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,
#5801
Theodore Postol
#19762
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Theodore A. Postol is a professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his work at MIT, he worked at Argonne National Laboratory, the Pentagon, and Stanford University.
Go to Profile#5802
Jessica Esquivel
#77634
Overall Influence
Jessica Esquivel is a Black Mexican and American physicist and science communicator, working at the Muon g-2 particle physics experiment at Fermilab. She is an advocate for gender and racial equity in science, and a lead organiser of #BlackInPhysics, a campaign to recognize and amplify the work of Black physicists worldwide. She was also selected as an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador in 2019.
Go to Profile#5803
Hans Christian Öttinger
#137951
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#5804
Ramón Latorre
#74383
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Ramón Rogelio Latorre de la Cruz is a Chilean biochemist, The winner of Chile's National Prize for Natural Sciences in 2002, he has been recognized for his investigations in the field of the ionic channels of cellular membranes.
Go to Profile#5805
Georg Friedrich Hoffmann
#138002
Overall Influence
#5806
Suh Yoo-hun
#30425
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Suh Yoo-hun is a South Korean neuroscientist. His researches focus on neurodegeneration, especially on the discovery of genes and therapies for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Education and work Suh Yoo-hun was born in Seoul. He obtained his MD in 1973 and his PhD in medicine and pharmacology in 1981, both degrees at the college of medicine in Seoul National University. He was professor at Seoul National University. He was the first president of Korean Brain Research Institute. In 2013 he received the National Government Medal for his academic achievements.
Go to Profile#5807
F. Delmaire-sizes B. Autrusson A. Nicaud D. Brochard
#138023
Overall Influence
#5808
Fritz Manfred Neubauer
#138028
Overall Influence
#5809
David B. Dusenbery
#38715
Overall Influence
David B. Dusenbery is a biophysicist with a central interest in how information influences the behavior of organisms. In later years, he also considered the physical constraints hydrodynamics imposes on microorganisms and gametes.
Go to Profile#5810
Larry W. Finger
#138060
Overall Influence
#5811
Vittoria Colizza
#104396
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Vittoria Colizza is an Italian scientist, research director at INSERM and a specialist in mathematical modeling of infectious disease and computational epidemiology. In particular, she has carried out research on the modeling of seasonal and pandemic flu, Ebola and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Go to Profile#5812
James E. Brau
#92023
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
James E. Brau is an American physicist at the University of Oregon who conducts research on elementary particles and fields. He founded the Oregon experimental high energy physics group in 1988 and served as director of the UO Center for High Energy Physics from 1997 to 2016. Prior to joining the Oregon faculty, he served in the Air Force and held positions at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and also the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006 he was appointed the Philip H. Knigh...
Go to Profile#5813
Joan Vaccaro
#105720
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Joan Vaccaro is a physicist at Griffith University and a former student of David Pegg. Her work in quantum physics includes quantum phase, nonclassical states of light, coherent laser excitation of atomic gases, cold atomic gases, stochastic Schrödinger equations, quantum information theory, quantum references, wave–particle duality, quantum thermodynamics, and the physical nature of time.
Go to Profile#5814
Serge Old Field Luryi
#138150
Overall Influence
#5815
Alan P. Koretsky
#138152
Overall Influence
#5816
Zoltán Géza Soos
#138166
Overall Influence
#5817
Naomi McClure-Griffiths
#83659
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Naomi McClure-Griffiths is an American-born astrophysicist and radio astronomer who researches and lives in Australia. In 2004, she discovered a new spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy. She was awarded the Prime Minister's Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist in 2006 and in 2015 was honored for her research in physics by receipt of the Pawsey Medal from the Australian Academy of Science. This was followed by an Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2021, while in 2022 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Go to Profile#5818
Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov
#138205
Overall Influence
#5819
John Woollam
#128532
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
John Arthur Woollam is an American educator, research physicist, electrical engineer, and George Holmes Distinguished Professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is also a successful entrepreneur who in 1987 founded the J.A. Woollam Company, an ellipsometry company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a world leader in the research, development, and commercialization of ellipsometry instruments. Woollam is also a known as a philanthropist and nature conservationist.
Go to Profile#5820
Wilfred F. Van Gunsteren
#138219
Overall Influence
#5821
Mark Brake
#107420
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Mark Brake is a Welsh author, broadcaster and former professor of science communication at the University of Glamorgan. Education Brake was born at Mountain Ash, Wales, UK. He was awarded a BSc by the University of Glamorgan and a MSc by University College Cardiff in 1988.
Go to Profile#5822
Nikolaus Grigorieff
#138253
Overall Influence
#5823
Vincenzo Stanghellini
#138312
Overall Influence
#5824
Donald Edward Woessner
#138337
Overall Influence
#5825
José Francisco Salgado
#70024
Overall Influence
José Francisco Salgado is an astronomer, experimental photographer, visual artist, and public speaker. He is known to use art to communicate science in engaging ways. Salgado's Science & Symphony films have been presented in more than 200 concerts and 150 lectures reaching a combined audience of more than 400,000 people in 18 countries. Orchestras that have presented his films include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino. Salgado is a member of the Bailey-Salgado Project, an audiovisual ensemble formed with composer and musician Tom Bailey .
