Do lab leaders still publish? 98% have published since 2021, drawing 2.3 times the median recent citations of researchers

Across the 86 people in the Lab leaders group with confident per-work records, 84 (98%) have published at least one paper or technical report since 2021, compared with 2,798 of 3,019 (93%) in Research, 63 of 67 (94%) in Public voices and 43 of 58 (74%) in Builders. We estimate that lab leaders earned a median of 8,260 citations since 2021, 2.3 times the median of 3,538 for researchers, and a median recent h-index of 30 compared with 23.

Key findings

• 98% of counted lab leaders have published since 2021 (84 of 86): among people with a known current organization, 98% of lab leaders (84 of 86) and 97% of researchers (2,608 of 2,682) published at least one work since 2021.
• Lab leaders earn more median recent citations than researchers in every organization type: since 2021, company lab leaders received a median of 8,032 citations versus 2,732 for company researchers (2.9 times), university lab leaders received 13,010 versus 4,682 (2.8 times), and institute and lab leaders received 6,015 versus 2,370 (2.5 times).
• Lab leaders published more median works since 2021 than researchers at companies (27 vs. 17) and more at universities (76 vs. 58): across all sectors combined, researchers published a median of 37 works since 2021 versus 31.5 for lab leaders; 73% of placed lab leaders work at companies and 67% of placed researchers work at universities.
• From leadership appointment (year 0) through year +7, 84% to 87% of lab leaders published each year: across 63 lab leaders with a dated leadership start year, median annual output is 4 to 7 works in years 0 through +7 and 4 to 5 works (75% to 79% publishing) in years +8 to +10.
• Lab leaders appointed ten or more years ago still publish: among the 33 counted lab leaders whose first dated leadership role began in 2016 or earlier, 31 (94%) published since 2021, with a median of 23 recent works and 8,341 recent citations.

Recent citations across organization types

Across all 86 counted lab leaders, works in their OpenAlex records received a median of 8,260 citations since 2021 (interquartile range 2,419 to 24,788), compared with 3,538 (996 to 9,870) across 3,019 counted researchers. Researchers hold a higher median career paper count (235 vs. 141) and a equal median career h-index (41 vs. 41). A median 65% of a lab leader's career citations arrived since 2021, compared with 38% for a researcher.

Horizontal bar chart comparing median citations received since 2021 across 8 role and sector groups, led by University lab leaders at 13,010.

Source: People of Superintelligence career records from biographies and OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026. Per-work counts and citations since 2021 from data/works-stats.json.

Data table

Group	Counted people	Published since 2021	Median citations since 2021	Middle half (Q1–Q3)	Median h-index since 2021	Share of career citations since 2021
University lab leaders	10	10 (100%)	13,010	8,249–26,396	51.5	66%
All lab leaders	86	84 (98%)	8,260	2,419–24,788	30	65%
Company lab leaders	63	61 (97%)	8,032	2,364–25,247	29	65%
Institute and lab leaders	13	13 (100%)	6,015	1,126–8,762	17	62%
University researchers	1,799	1,754 (97%)	4,682	1,759–11,186	29	37%
All researchers	3,019	2,798 (93%)	3,538	996–9,870	23	38%
Company researchers	571	546 (96%)	2,732	565–10,700	17	64%
Institute and lab researchers	312	308 (99%)	2,370	728–8,386	20	44%
Public voices	67	63 (94%)	437	79–1,206	6	65%
Builders	58	43 (74%)	1,072.5	171–12,104	7	47%

At companies, which employ 63 of the 86 lab leaders with a known current organization (73%), lab leaders received a median of 8,032 citations since 2021, higher than the 2,732 median for the 571 company researchers, and carry a median recent h-index of 29 versus 17. At universities (10 lab leaders and 1,799 researchers), the median is 13,010 recent citations for lab leaders and 4,682 for researchers, with a median recent h-index of 51.5 versus 29. At standalone institutes, labs, nonprofits and government centers (13 lab leaders and 312 researchers), lab leaders drew a median of 6,015 recent citations compared with 2,370 for researchers.

Among individual lab leaders, Xiangyu Zhang (StepFun) leads on citations received since 2021 with 249,862 (179 works since 2021), followed by Piotr Dollár (Thinking Machines Lab; 173,837 recent citations, 20 recent works), Demis Hassabis (Google; 156,289 recent citations, 66 recent works), Koray Kavukcuoglu (Google; 130,139 recent citations, 18 recent works) and Christian Szegedy (Morph Labs; 118,170 recent citations, 12 recent works). On recent h-index since 2021, Wang Xiaogang (SenseTime) leads at 104, followed by Mérouane Debbah (Technology Innovation Institute; h-index 94), Silvio Savarese (Salesforce; h-index 81) and Demis Hassabis (Google; h-index 80).

Recent paper counts and authorship position by sector

Across all sectors combined, researchers published a higher median number of works since 2021 than lab leaders (37 vs. 31.5) and sit in the last-author slot on a higher median share of their cited works (38% vs. 29%). Universities employ 67% of placed researchers (1,799 of 2,682) and 12% of placed lab leaders (10 of 86); companies employ 73% of placed lab leaders (63 of 86) and 21% of placed researchers (571 of 2,682).

Horizontal bar chart of median works published since 2021 across 8 role and sector groups, from 17 for Company researchers to 76 for University lab leaders.

Source: People of Superintelligence career records from biographies and OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026. Per-work counts and citations since 2021 from data/works-stats.json.

