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,
#10601
James B. Beard
#132173
Overall Influence
1935 - 2018 (83 years)
James B Beard was an American agronomist. Born in Piqua, Ohio to James Hart and Margaret Bashore Beard, James B Beard was raised in Bradford, Ohio. He attended Ohio State University, graduating with a in Agronomy in 1957 and completed graduate education at Purdue University. He began teaching at Michigan State University in 1961, and joined the Texas A&M University faculty in 1975. Over the course of his career, Beard was named a fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He retired in 1992, and left his writings to Michigan State's Turfgrass Information Center in 2003.
Go to Profile#10602
Ingeborg Markgraf-Dannenberg
#145736
Overall Influence
1911 - 1996 (85 years)
Ingeborg Markgraf-Dannenberg was a Swiss naturalist, botanist, taxonomist, and teacher noted for her work at the Institute for Systematic Botany at the University of Zurich, in particular her work classifying the genus Festuca. She described over 120 species, and the grass Festuca markgrafiae was named in her honor.
Go to Profile#10603
Amit Etkin
#145974
Overall Influence
#10604
Andreas Vilcinskas
#145992
Overall Influence
#10605
Christopher E. Taylor
#146004
Overall Influence
#10606
Michael A. Wells
#146024
Overall Influence
#10607
Erwin-Josef Speckmann
#112450
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Erwin-Josef Speckmann is a German neuroscientist and artist. Until his retirement in 2005, he was the head of the Institute of Physiology at the University of Münster, and a professor in the Art Academy Münster. He is also a former dean of the medical faculty at the University of Münster, two-time president of the German EEG Society, and past president of the German Physiological Society. As well as his work on neuroscience, Speckmann has exhibited his art in several exhibition spaces including the botanical gardens of Münster and published three books about his art. He has also worked to pro...
Go to Profile#10608
Stephen Gilbert Hillier
#146043
Overall Influence
#10609
Matti Anniko
#146045
Overall Influence
#10610
Liselotte Sundström
#138228
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Liselotte Sundström is a Finnish zoologist. She is professor emerita of evolutionary biology at the University of Helsinki. Early career Sundström gained her doctoral thesis and docentship in 1994. She carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Lausanne during 1994-1995, which was funded by a grant for research from the Academy of Finland as well as employment at the university. She went on to work at the University of Aarhus in the years 1995-1996. In 1996 she returned to the University of Helsinki where she became a lecturer at the Department of Ecology and Systematics. From 199...
Go to Profile#10611
Jean‐luc Veuthey
#146060
Overall Influence
#10612
Johannes Thome
#82336
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Johannes Thome the Director and Chair of the Clinic and Policlinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Rostock University, Germany, and Honorary Professor at The School of Medicine, Swansea University, Wales, UK.
Go to Profile#10613
Herbert B. Hechtman
#146086
Overall Influence
#10614
Kaoru Yoshinaga
#146091
Overall Influence
#10615
Hans Runemark
#142159
Overall Influence
1927 - 2014 (87 years)
P. Hans B. Runemark was a Swedish botanist and lichenologist, emeritus professor at Lund University. Biography Born in Chicago, , he graduated in 1956 at Lund University, having started his studies there on the yellow species of the lichen, Rhizocarpon, in the late 1940s. The work undertaken for his PhD was subsequently published as a monograph in the journal Botaniska Notiser. Runemark used the newly discovered technique of paper chromatography as a tool in lichen taxonomy, and his monograph included species descriptions with detailed distribution maps for the Nordic and European regions. H...
Go to Profile#10616
Lauritz Sømme
#138199
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Lauritz Sverdrup Sømme is a Norwegian entomologist. His work has focused on insects in houses and stored foods, and especially the wintering and cold tolerance of certain arthropods. Sømme has been on several expeditions to the Antarctic, participated in field trips to Svalbard, and visited various other extreme places on Earth in his research on arthropods and cold tolerance.
Go to Profile#10617
Jǐrí Lom
#146115
Overall Influence
#10618
Rafaël Govaerts
#79714
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Rafaël Herman Anna Govaerts is a Belgian botanist. He is particularly noted for his work on plant taxonomy. He has worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew since the 1990s. He is the principal contributor to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, which was completed in 2023, and will continue to be updated as Plants of the World Online.
Go to Profile#10619
Kandasamy Kathiresan
#146124
Overall Influence
#10620
Olov Oscarsson
#146129
Overall Influence
#10621
Yasuhiro Furuichi
#146131
Overall Influence
#10622
Timothy A. Mckinsey
#146132
Overall Influence
#10623
Staci Bilbo
#90377
Overall Influence
Staci Bilbo is an American neuroimmunologist and The Haley Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Bilbo also holds a position as a research affiliate at Massachusetts General Hospital overseeing research within the Lurie Center for Autism. As the principal investigator of the Bilbo Lab, Bilbo investigates how environmental challenges during the perinatal period impact the immune system and further influence brain development, cognition, and affective behaviors later in life..
