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,
#2951
Thomas B. Brill
#129023
Overall Influence
#2952
Lennart Persson
#129078
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (77 years)
#2953
Irving Kaplan
#53713
Overall Influence
1913 - 1997 (84 years)
Irving Kaplan was a chemist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, who was among the founders of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the institution. Biography Kaplan received a BA from Columbia University in 1933, an MA in 1934 and a PhD in chemistry in 1937. Before coming to MIT, he was a researcher in chemistry at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago from 1937 to 1941. He participated in the Manhattan Project to do research on isotope separation. Kaplan was also a lead founding member of the Federation of American Scientists, and worked with other scientists to promote civilian control of the atomic energy.
Go to Profile#2954
Jim Feast
#116058
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
William James Feast is a British chemical scientist and academic. Early life Feast was born in Birmingham to a school teacher and housewife, and was educated at the King Edward VI School in Lichfield, studying humanities but being redirected to scientific studies due to his 'inclination to sit and dream', which led to him calling himself an 'accidental chemist'.
Go to Profile#2955
Bruce Arnold Reitz
#129102
Overall Influence
#2956
Brian Vincent
#129120
Overall Influence
#2957
Chuanyi Wang
#88704
Overall Influence
Chuanyi Wang is a Chinese American, environmental chemistry scientist, academic, and an author. He is a Distinguished Professor and Academic Dean at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Shaanxi University of Science & Technology. He is recognized for his research in environmental photocatalysis, environmental materials, surface/interface chemistry, nanomaterials, and pollution controlling.
Go to Profile#2958
Jeremy Burdett
#126534
Overall Influence
1947 - 1997 (50 years)
Jeremy Keith Burdett , or Jeremy K. Burdett, was a British-American chemist known for his work on bridging the gap between molecular science and solid state chemistry from an electron orbital viewpoint.
Go to Profile#2959
Shahriar Mobashery
#129277
Overall Influence
#2960
Franco Cataldo
#129286
Overall Influence
#2961
Gregory S. Girolami
#102244
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Gregory S. Girolami is the William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the synthesis, properties, and reactivity of new inorganic, organometallic, and solid state species. Girolami has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Chemical Society.
Go to Profile#2962
Douglas G. Dalgleish
#129299
Overall Influence
#2963
Deng Guang Yu
#129303
Overall Influence
#2964
William Ireland Milne
#129312
Overall Influence
#2965
Dominik Marx
#129316
Overall Influence
#2966
Johannes Schoonman
#129322
Overall Influence
#2967
Harkishan Singh
#77752
Overall Influence
1928 - 2020 (92 years)
Harkishan Singh was Professor Emeritus at the Panjab University . He was a well recognized pharmaceutical academic, medicinal chemistry researcher and science historian. He had more than half a century experience in his respective fields to his credit. He worked at the Banaras Hindu University, University of Saugar, and the Panjab University in India, and abroad at the University of Maryland, University of Mississippi and the University of London.
Go to Profile#2968
Yorinao Inoue
#129388
Overall Influence
#2969
Russel L. N. Grimes
#129397
Overall Influence
#2970
Jenny Y. Yang
#94570
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Jenny Yue-fon Yang is an American chemist. She is a Professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine where she leads a research group focused on inorganic chemistry, catalysis, and solar fuels.
Go to Profile#2971
Wilbur H. Sawyer
#129427
Overall Influence
#2972
Kenneth Henderson Jack
#121960
Overall Influence
1918 - 2013 (95 years)
Kenneth Henderson Jack FRS was a British chemist whose career involved the application of X-ray crystallography to the field of materials science. Biography Kenneth Henderson Jack was born on 12 October 1918 at his grandmother's flat in Coburg Street, North Shields. He was the eldest of three sons of John Henderson Jack, mariner, and Emily . He attended King Edward's Primary School and then Tynemouth Municipal High School. He gained a scholarship place to study chemistry at Armstrong College . Jack graduated with first-class honours in chemistry and came top of his year. After a brief spell ...
