11 Pulmonologists get recognised in Stanford University 2026 list of world's top 2% scientists
New Delhi: In 2026, a total of 11 pulmonologists from India's various prestigious health and medical institutes have been recognised among the world's top 2% of scientists in the prestigious database curated by Professor John P.A. Ioannidis of Stanford University, in collaboration with the Elsevier Data Repository for their research in Respiratory System
Being recognised in Stanford University's top 2% list of scientists acknowledges their pioneering research, clinical achievements, and consistent impact on the field.
The database of Stanford University for the year 2026 of top-cited scientists provides standardised information on citations, h-index, co-authorship-adjusted h-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions, and a composite indicator (c-score). The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a 2% or above percentile rank in the sub-field.
Altogether, 11 Indian pulmonologists have been featured in Stanford University's list for 2026. Their subfield of research is Respiratory System. Below are their details:
(1) Dr Sundeep Santosh Salvi- Pulmocare Research and Education (PURE) Foundation
Dr Sundeep Santosh Salvi is the Director at Pulmocare Research and Education Foundation. After completing his Specialisation in Respiratory Medicine, he obtained a PhD in clinical medicine from the University of Southampton in UK for his research on air pollution and lung health. He returned back to India in 2002 and set up the Chest Research Foundation and more recently the PURE Foundation where he is actively involved in conducting research, educational programs and advocacy related to asthma and COPD. He has been a pioneer in the field of non-smoking COPD.
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 7222 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 7509 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 30, with altogether 6677 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
Dr Salvi main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is General and Internal Medicine.
(2) Dr Ritesh Agarwal- Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
Dr Ritesh Agarwal is the Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. He completed his medical school (M.B.B.S) in 1998 from Stanley Medical College, Chennai and joined the Residency Program in Internal Medicine at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh in 1998. Subsequently, he completed his Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine from the same Institute in 2004.
His primary research area is allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. He also maintains a keen interest in interventional pulmonology and meta-analysis.
Dr. Agarwal has more than 700 publications to his credit. He has written several chapters in national and international books. He is also co-editor of two books (Oxygen Therapy, Textbook of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine). He was awarded the ICMR Kamal Satbir Award for the year 2009, the NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award (Medicine category) for the year 2011, the ICMR Shakuntala Amir Chand Award for the year 2012, the ICMR Chaturvedi Ghanshyam Das Jaigopal Memorial Award for the year 2019, and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for the year 2020, for his work in the field of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.
Dr. Agarwal is Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, Asian Pacific Society of Respirology, Indian Chest Society and Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow.
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 15472 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 9749 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 16, with altogether 1503 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Microbiology.
(3) Dr Ashutosh Nath Aggarwal- Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
Dr Ashutosh Nath Aggarwal, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine in the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 38839 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 33501 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 14, with altogether 1534 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Microbiology.
Dr. Aggarwal pursued his MBBS in 1991 and MD (Medicine) in 1994 from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. He joined the DM programme of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at PGIMER in 1995. After completing his DM (Pulmonary Medicine), he worked as Senior Research Associate in the department and was later selected as Assistant Professor in the department in 1999. His clinical and research interests include pulmonary function testing, bronchoscopy, sleep medicine and respiratory intensive care. He is incharge of the sleep laboratory of the department. He has published more than 175 scientific papers in national and international journals.
(4) Dr Sahajal Dhooria- Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
Dr Sahajal Dhooria, an Additional Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, completed his MBBS and MD (Internal Medicine) from AIIMS, New Delhi. He then joined the DM (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine) fellowship at PGIMER, Chandigarh, which he completed in December 2013. He has been working as an Assistant Professor in the same department since May 2014. His areas of interest include sarcoidosis, diffuse parenchymal lung diseases and interventional pulmonology. He also maintains a keen interest in sleep medicine and critical care. Dr. Dhooria has more than 310 publications to his credit. He has also authored several chapters in national and international books.
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 104068 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 81606 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 14, with altogether 905 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Microbiology.
(5) Dr Zarir Farokh Udwadia- P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre
Dr Zarir Farokh Udwadia is a consultant Chest Physician at P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre. His areas of interest include General Medicine, Chest Medicine, TB, MDR-TB, ILD, Pulmonary infections, Difficult asthma, Sleep disorders, and COVID.
