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,
#2251
Andries Meijerink
#113160
Overall Influence
#2252
Hiroshi Sugiyama
#113217
Overall Influence
#2253
Andrzej Wieckowski
#108154
Overall Influence
1945 - 2019 (74 years)
Andrzej Wieckowski was an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and the North American Editor of Electrochimica Acta. He is known for his spectroscopic investigations of electrocatalysis in fuel cells and co-inventing of the direct formic acid fuel cell . He authored more than 300 publications, has been cited over 13,000 times and has an h-index 60. He was appointed fellow of the Electrochemical Society in 2007 and fellow of the International Society of Electrochemistry in 2009. He was awarded the US Department of Energy Prize for outstanding Scient...
Go to Profile#2254
Pascal Kintz
#113351
Overall Influence
#2255
Walter Giger
#79273
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Walter Giger is a Swiss chemist. He had been working at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology , where he was the head of the division Chemische Problemstoffe. He has been a professor for environmental chemistry at the ETH Zurich since 1995.
Go to Profile#2256
Robert James Good
#113356
Overall Influence
#2257
Riki Kobayashi
#65542
Overall Influence
1924 - 2013 (89 years)
Riki Kobayashi was a chemical engineer and a long-time professor of chemical engineering at Rice University. A native of Harris County, Texas, he attended Rice University and earned the Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering at the age of 19. After serving in the U.S. Army, he went to the University of Michigan, where he earned the Master of Science degree in 1946 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1951, both in chemical engineering. He became a member of the Rice faculty in 1951 and remained there until he retired in 1994. He died July 19, 2013, in Houston, Texas.
Go to Profile#2258
Shankar Balasubramanian
#113394
Overall Influence
#2259
John A. Pickett
#55133
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (80 years)
John Anthony Pickett CBE DSC FRS FLSW is a British chemist who is noted for his work on insect pheromones. Pickett is Professor of Biological Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University. He previously served as the Michael Elliott Distinguished Research Fellow at Rothamsted Research.
Go to Profile#2260
Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani
#100585
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (76 years)
Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani is a Brazilian chemist at the São Paulo State University. She has previously served as president of the Brazilian Chemical Society and was awarded the 2011 American Chemical Society – International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Distinguished Women in Science Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Award.
Go to Profile#2261
Jennifer L. West
#83790
Overall Influence
Jennifer L. West is an American bioengineer. She is the current Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. She was the Fitzpatrick University Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University from 2012-2021. In 2000, West cofounded Nanospectra Biosciences in Houston to develop a cancer therapy based on gold nanoparticles that destroy tumor cells and has been listed by MIT Technology Review as one of the 100 most innovative young scientists and engineers world wide.
Go to Profile#2262
Helmuth Tributsch
#113507
Overall Influence
#2263
Bayard D. Clarkson
#113513
Overall Influence
#2264
Magnus M. Höök
#113550
Overall Influence
#2265
W. Clark Still
#113564
Overall Influence
#2266
Masahiro Tatsumisago
#113573
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
#2267
James C. W. Chien
#113600
Overall Influence
#2268
Paul G. Mezey
#113677
Overall Influence
#2269
Aryeh Frimer
#66361
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (79 years)
Aryeh Abraham Frimer is an American-Israeli Active Oxygen Chemist and specialist on women and Jewish law. Biography Aryeh Abraham Frimer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, to Rabbi Dr. Norman E. Frimer and Esther Miriam Frimer on November 24, 1946, but spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated summa cum laude with honors from Brooklyn College with a B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1969. During his undergraduate years he also studied at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh in Israel and then Yeshivat Eretz Israel, Brooklyn NY, with Rabbi Judah Gershuni - ultimately receiving Rabbinic Ordination.
Go to Profile#2270
Marjorie J. Vold
#86054
Overall Influence
1913 - 1991 (78 years)
Marjorie J. Vold was an American chemist. Her research focused on colloids, and was recognized with a Garvan-Olin Medal from the American Chemical Society in 1967. Early life and education Marjorie Jean Young was born on October 25, 1913, in Ottawa, Ontario, and moved to Mount Hamilton, California as a child, with her parents Reynold K. Young and Wilhelmine E. Aitken. Her grandfather Robert Grant Aitken cataloged binary stars at Lick Observatory, and her father also worked an astronomer there. Young attended the University of California at Berkeley for undergraduate and graduate work, earning her doctorate in 1936.
Go to Profile#2271
Bryan Molloy
#28070
Overall Influence
1939 - 2004 (65 years)
Bryan Barnet Molloy was a Scottish chemist, known notably for helping to invent the antidepressant Prozac, a name for fluoxetine. Prozac was introduced in 1988, and has been the world's leading antidepressant.
Go to Profile#2272
Frank Morton
#82520
Overall Influence
1906 - 1999 (93 years)
Frank Morton MScTech, PhD, AMCT, DSc, FRIC, was a noted professor of chemical engineering, instrumental in the creation of UMIST and commemorated by Frank Morton Sports Day and a medal named after him.
Go to Profile#2273
Anne McCoy
#111572
Overall Influence
Anne Bowen McCoy is a theoretical chemist. She is the Natt-Lingafelter Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington, and her research interests include vibrational spectroscopy, hydrogen bonding, and charge-transfer bands. She received the 2023 Jack Simons Award in Theoretical Chemistry “for her development and application of theoretical methods for analyzing the vibrational spectra & dynamics of floppy molecules and clusters.”
