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,
#9551
Ali Akbar Saboury
#135285
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Ali-Akbar Saboury is an Iranian biochemist and Distinguished Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Tehran. He is known for his works on biothermodynamics, enzyme kinetics and calorimetry.
Go to Profile#9552
Harry H. Shorey
#137801
Overall Influence
#9553
Clive M. Brasier
#137812
Overall Influence
#9554
Charles Kent Osborne
#137817
Overall Influence
#9555
Mark S. Goldman
#137818
Overall Influence
#9556
Helen Firth
#113674
Overall Influence
Helen V. Firth is a British geneticist who specialises in the application of new genomic technologies to improve the diagnosis of severe developmental disorders. She is clinical lead for the UK-wide Deciphering Developmental Disorders project and global DECIPHER platform for data-sharing in rare disease. In 2020, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Go to Profile#9557
Krishnapillai Sivasithamparam
#137862
Overall Influence
#9558
Hélène Morlon
#92805
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Hélène Morlon, born in 1978, is a French mathematician and ecologist specializing in biodiversity computational modeling, identifying the factors that influence diversification of species and their phenotypic evolution over millions of years. For her work, she was awarded an Irène Joliot-Curie Prize in 2017.
Go to Profile#9559
Kazuyoshi Tsutsui
#137868
Overall Influence
#9560
John Mauchline
#137881
Overall Influence
#9561
Sara Iverson
#120453
Overall Influence
Sara Iverson is a professor of biology at Dalhousie University, and the Scientific Director of the Ocean Tracking Network . Iverson was selected by Mattel Inc. and National Geographic as an influential Canadian scientist and role model for Barbie's You Can Be Anything campaign as part of the doll's 60th anniversary. This effort is aimed at helping young girls can have a career in a scientific fields where women have historically been underrepresented.
Go to Profile#9562
Thomas L. Delworth
#106106
Overall Influence
Thomas L. Delworth is an atmospheric and oceanic climate scientist and Senior Scientist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory , part of NOAA. He also serves on the faculty of Oceanic Science at Princeton University.
Go to Profile#9563
Gokare Aswathanarayana Ravishankar
#137897
Overall Influence
#9564
Per‐erik Jansson
#137898
Overall Influence
#9565
Keith L. Moore
#137910
Overall Influence
#9566
Ferruccio Fazio
#137915
Overall Influence
#9567
Herbert N. Hultgren
#137923
Overall Influence
#9568
Laura Lechuga
#109276
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Laura M. Lechuga Gómez is a Spanish scientist who is a biosensor researcher and full professor. She leads the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Application Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology .
Go to Profile#9569
David Andrew Collier
#137945
Overall Influence
#9570
Lisa Pratt
#103968
Overall Influence
Lisa Pratt is a biogeochemist and astrobiologist who previously served as the 7th Planetary Protection Officer for NASA from 2018 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. Her academic work as a student, professor, and researcher on organisms and their respective environments prepared her for the position, in which she is responsible for protecting the Earth and other planets in the solar system from traveling microbes. Originally, Pratt did not see a place for herself in science, but with encouragement from her academic mentors and family members along the way, she has been able to accomplish much work as a scientist.
Go to Profile#9571
Carl C. Bell
#137949
Overall Influence
#9572
Fritjof Helmchen
#137964
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#9573
Quynh-thu X. Le
#137965
Overall Influence
#9574
Martin Kaltenpoth
#136125
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Martin Kaltenpoth is a German evolutionary ecologist. Scientific career After studying biology at the University of Würzburg, which was supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation , Kaltenpoth completed his doctorate in 2006 under the supervision of Erhard Strohm on the topic Protective bacteria and attractive pheromones - symbiosis and chemical communication in beewolves. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Regensburg and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. In 2009, he joined the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology as head of the Max Planck Research Group Insect Symbiosis.
Go to Profile#9575
Alan F. Horwitz
#137970
Overall Influence
#9576
Deborah Bronk
#121215
Overall Influence
Deborah Ann Bronk is an American oceanographer and the president and CEO of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. She leads the nonprofit research institution in East Boothbay, Maine in its mission to understand the ocean's microbial engine and to harness the potential of these and other organisms at the base of the ocean food web through research, education, and innovation.
