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,
#1301
Yue-si Wang
#131179
Overall Influence
#1302
Keith C. Clarke
#105610
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Keith Charles Clarke is a professor of Analytical Cartography and Modelling in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and his research area is cartography and geographic information science.
Go to Profile#1303
James Zumberge
#46660
Overall Influence
1923 - 1992 (69 years)
James Herbert Zumberge was a professor of geology and president of Grand Valley State University from 1962 to 1969, of Southern Methodist University from 1975 to 1980, and of the University of Southern California from 1980 to 1991.
Go to Profile#1304
George F. Carter
#99991
Overall Influence
1912 - 2004 (92 years)
George Francis Carter was an American professor of geography who taught at Johns Hopkins University and later Texas A&M University. Carter had a background in anthropology and conducted archaeological excavations in Southern California. He is best known for supporting the theories of trans-cultural diffusion and early human settlement of the Americas.
Go to Profile#1305
Ronald Smith
#106214
Overall Influence
Ronald Smith is the Damon Wells Professor in the department of Geology & Geophysics at Yale University. He leads Yale’s program in mesoscale meteorology and regional climate, and is the Director of the Yale Center for Earth Observation .
Go to Profile#1306
Ülo Mander
#121063
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Ülo Mander is an Estonian ecologist and geographer. In 1983, he defended his doctoral thesis at University of Tartu. He is teaching at the University of Tartu's Institute of Geography . 1992–1998, he was the head of University of Tartu's Institute of Geography.
Go to Profile#1307
Allison R. Palmer
#94062
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
Allison Ralph Palmer was an American paleontologist and geologist. His work focused on the Cambrian period. He had a career of nearly fifty years as a geologist with the United States Geological Survey and universities. The author of some 137 scientific articles, his research has been important in understanding of the origin and evolution of life on Earth. He was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder.
Go to Profile#1308
J. Richard Udry
#113095
Overall Influence
1929 - 2012 (83 years)
J. Richard Udry was an American sociologist and demographer, known for his work on the biological and sociological factors affecting human behavior. He was Kenan Distinguished Professor of maternal and child health in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and professor of sociology in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. He joined the faculty at UNC from 1965, and remained there for the rest of his career. He also directed UNC's Carolina Population Center from 1977 to 1992. He is known for designing the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health , which he also secured funding for and directed from 1994 to 2004.
Go to Profile#1309
Robert Vautard
#131659
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#1311
Michael Lesher
#66064
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Carl Michael Lesher is an American geologist. He is an authority on the geology and origin of nickel-copper-platinum group element deposits, especially those associated with komatiites, their physical volcanology and localization, the geochemistry and petrology of associated rocks, and controls on their composition.
Go to Profile#1312
Joost Businger
#115173
Overall Influence
1924 - Present (102 years)
Joost Alois Businger is a Dutch-American meteorologist. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Washington. Businger is best known for his work on atmospheric boundary layer . Career Businger was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, on 29 March 1924. He obtained his PhD in physics and meteorology from Utrecht University in 1954. As a PhD student he did research on turbulent transfer of heat, mass and momentum in the atmospheric surface layer. He came up with a similar concept around the same time as the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory was founded in the Soviet Union, with the two concepts varying slightly.
Go to Profile#1313
Dale Hadley Vitt
#131709
Overall Influence
#1314
Cornelis Koeman
#99161
Overall Influence
1918 - 2006 (88 years)
Cornelis Koeman was a Dutch geodetic engineer and cartographer, famous for his work on the history of cartography. Biography Cor Koeman was born as son of Teun Koeman, gardener, and Grietje Ham. He wanted to become a surveyor and took lessons with P.Th.M. Velseboer, working at the Land Registry. As early as 1938, he was appointed as a prospective surveyor at the Survey Department of Rijkswaterstaat in Delft. In addition, he was given facilities for following lectures for civil surveyors at the Delft University of Technology. He completed that training in 1946. Then he went for the engineering title that was obtained in 1950.
