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,
#7251
Simone Zaggia
#103347
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Simone Zaggia is an Italian astronomer. He was born in 1965 and did undergraduate work at the University of Padua, where he also received his Ph.D. in 1996. He has done post-doctoral work at the European Southern Observatory and the Capodimonte Observatory, he worked at Trieste Observatory and currently works at Padua Observatory. Zaggia's research interest include the dynamics of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters.
Go to Profile#7252
Mohindar Singh Seehra
#158994
Overall Influence
#7253
Audrey C. Delsanti
#101976
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Audrey Delsanti is a French astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The Minor Planet Center credits her with the discovery of two numbered minor planets, but erroneously gives the credit to "A. Dalsanti" for the trans-Neptunian object , which she co-discovered in 1999.
Go to Profile#7254
Martin D. Dawson
#136357
Overall Influence
Martin D. Dawson FInstP FOSA FIEEE FRSE FRS is a British professor of photonics who is research director of the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde and is Head of Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics. He has made pioneering contributions in several applied photonics areas.
Go to Profile#7255
Richard Hake Richard Hake
#159006
Overall Influence
#7256
Harry Elliot
#110707
Overall Influence
1920 - 2009 (89 years)
Henry Elliot , was a British space scientist, and Emeritus Professor of Physics, at the University of London. Biography Harry Elliot was born at Mealsgate, near Wigton, Cumberland, the son of Thomas, farmer, and Hannah Elizabeth , who died in 1928. He was brought up by two elder sisters. At secondary school Elliot was interested in chemistry and, increasingly, in physics. He attended the Victoria University of Manchester in 1938, where the physics department was headed by Patrick Blackett. He graduated top of his class in the summer of 1941 with the guarantee, after the war was over, of a p...
Go to Profile#7257
Roser Maria Valentí
#152651
Overall Influence
Maria Roser Valentí is a Spanish-Catalonian professor of theoretical condensed matter physics at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Biography In 1987 Valentí graduated from the University of Barcelona with honors, in 1989 she then finished also finished her doctoral thesis in theoretical condensed matter physics with distinction at the University of Barcelona After her dissertation she was named Fulbright-Fellow allowing her to study at the University of Florida.
Go to Profile#7258
Hans J. Tiziani
#159056
Overall Influence
#7259
Wulff Dieter Heintz
#159061
Overall Influence
#7260
Theodore E. Bunch
#159063
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
#7261
Yuji Ikegaya
#159085
Overall Influence
#7262
Thomas Tiedje
#159094
Overall Influence
#7263
Carlos Allende Prieto
#159098
Overall Influence
#7264
David John Candlin
#77512
Overall Influence
1928 - 2019 (91 years)
David John Candlin was an English physicist. He was known for developing the path integral formulation of the Fermionic field, inventing Grassmann integration for this purpose. He received his PhD from Cambridge University in 1955, and wrote his influential paper on Grassmann integration shortly thereafter. He was later appointed a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and retired from this post in 1995. He was at one time involved in collaborative work related to CERN.
Go to Profile#7265
Gretchen Campbell
#61418
Overall Influence
Gretchen K. Campbell is an American atomic, molecular, and optical physicist associated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She works in the field of atomtronics and has received awards in recognition of her research contributions on Bose-Einstein condensates.
Go to Profile#7266
Calogero Caruso
#159187
Overall Influence
#7267
Andreas Karch
#159190
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
#7268
Tsutomu Oota Takahashi
#159211
Overall Influence
#7269
Garrett Jernigan
#99609
Overall Influence
J. Garrett Jernigan was an American physicist and astronomer who has made notable contributions to space astronomy, particularly in the areas of X-ray and infrared instrumentation. He received his Ph.D. at MIT, where he worked on the SAS 3 X-ray astronomy satellite. After leaving MIT he moved to UC Berkeley, where he has worked in many areas of astronomical instrumentation, observation, and theory. He currently advises the CubeSat program at Sonoma State University.
Go to Profile#7270
Wiesław Z. Królikowski
#159229
Overall Influence
#7271
Chio-zong Frank Cheng
#159238
Overall Influence
#7272
Tapani A. Pakkanen
#159247
Overall Influence
#7273
Kōzō Osamura
#159260
Overall Influence
#7274
Bianca Poggianti
#155752
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Bianca Maria Poggianti is an Italian astronomer studying the evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Originally from Pisa, she is a director of research for INAF, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, associated with the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Padua.
