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).

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List of the most influential people in Physics,

#5251

Dennis Jennings

Dennis Jennings

#30601

Overall Influence

Dennis M. Jennings is an Irish physicist, academic, Internet pioneer, and venture capitalist. In 1985–1986 he was responsible for three critical decisions that shaped the subsequent development of NSFNET, the network that became the Internet.

#5252

Zbigniew Dauter

#129950

Overall Influence

#5253

Andreas J. Heinrich

Andreas J. Heinrich

#47744

Overall Influence

Andreas J. Heinrich is a physicist working with scanning tunneling microscopy, quantum technology, nanoscience, spin excitation spectroscopy, and precise atom manipulation. He worked for IBM Research in Almaden for 18 years, during which time he developed nanosecond scanning tunneling microscopy which provided an improvement in time resolution of 100,000 times, and combined x-ray absorption spectroscopy with spin excitation spectroscopy. In 2015 his team combined STM with electron spin resonance, which enables single-atom measurements on spins with nano-electronvolt precision REF1, REF2. In 2022 his team demonstrated the extension of ESR-STM to individual molecules REF3.

#5254

Jerome Mayo Greenberg

#129981

Overall Influence

#5255

Alan Lidiard

#94310

Overall Influence

1928 - 2020 (92 years)

Alan Bernard Lidiard , or A. B. Lidiard, was a British condensed matter physicist known for his research into defects in materials. Education and career Lidiard studied theoretical physics under Charles Coulson at King's College London, obtaining an MSc in 1950 and a PhD in 1952. He spent two years as a Fulbright scholar in the USA, first as a research assistant for Friedrich Seitz at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and then under Charles Kittel at University of California, Berkeley. He took up a research fellowship in the Theoretical Division at Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell.

#5256

Arnfinn Graue

#127389

Overall Influence

1926 - 2021 (95 years)

Arnfinn Graue was a Norwegian nuclear physicist. He was born in Bergen. He was appointed a docent at the University of Bergen from 1961, took the dr.philos. degree in 1966 and was promoted to professor in experimental nuclear physics in 1971. He served as dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences from 1978 to 1980, vice rector from 1981 to 1983 and rector from 1984 to 1989. He was also a Norwegian delegate to CERN from 1984.

#5257

Richard Bruce Buxton

#130015

Overall Influence

#5258

Russell A. Howard

#130019

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

#5259

Ernst K. Zinner

#130039

Overall Influence

#5260

Angela Speck

#94497

Overall Influence

Angela Karen Speck is a Professor of Astrophysics and the Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She works on infrared astronomy and the study of space dust. She is a popular science communicator, and was co-chair of the National Total Solar Eclipse Task Force.

#5261

Chikashi Toyoshima

#79985

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Chikashi Toyoshima is a Japanese biophysicist. His research focuses on two proteins: the Ca2+-ATPase of muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum, and the Na+, K+-ATPase expressed in all animal cells. He is a professor at the University of Tokyo and the Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. Toyoshima's research about the Ca2+-ATPase started in 1989. In the next few years, he and his colleagues obtained the world's first series of images of Ca2+-ATPase at the atomic level. Via x-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and other methods, he has determined the crystal structures of ten intermediates of Ca2+-ATPase.

#5262

Andrea Caneschi

#130057

Overall Influence

#5263

Michael E. Peskin

#130058

Overall Influence

#5264

Geltrude Mingrone

#130063

Overall Influence

#5265

Mark Reed

#31036

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Mark Arthur Reed was an American physicist and professor at Yale University. He is noted particularly for seminal research on quantum dots. Career and education He coined the term quantum dots, for demonstrating the first zero-dimensional electronic device that had fully quantized energy states. Reed did research in electronic transport in nanoscale and mesoscopic systems, artificially structured materials and devices, molecular electronics, biosensors and bioelectronic systems, and nanofluidics. He was the author of more than 200 publications, had given over 75 plenary and over 400 invited talks, and held 33 U.S.

#5266

Jan Christoph Plefka

#96564

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Jan Christoph Plefka is a German theoretical physicist working in the field of quantum field theory and string theory. Education After receiving the Abitur in Darmstadt and performing civil service in a hospital, Plefka studied physics at the Technical University of Darmstadt and Texas A&M University where he received his M.Sc. as a Fulbright Scholar. He received his PhD from the Leibniz University Hannover with a dissertation on supersymmetric Matrix Models in 1995. In 2003 he received the Habilitation at the Humboldt University Berlin.

