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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Biology,
#7651
Hiroyuki Sasaki
#112130
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
is a Japanese geneticist known for contributing to clarify epigenetic regulations during gametogenesis and embryogenesis through investigation of genomic imprinting as a model. He participates in the International Human Epigenome Consortium [IHEC].
Go to Profile#7652
Donald Gerald Stein
#123653
Overall Influence
#7653
Ronald Worton
#81802
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Ronald G. Worton is a Canadian doctor. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he earned a BSc and MSc from the University of Manitoba and a PhD in medical biophysics from the University of Toronto. Worton pursued post-doctoral studies at Yale University. In 1971, he became director of the diagnostic cytogenetics laboratory at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Worton became geneticist in chief at the hospital and professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto in 1985. In 1996, he became director of research at the Ottawa General Hospital and chief executive officer of the Ottawa Hos...
Go to Profile#7654
David J. Anderson
#123684
Overall Influence
#7655
Marjorie Hines Woollacott
#123688
Overall Influence
#7656
Shuqiang Li
#120827
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Shuqiang Li is a Chinese arachnologist and a professor at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Li is best known for his work with spiders and has described hundreds of new species and many genera. He is Editor in Chief of the journal Zoological Systematics .
Go to Profile#7657
Holger W. Jannasch
#123690
Overall Influence
#7658
Robert K. Peet
#123691
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#7659
Kazuaki Shimamoto
#123699
Overall Influence
#7660
Roger G. Chalkley
#123703
Overall Influence
#7661
Karen Chin
#65702
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Karen Chin is an American paleontologist and taphonomist who is considered one of the world's leading experts in coprolites. Biography Chin loved studying living things as a child, and enjoyed memorizing the names of species that she read about. As a college student, she worked as a nature interpreter for the National Park Service.
Go to Profile#7662
Toshiaki Osawa
#123725
Overall Influence
#7663
J. Rodney Allen
#123727
Overall Influence
#7664
David Gems
#67758
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
David Gems is a British geneticist who studies the biology and genetics of ageing . He is Professor of Biogerontology at the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London and he is a co-founder and Research Director of the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing. His work concerns understanding the underlying causes of aging. His research laboratory tests theories of aging and develops new ones using a short-lived animal model C. elegans.
Go to Profile#7665
Leslie Zieve
#123745
Overall Influence
#7666
Jenny Hsieh
#99092
Overall Influence
Jenny Hsieh is an American cell biologist and Semmes Foundation professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio . Her work focuses on epilepsy and stem cell biology. Education Hsieh received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University, where she worked with Andrew Fire. In 2005, Hsieh completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Fred Gage at the Salk Institute.
Go to Profile#7667
David O. Conover
#65054
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
David Olmstead Conover is an American marine biologist and professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. He was the Vice President for Research at Stony Brook University and operations manager for the SUNY Research Foundation, and until his retirement in 2020 he was Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Oregon. He is known for his research on the ecology of marine fishes and fisheries. His son is Adam Conover, host of Adam Ruins Everything, and his daughter is Emily Conover, scientific journalist at Science News.
Go to Profile#7668
Elizabeth M. Brannon
#83742
Overall Influence
Elizabeth M. Brannon is an American neuroscientist. She serves as Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Chair in the Natural Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Brannon's research, focused on comparative cognition, numerical cognition, and educational neuroscience, has earned an h-index of 68.
Go to Profile#7669
Angela McLean
#43510
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Dame Angela Ruth McLean is professor of mathematical biology in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford, and Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government. Early life and education McLean was born on 31 May 1961 in Kingston, Jamaica, the daughter of Elizabeth and Andre McLean. She was educated at Mary Datchelor Girls’ School, Camberwell, London, going on to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics at the University of Oxford where she was a student of Somerville College, Oxford. She was taught mathematical biology by Jim Murray, and graduated in 1982. In 1987 she received h...
Go to Profile#7670
Anthony David Scott
#123765
Overall Influence
#7671
Marie Bashir
#8120
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Dame Marie Roslyn Bashir is the former and second longest-serving Governor of New South Wales. Born in Narrandera, New South Wales, Bashir graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956 and held various medical positions, with a particular emphasis in psychiatry. In 1993 Bashir was appointed the Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for the Central Sydney Area Health Service, a position she held until appointed governor on 1 March 2001. She has also served as the Chancellor of the University of Sydney . Bashir retired on 1 October 2014 and was succeeded as governor by General David Hu...
Go to Profile#7672
Karen Messing
#87085
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Karen Messing is a Canadian geneticist and ergonomist. She is an emeritus professor in the biological sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal. She is known for her work on gender, environmental health and ergonomics. She was given the Jacques Rousseau Award in 1993, the Governor General's Award in 2009, and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 27, 2019.
