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,
#12301
Kosei Hirakawa
#158062
Overall Influence
#12302
Lee‐lueng Fu
#158074
Overall Influence
#12303
Carol E. Windels
#158080
Overall Influence
#12304
Robert Hill. Lamotte
#158090
Overall Influence
#12305
Jack G. Stevens
#158098
Overall Influence
#12306
Evan M. Eicher
#158107
Overall Influence
#12307
Sherwin Wilk
#158113
Overall Influence
#12308
Bahram Mokri
#158114
Overall Influence
#12309
Martin R. Turner
#158115
Overall Influence
#12310
Konrad Fiedler
#158138
Overall Influence
#12311
Stella Ifeanyi Smith
#128588
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Stella Ifeanyi Smith is a Nigerian medical scientist with interests in molecular biology and biotechnology. Smith joined Nigeria Institute of Medical Research in 1988, and was made director of research in 2013. As of September 2018, she had 1,739 citations on Google scholar.
Go to Profile#12312
Frank Lyko
#158146
Overall Influence
#12313
James Reginald Bendall
#158159
Overall Influence
#12314
Torkel Klingberg
#92872
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Torkel Klingberg is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the author of two books in Swedish, translated into English by Neil Betteridge, namely The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory and The Learning Brain: Memory and Brain Development in Children. His research testing the hypothesis that playing memory games such as N-back also improves broader skills is controversial. He was one of the founders of Cogmed, but has currently no financial relationships with the company. He is executive director of Co...
Go to Profile#12315
Michael Olivier
#158180
Overall Influence
#12316
George C. Steyskal
#149513
Overall Influence
1909 - 1996 (87 years)
George Constance Steyskal was an American entomologist who specialized in the taxonomy of the flies. Steyskal was born on March 30, 1989, in Detroit, the oldest of seven siblings. He worked in a factory to help the family and graduated from the Henry Ford Trade School, working as a tool-and-die maker and later being a superintendent of a workshop. He took an interest in entomology as an amateur and when the US Department of Agriculture announced a vacancy, he joined as an agricultural research technician at Washington, D.C. His promotions were slowed by his lack of formal academic qualifications.
Go to Profile#12317
Jill James
#121898
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Sandra Jill James is an American biochemist and autism researcher who studies metabolic autism biomarkers. She works at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, where she is the director of the Metabolic Genomics Laboratory, as well as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences's department of pediatrics, where she has worked since 2002. She is also a member of the Autism Speaks Treatment Advisory Board, and is also a scientific advisor to the autism foundation N of One. Her current research focuses on the role of epigenetics in causing autism, as well as the effectiveness of supp...
Go to Profile#12318
Alexander T. Shulgin
#158201
Overall Influence
#12319
Deborah M. Hinton
#149429
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Deborah Meetze Hinton is an American microbiologist. She is a senior investigator and chief of the gene expression and regulation section in the laboratory of cell and molecular biology at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Go to Profile#12320
Jens Lykkesfeldt
#158206
Overall Influence
#12321
Rolf Bodmer
#158207
Overall Influence
#12322
Stephen K. Hamilton
#158214
Overall Influence
#12323
Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava
#158216
Overall Influence
#12324
Timothy E. Weaver
#158217
Overall Influence
#12325
Bradley L. Pentelute
#110931
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Bradley Lether Pentelute is currently a professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . His research program lies at the intersection of chemistry and biology and develops bioconjugation strategies, cytosolic delivery platforms, and rapid flow synthesis technologies to optimize the production, achieve site-specific modification, enhance stability, and modulate function of a variety of bioactive agents. His laboratory successfully modified proteins via cysteine-containing “pi-clamps” made up of a short sequence of amino acids, and delivered large biomolecules, such as various proteins and drugs, into cells via the anthrax delivery vehicle.
Go to Profile#12326
Mark. S. Silverberg
#158221
Overall Influence
#12327
Shinji Kihara
#158222
Overall Influence
#12328
Yasuhiro Yonekawa
#158225
Overall Influence
#12329
Odile Launay
#158233
Overall Influence
#12330
Catherine Potvin
#144611
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Catherine Potvin is a tropical forest ecologist and professor at McGill University in the Department of Biology. Her scientific research studies climate change, carbon cycling, and biodiversity in tropical rainforests with an additional focus on community empowerment and climate change policy. She was the first woman to receive the Miroslaw Romanowski Medal from the Royal Society of Canada, in recognition of her "significant contributions to the resolution of scientific aspects of environmental problems". In addition to her scientific research, she works on sustainable development with indigen...
Go to Profile#12331
Arthur Landy
#158246
Overall Influence
#12332
Adam Robert Aron
#158258
Overall Influence
#12333
Nicolas Galtier
#158263
Overall Influence
#12334
June L. Biedler
#158269
Overall Influence
#12335
Lincoln T. Potter
#158273
Overall Influence
#12336
Mark J. Kupersmith
#158280
Overall Influence
#12337
Sandra Vehrencamp
#140627
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Sandra Lee Vehrencamp , is a scientist, teacher, and mentor who specializes in Behavioral ecology, with a geographical focus on avian species in Costa Rica. She served as a faculty member of Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology and Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and taught graduate students while conducting research until retiring as of October 2010. She currently resides in Ithaca, New York, with her husband, Jack Bradbury.
Go to Profile#12338
Irving T. Diamond
#158301
Overall Influence
#12339
W. Daniel Kissling
#158311
Overall Influence
#12340
David McNiven Garner
#98367
Overall Influence
1928 - 2016 (88 years)
David McNiven Garner was notable as a published research physicist, with a focus in physical oceanography and ocean circulation. History Garner attended New York University from 1959 to 1962, where he graduated with a PhD in Physics on 22 October 1962. Dr. Garner returned to New Zealand in 1962, joining a team of scientists that founded the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research , then located in Hobson Street, Wellington, New Zealand.
Go to Profile#12341
John P. Mcgahan
#158315
Overall Influence
#12342
Schahram Akbarian
#158325
Overall Influence
#12343
Franklyn G. Prendergast
#158327
Overall Influence
#12344
Paula L. Hoffman
#158335
Overall Influence
#12345
Bradley Cardinale
#135325
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Bradley Cardinale is an American ecologist, conservation biologist, academic and researcher. He is Head of the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management and Penn State University. Cardinale's work has focused on the conservation and restoration of biodiversity in natural systems, as well as the ecological design of human engineered systems that benefit from biodiversity. He uses mathematical models, lab- and field-based experiments, observational studies of natural ecosystems, and meta-analyses of existing data to examine how human activities impact Earth's biological diversity, and to protect and manage species, their ecosystems, and the services they provide to society.
Go to Profile#12346
Joseph Beene Bolen
#158350
Overall Influence
#12347
Dawn Stacey
#158353
Overall Influence
#12348
Martin Grosell
#158364
Overall Influence
#12349
Christine L. Clouser
#38389
Overall Influence
Christine Clouser is an American virologist. During her graduate studies she discovered an interest in retro viruses and has since published scientific articles on the feline leukemia virus and HIV virus.
Go to Profile#12350
Tao Dong
#154046
Overall Influence
Tao Dong is a Chinese-British immunologist who is Professor of Immunology at Oxford University. Her work focuses on the study of T-cells which respond to viral infections and viral associated cancer. She is a founding director for both the CAMS-Oxford joint International Center for Transnational Immunology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Oxford Institute .
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