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,
#3101
Walter Lund
#117316
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (85 years)
Walter Lund is a Norwegian chemist. He was born in Oslo. He took the cand.real. degree at the University of Oslo in 1965, and later the dr.philos. degree. He was hired at the university in 1966, and was promoted to professor in 1989. He has been a visiting scholar at the National Physical Laboratory, the Heyrovský Institute of Polarography and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His field is analytical chemistry, and he has been vice president of this particular field within the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry . He has also chaired the board of the Museum of Cultural Hi...
Go to Profile#3102
Robert S. Coleman
#104805
Overall Influence
Robert S. Coleman is an American chemistry professor and researcher. Coleman was a faculty member at both Ohio State University and the University of South Carolina. At Ohio State, he was on the faculty in the Department of Chemistry from 1996 to 2012, having moved to Ohio State as an associate professor from the University of South Carolina. At USC, Coleman taught as assistant professor from 1989 to 1995, and then as associate professor from 1995 to 1996. In 1996, he accepted a faculty position at Ohio State University to teach Organic Chemistry, where he was an associate professor from 1996 until 2000.
Go to Profile#3103
Charles Wilkins
#124034
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
Charles Wilkins is an American chemist who is a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Arkansas and the founding director of the University of Arkansas Statewide Mass Spectrometry Facility.
Go to Profile#3104
Robert H. Jr. Davis
#131991
Overall Influence
#3105
Hisham A. Nasr-el-din
#132010
Overall Influence
#3106
Kilwon Cho
#132018
Overall Influence
#3107
Genserik L. L. M. E. Reniers
#132034
Overall Influence
#3108
Thandavarayan Maiyalagan
#132035
Overall Influence
#3109
Coray Colina
#107246
Overall Influence
Coray Colina is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida. Education Colina received her BS in 1993 and MS in 1994 at Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela. She earned her PhD at North Carolina State University in 2004 advised by Keith E. Gubbins, and subsequently worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Go to Profile#3110
Marisa Kozlowski
#105206
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (60 years)
Marisa C. Kozlowski is an American chemist who is Professor of Organic and Catalysis Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research considers asymmetric synthesis and the development of cost effective catalysts. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and American Chemical Society in 2013.
Go to Profile#3111
John D. Blackwell
#132076
Overall Influence
#3112
E. J. Jr. Merck Sharp Cragoe
#132084
Overall Influence
#3113
Donald Engelman
#52425
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (84 years)
Donald Max Engelman is Higgins Professor of Biochemistry at Yale University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences , fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the National Institutes of Health, and has been a Guggenheim fellow. He served as the editor of the Annual Review of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry .
Go to Profile#3114
H. Roger Lijnen
#132130
Overall Influence
#3115
Nicola Senesi
#132131
Overall Influence
#3116
Peter Hanrath
#132139
Overall Influence
#3117
Richard-duane Chambers
#132171
Overall Influence
#3118
William D. Jones
#132181
Overall Influence
#3119
Jacques Muzart
#132183
Overall Influence
#3120
Gilda H. Loew
#114954
Overall Influence
1930 - 2001 (71 years)
Gilda H. Loew was an American chemist known for applying computational chemistry to biology. She was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1975. Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, Loew attended Erasmus Hall High School and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's from Columbia, both in chemistry, before going on to doctoral work at UC Berkeley, where she earned a PhD in chemical physics. In the 1950s and 1960s, she held a number of research positions, at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company and the Hansen Laboratories, Stanford University.
Go to Profile#3121
Günter Helmchen
#132203
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (85 years)
#3122
Roger D. Armstrong
#132206
Overall Influence
#3123
Robert Paton
#118318
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Robert Paton won the 2015 Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Up to three Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prizes are awarded each year. Paton received the OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award from the American Chemical Society COMP division in fall 2015.
Go to Profile#3124
Marc Zimmer
#119604
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
Marc Zimmer is the Jean Tempel '65 Professor of Professor of Chemistry at Connecticut College. He has published seven books, written articles on science and medicine for the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Huffington Post, etc. He has been interviewed or quoted in the Economist, Science, Nature etc.
Go to Profile#3125
Neal Devaraj
#113853
Overall Influence
Neal K. Devaraj is an American chemist and professor at the University of California, San Diego . His research interests include artificial cells, lipid membranes, and bioconjugation. Education Devaraj attended college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he performed research in the lab of Professor Moungi Bawendi. In 2007, Devaraj earned his PhD in chemistry from Stanford University, where he worked in the labs of Professors James P. Collman and Christopher Chidsey.
