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 people in Biology,
#6151
Michael Botchan
#101985
Overall Influence
Michael Botchan is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where his research focuses on regulation of DNA replication during cell division. Botchan is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was appointed as the dean of the university's Division of Biological Sciences in 2017.
Go to Profile#6152
Mónica Bettencourt-Dias
#92908
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Areas of Specialization: Molecular Biology Monica Bettencourt-Dias is the Director of Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. A biochemist and cellular biologist, she is also the head of the Cell Cycle Regulation research group. She earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Lisbon, and graduated from University College London with a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology. She split her postdoctoral time between the University of Cambridge and Birkbeck, University of London, where she researched kinases and scientific communication. She earned a Diploma in Science...
Go to Profile#6153
Maria Prokhorova
#98486
Overall Influence
1903 - 1993 (90 years)
Maria Illarionovna Prokhorova was a Russian scientist, biologist, the Head of Molotov University, the Dean of Faculty of Biology and Soil Studies at Leningrad State University; also she was the Head of A.A. Ukhtomsky Physiology Institute, a member of International Society for Neurochemistry, Doctor of Biology, and professor. Maria Prokhorova took part in the Great Patriotic War as a researcher on gas gangrene and its methods of treatment.
Go to Profile#6154
James Mintz
#111130
Overall Influence
#6155
Pedro Jordano
#107961
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Pedro Diego Jordano Barbudo is an ecologist, conservationist, researcher, focused on evolutionary ecology and ecological interactions. He is an honorary professor and associate professor at University of Sevilla, Spain. Most of his fieldwork is done in Parque Natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas, in the eastern side of Andalucia, and in Doñana National Park, where he holds the title of Research Professor for the Estación Biológica Doñana, Spanish Council for Scientific Research . Since 2000 he has been actively doing research in Brazil, with fieldwork in the SE Atlantic rain...
Go to Profile#6156
Hong Guofan
#104920
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Hong Guofan , or Guo-Fan Hong, is a Chinese molecular biologist and professor of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. He served as Director of the National Center for Gene Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences . He is an academician of the CAS and of The World Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#6157
Jeffrey Mogil
#91130
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Jeffrey S. Mogil, FCAHS, FRSC is a Canadian neuroscientist and the E.P. Taylor Professor of Pain Studies and Canada Research Chair in the Genetics of Pain at McGill University. He is known for his work in the genetics of pain, for being among the first scientists to demonstrate sex differences in pain perception, and for identifying previously unknown factors and confounds that affect the integrity of contemporary pain research. He has an h-index of 90.
Go to Profile#6158
Tom Treasure
#111150
Overall Influence
#6159
Isabella Eckerle
#55530
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Isabella Eckerle is a German virologist who is the co-Head of the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases at the Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva. Her research considers infectious diseases and the development of cell lines that allow a better understanding of their epidemiology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Eckerle studied the difference in response of adults and children to coronavirus disease.
Go to Profile#6160
Mohammad Ali Ghatei
#111171
Overall Influence
#6161
J. Frederick Grassle
#90514
Overall Influence
1939 - 2018 (79 years)
John Frederick Matthews Grassle was an American marine biologist, oceanographer, professor, and distinguished research scientist, notable for early work on the communities associated with deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and for his involvement in the creation of the Census of Marine Life and the first integration of marine biological data on a global scale, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System.
Go to Profile#6162
Donato Alarcón‐segovia
#111196
Overall Influence
#6163
Tanya M. Smith
#45898
Overall Influence
Tanya M. Smith is a human evolutionary biologist, and Professor at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University . Education Smith obtained her BSc Hons in Biology at the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1997, followed by her MA at Stony Brook University in 2002, and PhD in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences at Stony Brook University in 2004. She received the Stony Brook University President's Award for Distinguished Doctoral Students in 2005.
Go to Profile#6164
Raymond B. Manning
#88859
Overall Influence
1934 - 2000 (66 years)
Raymond Brendan Manning was an American carcinologist, specialising in alpha taxonomy and mantis shrimp. His zoological author abbreviation is Manning or sometimes R.B. Manning. He has authored over 500 taxa. See also: :Category:Taxa named by Raymond B. Manning and this query.
