The Most Influential People Across History

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Clear Form

List of the most influential female people in Biology,

#2101

Tierney Thys

Tierney Thys
#107303
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Tierney Thys is an American marine biologist, science educator, and National Geographic explorer. In 1988 she earned a degree in biology from Brown University, and in 1998 she earned a doctorate in biomechanics. She was formerly the director of research at the Sea Studios Foundation. She was also the science editor for The Shape of Life and director for Strange Days on Planet Earth. She has also written, narrated and produced short films. Since 2000 she and her colleagues have been studying the giant ocean sunfish . In 2004 she was named a National Geographic "Emerging Explorer". She has sinc...
Go to Profile
#2102

Nancy J. Brown

#152686
Overall Influence
Go to Profile
#2103

Sylviane Muller

#152923
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Go to Profile
#2104

Cecilia Linde

#153208
Overall Influence
Go to Profile
#2105

Helen Cassaday

#117497
Overall Influence
Helen Cassaday is Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham. Education Cassaday did her BA, MA in Experimental Psychology, at University College, University of Oxford ; her PhD was in Psychopharmacology, at Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
Go to Profile
#2106

Annika Scheynius

#153313
Overall Influence
Go to Profile
#2107

Linda Blackall

#151025
Overall Influence
Linda Louise Blackall is an Australian microbiologist who has studied microbial communities and their applications in water management. She is professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Melbourne.
Go to Profile
#2108

Jadwiga Bryła

#142954
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Jadwiga Bryła is a Polish biochemist. Since 1977 manager of Metabolism Regulation Department in Faculty of Biology in Warsaw University, and since 1983 professor in this faculty. Director of Biochemistry Institute. Since 1993 a member-correspondent of Polish Academy of Learning; she leads researches on regulations of intermediate transformations, especially on carbohydrates in animal tissues.
Go to Profile
#2109

Rochelle Buffenstein

#108721
Overall Influence
Rochelle Buffenstein is an American comparative biologist currently working as Research Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. Previously, she was a senior principal investigator at Calico Life Sciences, an Alphabet, Inc. funded research and development company investigating the biology that controls aging and lifespan where she used the extraordinarily long-lived cancer resistant naked mole-rat as an attractive counter-example to the inevitability of mammalian aging; for at ages greatly exceeding the expected maximum longevity for this mouse-sized rodent, they fail to exhibit meaningful changes in age-related risk of dying or physiological decline.
Go to Profile
#2110

Elizabeth L. Brainerd

#145329
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Elizabeth L. Brainerd is an American biologist who has contributed to our understanding of the evolution of breathing. and the biomechanics of vertebrates. She is one of the inventors of XROMM , a technique for making 3D movies of internal structure that combines CT scanning with biplanar x-ray movies. She is one of the authors of Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution.
Go to Profile
#2111

Eilika Weber-Ban

#135295
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Eilika Weber-Ban is a German biochemist. Her research considers protein degradation pathways. She was elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2021. Early life and education Weber-Ban studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen. She then received a Fulbright Program scholarship and went to the University of California at Riverside. Here she studied the tryptophan sunthase bienzyme complex under the supervision of Michael Dunn. She completed her graduate studies in 1996, and was awarded a Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research fellowship to join Arthur Ho...
Go to Profile
#2112

Holly Jones

#70319
Overall Influence
Holly P. Jones is an American restoration ecologist and conservation biologist. She is an associate professor at Northern Illinois University. Education Jones completed a bachelor of science in ecology, evolutionary biology, and marine biology from University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned a master of philosophy in forestry and environmental studies from Yale University in 2007. She completed a doctor of philosophy in 2010. Oswald Schmitz was her doctoral advisor. David M. Post, Peter A. Raymond, and David Towns served on Jones' dissertation committee.
Go to Profile
#2113

Amy Rosemond

#129307
Overall Influence
Amy D. Rosemond is an American aquatic ecosystem ecologist, biogeochemist, and Distinguished Research Professor at the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. Rosemond studies how global change affects freshwater ecosystems, including effects of watershed urbanization, nutrient pollution, and changes in biodiversity on ecosystem function. She was elected an Ecological Society of America fellow in 2018, and served as president of the Society for Freshwater Science from 2019-2020.
Go to Profile
#2114

Julie Williams

#100334
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Julie Williams CBE FLSW FMedSci is Professor of Neuropsychological Genetics at Cardiff University and was Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales from 2013 to 2017. She is one of the world's leading contributors to Alzheimer's research.
Go to Profile
#2115

Anna Wang Roe

#108044
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Anna Wang Roe is an American neuroscientist, the director of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology , and full-time professor at the Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. She is known for her studies on the functional organization and connectivity of cerebral cortex and for bringing interdisciplinary approaches to address questions in systems neuroscience.
Go to Profile
#2116

