Search People Result | Academic Influence

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,

#4151

Hao Bailin

#85145

Overall Influence

1934 - 2018 (84 years)

Hao Bailin or Hao Bolin was a Chinese theoretical physicist, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Fudan University professor. Biography Hao was born in Beijing, 1934. He graduated from then Beijing Russian Institute in 1954, then went to Kharkiv and studied mining at Kharkov Engineering-Economic Institute. He transferred to the Department of Mathematics and Physics, Kharkiv University in 1956 and completed his bachelor's degree in the next three years.

#4152

Marina Borovskaya

#24283

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Marina Aleksandrovna Borovskaya is a Russian economist and professor. She serves as Rector of Southern Federal University since 2012. She is President of the Council of Rectors of Southern Federal District, Vice-President of Russian Union of Rectors.

#4153

Matthias Ballauff

#104226

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Matthias Ballauff is a German chemist and physicist, and is a professor of physics at the Free University of Berlin. His postdoctoral research and training was directed by Paul Flory. He contributed to various areas of physical chemistry, in particular to polymer science, colloidal chemistry and nanomaterials, as well as to soft matter physics. Ballauff is particularly known for having developed new catalyst materials in the form of functionalized metallic nanoparticles dispersed in liquid phase, which can greatly speed up the reaction kinetics of organic molecules.

#4154

Jonathan C. Knight

#103289

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Jonathan C. Knight, is a British physicist. He is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for the University of Bath where he has been Professor in the Department of Physics since 2000, and served as head of department. From 2005 to 2008, he was founding Director of the university's Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials.

#4155

Harry Soodak

#83486

Overall Influence

1920 - 2008 (88 years)

Harry Soodak was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, publishing the first design of a sodium-cooled breeder reactor, and was a professor at City College of New York. Along with Arthur Iberall, Soodak developed the concept of homeokinetics to explain the functioning of complex systems.

#4156

Thomas Joseph Weiland

#112559

Overall Influence

#4157

George E. Bacon

#112561

Overall Influence

#4158

John Reynolds

#69505

Overall Influence

1923 - 2000 (77 years)

John Hamilton Reynolds was an American physicist and a specialist in mass spectrometry. Life John H. Reynolds was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. He studied first at Harvard University and, after serving in the Navy during World War II, at the University of Chicago. There, he was influenced by his Ph.D. thesis advisor Mark Inghram and by two other famous physicists, Harold Urey and Enrico Fermi. He specialized in mass spectrometry and utilized this method to determine isotope ratios needed for the radiometric dating of geologically and cosmologically relevant samples. In 1...

#4159

Leo Kouwenhoven

Leo Kouwenhoven

#71734

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Leo Kouwenhoven is a Dutch physicist known for his research on quantum computing. Kouwenhoven grew up in Pijnacker, a village near Delft, where his parents ran a farm. After losing the admission lottery for veterinary medicine he decided to study physics at Delft University of Technology .

#4160

Davison Soper

#95430

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Davison "Dave" Eugene Soper is an American theoretical physicist specializing in high energy physics. Education and career Soper received his bachelor's degree in 1965 from Amherst College and his PhD in 1971 under James Bjorken from Stanford University, where he worked with John Kogut. Soper was from 1971 to 1973 an instructor and from 1973 to 1977 an assistant professor at Princeton University. He was appointed in 1977–80 an assistant professor, in 1980–83 an associate professor, and from 1983 to the present a professor at the University of Oregon, where from 2004 to 2007 he was chair of t...

#4161

Lluis Torner

#94276

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Lluis Torner i Sabata is a physicist. He founded and leads ICFO. in Barcelona, Catalonia . He is the recipient of the 2016 National Research prize of Catalonia and of the 2017 Nature mentorship award.

#4162

Jean-pierre Colinge

#112622

Overall Influence

#4163

Sjur Refsdal

#94404

Overall Influence

1935 - 2009 (74 years)

Sjur Refsdal was a Norwegian astrophysicist, born in Oslo. He is best known for his pioneer work on gravitational lensing, including the Chang-Refsdal lens. Biography In 1970 he earned a doctorate at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo. Later that year he became professor in astrophysics at the Hamburg Observatory in Germany, and remained in that position until he retired in 2001.

#4164

Randall Kamien

#89655

Overall Influence

Randall David Kamien is a theoretical condensed matter physicist specializing in the physics of liquid crystals and is the Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Natural Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

#4165

Thor Rhodin

#103003

Overall Influence

1920 - 2006 (86 years)

Thor Nathaniel Rhodin was an American professor of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University and the University of Chicago's James Franck Institute, and is credited with pioneering work in the birth and evolution of surface science beginning with his research on surface sensitivity using auger electron spectroscopy. He played a major role, over several decades, in shaping the development of the field from fundamental work, using the field ion microscope, on the imaging and bonding of individual atoms at surfaces to the fundamentals of surface catalysis of hydrocarbon chemistry by ...

