	Angel Kumchev	Towson University	US	87	[83]	56	12	arx+zb	25
65	Apoorva Panidapu	Stanford University	US	61	[92]	[64]	-	arxiv_only	-
66	David Lowry-Duda	Brown University	US	56	164	[54]	5	arx+oa	9
67	M. N. Huxley	Cardiff University	GB	[37]	[74]	75	23	zb_only	56
68	Antal Balog	Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics	HU	101	[83]	59	18	arx+zb	35
69	Kevin Broughan	University of Waikato	NZ	[37]	63	179	12	oa+zb	51
70	Jianya Liu	Shandong University	CN	[37]	[73]	79	14	zb_only	31
71	H. J. Weber	University of Virginia	US	52	[96]	170	-	arx+zb	61
72	S. W. Graham	Central Michigan University	US	[37]	[73]	83	15	zb_only	49
73	Thomas Wright	Wofford College	US	73	[92]	[64]	-	arxiv_only	17
74	Maurizio Laporta	University of Naples Federico II	IT	72	130	[57]	5	arx+oa	-
75	Edva Roditty-Gershon	University of Bristol	GB	76	[92]	[64]	-	arxiv_only	11
76	A. H. Ledoan	University of Tennessee at Chattanooga	US	53	102	186	-	all_three	19
77	M. B. Milinovich	University of Mississippi	US	81	[92]	[64]	11	arxiv_only	18
78	Chantal David	Concordia University	CA	82	[92]	[64]	14	arxiv_only	33
79	Lola Thompson	Utrecht University	NL	88	[92]	[64]	-	arxiv_only	14
80	Jacques Benatar	-	BE	90	[92]	[64]	3	arxiv_only	11
81	Aled Walker	Kings College London	GB	92	[92]	[64]	-	arxiv_only	8
82	István B. Kolossváry	Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics	HU	95	[92]	[64]	5	arxiv_only	7
83	Timothy S. Trudgian	UNSW Canberra	AU	89	[84]	98	13	arx+zb	16
84	Jared Duker Lichtman	Stanford University	US	80	[87]	160	4	arx+zb	3
85	David T. Nguyen	-	US	98	[92]	[64]	3	arxiv_only	5
86	Régis de la Bretèche	Université Paris Cité	FR	79	[96]	168	14	arx+zb	30
87	Karl-Heinz Indlekofer	Paderborn University	DE	[38]	[84]	110	10	zb_only	56
88	Emily Quesada-Herrera	University of Lethbridge	CA	102	[98]	[70]	-	arxiv_only	4
89	Minggao Lu	Shanghai University	CN	[34]	[76]	117	3	zb_only	-
90	Dale J. Smith	University of Bristol	GB	103	[99]	[73]	-	arxiv_only	-
91	Alex Kontorovich	Rutgers University	US	108	[88]	101	13	arx+zb	19
92	Ayyadurai Sankaranarayanan	University of Hyderabad	IN	[34]	[71]	123	7	zb_only	35
93	Alexandru Zaharescu	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	US	93	134	109	24	all_three	35
94	Benoit Cloitre	Independent	-	109	[102]	[76]	3	arxiv_only	-
95	P. F. Kelly	University of Mary	US	112	[103]	[70]	-	arxiv_only	-
96	Ben Green	University of Oxford	GB	100	[87]	155	5	arx+zb	23
97	Terry Pilling	University of Mary	US	113	[104]	[70]	2	arxiv_only	24
98	Dimitris Koukoulopoulos	Université de Montréal	CA	[32]	[63]	131	10	zb_only	16
99	Trevor D. Wooley	Purdue University West Lafayette	US	115	[87]	135	28	arx+zb	36
100	Hiroshi Mikawa	University of Tsukuba	JP	[37]	[71]	139	-	zb_only	36

Source column legend

The Source column records which of the pipelines ranked each researcher directly.

all_three: ranked directly by arXiv, OpenAlex, and zbMATH. The unanimous core.
arx+oa: ranked by arXiv and OpenAlex, but not zbMATH.
arx+zb: ranked by arXiv and zbMATH, but not OpenAlex.
oa+zb: ranked by OpenAlex and zbMATH, but not arXiv.
arxiv_only: ranked only by the arXiv pipeline.
oa_only: ranked only by OpenAlex. Often senior figures who publish in journals and do not post preprints.
zb_only: ranked only by zbMATH. Often pre-1995 Russian and Chinese number theorists.

Source	Count
`all_three`	28
`zb_only`	22
`arxiv_only`	20
`arx+oa`	12
`arx+zb`	12
`oa+zb`	5
`oa_only`	1

Limitations

This list reflects publication output and citation network density, not subjective importance. A starting point, not a verdict.