6,239 Indian scientists in Stanford’s top 2% list; IITs lead with 755, ahead of NITs, IISc, AIIMS together

Indian researchers have claimed 6,239 spots in Stanford University's 7the edition of world's top 2% scientists list based on their performance in 2024 alone a significant jump in the 'single-year' category that contrasts sharply with the country's declining count in the 'career-long' rankings, where only 3,372 Indian scientists made the cut.

As per the top 2% list, the highest of 755 researchers from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), over 330 from National Institutes of Technology (NITs), and 117 in Indian Institute of Science Bangalore have been featured under the single-year list.

AIIMS, central, state universities in the list

A total of 80 researchers from All India Institutes of Medical Science (AIIMS), mostly from AIIMS New Delhi (56), also secured a spot in the top 2%. Besides the premier institutes of India, 50 scientists from state-run Jadavpur University, around 88 from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), 80 from Amity University, 46 from Aligarh Muslim University, 51 from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) also made it to the list.

Notably, 59 researchers from a private university, Chitkara University, Punjab, located in Punjab, were also placed in Stanford's top 2% scientist list.

In the career-long list, 613 scientists from IITs were included, of which the highest of 105 researchers were from IIT Delhi, 91 from IIT Kharagpur, 75 from IIT Madras, and 70 from IIT Bombay. IIMs combined have only 10 in career-long category and 36 in single-year list.

Additionally, 140 researches from NITs, 134 from IISc, 43 from ICAR 40 from Jadavpur University, 39 from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 38 each in BHU and DU, and 26 from Amity University made it to the list.

Last year, over 5,300 scientists were placed in each category. As per the available data, roughly the single-year list saw a 16% jump to 6,239, while the career-long data showed a drop of nearly 37%. In 2023, 4,635 Indian scientists made it to the list. Back then, scientists were recognised based on their career-long citations.

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How are scientists ranked?

The top 2% list is derived based on Scopus citation records as of August 1, 2025. Researchers across the world are ranked using a composite citation score (c-score), with and without self-citations, and includes only those who fall in the top 100,000 globally or in the top 2% of their sub-field.

Scientists are classified into 22 broad scientific fields and 174 sub-fields under the Science-Metrix system, with percentile ranks given for all scientists with at least five publications.

Based on these parameters, two lists are published – career-long data and single-year data. “Career-long data are updated to end-of-2024 and single recent year data pertain to citations received during calendar year 2024,” it clarified.

Stanford's world's top 2% scientists

Under the career-long list in the Stanford’s world top 2% scientist list, the United States (US) continues to dominate with 87,859 scientists, followed by Great Britain with 20,573, Germany with 12,165, China with 12,374. While 7,285 researchers from France made it to the list, Russia and Brazil are represented by 1,070 and 1,196 scientists respectively.

In the single-year list, the US again leads with 73,018 researchers, while China with 31,685 researchers replaced Great Britain, which has 18,132.

Indian scientists in world's top 2%: List

Institute-wise number of Indian researchers in the Stanford University's 7th edition of world's top 2% scientists.