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,
#7201
Emmanuel Stratakis
#150116
Overall Influence
Emmanuel Stratakis is a Greek physicist. Stratakis earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in physics from the University of Crete. He works for the Institute of Electronic structure and laser, a division of the Foundation for Research and Technology—Hellas. Stratakis was elected as a member of the 2022 class of fellows for Optica. He is currently an Ambassador for the European Innovation Council for the years 2021-2027.
Go to Profile#7202
Nelson Charles Maynard
#158309
Overall Influence
#7203
Riccardo Soffietti
#158321
Overall Influence
#7204
Charles Archambeau
#58253
Overall Influence
Charles B. Archambeau is an American geophysicist. Life He graduated from California Institute of Technology with a PhD in 1964. He taught at University of Colorado, and California Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#7205
Yahachi Saito
#158328
Overall Influence
#7206
Roy Martin Rasmussen
#158355
Overall Influence
#7207
Quan-Sheng Shu
#136460
Overall Influence
Quan-Sheng Shu is an American physicist and a naturalized American citizen. Born in China, he has a Ph.D in physics and is also the President of AMAC International, a high-tech company with offices in his hometown of Newport News, Virginia and in Beijing.
Go to Profile#7208
Lorenza Viola
#130160
Overall Influence
Lorenza Viola is an Italian-US theoretical physicist who works in quantum information science at Dartmouth College in Hanover, United States as the James Frank Family Professor of Physics. Education and career Viola earned a master's degree in physics from the University of Trento in 1991. She completed her Ph.D. in 1996 at the University of Padua with a dissertation Relativistic stochastic quantization through co-moving coordinates supervised by Laura M. Morato.
Go to Profile#7209
Tina Kahniashvili
#152729
Overall Influence
Tina Kahniashvili is a Georgian physicist and researcher. She studies theoretical cosmology, gravitational waves, theoretical astrophysics , and dark energy. She is a professor of physics and astronomy at Ilia State University, an associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and is the main scientist at Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory.
Go to Profile#7210
Gordon T. Richards
#158423
Overall Influence
#7211
Karl Heinz Langanke
#158435
Overall Influence
#7212
Francis J. Fry
#158437
Overall Influence
#7213
U. Jr. Amaldi
#158445
Overall Influence
#7214
Alberto Cattaneo
#83393
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Alberto Sergio Cattaneo is an Italian mathematician and mathematical physicist, specializing in geometry related to quantum field theory and string theory. Biography After attending Liceo scientifico A. Volta in Milan, Cattaneo studied physics at University of Milan, graduating in 1991. In 1995 he obtained a PhD in theoretical physics at the same university; his thesis, entitled Teorie topologiche di tipo BF ed invarianti dei nodi , was supervised by Maurizio Martellini.
Go to Profile#7215
Bryan H. Wildenthal
#158467
Overall Influence
#7216
Magda Ericson
#119285
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Magda Galula Ericson is a French-Algerian physicist of Tunisian origin. Her experimental pioneering PhD work changed the understanding of critical phenomena near the Curie point and later in her career she has become known for her theoretical development of the Ericson-Ericson Lorentz-Lorenz correction.
Go to Profile#7217
Yan‐kuin Su
#158494
Overall Influence
#7218
Hidetsugu Sakaguchi
#158498
Overall Influence
#7219
John W. Prineas
#158517
Overall Influence
#7220
Thomas Bernard Schwetz
#158549
Overall Influence
#7221
Louis W. Roberts
#66874
Overall Influence
1913 - 1995 (82 years)
Louis Wright Roberts was an American microwave physicist. In the 1960s, he was the chief of the Microwave Laboratory at NASA's Electronics Research Center. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked at the United States Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, beginning in senior research positions and ultimately becoming the director of the center. His research focused on optics and microwave engineering.
Go to Profile#7222
Satoru Nakatsuji
#158560
Overall Influence
#7223
Robert Lee White
#158593
Overall Influence
#7224
Yurij N. Krugly
#145681
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Yurij N. Krugly is a Ukrainian astronomer, specialist in asteroids, notable for obtaining light curves and co-discovering YORP acceleration of many asteroids. He works at the Department of asteroids and comets of Kharkiv Observatory. In 2012, he was awarded M. P. Barabashov Prize, the principal prize of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for the Solar System research.
