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 people in Chemistry,
#6251
Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz
1817 - 1880 (63 years)
Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz was a German structural chemist from Berlin. He initially trained and worked as a pharmacist, from 1841 he studied sciences at the University of Berlin. He earned his PhD at Berlin in 1844 under Heinrich Rose, and two years later, obtained his habilitation in chemistry. In 1850 he became an associate professor at the University of Halle, where in 1855 he attained a full professorship. He was one of six founding members of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and the only chemist.
Go to Profile#6252
Alexander Borodin
1833 - 1887 (54 years)
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian-Russian extraction. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Five", a group dedicated to producing a "uniquely Russian" kind of classical music. Borodin is known best for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor.
Go to Profile#6253
Peter Klason
1848 - 1937 (89 years)
Johan Peter Clason was a Swedish chemist. Johan Peter Clason was the son of domain curator, Christopher Adam Claesson and Elna Helena Billing, and was descended from a family originally been called Claus. Johan Peter Clason was the son in law of Carl Johan Hill. Clason became a student in Lund in 1868, PhD and associate professor of the organic chemistry laboratory in 1874 and 1887, all at Lund University. In 1890 he was appointed professor of chemistry and chemical technology at the Technical University in Stockholm.
Go to Profile#6254
Rudolf Wegscheider
1859 - 1935 (76 years)
Rudolf Wegscheider was an Austrian chemist of Banat Swabian origin. Wegscheider studied chemistry and was the founder of the Austrian School of Chemistry. He taught at the University of Vienna, and from 1902 to 1931 he was departmental Chair. He was the chairman of the association of Austrian chemists from 1904 to 1929. R. Wegscheider introduced the principle of detailed balance for chemical kinetics.
Go to Profile#6255
Gottfried Osann
1797 - 1866 (69 years)
Gottfried Wilhelm Osann was a German chemist and physicist. He is known for his work on the chemistry of platinum metals. He studied natural sciences and became a privatdozent in physics and chemistry at the University of Erlangen in 1819. Between 1821 and 1823, he occupied the same position at the University of Jena. He taught chemistry and medicine at the University of Dorpat from 1823 to 1828, from 1828 at the University of Würzburg.
Go to Profile#6256
Constantin Cândea
1887 - 1971 (84 years)
Constantin Cândea was a Romanian chemist, Professor of Chemistry, Ph.D. Engineer and later Rector at the Polytechnic University of Timișoara – formerly the Polytechnic School of Timișoara between 1946 and 1947.
Go to Profile#6257
César-Mansuète Despretz
1791 - 1863 (72 years)
César-Mansuète Despretz was a chemist and physicist. He became a French citizen in 1838. A street got its name after him in Lessines . Biography In 1818, Despretz started working as répétiteur in chemistry at Polytechnique, in Paris, under Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac who mentored his early research.
Go to Profile#6258
Julius Adolph Stöckhardt
1809 - 1886 (77 years)
Julius Adolph Stöckhardt was a German agricultural chemist. He is mostly recognized for his work on fertilizers, fume damage of plants and his book Die Schule der Chemie , which was translated into 14 languages. His 500 lectures and over 500 publications helped to establish agricultural chemistry in Germany.
Go to Profile#6259
Georg Lunge
1839 - 1923 (84 years)
Georg Lunge was a German chemist born in Breslau. He studied at Heidelberg and Breslau, graduating at the latter university in 1859, to work with Ferdinand Cohn. Turning his attention to technical chemistry, he became chemist at several works both in Germany and England, and in 1876 he was appointed professor of technical chemistry at ETH Zurich.
Go to Profile#6260
Anders Jahan Retzius
1742 - 1821 (79 years)
Anders Jahan Retzius was a Swedish chemist, botanist and entomologist. Biography Born in Kristianstad, he matriculated at Lund University in 1758, where he graduated as a filosofie magister in 1766. He also trained as an apothecary apprentice. He received the position of docent of chemistry at Lund in 1766, and of natural history in 1767. He became extraordinary professor of natural history in 1777, and thereafter held various chairs of natural history, economy and chemistry until his retirement in 1812. He died in Stockholm on 6 October 1821.
