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,
#9751
David Borsook
#139167
Overall Influence
#9752
Timothy J. Brodribb
#139172
Overall Influence
#9753
Elba Serrano
#66209
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Elba E. Serrano is a neuroscientist and biophysicist who holds a position as a Regent's Professor of Biology at New Mexico State University. She is known for her contributions to research on the nervous system of gastropods, inner ear development in Xenopus, neurobiology of glia, sensory signal transduction in guard cells, and for leadership of programs that recruit, train and retain underrepresented minorities in STEM. Her research considers the central role of ion channels in the reception and transduction of stimuli and integrates methods from genetics, physiology, and anatomy. In 2020 s...
Go to Profile#9754
David S. Moss
#139188
Overall Influence
#9755
Alice Barkan
#136441
Overall Influence
Alice Barkan is an American molecular biologist and a professor of biology at the University of Oregon. She is known for her work on chloroplast gene regulation and protein synthesis. Education Alice Barkan received her B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#9756
Charles Wilkins
#124034
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Charles Wilkins is an American chemist who is a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Arkansas and the founding director of the University of Arkansas Statewide Mass Spectrometry Facility.
Go to Profile#9757
George N. Pavlakis
#139195
Overall Influence
#9758
Kenneth L. Williams
#88936
Overall Influence
1934 - 2017 (83 years)
Kenneth Lee Williams was an American herpetologist and author of books on the subject of snake biology and classification. Williams retired from teaching in Northwestern State University's biology department and received emeritus status in 2001. Williams is considered an authority on the milk snake and the herpetology of the Honduran Cloud Forest.
Go to Profile#9759
Richard Kolodner
#116125
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Richard David Kolodner is an American scientist with Ludwig Cancer Research who has made research contributions to the genetic basis for inherited susceptibility to common cancers. He is a Distinguished Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Kolodner is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#9760
Vivien Casagrande
#132864
Overall Influence
1942 - 2017 (75 years)
Vivien Alice Casagrande was a professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Life Casagrande was born in Belmont, Massachusetts to Erna and Arthur Casagrande in 1942. She received her B.S. in psychology from University of Colorado in 1964 and then obtained her PhD from Duke University in 1973 in physiological psychology under the direction of Irving T. Diamond.
Go to Profile#9761
Tayfun Uzbay
#100023
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
İsmail Tayfun Uzbay is a Turkish neuropsychopharmacologist. Life Uzbay graduated from Ünye High School and received his bachelor's degree in the Faculty of Pharmacy from Istanbul University in 1982. He completed his doctorate in 1992 at Gülhane Military Medical Academy in the field of Medical Pharmacology. He received the title of Associate Professorship in 1995. He worked in the field of Pharmacology in the Institute of Medical Sciences in North Texas University with scholarships from both TÜBİTAK and North Texas University. In 1999, he won a scholarship and worked as a research assistant in the department of Toxicology in the Faculty of Pharmaceutics in Cagliari University in Italy.
Go to Profile#9762
Roger Knowles
#139223
Overall Influence
#9763
Giulio Levi
#139236
Overall Influence
#9764
I. Herbert Scheinberg
#139243
Overall Influence
#9765
Matthew James Farrer
#139251
Overall Influence
#9766
Ian J. Wright
#139263
Overall Influence
#9767
Jean Kanitakis
#139265
Overall Influence
#9768
Ted J. Case
#139284
Overall Influence
#9769
Richard E. Pagano
#139290
Overall Influence
#9770
Zaven S. Khachaturian
#139298
Overall Influence
#9771
James Bever
#90269
Overall Influence
James Bever is an American biologist. He specializes in testing basic ecological and evolutionary processes occurring within plants and their associated fungi. He is currently the Distinguished Foundation Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas, and is an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His most cited papers are 700 and 590. He wrote several of the first papers on Plant-soil feedback.
Go to Profile#9772
Nancy Bonini
#115975
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Nancy M. Bonini is an American neuroscientist and geneticist, best known for pioneering the use of Drosophila as a model organism to study neurodegeneration of the human brain. Using the Drosophila model approach, Bonini's laboratory has identified genes and pathways that are important in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease, as well as aging, neural injury and regeneration, and response to environmental toxins.
