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,
#8401
Vincent Michael Riccardi
#129260
Overall Influence
#8402
Hermann Otto Sleumer
#98808
Overall Influence
1906 - 1993 (87 years)
Hermann Otto Sleumer was a Dutch botanist of German birth. The plant genera Sleumerodendron Virot and Sleumeria Utteridge, Nagam. & Teo , are named for him.
Go to Profile#8403
Richard Dell
#79956
Overall Influence
1920 - 2002 (82 years)
Richard Kenneth Dell was a New Zealand malacologist. Biography Dell was born in Auckland in 1920. As a young boy, he took an interest in shells, collecting them from the shores of Waitematā Harbour. He even managed to start a "museum" in his backyard. He also helped curate the Auckland War Memorial Museum shell collection.
Go to Profile#8404
Tom Jefferson
#83988
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Tom Jefferson is a British epidemiologist, based in Rome, Italy, who works for the Cochrane Collaboration. Jefferson is an author and editor of the Cochrane Collaboration's acute respiratory infections group, as well as part of four other Cochrane groups. He was also an advisor to the Italian National Agency for Regional Health Services.
Go to Profile#8405
John E. Dohms
#102377
Overall Influence
1948 - 2014 (66 years)
John Edward Dohms, Ph.D. was a researcher of the pathology of avian diseases and a faculty member of the University of Delaware. Dohms was the son of Herbert S. and Jean E. Dohms of Crystal Falls, Michigan. He grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and graduated from Fair Lawn High School in 1966. He then studied at and graduated from Bowling Green State University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Veterinary Microbiology from Ohio State University in 1977, writing a thesis under the direction of Y. M. Saif. He was a member of the faculty in the Department of...
Go to Profile#8406
Chingis Izmailov
#66016
Overall Influence
1944 - 2011 (67 years)
Chingis A. Izmailov was a Russian psychophysiologist and psychophysicist, the principal author of the spherical model of color space. Biography Chingis Izmailov was born in Derbent, USSR, in 1944. He first studied art and architecture in Moscow, then, in 1971, joined the department of Psychology of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and in 1976 the same department's graduate school. In 1979 Chingis Izmailov got his PhD in psychology for his development of the spherical model of color space , in 1985 was awarded his “big doctorate” for his work on color vision mechanisms and models. Chin...
Go to Profile#8407
Arend Bonen
#129328
Overall Influence
#8408
Gordon Giesbrecht
#85311
Overall Influence
Gordon Grant Giesbrecht is a Canadian physiologist who operates the Laboratory for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at the University of Manitoba in Manitoba, Canada. He studies the effects of extreme environments, including cold, heat, hypoxia, and hypobaria on the human body. His laboratory motto is vitas salvantas . He was dubbed "Professor Popsicle" in a feature article in Outside Magazine.
Go to Profile#8409
Peter John Hunter
#129347
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
#8410
Melinda Beck
#91248
Overall Influence
Melinda Annetta Beck is an American nutritionist and professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she also serves as interim department chair. Her research investigates the relationship between nutrition and immune response to infectious disease. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.
Go to Profile#8411
King–wai Yau
#129351
Overall Influence
#8412
Eugenia Wang
#122577
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Eugenia Wang is the Gheens Endowed Chair on Aging at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Her primary focus is researching the genetic aspect of aging in humans. She was among the first researchers who discovered the parts of the human genome that could either accelerate or slow the process of apoptosis.
Go to Profile#8413
Joseph Bernard Margolick
#129381
Overall Influence
#8414
Yorinao Inoue
#129388
Overall Influence
#8415
William H. Habig
#129389
Overall Influence
#8416
Bradley Scott Peterson
#129393
Overall Influence
#8417
Marios Loukas
#129402
Overall Influence
#8418
Fuu‐jen Tsai
#129410
Overall Influence
#8419
Ennio Antonio Chiocca
#129411
Overall Influence
#8420
Henry Forbush Howe
#129440
Overall Influence
#8421
Gary W. Small
#129447
Overall Influence
#8422
Bernd Dörken
#129456
Overall Influence
#8423
Bruce D. Weintraub
#129472
Overall Influence
#8424
Hao Wu
#83126
Overall Influence
Hao Wu is a Chinese American biochemist and crystallographer and the Asa and Patricia Springer Professor of Structural Biology in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. Her work focuses on molecular mechanisms of signal transduction in cell death and inflammation. She is the discoverer of signalosomes, which are large macromolecular complexes involved in cell death and in innate and adaptive immune pathways. She has established a new paradigm for signal transduction that involves higher-order protein assemblies. She has received the Pew S...
