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,
#7001
Kensall D. Wise
#118162
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
#7002
John M. Chirgwin
#118168
Overall Influence
#7003
Makoto Endo
#118213
Overall Influence
#7004
Robert-w. Lenz
#118215
Overall Influence
#7005
Larry J. Anderson
#114751
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Larry J. Anderson is an American virologist who served in leadership positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more than three decades. He was director of the Division of Viral Diseases in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC , and chief of the Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch of the CDC Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases . From 2003 to 2006, Anderson led the CDC’s Post-Outbreak SARS Program, and he served as a special advisor on smallpox in the Office of the Associate Director for Terrorism, Preparedness, and Response.
Go to Profile#7006
Pieter C. Dorrestein
#118228
Overall Influence
#7007
David Scott Lindsay
#118242
Overall Influence
#7008
David S. Bredt
#80321
Overall Influence
David S. Bredt is an American molecular neuroscientist. After studies in chemistry at Princeton, Bredt studied medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he obtained M.D and Ph.D degrees. He was a student of Solomon H. Snyder, with whom he also co-authored several widely cited papers.
Go to Profile#7009
Kenneth Olden
#54610
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Dr. Kenneth Olden is a scientist whose research revolves around diseases, such as cancers, and how chemicals and environmental factors affect them. He was director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, being the first African-American to head an National Institutes of Health institute, a position he held from 1991 to 2005. He was also the director of the Environmental Protection Agency and overseer of the Integrated Risk Information System . He is a scientist who expressed that socioeconomic factors are related to cancer survival rates and need to be given more attention in scientific research.
Go to Profile#7010
James Linder
#62113
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
James Linder is an American author, academic and businessperson, as well as an authority on university research commercialization. He serves as chief executive officer of Nebraska Medicine, and most recently was president of the University Technology Development Corporation and chief strategist for the University of Nebraska system. He is also a professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Go to Profile#7011
Göran Hallmans
#118288
Overall Influence
#7012
Martin A. Eastwood
#118307
Overall Influence
#7013
Sekar Kathiresan
#71204
Overall Influence
Sekar Kathiresan is chief executive officer and co-founder of Verve Therapeutics. Verve is pioneering a new approach to the care of cardiovascular disease by developing single-course gene-editing therapies that safely and durably lower plasma LDL cholesterol in order to treat atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Go to Profile#7014
Stefanie N. Vogel
#93571
Overall Influence
Stefanie Nucci Vogel is an American physician-scientist, microbiologist, and immunologist. She is a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Life Vogel was born October 16, 1951, in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Regina High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, in 1968. From 1969 to 1972, Vogel was a part-time research assistant in the University of Maryland, College Park computer science center and the department of chemistry under James McDonald Stewart. She completed a B.S. with honors in the department of microbiology at the University of Maryland, College Park in January 1972.
Go to Profile#7015
Fred Walberg
#118360
Overall Influence
#7016
Scott L. Collins
#118362
Overall Influence
#7017
David L. Dunner
#118368
Overall Influence
#7018
John Marshall
#103913
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
John Charles Marshall, FRS is a British oceanographer and academic. He is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He is also an adjunct senior research scientist in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University.
Go to Profile#7019
Vivienne Cassie Cooper
#108834
Overall Influence
1926 - 2021 (95 years)
Una Vivienne Cassie Cooper was a New Zealand planktologist and botanist. Early life Cassie Cooper was born on 29 September 1926 in the Auckland suburb of Epsom to Annie Eveline Bell and her husband, Kenneth Dellow. She was educated at Takapuna Grammar School, where her father was headmaster from 1935. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Auckland University College, and her PhD from Victoria University College.
Go to Profile#7020
John E. Folk
#118377
Overall Influence
#7021
Rubin M. Tuder
#118380
Overall Influence
#7022
Helen Ranney
#52105
Overall Influence
1920 - 2010 (90 years)
Helen Margaret Ranney was an American doctor and hematologist who made significant contributions to research on sickle-cell anemia. Early life Ranney was born in Summer Hill, Cayuga County, New York, where her parents ran a dairy farm. Her mother was a teacher and both her parents encouraged her in her studies and pursuing a professional career. She attended a one-room school as a child, and later attended Barnard College with initial plans to study law; however, it was here that she decided to study medicine, saying "Medicine attempts to fix what it studies." She initially faced barriers ...
Go to Profile#7023
Jeremy R. Jass
#118395
Overall Influence
#7024
Anthony Larkum
#117520
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Anthony William Derek Larkum is a british plant scientist and academic based in Sydney. He is Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences at the University of Sydney and Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney .
Go to Profile#7025
Aleksandra Filipovska
#113167
Overall Influence
Aleksandra Filipovska is a Professor, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, heading a research group at the Telethon Kids Institute. Specializing in biochemistry and molecular biology, she has made contributions to the understanding of human mitochondrial genetics in health and disease.
Go to Profile#7026
David R. Schubert
#118424
Overall Influence
#7027
Hongjun Song
#118425
Overall Influence
#7028
Harvey Chochinov
#24374
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Harvey Max Chochinov is a Canadian academic and psychiatrist from Winnipeg, Canada. He is a leading authority on the emotional dimensions of end-of-life, and on supportive and palliative care. He is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and a Senior Scientist at CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute.
