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,
#7151
Ralf Rapp
#157740
Overall Influence
#7152
Jorge Juan Gabriel Rocca
#157741
Overall Influence
#7153
Tyler Nordgren
#84141
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Tyler Eugene Nordgren is an astronomer and professor of physics at the University of Redlands. Education Nordgren earned a B.A. in physics from Reed College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in astronomy from Cornell University.
Go to Profile#7154
Rob B. Phillips
#101561
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Rob Brooks Phillips is an American biophysicist. He is currently Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics, Biology, and Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Biography Phillips originally did not intend to go to college and took an unconventional educational path, earning a bachelor's degree by independent study at the University of Minnesota in 1986. He then received his doctorate in physics at Washington University in St. Louis in 1989. He was a professor at Brown University and has been a professor at Caltech since 2000. He enjoys surfing.
Go to Profile#7155
Philip Phillips
#139285
Overall Influence
Philip W. Phillips is a theoretical condensed matter physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He has contributed to the studies of various topics in modern physics including high temperature superconductivity and gauge–gravity duality.
Go to Profile#7156
Ullrich Steiner
#157784
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#7157
Boris V. Somov
#157789
Overall Influence
#7158
Richard Joseph Greenberg
#157799
Overall Influence
#7159
Alex D. D. Craik
#157809
Overall Influence
#7160
Seymour H. Vosko
#157827
Overall Influence
#7161
Adolfo del Campo
#152154
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Adolfo del Campo is a Spanish physicist and a professor of physics at the University of Luxembourg. He is best known for his work in quantum control and theoretical physics. He is notable as one of the pioneers of shortcuts to adiabaticity. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023.
Go to Profile#7162
Richard Earl Robertson
#157877
Overall Influence
#7163
Luis Álvarez‐gaumé
#157879
Overall Influence
#7164
Lucas Liaudet
#157894
Overall Influence
#7165
Ian E. Mccarthy
#157903
Overall Influence
#7166
Ivan V. Kityk
#157905
Overall Influence
#7167
S. T. Wu
#157906
Overall Influence
#7168
Rajiv K. Kalia
#157912
Overall Influence
#7169
Mark G. Kuzyk
#157932
Overall Influence
#7170
George Albert Saunders
#157934
Overall Influence
#7171
Scoap
#157952
Overall Influence
#7172
James C. Davenport
#116604
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
James Clinton Davenport is an American physicist and physics professor. He specializes in condensed matter physics and is known for his contributions to physics education. He is one of the founders of the National Society of Black Physicists .
Go to Profile#7173
Vesna Milosevic-Zdjelar
#31032
Overall Influence
Vesna Milosevic-Zdjelar is a Serbian-born Canadian astrophysicist, science educator and author. Her specialty is teaching astrophysics to students enrolled in non-science programs at the University of Winnipeg.
Go to Profile#7174
Jacobus J. m. Verbaarschot
#157991
Overall Influence
#7175
Timothy Joseph Gardner
#158000
Overall Influence
#7176
Jacques Nihoul
#91841
Overall Influence
1937 - 2021 (84 years)
Jacques Nihoul was a Belgian scientist and professor emeritus of the Faculty of Science of the University of Liège. He was the director of the DEA Européen en Modélisation de l'Environnement marin. In 1978, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Biological and Medical Sciences. He signed the Manifesto for Walloon culture in 1983.
Go to Profile#7177
Gerd Röpke
#158007
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
#7178
Richard Norberg
#158015
Overall Influence
1922 - 2010 (88 years)
Richard "Dick" E. Norberg was a professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focused on nuclear magnetic resonance . Biography Norberg grew up in Evanston, Illinois, studied at DePauw University, and earned his bachelor's degree in absentia in 1943 while serving in the United States Air Force in World War II. After returning in 1946, he received his master's and doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1947 and 1951, respectively, as the first Ph.D. student of Charles Slichter. He joined the physics department at Washington University in St.
