The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential female people in Chemistry,
#351
Julie A. Leary
#66447
Overall Influence
Julie A. Leary is a emeritus professor in the department of molecular and cellular biology at University of California, Davis and the department of chemistry. Early life and education Leary obtained a PhD in Chemistry Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985, under the direction of Klaus Biemann.
Go to Profile#352
Regina Palkovits
#124618
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Regina Palkovits is a German chemist who is a Professor of Chemistry at the RWTH Aachen University. Her research considers heterogenous catalysis. She was elected a Fellow of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in 2020.
Go to Profile#353
Igle Gledhill
#47143
Overall Influence
Irvy Gledhill is a South African physicist at the University of Witwatersrand, School of Mechanical, Industrial & Aeronautical Engineering, in Johannesburg. Education She has her bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, and applied maths from Rhodes University in 1976 and an honours in Physics, 1977. She earned her PhD in plasma physics in 1983 from the University of Natal. Her research topic was Ion Acoustic Waves in Multi-Species Plasmas. She did postdocs at the University of California, Los Angeles in thermonuclear fusion, and in Space Shuttle-related plasma simulation at Stanford Universi...
Go to Profile#354
Annalisa Pastore
#93858
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Annalisa Pastore is a Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at King's College London. In 2018 she was appointed full professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. In 2022, she was appointed director of research for life sciences, chemistry and soft matter science at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. She resigned in Frebruary 2023.
Go to Profile#355
Jyotirmayee Dash
#109134
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Jyotirmayee Dash is a professor at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, with research interests in topics related to organic chemistry and chemical biology in general. Jyotirmayee Dash obtained PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from IIT Kanpur in 2003 under the advisorship of Prof. F. A. Khan and MSc degree from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, India. She was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, during 2004–2006, postdoctoral fellow at ESPCI Paris, France, during 2006–2007 and Marie-Curie Fellow at University of Cambridge, UK, during 2007–2009.
Go to Profile#356
Rebekka Klausen
#129797
Overall Influence
Rebekka Klausen is an American chemist who is the Second Decade Society Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her research considers carbon and silicon-based nanomaterials for optoelectronic devices. She was a finalist for the 2021 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
Go to Profile#357
Lucy Carpenter
#57303
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Lucy Jane Carpenter is professor of physical chemistry at the University of York and director of the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory . Education Carpenter graduated with a BSc in chemistry from the University of Bristol in 1991 followed by a PhD in atmospheric chemistry at the University of East Anglia supervised by Stuart Penkett and awarded in 1996.
Go to Profile#358
Helen E. Grenga
#101099
Overall Influence
1938 - 2006 (68 years)
Helen Eva Grenga was the first full-tenured female engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. One of the first tenure women chemical engineering professors in the USA. Early life and education Grenga graduated from Shorter College in 1960 with a B.A. in Chemistry, and from the University of Virginia in 1967 with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry.
Go to Profile#359
Debra R. Rolison
#118042
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Debra R. Rolison is a physical chemist at the Naval Research Laboratory, where she is a head of the Advanced Electrochemical Materials section. Rolison's research involves the design, synthesis, and characterization of multi-functional nanostructures and ultra porous materials for rate-critical applications such as catalysis and energy storage. She is the 112th recipient of the William H. Nichols Medal Award.
Go to Profile#360
Coray Colina
#107246
Overall Influence
Coray Colina is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida. Education Colina received her BS in 1993 and MS in 1994 at Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela. She earned her PhD at North Carolina State University in 2004 advised by Keith E. Gubbins, and subsequently worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Go to Profile#361
Marisa Kozlowski
#105206
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Marisa C. Kozlowski is an American chemist who is Professor of Organic and Catalysis Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research considers asymmetric synthesis and the development of cost effective catalysts. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and American Chemical Society in 2013.
Go to Profile#362
Gilda H. Loew
#114954
Overall Influence
1930 - 2001 (71 years)
Gilda H. Loew was an American chemist known for applying computational chemistry to biology. She was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1975. Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, Loew attended Erasmus Hall High School and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's from Columbia, both in chemistry, before going on to doctoral work at UC Berkeley, where she earned a PhD in chemical physics. In the 1950s and 1960s, she held a number of research positions, at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company and the Hansen Laboratories, Stanford University.