Go to Profile#6261
John Joseph Jolly Kyle
1838 - 1922 (84 years)
John Joseph Jolly Kyle was a pioneering Argentine chemist. Born and educated in Scotland, he emigrated to Argentina in 1862, and on the outbreak of the Paraguayan War served as a pharmacist in the Argentine Army medical corps. He became an Argentine citizen in 1873. At the time Kyle was active specialisation was not an option in Latin American chemistry and it was necessary for a chemist to be a sort of polymath or jack-of-all-trades. Kyle was appointed professor of chemistry at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires in 1871, and chief chemist to the Casa de Moneda de la República Argentina in 1881.
Go to Profile#6262
William Dittmar
1833 - 1892 (59 years)
Professor William Dittmar FRS FRSE LLD was a German-born scientist renowned as a chemical analyst. He was based largely in Scotland. He did much analytical work on the findings from the Challenger expedition.
Go to Profile#6263
Emil Knoevenagel
1865 - 1921 (56 years)
Heinrich Emil Albert Knoevenagel was the German chemist who established the Knoevenagel condensation reaction. The Knoevenagel condensation reaction of benzaldehydes with nitroalkanes is a classic general method for the preparation of nitroalkenes, which are very valuable synthetic intermediates.
Go to Profile#6264
Nicolas Lemery
1645 - 1715 (70 years)
Nicolas Lémery , French chemist, was born at Rouen. He was one of the first to develop theories on acid-base chemistry. Life After learning pharmacy in his native town he became a pupil of Christophe Glaser in Paris, and then went to Montpellier, where he began to lecture on chemistry. He next established a pharmacy in Paris, still continuing his lectures, but following 1683, being a Calvinist, he was obliged to retire to England. In the following year he returned to France, and turning Catholic in 1686 was able to reopen his shop and resume his lectures. He died in Paris on 19 June 1715.
Go to Profile#6265
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
1727 - 1817 (90 years)
Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany. Biography Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to Paris and afterward to Vienna. In 1752, he studied under Gerard van Swieten in Vienna.
Go to Profile#6266
Mary Letitia Caldwell
1890 - 1972 (82 years)
Mary Letitia Caldwell was an American chemist. Growing up she valued education and strived to achieve. She was an instructor at Western College teaching chemistry. She was known for being unique and descriptive along with being family orientated. Maria was in a wheel chair due to muscular disability. Most of her work centered on amylase, a starch enzyme, most notably finding a method for purifying crystalline porcine pancreatic amylase. She spent sixty years doing this.
Go to Profile#6267
Hieronymus David Gaubius
1705 - 1780 (75 years)
Hieronymus David Gaubius was a German physician and chemist. Life He was a native of Heidelberg. He studied medicine and sciences at the Universities of Harderwijk and Leiden, where he was a pupil of Hermann Boerhaave and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus . He earned his degree at Leiden in 1725 with a thesis on psychosomatic medicine called . After graduation he continued his training in Paris, and then practiced medicine in Amsterdam and Deventer.
Go to Profile#6268
William Brownrigg
1712 - 1800 (88 years)
William Brownrigg was a British doctor and scientist, who practised at Whitehaven in Cumberland. While there, Brownrigg carried out experiments that earned him the Copley Medal in 1766 for his work on carbonic acid gas. He was the first person to recognise platinum as a new element.
Go to Profile#6269
Alexey Favorsky
1860 - 1945 (85 years)
Alexey Yevgrafovich Favorsky , was a Russian and Soviet chemist. Hero of Socialist Labour . Life Favorsky studied chemistry at the imperial Saint Petersburg State University from 1878 to 1882. He joined Alexander Butlerov's laboratory for several years, and in 1891 became a lecturer. In 1895, Favorksy received his PhD and became professor for technical chemistry. His discovery of the Favorskii rearrangement in 1894 and the Favorskii reaction between 1900 and 1905 are connected to his name. He worked at the new organics department from 1897, and served as its director from 1934 to 1937. For his...
Go to Profile#6270
Hamilton Cady
1874 - 1943 (69 years)
Hamilton Perkins Cady was an American chemist who in 1907 in collaboration with David McFarland discovered that helium could be extracted from natural gas. Early life On May 2, 1874, Cady was born in Skiddy, Kansas. He is the son of Perkins Elijah Cady and Ella Falkenbury.