Go to Profile#8425
Fredrik Karpe
#129477
Overall Influence
#8426
Richard Wood
#120605
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Richard D. Wood is an American molecular biologist specializing in research on DNA repair and mutation. He is known for pioneering studies on nucleotide excision repair , particularly for reconstituting the minimum set of proteins involved in this process, identifying proliferating cell nuclear antigen as part of the NER complex and identifying mammalian repair polymerases.
Go to Profile#8427
A. Anand And A. S. Paintal
#129484
Overall Influence
#8428
Kathryn Moore
#118350
Overall Influence
Kathryn J. Moore is a Canadian-born American cell biologist who is the Jean and David Blechman Professor of Cardiology and the founding director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Moore's research considers the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, with a focus on the identification of novel therapeutic targets. She was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
Go to Profile#8429
Victoria Foe
#54015
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Victoria Elizabeth Foe is an American developmental biologist, and Research Professor at the University of Washington's Center for Cell Dynamics. She is known for her work on the development of embryos.
Go to Profile#8430
Molly Jahn
#104295
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Molly Jahn is an American plant geneticist and breeder and Professor of Agronomy at University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. She was Under Secretary of Research, Education and Economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture .
Go to Profile#8431
Yoshiaki Toyama
#129519
Overall Influence
#8432
Jani Heino
#129542
Overall Influence
#8433
Esther Ngumbi
#53911
Overall Influence
Esther Ndumi Ngumbi is a Kenyan entomologist and academic who is currently Assistant Professor of Entomology and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She was awarded the 2018 Society for Experimental Biology Presidential Award.
Go to Profile#8434
Bruno Lunenfeld
#129556
Overall Influence
#8435
Carl. R. Merril
#129567
Overall Influence
#8436
Ralph W. Dexter
#125454
Overall Influence
1912 - 1991 (79 years)
Ralph W. Dexter was a professor of Biology at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He published over 300 articles on the ecology of marine communities, including crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and birds. He also published many articles on the history of early American naturalists.
Go to Profile#8437
Nobuhiro Fusetani
#129569
Overall Influence
#8438
Örjan Ouchterlony
#77379
Overall Influence
1914 - 2004 (90 years)
Örjan Thomas Ouchterlony was a Swedish bacteriologist and immunologist who is credited with the creation of the Ouchterlony double immuno diffusion test in the 1940s. He was trained at Karolinska Institute, where his received his medical doctorate. He worked at Sweden's State Bacteriology Laboratory from 1935 to 1952. Ouchterlony was a professor of bacteriology at the Medical Faculty of Gothenburg University from 1952 to 1980 and was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1968. In addition to his laboratory work, he did research in field epidemiology of infectious disea...
Go to Profile#8439
Erich Pascal Malkemper
#67868
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Erich Pascal Malkemper is a German neuroscientist. He studies magnetoreception and animal hearing and he is currently a group leader of the Max Planck Society at the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research in Bonn, Germany.
Go to Profile#8440
Roger Philip Ekins
#129583
Overall Influence
#8441
Rytas J. Vilgalys
#129585
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#8442
Lucien a. Aarden
#129589
Overall Influence
#8443
Kazunari. Taira
#129593
Overall Influence
#8444
Anders C. Hamberger
#129594
Overall Influence
#8445
Daniel Scherman
#129603
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#8446
Julius S. Youngner
#129607
Overall Influence
#8447
Jonathan Chernoff
#129610
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#8448
Gabriella Campadelli-Fiume
#33447
Overall Influence
Gabriella Campadelli-Fiume is a virologist with a primary research focus on herpes simplex virus, fusion and viral entry. She is a retired professor of virology from the University of Bologna, Italy.
Go to Profile#8449
Kiyoshi Mizuuchi
#129626
Overall Influence
#8450
Alexander Meissner
#129634
Overall Influence
