Anders Celsius

About Anders Celsius

Anders Celsius (1701–1744) was a pivotal Swedish astronomer, physicist, and chemist whose contributions cemented his high historical standing, earning him an HPI Rank of #658. His most enduring legacy is the refinement and popularization of the centigrade temperature scale, now known as the Celsius scale, which has become the global standard for scientific measurement. Celsius also led extensive astronomical observation programs, including crucial studies of the aurora borealis and meridian arc measurements.

Despite this profound influence on how we measure temperature globally, Celsius experiences a notable attention deficit in the modern digital sphere. His 111K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025 place him significantly under-represented relative to his historical weight, resulting in an Attention Gap of -3x. To contextualize this underattention, figures ranked over 300 spots lower in historical importance, such as Oskar Schindler (#963 HPI, 1.5M views), garner nearly fourteen times his current online traffic.

While his overall momentum is slightly positive, increasing by +4.3% year-over-year, his recent Q1 vs Q3 momentum shows a 13% decline, suggesting that his baseline level of digital interest is modest and subject to fluctuation.