Go to Profile#1315
Gregory J. Holland
#131719
Overall Influence
#1316
Joseph L. Wooden
#131882
Overall Influence
#1317
Robert F. Adler
#131907
Overall Influence
#1318
Ann Grace Wintle
#131932
Overall Influence
#1319
Ashok Gadgil
#19954
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ashok Gadgil Is the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Distinguished Chair and Professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Faculty Senior Scientist and has served as director of the Energy and Environmental Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Go to Profile#1320
Paul Watson
#1580
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Paul Franklin Watson is a Canadian-American conservation and environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. The tactics used by Sea Shepherd have attracted opposition, with the group accused of eco-terrorism by both the Japanese government and Greenpeace. Watson is a citizen of Canada and the United States.
Go to Profile#1321
Kenneth Raymond Ludwig
#131957
Overall Influence
#1322
Kelin X. Whipple
#132081
Overall Influence
#1323
Peter F. Lonsdale
#132086
Overall Influence
#1324
Anton Eliassen
#99776
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Anton Eliassen is a Norwegian meteorologist. He was born in Oslo to meteorologist Arnt Eliassen and Ellen-Kristine Nome. He graduated from the University of Oslo as cand. real. in 1970. He was assigned with the Norwegian Institute for Air Research from 1972 to 1977, was researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute from 1978 to 1983, and was appointed professor at the University of Oslo from 1983. His research interests have focused on air pollution transport and climate modelling. He was decorated Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav in 2006.
Go to Profile#1325
Sarah Holloway
#97259
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Sarah Louise Holloway, FAcSS, is a Korean-Australian geographer, model and academic. Since 2010, she has been Professor of Human Geography at Loughborough University. Education and career Holloway carried out her doctoral studies at the University of Sheffield; her PhD was awarded in 1996 for her thesis "Space, place and geographies of childcare". In 1994, she was appointed to a lectureship at Loughborough University and was eventually promoted to Reader in Human Geography. In 2010, she was appointed Professor of Human Geography at Loughborough.
Go to Profile#1326
Helene Marsh
#71378
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Professor Helene Denise Marsh is an Australian scientist who has provided research in the field of Environmental Science, more specifically Zoology and Ecology. The focal point of her research has been the biology of dugongs, with particular foci in the areas of population ecology, history, reproduction, diet, and movements. She is the Dean of Graduate Research Studies and the Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, and also a Distinguished Professor in the College of Marine and Environmental Science. Marsh is also a program leader for the Marine and Tropical Research Science Facility.
Go to Profile#1327
Didier Tanré
#132195
Overall Influence
#1328
Ralf Littke
#132245
Overall Influence
#1329
Matthew Gandy
#80784
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Matthew Gandy, FBA is a geographer and urbanist. He is Professor of Cultural and Historical Geography and Fellow of King's College at the University of Cambridge, moving from University College London in 2015, where he was also the founder and first Director of the UCL Urban Laboratory from 2005 to 2011.
Go to Profile#1330
Stanley Awramik
#38721
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Stanley Awramik is an American biogeologist and paleontologist. He is best known for his work related to the Precambrian. In 2013, he was inducted as a fellow of the Geological Society of America. Career Born in New England, he first studied stromatolites as a graduate student under famed paleobotanist Elso Sterrenberg Barghoorn at Harvard University. In 1979, he became a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was a contemporary of Preston Cloud.
Go to Profile#1331
David Craw
#132372
Overall Influence
#1332
Michael Selby
#105041
Overall Influence
1936 - 2018 (82 years)
Michael John Selby was a New Zealand geomorphologist, academic, and university administrator. Mount Selby in Antarctica's Britannia Range is named for him. Biography Born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, on 13 January 1936, Selby studied at Keble College, Oxford, gaining a BA, MA, and DipEd.
Go to Profile#1333
John Knox
#86839
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
John A. Knox is a meteorologist who researches clear-air turbulence and who also received media attention for discussing ways of calculating the mathematical constant e, together with inventor Harlan J. Brothers. He is a professor at the University of Georgia and has been nationally honored for his undergraduate teaching.
Go to Profile#1334
David Thomas
#107727
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
David S. G. Thomas is a British scientist and geographer. He was born at his parents' home in River, near Dover, Kent, UK, in October 1958. He is Professor of geography at the University of Oxford, the fifth person to hold the Statuary Chair, and a Professorial Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.
