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).
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List of the most influential people in Chemistry,
#2151
He Binglin
#108945
Overall Influence
1918 - 2007 (89 years)
He Binglin was a Chinese chemist born in Panyu County, Guangdong Province in China. He studied chemistry in the Southwestern Associated University in Kunming, and graduated in 1942 before he went to Indiana University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1952. He returned to China and became a professor in Nankai University in Tianjin, where he set up the Polymer Chemistry Division in 1958. A variety of polymeric ion exchange resins, including strongly and weakly cationic and anionic exchangers, were developed in the research laboratories at Nankai and he also set up a factory administered by the university to produce a series of ion-exchangers for various applications.
Go to Profile#2152
M. Albert Vannice
#110907
Overall Influence
#2153
Ad van der Avoird
#104527
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Ad van der Avoird is a Dutch theoretical chemist. He is an emeritus professor of theoretical chemistry at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Education and career Van der Avoird was born on 19 April 1943 in Eindhoven. He studied at Eindhoven University of Technology, obtaining his PhD under George Schuit in 1968. In 1971, he joined the faculty of Radboud University Nijmegen and later became professor of theoretical chemistry. He took up emeritus status in 2008 although he kept working. In 2013 Van der Avoird provided a theory on the relation between two benzene rings and their possible motion, t...
Go to Profile#2154
Michael P. Barnett
#69430
Overall Influence
1929 - 2012 (83 years)
Michael Peter Barnett was a British theoretical chemist and computer scientist. He developed mathematical and computer techniques for quantum chemical problems, and some of the earliest software for several other kinds of computer application. After his early days in London, Essex and Lancashire, he went to King's College, London, in 1945, the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern in 1953, IBM UK in 1955, the University of Wisconsin Department of Chemistry in 1957, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solid State and Molecular Theory Group in 1958.
Go to Profile#2155
Heino Finkelmann
#103397
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (80 years)
Heino Finkelmann is a retired German chemist in the area of liquid-crystalline elastomers. Biography After earning an engineering degree, Finkelmann graduated 1972 as chemist from Technical University of Berlin. 1975 he earned his PhD at the Paderborn University under the supervision of Horst Stegemeyer in Physical Chemistry.
Go to Profile#2156
Humphrey John Moule Bowen
#111006
Overall Influence
#2157
Florian Weigend
#111026
Overall Influence
#2158
Murray Moo‐young
#111029
Overall Influence
#2159
Lisa Bero
#59251
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Lisa Anne Bero, born 1958, is an academic who originally trained in pharmacology and went on to a career studying research integrity and how clinical and basic sciences are translated into clinical practice and health policy. Bero is a Professor of Medicine and Public Health and the Chief Scientist of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado. Previously, she had been Chair of Medicines Use and Health Outcomes at the University of Sydney. From 1991 until 2014, she was Professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and in the Institute of Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco , and is currently an adjunct professor there.
Go to Profile#2160
Margaret C. Etter
#91778
Overall Influence
1943 - 1992 (49 years)
Margaret Cairns Etter, known informally as Peggy Etter , was an American chemist who contributed to the development of solid state chemistry for crystalline organic compounds. She is known for her work characterizing and classifying contacts by hydrogen bonds in organic compounds. Her "enlightened imagination, innovative creativity, and unfailing enthusiasm" is recognised as having a "transformative effect" in many areas of organic chemistry.
Go to Profile#2161
Peter L. Pauson
#111081
Overall Influence
#2162
Piersandro Pallavicini
#111085
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
Piersandro Pallavicini is an Italian writer and professor of chemistry at the University of Pavia. Personal Pallavicini started publishing short stories on literary magazines, such as Versodove, Addictions, 'Tina ans Fernandel, in the early Nineties. Fernandel published his collection of stories Anime al neon . He collaborates among other things with the literary magazine Tuttolibri, edited by La Stampa.
Go to Profile#2163
Thomas Frauenheim
#111114
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
#2164
Simon Campbell
#51382
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (84 years)
Sir Simon Fraser Campbell, is a British chemist. Early life and education Campbell was born on 27 March 1941 in Lapal, England. He obtained a first-class BSc degree in Chemistry in 1962, a PhD degree in 1965, and an honorary DSc degree in 2004 from the University of Birmingham .
