







The Most Famous
Physicists from United States
Trending Physicists from United States This Week
The top 10 Physicists from United States trending on Wikipedia in the past 7 days, with a quick note on what drove the spike.
- #1

J. Robert Oppenheimer
1904 - 1967
Trending in Polish (#32), Spanish (#193), and Russian (#289) Wikipedia (1,191 views, on Mar 28).
This page contains a list of the greatest Americans Physicists. The pantheon dataset contains 851 Physicists, 208 of which were born in United States.
Top 10 American Physicists
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Americans Physicists of all time. This list of famous Americans Physicists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Americans Physicists.
- #1

J. Robert Oppenheimer
1904 - 1967
HPI 90.85101 langsJ. Robert Oppenheimer is most famous for being the director of the Manhattan Project, which was a project to develop the first atomic bomb.
- #2

Charles H. Townes
1915 - 2015
HPI 80.6375 langsCharles H. Townes is most famous for his invention of the laser in 1958. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and...Read moreShow less
Charles H. Townes is most famous for his invention of the laser in 1958. He shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov for his work on the maser.
- #3

Philip Warren Anderson
1923 - 2020
HPI 79.3567 langsPhilip Warren Anderson is most famous for his work in the field of condensed matter physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in...Read moreShow less
Philip Warren Anderson is most famous for his work in the field of condensed matter physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for his discovery of how electrons behave in a metal.
- #4

Richard Feynman
1918 - 1988
HPI 78.55112 langsRichard Feynman is most famous for his work in quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the...Read moreShow less
Richard Feynman is most famous for his work in quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics.
- #5

Sheldon Lee Glashow
b. 1932
HPI 78.5367 langsSheldon Lee Glashow is most famous for his work in the field of particle physics. He is best known for his work with Steven Weinberg and...Read moreShow less
Sheldon Lee Glashow is most famous for his work in the field of particle physics. He is best known for his work with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam on the electroweak theory, which describes the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force.
- #6

Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.
1915 - 2011
HPI 77.8862 langsNorman Foster Ramsey Jr. is most famous for being the youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize in any field. He was awarded the Nobel Prize...Read moreShow less
Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. is most famous for being the youngest person to receive a Nobel Prize in any field. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 at the age of 31 for his work in quantum physics.
- #7

Luis Walter Alvarez
1911 - 1988
HPI 76.9974 langsAmerican physicist, inventor and professor
- #8

Robert Andrews Millikan
1868 - 1953
HPI 76.6193 langsRobert Andrews Millikan was an American physicist who is most famous for his work on the photoelectric effect.
- #9

Carl David Anderson
1905 - 1991
HPI 76.3381 langsCarl David Anderson was an American physicist who is most famous for his discovery of the positron in 1932.
- #10

Barry Barish
b. 1936
HPI 76.2056 langsBarry Barish is most famous for being the director of the LIGO project, which was the first to detect gravitational waves.
People by Birth Decade
Browse notable Americans Physicists grouped by birth decade. Each decade shows the top 10 by HPI; expand to see everyone.
2000s(1)
1990s(2)
1970s(1)
1960s(9)
1950s(16)
1940s(26)
1930s(37)
1920s(35)
1910s(29)
1900s(23)
1890s(7)
1880s(9)
1850s(2)
1830s(1)
1790s(1)
1750s(1)
Unknown(1)
Overlapping Lives
Which Physicists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Physicists since 1700.




























































































