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,
#7551
Jens Feder
#116740
Overall Influence
1939 - 2019 (80 years)
Gottfried Jens Feder was a Norwegian physicist. He was born in Munich, Germany but moved to live in Oslo in 1947. Following his graduation in physics, he received a NATO fellowship to study phase transitions and superconductors in Orsay, France . He then joined IBM Zürich Research in Switzerland to study phase transitions in perovskites.
Go to Profile#7552
Dominique Weis
#163150
Overall Influence
#7553
Curtis D. Mobley
#163193
Overall Influence
#7554
Mauro Paternostro
#163204
Overall Influence
#7555
Ronny Thomale
#163208
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
#7556
Mikhail N. Shneider
#163213
Overall Influence
#7557
Kazuyoshi Tanaka
#163244
Overall Influence
#7558
Hui Zhai
#153188
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Hui Zhai is Changjiang Chair Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University. He is best known for his research in ultracold atomic physics, condensed matter physics, and machine learning.
Go to Profile#7559
Charles Tahan
#85198
Overall Influence
Charles Tahan is a U.S. physicist specializing in condensed matter physics and quantum information science and technology. He currently serves as the Assistant Director for Quantum Information Science and the Director of the National Quantum Coordination Office within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Tahan is also Chief Scientist of the National Security Agency's Laboratory for Physical Sciences.
Go to Profile#7560
Osamu Wada
#163260
Overall Influence
#7561
Gerald Farrell
#163264
Overall Influence
#7562
G. V. Subba Rao
#163267
Overall Influence
#7563
Luke Drury
#91472
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Luke O’Connor Drury is an Irish mathematician and astrophysicist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies with research interests in plasma physics, particle acceleration, gas dynamics, shock waves, and cosmic rays. He was President of the Royal Irish Academy from 2011 to 2014.
Go to Profile#7564
Arthur Louis Schmeltekopf
#163294
Overall Influence
#7565
Hugo Fastl
#163317
Overall Influence
#7566
Rodger Kram
#163319
Overall Influence
#7567
Thomas Erneux
#163320
Overall Influence
#7568
Frank Bradshaw Wood
#97842
Overall Influence
1915 - 1997 (82 years)
Frank Bradshaw "Brad" Wood FRAS was an astronomer, specializing in photometry. Wood graduated in 1936 with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Florida. He graduated in astronomy from Princeton University with an MA in 1940 and a PhD in 1941. His dissertation, published in 1946, was supervised by Raymond Smith Dugan for three years until Dugan's death in 1940 and then by Henry Norris Russell in 1940–1941. When the United States entered World War II, Wood enlisted in the US Navy, serving in the Pacific and reaching the rank of lieutenant commander. In 1945 he married Elizabeth H.
Go to Profile#7569
Nikolaos Kidonakis
#163331
Overall Influence
#7570
Petra Reinke
#163357
Overall Influence
#7571
Barbara Kraus
#102841
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Barbara Kraus Education and career Kraus is originally from Innsbruck. She studied mathematics and physics at the University of Innsbruck, earning diplomas in mathematics and physics. She completed her PhD in physics under the supervision of Ignacio Cirac in 2003. After postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, the University of Geneva, and the University of Innsbruck, she became an assistant professor in Innsbruck in 2010, and earned her habilitation there in 2012. She became full professor in 2020. In 2023 she was appointed professor of Quantum Algorithms and Appl...
Go to Profile#7572
Greg Gbur
#96809
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Greg Gbur is an American author and physicist who specializes in the study of classical coherence theory in optical physics. He is a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the Department of Physics and Optical Science.
Go to Profile#7573
Katia Parodi
#163364
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
#7574
Holger Stark
#163374
Overall Influence
#7575
Jean‐marc Triscone
#163379
Overall Influence
#7576
Massimo Pandolfo
#163383
Overall Influence
#7577
Jan van Deemter
#163386
Overall Influence
1918 - 2004 (86 years)
Jan Jozef van Deemter was a Dutch physicist and engineer known for the Van Deemter equation in chromatography. He obtained his doctorate in physics from the University of Amsterdam in June of 1950. Starting in 1947 he began work for Royal Dutch Shell as a researcher and it was there that he developed and published his article in 1956.
Go to Profile#7578
Miles V. Klein
#163391
Overall Influence
#7579
G. Jeffrey Taylor
#163399
Overall Influence
#7580
Ingemar Ragnarsson
#163404
Overall Influence
#7581
Edward Roy Pike
#145188
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Edward Roy Pike FRS is an Australian physicist, specializing in quantum optics. He studied at Oxford University and from 1958 to 1960 was a Fulbright Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1960 to 1991 he was in the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, from 1967 as leading scientist, from 1973 as Deputy Chief Scientific Officer and from 1984 as Chief Scientific Officer. From 1984 to 1986 he was guest professor at Imperial College, London. From 1986 he was Clerk-Maxwell Professor for Theoretical Physics at King's College London, and from 1991 to 1994 head of its School of Phy...
Go to Profile#7582
Uzy Smilansky
#163419
Overall Influence
#7583
Yaroslav Tserkovnyak
#163421
Overall Influence
#7584
Ondřej Santolík
#163427
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#7585
Anthony George Kafatos
#163437
Overall Influence
#7586
Erasmo Recami
#163439
Overall Influence
#7587
Stephen S. Gottlieb
#163460
Overall Influence
#7588
Andronikos Paliathanasis
#163525
Overall Influence
#7589
Michael J. Rice
#163547
Overall Influence
#7590
Sen
#163555
Overall Influence
#7591
Robert E. Hopkins
#49406
Overall Influence
1915 - 2009 (94 years)
Robert Earl Hopkins was president of the Optical Society of America in 1973. Recognized as an expert in optical instrument design, aspheric optics, interferometry, lasers, and lens testing, Hopkins has been characterized as the "father of optical engineering."
Go to Profile#7592
Hisao Hayakawa
#163584
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#7593
Walter Gekelman
#151327
Overall Influence
Walter Gekelman is a plasma physics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles , and an elected fellow of the American Physical Society. He is known to have developed and constructed numerous meter-long devices to study fundamental plasma processes under laboratory conditions, the largest of which is the Large Plasma Device.
Go to Profile#7594
Roberto Petronzio
#163588
Overall Influence
#7595
Philip G. Drazin
#163607
Overall Influence
#7596
Hugh H. Kieffer
#163651
Overall Influence
#7597
Eberhard Adolf Spiller
#163700
Overall Influence
#7598
Claude Chappert
#163705
Overall Influence
#7599
Albert Wattenberg
#100124
Overall Influence
1917 - 2007 (90 years)
Albert Wattenberg , was an American experimental physicist. During World War II, he was with the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. He was a member of the team that built Chicago Pile-1, the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, and was one of those present on December 2, 1942, when it achieved criticality. In July 1945, he was one of the signatories of the Szilard petition. After the war he received his doctorate, and became a researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory from 1947 to 1950, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1951 to 195...
Go to Profile#7600
Gavin E. Crooks
#163711
Overall Influence
