Search People Result | Academic Influence

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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Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential female people in Physics,

#851

Dominique Weis

#163150

Overall Influence

#852

Petra Reinke

#163357

Overall Influence

#853

Barbara Kraus

#102841

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Barbara Kraus Education and career Kraus is originally from Innsbruck. She studied mathematics and physics at the University of Innsbruck, earning diplomas in mathematics and physics. She completed her PhD in physics under the supervision of Ignacio Cirac in 2003. After postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, the University of Geneva, and the University of Innsbruck, she became an assistant professor in Innsbruck in 2010, and earned her habilitation there in 2012. She became full professor in 2020. In 2023 she was appointed professor of Quantum Algorithms and Appl...

#854

Katia Parodi

#163364

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

#855

Lidia Salgueiro

#92468

Overall Influence

1917 - 2009 (92 years)

Lidia Salgueiro was a Portuguese atomic and nuclear physicist. She taught at the University of Lisbon for over 30 years, carried out research, and published widely, including journal articles, textbooks, articles on the history of physics in Portugal, and philatelic publications on stamps and physics. She was the first female Associate Fellow of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.

#856

Jill Trewhella

#116361

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Jill Trewhella FAAAS FLANL Dist FRSN is a biophysicist who has worked in both Australia and the United States. Early life Born in Gosford to parents John and Joy, Trewhella planned a career as a high school mathematics teacher in Newcastle, but after the death of her brother enrolled at his alma mater, the University of New South Wales, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in applied mathematics and physics and first class honours in physics in 1974. She also received her MSc in physics from UNSW before moving to the University of Sydney to complete her PhD in in...

#857

Paola Chiarugi

#163938

Overall Influence

#858

Marjorie Corcoran

#122688

Overall Influence

1950 - 2017 (67 years)

Marjorie Diane Blasius Corcoran was an American particle physicist who worked as a professor at Rice University. Biography Born as Marjorie Blasius, she grew up in Beavercreek, Ohio, and was 1968 co-valedictorian of Beavercreek High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics in 1972 from the University of Dayton, graduating summa cum laude, and in the same year married Christopher Corcoran, taking his surname. As a graduate student at Indiana University Bloomington, she began doing high-energy physics research at Fermilab. Her 1977 doctoral dissertation, Measurement of the polarizatio...

#859

Vivian O'Brien

#51473

Overall Influence

1924 - 2010 (86 years)

Vivian "Vob" O'Brien was an American applied mathematician and physicist whose research included fluid dynamics and visual perception. She worked for many years as a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, and is the namesake of the Craik–O'Brien–Cornsweet illusion.

#860

Ching-Liang Lin

Ching-Liang Lin

#84691

Overall Influence

1931 - 2019 (88 years)

Ching-Liang Lin was a Taiwanese physicist and professor at National Taiwan University. She was the first woman to be head of the university's department of physics. Life She was born in 1931 in Takao Prefecture . She graduated from Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High School. She was a witness to the February 28 incident in 1947 which killed thousands in Taiwan and resulted in decades of martial law known as the White Terror. During this time, she chose to focus on the study of physics. She attended the University of Tokyo and was awarded a doctorate in physics in 1966. She returned to Taiwan in 1970 and was asked to create a physics department at Soowchow University.

#861

Pascale Senellart

#125028

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Pascale Senellart is a French physicist who is a senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and professor at the École Polytechnique. She has worked on quantum light sources and semiconductor physics. She was awarded the CNRS Silver Medal in 2014, made Fellow of The Optical Society in 2018, and elected member of the French Academy of Sciences in 2022.

#862

Barbara A. Baird

#154990

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Barbara Ann Baird is an American cell biologist and biophysicist. Baird's research investigates receptor-mediated cell signaling, including how cellular membranes are involved in targeting/regulating signaling pathways.

#863

Bodil Holst

#98292

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Bodil Holst is a Danish-Norwegian physicist known for her work on nanoscale imaging, material characterisation and mask based lithography using molecular beams. Other research areas include smart surfaces and plant fibre identification. She is a professor in the department of physics and technology at the University of Bergen in Norway.

#864

Elke Arenholz

#143806

Overall Influence

Elke Arenholz is a German American physicist working in the field magnetic materials and X-ray spectroscopy, where she pioneered the use of superconducting vector magnets to study X-ray magnetic circular dichroism . She is the associate director of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source .

#865

Dana Dattelbaum

#129504

Overall Influence

Dana Dattelbaum is an American physicist and scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She leads NNSA’s Dynamic Materials Properties portfolio at LANL, which provides experimental data, platforms and diagnostics for materials behaviors relevant to nuclear weapons performance, ranging from plutonium to high explosives.

#866

Sabrina Stierwalt

#107095

Overall Influence

Sabrina Stierwalt is an American extragalactic astrophysicist who studies gas dynamics and the formation and evolution of galaxies through surveys utilizing x-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, submillimeter, and radio wavelengths. She is experienced in science communication and advocating for equality and equity for underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.

