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 …

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List of the most influential female people in Biology,

#2301

Pat Ralph

#120689
Overall Influence
1920 - 1995 (75 years)
Patricia Marjorie Ralph was a New Zealand marine biologist and university lecturer. She was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1920. She graduated from Victoria University College with a Bachelor of Science in 1941 and a Master of Science two years later. She remained as a demonstrator at Victoria College and became a junior lecturer and then received a tenured position in 1949. Her work in marine biology received worldwide attention and she was awarded a Doctor of Science in 1962, the first woman at Victoria to be recognised with that degree. Two species of coral, Sphenotrochus ralphae and C...
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#2302

Carolyn M. Klinge

#164187
Overall Influence
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#2303

Helen Minnis

#114173
Overall Influence
Helen Minnis is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Glasgow. She studies reactive attachment disorder and other developmental conditions. Early life and education Minnis earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry at the University of Glasgow in 1985. She remained there for her medical studies and completed a bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery in 1988. In the 1990s Minnis worked as a doctor in an orphanage in Guatemala. Here she worked with children that had been abused and neglected. It was whilst she was in Guatemala that she became interested in attachment disorder.
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#2304

Karen Lips

Karen Lips
#139389
Overall Influence
Karen R. Lips is a Professor of Biology at University of Maryland, College Park. Lips' work in the 1990s eventually contributed to the identification of the chytrid fungus as the primary cause of frog decline worldwide.
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#2305

Nanibaa' Garrison

#112082
Overall Influence
Náníbaaʼ Garrison is a bioethicist, geneticist, and associate professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics and Department of Internal Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a member of the Navajo Nation, and her career has focused on studies of health conditions prevalent in, and attitudes toward genetics research among, the Navajo community.
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#2306

Esther Stoeckli

#161112
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Esther Stoeckli is a Swiss neuroscientist at the University of Zurich and the director of the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that underlie the establishment of neuronal circuits.
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#2307

Corinne Houart

#152286
Overall Influence
Corinne Houart is a Belgian biomedical scientist who is Professor of Developmental Biology at King's College London. She also serves as editor of the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology. She was elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2021.
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#2308

Annick Wilmotte

Annick Wilmotte
#123050
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Annick Wilmotte is a Belgian Antarctic researcher, best known for her research on the diversity and ecology of Antarctic cyanobacterial microflora. A genus of Antarctic cyanobacteria, called Wilmottia was named after her in recognition of her work in this field.
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#2309

Derya Akkaynak

#55268
Overall Influence
Derya Akkaynak is a Turkish mechanical engineer and oceanographer at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. She was a 2019 finalist for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. Early life and education Akkaynak is from the Aegean coast of Turkey. After completing her primary and secondary education at TED Ankara College and graduating in 1998, she studied aerospace engineering at the Middle East Technical University, where she graduated top of her class in 2003. She moved to the United States after graduating, where she earned a master's degree in Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005.
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#2310

Melissa Parisi

Melissa Parisi
#121777
Overall Influence
Melissa A. Parisi is an American geneticist and physician. She is chief of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Branch at the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. Education Parisi earned medical and doctorate degrees in developmental biology from Stanford University, where her research focused on mitochondrial transcription. She completed a pediatric residency at the University of Washington, followed by fellowship training in medical genetics.
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#2311

Johanne Tremblay

#164928
Overall Influence
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#2312

Mariana Meerhoff

#145743
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Mariana Meerhoff is a Uruguayan researcher and Full Professor at the of the University of the Republic . She is also honorary associate researcher at Aarhus University and a member of the Advisory Board of the South American Institute for Research and Education in the Sustainability and Resilience Sciences . Likewise, she works as a Level 5 Full Professor of the , and is a Level 3 Researcher of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores of the National Research and Innovation Agency of Uruguay. She currently has more than 90 publications of scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. In 201...
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#2313

Sussan Nourshargh

#145963
Overall Influence
Sussan Nourshargh is a British immunologist, pharmacologist, and professor of microvascular pharmacology and immunopharmacology. She founded the Centre for Microvascular research at Queen Mary University.
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#2314

Ruth Bowden

#93071
Overall Influence
1915 - 2001 (86 years)
Ruth Elizabeth Mary Bowden OBE was an English anatomist. A professor of anatomy of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for thirty years, she was best known for her work on peripheral nerve injuries and leprosy.
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#2315

Jean Adams

#161910
Overall Influence
Jean Adams is an epidemiologist and Professor of Dietary Public Health at the MRC Epidemiology Unit based at the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge. Education Adams earned a MSc in 2007 at the City, University of London in Health Psychology; in 2004, a Ph.D. at Newcastle University in Epidemiology and Public Health and a MBBS there in 2001 as well as a BMedSci in Health Psychology and Psychiatry in 1998.
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#2316

Leonila Vázquez García

#153636
Overall Influence
1914 - 1995 (81 years)
Leonila Vázquez García , known as Leonila Vázquez, was a Mexican entomologist and awardee of the Mexican Entomology Society's 1971 Entomological Merit medal. She is known for the study of the biology of the cochineal , an insect species used to create the red dye carmine. She was also a renowned butterfly researcher, contributing the first butterfly section to the Encyclopedia of Mexico and describing 39 new species to science throughout her career.
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#2317

