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,
#12601
Jennifer E. Purcell
#160096
Overall Influence
#12602
Andrew D. Huberman
#46640
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
#12603
Jan K. S. Jansen
#116628
Overall Influence
1931 - 2011 (80 years)
Jan Kristian Schøning Jansen was a Norwegian physiologist. He was born in Oslo as a son of professor of medicine Jan Birger Jansen and Helene Sofie Schøning . He was married to Lisbeth Bjørneby from 1954 to 1974 and to Helen Troye from 1981.
Go to Profile#12604
Ernst Niebur
#160115
Overall Influence
#12605
Karl Fritz Lauer
#100005
Overall Influence
1938 - 2018 (80 years)
Karl Fritz Lauer was a Romanian-German agricultural scientist in phytopathology and herbology. Biography Lauer was born son of a German teacher and vice-notary in Banat, his older brother was the journalist Heinrich Lauer. Lauer started school in Vienna in 1944 during the family's flight from the ravages of war. After the war he returned to Banat and attended elementary school, then a middle school for the food industry and evening Lyceum in Timișoara where he took the final exams.
Go to Profile#12606
Monika Rhein
#112571
Overall Influence
Monika Rhein is a physical oceanographer and Professor of Oceanography at University of Bremen. Rhein has led the authorship of over 29 peer reviewed publications, and is an author of over 100 peer reviewed publications. Rhein has broad ranging interests across oceanography, specialising in understanding the water masses in the oceans and their circulation, ocean mixing and the role of oceans in climate. Rhein's expertise has led to her authoring chapters of the "Technical Summary" and "Summary for Policymakers" of the 5th International Panel of Climate Change report and acting as president o...
Go to Profile#12607
Rune R. Frants
#160129
Overall Influence
#12608
Frederick. R. Rickles
#160135
Overall Influence
#12609
Takao Sekiya
#160141
Overall Influence
#12610
Richard E. Frye
#77837
Overall Influence
Richard Eugene Frye is an American autism researcher and associate professor at Arizona Children's Hospital in Phoenix, and formerly of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences's department of pediatrics, as well as the Director of the Autism Multispecialty Clinic at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Frye was formerly a faculty member at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston's division of child and adolescent neurology.
Go to Profile#12611
Robin M. Winter
#160144
Overall Influence
#12612
Cynthia Shannon Weickert
#160145
Overall Influence
#12613
Winnie Kiiru
#119153
Overall Influence
Winnie Kiiru is a Kenyan biologist, elephant conservationist, and the chairperson of the Wildlife Research Institute in Naivasha. She is currently the chairperson of Friends of Karura Forest, a Community-Based Organization that helps manage Karura forests.
Go to Profile#12614
Carolyn Brooks
#126984
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Carolyn Branch Brooks is an American microbiologist known for her research in immunology, nutrition, and crop productivity. Early life and education Brooks was born July 8, 1946, in Richmond, Virginia to Shirley Booker Branch and Charles Walker Branch, grocery store owners. Her grandparents and her older sister also helped raise her. She attended high school on the north side of Richmond. In the 1950s, the family moved to the west side of town and this made schooling a little more difficult for the children because they had to take public transportation. Brooks wanted to attend her old school so every day she would ride the public bus across town.
Go to Profile#12615
Richard L. Proia
#160155
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#12616
Andrew Digby
#82041
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Andrew Digby is an astronomer and ecologist whose work focusses on researching and conserving New Zealand's endangered endemic birds. Career Digby has a Natural Sciences B.A. from Cambridge and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Edinburgh with a thesis assessing the formation of the galaxy through low-mass stars. He has jointly published numerous papers relating to the detection of dark matter, the luminosity of stars, and exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy. In 2003 he was appointed as the NASA Michelson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural...
Go to Profile#12617
Jürgen Zentek
#160167
Overall Influence
#12618
Alan James Waring
#160168
Overall Influence
#12619
Terri S. Armstrong
#70553
Overall Influence
Terri S. Armstrong is an American scientist and nurse practitioner. She is a senior investigator in the Center for Cancer Research Neuro-Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Armstrong held the Dunn Distinguished Professorship in Oncology Nursing at UTHealth Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing.
