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,
#7551
John Reynolds
#115846
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
John Reynolds is a Canadian ecologist and holder of the Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation and Management at Simon Fraser University. He is a specialist in fish ecology and conservation, particularly Pacific salmon in the Great Bear Rainforest, as well on extinction risk in marine fishes. He is Co-Chair of marine fish committee of the COSEWIC .
Go to Profile#7552
Rachel Tyndale
#99969
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Rachel Fynvola Tyndale is a Canadian pharmacogeneticist. She is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, and Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Pharmacogenomics. Tyndale is also the Senior Scientist and Head of Pharmacogenetics in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health .
Go to Profile#7553
Masamichi Muramatsu
#122873
Overall Influence
#7554
Helmut G. Rennke
#122875
Overall Influence
#7555
Jonathan Hutton
#72068
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Jonathan Michael Hutton is a British-born Zimbabwean ecologist with broad interests in nature conservation and environmental policy whose views on the future of wildlife conservation in Africa have frequently been controversial.
Go to Profile#7556
Serena Nik-Zainal
#82123
Overall Influence
Serena Nik-Zainal is a British-Malaysian clinician who is a consultant in clinical genetics and Cancer Research UK advanced clinician scientist at the University of Cambridge. She makes use of genomics for clinical applications. She was awarded the Crick Lecture by the Royal Society in 2021. Serena Nik-Zainal was also recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily.
Go to Profile#7557
Julian Gough
#60552
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Julian John Thurstan Gough is a Group Leader in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council . He was previously a professor of bioinformatics at the University of Bristol. Education Gough was educated at The Perse School in Cambridge and the University of Bristol where he was awarded a joint honours degree in Mathematics and Physics in 1998. He went on to complete his PhD in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology supervised by Cyrus Chothia on genome analysis and protein structure as a postgraduate student of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating in 2001.
Go to Profile#7558
Jean Krutmann
#122897
Overall Influence
#7559
William E. Bickley
#99221
Overall Influence
1914 - 2010 (96 years)
William Elbert Bickley was an American entomologist. Biography Bickley was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee and earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture . He attended the University of Maryland for graduate work in entomology, earning his master's degree in 1936 and his doctorate degree in 1940.
Go to Profile#7560
Angela N. H. Creager
#103937
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Angela N. H. Creager is a biochemist, historian of science, and the Thomas M. Siebel Professor in the History of Science at Princeton University, where she is also the director of the Shelby Collum Davis Center for Historical Studies. Prior to the Siebel chair's creation in 2015, she was the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History. She served as president of the History of Science Society from 2014 to 2015. She focuses on the history of biomedical research in the 20th century. In 2020 she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Go to Profile#7561
Edward J. Bottone
#122916
Overall Influence
#7562
Alan F. Breier
#122924
Overall Influence
#7563
Howard Snell
#112084
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Howard L. Snell is an American ecologist and professor at the University of New Mexico. His research and conservation efforts have focused on the Galapagos land iguanas, which were in danger of extinction.
Go to Profile#7564
Masashi Mizokami
#122932
Overall Influence
#7565
Andrea Cau
#105741
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Andrea Cau is an Italian vertebrate paleontologist. He specializes in the study of dinosaur cladistics. Cau named the unique dromaeosaurid theropod, Halszkaraptor in 2017. He also reanalyzed the theropod Balaur, placing it as a basal avialan rather than a dromaeosaur.
Go to Profile#7566
Surya Ganguli
#65504
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Surya Ganguli is a university professor at Stanford University and a visiting research professor at Google. Ganguli is primarily known for his work on neural networks and deep learning, although he has also published papers on theoretical physics. He presently runs the Neural Dynamics and Computation Lab at Stanford, where he aims to reverse engineer how networks of neurons and synapses cooperate across multiple scales of space and time to facilitate sensory perception, motor control, memory, and other cognitive functions. He is also known for being a prolific public speaker and lecturer, hav...
Go to Profile#7567
Jeffrey Drebin
#59719
Overall Influence
Jeffrey Drebin is a surgeon and scientist. He serves as the Department of Surgery Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Biography Drebin earned his MD and Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, before completing his general surgery residency, and surgical oncology fellowship, at Johns Hopkins Medical School. His Ph.D. research, performed with Mark Greene and Robert Weinberg, involved the creation of monoclonal antibodies targeting the Her2/neu protein and demonstrating in preclinical models that such antibodies could inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. This work was focused on targeted c...
Go to Profile#7568
Alastair Robinson
#64358
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Alastair S. Robinson is a taxonomist and field botanist specialising in the carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes, for which he is regarded as a world authority. He is currently Manager Biodiversity Services at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, where he oversees identification botany services, the Library and Artwork components of the State Botanical Collection, and the botanical journal Muelleria, a peer-reviewed scientific journal on botany published by the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, for which he is Editor in Chief.
Go to Profile#7569
Eero Saksela
#112170
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Eero Juhani Saksela is a Finnish professor of medicine. He was born in Helsinki. He became a physician and took his medical doctorate in 1962. Having been chief physician at the Helsinki University Central Hospital, he was a professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Helsinki from 1981 to 2001.
Go to Profile#7570
Anne-marie C. Fagan
#122970
Overall Influence
#7571
Norman Bertram Marshall
#109650
Overall Influence
1915 - 1996 (81 years)
Norman Bertram Marshall, known as Freddy, was a British marine biologist and ichthyologist who was worked at the British Museum . His main interests were in the area of deep sea research. Early life Freddy Marshall was born in the Cambridgeshire village of Great Shelford, where his family had lived for generations in a house built by his father; both his father and grandfather were builders. He was the eldest of four children, having two brothers and a sister. His father joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment and went to fight in the First World War in France before Freddy was born. From 1920 he attended the village's church school and in 1926 went to the Cambridge and County High School.
