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,
#9701
Floyd C. Rector
#138855
Overall Influence
#9702
James C. Metcalfe
#138859
Overall Influence
#9703
Andrew G. Frantz
#138864
Overall Influence
#9704
J. Hume Adams
#138867
Overall Influence
#9705
Gabrielle Belz
#130929
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Gabrielle T. Belz is an Australian molecular immunologist and viral immunologist. She is a faculty member of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, within the Molecular Immunology division. Belz has made important contributions to the understanding of immune system function, especially in relation to the molecular and cellular signalling pathways of immune response to viruses. Her research has focused on understanding the signals that drive the initial development of protective immunity against pathogen infections, such as influenza and herpes viruses. This includes research ...
Go to Profile#9706
Hilary Lappin-Scott
#63714
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Hilary Margaret Lappin-Scott FLS FLSW PFHEA FAAM FRSB is a British microbiologist whose field of research is microbial biofilms. In 2009 Hilary was elected as the second female President of the Society for General Microbiology in 70 years and served in this role until 2012. In September 2019 she was elected as President of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies , being the first President from the UK.
Go to Profile#9707
Koichi Yamanishi
#138882
Overall Influence
#9708
Wagner Farid Gattaz
#138888
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#9709
Melissa Wong
#102033
Overall Influence
Melissa Wong is an American biologist known for her work describing cell fusion, the cancer stem cell niche, and early detection strategies. She currently holds appointments at Oregon Health & Science University in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology and co-leads the Knight Cancer Institute's Cancer Biology program.
Go to Profile#9710
Theodore Reich
#138896
Overall Influence
#9711
Marcel E. Nimni
#138914
Overall Influence
#9712
John Foster Marshall
#138930
Overall Influence
#9713
Daniel Lee Nickrent
#116533
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Daniel Lee Nickrent is an American botanist, working in plant evolutionary biology, including the subdisciplines of genomics, phylogenetics, systematics, population genetics, and taxonomy. A major focus has been parasitic flowering plants, particularly of the sandalwood order . His interest in photographic documentation and photographic databases has led to several photographic databases including Parasitic Plant Connection, Phytoimages, Plant Checklist for the Rocky Mountain National Park, and Plant Checklist for the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.
Go to Profile#9714
Bruce D. Goldman
#138934
Overall Influence
#9715
Whendee Silver
#129376
Overall Influence
Whendee Silver is an American ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist. Early life and education Silver grew up in Southern California. She earned her MS in Forest Science from Yale School of Forestry in 1987 and in 1992, received her PhD from Yale University.
Go to Profile#9716
Tadafumi Kato
#138955
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#9717
Andrew James Mackinnon
#138974
Overall Influence
#9718
Elsie Conway
#115615
Overall Influence
1902 - 1992 (90 years)
Elsie Conway was a British phycologist. She served as president of the British Phycological Society from 1965 to 1967, and was one of the earliest women Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Early life and education Conway was born Elsie Phillips on 15 March 1902 in Aldford, Cheshire, England, the elder daughter of William and Margaret Phillips. She attended the Queen's School in Chester from 1912 to 1919. She then studied botany at the University of Liverpool, achieving a Bachelor of Science in 1922, Honours in 1923, and PhD in 1925. Contact with Margery Knight started her life-long interest in algae.
Go to Profile#9719
Tadashi Yoshino
#138995
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
#9720
Arnold Brossi
#139006
Overall Influence
#9721
Jason Carroll
#119320
Overall Influence
Professor Jason Carroll is a British medical researcher serving as a Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge and Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Azeria Therapeutics. He is a Professor of Molecular Oncology assigned to the Department of Oncology and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
Go to Profile#9722
Itzhak Fried
#139015
Overall Influence
#9723
Péter Csermely
#57472
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Peter Csermely is a Hungarian biochemist and professor at Semmelweis University . His major fields of study are the adaptation and learning of complex networks. In 1995 Csermely launched a highly successful initiative, which provided research opportunities for more than 10,000 gifted high school students. In 2006 he established the Hungarian Talent Support Council. From 2009 the council built up a nationwide talent support network involving more than 200,000 people by 2018. Between 2012 and 2020 he was the president of the European Council for High Ability . From 2014 they started to establi...