Go to Profile#12620
Jeremy N. Skepper
#160191
Overall Influence
#12621
Randy A. Sansone
#160194
Overall Influence
#12622
Ronald Principal Investigator Berezney
#160199
Overall Influence
#12623
Karlen Lyons‐ruth
#160202
Overall Influence
#12624
Wyatt Anderson
#132776
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Wyatt Wheaton Anderson is an American geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He is Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Genetics in the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. He was also the dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences from 1992 until he stepped down in 2004. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1987, and is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#12625
Valdur A. Saks
#160210
Overall Influence
#12626
Jacob A. Nelson
#160212
Overall Influence
#12627
David Stafford-Clark
#72721
Overall Influence
1916 - 1999 (83 years)
David Stafford-Clark was a British psychiatrist and author. He was educated at Felsted and Institute of Psychiatry, University of London . War service Stafford-Clark did war service in charge of Waterbeach hospital, Cambridgeshire at the home of RAF Bomber Command. He was mentioned in dispatches twice as a result of taking part in raids. He worked hard to change the prevalent public opinion that airmen were naturally suave, fearless men; he portrayed them as war-battered men pushed beyond the limits of human exhaustion.
Go to Profile#12628
Lissy Jarvik
#131171
Overall Influence
1924 - 2021 (97 years)
Lissy Jarvik was a Dutch-born American geriatric psychiatrist. The National Library of Medicine featured her in their interactive "Changing the Face of Medicine" exhibit, describing her as "a pioneer in the field of neuropsychogeriatrics."
Go to Profile#12629
Botondtól Penke
#160217
Overall Influence
#12630
David R. Spriggs
#160221
Overall Influence
#12631
Robert E. Burgeson
#160222
Overall Influence
#12632
Peter Eriksson
#126908
Overall Influence
1959 - 2007 (48 years)
Peter Eriksson was a Swedish stem cell neuroscientist. Eriksson was a frequently cited scientist who conducted ground-breaking research on neurogenesis in the hippocampus of the adult human brain. In 1998 he demonstrated the creation of nerve cells in the adult human hippocampus. He showed that new brain cells are created throughout the whole human lifespan, and that the integration of the new brain cells in the brain depended on the stimuli that the environment offered, thus providing an insight that could enhance the treatment of neurologically damaged patients.
Go to Profile#12633
Djoko Iskandar
#120762
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Djoko Tjahjono Iskandar is an Indonesian herpetologist who studies the amphibians of Southeast Asia and Australasia. He is a professor of biosystematics and ecology at Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java, Indonesia.
Go to Profile#12634
Michael Francis Madelin
#100826
Overall Influence
1931 - 2007 (76 years)
Michael Francis Madelin was a British mycologist. He held research faculty positions at Imperial College, University of London, and the University of Bristol, and undertook pioneering research in conidial fungi and slime moulds, with specific reference to their physiology and ecology.
Go to Profile#12635
Michael D. Gale
#160249
Overall Influence
#12636
Enio Martino
#160253
Overall Influence
#12637
Johng Sik Rhim
#160259
Overall Influence
#12638
Jan Ellenberg
#160262
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#12639
Thomas G. Wegmann
#160264
Overall Influence
#12640
Asghar Aghamohammadi
#109849
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Asghar Aghamohammadi was an Iranian medical scientist, Immunologist and Immunology professor at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Aghamohammadi had studied in many institutes, including the Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the University of Toyama. He had been one of the most distinguished Iranian Immunologists and awarded many national scientific prizes for his works, mostly in the field of primary immunodeficiency. Aghamohammadi is recognized internationally by hundreds of publications in th...
Go to Profile#12641
David O. Okonkwo
#160288
Overall Influence
#12642
John P. Feighner
#160293
Overall Influence
#12643
Lambert M. G. Van Golde
#160312
Overall Influence
#12644
György Kéri
#128029
Overall Influence
1950 - 2016 (66 years)
György Kéri was a Hungarian biochemist, professor and Doctor of Biological Sciences . His major field of research was signal transduction therapy and he participated in the development of novel drug discovery technologies and drug candidates that entered the clinical development process.
Go to Profile#12645
Philip E. Thorpe
#160319
Overall Influence
#12646
Peter Joseph Heald
#129081
Overall Influence
1925 - 1996 (71 years)
Dr Peter Joseph Heald FRSE was a British biochemist, who was an expert on reproductive biochemistry. Life He was born at Alderley Edge in Cheshire on 26 July 1925, the second of three sons. He was educated at Stockport School in Manchester. He then attended Manchester Institute of Technology graduating with honours in Chemistry in 1945.
Go to Profile#12647
Michael Hofreiter
#160327
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
#12648
Roberto Tuberosa
#160330
Overall Influence
#12649
Rafael Zardoya
#160339
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#12650
Gino V. Segre
#160344
Overall Influence