Go to Profile#363
Hemamala Karunadasa
#117107
Overall Influence
Hemamala Indivari Karunadasa is an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford University. She works on hybrid organic – inorganic materials, such as perovskites, for clean energy and large area lighting.
Go to Profile#364
Julie S. Biteen
#89040
Overall Influence
Julie Biteen is a Canadian-born American chemist who is professor of chemistry and biophysics at the University of Michigan. Her research considers the development of imaging systems for biological systems. She was named the Stanford University Sessler Distinguished Alumni Lecturer in 2021.
Go to Profile#365
Lucy Ziurys
#118973
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Lucy Marie Ziurys is an American astrochemist known for her work on high-resolution molecular spectroscopy. She is Regent's Professor of Chemistry & Biology and of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.
Go to Profile#366
Virginia Cornish
#90105
Overall Influence
Virginia Wood Cornish is the Helena Rubinstein Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. Background and education Cornish received her BA in chemistry in 1991, working with professor Ronald Breslow. Her PhD research, on site-specific protein labeling and mutagenesis, was carried out with Peter Schultz. Cornish was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at MIT with Robert T. Sauer. She is the first female graduate from Columbia College to be hired to a full-time faculty position since the College became coeducational in 1983.
Go to Profile#367
Anne-Marie Caminade
#130598
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Anne-Marie Caminade is a French chemist who is Director of Research Exceptional Class at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Her research considers dendrimers and heterochemistry. She was awarded the 2021 Société chimique de France Achille le Bel Grand Prize.
Go to Profile#368
Jingdong Zhang
#53364
Overall Influence
1968 - 2020 (52 years)
Jingdong Zhang was a Chinese–Danish chemist and Professor of Chemistry at the Technical University of Denmark. Her research considered nanochemistry and the novel materials for catalysis, as well as the development of advanced characterisation techniques such as scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy. She was elected to the Akademiet for de Tekniske Videnskaber in 2017.
Go to Profile#369
Katja Loos
#115363
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Katja Loos is professor at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands holding the chair of Macromolecular Chemistry and New Polymeric Materials. Biography Katja Loos studied chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany and graduated in 1996. During her graduate studies she focused her studies on Organic Chemistry and Polymer Chemistry. In 1992 and 1993 she was an international exchange student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, USA.
Go to Profile#370
Aleksandra Kornhauser Frazer
#104509
Overall Influence
1926 - 2020 (94 years)
Aleksandra Kornhauser Frazer was a Slovenian chemist. She was a Professor of Chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering and Director at the International Centre for Chemical Studies, of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Go to Profile#371
Teresa Head-Gordon
#119224
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Teresa Lyn Head-Gordon is an American chemist and the Chancellor's Professor of Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a faculty scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a fellow of both the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Chemical Society .
Go to Profile#372
Rachel A. Segalman
#111361
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Rachel A. Segalman is the Edward Noble Kramer Professor and Department Chair of Chemical Engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara . Her laboratory works on semiconducting block polymers, polymeric ionic liquids, and hybrid thermoelectric materials. She is the associated director of the Center for Materials for Water Energy System, an associate editor of ACS Macro Letters, and co-editor of the Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Go to Profile#373
Lola Eniola-Adefeso
#45859
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Omolola Eniola-Adefeso is a Nigerian-American chemical engineer and the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Eniola-Adefeso is also a co-founder and chief scientific officer of Asalyxa Bio. Her research looks to design biocompatible functional particles for targeted drug delivery.
Go to Profile#374
Tamar Seideman
#125237
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Tamar Seideman is the Dow Chemical Company Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at Northwestern University. She specialises in coherence spectroscopies and coherent control in isolated molecules and dissipative media as well as in ultrafast nanoplasmonics, current-driven phenomena in nanoelectronics and mathematical models.
Go to Profile#375
Debra Bernhardt
#122346
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Debra Bernhardt is an Australian theoretical chemist. She is best known for her contributions towards understanding the fluctuation theorem. This theorem shows the second law of thermodynamics and the zeroth law of thermodynamics can be derived mathematically rather than postulated as laws of nature.
