Vietnamese health economist Tran Xuan Bach has been named to Stanford's most-cited scientists list for a seventh straight year, while also holding appointments at Johns Hopkins and Harvard.
Bach, 41, is ranked 5,085 worldwide in the latest update of the database that identifies the top 2% of scientists by citation impact, according to Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The database, compiled by a team led by Stanford epidemiologist John Ioannidis using Elsevier's Scopus, was first published in the journal PLOS Biology in 2019 and is updated annually.
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VNU said nine Vietnamese-based researchers appear in this year's edition: Hoang Anh Tuan of Dong Nai Technology University, Vo Xuan Vinh of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Tran Nguyen Hai and Hoang Nhat Duc of Duy Tan University, Pham Thai Binh of the University of Transport Technology, Nguyen Phuc Canh of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Dinh Duc of Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and Nguyen Xuan Hung of HUTECH.
According to his faculty profile at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Bach's research focuses on decision-analytic modeling to guide the development and assessment of health technologies and policies, with a particular focus on cost-effective interventions for HIV, substance use, mental health, digital health, and pandemic preparedness. He has consulted for United Nations agencies, international organizations, and governments across Asia.
What sets Bach apart in the Vietnamese science community is less the rankings than the unusual breadth of the portfolio behind them. The Johns Hopkins page lists his doctorate in health economics and health services and policy research from the University of Alberta in Canada, completed in 2011, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where he has remained affiliated.
He later earned a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, the French qualification required to direct research, from Aix-Marseille University. Vietnamese science publication Khoa Hoc Pho Thong (General Science) reports that he also completed a master's in corporate finance at the University of Toulon in France and a bachelor's degree in law at Hanoi Law University, both in 2020.
The institutional appointments are equally unusual. In 2019, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health named him an Adjunct Professor, a position he still holds. The same faculty page lists him as Director of the International Institute for Training and Research at VNU University of Medicine and Pharmacy and, since 2024, a Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care.
Bach was 32 when Vietnam's State Council for Professor Title awarded him the rank of Associate Professor in 2016, then the youngest in Vietnam to hold the title. In 2023, the same council recognized him, together with two other scientists, among the youngest researchers ever granted the title of Professor in Vietnam, then aged 39.
He has been recognized in other international citation systems as well. In 2022, Clarivate named him a Highly Cited Researcher, placing him among the top 1% of scientists worldwide by citation impact. The same year, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum awarded him a prize in its Healthy Women, Healthy Economies research category, and Research.com listed him on its Best Rising Stars of Science ranking. In 2023, the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research presented him with its Excellence in Research Award.
The Stanford-led ranking has become one of the most widely referenced bibliometric benchmarks in academia since it was first published in PLOS Biology six years ago, with universities, funding agencies, and governments using it to track research influence across fields. Bach is among a small group of Vietnamese researchers who have appeared on it in every annual update since the database's first edition in 2019.
