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,

#7101

Max Samter

#78797
Overall Influence
1909 - 1999 (90 years)
Max Samter was a German-American immunologist who first extensively studied the triad between asthma, aspirin allergy, and nasal polyps that became known as Samter's triad, now aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease. Samter was a third generation doctor and obtained medical training in Europe. After fleeing Nazi occupation in Germany, Samter had a long career in medical research in the United States. He is a pioneer in the field of immunology, having written many of the foundational textbooks of the field. Samter founded The Max Samter Institute for Immunology Research at Grant Medical Cente...
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#7102

James L. Brewbaker

#119087
Overall Influence
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#7103

Gordon Elliott Fogg

#119088
Overall Influence
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#7104

Matilde Leonardi

#95131
Overall Influence
Matilde Leonardi is an Italian neurologist and paediatrician. At present she is Director of Neurology in the Public Health, Disability Unit and Coma Research Centre at the Carlo Besta Neurological Institute in Milan.She is a FEAN, and a WHO expert and consultant on neurology, disability, ageing and policy development who is co-chair of the WHO NeuroCOVID Forum group on essential neurological services for COVID-19 recoverers. Leonardi is also a World Federation of Neurorehabilitation Presidium Member.
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#7105

Yukihiko Kitamura

#119098
Overall Influence
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#7106

Wilfred van der Donk

#91113
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Wilfred A. van der Donk is a Dutch–American enzymologist and chemical biologist. He is the Richard E. Heckert Chair in Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Early life and education van der Donk was born on April 21, 1966, and raised in Culemborg, Netherlands, where he remained to earn his bachelor's degree and master's degree in inorganic chemistry at Leiden University. Following this, he moved to the United States for his PhD at Rice University with Kevin Burgess. Upon graduating in 1994, he completed his postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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#7107

Andrew P. Carter

Andrew P. Carter
#84247
Overall Influence
Andrew P. Carter is a British structural biologist who works at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. He is known for his work on the microtubule motor dynein.
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#7108

James A. Richardson

#119104
Overall Influence
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#7109

Story Landis

Story Landis
#87192
Overall Influence
Story Landis is an American neurobiologist and former director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health. She was director of the institute between September 1, 2003 and October 2014. Dr. Landis worked at NINDS since 1995, and was named Chair of the NIH Stem Cell Task Force in 2007.
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#7110

Brian Christie

#42776
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Brian R. Christie is a Professor of Medicine and Neuroscience at The University of Victoria. He helped found the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Victoria and served as its director from 2010–2017. He is a Michael Smith Senior Scholar Award winner. Christie received his PhD in 1992 from the University of Otago before doing postdoctoral work with Daniel Johnston at Baylor College of Medicine and Terrence Sejnowski at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and then became Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. Promoted to Associate Professor in 2007. ...
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#7111

Elie A. Shneour

Elie A. Shneour
#89390
Overall Influence
1925 - 2015 (90 years)
Elie Alexis Shneour was a French-born American neurochemist, biophysicist and author. Early life Shneour was born in France into a Jewish family, the son of Zalman Shneour and Salomea . His father, a known Yiddish and Hebrew poet and writer , emigrated from Czarist Russia in the early 1900s. His mother was from Belgium. Elie had one sibling, sister Renée Rebecca, who later became Spanish dancer Laura Toledo.
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#7112

Philip David Marsh

#119114
Overall Influence
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#7113

Tim R. New

#119058
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
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#7114

Sherman Morton Weissman

#119132
Overall Influence
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#7115

Cecilia Bouzat

#60350
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Cecilia Bouzat is an Argentine biochemist, who studies neurological disorders. In 2014 she was honored as the Latin American Laureate by the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.
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#7116

Edward S. Mocarski

#119135
Overall Influence
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#7117

Thomas A. Gennarelli

#119143
Overall Influence
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#7118

Glenn Dranoff

#119151
Overall Influence
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#7119

Curt R. Enzell

#119154
Overall Influence
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#7120

James Martin Krueger

#119179
Overall Influence
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#7121

John E. Hall

#119182
Overall Influence
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#7122

Charles Calisher

#100768
Overall Influence
Charles Calisher is professor emeritus of microbiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. Education and career Calisher received a bachelor's degree in bacteriology from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, a master's degree in biology and gnotobiosis from the University of Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Georgetown University. His research interests include ecology and epidemiology, viral diagnostics, viral taxonomy, viral evolution of roboviruses, arboviruses, and hantaviruses.
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#7123

Robert Luke Nussbaum

#119215
Overall Influence
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#7124

E. E. Başar

#119242
Overall Influence
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#7125

Russell, Noyes

#119245
Overall Influence
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#7126

Kurt Jungermann

#119250
Overall Influence
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#7127

Gordon Dixon

#116467
Overall Influence
1930 - 2016 (86 years)
Gordon Henry Dixon, was a Canadian biochemist, and professor at the University of Toronto and the University of Calgary. He won the 1980 Flavelle Medal. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1970, and of the Royal Society of London in 1978.
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#7128

