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,

#11701

Mark Krasnow

#128822
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Mark A. Krasnow is a Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He earned his B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1978, his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1983, and his M.D. in 1985 from The University of Chicago under the guidance of Nicholas R. Cozzarelli. He did his postdoctoral work on the Ultrabithorax gene with David Hogness at Stanford University. He has been a professor at Stanford since 1988 and is currently the chair of the program. His research is focused on understanding the molecular, genetic, and cellular mechanisms of tracheal development using drosophila and mice.
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#11702

Mark J. West

#153868
Overall Influence
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#11703

Laura Niedernhofer

#100284
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Laura J. Niedernhofer is an American professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics, with expertise in the fields of DNA damage, repair, progeroid syndromes and cellular senescence Education and career Niedernhofer studied from 1981 to 1985 at Duke University graduating with a B.S. chemistry, from 1989 to 1990 at Georgetown University School of Medicine graduating with an M.S. in physiology, and from 1990 to 1992 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with training in medicine. At Nashville's Vanderbilt University School of Medicine she studied from 1992 to 1996 graduating with a Ph.D.
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#11704

Justin A. Zivin

#153881
Overall Influence
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#11705

Maurizio Mencuccini

#153900
Overall Influence
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#11706

Waljit Dhillo

#134759
Overall Influence
Waljit Dhillo is an endocrinologist and a Professor of Endocrinology & Metabolism at the Imperial College London. He is the Director of Research at the Division of Medicine & Integrated Care at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the Dean of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Academy. His research focuses on how the endocrine system controls body weight and reproductive functions.
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#11707

Caren Norden

#136871
Overall Influence
Caren Norden is a German biophysicist who is Deputy Director for Science at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. She works as a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. Her research considers the cell biology of tissue morphogenesis.
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#11708

Christine M. Heim

#153926
Overall Influence
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#11709

Jerald C. Sadoff

#153927
Overall Influence
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#11710

Franz Allerberger

#153930
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
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#11711

R. E. T. Smith

#153932
Overall Influence
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#11712

E. Virginia Armbrust

#151155
Overall Influence
E. Virginia Armbrust is a biological oceanographer, professor, and current director of the University of Washington School of Oceanography. She is an elected member of the Washington State Academy of Science, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
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#11713

Cameron J. Koch

#153936
Overall Influence
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#11714

Holger Puchta

#153939
Overall Influence
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#11715

Richard Ambler

#84127
Overall Influence
1933 - 2013 (80 years)
Richard Penry Ambler was an English molecular biologist who conducted groundbreaking research into the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Ambler was the first scientist to publish an amino acid sequence of a bacterial protein, and had a long academic career at the University of Edinburgh.
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#11716

Gerhard Zotz

#153972
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
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#11717

Fabienne Mackay

#92542
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Fabienne Mackay is a French Australian research immunologist and institutional leader within the Australian medical research, education and innovation sectors. She is the Director and CEO of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute since 2020, after being the inaugural Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne during the preceding five years. She is also an Honorary Professor at the Faculties of Medicine of the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne. Her work has attracted public attention for its contribution to the pathophysiological understanding and treatment of lupus and other autoimmune diseases.
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#11718

Manfred Göthert

#153977
Overall Influence
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#11719

Marc Tischkowitz

#132834
Overall Influence
Marc Tischkowitz is a British medical geneticist. He is a Professor and Honorary NHS Consultant in the Department of Medical Genetics at University of Cambridge and editor-in-chief of Reports. Tischkowitz researches Fanconi Anemia genes, hereditary cancer syndromes, and genomic technologies.
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#11720

Bik Kwoon Tye

#133076
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Bik Kwoon Yeung Tye is a Chinese-American molecular geneticist and structural biologist. Tye's pioneering work on eukaryotic DNA replication led to the discovery of the minichromosome maintenance genes in 1984, which encode the catalytic core of the eukaryotic replisome. Tye also determined the first high-resolution structures of both the MCM complex and the Origin Recognition Complex in 2015 and 2018. Tye is currently a Professor Emeritus at Cornell University and a visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. She is married to Henry Sze-Hoi Tye and is the mothe...
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#11721

Stefan Evers

#153993
Overall Influence
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#11722

Allan Gibofsky

#153995
Overall Influence
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#11723