#5267

Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa

#27694

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa is a mathematician, scientist, author, professor, and expert on the history of science and Islam. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1967, his Master of Science degree from East Texas State University in 1968, and his PhD from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1972.

#5268

Nimrod Moiseyev

#130129

Overall Influence

#5269

Gökhan Budak

#97568

Overall Influence

1968 - 2013 (45 years)

Gökhan Budak was a Turkish professor of quantum physics. He was the Rector of Bayburt University from 7 September 2012 to his death. Biography Gökhan Budak was born in Olur, Erzurum. He graduated first in his year with a B.S. degree from Ankara University Faculty of Language, History and Geography in 1989. He started his academic career as a research assistant in 1990. He became an assistant professor in 1996, an associate professor in 2000 and a full professor in 2006.

#5270

Jacob Joseph Blum

#130140

Overall Influence

#5271

Stéphane Roux

#104464

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Stéphane Roux is a French physicist specializing in surface mechanics and fractures. He is director of research at the École normale supérieure de Cachan. He was awarded the Société française de physique annual prix Daniel Guinier and the Médaille d'argent of CNRS in 2006Disorder and Fracture by J.C. Charmet, E. Guyon and Stéphane Roux

#5272

James Stark Koehler

#51810

Overall Influence

1914 - 2006 (92 years)

James Stark Koehler was an American physicist, specializing in metal defects and their interactions. He is known for the eponymous Peach-Koehler stress formula. Career Koehler received 1935 his bachelor's degree from Oshkosh State Teachers College . In 1940 he received from the University of Michigan his Ph.D. under David M. Dennison with a thesis Hindered rotation in methyl-alcohol. After a postdoc fellowship in 1940–1941, supervised by Frederick Seitz, at the University of Pennsylvania, and another fellowship for about six months in 1941–1942 at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsbur...

#5273

James J. Kay

#25823

Overall Influence

1954 - 2004 (50 years)

James J. Kay was an ecological scientist and policy-maker. He was a respected physicist best known for his theoretical work on complexity and thermodynamics. Biography James Kay held a BS in physics from McGill University and a Ph.D. in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled Self-Organization in Living Systems. Much of his work relates to integrating thermodynamics into an understanding of self-organization in biological systems. For example, when water in a pot is heated, it will spontaneously form convection currents such as Bénard_cell....

#5274

Robert D. Cousins

#130201

Overall Influence

#5275

Hendrik Tennekes

#130230

Overall Influence

#5276

Pedro Schlottmann

#130232

Overall Influence

#5277

Vittorio Giovannetti

#130264

Overall Influence

#5278

Rupert Ursin

#103209

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Rupert Ursin is an Austrian experimental physicist active in the field of quantum entanglement and communications. He is currently deputy director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

#5279

Richard Sillitto

#101381

Overall Influence

1923 - 2005 (82 years)

Richard M. Sillitto was an optical physicist who wrote a useful text on quantum mechanics. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Fellow of the Institute of Physics as well as a past president of the Scottish branch of the Institute of Physics. Sillitto was Reader and Reader Emeritus in the Physics department of the University of Edinburgh.

#5280

Robert P. H. Chang

#130287

Overall Influence

#5281

Donald H. Fairfield

#130321

Overall Influence

#5282

Becky Parker

#93221

Overall Influence

Becky Parker is a British physicist and physics teacher based in Kent. She is a visiting professor at School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London. Early life and education Parker obtained a physics degree at the University of Sussex in 1980 before moving to Chicago to complete as Borg Warner Fellow for the MA in Conceptual Foundations of Science. She worked in the group of Bob Geroch, with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar attending one of her seminars.

#5283

Shaaban Khalil

#125893

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Shaaban Khalil is a high energy physicist. He is the founding director of the Center for Fundamental Physics at Zewail City of Science and Technology in Egypt. Education and career Khalil received his PhD in Supersymmetry Phenomenology under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Masiero in 1997. He has awarded the Fulbright fellowship at the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware, from 1999 to 2004 he held positions as a research and postdoctoral fellow at the Physics Department in Madrid University, Sussex University and the Institute of Particle Physics Phenomenology at Durham University.

#5284

Alexander Lerner

#9897

Overall Influence

1913 - 2004 (91 years)

Alexander Yakovlevich Lerner was a scientist and Soviet refusenik. He was born to a Jewish family in Vinnytsia, Russian Empire . Lerner graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1938, and received a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1940. During World War II, Lerner served as the chief engineer of the Central Autonomous Laboratory at the Soviet Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy in Moscow.