Go to Profile#2973
Charles J. Weschler
#129452
Overall Influence
#2974
Yasunobu Yoshikai
#129491
Overall Influence
#2975
Yogesh M. Joshi
#67079
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (51 years)
Yogesh Moreshwar Joshi is an Indian chemical engineer, rheologist and the Pandit Girish & Sushma Rani Pathak Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is known for his studies on metastable soft matter and is an elected fellow of the Society of Rheology, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. In 2015, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded Joshi the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for his contributions to Engineering Sciences.
Go to Profile#2976
Daniel M. Sigman
#129523
Overall Influence
#2977
Carl. R. Merril
#129567
Overall Influence
#2978
Nobuhiro Fusetani
#129569
Overall Influence
#2979
Roger Philip Ekins
#129583
Overall Influence
#2980
Miriam Diamond
#80051
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Miriam Diamond is an environmental chemist and a professor at the University of Toronto. She started the Professor Diamond's Environmental Research Group which works to develop strategies that reduce dangerous contaminants in the environment.
Go to Profile#2981
Barry W. Connors
#129636
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
#2982
Robert Haynes
#15214
Overall Influence
1931 - 1998 (67 years)
Robert Hall Haynes, OC, FRSC was a Canadian geneticist and biophysicist. He was the Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Biology at York University. Haynes was best known for his contributions to the study of DNA repair and mutagenesis, and for helping promote the concept of terraforming through his invention of the term, ecopoiesis.
Go to Profile#2983
Mark Alan Barteau
#129754
Overall Influence
Mark Alan Barteau is an American engineer. He is Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University; holder of the Haliburton Chair in Engineering and professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering; and professor in the Department of Chemistry, College of Science. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he was Director of the University of Michigan Energy Institute, University of Michigan Energy Institute and the DTE Professor of Advanced Energy Research at the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#2984
Joachim Thiem
#129798
Overall Influence
#2985
Thierry Roisnel
#129850
Overall Influence
#2986
John S. Lazo
#126700
Overall Influence
John Stephen Lazo is an American pharmacologist noted for his work discovering the fundamental mechanisms of action of small molecule therapeutics and the factors that confer drug resistance. He is a professor emeritus of pharmacology at University of Virginia.
Go to Profile#2987
Shlomo Magdassi
#129857
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
#2988
Darren M. Ashcroft
#129880
Overall Influence
#2989
Isabel Arends
#116274
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
Isabel W.C.E. Arends is a Dutch chemist and professor of biocatalysis and organic chemistry at Utrecht University. She was appointed dean of its Faculty of Science in July 2018. Her research specializes in environmentally-friendly, or 'green', chemistry; for example, using enzymes as biocatalysts while avoiding the need for toxic solvents.
Go to Profile#2990
Krishna Kumar
#87017
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (55 years)
Krishna Kumar is an Indian American chemist whose research spans organic chemistry, chemical biology, bioorganic chemistry, biophysics and cell biology. He is currently Robinson Professor of Chemistry and was also Chemistry Department Chair from 2006 to 2009; and from 2012 to 2018 at Tufts University.
Go to Profile#2991
Kim Henrick
#129932
Overall Influence
#2992
Hatem Fessi
#129951
Overall Influence
#2993
Tim Scully
#48240
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Robert "Tim" Scully is an American computer engineer, best known in the psychedelic underground for his work in the production of LSD from 1966 to 1969, for which he was indicted in 1973 and convicted in 1974. His best known product, dubbed "Orange Sunshine", was considered the standard for quality LSD in 1969. He was featured in the documentary The Sunshine Makers.
Go to Profile#2994
Jerome Mayo Greenberg
#129981
Overall Influence
#2995
Jean G. Riess
#130012
Overall Influence
#2996
Tristram Chivers
#130021
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
#2997
Amparo Chiralt
#130028
Overall Influence
#2998
Sébastien Perrier
#130056
Overall Influence
#2999
Reuben P. Siraganian
#130064
Overall Influence
#3000
Yoshihito Osada
#130067
Overall Influence
