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,
#6401
Satoshi Hoshide
#146751
Overall Influence
#6402
Lydéric Bocquet
#146752
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#6403
Angelos Vourlidas
#146757
Overall Influence
#6404
Steve B. Jiang
#146773
Overall Influence
#6405
Sotiris Xantheas
#91046
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Sotiris S. Xantheas is a Laboratory Fellow in the Advanced Computing, Mathematics and Data Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA and an Affiliate Professor, UW - PNNL Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA . He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Washington State University in Pullman, WA, USA , and a specially appointed professor in the World Research Hub Initiative at the Tokyo Technological Institute in Tokyo, Japan .
Go to Profile#6406
Isadore Epstein
#85132
Overall Influence
1919 - 1995 (76 years)
Isadore Epstein was an astronomer. Epstein taught astronomy at Columbia University for 37 years. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University, following which he was appointed as an instructor at Columbia in 1950, assistant professor in 1953, associate professor in 1957, and professor in 1971. He was named professor emeritus in 1987. He served as acting departmental chairman in 1959.
Go to Profile#6407
Yi Zheng Yan
#146835
Overall Influence
#6408
James C. Garland
#90788
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
James C. Garland is a physicist, author and professor, and formerly the 20th president of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Garland was educated at Princeton University and Cornell Univ. , in the field of condensed matter physics, and was an N.S.F Postdoctoral Fellow at the :University of Cambridge. He has written more than 100 research papers, and is the author of Saving Alma Mater: A Rescue Plan for America's Public Universities, in which he advances changes in public university funding. He is now a Miami University president emeritus. Garland is a lifelong amateur radio operator, with the ...
Go to Profile#6409
Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi
#125360
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi is a Hungarian solar scientist and professor of physics at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College London. She also maintains affiliations with Solar and Stellar Activity Research Team at Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Space Research Laboratory of Paris Observatory. She has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Solar Physics since 2005 and has served in leadership roles within the International Astronomical Union.
Go to Profile#6410
Adekunle Adeyeye
#121706
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Adekunle Olusola Adeyeye is a Nigerian academic and university administrator, announced in July 2019 as principal of Trevelyan College, Durham University. Biography Originally from Nigeria, Adeyeye received his first degree from the University of Ilorin, in Kwara State, Nigeria, before moving to the UK to study for a master's degree in microelectronics engineering at the University of Cambridge, followed by a PhD in physics at the university's Cavendish Laboratory in 1996.
Go to Profile#6411
Satyajit Mayor
#146865
Overall Influence
#6412
D. Asoka Mendis
#146871
Overall Influence
#6413
Sarah Rugheimer
#125542
Overall Influence
Sarah Rugheimer is a Swiss-American astrobiologist and astrophysicist at Jesus College, Oxford. Her research focuses on the atmospheric composition of exoplanets, and ways of detecting life. Education Rugheimer earned her bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Calgary. She completed her master's degree and PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Harvard University. Her thesis topic involved studying biomarkers and modelling the atmosphere of exoplanets, using space-based telescopes.
Go to Profile#6414
Dominique Givord
#146909
Overall Influence
#6415
Antoinette Galvin
#109229
Overall Influence
Antoinette Galvin is space physicist at the University of New Hampshire. She is known for her research on the solar wind. Education and career Galvin earned her B.S. in physics from Purdue University, and has an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland. Galvin was a research faculty member of the University of Maryland before moving to the University of New Hampshire in 1997. As of 2011, Galvin is a research professor in physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire and the director of the New Hampshire NASA Space Grant program and the New Hampshire NASA EPSCoR p...
Go to Profile#6416
Werner Lauterborn
#146916
Overall Influence
#6417
Dorothy McFadden Hoover
#53829
Overall Influence
1918 - 2000 (82 years)
Dorothy Estheryne McFadden Hoover was an American physicist and mathematician. Hoover was a pioneer in the early days of NASA. Originally one of the first black women hired at Langley as a human computer, Hoover would eventually become a published physicist and mathematician. Hoover is one of the first black women to be listed as a co-author on NASA research publications. Her research supported the development of America's first jet fighter, the Sabre. Hoover's accomplishments were featured in Margot Lee Shetterly's bestselling book, Hidden Figures.