Margaret Elizabeth Barr-Bigelow

#155793
Overall Influence
1923 - 2008 (85 years)
Margaret Elizabeth Barr Bigelow was a Canadian mycologist known for her contributions to the Ascomycetes fungi. Biography She was born on April 16, 1923, in Elkhorn, Manitoba. She studied at the University of British Columbia, receiving her bachelor's degree in 1950 and her Master's in 1952. She went on to study under Lewis E. Wehmeyer at the University of Michigan, and received her doctorate in 1956 for her work on "The taxonomic position of the genus Mycosphaerella as shown by comparative developmental studies".
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#2318

Britney Schmidt

#64376
Overall Influence
Britney Schmidt is an American earth scientist and astrobiologist at Cornell University. She has conducted research on the melting of ice shelves in Antarctica and studied Jupiter's moon Europa. In 2023, she was included on the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world for her research on the Thwaites Glacier. She previously worked at Georgia Tech, and has been involved in projects with NASA. Schmidt was educated at the University of Arizona and University of California, Los Angeles.
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#2319

Bolortsetseg Minjin

Bolortsetseg Minjin
#132413
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Bolortsetseg Minjin is a Mongolian paleontologist known for her work in fossil repatriation and dinosaur-themed science outreach. She is a recipient of the WINGS WorldQuest Women of Discovery Award for Earth, National Geographic Explorer, and TEDx speaker. She is the founder of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs.
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#2320

Deborah Jacobvitz

#109108
Overall Influence
Deborah Bea Jacobvitz is an American ecologist. She holds the Phyllis L. Richards Endowed Professorship at University of Texas at Austin. Early life Jacobvitz was raised by mother Jeanne Jacobvitz and father Leonard Jacobvitz. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico with three other siblings. She attended ElDorado High School and graduated with straight As.
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#2321

Katrin Rittinger

Katrin Rittinger
#143962
Overall Influence
Katrin Rittinger is a professor in structural biology who has made significant contributions to the ubiquitination field. She is a senior scientist at the Francis Crick Institute and was awarded European Molecular Biology Organization membership in 2019. Rittinger is on the Editorial Board of Biochemical Journal and has written on transparency and openness in science.
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#2322

Janine Caira

#155415
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Janine Caira Ph.D. , is an academic researcher specializing in the taxonomy, evolution and diversity of tapeworms that live in the digestive tract of sharks and stingrays. Related work includes applying the practice of categorizing groups of organisms based on their most recent common ancestor to advance the phylogenetic systematics of tapeworms and demonstrating the importance of accurate host identification. She is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.
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#2323

Valery E. Forbes

#157550
Overall Influence
Valery E. Forbes is an American ecologist and professor specializing in environmental toxicology. Since the start of the 2022-2023 academic season, she has been the Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University. Her research expertise is in ecotoxicology, where she primarily studies effects of environmental stresses on organisms at different levels of biological organization.
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#2324

Khatijah Yusoff

#119804
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Khatijah Mohamad Yusoff is a Malaysian academician and a virologist. Her research on the Virulent Newcastle disease , a poultry virus has gained acknowledgement locally and globally. She received the UNESCO Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology in 2005.
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#2325

Nagwa Abdel Meguid

#121595
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Nagwa Abdel Meguid is an Egyptian geneticist and 2002 winner of the L’Oreal UNESCO Award for Women in Science for Africa and the Middle East. Her research has "identified several genetic mutations that cause common syndromes such as the fragile X syndrome and Autism".
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#2326

Ann Vanreusel

#165760
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
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#2327

Mercedes Bustamante

Mercedes Bustamante
#136989
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Mercedes Bustamante is a biologist born in Chile. Most of her work takes place in the savannah regions in Brazil called the cerrado biome. Her area of interests are studying large scale impacts on the environment, land usage and biogeochemistry. Since 1994 she has been a professor at the University of Brasília , where she is currently the Graduate Coordinator of the Ecology Department. She is a member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.
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#2328

Ute Roessner

#150619
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Professor Ute Roessner is a biochemist who specialises in plant metabolomics. Until 2022, she has been professor and head of the School of Biosciences at the University of Melbourne. In 2022, she joined The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
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#2329

Ingrid Agartz

#165967
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
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#2330

Dorothy P. Schafer

#128669
Overall Influence
Dorothy P. "Dori" Schafer is an assistant professor in the department of neurobiology at University of Massachusetts Medical School. Her research focuses on the role of microglia in the development of synapses and brain circuits as well as the maintenance of synaptic plasticity.
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#2331

Miren Basaras

Miren Basaras
#152290
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Miren Basaras Ibarzabal is a microbiologist and professor of the Universidad del País Vasco in the department of immunology, microbiology, and parasitology of the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing in Vizcaya.
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#2332

