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 Earth Sciences,

#2251

Werner Fischer

#115289
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Werner Fischer is a German mineralogist and mathematical crystallographer. Education and life Fischer passed his Abitur in 1951 in Kappeln an der Schlei. Supported by the German National Academic Foundation, he studied at University of Stuttgart and University of Kiel. There he also received his doctorate in 1959 with a thesis on structural studies on synthetic carnallite. In 1970 he habilitated at Philipps-University Marburg with a thesis on homogeneous packing of spheres and their conditions of existence in space groups of tetragonal symmetry. In 1971 he was appointed professor. From 1974 t...
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#2252

Phil O'Keefe

#138025
Overall Influence
1948 - 2020 (72 years)
Phil O'Keefe was emeritus professor at Northumbria University, and a geographer and development specialist with experience in East and Southern Africa. Background O'Keefe was born in December 1948 in North Shields, and grew up in Tyne and Wear in north east England. He attended Ushaw College, a Catholic seminary for 8 years. He began studying philosophy at Durham University but changed direction and completed an undergraduate degree in Geography from Newcastle University, and a doctorate at The School of Oriental and African Studies in London. This was awarded in 1978 and concerned the underd...
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#2253

Vegard Skirbekk

#134162
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Vegard Skirbekk is a Norwegian population economist and social scientist specializing in demographic analysis and cohort studies. He is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and also Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University.
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#2254

Claire Parkinson

#145123
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Claire Lucille Parkinson is an American Earth scientist and climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Education Parkinson has a B.A. in mathematics from Wellesley College, where she was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, and a Ph.D. in geography/climatology from Ohio State University.
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#2255

Roger J. Phillips

#97860
Overall Influence
1940 - 2020 (80 years)
Roger Jay Phillips was an American geophysicist, planetary scientist, and professor emeritus at the Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests included the geophysical structure of planets, and the use of radar and gravity to investigate the surfaces and interiors of the planets.
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#2256

Christopher Gaffney

Christopher Gaffney
#120869
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Christopher F. Gaffney is a British archaeological geophysicist and is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Bradford. Gaffney's research interests are based on understanding how geophysical data can aide archaeology in the understanding of the life and culture of ancient peoples. In pursuing these research goals he has pursued research in challenging environments where technical excellence and novel methodological approaches can lead to enhanced interpretation of the past. In doing so, Gaffney has undertaken research and managed surveys within Britain and across the world.
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#2257

Mack Gipson

Mack Gipson
#105268
Overall Influence
1931 - 1995 (64 years)
Mack Gipson Jr. was an American geologist who became the first African-American man to obtain a Ph.D. in geology. The first African-American geologist to earn a PhD in the US was Marguerite Williams, who earned her degree in 1942. Gipson's career spanned decades in the petroleum industry as well as decades in academia.
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#2258

John Adams

#62741
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
John Adams of University College London, is an emeritus professor of geography and theorist on risk compensation. His book Risk is an analysis of how humans assess and respond to perceived risks. Areas of interest
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#2259

Just Gjessing

#148660
Overall Influence
1926 - 2005 (79 years)
Just Gjessing was a Norwegian geographer. Gjessing obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1960 with a study on Norway’s hydrology during deglaciation. One year later he was appointed full professor. In the late 1960s Gjessing became increasingly interested in nature conservation so that in the 1970s shifted the focus of his research into environmental impact assessments. This meant leaving behind his work on pure fluvial geomorphology that had previously brought him acclaim. Following this interest he joined in 1967 the Oslo University’s Commission for Watercourse Regulation. In 1971 he became chairman o...
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#2260

Dick Walcott

#171314
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Richard Irving Walcott is a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics. Walcott studied at Victoria University College, graduating with a BSc in 1962. He then completed his PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 1965, with a thesis on the Red Hill Complex at Nelson, and was awarded a DSc by thesis from the same institution in 1981. In 1966 he took up a postdoctoral research position at the University of British Columbia and the following year began working at the gravity division of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada. He returned to New Zealand in 1975, became professor...
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#2261

Clarence S. Clay Jr.

