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,
#11851
Williams F. Benedict
#154736
Overall Influence
#11852
Sally Shaywitz
#63277
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Sally Shaywitz is an American physician-scientist who is the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale University. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. Her research provides the framework for modern understanding of dyslexia.
Go to Profile#11853
Edward T. Kanemasu
#154756
Overall Influence
#11854
Patrick Ralph
#154759
Overall Influence
#11855
Bruno Giardina
#154768
Overall Influence
#11856
Fredros Okumu
#88546
Overall Influence
Fredros Okumu is a Kenyan parasitologist and entomologist, who currently works as director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania. His primary research interests concern the interactions between humans and mosquitoes.
Go to Profile#11857
Stephanie L. Sherman
#154773
Overall Influence
#11858
John K. Westwick
#154774
Overall Influence
#11859
Johann Thyberg
#154789
Overall Influence
#11860
Edward J. Mascha
#154804
Overall Influence
#11861
Stephen I. Wasserman
#154808
Overall Influence
#11862
Richard N. Mack
#154811
Overall Influence
#11863
Mary Hayhoe
#152072
Overall Influence
Mary Myelin Hayhoe is an Australian American psychologist who researches vision. She has developed virtual environments for the investigation of visually guided behaviour. Hayhoe was awarded the 2022 Optica Award Edgar D. Tillyer Award for her contributions to visual perception and cognition.
Go to Profile#11864
Waldemar R. Pruzanski
#154821
Overall Influence
#11865
Vincent Jarlier
#154827
Overall Influence
#11866
Ermias Kebreab
#154828
Overall Influence
#11867
Shaun F. Morrison
#154832
Overall Influence
#11868
Peter I. Jatlow
#154836
Overall Influence
#11869
Arnold R. Brody
#154852
Overall Influence
#11870
Jacco Wallinga
#154862
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#11871
Hervé Rochat
#154879
Overall Influence
#11872
Michael Tymianski
#154884
Overall Influence
#11873
Rolf Uddman
#154885
Overall Influence
#11874
Charles Ernest Oxnard
#154900
Overall Influence
#11875
Karl‐walter Bock
#154902
Overall Influence
#11876
Donald J. Sherrard
#154913
Overall Influence
#11877
Joe G. N. Garcia
#62379
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Joe G. N. "Skip" Garcia is an American pulmonary scientist, physician and academician. Biography and career Garcia was born in 1954 in El Paso, Texas and completed his B.S. in Biology at the University of Dallas in 1976. He received his M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1980. He completed internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Albany Medical College .
Go to Profile#11878
Peter J. Reeds
#154951
Overall Influence
#11879
Ronald A. Butow
#154963
Overall Influence
#11880
Daniel R. R. Doerge
#154968
Overall Influence
#11881
Donald C. Malins
#154975
Overall Influence
#11882
Dennis J. Mcginty
#154977
Overall Influence
#11883
Satchidananda Panda
#154987
Overall Influence
#11884
Randall William Davis
#141962
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Randall William Davis is an educator and researcher who studies the physiology and behavioral ecology of marine mammals and other aquatic vertebrates. His physiological research focuses on adaptations of marine mammals for deep, prolonged diving. Davis has continually emphasized the importance of studying aquatic animals in their natural environment and has spent many years developing animal-borne instruments that record video and monitor three-dimensional movements, swimming performance and environmental variables to better understand their behavior and ecology. His academic endeavors and 94...
Go to Profile#11885
Mark R. Segal
#154991
Overall Influence
#11886
Ian M. Sussex
#155009
Overall Influence
#11887
Mireille Dosso
#125586
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Mireille Carmen Dosso is a Comorian-born Ivorian microbiologist and virologist. Appointed director of the Pasteur Institute in Abidjan in 2004, she has recently become one of the leading Africans to be involved in the fight against COVID-19. She has previously been successful in fighting other viruses, including the H1N1 swine fever pandemic and dengue fever in 2019.
Go to Profile#11888
Kenneth A. Norman
#155012
Overall Influence
#11889
Faith Osier
#102114
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Faith Hope Among’in Osier is a Kenyan immunologist, paediatrician and educator. Education Faith Osier was born in Kenya in 1972. trained the University of Nairobi, where she obtained her MBChB degree in 1996. She worked in the Coast General Provincial Hospital for two years, before joining Kilifi District Hospital. She completed a Masters in Human Immunity at the University of Liverpool, where she was awarded a prize for being the best student of the year. In 2008 she earned a PhD from the Open University. Her thesis was entitled Immune responses to polymorphic antigens and protection against severe malaria in Kenyan children and was supervised by Kevin Marsh.
Go to Profile#11890
Myra Sklarew
#90751
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Myra Weisberg Sklarew is an American biologist, poet and teacher. Life She received a biology degree from Tufts University, in 1956. She studied bacterial genetics and bacterial viruses with Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She later studied with Elliott Coleman at the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she received an M.A. in 1970. She has worked in the Department of Neurophysiology, at Yale University School of Medicine, where she studied frontal lobe function and delayed response memory in Rhesus monkeys.
Go to Profile#11891
Piotr Popik
#115590
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Piotr Popik is a Polish neuropsychopharmacologist specializing in the research of drugs that affect the brain and conditions such as depression, drug addiction, cognitive and social disturbances as well as animal emotions and communication.
Go to Profile#11892
Sulayman Daoud Dib-hajj
#155035
Overall Influence
#11893
Søren Kragh Moestrup
#155041
Overall Influence
#11894
Edward Anton Bender
#155061
Overall Influence
#11895
K. J. V. Nordström
#155064
Overall Influence
#11896
Gorō K. Kikuchi
#155075
Overall Influence
#11897
Linda K. Curtiss
#155079
Overall Influence
#11898
Eric Arthur Johnson
#155084
Overall Influence
#11899
Göran Åkerström
#155096
Overall Influence
#11900
Joseph Thornton
#133807
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Joseph Thornton is an American Biologist. He is a professor at the University of Chicago and a former Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is known for resurrecting ancestral genes and tracing the mechanisms by which proteins evolve new functions.
Go to Profile