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.
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List of the most influential people in Earth Sciences,
#3501
Johann Ernst Fabri
1755 - 1825 (70 years)
Johann Ernst Fabri was a German geographer and statistician. Fabri was born in Oels, Silesia. In 1776, he began his studies in theology at the University of Halle, but his focus soon turned to geography and history. Later, he served as privat-docent at the University of Göttingen, where he was influenced by distinguished scholars that included Johann Christoph Gatterer, August Ludwig von Schlözer and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.
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Constance Tipper
1894 - 1995 (101 years)
Constance Tipper was an English metallurgist and crystallographer. She investigated brittle fracture and the ductile-brittle transition of metals used in the construction of warships, and was the first female full-time faculty member at Cambridge University Department of Engineering.
Go to Profile#3503
Henrik Mohn
1835 - 1916 (81 years)
Henrik Mohn was a Norwegian astronomer and meteorologist. Although he enrolled in theology studies after finishing school, he is credited with founding meteorological research in Norway, being a professor at the Royal Frederick University and director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute from 1866 to 1913.
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August Karl Rosiwal
1860 - 1923 (63 years)
August Karl Rosiwal was an Austrian geologist. Rosiwal was born and died in Vienna. From 1885 to 1891, he worked as an assistant to Franz Toula. In 1892 he began lecturing in mineralogy and petrography and then from 1898 finally earning fees from his lectures. Many of the studies self conducted. From 1918 until his death in 1923, he was administrator of the "Geological Institute of the University of Vienna", following his mentor Franz Toula. He conducted a comprehensive dating, geological details of Austria.
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Gemma Frisius
1508 - 1555 (47 years)
Gemma Frisius was a Dutch physician, mathematician, cartographer, philosopher, and instrument maker. He created important globes, improved the mathematical instruments of his day and applied mathematics in new ways to surveying and navigation. Gemma's rings, an astronomical instrument, are named after him. Along with Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, Frisius is often considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography, and significantly helped lay the foundations for the school's golden age .
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Heinrich Vater
1859 - 1930 (71 years)
Heinrich August Vater was a German soil scientist and forestry scientist. Vater was a pioneer in the areas of forest soil science, land evaluation, and forest fertilization. In 1884, he received his doctorate at Leipzig with the dissertation Die fossilen Hölzer der Phosphoritlager des Herzogthums Braunschweig. He was an employee of the Royal Saxon Geological Survey, and in 1886, qualified as a lecturer of mineralogy and geology at the Polytechnic Institute in Dresden. During the following year, he became a professor at the Academy of Forestry in Tharandt. In 1898, he became a member of the De...
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Sten De Geer
1886 - 1933 (47 years)
Sten De Geer was a Swedish professor of geography and ethnography. As son of geologist Gerard De Geer Sten was born into the Swedish nobility holding the title of baron.
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Edgar Kant
1902 - 1978 (76 years)
Edgar Kant was Estonian geographer and economist. He laid the foundation for Estonian urban geography. In 1928 he graduated from the University of Tartu. From 1934 he was lecturer at Tartu University.
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Đuro Pilar
1846 - 1893 (47 years)
Đuro Pilar was a Croatian geologist, palaeontologist, and professor and rector at the University of Zagreb. Biography Pilar had, with his mother , a strong family relationship to Bosnia. His formal training was very extensive. The first training he received was at Zagreb and Osijek. Later, he studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles , the Sorbonne , and the École de Chimie in Paris. He received his Ph.D. in 1868 and acquired a title of docent.
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Thomas McKenny Hughes
1832 - 1917 (85 years)
Thomas McKenny Hughes was a Welsh geologist. He was Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge University. Private life Thomas M. Hughes was born in Aberystwyth, one of the nine children of the Welsh bishop Joshua Hughes and his wife Margaret Hughes . His younger brother Joshua Pritchard Hughes was bishop of Llandaff. The Mckenny connection was through his maternal grandfather, Sir Thomas McKenny, first baronet and Lord Mayor of Dublin.