Chantal Conand

#49617
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Chantal Conand is a French marine biologist and oceanographer. Biography Conand obtained her PhD in biological oceanography at University of Western Brittany in Brest in 1988. Her thesis focused on Aspidochirotida of the New Caledonia Barrier Reef . In January 1993, she joined the marine ecology laboratory at the University of La Réunion and eventually became its chief scientist. Her expertise extends to all echinoderms of the Indo-Pacific, but her work has focused on sea cucumbers, but also on other echinoderms of la Réunion. Her other work has included studies of the crown-of-thorns starfish, which preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps .
Go to Profile
#2117

Francesca Gherardi

#134094
Overall Influence
1955 - 2013 (58 years)
Francesca Gherardi was an Italian zoologist, ethologist, and ecologist. Most of her work was performed at the Department of Biology of the University of Florence, Italy, where she was a researcher and an associate professor.
Go to Profile
#2118

Helen Herrman

#91284
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Helen Edith Herrman AO is the President of the World Psychiatric Association. She is the second woman, and first Australian to be elected to the position. Educated at Monash University, Herrman received an MD for her 1981 thesis, "An Epidemiological Study of Patients Diagnosed as Schizophrenic : Use of record-linkage to examine mortality and general hospital admission".
Go to Profile
#2119

Carolyn Slayman

#133494
Overall Influence
1937 - 2016 (79 years)
Carolyn Walch Slayman was an American geneticist. She was on the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine, where she was appointed Sterling Professor in 1991. On March 11, 1937, she was born in Portland, ME and would become the first scientist in her family. In 1958, she graduated from Swarthmore College with highest honors in biology and chemistry and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She began graduate school at Johns Hopkins University to study biochemistry but transferred to Rockefeller University in 1959 where she was the only woman in her class. In 1963, she earned her doctorate in biochemical genetics.
Go to Profile
#2120

Maria Nazareth F. da Silva

#115970
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Maria Nazareth Ferreira da Silva is a zoologist from Manaus, Brazil Da Silva has, for many years, specialised in the study of Amazonian mammals. She has described several new species of rodents:Proechimys echinothrix, the Tefe Spiny RatProechimys gardneri, the Gardner's Spiny RatProechimys pattoni, the Patton's spiny ratProechimys kulinae, the Kulina spiny rat.She has written, and contributed to, many papers and articles on the subject, and currently works for the National Institute of Amazonian Research.
Go to Profile
#2121

S. Patricia Becerra

S. Patricia Becerra
#147268
Overall Influence
S. Patricia Becerra is a biochemist specializing in the retina. She researches protein structure and function in relation to drug development for combating blindness. Becerra is a senior investigator at the National Eye Institute.
Go to Profile
#2122

Liliana M. Dávalos

#100741
Overall Influence
Liliana M. Dávalos is a Colombian-born evolutionary and conservation biologist, who is currently living in the United States. Her career as a researcher and professor have focused on bats as model systems and on tropical deforestation.
Go to Profile
#2123

Tsai-Fan Yu

#64112
Overall Influence
1911 - 2007 (96 years)
Tsai-Fan Yu was a Chinese-American physician, researcher, and the first woman to be appointed as a full professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She helped to develop an explanation for the cause of gout and experimented with early drugs to treat the disease which are still in use today.
Go to Profile
#2124

Patricia G. Parker

#153864
Overall Influence
Patricia G. Parker is a North American evolutionary biologist who uses molecular techniques to assess social structures, particularly in avian populations. Her interests have shaped her research in disease transmission and population size, particularly in regard to bird conservation. She received her B.S. in Zoology in 1975 and her Ph.D. in Behavioral Ecology in 1984, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1991 to 2000, Parker was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at Ohio State University. Since 2000, she is the Des Lee Professor of Zoological Studies at the University of Missouri–St.
Go to Profile
#2125

Laura Niedernhofer

#100284
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Laura J. Niedernhofer is an American professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics, with expertise in the fields of DNA damage, repair, progeroid syndromes and cellular senescence Education and career Niedernhofer studied from 1981 to 1985 at Duke University graduating with a B.S. chemistry, from 1989 to 1990 at Georgetown University School of Medicine graduating with an M.S. in physiology, and from 1990 to 1992 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with training in medicine. At Nashville's Vanderbilt University School of Medicine she studied from 1992 to 1996 graduating with a Ph.D.
Go to Profile
#2126

Caren Norden

#136871
Overall Influence
Caren Norden is a German biophysicist who is Deputy Director for Science at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. She works as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. Her research considers the cell biology of tissue morphogenesis.
Go to Profile
#2127

