What the rank is
A seven-dimension classification of what a scientist or engineer has demonstrably done. It measures outcomes, never knowledge, intention or potential.
Each skill is scored from 0 to 5 against the standard below, giving a total out of 35. The total sets the tier.
| Glyph | Tier | Score | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ω | Omega | 0 to 7 | The universal starting point. Not a verdict, an origin. Every Vanguard Scientist begins here. |
| 1 | Adept | 8 to 14 | Stepped outside the lab. Genuinely capable in more than one dimension. |
| 2 | Forerunner | 15 to 21 | Out ahead of the field. Building something real across several dimensions at once. |
| S | Sovereign | 22 to 28 | A level most scientists never reach. No longer a number. |
| V | Vanguard | 29 to 35 | Full-spectrum operator. The question is no longer whether to build, but what. |
A perfect 35 is VΩ, Vanguard Absolute: a rank that exists to be aspired to rather than reached.
The rank string
The rank is written TIER · PROFILE, for example S·ΔCX or 2·XKΣ. The tier is the glyph for the total score. The profile is the three highest-scoring skills, highest first, with ties broken by the order Δ, C, X, K, L, P, Σ. Tiers are won by breadth, not by peaks: a scientist scoring 5 in Δ and nothing elsewhere sits at Ω.
The Society's metric
The Society's headline number is aggregate rank gain: the increase in verified score across the members who were in the Society for the whole year, reported per member and published at the December Reckoning. It rises only when members get better, and admitting more members cannot move it.
The rules every level obeys
These rules make a 3 in Commercial Thinking mean the same as a 3 in Communication. Every level was written to them, and any new criterion has to pass them too.
- Outcomes only. A level is earned by something that happened and left a record. Admission, enrolment, affiliation, years of experience, courses attended and money applied for never count. A place at Cambridge is an input. An awarded PhD is an outcome.
- Sustained beats single. From level 3 upward, many criteria require the result held across multiple outputs and multiple years. Where a number is involved, the measure is the median across a set of outputs, so one outlier cannot carry a whole level.
- Once earned, always earned. A level, once reached, is permanent. A scientist who leaves the lab to build a company keeps their Mastery. Every piece of evidence carries its date, so anyone reading a profile can see when each level was earned.
- Relative at the top. Levels 4 and 5 are anchored to published percentiles wherever an external benchmark exists, and are field-normalised wherever the metric allows.
- One rarity ladder for all seven skills. Each level targets roughly the same rarity whichever skill it sits in. Wherever possible the thresholds step by a factor of ten between levels 2 and 5.
- Any one route is enough. Most skills have two or three routes to the same level, set to be equally hard. Meeting one route in full beats half-meeting two.
- Titles never count; peer-conferred distinctions can. A job title set by yourself or your manager is an input. A distinction conferred by a documented peer-review process on the basis of outcomes counts where a level names it.
- When in doubt, score lower. A borderline case takes the lower level until the evidence clears the higher one.
- All money is in US dollars, converted at the average rate for the period the outcome happened in.
The rarity ladder
| Level | Target rarity among working scientists and engineers | What it means | External anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Majority, for most skills | No evidence yet | |
| 1 | Roughly the top half | First real evidence exists | |
| 2 | Roughly the top 20% | Repeated, independent evidence | YouTube: 10k+ subscribers is the top ~8% of channels |
| 3 | Roughly the top 5% | Sustained, measurable results | |
| 4 | Roughly the top 1% | Exceptional and sustained | Stanford/Elsevier top 2% list; YouTube 100k+ is the top ~1.3% |
| 5 | Roughly the top 0.1% | Best in the world at it | Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers; YouTube 1M+ is the top ~0.13% |
The rarity targets are design intent. The thresholds are to be recalibrated once, publicly, against the first 500 diagnostics, and then left alone.
Verification
Every claim sits in one of four states, and the rank shows which.
| State | What it takes | Where it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Declared | Self-reported in the diagnostic | Levels 0 to 2, and the entry rank |
| Evidenced | A link or document attached to each claim | All levels, and all member ranks |
| Attested | An employer letter plus two senior references, for work that is confidential, classified or held as a trade secret | Up to level 3 only |
| Verified | Checked by the Society against the source | Required for any level 4 or 5, and for Sovereign and Vanguard tiers |
The attested state exists because some of the best technical work in the world leaves no public trail. The cap at level 3 is deliberate: anything higher needs evidence the Society can check for itself.