Go to Profile#376
Linda Broadbelt
#122789
Overall Influence
Linda Jean Broadbelt is an American chemical engineer who is the Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor and associate dean for research of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. Her research considers kinetics modeling, polymerization and catalysis.
Go to Profile#377
Eleanor Campbell
#110939
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Eleanor Elizabeth Bryce Campbell FRSE FRS FRSC FInstP is a Scottish scientist who holds the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. Education Campbell was born in 1960 in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in Scotland to Isobel and William Cowan. She was schooled at Rothesay Academy before going on to study for a BSc in Chemical Physics at the University of Edinburgh, passing with first class honours in 1980. She remained at the university for further 4 years studying for a PhD, which she gained in 1986, on the topic of Electronic to rovibrational excitation in fast atom-molecule collisions.
Go to Profile#378
Rebecca Abergel
#88674
Overall Influence
Rebecca Abergel is a French inorganic chemist who specializes in the coordination chemistry between lanthanide and actinide complexes. Alongside the effects of heavy element exposure and contamination on different biological systems. Abergel is currently a faculty scientist and heavy element chemistry group leader at the chemical sciences division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. She is also assistant professor of nuclear engineering at University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#379
Miqin Zhang
#129421
Overall Influence
Miqin Zhang is an American materials scientist who is the Kyocera Professor of Materials Science at the University of Washington. Her research considers the development of new biomaterials for medical applications. Her group develops nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and imaging, biocompatible materials for drug delivery and cell-based biosensors.
Go to Profile#380
Zoe Pikramenou
#26520
Overall Influence
Zoe Pikramenou is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Photophysics at the University of Birmingham, where she is the first female professor in the chemistry department. Education and career Pikramenou graduated in 1987 with a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Athens in Greece. She then moved to Michigan State University where she worked in the lab of Daniel G. Nocera, graduating with a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1993. She then conducted post-doctoral studies at University of Strasbourg in France as a Marie Curie and Collège de France fellow working with Nobel prize-winner Jean-Marie Lehn. ...
Go to Profile#381
Eva Hevia
#116698
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Eva Hevia is a Professor of Organometallic Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the University of Bern. Education Hevia was born in Gijón in 1976. She became interested in a science at a very young age. She earned her Masters and PhD from the University of Oviedo in 2002.
Go to Profile#382
Sharon Ashbrook
#120765
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Sharon Elizabeth Marie Ashbrook is a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. Her research is focused on the application of multinuclear solid-state NMR spectroscopy techniques as well as the combination of these techniques with first-principles calculations to investigate structure, order and dynamics of solid state materials.
Go to Profile#383
M. Carmen Galan
#133507
Overall Influence
M. Carmen Galan is a Spanish chemist and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. Her research considers bioinspired probes for the targeting and regulation of cellular processes. She was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Jeremy Knowles Award in 2021.
Go to Profile#384
Diane Grob Schmidt
#78165
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
eDiane Grob Schmidt is an American chemist, who was the executive at Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1981 to 2014. In 2015, she served as president of the American Chemical Society . As of 2022, she was serving as the chair of the board of visitors for the department of chemistry at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Go to Profile#385
Emily V. Fischer
#96911
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
#386
Dawn Bonnell
#100019
Overall Influence
Dawn Austin Bonnell is the Senior Vice Provost for Research at the University of Pennsylvania. She has previously served as the Founding Director of the National Science Foundation Nano–Bio Interface Center, Vice President of the American Ceramic Society and President of the American Vacuum Society.
Go to Profile#387
Chulabhorn
#53456
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand, the Princess Srisavangavadhana is a princess of Thailand, the youngest daughter of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit, and the younger sister of King Vajiralongkorn. She is officially styled Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn, which corresponds to her full Thai title Somdet Phrachao Nong Nang Thoe Chaofa Chulabhorn Walailak Agrarajakumari . In 2019, she was bestowed the second-highest of royal ranks by appointment – "Krom Phra" by King Vajiralongkorn. She also received a first-class King Rama X Royal Cypher Medal.
