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).
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List of the most influential people in Physics,
#10851
Arthur S. Adams
1896 - 1980 (84 years)
Arthur Stanton Adams was an American academic most notable for having served as the President of the University of New Hampshire. He also served as Assistant Dean of Engineering and Director of the Engineering Science Management War Training Program and Provost at Cornell. In 1948 he was appointed the 8th president of the University of New Hampshire. He was chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board at the United States Department of Defense from 1953 to 1955. From 1962 to 1965, he served as the second president of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit organization based in Salzburg, Aus...
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Nikolay Zhukovsky
1847 - 1921 (74 years)
Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky was a Russian scientist, mathematician and engineer, and a founding father of modern aero- and hydrodynamics. Whereas contemporary scientists scoffed at the idea of human flight, Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow. He is often called the Father of Russian Aviation.
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Valentin Naboth
1523 - 1593 (70 years)
Valentin Naboth , known by the latinized name Valentinus Nabodus, was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. Life and academic career Valentin Naboth was born in Calau to a formerly Jewish family. He was the younger brother of the Lutheran theologian and author Alexius Naboth. In 1544, Valentin matriculated at the University of Wittenberg. At that time Philipp Melanchthon, Erasmus Reinhold, Johannes Bugenhagen, Paul Eber, and Georg Major taught there. In 1550 he transferred to the University of Erfurt.
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James Wilson
1836 - 1931 (95 years)
James Maurice Wilson was a British priest in the Church of England as well as a theologian, teacher and astronomer. Early life Wilson and his twin brother, Edward Pears Wilson, attended King William's College on the Isle of Man from August 1848 to midsummer 1853 . Their father Edward, vicar of Nocton in Lincolnshire, had earlier been headmaster there. According to his autobiography, Wilson had a rather unhappy time at King William's College. He later studied at Sedbergh School.
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Johann Jakob Ebert
1737 - 1805 (68 years)
Johann Jakob Ebert was an 18th-century German mathematician, astronomer, poet and author. Life He was born in Breslau in what was then part of Prussia on 20 November 1737. He was educated in Wurzen in western Saxony then returned to his home town to study at the Elisabeth Gymnasium.
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Nikolai Andreyev
1880 - 1970 (90 years)
Nikolai Nikolayevich Andreyev was a physicist who specialized in the study of music and acoustics. The Andreyev Acoustics Institute and a research vessel Akademik Nikolai Andreyev are named after him.
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Bice Sechi-Zorn
1928 - 1984 (56 years)
Bice Sechi-Zorn was an Italian/American nuclear physicist, and professor at the University of Maryland. Life She graduated from University of Cagliari. She met her husband, Gus T. Zorn, at the University of Padua. They both worked at the University of Maryland. She was a professor of physics beginning from 1976 to 1984.
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Willem Hendrik van den Bos
1896 - 1974 (78 years)
Willem Hendrik van den Bos was a Dutch astronomer who worked at the Union Observatory in South Africa and became its director in 1941. He discovered nearly new double stars, made more than astronomical measurements and compiled a catalogue of Southern hemisphere double stars. He computed the orbits of more than 100 double stars using a method he invented and which later became the accepted standard.
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Konstantin Kavelin
1818 - 1885 (67 years)
Konstantin Dmitrievich Kavelin was a Russian historian, jurist, and sociologist, sometimes called the chief architect of early Russian liberalism. Born in Saint Petersburg into an old noble family, Kavelin graduated from the legal department of the Moscow University and read law at the University of St Petersburg from 1839. Together with Timofey Granovsky and Alexander Herzen, he was one of the leading Westernizers. In 1855, Herzen published Kavelin's celebrated proposal for the emancipation of serfs, which cost him the lucrative position of tsesarevich's tutor. In 1862, he was forced to resign from his post for becoming politically-involved with the student, constitutional movement.
