US | higher education Smartest Cities in America Boulder, Durham, DC trump Ivy stronghold Boston By Jane Yager Posted Aug 30, 2010 8:57 AM CDT Copied In this July 3, 2008 photo, Dan Baker, director of the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, is shown in the building's atrium in Boulder, Colo., home to many research labs. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) The number-one brainiest city in America is a university town that major science research centers have made home and whose tech-friendly business culture draws start-ups: Boulder, Colo. Writing in the Daily Beast, Richard Florida ranks the country's 20 brainiest metro areas, as determined by things like number of adults with PhDs and master's degrees. Boulder is followed by: Durham, NC: Almost 20% of residents have graduate degrees in this high-brainpower Research Triangle town, home to Duke and North Carolina Central University. The DMV: Is it all the politicians that make the Washington, DC, area so smart? Probably a bigger factor is the city's wealth of think tanks and science institutions. Boston-Cambridge, Mass.: On one side of the river you've got MIT, Harvard, and Tufts. On the other, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Emerson, and lots more. Click here for the complete list. Read These Next Trump laid a 'trap' for Democrats, and GOP aims to pounce. Driver who killed Dixie Chicks founder hears his fate. Christina Applegate pulls back the curtain on her real life. SCOTUS hands significant loss to private prison company. Report an error