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,
#10351
Nobuyuki Hamajima
#144065
Overall Influence
#10352
G. David Johnson
#122862
Overall Influence
#10353
Nicholas M. Greene
#144069
Overall Influence
#10355
Adam Eyre-Walker
#141678
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Adam C. Eyre-Walker, is a British evolutionary geneticist, currently Professor of Biology in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex. He is noted for making "significant contributions to our understanding of evolution at the molecular level" and pioneering the use of DNA sequence databases for extracting information about the evolution of genomes.
Go to Profile#10356
W. Larry Kenney
#144093
Overall Influence
#10357
Sally Aitken
#107861
Overall Influence
Sally Nora Aitken is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at the University of British Columbia. In 2017, Aitken was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Career After earning her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, Aitken joining the faculty at Oregon State University. She was then offered a position at the University of British Columbia as a NSERC Industrial Research Chair. In 2001, Aitken helped start the Centre for Forest Conservation Genetics at UBC alongside Tongli Wang.
Go to Profile#10358
Duarte Araújo
#144105
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10359
Masaki Mori
#144111
Overall Influence
#10360
Reinhold G. Herrmann
#144114
Overall Influence
#10361
Edward Bresnick
#144133
Overall Influence
#10362
Jules E. Harris
#144141
Overall Influence
#10363
Pirjo Nuutila
#144152
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#10364
Carlos Hugh Schenck
#144154
Overall Influence
#10365
Robert John Delorenzo
#144155
Overall Influence
#10366
Kate Lajtha
#143389
Overall Influence
Kate Lajtha is an ecologist known for her use of stable isotopes to examine biogeochemical cycling in soils. Education and career Lajtha has a B.A. in biology from Harvard University and earned her Ph.D. from Duke University in botany in 1986. Following her Ph.D. she was a postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University before joining Boston University in 1987. In 1996 she moved to Oregon State University where she was promoted to Professor in 2010. Lajtha has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biogeochemistry since 2002.
Go to Profile#10367
Raymond V. Gilden
#144180
Overall Influence
#10368
Sandra Davidge
#138836
Overall Influence
Sandra Davidge is a Canadian scientist whose research explores pregnancy complications. She is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alberta in Canada, and the Executive Director of the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute. Davidge was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada , and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Go to Profile#10369
Vicente L. Honrubia
#144192
Overall Influence
#10370
Robert L. Martuza
#144193
Overall Influence
#10371
Claude Couinaud
#144225
Overall Influence
#10372
Jonathan R. Warren
#144226
Overall Influence
#10373
Elza Polak
#104376
Overall Influence
1910 - 1995 (85 years)
Elza Polak was a Yugoslav horticulturist and gardener. She is considered one of the pioneers of modern horticulture in Croatia. Education and early career Polak was born in Ogulin on 25 May 1910. "A love for flowers and nature", as she put it, led her to study agronomy at the University of Zagreb. As a student, she became a member of Zagreb's horticultural society, where she took gardening classes.
Go to Profile#10374
Dani Rabaiotti
#48619
Overall Influence
Dani Rabaiotti is an English environmental scientist and popular science writer based at the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Does It Fart, as well as two other books. Her fields of research include global change biology, science policy and science communication.
Go to Profile#10375
Zenon Steplewski
#144250
Overall Influence
#10376
Mu Zang
#134546
Overall Influence
1930 - 2011 (81 years)
Mu Zang was a Chinese mycologist. He was known for his research on the Boletales of China, and the ecology and biogeography of fungi in southwestern China. He described more than 140 new species and circumscribed three genera, published more than 150 research papers, was chief editor or co-editor for twelve books, and wrote two monographs on the Boletaceae of China. His final book, "Dictionary of the Families and Genera of Chinese Cryptogamic Plants" was co-authored with his wife, Professor Xinjiang Li.
Go to Profile#10377
Holly Brown-Borg
#119660
Overall Influence
Holly Brown-Borg is an American biologist and biogerontologist best known for her research on the regulation of lifespan by growth hormone. She is the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology & Therapeutics at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Go to Profile#10378
Hugh C. Hendrie
#144296
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
#10379
Thierry Chopin
#112929
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Thierry B.R. Chopin is a phycologist and professor of aquaculture at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John. Awards and honours Chevalier of the Ordre du Mérite MaritimeChevalier of the Ordre des Palmes académiquesHonorary Consul of France
Go to Profile#10380
Riccardo Valentini
#144305
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#10381
Christopher Pittenger
#130397
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Christopher J. Pittenger is an American psychiatrist and translational neuroscientist. He is a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Yale OCD Research Clinic. Early life and education Pittenger was born in 1972 in Baltimore, Maryland to parents Judy MacGillivray and Arthur Pittenger. Growing up, he was a choirboy at St. Davids Episcopal Church and attended Friends School of Baltimore. Pittenger completed his Bachelor of Science degree in 1994 from Yale University and his PhD in 2002 from Columbia University. During college, Pittenger discovered that "neuro...
Go to Profile#10382
Laimonis Laimins
#137824
Overall Influence
Laimonis A. Laimins is an American microbiologist currently the Guy and Anne Youmans Professor at Northwestern University and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#10383
Yusaku Nakabeppu
#144315
Overall Influence
#10384
Larissa T. Bilaniuk
#144319
Overall Influence
#10385
Thomas Alexander Mcmeekin
#144324
Overall Influence
#10386
Kilmer S. Mccully
#144336
Overall Influence
#10387
Gabriel Bitton
#144343
Overall Influence
#10388
François Dubeau
#144346
Overall Influence
#10389
Elizabeth Wood Karlson
#144359
Overall Influence
#10390
David Yaffe
#144373
Overall Influence
#10391
Hannu O. Kalimo
#144376
Overall Influence
#10392
Robert Paul Hasserjian
#144386
Overall Influence
#10393
Norbert Roewer
#144397
Overall Influence
#10394
Anjan Chatterjee
#144405
Overall Influence
#10395
Alain Filloux
#136239
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Alain Ange-Marie Filloux is a French/British microbiologist who is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Imperial College London. His research looks at the chronic infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Gram-negative bacterium that causes nosocomial infections in people who are immunocompromised and a deadly threat for cystic fibrosis patients.
Go to Profile#10396
H. Paul Ehrlich
#144408
Overall Influence
#10397
Norman Terry
#144423
Overall Influence
#10398
Janet Grieve
#103181
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Janet Mary Grieve , also known as Janet Bradford-Grieve and Janet Bradford, is a New Zealand biological oceanographer, born in 1940. She is researcher emerita at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Wellington. She has researched extensively on marine taxonomy and biological productivity. She was president of both the New Zealand Association of Scientists and the World Association of Copepodologists .
Go to Profile#10399
Gerome Breen
#144430
Overall Influence
Gerome Breen is a psychiatric geneticist who is Professor of Psychiatric Genetics in the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. With Thalia C. Eley, he runs the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression study which seeks to recruit 40,000 people with experience of depression or anxiety, and serves as the leader of the NIHR Mental Health BioResource. In this, he also runs the UK Eating Disorder Genetic Initiative which aims to recruit 10,000 people with experience of an eating disorder. He is co-chair of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Eating Disorders working group, with Cynthia M.
Go to Profile#10400
Angela Sessitsch
#144432
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