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Philippe van Lansberge
1561 - 1632 (71 years)
Johan Philip Lansberge was a Flemish Calvinist Minister, astronomer and Mathematician. His name is sometimes written Lansberg, and his first name is sometimes given as Philip or Johannes Philippus. He published under the Latin name Philippus Lansbergius.
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Giuseppe Cassella
1755 - 1808 (53 years)
Giuseppe, Antonio Pietro Cassella was an Italian astronomer, professor of Astronomy at the Naples University and first director of the Astronomical Observatory of Naples. He studied mathematics at the University of Naples with Giuseppe Marzucca, and followed Felice Sabatelli's astronomy lessons, becoming his student. He then went to specialize in astronomy at the Padua observatory directed by Abbot Giuseppe Toaldo.
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Paul Harsin
1902 - 1983 (81 years)
Paul Marie Isidore Harsin was an economic and political historian who held doctorates in the humanities, social sciences, and law. He was a professor at the University of Liège for over 40 years and briefly served as president of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.
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Irving Wolff
1894 - 1982 (88 years)
Irving Wolff was an American physicist and pioneer of radar. Wolff received in 1916 a bachelor's degree in physics from Dartmouth College and in 1923 a doctorate in physics from Cornell University. He was a physics teacher at Iowa State College in 1919 and Cornell University from 1920-1923, later becoming the Heckscher Research Fellow. He is one of the founders of the Acoustical Society of America . He participated in ASA First Meeting along with thirty-nine other persons, at the Bell headquarters in New York City, on December 27th, 1928. Early in his career, he focused on the acoustics of...
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Earle M. Terry
1869 - 1929 (60 years)
Earle Melvin Terry was an American physicist, known for contributions to wireless transmission systems and radio. Biography He was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, and obtained a B.A. from the University of Michigan, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison . He joined the faculty at the same place, where he stayed since. His fame comes from developing the WHA radio transmissions , work jointly with Edward Bennett. The station was originally referred to by the callsign 9XM. Being as the necessary vacuum tubes were not yet commercially available, Terry learned gla...
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Alexander David Ross
1883 - 1966 (83 years)
Prof Alexander David Ross FRSE FRAS FRSA FIP FAIP FEIS FEISA LLD was a 20th-century Scots-born physicist, mathematician and astronomer living in Australia. He was an expert on magnetism and rare earths. He was twice President of the Western Australia Astronomical Society: 1915 to 1917 and 1950 to 1952, 33 years apart.
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Laurentius Paulinus Gothus
1565 - 1646 (81 years)
Laurentius Paulinus Gothus was a Swedish theologian, astronomer and Archbishop of Uppsala. Biography Gothus was born Lars Paulsson at Söderköping in Östergötland County, Sweden. In 1588, Gothus travelled to Germany and studied in the Rostock University for three years. He was influenced by Pierre de la Ramée and his philosophy.
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Olaf Devik
1886 - 1987 (101 years)
Olaf Martin Devik was a Norwegian physicist and civil servant. He worked in academia until 1938, when he became an official in the Norwegian Ministry of Church and Education. During the German occupation of Norway, he fled the country and worked with its government in exile. After the war, he returned to the education ministry until his retirement.
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Thomas Hood
1556 - 1620 (64 years)
Thomas Hood was an English mathematician and physician, the first lecturer in mathematics appointed in England, a few years before the founding of Gresham College. He publicized the Copernican theory, and discussed the nova SN 1572. . He also innovated in the design of mathematical and astronomical instruments.
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Jan Šindel
1375 - 1456 (81 years)
Jan Šindel , also known as Jan Ondřejův , was a Czech medieval scientist and Catholic priest. He was a professor at Charles University in Prague and became the rector of the university in 1410. He lectured on mathematics and astronomy and was also a personal astrologer and physician of kings Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia and his brother Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund.
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Mary Acworth Evershed
1867 - 1949 (82 years)
Mary Acworth Evershed was a British astronomer and scholar. Her work on Dante Alighieri was written under the pen name M.A. Orr. Early life Mary Acworth Orr was born to Lucy Acworth and Andrew Orr on 1 January 1867 at Plymouth Hoe. Her father was an officer in the Royal Artillery. Mary grew up in Wimborne and South Stoke in Somerset. Mary’s youngest brother was the colonial administrator Charles William James Orr.
