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,
#1801
Hugh Coe
#151804
Overall Influence
Hugh Coe is a British atmospheric physicist, currently Head of Atmospheric Sciences and Professor of Atmospheric Composition at the University of Manchester. His research investigates the physics and chemistry of atmospheric aerosols, including their role in climate change and air pollution.
Go to Profile#1802
Chen Cheng-siang
#67374
Overall Influence
1922 - 2003 (81 years)
Chen Cheng-siang was a Chinese geographer from the Republic of China. He was Professor of Geography and Director of the Geographical Research Center at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Taiwan University of Republic of China. He wrote the entry on China for Encyclopædia Britannica.
Go to Profile#1803
Richard P. Von Herzen
#152424
Overall Influence
#1804
Ron Cooke
#42722
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Sir Ronald Urwick Cooke, FRGS DL is a professor of geography and geomorphology who was vice-Chancellor of the University of York from 1993 to 2002. Career Cooke's academic career began as a lecturer in the Department of Geography at University College London in 1961. He rose to the position of Professor in 1981 and Vice-Provost at the same institution. From 1993 to 2002 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of York. Cooke was appointed chair of the Joint Information Systems Committee in 2004. He was a Trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry from 2005 to 2008.
Go to Profile#1805
Tjeerd Hendrik Van Andel
#152463
Overall Influence
#1806
Sue Clifford
#58581
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Susan Merlyn Clifford MBE co-founded Common Ground, a British organisation which campaigns to link nature with culture and the positive investment people can make in their own localities, with Angela King in 1983.
Go to Profile#1807
Percival Allen
#96618
Overall Influence
1917 - 2008 (91 years)
Percival Allen FRS was a British geologist. Served as Professor and Head of Department at Reading from 1952 and became an Emeritus Professor on his retirement in 1982. He was awarded an honorary DSc in 1992.
Go to Profile#1808
Barry Smit
#103068
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Barry Edward Smit is a Canadian geographer who served as the Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change. His research focuses are largely on the interactions of agriculture and irrigation on the climate, as well as climate change adaptation, especially in arctic regions. He has been described by the Toronto Star as a "top scientist" and additionally by the Government of Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council as "a pioneer and world leader in research on the human impacts of climate change".
Go to Profile#1809
Christopher Exley
#80438
Overall Influence
Christopher Exley is an English chemist known for his research on the health effects of aluminium exposure. He was Professor of Bioinorganic Chemistry and group leader of the Bioinorganic Chemistry Laboratory at Keele University.
Go to Profile#1810
Laurent Bopp
#152727
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
#1811
Jean-Bernard Racine
#116765
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Jean-Bernard Racine was a professor of geography at the Institute of Geography, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment of the University of Lausanne and at HEC Lausanne Business School. Racine received his first PhD in geography from the University of Aix-en-Provence and his State PhD in geography from the University of Nice. Jean-Bernard Bernard was a professor at the University of Sherbrooke between 1965 and 1969, and at the University of Ottawa from 1969 to 1973.
Go to Profile#1812
Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich
#65187
Overall Influence
1917 - 2004 (87 years)
Helen Niña Tappan Loeblich was an American micropaleontologist who was a professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles, a United States Geological Survey biostratigrapher, and a scientific illustrator whose micropaleontology specialty was research on Cretaceous foraminifera.
Go to Profile#1813
Philippe van Cappellen
#152850
Overall Influence
#1814
Yona Chen
#152886
Overall Influence
#1815
Susan Cotts Watkins
#147908
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Susan Cotts Watkins is an American demographer. She has been a professor at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. She is now professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has focused on the impact of social networks on cultural change in the demography of the U.S., Western Europe, and Africa.
Go to Profile#1816
Ashok Kumar Gupta
#152898
Overall Influence
#1817
Peter Grathwohl
#140522
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Peter Grathwohl is a German geologist and expert in hydrology and environmental processes. 1996 he was appointed a full professor of hydrogeochemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Since 2014, he has been vice-president of research of the University of Tübingen.
Go to Profile#1818
Susan S. Hubbard
#116554
Overall Influence
Susan Sharpless Hubbard is an American hydrologist and geophysicist, and Hubbard is the Deputy for Science and Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2020 for contributions to hydrogeophysics, biogeophysics, and the geophysics of permafrost.
Go to Profile#1819
Sara Russell
#120662
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Sara Samantha Russell is a professor of planetary sciences and leader of the Planetary Materials Group at the Natural History Museum, London. She is a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society and of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Go to Profile#1820
Kenneth S. Edgett
#153048
Overall Influence
#1821
Jan Mangerud
#90997
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Jan Mangerud is a Norwegian geologist who grew up in Lillestrøm, Akershus, and currently lives in Rådal, Bergen. Scientific career Mangerud graduated from the University of Oslo with a Bachelor's degree in 1961 and a master's degree in 1962, and in 1973 he obtained a Doctorate from the University of Bergen, where he started a long lasting cooperation with Professor Bjørn G. Andersen, becoming a professor at the same university in 1977. He is also connected to the University of Bergen's Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, now as Professor emeritus .
