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,
#10901
Thomas Bourgeron
#124133
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Thomas Bourgeron is a French scientist working at the Institut Pasteur. His group discovered the first monogenic mutations involved in autism. He is a member of the French Academy of sciences. He works on genes, changes in synapse properties and changes in circadian rhythm in autism-spectrum disorders.
Go to Profile#10902
Gerard H. De Haas
#148285
Overall Influence
#10903
Gustavo Cudkowicz
#148291
Overall Influence
#10904
Klaus Oeggl
#95966
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Klaus Oeggl is a retired Austrian botanist, and deals with palaeoecology and archaeobotany. He is well known for his studies on the life-circumstances and on the environment of the Neolithic glacier mummy "Ötzi".
Go to Profile#10905
Sam Wang
#64450
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Samuel "Sam" Sheng-Hung Wang is a Taiwanese-American professor, neuroscientist, psephologist and author. He is known as the co-author of the books Welcome to Your Brain and Welcome to Your Child's Brain, as well as for the Princeton Election Consortium psephology website. Wang also gives talks about child brain development, autism, politics, and gerrymandering on television and radio, to academic audiences, and for the general public.
Go to Profile#10906
Bernd C. Kieseier
#148311
Overall Influence
#10907
Olle Ekberg
#148313
Overall Influence
#10908
Evelyn Telfer
#85610
Overall Influence
Evelyn Elizabeth Telfer is a reproductive biologist and professor at the University of Edinburgh. She leads a research team which has successfully grown immature human eggs to maturity in the lab, and discovered that human ovaries are capable of growing new eggs. In 2018 she was named one of Porter magazine's Incredible Women of 2018. In January 2019 she delivered the Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture at the Joint Fertility Societies Meeting in Birmingham: Fertility 2019. The Society of Reproduction and Fertility presented her with their Distinguished Scientist award. Professor Telfer was presen...
Go to Profile#10909
Aftab Ahmed Ansari
#148315
Overall Influence
#10910
Daniel S. Margulies
#148345
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10911
James R. Halpert
#148369
Overall Influence
#10912
David J. Cove
#148370
Overall Influence
#10913
Isabelle Mansuy
#134412
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Isabelle M. Mansuy is a professor in neuroepigenetics in the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich and the Department of Health Science and Technology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. She is known for her work on the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance in relation to childhood trauma.
Go to Profile#10914
Fabrizio Montecucco
#148371
Overall Influence
#10915
Gere S. Dizerega
#148373
Overall Influence
#10916
Loran Lamoine Bieber
#148381
Overall Influence
#10917
Alan Cribb
#105325
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (101 years)
Alan Bridson Cribb Jr. is an Australian botanist and mycologist and an expert in marine and freshwater algae and seaweeds. He has also written on native and wild foods of Australia. Early life Alan Bridson Cribb Jr. was born in Ipswich, Queensland on 5 October 1925, the son of Alan Bridson Cribb, a grazier and his wife, Dorothy Shand. He grew up around Longreach and his father instructed him in a love for the Australian bush and an interest in natural history. The extended Cribb family lived in Ipswich, where the family business Cribb & Foote department store was located.
Go to Profile#10918
Torgeir Flatmark
#148396
Overall Influence
#10919
Walter R. Wilson
#148400
Overall Influence
#10920
Laurence J. Marton
#148410
Overall Influence
#10921
Håkan G. Persson
#148421
Overall Influence
#10922
John W. Westley
#148431
Overall Influence
#10923
Teresa Przytycka
#118058
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Teresa Maria Przytycka is a Polish-American computational biologist who works as a senior investigator in the Computational Biology Branch of the National Center for Biotechnology Information , where she heads the Algorithmic Methods in Computational and Systems Biology section. She started her research career in parallel algorithms; at the NCBI, her research takes a computational approach to problems in systems biology involving cancer, gene regulation, and the analysis of massive data.
Go to Profile#10924
Matthew J. Mcgirt
#148436
Overall Influence
#10925
Ivan A. Divac
#148437
Overall Influence
#10926
Roger. A. Brumback
#148445
Overall Influence
#10927
Maureen Dennis
#148482
Overall Influence
#10928
M. E. Jr. Hale
#148486
Overall Influence
#10929
George T. Bryan
#148487
Overall Influence
#10930
Michael S. Torbenson
#148490
Overall Influence
#10931
Meredith Blackwell
#114186
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Meredith May Blackwell is an American mycologist, known as one of the world's leading experts on fungi associated with arthropods. Education and career Meredith Blackwell graduated in 1961 with B.S. in biology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette and in 1963 with M.S. in biology from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She graduated in 1973 with Ph.D. in botany from the University of Texas at Austin with thesis "A Developmental and Taxonomic Study of Protophysarum phloiogenum" under the supervision of C. J. Alexopoulos.
