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,
#8651
Dennis Patrick Cantwell
#131109
Overall Influence
#8652
Richard F. Brubaker
#131117
Overall Influence
#8653
Pietro Ghezzi
#131124
Overall Influence
#8654
Christoph Scholtissek
#131142
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
#8655
Katharine Phillips
#121146
Overall Influence
Katharine A. Phillips is an American psychiatrist who specializes in body dysmorphic disorder. She is a professor of psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine. She has contributed to more than 350 scientific journals and books and has been featured in interviews with numerous media outlets, such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Boston Globe.
Go to Profile#8656
Martin B. Dickman
#127241
Overall Influence
1953 - 2018 (65 years)
Martin B. Dickman was an American plant pathologist. A Flushing, New York, native, Dickman was born on 16 February 1950, and received his bachelor's of science degree in horticulture from the University of Hawaii in 1979. He completed his studies with a master's of science and doctorate in plant pathology, both from UH. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington, Dickman began teaching at the University of Nebraska in 1987, where he was named Charles Bessey Professor in Plant Pathology in 2003. He moved to Texas A&M University in 2006, accepting the Christine Richardson Professorship in agriculture.
Go to Profile#8657
Linda Brubaker
#131149
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#8658
Keisuke Tubaki
#119526
Overall Influence
1924 - 2005 (81 years)
Keisuke Tubaki was a Japanese mycologist. Early life and education Tubaki studied for his first degree at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, graduating in 1948. He was awarded a doctorate from Hiroshima University in 1959 for his research on Hyphomycetes.
Go to Profile#8659
Manfred Paul Dierich
#131167
Overall Influence
#8660
Juanita Merchant
#112550
Overall Influence
Juanita L. Merchant is an American gastroenterologist and physiology researcher who has contributed to understanding of gastric response to chronic inflammation. She is currently the chief of the University of Arizona Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Merchant was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2008, and appointed an inaugural member of the NIH Council of Councils.
Go to Profile#8661
Michael E. Hochberg
#127405
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Michael E. Hochberg is an American population biologist. He is currently a Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Montpellier, France, and a member of the External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute.
Go to Profile#8662
Alexandra Ros
#32873
Overall Influence
Alexandra Ros is a German analytical chemist who is a professor in both the School of Molecular Sciences and Center for Applied Structural Discovery at The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University. Her research considers microfluidic platforms and their use in analysis. She was awarded the 2020 Advancing Electrokinetic Science AES Electrophoresis Society Mid-Career Achievement Award.
Go to Profile#8663
Adriano Fontana
#131188
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
#8664
Robert George Everitt Murray
#112825
Overall Influence
1919 - 2022 (103 years)
Robert George Everitt Murray was an English-Canadian bacteriologist. He is known for his research on bacterial structure and pathology, as well as bacterial taxonomy. Biography His father was Everitt George Dunne Murray , who was a professor of bacteriology at Montreal's McGill University from 1930 to 1955. After his childhood years in England and attending boarding school at Summer Fields in Oxford, R. G. E. Murray moved with his family in 1930 to Montreal. He studied at McGill University from 1936 to 1938. He returned to England and graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1941 with a B.A.
Go to Profile#8665
Brent Alan Vogt
#131190
Overall Influence
#8666
Jack B. Penney
#131197
Overall Influence
#8667
Mike Joy
#55091
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Mike Joy is a New Zealand freshwater ecologist and science communicator. He is currently employed at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Dr Joy is publicly outspoken about the decline in freshwater quality and ecosystems, especially the impact of nutrient pollution from intensive dairying on New Zealand's "100% Pure", clean, green image. This has led to awards from scientific organisations, as well as criticism from the dairy industry and former Prime Minister John Key.
Go to Profile#8668
Lars‐eric Thornell
#131229
Overall Influence
#8669
Benedikt Kessler
#125497
Overall Influence
Benedikt Kessler is a Swiss researcher and academic. He is Professor of Biochemistry and Mass Spectrometry at the Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford. Kessler's research has been focused on ubiquitin and protease biology. Some of his work has dealt with defining the molecular signatures in human disease processes and accelerating target discovery in translational research. He holds one patent.
Go to Profile#8670
Graham B. Warren
#131243
Overall Influence
#8671
Masamitsu Futai
#131247
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
#8672
Laurent D. Labeyrie
#131249
Overall Influence
#8673
Frederick D. Provenza
#131251
Overall Influence
#8674
Bauer E. Sumpio
#131266
Overall Influence
#8675
Platon Grigor’evich Kostyuk
#131268
Overall Influence
#8676
Maurice. Sussman
#131281
Overall Influence
#8677
Michael Samuel Neuberger
#131282
Overall Influence
#8678
Villy Sundström
#129284
Overall Influence
Villy Sundström is a Swedish physical chemist known for his work in ultrafast science and molecular photochemistry using time-resolved laser and X-ray spectroscopy techniques. Education and career Sundström studied chemistry at Umeå University, obtaining his PhD in 1977. During his study, he visited Bell Labs and worked under Peter Rentzepis. Upon his return to Sweden, he started building the first ultrafast spectroscopy laboratory in Scandinavia at Umeå University and later at Lund University in Sweden. In 1994, Sundström was appointed professor of Chemical Dynamics and head of the Chemical Physics Department at Lund University.
