James Clerk Maxwell

About James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) was a foundational Scottish physicist whose work defined classical electromagnetism. His most significant achievement was formulating the set of Maxwell's equations, which mathematically unified electricity, magnetism, and light, demonstrating that light itself is an electromagnetic wave. This contribution is so monumental to modern physics and technology that the Pantheon project ranks him #881 among all historical figures.

Despite his high historical standing, Maxwell's modern internet attention appears modest. His Wikipedia pageviews in 2025 totaled 531K, resulting in an Attention Gap of approximately 1x, indicating that his online presence is roughly proportional to his historical importance. This represents a point of relative stability compared to figures like Evangelista Torricelli, who holds a higher importance rank (#495) but garnered only 60K views in the same year, suggesting a significant difference in contemporary digital visibility between these two scientific giants.

However, the data also suggests a slight cooling of interest in the immediate term, with the annualized Wikipedia views showing a -29.0% year-over-year change. Furthermore, momentum between the first and third quarters of 2025 saw a 20% drop, indicating that while he remains relevant, the general momentum toward engaging with his work online is currently trending downward.