Go to Profile#9724
Robert Blumenthal
#105114
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Robert M. Blumenthal is an American microbiologist, currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of Toledo. He completed his undergraduate education at Indiana University in Bloomington and received his Master of Science and PhD in microbiology from the University of Michigan in 1975 and 1977, respectively.
Go to Profile#9725
Rober T. C. Beardsley
#139023
Overall Influence
#9726
Nasser Khaled Altorki
#139025
Overall Influence
#9727
Michael Emerman
#139027
Overall Influence
#9728
Jack E. Kyte
#139028
Overall Influence
#9729
Inge L. Olsson
#139035
Overall Influence
#9730
Gilberto Morillo
#139039
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Gilberto N. Morillo is Venezuelan scientist, author, and educator. He was known for botany. In 1995 he was chosen as an elected curator of Herbario Forestal of the University of the Andes in Mérida, Venezuela. Morillo had already been a curator of the Faculty of Pharmacy from the same university and the National Herbarium of Venezuela in Caracas. He is a collector of Angiopspermaes, whose specimens are in the National Herbarium of Venezuela. He is currently a researcher with the highest number of scientific publications of the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental and global specialist in Asclepiadaceae and a consultant for prestigious journals in the field of botany.
Go to Profile#9731
Dorothy Ford Bainton
#139046
Overall Influence
#9732
Theodore J. Smayda
#139053
Overall Influence
#9733
Dominique J. Charron
#139062
Overall Influence
#9734
Lars Sennerby
#139079
Overall Influence
#9735
Thomas Illig
#139083
Overall Influence
#9736
Carl D. D. Langefeld
#139086
Overall Influence
#9737
Randolph Warren Evans
#139099
Overall Influence
#9738
Reto Jörg Strasser
#139100
Overall Influence
#9739
Michael C. Whitlock
#139105
Overall Influence
#9740
Gina G. Turrigiano
#139115
Overall Influence
#9741
Elizabeth M. Wilson
#139119
Overall Influence
#9742
Steven S. Clark
#139121
Overall Influence
#9743
Monte S. Meltzer
#139134
Overall Influence
#9744
Helen Piwnica‐worms
#139136
Overall Influence
#9745
Justin Marshall
#138666
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Nicholas Justin Marshall is a British-Australian neuroscientist-ecologist whose research focuses on decoding how animals use color to communicate. He is known for discovering the most complex animal visual system known of any organism. – that of the mantis shrimp, which has 12 color channels.
Go to Profile#9746
William Robert Wilson
#139142
Overall Influence
#9747
Orrin H. Pilkey
#76619
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Orrin H. Pilkey is an American Professor Emeritus of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, at Duke University, and founder and director emeritus of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines which is currently based at Western Carolina University.
Go to Profile#9748
William Fleming Hoggan Jarrett
#133608
Overall Influence
1928 - 2011 (83 years)
William "Bill" Fleming Hoggan Jarrett, RCVS, FRCPath, FRCPG, FRS was a British pathologist. Personal life Bill was born on 2 January 1928 in Glasgow. He studied at Lenzie Academy, Glasgow, and Glasgow Veterinary College. His father, though a joiner and cabinetmaker, came from a farming background and moved his family shortly afterwards to an agricultural smallholding near Cumbernauld. Their early life there no doubt influenced Bill, his elder brother Tom and younger brother Oswald to study veterinary medicine. Bill graduated from Glasgow Veterinary College with honours in 1947 and then, alrea...
Go to Profile#9749
Allan L. Goldstein
#53223
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Allan L. Goldstein is emeritus professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He chaired the department from 1978 until March 2009 and was awarded emeritus status in 2013. He is an authority on the thymus gland and the workings of the immune system, and co-discoverer of the thymosins, a family of hormone-like peptides isolated from the thymus gland.
Go to Profile#9750
Alexandra H. Filipovich
#139164
Overall Influence