Go to Profile#6165
Jason Locasale
#74963
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Jason W. Locasale is an American scientist and university professor. His focus is on metabolism. Education Locasale graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University with a dual degree in Chemistry and Physics. While completing his undergraduate degree, he received initial training in research in biochemistry and structural biology under Helen Berman. He earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School under Lewis C. Cantley.
Go to Profile#6166
Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi
#67998
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi is a Nigerian environmental biochemist, soil scientist and toxicologist. Her research interest focus on waste management, pollution prevention and phytoremediation, which involves the treatment of environmental problems through the use of local plants that mitigate the environmental problem without the need to excavate the contaminant material and dispose of it elsewhere. She is an expert in elimination of toxic heavy metal such as cadmium, copper, mercury, lead and arsenic from contaminated soil.
Go to Profile#6167
Samuel E. Broder
#111209
Overall Influence
#6168
Martin C. Wikelski
#111210
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#6169
Wilhelm Barthlott
#46868
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Wilhelm Barthlott is a German botanist and biomimetic materials scientist. His official botanical author citation is Barthlott. Barthlott's areas of specialization are biodiversity and bionics/biomimetics .
Go to Profile#6170
Eleftheria Zeggini
#100920
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Eleftheria Zeggini is a director of the institute of translational genomics in Helmholtz Zentrum München and a professor at the Technical University of Munich . Previously she served as a research group leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute from 2008 to 2018 and an honorary professor in the department of health sciences at the University of Leicester in the UK.
Go to Profile#6171
Deborah Nickerson
#110097
Overall Influence
1954 - 2021 (67 years)
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Nickerson was an American human genomics researcher. She was professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington. Nickerson founded and directed of one of the five clinical sites of the Gregor Consortium and was a major contributor to many genomics projects, including the Human Genome Project and the International HapMap Project.
Go to Profile#6172
Kung Hsiang-fu
#87051
Overall Influence
1942 - 2019 (77 years)
Kung Hsiang-fu or Kong Xiangfu was a Chinese molecular geneticist, molecular oncologist, and virologist. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999. Biography Kung was born on 4 September 1942 in Chongqing, Republic of China. He graduated from National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan in 1963, and earned his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1969.
Go to Profile#6173
Yuichirou Doki
#111245
Overall Influence
#6174
Richard Feely
#111070
Overall Influence
Richard A. Feely is an American chemical oceanographer currently at NOAA and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Education He earned his Ph.D at Texas A&M University in 1974.
Go to Profile#6175
Howard Levene
#89338
Overall Influence
1914 - 2003 (89 years)
Howard Levene was an American statistician and geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1947, and joined the faculty there shortly thereafter. He remained on the faculty at Columbia, where he served as professor of mathematical statistics and genetics, until 1982. He is known for developing Levene's test, a modified form of the one-way analysis of variance. He served as president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1976.
Go to Profile#6176
Miguel Bastos Araújo
#111288
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
#6177
Donald Burke
#78377
Overall Influence
Donald S. Burke is an expert on the prevention, diagnosis, and control of infectious diseases of global concern. He is a distinguished University Professor of Health Science and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Go to Profile#6178
Wilhelm Stoffel
#111327
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
#6179
Cindy-Lee Dennis
#107556
Overall Influence
Cindy-Lee E. Dennis is a Canadian professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She holds the Women's Health Research Chair at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital. Previously she held the Canada Research Chair in Perinatal Community Health at the University of Toronto.
Go to Profile#6180
George A. Jacoby
#111338
Overall Influence
#6181
Moshe Yaniv
#111366
Overall Influence
#6182
Felix Dapare Dakora
#94350
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Felix Dapare Dakora, is a Ghanaian plant biologist investigating biological nitrogen fixation at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. He currently serves as President of The African Academy of Sciences for the 2017–2023 terms. Dakora was awarded the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences and the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award. Dakora is a Fellow of the Academy of Science of South Africa.
Go to Profile#6183
James H. Strauss Jr.
