First-author papers: the top 100

Ali Kaveh has the most first-author papers among the people shaping AI, with 675. Cited papers with two or more authors where the person is listed first. In most fields of AI the first author did most of the work. In theory and in economics the authors are often listed in alphabetical order.

Rank	Person	First-author papers	Badges
1	Ali KavehIran University of Science and Technology	675	Loyal Pioneer
2	Daron AcemogluMassachusetts Institute of Technology	624	Laureate Centurion Wayfarer Loyal
3	Didier DuboisInstitute for Research in Computer Science of Toulouse	591	Centurion Wayfarer Loyal
4	Elisa BertinoPurdue University	320	Wayfarer Loyal
5	Franz BaaderTechnische Universität Dresden	274	Wayfarer Loyal
6	Thomas EiterInstitute of Logic and Computation	268	Loyal
7	Rudolf Ahlswede	237	Loyal Pioneer
8	Mihir BellareUniversity of California, San Diego	234	Centurion Bridge Loyal
9	Oscar CastilloHAFSA	232	Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
10	Serge AbiteboulInria	228	Wayfarer Loyal
11	Janusz KacprzykPolish Academy of Sciences	224	Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
12	Diego CalvaneseNOI Techpark	222	Bridge Loyal
13	Michael BackesSaarland University	210	Wayfarer Loyal
14	Witold PedryczUniversity of Alberta	204	Centurion Wayfarer Loyal
15	Tony F. ChanHong Kong University of Science and Technology	198	Bridge Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
16	Giancarlo FortinoUniversity of Calabria	185	Rising Founder Bridge Loyal
17	Joseph Y. Halpern	181	Bridge Loyal
18	Dan BonehStanford University	180	Laureate Centurion Loyal
19	Oded GoldreichWeizmann Institute of Science	177	Laureate Loyal
20	David H. AutorMassachusetts Institute of Technology	171	Wayfarer Loyal
=20	Taghi M. KhoshgoftaarFlorida Atlantic University	171	Rising Loyal
22	Jan KoenderinkUtrecht University	170	Loyal Pioneer
23	Anil K. JainMichigan State University	167	Centurion Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
24	Martin AbadiGoogle	166	Bridge Wayfarer
25	Arthur C. GraesserUniversity of Memphis	161	Loyal Pioneer
26	David HarelWeizmann Institute of Science	160	Bridge Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
27	Georg GottlobTU Wien	159	Boomerang Loyal
28	Björn SchulleraudEERING	156	Centurion Founder Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
29	Charu Chandra AggarwalIBM Research	152	Centurion Bridge Loyal
30	Kalyanmoy DebUniversity of Alabama	146	Centurion Bridge Boomerang Wayfarer Loyal
31	Sebastiano BattiatoUniversity of Catania	142	Bridge Loyal
32	Fausto GiunchigliaUniversity of Trento	141	Wayfarer Loyal
33	Maria-Florina (Nina) BalcanCarnegie Mellon University	137	Loyal
34	Ajith AbrahamSai University	135	Centurion Bridge Wayfarer
35	Leila AmgoudCNRS	134	Loyal
=35	Leon ChuaUniversity of California, Berkeley	134	Centurion Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
=35	Matthias Jarke	134	Loyal
38	Sanjeev AroraPrinceton University	132	Loyal
39	Ian Witten	130	Boomerang Loyal Pioneer
=39	Ronald R. YagerIona University	130	Laureate Centurion Loyal
41	Mikhail J. AtallahPurdue University	127	Founder Bridge Loyal
42	Yoshua BengioUniversité de Montréal	126	Laureate Centurion Founder Bridge Boomerang Wayfarer Loyal
43	Bir BhanuUniversity of California, Riverside	124	Bridge Loyal
=43	David DonohoStanford University	124	Centurion Loyal
=43	Erik BrynjolfssonStanford University	124	Loyal
=43	Ulrik BrandesETH Zurich	124	Loyal
47	Bernhard SchölkopfMax Planck Society	121	Centurion Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
48	Qi WangNorthwestern Polytechnical University	120	Rising Bridge Wayfarer
49	John R. AndersonCarnegie Mellon University	119	Laureate Centurion Bridge Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
