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,
#2701
Gunnar Jeschke
#123365
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
#2702
Pierre Sinaÿ
#89717
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
Pierre Sinaÿ, born on April 11, 1938, in Aulnay-sous-Bois , is a French organic chemist. Biography After studying at the École nationale supérieure des industries chimiques de Nancy from 1958 to 1961, he obtained a doctorate under the supervision of Professor Serge David in 1966 and continued for two years at Harvard University in Massachusetts as a post-doctoral researcher with Professor Roger W. Jeanloz. He then entered the University of Orléans in 1969 as a professor, where he was Director of the Institute of Organic and Analytical Chemistry from 1978 to 1987. He then became Professor of C...
Go to Profile#2703
Helmut Prof. Dr Werner
#123386
Overall Influence
#2704
Hisashi Matsuda
#123445
Overall Influence
#2705
Patricia Thiel
#66434
Overall Influence
1953 - 2020 (67 years)
Patricia Ann Thiel was an American chemist and materials scientist who served as a distinguished professor of chemistry at Iowa State University. She was known for her research on atomic-scale structures and processes on solid surfaces.
Go to Profile#2706
Shimon Weiss
#123502
Overall Influence
#2707
Laurel Schafer
#35580
Overall Influence
Laurel Schafer is a Canadian Organic chemist. She is a full professor at the University of British Columbia and Canada Research Chair in Catalyst Development. Schafer's research is at the intersection of organometallic and organic chemistry.
Go to Profile#2708
David Ginger
#107286
Overall Influence
David S. Ginger is an American physical chemist. He is the B. Seymour Rabinovitch Endowed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. He is also a Washington Research Foundation distinguished scholar, and chief scientist of the University of Washington Clean Energy Institute. In 2018, he was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for his work on the microscopic investigation of materials for thin-film semiconductors. He was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012, and was a 2016 National Finalist of the Blavatnik Awards for Y...
Go to Profile#2709
Shu Quan Liang
#123552
Overall Influence
#2710
Ge Ä Rald Bernardinelli
#123575
Overall Influence
#2711
Berndt Wrackmeyer
#123601
Overall Influence
#2712
Frans C. De Schryver
#21958
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (86 years)
Frans Carl De Schryver is a Belgian chemist currently serving as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry of the KU Leuven. Pursuing his interests in polymer synthesis, time and space resolved chemistry, he founded the Laboratory for Photochemistry and Spectroscopy at the KU Leuven. He has co-authored over 650 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Go to Profile#2713
Wolfgang Dr Wurst
#123635
Overall Influence
#2714
Otto Bastiansen
#109824
Overall Influence
1918 - 1995 (77 years)
Otto Christian Astrup Bastiansen was a Norwegian chemist and physical chemist. He was the son of priest Alf Bjørnskau Bastiansen and brother of jurist Peter Bastiansen. He took the dr.philos. degree in 1949, and was hired as a lecturer at the University of Oslo in 1954. Already in 1955 he became professor of theoretical chemistry at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He returned to the University of Oslo in 1962, and switched from theoretical chemistry to physical chemistry in 1964. From 1965 to 1969 he chaired the research council NAVF. He was then vice rector from 1970 to 1973 and rector from 1973 to 1976 at the University of Oslo.
Go to Profile#2715
Alexander Kovarski
#90731
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Alexander L’vovich Kovarski is a Russian physical chemist, professor, member of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, and member of American Chemical Society. His main research area is physical chemistry of polymers and compositess, magnetic resonance of free radicals and nano-sized systems.
Go to Profile#2716
Shoji Asakura
#123673
Overall Influence
#2717
Brian Mason
#94152
Overall Influence
1917 - 2009 (92 years)
Brian Harold Mason was a New Zealand geochemist and mineralogist who was one of the pioneers in the study of meteorites. He played a leading part in understanding the nature of the Solar System through his studies of meteorites and lunar rocks. He also examined and classified thousands of meteorites collected from Antarctica.
Go to Profile#2718
Jochen Autschbach
#123686
Overall Influence
#2719
John Plane
#60820
Overall Influence
John Maurice Campbell Plane, , , is a British atmospheric chemist, currently Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Leeds. His research investigates planetary atmospheres using a range of theoretical and experimental techniques.
