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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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Physics,

#5401

Bengt I. Lundqvist

#132223

Overall Influence

#5402

Harold Y. Hwang

#78357

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Harold Yoonsung Hwang is an American physicist, specializing in materials physics, condensed matter physics, nanoscience, and quantum engineering. Education and career Harold Hwang graduated in 1993 from MIT with B.S. in physics, as well as B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering. He received in 1997 his Ph.D. from Princeton University with thesis advisor Nai Phuan Ong. At Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, Hwang was from 1994 to 1996 a research assistant and from 1996 to 2003 a member of the technical staff. At the department of advanced materials science and the department of applied physics ...

#5403

Ole Bang

#132294

Overall Influence

#5404

Michael W. Feast

#132303

Overall Influence

#5405

Alexey Kavokin

#113079

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Alexey V. Kavokin is a Russian and French theoretical physicist and writer. He is an expert in solid state optics and semiconductor physics. Life He graduated from the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University in 1991. He was a member of staff of the Ioffe Physico-Technical institute . He graduated from the Ioffe Physico-Technical institute in 1993, with a PhD in physics and mathematics, supervisor Prof. E.L. Ivchenko. He was a professor at the Blaise Pascal University . He is a professor at the University of Southampton . In July 2010, he co-founded the Mediterranean Institute of Fundamental Physics with the support of Dr.

#5406

Walter H. Haas

#86074

Overall Influence

1917 - 2015 (98 years)

Walter H. Haas was an American amateur astronomer. He started observing in the 1930s. After the Second World War he founded the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers and served there as the executive director between 1947 and the mid-1980s. Since then he had been a member of the board of directors as the Director Emeritus.

#5407

John Lekner

#132329

Overall Influence

#5408

A. W. Pryor

#86473

Overall Influence

1928 - 2014 (86 years)

Arthur William Pryor was an Australian physicist known for his contributions to neutron diffraction and infrared laser isotope separation. Pryor authored and co-authored a number of papers in the field of crystallography and he also co-authored, with B. T. M. Willis, the book Thermal Vibrations in Crystallography.

#5409

Janos Kirz

#131620

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Janos Kirz is a Hungarian-American physicist, Professor emeritus at Stony Brook University, and pioneer of X-ray microscopy. Biography Kirz was born in Budapest, Hungary and emigrated to the United States following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley and after getting his PhD in 1963, he spent a year as a postdoc at CEA in Saclay. In 1968 Kirz took a position at Stony Brook University where he was appointed professor in 1973. Kirz is the nephew of physicist Edward Teller.

#5410

Nicholas P. Warner

#132366

Overall Influence

#5411

Heinz Ludwig

#132374

Overall Influence

#5412

Laura Baudis

#107761

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Laura Baudis is a Romanian-born Swiss particle astrophysicist. She is employed as a full professor by the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Her research focuses on dark matter and neutrino physics. She is a member of the science strategy team for XENON as well as the CERN Scientific Policy Committee and the PSI Research Committee for Particle Physics.

#5413

De-maw M. Chuang

#132462

Overall Influence

#5414

Masatsugu Suzuki

#91803

Overall Influence

Masatsugu Sei Suzuki is a Japanese-American physicist. He is a professor of physics and is affiliated with the Institute for Materials Research at Binghamton University. He has published 155 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

#5415

Gerald F. Tape

#55087

Overall Influence

1915 - 2005 (90 years)

Gerald F. Tape was an American physicist. Education He received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1939 from the University of Michigan. Career From 1939 to 1942 he was instructor of physics at Cornell University. During World War II he worked at MIT Radiation Laboratory . He was deputy director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory He was Atomic Energy Commission Commissioner : July 15, 1963 - April 30, 1969. He was then U.S. representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency 1973 - 1980. He retired in 1980.

#5416

Ralf Ludwig

#132488

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

#5417

Ben Eggleton

#77641

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Benjamin John Eggleton, , is Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Sydney. He is also Professor in the School of Physics where he leads a research group in photonics, nanotechnology and smart sensors and serves as co-director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network .

#5418

Francesca Ferlaino

#95709

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Francesca Ferlaino is an Italian-Austrian experimental physicist known for her research on quantum matter. She is a professor of physics at the University of Innsbruck. Biography Francesca Ferlaino was born in Naples, Italy. She studied physics at the University of Naples Federico II and was an undergraduate research fellow at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste . She did a PhD in physics at the University of Florence and the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy . In 2007 she moved to the University of Innsbruck, Austria, where she was a research and teaching associate and started her own research group.

#5419

William H. Louisell

#132521

Overall Influence

#5420

Rosario Fazio

#132533

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

#5421

See‐leang Chin

#132539

Overall Influence

#5422

Masao Shimizu

#132573

Overall Influence

#5423

Norman H. Baker

#89564

Overall Influence

1931 - 2005 (74 years)

Norman H. Baker was a professor of astrophysics at Columbia University. He was born in Fergus Falls, Minnesota on October 23, 1931, and died on October 11, 2005, in Watertown, New York. His research primarily involved computational investigations of stellar structure and evolution; in particular, he focused on pulsating variable stars and he is considered as one of the founders of modern pulsation theory. From 1975 until 1983, he was the editor of the Astronomical Journal and served as president of IAU Commission 27 during the term of 1982 - 1985.

