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,
#10201
N. E. Nathanson
#142809
Overall Influence
#10202
Lluís Quintana-Murci
#137840
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Lluís Quintana-Murci is a French-Spanish biologist and population geneticist known for his research on human evolution, population genomic diversity and its relationship with immune diversity and infectious diseases.
Go to Profile#10203
Noel Lothian
#131396
Overall Influence
1915 - 2004 (89 years)
Thomas Robert Noel Lothian OBE, NDH , LFRAIPR, JP was a long-term director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden and an Australian botanist. Lothian was born on 25 December 1915 in the Melbourne suburb of Mont Albert. After completing school at Scotch College, Melbourne, he studied at Burnley Horticultural College. He worked in botanical gardens in Melbourne and at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens in New Zealand, then started study at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1938. Lothian was an exchange student at the Munich Botanic Garden when the Second World War broke out, catching the last train out of Germany in 1939.
Go to Profile#10204
Lennart L. Stjärne
#142828
Overall Influence
#10205
L.m.m. Dubertret
#142838
Overall Influence
#10206
Scott T. Brady
#142845
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10207
Reynold Spector
#142847
Overall Influence
#10208
Victoria Cowling
#138107
Overall Influence
Victoria Haigh Cowling FRSE is an English biologist who received the Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal from the British Society for Cell Biology in 2014. Cowling is Professor of Biology, Lister Institute Fellow, MRC Senior Fellow and Deputy Head of The Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression at the University of Dundee.
Go to Profile#10209
Stephen Kresovich
#138101
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Stephen Kresovich is a plant geneticist and the Coker Endowed Chair of Genetics in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Clemson University and professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Since 2019 he has served as director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
Go to Profile#10210
Imants Priede
#132386
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Imants George Priede is a British-Latvian zoologist, author and academic. He is Professor Emeritus in the University of Aberdeen, Scotland known for his work on fish and life in the deep sea. Priede has published over 150 research papers concerned with fish, fisheries and the marine environment. He is author of the textbook Deep-Sea Fishes: Biology, Diversity, Ecology and Fisheries. He is Editor-In-Chief of the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers.
Go to Profile#10211
John C. Marshall
#142878
Overall Influence
#10212
Paolo De Coppi
#142886
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
#10213
Yukio Homma
#142887
Overall Influence
#10214
Craig A. Carlson
#142056
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Craig Alexander Carlson is an American oceanographer. He is a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Marine Science and a recipient of the 2015 G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award. Early life and education Craig Alexander Carlson was born to parents Paula and David Carlson. He attended Colby College, graduating with his bachelor's degree in 1986. He then attended the University of Maryland for a PhD in marine science, graduating in 1994 under the advisorship of Hugh Ducklow.
Go to Profile#10215
Giulio Cossu
#142920
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#10216
Marco Catani
#142932
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10217
Thomas R. Shultz
#142960
Overall Influence
#10218
Günther Palm
#142962
Overall Influence
#10219
Z. N. Tahmida Begum
#133747
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Z. N. Tahmida Begum is a botanist and former chairperson of Bangladesh Public Service Commission, the first woman chairperson of the commission. She is a professor of botany at the University of Dhaka.
Go to Profile#10220
Eystein Jansen
#90688
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Eystein Jansen is a Norwegian professor in marine geology and paleoceanography at the University of Bergen, and researcher and former Director of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research . He is also the vice-president of the European Research Council , as the scientific leader of the EU's commitment to basic research in the fields of physical sciences and engineering.
Go to Profile#10221
Wendy Nelson
#111756
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Wendy Alison Nelson is a New Zealand marine scientist and world expert in phycology. She is New Zealand's leading authority on seaweeds. Nelson is particularly interested in the biosystematics of seaweeds/macroalgae of New Zealand, with research on floristics, evolution and phylogeny, as well as ecology, and life history studies of marine algae. Recently she has worked on the systematics and biology of red algae including coralline algae, distribution and diversity of seaweeds in harbours and soft sediment habitats, and seaweeds of the Ross Sea and Balleny Islands.
