This paper examines the factors associated with holding leadership positions among men and women academic scientists. We develop hypotheses for three determinants of leadership: professional networks science ability and gender. We test the resulting model on the likelihood of holding three different types of academic science leadership—research center leadership university administrative leadership and discipline leadership. Findings show that while science productivity and reputation are strongly associated with having either a center or discipline leadership position they are less strongly associated with administrative leadership. Also larger and more dense collaboration networks predict having a center leadership position but the opposite is true for holding an administrative leadership position. Women aremore likely to be in discipline leadership positions and less likely to be a leader of a research center or have an administrative university leadership position. Finally having more women in the network reduces the likelihood of holding discipline or center leadership positions. Interpretations of findings and conclusions explore the potential implications for theory practice and policy.