Bali Pulendran

#119280
Overall Influence
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#7129

Raymond Jeener

#69540
Overall Influence
1904 - 1995 (91 years)
Raymond Jeener was a Belgian molecular biologist and professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles . In 1954, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Biological and Medical Sciences.
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#7130

Florence Comite

Florence Comite
#69170
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Florence Comite is an American endocrinologist who has helped develop new therapies for osteoporosis, endometriosis, fibroid disease, and infertility. She was awarded a patent for developing a new method of determining fertility in women In 1990, Comite was awarded a second patent for the use of Clomifene to increase bone mass in premenopausal women. Alongside her work in precision medicine and integrated medical analysis, she is also known for founding Women's Health at Yale in 1992. Comite is known for her work in clinical hormone research, and as the founder of Women's Health at Yale in t...
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#7131

James William Simpkins

#119306
Overall Influence
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#7132

Lars Vatten

#98156
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Lars Johan Vatten is a Norwegian epidemiologist. He has done research on cancer, perinatal and cardiovascular epidemiology. Biography Vatten was born in Trondheim, Norway, studied Medicine at the University of Tromsø and received a Master of Public Health in 1988 from the University of North Carolina. Two years later the University of Trondheim awarded him a PhD.
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#7133

Karl‐erik Hagbarth

#119327
Overall Influence
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#7134

Siegfried Hekimi

#113309
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Siegfried Hekimi is a Swiss former professional racing cyclist and a professor in the Biology Department of McGill University, specializing in the study of aging. He rode in the 1982 Tour de France. After his cycling career, Hekimi obtained a Ph.D. in neurobiology at the University of Geneva.
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#7135

Ulf Rüdiger Rapp

#119337
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
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#7136

Norman C. Staub

#119339
Overall Influence
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#7137

Louis L. Jacobs

#100524
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Louis Leo Jacobs is an American vertebrate paleontologist who discovered Malawisaurus while on an expedition in Malawi. Much of his research concerns the interrelationships of biotic and abiotic events through time. In recent years he has focused on the middle portion of the Cretaceous and the Cenozoic, especially with respect to terrestrial ecosystems.
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#7138

Andrea Superti-Furga

#103704
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Andrea Superti-Furga is a Swiss-Italian pediatrician, geneticist and molecular biologist. He is the head of the Division of Genetic Medicine at the Lausanne University Hospital and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Biology of the University of Lausanne.
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#7139

Toshio Yamagata

#119396
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
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#7140

Eva‐bettina Bröcker

#119405
Overall Influence
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#7141

Klaus Unsicker

#119414
Overall Influence
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#7142

Rosette Batarda Fernandes

#86144
Overall Influence
1916 - 2005 (89 years)
Rosette Mercedes Saraiva Batarda was a Portuguese botanist and taxonomist who was married to Abílio Fernandes , another Portuguese botanist and taxonomist. Career She enrolled at the Escola Secundária Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho in 1928 and graduated in 1941 in Biological Sciences from the University of Lisbon. In June of the same year, attending a Congress of Natural Sciences in Lisbon, she met Abilio Fernandes, who was soon to be her husband. They settled in Coimbra, after Abilio moved there in August 1941 to take up the position of Museum Director at the University of Coimbra. In November...
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#7143

Ronald J. Prokopy

#117755
Overall Influence
1935 - 2004 (69 years)
Ronald John Prokopy was an American entomologist who was a specialist on the behavior and biology of Rhagoletis flies and approaches to their management in apple orchards. Prokopy was born in Danbury, Connecticut where he grew up on a farm. He went to study at Cornell University obtaining a BS in agriculture in 1957 and a PhD in entomology working under advisor George Gyrisco. His thesis was on the alfalfa weevil. He began studies on tephritid flies at Connecticut from 1964 to 1968 followed by studies in Switzerland. He then joined the University of Texas examining the biology of Rhagoletis pomonella.
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#7144

Carsten Denkert

#119427
Overall Influence
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#7145

Ewald W. Busse

#50340
Overall Influence
1917 - 2004 (87 years)
Ewald William Busse was an American psychiatrist, gerontologist, author and academic administrator best known for being the dean of the Duke University School of Medicine. Biography The son of German immigrants, Busse was born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri and educated at Westminster College and the Washington University School of Medicine. After serving in both the army and the navy, Busse was trained in psychiatry at University of Colorado from 1946 to 1948.
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#7146

Peter Deplazes

#119429
Overall Influence
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#7147

Don J. Brenner

#119457
Overall Influence
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#7148

John C. Cheville

#119472
Overall Influence
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#7149

Xiao‐jing Wang

#119480
Overall Influence
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#7150

Carl H. Johnson

Carl H. Johnson
#80699
Overall Influence
Carl Hirschie Johnson is an American-born biologist who researches the chronobiology of different organisms, most notably the bacterial circadian rhythms of cyanobacteria. Johnson completed his undergraduate degree in Honors Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, and later earned his PhD in biology from Stanford University, where he began his research under the mentorship of Dr. Colin Pittendrigh. Currently, Johnson is the Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University.
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