45 University of Portsmouth academics have been named among the top two per cent of the most cited scientists in the world.
The influential list , produced each year by Stanford University and Elsevier, is a publicly accessible database that ranks researchers by the influence of their work across every scientific field. This year's Portsmouth names span all of the University's faculties, from astrophysics and engineering to psychology, business and the creative industries.
The recognition comes days after a second global ranking, Scholarly Index's Top1000 Scholar list, featured 399 Portsmouth researchers, including two members of the University Executive Board.
Rather than counting papers, the Stanford University and Elsevier list uses metrics that reflect a scientist's influence rather than just their publication count.
Scientists are grouped into 22 fields and more than 170 subfields, so each researcher is compared with peers in their own discipline. Two lists are published: one for career-long impact and one for impact in the most recent single year, and the Portsmouth names below come from the single-year list, which measures the citations researchers' work received during 2025.
Top1000 Scholar ranking
Scholarly Index released the 2026 edition of its Top1000 Scholar ranking last week. It names up to 1,000 scholars worldwide in each of 20 major categories, 305 subfields and thousands of research topics, so researchers are ranked against others working in the same area.
Among the 399 Portsmouth researchers listed are two members of Portsmouth's University Executive Board; Professor Vikas Kumar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), and Professor Anne Murphy, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education).
Professor Kumar said: "To see 42 of our colleagues named among the world's most influential researchers, alongside almost 400 in the Top1000 Scholar rankings, is a real point of pride for Portsmouth.
"These results reflect research that matters beyond academia, from tackling climate and health challenges to shaping new technologies and creative industries. They show that Portsmouth is a place where talented researchers can do world-leading work, and they strengthen the partnerships we build with industry, government and our communities."
University of Portsmouth academics work closely with businesses, industry experts and the public sector to solve local, national and global challenges across science, technology, humanities, business and the creative industries.
Portsmouth received the highest possible Gold rating in the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, published in 2022, it was ranked third of all modern UK universities for research power. Its economic and societal impact was also ranked highly in the national Knowledge Exchange Framework in 2025.
In July, Portsmouth ranked fourth out of 48 UK universities for overall satisfaction in the 2026 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey, its best result yet, and up from fifth in 2025.
Current Portsmouth researchers in top globally most highly cited scientists list:
University Directorate
Faculty of Technology
Faculty of Science and Health
Professor Gordon Blunn (Emeritus Professor)
Professor Rob Strachan (Emeritus Professor)
Dr David Loydell (Visiting Associate Professor)
Dr Karen Pilkington (Visiting Senior Research Fellow)
Professor Janet Nichol (Visiting Professor)
Professor Jim Khan
Dr Gary Nicols (Visiting Researcher)
Professor Joost Bierens (Visiting Professor)
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Professor June Purvis (Emeritus Professor)
Faculty of Business and Law
Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries
The full list is available to view online here.