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John Strong Newberry
1822 - 1892 (70 years)
John Strong Newberry was an American physician, geologist and paleontologist. He participated as a naturalist and surgeon on three expeditions to explore and survey the western United States. During the Civil War he served in the US Sanitary Commission and was appointed secretary of the western department of the commission. After the war he became professor of geology and paleontology at Columbia University School of Mines and chief geologist of the Geological Survey of Ohio.
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Wolfgang Franz von Kobell
1803 - 1882 (79 years)
Wolfgang Xavier Franz Ritter von Kobell was a German mineralogist and writer of short stories and poems in Bavarian dialect. Biography Kobell was born in Munich, Bavaria , son of the painter Wilhelm Kobell. After studying mineralogy in Landshut, he became professor of mineralogy in 1826 at the University of Munich, and in 1856 was appointed first curator of the Bavarian State collection of minerals. His greatest contributions were new methods in crystallography. In 1855 he invented the stauroscope for the study of the optical properties of crystals. The mineral kobellite is named after him, ...
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Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind
1818 - 1894 (76 years)
Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind was a German geodesist and civil engineer. Education At the age of 18, Bauernfeind studied under Georg Ohm at the Polytechnic School in Nuremberg. Two years later, he studied mathematics and physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and passed the state examination in 1841.
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Alfred de Quervain
1879 - 1927 (48 years)
Alfred de Quervain was a Swiss Arctic explorer and geophysicist. Biography De Quervain was born in Uebeschi in the Swiss district of Thun. After completing his schooling in Bern, he studied geophysics and meteorology at the University of Bern from 1898. In early 1901, he investigated the winter temperatures of continental Europe by deploying sounding balloons in Russia. He earned a doctoral degree in 1902.
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Francis John Turner
1904 - 1985 (81 years)
Francis John Turner was a New Zealand geologist. He received his BSc and MSc from the Auckland University College. He worked with the New Zealand Geological Survey and in 1926 he became a geology lecturer in the University of Otago.
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Heinrich Girard
1814 - 1878 (64 years)
Heinrich Girard was a German mineralogist and geologist born in Berlin. He studied natural sciences in Berlin, receiving his habilitation in 1845. Afterwards he became an associate professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Marburg, and in 1854 a full professor at the University of Halle. In 1863/64 he was rector at the university.
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Georg August Goldfuss
1782 - 1848 (66 years)
Georg August Goldfuß was a German palaeontologist, zoologist and botanist. Goldfuß was born at Thurnau near Bayreuth. He was educated at Erlangen, where he graduated PhD in 1804 and became professor of zoology in 1818. He was subsequently appointed professor of zoology and mineralogy at the University of Bonn. Aided by Count Georg zu Münster, he issued the important , a work which was intended to illustrate the invertebrate fossils of Germany, but it was left incomplete after the sponges, corals, crinoids, echinoderms and part of the mollusca had been figured. A collection of Goldfuß' botani...
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Nikolai Kudryavtsev
1893 - 1971 (78 years)
Nikolai Alexandrovich Kudryavtsev was a Soviet Russian petroleum geologist. He is the founding father of modern abiogenic theory for origin of petroleum, which states that some petroleum is formed from non-biological sources of hydrocarbons located deep in the Earth's crust and mantle.
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Andrew John Herbertson
1865 - 1915 (50 years)
Andrew John Herbertson FRSE FRGS FRMS was a Scottish geographer. Life He was born in Galashiels, Selkirkshire to parents Andrew Hunter Herbertson and Janet Matthewson. He went to school locally at Galashiels Academy and in Edinburgh at Edinburgh Institution. From 1886 to 1889 he studied in the University of Edinburgh, but he never gained a degree. He then gained a place at Oxford University where he graduated MA.
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Ermine Cowles Case
1871 - 1953 (82 years)
Ermine Cowles Case , invariably known as E.C. Case, was a prominent American paleontologist in the second generation that succeeded Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. A graduate of the University of Kansas, with a PhD from the University of Chicago , Case became a paleontologist of international stature while working at the University of Michigan. He was a Member of the American Philosophical Society .