Data table

Group	Counted people	Median works since 2021	Middle half (Q1–Q3)	Median career works	Median last-author share	Median first-author share
University lab leaders	10	76	44–251	320	47%	8%
University researchers	1,799	58	23–115	317	44%	12%
Institute and lab researchers	312	45	13–89	235	34%	14%
All researchers	3,019	37	9–88	235	38%	14%
Institute and lab leaders	13	32	13–142	84	30%	21%
All lab leaders	86	31.5	15–85	141	29%	14%
Company lab leaders	63	27	13–69	125	27%	15%
Company researchers	571	17	7–38	73	18%	18%
Public voices	67	7	3–19	26	18%	19%
Builders	58	3.5	0–11	23.5	12%	18%

When we compare people inside the same sector, lab leaders have a higher median recent work count than researchers at companies and a higher median recent work count at universities. At companies, lab leaders published a median of 27 works since 2021 (interquartile range 13 to 69), higher than the median of 17 (7 to 38) for company researchers, and hold a higher median last-author share (27% vs. 18%). At universities, lab leaders published a median of 76 works since 2021 (44 to 251) compared with 58 (23 to 115) for university researchers, with a median last-author share of 47% versus 44%. At institutes and standalone labs, researchers published a higher median number of recent works than lab leaders (45 vs. 32), with median last-author shares of 34% and 30%. First-author shares among cited works sit at a median of 14% for lab leaders and 14% for researchers overall (15% vs. 18% at companies, 8% vs. 12% at universities).

On recent work count since 2021, Mérouane Debbah (Technology Innovation Institute; 653 works, 45,737 recent citations) leads the lab leaders group, followed by Yao Zhao (Beijing Jiaotong University; 494 works, 15,397 recent citations), Marco Pavone (Stanford University; 366 works, 12,995 recent citations), Furu Wei (Microsoft; 334 works, 27,269 recent citations) and Tiejun Huang (Peking University; 293 works, 12,420 recent citations). Exactly 2 of the 86 counted lab leaders have zero works dated 2021 or later: Jonas Andrulis (CNTR; 7 career works, 153 citations received since 2021) and Jarek Kutylowski (DeepL; 13 career works, 13 citations received since 2021).

Publishing over the years after taking a leadership role

In the five years before their first dated leadership role (years -5 to -1), 86% to 91% of lab leaders published each year, with a median of 4 to 7 works a year (7 works in year -1). In the appointment year (year 0), 87% (45 of 52) published a median of 6.5 works, below the year -1 median, and across years +1 through +7, 84% to 87% published each year at a median of 4 to 7 works (5 works at year +5, across 45 people).

Line chart of median annual works published from year -5 to year +10 relative to a first leadership role, comparing lab leaders and researchers.

Source: People of Superintelligence career records from biographies and OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026. Annual works from OpenAlex counts_by_year; leadership start years from dated biography stints.

Data table

Year relative to first leadership role	Lab leaders counted	Lab leaders publishing (%)	Lab leaders median works	Researchers counted	Researchers publishing (%)	Researchers median works
-5	56	50 (89%)	4	1,042	976 (94%)	7.5
-4	57	51 (89%)	5	1,072	1,014 (95%)	8
-3	58	52 (90%)	6.5	1,103	1,045 (95%)	8
-2	58	50 (86%)	7	1,118	1,060 (95%)	8
-1	58	53 (91%)	7	1,145	1,090 (95%)	8
0	52	45 (87%)	6.5	1,144	1,080 (94%)	8.5
+1	53	46 (87%)	5	1,116	1,043 (93%)	9
+2	53	46 (87%)	7	1,110	1,052 (95%)	9
+3	47	40 (85%)	6	1,086	1,024 (94%)	10
+4	45	38 (84%)	6	1,063	1,000 (94%)	10
+5	45	38 (84%)	5	1,042	975 (94%)	9
+6	43	36 (84%)	4	1,014	948 (93%)	10
+7	40	34 (85%)	6.5	992	925 (93%)	10
+8	37	29 (78%)	4	957	884 (92%)	10
+9	32	24 (75%)	5	910	835 (92%)	10
+10	33	26 (79%)	4	878	807 (92%)	9

Among lab leaders observed eight to ten years after their first leadership role, the share publishing in a given year is 75% to 79% (26 of 33, or 79%, in year +10), and the median annual output is 4 to 5 works (4 works in year +10, lower than the 6.5 median in year 0). Among the 1,406 people categorized under Research who also took a dated leadership role, the active share is 92% to 95% from year -5 through year +10 (92% in year +10), with a median of 8.5 works in year 0 and 9 works in year +10.

Grouped by the start year of their first dated leadership role, lab leaders appointed within the past four years (2022–2026, 16 people) published a median of 37 works since 2021 and received a median of 10,528.5 recent citations (100% active). Those appointed five to nine years ago (2017–2021, 14 people) published a median of 80 recent works and received 14,773.5 recent citations (100% active). Those whose first leadership role began ten or more years ago (2016 or earlier, 33 people) have 31 of 33 (94%) publishing since 2021, with a median of 23 recent works and 8,341 recent citations, higher than the 3,538 median for all researchers. Among lab leaders appointed in 2016 or earlier, Piotr Dollár (Thinking Machines Lab; Co-founder of Anchovi Labs from 2012, 20 works and 173,837 citations since 2021) leads on citations received since 2021, followed by Demis Hassabis (Google; Co-founder of Google DeepMind from 2010, 66 works and 156,289 citations since 2021) and Karen Simonyan (Microsoft; Co-founder of Vision Factory from 2014, 11 works and 91,866 citations since 2021).