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 Earth Sciences,
#751
Oran Reed Young
#104836
Overall Influence
#752
Isabelle Daniel
#76147
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (57 years)
#753
Wolf von Engelhardt
#75999
Overall Influence
1910 - 2008 (98 years)
Wolf Jürgen Baron von Engelhardt was a German geologist and mineralogist. Baron von Engelhardt was a descendant of a Baltic German noble family Engelhardt. Biography In the years 1929-1935, he began the study of natural sciences, in particular geology, mineralogy and chemistry at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, and Göttingen. In Halle, he became a member of the Corps Guestphalia Halle. He received his doctorate on September 18, 1935, from the mineralogist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt with the topic geochemistry of barium.
Go to Profile#754
David Battisti
#97073
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
David Battisti is The Tamaki Endowed Chair of Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Washington and a fellow at the American Geophysical Union. His research interests include understanding how interactions between the ocean, land, atmosphere, and sea ice lead to climatic variability at timescales that vary from seasonal to decadal timescales, as well as the paleoclimate. He is also interested in how climate variability affects food production.
Go to Profile#755
Robert John Pankhurst
#83673
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (80 years)
Robert John Pankhurst is a British geologist who has contributed to the study of the evolution and plate tectonics of Antarctica and South America. He has been a member of the Chilean Academy of Science since 2004. and the National Academy of Sciences of Argentina since 2005.
Go to Profile#756
Warren B. Hamilton
#88154
Overall Influence
1925 - 2018 (93 years)
Warren B. Hamilton was an American geologist known for integrating observed geology and geophysics into planetary-scale syntheses describing the dynamic and petrologic evolution of Earth's crust and mantle. His primary career was as a research scientist with the US Geological Survey in geologic, then geophysical, branches. After retirement, he became a Distinguished Senior Scientist in the Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a holder of the Penrose Medal, highest honor of the Geological Society of America . Hamilton s...
Go to Profile#757
Donald Prothero
#6431
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
Donald Ross Prothero is an American geologist, paleontologist, and author who specializes in mammalian paleontology and magnetostratigraphy, a technique to date rock layers of the Cenozoic era and its use to date the climate changes which occurred 30–40 million years ago. He is the author or editor of more than 30 books and over 300 scientific papers, including at least 5 geology textbooks.
Go to Profile#758
Irving P. Krick
#74244
Overall Influence
1906 - 1996 (90 years)
Irving P. Krick was an American meteorologist and inventor, the founding professor of Department of Meteorology at California Institute of Technology , one of the U.S. Air Force meteorologists who provided forecasts for the Normandy Landings in 1944, a controversial pioneer of long-term forecasting and cloud seeding, and "a brilliant American salesman" who in 1938 started the first private weather business in the United States.
Go to Profile#759
Murugesu Sivapalan
#102017
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Murugesu Sivapalan is an Australian-American engineer and hydrologist of Sri Lankan Tamil origin and a world leader in the area of catchment hydrology. He is currently the Chester and Helen Siess Endowed Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and professor of Geography & Geographic Information Science, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Sivapalan is widely recognized for his fundamental research on scale issues in hydrological modeling, his leadership of global initiatives aimed at hydrologic predictions in ungauged basins, and for his role in launching the new sub-fie...
Go to Profile#760
Francis Nimmo
#87536
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (54 years)
Francis Nimmo is a Professor of Planetary Science at the University of California Santa Cruz. Biography Education Nimmo attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Geological Sciences from St John's College, Cambridge University, in 1993 and completed his Ph.D. on Volcanism and Tectonics on Venus from Cambridge in 1996.
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Richard G. Smith
#14610
Overall Influence
Richard G. Smith is a British geographer. His research focuses on the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard, and urban studies, especially on poststructuralist cities. Academic career Smith was educated at the University of Hull and University of Bristol . Currently he works at Swansea University in the United Kingdom.
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Robert Andrew Duncan
#105338
Overall Influence
#763
Jorge O. Calvo
#51918
Overall Influence
1961 - 2023 (62 years)
Jorge Orlando Calvo was an Argentine geologist and paleontologist working for "Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas Lago Barreales" . Life and career Jorge Orlando Calvo was born in Córdoba, Argentina, on 27 April 1961. He was a professor in Geology and Paleontology at the National University of Comahue, Neuquén. He was one of the founders of the Geology Career at this university as well as the Director of the Barreales Lake Paleontological Center.
