Four IMDEA Materials Institute researchers ranked among the top 500 worldwide in their fields in Stanford University’s 2025 Top 2% Scientist lists

  • In total, 12 IMDEA Materials researchers were included in the American university’s annual rankings, the highest number achieved by the Institute.
  • The metric is the most comprehensive yearly listing of the world’s leading researchers, with the records of more than 9 million scientists evaluated in their compilation.

The 2025 Top 2% Scientist Lists from Stanford University are out, and for the first time, 12 IMDEA Materials researchers are recognised, with four of those being named among the top 500 scientists from around the world in their research categories.

Profs. Drs. Javier LLorca, Harun Tüysüz, De-Yi Wang and Andrés Díaz Lantada all achieved the distinction, either in the career-long or single-year rankings.

In the career rankings, Prof. LLorca stands out among the top 200 materials scientists worldwide, a reflection of his long-term impact in the field. Meanwhile, in the single-year 2024 rankings, Prof. Tüysüz was placed 374th in Organic Chemistry out of more than 179,000 scientists, and Prof. Wang was ranked 232nd in Polymer Science from nearly 125,000.

Meanwhile, Prof. Díaz Lantada, who joined IMDEA Materials this year from the Technical University of Madrid, where he is also a Full Professor, achieved 261st position in Biomedical Engineering, a category with over 70,000 researchers.

In total, 12 IMDEA Materials researchers were included in this year’s lists, including Profs. Drs. Johan Christensen, Carlos González, María Teresa Pérez Prado, Ilchat Sabirov, Javier Segurado and José Manuel Torralba in the career impact rankings, alongside Profs. Llorca, Tüysüz, Wang and Díaz Lantada.

The single-year achievement list also featured strong representation, with Prof. Drs. Jon Molina and Maciej Haranczyk featuring, along with many of those included in the career rankings.

Pictured from left to right, Senior Researchers: Teresa Pérez Prado, De-Yi Wang, Andrés Díaz Lantada, Ilchat Sabirov, Johan Christensen, Jon Molina, José Manuel Torralba, Carlos González, Javier LLorca an Harun Tüysüz. Not pictured: Javier Segurado and Dr. Maciej Haranczyk.

Never before have more than 10 of the institute’s researchers been included in the one year.

“To see so many of the institute’s senior researchers represented in Stanford’s Top 2% list is a testament to the global impact and relevance of the research carried out at IMDEA Materials,” said Prof. Molina.

“It is especially pleasing to see two of the institute’s newest researchers in Profs. Tüysüz and Díaz Lantada recognised so strongly in their individual fields. This emphasises IMDEA Materials’ ability to attract talent at the highest possible level, both nationally and internationally,” he added.

The Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% ranking is developed from Scopus bibliometric data and classifies researchers into 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields. It uses a composite citation indicator (c-score) that integrates several metrics, including total citations, h-index, hm-index (which adjusts for co-authorship), and citations to papers where the scientist is single, first, or last author.

Two lists are produced each year: one for career-long impact, which evaluates the researcher’s work over their entire career, and one for single-year impact, which focuses on research influence during the most recent year.

The strong showing of IMDEA Materials researchers in the rankings consolidates its reputation as one of Europe’s leading centres for advanced materials science and engineering.