Go to Profile#7029
Jack L. Feldman
#111480
Overall Influence
Jack L. Feldman is an American neuroscientist, David Geffen School of Medicine Chair in Neuroscience and Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles . His research contributions include elucidating the mechanisms underlying breathing and sighing. He discovered and named the pre-Bötzinger complex, an area in the brain stem that is responsible for controlling breathing. He was the recipient of the Hodgkin–Huxley–Katz Prize from the Physiological Society in 2017.
Go to Profile#7030
Naiyyum Choudhury
#66153
Overall Influence
1946 - 2019 (73 years)
Naiyyum Choudhury was a Bangladeshi biotechnologist and a nuclear scientist. He pioneered the development and adoption of the National Biotechnology policy of Bangladesh. He served as the Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, and also served in many important positions in Bangladesh. He was serving as the founding Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority at the time of his death. He was the Chairman of the Department of Microbiology, Dhaka University, Professor and Coordinator of Biotechnology at BRAC University, and served as faculty member in Jahangir Nagar University and BUET.
Go to Profile#7031
John P. O’doherty
#118458
Overall Influence
#7032
Masayuki Amagai
#118460
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#7033
Christopher Chyba
#39577
Overall Influence
Christopher F. Chyba is an American astrobiologist and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1982, and studied mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar. He then received his Ph.D. in astronomy, with an emphasis in planetary science, from Cornell University in 1991. He was a White House Fellow on the National Security Council staff, and then serving in the Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1993 to 1995. He was a member of the S...
Go to Profile#7034
Edward C. Albuquerque Benzel
#118474
Overall Influence
#7035
Robert Haselkorn
#118478
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
#7036
Steven j. Burakoff
#118480
Overall Influence
#7037
Kathryn J. Wood
#118495
Overall Influence
#7038
Jean Gruenberg
#113400
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Jean Gruenberg is a Swiss biologist, and a professor at the University of Geneva. His research in the fields of cell biology and biochemistry has significantly contributed to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the intracellular traffic within eukaryotic cells, more especially in the endolysosomal pathway.
Go to Profile#7039
Karen Bjorndal
#92747
Overall Influence
Karen Anne Bjorndal is an American biologist focusing in nutritional ecology, with an emphasis on vertebrate herbivores and the biology of sea turtles. She is a Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Florida and Director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research .
Go to Profile#7040
Jürgen Dr. Engel
#118518
Overall Influence
#7041
Julie Forman-Kay
#107068
Overall Influence
Julie Forman-Kay is a scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and professor at University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the dynamics, interactions, structures, and functions of intrinsically disordered proteins.
Go to Profile#7042
Ichiro Kanazawa
#118530
Overall Influence
#7043
Lone Gram
#104970
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Lone Gram is Danish microbiologist known for her work in bacterial physiology, microbial communication, and biochemicals that originate from bacterial cultures. She is an elected member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and has received the Order of the Dannebrog.
Go to Profile#7044
John N. Reeve
#75861
Overall Influence
John N. Reeve is an American microbiologist who is the Department Chair of microbiology at Ohio State University, where he is Rod Sharp Professor of Microbiology. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1968, and a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He undertook Postdoctoral appointments at University of Arizona, 1971–1973 and at the Max Planck Institute, W. Berlin, 1974–1979.
Go to Profile#7045
James T. Carlton
#118554
Overall Influence
#7046
Russell Fernald
#104286
Overall Influence
Russell D. Fernald is an American neuroscientist/neuroethologist, currently on the Biology faculty at Stanford University. Fernald is known for his interdisciplinary work based on fieldwork and subsequent neuroethological analysis of an African cichlid fish that he has shown to be a useful and novel model organism. His research spans several domains: 1Rank Prize
Go to Profile#7047
Anelis Kaiser
#98385
Overall Influence
Anelis Kaiser is professor of gender studies at MINT, University of Freiburg, Germany. She is also on the lecturer within the social psychology and social neuroscience department at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Along with Isabelle Dussauge, Kaiser was a guest editor of a special issue on Neuroscience and sex/gender of the journal Neuroethics, they also co-founded The NeuroGenderings Network together.
Go to Profile#7048
John Carling Roder
#118592
Overall Influence
#7049
Leon Eisenberg
#15899
Overall Influence
1922 - 2009 (87 years)
Leon Eisenberg was an American child psychiatrist, social psychiatrist and medical educator who "transformed child psychiatry by advocating research into developmental problems". He is credited with a number of "firsts" in medicine and psychiatry – in child psychiatry, autism, and the controversies around autism, randomized clinical trials , social medicine, global health, affirmative action, and evidence-based psychiatry.
Go to Profile#7050
Keith E. Mostov
#115468
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Keith E. Mostov is an American cell biologist. He received a BA from University of Chicago in 1976 and during 1976–77 he was a Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford. Mostov received a PhD in Biological Science from the Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Günter Blobel in 1983, and an MD from Weill Cornell Medicine in 1984. He was a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute of MIT from 1984 to 1989. In 1989, Mostov joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, where he is currently Professor. Mostov and colleagues discovered and ...
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