Go to Profile#7275
Madan Rao
#60644
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Madan Rao is an Indian condensed matter and biological physicist and a senior professor at National Centre for Biological Sciences. Known for his research on molecular dynamics on cell surface, Rao is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to physical sciences in 2004.
Go to Profile#7276
George Joseph
#40901
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
George Joseph is an Indian space scientist, best known for his contributions to the development of remote sensing technology in India, especially in the field of Earth observation sensors. He is a former chairman of the Lunar Mission Study Task Force of the Indian Space Research Organization and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, in 1999.
Go to Profile#7277
Maiken Mikkelsen
#147713
Overall Influence
Maiken Mikkelsen is a physicist who won the Maria Goeppert Mayer award from the American Physical Society in 2017 for her work in quantum nanophotonics. She is currently the James N. and Elizabeth H. Barton Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an associate professor of physics at Duke University.
Go to Profile#7278
J. Richard Wilson
#159329
Overall Influence
#7279
John H. Beynon
#88379
Overall Influence
1923 - 2015 (92 years)
John H. Beynon FRS was a Welsh chemist and physicist known for his work in mass spectrometry. Education and military service Beynon was born in the Welsh coal-mining town of Ystalyfera and was the older of two brothers. He went on to attend the University of Wales at Swansea in the early 1940s at the start of World War II. He received a B.S. in physics in 1943. He did not attend graduate school, instead deciding to join the Fighting Vehicles Research Establishment where he served between 1943 and 1947 developing tank fire-control systems.
Go to Profile#7280
Giovanni Bussi
#159354
Overall Influence
#7281
Valerio Scarani
#159358
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
#7282
Kirill A. Bronnikov
#159365
Overall Influence
#7283
David Fairlie
#81939
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
David B. Fairlie is a British mathematician and theoretical physicist, Professor Emeritus at the University of Durham . He was educated in mathematical physics at the University of Edinburgh , and he earned a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1960, under the supervision of John Polkinghorne. After postdoctoral training at Princeton University and Cambridge, he was lecturer in St. Andrews and at Durham University , retiring as Professor .
Go to Profile#7284
John Robertson
#97684
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
John Robertson FRS is a Professor of Electronics, in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is a leading specialist in the theory of amorphous carbon and related materials.
Go to Profile#7285
Gerardo Adesso
#159397
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
#7286
Stefano Borgani
#159411
Overall Influence
#7287
Henry Kressel
#159425
Overall Influence
#7288
Julie Borchers
#61884
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Julie Ann Borchers is an American physicist. Education Borchers received her B.S. in physics at the University of Dayton in 1984. She completed a Ph.D. at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1990. Borcher's doctoral advisor was Myron Salamon. Her dissertation was titled Structural and magnetic properties of erbium thin films and Er/Y superlattices.
Go to Profile#7289
Toyohiko Yatagai
#159453
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
#7290
Steven W. Allen
#159464
Overall Influence
#7291
Weng Wah Chow
#159496
Overall Influence
#7292
David Berenstein
#154007
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
David Berenstein is a Colombian theoretical physicist and professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He received his Ph.D. from University of Texas, Austin, in 1998 under the supervision of Willy Fischler, coauthor of matrix theory. He was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 2001-04 and again in the fall of 2010.
Go to Profile#7293
Ann E. Nelson
#159506
Overall Influence
#7294
Álvaro López-García
#89421
Overall Influence
1941 - 2019 (78 years)
Álvaro López-García was a Spanish astronomer, professor of astronomy at University of Valencia and director of the Valencia University Observatory during the years 1968-2000. He was a specialist in astrometry and the dynamics of minor planets, and had discovered numerous of these bodies since the early 1980s, in collaboration with astronomer Henri Debehogne.
Go to Profile#7295
Pere Roca I. Cabarrocas
#159530
Overall Influence
#7296
Seung Joo Lee
#95149
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Seung Joo Lee is a South Korean physicist, educator and military scientist. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Seoul National University, and PhD in 1981 from the State University of New York at Buffalo and since became a Fellow of the Korean Physical Society and a Member of the American Physical Society. In 2010 he became a life Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#7297
Toshiroh Takabatake
#159539
Overall Influence
#7298
Jakob Mann
#159544
Overall Influence
#7299
Elena Kazimirtchak-Polonskaïa
#97757
Overall Influence
1902 - 1992 (90 years)
Olena Ivanivna Kazymyrchak-Polonska was a Ukrainian astronomer and member of the International Astronomical Union, who studied the motion of comets and their orbital evolution. Asteroid 2006 Polonskaya was named in her honor.
Go to Profile#7300
Kent Raymond. Wilson
#159571
Overall Influence