Go to Profile#8679
Thomas Liehr
#131288
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#8680
Richard Ebstein
#104668
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Richard Paul Ebstein is an American behavioral geneticist. He is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the National University of Singapore, as well as Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Hebrew University. He is known for his research on the genetics of human social behaviors, such as political ideology, novelty seeking, and dancing.
Go to Profile#8681
Lorraine Dennerstein
#123624
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Lorraine Dennerstein M.B.B.S., Ph.D., D.P.M., M.R.A.N.Z.C.P., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P., HonDMedSc is a leading Australian researcher and practicing psychiatrist specialising in women's mental and sexual health.
Go to Profile#8682
John W. Kebabian
#131315
Overall Influence
#8683
Andrea Gore
#59661
Overall Influence
Andrea C. Gore is a neuroendocrinology professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the Division of Toxicology and Pharmacology, where she holds the Vacek Chair of Pharmacology. She is a prominent contributor to the field of reproductive endocrinology. Her research interests span from the neurological basis of reproductive aging to endocrine disruptors in the nervous system. From January 2013 through December 2017, she was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Endocrinology. She has also been elected into the Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#8684
Nicolas Danchin
#131326
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#8685
Sekar Kathiresan
#131330
Overall Influence
#8686
Robert Bittman
#131340
Overall Influence
#8687
Norton B. Gilula
#131343
Overall Influence
#8688
Kaare R. Norum
#95079
Overall Influence
1932 - 2019 (87 years)
Kaare Reidar Norum was a Norwegian physician and professor of nutrition. He served as rector of the University of Oslo from 1999 to 2001. He was born in Oslo. He was hired as a docent at the University of Oslo in 1969 and advanced to professor in 1972. He served as vice dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1983 to 1985, dean from 1986 to 1988 and rector from 1999 to 2001.
Go to Profile#8689
Richard A. Gatti
#131355
Overall Influence
#8690
Nancy Marcus
#89961
Overall Influence
1950 - 2018 (68 years)
Nancy Helen Marcus was an American biologist and oceanographer. During her graduate studies, Marcus became known as an expert on copepod ecology and evolutionary biology. She began her career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she studied copepod dormancy and its implications for marine aquaculture. She continued her field research as a professor of oceanography and later as the director of the Florida State University Marine Laboratory . During this time Marcus was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Women in Science and the American Associatio...
Go to Profile#8691
Erich Bornberg-Bauer
#131145
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Erich Bornberg-Bauer is an Austrian biochemist, theoretical biologist and bioinformatician. Life Bornberg-Bauer, studied biochemistry, physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna and obtained a diploma in biochemistry . He performed his doctoral research on evolutionary fitness landscapes of RNA and proteins in the group of Peter Schuster, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, and received his Ph.D in 1995. He continued his academic career at the University of Vienna as a university assistant . Thereafter, he worked at the Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum in Heid...
Go to Profile#8692
George Edmund Lindsay
#94496
Overall Influence
1916 - 2002 (86 years)
George Edmund Lindsay was an American botanist, naturalist, and museum director. From 1956 to 1963, he was director of the San Diego Natural History Museum and served as Director of the California Academy of Sciences from 1963 to 1982. At both institutions, Lindsay led research field expeditions to the islands in the Sea of Cortez found between the Baja California Peninsula and mainland Sonora, Mexico. These expeditions relied on the Vermilion Sea Field Station at Bahia del Los Angeles as their base of operations, which he facilitated and organized. He was active in transnational conservati...
Go to Profile#8693
Gary Ackers
#106430
Overall Influence
1939 - 2011 (72 years)
Gary Keith Ackers was Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. His research focused on thermodynamic linkage analysis of biological macromolecules, addressing the molecular mechanism of cooperative O2 binding to human hemoglobin since the early 1970s. He was a Fellow of the Biophysical Society and one of the founders of the annual Gibbs Conference.
Go to Profile#8694
P. R. M. Deurenberg
#131389
Overall Influence
#8695
Barbara K. Felber
#128632
Overall Influence
Barbara K. Felber is an American biologist specialized in human retrovirus pathogenesis and gene regulation. She is a senior investigator in the vaccine branch at the National Cancer Institute. Education Felber completed a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Bern. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute.
Go to Profile#8696
John David Lambeth
#131401
Overall Influence
#8697
M. R. Green
#131407
Overall Influence
#8698
Jörg M. Fegert
#56626
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Jörg Michael Fegert is a German child and adolescent psychiatrist, psychotherapist and university professor. Life and education From 1977 to 1981, Fegert studied medicine and sociology at the University of Nantes and the Freie Universität of Berlin . He completed his specialist training at the Department of Child and Adolescent Neurology and Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the FUB, at the Children's Hospital of the FUB and at the Psychiatric Hospital of the FUB. In 1987, he received his doctorate with a thesis on migration and psychosocial adaptation.
Go to Profile#8699
Jasper Rine
#131412
Overall Influence
#8700
Paul Michael Vanraden
#131418
Overall Influence