#109532
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
James Henry Strauss Jr. is an American biologist who is the Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#6184
Michael B. Kastan
#111395
Overall Influence
#6185
Tobías Lasser
#62195
Overall Influence
1911 - 2006 (95 years)
Tobías Lasser CBE , was a recognized Venezuelan botanist, being a fundamental pillar in the creation of the Botanical Garden of Caracas, the School of Biology and the Faculty of Sciences of the Central University of Venezuela. He was born in Agua Larga, Falcón State, Venezuela.
Go to Profile#6186
Franz M. Matschinsky
#111407
Overall Influence
#6187
Peter Ungar
#81013
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Peter S. Ungar is an American paleoanthropologist and evolutionary biologist. Life Peter S. Ungar is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Environmental Dynamics Program at the University of Arkansas. Before arriving at Arkansas, he taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Duke University Medical Center.
Go to Profile#6188
Dorian Fuller
#66860
Overall Influence
Dorian Q. Fuller is an American archaeologist and professor of archaeobotany at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Originally from San Francisco, he studied at Yale University and the University of Cambridge .
Go to Profile#6189
Peter Collignon
#52481
Overall Influence
Professor Peter Collignon AM is a professor of microbiology at the Australian National University. Collignon has worked for the World Health Organization, studying the use of antibiotics in food animals, and the rise of drug resistant pathogens. Collignon is director of the Infectious Diseases Unit and Microbiology at the Canberra Hospital, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.
Go to Profile#6190
Nicholas Lydon
#56529
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Nicholas B. Lydon FRS is a British scientist and entrepreneur. In 2009, he was awarded the Lasker Clinical Award and in 2012 the Japan Prize for the development of Gleevec, also known as Imatinib, a selective BCR-ABL inhibitor for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia , which converted a fatal cancer into a manageable chronic condition.
Go to Profile#6191
John E. Coligan
#111433
Overall Influence
#6192
Dennis D. Weisenburger
#111440
Overall Influence
#6193
Myriam Gorospe
#111445
Overall Influence
#6194
Marcello Ruta
#91213
Overall Influence
Marcello Ruta is an Italian paleontologist. Ruta's research primarily has focused on the anatomy and evolutionary significance of Paleozoic tetrapods. Selected publications Ruta, M., Coates, M. I. and Quicke, D. L. J. 2003. Early tetrapod relationships revisited. Biological Reviews 78: 251-345.Ruta, M., Jeffery, J. E. and Coates, M. I. 2003. A supertree of early tetrapods. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 270: 2507-2516.Ruta, M. and Coates, M. I. 2007. Dates, nodes and character conflict: Addressing the lissamphibian origin problem. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 5: 67-122.Ruta, M., Pisani, D., Lloyd, G.
Go to Profile#6195
Andolalao Rakotoarison
#83445
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Andolalao Rakotoarison is a Malagasy herpetologist. Life and research Rakotoarison conducted her Master's thesis at the University of Antananarivo in 2011. She then conducted her PhD at the Technical University of Braunschweig on the systematics of the frogs of the Madagascar-endemic narrow-mouthed frog subfamily Cophylinae, under the supervision of Professor Miguel Vences. As of mid-2020, she has co-authored the description of 52 frog species and two reptiles . In particular, Rakotoarison has contributed to knowledge of Madagascar's smallest frogs. In 2017, she led a study published as a mon...
Go to Profile#6196
Heinrich Taegtmeyer
#111503
Overall Influence
#6197
Bruce Charles Baguley
#111509
Overall Influence
#6198
Board on Agriculture
#111522
Overall Influence
#6199
Frederic Jevons
#34907
Overall Influence
1929 - 2012 (83 years)
Frederic Raphael Jevons was a British Professor of biochemistry and later an Australian educator. He was informally known as Fred Jevons and since 1977 lived and worked mostly in Australia. Early life Born in Austria in 1929, Jevons survived the Holocaust by being sponsored by a family in England to attend a boarding school in Norfolk. The young Bettelheim was educated at Norwich High School for Boys, joining the household of his school's headmaster, Mr J. H. W. Jevons, from whom he took his new surname. During the Second World War, the school moved from Norwich to Loddon and changed its name to Langley School.
Go to Profile#6200
Barry. N. Kreiswirth
#111528
Overall Influence