Go to Profile#7225
Stephen E. Derenzo
#158618
Overall Influence
#7226
Peter Uhd Jepsen
#158620
Overall Influence
#7227
Victor Malka
#135252
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Victor Malka is a French plasma physicist and a pioneer in laser plasma acceleration. In 2004, Malka demonstrated that high energy monoenergetic electron beams could be generated using the technique of laser wakefield acceleration, and subsequently used them to develop compact X-ray and gamma radiation sources with applications in medicine, security technology and phase-contrast imaging. For these contributions to the field, he was awarded the in 2007, the in 2017, and the Hannes Alfvén Prize in 2019.
Go to Profile#7228
Michael Bühl
#158647
Overall Influence
#7229
Martin J. J. Booth
#158665
Overall Influence
#7230
Luis Alfredo Anchordoqui
#158666
Overall Influence
#7231
Partha Ghose
#111611
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Partha Ghose is an Indian physicist, author, philosopher, musician and former professor at the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences in Kolkata. He is the former Chairman of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.
Go to Profile#7232
Luis Souhami
#158686
Overall Influence
#7233
Pippa Goldschmidt
#91464
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Pippa Goldschmidt is a British fiction writer, formerly based in Edinburgh, Scotland but now living in Germany. Education Goldschmidt has a background in science, having completed an undergraduate degree in physics with astronomy at the University of Leeds and a PhD in Astronomy at University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#7234
Thierry Fichefet
#158747
Overall Influence
#7235
G. J. Nasa Fishman
#158755
Overall Influence
#7236
Jörg Schmiedmayer
#158760
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
#7237
Keiji Tanaka
#158763
Overall Influence
#7238
Catherine Kallin
#77760
Overall Influence
Catherine Kallin is a Canadian theoretical quantum condensed matter physicist whose research topics have included spin wave theory, the quantum Hall effect, frustrated antiferromagnets, chirality in superconductors, and high-temperature superconductivity. She is a professor emerita of physics and astronomy at McMaster University.
Go to Profile#7239
Edward Alan Knapp
#98136
Overall Influence
1932 - 2009 (77 years)
Edward Alan Knapp was an American physicist and was director of the National Science Foundation from 1982 to 1984. Knapp graduated with BA from Pomona College in 1954, and with a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958. He then moved to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where he became division leader of the accelerator technology division.
Go to Profile#7240
J. B. Prasanna Kumar
#158827
Overall Influence
#7241
Theodorus Maria Nieuwenhuizen
#158832
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#7242
Nathan R. Newbury
#158849
Overall Influence
#7243
Miloš Tichý
#50675
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Miloš Tichý is a Czech astronomer. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids. He also discovered the periodic comet 196P/Tichý. He works together with his ex-wife at Kleť Observatory. Asteroid 3337 Miloš is named after him.
Go to Profile#7244
Peter Kranke
#83281
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Peter Kranke is anesthetist and professor of anesthesiology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Kranke is known for the design and conduct of clinical studies and for performing systematic reviews in the context of perioperative medicine. He published numerous papers on research focussed on evidence-based medicine and interventional and observational trials on postoperative nausea and vomiting and other issues in conjunction with perioperative medicine and associated topics including patient blood management. The area of his clinical responsibility and interest, among others, is the safe ...
Go to Profile#7245
Dong Hui Zhang
#158904
Overall Influence
#7246
Jürgen Meyer-ter-vehn
#158909
Overall Influence
#7247
Koji Kishio
#137994
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Kohji Kishio is a Japanese scientist. He retired from the University of Tokyo in March 2017 and is now Emeritus Professor of UT. His major research fields are Solid State Chemistry, Materials Science and Superconducting Materials Engineering.
Go to Profile#7248
Davide Donadio
#158920
Overall Influence
#7249
Frans F. Jöbsis
#158938
Overall Influence
#7250
Roger N. Gunn
#158957
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
