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,
#7051
Sven Olaf Moch
#156326
Overall Influence
#7052
Edward Robert Harrison
#156363
Overall Influence
#7053
Enrique Solano
#156371
Overall Influence
#7054
Jeff Tallon
#121782
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Jeffery Lewis Tallon is a New Zealand physicist specialising in high-temperature superconductors. Early life and education Tallon was born in Hamilton on 17 December 1948, the son of Phyllis Blanche Tallon and George Frederick Tallon. He grew up in Mount Albert, and was educated at Gladstone Primary School, and later Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland from 1962 to 1966. After a BSc at the University of Auckland, he undertook doctoral studies at Victoria University of Wellington under Stuart Smedley and Bill Robinson, completing his PhD in chemistry in 1976.
Go to Profile#7055
Bärbel Koribalski
#133332
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Dr. Bärbel Silvia Koribalski is a research scientist working on galaxy formation at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility , part of CSIRO's Astronomy & Space Science . She obtained her PhD at the University of Bonn in Germany and is noted for studies of nearby galaxies. In 2011 she received CSIRO's Newton Turner Award. She is also a project leader of the ASKAP HI All-Sky Survey, known as WALLABY.
Go to Profile#7056
Ajoy Kumar Ghatak
#156386
Overall Influence
#7057
Knox S. Long
#156394
Overall Influence
#7058
Venkat Selvamanickam
#66220
Overall Influence
Venkat Selvamanickam is the M.D Anderson Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a Professor of Physics at the University of Houston. He is also the Director of the Applied Research Hub of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston.
Go to Profile#7059
Alvaro De Rújula
#156410
Overall Influence
#7060
Peter Talkner
#156426
Overall Influence
#7061
William Co Saslaw
#156444
Overall Influence
#7062
Maxim D. Frank‐kamenetskii
#156482
Overall Influence
#7063
Michio Kondo
#156506
Overall Influence
#7064
Martin R. Lee
#156523
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
#7065
Annick Loiseau
#77162
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Annick Loiseau is a French physicist who is a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research Laboratory of Microstructure Studies and Mechanics of Materials. She was the first woman to be appointed to the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales . Her research considers low-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, and boron nitride. In 2006 she was awarded the CNRS Silver Medal.
Go to Profile#7066
Beate Heinemann
#156513
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Beate Heinemann is a German particle physicist who has held positions at universities in Europe and the United States. She currently holds a joint appointment at two German institutions, Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and the DESY laboratory in Hamburg.
Go to Profile#7067
Michael G. Brereton
#156555
Overall Influence
#7068
Andreas Waag
#156570
Overall Influence
#7069
Arthur Maitland
#133897
Overall Influence
1928 - 1994 (66 years)
Arthur Maitland was born on 7 December 1928 in Blackburn, England. He gained his BSc Physics degree in 1956 as a part-time student studying for a London University External Degree. In 1972 St Andrews University, whom he was employed as a researcher and lecturer in 1963, awarded him a DSc degree on the basis of his published papers on ionised gases. At the time he was also working for several electrical engineering companies. He was an influential figure, founding the laser research department at St Andrews University in 1964. He led a group of 14 physicists there working in the areas of lasers...
Go to Profile#7070
Devesh Kumar Avasthi
#156578
Overall Influence
#7071
Bernard Kirtman
#156592
Overall Influence
#7072
Sydney Meshkov
#150763
Overall Influence
1927 - 2020 (93 years)
Sydney Meshkov was a Theoretical Physicist who worked in gravitational wave, atomic, nuclear and particle physics. Academic career Meshkov received his undergraduate A.B. degree in physics and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as his M.S. from the University of Illinois. He held positions at many institutions, most notably at the National Bureau of Standards as a member of the Senior Executive Service , and at Caltech, where he was a Visiting Associate and a Visiting Professor of Theoretical Physics in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a LIGO staff member from 1994 to 2020.
Go to Profile#7073
Raymond A. Greenwald
#156608
Overall Influence
#7074
Susan E. Mullally
#156638
Overall Influence
#7075
Karl-Heinz Rädler
#143856
Overall Influence
1935 - 2020 (85 years)
Karl-Heinz Rädler was an astrophysicist at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam who worked on cosmic magnetic fields. Personal life Rädler was born on 14 May 1935 in Riesa, the youngest of two children of a clerk. He died on 9 February 2020 at the age of 84.
Go to Profile#7076
G. Andreas Tammann
#156653
Overall Influence
#7077
Giulio Biroli
#156655
Overall Influence
#7078
Susan M. Hertz
#156658
Overall Influence
#7079
Alan L. Gallagher
#156667
Overall Influence
#7080
Mats Carlsson
#156685
Overall Influence
#7081
Hans Jørgen Jakobsen
#156698
Overall Influence
#7082
Wolfgang Siegert
#156706
Overall Influence
#7083
Mark Philipp Vogelsberger
#156709
Overall Influence
#7084
D. Spain
#156733
Overall Influence
#7085
Alan Murray
#156734
Overall Influence
#7086
Keith. W. Ogilvie
#156740
Overall Influence
#7087
Peter Cloetens
#156745
Overall Influence
#7088
Wolfhart Zimmermann
#156746
Overall Influence
#7089
Jeffrey F. Williamson
#156748
Overall Influence
#7090
Thomas Robert Metcalf
#156758
Overall Influence
#7091
Rafael Kalish
#156759
Overall Influence
#7092
Hiroyasu Ejiri
#156778
Overall Influence
#7093
Oleg. V. Teryaev
#156798
Overall Influence
#7094
Zhang Wenyu
#138534
Overall Influence
1910 - 1992 (82 years)
Zhang Wenyu was a Chinese physicist who served as director of the Institute of High Energy Physics from 1973 to 1984. He was one of the founders of cosmic ray research and high energy experimental physics in China. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#7095
Yuri L. Dokshitzer
#156881
Overall Influence
#7096
Ina Tegen
#156904
Overall Influence
#7097
J. E. Physics Rowe
#156914
Overall Influence
#7098
Bruce N. Harmon
#156915
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#7099
Thomas Patrick Martin
#156921
Overall Influence
#7100
Fabrizio De Benedetti
#156933
Overall Influence