Go to Profile#1822
Nova Scotia.
#153090
Overall Influence
#1823
James Robert Carey
#153189
Overall Influence
#1824
Jonathan Walter Stewart
#153192
Overall Influence
#1825
Dorothy Hall
#152975
Overall Influence
Dorothy K. Hall is a scientific researcher known for her studies on snow and ice, which she studies through a combination of satellite data and direct measurements. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Go to Profile#1826
Valerie Masson-Delmotte
#60770
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Valerie Masson-Delmotte is a French climate scientist and Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, where she works in the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory . She uses data from past climates to test models of climate change, and has contributed to several IPCC reports.
Go to Profile#1827
Hisashi Nakamura
#153272
Overall Influence
#1828
C. Vernon Cole
#153295
Overall Influence
#1829
Stearns Anthony Morse
#153311
Overall Influence
#1830
Jenny Baeseman
#55071
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Jenny Baeseman is an American polar researcher who studies the survival mechanisms of bacteria in cold environments. She is the founding director of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists , executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research , and was previously the executive director of the World Climate Research Program Climate and Cryosphere.
Go to Profile#1831
Ngar‐cheung Lau
#153365
Overall Influence
#1832
David J. Hofmann
#153368
Overall Influence
#1833
Josefina Gómez Mendoza
#30421
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Josefina Gómez Mendoza is a Spanish geographer, writer, and professor emerita. From 2001 to 2005, she was Rector of the National University of Distance Education . She is a member of the Royal Academy of History, Medal No. 7 , and the Royal Academy of Engineering, Medal No. 58 .
Go to Profile#1834
Yehuda Hayuth
#45017
Overall Influence
1946 - 2022 (76 years)
Yehuda Hayuth was an Israeli professor of geography, and a former President of the University of Haifa. Early life Hayuth was born in Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine, and fought for Israel as a paratrooper in the battle for the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six Day War. He and his family later moved to the Haifa area.
Go to Profile#1835
Katherine Joy
#71730
Overall Influence
Katherine Helen Joy is a Professor in Earth Sciences at the University of Manchester. Joy has studied lunar samples from the Apollo program as part of her research on meteorites and lunar science. Early life and education Joy was educated at Sackville School, East Grinstead and studied geology at Royal Holloway, University of London where she graduated with first class honours in 2003. Joy was a doctoral student at University College London working on the evolution of the Moon supervised by Ian Crawford. Her work considered sample analysis and remote sensing. She held a joint position at the Natural History Museum, London.
Go to Profile#1836
Michael R. Rampino
#101873
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Michael R. Rampino is a Geologist and Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at New York University, known for his scientific contributions on causes of mass extinctions of life. Along with colleagues, he's developed theories about periodic mass extinctions being strongly related to the earth's position in relation to the galaxy. "The solar system and its planets experience cataclysms every time they pass "up" or "down" through the plane of the disk-shaped galaxy." These ~30 million year cyclical breaks are an important factor in evolutionary theory, along with other longer 60-million-...
Go to Profile#1837
Stephen V. Stehman
#153407
Overall Influence
#1838
Richard John Greatbatch
#153504
Overall Influence
#1839
Peter H. Stone
#153526
Overall Influence
#1840
Bethany Ehlmann
#69317
Overall Influence
Bethany List Ehlmann is a professor of Planetary Science at California Institute of Technology and a Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Education and early career Ehlmann was born in Southern California and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. She received her Bachelor of Arts in 2004 from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a Compton Fellow. During her Sophomore year, she was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and the Morris K. Udall Fellowship. She worked with Professor Raymond Arvidson on operations of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration rovers at ...
Go to Profile#1841
Helmut Haberl
#153606
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#1842
Basil C. Papazachos
#153665
Overall Influence
#1843
Martha Savage
#107583
Overall Influence
Martha Kane Savage is a New Zealand geology academic, and as of 2018, is a full professor at the Victoria University of Wellington. Academic career After an undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College and a 1987 PhD thesis titled 'Spectral properties of Hawaiian microearthquakes : source, site, and attenuation effects' at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, she moved to the Victoria University of Wellington, rising to full professor.
Go to Profile#1844
Regine Hock
#153795
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#1845
Robert Michael Haberle
#153970
Overall Influence
#1846
Yusuke Yokoyama
#154031
Overall Influence
#1847
Steve Rayner
#71957
Overall Influence
1953 - 2020 (67 years)
Steve Rayner was James Martin Professor of Science and Civilization at Oxford University and Director of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, a member of the Oxford Martin School. He described himself as an "undisciplined social scientist" having been trained in philosophy, comparative religion and political anthropology .
Go to Profile#1848
Peter L. Olson
#154096
Overall Influence
#1849
Tilden P. Meyers
#154134
Overall Influence
#1850
Robert D. Van Der Hilst
#154219
Overall Influence