#4166

Wah Chiu

#49972

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Wah Chiu is a Hong Kong-born American biophysicist, currently the Wallenberg-Bienenstock Chair Professor in the department of bioengineering, department of microbiology and immunology and the Photon Science Directorate of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. He is a Stanford Bio-X affiliated Faculty. He was formerly the Distinguished Service Professor and the Alvin Romansky Chair Professor at Baylor College of Medicine where he was the founding director of the National Center for Biomolecular Imaging, and has been active in the new cryo-EM techniques allowing much hi...

#4167

Sarah Hörst

#61429

Overall Influence

1982 - Present (44 years)

Sarah Hörst is an associate professor of planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University, who focuses on understanding planetary atmospheric hazes, in particular the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.

#4168

J. C. Séamus Davis

#72262

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

J. C. Séamus Davis is an Irish physicist whose research explores the world of macroscopic quantum physics. Davis concentrates upon the fundamental physics of exotic states of electronic, magnetic, atomic and space-time quantum matter. A specialty is development of innovative instrumentation to allow direct atomic-scale visualization or perception of the quantum many-body phenomena that are characteristic of these states.

#4169

Lawrence Paul Horwitz

#88636

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (96 years)

Lawrence Paul Horwitz is an American/Israeli physicist and mathematician who has made contributions in particle physics, statistical mechanics, mathematical physics, theory of unstable systems, classical chaos and quantum chaos, relativistic quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, general relativity, representations of quantum theory on hypercomplex Hilbert modules, group theory and functional analysis and stochastic theories of irreversible quantum evolution.

#4170

Sonia Contera

#32432

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Sonia Antoranz Contera is a Spanish physicist. She serves as Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Oxford, a senior fellow at the Oxford Martin School, and a senior research fellow at Green Templeton College.

#4171

Jan Högbom

#100441

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (97 years)

Jan Arvid Högbom is a Swedish radio astronomer and astrophysicist. Education Högbom obtained his PhD in 1959 from the University of Cambridge with Martin Ryle. Career and research Högbom is most well known for the development of the CLEAN algorithm for deconvolution of images created in radio astronomy, published in 1974. This allows the use of arrays of small antennae, generating incomplete sampling data, to effectively simulate a much larger aperture. Högbom was also the first to use Earth rotation synthesis imaging in a small test.

#4172

Igor Bray

#112890

Overall Influence

#4173

Sergey Psakhie

#56080

Overall Influence

1952 - 2018 (66 years)

Sergey Psakhie was a Russian physicist, Chairman of the Presidium of the Tomsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was the author and co-author of more than two hundred scientific papers, including five monographs.

#4174

Christine Wilson

#112645

Overall Influence

Christine D. Wilson is a Canadian-American physicist and astronomer, currently a University Distinguished Professor at McMaster University. On August 5, 1986, Wilson discovered a comet, later named Comet Wilson after her, while analyzing photographic plates from the Samuel Oschin telescope at the Palomar Observatory.

#4175

Jon Orloff

#42734

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Jonathan Harris Orloff is an American physicist, author and professor. Born in New York City, he is the eldest son of Monford Orloff and brother of pianist Carole Orloff and historian Chester Orloff. Orloff is known for his major fields of research in charged particle optics, applications of field emission processes, high-brightness electron and ion sources, focused ion and electron beams and their applications for micromachining, surface analysis and microscopy and instrumentation development for semiconductor device manufacturing.

#4176

Matthias Staudacher

#59177

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Matthias Staudacher is a German theoretical physicist who has done significant work in the area of quantum field theory and string theory. Education Beginning his physics studies at the University of Heidelberg and at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Staudacher then earned a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a dissertation on matrix models of two-dimensional quantum gravity.

#4177

Joshua Silver

#44039

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Joshua D. Silver is a British physicist whose discoveries have included a new way to change the curvature of lenses, with a significant application for the low-cost manufacture of corrective lenses and adjustable spectacles, especially in low-income countries.

#4178

Kevin Knuth

#85095

Overall Influence

Kevin H. Knuth is an associate professor of physics at the University at Albany . Knuth conducts research in information physics, foundations of quantum mechanics, and Bayesian analysis with applications towards various problems in physics. He also conducts research into UFOs.

#4179

Milton J. Rosen

#113046

Overall Influence

1920 - Present (106 years)

#4180

Antoine Kahn

#113059

Overall Influence

#4181

Bernard Frois

#106952

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Bernard Frois is a French nuclear physicist, energy policy advisor, and science manager. Education and career Frois received his doctorate in physics from the University of Paris. From 1968 to 2005 he was employed at the Saclay Nuclear Research Centre as a Directeur de recherche at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique . From 2001 to 2005 he was also a Directeur du Département Energie, Transport, Environnement et Ressources naturelles in France's Ministère en charge de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche . From 2006 to 2010 Frois was a Directeur de Nouvelles Technologies de l'Energie of the Agence nationale de la recherche .