Go to Profile#9773
Lars Bertram
#139325
Overall Influence
#9774
Dr. David Vázquez
#139328
Overall Influence
#9775
Stephen H. Scott
#75155
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Stephen Harold Scott is a Canadian neuroscientist and engineer who has made significant contributions to the field of sensorimotor neuroscience and the methods of assessing neurological function. He is a professor in both the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences and the Department of Medicine at Queen's University. In 2013, he was named the GlaxoSmithKline-Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Neurosciences at Queen's. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Kinarm , the technology transfer company that commercializes and manufactures his invention the Kin...
Go to Profile#9776
Robert Y. Moore
#139338
Overall Influence
#9777
Keith Lloyd
#36080
Overall Influence
Keith Lloyd FRCPsych FLSW is the Dean and Head of Swansea University Medical School. He is the Chair of the Welsh Psychiatric Society and of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales and Vice President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Professor Lloyd is also the trustee for Wales of the charity Samaritans UK.
Go to Profile#9778
Jeremy David Pickett-heaps
#139364
Overall Influence
#9779
Torsten Schwede
#139365
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#9780
Matthew Collins
#106741
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Matthew Collins, is a professor at the University of Copenhagen, formerly as a Niels Bohr professor, and also holds a McDonald Chair in Palaeoproteomics at the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Cambridge he was professor of biomolecular archaeology at the University of York where he founded BioArCh, a collaboration between the departments of biology, chemistry and archaeology .
Go to Profile#9781
Jacek Oleksyn
#117247
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Jacek Oleksyn is a Polish biologist specializing in tree biology and forestry, Professor of Biological Sciences, director of the Institute of Dendrology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kórnik, a corresponding member of PAN.
Go to Profile#9782
Cecilia Lindgren
#128328
Overall Influence
Cecilia Margareta Lindgren is a Swedish geneticist. She is a Professor of Genomic Endocrinology & Metabolism in the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, where she is also Group Head at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics and a research fellow at St. Anne's College. She became Director of the Big Data Institute at Oxford on 1 April 2021; she had previously been a Senior Group Leader at the Institute. Lindgren is best known for her research on the genetics of obesity and other complex traits.
Go to Profile#9783
Mikael Eriksson
#139397
Overall Influence
#9784
Stephen W. Barthold
#139398
Overall Influence
#9785
Berthold Langguth
#139408
Overall Influence
#9786
John Moult
#139411
Overall Influence
#9787
Joy M. Bergelson
#111900
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Joy M. Bergelson is an American evolutionary biologist. She is currently the Dorothy Schiff Professor of Genomics at New York University. Bergelson was previously and James D. Watson Distinguished Service Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, where she chaired the department for ecology and evolution. Her research focuses on the evolution and ecology of plants.
Go to Profile#9788
Eric. T. Poehlman
#139423
Overall Influence
#9789
E. D. David Morgan
#139427
Overall Influence
#9790
Wolfgang Schleidt
#116389
Overall Influence
1927 - Present (99 years)
Wolfgang M. Schleidt is an Austrian scientist specializing in the areas of bioacoustics, communication and classical ethology. He was assistant to Konrad Lorenz , professor of zoology at the University of Maryland and director at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology, Vienna of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was an early pioneer of bioacoustics and of the quantitative analysis of behavior.
Go to Profile#9791
Patricia Marie Griffin
#139443
Overall Influence
#9792
Gerald David Shockman
#139450
Overall Influence
#9793
Sten G. Eriksson
#139455
Overall Influence
#9794
William Paul Glezen
#139458
Overall Influence
#9795
Arnold M. Cooper
#139476
Overall Influence
#9796
Alfred Nordheim
#139482
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#9797
Hannelore Ehrenreich
#139483
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#9798
Roe Jung-hye
#95388
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Roe Jung-hye is a South Korean professor of Molecular biology at Seoul National University served as the 6th President of National Research Foundation of Korea - the first woman to lead the Foundation or its preceding foundations from 2018 to 2021.
Go to Profile#9799
Bernard Klein
#139491
Overall Influence
#9800
D. E. Williams
#139493
Overall Influence
