The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Physics,
#5101
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Smirnov
#127536
Overall Influence
#5102
Richard Lingenfelter
#112954
Overall Influence
1934 - 2021 (87 years)
Richard Emery "Rich" Lingenfelter was an American astrophysicist and historian. He is known for his work on the origin of cosmic rays and gamma rays. As a historian, he is recognized for his efforts at chronicling the history of Death Valley.
Go to Profile#5103
Nigel G. Stocks
#50718
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Nigel Geoffrey Stocks is an engineer and physicist, notable for discovering suprathreshold stochastic resonance and its application to cochlear implant technology. Education He attended Bingley Grammar School before received a BSc in Applied Physics and Electronics and a PhD in , under Peter V. E. McClintock, at Lancaster University, UK, with a dissertation entitled Experiments in Stochastic Nonlinear Dynamics.
Go to Profile#5104
Henning Stahlberg
#86616
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Henning Stahlberg is a German physicist and Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Life Henning Stahlberg studied physics at the TU Berlin and graduated with a doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in 1997. He continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Biozentrum, University of Basel for the following 6 years. From 2003 he joined the University of California in Davis as assistant professor, where he was promoted to tenured associate professor in 2007. From 2009 to 2020, Stahlberg ...
Go to Profile#5105
Claus O. Wilke
#98983
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Claus O. Wilke is a computational and evolutionary biologist and chair of the Department of Integrative Biology at University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dwight W. and Blanche Faye Reeder Centennial Fellow in Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, and currently holds the Joseph J. & Jeanne M. Lagowski Regents Professorship in Molecular Bioscience.
Go to Profile#5106
Patrick G. O'Shea
#45693
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Patrick G. O’Shea is an Irish-American scientist and academic. From February 2017 to September 2020, he was the fifteenth president of University College Cork. He was previously vice president and chief research officer at the University of Maryland.
Go to Profile#5107
Maik Moeller
#127567
Overall Influence
#5108
Balázs Győrffy
#109298
Overall Influence
1938 - 2012 (74 years)
Balázs László Győrffy was a Hungarian-American-British theoretical physicist. In his obituary, the Times Higher Education described him as "one of the dominant international figures in the development of the theory of condensed matter". Győrffy is thought to be the first person to use the term "electron glue" to describe the sea of electrons binding together the nuclei in materials.
Go to Profile#5109
Dmitri Z. Garbuzov
#53205
Overall Influence
1940 - 2006 (66 years)
Dmitri Z. Garbuzov was one of the pioneers and inventors of room temperature continuous-wave-operating diode lasers and high-power diode lasers. The first room-temperature, continuous-wave diode lasers were successfully invented, developed, and almost simultaneously demonstrated at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in Leningrad, Russia by a team including Garbuzov and Zhores Alferov , and by the competing team of I. Hayashi and M. Panish at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Both teams attained this accomplishment in 1970. Garbuzov was also responsible for the develop...
Go to Profile#5110
Bruce Daniel Minsky
#127622
Overall Influence
#5111
Mohamed Henini
#127630
Overall Influence
#5112
Sylvain Veilleux
#127638
Overall Influence
#5113
William F. Brinkman
#117708
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
William Frank Brinkman is an American physicist who served as president of the American Physical Society and was the head of the Office of Science at the United States Department of Energy . He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984, and won the George E. Pake Prize in 1994. He was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, and became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2002.
Go to Profile#5114
Jeremy Hutson
#109006
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Jeremy Mark Hutson is noted for his research into ultra cold physics and he heads up the Cold Molecules Theory research group. His research led to his appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and is currently Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Durham University.
Go to Profile#5115
Piyare Jain
#30485
Overall Influence
1921 - 2019 (98 years)
Piyare Lal Jain was a particle physicist at University at Buffalo. On December 6, 2006, he claimed the discovery of the long-sought axion subatomic particle. Biography On December 6, 2006, he claimed discovery of the long-sought axion subatomic particle.