Go to Profile#6271
Ellen Gleditsch
1879 - 1968 (89 years)
Ellen Gleditsch was a Norwegian radiochemist and Norway's second female professor. Starting her career as an assistant to Marie Curie, she became a pioneer in radiochemistry, establishing the half-life of radium and helping demonstrate the existence of isotopes. She was Vice President of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights 1937–1939.
Go to Profile#6272
Friedrich Hecht
1903 - 1980 (77 years)
Friedrich Hecht was an Austrian chemist and writer. Hecht studied chemistry at the University of Vienna, and in 1928 was awarded a PhD. He was an assistant at the Institute of Chemistry. He wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Manfred Langrenus. In 1980, he died in Vienna, Austria.
Go to Profile#6273
Willem Alberda van Ekenstein
1858 - 1937 (79 years)
Willem Alberda van Ekenstein was a Dutch chemist and discovered the Lobry de Bruyn–van Ekenstein transformation together with Adriaan Lobry van Troostenburg de Bruyn. Ekenstein studied chemistry from 1876 till 1879 at the Delft University of Technology later he worked at the University of Amsterdam, University of Groningen, Dutch National Sugar Laboratory in Amsterdam.
Go to Profile#6274
John Addison Porter
1822 - 1866 (44 years)
John Addison Porter was an American professor of chemistry and physician. He is the namesake of the John Addison Porter Prize and was a founder of the Scroll and Key senior society of Yale University.
Go to Profile#6275
George Ernest Gibson
1884 - 1959 (75 years)
George Ernest Gibson was a Scottish-born American nuclear chemist. Early years George Ernest Gibson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and educated partly in Germany where he attended a gymnasium in Darmstadt, finishing his schooling in Edinburgh. He studied chemistry at the University of Edinburgh receiving his B.Sc. in 1906. He worked with Otto Lummer at the former University of Breslau where he received his Ph.D. in 1911, and stayed there as lecturer for two additional years before returning to the University of Edinburgh in 1912.
Go to Profile#6276
Friedrich Stohmann
1832 - 1897 (65 years)
Friedrich Karl Adolf Stohmann was a German agricultural chemist. Biography He was born in Bremen and studied at Göttingen, where he became member of Burschenschaft Hannovera , and London. He was Thomas Graham's assistant at University College from 1853 to 1855, and afterwards assisted Wilhelm Henneberg at Celle and at Göttingen-Weende. In 1862 he started the station for agricultural experiments at Braunschweig. He was called to Halle in 1865 as an associate professor, and to the University of Leipzig in 1871, where he was director of the physiological institute of agriculture . His principal ...
Go to Profile#6277
William Gould Young
1902 - 1980 (78 years)
William Gould Young was an American physical organic chemist and professor at the University of California at Los Angeles . He served as vice chancellor at UCLA for 13 years, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The chemistry building at UCLA bears his name.
Go to Profile#6278
Bruce H. Mahan
1930 - 1982 (52 years)
Bruce Herbert Mahan was an American physical chemist and professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley known for his work in the fundamentals of chemical reactions and devotion to chemistry education. He was the doctoral advisor of Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee.
Go to Profile#6279
August Michaelis
1847 - 1916 (69 years)
August Michaelis was a German chemist and discovered the Michaelis–Arbuzov reaction. Michaelis studied at the University of Göttingen and University of Jena and became professor for chemistry at University of Karlsruhe in 1876, at the University of Aachen in 1880, and at the University of Rostock in 1890.
Go to Profile#6280
George Downing Liveing
1827 - 1924 (97 years)
George Downing Liveing FRS was an English chemist and spectroscopist. Early life He was born in Nayland, Suffolk, the eldest son of Dr. Edward Liveing and Catherine Mary Downing . Academic career Liveing was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, completing a BA in the Mathematical Tripos in 1850 and then postgraduate study for the Natural Sciences Tripos, in which he obtained distinction in chemistry and mineralogy; he received a MA in 1853. Later in his life he was awarded an Honorary ScD in 1908. In 1853 St John's College founded for him a College Lectureship in Chemistry and built for his use a Chemical Laboratory behind New Court.
Go to Profile#6281
Julius Stieglitz
1867 - 1937 (70 years)
Julius Oscar Stieglitz was an American chemist of German Jewish origin. He was a teacher and organic chemist with a major interest in pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry. He is known for the Stieglitz rearrangement, a rearrangement reaction in organic chemistry which commonly involves the formation of imines from hydroxylamines through a carbon to nitrogen shift, comparable to the key step of a Beckmann rearrangement.