Go to Profile#5826
Juerg Hodler
#138396
Overall Influence
#5827
Franz Pfeiffer
#58069
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Franz Pfeiffer is a German physicist known for his contributions to the development of Phase-contrast X-ray imaging and its applications in biomedical research. Research Pfeiffer contributed to the extension of known imaging modalities such as Differential interference contrast microscopy and Dark-field microscopy to the X-ray regime. In 2006 he demonstrated the feasibility of phase sensitive X-ray imaging with conventional, polychromatic X-ray sourcess and a grating interferometer. This enlarged the potential of X-ray phase imaging for clinical use as before the technique was only possible at synchrotron facilities.
Go to Profile#5828
Kenneth I. Kellermann
#138424
Overall Influence
#5829
Fernando Brandão
#103148
Overall Influence
1983 - Present (43 years)
Fernando Brandão is a Brazilian physicist and computer scientist working on quantum information and quantum computation. He is currently the Bren Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology and Director of Quantum Applications at Amazon Web Services. Previously, he was a researcher at Microsoft and a reader in Computer Science at University College London.
Go to Profile#5830
Craig Edward DeForest
#126062
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Craig Edward DeForest is an American solar physicist and the Vice-Chair of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division. He leads the heliophysics research group at the Boulder, Colorado offices of the Southwest Research Institute and holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His wide-ranging contributions to the field of experimental astrophysics of the Sun include: early work on the MSSTA, a sounding rocket that prototyped modern normal-incidence EUV optics such as are used on the Solar Dynamics Observatory; his discovery of sound waves in the...
Go to Profile#5831
Jacqueline Krim
#54362
Overall Influence
Jacqueline Krim is an American condensed matter physicist specializing in nanotribology, the study of film growth, friction, and wetting of nanoscale surfaces. She is a Distinguished University Professor of Physics at North Carolina State University.
Go to Profile#5832
Makoto Konagai
#138493
Overall Influence
#5833
Hans‐dieter Meyer
#138498
Overall Influence
#5834
Peter P. Eggleton
#138511
Overall Influence
#5835
Allen Goldman
#77366
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Allen Marshall Goldman is an American experimental condensed matter physicist, known for his research on electronic transport properties of superconductors and for the eponymous Carlson-Goldman mode involving collective oscillations in superconductors.
Go to Profile#5836
Alfred Grill
#138530
Overall Influence
#5837
Nolan R. Walborn
#138544
Overall Influence
#5838
Leif Mosekilde
#138550
Overall Influence
#5839
Jason McLellan
#85473
Overall Influence
Jason S. McLellan is a structural biologist, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin who specializes in understanding the structure and function of viral proteins, including those of coronaviruses. His research focuses on applying structural information to the rational design of vaccines and other therapies for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus . McLellan and his team collaborated with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy ...
Go to Profile#5840
Bhakta B. Rath
#23948
Overall Influence
Bhakta B. Rath is an Indian American material physicist and head of the Materials Science and Component Technology of the United States Naval Research Laboratory , the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. He is the chief administrative officer for program planning, interdisciplinary coordination, supervision and control of research and is the associate director of research for Materials Science and Component Technology at NRL.
Go to Profile#5841
Guram Mchedlidze
#34956
Overall Influence
1931 - 2009 (78 years)
Guram I. Mchedlidze was a Georgian Palaeobiologist, Corresponding Member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences , Doctor of Biological Sciences , Professor. Education and career In 1954 he graduated from the Faculty of Biology of the Tbilisi State University . Since 1973 he was Professor of this Faculty.
Go to Profile#5842
Alan Hood
#44451
Overall Influence
Alan William Hood is a professor in the Solar and Magnetospheric Theory Group at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He is best known for his wave heating theory involving the Coronal heating problem of the Sun's atmosphere.
Go to Profile#5843
Raymond Herb
#94230
Overall Influence
1908 - 1996 (88 years)
Raymond George Herb was an American professor of nuclear physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was known for building electrostatic accelerators. His work influenced the Manhattan Project, which built the first nuclear weapons. In 1960, the University of Sao Paulo awarded him an honorary doctorate. He won the Bonner Prize in 1968. He started a company called NEC that manufactures electrostatic accelerators. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#5844
J. e. Fischer
#138596
Overall Influence
#5845
Ortwin E. Gerhard
#138625
Overall Influence
#5846
Laura P. Bautz
#118517
Overall Influence
1940 - 2014 (74 years)
Laura Patricia Bautz was an American astronomer who worked for many years at the National Science Foundation, where she directed the Division of Astronomical Science. The Bautz–Morgan classification of galaxy clusters is named for her work with William Wilson Morgan, published in 1970.
Go to Profile#5847
Anupam Madhukar
#138667
Overall Influence
#5848
Hiroshi Katayama‐yoshida
#138687
Overall Influence
#5849
Robert H. Hauge
#138694
Overall Influence
#5850
Simson Garfinkel
#7800
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Simson L. Garfinkel is the Chief Scientist of BasisTech, LLC in Somerville, Ma . He was previously a Program Scientist at AI2050, part of Schmidt Futures He has held several roles across government, including a Senior Data Scientist at the Department of Homeland Security , the US Census Bureau's Senior Computer Scientist for Confidentiality and Data Access. and a computer scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology . Prior to that, he was an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California . In addition to his research, Garfinkel is a journalist...
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