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,
#9051
Charles G. Glabe
#134107
Overall Influence
#9052
Roland Jonsson
#134117
Overall Influence
#9053
Richard Kvetnănský
#134121
Overall Influence
#9054
Joanna M. Hill
#134134
Overall Influence
#9055
Charles Douglas Gilbert
#134135
Overall Influence
#9056
Natalie Matosin
#58658
Overall Influence
Dr. Natalie Matosin is an Australian scientist known for research into the human brain in health and disease, and particularly how stress raises risk to mental illness. Matosin's research has been published in prestigious academic journals, as well as on The Conversation. Matosin spoke at TEDx Hamburg in June 2017 and is the 2021 Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellow. She was previously a National Health and Medical Research Council CJ Martin Early Career Research Fellow, and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. In 2017, Matosin was listed as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe in the category of Science & Health...
Go to Profile#9057
Betty Pfefferbaum
#67205
Overall Influence
Betty Pfefferbaum is a psychiatrist known for her early work in mental health treatment for children after a disaster. She is the director of the Terrorism and Disaster Center in the College of Medicine at Oakland University.
Go to Profile#9058
Arsène Burny
#134151
Overall Influence
#9059
Kar‐neng Lai
#134156
Overall Influence
#9060
Harrison Echols
#134169
Overall Influence
#9061
John A. Sturman
#134178
Overall Influence
#9062
Roger Gordon. Gosden
#134180
Overall Influence
#9063
Andrew P. Jr. Evan
#134194
Overall Influence
#9064
Lisa Dixon
#78619
Overall Influence
Lisa Dixon is a professor of psychiatry at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Director of the Division of Behavioral Health Services and Policy Research within the Department of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on improving the quality of care for individuals diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. She directs the Center for Practice Innovations at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she oversees the implementation of evidence-based practices for individuals with serious mental illnesses for the New York State Office of Mental Health. She leads OnTrackNY, a sta...
Go to Profile#9065
John Christodoulou
#125153
Overall Influence
John Christodoulou is an Australian medical geneticist, genetic pathologist and clinical scientist. He is director of the Genetics Theme and Group Co-Leader of the Brain and Mitochondrial Research Group at Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Additionally, he holds the Chair in Genomic Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne.
Go to Profile#9066
Erkki A. Vartiainen
#134200
Overall Influence
#9067
Robert Arlinghaus
#134204
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
#9068
Nenad Blau
#134206
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#9069
Panos Deloukas
#123747
Overall Influence
Panagiotis "Panos" Deloukas FMedSci is Professor of Cardiovascular Genomics and Dean for Life Sciences at the William Harvey Research Institute. This institute is a division of Queen Mary University of London 's Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has been an ISI highly cited researcher since 2012 and was elected a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018.
Go to Profile#9070
Helmut Fritz van Emden
#118727
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Helmut van Emden is Emeritus Professor of Horticulture at the University of Reading. He is known for work on insect-plant interactions in agroecosystems. He was born in Dresden, Germany. Van Emden is a former President and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and former President of the Association of Applied Biology.
Go to Profile#9071
Monique Capron
#134266
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#9072
David A. Steen
#82168
Overall Influence
David A. Steen is an American herpetologist and conservation biologist. He is Reptile and Amphibian Research Leader of the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute , and was previously a research professor at Auburn University, where he completed his Ph.D. Steen runs a popular Twitter account where he offers reptile and amphibian identification and dispels myths about oft-maligned snakes such as copperheadss, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes.
Go to Profile#9073
Andrew n. j. Mckenzie
#134276
Overall Influence
#9074
Erec Stebbins
#95911
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Erec Stebbins is an American biomedical scientist and novelist. Head of Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Structural Microbiology from 2001 to 2016 and currently Head of Division of Structural Biology of Infection and Immunity at the German Cancer Research Center, he is known for his contributions to the fields of cancer research and infectious disease, studying the structure of disease-related proteins through the technique of X-ray crystallography. He is a published academic writer and has been cited by his peers for his work in cancer research and infectious disease. He is also a nove...
Go to Profile#9075
A. K. Scientist Sharma
#134297
Overall Influence
#9076
Samuel Weiss
#86983
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Samuel Weiss is a Canadian neurobiologist. Biography Weiss was an undergraduate at McGill University, where he received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1978. He then went on to take his Ph.D. in Neurobiology at the University of Calgary. From 1983 to 1988 he held two postdoctoral fellowships funded by the AHFMR and the Medical Research Council of Canada , the first at the Centre de Pharmacologie-Endocologie, Montpellier, France, and the second at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He was appointed Assistant Professor and MRC Scholar at The University of Calgary in 1988.
Go to Profile#9077
Hans Guenter Drexler
#134301
Overall Influence
#9078
Benno Müller‐hill
#134303
Overall Influence
#9079
Helen Blackwell
#79589
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Helen E. Blackwell is an American organic chemist and chemical biologist. She is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Education Blackwell is a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio and was educated as an undergraduate at Oberlin College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry in 1994. She received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1999 working with Robert Grubbs.