Go to Profile#2165
Albert Stolow
#82646
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (66 years)
Albert Stolow is a Canadian physicist. He is the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Photonics, full professor of chemistry & biomolecular sciences and of physics, and a member of the Ottawa Institute for Systems Biology at the University of Ottawa. He is the founder and an ongoing member of the Molecular Photonics Group at the National Research Council of Canada. He is adjunct professor of Chemistry and of Physics at Queen's University in Kingston, and a Graduate Faculty Scholar in the department of physics, University of Central Florida and a Fellow of the Max-Planck-uOttawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics.
Go to Profile#2166
Bruce E. Dale
#83749
Overall Influence
Bruce E. Dale is a professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State University. He specializes in studies of renewable energy sources, and is currently working on creating methods of turning grass into ethanol for use as fuel.
Go to Profile#2167
Richard Feely
#111070
Overall Influence
Richard A. Feely is an American chemical oceanographer currently at NOAA and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Education He earned his Ph.D at Texas A&M University in 1974.
Go to Profile#2168
Thomas C. Butler
#29510
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (84 years)
Thomas Campbell Butler is an American scientist specializing in infectious diseases including cholera and bubonic plague at Texas Tech University since 1987. He is credited with making oral hydration the standard treatment for diarrhea.
Go to Profile#2169
Martin R. Bryce
#111286
Overall Influence
#2170
Kristie Boering
#86479
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
Kristie Ann Boering is a Professor of Earth and Planetary Science and the Lieselotte and David Templeton Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. She studies atmospheric chemistry and mass transport in the extraterrestrial atmosphere using kinetics and photochemistry. Boering was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.
Go to Profile#2171
Filippo De Angelis
#111308
Overall Influence
#2172
Janis Louie
#91317
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (54 years)
Janis Louie is a Chemistry professor and Henry Eyring Fellow at The University of Utah. Louie contributes to the chemistry world with her research in inorganic, organic, and polymer chemistry. Education Louie received her B.S. from University of California, Los Angeles in 1993, where she was a cheerleader. She then moved on to get her Ph.D. from Yale University for work under Professor John Hartwig in 1998. In the years of 1998-2001 Louie was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#2173
Swapan Kumar Pati
#42103
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (57 years)
Swapan Kumar Pati is an Indian quantum chemist, a professor of the department of chemistry at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and the head of the Quantum Theory Molecules to Materials Group at the institute. He is known for his studies on electronic optical and magnetic phenomena in molecular systems and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India and The World Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Sh...
Go to Profile#2174
George A. Jacoby
#111338
Overall Influence
#2175
Mark Maroncelli
#97934
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (68 years)
Mark Maroncelli is an American chemist, currently serving as professor of chemistry at the Pennsylvania State University, where he also coordinates the Chemistry Department's undergraduate program. Career Mark received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Williams College and a Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley . He spent the next four years as a postdoctoral researcher at two institutions, Oregon State University with Prof. Joseph W. Nibler and the University of Chicago with Prof. Graham R. Fleming.
Go to Profile#2176
Moshe Yaniv
#111366
Overall Influence
#2177
David F. Ollis
#111369
Overall Influence
#2178
Anthony Charles Legon
#111379
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (84 years)
#2179
Christof Wöll
#111390
Overall Influence
#2180
Eric Kool
#104454
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (65 years)
Eric T. Kool is an American chemist, focusing in chemistry of RNA and DNA; probe design and imaging; synthetic biology, currently the George A. and Hilda M. Daubert Professor in Chemistry at Stanford University and is an Elected Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Beckman Young Investigators Award in 1992. He is the 2019 recipient of the Murray Goodman Memorial Prize
Go to Profile#2181
Alexander F. Wells
#111425
Overall Influence
#2182
John E. Coligan
#111433
Overall Influence
#2183
Alfred P. Wolf
#111527
Overall Influence
#2184
Jan Drenth
#69889
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (100 years)
Jan Drenth is a Dutch chemist. He was a professor of structural chemistry at the University of Groningen from 1969 to 1990. Career Drenth was born in Groningen. He obtained his PhD in mathematics and physics under Eelco Wiebenga at the University of Groningen in 1957, with a dissertation titled: Een röntgenografisch onderzoek van excelsine, edestine en tabakszaadglobuline. Drenth subsequently moved to New York, United States, where he became a post-doc and studied protein crystallography under Barbara Low. Drenth then returned to the Netherlands and in 1967 was appointed as lector. In 1969 he...