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Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark
1867 - 1954 (87 years)
Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark was a Norwegian educator, physicist and actuary. Personal life He was born in Asker as a son of farmer and mayor Bent Holtsmark and his wife Anne Elisabeth Gabrielsen. He was a brother of Bernt, Torger and Wilhelm Holtsmark. Both Bernt and Torger were members of the Parliament of Norway.
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George Francis Hardy
1855 - 1914 (59 years)
Sir George Francis Hardy was a British actuary, Egyptologist and amateur astronomer. He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1877 and was President of the Institute of Actuaries from 1908 to 1910.
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Yvon Villarceau
1813 - 1883 (70 years)
Antoine-Joseph Yvon Villarceau was a French astronomer, mathematician, and engineer. He constructed an equatorial meridian-instrument and an isochronometric regulator for the Paris Observatory. He wrote Mécanique Céleste. Expose des Méthodes de Wronski et Composantes des Forces Perturbatrices suivant les Axes Mobiles and Sur l'établissement des arches de pont, envisagé au point de vue de la plus grande stabilité .
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Johannes de Muris
1300 - 1350 (50 years)
Johannes de Muris , or John of Murs, was a French mathematician, astronomer, and music theorist best known for treatises on the ars nova musical style, titled Ars nove musice. Life and career For a medieval person primarily known through his scholarly writing, it is highly unusual that Johannes de Muris’ life can be traced enough to form a decently consistent biography. Born in Normandy, he is believed to have been related to Julian des Murs who was secretary to Charles V of France. The suggested birth year for Muris is based on a murder of a cleric on September 7, 1310, which Muris was allegedly a part of.
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Johann Heinrich von Heucher
1677 - 1746 (69 years)
Johann Heinrich von Heucher was a German physician and botanist. Biography Born in Vienna, his family moved to Wittenberg when he was twelve. He studied philosophy first, then medicine at the Universities of Wittenberg, Leipzig and Jena. Doctor of Medicine in 1700, he began to practice the medical profession; for a time he also taught philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. From 1709 he was professor of medicine in the same university .
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Michiel Coignet
1549 - 1623 (74 years)
Michiel Coignet was a Flemish polymath who made significant contributions to various disciplines including cosmography, mathematics, navigation and cartography. He also built new and improved scientific instruments and made military engineering designs.
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Iacopo da San Cassiano
1395 - 1453 (58 years)
Iacopo da San Cassiano , also known as Iacobus Cremonensis, was an Italian humanist and mathematician. He translated from Greek to Latin the writings of Archimedes and parts of Diodorus' Bibliotheca historica.
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John Robinson Airey
1868 - 1937 (69 years)
John Robinson Airey was a British schoolteacher, mathematician and astrophysicist. Early life Airey was the eldest child of William Airey, a stone mason, and Elizabeth Airey, who were both born in Preston under Scar, North Yorkshire. He was the oldest from four siblings, the other three being Elizabeth Ann , Edwin , and Maud . The 1871 census showed the family was living at Hunslet, Leeds; by 1881 they had moved to 28 Grosvenor Street, West Leeds.
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Christian August Hausen
1693 - 1743 (50 years)
Christian August Hausen was a German mathematician who is known for his research on electricity. Biography Hausen studied mathematics at the University of Wittenberg and received his master's degree in 1712. He became an extraordinary professor of mathematics at the University of Leipzig at the age of 21 and later became an ordinary professor.
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Adelbert Ames Jr.
1880 - 1955 (75 years)
Adelbert Ames Jr. was an American scientist who made contributions to physics, physiology, ophthalmology, psychology, and philosophy. He pioneered the study of physiological optics at Dartmouth College, serving as a research professor, then as director of research at the Dartmouth Eye Institute. He conducted important research into aspects of binocular vision, including cyclophoria and aniseikonia. Ames is perhaps best known for constructing illusions of visual perception, most notably the Ames room and the Ames window. He was a leading light in the Transactionalist School of psychology and ...