Go to Profile#3126
Bruce E. Bursten
#131632
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
Bruce Edward Bursten is an American chemist, professor of chemistry, and was president of the American Chemical Society. He is provost at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research has specialised in inorganic chemistry and metal-containing molecules.
Go to Profile#3127
James L. Skinner
#99457
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
James L. Skinner is an American theoretical chemist. He is the Joseph O. and Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder Professor Emeritus at the University Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Welch Foundation. Most recently, Skinner was the Crown Family Professor of Molecular Engineering, professor of chemistry, director of the Water Research Initiative and deputy dean for faculty affairs of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. Skinner is recognized for his contributions to the fields of theoretical chemistry, nonequilibrium sta...
Go to Profile#3128
R. Kumar Gupta
#132353
Overall Influence
#3129
Frank Vanhaecke
#132357
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
#3130
Shoji Tanaka
#132444
Overall Influence
#3131
Werner Grosch
#132460
Overall Influence
#3132
Hemamala Karunadasa
#117107
Overall Influence
Hemamala Indivari Karunadasa is an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford University. She works on hybrid organic – inorganic materials, such as perovskites, for clean energy and large area lighting.
Go to Profile#3133
Ralf Ludwig
#132488
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
#3134
Tsutomu Minami
#132505
Overall Influence
#3135
Alexander Eychmüller
#132507
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
#3136
Bernd Nidetzky
#132509
Overall Influence
#3137
David Hodgson
#117819
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
David Michael Hodgson is the Todd Fellow and Tutor in Chemistry at Oriel College, Oxford. Hodgson achieved his Bachelor of Science at the University of Bath and gained his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Southampton. His research interests are in synthesis, broadly encompassing studies directed towards the design and development of new methods, reagents and strategies for the synthesis of biologically active molecules.
Go to Profile#3138
Mohan J. Edirisinghe
#132523
Overall Influence
#3139
Gary Keck
#97093
Overall Influence
Gary E. Keck is an American chemist. Biography Education Gary Keck received a BS from Bowling Green State University in 1971, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1975 and was a postdoctoral with E. J. Corey at Harvard University from 1975-1977.
Go to Profile#3140
Jean-paul Ryckaert
#132551
Overall Influence
#3141
Thomas S. Bianchi
#70287
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Thomas S. Bianchi is an oceanographer and biogeochemist. He is currently the Jon and Beverly Thompson Endowed Chair of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida and Editor-in-chief of the journal Marine Chemistry.
Go to Profile#3142
Mitsuo Itô
#132559
Overall Influence
#3143
Omid Akhavan
#132589
Overall Influence
#3144
Matthew J. Kohn
#132594
Overall Influence
#3145
Kewal K. K. Jain
#132599
Overall Influence
#3146
Shimshon Gottesfeld
#132638
Overall Influence
#3147
Devens Gust
#132655
Overall Influence
#3148
Basudeb DasSarma
#57466
Overall Influence
1923 - 2007 (84 years)
Basudeb DasSarma was a chemist and faculty at the University College of Science and Technology of the University of Calcutta. He was among an early group of Indian scholars and professionals to emigrate to the US. He did groundbreaking research with John C. Bailar Jr. at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, won an American Chemical Society award in 1971 for his contributions to the understanding of coordination and stereo-chemistry of metal complexes, and became a naturalized US citizen in 1972. He was a professor of chemistry at West Virginia State College from 1966 to 1992, Pres...
Go to Profile#3149
Brian Bates
#18899
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Brian Bates is former chairman of Psychology at the University of Sussex. He is currently the director of the Medical Psychology Project at the Department of Psychology at University of Sussex in England. He is a visiting professor at the University of Brighton. He is known as the author of books on the shamanic wisdom of Anglo-Saxon England, and for his related course on "Shamanic Consciousness". He has also taught and directed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Go to Profile#3150
Julie S. Biteen
#89040
Overall Influence
Julie Biteen is a Canadian-born American chemist who is professor of chemistry and biophysics at the University of Michigan. Her research considers the development of imaging systems for biological systems. She was named the Stanford University Sessler Distinguished Alumni Lecturer in 2021.
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