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,
#6001
David Cockayne
#100489
Overall Influence
1942 - 2010 (68 years)
David John Hugh Cockayne FRS FInstP was Professor in the physical examination of materials in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford and professorial fellow at Linacre College from 2000 to 2009. He was the president of the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy from 2003 till 2007, then vice-president 2007 to 2010.
Go to Profile#6002
Carsten Rockstuhl
#140923
Overall Influence
#6003
Peggy Cebe
#128957
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Peggy Cebe is a professor of physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Tufts University. Early life Cebe was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. She received her bachelor's degree from the Edinboro State College of Pennsylvania in 1970. She earned a MS in mathematics in 1976 from the same school. Cebe obtained a second MS in physics from Cornell University in 1981, followed by a PhD in physics in 1984, also from Cornell University.
Go to Profile#6004
Michael R. Combi
#119690
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Michael R. Combi , is a space science professor at the University of Michigan. Combi's focus is planetary astronomy, and he specializes in the detailed modeling of cometary comaee. His model for the distribution of water molecules and associated byproducts has been invaluable in understanding a wide variety of coma observations. He also contributed to discoveries related to the interactions between solar winds and comet tails.
Go to Profile#6005
Agata Różańska
#62658
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Agata Różańska is a Polish astronomer and astrophysicist. Research Professor at the field of X-ray astronomy. She works on numerical computations of emission processes in astrophysical X-ray sources and their observations.
Go to Profile#6006
C. Cliffton Ling
#140973
Overall Influence
#6007
Horațiu Năstase
#89455
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Horațiu Năstase is a Romanian physicist and professor in the string theory group at Instituto de Física Teórica of the São Paulo State University in São Paulo, Brazil. He was born in Bucharest, Romania, and finished high school at the Nicolae Bălcescu High School . He did his undergraduate studies in the Physics Department of the University of Bucharest, graduating in 1995. His last year there he studied at the Niels Bohr Institute , Copenhagen University, with a scholarship which continued into the following year. In 1996 he joined the Physics Department of the State University of New York at...
Go to Profile#6008
Kazuhiko Jr. Kinosita
#141004
Overall Influence
#6009
Mario H. Acuña
#141007
Overall Influence
#6010
Michael Schreiber
#141047
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#6011
Fabio Maltoni
#141052
Overall Influence
#6012
Sookyung Choi
#93484
Overall Influence
SooKyung Choi is a South Korean particle physicist at Gyeongsang National University. She is part of the Belle experiment and was the first to observe the X meson in 2003. She won the 2017 Ho-Am Prize in Science.
Go to Profile#6013
Karri O. Muinonen
#141079
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#6014
Petr Vaníček
#33179
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Petr Vaníček is a Czech Canadian geodesist and theoretical geophysicist who has made important breakthroughs in theory of spectrum analysis and geoid computation. Main contributions Research One of Vaníček's main contributions of general relevance is least-squares spectral analysis, also called the Vaníček method and the Gauss-Vaniček method — a frequency spectrum computation method published in 1969 and 1971. It is based on a least-squares fit of sinusoidss to the data samples, and mitigates the drawbacks of applying Fourier analysis for analyzing long incomplete data records such as most natural datasets.
Go to Profile#6015
Dmitry Garanin
#65637
Overall Influence
Dmitry Garanin is a Russian-American physicist known for his work in theoretical condensed matter physics. He is a professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Lehman College of The City University of New York and a faculty member in the physics department of the CUNY Graduate Center.
Go to Profile#6016
Samuel Miller Allen
#141128
Overall Influence
#6017
David G. Cory
#120429
Overall Influence
David G. Cory is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo where he holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing. He works at the Institute for Quantum Computing, and is also associated with the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.
Go to Profile#6018
Jan Christiaan Wilschut
#141136
Overall Influence
#6019
Leticia Cugliandolo
#108982
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Leticia Fernanda Cugliandolo is an Argentine condensed matter physicist known for her research on non-equilibrium thermodynamics, spin glass, and glassy systems. She works in France as a professor of physics at the Sorbonne University.
