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,
#5851
Shimon Schuldiner
#138703
Overall Influence
#5852
N. Ino Panagia
#138731
Overall Influence
#5853
Hendricus Stoof
#136105
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Hendricus Theodorus Christiaan "Henk" Stoof is a professor in theoretical physics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His main interests are atomic physics, condensed matter physics and many-body physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#5854
George Hunter Miley
#138762
Overall Influence
#5855
Tapan Mukerji
#138780
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#5856
Chung‐loong Choy
#138801
Overall Influence
#5857
James Edward Pringle
#138814
Overall Influence
#5858
Christian Joachim
#138817
Overall Influence
#5859
Peter. H. Hauschildt
#138828
Overall Influence
#5860
Jeffrey E. Mcclintock
#138834
Overall Influence
#5861
Robert R. J. Antonucci
#138860
Overall Influence
#5862
Ian Fisher
#79879
Overall Influence
Ian Randal Fisher is a United States-based British physicist and Director of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials at Stanford University. Ian R. Fisher was born and educated in the United Kingdom. He did his undergraduate study at the School of Physics and Space Research at the University of Birmingham in England from 1989 to 1992. He graduated with a BSc in physics from Birmingham University in 1993. He was a research assistant at the New Zealand Institute for Industrial Research, in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, in 1993. He did his PhD at the University of Cambridge, in England from 199...
Go to Profile#5863
Thomas A. Potemra
#138869
Overall Influence
#5864
Emmanuel Flahaut
#138907
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
#5865
Ken-ichi Ueda
#99073
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
is a Japanese laser scientist. He published more than 700 papers in international journals. His research encompasses gas lasers, solid state lasers, high power fiber lasers, ceramic lasers for inertial confinement fusion research, gravitational wave detection, high field science and industrial applications.
Go to Profile#5866
Elizabeth Essex-Cohen
#55783
Overall Influence
1940 - 2004 (64 years)
Elizabeth Essex-Cohen was an Australian physicist who worked in global positioning satellite physics and was among the first women in Australia to be awarded a PhD in physics. Early life and education Elizabeth Annette Essex-Cohen, née Essex, was educated at Grafton High. She subsequently completed a PhD in Physics at Australia's University of New England, investigating ionospheric irregularities under Frank Hibberd, graduating in 1966. Essex-Cohen was the fourth woman in Australia to receive a PhD in physics.
Go to Profile#5867
Karsten Danzmann
#139004
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#5868
Davide Castelvecchi
#139012
Overall Influence
#5869
Joshua Zimmerberg
#139022
Overall Influence
#5870
Arkadiǐ B. Migdal
#139044
Overall Influence
#5871
G. Michael Morris
#70157
Overall Influence
G. Michael Morris was president of the Optical Society of America in 2002. Morris received his B.S. degree with special distinction in engineering physics from the University of Oklahoma, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#5872
Johannes Georg Bednorz
#139060
Overall Influence
#5873
Lisa Harvey-Smith
#66690
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Lisa Harvey-Smith is a British-Australian astrophysicist, Australia's Women in STEM Ambassador and a Professor of Practice in Science Communication at the University of NSW. Her research interests include the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism, supernova remnants, the interstellar medium, massive star formation and astrophysical masers. For almost a decade Harvey-Smith was a research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation , including several years as the Project Scientist for the Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and later Project Scientist...
Go to Profile#5874
Olaf Pongs
#139085
Overall Influence
#5875
Oddbjørn Engvold
#138692
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Oddbjørn Engvold is a Norwegian astronomer. He was born in Askim. His specialty is solar physics, and he was appointed as a professor at the University of Oslo in 1989. He was secretary general of the International Astronomical Union from 2003 to 2006 and a member of the board of Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1993 to 1998.
Go to Profile#5876
Felix Weinberg
#80116
Overall Influence
1928 - 2012 (84 years)
Felix Jiri Weinberg FRS was a Czech-British physicist. He was Emeritus Professor of Combustion Physics and Distinguished Research Fellow at Imperial College London. Life Felix Weinberg was born on 2 April 1928 in Ústí nad Labem in Czechoslovakia. As a teenager, he spent much of the war in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and other Nazi concentration camps. He arrived in England on V. J. day. Having had no formal schooling since the age of 12, he had to take his first degrees as an external student of the University of London. In 1951 he joined Imperial College as a research assistant, obtaining his PhD in 1954 for developing novel optical methods to analyse the structure of flames.
