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 …
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List of the most influential people in Chemistry,
#5901
Andy Watson
#156108
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Andrew James Watson FRS is a British marine and atmospheric scientist and an expert in processes affecting atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations. He was formerly a Professor of biogeochemistry in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, in 2013 he moved to a position as Professor at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter.
Go to Profile#5902
Christine Grant
#189214
Overall Influence
Christine Sharon Grant is an American chemical engineer who is the Associate Dean of Faculty Advancement at North Carolina State University. Her research considers surface and environmental science. She is the 2022 President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Go to Profile#5903
Thomas Mensah
#181006
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Thomas O. Mensah is a Ghanaian-American chemical engineer and inventor who contributed to the development of fiber optic manufacturing and nanotechnology. He has 14 patents, and was inducted into the US National Academy of Inventors in 2015. In 2017, Dr. Mensah served as Editor-in-Chief of the textbook Nanotechnology Commercialization, published by John Wiley & Sons.
Go to Profile#5904
Joyce Watson
#184311
Overall Influence
1918 - 2004 (86 years)
Joyce Watson FNZIC was a New Zealand chemist specialising in fruit disorders and trace elements. Academic career Watson was born in Nelson in 1918, the daughter of Helen "Nellie" Knaggs Watson and Francis George Watson . She received her education at Christchurch Girls' High School. After a BSc in 1939, Watson completed an MSc titled A phase rule investigation of the three component system BaO–2O–H2O at 25°C and 35°C in 1940 at Canterbury College, then part of the University of New Zealand. She then moved to the Cawthron Institute in 1941, where she was employed as an assistant pasture chem...
Go to Profile#5905
Shakeel Ahmed
#187976
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (36 years)
Shakeel Ahmed is an assistant professor of chemistry in the Department of Higher Education, Government of Jammu and Kashmir. He is listed among the top 2% most cited scientists of the world by Stanford University. He is the elected fellow of International Society for Development and Sustainability and is recipient of Young Scientist Award and Best Professor of the Year Award 2020.
Go to Profile#5906
George Varghese Koppara
#183658
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (68 years)
George Varghese Koppara is a physicist from India. He has published considerable amount of International journals based on the topic Crystals and Crystallography. He was also the former Principal of Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta. His interest on Environmental protection has inspired him to write book Jaivam Jeevanam, published by DC Books, Kottayam, Kerala. He has also written a book on latest trend in Nanoscience and Nanomaterials.
Go to Profile#5907
Tom McKillop
#180193
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Sir Thomas Fulton Wilson McKillop, FRS, FRSE is a Scottish chemist, who was CEO of AstraZeneca PLC from 1999 until 2006 and chairman of the RBS Group from 2006 until 2008. Early life McKillop was born in Dreghorn, a small village in North Ayrshire. He was educated at Irvine Royal Academy and then Glasgow University, where he took a BSc and PhD in chemistry. He joined the ICI Petrochemical & Polymer Laboratory at Runcorn in 1969 after post-doctoral research work in Paris. He moved to ICI Pharmaceuticals Division in 1975 and, having held a number of positions in research, in 1989 he was appoi...
Go to Profile#5908
Roxanne Johnson
#128853
Overall Influence
Roxanne L. Johnson is an American chemist specialized in developing and applying quantitative methods to determine nutrients, organic and inorganic carbon and total suspended solids in estuarine seawater systems. She works for the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Go to Profile#5909
David Lonie
#190950
Overall Influence
#5910
Ainissa Ramirez
#80286
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
Ainissa Ramirez is an American materials scientist and science communicator. Early life and education Ramirez credits watching the PBS television show 3-2-1 Contact growing up for inspiring her to pursue science, where she saw a young black girl solving problems and enjoying science. Ramirez attended an all-girls Catholic high school in Jersey City, New Jersey. To prepare to pursue a science degree in college, she took classes in calculus and electrical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturdays.
Go to Profile#5911
Pervin Shroff
#69313
Overall Influence
Pervin Keki Shroff is an Indian accounting academic and Carl L. Nelson Professor of Accounting at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, known for her work in the field of information content and accountancy.
Go to Profile#5912
John Crocker
#185615
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (57 years)
John C. Crocker is an American physicist and chemical engineer. He is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Crocker's research is focused in soft matter physics, nanotechnology and cell mechanics.