#5285

Szymon Suckewer

#121235

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Szymon Suckewer is a Polish-born American physicist, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. His primary fields of interest include X-ray lasers, and X-ray microscopy, particularly the generation of ultrashort laser pulses which are applied in plasma diagnostics.

#5286

Jiří Bičák

#82094

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Jiří Bičák is a Czech physicist currently at Charles University, fellow of the American Physical Society and formerly a President of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic. External links http://utf.mff.cuni.cz/info/lide/bicak.html

#5287

Mohammad H. Ansari

#92124

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Mohammad Ansari is a theoretical physicist expert in quantum physics. In 2006, he proposed that quantum gravitational effects can be seen on top of Hawking radiation of black hole. He was the first winner of John Brodie prize from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

#5288

John Quinn

#109601

Overall Influence

1933 - 2018 (85 years)

John Joseph Quinn was an American theoretical physicist as well as an academic administrator; he was a former Chancellor and a member of the faculty at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, US. He was considered to be an expert in the areas of solid-state physics and many-body theory including two dimensional Composite fermions, low-dimensional systems, quantum Hall effect and nanoscience. Quinn was also one of the first researchers to recognize that physics of ‘two-dimensional electronic systems’ needs to be treated as a professional-sub-specialty.

#5289

Sherry Yennello

#96493

Overall Influence

Sherry J. Yennello is an American nuclear chemist and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a Regents Professor and the holder of the Cyclotron Institute Bright Chair in Nuclear Science, who currently serves as the Director of the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University. She is also a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society. She has authored as well as co-authored more than 530 peer reviewed journal articles and has conducted many invited talks, presentations and seminars at several prestigious academic confer...

#5290

Marta Maria Perego

#130426

Overall Influence

#5291

William A.g. Bassett

#130443

Overall Influence

#5292

Heidi Schellman

Heidi Schellman

#69805

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Heidi Marie Schellman is an American particle physicist at Oregon State University , where she heads the Department of Physics. She is an expert in Quantum chromodynamics. Early life and education Schellman was born in 1957 in Hennepin, Minnesota, the daughter of two chemists. Her father, John Anthony Schellman, who trained at Princeton, was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Oregon; he was an early member of the "groundbreaking Institute of Molecular Biology" and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her mother, F. Charlotte Green, held a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford and had also worked at the California Institute of Technology.

#5293

Andrew N. Cleland

#87960

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Andrew N. Cleland is an American physicist, and is currently the John A. MacLean Sr. Professor for Molecular Engineering Innovation and Enterprise at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago.

#5294

Tiziana Di Matteo

#108895

Overall Influence

Tiziana Di Matteo is a Professor of Econophysics at King's College London. She studies complex systems, such as financial markets, and complex materials . She serves on the council of the Complex Systems Society.

#5295

Cathy Foley

#59815

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Catherine Patricia Foley is an Australian physicist. She is the Chief Scientist of Australia , before which she had been the chief scientist for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation since August 2018.

#5296

Xie Chen

#120669

Overall Influence

1984 - Present (42 years)

Xie Chen is a Chinese physicist and a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Her work covers both the field of condensed matter physics and quantum information, with a focus on many-body quantum mechanical systems with unconventional emergent phenomena. She won the 2020 New Horizons in Physics Prize for "incisive contributions to the understanding of topological states of matter and the relationships between them"

#5297

Yuri Kivshar

#90540

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Yuri S. Kivshar , Australian Scientist of Ukrainian origin, distinguished professor, head of Nonlinear Physics Centre of The Australian National University and research director of The International Research Centre for Nanophotonics and Metamaterials , Australian Federation Fellow.

#5298

Wolfgang Rascher

#130577

Overall Influence

#5299

Ehsan Samei

#130610

Overall Influence

#5300

Ayana Holloway Arce

Ayana Holloway Arce

#110460

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Ayana Holloway Arce is a professor of physics at Duke University. She works on particle physics, using data from the Large Hadron Collider to understand phenomena beyond the Standard Model. Early life and education Arce was born in Lansing, Michigan. She studied physics at Princeton University, graduating with honors and a bachelor's degree in 1998. She moved on to Harvard University for her PhD, working the Collider Detector at Fermilab detector at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. She completed her PhD in 2006.

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