Go to Profile#6282
Guido Goldschmiedt
1850 - 1915 (65 years)
Guido Goldschmiedt was an Austrian chemist. During his career, he collaborated with Bunsen in Heidelberg and Baeyer in Straßburg. In 1891, he became full professor at the University of Vienna and later at the University of Prague. His most remarkable results were establishing the structure of several natural compounds including papaverine and ellagic acid.
Go to Profile#6283
Franciscus Sylvius
1614 - 1672 (58 years)
Franciscus Sylvius , born Franz de le Boë, was a Dutch physician and scientist who was an early champion of Descartes', Van Helmont's and William Harvey's work and theories. He was one of the earliest defenders of the theory of circulation of the blood in the Netherlands, and commonly falsely cited as the inventor of gin – others pinpoint the origin of gin to Italy.
Go to Profile#6284
Gustav Werther
1815 - 1869 (54 years)
August Friedrich Gustav Werther was a German chemist. He made contributions in both organic and inorganic chemistry, being known for his work in the field of analytical chemistry. Education In 1843, Werther obtained his doctorate in Berlin, where he served as an amanuensis to Eilhard Mitscherlich.
Go to Profile#6285
Josef Herzig
1853 - 1924 (71 years)
Josef Herzig was an Austrian chemist. Herzig was born in Sanok, Galicia, which at that time was part of Austria-Hungary. Herzig went to school in Breslau until 1874, started studying chemistry at the University of Vienna but joined August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the University of Berlin in the second semester. He worked with Robert Bunsen at the University of Heidelberg and received his PhD for work with Ludwig Barth at the University of Vienna. He later became lecturer and, in 1897, professor at the University of Vienna. He died in Vienna in 1924.
Go to Profile#6286
Manuel A. Zamora
1870 - 1929 (59 years)
Manuel A. Zamora was a Filipino chemist and pharmacist best known for his discovery of the tiki-tiki formula against beriberi. Personal life and education Zamora was born on March 29, 1870, in Santa Cruz, Manila to Marciano Zamora and Martina Molo Agustin. Coming from an affluent family, he finished his primary education at the Ateneo Municipal. He then took up Pharmacy in the University of Santo Tomas . Even as a student in UST, he was already engaged in various award-winning research works which culminated in his graduation in 1896, sobresaliente. Aside from this, he was also an apprentice ...
Go to Profile#6287
Ralph A. James
1920 - 1973 (53 years)
Ralph Arthur James was an American chemist at the University of Chicago who co-discovered the elements curium and americium . Later he worked at UCLA and for the Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California.
Go to Profile#6288
David Rivett
1885 - 1961 (76 years)
Sir Albert Cherbury David Rivett, KCMG was an Australian chemist and science administrator. Background and education Rivett was born at Port Esperance, Tasmania, Australia, a son of the Rev. Albert Rivett , a noted pacifist. He studied at Wesley College, Melbourne and the University of Melbourne, where he was a member of Queen's College, Melbourne, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in 1906 and a Doctor of Science degree in 1913. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he did research under the supervision of Nevil Sidgwick in the laboratories of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Go to Profile#6289
Hugo Weidel
1849 - 1899 (50 years)
Hugo Weidel was a chemist from Austria-Hungary known for inventing Weidel's reaction and describing the structure of the organic compound niacin. For his achievements, Weidel received the Lieben Prize in 1880.
Go to Profile#6290
Sergey Reformatsky
1860 - 1934 (74 years)
Sergey Nikolaevich Reformatsky was a Russian chemist. Life He was born as a son of a preacher in Borisoglebskoe, near Ivanovo. He studied at the University of Kazan under Alexander Mikhailovich Zaitsev until 1882. He went to Germany for further studies. He joined Victor Meyer at the University of Heidelberg and Wilhelm Ostwald at the University of Leipzig and finally getting his Ph.D in 1891. The following year he was appointed professor at the University of Kyiv where he stayed the rest of his life.
Go to Profile#6291
Hermann Hartmann
1914 - 1984 (70 years)
Hermann Hartmann was a German chemist and professor and researcher in physical and theoretical chemistry at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He contributed to all fields of physical chemistry and was instrumental in establishing theoretical chemistry by developing Ligand field theory and other quantum chemical models including the Hartmann Potential . He also formulated a new perturbation theory as part of his pioneering research towards a unified field theory of chemical bonding based on a non-linear Schrödinger equation .
