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,
#3801
Charles Tilstone Beke
1800 - 1874 (74 years)
Charles Tilstone Beke was an English traveller, geographer and Biblical critic. Biography Born in Stepney, London, the son of a merchant in the City of London, for a few years Beke engaged in mercantile pursuits. He later studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and for a time practised at the Bar, but finally devoted himself to the study of historical, geographical and ethnographical subjects.
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Hans Henrik Reusch
1852 - 1922 (70 years)
Hans Henrik Reusch was a Norwegian geologist, geomorphologist and educator. He served as director of the Geological Survey of Norway. Biography Born in Bergen, he was educated at the University of Leipzig and Heidelberg University. He graduated Ph.D. at the University of Christiania in 1883. He was married to the painter Helga Marie Ring Reusch He joined the Geological Survey of Norway in 1875, and was its Director from 1888 to 1921. He was a Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University .
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George Perkins Merrill
1854 - 1929 (75 years)
George Perkins Merrill was an American geologist, notable as the head curator from 1917 to 1929 of the Department of Geology, United States National Museum . Biography George Perkins Merrill was born in Auburn, Maine on May 31, 1854. He was educated at the University of Maine , took a post-graduate courses of study and was assistant in chemistry at Wesleyan University, Connecticut , and subsequently studied at Johns Hopkins .
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Nikolai A. Golovkinsky
1834 - 1897 (63 years)
Nikolai A. Golovkinsky was a Russian geologist who studied among other things the Paleozoic sediments of Tatarstan. He was professor at the Kazan School of Geology.
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Dimitrij Andrusov
1897 - 1976 (79 years)
Dimitrij Andrusov was a Slovak geologist of Russian origin, member of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He was first professor of geology on Slovak colleges. He is considered the founder of modern Slovak geology.
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Victor Bursian
1886 - 1945 (59 years)
Victor Robertovich Bursian was a Soviet scientist who worked on theoretical physics, geophysics, electricity and thermodynamics, crystal physics, and the theory of electrical resistivity tomography.
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Dmitry Mushketov
1882 - 1938 (56 years)
Dmitry Ivanovich Mushketov was a Russian Empire and Soviet geologist and paleontologist, one of the victims of the Great Terror. Biography Dmitry Mushketov was born in Saint Petersburg to the family of Ivan Vasilyevich Mushketov, a famous explorer and professor at the Mining Institute, and Ekaterina Pavlovna Mushketova.
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Gottlob Linck
1858 - 1947 (89 years)
Gottlob Eduard Linck was a German mineralogist. From 1879, he studied at the polytechnic college in Stuttgart, followed by classes at the Universities of Strasbourg and Tübingen. In 1888 he was habilitated for mineralogy and petrography at Strasbourg, where in 1894, he became an associate professor. Later the same year, he was named professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Jena, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1930. On five occasions, he served as university rector at Jena.
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George Ferdinand Becker
1847 - 1919 (72 years)
George Ferdinand Becker was an American geologist. His most important work was in connection with the origin and mode of occurrence of ore deposits, especially those of the western United States. Biography Becker was born in New York City, 5 January 1847. He was the son of Alexander Christian Becker and Sarah Carey Tuckerman Becker of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1868, studied at Heidelberg, receiving the degree of Ph.D. in 1869, and, two years later, passed the final examination of the Royal School of Mines in Berlin. From 1875 until 1879 he was instructor ...
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James Nicol
1810 - 1879 (69 years)
James Nicol FRSE FGS was a Scottish geologist. Life He was born at Traquair, near Innerleithen in Peeblesshire, the son of Rev. James Nicol , and his wife Agnes Walker. He studied Arts and Divinity at Edinburgh University from 1825. He also attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, having gained a keen interest in geology and mineralogy. He further pursued these studies in the universities of Bonn and Berlin.
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Jan Dylik
1905 - 1973 (68 years)
Jan Dylik was a Polish geography professor at the University of Łódz. He was born in Łódź on 19 June 1905. In 1925 he begain post-secondary studies at Jagiellonian University. He then went on to attend Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań to pursue research and a doctoral degree. He found himself fascinated by the differences in geology between the Greater Poland Voivodeship and the Łódź Voivodeship. He collaborated with Stanisław Lencewicz on a project to analyze the Łódź region's geology and geomorphology. The resulting paper was published in 1927, and for many years was considered the only source of information on the geology of Łódź.
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Alexander Sadebeck
1843 - 1879 (36 years)
Alexander Sadebeck was a German geologist and mineralogist. He was a brother of botanist Richard Sadebeck . He studied mineralogy and geology at the University of Berlin as a pupil of Gustav Rose. In 1865 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on Upper Jurassic formations in Pomerania. In 1872 he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Kiel.
