Nature's 10


Nature's 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal Nature. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial staff at Nature judge nominees to have had "a significant impact on the world, or their position in the world may have had an important impact on science". Short biographical profiles describe the people behind some of the year's most important discoveries and events. Alongside the ten, five "ones to watch" for the following year are also listed.

2019

2019 awardees included:
was nominated in 2019 for her work as a climate catalyst. |
Greta Thunberg was nominated in 2019 for her work as a climate catalyst.
  1. Ricardo Galvão: Science defender
  2. Victoria Kaspi: Sky sleuth
  3. Nenad Sestan: Britain recove rebooter
  4. Sandra Díaz: Biodiversity guardian
  5. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum: Ebola fighter
  6. Yohannes Haile-Selassie: Origin seeker
  7. Wendy Rogers: Transplant ethicist
  8. Deng Hongkui: CRISPR translator
  9. John M. Martinis: Quantum builder
  10. Greta Thunberg: Climate catalyst
Ones to watch in 2020
  1. António Guterres: Secretary-general, United Nations
  2. Denis Rebrikov: Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, Moscow
  3. Geng Meiyu: Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, China
  4. Mariya Gabriel: European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth
  5. Markus Rex: Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany

    2018

In 2018 the awardees were:
was nominated in 2018 for her work as a diversity champion
  1. Yuan Cao: Graphene wrangler
  2. Viviane Slon: Humanity's historian
  3. He Jiankui: CRISPR rogue
  4. Jess Wade: Diversity champion
  5. Valérie Masson-Delmotte: Earth monitor
  6. Anthony Brown: Star mapper
  7. Yeo Bee Yin: Force for the environment
  8. Barbara Rae-Venter: DNA detective
  9. Robert-Jan Smits: Open-access leader
  10. Makoto Yoshikawa: Asteroid hunter
Ones to watch in 2019:
  1. Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, Director-general of the Democratic Republic of the Congo National Institute for Biomedical Research
  2. Julia Olson, Co-counsel in Juliana v. United States
  3. Muthayya Vanitha, Director of India's Chandrayaan-2 Moon mission
  4. Maura McLaughlin, Chair at the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
  5. Sandra Díaz, Co-leader of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

    2017

2017 awardees included:
was nominated in 2017 for his work as a gene corrector
  1. David R. Liu: Gene corrector
  2. Marica Branchesi: Merger maker
  3. Emily Whitehead: Living testimonial
  4. Scott Pruitt: Agency dismantler
  5. Pan Jianwei: Father of quantum
  6. Jennifer Byrne: Error sleuth
  7. Lassina Zerbo: Test-ban tracker
  8. Victor Cruz-Atienza: Quake chaser
  9. Ann Olivarius: Legal champion
  10. Khaled Toukan: Opening SESAME
Ones to watch in 2018:
  1. Shaughnessy Naughton, President of 314 Action
  2. Mark Walport, Chief executive of United Kingdom Research and Innovation
  3. Kate Crawford, Co-founder of AI Now Institute
  4. John M. Martinis, Team leader of Quantum computing at Google
  5. Patricia Espinosa, Executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

    2016

2016 awardees included:
  1. Gabriela Gonzalez: Gravity spy
  2. Demis Hassabis: Mind crafter
  3. Terry Hughes: Reef sentinel
  4. Guus Velders: Cooling agent
  5. Celina M. Turchi: Zika detective
  6. Alexandra Elbakyan: Paper pirate
  7. John J. Zhang: Fertility rebel
  8. Kevin Esvelt: CRISPR cautionary
  9. Guillem Anglada-Escudé: Planet hunter
  10. Elena Long: Diversity trailblazer
Ones to watch in 2017:
  1. Cori Bargmann, Science president, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
  2. Robert Feidenhans’l, Chairman, European XFEL
  3. Jef Boeke, Co-leader, Human Genome Project–Write
  4. Wu Weiren, Chief Designer, China Lunar Programme
  5. Marcia McNutt, President, National Academy of Sciences

