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,
#9001
Frank Oliver Nestle
#133772
Overall Influence
#9002
Lloyd R. Kèlland
#133774
Overall Influence
#9003
Richard Alan North
#105090
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Richard Alan North FRS is a British biomedical scientist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Manchester. North grew up in Halifax, West Yorkshire and attended Heath Grammar School, before studying at University of Aberdeen. He graduated in medicine and in physiology . He took a PhD in the group of Hans Walter Kosterlitz, and worked in Aberdeen hospitals as house office and registrar.
Go to Profile#9004
Bryan J. Traynor
#110634
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Bryan J. Traynor is a neurologist and a senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging, and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Traynor studies the genetics of human neurological conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia . He led the international consortium that identified pathogenic repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene as a common cause of ALS and FTD. Dr. Traynor also led efforts that identified other Mendelian genes responsible for familial ALS and dementia, including VCP, MATR3, KIF5A, HTT, and SPTLC1.
Go to Profile#9005
Arthur Weissbach
#133799
Overall Influence
#9006
Ichiro Azuma
#133804
Overall Influence
#9007
Kathleen L. Collins
#133811
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#9008
Edwin Milgrom
#133813
Overall Influence
#9009
Jean-paul Gerard Vonsattel
#133817
Overall Influence
#9010
Paul Englund
#121870
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
Paul Theodore Englund was an American biochemist known for his work with parasites, and especially his research into the genetic material in the parasitic organisms that cause African trypanosomiasis, more commonly called sleeping sickness.
Go to Profile#9011
Stefano Lonardi
#125379
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Stefano Lonardi is an Italian computer scientist and bioinformatician, currently Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at University of California, Riverside. He is also a faculty member of the Graduate Program in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics, the Center for Plant Cell Biology, the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, and the Graduate Program in Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology.
Go to Profile#9012
Hubert A. Lechevalier
#133832
Overall Influence
#9013
John J. M. Bergeron
#108097
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
John J. M. Bergeron, is a Canadian cell biologist and biochemist. He is an Emeritus Robert Reford Professor of Anatomy and Professor of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a Rhodes Scholar . He is best known for the discovery of calnexin, endosomal signalling and organellar proteomics.
Go to Profile#9014
Robert James Cerfolio
#133837
Overall Influence
#9015
E. Barry Keverne
#133848
Overall Influence
#9016
Robert O. Scow
#133857
Overall Influence
#9017
Richard Aldridge
#99874
Overall Influence
1945 - 2014 (69 years)
Richard John Aldridge was a British palaeontologist and academic, who was Bennett Professor of Geology at the University of Leicester. Academic career Aldridge's career began at Southampton University before moving to a temporary lectureship at University College London. He then joined the University of Nottingham where he remained until 1989, having reached the rank of Reader in Palaeontology. Following the Oxburgh Review of Earth Sciences, he moved to the University of Leicester. He served two terms as Head of Department, and was F.W. Bennett Professor of Geology from 2002 until he retired ...
Go to Profile#9018
Heinz Breer
#133866
Overall Influence
#9019
Darrel Waggoner
#83371
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Darrel Waggoner is a professor of human genetics and pediatrics at the Pritzker School of Medicine, and is the director of Human Genetics at University of Chicago. Life and education Darrel Waggoner was born in Nashville, TN. He was the first person in his family to attend college and attended Saint Louis University where he studied chemistry. When he decided to matriculate into Washington University School of Medicine his father "didn't believe him at first".
Go to Profile#9020
Theodore Friedmann
#133896
Overall Influence
#9021
Maureen Young
#94006
Overall Influence
1915 - 2013 (98 years)
Maureen Young , was a British professor of perinatal physiology at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London. Early life Young was born on 16 October 1915 in Southwold, England. Her mother Ina Heslop was Irish and her father William Young was an English military physician during World War I. After the war, he was appointed to the pathology department at Guy's Hospital in London, and the family to relocated there. When Young was 11, her parents were reassigned, this time to Singapore, so Maureen and her brother Ian were sent to boarding schools.
Go to Profile#9022
Gerhard Kattner
#133912
Overall Influence
#9023
Roberto Giugliani
#133914
Overall Influence
#9024
Charles Edmund Ford
#99553
Overall Influence
1912 - 1999 (87 years)
Charles Edmund Ford FRS FLS FZS was a noted cytogeneticist. Educated at Slough Grammar School, he graduated in botany from King's College London. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1965. He was also a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and the Zoological Society of London
Go to Profile#9025
Patrick D. Schloss
#133916
Overall Influence
#9026
Eli Gilboa
#133920
Overall Influence
#9027
Yizhi Jane Tao
#76980
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Yizhi Jane Tao is a Chinese biochemist, structural biologist, and professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Professor Tao led a team of researchers to be the first to map the structure of the influenza A virus nucleoprotein to an atomic level, a feat which circulated widely in the popular press. She was named among the top ten most influential Chinese of 2006 by a consortium of China's leading media outlets including Phoenix Satellite Television, China News Service, Asia Newsweek, and World Journal.
