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,
#12251
Jesse Paul Goff
#157746
Overall Influence
#12252
Dierk Hebbeln
#157756
Overall Influence
#12253
Eric Jinsheng Huang
#157760
Overall Influence
#12254
Udo Reichl
#157761
Overall Influence
#12255
Janelle Ayres
#148661
Overall Influence
Janelle S. Ayres is an American immunologist and microbiologist, member of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis and Helen McLoraine Developmental Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on the relation of host-pathogen interactions with the microbiome.
Go to Profile#12256
Ruud. H. Brakenhoff
#157771
Overall Influence
#12257
Louis Euzet
#114357
Overall Influence
1923 - 2013 (90 years)
Louis Euzet was a French parasitologist. Education Louis Euzet was a high-school student in Narbonne, France, and a student of the University of Montpellier . He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1947. He prepared his doctoral thesis in the Station de Biologie Marine at Sète, under the direction of Paul Mathias and Jean-George Baer; the thesis, on tetraphyllidean cestodes, was accepted on 16 June 1956.
Go to Profile#12258
Katrin Böhning-Gaese
#135795
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Katrin Böhning-Gaese is a German biologist who specialises in ornithology. She is currently a professor at Goethe University Frankfurt, director of the Senckenberg Nature Research Society and Vice-President of the Leibniz Association.
Go to Profile#12259
Cheng‐xin Gong
#157780
Overall Influence
#12260
Lynne Shore Garcia
#157781
Overall Influence
#12261
Hollis T. Cline
#157794
Overall Influence
#12262
Herbert Jäckle
#157805
Overall Influence
#12263
Terrence M. Tumpey
#157813
Overall Influence
#12264
Eqbal Dauqan
#98956
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Eqbal Mohammed Abdu Dauqan is a Yemeni biochemist known for her studies of Biochemistry, nutrition, advocacy for refugees, and support of women scientists in her home country of Yemen and adopted country of Malaysia.
Go to Profile#12265
Larry P. Pedigo
#157823
Overall Influence
#12266
Pien-Chien Huang
#142459
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Pien-Chien Huang was a Chinese-American molecular biologist. Huang was born in Shanghai on 13 July 1931. He graduated from National Taiwan University in 1952, with a bachelor's degree in agriculture. Huang earned a master's degree at Virginia Tech in 1956, followed by a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1960. He was elected to the Academia Sinica in 1986, and taught at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan from 1993 to 1996, concurrently serving as dean of the College of Life Sciences at NTHU. Huang taught at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health for five decades, where he was professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Go to Profile#12267
Yoram Salomon
#157835
Overall Influence
#12268
Carolyn F. Fox
#157841
Overall Influence
#12269
Barton A. Kamen
#157842
Overall Influence
#12270
Christian Philipp Lengeler
#157846
Overall Influence
#12271
K. Michael Spyer
#157855
Overall Influence
#12272
Walter Armin Brown
#157873
Overall Influence
#12273
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach
#98498
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach is an American microbial ecologist conducting research on the productivity, diversity, and function of microbial communities living at the two extremes of temperature found on Earth-Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys and Yellowstone National Park's thermal springs.
Go to Profile#12274
Vincenzo Crunelli
#157878
Overall Influence
#12275
Frank Tong
#129292
Overall Influence
Frank Tong is a cognitive neuroscientist and centennial professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University. He grew up in Toronto, Canada. Tong is recognized for his research on the neural bases of human visual perception, visual consciousness, attentional selection, face and object recognition, and visual working memory. In more recent work, he is developing deep neural network models of the human visual system.
Go to Profile#12276
Isabel Moura
#157880
Overall Influence
#12277
Jianlin Cheng
#157885
Overall Influence
#12278
Stanley J. Peloquin
#157887
Overall Influence
#12279
Susan Fisher-Hoch
#73740
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Susan P. Fisher-Hoch is a British-born infectious-disease specialist who has made major contributions to the understanding of Legionnaires' disease and Lassa fever. She is the co-author, along with her husband Joseph B. McCormick, of the memoir Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC. Fisher-Hoch is professor of epidemiology at The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. She was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2008.
Go to Profile#12280
Cornelis Johannes Marinkelle
#146514
Overall Influence
1925 - 2012 (87 years)
Cornelis Johannes Marinkelle was a Dutch physician and biologist, who contributed to the taxonomy of insects, parasites, yeasts and mammals. He described and reported several new living species; many species are named on his honour.
Go to Profile#12281
Boris Zemelman
#145101
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Boris Valery Zemelman is an American neuroscientist who is one of the pioneers of optogenetics. Personal life Boris Zemelman, at the age of ten, immigrated to the United States with his parents Valery and Evelina Zemelman, and lived in Wilton, Connecticut. He graduated from Wilton High School, and for his excellent academic performance was awarded Charles G. Mortimer Scholarships.
Go to Profile#12282
George F. Rohrmann
#157943
Overall Influence
#12283
Dominique G. Homberger
#137785
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Dominique G. Homberger is an Alumni Professor the Louisiana State University, where she taught for 31 years. She is noted for her work on the evolution of complex structures in birds, mammals, and fish, and is also the author of a textbook on vertebrate dissection. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Ornithological Union, she served as the President of the International Ornithological Congress 2022, and President of the International Ornithologists' Union from 2018-2022.
Go to Profile#12284
Juan Carlos Gómez De La Torre
#157962
Overall Influence
#12285
Matthias Staufenbiel,
#157974
Overall Influence
#12286
Irena Nalepa
#117017
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Irena Maria Nalepa is a Polish neuroscientist, pharmacologist and biochemist, professor of medical sciences and professor at the Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She graduated from the Jagiellonian University and received her PhD in 1980. Since 2004 she has the title of full professor.
Go to Profile#12287
Helmut Ponta
#157992
Overall Influence
#12288
Rajesh Pahwa
#157995
Overall Influence
#12289
Everett Smith Beneke
#98797
Overall Influence
1918 - 2010 (92 years)
Everett Smith Beneke was an American medical mycologist, and professor of microbiology at Michigan State University . Beneke chaired the American Board of Bioanalysis , he lived in Florida and died in 2010 at the age of 91. He made contributions to the field of human mycoses.
Go to Profile#12290
Hongzhe Li
#158005
Overall Influence
#12291
J. Timothy Smith
#158014
Overall Influence
#12292
Lino Tessarollo
#158025
Overall Influence
#12293
Dominique Heymann
#158027
Overall Influence
#12294
Saburo Fukui
#158030
Overall Influence
#12295
William R. Crowley
#158035
Overall Influence
#12296
Paul R. Manske
#158037
Overall Influence
#12297
Gerard Johan Mulder
#158039
Overall Influence
#12298
Shigeo Ohta
#158043
Overall Influence
#12299
Sara Mole
#142330
Overall Influence
Sara Elizabeth Mole Crowley is a Professor of Molecular Cell Biology and Provost's Envoy for Gender Equality at University College London and the Great Ormond Street Hospital. She works on diseases caused by genetic changes, in particular neurodegenerative diseases that impact children.
Go to Profile#12300
Erik Skadhauge
#158056
Overall Influence
