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,
#9501
Lukas K. Tamm
#137315
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#9502
Lisbeth Olsson
#86267
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Lisbeth Olsson is a Swedish microbiologist and a Professor in industrial biotechnology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Early life On November 22, 1963, Olsson was born in Höör, Sweden.
Go to Profile#9503
Glen A. Broderick
#137390
Overall Influence
#9504
Andrew G. W. Leslie
#137396
Overall Influence
#9505
Greg Lemke
#137397
Overall Influence
#9506
Tobias Meyer
#137401
Overall Influence
#9507
Gerald L. Kooyman
#137405
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
#9508
Nikolaus Kriegeskorte
#137428
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
#9509
Guy Chouinard
#137429
Overall Influence
#9510
H. Maurice Goodman
#137433
Overall Influence
#9511
Suzanne M. Michalek
#137435
Overall Influence
#9512
Arthur Z. Eisen
#137445
Overall Influence
#9513
Willem J. Flameng
#137446
Overall Influence
#9514
Richard L. Stevens
#137451
Overall Influence
#9515
Mark J. Poznansky
#80808
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Mark J. Poznansky is a research scientist, science administrator and science blogger. He is the past president and CEO of the Ontario Genomics Institute and was previously chair of the board of OGI, and the founder of G2G Consulting Inc. He is a member of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario and was CEO, president and scientific director of Robarts Research Institute.
Go to Profile#9516
Javad Sharifi‐rad
#137475
Overall Influence
#9517
Victor M. W. Van Hinsbergh
#137488
Overall Influence
#9518
Herbert Huber
#88071
Overall Influence
1931 - 2005 (74 years)
Herbert Franz Josef Huber was a German botanist. At the time of his death in 2005 he was professor emeritus at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. He is known for his contributions to the classification of angiosperms.
Go to Profile#9519
Anant Parekh
#79208
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Anant B. Parekh is professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Education Parekh was a student at Hymers College and University College, Oxford. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree by the University of Oxford in 1991 for research on smooth muscle supervised by Alison Brading. He carried out postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for biophysical Chemistry in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Erwin Neher, working with Walter Stuehmer and then Reinhold Penner.
Go to Profile#9520
Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann
#113734
Overall Influence
1937 - 2005 (68 years)
Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann was a Filipino-American microbiologist and botanist who specialized in the study of cyanobacteria and extremophiles. Her work has been cited in work exploring the terraforming of Mars.
Go to Profile#9521
Daniel R. Rudman
#137530
Overall Influence
#9522
James Mccluskey
#137542
Overall Influence
#9523
Gordon L. Hager
#137550
Overall Influence
#9524
David L. Robertson
#137552
Overall Influence
#9525
Velmurugu Ravindran
#137554
Overall Influence
#9526
Jane Hurst
#123511
Overall Influence
Jane Louise Hurst is the William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at the University of Liverpool. She is Head of Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution. She studies scent communication between mammals, as well as animal welfare and pest control. She served as the president of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour from 2010 to 2012.
Go to Profile#9527
Christopher L. Coe
#137568
Overall Influence
#9528
Osamu Ogawa
#137593
Overall Influence
#9529
Jeffrey Polovina
#79043
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Jeffrey Polovina is an American marine scientist. He is known for creating the marine ecosystem model Ecopath. Early life Jeffrey Joseph Polovina was born on September 30, 1948, in Troy, New York. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, and received his PhD in Mathematical Statistics from University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#9530
Eamonn Ferguson
#137630
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#9531
Katharine N. Suding
#134847
Overall Influence
Katharine Nash Suding is an American plant ecologist. Suding is a Distinguished Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and a 2020 Professor of Distinction in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#9532
Francis E. Clark
#137639
Overall Influence
#9533
Giacomo Indiveri
#137659
Overall Influence
#9534
Daniel Kernell
#137668
Overall Influence
#9535
Frederick H. Sheldon
#106672
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Frederick Halsey "Fred" Sheldon is an American ornithologist. Early years Sheldon was born a US citizen at Hörsching in Upper Austria. He was educated at Yale University where he obtained a BS degree in Geology & Geophysics in 1974 and a PhD in Biology in 1986.
Go to Profile#9536
Jim Kenagy
#130299
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
George James Kenagy is known for his research in ecophysiology and behavior of small mammals. Education Jim Kenagy graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1963, and he graduated with a degree in Zoology in 1967 at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Then he achieved his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1972. He held postdocs in Germany , at UCLA, and at UC San Diego. In 1976, he joined the Department of Zoology at the University of Washington in Seattle, which became the Department of Biology in 2002. In 1995, he also became Curator of Mammals...
Go to Profile#9537
Arturo Acero Pizarro
#108243
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#9538
Michael Doebeli
#137700
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#9539
Rose Frisch
#55634
Overall Influence
1918 - 2015 (97 years)
Rose Epstein Frisch was a pioneering American scientist in fertility and human development whose work was instrumental in the discovery of leptin. She is mainly known for her work in infertility; specifically the discovery that low body fat was a contributing factor to infertility.
Go to Profile#9540
Owen T. G. Jones
#137709
Overall Influence
#9541
James Gilligan
#16839
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
James Gilligan is an American psychiatrist and author, husband of Carol Gilligan and best known for his series of books entitled Violence, where he draws on 25 years of work in the American prison system to describe the motivation and causes behind violent behavior.
Go to Profile#9542
Mewa Singh
#98032
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Mewa Singh is an Indian primatologist, ethologist, and conservation biologist. He was a professor of ecology and animal behavior at University of Mysore Biopsychology Department in Mysore, Karnataka. Currently he is a Life-Long Distinguished Professor in University of Mysore. It is interesting to note that Singh has a Bachelor's degree in English, a Master's and a PhD degree in Psychology but was never formally trained in Biological or Conservation Sciences. Yet he is popular and revered for coordinating courses in Evolution, Genetics, Animal Behavior, Conservation Biology and Statistics not ...
Go to Profile#9543
Yoshifumi Takeda
#137741
Overall Influence
#9544
Malcolm Richardson
#39457
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Malcolm D. Richardson is Director of the Mycology Reference Centre, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust at Wythenshawe Hospital and an honorary Professor of Medical Mycology at the University of Manchester.
Go to Profile#9545
Sylvain Moineau
#137754
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#9546
Peeyush K. Lala
#137770
Overall Influence
#9547
Francesco Dieli
#123797
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Francesco Dieli is an Italian immunologist. He was born in Prizzi, Italy. After high school education, in 1983 he got his degree with honors in Medicine at the University of Palermo where he specialized in Pathology. He got his PhD in Immunology in 1999. He is full professor of Immunology and Director of the Division of Immunology and Immunogenetics at the University of Palermo, Italy.
Go to Profile#9548
John G. Flanagan
#137780
Overall Influence
#9549
Jack r. Bennink
#137783
Overall Influence
#9550
Gerhard Prof. Dr.dr.h.c. Pulverer
#137795
Overall Influence