Go to Profile#7673
A. G. Everson Pearse
#123771
Overall Influence
#7674
David Mervyn Blow
#123784
Overall Influence
#7675
Stefan Mundlos
#123786
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#7676
Thomas Meitinger
#123788
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#7677
Debi Prasad Sarkar
#61910
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Debi Prasad Sarkar is an Indian biochemist, immunologist and virologist. He was the head of biochemistry department and dean FIAS, at the University of Delhi South Campus and served as the director of IISER Mohali from 2017 to 2019. He then resumed his professorship and subsequently promoted to the post of senior professor of biochemistry, with effect from 18 July 2018 at the parent institute, University of Delhi. Serving as joint director, DSSEED, IoE, University of Delhi. On the scientific front, he is renowned for his researches on Sendai virus and developing reconstituted viral envelopes.
Go to Profile#7678
Kenneth B. Armitage
#123793
Overall Influence
#7679
Hiroshi Okamoto
#123800
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
#7680
Beatriz Luna
#99178
Overall Influence
Beatriz Luna is a developmental neuroscientist known for conducting neuroimaging research on the development of cognitive control, reward, and reinforcement learning from early childhood to adolescence.
Go to Profile#7681
John B. Burch
#110459
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
John Bayard Burch was an American zoologist, a biology professor at the University of Michigan, and the Curator of Mollusks at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. His research interests are broad, and have encompassed not only the anatomy, systematics, and genetics of mollusks, but also various aspects of zoogeography and parasitology. He has engaged in extensive fieldwork around the world, usually collecting mollusks, especially freshwater and terrestrial species. Some samples taken in Tahiti in 1970 have proven to be of importance in efforts to conserve vanishing kinds of the land...
Go to Profile#7682
Gaetano Di Chiara
#123829
Overall Influence
#7683
Heinz Saedler
#123833
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
#7684
Hans G. Zachau
#123835
Overall Influence
#7685
Steve Donnellan
#94909
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Stephen Charles Donnellan is the Chief Research Scientist of the Evolutionary Biology Unit at the South Australian Museum. He is also an Affiliate Professor at the University of Adelaide. Donnellan moved from New South Wales to South Australia in 1985 to undertake research recovering the evolutionary history of Australia's lizards. This work led to the establishment of a comprehensive collection of reptile and frog tissues from Australia and New Guinea. In 1990 Donnellan joined the South Australian Museum's staff and established the DNA laboratory there. His research since has focused on the evolution and biogeography of Australasian fauna.
Go to Profile#7686
Gilles Boeuf
#87054
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Gilles Boeuf is a French biologist, who served as president of the National Museum of Natural History, France from February 2009 to August 2015. He was a professor at Pierre and Marie Curie University. He was knighted with the French Order of Merit in 2009, and the Legion of Honour in 2013.
Go to Profile#7687
Ole Isacson
#123858
Overall Influence
#7688
Anthony T. Tu
#123859
Overall Influence
#7689
Yossi Loya
#123860
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
#7690
Lucia Banci
#123656
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Lucia Banci is an Italian chemist who is a professor at the University of Florence. Her research considers structural biology and biological nuclear magnetic resonance, with a focus on the role of metal ions in biological systems.
Go to Profile#7691
Brian E. Kendall
#123862
Overall Influence
#7692
Steven E. Campana
#123863
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#7693
Vincent M. Monnier
#123873
Overall Influence
#7694
Peter Downes
#58104
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Sir Charles Peter Downes , known as Pete Downes, is a British biochemist and chairman of Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. Downes served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dundee from 2009 until 2018. He is the former Head of the College of Life Sciences and co-founder of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy alongside Sir Phillip Cohen. Having contributed to research in the pharmaceutical industry for eleven years prior to joining Dundee, he is one of the top 15 most cited bio-scientists in the UK.
Go to Profile#7695
Gabriel Lopez‐berestein
#123887
Overall Influence
#7696
Albrecht Wendel
#123892
Overall Influence
#7697
Matthew England
#68003
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Matthew England is a physical oceanographer and climate scientist. He is currently Scientia Professor of Ocean & Climate Dynamics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Education In 1987 England completed a B.Sc. at the University of Sydney, Australia, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in 1992, holding a Fulbright Scholarship at Princeton University in 1990.
Go to Profile#7698
William C. Orr
#123910
Overall Influence
#7699
Liam Paninski
#114054
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Liam Paninski is an American computational neuroscientist who specializes in neural data science. He is a professor in the Departments of Statistics and Neuroscience at Columbia University, where he co-directs the Grossman Center for the Statistics of Mind. Paninski's research focuses on using statistics to decipher electrical signals from the brain.
Go to Profile#7700
Benoît De Crombrugghe
#123919
Overall Influence
