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,
#6101
Robert Marc Mazo
#140925
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Robert Marc Mazo is a theoretical physical chemist who specialized in statistical mechanics. Educated at Harvard and Yale, he was a research associate at the University of Chicago, and he taught at the California Institute of Technology prior to joining the University of Oregon faculty in 1962. He was designated a professor emeritus in 1996. He is a member of the American Association of University Professors and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#6102
Eleftherios Goulielmakis
#102090
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Eleftherios Goulielmakis is a Greek physicist specializing in lasers. He is a professor of physics at the University of Rostock, Germany where he currently leads the research activities of the Extreme Photonics group. Previously, he was the head of the research group "Attoelectronics" at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany.
Go to Profile#6103
Ren Xinmin
#12934
Overall Influence
1915 - 2017 (102 years)
Ren Xinmin was a Chinese aerospace engineer and a specialist in astronautics and liquid rocket engine technology. He was the technical director of the Long March 1 rocket, which launched the Dong Fang Hong I, China's first satellite, and the chief designer of Chinese storable propellant rocket engine. He was also the chief designer for the Long March 3 launch vehicle, Fengyun, and SJ series satellites.
Go to Profile#6104
Martin Berz
#142433
Overall Influence
#6105
Pavel A. Belov
#142434
Overall Influence
#6106
Rosalba Perna
#106727
Overall Influence
Rosalba Perna is an Italian and American theoretical astrophysicist whose research concerns high-energy cosmic sources including gamma-ray bursts and neutron star mergers. She has also studied exoplanets and the growth of supermassive black holes. She is professor of physics and astronomy at Stony Brook University.
Go to Profile#6107
Pietro Ferraro
#142468
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#6108
Wolfgang Von Niessen
#142495
Overall Influence
#6109
Richard D. Lines
#132412
Overall Influence
1916 - 1992 (76 years)
Richard D. Lines was an American amateur astronomer. He started as a deep-sky observer and photographer, but later specialized in photometry of variable stars. He was a member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers and International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry . Together with his wife Helen Chambliss Lines, also a keen astronomer, he built a small observatory in Mayer, Arizona. In 1962 he co-discovered the comet Seki-Lines. In 1992 he and his wife won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for their work in the field of photoelectric photometry of variable stars.
Go to Profile#6110
Rudolf Gross
#142510
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#6111
Andr'e Mysyrowicz
#142522
Overall Influence
#6112
Yury Chaplygin
#99677
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Yuri Aleksandrovich Chaplygin , a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is the president of the National Research University of Electronic Technology, Doctor of Engineering Sciences. Born on July 12, 1951, in Kursk. Studied at MIET , graduated with honors.
Go to Profile#6113
Alejandra Melfo
#92437
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Alejandra Melfo is a Uruguayan-born Venezuelan physicist. She is known for her efforts studying and conserving glaciers, especially the Humboldt Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela. Early life Melfo was born in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, and moved to Venezuela with her family in 1976 as refugees from dictatorship when she was 11. She later became a naturalized Venezuelan citizen. She studied at the University of the Andes in Mérida and received her undergraduate degree in 1989, her master's degree in 1994, and became a faculty member at ULA whilst studying for a PhD in astrophysics...
Go to Profile#6114
George Contopoulos
#142540
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
#6115
Brenda Dingus
#95390
Overall Influence
Brenda Lynn Dingus is an American particle astrophysicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, known for her research on gamma-ray bursts and cosmic rays. Education and career Dingus majored in physics at Harvey Mudd College, graduating in 1982. She completed a Ph.D. in 1988 at the University of Maryland, College Park, specializing in experimental cosmic-ray physics under the supervision of Gaurang Yodh.
Go to Profile#6116
Ruth Britto
#59241
Overall Influence
Ruth Alexandra Britto-Pacumio is an American mathematical physicist whose research topics include black holes, Yang–Mills theory, and the theory of Feynman integrals; with Freddy Cachazo, Bo Feng, and Edward Witten she is one of the namesakes of the BCFW recursion relations for computing scattering amplitudes. She is an associate professor in mathematics and theoretical physics at Trinity College Dublin, and is also affiliated with the Institut de physique théorique - IPhT Saclay.
Go to Profile#6117
Christy A. Tremonti
#106695
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Christy A. Tremonti is an observational astronomer on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She was a 2005 Hubble Fellow while at the University of Arizona. She received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2003 and her BS from Colgate University in 1994. She completed her dissertation, "The physical properties of low redshift star forming galaxies: Insights from the space-UV and 20,000 SDSS spectra", under the supervision of Timothy M. Heckman.
Go to Profile#6118
Henry Duckworth
#46696
Overall Influence
1915 - 2008 (93 years)
Henry Edmison Duckworth, was a Canadian physicist and university administrator. Born in Brandon, Manitoba, and raised in Winnipeg, Duckworth received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesley College in 1935, followed by a Bachelor of Science degree in 1936 and a teaching certificate in 1937 from the University of Manitoba. From 1938 to 1940, he taught math and physics at secondary and junior colleges in Manitoba. In 1940, he continued his education, receiving a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1942.