Go to Profile#7179
Alexei Morozov
#158016
Overall Influence
#7180
Silvia Picozzi
#150758
Overall Influence
Silvia Picozzi is an Italian physicist who researches density functional theory, ferroelectricity, and antiferromagnetism at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. She is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#7181
Robert Anthony Gallino
#158032
Overall Influence
#7182
Jordan A. Goodman
#151502
Overall Influence
Jordan A. Goodman is an American physicist whose expertise is in particle astrophysics. He is the former Chair of Physics Department, at the University of Maryland. In 2009, Goodman was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#7183
D. J. A. Williams
#158046
Overall Influence
#7184
Samaun Samadikun
#27028
Overall Influence
1931 - 2006 (75 years)
Samaun Samadikun was an Indonesian electrical engineer. Early life Samaun was born on 15 April 1931 in Magetan. He was the fourth child of Dutch East Indies civil service Samadikun, later became East Java governor, and Mubandi. Samaun was maternally a descendant of Sultan Hamengkubuwono I. As a teenager, Samaun knew radio transceiver in details and helped Tentara Genie Pelajar applying radio.
Go to Profile#7185
Bruno Riccò
#158054
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#7186
Patrick Petitjean
#158068
Overall Influence
#7187
Susumu Kokubun
#158085
Overall Influence
#7188
Dirk Poelman
#158095
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#7189
Anatoly A. Klypin
#158101
Overall Influence
#7190
Saskia Mioduszewski
#140352
Overall Influence
Saskia Mioduszewski is a nuclear physicist and professor at Texas A&M University. Education Mioduszewski completed an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics in 1994 at North Carolina State University. In 2000, she obtained her PhD in physics from the University of Tennessee. Her PhD thesis was called Centrality dependence of antiproton production in Proton-Nucleus Collisions at 17.5 and 12.3 GeV.
Go to Profile#7191
Jonathan Oppenheim
#56692
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Jonathan Oppenheim is a professor of physics at University College London. He is an expert in quantum information theory and quantum gravity. Work Oppenheim proved the third law of thermodynamics with Lluis Masanes.
Go to Profile#7192
Karl W. Schindler
#158124
Overall Influence
#7193
Nong Sang
#158155
Overall Influence
#7194
David J. Asher
#91199
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
David J. Asher is a British astronomer, who works at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. He studied mathematics at Cambridge and received his doctorate from Oxford. He is known for the meteor research that he conducts with Robert McNaught. In 1999 and 2000, they accurately gauged when the Leonids meteor shower would peak, while underestimating the peak intensities.
Go to Profile#7195
Boštjan Žekš
#158193
Overall Influence
#7196
Gerard H. Lander
#158203
Overall Influence
#7197
Robert Aart De Groot
#158218
Overall Influence
#7198
Judy Brown
#95420
Overall Influence
Judith "Judy" C. Brown is an American physicist and professor emerita at Wellesley College. She was a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab in the Machine Listening Group for over 20 years, and is recognized for her contributions in music information retrieval, including developing the constant-Q transform. She is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and has served on the ASA technical committees for musical acoustics and animal bioacoustics.
Go to Profile#7199
Gian Michele Graf
#112540
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Gian Michele Graf is a Swiss mathematical physicist. Graf studied physics and mathematics at ETH Zurich, where he graduated in 1986 with Diplom thesis supervised by Jürg Fröhlich and received his doctorate in 1990 with thesis supervised by Walter Hunziker . From 1990 to 1992 Graf was an assistant professor of mathematics at Caltech. At ETH Zurich he was from 1992 to 1998 an assistant professor and from 1998 to 2001 an associate professor and is since 2001 a full professor.
Go to Profile#7200
Ke T'ing-sui
#110946
Overall Influence
1913 - 2000 (87 years)
Kê T'ing-sui or Ge Tingsui , also known as T.S. Kê, was a Chinese physicist and writer renowned for his contributions in internal friction, anelasticity, solid state physics and metallurgy. He was the member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, known for the Kê-type pendulum and Kê grain-boundary internal friction peak named after him. In March 1982, he founded the Institute of Solid State Physics in Hefei, Anhui, China.
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