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,
#11051
Peter A. Raymond
#149318
Overall Influence
#11052
Thijs Kuiken
#149320
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#11053
Ian J. H. Duncan
#149332
Overall Influence
#11054
Shirleen Roeder
#123729
Overall Influence
Glenna Shirleen Roeder is a geneticist known for identifying and characterizing the yeast genes that regulate the process of meiosis with particular emphasis on synapsis. Education and career Roeder has a B.Sc. from Dalhousie University and earned her Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Toronto. Following her Ph.D. she was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University before moving to the faculty at Yale University in 1981. In 2001 she was named the Eugene Higgins Professor of Genetics in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department at Yale University. Roeder retired in 2012 a...
Go to Profile#11055
Milena Penkowa
#142823
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Milena Penkowa is a Danish neuroscientist who was a professor at the Panum Institute at the University of Copenhagen from 2009–2010. In 2010 she was convicted of fraud and embezzlement of funds from The Danish Society of Neuroscience. In the same year, she was suspended by the University of Copenhagen and consequently resigned her professorship. In 2012, the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty concluded that she had been guilty of scientific misconduct. As of 2020 Penkowa has had nine of her research publications retracted, and four others have received expressions of concern.
Go to Profile#11056
Vivian Irish
#145590
Overall Influence
Vivian Irish is an American evolutionary biologist. She is currently Chair & Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. Her research focuses on floral development. She was president of Society for Developmental Biology in 2012 and currently serves as an editor for the journals Developmental Biology and Evolution & Development.
Go to Profile#11057
Antonio Siccardi
#136254
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Antonio G. Siccardi is an Italian immunologist and virologist. Siccardi studied at the medical faculty of the University of Pavia and received his M.D. in 1968. He later became associate professor for genetics and then for microbiology . After a short research trip to Rome as a full professor , he became full Professor for molecular immunology at the University of Milan from 1982 until today. From 1990 to 1994 he was Operative Director of the DIBIT, San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan. From 1991 to 1998 he coordinated the HIV/AIDS research at the Ospedale San Raffaele of the University of Milan.
Go to Profile#11058
Michael Kessler
#149366
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#11059
Yoshihisa Watanabe
#149379
Overall Influence
#11060
Brigitte Autran
#149388
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#11061
Direk Limmathurotsakul
#149395
Overall Influence
#11062
David Kimelman
#149397
Overall Influence
#11063
Alba Marina Cotes
#114410
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Alba Marina Cotes Prado , is a Colombian chemist and biologist, known for her research on biological pest control In 2009, Cotes became the first Latin American woman in receive a Honoris Causa degree by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Go to Profile#11064
Raul Fleischmajer
#149410
Overall Influence
#11065
Kenneth B. Tomer
#149417
Overall Influence
#11066
Daniel J. Kliebenstein
#149420
Overall Influence
#11067
Richard K. Assoian
#149423
Overall Influence
#11068
Cornelis Jakobs
#149436
Overall Influence
#11069
Gunnar Kahlmeter
#149437
Overall Influence
#11070
Robert Eugene Carlson
#149463
Overall Influence
#11071
Martin Stevens
#111510
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Martin Stevens is a British sensory and evolutionary ecologist, an underwater photographer and a natural history and popular science writer. He is known for his work on disruptive coloration in animal camouflage.
Go to Profile#11072
Alexander Van Oudenaarden
#149479
Overall Influence
#11073
Junia V. Melo
#149484
Overall Influence
#11074
Hermes A. Kontos
#149514
Overall Influence
#11075
Göran Lindbergh
#149527
Overall Influence
#11076
Donald L. Palmquist
#149534
Overall Influence
#11077
William L. Young†
#149540
Overall Influence
#11078
Beau M. Ances
#149545
Overall Influence
#11079
Hong‐bing Shu
#149547
Overall Influence
#11080
Allen William Root
#149551
Overall Influence
#11081
Simon Verhulst
#149560
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#11082
Jerram L. Brown
#149568
Overall Influence
#11083
Eugene M. Izhikevich
#149569
Overall Influence
#11084
Tim-matthias Strom
#149572
Overall Influence
#11085
Daniela Salvemini
#149580
Overall Influence
#11086
Kevin Archer Pelphrey
#149582
Overall Influence
#11087
Michael Barza
#149598
Overall Influence
#11088
Joanne S. Ingwall
#149599
Overall Influence
#11089
Richard Quintiliani
#149600
Overall Influence
#11090
Gene W. Tyson
#149603
Overall Influence
#11091
Helmut Brade
#149604
Overall Influence
#11092
Jeremy Martin Henley
#149641
Overall Influence
#11093
Pasquale P. C. Graziadei
#149642
Overall Influence
#11094
Henry D. Isenberg
#149648
Overall Influence
#11095
Nazneen Rahman
#125373
Overall Influence
Sabera Nazneen Rahman is a geneticist who specialises in cancer research and is a non-executive director for Astra Zeneca. She was previously head of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research.
Go to Profile#11096
Henrik Balslev
#149654
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#11097
Royal D. Suttkus
#90169
Overall Influence
1920 - 2009 (89 years)
Royal Dallas Suttkus was an ichthyologist and biology professor responsible for creating the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection, one of the largest of its kind. It houses approximately 7 million post-larval specimens of fishes. The collection is part of the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute and the Tulane University Museum of Natural History.
Go to Profile#11098
Roland R. Rueckert
#149664
Overall Influence
#11099
Suzanne Higgs
#138057
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Suzanne Higgs is an English psychologist. She is a Professor in the Psychobiology of Appetite at the University of Birmingham and was editor-in-chief of the journal Appetite from 2012-2022. Early life and education Higgs earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master's degree from the Somerville College, Oxford in 1989 before receiving her PhD in psychology from Durham University. She completed her post-doctoral research at Oxford before earning an academic position at the University of Birmingham in 1999.
Go to Profile#11100
David D. Breshears
#149675
Overall Influence