Go to Profile#5913
John Frederick Clarke
#129020
Overall Influence
1927 - 2013 (86 years)
John Frederick Clarke FRS was a professor, an aeronautical engineer, and a pilot. Biography After his schooling, he got training from Fleet Air Arm as a Navy Pilot and then from Royal Air force at Lossiemouth. He left Navy and worked few months at Armstrong Siddeley Motors, but his interest were in academics. Subsequently he quit the job and joined Queen Mary College in Aeronautical engineering course in 1949. He married Jean Gentle in 1953. His thesis advisor Norman A.V. Piercy died in 1953, then he temporarily advised by Leslie G. Whitehead and then finally by Alec David Young. He received his PhD at Queen Mary College in 1957.
Go to Profile#5914
Mayra Álvarez
#91839
Overall Influence
Mayra Angélica Álvarez Lemus is a Mexican nanoscientist. She is a professor and researcher at the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. Education and career Álvarez was an undergraduate at UAM Azcapotzalco, where she earned a degree in chemical engineering. She earned a doctorate in chemistry in 2008 at UAM Iztapalapa.
Go to Profile#5915
Rashna Bhandari
#104066
Overall Influence
Rashna Bhandari is Head, Laboratory of Cell Signalling at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad. Bhandari is pursuing her study on signal transduction in biological systems, with particular emphasis on understanding the role of inositol pyrophosphates in physiology and metabolism.
Go to Profile#5916
Tracey Brown
#106381
Overall Influence
Tracey Brown is the director of Sense about Science. She leads the work on transparency of evidence used by governments in policy to ensure the public has the same access to evidence and reasoning as the decision makers. Brown has launched multiple initiatives with Sense about Science to expand and protect honest discussions of evidence, including AllTrials, a global campaign for the reporting of all clinical trial outcomes; and the Ask for Evidence campaign, which engages the public in requesting evidence for claims.
Go to Profile#5917
Jessamy Tiffen
#104182
Overall Influence
Dr. Jessamy Tiffen is an Australian Scientist and senior researcher in the Melanoma Immunology and Oncology Program at the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology at the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Her work primarily focuses on fundamental cell biology, examining the transformation of normal cells into cancerous ones and their responses to different treatments.
Go to Profile#5918
Yūichirō Kan'no
#191195
Overall Influence
#5919
Clara Sousa-Silva
#78132
Overall Influence
Clara Sousa-Silva is a research scientist at Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. Sousa-Silva is an expert on phosphine. She has contributed to investigations of the possibility of life on Venus, working with Jane Greaves and others. Sousa-Silva also directs the Harvard-MIT Student Research Mentoring Program, which pairs high school students with astronomers to conduct research.
Go to Profile#5920
Caroline Davis
#120585
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Caroline Davis is a British academic who specialises in the history of publishing culture, and government propaganda in Africa during the Cold War. She is currently an Associate Professor in Publishing at University College London.
Go to Profile#5921
Christopher Evans
#63923
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
Christopher D. Evans is a British science fiction writer and children's author. His novels include Capella's Golden Eyes ; The Insider ; Mortal Remains ; and Ice Tower . He is the co-editor of three original SF anthologies, Other Edens ; Other Edens II ; and Other Edens III .
Go to Profile#5922
Paul Falkowski
#82204
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
Paul G. Falkowski is an American biological oceanographer in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His research work focuses on phytoplankton and primary production, and his wider interests include evolution, paleoecology, photosynthesis, biogeochemical cycles and astrobiology.
Go to Profile#5923
Geraldine Moses
#168574
Overall Influence
Geraldine Michelle Moses, is an Australian doctor of clinical pharmacy, a consultant pharmacist, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Queensland. She is a Senior Clinical Pharmacist at Mater Pharmacy Services in Brisbane.
Go to Profile#5924
Leslie Hill
#21301
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (76 years)
Leslie Hill is professor of French at the University of Warwick. He has written several influential books on French writers and philosophers including Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Maurice Blanchot, Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski and Jacques Derrida. Hill was elected to a fellowship of the British Academy in 2003.
Go to Profile#5925
Leona D. Samson
#97382
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Leona D. Samson is the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and American Cancer Society Research Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she served as the Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences from 2001 to 2012. Before her professorship at MIT, she held a professorship at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is on the editorial board of the journal DNA Repair. Her research interests focus on "methods for measuring DNA repair capacity in human cells", research the National Institute of Health recognized as pioneering in her f...
