Who is the most influential scientist today?

[Angel Penaflor]

I've been reading about the life of different scientist like Newton, Albert Einstein and Ramanujan and a question came to my mind
Who do you think is the most important or influential scientist today?

 

[Astronuc]

That is really a poor question, because there are so many areas of physics (or other sciences and mathematics, are related fields) in which an individual can practice, teach or otherwise contribute.

I don't know of anyone who is singularly important to the exclusion of others.

 

[Hornbein]

I've been reading about the life of different scientist like Newton, Albert Einstein and Ramanujan and a question came to my mind
Who do you think is the most important or influential scientist today?

Ed Witten

 

[WWGD]

I agree, I don't think there isn't a single main scientist nowadays. Science is growing fast in all its branches, each in several directions and I don't see anyone at the forefront.

 

[StatGuy2000]

I agree with other responses that this is a poorly worded question, given the breadth and diversity of the fields of research within the different sciences. So no single scientist would be the most influential.

A better question might be who is the most influential physicist specializing in field X (e.g. solid state physics, statistical physics, optics, cosmology, atomic and molecular physics, particle physics, etc.) today.

You can make similar questions depending on other scientific fields.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Maybe the easiest answer is that the most influential for any given year are those that win the Nobel prize?

 

[fourthindiana]

Ed Witten

 

[sysprog]

Ed Witten

Ed Witten

After seeing that 2 members here had given him the nod, I decided to find out a little more about Ed Witten, and I found this to-me-fascinating monologue:

At 22 minutes in, Ed Witten says:

In fact, the hardest part of research is always to find a question that's big enough that it's worth answering, but little enough that you actually can answer it.​

​

 

[david2]

(k)NEWton

 

[BWV]

why would the most influential scientist be a physicist? so 20th century, physics is mostly over