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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Biology,
#10951
Luisa Eugenia Navas
#90508
Overall Influence
1920 - 2020 (100 years)
Luisa Eugenia Navas Bustamante was a Chilean pharmacist and botanist. Life On 9 May 1951 she received a degree in chemistry and pharmacy. That same year she became Assistant Chair of Botany in the School of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of Chile. In 1958 she was “Professor extraordinarius”, and assistant of Hugo Gunckel in the Instituto Pedagógico in the section of the cryptogamic plants and finally chair Professor in the Faculty Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences the 1985. She studied seaweed, she concurred with his father to the Marine Biology Station at Montemar. With authorization of the Dean of Pharmacy, she went twice a week National Museum of Natural History of Santiago.
Go to Profile#10952
Jan Henriksson
#148646
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#10953
Bradley S. Moore
#148647
Overall Influence
#10954
Andrea Pieroni
#141743
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Andrea Pieroni is a professor of ethnobotany and ethnobiology at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, of which he was rector until 2021. Biography Pieroni took a masters in pharmacy from the University of Pisa in 1993, and a doctorate from the University of Bonn in 1998. He was a research assistant at the University of London from 2000 to 2003, and lectured at the University of Bradford from then until 2009. He became an associate professor of ethnobotany at the University of Gastronomic Sciences from January 2009, and was made a full professor in 2016; he was rector fro...
Go to Profile#10955
Anna K. Mapp
#93144
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Anna Kathryn Mapp is an American chemist and the Edwin Vedejs collegiate professor of Chemistry. In 2013, Mapp joined the Michigan Life Sciences Institute as a research professor. Mapp served as the Director of the Program in Chemical Biology at the University of Michigan until 2019 when she accepted a position as the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Initiatives at the University of Michigan Rackham graduate school.
Go to Profile#10956
Ken D. Mccarthy
#148652
Overall Influence
#10957
Vaidhyaraj Pavani Prasad Sharma
#148656
Overall Influence
#10958
David John de Laubenfels
#120368
Overall Influence
1925 - 2016 (91 years)
David John de Laubenfels or D. J. de Laubenfels was an American botanist known as an expert on tropical conifers. See also Max Walker de Laubenfels External links de Laubenfels website
Go to Profile#10959
Gary E. Shull
#148657
Overall Influence
#10960
Kary Banks Mullis
#148665
Overall Influence
#10961
Alain Golay
#148676
Overall Influence
#10962
Jennifer Pett-Ridge
#115310
Overall Influence
Jennifer Pett-Ridge is an American biologist who is a senior staff scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Merced. Her research makes use of systems biology and geochemistry to uncover function in microbial communities. She was awarded a 2021 United States Department of Energy Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award.
Go to Profile#10963
Patrick Mehlen
#100543
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Patrick Mehlen , is a French biologist and research director at the Centre national de recherche scientifique at the Centre Léon-Bérard, a cancer research centre in Lyon. Education Patrick Mehlen, a former student at the École normale supérieure de Lyon, defended his Ph.D. thesis at the Claude-Bernard University in 1995. From 1997 to 1998 he spent two sabbatical years at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, program on "Aging and Cell Death" - Pr. D.E. Bredesen. Back in France, he became head of the "Apoptosis and Differentiation" group in the laboratory - CNRS UMR5534, CGMC until 2004....
Go to Profile#10964
Albert F. Lobuglio
#148689
Overall Influence
#10965
Gian‐luca Romani
#148696
Overall Influence
#10966
Michelle P. Warren
#148697
Overall Influence
#10967
George A. Steiner
#148700
Overall Influence
#10968
Gar W. Rothwell
#148701
Overall Influence
#10969
Marcela Maus
#114322
Overall Influence
Marcela V. Maus is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She works on immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer, using genetically engineered T cells to target malignancies .
Go to Profile#10970
Lisa Gunaydin
#106766
Overall Influence
Lisa Gunaydin is an American neuroscientist and assistant professor at the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at the University of California San Francisco. Gunaydin helped discover optogenetics in the lab of Karl Deisseroth and now uses this technique in combination with neural and behavioral recordings to probe the neural circuits underlying emotional behaviors.
Go to Profile#10971
John Colin Murrell
#148727
Overall Influence
#10972
Anne Moscona
#145887
Overall Influence
Anne Moscona is an American virologist and pediatrician. She is best known for identifying cell entry mechanisms for enveloped respiratory viruses, elucidating general infection mechanisms that apply to parainfluenza virus, Nipah virus, measles virus, and other viruses, and for applying this knowledge to identify antiviral strategies to prevent infection by viruses including SARS-CoV-2. She is frequently consulted as a medical expert during viral outbreaks, including epidemic and pandemic influenza. Since 2016, she has served as the Sherie L. Morrison Professor Microbiology & Immunology, Prof...