E. Virginia Armbrust

#151155
Overall Influence
E. Virginia Armbrust is a biological oceanographer, professor, and current director of the University of Washington School of Oceanography. She is an elected member of the Washington State Academy of Science, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Go to Profile
#2128

Fabienne Mackay

#92542
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Fabienne Mackay is a French Australian research immunologist and institutional leader within the Australian medical research, education and innovation sectors. She is the Director and CEO of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute since 2020, after being the inaugural Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne during the preceding five years. She is also an Honorary Professor at the Faculties of Medicine of the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne. Her work has attracted public attention for its contribution to the pathophysiological understanding and treatment of lupus and other autoimmune diseases.
Go to Profile
#2129

Bik Kwoon Tye

#133076
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Bik Kwoon Yeung Tye is a Chinese-American molecular geneticist and structural biologist. Tye's pioneering work on eukaryotic DNA replication led to the discovery of the minichromosome maintenance genes in 1984, which encode the catalytic core of the eukaryotic replisome. Tye also determined the first high-resolution structures of both the MCM complex and the Origin Recognition Complex in 2015 and 2018. Tye is currently a Professor Emeritus at Cornell University and a visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. She is married to Henry Sze-Hoi Tye and is the mothe...
Go to Profile
#2130

Laura Boykin

Laura Boykin
#101420
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (50 years)
Laura Boykin is an American computational biologist who uses supercomputing and genomics to help farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has studied the evolution of the agricultural pest whitefly and identified genetic differences between various species. She works with African scientists to develop computing and genomics skills across the continent, and is a Senior TED fellow.
Go to Profile
#2131

Susan M. Natali

#122143
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Susan M. Natali is an American ecologist. She is the Arctic program director and senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center , where her research focuses on the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems, primarily on Arctic permafrost. She is also the project lead for Permafrost Pathways, a new initiative launched in 2022 with funding from TED's Audacious Project. On Monday, April 11, 2022, Dr. Natali gave a TED Talk introducing the Permafrost Pathways project at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, BC.
Go to Profile
#2132

Yvonne Mburu

Yvonne Mburu
#112706
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (42 years)
Yvonne Mburu is a Kenyan immunologist and Next Einstein Forum Fellow. She is the founder and CEO of Nexakli, a global network of African health professionals. Mburu is a co-founder and co-president of the French-African Foundation, as well as a member of the Presidential Council for Africa .
Go to Profile
#2133

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen

#77365
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is director and Professor at the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids , and a professor of the Chemistry & Biochemistry department at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on organic electronic devices, using optical, electrical, and structural techniques to understand materials and devices such as photovoltaics, LEDs, and field-effect transistors.
Go to Profile
#2134

Erinna Lee

#111910
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Erinna Lee is a Singaporean molecular biologist specializing in apoptosis and autophagy. Early life and education Erinna Lee was born in Singapore and moved to Australia after high school. She was educated at University of Melbourne, studying a BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 2000-2004. She studied her PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, which was awarded in 2007 by the University of Melbourne. It was during this PhD where she began research on programmed cell death, which would form a large part of her subsequent research career.
Go to Profile
#2135

Juliet Daniel

#104246
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Juliet M Daniel is a Barbadian-born Canadian biology professor at McMaster University, where her research focuses on cancer biology. Daniel is recognized in the cancer biology field for the discovery and naming of the gene Kaiso, and is the recipient of several prestigious awards in recognition of her research and leadership, including an Ontario Premier Research Excellence Award and a Vice-Chancellor Award from the University of the West Indies.
Go to Profile
#2136

Valeria Culotta

#149961
Overall Influence
Valeria Cizewski Culotta is an American molecular biologist. Early life and education Culotta was born and raised in Maryland, where she graduated from Havre De Grace High School in 1975. She then completed her PhD in 1987 at Johns Hopkins University and her postdoctoral training in molecular biology at the National Cancer Institute.
Go to Profile
#2137

Allison K. Shaw

#135749
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (40 years)
Allison K. Shaw is an American ecologist and professor at the University of Minnesota. She studies the factors that drive the movements of organisms. Early life and education Shaw grew up among a family of physicists; her parents, siblings, and some of her grandparents were involved in the field of physics, so she was exposed to the sciences from a young age. She received her bachelor's degree in Science in Applied Mathematics-Biology from Brown University in 2006, and went on to earn her master's degree in ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University in 2009. She continued her graduate studies at Princeton, and earned her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2012.
Go to Profile
#2138