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Dicuil
800 - 900 (100 years)
Dicuilus was a monk and geographer, born during the second half of the 8th century. Noble and Evans identify him as a Gael and suggest that he had probably spent time in the Hebrides. Background The exact dates of Dicuil's birth and death are unknown. Of his life nothing is known except that he probably belonged to one of the numerous Irish monasteries of the Frankish Kingdom, and became acquainted by personal observation with islands near England and Scotland. From 814 and 816 Dicuil taught in one of the schools of Louis the Pious, where he wrote an astronomical work, and in 825 a geographic...
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Gregor von Helmersen
1803 - 1885 (82 years)
Gregor von Helmersen or Grigory Petrovich Helmersen was a Baltic German geologist. Biography Helmersen was born in Duckershof, Livonia and went to boarding school in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the University of Dorpat in 1825 and joined the finance ministry. He accompanied Alexander von Humboldt into the Orenburg region and was recommended, along with E.K. Hoffman, by the minister E.F. Kankrin to be sent for higher education. The two travelled and listened to lectures in the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Bonn. In 1835 he was put in the Corps of Mining Engineers and in 1838 ...
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Jules Marcou
1824 - 1898 (74 years)
Jules Marcou was a French-Swiss-American geologist. Biography He was born at Salins, in the département of Jura, in France. He was educated at Besançon and at the Collège Saint Louis, Paris. After completing his studies, he made several excursions through Switzerland to recover his health. These travels led him to devote himself to natural science. During these travels, he met Jules Thurmann , who introduced him to Louis Agassiz.
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Artur Gavazzi
1861 - 1944 (83 years)
Artur Gavazzi was a geographer and cartographer. Gavazzi was born in Split and died in Zagreb . Gavazzi was the first professor of geography at the University of Ljubljana, where Anton Melik succeeded him. In 1928, Gavazzi went to the University of Zagreb.
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Charles Lapworth
1842 - 1920 (78 years)
Charles Lapworth FRS FGS was a headteacher and an English geologist who pioneered faunal analysis using index fossils and identified the Ordovician period. Biography Charles Lapworth was born at Faringdon in Berkshire the son of James Lapworth. He trained as a teacher at the Culham Diocesan Training College near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He moved to the Scottish border region, where he investigated the previously little-known fossil fauna of the area. He was headmaster of the school in Galashiels from 1864 to 1875. In 1869 he married Janet, daughter of Galashiels schoolmaster Walter Sanderson.
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Eduard Brückner
1862 - 1927 (65 years)
Eduard Brückner was a geographer, glaciologist and climatologist. Biography He was born in Jena, the son of the Baltic-German historian Alexander Brückner and Lucie Schiele. After an education at the Karlsruhe gymnasium, beginning in 1881 he studied meteorology and physics at the University of Dorpat, graduating in 1885. He joined the Deutsche Seewarte in Hamburg, then, following studies at Dresden and Munich, he became a professor at the University of Bern in 1888. The same year he married Ernestine Steine. In 1899, he was rector at the university. He moved back to Germany in 1904, becoming a professor at the University of Halle.
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Marcel Aurousseau
1891 - 1983 (92 years)
Marcel Aurousseau MC C. de G. was an Australian geographer, geologist, war hero, historian and translator. Aurousseau, who was of French and Irish descent, attended Sydney Boys High School alongside three students who were also later prominent in various fields: Arthur Wheen , Raymond Kershaw and Arthur McLaughlin .
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William Johnson Sollas
1849 - 1936 (87 years)
Prof William Johnson Sollas PGS FRS FRSE LLD was a British geologist and anthropologist. After studying at the City of London School, the Royal College of Chemistry and the Royal School of Mines he matriculated to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded First Class Honours in geology. After some time spent as a University Extension lecturer he became lecturer in Geology and Zoology at University College, Bristol in 1879, where he stayed until he was offered the post of Professor of Geology at Trinity College Dublin. In 1897 he was offered the post of Professor of Geology at the Un...