Primary evidence, by skill
| Skill | Primary evidence |
|---|---|
| Δ | Academic: ORCID linked to OpenAlex (field-weighted citation impact and top 1% / top 10% flags per paper), the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list, the Stanford/Elsevier list. Industry: Google Patents, Espacenet and USPTO PatentsView; ClinicalTrials.gov, FDA, EMA and certification registers; the Engineering Council, Science Council and state PE registers; standards-body records; package-registry statistics; employer letters and promotion-committee records. |
| C | Platform analytics exports; public view counts; publisher sales statements; Hansard and committee records for evidence given. |
| X | Companies House or the relevant registry for officer and filing history; filed accounts, or an accountant's letter where small-company accounts omit turnover; redacted licence agreements. |
| K | Share allotment filings (SH01 in the UK, Form D in the US); UKRI Gateway to Research, CORDIS and NIH RePORTER for grants; fund documents for deployers. |
| L | Two references from people you led, organisation charts, directorship records. LinkedIn is never evidence on its own. |
| P | Platform analytics including returning-viewer data, email-platform exports, campaign attribution reports, award and exhibition records. |
| Σ | Incorporation or founding records, launch announcements, dated documents showing you originated the initiative, and evidence of resources committed. |
Scientific & Technical Mastery
Your foundation, not your ceiling. Deep technical capability and its demonstrated impact, proven in a journal or in the world.
Two routes of equal weight. The academic route is measured through peer-reviewed output and field-normalised citation. The industry route is measured through contributions other people relied on. All counts are career totals.
| Level | Academic route | Industry route |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No awarded science or engineering degree, and no peer-reviewed output. | No awarded qualification and no shipped technical output. |
| 1 | An awarded science or engineering degree, or one peer-reviewed publication in any author position. | An awarded degree or completed accredited technical apprenticeship, or a named contributor to a technical product or system shipped into use. |
| 2 | An awarded PhD and at least one first-author peer-reviewed paper. Or three first-author papers without a PhD. | Chartered or licensed by assessed competence (CEng, CSci, PE or equivalent). Or named inventor on a granted patent. Or named technical contributor to a product that passed a regulatory or certification gate. |
| 3 | At least 5 papers as first, last or corresponding author with a median FWCI of 1.0+, and at least one paper in the field's top 10%. | 5+ granted patent families, or 1 in the top 10% by forward citations. Or technical lead on a product that passed a regulatory gate. Or technical lead on 3+ systems shipped into production. Or principal author of an adopted industry standard. Or lead maintainer of open-source software at 1M+ downloads a year for 2 years. Or promoted to Principal through a documented peer-review committee. |
| 4 | At least 15 papers as first, last or corresponding author with a median FWCI of 2.0+, and 3+ papers in the field's top 1%. Or named on the Stanford/Elsevier top 2% list in any edition. | 3+ patents in the top 1% by forward citations, or 15+ granted families with 3+ licensed or in products. Or technical lead on a product approved to market. Or technical authority for a system serving 1M+ users or $100M+ annual revenue. Or lead maintainer of open-source software at 10M+ downloads a year for 2 years. Or Distinguished Engineer or Technical Fellow through a documented peer-review committee. |
| 5 | Named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in any year. Or 10+ papers in the field's top 1%. Or elected to a national science academy. Or a major international field prize (Nobel, Breakthrough, Wolf, Lasker or equivalent). | Elected to a national engineering academy. Or a major engineering prize (Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Millennium Technology Prize, MacRobert Award, IEEE Medal of Honor or equivalent). Or the technical originator of a technology used by 100M+ people or adopted as a worldwide standard. Or lead maintainer of open-source software at 100M+ downloads a year. Or the highest technical distinction at a large organisation. |
Never countsThe institution you studied or work at; enrolment; job titles you or your manager assigned; years of experience; the impact factor of the journal rather than the citations to your paper; raw h-index without field normalisation; middle authorship on papers with more than 100 authors; patent applications never granted; GitHub stars.
Communication & Influence
Make your science move people, at scale. The reach of your own voice, and whether it moved decisions.
