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,
#10151
Alain Ravaud
#142411
Overall Influence
#10152
Joseph B. Rasmussenj.b. Rasmussen
#142415
Overall Influence
#10153
Peter J. Sharp
#142418
Overall Influence
#10154
Daniel Promislow
#138382
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Daniel Promislow is a biogerontologist and a professor at the University of Washington. He studies aging through systems biology and metabolomics approaches. He is a director of the Canine Longevity Consortium, and heads up the Dog Aging Project.
Go to Profile#10155
S. P. Steven P. Roose
#142449
Overall Influence
#10156
Tomasz Brzozowski
#142457
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#10157
Gösta Pettersson
#78737
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Gösta Pettersson is an emeritus professor in biochemistry at Lund University, Sweden. He was born in 1937 in Varberg, Sweden. He gained his Ph.D. at Lund University in 1966 on the basis of a thesis on toluquinones , and his early research was mainly concerned with fumigatin and other products of fungal metabolism.
Go to Profile#10158
R. Eugene Moore
#142511
Overall Influence
#10159
Gary L. Davis
#142519
Overall Influence
#10160
Christoph Benning
#142494
Overall Influence
Christoph Benning is a German–American plant biologist. He is an MSU Foundation Professor and University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. Benning's research into lipid metabolism in plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria, led him to be named Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Journal in October 2008.
Go to Profile#10161
Peter Ulric Tse
#96012
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Peter Ulric Tse is an American cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College. He directs the NSF EPSCoR Attention Consortium. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014.
Go to Profile#10162
Rodney J. Douglas
#142542
Overall Influence
#10163
Dana Philpott
#117945
Overall Influence
Dana Philpott is a professor of immunology at the University of Toronto. Biography Dana Philpott completed a B.Sc. in biology from the University of Calgary, and then completed her graduate studies in the department of microbiology at the University of Toronto. By the time she graduated, the departments of microbiology and genetics had merged, and Philpott became the first microbiologist with a PhD from the department of molecular genetics and microbiology at the University of Toronto. She studied enterohemorrhagic and enteropathogenic E.coli under Philip Sherman.
Go to Profile#10164
Elemér Szabadi
#142556
Overall Influence
#10165
Donald M. Waller
#142564
Overall Influence
#10166
Maya Schuldiner
#131472
Overall Influence
Maya Schuldiner is an Israeli biologist working at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her research focuses on organelles, using high-throughput screening and imaging techniques to discover the functions of proteins in yeast. She received the EMBO Gold Medal in 2017 for discovering the functions of proteins that no one had previously studied.
Go to Profile#10167
Mary J. Osborn
#142578
Overall Influence
#10168
Nils Brose
#142587
Overall Influence
#10169
Roger Hendrix
#137726
Overall Influence
1943 - 2017 (74 years)
Roger W. Hendrix was an American biologist, focusing in bacteriophage biology, and a Distinguished Professor at University of Pittsburgh. He studied biology at the California Institute of Technology and went on to obtain his Ph.D. from Harvard University under the supervision of James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. In 2009, he received the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing.
Go to Profile#10170
Michael Joshua Frank
#142592
Overall Influence
#10171
Matthias Gaestel
#142598
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#10172
Josef Dudel
#142624
Overall Influence
#10173
Daniel L. Azarnoff
#142625
Overall Influence
#10174
Peter William Gage
#142627
Overall Influence
#10175
R. Walker Miller
#142630
Overall Influence
#10176
K. R. Yamamoto
#142631
Overall Influence
#10177
Philippe Hernigou
#142657
Overall Influence
#10178
Nobuo Yanagisawa
#142660
Overall Influence
#10179
Rowena G. Matthews
#142664
Overall Influence
#10180
Lily Pereg
#142666
Overall Influence
1964 - 2019 (55 years)
Lily Pereg was an Australian microbiologist who was born in Israel and studied at university in Tel Aviv. She moved to Australia in the 1990s to undertake a PhD at the University of Sydney, which she completed in 1998. In 2001 Pereg took up an appointment at the University of New England, where she was promoted to Professor of Microbiology in 2018.
Go to Profile#10181
Klaus B. Jann
#142674
Overall Influence
#10182
Pascal Dollé
#142688
Overall Influence
#10183
Helen Roy
#99900
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Helen Elizabeth Roy, is a British ecologist, entomologist, and academic, specialising in ladybirds and non-native species. Since 2007, she has been a principal scientist and ecologist at the NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. From 1997 to 2008, she taught at Anglia Ruskin University, rising to the rank of Reader in Ecology. She is the co-organiser of the UK Ladybird Survey, alongside Dr Peter Brown, is a visiting professor in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, is co-chair of the IPBES assessment of invasive alien species, and is a past President of the Royal Entomo...
Go to Profile#10184
Richard B. Hornick
#142697
Overall Influence
#10185
Lacey Knowles
#138548
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
L. Lacey Knowles is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist known for her work with speciation, sexual selection, phylogeography, and evolutionary radiation. As of 2012, she is a professor at the University of Michigan and the curator of insects at the university's museum of zoology. She has been an elected member of the councils for the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Society of Systematic Biology. Knowles received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and had a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.
Go to Profile#10186
Matthias Brand
#142719
Overall Influence
#10187
Trinity Jude Bivalacqua
#142721
Overall Influence
#10188
Charles Chabert Capen
#142730
Overall Influence
#10189
Lincoln Pierson Brower
#142742
Overall Influence
#10190
Ira Shoulson
#142743
Overall Influence
#10191
Dean DellaPenna
#140984
Overall Influence
Dean DellaPenna is an American plant biochemist. He is a university distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University. Early life and education DellaPenna was born in Steubenville, Ohio but raised in Wintersville, Ohio. Following high school, DellaPenna worked in a steel mill before attending Ohio University. He subsequently became the first member of his family to enroll at college. After taking Botany 101 as a first year elective, he chose to pursue a career as a plant biochemist. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984, DellaPenna w...
Go to Profile#10192
Michael Allan Shepherd
#142761
Overall Influence
#10193
Maximilian Muenke
#142765
Overall Influence
#10194
Andrés Negro‐vilar
#142768
Overall Influence
#10195
Lia Osipian
#95723
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Lia Levonevna Osipian is an Armenian biologist, plant physiologist, and mycologist. Career Born in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Osipian studied at Yerevan State University from 1947 to 1952. After graduating, she worked as an assistant and lecturer at the university until she received her doctorate in biological sciences in 1970. She became a professor in the Department of Botany in the Faculty of Botany at Yerevan State University in 1971. Twice, from 1986 to 1990 and 1999 to 2002, she served as the dean of the Faculty of Biology. In 1996, Osipian became a full member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and is an Honorary Scientist of Armenia.
Go to Profile#10196
Trevor J. Trust
#142778
Overall Influence
#10197
Richard D. Penn
#142797
Overall Influence
#10198
John E. Craighead
#142799
Overall Influence
#10199
Anthony K. Campbell
#142800
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
#10200
Reiner R. Benecke
#142807
Overall Influence