#867

Marina Galand

#139042

Overall Influence

Marina Galand is an atmospheric physicist and lecturer at Imperial College London. She is the 2018 recipient of the Holweck Prize for her "outstanding contribution to space physics by studying in a comprehensive and original manner the effects of energy sources on planetary atmospheres throughout the Solar System and beyond".

#868

Ewa Paluch

#73887

Overall Influence

Ewa Paluch is a French-Polish biophysicist and cell biologist. She is the 17th Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.

#869

Maya Paczuski

#110817

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Maya Paczuski is the head and founder of the Complexity Science Group at the University of Calgary. She is a well-cited physicist whose work spans self-organized criticality, avalanche dynamics, earthquake, and complex networks. She was born in Israel in 1963, but grew up in the United States. Maya Paczuski received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from M.I.T. in 1986 and then went on to study with Mehran Kardar, earning her Ph.D in Condensed matter physics from the same institute.

#870

Marilyn Gunner

#116987

Overall Influence

Marilyn Gunner is a physics professor at the City College of New York and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. She is known for her work on molecular biophysics and structural biology. Education Gunner received her B.A. from the State University of New York . She completed her Ph.D. in 1988 at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked on topics such as electron transfer in proteins with Leslie Dutton.

#871

Maria Grazia Valsecchi

#166229

Overall Influence

#872

Clare Parnell

#93149

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Clare Elizabeth Parnell is a British astrophysicist and applied mathematician who studies the mathematics of the Sun and of magnetic fields, including the Solar corona and the Sun's magnetic carpet, magnetic reconnection in plasma, and the null points of magnetic fields. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of St Andrews, and the former head of the Division of Applied Mathematics at St Andrews.

#873

Sarah Milkovich

Sarah Milkovich

#129933

Overall Influence

Sarah Milkovich is lead of Science Operations for the Mars 2020 rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was investigation scientist for the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Education Milkovich grew up in Ithaca, New York. Here she became interested in astronomy watching TV specials about spacecraft of Nova and PBS, and during vacations in northern Minnesota. She used to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower with her parents. Milkovich attended Phillips Exeter Academy, which she graduated in 1996. Whilst a high school student, she worked as an intern for the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft.

#874

Jean M. Carlson

#91620

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Jean Marie Carlson is a professor of complexity at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She studies robustness and feedback in highly connected complex systems, which have applications in a variety of areas including earthquakes, wildfires and neuroscience.

#875

Patricia Lewis

#48948

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Patricia Lewis is a British and Irish nuclear physicist and arms control expert, who is currently the Research Director for International Security at Chatham House. She is also currently Co-Director of the Global Commission on Internet Governance. She was previously the Senior Scientist-in-Residence and Deputy Director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at Monterey Institute of International Studies . She was previously the Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and the Director of VERTIC.

#876

Emily Winterburn

#129465

Overall Influence

Emily Winterburn is a British science writer, physicist and historian of science based in Yorkshire. She is a visiting Fellow at the University of Leeds. Among other books, she wrote The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel, published by The History Press in 2017.

#877

Eva Schinnerer

#166946

Overall Influence

#878

Ruth Margaret Williams

#89462

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Ruth Margaret Williams is a British mathematician at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on discrete gravity. Early life and education Williams was born in Birmingham and attended primary schools in Lozells and Banners Gate. Her secondary education was at Sutton Coldfield High School for Girls. The first member of her family to go to university, she read mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge, then moved to Imperial College, London, for her PhD, which was in theoretical physics and focused on current algebras. She obtained a postdoctoral research position at the Center for Theoretical Studies at the University of Miami .

#879

Catherine Johnson

#99089

Overall Influence

Catherine L. Johnson is a planetary scientist known for her research on the magnetic fields of planets including Mercury, Venus, Earth and its moon, and Mars. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

#880

Patria Hume

#142802

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Patria Anne Hume is a New Zealand sports biomechanics academic. She is currently a full-time Professor of Human Performance at the Auckland University of Technology Sport Performance Research Institute New Zealand at AUT Millennium.

#881

Barbara Ryden

#158051

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Barbara Sue Ryden is an American astrophysicist who is a Professor of Astronomy at Ohio State University. Her research considers the formation, shape and structure of galaxies. She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016.

#882

Lyndsay Fletcher

#150150

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Lyndsay Fletcher is a Scottish astrophysicist at the University of Glasgow who specialises in solar flares. Early life and education Fletcher attended Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow, and credits her high school physics teacher there with her enjoyment of physics. She studied physics and astronomy at the University of Glasgow and graduated in 1989. She remained there for her graduate studies, earning a PhD in 1993.

#883

Patricia Rankin

#104572

Overall Influence

Patricia Rankin is a British high energy physicist, equity researcher and Chair of the Department at the Arizona State University. Her research considers high energy particle physics and gender balance in scientific disciplines. She was previously responsible for the high energy physics section of the National Science Foundation.

#884

Jenny Hoffman

#143031

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Jenny Hoffman is an American quantum physicist and professor at Harvard University. She is interested in nanoscale engineering and imaging of materials, using molecular beam epitaxy and scanning probe microscopy. Hoffman has received several awards for her research and teaching, including the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and 2010 Sloan Research Fellowship.

