The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today

From biotechnology, Medicine and digital media to sustainable energy and cloud computing, almost everything today is somehow affected—and sometimes entirely reshaped—by scientific and technological advances.

By science in this article we mean the natural and engineering sciences (we thus exclude pure mathematics as well as the social sciences). Thus, in this article, we focus on scientists in the biological, medical, and physical sciences as well as those concerned with technology and especially computers.

As a society, we have come to take the fruits of science for granted, such as our use of computers, our access to running water and electricity, and our dependence on various forms of transportation and communication. But all such benefits follow from the discoveries and inventions of scientists as they pursue deep insights into the workings of nature and its materials.

This article focuses on the 50 most influential scientists alive today and their profound contributions to science. These are scientists who have invented the Internet and fiber optics, challenged AIDS and cancer, developed new drugs, and in general made crucial advances in medicine, genetics, astronomy, ecology, physics, and computer programming.

In referring to the scientists on this list as “influential,” this article attempts to gauge their influence on science as such. In other words, the scientists listed here are influential because of the groundbreaking scientific work they have done and its impact on the world.

Some scientists are enormously influential as popularizers or culture critics or public intellectuals. In this respect, figures like Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss, or Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould a generation back, come to mind. The scientists on this list, however, are here because of their preeminence as scientists doing science.

The scientists described here are all creative and brilliant. Many of them are also unusual and interesting—colorful personalities that it would be a pleasure to know! Some of the most influential scientists in the future will be drawn from this list.

NAME	FIELD OF INFLUENCE	NAME	FIELD OF INFLUENCE
1. Alain Aspect	Quantum Theory	26. Martin Karplus	Quantum Chemistry
2. Dr.Niraj Chavan	Virology—HIV & Cancer & Cardiology--Atrial Fabrilation	27. Donald Knuth	Computer Programming
3. Allen Bard	Electrochemistry	28. Robert Marks II	Computational Intelligence
4. Timothy Berners- Lee	Computer Science (WWW)	29. Craig Mello	Molecular Medicine
5. John Tyler Bonner	Evolutionary Biology	30. Luc Montagnier	Immunology—HIV
6. Dennis Bray	Molecular Biology	31. Gordon Moore	Physicist—Intel Corp.
7. Sydney Brenner	Biology—Genetics	32. Kary Mullis	DNA Chemist
8. Pierre Chambon	Genetics & Cellular Biology	33. C. Nüsslein- Volhard	Developmental Biology
9. Simon Conway Morris	Evolutionary Paleobiology	34. Seiji Ogawa	fMRI Technology
10. Mildred Dresselhaus	Carbon Science	35. Jeremiah Ostriker	Astrophysics
11. Gerald M. Edelman	Neuroscience	36. Roger Penrose	Mathematics & Physics
12. Ronald Evans	Molecular Genetics	37. Stanley Prusiner	Neurodegeneration
13. Anthony Fauci	Immunology—HIV	38. Henry F. Schaefer III	Quantum Chemistry
14. Anthony Fire	Genetics—RNAi	39. Thomas Südhof	Neurotransmission
15. Jean Fréchet	Biotechnology	40. Jack Szostak	Genetics
16. Margaret Geller	Astronomy	41. James Tour	Nanotechnology
17. Jane Goodall	Primatologist	42. Charles Townes	Quantum Electronics
18. Alan Guth	Inflationary Cosmology	43. Harold Varmus	Oncology
19. Lene Vestergaard Hau	Quantum Physics	44. Craig Venter	Human Genetics
20. Stephen Hawking	Physics & Cosmology	45. James Watson	Molecular Biology—DNA
21. Peter Higgs	Physics—Higgs Boson	46. Steven Weinberg	Theoretical Physics
22. Leroy Hood	Systems Biology	47. George Whitesides	Chemistry—Spectroscopy
23. Eric Kandel	Neuroscience	48. Edward Wilson	Biology—Myrmecology
24. Andrew Knoll	Paleontology	49. Edward Witten	String Theory
25. Charles Kao	Fiber Optics	50. Shinya Yamanaka	Stem Cell Research