Reach is always the median views, listens or reads per piece across the stated number of pieces. A piece is a video, episode, article, issue or public talk where you are the principal voice.
| Level | Standard (any one route in full) |
|---|---|
| 0 | No public output beyond scholarly papers and internal presentations. |
| 1 | At least 5 public pieces for a non-specialist audience within any 24-month period, any reach. Or one piece of authored or quoted national media. |
| 2 | At least 24 pieces within any 12-month period with a median of 1,000 per piece. Or at least 10 invited public talks within any 24-month period. |
| 3 | At least 24 pieces a year with a median of 10,000 per piece, held for 2 consecutive years. Or at least 5 authored or featured national media pieces a year for 2 years. Or at least 5 paid keynotes a year for 2 years. |
| 4 | At least 24 pieces a year with a median of 100,000 per piece, held for 2 consecutive years. Or a trade book with 10,000+ copies sold. Or a regular presenter on national broadcast for a full series. Or oral evidence given to a parliamentary or government committee on at least 2 occasions. |
| 5 | At least 24 pieces a year with a median of 1,000,000 per piece, held for 2 consecutive years. Or a book with 100,000+ copies sold. Or the presenter of a primetime national or international broadcast series. |
Never countsFollower or subscriber counts (retained audience is measured in P); a single viral piece; reach bought through paid promotion; guest appearances beyond counting as one piece. Newsletters are measured on median unique opens per issue.
Commercial Thinking
From the paper to the product. Whether money changed hands for something you built, and how much.
"Revenue" always means income from arm's-length customers. Grants, investment and income from related parties are excluded.
| Level | Standard (any one route in full) |
|---|---|
| 0 | No commercial output. |
| 1 | Named inventor on a filed patent application. Or a paid consultancy or advisory engagement. Or at least 30 logged customer-discovery interviews ending in a written go or no-go decision. |
| 2 | A licence or option executed on IP you are named on. Or co-founder (shareholder and officer) of a company that has signed its first paid contract or pilot. Or at least $25k of paid consulting in total. |
| 3 | Founder or executive with decision rights in a company generating $100k+ revenue in a 12-month period. Or $100k+ in cumulative royalties from licensed IP you are named on. |
| 4 | Founder or C-suite with decision rights in a company generating $1M+ revenue in a 12-month period, held for 2 years. Or founder or C-suite at an exit valued at $10M+. |
| 5 | Founder or CEO of a company generating $10M+ annual revenue. Or founder of 2 or more companies that each reached level 4. Or founder or C-suite at an exit valued at $100M+. |
Never countsIncorporating a company that has never traded; a CEO title at a pre-revenue company (level 2 at most); grant income or investment presented as revenue; commercialisation courses without an output; revenue at an employer where you had no decision rights.
Capital Literacy
Speak the language of the people who fund breakthroughs. Capital you have actually secured or deployed.
Three equivalent routes: Grant (non-dilutive, as lead or named applicant), Equity (as founder, money received) and Deployer (as investor with decision rights). All amounts are career totals.
| Level | Grant route | Equity route | Deployer route |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Salary and departmental budgets only. | ||
| 1 | Any competitive award of $5k+ as a named applicant | Any external equity received, including friends and family | One investment made with your own money |
| 2 | $100k+ cumulative as PI or lead applicant | Closed a round of $100k+ (allotment filed) | 3+ angel investments made |
| 3 | $1M+ cumulative as PI or lead applicant | Closed $1M+ in a single round with a professional lead investor | 10+ investments, or a vote on an investment committee |
| 4 | $10M+ cumulative as PI or lead applicant | $10M+ raised across 2+ priced rounds with institutional leads | Decision rights over $10M+ deployed |
| 5 | $50M+ cumulative as lead PI or lead applicant | $50M+ raised in total | GP or partner of a $50M+ fund with at least one realised exit returning capital |
Never countsApplications submitted; pitch-competition wins without cash; committed but unreceived money; valuations; being a co-applicant on someone else's grant at level 3 and above.
Leadership & Teams
Build the people who extend what you cannot do alone. People led through to outcomes, the scale sustained, and whether the people you led went on to lead.
| Level | Standard (any one route in full) |
|---|---|
| 0 | Has not led anyone. |
| 1 | Directly managed or supervised at least 1 person through to a completed outcome. |
| 2 | Led a team of 4+ for 12+ months against a named deliverable that was met. Or 2+ people you directly managed reached a milestone that was yours to develop them towards. Or served a full term as an elected officer of a society, chapter or club that grew during your term. |
| 3 | Built a team you hired yourself: 5+ hires made by you, a team of 8+ spanning at least two disciplines, held for 2 years with 80%+ retention of your hires. Or built and led a volunteer organisation with 25+ active members for 2+ years. |
| 4 | Directly accountable for an organisation of 25+ for 2+ years, and 3+ people you managed now lead teams of their own. |
| 5 | CEO or head of an organisation of 100+ for 3+ years. Or 10+ people you managed now lead teams, or 3+ have founded companies. Or an organisation you built has continued for 2+ years after your departure at the same or larger scale. |
Never countsA title without reports; managing contractors or suppliers; nominal headship of a unit you were not accountable for.