#5424

Roberto Benzi

#132639

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

#5425

George Ernest Rogers

#132649

Overall Influence

#5426

Hal A. Weaver

#118321

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Harold Anthony "Hal" Weaver, Jr. is an American astronomer, known for his research into the composition of solar system bodies including comets and Kuiper belt objects. Weaver attended Duke University as an undergraduate, and obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins, where he researched the spectra of comets using data from the International Ultraviolet Explorer space telescope.

#5427

Maxim.yu. Khlopov

#132692

Overall Influence

#5428

Ajay K. Sood

#86472

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Ajay Kumar Sood is an Indian physicist and researcher currently serving as the 4th Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. He holds of 2 US and 5 Indian patents, known for his pioneering research findings on graphene and nanotechnology. He is a Distinguished Honorary Professor of Physics at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The Government of India honoured him in 2013, with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of science and technology. Sood was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015. He has been on the Physical...

#5429

Ansgar Denner

#132711

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

#5430

Hubert Bray

#53396

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Hubert Lewis Bray is a mathematician and differential geometer. He is known for having proved the Riemannian Penrose inequality. He works as professor of mathematics and physics at Duke University. Early life and education He earned his B.A. and B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Physics in 1992 from Rice University and obtained his Ph.D. in 1997 from Stanford University under the mentorship of Richard Melvin Schoen.

#5431

Siegfried Trattnig

#132771

Overall Influence

#5432

William R. Bennett Jr.

#48567

Overall Influence

1930 - 2008 (78 years)

William Ralph Bennett Jr. was an American physicist known for his pioneering work on gas lasers. He spent most of his career on the faculty of Yale University. Career The son of the noted physicist William R. Bennett Sr., Bennett Jr. received his bachelor's degree in physics from Princeton University. Bennett's graduate work in physics was on spectroscopy and collisions of the second kind in the noble gases. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Bennett became a tenured professor at Yale University in 1962 and retired in 2000.

#5433

Erika Böhm-Vitense

#106400

Overall Influence

1923 - 2017 (94 years)

Erika Helga Ruth Böhm-Vitense was a German-born American astrophysicist known for her work on Cepheid variables and convection in stellar atmospheres. Early life Böhm-Vitense was born Erika Helga Ruth Vitense on 3 June 1923 in Kurau, Germany. She was the second of three girls. Her parents, Wilma and Hans Vitense were both teachers. She, along with her sisters, was raised in Lübeck, Germany.

#5434

Bill Nelson

#31891

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Clarence William Nelson II is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . Nelson previously served as a United States senator from Florida from 2001 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1972 to 1978 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. In January 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of U.S. Congress to fly in space, after Senator Jake Garn, when he served as a payload specialist on mission STS-61-C aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.

#5435

Marian Paluch

#132807

Overall Influence

#5436

Kathryn Zurek

#129234

Overall Influence

Kathryn M. Zurek is an American physicist and professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Her research interests primarily lie at the intersection of particle physics with cosmology and particle astrophysics. She is known for her theories on dark matter's "hidden valleys", also known as hidden sectors.

#5437

Denis Jérôme

#132819

Overall Influence

#5438

Alexander L. Fradkov

#132824

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

#5439

Hiroshi Eisaki

#132830

Overall Influence

#5440

Kenneth R. Foster

#132857

Overall Influence

#5441

Holger Kantz

#132867

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

#5442

Frank I. Marcus

#86499

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Frank I. Marcus was an American cardiologist and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, the author of more than 290 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and of 90 book chapters. He was considered a world expert on arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and was a member of the Editorial/Scientific Board of 14 Cardiovascular Journals as well as a reviewer for 26 other medical publications.

#5443

Tang Xiaowei

#63850

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Tang Xiaowei is a Chinese physicist who has made contributions to the Chinese applied physics field. He is an academician in Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Zhejiang University.

#5444

Tomaž Prosen

#124845

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Tomaž Prosen is a Slovenian theoretical and mathematical physicist. His research has spanned non-equilibrium dynamics, statistical mechanics, quantum transport, and chaos theory. Early career Prosen earned his Diploma in Physics in 1991, and a Doctorate of Science in 1995, both from the University of Ljubljana. He finished both at a significantly younger age than usual. ISI named him a ‘Citation Superstar’ as one of the most cited young scientists in Slovenia in 2000. He was made a Full Professor at the University of Ljubljana by outstanding early election in 2008.

#5445

Thomas Michael O'Neil

#132506

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Thomas Michael O'Neil is an American physicist who specializes in plasma physics. Early life and career O’Neil obtained his bachelor's degree at California State University, Long Beach in 1962, and then his master's degree and Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego in 1964 and 1965 respectively. From 1965 to 1967, he was a scientist at General Atomics and from 1967 at UCSD as an assistant professor and later a professor. From 1980 to 1984, he was on the advisory board of the Institute of Fusion Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

#5446

Vladimir Grigorievich Chigrinov

#132909

Overall Influence

#5447

E. Mark Haacke

#132918

Overall Influence

#5448

Francesco Loreto

#132922

Overall Influence

#5449

William Halperin

#132617

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

William P. Halperin is a Canadian-American physicist, academic, and researcher. He is the Orrington Lunt Professor of Physics at Northwestern University. Halperin is an experimentalist in condensed matter physics specializing in ultra-low temperature investigations of quantum liquids and solids, notably liquid and solid 3He , superconducting quantum materials and unconventional superconductivity, magnetic compounds, highly porous materials including aerogels, porous glasses and cements. He has developed specialized acoustic techniques for very low temperatures as well as applications of nuclea...

#5450

Michio Hirano

#132951

Overall Influence

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