Go to Profile#5877
Gary D. Egbert
#139114
Overall Influence
#5878
Erwin Gabathuler
#97687
Overall Influence
1933 - 2016 (83 years)
Erwin Gabathuler was a particle physicist from Northern Ireland. Early life Erwin Gabathuler was born in Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland on 16 November 1933, a son of the manager of the Swiss embroidery factory. He attended Rainey Endowed School, Magherafelt, and then Queen's University Belfast. There he studied physics, and was awarded BSc in 1956, and MSc in 1957 for a thesis on "Electron Collision Cross-sections of Atmospheric Gases". He then moved to the University of Glasgow to work at the 300 MeV synchrotron there, and was awarded a PhD in 1961.
Go to Profile#5879
Hanna Vehkamäki
#108377
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Hanna Tuula Katariina Vehkamäki is a Finnish physicist who is a professor of computational aerosol science at the University of Helsinki. Her research investigates aerosol nucleation and atmospheric chemistry. She also serves as Vice Dean of Wellbeing and Equality. In 2022, she was elected to the Order of the White Rose of Finland.
Go to Profile#5880
Juerg Leuthold
#139135
Overall Influence
#5881
Bang Wong
#16802
Overall Influence
Bang Wong is the creative director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard University. He is considered "one of the leading innovators at the interface of art and medicine" by Nature Medicine, and is a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow and board member of the Association of Medical Illustrators. He holds a master of science in immunology and a master of arts in medical and biological illustration from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he also serves as an adjunct assistant professor. In 2010, he launched a monthly column in Nature Methods about the visual presentation of sc...
Go to Profile#5882
Lee G. Sobotka
#123994
Overall Influence
Lee G. Sobotka is American physicist at Washington University in St. Louis was awarded the status of Fellow in the American Physical Society, after he was nominated by their Division of Nuclear Physics in 2009, for his contributions to the understanding of complex nuclear reactions, most notably the production of intermediate mass fragments, and for the creation of novel detector systems and signal processing technologies for both basic and applied nuclear science.
Go to Profile#5883
M. Ikio Takano
#139186
Overall Influence
#5884
Luigi Giuseppe Jacchia
#139200
Overall Influence
#5885
Stephan Grabbe
#139245
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#5886
Haakon Andreas Olsen
#117371
Overall Influence
1923 - 2010 (87 years)
Haakon Andreas Olsen was a Norwegian physicist. Olsen was born in Tromsø and finished his secondary education in 1944. He enrolled at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, first in architecture, then in technical physics and finally theoretical physics under Harald Wergeland. He graduated with the siv.ing. degree in 1950 and the dr.techn. degree in 1953. His specialty was elementary particle physics.
Go to Profile#5887
Josef Priller
#139254
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
#5888
Ene Ergma
#109703
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Ene Ergma is an Estonian politician, a member of the Riigikogu , and scientist. She was a member of the political party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica and, before the two parties merged, a member of Res Publica Party. On 1 June 2016, Ergma announced her resignation from the party, because the party had lost its identity and turned populist.
Go to Profile#5889
Ulrich W. Suter
#139266
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
#5890
Philippe Huybrechts
#139270
Overall Influence
#5891
Jan H van der Merwe
#86916
Overall Influence
1922 - 2016 (94 years)
Johannes Hendrik van der Merwe was a South African mathematician and physicist. The Frank–Van der Merwe crystal growth model carries his name and he was awarded numerous South African academic prizes. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Epitaxy". His research is seen as fundamental to applications in communication technology.
Go to Profile#5892
Hans A. Weidenmüller
#139302
Overall Influence
#5893
Daniel. Zwanziger
#139334
Overall Influence
#5894
Frank E. Taylor
#139368
Overall Influence
#5895
Michael C. Cross
#139370
Overall Influence
#5896
Ortwin Hess
#108066
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Ortwin Hess is a German-born theoretical physicist at Trinity College Dublin and Imperial College London , working in condensed matter optics. Bridging condensed matter theory and quantum optics he specialises in quantum nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials and semiconductor laser dynamics. Since the late 1980s he has been an author and coauthor of over 300 peer-reviewed articles, the most popular of which, called Trapped rainbow' storage of light in metamaterials", was cited more than 400 times. He pioneered active nanoplasmonics and metamaterials with quantum gain and in 2014 he intro...
Go to Profile#5897
Klaus-dieter Prof. Dr. Weltmann
#139387
Overall Influence
#5898
Mohd Noh Dalimin
#82344
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Mohd Noh Dalimin, BSc is a Professor of Physics . He is the second Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia , from October, 2008 until October 2016 replacing Ismail Hj. Bakar. Prior to that, he was the Vice-Chancellor of University Malaysia Sabah between 2005 and 2008, and a Deputy Vice-Chancellor between 1998 and 2005, in the same university.
Go to Profile#5899
David Lincoln Book
#139430
Overall Influence
#5900
Martin Nov. Goldstein
#139432
Overall Influence
