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,
#9601
William F. Grant
#132244
Overall Influence
1924 - 2011 (87 years)
William Frederick Grant was a Canadian plant geneticist, biosystematist, educator, and environmental advocate who developed higher plant species for monitoring and testing for mutagenic effects of environmental pollutants. He has carried out research on the genetics of species of the genus Lotus and the forage species Lotus corniculatus developing an innovative procedure for increasing seed production in the legume birdsfoot trefoil.
Go to Profile#9602
Michael H. Stone
#138151
Overall Influence
#9603
Kim Jin-soo
#134108
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Kim Jin-Soo is a chemist, biologist, and entrepreneur. He was CEO and CSO, ToolGen, Inc., is a professor in the Department of Chemistry of Seoul National University and director of the Center for Genome Engineering. His research team has developed and improved several types of programmable nucleases, specifically zinc finger nucleases , TAL effector nucleases , and RNA-guided engineered nucleases . In 2018, he was a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in the cross-field category and in the biology and biochemistry category in 2019.
Go to Profile#9604
Vincenzo Savarino
#138163
Overall Influence
#9605
Allan M. Campbell
#137459
Overall Influence
1929 - 2018 (89 years)
Allan McCulloch Campbell was an American microbiologist and geneticist and the Barbara Kimball Browning Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. His pioneering work on Lambda phage helped to advance molecular biology in the late 20th century. An important collaborator and member of his laboratory at Stanford University was biochemist Alice del Campillo Campbell, his wife.
Go to Profile#9606
Conly L. Rieder
#138174
Overall Influence
#9607
Frederic Bertley
#102626
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Frederic Bertley is a Canadian immunologist and science educator. He is currently the President & CEO of COSI , a science museum in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to COSI, Bertley worked as Senior Vice President for Science and Education at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
Go to Profile#9608
Abraham (avi) Reichenberg
#138183
Overall Influence
#9609
Mauro Alini
#138208
Overall Influence
#9610
Donald W. Macglashan
#138214
Overall Influence
#9611
Carsen Stringer
#90306
Overall Influence
Carsen Stringer is an American computational neuroscientist and Group Leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus. Stringer uses machine learning and deep neural networks to visualize large scale neural recordings and then probe the neural computations that give rise to visual processing in mice. Stringer has also developed several novel software packages that enable cell segmentation and robust analyses of neural recordings and mouse behavior.
Go to Profile#9612
Kathleen Corey Flanders
#138250
Overall Influence
#9613
Ruth E. Gordon
#129053
Overall Influence
1910 - 2003 (93 years)
Ruth Evelyn Gordon was an American bacterial taxonomist. She was member of the American Type Culture Collection. The bacterial genus Gordonia and species Mycobacterium gordonae are named after her.
Go to Profile#9614
Nikolaus Grigorieff
#138253
Overall Influence
#9615
Richard N. Clayton
#138258
Overall Influence
#9616
Mone Zaidi
#138259
Overall Influence
#9617
June Halliday
#128324
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
June Halliday AM is a biochemist and researcher of liver disease and iron metabolism. She is a pioneer in the use of serum ferritin and liver iron concentration as diagnostic aids for studying haemochromatosis.
Go to Profile#9618
Colin M. Bloor
#138279
Overall Influence
#9619
Sean Hill
#63083
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Sean Lewis Hill is an American neuroscientist, Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, and inaugural Scientific Director of the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics in Toronto, Canada. He is also co-director of the Blue Brain Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne located on the Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland. He is known for the development of large-scale computational models of brain circuitry, neuroinformatics, and innovation in AI for mental health.
Go to Profile#9620
Tomoyoshi Soga
#138301
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#9621
J. Laurens Barnard
#138302
Overall Influence
#9622
Francois Balloux
#113488
Overall Influence
#9623
Benjamin J. Luft
#138316
Overall Influence
#9624
Vincenzo Cerundolo
#138317
Overall Influence
#9625
Peter Wolfe Kaplan
#138332
Overall Influence
#9626
Erika Zavaleta
#121751
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Erika S. Zavaleta is an American professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Zavaleta is recognized for her research focusing on topics including plant community ecology, conservation practices for terrestrial ecosystems, and impacts of community dynamics on ecosystem functions.
Go to Profile#9627
Tian Bo
#118232
Overall Influence
1931 - 2019 (88 years)
Tian Bo was a Chinese virologist and professor at the School of Life Sciences, Wuhan University. Biography Tian was born in Huantai County, Shandong, Republic of China on December 25, 1931. In 1950 he entered Beijing Agricultural University, majoring in plant protection, where he graduated in 1954.