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James E. Gill
1901 - 1980 (79 years)
James Edward Gill was a scientist, teacher, explorer and mine developer. Along with William R. James, Sr. he discovered the high-grade iron ore deposits of Quebec and Labrador. He is remembered for his important contributions in the fields of stratigraphy and Pleistocene geology.
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Félix Garrigou
1835 - 1920 (85 years)
Joseph Louis Félix Garrigou was a French physician, prehistorian and hydrologist. He is known for his investigations of prehistoric artifacts and remains found in caves of southern France . Also, he was the author of numerous writings on mineral waters from a chemical/medical perspective.
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John House
1919 - 1984 (65 years)
John William House was a British geographer, who was Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford from 1974 to 1983. Life House was born in 1919 and educated at Bradford Grammar School before studying geography at Jesus College, Oxford under the tuition of J. N. L. Baker. After service during the Second World War with the Intelligence Corps , he taught geography at King's College, Newcastle for 28 years; he was head of department from 1964 to 1974. He was appointed as the first Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford in 1974, a post he held until ill-health forced his retirement in 1983.
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Ralph Bagnold
1896 - 1990 (94 years)
Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold, OBE, FRS, was an English 20th-century desert explorer, geologist and soldier. In 1932, he staged the first recorded East-to-West crossing of the Libyan Desert. His work in the field of Aeolian processes was the basis for the book The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes, establishing the discipline of aeolian geomorphology, combining field work observations, experiments and physical equations. His work has been used by United States' space agency NASA in its study of the terrain of the planet Mars, the Bagnold Dunes on Mars' surface being named after him by th...
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Elisha Mitchell
1793 - 1857 (64 years)
Elisha Mitchell was an American educator, geologist and Presbyterian minister. His geological studies led to the identification of North Carolina's Mount Mitchell as the highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River.
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William Phipps Blake
1826 - 1910 (84 years)
William Phipps Blake was an American geologist, mining consultant, and educator. Among his best known contributions include being the first college trained chemist to work full-time for a United States chemical manufacturer , and serving as a geologist with the Pacific Railroad Survey of the Far West , where he observed and detailed a theory on erosion by wind-blown sand on the geologic formations of southern California, one of his many scientific contributions. He started several western mining enterprises that were premature, including a mining magazine in the 1850s and the first school o...
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Grove Karl Gilbert
#3820
Robert Norman
1560 - 1584 (24 years)
Robert Norman was a 16th-century-English mariner, compass builder, and hydrographer who discovered magnetic inclination, the deviation of the Earth's magnetic field from the vertical. Work Robert Norman is noted for The Newe Attractive, a pamphlet published in 1581 describing the lodestone and practical aspects of navigation. More importantly, it included Norman's measurement of magnetic dip, the incline at an angle from the horizon by a compass needle discovered by Georg Hartmann in 1544. This effect is caused by the Earth's magnetic field not running parallel to the planet's surface. Norman demonstrated magnetic dip by creating a compass needle that pivoted on a horizontal axis.
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Arved von Schultz
1883 - 1967 (84 years)
Arved Carl Ludwig von Schultz was a German geographer. Life Arved von Schultz was born in Latvia to landowner Erich von Schultz , who in 1892 was the inspector of goods in the city of Riga, and his wife Valerie of Moczulski. During his holidays from 1901 to 1904 Schultz led study tours in the Caucasus and the Russian Central Asia. Schultz attended the German Eltz'sche Privatgymnasium in Riga and in 1904 passed his exams at Alexander High School. Beginning in 1904 he studied in Moscow and Dorpat and in 1906 Schultz enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin. His studied were interrupted in 1905 due to riots in Tartu and he spent half a year traveling through Central Asia.
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George Chisholm
1850 - 1930 (80 years)
George Goudie Chisholm FRSE FRSGS LLD was a Scottish geographer. He authored the first English-language textbook on economic geography: Handbook on Commercial Geography and the World Gazetteer, later to become known as The Times Gazetteer.
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Samuel James Shand
1882 - 1957 (75 years)
Prof Samuel James Shand was a British mineralogist and petrologist, specialising in silicate analysis and igneous petrology. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 29 October 1882 the son of James Shand , originally from Sandsting in Shetland, and Catherine Grant Hunter from Lerwick in Shetland. In 1881 the family had moved from Shetland to Taap Hall, a curious Georgian tenement on Ferry Road in the Leith district. However they moved to "Selivoe" on Park Road in the Newhaven district and James was born there.
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Børge Fristrup
1918 - 1985 (67 years)
Børge Fristrup was a Danish geographer. He studied glaciology, specialising in the Greenland ice sheet, at the University of Copenhagen and at Stockholm University, receiving a Hans Egede Medal for his research in 1971.
