3,898 Indian scientists feature in 2026 ‘World’s Top 2%’ list; IISc leads with 139, IIT Delhi follows

The 2026 edition of the “World’s Top 2% Scientists” list features 3,898 Indian scientists, with researchers from 1,185 academic institutions. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has the highest representation among academic institutions, with 139 scientists, followed by Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Delhi with 114. The total number of Indian scientists is significantly less as compared to 6,239 in 2025.

The list, prepared by Stanford University researchers and published by Elsevier, is based on bibliometric indicators used to assess researchers. The parameters include citations, h-index, co-authorship and author positions. The list also has separate categories for single-year impact and career-long impact.

Top 2% scientist list: Methodology and criteria

The “Top 2%” list is based on Scopus citation records available as of August 1, 2026. Researchers worldwide are evaluated using a composite citation score (c-score), calculated both with and without self-citations. The list includes scientists who rank among the top 100,000 globally or fall within the top 2% of their respective sub-field.

Researchers are classified into 22 broad scientific fields and 174 sub-fields under the Science-Metrix classification system. Percentile rankings are provided for scientists with at least five publications. Based on these parameters, two datasets are released: career-long and single-year.

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Top 20 Indian institutes in list

Other than government colleges, several private colleges have also reported the inclusion of their faculty members in the 2026 list. The Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) said 34 of its faculty members have been featured among the world’s top 2% of scientists. Of these, 33 are from KIIT and one is from KISS. According to the institute, all 34 faculty members feature in the single-year impact list, while 13 are included in the career-long impact list.

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NIT Rourkela has reported that 29 faculty members and one research graduate from the institute have been featured in the 2026 list. The researchers represent a range of disciplines, including life sciences, metallurgical and materials engineering, mathematics, chemical engineering, biotechnology and medical engineering, humanities and social sciences, ceramic engineering, food process engineering, electronics and communication engineering, physics and astronomy, civil engineering, and mining engineering.

Among the NIT Rourkela faculty members featured in the list are Prof. Surajit Das, Prof. Sujit Kumar Bhutia, Prof. Bankim Chandra Ray, Prof. Snehashish Chakraverty, Prof. Santanu Paria, Prof. Kunal Pal, Prof. Narayan Sethi, Prof. Ajit Behera, Prof. Balasubramanian P, Prof. Ritwik Sarkar and Prof. Mohd Khalid Gul, among others.

NIT Rourkela also said Dr. Srimanta Patra, a PhD graduate of the institute who is currently serving as a DST-INSPIRE Faculty at IIT Guwahati, has been featured in the list. The institute further said that 19 researchers have been featured in the career-long category.