Go to Profile#9628
Francesco Visioli
#138357
Overall Influence
#9629
Annette Menzel
#138359
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#9630
Dennis F. Whigham
#138372
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
#9631
Ronald Karslake Starr Wood
#110802
Overall Influence
1919 - 2017 (98 years)
Ronald Karslake Starr Wood, was a pioneer British plant pathologist, and Professor of Plant Pathology at Imperial College London. He was the first academic to be appointed chair in physiological plant pathology in England and Wales. He was also the first president of the British Society for Plant Pathology and the first president of the International Society for Plant Pathology.
Go to Profile#9632
Lawrence M. Ward
#71786
Overall Influence
Lawrence M. Ward is a neuroscientist and psychophysicist at the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He studied at Harvard University and Duke University, where he received his PhD in Experimental Psychology with a minor in mathematics. His current interests are cognitive neuroscience of attention and consciousness with special emphasis on EEG and MEG studies of neuronal synchronization; information transfer between brain regions underlying cognition; psychophysics, biophysics and general theory of stochastic resonance; computational studies of neuronal oscillations...
Go to Profile#9633
Danilo Fliser
#138409
Overall Influence
#9634
Francine Mary Benes
#138412
Overall Influence
#9635
Alan Solomon
#138418
Overall Influence
#9636
Ernesto Foldats
#101527
Overall Influence
1925 - 2003 (78 years)
Ernesto Foldats Andins was a Venezuelan botanist and orchidologist. He was born in Latvia as Ernests Foldāts. He later moved to He has held numerous official positions, e.g. Director of the School of Biology, Dean of the Faculty of Science at the Universidad Central de Venezuela ,and Scientific Advisor to the Commission on the Legislature and Environment. He was Dr. Honoris causa at the University of Riga, Latvia. Foldats was a member of the Latvian student fraternity Fraternitas Vanenica.
Go to Profile#9637
Mike Dickison
#84580
Overall Influence
Michael R. Dickison is a New Zealand museum curator, zoologist and Wikipedia editor. He was New Zealand's first Wikipedian at Large, in 2018–19, receiving a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. Early life Dickison grew up in Christchurch. His father was an apprentice boilermaker, and his mother was a homemaker. His father encouraged his interest in curating and collecting.
Go to Profile#9638
Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya
#100147
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya is an Indian molecular biologist, epigeneticist and the principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He is a recipient of the Swarnajayanthi Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Bioscience Award of the Department of Biotechnology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science award...
Go to Profile#9639
Jennifer Van Eyk
#136992
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Jennifer Eileen Van Eyk is the Erika Glazer Chair in Women's Heart Health, the Director of Advanced Clinical Biosystems Institute in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, the Director of Basic Science Research in the Women's Heart Center, a Professor in Medicine and in Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai. She is a renowned scientist in the field of clinical proteomics.
Go to Profile#9640
Jolanta Gutkowska
#138467
Overall Influence
#9641
Thomas A. Mustoe
#138473
Overall Influence
#9642
John Stuart Gray
#123974
Overall Influence
1941 - 2007 (66 years)
John Stuart Gray was a British-Norwegian marine biologist. He was born in Bolsover, but migrated to Norway. After his PHD degree in 1965, he took the dr.scient. degree in 1976 and became a professor at the University of Oslo. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1980 and won the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research in 1998.
Go to Profile#9643
Marc O. Ernst
#138476
Overall Influence
#9644
Denis G. Baskin
#138501
Overall Influence
#9645
Berthe Rakotosamimanana
#128567
Overall Influence
1938 - 2005 (67 years)
Berthe Rakotosamimanana was a primatologist and palaeontologist from Madagascar. Early life Rakotosamimanana was born in Andasibe in Moramanga District on 18 January 1938. She studied at the University of Paris VII, Faculty of Sciences, for a degree in animal biology and anthropology. On her return in 1967 she was employed in the Geology Department at the University of Madagascar. She was married to the primatologist Philibert Rakotosamimanana.
Go to Profile#9646
John Paul Kampine
#138506
Overall Influence
#9647
Emmanuele A. Jannini
#97000
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Angelo Francesco Emmanuele Jannini is an Italian sex therapist , medical doctor, and academic. Biography He was professor of medical sexology at the University of L'Aquila and is full professor of endocrinology and medical sexology at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Systems Medicine of the University of Rome Tor Vergata . From 2016 to 2018 president of SIAMS as well as the president of the Italian Academy for couple's health. He is also member of Publication Committee of ISSM . His studies in the male and female sexual and reproductive fields have been published in various internation...
Go to Profile#9648
James Lorne Henry
#138514
Overall Influence
#9649
Christopher H. Contag
#138518
Overall Influence
#9650
Frederico Guilherme Ed Graeff
#138523
Overall Influence