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Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger
1856 - 1936 (80 years)
Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger was a Croatian geologist, paleontologist, and archeologist. Education Dragutin finished his elementary education in Zagreb, Croatia, as well as two years of preparandija . He started studying paleontology in Zürich, Switzerland. Soon, he moved to München, where his lecturer was Karl Zittel, a world-renowned expert in the areas of anatomy and paleontology. He received a doctoral degree in 1879, , with work related to fossilized fishes.
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William Otis Crosby
1850 - 1925 (75 years)
William Otis Crosby - American geologist and engineer, Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Biography He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , receiving a bachelor's degree.
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Albert Herrmann
1886 - 1945 (59 years)
Albert Herrmann was a German archaeologist and geographer. His specialty was the geography of the ancient Mediterranean and Chinese geography. He also published a number of works theorizing on the location of Atlantis.
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Edward William Brayley
1801 - 1870 (69 years)
Edward William Brayley FRS was an English geographer, librarian, and science author. Early life Brayley was born in London, the son of Edward Wedlake Brayley, a notable antiquary, and his wife Anne . His early schooling, in the company of his brothers Henry and Horatio was private and sheltered. His upbringing was austere with little contact with other children or the world outside his home. He later studied at the London Institution and the Royal Institution under William Thomas Brande.
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Paolo Pizzetti
1860 - 1918 (58 years)
Paolo Pizzetti was an Italian geodesist, astronomer, geophysicist and mathematician. He studied engineering in Rome, graduating in 1880. He remained in Rome and assisted Giuseppe Pisati and Enrico Pucci with their absolute determination of gravity. In 1886, he became Associate Professor of Geodesy at the University of Genoa where he stayed until becoming Professor of Geodesy at the University of Pisa in 1900. He stayed in Pisa until his death in 1918.
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Henry Chamberlain Russell
1836 - 1907 (71 years)
Henry Chamberlain Russell was an Australian astronomer and meteorologist. Early life Russell was born at West Maitland, New South Wales, the fourth son of the Hon. Bourn Russell and his wife Jane, née Mackreth. Russell was educated at West Maitland Grammar school and the University of Sydney, .
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Thomas A. Mutch
1931 - 1980 (49 years)
Thomas A. Mutch was an American geologist and planetary scientist. He was a professor at Brown University from 1960 until his death. He disappeared during descent from Mount Nun in the Kashmir Himalayas.
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Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten
1768 - 1810 (42 years)
Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten was a German mineralogist. Among the most notable of Karsten's writings is a mineralogy book published in 1789 when he was only 21 years old. In later years Karsten held senior government positions in mining and mineralogy in the Kingdom of Prussia at Berlin.
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Ilan Kelman
#3834
Santiago Roth
1850 - 1924 (74 years)
Santiago Roth was a Swiss Argentine paleontologist and academic known for his fossil collections and Patagonian expeditions. Life Kaspar Jakob was born and raised in Herisau, Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland, as the oldest of 12 children. He attended school in the nearby town of St. Gallen, where his teacher Bernhard Wartmann raised his interest in the science of nature. Wartmann was a well known botanist and director of the Museum of History of Nature in St. Gallen.
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Justus Ludwig Adolf Roth
1818 - 1892 (74 years)
Justus Ludwig Adolf Roth was a German geologist and mineralogist. Biography In 1844 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Jena and spent the next few years working as a pharmacist in Hamburg. In 1848 he relocated to Berlin, where he came under the influence of Gustav Rose and Heinrich Ernst Beyrich. In 1867 he became an associate professor of mineralogy at the University of Berlin.
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Karl von Fritsch
1838 - 1906 (68 years)
Karl Wilhelm Georg von Fritsch was a German geologist and paleontologist. He studied forestry at the academy in Eisenach, followed by studies in natural sciences at the University of Göttingen, where he obtained his degree in 1862. Following graduation, he embarked on a scientific journey to Madeira and the Canary Islands. In 1863 he received his habilitation at Zurich, working as a lecturer at the "Polytechnikum". While in Zurich, he produced an accurate geological map of the Saint-Gotthard Massif. In 1867 he relocated to the Senckenberg Nature Research Society in Frankfurt as a geologist an...
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Hans Reck
1886 - 1937 (51 years)
Hans Gottfried Reck was a German volcanologist and paleontologist. In 1913 he was the first to discover an ancient skeleton of a human in the Olduvai Gorge, in what is now Tanzania. He collaborated with Louis Leakey in a return expedition to the site in 1931.