Go to Profile#2185
Jack G. Powles
#111636
Overall Influence
#2186
J. William. Lown
#111655
Overall Influence
#2187
Jörg Behler
#105248
Overall Influence
Jörg Behler, Ph.D. , Dr. habil. , is a German chemist, who is active in the field of theoretical chemistry; he is a professor of the Ruhr University Bochum since November 2022. Education Jörg Behler earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from 1995 to 2000 at University of Dortmund. He then completed his PhD with Karsten Reuter and Matthias Scheffler at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society with a thesis entitled "Dissociation of Oxygen Molecules on the Al Surface". He went on to a postdoc at ETH Zurich with Michele Parrinello, before being hired at Ruhr University Bochum as a research associate, then head of a junior research group.
Go to Profile#2188
Jeremy Randall Knowles
#111735
Overall Influence
#2189
Graeme Moad
#101987
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Graeme Moad is an Australian polymer chemist. Education and career Moad received a Bachelor of Science in 1974 and a Ph.D. in 1977, both from the University of Adelaide. He followed this with postdoctoral research at Pennsylvania State University.
Go to Profile#2190
Ajayan Vinu
#111793
Overall Influence
#2191
F. Scott Mathews
#111849
Overall Influence
#2192
Isao Noda
#89179
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
Isao Noda is a chemical engineer whose research has focused on polymer science and spectroscopy. He holds ninety patents granted in the United States and the EU, has published over three hundred articles, co-authored three books, and received a number of industry-wide awards and recognition for his contributions to his fields of research.
Go to Profile#2193
Leif Bertilsson
#111895
Overall Influence
#2194
Jon T. Hougen
#105276
Overall Influence
1936 - 2019 (83 years)
Jon Torger Hougen was an American spectroscopist. Education and career Hougen finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1956. He obtained his Master's and doctoral degrees at Harvard University. He worked at Harvard University under the research direction of William Moffitt and William Klemperer. He started his career in 1960 as a Postdoctorate Fellow at the National Research Council of Canada in the Molecular Spectroscopy group of Gerhard Herzberg. He joined the staff at NRC in 1962 and supervised Postdoctorate Fellows J.K.G.Watson and Philip Bunker. In 1967 he joined the National Bureau of Standards .
Go to Profile#2195
Jaroslav Stejskal
#111935
Overall Influence
#2196
Tsutomu Miyasaka
#111598
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
, is a Japanese engineer in electrochemistry best known for the inventor of perovskite solar cell. Education Miyasaka graduated from the Applied Chemistry Department of Waseda University in March 1976. He obtained a master's degree in industrial chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1978. He was a visiting researcher at the University of Quebec in Canada in 1980 when he was study Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry at the UTokyo.
Go to Profile#2197
William H. Gerwick
#111967
Overall Influence
#2198
Lionel Salem
#81342
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (88 years)
Lionel Salem is a French theoretical chemist, former research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research , retired since 1999. He is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science which named him its annual award winner in 1975 for his work on photochemical processes and on chemical reaction mechanisms. .
Go to Profile#2199
Tom Brown
#102874
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Tom Brown FRSC FRSE is a British chemist, biotechnologist, and entrepreneur. He is the Professor of Nucleic acid chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford. Currently, he is serving as the President of the Chemical Biology Interface Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is best known for his contribution in the field of DNA Repair, DNA Click chemistry, and in the application of Molecular genetics in forensics and diagnostics.
Go to Profile#2200
Lianru Gao
#112000
Overall Influence
