World University Index

Nature Index: Physical Sciences (2025)

2025 edition, physical sciences. Published by Nature / Springer Nature.

Cited by
3 institutions none for this edition
Listed here
110 institutions
Published at
https://www.nature.com/nature-index/annual-tables/2025/institution/academic/physical-sciences/global

An index earns its place here when an institution quotes it. Whether the wider world has heard of the publisher is beside the point: a table somebody has advertised a placement in is a table that counts.

In their own words

Citing other editions of this index

  • the 2019 Nature Index ranked University of California San Diego ninth among the top 200 institutions in biomedical sciences worldwide

    University of California, San Diego , source , retrieved

  • According to the latest Nature Index, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg is one of the leading universities in the natural and life sciences.

    University of Wurzburg , source , retrieved

  • Zhejiang University (ZJU) has been ranked first among academic institutions worldwide in the Nature Index 2026 Research Leaders rankings

    Zhejiang University , source , retrieved

Recorded placements 110

Institutions the Index records in this table. A placement here is a placement anywhere: the Index reports each institution's best, whatever its scope.

Rank Institution Claim
1 University of Science and Technology of China 1st in the world for physical sciences
3 Peking University 3rd in the world for physical sciences
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5th in the world for physical sciences
6 University of Tokyo 6th in the world for physical sciences
7 Tsinghua University 7th in the world for physical sciences
8 Harvard University 8th in the world for physical sciences
9 California Institute of Technology 9th in the world for physical sciences
10 Stanford University 10th in the world for physical sciences
11 University of Cambridge 11th in the world for physical sciences
12 Princeton University 12th in the world for physical sciences
13 University of Chicago 13th in the world for physical sciences
14 ETH Zurich 14th in the world for physical sciences
15 University of California, Berkeley 15th in the world for physical sciences
16 University of Oxford 16th in the world for physical sciences
17 Kyoto University 17th in the world for physical sciences
18 University of California, Los Angeles 18th in the world for physical sciences
20 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 20th in the world for physical sciences
22 Shanghai Jiao Tong University 22nd in the world for physical sciences
24 Imperial College London 24th in the world for physical sciences
25 Fudan University 25th in the world for physical sciences
26 Zhejiang University 26th in the world for physical sciences
27 Cornell University 27th in the world for physical sciences
32 University of Maryland, College Park 32nd in the world for physical sciences
33 Durham University 33rd in the world for physical sciences
34 University of Copenhagen 34th in the world for physical sciences
35 Johns Hopkins University 35th in the world for physical sciences
36 Technical University of Munich 36th in the world for physical sciences
41 National University of Singapore 41st in the world for physical sciences
44 KAIST 44th in the world for physical sciences
45 University of Washington 45th in the world for physical sciences
46 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 46th in the world for physical sciences
48 Sorbonne University 48th in the world for physical sciences
50 EPFL 50th in the world for physical sciences
54 Pennsylvania State University 54th in the world for physical sciences
57 Yale University 57th in the world for physical sciences
58 Seoul National University 58th in the world for physical sciences
59 University of Minnesota 59th in the world for physical sciences
61 New York University 61st in the world for physical sciences
62 King's College London 62nd in the world for physical sciences
66 University of California, San Diego 66th in the world for physical sciences
67 Tohoku University 67th in the world for physical sciences
68 Nanyang Technological University 68th in the world for physical sciences
69 University of Zurich 69th in the world for physical sciences
70 University of Edinburgh 70th in the world for physical sciences
71 Tel Aviv University 71st in the world for physical sciences
72 Columbia University 72nd in the world for physical sciences
74 McGill University 74th in the world for physical sciences
75 University of Southampton 75th in the world for physical sciences
76 Heidelberg University 76th in the world for physical sciences
77 Purdue University 77th in the world for physical sciences
79 Northwestern University 79th in the world for physical sciences
80 University of Manchester 80th in the world for physical sciences
82 University of Texas at Austin 82nd in the world for physical sciences
87 Osaka University 87th in the world for physical sciences
88 Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich 88th in the world for physical sciences
93 University College London 93rd in the world for physical sciences
94 University of Amsterdam 94th in the world for physical sciences
97 University of Vienna 97th in the world for physical sciences
98 University of Wisconsin-Madison 98th in the world for physical sciences
101 Boston University 101st in the world for physical sciences
103 KU Leuven 103rd in the world for physical sciences
106 Institute of Science Tokyo 106th in the world for physical sciences
107 KTH Royal Institute of Technology 107th in the world for physical sciences
109 Queen Mary University of London 109th in the world for physical sciences
110 University of Hong Kong 110th in the world for physical sciences
111 University of Toronto 111th in the world for physical sciences
112 Brown University 112th in the world for physical sciences
113 Hebrew University of Jerusalem 113th in the world for physical sciences
119 Lund University 119th in the world for physical sciences
120 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 120th in the world for physical sciences
121 Utrecht University 121st in the world for physical sciences
122 Ohio State University 122nd in the world for physical sciences
125 Delft University of Technology 125th in the world for physical sciences
128 RWTH Aachen University 128th in the world for physical sciences
133 Rice University 133rd in the world for physical sciences
134 PSL University 134th in the world for physical sciences
138 Australian National University 138th in the world for physical sciences
139 University of New South Wales 139th in the world for physical sciences
148 University of Pennsylvania 148th in the world for physical sciences
158 University of British Columbia 158th in the world for physical sciences
178 National Autonomous University of Mexico 178th in the world for physical sciences
179 University of Southern California 179th in the world for physical sciences
199 Duke University 199th in the world for physical sciences
203 University of Nottingham 203rd in the world for physical sciences
204 University of Pittsburgh 204th in the world for physical sciences
209 Georgia Institute of Technology 209th in the world for physical sciences
211 University of Glasgow 211th in the world for physical sciences
217 University of Alberta 217th in the world for physical sciences
218 Monash University 218th in the world for physical sciences
222 University of Leeds 222nd in the world for physical sciences
227 University of Warwick 227th in the world for physical sciences
228 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology 228th in the world for physical sciences
245 University of Sao Paulo 245th in the world for physical sciences
247 Carnegie Mellon University 247th in the world for physical sciences
253 Vanderbilt University 253rd in the world for physical sciences
254 University of Western Australia 254th in the world for physical sciences
274 Chinese University of Hong Kong 274th in the world for physical sciences
280 Yonsei University 280th in the world for physical sciences
287 University of Melbourne 287th in the world for physical sciences
297 University of Bristol 297th in the world for physical sciences
314 University of Sydney 314th in the world for physical sciences
334 University of St Andrews 334th in the world for physical sciences
338 University of Sheffield 338th in the world for physical sciences
350 University of Birmingham 350th in the world for physical sciences
351 Swinburne University of Technology 351st in the world for physical sciences
358 City University of Hong Kong 358th in the world for physical sciences
359 University of Montreal 359th in the world for physical sciences
363 University of Queensland 363rd in the world for physical sciences
394 University of Adelaide 394th in the world for physical sciences
416 Korea University 416th in the world for physical sciences