Go to Profile#10222
Michael Steven Denison
#142983
Overall Influence
#10223
Cornelius Herman Muller
#142988
Overall Influence
#10224
Guy G. Dodson
#142998
Overall Influence
#10225
Liz Sockett
#125937
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Renee Elizabeth Sockett is a professor and microbiologist in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham. She is a world-leading expert on Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, a species of predatory bacteria.
Go to Profile#10226
Michael Sattler
#143021
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10227
Michael Lübbert
#143026
Overall Influence
#10228
Colin McLay
#136109
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Colin McLay is a retired New Zealand marine biologist. Educated at the University of Otago and the University of British Columbia, he served as an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Canterbury. He discovered several species of crab, including Desmodromia tranterae, Euryxanthops chiltoni, and Hirsutodynomene vespertilio.
Go to Profile#10229
Eng‐king Tan
#143066
Overall Influence
#10230
Ė. E. Sorkin
#143067
Overall Influence
#10231
Arthur David Karlin
#143076
Overall Influence
#10232
John Joseph Reynolds
#143085
Overall Influence
#10233
Xiao‐qiang Zhao
#143121
Overall Influence
#10234
Kerry L. O’donnell
#143128
Overall Influence
#10235
Peter Biely
#143132
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
#10236
Zoran T. Popovski
#109473
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Dr. Zoran T. Popovski is a Macedonian scientist and professor working at the Institute of Animal Biotechnology under the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food in the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. He is a specialist in molecular biology in animal science, genetic engineering and GMO. He has been working for the faculty since 1992.
Go to Profile#10237
Jorge R. Oksenberg
#143139
Overall Influence
#10238
Philip B. Clement
#143155
Overall Influence
#10239
Thomas Reilly
#143157
Overall Influence
#10240
Maria Rosa Miracle Solé
#86764
Overall Influence
1945 - 2017 (72 years)
Maria Rosa Miracle Solé was a Catalan biologist, who held a Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Valencia and a PhD in ecology from the University of Barcelona. Her research focused on the study of biodiversity, ecology, integrative taxonomy and biogeography of aquatic organisms.
Go to Profile#10241
Glenda Gobe
#131698
Overall Influence
Glenda Gobe is a molecular biologist specialising in the molecular controls of apoptosis in kidney disease. She is Co-Director of the Centre for Kidney Disease Research , School of Medicine, Translational Research Institute and The University of Queensland and Reader in the Discipline of Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Queensland.
Go to Profile#10242
Wallace L. Mckeehan
#143170
Overall Influence
#10243
Isidoor Leusen
#92775
Overall Influence
1923 - 2010 (87 years)
Isidoor Leusen was a Belgian physiologist was awarded the Francqui Prize on Biological and Medical Sciences in 1969. External links Isidoor Leusen at Francqui Foundation
Go to Profile#10244
Han Olff
#143201
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#10245
Laurence Levy
#78001
Overall Influence
1921 - 2007 (86 years)
Professor Laurence Fraser Levy was a pioneering neurosurgeon based in Harare, Zimbabwe, noted as the first neurosurgeon in Africa. He was Professor of Surgery and Anatomy at the University of Zimbabwe and managed to train about a dozen other neurosurgeons despite the lack of resources. He published more than 90 articles. He was also awarded a gold medal in 2005 by the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.
Go to Profile#10246
Joost Tinbergen
#125501
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Joost M. Tinbergen is a Dutch ecologist. Tinbergen is the son of the ornithologist Luuk Tinbergen, and nephew of Nobel Prize–winning brothers Jan and Niko Tinbergen. His older brother is the film-maker Tijs Tinbergen.
Go to Profile#10247
David Veale
#134012
Overall Influence
David Mikael William Veale is a British psychiatrist. He is a visiting professor in cognitive behavioural psychotherapies at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London and a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He has conducted a range of clinical research, especially in body dysmorphic disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, emetophobia, and depression.
Go to Profile#10248
Elizabeth Cutter
#130431
Overall Influence
1929 - 2010 (81 years)
Elizabeth Graham Cutter was a Scottish professor at the University of Manchester and oversaw its botany department merged with ten other departments and worked to ensure it would be established in the new school.
Go to Profile#10249
Nancy J. Alexander
#143216
Overall Influence
#10250
Teruomi Miyazawa
#143236
Overall Influence
