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,
#10801
Jan-petter Larsen
#147557
Overall Influence
#10802
Michel Broyer
#147560
Overall Influence
#10803
Prof. Peter Schwandt
#147569
Overall Influence
#10804
Stephen H. Miller
#147571
Overall Influence
#10805
Morton Beiser
#55100
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Morton Beiser, CM, MD, FRCP is a Canadian professor, psychiatrist and epidemiologist known for his research in the fields of immigration and resettlement. He is Professor of Distinction at Toronto Metropolitan University , Crombie Professor Emeritus of Cultural Pluralism and Health at the University of Toronto, Founding Director and Senior Scientist at the Ontario Metropolis Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement , and a Member of the Order of Canada.
Go to Profile#10806
Tamás Székely
#146918
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Tamás Székely is a Hungarian born evolutionary biologist, conservationist, and author. He is a Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Bath, Honorary Professor at the University of Debrecen and visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University and Sun Yat-Sen University . Székely was a visiting professor at Harvard University, University of Groningen, Bielefeld and Göttingen.
Go to Profile#10807
A. Mcgehee Harvey
#147607
Overall Influence
#10808
Ann Conolly
#88823
Overall Influence
1917 - 2010 (93 years)
Ann P. Conolly was a British botanist and teacher who contributed to quaternary botany and conducted important early work on the history and spread of Japanese Knotweed in the UK . Academic career She attended the University of Cambridge from 1936 to 1940 and studied Natural Sciences. However, it was the university's policy at that time to not award degrees to women. She undertook doctoral studies on quaternary botany between 1940 and 1943, supported by a Rigby and a Francis Maitland Balfour studentships, under the supervision of Professor Harry Godwin. Her work contributed to Godwin's landmark book History of the British Flora published by CUP in 1956.
Go to Profile#10809
Donald Raymond Buhler
#147611
Overall Influence
#10810
Turhan Baytop
#53433
Overall Influence
1920 - 2002 (82 years)
Turhan Baytop was a Turkish botanist and pharmacist from Istanbul. He was born on June 20, 1920, at Üsküdar, Istanbul. His father was a military officer and a keen amateur botanist. He then started studying at the 'University College of Pharmacy' in Istanbul in 1945 he graduated. He later served as a pharmacist in the medical corps during his military service. In 1948, Baytop returned to the college and gained his doctorate with a chemical investigation of Ephedra, the group of plants that contain important drugs such as ephedrine. This was followed by a similar study of a Turkish species of...
Go to Profile#10811
Timothy C. Hall
#147625
Overall Influence
#10812
Carl‐gerhard Gottfries
#147648
Overall Influence
#10813
William F. Ph.d. D.sc. Morgan
#147657
Overall Influence
#10814
Walter B. Gross
#147658
Overall Influence
#10815
Jerzy W. Kupiec‐weglinski
#147659
Overall Influence
#10816
Steven M. Finkbeiner
#147665
Overall Influence
#10817
Yvan Touitou
#147675
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
#10818
Prakash Narain Tandon
#45872
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Prakash Narain Tandon is an Indian neuroscientist and neurosurgeon. He graduated with an MBBS and MS from the [KGMC] in 1950 and 52 respectively, and then trained at the University of London and obtained his FRCS in 1956. He further obtained specialist training in neurosurgery at Oslo, Norway and Montreal, Canada. After a brief tenure as a professor at the K.G. Medical College, Lucknow , he moved to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi where he founded the neurosurgery department, has been a professor of neurosurgery, a Bhatnagar Fellow and then a professor emeritus. Tand...
Go to Profile#10819
John W. Moore
#147678
Overall Influence
#10820
Gerald C. Coles
#147679
Overall Influence
#10821
Sarah Medland
#112197
Overall Influence
Sarah Elizabeth Medland is Professor and Psychiatric Genetics Group Leader at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Herston, Brisbane, Australia. She played a major role in the development of the ENIGMA brain imaging consortium.
Go to Profile#10822
Chang-real Park
#147696
Overall Influence
#10823
Ellis Robert Levin
#147697
Overall Influence
#10824
Eric Toensmeier
#103113
Overall Influence
Eric Toensmeier is an author of several books focused on climate change, biodiversity, and nutrition. He is also a lecturer at Yale University and a Senior Biosequestration Fellow at Project Drawdown.
Go to Profile#10825
Bent Weeke
#147726
Overall Influence
#10826
Alexander Raikhel
#119680
Overall Influence
Alexander S. Raikhel is a distinguished professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside, and an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Early life and education Raikhel grew up in Siberia in the Soviet Union. Raikhel was the son of two medical professionals, and was inspired by the books he read to become a scientist. He was fixated on the stereotypical image of intellectuals wearing glasses, and at one point deliberately failed a vision test so that he could wear glasses. Raikhel applied to Leningrad State University in 1965, but was delayed by the quota system due to his Jewish heritage.
Go to Profile#10827
Alasdaird D. Mcintyre
#147731
Overall Influence
#10828
Herbert Roeyers
#147737
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10829
Christopher J. Kane
#147755
Overall Influence
#10830
Marcus Jacob Jacobson
#147774
Overall Influence
#10831
Raymond Michael Gaze
#147775
Overall Influence
#10832
Hitoshi Takahashi
#147812
Overall Influence
#10833
Luis Felipe Fajardo
#147820
Overall Influence
#10834
William J. Freed
#147829
Overall Influence
#10835
Catharine Mans Bosio
#129527
Overall Influence
Catharine "Katy" Mans Bosio is an American biologist. She is a senior investigator and chief of the immunity to pulmonary pathogens section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Go to Profile#10836
J⊘rgen Clausen
#147831
Overall Influence
#10837
Rafael Rubio
#147832
Overall Influence
#10838
Hiroshi Kawauchi
#147837
Overall Influence
#10839
Larry Simpson
#147846
Overall Influence
#10840
Gerritt Uilenberg
#147853
Overall Influence
#10841
Zoltán N. Oltvai
#147860
Overall Influence
#10842
James C. McWilliams
#79123
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
James C. McWilliams is a professor at the UCLA Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Early life McWilliams was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and attended high school in Tulsa. McWilliams received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Caltech in 1968. In 1969 and 1971, he received a M.S. and Ph.D respectively from Harvard University. McWilliams held a Research Fellowship in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at Harvard from 1971 to 1974 and afterwards worked in the Oceanography Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research where he became a Senior Scientist in 1980.
Go to Profile#10843
Fernando Gómez‐pinilla
#147864
Overall Influence
#10844
Peter Taylor
#87278
Overall Influence
1926 - 2011 (85 years)
Peter Geoffrey Taylor was a British botanist who worked at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew throughout his career in botany. Taylor was born in 1926 and joined the staff of the herbarium at Kew in 1948. He published his first new species, Utricularia pentadactyla, in 1954. In 1973, Taylor was appointed curator of the orchid division of the herbarium and, according to Kew, "under his direction, orchid taxonomy was revitalised and its horticultural contacts strengthened."
Go to Profile#10845
Karl L. Magleby
#147877
Overall Influence
#10846
Bruce MacFadden
#127309
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Bruce J. MacFadden is an American vertebrate paleontologist, a significant figure in his field, currently a Distinguished Professor at University of Florida.
Go to Profile#10847
Jens Claus Brüning
#147880
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#10848
Dennis H. Knight
#147881
Overall Influence
#10849
C. Michael Ignoffo
#147898
Overall Influence
#10850
David J. Ellar
#147899
Overall Influence