Go to Profile#10932
Felicity J.m. Reynolds
#148496
Overall Influence
#10933
D. Philip Jones
#148503
Overall Influence
#10934
Audrey Cahn
#82680
Overall Influence
1905 - 2008 (103 years)
Audrey Josephine Cahn was an Australian microbiologist and nutritionist. The daughter of Prof. William Alexander Osborne and Ethel Elizabeth Goodson, a medical practitioner and industrial hygienist, she was born Audrey Josephine Osborne in Melbourne and grew up on the campus of the University of Melbourne. She earned a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at the university in 1929 and, later, received a diploma in dietetics. She first worked as a microbiologist and food analyst for Kraft.
Go to Profile#10935
Jeff Volek
#147613
Overall Influence
Jeff S. Volek is an American kinesiologist and low-carbohydrate diet advocate who focuses on the clinical application of ketogenic diets. Volek obtained a MSc in Exercise Physiology in 1995 and PhD in Kinesiology from Pennsylvania State University in 1999. He is a registered dietitian.
Go to Profile#10936
Kazuo Sugamura
#148535
Overall Influence
#10937
Benjamin Neale
#128768
Overall Influence
Benjamin Michael Neale is a statistical geneticist with a specialty in psychiatric genetics. He is an institute member at the Broad Institute as well as an associate professor at both Harvard Medical School and the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Neale specializes in genome-wide association studies . He was responsible for the data analysis of the first GWAS on attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder, and he developed new analysis software such as PLINK, which allows for whole-genome data to be analyzed for specific gene markers. Related to his work...
Go to Profile#10938
Thomas Bjarnsholt
#148554
Overall Influence
#10939
Anna Amtmann
#139395
Overall Influence
Anna Amtmann is a German scientist. She is professor for Molecular Plant Physiology at the University of Glasgow. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Plant, Cell & Environment. Early life and education Amtmann studied languages, mathematics and biology at the University of Paris and Heidelberg University. She was an Erasmus Programme student at the University of Barcelona. Amtmann completed her graduate degrees in biology in the laboratory of Dietrich Gradmann at the University of Göttingen. Her doctoral research involved the use of electrophysiology to study unicellular marine algae,...
Go to Profile#10940
Amy McCune
#111374
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Amy Reed McCune is an American ecologist and evolutionary biologist. She is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University. McCune specializes in the history of life through the study of fishes. Her lab focuses on evolution with methodologies including paleobiology, phylogenetics, genetics and morphology.
Go to Profile#10941
Akira Niijima
#148574
Overall Influence
#10942
Jerry D. Cohen
#148576
Overall Influence
#10943
Fattaneh A. Tavassoli
#148578
Overall Influence
#10944
Bridget M. Wilcken
#148586
Overall Influence
#10945
Robert Griffiths
#105011
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Robert Charles Griffiths, FRS is an Australian mathematician and statistician known for his work in mathematical population genetics. He is professor of mathematical genetics in the University of Oxford, and a fellow and tutor at Lady Margaret Hall.
Go to Profile#10946
John E. Donelson
#148597
Overall Influence
#10947
Erich Seifritz
#148602
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#10948
Laura Hewitson
#100006
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Laura Charlotte Hewitson is a British-born primate researcher noted for her work in the fields of reproductive biology and behavior. She is an affiliate scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center and an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Additionally, she is the Research Director of the Johnson Center for Child Health and Development in Austin, Texas. Hewitson was a staff scientist at Oregon Health Sciences University from 1997 to 2001. From 2002 to 2010 she was an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology an...
Go to Profile#10949
George R. Waller
#148619
Overall Influence
#10950
Kenneth Andrew Walsh
#97536
Overall Influence
Kenneth Andrew Walsh is a Canadian biochemist who has spent most of his career in the United States and is now professor emeritus of biochemistry at the University of Washington. Education Walsh received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and became a Postdoctoral Fellow of Dr. Hans Neurath at the University of Washington in the early 1960s.
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