Go to Profile#764
Charles F. Westoff
#105436
Overall Influence
#765
Manfred Lenzen
#105482
Overall Influence
#766
Ulrich. Platt
#105586
Overall Influence
#767
Gerold Wefer
#105600
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
#768
Nils-Axel Mörner
#43024
Overall Influence
1938 - 2020 (82 years)
Niklas "Nils"-Axel Mörner af Morlanda was a Swedish geologist and geophysicist. He served as head of the paleogeophysics and geodynamics unit at Stockholm University until his retirement in 2005. He was president of the International Union for Quaternary Research Commission on Neotectonics from 1981 to 1989. He headed an INTAS project on geomagnetism and climate from 1997 to 2003. He was a critic of the IPCC and the notion that the global sea level is rising.
Go to Profile#769
Gandikota V. Rao
#105661
Overall Influence
1934 - 2004 (70 years)
Gandikota V. Rao was an Indian-American atmospheric scientist who chaired the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Saint Louis University . He was a world-renowned expert on tropical meteorology, monsoon, tropical cyclones, and tropical cyclone tornadoes. He was also known for work on air pollution, atmospheric convection, atmospheric boundary layers, and numerical weather prediction.
Go to Profile#770
Martinus T. H. Van Genuchten
#105756
Overall Influence
#771
Ian Lowe
#26757
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (83 years)
Ian Lowe is an Australian academic and writer focused on environmental issues. A physics graduate, he is an Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University. He is also an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University.
Go to Profile#772
Derek Elsworth
#105960
Overall Influence
#773
Eduardo Zorita
#88093
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
Eduardo Zorita is a Spanish paleoclimatologist. , he is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Coastal Research, GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht, Germany, where he has worked since 1996. Zorita is review editor of the journal Climate Research.
Go to Profile#774
Marc Augé
#4239
Overall Influence
1935 - 2023 (88 years)
Marc Augé was a French anthropologist. In an essay and book of the same title, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity , Augé coined the phrase "non-place" to refer to spaces where concerns of relations, history, and identity are erased. Examples of a non-place would be a motorway, a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket.
Go to Profile#775
Farhana Sultana
#31267
Overall Influence
Farhana Sultana is a Full Professor of Geography at Syracuse University, where she is also a Research Director for the Program on Environmental Collaboration and Conflicts at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her research considers how water management and climate change impact society. Her first book, The Right to Water: Politics, Governance and Social Struggles, investigates the relationships between human rights and access to clean water. She is a feminist political ecologist whose work focuses on climate justice, water governance, sustainability, international developm...
Go to Profile#776
Harry Vereecken
#106234
Overall Influence
#777
James G. Berryman
#106267
Overall Influence
#778
Petros Koutrakis
#106285
Overall Influence
#779
Thorne Lay
#105390
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Thorne Lay is an American seismologist. He was born in Casper, Wyoming in 1956, and raised in El Paso, Texas. He is a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Go to Profile#780
Reinhardt Adolfo Fuck
#80422
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (85 years)
Reinhardt Adolfo Fuck is a Brazilian geologist and professor at the University of Brasília. Fuck specializes on geochronology and petrology, having written extensively on Pre-Cambrian geology.1969: He graduated from the Escola de Geologia de Porto Alegre in Brazil.1973: He got his doctorate in the University of São Paulo in Brazil.1975: He carried out postdoctoral research in geology and petrology in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Durham in England.His research lines are geochronology, petrology and lithogeochemistry, high-grade metamorphism, greenstone belts, Pro...
Go to Profile#781
Ansley J. Coale
#21206
Overall Influence
1917 - 2002 (85 years)
Ansley Johnson Coale , was one of America's foremost demographers. A native to Baltimore, Maryland, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1939, his Master of Arts in 1941, and his Ph.D. in 1947, all at Princeton University. A long-term director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton, Coale was especially influential for his work on the demographic transition and for his leadership of the European Fertility Project.
Go to Profile#782
Nyle C. Brady
#106462
Overall Influence
#783
John Anthony Allan
#40743
Overall Influence
1937 - 2021 (84 years)
John Anthony Allan , sometime cited as Tony Allan, was a British geographer. He was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize in 2008 for his revolutionary virtual water concept. Although being an emeritus of the School of Oriental and African Studies and King's College London of the University of London, he still acted as a teaching Professor at King's College London.