Go to Profile#5116
Vladimir Gribov
#127688
Overall Influence
#5117
Eric G. Adelberger
#88707
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Eric George Adelberger is an American experimental nuclear physicist and gravitational metrologist. Biography He graduated from Washington-Lee High School , and then matriculated at California Institute of Technology , where he was inspired by Richard Feynman. At Caltech Adelberger graduated in 1960 with a B.S. and in 1967 with a Ph.D. under the supervision of Charles A. Barnes . As a postdoc Adelberger was from 1967 to 1968 a research fellow at Caltech and from 1968 to 1969 a research associate at Stanford University. From 1969 to 1971 he was an assistant professor at Princeton University. A...
Go to Profile#5118
Franco P. Jona
#127724
Overall Influence
#5119
Leroy Elbert Alexander
#127734
Overall Influence
#5120
Eric Lauga
#127753
Overall Influence
#5121
Robert Stephen Kass
#127789
Overall Influence
#5122
Harold Neville Vazeille Temperley
#53989
Overall Influence
1915 - 2017 (102 years)
Professor Harold Neville Vazeille Temperley , better known as Neville Temperley, was an applied mathematician who made numerous contributions to the fields of statistical mechanics, graph theory and the physics of liquids and gases. He was awarded the title Doctor of Science as a fellow of King's College Cambridge, before working for the Admiralty on numerical modelling of underwater explosions during World War 2. He continued his work on the physical properties of liquids at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston until 1965.
Go to Profile#5123
Anthony J. DeMaria
#92706
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Anthony J. DeMaria is an American researcher in lasers and their applications, particularly known for his work with picosecond laser pulses. DeMaria received his Ph.D. in engineering physics from the University of Connecticut in 1956, and worked from 1960 to 1994 at the United Technologies Corporation Research Center, performing research in acousto-optics application to lasers, passive Q-switching and mode-locking of glass lasers, fast flow and wave-guide RF excited laserss, laser radar systems, and fiber-optics sensors, ultimately serving as Assistant Director of Research 1985-1994. In 199...
Go to Profile#5124
Bernd Jähne
#127862
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#5125
Peter Vincent Landshoff
#127884
Overall Influence
#5126
Stephen R. Kane
#108784
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Stephen Kane is a full professor of astronomy and planetary astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside who specializes in exoplanetary science. His work covers a broad range of exoplanet detection methods, including the microlensing, transit, radial velocity, and imaging techniques. He is a leading expert on the topic of planetary habitability and the habitable zone of planetary systems. He has published hundreds of peer reviewed scientific papers and has discovered/co-discovered several hundred planets orbiting other stars. He is a prolific advocate of interdisciplinarity science...
Go to Profile#5127
A. Dalla S. Balogh
#127917
Overall Influence
#5128
Stanley Phillip Gudder
#127920
Overall Influence
#5129
Dam Thanh Son
#127935
Overall Influence
#5130
Norbert Suttorp
#127943
Overall Influence
#5131
Peter Jezzard
#127952
Overall Influence
#5132
Enrique Gaztañaga
#127975
Overall Influence
#5133
Anton Koekemoer
#127979
Overall Influence
#5134
Jürgen P. Rabe
#98049
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Jürgen P. Rabe is a German physicist and nanoscientist. Life Jürgen P. Rabe studied physics and mathematics at RWTH Aachen where in 1981 he obtained his diploma in physics, based on a thesis on semiconductor optics with Peter Grosse. 1984 he obtained his doctoral degree from the Department of Physics at the Technische Universität München, based on a biophysical thesis on model membranes, promoted by Erich Sackmann.
Go to Profile#5135
Blakesley Burkhart
#123211
Overall Influence
Blakesley Burkhart is an astrophysicist. She is the winner of the 2017 Robert J. Trumpler Award awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which recognizes a Ph.D. thesis that is "particularly significant to astronomy." She also is the winner of the 2019 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy and the 2022 winner of The American Physical Society's Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. The awards both cited her work on magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and for developing innovative techniques for comparing observable astronomical phenomena with theoretical models.