Rachel Dutton

Rachel Dutton
#111149
Overall Influence
Rachel Dutton is an American microbiologist. She has developed the microorganisms that live on cheese into a model system for complex interacting microbial communities. She has worked with chefs including Dan Felder, head of research and development at Momofuku to develop new fermentation procedures to be used in food and has been called the "go-to microbiologist" for chefs and gastronomists.
Go to Profile
#2139

Colleen Nelson

#78815
Overall Influence
Professor Colleen Nelson is a scientist in prostate cancer research. Professor Nelson founded and directs the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre - Queensland . The Centre, based at the Translational Research Institute and the Princess Alexandra Hospital, spans the spectrum of discovery of new therapeutic targets and their preclinical and clinical development. Professor Nelson is also Chair of Prostate Cancer Research at Queensland University of Technology .
Go to Profile
#2140

Elizabeth Derryberry

#124493
Overall Influence
Dr. Elizabeth Derryberry is an associate professor specializing in ornithology, in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee.
Go to Profile
#2141

Kate Jeffery

Kate Jeffery
#126599
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Kathryn Jane Jeffery is a neuroscientist from New Zealand. She is a professor of behavioural neuroscience at University College London. She studies how the brain encodes three-dimensional and complex space, and the role of this representation in spatial cognition and navigation.
Go to Profile
#2142

Sally Shaywitz

#63277
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Sally Shaywitz is an American physician-scientist who is the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale University. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. Her research provides the framework for modern understanding of dyslexia.
Go to Profile
#2143

Mary Hayhoe

#152072
Overall Influence
Mary Myelin Hayhoe is an Australian American psychologist who researches vision. She has developed virtual environments for the investigation of visually guided behaviour. Hayhoe was awarded the 2022 Optica Award Edgar D. Tillyer Award for her contributions to visual perception and cognition.
Go to Profile
#2144

Mireille Dosso

Mireille Dosso
#125586
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Mireille Carmen Dosso is a Comorian-born Ivorian microbiologist and virologist. Appointed director of the Pasteur Institute in Abidjan in 2004, she has recently become one of the leading Africans to be involved in the fight against COVID-19. She has previously been successful in fighting other viruses, including the H1N1 swine fever pandemic and dengue fever in 2019.
Go to Profile
#2145

Faith Osier

#102114
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Faith Hope Among’in Osier is a Kenyan immunologist, paediatrician and educator. Education Faith Osier was born in Kenya in 1972. trained the University of Nairobi, where she obtained her MBChB degree in 1996. She worked in the Coast General Provincial Hospital for two years, before joining Kilifi District Hospital. She completed a Masters in Human Immunity at the University of Liverpool, where she was awarded a prize for being the best student of the year. In 2008 she earned a PhD from the Open University. Her thesis was entitled Immune responses to polymorphic antigens and protection against severe malaria in Kenyan children and was supervised by Kevin Marsh.
Go to Profile
#2146

Myra Sklarew

#90751
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Myra Weisberg Sklarew is an American biologist, poet and teacher. Life She received a biology degree from Tufts University, in 1956. She studied bacterial genetics and bacterial viruses with Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She later studied with Elliott Coleman at the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she received an M.A. in 1970. She has worked in the Department of Neurophysiology, at Yale University School of Medicine, where she studied frontal lobe function and delayed response memory in Rhesus monkeys.
Go to Profile
#2147

Frauke Zipp

#155219
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Go to Profile
#2148

Mary Fenner Dallman

#145174
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
Mary Fenner Dallman was an American neuroendocrinologist and professor emerita at University of California, San Francisco, where she was the first tenure-track female faculty member in the Department of Physiology and worked for 38 years before retiring in 2007. She is known for her elucidation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and the discovery that comfort foods dampen the stress response.
Go to Profile
#2149

Elizabeth Nolan

#99252
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Elizabeth Marie Nolan is an American chemist and associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early life and education Nolan was born in Niskayuna, New York. She studied at Smith College, where she majored in chemistry and graduated magna cum laude in 2000. During her undergraduate studies she minored in music and worked with Robert Linck on computational chemistry. She studied the stereoelectronic effects in substituted alkanes. Nolan was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was awarded a Fulbright Program Scholarship and moved to France to study siderophore-iron complexes. Nolan...
Go to Profile
#2150

Hong Kum Lee

Hong Kum Lee
#131201
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Hong Kum Lee is an Antarctic researcher, best known for work as the Director General of the Korea Polar Research Institute . Early life and education Lee graduated from Seoul National University in microbiology and received her PhD degree at TU Braunschweig, Germany in 1989. She completed a postdoc at the Seoul National University in 1990 and was then made a principal research scientist at Korea Ocean Research Institute from 1991 to 2004. She was head of national research laboratory for marine microbial diversity from 2001 to 2005. Since 2004 she is a principal research scientist at the Korea...
Go to Profile