Look at prize winners - then, where relevant - their students or people they mentored. For mathematics, Abel Prize winners and for Physics the Nobel Prize winne

Look at prize winners - then, where relevant - their students or people they mentored. For mathematics, Abel Prize winners and for Physics the Nobel Prize winners and Sakurai Prize winners tend to be recognized as the leaders of their fields for the particular research they work on. These are names that many in a given field would recognize or at least be aware of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakurai_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakurai_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Prize_in_Physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Prize_in_Physics