Go to Profile#5136
Kerstin Perez
#117594
Overall Influence
Kerstin Perez is an Associate Professor of Particle Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is interested in physics beyond the standard model. She leads the silicon detector program for the General AntiParticle Spectrometer and the high-energy X-ray analysis community for the NuSTAR telescope array.
Go to Profile#5137
Philippe Lalanne
#128003
Overall Influence
#5138
William Lauchlin Mcmillan
#128012
Overall Influence
#5139
Valerio Faraoni
#128038
Overall Influence
#5140
Arthur Konnerth
#44364
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Arthur Konnerth is a German neurophysiologist and neuroscientist, the Hertie Senior Professor of Neuroscience at the Technical University of Munich. Academic career Konnerth received a degree in medicine from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. He completed his habilitation at TUM in 1987. He has been a professor at the University of Saarland, TUM, and LMU. He has been a full professor at TUM and the director of its Institute of Neuroscience since 2005, and has held the Hertie professorship since 2017.
Go to Profile#5141
H. Warren Moos
#128083
Overall Influence
#5142
Ioannis Liritzis
#43090
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Ioannis Liritzis is professor of physics in archaeology and his field of specialization is the application of natural sciences to archaeology and cultural heritage. He studied physics at the University of Patras and continued at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1980. Since then, he undertook postgraduate work at the University of Oxford, Université Bordeaux III, University of Edinburgh and the Academy of Athens.
Go to Profile#5143
Hans Grassmann
#77617
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Hans Grassmann is a German physicist, writer and entrepreneur, who teaches and works in Italy. Grassmann is the author of four books and more than 250 scientific publications, and is the founder and managing director of the research company Isomorph srl.
Go to Profile#5144
Thomas Michael Donahue
#125529
Overall Influence
1921 - 2004 (83 years)
Thomas Michael Donahue was an American physicist, astronomer, and space and planetary scientist. Donahue graduated in 1942 from Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri and received in 1947 his PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University, with an interruption of his graduate studies by WW II and service in the Army Signal Corps.
Go to Profile#5145
J. Th. G. Overbeek
#128153
Overall Influence
#5146
Helen Lines
#106182
Overall Influence
1918 - 2001 (83 years)
Helen Chambliss Williams Lines was an American amateur astronomer. In her beginnings she was a deep-sky observer and astrophotographer. Astronomy In 1969, Lines was one of early members of the Phoenix Astronomical Society. Lines was a member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. She and her husband, civil engineer Richard D. Lines, built a small observatory in Mayer, Arizona, and wrote about its construction for Sky & Telescope. In 1992 they won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for their work in the field of photoelectric photometry of variable stars.
Go to Profile#5147
Cooper
#128159
Overall Influence
#5148
He Xiantu
#86219
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
He Xiantu , also romanized as Xian-Tu He, is a Chinese nuclear and theoretical physicist. He is the chief scientist of many Chinese national nuclear research and development programs. He designed the first neutron bomb in China.
Go to Profile#5149
James B. Anderson
#70091
Overall Influence
1935 - 2021 (86 years)
James Bernhard Anderson was an American chemist and physicist. From 1995 to 2014 he was Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the Pennsylvania State University. He specialized in Quantum Chemistry by Monte Carlo methods, molecular dynamics of reactive collisions, kinetics and mechanisms of gas phase reactions, and rare-event theory.
Go to Profile#5150
Nikolay Dokholyan
#113120
Overall Influence
Nikolay V. Dokholyan is an American biophysicist, academic and researcher. He is a G. Thomas Passananti Professor and Vice Chair for Research at Penn State College of Medicine. Dokholyan’s research primarily focuses on translational research, with a particular attention on the applications of basic science in terms of addressing some of the challenging problems in biology and medicine. He is the author of a book entitled Computational Modeling of Biological Systems.
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