Go to Profile#10973
Sergiu P. Pașca
#105654
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Sergiu P. Pașca is a Romanian-American scientist and physician at Stanford University in California. He is known for creating and developing stem cell-based models of the human brain and applying organoids and assembloids to gain insights into neuropsychiatric disease.
Go to Profile#10974
Julien Doyon
#148743
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
#10975
Antonia Vernadakis
#148763
Overall Influence
#10976
Alan Kim Johnson
#148786
Overall Influence
#10977
Kevin D. Barron
#148787
Overall Influence
#10978
Cecile M. Pickart
#148801
Overall Influence
#10979
Jay c. Unkeless
#148815
Overall Influence
#10980
Gordon G. Peters
#148818
Overall Influence
#10981
Andreas Stallmach
#148824
Overall Influence
#10982
Kaarina Sivonen
#148843
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#10983
Bruce H. Wainer
#148845
Overall Influence
#10984
Helen Donis-Keller
#130778
Overall Influence
Helen Donis-Keller is the Michael E. Moody Professor and Professor of Biology and Art at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts. Education and career Donis-Keller has a B.Sc. and an H.B.Sc. from Lakehead University. She earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University under the direction of Walter Gilbert in 1979. After employment at the biotechnology companies Biogen and Collaborative Research, she joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine. In 2001, she earn an MFA in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University and she joined the faculty at the Olin College of Engineering.
Go to Profile#10985
Rik Casteels
#148851
Overall Influence
#10986
Valerie Kathleen Brown
#148855
Overall Influence
#10987
Mary J. C. Hendrix
#148859
Overall Influence
#10988
Sheena Derry
#148861
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#10989
Ian McTaggart-Cowan
#102652
Overall Influence
1910 - 2010 (100 years)
Ian McTaggart-Cowan was a Scottish-Canadian zoologist, conservationist, and television presenter. He has been called "the father of Canadian ecology". He was the brother of meteorologist Patrick McTaggart-Cowan.
Go to Profile#10990
Ulf Karsten
#148894
Overall Influence
#10991
Brenda Rapp
#117072
Overall Influence
Brenda Carla Rapp professor and chair of the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University. In 2010, she was appointed joint editor-in-chief of the journal Cognitive Neuropsychology.
Go to Profile#10992
Kevan A. C. Martin
#148907
Overall Influence
#10993
Giuseppe Di Giovanni
#134584
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Giuseppe Di Giovanni, Cavaliere is a Professor of Human Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of Malta. Early life Di Giovanni Giuseppe received his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Chieti, Italy and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, CT, USA.
Go to Profile#10994
Louis Marie Prieur
#148916
Overall Influence
#10995
Susan M. Ott
#148921
Overall Influence
#10996
William Douglas Snider
#148936
Overall Influence
#10997
Deborah MacLatchy
#67722
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Deborah Lynn MacLatchy is a Canadian ecotoxicologist and comparative endocrinologist. She is the seventh President and Vice-Chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University, having formally led the International Office at the University of New Brunswick. She also served as President and Council Member of the Canadian Society of Zoologists and Chair of the Science Directors of the Canadian Rivers Institute. In 2012, MacLatchy was recognized as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women in a Top 100 list compiled by the Women’s Executive Network.
Go to Profile#10998
Jack Vallentyne
#128752
Overall Influence
1926 - 2007 (81 years)
Jack Vallentyne was a Canadian biochemist and the 2001 recipient of the A.C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award. Background Born in Toronto, Vallentyne completed his undergraduate studies in Biology and Chemistry at Queen's University and his Ph.D. in Paleo-Limnology at Yale University under the supervision of George Evelyn Hutchinson. From 1943 to 1945 Vallentyne served in the military. He and his wife Ann had five children: Peter, Stephen, Jane, Anne Marie, and Geoffrey.
Go to Profile#10999
Anne Plant
#41611
Overall Influence
Anne L. Plant is an American biochemist. She is a Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology where she was previously chief of the biosystems and biomaterials division. Plant investigates measurements and models of cell populations. She is a recipient of the United States Department of Commerce's Bronze and Silver Medals. Plant is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#11000
Margaret Pericak-Vance
#92833
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Margaret Ann Pericak-Vance is an American human geneticist who is the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genetics and director of the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami. She is known for her research on the genetics of common human diseases. This research has led to a number of findings of genes that increase the risk of certain diseases, such as apolipoprotein E and Alzheimer's disease, IL7R and multiple sclerosis, and complement factor H and macular degeneration.
Go to Profile