Go to Profile#6418
Derek W. G. Sears
#146952
Overall Influence
#6419
Wolfhard Almers
#146955
Overall Influence
#6420
Antonio Miotello
#146991
Overall Influence
#6421
Magnus Nordenskjöld
#146995
Overall Influence
#6422
Andrzej Kossakowski
#103854
Overall Influence
1938 - 2021 (83 years)
Andrzej Marek Kossakowski was a Polish theoretical physicist and a professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University. He was best known for his work on open quantum systems. Education Andrzej Kossakowski was born on 20 February 1938 in Lwów, Poland . He attended a primary and secondary school in Sopot.
Go to Profile#6423
Fu‐guo Deng
#147028
Overall Influence
#6424
Helen Saibil
#93539
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Helen Ruth Saibil FRS FMedSci is a Canadian-British molecular biologist and Professor of Structural Biology at the Department of Crystallography of Birkbeck, University of London. Her research is largely focuses on molecular chaperones and protein misfolding.
Go to Profile#6425
Gino Claudio Segrè
#112036
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Gino Claudio Segrè is a Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books on the history of science, particularly on atomic physics. Segrè's Faust in Copenhagen was a finalist in the Los Angeles Times Book Fair and winner of the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award.
Go to Profile#6426
Kevin O’malley
#147072
Overall Influence
#6427
Birger Kollmeier
#147089
Overall Influence
#6428
Kepler de Souza Oliveira
#56190
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Kepler de Souza Oliveira Filho , also known as S. O. Kepler, is a Brazilian astronomer primarily known for his work on white dwarfs, variable stars, and magnetars. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, he is currently a professor at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul .
Go to Profile#6429
John Christopher Dainty
#147126
Overall Influence
#6430
Thomas Timusk
#126598
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Tom Timusk is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. He is a retired member of the Condensed Matter research team at McMaster. He was an immigrant from Estonia displaced by Second World War. He settled in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
Go to Profile#6431
David B. Nicodemus
#137346
Overall Influence
1916 - 1999 (83 years)
David Bowman Nicodemus was a physicist, Physics Professor and Administrator at Oregon State University, and part of the Manhattan Project team. Life and times David B. Nicodemus was born on 1 July 1916 in Kobe, Japan to Frederick B. Nicodemus of Forreston, Illinois and Ella N. Nicodemus of Highland, Illinois. His parents were missionaries. The family sailed from Hong Kong on 30 November 1916 aboard the S.S. Empress of Asia and arrived at the ports of Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada on 18 December 1916. Nicodemus was 5 months old when he voyaged across the Pacific Ocean. The Nicodemus family disembarked in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Go to Profile#6432
Nidia Morrell
#127016
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Nidia Irene Morrell is an Argentine astronomer who is a permanent staff member at the Las Campanas Observatory in La Serena, Chile. She was a member of the Massive Stars research group led by Virpi Niemelä and the Hubble Heritage Project. Professionally, she is known for her numerous contributions related to the astrophysics of massive stars. She participates in the systematic search for variations of brightness in stellar objects, including the observation of a candidate for the Thorne–Żytkow object. She was also a member of the team that discovered the supernova ASASSN-15lh.
Go to Profile#6433
Aie
#147162
Overall Influence
#6434
Ernesto Quagliariello
#147170
Overall Influence
#6435
David Attwood
#99326
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
David Attwood is an American physicist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked in the field of synchrotron radiation and free-electron lasers, developing X-ray microscopy techniques for research and for the industry . He is the author of a reference book on soft X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation.
Go to Profile#6436
Krzysztof Gawedzki
#81824
Overall Influence
1947 - 2022 (75 years)
Krzysztof Gawędzki was a Polish mathematical physicist, a graduate of the University of Warsaw and professor at the École normale supérieure de Lyon . He was primarily known for his research on quantum field theory and statistical physics. In 2022, he shared the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics with Antti Kupiainen.