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 111828 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 115056 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 17, with altogether 1113 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Microbiology.
(6) Dr. Devasahayam Jesudas Christopher- Christian Medical College, Vellore
Dr. Devasahayam Jesudas Christopher is a Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Christian Medical College, Vellore. He was the past president of the Indian Chest Society. Currently, he is a member of Respiratory Research Network, PURE foundation, Chair of Publications committee, RePORT consortium Indo-US TB research collaboration, Chair of the Research Committee of Indian Chest Society, and steering committee member of R2D2 Network for research in novel TB diagnostics.
He pursued his MBBS from the Christian Medical College Vellore, Diploma course in Chest Diseases & Tuberculosis at the Madras Medical College. He also holds a Diplomate of The National Boarding Respiratory Diseases degree issued by NBEMS. He was a Fellow of the College of Chest Physicians by the American College of Chest Physicians, USA. He received advanced training in Respiratory Medicine from the University of Adelaide, South Australia.
Dr. Christopher has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 129250 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 137429 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 42, with altogether 13334 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is General and Internal Medicine.
(7) Dr Inderpaul S. Sehgal - Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
Dr Inderpaul S. Sehgal is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
His primary research area is chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, invasive and non-invasive mechanical ventilation, and sepsis. He also maintains a keen interest in interventional pulmonology. Dr. Sehgal has more than 140 publications to his credit. He has written several chapters in national books.
Dr. Sehgal has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 151203 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 100628 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 14, with altogether 805 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Microbiology.
(8) Dr Anant Mohan- All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
Dr Anant Mohan is a Professor and Head of the Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 172919 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 175201 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 15, with altogether 1187 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Oncology and Carcinogenesis.
(9) Dr Surinder Kumar Jindal- Jindal Clinics:
Dr S.K.Jindal is the former Professor & Head, Department of Pulmonary Medicine at the PGI, Chandigarh and is presently the Medical Director of Jindal Clinics, Chandigarh.
He has got more than 350 publications and pioneered several large projects. He was an Associate Editor of Chest (USA) and International Journal of TB & Lung Diseases (France). He has been honoured with the Outstanding Educator Award (2011) of American Thoracic Society and Life Time Achievement award of several professional associations. He has authored and/or edited several books including a two-volume Text Book of Pulmonary & Critical Care.
Dr Jindal has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 194300 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 170834 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 8, with altogether 426 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is General and Internal Medicine.
(10) Dr Randeep J. Guleria- Medanta - The Medicity
Former Professor and Director of AIIMS Delhi, Dr Randeep J. Guleria is the Chairman of the Institute of Internal Medicine & Respiratory & Sleep Medicine at Medanta-The Medicity.
He led AIIMS Delhi as Director for around 5.5 years. He is also the former Professor and Head of Pulmonary Medicine & Sleep Disorders at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Dr. Guleria was the recipient of the prestigious “Padma Shri” in 2015 in the field of medicine. He has been awarded the prestigious Dr. B. C. Roy National Award for Eminent Medical person for the year 2014 and the “Lung India Award” for the best original article in Lung India by the Indian Chest Society in 2014. He has been awarded Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) Honoris Causa by IIT, Kharagpur, and Amity University. He had many other prestigious awards, like the Swastha Bharat Samman for Medicine from LIC and Zee TV and the Himachal Gaurav Puraskar, and the 22nd Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in 2021. He is also an advisor and consultant to various international and national bodies, including the WHO (Geneva) and the IAEA (Vienna).
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 211979 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 229530 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 14, with altogether 1161 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Microbiology.
(11) Dr Malay S. Sarkar- Indira Gandhi Medical College
Dr. Malay S. Sarkar is the Professor and Head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla. He has a special interest in COPD, Comorbidities, PAH, Interstitial Lung Diseases, and computer-aided diagnosis of ILD. He has more than 100 publications including book chapters.
He has been recognised as one of the top 2% scientists across the world, as per Stanford University's list of 2026. He holds a rank of 252645 in the list based on the composite score excluding self-citations, and 291551 when all citations are included. By the end of 2025, his h-index, excluding self-citations, stands at 8, with altogether 246 citations for 2025 (excluding self-citations).
His main field of research is Clinical Medicine; subfield 1 is Respiratory System and subfield 2 is Oncology and Carcinogenesis.
