Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) has emerged as Bangladesh’s top-ranked private university in the latest Nature Index institutional rankings, placing 5th overall among Bangladeshi institutions and 3rd among universities nationwide, according to the globally recognized research benchmarking platform. The ranking also placed IUB at the top in Bangladesh in the Physical Sciences category, reflecting the university’s growing research visibility in high-quality scientific publications.

The Nature Index tracks research output published in a selected group of leading international journals in the natural and health sciences. The index is developed by Nature Research Intelligence, part of Springer Nature, the global publishing group behind the internationally renowned scientific journal Nature. The current rankings are based on research outputs published during the 12-month period from February 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026. IUB recorded a Nature Index Share of 0.63 from 4 indexed research articles.

Two of the articles – authored by Dr. Jewel Kumar Ghosh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Sciences and Director of the Computational Physics Wing of IUB’s Center for Computational and Data Sciences (CCDS) – are “Scale without conformal symmetry in hydrodynamics” and “Hydrostatic equilibrium in multi-Weyl semimetals”. Dr. Ghosh’s articles were published in the European Physical Journal C and the Journal of High Energy Physics, respectively.

One of the other article is titled “An accurate measurement of the spectral resolution of the JWST Near Infrared Spectrograph”, authored by Dr. Anowar J. Shajib, Associate Member of IUB’s Center for Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics (CASSA), published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.  

The Nature Index uses two principal indicators: “Count”, which records the number of indexed articles associated with an institution, and “Share”, a fractional score measuring the contribution of affiliated authors. Institutions are ranked primarily on the basis of Share, which adjusts for collaboration among multiple authors and institutions.

IUB Vice Chancellor Prof. M. Tamim said, “Meaningful scientific research emerges from a sustained academic environment that values curiosity, rigorous inquiry and international collaboration. Over the years, IUB has been steadily strengthening that environment through faculty research, interdisciplinary engagement and global academic partnerships. This recognition reflects the growing maturity of our scientific research ecosystem.”

IUB Pro Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Daniel W. Lund said, “The Nature Index is particularly significant because it evaluates research published in a selected group of globally respected scientific journals. IUB’s performance in this ranking demonstrates the increasing international visibility and quality of research produced by our faculty members and researchers.”

IUB’s Center for Computational and Data Sciences (CCDS) promotes interdisciplinary research in computational science, data science, artificial intelligence and theoretical modelling, supporting advanced research across multiple scientific disciplines. IUB's Center for Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics (CASSA) conducts research in astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology and space science, with a focus on international collaboration and advanced scientific inquiry.

The four institutions ahead of IUB in the current Bangladesh rankings are ICDDR,B, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), and Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF).

Launched in 2014, Nature Index is one of the world’s most closely watched indicators of high-quality scientific research output. Because of its emphasis on high-impact publications and fractional contribution scoring, the index is widely used by universities, policymakers and research institutions to assess scientific visibility, research collaboration and global competitiveness in advanced scientific research.

The publications considered in the Nature Index include Nature, Science, Nature Physics, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Journal of High Energy Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Cell, Neuron, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and so on. The journals are selected independently by panels of actively publishing scientists and are intended to represent the upper tier of global scientific research publications.

#SDG4 #SDG9 #SDG17