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Levi Stockbridge
1820 - 1904 (84 years)
Levi Stockbridge was a farmer and scientist from Hadley, Massachusetts. He was instrumental in the early history of the Massachusetts Agricultural College now known as the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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Egidio Feruglio
1897 - 1954 (57 years)
Egidio Feruglio was an Italian-born geologist who spent most of his career in Argentina. Early life The seventh of twelve sons, Feruglio finished grammar school in 1914, and then enrolled at the University of Florence. In Florence, he studied medicine and natural sciences, graduating in 1920. He became assistant university professor of geology at the University of Cagliari. During this period, he was dedicated in particular to geographic studies, as well as geology and glaciology of the Alps.
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George Simpson
1878 - 1965 (87 years)
Sir George Clarke Simpson KCB CBE FRS HFRSE was a British meteorologist. He was President of the Royal Meteorological Society 1940/41. Life George Clarke Simpson was born in Derby, England, the son of Arthur Simpson and his wife, Alice Lambton Clarke.
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Emil Cohen
1842 - 1905 (63 years)
Emil Wilhelm Cohen was a German mineralogist and petrographer, born in Jutland. Professional life Cohen studied at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg and from 1867 to 1872 was a mineralogy assistant in the latter. He then spent 18 months in South Africa, where he studied diamond and gold deposits.
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Sebastian Münster
1488 - 1552 (64 years)
Sebastian Münster was a German cartographer and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the University of Basel. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, Cosmographia, sold well and went through 24 editions. Its influence was widely spread by a production of woodcuts created of it by a variety of artists.
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Friedrich Rinne
1863 - 1933 (70 years)
Friedrich Wilhelm Berthold Rinne was a German mineralogist, crystallographer and petrographer. Biography From 1880 he studied natural sciences at the University of Göttingen, where he was a pupil of Adolf von Koenen. After receiving his habilitation, he was a lecturer at Göttingen and at the University of Berlin , and from 1894 onward, was a professor of mineralogy and geology at the Technical University of Hannover. Following brief stays at the universities of Königsberg and Kiel, he obtained the chair of mineralogy at the University of Leipzig . After his retirement in 1928, he was named a...
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James Glaisher
1809 - 1903 (94 years)
James Glaisher FRS was an English meteorologist, aeronaut and astronomer. Biography Born in Rotherhithe, the son of a London watchmaker, Glaisher was a junior assistant at the Cambridge Observatory from 1833 to 1835 before moving to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, where he served as Superintendent of the Department of Meteorology and Magnetism at Greenwich for 34 years.
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Stjepan Horvat
1895 - 1985 (90 years)
Stjepan Horvat was a Croatian geodesist and professor, dean of the Technical Faculty in Zagreb, head of the University of Zagreb, editor of the journals Geodetski list and Hrvatska državna izmjera, manager of the Department for State Survey in the Croatian Headquarters for Public Affairs, member of the State Land Consolidation Commission, Air Force officer in the time of the Nazi-puppet state Independent State of Croatia, adviser at the Military-Geography Institute in Argentina for 40 years and an honorary member of the Argentine Association of Geophysicists.
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Anders Knutsson Ångström
1888 - 1981 (93 years)
Anders Knutsson Ångström was a Swedish physicist and meteorologist who was known primarily for his contributions to the field of atmospheric radiation. However, his scientific interests encompassed many diverse topics.
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Mahdi S. Hantush
1921 - 1984 (63 years)
Mahdi S. Hantush was a prominent Iraqi-born American hydrologist known for his analytical work on leaky aquifers and well hydraulics. He was the founder of the New Mexico Tech Hydrology Program. His granddaughter is Yasmin Younis, the 2018 Student Commencement Speaker at Boston University’s 185th Commencement, which went viral all over the Middle East. His Son, Mohamed Hantush, is a Civil Engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency and resides in Cincinnati Ohio
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William of Rubruck
1220 - 1293 (73 years)
William of Rubruck or Guillaume de Rubrouck was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer. He is best known for his travels to various parts of the Middle East and Central Asia in the 13th century, including the Mongol Empire. His account of his travels is one of the masterpieces of medieval travel literature, comparable to those of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.