Go to Profile#2720
Ruth Patrick
#18058
Overall Influence
1907 - 2013 (106 years)
Ruth Myrtle Patrick was an American botanist and limnologist specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology. She authored more than 200 scientific papers, developed ways to measure the health of freshwater ecosystems and established numerous research facilities.
Go to Profile#2721
Stephen L. Mayo
#83846
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
Stephen L. Mayo is a professor at the California Institute of Technology, where he is the William K. Bowes Jr. Leadership Chair in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, and the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry. His research focuses on structural biology and the development of computational methods for protein design. Mayo was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and was appointed to a six-year term on the National Science Board in 2013.
Go to Profile#2722
George Jackson
#108567
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
George Jackson, , , is a British professor of chemical physics in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He is noted for developing molecular models that describe the thermodynamic properties of complex fluids; as one of the developers of statistical associating fluid theory ; and for his work in molecular systems engineering. His theoretical work has found a wide range of practical applications in industries such as gas extraction and emerging fields like carbon capture and storage.
Go to Profile#2723
Osamu Terasaki
#123770
Overall Influence
#2724
Martha Greenblatt
#123781
Overall Influence
#2725
David Mervyn Blow
#123784
Overall Influence
#2726
John Richard Anthony Pearson
#84852
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (95 years)
John Richard Anthony Pearson FRS FIMMM MIChemE is a Scientific Consultant at Schlumberger Cambridge Research and Chairman of the Pearson Publishing Group since 1993. Early life Pearson was born in Cairo on 18 September 1930 and educated at Bedford Modern School, Trinity College Cambridge and Harvard University.
Go to Profile#2727
Fu‐yuan Wu
#123867
Overall Influence
#2728
Vincent M. Monnier
#123873
Overall Influence
#2729
Philip D. Lawley
#123880
Overall Influence
#2730
Albrecht Wendel
#123892
Overall Influence
#2731
Serge Bourbigot
#123909
Overall Influence
#2732
Victor Wray
#123933
Overall Influence
#2733
Huaming Zhang
#123956
Overall Influence
#2734
Jean-Baptiste Donnet
#64496
Overall Influence
1923 - 2014 (91 years)
Jean-Baptiste Donnet was a French chemist who is noted as a pioneer in the surface chemistry of carbon black and as a founder of the Upper Alsace University. He was the father of French journalist Pierre-Antoine Donnet.
Go to Profile#2735
Hiroshi Suga
#123978
Overall Influence
#2736
Desmond N. Carney
#124049
Overall Influence
#2737
Israel Pecht
#124051
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (88 years)
#2738
Edwin Robert Morris
#124139
Overall Influence
#2739
Alec D. Bangham
#124190
Overall Influence
#2740
Mahmoud Nasrollahzadeh
#124204
Overall Influence
#2741
Peter Norman Russell Usherwood
#124256
Overall Influence
#2742
Arthur Daniel Pelton
#124260
Overall Influence
#2743
Bhanu Pratap Jena
#40899
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Bhanu Pratap Jena is an American cell biologist and the "George E. Palade University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Physiology" at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, who discovered porosome in mid 1990s & demonstrated it to be the universal secretory machinery in Plasma Membrane.
Go to Profile#2744
Irwin Lucki
#124299
Overall Influence
#2745
Jeanne E. Pemberton
#112284
Overall Influence
Jeanne Ellen Pemberton is an American analytical chemist and Regents' Professor at the University of Arizona. Her research involves surface science and developing applications for glycolipids. In 1997, she was cofounder of the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists . She is an elected Fellow for several scientific societies, including the American Chemical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has leadership roles with the academic journals Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry.
Go to Profile#2746
Colin Bernard Reese
#124429
Overall Influence
#2747
Hong-wei Huang
#124446
Overall Influence
#2748
Dario Braga
#124464
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
#2749
Pierre V. Vignais
#124465
Overall Influence
#2750
Andreas Klamt
#124470
Overall Influence
