Recently, Stanford University and Elsevier jointly released the 2026 World's Top 2% Scientists List. Prof. Wang Qiang from Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IFST-CAAS) was selected to the Career-long Impact list. Prof. Wang Fengzhong, Prof. Zhang Dequan, Prof. Bi Jinfeng, Prof. Mu Taihua, Prof. Tong Litao, Prof. Shi Aimin, Prof. Sun Hongnan, Prof. Zhang Jinchuang, Prof. Li Xin and Prof. Ma Peihua were selected to the Single-year Impact list.

Compiled based on the Scopus database, the list is comprehensively evaluated using multiple authoritative indicators including citation counts and the h-index. It covers 20 major fields and 174 sub-disciplines, and consists of two categories: the Career-long Impact list and the Single-year Impact list. The Career-long Impact list assesses researchers’ overall performance throughout their academic careers, while the Single-year Impact list focuses on their academic achievements in a single calendar year.

The selection of 11 researchers from IFST-CAAS onto the World's Top 2% Scientists List recognizes the academic accumulation and innovation capacity of the researchers in IFST. It also demonstrates the positive outcomes in basic research and high-level talent development, as well as the steadily growing international academic influence of IFST.

Prof. Wang Qiang, Senior Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Plant Protein and Quality Regulation. He has long been engaged in research on grain and oil processing, nutrition and health. He developed key technologies and equipment for suitability evaluation, quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of oilseeds including peanut, walnut, sunflower and cottonseed; established technologies for low-temperature peanut pressing and co-production of oil and protein; and pioneered new technologies and products such as novel plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. He has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for seven consecutive years.

Prof. Wang Fengzhong, Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Food Nutrition and Functional Foods. He has long been committed to research on nutritious and healthy foods, intelligent processing, precision nutrition, and dietary intervention for chronic diseases in the elderly. He has established a key technological system covering the mining and evaluation of functional factors from agricultural products, deep processing, and the development of targeted foods. Focusing on elderly health issues such as uric acid metabolic disorders and mood disorders, he has systematically studied the action mechanisms, nutritional intervention strategies and health effect evaluation of food-derived functional factors, and promoted the R&D of age-appropriate targeted nutritional and healthy foods as well as the development of relevant standard systems.

Prof. Zhang Dequan, Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Meat Science and Engineering. He has long been engaged in meat science and processing technology research. Focusing on three key priorities: fresh meat preservation and loss reduction, intelligent processing of livestock and poultry meat, and development of nutritious meat products, he has developed key technologies and equipment for preservation and loss reduction in the supply chain of fresh livestock and poultry meat, as well as the industrial processing of traditional meat products. He has developed nutritious meat products featuring the “four lows and three specialties”, including low-salt and low-fat meat products, chondroitin sulfate muscle-strengthening products, and age-appropriate meat products. His scientific and technological achievements support the high-quality development of the meat processing industry.

Prof. Bi Jinfeng, Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Intelligent Manufacturing, Processing, Nutrition and Health of Fruits and Vegetables. He has long been engaged in research on theories and technologies of intelligent manufacturing for fruit and vegetable processing as well as nutrition and health. He has achieved innovative results in multiple fields, including elucidation of material basis and nutrition-health mechanisms of fruits and vegetables, formation mechanism and regulation technology of processing quality of fruits and vegetables, precision design and intelligent manufacturing of nutritious and healthy foods, theories and technologies for cascaded high-value utilization of fruit and vegetable resources, and standards and quality control technologies for intelligent manufacturing of fruit and vegetable processing. He has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for two consecutive years.

Prof. Mu Taihua, Senior Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Tuber Food Science and Technology. He has long been engaged in research on tuber processing and comprehensive utilization of by‑products. He has obtained innovative achievements in areas including processing suitability evaluation of tubers and screening of special tuber varieties, processing of nutritious and healthy tuber-based foods, and key technologies for high-value utilization of tuber by‑products. He has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for five consecutive years.

Prof. Tong Litao, Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Phytochemical Components and Omics Research. He devotes himself to the research on basic theories and key technologies and equipment for rice-based food processing in China. He has developed key processing technologies and equipment including semi-dry rice milling, fermentation with specialized strains, and green sterilization and preservation, promoting the high-quality development of the rice-based food industry. He has been listed on the World’s Top 2% Scientists List for three consecutive years.

Prof. Shi Aimin, Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Plant Protein and Quality Regulation. He is committed to research on the structural and functional regulation of plant proteins such as peanut and walnut proteins. He has established a green preparation technology for highly soluble protein, revealed the stabilization mechanism of the “3D elastic interfacial film” formed by plant protein microgel particles and Pickering emulsions, developed innovative technologies to improve the stability of functional factors, and developed a series of new products including highly soluble protein powder, highly emulsifiable granular protein, foaming protein, novel vegetable cream and plant-based ice cream. He has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for two consecutive years.

Prof. Sun Hongnan, Chief Scientist of the Innovation Team for Tuber Food Science and Technology. Her research mainly focuses on tuber processing and comprehensive utilization of by-products. She has developed key processing technologies for gluten-free fermented staple tuber foods, low-fat potato fries, high-quality alum-free vermicelli, polyphenols from sweet potato stems and leaves, and lignocellulose-based nanomaterials. She has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for two consecutive years.

Prof. Zhang Jinchuang, Key Expert of the Innovation Team for Plant Protein and Quality Regulation. His research mainly focuses on the theory and technology of textural reorganization of proteins via extrusion. He has established an efficient manufacturing technology of the high-moisture extrusion process for novel plant-based meat products, revealed the three-dimensional morphological characteristics and formation mechanism of plant protein fibrous structures, and realized precise bionic texture regulation mimicking beef, chicken and crab meat. He has been listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for three consecutive years.

Prof. Li Xin, Key Expert of the Innovation Team for Meat Science and Engineering. Her research mainly focuses on the mechanisms and technologies for preservation and loss reduction of fresh meat. She has uncovered the rigor mortis regulation mechanism mediated by post-translational modification of energy metabolic enzymes, developed ultra-rapid cooling for freshness retention and physical field coupled ice-temperature preservation technologies, and created new high-quality fresh meat products, addressing the prominent challenges of difficult preservation and high loss of fresh meat in China.

Prof. Ma Peihua, Key Expert of the Innovation Team for Food Nutrition and Functional Foods. His research mainly focuses on food informatics, with an emphasis on the application of deep learning in food and nutritional sciences. He has constructed food nutrition agents and a “dark-house” embodied intelligent food analysis laboratory. Targeting intelligent detection, dietary data, multi-agent food research and personalized nutrition, he explores the capability boundaries of interpretable and verifiable cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies for scientific discovery.