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Asaph Hall Jr.
1859 - 1930 (71 years)
Asaph Hall IV , known as Asaph Hall Jr., was an American astronomer. He was the son of Asaph Hall, who discovered the moons of the planet Mars. One of his brothers was Percival Hall. Early life Hall was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1859. He was the son of the astronomer Asaph Hall and the mathematician Angeline Stickney Hall. He grew up in Washington, D.C., where his father worked at the United States Naval Observatory. He attended the Columbian College in the District of Columbia and then Harvard University, where he received his undergraduate degree in 1882.
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Leander Ditscheiner
1839 - 1886 (47 years)
Leander Ditscheiner was an Austrian physicist and mathematician, best known for his research on birefringence. Life and work Leander Ditscheiner was born 1839 in Vienna. He studied at the University of Vienna and later at the University of Heidelberg. He received his Ph.D. in 1857 and became lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology in 1866. In the later years he became assistant professor and full professor in 1883.
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B. S. Madhava Rao
1900 - 1987 (87 years)
Bangalore Srinivasarao Madhava Rao was an Indian mathematician and physicist who served as a professor of mathematics at Central College, Bangalore. He worked on mathematical physics and collaborated with Max Born.
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William Watson
1868 - 1919 (51 years)
William Watson CMG, FRS was a British physicist and Lieutenant-Colonel in World War I. After education at King's College School, Watson studied under Arthur William Rucker and C. V. Boys at the Royal College of Science and received his bachelor's degree in 1890. At the Royal College of Science, Watson was appointed demonstrator in physics in 1890, assistant professor in 1897, and professor in 1915. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901.
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Karl von der Mühll
1841 - 1912 (71 years)
Karl von der Mühll was a Swiss mathematician and physicist. He was born into the Von der Mühll family, of the Basel patriciate , to Karl Georg and Emilie Merian, of the Merian family, a granddaughter of Peter Merian.
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Facundo Bueso Sanllehí
1905 - 1960 (55 years)
Facundo Bueso Sanllehí was a physicist, educator, science communicator and athlete. He was born on February 5, 1905, in Mexico City, Mexico. His family was forced to flee to Spain in 1915 because of the Mexican Revolution. Later in 1917 the family moved from Spain to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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Francisco Antônio de Almeida Júnior
1851 - 1928 (77 years)
Francisco Antônio de Almeida Júnior was a Brazilian astronomer, engineer and university professor during the latter half of the 19th century. Almeida was part of a commission tasked with calculating the stellar parallax of the Sun during the 1874 transit of Venus. Almeida was an important figure in the development of cinematography and he was the first known Brazilian to visit Japan and publish a book about his sojourn in China and Japan.
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Johannes Engel
1463 - 1512 (49 years)
Johannes Engel , also known as Johannes Angelus, was a doctor, astronomer and astrologer from Aichach, near Augsburg, which at that time was a Free Imperial City within the Holy Roman Empire. He practiced medicine in Vienna, and published numerous almanachs, planetary tables and calendars. His Astrolabium planum was published by Erhard Ratdolt of Augsburg in 1488; a second edition was printed by Johann Emerich for Lucantonio Giunti in Venice in 1494.
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Gennady Potapenko
1894 - 1979 (85 years)
Gennady Vasilyevich Potapenko was an American radio astronomer of Russian origin. After the signal discoveries made by Karl Jansky in the mid-1930s, Potapenko , along with Caltech physicist Donald Folland and Palomar telescope designer Russell Porter, attempted further researches in 'star static' in 1936. They were able to confirm Jansky's results with a loop antenna, then a single wire, but were unable to secure adequate funding to continue.
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Alexander Moffat
Rev Prof Alexander Moffat FRSE LLD was a 20th-century Scottish minister and physicist. He was Professor of physics at the Christian College in Madras, India. Life He was born in Scotland around 1870. He studied both Divinity and Physics and graduated MA BSc.