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Mahmud al-Kashgari
1029 - 1101 (72 years)
Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari was an 11th-century Kara-Khanid scholar and lexicographer of the Turkic languages from Kashgar. His father, Husayn, was the mayor of Barsgan, a town in the southeastern part of the lake of Issyk-Kul and related to the ruling dynasty of Kara-Khanid Khanate. Around 1057 C.E. Mahmud al-Kashgari became a political refugee, before settling down in Baghdad.
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Henry Yule Oldham
1862 - 1951 (89 years)
Henry Yule Oldham, was a teacher and geographer who, in 1901, conducted the definitive version of the Bedford Level experiment, a proof that the Earth is a sphere. Early life Oldham was born in Düsseldorf, Kingdom of Prussia, the younger son of Thomas Oldham, the director of the Geological Survey of India. He was educated at Rugby and Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating at Jesus College as a commoner in 1882. Whilst at Oxford, he rowed in the college boat and was president of the Debating Society. He graduated in 1886 with a second class honours degree in Animal Morphology.
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Alexander Newton Winchell
1874 - 1958 (84 years)
Alexander Newton Winchell was an American geologist who pioneered spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic studies on minerals. He wrote an influential textbook, the Elements of optical mineralogy which went into several editions.
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Esper Signius Larsen
1879 - 1961 (82 years)
Esper Signius Larsen, Jr. was an American geologist and petrologist who contributed to techniques for age estimation using the lead-uranium ratio or Larsen method and the petrological study of non-opaque minerals using optical microscopy techniques. He served as a professor of petrology at Harvard University from 1923 to 1949. The mineral Esperite was named after him.
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Catherine Raisin
1855 - 1945 (90 years)
Catherine Alice Raisin was one of the most important early female geologists in Britain. Her research was primarily in the field of microscope petrology and mineralogy. She was the head of the geology department at Bedford College for Women, in London for 30 years, and strived for women's equality in education. Raisin was the first woman in Britain to lead a university geology department. She was also the head of the botany department at the Bedford College for Women.
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Constant Prévost
1787 - 1856 (69 years)
Louis-Constant Prévost was a French geologist. Early life and education Prévost was born in Paris to Louis Prévost, a tax farmer, receiver of the rentes of Paris. He was educated there at the Central Schools, where, inspired by the lectures of Georges Cuvier, his particular mentor Alexandre Brongniart, and André Marie Constant Duméril, he determined to devote himself to natural science. He took his degree in Letters and Sciences in 1811, and for a time pursued the study of medicine and anatomy.
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Helmut Winkler
1915 - 1980 (65 years)
Helmut Gustav Franz Winkler was a German geologist who worked on experimental approaches to petrology, making use of high-pressure and temperature to examine metamorphic processes. The mineral Helmutwinklerite is named in his honour.
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Michael Tuomey
1805 - 1857 (52 years)
Michael Tuomey was the State Geologist of South Carolina from 1844 to 1847, and the first State Geologist of Alabama, appointed in 1848 and serving until his death. His early descriptions and maps of the Birmingham District's unique coincidence of mineral resources for the making of steel opened the way for the early industrial development of the state.
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Alexander George McAdie
1863 - 1943 (80 years)
Alexander George McAdie was an American meteorologist. McAdie was born in New York City. While in college he joined the Army Signal Service, the predecessor of the U.S. Weather Bureau. He graduated from Harvard University in 1885.
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Nathanael Gottfried Leske
1751 - 1786 (35 years)
Nathanael Gottfried Leske was a German natural scientist and geologist. After his studies at Bergakademie of Freiberg in Saxony and the Franckeschen Stiftungen in Halle, Leske became a special professor of natural history at the University of Leipzig in 1775.
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Israel Russell
1852 - 1906 (54 years)
Israel Cook Russell, LL.D. was an Americann geologist and geographer who explored Alaska in the late 19th century. Early life and education Russell was born at Garrattsville, New York, on December 10, 1852. He received B.S. and C.E. degrees in 1872 from the University of the City of New York , and later studied at the School of Mines, Columbia College.
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Frank Charles Schrader
1860 - 1944 (84 years)
Frank Charles Schrader was an American geologist, mineralogist, and entomologist. Born in Sterling, Illinois he received degrees from the University of Kansas and Harvard University , before teaching at Harvard.
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Frederick Leslie Ransome
1868 - 1935 (67 years)
Frederick Leslie Ransome, Ph.D. was a British-born American geologist. Ransome was born in Greenwich, England and educated at the University of California . Ransome described and named the mineral Lawsonite after Andrew Lawson. Ransome was employed by the United States Geological Survey. Ransome's many official reports and bulletins dealt mainly with phases of economic geology. Ransome helped found the journal Economic Geology in 1905, and was associate editor of the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Ransome was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as NAS Treasurer in 1919.
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