Go to Profile#9080
Igor Gamow
#87969
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Rustem Igor Gamow was a microbiology professor at the University of Colorado and inventor. His best known inventions included the Gamow bag and the Shallow Underwater Breathing Apparatus. He was fired from CU in 2004 following sexual harassment and assault charges.
Go to Profile#9081
Scott L. Rauch
#71320
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Scott Laurence Rauch is the President, Psychiatrist in Chief, and Rose Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Chair of Psychiatry of McLean Hospital, who is known for his work using brain imaging methods to study psychiatric dysfunction. He is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Go to Profile#9082
Paul G. Pearson
#100887
Overall Influence
1926 - 2000 (74 years)
Paul Guy Pearson was an American academic, who served as president of Miami University and as acting president of Rutgers University. He came to Miami University after serving as executive vice president at Rutgers.
Go to Profile#9083
Hendrik Poorter
#134332
Overall Influence
#9084
Joan Cribb
#70362
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Joan Winifred Cribb was an Australian botanist and mycologist. Life and career Joan Winifred Herbert was born in Brisbane, Queensland, the daughter of botanists Vera and Desmond Herbert. She graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a Master of Science. She married fellow botanist Alan Cribb in 1954, and several years later joined him at the University of Queensland as a part-time lecturer and tutor.
Go to Profile#9085
Thomas Β Cooper,
#134340
Overall Influence
#9086
Howard J. Rogers
#134344
Overall Influence
#9087
Andreas Oschlies
#134348
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#9088
Craig j. Gerard
#134356
Overall Influence
#9089
Leonard Maler
#134385
Overall Influence
#9090
Mary Wharton
#126629
Overall Influence
1912 - 1991 (79 years)
Mary Eugenia Wharton was an American botanist, author, and environmental activist. Biography Wharton was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky on October 12, 1912, the younger of two daughters of Joseph Felix and Mayme Wharton. In 1916, the family moved to Lexington. Wharton graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1935 with a bachelor's degree in botany and geology. She then received both a master's degree in 1936 and a doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1946. In 1942, she collected dewberry, a berry closely related to blackberries, from Montgomery County, Kentucky. This berry pr...
Go to Profile#9091
Katey Walter Anthony
#71224
Overall Influence
Katey M. Walter Anthony is an Alaskan aquatic ecologist and biogeochemist researching carbon and nutrient cycling between terrestrial and aquatic systems, and the cryosphere and atmosphere. Education Walter Anthony graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College . She has an M.Sc. in ecology from the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks .
Go to Profile#9092
Peter Karp
#38717
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Peter D. Karp is director of the Bioinformatics Research Group at SRI International in Menlo Park, California. Karp leads the development of the BioCyc database collection . BioCyc databases combine genome, metabolic pathway, and regulatory information for thousands of organisms.
Go to Profile#9093
Pleasantine Mill
#106308
Overall Influence
Pleasantine Mill is a cell biologist and group leader at the MRC Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh. She won the 2018 British Society for Cell Biology Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal.
Go to Profile#9094
Walter Leonard Heindel
#134463
Overall Influence
#9095
Max. F. Rothschild
#134466
Overall Influence
#9096
James A Shapiro
#134474
Overall Influence
#9097
Mary Kearney
#132106
Overall Influence
Mary F. Kearney is an American biologist. She is a senior scientist and head of the translational research section in the HIV dynamics and replication program at the National Cancer Institute. Education Kearney completed a B.A. and M.S. in biomedical science at Hood College. Her master's thesis was titled Determining the resistance profile of conocurvone, an early-stage inhibitor of HIV-1 replication. Her advisor was Luke Pallansch. Kearney received a Ph.D. in biology from Catholic University of America in 2007 under the direction of John Coffin, Sarah Palmer, and . Her thesis was titled HIV-1 evolution in recently infect patients.
Go to Profile#9098
Alastair Culham
#129460
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Alastair Culham is an English botanist. He is a member of the staff of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading and Curator of the University of Reading Herbarium . He specialises in plant taxonomy, biosystematics and applications of techniques from molecular biology, phytogeography and phylogenetics. He focuses on broad-based research in biodiversity and taxonomy.
Go to Profile#9099
Nokwanda Makunga
#43220
Overall Influence
Nokwanda Pearl Makunga is a Professor of Biotechnology at Stellenbosch University. Early life and education Makunga grew up in Alice in the Eastern Cape, and attended a private boarding school in Grahamstown. Her father, Oswald, was a botanist who specialised in the Iridaceae. He grew up in rural poverty and won a scholarship to study at University of Fort Hare. She attended university in Pietermaritzburg. She completed her PhD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2004, working on the molecular biology of plants.
Go to Profile#9100
Leszek Wojtczak
#134524
Overall Influence