Patrik Nosil

#154001
Overall Influence
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#11724

Reinhard Krämer

#154004
Overall Influence
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#11725

Laura Boykin

Laura Boykin
#101420
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Laura Boykin is an American computational biologist who uses supercomputing and genomics to help farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has studied the evolution of the agricultural pest whitefly and identified genetic differences between various species. She works with African scientists to develop computing and genomics skills across the continent, and is a Senior TED fellow.
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#11726

Norman G. Lewis

#154025
Overall Influence
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#11727

Hugh Carson Cutler

#119014
Overall Influence
1912 - 1998 (86 years)
Hugh Carson Cutler was a plant taxonomist, economic botanist, plant collector, and pioneer of paleoethnobotany. Biography Cutler graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with B.A. in 1935 and M.A. in 1936 and from Washington University in St. Louis with Ph.D. in 1939. His doctoral dissertation was "Monograph of the North American species of the genus Ephedra" . After completing his Ph.D. in 1939 he floated the San Juan River by himself from Bluff, Utah, to Mexican Hat, Utah. In 1940, Cutler and Martin Withers boated the San Juan from Shiprock, New Mexico, to Aneth, Utah. Cutler met...
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#11728

Paola Ricciardi‐castagnoli

#154030
Overall Influence
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#11729

Kazu Shige Ogawa

#154035
Overall Influence
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#11730

Steven T. Pals

#154038
Overall Influence
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#11731

Vladimir Nikolaevich Smirnov

#154039
Overall Influence
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#11732

Christopher J. Mungall

#154044
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
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#11733

Sidney Cohen

#154050
Overall Influence
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#11734

Lars Siegfried Maier

#154072
Overall Influence
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#11735

Kathryn L. Calame

#154078
Overall Influence
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#11736

Peter J. Savino

#154092
Overall Influence
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#11737

William M. Crist

#154097
Overall Influence
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#11738

Steen Gammeltoft

#154110
Overall Influence
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#11739

Marc Jean Struelens

#154120
Overall Influence
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#11740

Toshihiro Nohara

#154125
Overall Influence
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#11741

A. A. Reviewer Batabyal

#154128
Overall Influence
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#11742

John Arbuthnott

#47035
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Sir John Peebles Arbuthnott, PPRSE, FRCPSG, FMedSci, FRCPath was a Scottish microbiologist who was Principal of the University of Strathclyde. He succeeded Lord Wilson of Tillyorn as President of The Royal Society of Edinburgh in October 2011 and was succeeded by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell in October 2014.
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#11743

Eunjoon Kim

Eunjoon Kim
#123540
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Eunjoon Kim is a professor of KAIST and director of Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions within the Institute for Basic Science . With over 150 publications to his name, his research has been cited over 16,000 times giving him an h-index of 61 and i10-index of 121. He graduated from Busan National University in 1986, received master's degree at KAIST in 1988, received PhD degree at Michigan State University in 1994, and worked at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow during 1995-1996. His current research focuses on molecular organization of neuronal synapses and synapse dysfunctio...
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#11744

Ken Garber

#154150
Overall Influence
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#11745

Stuart C. Yudofsky

#154152
Overall Influence
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#11746

Robert H. Eckel

#64510
Overall Influence
Robert H. Eckel is an American endocrinologist. He holds the Charles A. Boettcher II Endowed Chair in atherosclerosis at the University of Colorado Denver, where he is also a professor of medicine and professor of physiology and biophysics. In 2016 Eckel was among the recipients of the Laureate Awards of the Endocrine Society, as Outstanding Clinical Investigator. He has done significant research in the biology and pathophysiology of lipoprotein lipase.
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#11747

Charles L. Christian

#154158
Overall Influence
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#11748

Roland Kanaar

#154160
Overall Influence
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#11749

J. F. O. Mustaffah

#54875
Overall Influence
James Franklin Osman Adewale Ishola Mustaffah, was a Ghanaian academic and neurosurgeon. He is credited for introducing neurosurgery in Ghana. Mustaffah was one of the earliest African neurosurgeons practising in Sub-Saharan Africa, he was the first African member of the International Society of Surgeons. He was a member of the African Association of Neurological Science and a faculty member of the University of Ghana Medical School.
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#11750

Manuela Herman

#154164
Overall Influence
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