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,
#11751
Gary D. Tollefson
#154167
Overall Influence
#11752
Franz Lingens
#154168
Overall Influence
#11753
Lee J. Martin,
#154170
Overall Influence
#11754
Lawren Sack
#154180
Overall Influence
#11755
Walther Parson
#154183
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#11756
Stephen Albertsons Corporate Brands Baldwin
#154184
Overall Influence
#11757
E. Jeffrey Metter
#154185
Overall Influence
#11758
Robert H. Heptinstall
#154211
Overall Influence
#11759
Gerald P. Brierley
#154214
Overall Influence
#11760
John A. Connor
#154227
Overall Influence
#11761
Gerhart Drews
#154231
Overall Influence
#11762
Andrew Paul Feinberg
#139929
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Andrew Paul Feinberg is the director of the Center for Epigenetics, chief of the Division of Molecular Medicine in the Department of Medicine, and the King Fahd Professor of Medicine, Oncology, Molecular Biology & Genetics in the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
Go to Profile#11763
Mark X. Sliwkowski
#154254
Overall Influence
#11764
Hans Steinhart
#154258
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
#11765
Susan M. Natali
#122143
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Susan M. Natali is an American ecologist. She is the Arctic program director and senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center , where her research focuses on the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems, primarily on Arctic permafrost. She is also the project lead for Permafrost Pathways, a new initiative launched in 2022 with funding from TED's Audacious Project. On Monday, April 11, 2022, Dr. Natali gave a TED Talk introducing the Permafrost Pathways project at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, BC.
Go to Profile#11766
Jacques Galipeau
#154268
Overall Influence
#11767
Albert L. Rubin
#154276
Overall Influence
#11768
Hans Brockerhoff
#154285
Overall Influence
#11769
Maxie Clarence Maultsby Jr.
#17319
Overall Influence
1932 - 2016 (84 years)
Maxie Clarence Maultsby Jr. was an American psychiatrist, author of several books on emotional and behavioral self-management, Elected Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists. He is the founder of the method of psychotherapy called Rational Behavior Therapy, the emotional self-help technique called Rational Self-Counseling, and the New Self-Help Alcoholic Relapse Prevention Treatment Method. He was an Emeritus Professor at the College of Medicine at Howar...
Go to Profile#11770
Thomas G. Coleman
#154290
Overall Influence
#11771
Sidney R. Kushner
#154292
Overall Influence
#11772
John Nicholas P. Rawlins
#154300
Overall Influence
#11773
Stephen Christopher Bishop
#154301
Overall Influence
#11774
Carlo Miniussi
#154313
Overall Influence
#11775
Ethan R. Signer
#154316
Overall Influence
#11776
Kevin E. Bove
#154325
Overall Influence
#11777
Joseph Jez
#141384
Overall Influence
Joseph Jez is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as the Chair of the Washington University Biology Department since 2018. His research focuses on the effect of environmental changes on biochemical pathways in plants, aiming to apply this research to present-day agricultural and environmental issues.
Go to Profile#11778
Bo Hedblad
#154339
Overall Influence
#11779
Roger P. A’hern
#154341
Overall Influence
#11780
Raymond L. Rodriguez
#145271
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Raymond L. Rodriguez is an American professor of biology, specializing in molecular biology, genomics and biotechnology. His current research interests include diet-genome interactions, plant-made pharmaceuticals and the food/brain axis. Rodriguez is also an inventor, and entrepreneur. His research at the University of California, San Francisco in the 1970s helped lay the foundation for the biotechnology industry. He also holds several issued US patents. He is involved in programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion for women and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, en...
Go to Profile#11781
David J. Cosman
#154346
Overall Influence
#11782
Jamie A. Koufman
#154356
Overall Influence
#11783
Steven K. Fisher
#154361
Overall Influence
#11784
Xavier Mattei
#125321
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Xavier Mattei is a French zoologist; his research was mainly in the field of sperm ultrastructure, including fish and a variety of invertebrates such as flatworms and acanthocephalans. He is one of the most prolific authors in the field of sperm morphology and its use for the understanding of phylogeny, with more than 150 papers published.
Go to Profile#11785
Martin Embley
#148085
Overall Influence
Martin Embley is a professor at Newcastle University who has made contributions to our understanding of the origin of eukaryotes and the evolution of organelles such as mitochondria, mitosomes and hydrogenosomes, that are found in parasitic protists.
Go to Profile#11786
Shigeto Yamawaki
#154368
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#11787
Dieter B. Schmidt
#154369
Overall Influence
#11788
Keith James
#154372
Overall Influence
#11789
Michael H. Davidson
#154380
Overall Influence
#11790
Harold Ross Roberts
#154382
Overall Influence
#11791
Michael R. Gillings
#154392
Overall Influence
#11792
Peter B. Rhines
#154400
Overall Influence
#11793
Yvonne Mburu
#112706
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Yvonne Mburu is a Kenyan immunologist and Next Einstein Forum Fellow. She is the founder and CEO of Nexakli, a global network of African health professionals. Mburu is a co-founder and co-president of the French-African Foundation, as well as a member of the Presidential Council for Africa .
Go to Profile#11794
Salem Chouaib
#154413
Overall Influence
#11795
Mony J. De Leon
#154414
Overall Influence
#11796
Anthony P. Adamis
#154415
Overall Influence
#11797
Anthony L. Defranco
#154418
Overall Influence
#11798
Jack Barrett
#154423
Overall Influence
#11799
C. Brooke Worth
#154425
Overall Influence
#11800
Ryszard Ochyra
#128765
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Ryszard Ochyra is a Polish bryologist. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Ochyra when citing a botanical name. In 1986, botanist Jiří Váňa and circumscribed Ochyraea, which is a genus of mosses in the family Amblystegiaceae and named in Rysard's honour.
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