#135879
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
Clarence Samuel Clay Jr. was a geophysicist specialized in oceanography. He was known for his contributions in acoustics. Although he signed most of his papers, "C.S. Clay", he was called simply, "Clay" by his friends, students, and colleagues. He was also known as "Clay Clay".
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#2262

Eiichi Takahashi

#171402
Overall Influence
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#2263

Juliet Biggs

#121554
Overall Influence
Juliet J. Biggs is a British geologist who is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Her research uses satellite geodesy and interferometric synthetic-aperture radar to understand the physics of the Earth's crust. She was awarded the American Geophysical Union John Wahr Award in 2017 and a European Research Council consolidator grant in 2020.
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#2264

James Taranik

#130682
Overall Influence
1940 - 2011 (71 years)
James Vladimir Taranik was an American scientist and educator who worked in the area of earth-observation satellite remote sensing. He was Chief of NASA's Non-Renewable Resources Branch and Program Scientist of the Space Shuttle's first scientific flights with cargo that included experiments related to geology, atmospheric chemistry, meteorology, marine biology, and plant physiology in the earth and life sciences. He also held various positions in the Nevada System of Higher Education, including the Desert Research Institute and the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering.
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#2265

Kalu Mosto Onuoha

#126813
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Kalu Mosto Onuoha is a Nigerian Professor Emeritus of Geology. In January 2017, he became the president of the Nigerian Academy of Science after previously serving as its treasurer , vice president , and president-elect in 2016.
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#2266

Nick Zentner

#96518
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Nick Zentner is an American academic who works as a geology professor at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. Outside of his work with the university, he is known for his online videos covering the geology of the Northwestern United States and his series Nick on the Rocks.
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#2267

Mahlagha Mallah

#12672
Overall Influence
1917 - 2021 (104 years)
Mahlagha Mallah was an Iranian environmental activist and librarian, who founded the Women's Society Against Environmental Pollution. She was referred to as the "Mother of Iran's Environment". Early life Mallah was born on 21 September 1917, in a caravanserai close to Now Kandeh, whilst her parents were travelling to Mashhad on a pilgrimage. Her mother Khadijeh Afzal Vaziri, and her grandmother Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi, were both women's rights activists in Iran. Her father, Aghabzorg Mallah, worked for the government and lived in several cities. At age 17, Mallah married Hossein Abolhasani.
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#2268

David E. Bloom

David E. Bloom
#14822
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
David E. Bloom is an American author, professor, economist, and demographer. He is a Professor of Economics and Demography at the Harvard School of Public Health, and director of the Program on the Global Demography of Aging. He is widely considered as one of the greatest multidisciplinary social science researchers of the world.
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#2269

Ari Trausti Guðmundsson

#70257
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Ari Trausti Guðmundsson is an Icelandic geologist, author, documentarian, broadcaster, journalist, lecturer, mountaineer and explorer. He worked as teacher, consultant and lecturer on: earth science, environmental and tourism issues. He served as a mountain guide, TV- weather reporter, media presenter and producer and has planned nature and science exhibitions in Iceland, Paris and London and authored non-fiction books, fiction and poetry. He was a presidential candidate in 2012.He was elected as a member of Icelandic Parliament in 2016 and served until 2021.
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#2270

Owen Martin Phillips

#77496
Overall Influence
1930 - 2010 (80 years)
Owen Martin Phillips was a U.S. physical oceanographer and geophysicist who spent most of his career at the Johns Hopkins University. Early life Owen Phillips was born at Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia a suburb of Sydney, the son of Richard Keith and Madeline Constance Phillips. His father fought in the Gallipoli Campaign during World War I. In 1936 the family moved to the country town of Tamworth where most of his primary education occurred.
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#2271

Panmao Zhai

#134488
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Panmao Zhai is a Chinese climatologist, Secretary General of the Chinese Meteorological Society, and one of six co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working groups. Early life and education Zhai received his bachelor's degree in climatology from Nanjing University in 1984, and a master's degree in physical climatology, also from Nanjing University, in 1990.
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#2272

Graciela Metternicht

#117632
Overall Influence
Graciela Metternicht is a Belgian researcher on environmental geography . Early life and education Metternicht is originally from Belgium. She has a Bachelor of Science and a PhD in Physical Geography from University of Ghent .
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#2273

Rita Gardner

#108932
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Rita Ann Moden Gardner, is a British geographer and academic, specialising in geomorphology. Since January 2019, she has been Chief Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences. She taught at St Catherine's College, Oxford , King's College, London , and finally at Queen Mary and Westfield College where she was Reader in Environmental Science. From 1996 to 2018, she was Director of the Royal Geographical Society: she was the learned society's first female director.
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#2274

Kurt Kyser

#117424
Overall Influence
1951 - 2017 (66 years)
T. Kurtis Kyser was an American and Canadian geologist and geochemist, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, professor of the University of Saskatchewan and Queen's University, founder and director of the Queen's Facility for Isotope Research . Kyser served as a president of the Mineralogical Association of Canada and as an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis .
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#2275