50	Constantinos DaskalakisMassachusetts Institute of Technology	118	Laureate Bridge
=50	Edward R. Dougherty	118	Loyal Pioneer
=50	Giuseppe De GiacomoSapienza University of Rome	118	Loyal
=50	Jing LiangHenan Institute of Technology	118	Bridge Wayfarer
=50	Stephen GrossbergBoston University	118	Laureate Centurion Loyal Pioneer
55	Enrique AlbaUniversity of Málaga	114	Loyal
56	Aggelos KiayiasUniversity of Edinburgh	112	Bridge Wayfarer
57	Laith AbualigahAl-Ahliyya Amman University	111	Rising Wayfarer
58	Anne Cutler	110	Founder Wayfarer Loyal Pioneer
=58	Dieter Fensel	110	Founder Wayfarer Loyal
60	Michael TomaselloDuke University	109	Laureate Centurion Loyal Pioneer
61	Pierre F. BaldiUniversity of California, Irvine	107	Centurion Loyal
62	Alan BundyUniversity of Edinburgh	106	Laureate Loyal Pioneer
=62	L. R. RabinerUniversity of California, Santa Barbara	106	Bridge Loyal Pioneer
=62	Rudolf KruseMagdeburg Computer Science Faculty	106	Bridge Loyal
65	Cynthia DworkHarvard University	105	Laureate Bridge Loyal
=65	Eneko AgirreUniversity of the Basque Country	105	Loyal
=65	Gérard Ben ArousCourant Institute of Mathematical Sciences	105	Boomerang Wayfarer Loyal
68	Edith ElkindNorthwestern University	104	Wayfarer
69	Sankar K. PalIndian Statistical Institute	103	Loyal Pioneer
70	Feiping NieNorthwestern Polytechnical University	102	Centurion Rising Wayfarer
=70	Francisco HerreraAndalusian Interuniversity Institute in Data Science and Computational Intelligence	102	Centurion Loyal
72	Amit ShethUniversity of South Carolina	101	Loyal
=72	Marta KwiatkowskaUniversity of Oxford	101	Loyal
=72	Tomaso PoggioMassachusetts Institute of Technology	101	Centurion Loyal Pioneer
=72	William Yang WangUniversity of California, Santa Barbara	101	Rising Founder Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
76	B. John OommenCarleton University	100	Loyal
=76	Michael Anthony ArbibUniversity of Southern California	100	Loyal Pioneer
78	Camillo De LellisInstitute for Advanced Study	99	Laureate Founder Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
=78	Leila De FlorianiUniversity of Maryland	99	Loyal
80	Alfred V. AhoColumbia University	98	Loyal Pioneer
=80	Lorenzo BruzzoneUniversity of Trento	98	Centurion Loyal
82	Luís Moniz PereiraNOVA University Lisbon	97	Founder Wayfarer Loyal
83	Christian P. RobertParis Dauphine University	96	Boomerang Wayfarer Loyal
=83	Simon Haykin	96	Bridge Loyal Pioneer
85	Qiang YangHong Kong University of Science and Technology	95	Centurion Founder Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
=85	Ronald FaginIBM Research	95	Laureate Loyal Pioneer
87	Gail CarpenterBoston University	94	Loyal Pioneer
=87	Luc De RaedtKU Leuven	94	Loyal
=87	Nicolò Cesa-BianchiNational Academy of the Lincei	94	Bridge Loyal
90	Hans-Peter KriegelLMU Munich	93	Loyal
91	Catholijn JonkerVrije Universiteit Amsterdam	92	Bridge Wayfarer Loyal
=91	Christian BessiereCNRS	92	Loyal
=91	John H ReifDuke University	92	Loyal Pioneer
=91	Michael A. UnserEPFL	92	Centurion Loyal
=91	Roger Schank	92	Pioneer
96	Ben GoertzelSingularityNET Foundation	91	Bridge Wayfarer
=96	Jerry M. MendelUniversity of Southern California	91	Bridge Loyal Pioneer
=96	Nick ChaterUniversity of Warwick	91	Laureate Loyal
99	Ryen W. WhiteMicrosoft	90	Bridge Loyal
100	Daniel A. KeimUniversity of Konstanz	89	Bridge Loyal
=100	Emmanuel AbbéEPFL	89	Bridge
=100	Monika HenzingerInstitute of Science and Technology Austria	89	Bridge

Ranked among 1,930 people with OpenAlex figures. People whose OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors are left out, and so are the per-paper numbers of people whose OpenAlex works list does not agree with their OpenAlex totals. A person with split OpenAlex records counts with the records we merged. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 17 October 2026.