#885

Jennifer L. Ross

#149253

Overall Influence

Jennifer L. Ross is an American physicist who is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at Syracuse University. Her research considers active biological condensed matter physics. She was elected fellow of the American Physical Society in 2018 and American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.

#886

Aleksandra Walczak

#135417

Overall Influence

Aleksandra M. Walczak is a theoretical biophysicist. She works on stochastic gene expression at Ecole Normale Supérieure where she is a research director. Education Walczak completed her master's degree at Warsaw University, Poland in 2002, her PhD at University of California, San Diego in 2007, and was a post-doc until 2010 at Princeton University.

#887

Françoise Genova

#168044

Overall Influence

#888

Marcelle Soares-Santos

#165861

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (41 years)

Marcelle Soares-Santos is a Brazilian physicist who works as associate professor of Physics and Experimental Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Michigan. Biography Marcelle was born in Vitória, Brazil, in 1983. Two years later, her family moved to Parauapebas, in the Carajás Mountains, in the State of Pará. She graduated in Physics at the Federal University of Espírito Santo in 2004. She then pursued a Master's degree and Doctorate in Astronomy at the University of São Paulo , defending her Doctorate dissertation in 2010.

#889

Julia A. Thompson

#168142

Overall Influence

1901 - 2004 (103 years)

Julia A. Thompson, an experimental particle physicist at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded the status of Fellow in the American Physical Society, after being nominated by the Division of Particles and Fields in 1995, for her contributions to our understanding of a broad range of particle physics phenomena through experimentation and instrumentation development, and for her continued efforts to encourage participation in physics by high school students and under represented groups.

#890

Ocean Mercier

#87617

Overall Influence

Ocean Ripeka Mercier is a New Zealand academic specialising in physics and Māori science. Career After a B.Sc. Mercier did a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington, in association with Industrial Research Ltd.

#891

Cecilia Ceccarelli

#153357

Overall Influence

Cecilia Ceccarelli is an Italian astronomer known for her research on astrochemistry and the spectroscopy of protostars. She was named as the female scientist of the year in the 2006 Irène Joliot-Curie Prizes.

#892

Vasiliki Pavlidou

#161917

Overall Influence

Vasiliki Pavlidou is a Greek astrophysicst and Full Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete and an Affiliated Faculty at the Institute of Astrophysics - Foundation for Research & Technology - Helas. Since July 2023 she serves as an associate editor in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics Her research interests focus on cosmology, high energy physics and radio astronomy.

#893

Melanie Campbell

#109502

Overall Influence

Melanie Crombie Williams Campbell is a professor of physics at the University of Waterloo. Cross-appointed with the School of Optometry and Vision Science, she is known for the development of light activated treatments for eye disease and non-invasive imaging techniques for the detection of Alzheimer's disease through the identification of retinal amyloids.

#894

Janet Iwasa

#39322

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Janet Iwasa is an American data visualization expert and assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah. Early life and education In 1978, Janet Iwasa was born to parents Mikeko and Kuni Iwasa in Bloomington, Indiana. She was the youngest of three children. Following her father joining the National Institutes of Health, she moved, with her family, to Maryland. She later went on to participate in an internship at the Institute for Genomic Research.

#895

Giulia Grancini

#123257

Overall Influence

1984 - Present (40 years)

Giulia Grancini is an Italian physicist who is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pavia. Her work considers new materials for photovoltaic devices, including perovskites and polymer-based materials. In 2020, Grancini was named the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal of Materials Chemistry Lecturer.

#896

Ruth Murray-Clay

Ruth Murray-Clay

#168414

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Ruth Murray-Clay is a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz who studies the formation of planetary systems. Career Murray-Clay graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. from Harvard University in 2001, then moved to the University of California, Berkeley where she earned an MA in 2004 and Ph.D. in 2008 under the supervision of Eugene Chiang. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Institute for Theory and Computation until 2010 when she became a lecturer at Harvard University. In September 2014 she joined University of California, Santa Barbara where she held the title of assistant professor of physics.

#897

Stephanie A. Majewski

#140610

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (43 years)

Stephanie A. Majewski is an American physicist at the University of Oregon researching high energy particle physics at the CERN ATLAS experiment. She worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the Brookhaven National Laboratory prior to joining the faculty at UO in 2012. She was selected for the Early Career Research Program award of the U.S. Department of Energy , one of 35 scientists in all DOE-supported fields to receive this national honor in 2014.

#898

Alice White

#162774

Overall Influence

Alice Elizabeth White is an American physicist. She is a professor and chair at the Boston University College of Engineering. Previously, she was Chief Scientist at Bell Labs. She is a fellow of the APS, the IEEE and the OSA.

#899

Jacquiline Romero

Jacquiline Romero

#94338

Overall Influence

Mary Jacquiline Romero is a quantum physicist in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research expertise and interests are in the field of quantum foundations and quantum information. In particular, Romero is an experimental quantum physicist studying the properties of single photons for the development of new quantum alphabets and the nature of quantum causality.

#900

Maura Hagan

#59736

Overall Influence

Maura E. Hagan is a Professor of Physics and Dean of the College of Science at Utah State University. She is a Fellow of both the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019.

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