Go to Profile#6437
Giorgio Fiocco
#89794
Overall Influence
1931 - 2012 (81 years)
Giorgio Fiocco was an Italian physicist, known for the development of the Lidar for the remote sensing of the atmosphere. In 1962 at MIT, together with Louis Smullin, Fiocco developed the first Lidar system, aiming a laser beam to the Moon and detecting the return pulse. Fiocco was full professor of geophysics at the University of Florence, then since 1974, professor of Terrestrial Physics at the Sapienza University of Rome. From 1994 to 1995 Fiocco was president of the Italian Space Agency. Fiocco pioneered the application of the Lidar to the remote sensing of the atmosphere.
Go to Profile#6438
J∅rgen Randrup
#147215
Overall Influence
#6439
Anna Coble
#81601
Overall Influence
1936 - 2009 (73 years)
Anna Jane Coble-Mullen was an American biophysicist. She was the first black woman to earn a doctorate in biophysics, and the first black woman to be hired at Howard University. Early life and education Coble was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she became interested in mathematics and physics. Her father was a teacher at St. Augustine's University. Coble studied mathematics at Howard University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1958 and a master's degree in 1961. After graduating, she taught physics at North Carolina A&T State University for four years. Coble moved to University of Illin...
Go to Profile#6440
Shun-ichi Iwasaki
#22968
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (100 years)
Shun-ichi Iwasaki is a Japanese engineer. He was professor at Tohoku University and then became president and of Tohoku Institute of Technology. He was also a professor at Lanzhou University . Iwasaki's pioneering work on perpendicular magnetic recording has been integral to the development of modern hard disk drives.
Go to Profile#6441
Joy Crisp
#74497
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Joy A. Crisp is a planetary geologist specializing in Mars geology. She is noted for her work on NASA missions to Mars, including the Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Science Laboratory. Early life and education Crisp was born in Colorado Springs, CO. She earned a bachelor's degree in geology from Carleton College in 1979, and both a Master's and a PhD from Princeton University. Subsequently, Crisp was a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA for more than two years. Her studies involved investigating rocks from the Canary Islands under conditions similar to those within volcanoes.
Go to Profile#6442
Shizuo Tokito
#147277
Overall Influence
#6443
Guido Martinelli
#147286
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#6444
Frank Schaeffel
#147306
Overall Influence
#6445
Almudena Alonso-Herrero
#147217
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Almudena Alonso-Herrero is a Spanish astronomer whose research includes the use of infrared astronomy to study star formation and dust emission in Seyfert galaxies and other galaxies with active nuclei. She is a researcher for the Spanish National Research Council, affiliated with the astrophysics department in the Spanish Astrobiology Center of the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial.
Go to Profile#6446
Aneta Siemiginowska
#146177
Overall Influence
Aneta Siemiginowska is a Polish-American astrophysicist whose research involves high-energy cosmic objects including supermassive black hole, quasars, blazars, active galaxies, and astrophysical jets. She works at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian as a senior astrophysicist in the Chandra X-ray Center.
Go to Profile#6447
Anne Cowley
#117188
Overall Influence
Anne Pyne Cowley is an American astronomer known for her spectroscopic observations of stars and stellar black holes, including the 1983 discovery of a likely black hole in LMC X-3, an X-ray binary star system in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This became the first known extragalactic stellar black hole, and the second known stellar black hole after Cygnus X-1. She is a professor emerita at Arizona State University.
Go to Profile#6448
Ivan Georgiev Petrov
#88346
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Ivan Georgiev Petrov is a Bulgarian-American physicist, specializing in thin films, surface science, and methods of characterization of materials. His research and scientific contributions have been described as having an "enormous impact on the hard-coatings community". Petrov was the president of the American Vacuum Society for 2015.
Go to Profile#6449
Robert H. Becker
#147381
Overall Influence
#6450
Bodil Jönsson
#94991
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Bodil Agneta Jönsson is a Swedish physicist and author, who is professor emeritus at the Department of Rehabilitation Technology at Lund University since 1993. Between 1999 and 2019, she has authored about 20 books. She received H. M. The King's Medal in the 8th size in 1997, and was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2013.
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