Go to Profile#5926
Kenneth Hedberg
#179109
Overall Influence
1920 - 2019 (99 years)
Kenneth Wayne Hedberg was an American chemist. Early life Hedberg was born on February 2, 1920, to parents Gustave and Ruth. As a child, he lived in Portland, Oregon and Hoquiam, Washington. Hedberg completed high school in Medford, Oregon. Upon graduating from Oregon State University, Hedberg worked for Shell Development Company. After World War II ended, Hedberg returned to school, obtaining a doctorate at California Institute of Technology in 1948, under Linus Pauling and Verner Shoemaker. Hedberg was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and Guggenheim Fellowship. While researching in Norway, Hedberg met and Lise Smedvik - later Lise Hedberg.
Go to Profile#5927
Trevor Sheldon
#54405
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Trevor A. Sheldon is a British academic and University administrator who is a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of York and Dean of Hull York Medical School. He has held academic posts at the University of York, the University of Leeds, the University of Leicester and Kingston University.
Go to Profile#5928
Bridget Mutuma
#73455
Overall Influence
Bridget K. Mutuma is a researcher in chemistry and material sciences at Nairobi University in Kenya. She focuses on developing nanomaterials associated with sensors. She is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#5929
William P. Murphy Jr.
#177508
Overall Influence
1923 - Present (102 years)
William P. Murphy Jr. is a medical doctor and inventor of medical devices including collaborating on a flexible sealed blood bag used for blood transfusions. He is the son of the American physician William Parry Murphy who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology for Medicine in 1934, and Harriett Adams, the first licensed female dentist in Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#5930
Pien-Chien Huang
#142459
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Pien-Chien Huang was a Chinese-American molecular biologist. Huang was born in Shanghai on 13 July 1931. He graduated from National Taiwan University in 1952, with a bachelor's degree in agriculture. Huang earned a master's degree at Virginia Tech in 1956, followed by a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1960. He was elected to the Academia Sinica in 1986, and taught at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan from 1993 to 1996, concurrently serving as dean of the College of Life Sciences at NTHU. Huang taught at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health for five decades, where he was professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Go to Profile#5931
Charles Lee
#51804
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
Charles Lee is Director and Professor of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, The Robert Alvine Family Endowed Chair and a board certified clinical cytogeneticist who has an active research program in the identification and characterization of structural genomic variants using advanced technology platforms. His laboratory was the first to describe genome-wide structural genomic variants among humans with the subsequent development of two human CNV maps that are now actively used in the diagnoses of array based genetic tests. Lee served as the President of the Human Genome Organisation...
Go to Profile#5932
Choi Soon-dal
#150699
Overall Influence
1931 - 2014 (83 years)
Choi Soon-dal was a scientist who pioneered South Korea's satellite-building program and greatly advanced Korea into the new digital information era. Dr. Choi's contributions to pioneering Korean space development have not only been widely publicized, but he is also regarded as the father of Korea's space development.
Go to Profile#5933
John Secrist
#191297
Overall Influence
John A. Secrist III is an American chemist, whose work invented Clofarabine, currently at Southern Research and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#5934
Leslie Wagner
#31144
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Leslie Wagner, CBE is a British academic, who has been Vice-Chancellor of two universities and as the second Chancellor of the University of Derby. Wagner was educated at Salford Grammar School and obtained a BA and MA at Manchester University. He worked for the British government until 1970, when he became a lecturer in economics at the Open University. He was later Head of Economics at the Polytechnic of Central London, becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University of North London in 1987. From 1994 to 2003, he was Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University.
Go to Profile#5935
Ana Maria Porras
#178920
Overall Influence
Ana Maria Porras is an American biomedical engineer who is assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida and an IF/THEN Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Porras has published academic research in the fields of human microbiome, tissue engineering, biomaterials, global health, and infectious disease. She is known for creating crochet versions of micro-organisms as a way of connecting with a wider audience, especially children in her home country of Colombia. A 3-D printed statue of Porras holding several of her crochet creations was included in the IF/THEN exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Go to Profile#5936
Reatha Clark King
#190418
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
Reatha Belle Clark King is an American chemist, the former vice president of the General Mills Corporation; and the former president, executive director, and chairman of the board of trustees of the General Mills Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of General Mills, Inc.
Go to Profile#5937
Anne Wright
#176360
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (79 years)
Anne Margaret Wright is a British academic and academic administrator. She was educated at King's College London . She was a Lecturer in English at Lancaster University from 1969 to 1971 then Senior Lecturer in Modern English at Hatfield Polytchnic from 1971 to 84. She served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1992 to 1998. She was Chair of the National Lottery Commission 2005 to 2013. She was made a CBE in 1997.