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Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta
1920 - 1971 (51 years)
Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta was a Bengali educator and humanist of the former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. He was one of the Bengali intellectuals killed by the Pakistan Army during the 1971 Dhaka University massacre on the night of 25 March 1971.
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Charles Morton
1626 - 1698 (72 years)
Charles Morton was an English nonconformist minister and founder of an early dissenting academy, later in life associated in New England with Harvard College. Morton was raised with strong Puritan influences in England and attended Oxford . As a result of the English Revolution, he was arrested and excommunicated for promoting progressive education , forcing his immigration to relative safety in Massachusetts Bay Colony , although he was soon arrested for sedition in Boston.
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Volkert Simon Maarten van der Willigen
1822 - 1878 (56 years)
Volkert Simon Maarten van der Willigen , sometimes referred to as Volcardus Simon Martinus van der Willigen, was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and professor. Life Volkert was son of the minister Johannes van der Willigen and his wife Gerarde Maria Elsabé Bodde . He was the nephew of the Dutch patriot and writer Adriaan van der Willigen.
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Otto Ernst Heinrich Klemperer
1899 - 1987 (88 years)
Otto Ernst Heinrich Klemperer was a physicist expert in electron optics. He was granted his doctorate by the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 1923. His thesis advisor was Hans Geiger. He continued to work with Geiger in the 1930s.
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Alexander Geddes
1885 - 1970 (85 years)
Alexander Ebenezer McLean Geddes OBE FRSE was a Scottish meteorologist and physicist. He was generally known as Sandy Geddes and nicknamed Siccer Sandy . Life He was born in Fordyce, Aberdeenshire on 8 February 1885 and educated at Fordyce Academy. He then attended the University of Aberdeen graduating with a MA in 1906. In 1908 he became an assistant lecturer at the university teaching natural philosophy . He received a doctorate in 1913.
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Qian Ji
1917 - 1983 (66 years)
Qian Ji was a Chinese physicist and aerospace engineer who was instrumental in the development of China's first satellite, the Dong Fang Hong I, and its first successful 3-in-1 satellite launch, the Shijian 2. In 1999, he was posthumously awarded the Two Bombs, One Satellite Meritorious Medal.
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Mark Walrod Harrington
1848 - 1926 (78 years)
Mark Walrod Harrington was an American scientist, the first civilian head of the United States Weather Bureau, and former president of the University of Washington. Considered a prominent scientist in the late 19th century, Harrington studied and published works in multiple disciplines, including botany, astronomy, meteorology, and geology, and knew a half-dozen languages. His academic achievements were overshadowed by his disappearance in 1899, when he left home one day and disappeared for many years. His wife and son located him in 1908 at a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey where he had been admitted as patient John Doe No.
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André Blondel
1863 - 1938 (75 years)
André-Eugène Blondel was a French engineer and physicist. He is the inventor of the electromechanical oscillograph and a system of photometric units of measurement. Life Blondel was born in Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France. His father was a magistrate from an old family in the town of Dijon. He was the best student from the town in his year. He went on to attend the École nationale des ponts et chaussées and graduated first in his class in 1888. He was employed as an engineer by the Lighthouses and Beacons Service until he retired in 1927 as its general first class inspector. He became a profes...
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Alexander Wilson
1714 - 1786 (72 years)
Alexander Wilson was a Scottish surgeon, type-founder, astronomer, mathematician and meteorologist. He was the first scientist to use kites in meteorological investigations. He was the first Regius Professor of Practical Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.
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John Alan Chalmers
1904 - 1967 (63 years)
Professor John Alan Chalmers was a British atmospheric physicist based at Durham University. He is well known for his contributions to atmospheric electricity, particularly an internationally respected textbook, and, outside his scientific work, for his involvement with Scouting. This led to him being widely known to his colleagues by the nickname, "Skip", a commonly used term for the leader of a Scout troop.
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