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,

#3051

Igle Gledhill

Igle Gledhill
#47143
Overall Influence
Irvy Gledhill is a South African physicist at the University of Witwatersrand, School of Mechanical, Industrial & Aeronautical Engineering, in Johannesburg. Education She has her bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, and applied maths from Rhodes University in 1976 and an honours in Physics, 1977. She earned her PhD in plasma physics in 1983 from the University of Natal. Her research topic was Ion Acoustic Waves in Multi-Species Plasmas. She did postdocs at the University of California, Los Angeles in thermonuclear fusion, and in Space Shuttle-related plasma simulation at Stanford Universi...
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#3052

Carlo Lamberti

#130950
Overall Influence
1964 - 2019 (55 years)
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#3053

Chad M. Rienstra

Chad M. Rienstra
#107236
Overall Influence
Chad M. Rienstra is a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He formerly was a tenured professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he joined the Department of Chemistry in 2002 as assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2008, and was promoted to professor in 2013.
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#3054

Ning Jiao

#131017
Overall Influence
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#3055

Masaki Kitajima

#131026
Overall Influence
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#3056

Annalisa Pastore

Annalisa Pastore
#93858
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (68 years)
Annalisa Pastore is a Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at King's College London. In 2018 she was appointed full professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. In 2022, she was appointed director of research for life sciences, chemistry and soft matter science at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. She resigned in Frebruary 2023.
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#3057

Claude Paoletti

#131053
Overall Influence
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#3058

Jyotirmayee Dash

#109134
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (49 years)
Jyotirmayee Dash is a professor at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, with research interests in topics related to organic chemistry and chemical biology in general. Jyotirmayee Dash obtained PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from IIT Kanpur in 2003 under the advisorship of Prof. F. A. Khan and MSc degree from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, India. She was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, during 2004–2006, postdoctoral fellow at ESPCI Paris, France, during 2006–2007 and Marie-Curie Fellow at University of Cambridge, UK, during 2007–2009.
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#3059

Davide Vione

#21717
Overall Influence
Davide Vione is an Italian chemist and academic. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Torino. His research is focused on photochemistry of surface and atmospheric waters, heterogeneous photocatalysis and other advanced oxidation processes for water treatment. Vione has authored over 350 publications, has been cited over 12,000 times.
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#3060

Xi Zhenfeng

#124790
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
Xi Zhenfeng is a Chinese organic chemist. Xi received his B.S. degree from Xiamen University in 1983, and his M.S. degree from Nanjing University, Zhengzhou University and Henan Institute of Chemistry in 1989. He joined Professor Tamotsu Takahashi's group at the Institute for Molecular Sciences, Japan, as a Ph.D. course student in 1993 and obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1996.
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#3061

Richard Dixon

#120418
Overall Influence
1930 - 2021 (91 years)
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#3062

Ger Challa

#108456
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (97 years)
Gerrit "Ger" Challa is a Dutch chemist. He was professor of chemistry and polymer technology at the University of Groningen from 1965 to 1993. Challa was born in Amsterdam. He studied chemistry between 1946 and 1953. He worked ten years for the Institute of Cellulose Research of the Algemene Kunstzijde Unie. Challa obtained his title of doctor in maths and physics on 13 May 1959 under Jan Ketelaar at the University of Amsterdam. His thesis was titled: "Formation of polyethylene terephthalate by ester interchange : equilibria kinetics and molecular weight distribution". After starting as professor at the University of Groningen he set the possibility to study polymer chemistry.
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#3063

Willem Siebrand

#131217
Overall Influence
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#3064

Michael J. Pikal

#126934
Overall Influence
1939 - 2018 (79 years)
Michael J. Pikal was an American Pharmaceutical Scientist. Pikal was born in Wadena, Minnesota on August 17, 1939 to parents Harold and Sophie. He attended Henning High School and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from St. John's University, then received a doctorate from Iowa State University in 1966. Pikal was an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee from 1967 to 1972. He joined Eli Lilly and Company as a senior research scientist later that year. Pikal left the company in 1996 to teach at the University of Connecticut, where he was appointed Pfizer Distinguished Endowed Chair in Pharmaceutical Technology in 2005.
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#3065

Stefan Bon

#67619
Overall Influence
Stefan A. F. Bon is a Professor of Chemical Engineering in the department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. His research considers polymer-based colloids. He is a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, an elected member of the International Polymer Colloids Group , and member of the physical Newton international fellowship committee, and served as the Royal Society of Chemistry Outreach Lecturer in 2015-2016.
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#3066

David Jorge Schiffrin

#131267
Overall Influence
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#3067

Curt Wittig

#89892
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Curt Franklin Wittig is a professor of chemistry and the holder of the Paul A. Miller Chair in the college of letters, arts, and sciences at the University of Southern California . Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Curt Wittig received his B.S. and Ph.D in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1970.
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#3068

Piero Baglioni

#131305
Overall Influence
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#3069

Robert Bittman

#131340
Overall Influence
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#3070

Jaroslav Šesták

#131347
Overall Influence
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#3071

Luigi Mondello

#131357
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
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#3072

Masood A. Parvez

#131359
Overall Influence
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#3073

Qiang Cui

#131372
Overall Influence
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#3074