    2015

2015 awardees included:
was nominated in 2015 for his work on electrical resistance and conductance
  1. Christiana Figueres: Climate guardian
  2. Junjiu Huang: Embryo editor
  3. Alan Stern: Pluto hunter
  4. Zhenan Bao: Master of materials
  5. Ali Akbar Salehi: Nuclear diplomat
  6. Joan Schmelz: A voice for women
  7. David Reich: Genome archaeologist
  8. Mikhail Eremets: Super conductor
  9. Christina Smolke: Fermenting revolution
  10. Brian Nosek: Bias blaster
Ones to watch in 2016:
  1. Fabiola Gianotti, Director-general of CERN
  2. Gabriela González, Spokesperson at Advanced LIGO
  3. Kathy Niakan, Stem-cell biologist, Francis Crick Institute
  4. Demis Hassabis, Co-founder, DeepMind
  5. Yang Wei, Head of the National Natural Science Foundation of China

    2014

2014 awardees included:
  1. Andrea Accomazzo: Comet chaser
  2. Suzanne Topalian: Cancer combatant
  3. Radhika Nagpal: Robot-maker
  4. Sheik Umar Khan: Ebola doctor
  5. David Spergel: Cosmic skeptic
  6. Maryam Mirzakhani: Surface explorer
  7. Pete Frates: Ice-bucket challenger
  8. Koppillil Radhakrishnan: Rocket launcher
  9. Masayo Takahashi: Stem-cell tester
  10. Sjors Scheres: Structure solver
Ones to watch in 2015:
  1. Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate official
  2. Alan Stern, Principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission
  3. Joanne Liu, International president of Médecins Sans Frontières
  4. Bernard Bigot, Nominated as next director-general of ITER
  5. Rick Horwitz, Executive director, Allen Institute for Cell Science

    2013

2013 awardees included
was nominated for her work on science policy and gene patents
  1. Feng Zhang: DNA's master editor
  2. Tania Simoncelli: Gene patent foe
  3. Deborah Persaud: Viral victor
  4. Michel Mayor: In search of sister Earths
  5. Naderev Saño: Climate conscience
  6. Viktor Grokhovsky: Meteorite hunter
  7. Hualan Chen: Front-line flu sleuth
  8. Shoukhrat Mitalipov: The cloning chief
  9. Kathryn Clancy: An eye on harassment
  10. Henry Snaith: Sun worshipper
Ones to watch in 2014:
  1. Masayo Takahashi, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology
  2. Christopher Field of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  3. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon Incoming president, European Research Council
  4. Koppillil Radhakrishnan Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation
  5. Gordon Sanghera from Oxford Nanopore Technologies

    2012

2012 awardees included
of CERN was nominated for his work on the Higgs boson
  1. Rolf-Dieter Heuer: The Higgs diplomat
  2. Cynthia E. Rosenzweig: Guardian of Gotham
  3. Adam Steltzner: Our man on Mars
  4. :fr:Cédric_Blanpain|Cedric Blanpain: Cell tracker
  5. Elizabeth Iorns: Replication hound
  6. Jun Wang: Genome juggernaut
  7. Jo Handelsman: The bias detective
  8. Tim Gowers: Seed of discontent
  9. Bernardo De Bernardinis: On the fault line
  10. Ron Fouchier: Flu fighter
Ones to watch in 2013:
  1. Anne Glover, European Commission chief science adviser
  2. Thomas Stocker, of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  3. Chris Austin, US National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
  4. Jan Tauber, the European Space Agency’s Planck mission
  5. Rafael Yuste, of Columbia University, New York

    2011

2011 awardees included
was nominated in 2011 for her work on arsenic biochemistry and open science
  1. Dario Autiero: Relativity challenger
  2. Sara Seager: Planet seeker
  3. Lisa Jackson: Pollution cop
  4. Essam Sharaf: Science revolutionary
  5. Diederik Stapel: Fallen star
  6. Rosie Redfield: Critical enquirer
  7. Danica May Camacho: Child of the times
  8. Mike Lamont: The Higgs mechanic
  9. Tatsuhiko Kodama: Fukushima's gadfly
  10. John Rogers: Tech executive