Go to Profile#9028
Andreas Straube
#133949
Overall Influence
#9029
Kurt S. Pregitzer
#133950
Overall Influence
#9030
Peter Schumann
#133966
Overall Influence
#9031
Thomas William Moon
#133969
Overall Influence
#9032
Valerie Hu
#130193
Overall Influence
Valerie Wailin Hu is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at George Washington University, where she studies autism biomarkers. Education Hu has a bachelor's degree from the University of Hawaiʻi and a PhD from Caltech ; she conducted postdoctoral research into membrane biochemistry and immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Go to Profile#9033
Kamini Nirmala Mendis
#62105
Overall Influence
Kamini Nirmala Mendis is a Sri Lankan professor emeritus at the University of Colombo and former malaria expert at the World Health Organization . Education Mendis went to Visakha Vidyalaya school in Colombo. She went to the University of Ceylon to study medicine in 1972, and then moved to the University of London in the UK for her PhD in 1980. For her M.D. in Microbiology, to complete her medical training, Mendis returned to her alma mater in 1989, now split into the University of Colombo.
Go to Profile#9034
Gregor W. Yeates
#133992
Overall Influence
#9035
Ernest W. Johns
#133997
Overall Influence
#9036
Victor Alan Levin
#134000
Overall Influence
#9037
Caroline M. Solomon
#90776
Overall Influence
Caroline M. Solomon is an American academic whose teaching focuses on bringing deaf and hard-of-hearing students into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Having experienced first-hand the problems for deaf students in classrooms without sign language interpreters, Solomon, who teaches biology at Gallaudet University, has designed databases to help students and teachers network with organizations and interpreters familiar with educational bridges for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. She is a co-creator of a database that formalizes the lexicon of signs used for scientific and technological terms in American Sign Language.
Go to Profile#9038
Roger C. Duvoisin
#134002
Overall Influence
#9039
M. George Cherian
#134005
Overall Influence
#9040
Susana Agustí
#108910
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Susana Agustí Requena is a Spanish biological oceanographer who has participated in over 25 oceanographic expeditions in the Arctic, Southern Ocean , Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. She played a key role in the Malaspina Circumnavigation Expedition. She is professor in Marine Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and an adjunct Professor at the University of Tromsø .
Go to Profile#9041
Andrius Kazlauskas
#134026
Overall Influence
#9042
Tore E. Timell
#134028
Overall Influence
#9043
James Andrew Mccubrey
#134035
Overall Influence
#9044
Olivier Devuyst
#134036
Overall Influence
#9045
Hector A. Battifora
#134063
Overall Influence
#9046
William H. Cade
#66832
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Dr. William H. "Bill" Cade is a biologist and a former president of the University of Lethbridge. He researches the role of acoustic signals in field cricket mating behaviour. Education Cade completed his BA , MA and PhD in Zoology at the University of Texas at Austin. While an undergraduate at Texas, Cade became a member of the Tau chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. For his master's degree he worked with Professor Osmond Breland on unusual aspects of insect sperm cell. Cade's doctoral work was on the evolution of mating behavior in insects and he studied with Professor Daniel Otte.
Go to Profile#9047
Jessica Gurevitch
#82320
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Jessica Gurevitch is a plant ecologist known for meta-analysis in the fields of ecology and evolution. Education and career Gurevitch has a B.S. from Cornell University and earned her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona in 1982. She was a postdoctoral fellow for two years at the University of Chicago before moving to the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1985. For two years starting in 1992, Guervitch worked at the National Science Foundation before returning to Stony Brook where she was promoted to professor in 2000.
Go to Profile#9048
Gabriel Waksman
#134087
Overall Influence
#9049
Ann Hajek
#106826
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Ann E. Hajek is an American entomologist with a focus in insect-microbe interactions. She is a professor of entomology at Cornell University. Early life and education Hajek was born in San Francisco, California, in 1952. In the 1970s, she attended University of California, Davis for two years then relocated to the UC Berkeley where she studied and worked as a practicing entomologist and science writer prior to obtaining her Ph.D. in entomology in 1974. While studying at the Division of Biological Control, Hajek earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in 1980 and 1984 respectively.
Go to Profile#9050
William Neil Charman
#134102
Overall Influence