Go to Profile#7572
Rüdiger Hardeland
#122980
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
#7573
Jeremy Field
#113496
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Jeremy Field is a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Exeter. Prior to this, he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Biology at University College London between 1995 and 2007, and Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Sussex from 2007 to 2016.
Go to Profile#7574
Kenneth Albert Walsh
#122992
Overall Influence
#7575
Patricia Simpson
#113819
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Patricia "Pat" Simpson FRS is a distinguished British developmental biologist. Simpson was a professor of Comparative Biology at the University of Cambridge from 2003 to 2010, and was the University's Director of Research for the academic year 2010/2011. She is currently an Emeritus Professor of the Department of Zoology of the University of Cambridge, having previously been Professor of Comparative Embryology, and a Fellow of Newnham College. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000.
Go to Profile#7576
Guy Richard Cornelis
#123010
Overall Influence
#7577
Kalappa Muniyappa
#56823
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Kalappa Muniyappa is an Indian molecular biologist and geneticist, known for his researches on the chromatization of DNA and gene targeting. He is a professor and chairman of the department of biochemistry of the Indian Institute of Science and an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian scien...
Go to Profile#7578
Gerald M. Caplan
#123011
Overall Influence
#7579
Dieter Mueller‐dombois
#123012
Overall Influence
#7580
Alexander Enyedi
#72830
Overall Influence
Alexander Enyedi is a Canadian plant biologist and academic administrator serving as the 11th president of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Early life and education A native of Canada, Enyedi earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from University of Guelph in Ontario. Enyedi then earned a doctorate in plant pathology and biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University.
Go to Profile#7581
Gareth W. Griffiths
#123035
Overall Influence
#7582
Tony Bradshaw
#106254
Overall Influence
1926 - 2008 (82 years)
Anthony David Bradshaw FRS was a British evolutionary ecologist. Early life and education Bradshaw was born in Kew, Surrey and educated at St Pauls School, Hammersmith. His father was H. Chalton Bradshaw, an architect. Bradshaw later read Botany at Jesus College, Cambridge and in 1947 moved to the University College of Wales, first as a research student in Aberystwyth University and then as a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Botany at Bangor University. There he worked on the adaptation of plants to heavy metal pollution, demonstrating the ability of natural selection to bring about...
Go to Profile#7583
Arlen Dale Hanssen
#123070
Overall Influence
#7584
Michael T. Ullman
#47701
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Michael T. Ullman is an American neuroscientist whose main field of research is the relationship between language, memory and the brain. He is best known for his Declarative/Procedural model of language.
Go to Profile#7585
Georgia M. Dunston
#97487
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Georgia Mae Dunston is an American geneticist who is professor of human immunogenetics at Howard University and founding director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University. Early life and education Georgia Mae Dunston was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to a hard working African-American family. Her parents did not attend college but instead worked various commercial jobs. Ulysses, her father, was employed as a cook at a commercial barbecue wholesaler and Rosa, her mother, worked as a cleaner, presser, and dishwasher. While growing up Dunston attended the local Baptist church and Su...
Go to Profile#7586
Amiram Grinvald
#123109
Overall Influence
#7587
R. C. Muirhead Thompson
#123111
Overall Influence
#7588
Masao Kawai
#95810
Overall Influence
1924 - 2021 (97 years)
Masao Kawai was a Japanese primatologist, who introduced the concept of kyōkan as a means of studying primates in his book Life of Japanese Monkeys . Notes External links Interview with Shigeru Miyamoto
Go to Profile#7589
Asha de Vos
#87293
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Asha de Vos Life and career De Vos was born in 1979 in Sri Lanka. When she was six-years-old her parents would bring her second-hand National Geographic magazines. She would look through the pages and "imagine that that would be me one day – going places where no-one else would ever go and seeing things no-one else would ever see", inspiring her to dream of being an "adventure-scientist".
Go to Profile#7590
Philip A. Schwartzkroin
#123123
Overall Influence
#7591
Bruce Jeffrey Peterson
#123128
Overall Influence
#7592
Fabio Benfenati
#123146
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#7593
Tom May
#94218
Overall Influence
Thomas William May is a mycologist at the National Herbarium of Victoria where he specialises in the taxonomy and ecology of Australian macrofungi. He is most notable for the comprehensive bibliographical lists of all Australian fungi published thus far; Volume 2A, published in 1997, and Volume 2B, published in 2003. as well as the originator of Fungimap, an Australia-wide mapping fungal mapping scheme based on observations of 100 easily identified macrofungi. May was awarded the 2014 Australian Natural History Medallion.
Go to Profile#7594
Gordon Keith Wilcock
#123191
Overall Influence
#7595
John E. Walker
#123213
Overall Influence
#7596
Mutsuo Sekiguchi
#123226
Overall Influence
#7597
Gordon L. Shulman
#123228
Overall Influence
#7598
Ted Abel
#74324
Overall Influence
Edwin "Ted" G. Abel is an American neuroscientist, and the founding Director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute at University of Iowa and previously the Brush Family Professor of Biology at University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#7599
Frank Milton Schabel
#123251
Overall Influence
#7600
Bill Orban
#46228
Overall Influence
1922 - 2003 (81 years)
William Robert Orban was a Canadian public servant and academic. He was a "pioneer" in the field of physical fitness, best known for creating the 5BX and XBX programmes in the late 1950s. Early life Orban was born on 21 April 1922 in Regina, Saskatchewan. His parents were immigrants from Hungary. Orban played many sports at the Jesuit high school he attended. In 1941 he was offered a hockey scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he initially studied engineering. Orban attended the School of Physical Education at McGill University and graduated in 1949. In 1953, he went on to study a Ph.D.
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