Zhejiang University Produces Most State Science Award Leaders

On July 8, the winners of China's 2025 State Science and Technology Awards​ were announced in Beijing. A total of 258 projects and 11 individuals were recognized for their outstanding scientific and technological achievements.

As China's highest honor in science and technology, the distribution of award-winning alumni provides, to some extent, an indication of a university's talent cultivation and research training quality. Therefore, WorldHE compiled the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral alma maters of the first principal recipients of the 2025 State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, State Natural Science Award, State Technological Invention Award, and State Scientific and Technological Progress Award.

According to the compiled data, Zhejiang University ranked first, with 15 undergraduate alumni, 9 master's alumni, and 14 doctoral alumni serving as first principal recipients of the 2025 State Science and Technology Awards, for a total of 38 award-winning alumni. Jilin University ranked second with 18 award-winning alumni across the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, while Harbin Institute of Technology followed with 17 alumni recognized as first principal recipients.

Other universities with 10 or more award-winning alumni include Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, Tianjin University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Central South University, Peking University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Tongji University.

Notes:

Universities that have undergone mergers are counted under their post-merger institutions.

Statistics are based on the degree-granting institution. Where the degree-granting institution differs from the institution awarding the academic credential, or where an individual holds two degrees, each degree-granting institution is counted once.

The data were collected manually and are not exhaustive.