Christian Hartinger

Christian Hartinger
#60117
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (51 years)
Christian G. Hartinger is an Austrian-born New Zealand bioinorganic chemist known for his work in metal-based anticancer drugs. In 2022 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. Scientific career Hartinger studied chemistry at the University of Vienna, earning his MSc in 1999 and his PhD in 2001 under Bernhard Keppler. He was an Erwin Schrödinger Fellow with Paul Dyson at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne from 2006 to 2008 and obtained his habilitation at the University of Vienna in 2009. In 2011, Hartinger was appointed the position of associate professor at Waipa...
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#3075

M. R. Green

#131407
Overall Influence
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#3076

David Officer

#54935
Overall Influence
David Leslie Officer is a New Zealand organic chemist and materials scientist. He completed a Bachelor of Science and PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 1982 under the direction of Professor Brian Halton, before undertaking postdoctoral positions at the Australian National University, and the University of Cologne . Officer returned to New Zealand and took up his first academic post at Massey University in 1986, rising through the ranks to full professor. In 2005, Officer was appointed as a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and moved to the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.
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#3077

Matthias Kraume

#122674
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Matthias Kraume is a German Chemical and Process Engineer and university professor. He is a professor of process engineering at the Technical University of Berlin and a member of the advisory board of Chemie Ingenieur Technik , the monthly journal of the Society of German Chemists .
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#3078

Alexandr Grigorievich Merzhanov

#131449
Overall Influence
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#3079

Yurii T. Struchkov

#131452
Overall Influence
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#3080

Chadwick Alma Tolman

#131463
Overall Influence
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#3081

Richard J. Henry

#131473
Overall Influence
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#3082

Arthur T. Hubbard

#131554
Overall Influence
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#3083

Pio Forzatti

#131561
Overall Influence
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#3084

Rebekka Klausen

#129797
Overall Influence
Rebekka Klausen is an American chemist who is the Second Decade Society Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her research considers carbon and silicon-based nanomaterials for optoelectronic devices. She was a finalist for the 2021 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
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#3085

István Tóth

#131338
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (79 years)
István Tóth is an Australian scientist and chemical engineer. He is the Chair of Biological Chemistry and Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Queensland. Education Has a Master's in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. from the Technical University Budapest and is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Toth is also a fellow of the Queensland Academy of Art and Sciences and Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and Affiliated Professorial Research Fellow and Group Leader at Institute of Molecular Biosciences, UQ.
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#3086

Lowell Paul Hager

#131593
Overall Influence
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#3087

Qingjing Peng

#131595
Overall Influence
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#3088

Carl Randolph Johnson

#131627
Overall Influence
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#3089

Herbert J. Fromm

#131657
Overall Influence
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#3090

Lucy Carpenter

#57303
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
Lucy Jane Carpenter is professor of physical chemistry at the University of York and director of the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory . Education Carpenter graduated with a BSc in chemistry from the University of Bristol in 1991 followed by a PhD in atmospheric chemistry at the University of East Anglia supervised by Stuart Penkett and awarded in 1996.
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#3091

Hans Martin R. Hoffmann

#131697
Overall Influence
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#3092

Helen E. Grenga

#101099
Overall Influence
1938 - 2006 (68 years)
Helen Eva Grenga was the first full-tenured female engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. One of the first tenure women chemical engineering professors in the USA. Early life and education Grenga graduated from Shorter College in 1960 with a B.A. in Chemistry, and from the University of Virginia in 1967 with a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry.
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#3093

Ryszard Amarowicz

#131708
Overall Influence
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#3094

Thomas Maschmeyer

Thomas Maschmeyer
#111142
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
Thomas Maschmeyer is a German chemist and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney. He is the Founding Director of the Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Laboratory of Advanced Catalysis for Sustainability, and University of Sydney Energy Storage Research Network. He has published several highly cited articles and books.
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#3095

Nissim Hay

#131856
Overall Influence
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#3096

Lucio Frydman

Lucio Frydman
#121557
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (60 years)
Lucio Frydman is an Israeli chemist whose research focuses on magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance and solid-state NMR. He was awarded the 2000 Günther Laukien Prize, the 2013 Russell Varian Prize and the 2021 Ernst Prize. He is Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and Chief Scientist in Chemistry and Biology at the US National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance and of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
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#3097

Pierre Deslongchamps

#29350
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
Pierre Deslongchamps is a Canadian chemist, and professor at Université de Sherbrooke. He was a 1979 Guggenheim Fellow. Life He graduated from the Université de Montreal with a BSc in 1959 and from University of New Brunswick with a PhD in 1964. He studied at Harvard University with Robert Burns Woodward.
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#3098

Hiroyuki Osada

#131924
Overall Influence
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#3099

Eugene Fitzgerald

#131930
Overall Influence
Eugene A. Fitzgerald is an American materials scientist and engineer currently the Merton C. Flemings-SMA Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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#3100

Debra R. Rolison

#118042
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
Debra R. Rolison is a physical chemist at the Naval Research Laboratory, where she is a head of the Advanced Electrochemical Materials section. Rolison's research involves the design, synthesis, and characterization of multi-functional nanostructures and ultra porous materials for rate-critical applications such as catalysis and energy storage. She is the 112th recipient of the William H. Nichols Medal Award.
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