#4182

Friedhelm Bechstedt

#113069

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

#4183

Andrzej Jamiołkowski

#71897

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Andrzej Edmund Jamiołkowski is a Polish theoretical physicist, rector of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń . He is known for the Choi–Jamiołkowski isomorphism in quantum information theory.

#4184

R. Reinier Plomp

#113076

Overall Influence

#4185

Karine Danielyan

#68032

Overall Influence

1947 - 2022 (75 years)

Karine Danielyan , was an Armenian politician, biophysicist, and opinion journalist, who served as Minister of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia from 1991 to 1994. Her death was announced on Facebook on the 4th of April 2022 by her daughter.

#4186

R. John Ellis

#20132

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Reginald John Ellis is a British scientist. Early life and education Ellis was educated at Highbury Grammar School, London. He studied at King's College, London and obtained a BSc degree in 1956 and PhD in 1960, for thesis research on the enzymology of transamination. He was supervised by Professor D. D. Davies.

#4187

Claude Fabre

#97064

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Claude Fabre is a French physicist, professor emeritus at the Sorbonne University and member of the Kastler-Brossel Laboratory of Sorbonne University, École normale supérieure and Collège de France.

#4188

David J. Pine

#72310

Overall Influence

David J. Pine is an American physicist who has made contributions in the field of soft matter physics, including studies on colloids, polymers, surfactant systems, and granular materials. He is professor of physics in the NYU College of Arts and Science and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

#4189

Ching‐i. Meng

#113146

Overall Influence

#4190

Rosemary Wyse

#92951

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Rosemary F. G. Wyse is a Scottish astrophysicist, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society , and Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. Education Wyse graduated from Queen Mary University of London in 1977 with a first-class Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astrophysics and obtained her PhD in astrophysics in the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in 1983. Bernard Jones was her academic advisor.

#4191

Yves Bréchet

#28857

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Yves Bréchet is a physicist, specialist of materials science, former High Commissioner for Atomic Energy of France, current Scientific Director of Saint Gobain, professor at Monash University, and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

#4192

Vincenzo Silvano Casulli

#59500

Overall Influence

1944 - 2018 (74 years)

Vincenzo Silvano Casulli, usually known as Silvano Casulli was an Italian amateur astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets at his Vallemare di Borbona Observatory in Lazio. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 192 minor planets. In 1985 he served on a team involved in using the Hubble Space Telescope in a study that focused on Transition Comets—UV Search for OH Emissions in Asteroids. He was the first amateur astronomer to obtain precise astronometric positions of minor planets using a CCD camera. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids.

#4193

Jessie Christiansen

Jessie Christiansen

#72337

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Jessie Christiansen is an Australian astrophysicist working at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology . She won the 2018 NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal for her work on the Kepler planet sample.

#4194

Marco Durante

#113248

Overall Influence

#4195

V. Adrian Parsegian

#113255

Overall Influence

#4196

Christine Silberhorn

#45886

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Christine Silberhorn is a German physicist specialising in quantum optics, full professor at the Paderborn University. In 2011, Silberhorn was awarded the Leibniz Prize and was the youngest recipient of the 2.5 million Euro prize at that time.

#4197

Evgeny M. Lifshitz

#113319

Overall Influence

#4198

Robert T Boyd

#113344

Overall Influence

#4199

Ugo Amaldi

#108654

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Ugo Amaldi; born 1934, is an Italian physicist. He is the son of the first CERN secretary general Edoardo Amaldi. Ugo Amaldi was a professor at the physics department of the University of Milan, having previously worked at Istituto Superiore di Sanità and CERN. He holds honorary doctorates from University of Lyon, University of Uppsala , University of Valencia and University of Helsinki. He is a Fellow of the European Physical Society, a Distinguished Affiliated Professor at Technical University of Munich, member of the Accademia dei Lincei, and was awarded the inaugural Bruno Pontecorvo Prize by JINR.

#4200

Nikolay Neprimerov

Nikolay Neprimerov

#45410

Overall Influence

1921 - 2017 (96 years)

Nikolay Neprimerov was a Doctor of Technical Sciences and professor of physics at the Kazan State University. Neprimerov was Head of the Department of Radioelectronics of the Kazan University for 32 years and is author of more than 150 scientific papers and 9 monographs. He also authored a book about the everyday life of military pilots during World War II. He was awarded numerous honours and medals, among them the Russian Federation Government Prize in Science and Technology. Neprimerov dedicated more than 40 years to and is internationally known for physical research in oil recovery.

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