Go to Profile#5938
Andrus Ansip
#184248
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Andrus Ansip is an Estonian politician, a member of the European Parliament, the former European Commissioner for Digital Single Market and Vice President of the European Commission, in office from 2014 until 2019. Previously, he was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2005 to 2014 and chairman of the liberal Estonian Reform Party from 2004 to 2014.
Go to Profile#5939
J. Colin Dodds
#37908
Overall Influence
J. Colin Dodds was the President of Saint Mary's University, Halifax, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Career Dodds began teaching Finance at Saint Mary's University in 1982 and went on to become Department Chairperson, Director of the MBA Program, and Dean of the Sobey School of Business .
Go to Profile#5940
K. P. Mohanakumar
#139874
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Kochupurackal P. Mohanakumar is an Indian chemical biologist, neuroscientist and the director of Inter University Centre for Biomedical Research and Super Specialty Hospital, Kottayam. He is a former chief scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and is known for his studies on Parkinson's disease and Huntington’s disease. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2000.
Go to Profile#5941
Charlotte Anderson
#81378
Overall Influence
1915 - 2002 (87 years)
Charlotte Morrison Anderson AM FRACP FRCP FACP FRCPCH was an internationally renowned Australian scientist, physician and academic. She pioneered the field of paediatric gastroenterology working on health issues including cystic fibrosis and coeliac disease. She was the first woman professor of paediatrics in the United Kingdom.
Go to Profile#5942
Alfred Noe
#69845
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Alfred Noe is an Austrian professor of Romance studies at the University of Vienna. Biography Noe studied Romance philology, philosophy and art history at the University of Vienna from 1971 to 1980. He obtained a first habilitation in Romance literatures in1988 and a second habilitation in comparative literature in 1996 at the University of Vienna. In 1998 he was appointed Associate professor at the department of Romance Languages at the University of Vienna. From 2000 to 2002 he was Head of the department of Romance Languages and Deputy head of the same department from 2009 to 2014 He is a ...
Go to Profile#5943
Ian Shanks
#138229
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (77 years)
Ian Alexander Shanks is a British scientist who invented the technology behind the digital blood glucose meter in 1982, working on his own time while employed at Unilever. In the 1970s Shanks had done significant research on liquid crystal displays , and later optoelectronics.
Go to Profile#5944
Ernst Rothauser
#168278
Overall Influence
1931 - 2015 (84 years)
Ernst Rothauser was an Austrian computer scientist. As member of Heinz Zemanek's "Mailüfterl-Team", he worked on the country's first transistor computer. After finishing his dissertation he was hired by IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, retiring in 1995.
Go to Profile#5945
Francis Stock
#113231
Overall Influence
1914 - 1997 (83 years)
Francis Edgar Stock CBE was a British academic and academic administrator. He was educated at Colfe's Grammar School, King's College London and the University of Edinburgh. He was a lecturer at the University of Liverpool from 1946 to 1948 then Professor of Surgery at the University of Hong Kong from 1948 to 1963. He was Commodore of Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club from 1957 to 1963. He then returned to the University of Liverpool where he was Professor of Surgery from 1964 to 1970. He then served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Natal from 1970 to 1977. He was made a CBE in 1977.
Go to Profile#5946
Barry Stevens
#190855
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (76 years)
Barry Stevens is an American technology business developer, scientist, author, speaker and entrepreneur in technology-driven enterprises; Founder of TBD America Inc., a technology business development group .
Go to Profile#5947
Daniel O'Leary
#191312
Overall Influence
Daniel J. O'Leary is an American organic chemist. He is the Carnegie Professor of Chemistry at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and runs a lab that uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study compounds.
Go to Profile#5948
Mirosław Handke
#48714
Overall Influence
1946 - 2021 (75 years)
Mirosław Handke was a Polish chemist and politician, who served as Minister of Education from 1997 to 2000. Early life Mirosław Handke was born on 19 March 1946 in Leszno. Handke attended Jagiellonian University.
Go to Profile#5949
Jennie Hwang
#60283
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (76 years)
Jennie Hwang is an international businesswoman, entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, author, and speaker. She is the national president of the Surface Mount Technology Association, head of H-Technologies Group and the first woman to receive a PhD from Case Western Reserve University in Materials Science and Engineering.
Go to Profile#5950
Shahanaz Sultana
#141269
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (54 years)
Shahanaz Sultana Is a Bangladeshi agricultural officer and Scientist. She is the Chief Scientific Officer of the Department of Biotechnology, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. She was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 2022 by the Government of Bangladesh for his significant contribution in research on the production of high yielding varieties of paddy.
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