Timothy L. Killeen

#94484
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Timothy Laurence Killeen is a British and American geophysicist, space scientist, professor, and university administrator. Killeen took office as the president of the University of Illinois system in 2015. He has been the principal investigator on research projects for NASA and the National Science Foundation. Killeen has authored more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals as well as more than 300 other publications and papers. He has served on various White House committees and task forces and is a past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics.
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#2276

Alice L. Pérez Sánchez

Alice L. Pérez Sánchez
#33398
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Alice L. Pérez Sánchez was the Vice-dean of Research at the University of Costa Rica between 2012 and 2016. Pérez has a degree in chemistry from the University of Costa Rica, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Simon Fraser University, Canada. She is a professor in the chemistry department at the University of Costa Rica, and researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones en Productos Naturales, CIPRONA. She was director of CIPRONA from 2002 to 2010, and of the doctoral science program at the same university from 2009 to 2012. Her scientific work focuses on the synthesis of organic anti-p...
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#2277

Ricarda Winkelmann

#154014
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Ricarda Winkelmann is a German mathematician, physicist, and climatologist. She is a professor of Climate System Analysis at Potsdam University and the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research. She studies interdependencies between climate, land ice, and the ocean.
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#2278

Adam Scaife

#122911
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Adam A. Scaife FRMetS FInstP is a British physicist and head of long range prediction at the Met Office. He is also a professor at Exeter University. Scaife carries out research into long range weather forecasting and computer modelling of the climate and has published over 250 peer reviewed studies on atmospheric dynamics, computer modelling and climate as well as popular science and academic books on meteorology.
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#2279

Doris Malkin Curtis

#106483
Overall Influence
1914 - 1991 (77 years)
Doris Malkin Curtis was an American paleontologist, stratigrapher, and geologist. She became the first woman president of the Geological Society of America and made meaningful contributions to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
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#2280

Shirley J. Dreiss

#167059
Overall Influence
1949 - 1993 (44 years)
Shirley Jean Dreiss was an American scientist working in the fields of hydrology and hydrogeology. After gaining her PhD from Stanford University, she joined the faculty of the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she became Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences. She made important contributions to the understanding of water flow through karst aquifers and fluid flow in subduction zones. At the time of her early death in a car accident, she was studying the groundwater system of Mono Lake in California. She was awarded the Birdsall Distinguished Lectureship from the...
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#2281

Jenny Pickerill

Jenny Pickerill
#109269
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Jenny Pickerill is a Professor of Environmental Geography and Head of Department at the University of Sheffield. Her work considers how people value and use the environment, the impact of social justice on environmental policy and establishing ways to change social practise.
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#2282

Bénédicte Menez

#84023
Overall Influence
Bénédicte Menez is a French geomicrobiologist and university professor in Earth Sciences at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. In 2012, she received the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize in the “Young Female Scientist” category for her work.
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#2283

Eduard Meine van Zinderen-Bakker

#95838
Overall Influence
1907 - 2002 (95 years)
Eduard Meine van Zinderen Bakker was a Dutch-born South African palynologist who made significant contributions to the fields of plant ecology, palynology and palaeo-ecology of Africa. After obtaining a PhD in botany from the University of Amsterdam he taught biology in Apeldoorn. In 1947 he emigrated to South Africa with his wife and 2 sons. He served as the Netherlands' Honorary Consul for 20 years, an office for which he received the Order of Oranje-Nassau.
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#2284

Andrea Dutton

Andrea Dutton
#40745
Overall Influence
Andrea Dutton, a 2019 MacArthur Fellow, is a Professor of Geology in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where she studies paleoclimate, sedimentology, carbonate geochemistry, and paleoceonagraphy. Her primary research investigates sea level changes during interglacial periods to predict future sea level rise.
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#2285

Michael Coward

#133782
Overall Influence
1945 - 2003 (58 years)
Michael Peter Coward was an English geologist who did research on "thin-skinned" tectonics. Coward studied geology at Imperial College London. He was H. H. Read Professor of Geology at Imperial College, Council Member of the Geological Society of London, and Chair of the UK Tectonic Studies Group. He received The Murchison Fund award in 1980.
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#2286

Harald Bathelt

#172181
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Harald Bathelt is a German-Canadian geographer, currently a Canada Research Chair at University of Toronto. External links
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#2287