Go to Profile#10624
Drew Harvell
#141487
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Catherine Drew Harvell is a marine ecologist that researches ocean biodiversity and ocean health, specializing in diseases in marine ecosystems. Early life and education Harvell was born December 4, 1954, in the United States. Harvell completed her bachelor's degree in zoology with honors from the University of Alberta in 1978. She remained at University of Alberta to complete a master's degree in zoology, supervised by Fu-Shiang Chia. She completed her thesis and graduated in 1981. She attended the University of Washington to complete a Ph.D. in zoology and graduated in 1985.
Go to Profile#10625
Marla Spivak
#60360
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Marla Spivak is an American entomologist, and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota specializing in apiculture and social insects. Career and research Spivak graduated with a B.A. from Humboldt State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. She is particularly well known for her work breeding lines of honey bees that detect and quickly remove diseased larvae and pupae, which is called hygienic behavior. She was instrumental in setting up the first bee Tech-Transfer Team in the United States, which continues to help honey bee queen breeders select for disease resistance traits.
Go to Profile#10626
Elizabeth Vierling
#146186
Overall Influence
#10627
Kelly Weinersmith
#72601
Overall Influence
Kelly Weinersmith is an American biologist, writer, and podcaster. She is a member of the faculty at Rice University in the Department of BioSciences, and an alumni collaborator with the Parasite Ecology Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is co-author, with her husband Zach Weinersmith, of popular science books Soonish and A City on Mars .
Go to Profile#10628
Barry Bresnihan
#146226
Overall Influence
#10629
Nicholas A. J. Graham
#146229
Overall Influence
#10630
Zvonimir S. Katuŝić
#146233
Overall Influence
#10631
Jerry Michael Neff
#146239
Overall Influence
#10632
Lam‐son Phan Tran
#146242
Overall Influence
#10633
Michael W. Mcburney
#146249
Overall Influence
#10634
Angela H. Arthington
#146262
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
#10635
Bertil Forsberg
#146266
Overall Influence
#10636
Silvia Novello
#146283
Overall Influence
#10637
Abdul Majeed Md Abdul Waheed
#146293
Overall Influence
#10638
Toshiaki Hanafusa
#146297
Overall Influence
#10639
Laurens Anderson
#118520
Overall Influence
1920 - 2018 (98 years)
Laurens Anderson was an American biochemist. He was born on May 19, 1920, in South Dakota, to parents Adolf and Mary E. Anderson. The family later moved to northeast Wyoming. Anderson's father died when he was eight, and he was later sent to live with an aunt in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, where he attended high school. Upon graduating at the age of fifteen, Anderson enrolled in normal school and taught for two years before enrolling at the University of Wyoming, where he joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Anderson earned his bachelor's degree in 1942 and served in the United States Army Air Forces between January 1943 and August 1945.
Go to Profile#10640
Nancy Hall Colburn
#146314
Overall Influence
#10641
Jeremy Stone
#30422
Overall Influence
1935 - 2017 (82 years)
Jeremy J. Stone was an American scientist who was president of the Federation of American Scientists from 1970 to 2000, where he led that organization's advocacy initiatives in arms control, human rights, and foreign policy. In 2000, he was succeeded as president by Henry Kelly. Stone continued his work at a new organization called Catalytic Diplomacy. Stone was the son of the journalist I. F. Stone.
Go to Profile#10642
Stefano Volinia
#146320
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10643
Wilfred Y. Fujimoto
#146322
Overall Influence
#10644
David Evans
#72445
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
David M. Evans is Professor of Statistical Genetics and Head of Genomic Medicine at the Diamantina Institute at the University of Queensland. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Queensland in 2003, after which he completed a four-year postdoc at the University of Oxford's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. During his postdoc, he conducted research for the International HapMap Project and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. In 2007, he became a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol, where he conducted research on genome-wide association studies based on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Go to Profile#10645
Giorgio Cruccu
#146328
Overall Influence
#10646
Leonard Bielory
#146330
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#10647
Irene Tarimo
#51352
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Irene Aurelia Tarimo is a Tanzanian environmental scientist and educator. She currently serves as Head of Department of environmental studies at the Open University of Tanzania , where she is also a lecturer and a researcher. She previously served as OUT Director in the Lindi Region since 2007 to 2015.
Go to Profile#10648
Hauke Prof. Dr. Harms
#146349
Overall Influence
#10649
Nicholas Cohen
#146351
Overall Influence
#10650
S. M. Povey
#146352
Overall Influence