Go to Profile#1335
Jerome Vanclay
#109622
Overall Influence
Jerome Klaas Vanclay is an Australian academic. He is currently a Professor for Sustainable Forestry at Southern Cross University , and a coordinator in IUFRO. Career Jerry Vanclay is currently the Professor of Sustainable Forestry in the School of Environment, Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University and served as and Dean of Science and Head of School for 11 years. Vanclay received a doctorate from the University of Queensland in 1992. Before joining SCU, Vanclay was Principal Scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research , and Professor of Tropical Forestry at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Go to Profile#1336
Mitsunobu. Tatsumoto
#132555
Overall Influence
#1337
Warren L. Prell
#132556
Overall Influence
#1338
Lorraine. A. Remer
#132565
Overall Influence
#1339
Matthew J. Kohn
#132594
Overall Influence
#1340
Charles Rowland Twidale
#97868
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Charles Rowland Twidale is an Australian geomorphologist active at the University of Adelaide. Twidale's research has covered varied subjects including structural geomorphology, weathering, ancient landscapes in shield regions, granite landforms in deserts, paleosurfaces and the history of geomorphology. Twidale has been most active investigating the geomorphology of Australia and Spain.
Go to Profile#1341
Farish Jenkins
#40002
Overall Influence
1940 - 2012 (72 years)
Farish Alston Jenkins was a professor at Harvard University who studied and taught paleontology. His discoveries included a transitional creature with characteristics of both fish and land animals — Tiktaalik roseae —and one of the earliest known frogs, Prosalirus bitis.
Go to Profile#1342
Herman Bouwer
#132680
Overall Influence
#1343
Ziad Rafiq Beydoun
#54499
Overall Influence
1924 - 1998 (74 years)
Ziad Rafiq Beydoun was a Lebanese petroleum geologist, leading authority on the geology of the Middle East and Emeritus Professor at the American University of Beirut . Background and education Born in Beirut in 1924, Ziad Beydoun was from a distinguished family of Mutasharifs who had served in the Ottoman Empire. He was the eldest son of the District Governor in Palestine under the British Mandate. He was educated at St. George's School, Jerusalem and St. Luke's School, Haifa. He returned to Beirut to obtain a first-class degree in political science and history at the AUB. He then studied a...
Go to Profile#1344
Paul B. Hays
#132726
Overall Influence
#1345
Daniel Frost
#52557
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Daniel James Frost, is a British Earth scientist, currently Professor of Experimental Geosciences at the University of Bayreuth. His research focuses on the nature of Earth's deep interior, including the chemistry of the mantle and how it led to the development of the atmosphere, and the physical and chemical processes through which planets form.
Go to Profile#1346
Karen Seto
#84341
Overall Influence
Karen Ching-Yee Seto is a geographer, urbanisation and land change scientist, and Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanisation Science at Yale University. She is an expert on urbanisation and sustainability, and satellite remote sensing. She was the co-lead for the chapter on urban mitigation in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report and IPCC 5th Assessment Report. From 2014 to 2020, she was the co-editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Global Environmental Change. She is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , the Connecticut Ac...
Go to Profile#1347
Antonella Buccianti
#108262
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Antonella Buccianti is an Italian statistician and earth scientist, known for her work on the statistics of compositional data and its applications in geochemistry and geostatistics. She is an associate professor in the department of earth sciences at the University of Florence.
Go to Profile#1348
Liviu Giosan
#99352
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Liviu Giosan is a Romanian and American marine geologist studying the interactions between climate, landscapes and humans. In the public sphere, he initiated "Ad Astra", an association of scientists from Romania and Romanian diaspora, and has been actively involved in efforts to reform Romania's post-communist science and academia.
Go to Profile#1349
Melinda Darby Dyar
#103961
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Melinda Darby Dyar is a planetary geologist, mineralogist, and spectroscopist whose research relates to the evolution of the Solar System. She studies the redox state of iron and the abundance of hydrogen using Mössbauer, x-ray absorption, and FTIR spectroscopy in the Solar System planets, specifically Earth, Moon, Mars, Mercury, and Venus.
Go to Profile#1350
Dan H. Yaalon
#118136
Overall Influence
1924 - 2014 (90 years)
Dan Hardy Yaalon was an Israeli pedologist and soil scientist, who contributed to the fields of arid and Mediterranean pedology and paleopedology, as well as the history, sociology, and philosophy of soil science. Through a research career spanning over six decades , Yaalon was an active member of the International Union for Quaternary Research and the International Soil Science Society . He was awarded the Sarton Medal for his contribution to the history of science, and the Dokuchaev Award.
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