Go to Profile#6292
Hilda Ingold
1898 - 1988 (90 years)
Edith Hilda, Lady Ingold was a British chemist based in Leeds and London. Her career was unfairly overshadowed by that of her husband. She failed to gain much public recognition, despite being an innovative chemist and partner to her husband in his work on organic chemistry. She was known as Lady Ingold following her husband's knighthood.
Go to Profile#6293
Mihajlo Pupin
1858 - 1935 (77 years)
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin , also known as Michael Pupin, was a Serbian physicist, physical chemist and philanthropist based in the United States. Pupin is best known for his numerous patents, including a means of greatly extending the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils at predetermined intervals along the transmitting wire . Pupin was a founding member of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics on 3 March 1915, which later became NASA, and he participated in the founding of American Mathematical Society and American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#6294
Carl Harries
1866 - 1923 (57 years)
Carl Dietrich Harries was a German chemist born in Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, Prussia. He received his doctorate in 1892. In 1900, he married Hertha von Siemens, daughter of the electrical genius Werner von Siemens, and the inventor of one of the earliest ozone generators. In 1904, he moved as full professor to the University of Kiel, where he remained until 1916. During that time he published numerous papers on ozonolysis. His major publication detailing ozonolysis was published in Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1905, 343, 311. Dissatisfied with academic life and having failed to obtain either of two positions at universities, he left academia to become director of research at Siemens and Halske.
Go to Profile#6295
Johann Joachim Becher
1635 - 1682 (47 years)
Johann Joachim Becher was a German physician, alchemist, precursor of chemistry, scholar and adventurer, best known for his development of the phlogiston theory of combustion, and his advancement of Austrian cameralism.
Go to Profile#6296
William Lash Miller
1866 - 1940 (74 years)
William Lash Miller, CBE, FRSC was a Canadian chemist, chemistry professor, and pioneer of physical chemistry. Lash Miller was born on 10 September 1866 at Galt, Canada West. Lash Miller studied chemistry at the University of Toronto with bachelor's degree in 1887. He then studied from 1887 to 1889 under August Wilhelm von Hofmann, in 1889 under Viktor Meyer in Göttingen, and in 1890 in Munich, where he received his doctorate in organic chemistry under Adolf von Baeyer. Subsequently, he studied with Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, which was a turning point in his chemistry career. From then on, he often spent summers in Ostwald's laboratory in Leipzig.
Go to Profile#6297
Johann Christian Wiegleb
1732 - 1800 (68 years)
Johann Christian Wiegleb was a notable German apothecary and early innovator of chemistry as a science. Life Wiegleb, the son of a lawyer, was schooled in Langensalza. From 1748 to 1754, he served as an apprentice-apothecary in Dresden. Subsequently, from 1754 to 1755, he worked as an assistant in an apothecary in Quedlinburg. In 1759, he established his own apothecary in his hometown of Langensalza. He directed that apothecary until 1796. Furthermore, he was a senator and later treasurer of Langensalza.
Go to Profile#6298
Hugo Erdmann
1862 - 1910 (48 years)
Hugo Wilhelm Traugott Erdmann was the German chemist who discovered, together with his doctoral advisor Jacob Volhard, the Volhard-Erdmann cyclization. In 1898 he was the first who coined the term noble gas .
Go to Profile#6299
Josiah Parsons Cooke
1827 - 1894 (67 years)
Josiah Parsons Cooke was an American chemist who worked at Harvard University and was instrumental in the measurement of atomic weights, inspiring America's first Nobel laureate in chemistry, Theodore William Richards, to pursue similar research. Cooke's 1854 paper on atomic weights has been said to foreshadow the periodic law developed later by Mendeleev and others. Historian I. Bernard Cohen described Cooke "as the first university chemist to do truly distinguished work in the field of chemistry" in the United States.
Go to Profile#6300
Karl Andreas Hofmann
1870 - 1940 (70 years)
Karl Andreas Hofmann was a German inorganic chemist. He is best known for his discovery of a family of clathrates which consist of a 2-D metal cyanide sheet, with every second metal also bound axially to two other ligands. These materials have been named 'Hofmann clathrates' in his honour.
Go to Profile