Gillian Einstein

#128242
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Gillian Einstein is a faculty member at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and holder of the inaugural Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging.
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#2333

Charlotte Poschenrieder

#166132
Overall Influence
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#2334

Sally P. Horn

#131285
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Sally P. Horn is a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her work in Costa Rica and other tropical regions has been featured in a number of publications, including National Geographic. She has published over 100 articles relating to paleolimnology and biogeography. She is director of the University of Tennessee Laboratory of Paleoenvironmental Research and associate director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science. Horn was named one of the first University of Tennessee Chancellors Professors in 2009.
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#2335

Suzanne Dickson

#148467
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Suzanne L Dickson is a neurobiologist and Professor of Neuroendocrinology in the Department of Physiology within the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a B.Sc. in Pharmacology. Her doctorate research was undertaken at the Babraham Institute with Professor Gareth Leng and she graduated with a Ph.D. in Neuroendocrinology from the University of Cambridge in 1993. She is also an Honorary Professor in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of E...
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#2336

Roswitha Wiltschko

#166194
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
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#2337

Kristine French

#95575
Overall Influence
Kristine French is an Australian plant biologist who is a professor at the University of Wollongong, where she has directed the Janet Cosh Herbarium since 1992. She is known for researching the ecology of weeds, studying urban ecology and "endangered species and forest ecology."
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#2338

Pamela J. Fink

#160978
Overall Influence
Pamela J. Fink is a professor emerita in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Fink was the first woman to be editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology, serving from 2013–2018.
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#2339

Helene Polatajko

#151771
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Helene J. Polatajko is an occupational therapy scholar, and Professor Emerita in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy at the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
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#2340

Rachel J Whitaker

#162374
Overall Influence
Rachel J Whitaker is a professor of Microbiology in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her laboratory's research focuses on the evolution of Archaea, Bacteria, and Viruses in both natural and clinical environments.
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#2341

Natalia Dudareva

#166552
Overall Influence
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#2342

Hermine Maes

#127210
Overall Influence
Hermine H. M. Maes is a Belgian behavioral geneticist and Associate Professor in both the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. She received her Ph.D. from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1992. Maes' research focuses on the methodology of genetic epidemiology and the relationships between physical and mental health. Her husband and sometime research partner is Michael Neale.
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#2343

Leila Pirhaji

#111582
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (38 years)
Leila Pirhaji is an Iranian computational biologist and tech entrepreneur. She is the CEO and founder of ReviveMed, a biotech company that started up in 2018. She previously worked on artificial intelligence at the Professor Ernest Fraenkel Lab at MIT and at ETH Zürich.
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#2344

Maureen Coetzee

#118667
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Maureen Coetzee is a medical entomologist, specialising in African malaria vector mosquitoes for over 40 years. She is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Wits Research Institute for Malaria, School of Pathology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She is a consultant in the World Health Organization 's Global Malaria Programme. She obtained her Doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand. A subgenus of the Aedes mosquito, Coetzeemyia, was named after her. Also a genus of bacteria strongly associated with malaria mosquitoes, Coetzeea, was named after her.
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#2345

Lucyna Mirosława Falkowska

#122235
Overall Influence
1951 - 2021 (70 years)
Lucyna Mirosława Falkowska was a Polish scientist and oceanographer. She specialized in atmospheric chemistry, chemical oceanography and protection of the marine environment. Falkowska worked on the Faculty of Oceanography and Geography of University of Gdańsk.
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#2346

Elaine Hsiao

#152712
Overall Influence
Elaine Yih-Nien Hsiao is an American biologist who is Professor in Biological Sciences at University of California, Los Angeles. Her research considers the microbes that impact human health. She was a 2022 Laureate for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
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#2347

Gro Gulden

#93894
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Gro Sissel Gulden is a Norwegian mycologist. She was hired as a curator at the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo in 1967, and was promoted to professor in 2001. She retired in the autumn of 2006. A replacement curator has not been found as of early 2009. Gulden has published several books, both academic, popular and for children. Her research has been focused largely on the taxonomy of agaric mushrooms, especially the family Tricholomataceae and the genus Galerina. She also has published several articles about alpine and arctic macromycetes.
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#2348

Elena Litchman

#147528
Overall Influence
Elena Litchman is a professor of aquatic ecology at Michigan State University known for her research on the consequences of global environmental change on phytoplankton. Education and career Litchman received an Honors Diploma in biology from Moscow State University, Russia, and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Minnesota in 1997. Following graduate work, Litchman held postdoctoral positions at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, and Rutgers University. From 2003 to 2005, Litchman was a research scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology.
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#2349

Judith A. Ramaley

#43523
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Judith Aitken Ramaley is an American biologist and academic administrator who has served as president of several colleges and universities. She was the president of Winona State University from 2005 to 2012.
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#2350

Abigail Barrows

#154843
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (40 years)
Abigail P. W. Barrows is an American marine research scientist and advocate based in Maine. Barrows directs microplastics research that is used to inform conservation-focused legislation, and she initiated the first baseline data map of microplastic pollution distribution in the waters off the coast of Maine.
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