Go to Profile#6020
Hiroshi G. Mabuchi
#141198
Overall Influence
#6021
Robert. A. Jacobson
#141206
Overall Influence
#6022
August E. Evrard
#141207
Overall Influence
#6023
Li Zhijian
#92960
Overall Influence
1928 - 2011 (83 years)
Li Zhijian was a Chinese physicist. He was a pioneer of Chinese microelectronics. He was former Chief Director of the Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University; and the ex-Chairman of the Academic Committee, School of Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University.
Go to Profile#6024
Ian Robert Young
#70161
Overall Influence
1932 - 2019 (87 years)
Ian Robert Young was a British medical physicist, known for his work in the field of magnetic resonance imaging . Life He was educated at Sedbergh School and later studied physics at Aberdeen University, then worked for EMI from 1976 to 1981, then for GEC from 1981 to 1982, when he became Chief Scientist of the NMR division of Picker International upon its creation.
Go to Profile#6025
Alan Hibbert
#141267
Overall Influence
#6026
Larry D. Kirkpatrick
#126268
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Larry Dale Kirkpatrick is an American physicist. Kirkpatrick was born in the state of Washington in 1941. He studied physics at Washington State University, graduating in 1963, and pursued a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon completing his Ph.D in 1968, Kirpatrick accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Washington. In 1974, he joined the Montana State University faculty. He was president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1999. That same year, Kirkpatrick was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, "for exceptional contrib...
Go to Profile#6027
Judith Racusin
#81175
Overall Influence
Judith Lea Racusin is an American astrophysicist. She works at Goddard Space Flight Center as a research aerospace technologist in fields and particles. Racusin researches gamma-ray bursts, supernova remnants, high-energy astrophysics, and instrumentation.
Go to Profile#6028
Roland Prof. Dr. Zengerle
#141299
Overall Influence
#6029
Terunobu Miyazaki
#141320
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
#6030
Lee Armus
#141338
Overall Influence
#6031
Paolo Di Vecchia
#141343
Overall Influence
#6032
Jie Meng
#141352
Overall Influence
#6033
Barbara Maher
#114698
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Barbara Ann Maher is a Professor Emerita of Environmental Science at Lancaster University. She served as director of the Centre for Environmental magnetism & Palaeomagnetism until 2021 and works on magnetic nanoparticles and pollution.
Go to Profile#6034
Yasuhiro Tokura
#141379
Overall Influence
#6035
Giorgina Specchia
#141386
Overall Influence
#6036
Michele Cappellari
#141416
Overall Influence
#6037
Rupert Huber
#60927
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Rupert Huber is a German physicist and university professor. Huber is known for his research in terahertz technology and semiconductor physics. Career Huber attended the Technical University of Munich where he majored in physics. He was awarded a PhD in 2003 from University of California, Berkeley. In 2010 he became a professor at the University of Regensburg.
Go to Profile#6038
Robert R. Birge
#141437
Overall Influence
#6039
Kevin M. Prise
#141456
Overall Influence
#6040
F. Konrad Haake
#141465
Overall Influence
#6041
Claus Leitherer
#141489
Overall Influence
#6042
Tetsuo Asakura
#141522
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
#6043
Amrom Harry Katz
#30666
Overall Influence
1915 - 1997 (82 years)
Amrom Harry Katz was an American physicist who specialized in aerial reconnaissance as well as satellite technology. Katz developed methods for aerial reconnaissance supported by space satellites. His work was used by military intelligence, and for locating disaster victims. On August 18, 2000 he was acknowledged as one of the ten Founders of the National Reconnaissance Office.
Go to Profile#6044
Toshitaka Tsuda
#141531
Overall Influence
#6045
Kunihiko Suzuki
#141533
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
#6046
Werner Wiegmann
#141550
Overall Influence
#6047
Tsevi Mazeh
#141585
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
#6048
Valeria Molinero
#108234
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Valeria Paula Molinero is an Argentinian physicist who is the Jack and Peg Simons Endowed Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Utah. Her research investigates the simulation of the behavior of materials. She was awarded the American Physical Society Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics in 2023.
Go to Profile#6049
Karl Wegscheider
#141612
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#6050
Ryuichiro Shimizu
#141617
Overall Influence