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Johann Eduard Wappäus
1812 - 1879 (67 years)
Johann Eduard Wappäus was a German geographer. He was a son-in-law to mineralogist Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann. He studied at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, where he was a student of Carl Ritter. In 1833–34 he took part in a study trip to Cape Verde and Brazil. In 1838 he qualified as a lecturer at Göttingen, where in 1845, he became an associate professor. In 1854 he was appointed professor of geography and statistics at Göttingen.
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James Geikie
1839 - 1915 (76 years)
James Murdoch Geikie PRSE FRS LLD was a Scottish geologist. He was professor of geology at Edinburgh University from 1882 to 1914. Life Education He was born in Edinburgh, the son of James Stuart Geikie and Isabella Thom, and younger brother of Sir Archibald Geikie. His father was a wig-maker and perfumer in Edinburgh operating from 35 North Bridge. James was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh and initially apprenticed as a printer to Archibald Constable and Company before going to University of Edinburgh to study geology.
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Anton Friedrich Büsching
1724 - 1793 (69 years)
Anton Friedrich Büsching was a German geographer, historian, educator and theologian. His Erdbeschreibung was the first geographical work of any scientific merit. He also did significant work on behalf of education.
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Harry Rosenbusch
1836 - 1914 (78 years)
Heinrich/Harry Rosenbusch was a German petrographer. Harry Rosenbusch was born in Einbeck. He taught at Heidelberg University , where he founded the Mineralogisches-geologisches Institut. He died, aged 77, in Heidelberg.
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Rudolf Geiger
1894 - 1981 (87 years)
Rudolf Oskar Robert Williams Geiger was a German meteorologist and climatologist. He was the son of Indologist Wilhelm Geiger and the brother of physicist Hans Geiger. He worked with Wladimir Köppen on climatology, hence the Köppen–Geiger climate classification.
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Johan Sandström
1874 - 1947 (73 years)
Johan Wilhelm Sandström , usually cited as J. W. Sandström, was a Swedish oceanographer and meteorologist. He is most famously known for conducting a series of classical experiments at Bornö Marine Research Station in Sweden published in 1908. His experiments concerned themselves with the causes of ocean currents, particularly those found in fjords.
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Paul Güssfeldt
1840 - 1920 (80 years)
Dr Paul Güssfeldt was a German geologist, mountaineer and explorer. Biography Güssfeldt was born in Berlin, where he also died almost 80 years later. After attending the Collège Français in his home city, he studied natural sciences and mathematics in Heidelberg , from 1859 to 1865, and then in Berlin, Gießen and Bonn.
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Johann Nepomuk von Fuchs
1774 - 1856 (82 years)
Johann Nepomuk von Fuchs was a German chemist and mineralogist, and royal Bavarian privy councillor. Biography He was born at Mattenzell, near Falkenstein in the Bavarian Forest. In 1807 he became professor of chemistry and mineralogy at the Ludwig Maximilian University, which was located in Landshut at the time, and in 1823 conservator of the mineralogical collections at Munich, where he was appointed professor of mineralogy three years later, when the university was relocated. He retired in 1852, was ennobled by the Maximilian II of Bavaria in 1854, and died at Munich on 5 March 1856.
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Sherwood B. Keith E. Idso
#3549
Cleveland Abbe
1838 - 1916 (78 years)
Cleveland Abbe was an American meteorologist and advocate of time zones. While director of the Cincinnati Observatory in Cincinnati, Ohio, he developed a system of telegraphic weather reports, daily weather maps, and weather forecasts. In 1870, Congress established the U.S. Weather Bureau and inaugurated the use of daily weather forecasts. In recognition of his work, Abbe, who was often referred to as "Old Probability" for the reliability of his forecasts, was appointed the first head of the new service.
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Halvor Solberg
1895 - 1974 (79 years)
Halvor Solberg was a Norwegian meteorologist. He was born in Ringsaker. He was a central member of the Bergen School of Meteorology, working as meteorologist in Kristiania from 1918. His thesis was published in 1928. He was appointed professor at the University of Oslo from 1930 to 1964. In the 1930s he worked on the theory of tides, atmospheric waves and oscillations, and stability of gas and liquid flow.
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