On April 22, 2021, Elsevier announced the "Highly Cited Chinese Researchers" list for the year 2020. Three faculty members from the Department of Precision Instrument at Tsinghua University were honored on the list. Professor Wang Xue and Associate Professor Meng Ziyang were selected in the field of "Instrument Science and Technology," while Professor Li Lifeng was chosen for the "Optical Engineering" field.

The 2020 Elsevier "Highly Cited Chinese Researchers" list is based on the authoritative global citation and index database Scopus as the source of statistical data on the scientific achievements of Chinese scholars. The selection methodology was developed by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, which uses objective citation data to analyze the performance of Chinese scholars in their research contributions. The 2020 list includes scholars from 373 universities, enterprises, and research institutions across China, with a total of 197 scholars from Tsinghua University.