Go to Profile#6119
Stephanie Seneff
#142772
Overall Influence
#6120
Christian Breyer
#142788
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
#6121
Leroy. Eyring
#142849
Overall Influence
#6122
Matthias Ernzerhof
#142852
Overall Influence
#6123
Kenneth G. McCracken
#80484
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Kenneth G. McCracken, AO is an Australian physicist and leading space scientist, foundation Director of the CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications and Foundation Chief of the CSIRO Division of Mineral Physics. He had earlier worked in the United States of America for several years where he occasionally worked as a consultant for NASA .
Go to Profile#6124
Alexander van Oudenaarden
#39702
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Alexander van Oudenaarden is a Dutch biophysicist and systems biologist. He is a leading researcher in stem cell biology, specialising in single cell techniques. In 2012 he started as director of the Hubrecht Institute and was awarded three times an ERC Advanced Grant, in 2012, 2017, and 2022. He was awarded the Spinoza Prize in 2017.
Go to Profile#6125
Andrej Arbuzov
#125756
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Andrej Borisovich Arbuzov is a Russian theoretical physicist. His scientific interests include quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology. He is affiliated with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research as a group leader in the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics. He is a Doctor of Sciences in physical-mathematical sciences , professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences .
Go to Profile#6126
Stefano Profumo
#142874
Overall Influence
#6127
Emmanuel Desurvire
#142879
Overall Influence
#6128
Karl Jansen
#142882
Overall Influence
#6129
Diana Huffaker
#104973
Overall Influence
Diana Huffaker FIEEE, FOSA is a physicist working in compound semiconductors optical devices. She is the current Sêr Cymru Chair in Advanced Engineering and Materials and Science Director of the Institute of Compound Semiconductors is based within Cardiff University. Her work includes compound semiconductor epitaxy, lasers, solar cells, optoelectronic devices, plasmonics, and Quantum dot and nanostructured materials.
Go to Profile#6130
Todd Adams
#142913
Overall Influence
#6131
Rana X. Adhikari
#124924
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Rana X. Adhikari is an American experimental physicist. He is a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology and an associate faculty member of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research .
Go to Profile#6132
Nripan Mathews
#142929
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
#6133
Ami Emanuel Berkowitz
#142930
Overall Influence
#6134
Duane C. Wallace
#142950
Overall Influence
#6135
Kimberly Arcand
#104481
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Kimberly Kowal Arcand is a data visualizer and science communicator for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. She is also the visualization coordinator for the Aesthetics and Astronomy image response project at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#6136
Paul Busch
#108390
Overall Influence
1955 - 2018 (63 years)
Paul Busch was a German-born mathematical physicist, known for his work in quantum mechanics. He made pioneering contributions to quantum measurement theory, being an advocate of the use of POVMs, and to the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, where he developed a mathematical formulation of a measurement-disturbance relation.
Go to Profile#6137
Ben B. Balsley
#143001
Overall Influence
#6138
Laurence E. Nyquist
#115386
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Laurence E. Nyquist is an American planetary scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He is known for his contributions to knowledge of the chronometry of planetary materials, which have been important in understanding time-scales for accretion, differentiation, and impacts on meteorite parent bodies. His NASA biography also records contributions to the study of noble gases in iron meteorites and lunar samples, radiometric age dating and isotope geochemistry of lunar, Martian, and meteoric samples, and the application of stable isotope methods to biomedical research. H...
Go to Profile#6139
Dwight W. Berreman
#143038
Overall Influence
#6140
Stefano Fiorucci
#143051
Overall Influence
#6141
Mark Tabor Robinson
#143055
Overall Influence
#6142
Bruce W. Drinkwater
#143074
Overall Influence
#6143
Arthur David Karlin
#143076
Overall Influence
#6144
Giora Shaviv
#143078
Overall Influence
#6145
Hagen Klauk
#143125
Overall Influence
#6146
Iván Almár
#85209
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Iván Almár is a Hungarian astronomer. He proposed the San Marino Scale as a means of assessing risks related to extraterrestrial communication. Almár also serves on the Advisory Council of METI . Asteroid 191856 Almáriván, discovered by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky at the Piszkéstető Station in 2004, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 10 December 2011 .
Go to Profile#6147
Massimo Vergassola
#125963
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Massimo Vergassola is an Italian physicist, who worked at the University of California, San Diego from 2013-2019. He is now a Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and Directeur de Recherche at CNRS. He is Director of the ENS-PSL QBio initiative on Quantitative Biology, an initiative at the PariSanté Val-de-Grâce Campus.
Go to Profile#6148
Roberto Orecchia
#143172
Overall Influence
#6149
Leah Buechley
#74045
Overall Influence
Leah Buechley is an American educator, engineer and designer who is best known as the developer of the LilyPad Arduino toolkit and other smart textiles. Buechley is currently serving as an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico's Department of Computer Science. Her research focuses on the intersection of computer science, art, architecture, and education in her work. She has done fundamental work in electronics based on paper and fabric.
Go to Profile#6150
Stefano Catani
#143189
Overall Influence