Production, Marketing & Art
Build the machine that amplifies, and the eye that defines it. Artefacts you made or directed, the audience they built and kept, and what they measurably did.
Retained audience means people who come back: returning viewers per month, active email subscribers (opened in the last 90 days), and active or paying members. Raw follower totals do not count. C measures the reach of your voice; P measures the artefact and the machine.
| Level | Standard (any one route in full) |
|---|---|
| 0 | Nothing shipped with intent to distribute. |
| 1 | At least 5 finished artefacts you made, shipped publicly: videos, designs, campaigns, artworks, product pages. |
| 2 | At least 24 artefacts shipped within any 12-month period. Or a retained audience of 1,000+ that you grew. Or selected in a juried regional show or competition. |
| 3 | A retained audience of 10,000+, held for 12 months. Or a campaign you led with attributable revenue of $50k+ or 5,000+ conversions. Or selected in a juried national exhibition, or shortlisted for a national award. |
| 4 | A retained audience of 100,000+, held for 2 years. Or attributable revenue of $500k+ from campaigns you led. Or a national award won, or a solo showing at a major institution. Or creative director of a brand operating at national scale. |
| 5 | A retained audience of 2M+ across channels you built, held for 2+ years. Or attributable revenue of $5M+. Or a major international award (Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencil, Webby or equivalent). Or work held in a major public collection. |
Never countsTool proficiency; courses; unshipped portfolio work; raw follower totals; likes and impressions without conversion or return.
Strategic Vision & Action
See the rare opportunity, then be the one who makes it real. Then do it again.
What counts as a launch. A new organisational objective brought into operating existence with you as its originator and driver: a company, a non-profit, a fund, a lab or centre, a programme, a product line, a society, an event series or a campaign. It counts when all three are true: you originated it (dated evidence); it mobilised resources beyond you; and it operated for at least 12 months or reached its stated objective sooner.
Spotting an opportunity without launching anything scores 1 at most. Levels 4 and 5 need evidence you moved before consensus: the dated origination precedes the mainstream wave, the funding cycle or the first competitor by at least two years.
| Level | Standard (any one route in full) |
|---|---|
| 0 | Has not originated anything that others joined. |
| 1 | Originated and launched 1 initiative that others joined and that ran for 6+ months, at any scale. Or a documented opportunity thesis, dated, that others later acted on. |
| 2 | Originated and launched an initiative that mobilised $100k+ or 10+ people and ran for 12+ months. Or 3+ smaller launches that each ran for 6+ months. |
| 3 | Originated and launched an initiative that mobilised $1M+ and reached its stated objective or operated for 2+ years. Or 2+ launches each at level 2 scale. |
| 4 | 2+ launches, at least one mobilising $10M+, and dated evidence that you moved before consensus on at least one. Or 3+ launches each at level 3 scale. |
| 5 | 3+ launches, at least two mobilising $10M+, and dated evidence that you moved before consensus. Or originated an initiative that mobilised $100M+ and created a category others now build in. |
Never countsVision statements or strategy decks that nobody acted on; initiatives you joined after someone else started them; being in the room when someone else's decision was made; resources pledged but never received.
Where people land
Under this standard most scientists land at Ω, which is exactly what the rank should say.
- A typical final-year PhD student scores around Δ2, with 0 or 1 in most other skills and 1 in Leadership. Total 4 to 7: Ω.
- An industry engineer with CEng, six granted patents and a team of eight scores around Δ3, X1 to 2, L3, with little elsewhere. Total around 8 to 10: Adept, level with an academic peer.
- A pharma scientist who was technical lead on a molecule that reached approval scores Δ4 on the industry route without ever needing a paper.
- A researcher with 20 strong papers who left to found a company keeps Δ4 permanently, and the company then builds X, K, L and Σ on top of it. This is the journey the Society exists to encourage.
- A Highly Cited Researcher with nothing else scores Δ5 and very little else: Ω. Tiers are won by breadth, not by peaks.