Go to Profile#784
Paul Renne
#52651
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (68 years)
Paul R. Renne is the director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and also Professor in Residence of geology in the Department of Earth & Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley . Renne is considered a leading expert on the argon–argon dating technique and is interested in paleomagnetism in Earth history, precisely dating flood basalts, particularly the Siberian Traps, and large igneous province volcanism in general, and paleoanthropology. Renne received his A.B. and his Ph.D. in geology from UC Berkeley.
Go to Profile#785
Louis Wicker
#94509
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (66 years)
Louis John Wicker is an American atmospheric scientist with expertise in numerical analysis, numerical simulation, and forecasts of severe convection and tornadoes. Doing storm chasing field research, Wicker deployed the TOtable Tornado Observatory and was in leadership roles in the VORTEX projects. He is also known for pioneering work simulating convection at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign .
Go to Profile#786
William J. Parton
#106929
Overall Influence
#787
Peter D. Moore
#106950
Overall Influence
#788
Aiguo Dai
#107164
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Aiguo Dai is a Chinese-American atmospheric scientist and professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany, SUNY. Before joining the University at Albany in 2012 as an associate professor, he worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which he first joined in 1999 as a project scientist.
Go to Profile#789
Robert J. Twiss
#107313
Overall Influence
Robert J. Twiss is an American geologist emeritus of University of California, Davis. He made his Ph.D. 1971 at Princeton University. First in his career he researched viscosity of earth mantle. Nowadays he interests for the mechanisms and mechanics of rock deformation and the interpretation of connected structures.
Go to Profile#790
Denis Retaillé
#65765
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Denis Retaillé was a Professor of Geography at the University of Bordeaux III and the Director of the CNRS ADES Research Unit, UMR 5186. Professor Retaillé holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Rouen dedicated to the study of the Nigerien region of Koutous, and an Habilitation from the Paris-Sorbonne University dedicated to the study of space in the Sahel. From 1993 to 2008, Denis Retaillé was a Professor of Geography at the University of Rouen, France.
Go to Profile#791
John W. Wells
#54078
Overall Influence
1907 - 1994 (87 years)
John West Wells was an American paleontologist, biologist and geologist who focused his research on corals. He was notable for, among other things, proving that the rotational period of the earth undergoes periodic changes. The National Academies of Science said that Wells "made an indelible mark on the world of paleontology." The Independent called Wells "the leading authority on modern and fossil corals, a noteworthy contributor on coral reefs and atolls". Wells was Professor of Geology, Ohio State University, Professor of Geology, Cornell University, President, Paleontological Society, a m...
Go to Profile#792
David H. Bromwich
#85007
Overall Influence
David H. Bromwich is a member of the Byrd Polar Research Center and a professor at the Department of Geography, Ohio State University. His work has involved the evaluation and diagnosis of polar weather and climate variability.
Go to Profile#793
Brian Windley
#107554
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (89 years)
Brian Frederick Windley is a British geologist. He is Emeritus Professor of Geology at the University of Leicester. Educated at the University of Liverpool and University of Exeter, he began his career with the Geological Survey of Greenland in 1963. Among his awards are the Bigsby Medal and the Murchison Medal . According to Google Scholar he has a h-index of 104.
Go to Profile#794
Kerry Sieh
#24651
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Kerry E. Sieh is an American geologist and seismologist. Sieh's principal research interest is earthquake geology, which uses geological layers and landforms to understand the geometries of active faults, the earthquakes they generate, and the crustal structure their movements produce. His early work on the San Andreas fault led to the discovery of how often and how regularly it produces large earthquakes in southern California.
Go to Profile#795
John A. Cherry
#67100
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (84 years)
John A. Cherry is the recipient of the 2016 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, awarded at Singapore International Water Week in July 2016 for his work in groundwater research, protection and management. In 2020, Cherry received the Stockholm Water Prize. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He undertook research on the migration of contaminants in groundwater and he participated in the development of technologies for groundwater monitoring and remediation thus "revolutionizing groundwater research". His research resulted in a "paradigm shift in g...
Go to Profile#796
Kenneth G. Manton
#107639
Overall Influence
#797
R. Keith O’nions
#107687
Overall Influence
#798
Michael Brauer
#107698
Overall Influence
#799
Lynn R. Sykes
#107802
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (88 years)
#800
Alfred Hartemink
#103459
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Alfred Eduard Hartemink is a soil scientist. He is a professor in the department of soil science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is editor-in-chief of the journal Geoderma Regional and of the World Soils book series.
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