Fumio Inagaki

#129963
Overall Influence
Fumio Inagaki is a geomicrobiologist whose research focuses on the deep subseafloor biosphere. He is the deputy director of the Research and Development Center for Ocean Drilling Science and the Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, both at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology .
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#2288

Günther Friedrich

#171493
Overall Influence
1929 - 2014 (85 years)
Günther Friedrich was a German mineralogist and university professor at the RWTH University at Aachen. He was an expert in the field of the creation of marine Manganese nodule concretions. Life Günther Friedrich was born in Stuttgart, slightly more than six months before the Wall Street Crash. He began to study Geology and Mineralogy at his home university in 1948, but by the time he graduated he had transferred to Heidelberg. Here he was supervised for his doctorate by Paul Ramdohr and the geologist . His dissertation was entitled "The Granite Massif of Melibokus and its rim" . Af...
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#2289

Margaret Collinson

#168620
Overall Influence
Margaret E. Collinson is a paleobotanist at Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom. Career Her career has led her to leadership of the Plant Paleobiology Research Group at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests are interdisciplinary and wide-ranging within plant Paleobotany as evidenced by her publications. They particularly include consideration of geochemical signatures of oxygen, biomolecules and other elements; the paleoclimate and floral assemblages; pollen and other tissues; and evolution in ancient plants.
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#2290

Elena Chiozza

#148664
Overall Influence
1919 - 2011 (92 years)
Margarita Elena Chiozza was an Argentinian geographer. She graduated in history from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Buenos Aires. She directed the collection Atlas Total de la República Argentina del Centro Editor de América Latina, La Argentina. Suma de Geografía y El País de los Argentinos. She also created the environmental information program at the National University of Luján. She received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Luján and the National University of Comahue Honorary Member of the Center for Studies Alexander von Humboldt and the National Academy ...
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#2291

Alfred Majerowicz

#172433
Overall Influence
1925 - 2018 (93 years)
Alfred Majerowicz was a Polish geologist who was a lecturer at the University of Wrocław. He was a founder of the Polish Mineralogical Society, and in 1996 he became its honorary member. In 1971–1972 he was a deputy director, in 1972–1975 he was the director of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the University of Wrocław.
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#2292

Cicely Ridley

#84461
Overall Influence
1927 - 2008 (81 years)
Elizabeth Cicely Ridley was a British-American applied mathematician known for her work in numerical quantum chemistry and in climate modeling. The Roble–Dickinson–Ridley code that she and her collaborators created at the National Center for Atmospheric Research was the first general circulation model of the thermosphere.
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#2293

Richard W. Carlson

#172534
Overall Influence
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#2294

Hua-Wei Zhou

#148153
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Hua-wei Zhou is an American geophysicist, focusing in earthquake seismology, exploration geophysics, digital data processing, geodynamics and seismic tomography, currently the Margaret S. Sheriff College Professorship in Geophysics at University of Houston and formerly the Joe Pevehouse Endowed Chair at Texas Tech University.
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#2295

Keiko Hattori

#172536
Overall Influence
Keiko Hattori is a geochemist and mineralogist. She is Distinguished University Professor of Geochemistry and Mineral Deposits in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa.
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#2296

Adrian Luckman

#128990
Overall Influence
Adrian J. Luckman is a British glaciologist and professor of geography at Swansea University in Wales. He is a lead researcher for Project Midas, which monitored the Larsen C iceberg and the Larsen Ice Shelf.
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#2297

Florence Rabier

#168176
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Florence Rabier is a French meteorologist who is Director-General of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. She works on numerical weather prediction. She was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2014.
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#2298

Peter Englert

#50842
Overall Influence
Peter Englert was, until May 8, 2017, the President & Vice Chancellor of Quest University Canada. Englert's research background includes geophysical studies and space research. He participated in NASA's Mars Observer and Mars Odyssey Missions, and was an elected board member of the International Association of Universities. He recently co-authored work on antarctic dry valleys.
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#2299

Carlota Escutia Dotti

#60405
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Carlota Escutia Dotti is a Spanish geologist, best known for her work on the geologic evolution of Antarctica and the global role of the Antarctic ice cap. Escutia is based at the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra , Universidad de Granada and the High Council for Scientific Research .
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#2300

Wendy Mao

#124038
Overall Influence
Wendy Li-Wen Mao is an American geologist who is a professor at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Her research considers the mineral physics of planetary interiors, new materials under extreme environments and novel characterisation techniques. In 2021 she was elected Fellow of the European Association of Geochemistry.
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