Go to Profile#9577
Stephen E. Abram
#137989
Overall Influence
#9578
Jerome H. Check
#137993
Overall Influence
#9579
Maurizio Biasini
#138031
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#9580
Shirley Cotter Tucker
#120702
Overall Influence
1927 - Present (99 years)
Shirley Cotter Tucker is an American botanist, lichenologist, and a former Boyd Professor of botany at Louisiana State University. Biography Shirley Cotter was born in Minnesota in 1927 to Ralph and Myra Cotter. Ralph Cotter was a plant pathologist at the University of Minnesota; growing up, Shirley Cotter would play in the university's greenhouses.
Go to Profile#9581
Richard Thomas Scott
#138032
Overall Influence
#9582
Derek Reid
#80452
Overall Influence
1927 - 2006 (79 years)
Derek Agutter Reid was an English mycologist. Background and education Reid was born in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, the son of a picture-framer. He was educated at Cedars School and the University of Hull, where he studied geology and botany. He gained his PhD from the University of London in 1964, for a thesis on stipitate stereoid fungi.
Go to Profile#9583
James L. German
#138054
Overall Influence
#9584
Pierre Tiollais
#138061
Overall Influence
#9585
Dharminder Chauhan
#138062
Overall Influence
#9586
Murray B. Gardner
#138065
Overall Influence
#9587
Jian Yang
#112538
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Jian Yang is a Chinese statistical geneticist and Professor of Statistical Genomics at the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, as well as an affiliated professor at the Queensland Brain Institute. He received the 2015 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal for his research on the "missing heritability" of complex traits. In 2017, he received the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year from the Prime Minister of Australia for his work on the basis of genetic variation in complex human traits, such as obesity and schizophrenia. He has researched the contribution of numerou...
Go to Profile#9588
Steven M. Holland
#118339
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Steven M. Holland is an American paleontologist and geologist at the University of Georgia. His research focuses on stratigraphic paleobiology, the application of event and sequence stratigraphy to a paleobiological understanding of the fossil record. With Mark Patzkowsky, he coauthored the book Stratigraphic Paleobiology.
Go to Profile#9589
Staffan Bensch
#138083
Overall Influence
#9590
Konrad Mengel
#138089
Overall Influence
#9591
Michael Schmid
#138095
Overall Influence
#9592
Loeske Kruuk
#133136
Overall Influence
Loeske E. B. Kruuk FRS is an evolutionary ecologist who is a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She was awarded the 2018 European Society for Evolutionary Biology President's Award. In 2023, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Go to Profile#9593
Horst R. Thieme
#138105
Overall Influence
#9594
Catherine Keever
#129851
Overall Influence
1908 - 2003 (95 years)
Catherine Keever was an educator and ecologist focused on ecological succession and highland region ecology. Keever proved that moss is the first plant to grow on bald rock, rather than lichens. Early life Keever was born September 8, 1908, in Iredell County, North Carolina to John C. Keever, a Methodist preacher, and Blanche Moore Keever. Her brother, Homer Keever, was the historian of Irdell County, NC. During her childhood, Keever moved throughout Western North Carolina within the Methodist Conference as her father took on various churches. She attended Davenport College in Lenoir, North Carolina, for two years before transferring to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Go to Profile#9595
Jeffrey Edwin Lee
#138115
Overall Influence
#9596
Michael D. Greicius
#138117
Overall Influence
#9597
Michael R. Zalutsky
#138120
Overall Influence
#9598
Hari Chanda Sharma
#138132
Overall Influence
#9599
Roy L. Freeman
#138133
Overall Influence
#9600
Gustavo Lozano Contreras
#127697
Overall Influence
1938 - 2000 (62 years)
Gustavo Lozano-Contreras was a Colombian botanist. He was a Professor of Botany at the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad Nacional in Colombia. With Eduino Carbonó, he described 125 species of plants endemic to Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia.
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