Go to Profile#2274
Nikos Hadjichristidis
#113791
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
#2275
Richard Barrer
#110492
Overall Influence
1910 - 1996 (86 years)
Richard Maling Barrer FRS was a New Zealand-born chemist. His areas of research included gas permeability of membranes and zeolite science, of which he was a founding figure; he also gave his name to the zeolite Barrerite. The Barrer, a unit of gas permeability, is also named after him.
Go to Profile#2276
John P. Wolfe
#107001
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (55 years)
John Perry Wolfe is an American chemist and a professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan. He is best known for palladium-catalyzed C-C and C-N bond formation reactions. He was also one of the key scientists in the development of Buchwald ligands, one of which is appropriately named "JohnPhos" after him. Wolfe has taught at the University of Michigan since 2002.
Go to Profile#2277
Corinna S. Schindler
#78075
Overall Influence
Corinna S. Schindler is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She develops catalytic reactions with environmentally benign metals such as iron, towards the synthesis of biologically active small molecules. For her research in the development of new catalysts, Schindler has been honored with several early-career researcher awards including the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in 2016, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2017, and being named a member of the C&EN Talented 12 in 2017. Schindler has served on the Editorial Board of Organic and Bimolecular Chemistry si...
Go to Profile#2278
Florante A. Quiocho
#113878
Overall Influence
#2279
David Goltzman
#113898
Overall Influence
#2280
James E. Guillet
#113899
Overall Influence
#2281
Mirza Hasanuzzaman
#113928
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
#2282
Harry Ischiropoulos
#113973
Overall Influence
#2283
Ezio Pelizzetti
#113990
Overall Influence
#2284
Ijeoma Uchegbu
#49866
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (65 years)
Ijeoma Uchegbu is a Nigerian-British Professor of Pharmacy at University College London where she held the position of Pro-Vice Provost for Africa and the Middle East. She is the Chief Scientific Officer of Nanomerics, a pharmaceutical nanotechnology company specialising in drug delivery solutions for poorly water-soluble drugs, nucleic acids and peptides. She is also a Governor of the Wellcome, a large biomedical research charity. Apart from her highly cited scientific research in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, Uchegbu is also known for her work in science public engagement and equality and div...
Go to Profile#2285
Michal Hocek
#99257
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
Michal Hocek is a Czech chemist. He is a group leader at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences and a professor of organic chemistry at Charles University in Prague. He specializes in the chemistry and chemical biology of nucleosides, nucleotides, and nucleic acids.
Go to Profile#2286
Subramaniam Ramakrishnan
#57200
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (65 years)
Subramaniam Ramakrishnan is an Indian polymer chemist, a professor at the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry http://ipc.iisc.ac.in/~rk/and the designer at Macromolecular Design and Synthesis Group of Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his studies on design and synthesis of controlled polymer structures and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest In...
Go to Profile#2287
Albrecht Hofmann
#46812
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (86 years)
Albrecht Werner Hofmann, ForMemRS, is emeritus professor at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He is best known for his contributions to the field of geochemistry.
Go to Profile#2288
Dario Neri
#114102
Overall Influence
#2289
Bruce J. Tromberg
#51925
Overall Influence
Bruce J. Tromberg is an American photochemist and a leading researcher in the field of biophotonics. He is the director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering within the National Institutes of Health . Before joining NIH, he was Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and of Surgery at the School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine. He was the principal investigator of the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program , and the Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at Irvine. He was a co-leader of the Onc...
Go to Profile#2290
Petr Zuman
#114148
Overall Influence
#2291
Ann-Christine Albertsson
#113004
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (80 years)
Ann-Christine Albertsson is a Swedish chemist, currently Professor at Royal Institute of Technology and the Editor-in-Chief of American Chemical Society's Biomacromolecules. Her research interest are biomacromolecules and polymers.
Go to Profile#2292
Robert Allen Osteryoung
#114184
Overall Influence
#2293
Albert Goldbeter
#114199
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
#2294
Paul R. Raithby
#114208
Overall Influence
#2295
Song Jin
#114232
Overall Influence
#2296
Valerie Randle
#50276
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Valerie Randle is a materials engineer who specialised in electron backscatter diffraction, grain boundary engineering, and has written a number of text books on the subject She was Welsh Woman of the Year in 1998 and in the same year was awarded the Rosenhain Award for achievements in Materials Science by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. In 2004 she was invited as a guest of HM the Queen to a luncheon at Buckingham Palace for the 'top 180 female achievers in the country'. From 2008 she has been included in Who's Who. as part of increasing public recognition of scientists. S...
Go to Profile#2297
Abraham Ulman
#114245
Overall Influence
#2298
Mallavarapu Megharaj
#114328
Overall Influence
#2299
Anatoly Rusanov
#108015
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (93 years)
Anatoly Ivanovich Rusanov is a Russian chemist. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Science since 1990. He is graduated from Leningrad State University and currently is the head of the Colloid Chemistry Department of St. Petersburg State University.
Go to Profile#2300
Michael Drew
#35558
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Michael Drew is a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Reading. He used to hold the position of head of physical chemistry. His main area of study centres on computational chemistry. External links
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