Go to Profile#388
Alice Motion
#75879
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (40 years)
Alice Elizabeth Motion is a British chemist, science communicator, and associate professor at the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney. She is the founder of the Breaking Good project which encourages high school and undergraduate students to take part in research that can benefit human health. In 2018, the Breaking Good project was a finalist on the Google.org Impact Challenge.
Go to Profile#389
Marian Asantewah Nkansah
#90180
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (45 years)
Marian Asantewah Nkansah is a Ghanaian environmental chemist. Her research work focuses on finding solutions to environmental problems associated with levels and fate of toxic substances such as heavy/trace metals, persistent organic pollutants and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in food, water, soil, rocks, sediments and other environmental samples. She also researches on the interaction of these pollutants with each other in the environment. In 2016, together with some scientists from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, she led a research which led to the confirmation that edible white clay poses potential cancer risk.
Go to Profile#390
Penelope Brothers
#49982
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Penelope Jane Brothers is a New Zealand chemistry academic. She is currently Director of the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University, specializing in inorganic chemistry. Academic career Brothers completed a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at the University of Auckland, in 1978 and then 1979. Later that year, she traveled to Stanford University after receiving a Fulbright Program fellowship. There, she studied under James P. Collman and completed a 1985 PhD titled 'The organometallic chemistry of ruthenium and osmium porphyrin complexes. The next year, Bro...
Go to Profile#391
Nathalie Carrasco
#84526
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Nathalie Marie Carrasco is a French chemist and professor of astronomy and astrophysics. She is a specialist in atmospheric chemistry at the Atmosphere, Environments and Space Observations Laboratory at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. In 2016, she was awarded the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize in the category Young Woman Scientist.
Go to Profile#392
Lynne Regan
#81003
Overall Influence
Lynne Regan is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Previously, she was a Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. She was the president of the Protein Society for the 2013–2014 term and has earned many awards throughout her career. Her research mainly concerns interactions between proteins and nucleic acids.
Go to Profile#393
Mojisola Adeyeye
#18554
Overall Influence
Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye is a Nigerian pharmacist and professor. She was appointed the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control on 3 November 2017 by the President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. Before her appointment as NAFDAC boss, she was the founding Chair of Biopharmaceutical Sciences and a Professor of Pharmaceutics, Manufacturing Science and Drug Product Evaluation at the College of Pharmacy, Roosevelt University in Schaumburg, Illinois, where she spent 7 years. She was also a Professor of Pharmaceutics and Manufacturing for 21 years at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Go to Profile#394
Karen Faulds
#112785
Overall Influence
Karen Jane Faulds is a Scottish academic and Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde. She develops surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for bioanalysis, and has won several awards for her research, including the Coblentz Society Craver Award.
Go to Profile#395
Cassandra Fraser
#86840
Overall Influence
Cassandra L. Fraser is an American synthetic chemist with an interest in biomedicine and sustainable design. She is a Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. Early life and education Fraser completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Kalamazoo College in 1984 and her master's degree at Harvard Divinity School. Following her PhD at the University of Chicago in 1993, she accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. Fraser conducted her postdoctoral studies under the guidance of Robert H. Grubbs.
Go to Profile#396
Sabine Szunerits
#137674
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
#397
Ann E. Hagerman
#104393
Overall Influence
Ann E. Hagerman is an American chemist. She is a professor of biochemistry at Miami University and an expert on Tannin chemistry. In 1998, she published High Molecular Weight Plant Polyphenolics as Biological Antioxidants, one of the most highly cited papers in the field.
Go to Profile#398
Michele Aresta
#137814
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
#399
Roya Maboudian
#113876
Overall Influence
Roya Maboudian is an American academic and researcher in the field of chemical engineering. She is professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a co-director of the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, and an editor of the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems. She was one of the first women to earn tenure in the chemical engineering department at the University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#400
Ingrid del Carmen Montes González
#97784
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Ingrid Montes , also known as Ingrid del Carmen Montes González is a full professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. She attained tenure in 1998. Her research focus is on chemical education and organometallic chemistry. Montes has been Director-at-large at the American Chemical Society since 2013. Montes founded the "Festival de Química" in 2005, this program was then adopted by the ACS in 2010.
Go to Profile