SPQR wrote:

>>My nomination goes to the persons responsible for the internet,>>

You have a point.

TIME gave as its reason for choosing Einstein that the 20th century would be known as the century of science and Einstein represented the scientific field. Their write-up on Einstein focused heavily on his relationship to other scientists who established the fundamentals that made, inter alia, the internet possible.

For example it was Einstein's photo-electric theory, built on the prior work of Planck and Lennard, that established the existence of light quanta - now called photons. Without that understanding there would probably have been no lasers, no electron microscopes and probably no transistors and microchips.

Obviously Einstein did not do all this himself. Just as he built on the work of his predecessors so others built on his work.

However, if I look at the impact of a single person, rather than a group, my vote would still go to Deng.

If I look at groups I agree with TIME that the 20th century, and the 19th century for that matter, were the centuries of the scientists and the engineers.

I suspect the 21st century too will belong to scientists and engineers where I include software engineers.

But I cannot think of a single person, as opposed to a group, that had a bigger impact, for good or ill, than Deng

Fritz Haber...

"Fertilizer generated from ammonia produced by the Haber process is estimated to be responsible for sustaining one-third of the Earth's population. It is estimated that half of the protein within human beings is made of nitrogen that was originally fixed by this process..."

"Due to its dramatic impact on the human ability to grow food, the Haber process served as the "detonator of the population explosion", enabling the global population to increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to today's 7 billion." (both quotes: wikipedia)

Plus, estimates place the process as consuming between 1 and 2 percent of the world's annual energy consumption.

Greatest impact?

Fritz Haber, simultaneously the greatest impact for the better and the worse. Depending upon your opinion of the impact, of course.

WmTrevor suggest Fritz Haber

And you've changed my mind.

Thinking it over I would have to agree. I cannot think of any single person, as opposed to group, who had a greater impact on the 20th century and beyond than Fritz Haber.

In fact China would not be able to support a population of > 1.2 billion without Haber's discoveries.

So I hereby withdraw my nomination and endorse yours :)

Belly,
Gandhi would have shot Mandela dead had they existed in South Africa at the same time.
Gandhi and Mandela are cult figures like Ayatollah Khomeini, Che Guevara or Hugo Chavez, they're more myth than man whose "contributions" are also mythical in nature as opposed to substantial.

Suse,
With her ferocious intellect had Margaret Thatcher stayed with her chosen vocation she would almost certainly have achieved greatness as a scientist, instead she's known merely a notorious politician.
There's no such thing as a female leader, they're figureheads like Mrs Thatcher and Julia Gillard, mascots like Hillary Clinton and Nancy Reagan or totems like Aung San Suu Kyi and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

What a marvellous Topic - Wish I could have thought of something as noble as this ?

Anyway, my choice would undoubtable be - Aung San Suu KYI. This wise and courageous lady renounced her own personal happiness, for the sake of her countrymen and women. Winning the Nobel Prize for Peace, as a consequence of her sacrifice.

Stunning stuff JOM.
And your ability to redraw history is too.
Gandhi never shot any one, he is revered for his invention of nonviolence.
And you place the man who ended apartheid at another time being an-enemy to a man he would have much in common with.