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,
#12851
Cliff Blake
#55729
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Clifford Douglas Blake AO is an Australian agriculturalist and educationalist who became first Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University, from 1990 through to 2001 and then after his retirement from CSU in July 2001, he took up an interim Vice-Chancellor position at Adelaide University from August 2001.
Go to Profile#12852
Makoto Mayumi
#161703
Overall Influence
#12853
Claudia Mauri
#161704
Overall Influence
#12854
Jin-shui Wu
#161723
Overall Influence
#12855
Stig Bergström
#96708
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Stig M. Bergström is a Swedish-American paleontologist. In 1981, he described the conodont family Paracordylodontidae. In 1974, he described the multielement conodont genus Appalachignathus from the Middle Ordovician of North America.
Go to Profile#12856
Gerhard Bohrmann
#161725
Overall Influence
#12857
Stefan Karlsson
#161739
Overall Influence
#12858
Gary j. Samuels
#161748
Overall Influence
#12859
Zhong-jie Sun
#161768
Overall Influence
#12860
Dirk Gevers
#161770
Overall Influence
#12861
Isidore Rigoutsos
#161784
Overall Influence
#12862
Alexandra L. Shigo
#161793
Overall Influence
#12863
David J. Sanger
#161802
Overall Influence
#12864
Eduardo Agustin Padlan
#161803
Overall Influence
#12865
Stuart J. Shankland
#161816
Overall Influence
#12866
Tommy L. Wheeler
#161839
Overall Influence
#12867
E. Keith Inskeep
#161844
Overall Influence
#12868
Donald Everett Schmechel
#161846
Overall Influence
#12869
Wally I. Welker
#161868
Overall Influence
#12870
Alvin Zipursky
#161916
Overall Influence
#12871
James Duncan Robertson
#139886
Overall Influence
1912 - 1993 (81 years)
James Duncan Robertson FRSE FIB FZS was a 20th century Scottish zoologist. Life He was born in Glasgow on 16 January 1912 the eldest of four children of James Robertson, a local headmaster of Shetland descent, and his wife Phemie Helen Hunter Muir, a schoolteacher. He was educated at Rutherglen Academy and was school dux in 1929.
Go to Profile#12872
Rafael De Cabo
#161920
Overall Influence
#12873
Charles Lenwood Nelson
#161931
Overall Influence
#12874
Hiroshi Saito
#161935
Overall Influence
#12875
Alexander Hoffmann
#161936
Overall Influence
#12876
Hubert Kolb
#161942
Overall Influence
#12877
Brian Frederick Kensley
#161945
Overall Influence
#12878
Kenneth S. Gage
#161947
Overall Influence
#12879
Makoto Matsumoto
#161951
Overall Influence
#12880
Sarah Fawcett
#96108
Overall Influence
Sarah Fawcett is a South African oceanographer and climatologist. A senior lecturer in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town, she is particularly interested in the role of oceans in regulating biogeochemical cycles and how their dysregulation contributes to climate change. She was honoured in the World Economic Forum Young Scientists Class of 2020, and a P-Rating from the National Research Foundation, which recognizes that the scientist's work will likely have high impact.
Go to Profile#12881
Diane Mathis
#120442
Overall Influence
Diane J. Mathis is the Morton Grove-Rasmussen chair of immunohematology at Harvard Medical School. She has been recognized for her research with elections to the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#12882
Williams T. C. Yuh
#161976
Overall Influence
#12883
Rainer Rauramaa
#161980
Overall Influence
#12884
George Ball
#106477
Overall Influence
1926 - 2019 (93 years)
George Eugene Ball was an American entomologist and expert in ground beetles . Born in Detroit, Michigan, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, where he served in the Battle of Okinawa. He earned his B.A. from Cornell University in 1949 and his M.S. from the University of Alabama in 1950. He returned to Cornell where he earned his PhD in 1954, and that same year joined the University of Alberta, becoming a full professor in 1965. He went on to serve as the entomology department's chair before retiring in 1992. He was a past president of the Entomological Society of Canad...
Go to Profile#12885
Markus Diesmann
#162004
Overall Influence
#12886
Antoine O. Andremont
#162015
Overall Influence
#12887
Olav Behnke
#162017
Overall Influence
#12888
Scott A. Small
#130687
Overall Influence
Scott A. Small is an American neurologist and neuroscientist known for his work in Alzheimer's disease and normal cognitive aging. His research focuses on the hippocampus, a circuit in the brain targeted by Alzheimer's disease, aging, and schizophrenia. Small is the Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia University, where he is the Boris and Rose Katz Professor of Neurology. He is also appointed in Radiology and in Psychiatry, where he directs the Schizophrenia Research program.
Go to Profile#12889
Paul Alexander Blake
#162038
Overall Influence
#12890
Guy Prof Dr Dr Dirheimer
#162042
Overall Influence
#12891
J. P. Felix D’mello
#162045
Overall Influence
#12892
Charles John Billington
#162061
Overall Influence
#12893
George Franklin Martin
#162070
Overall Influence
#12894
And Sabine Sentenac
#162071
Overall Influence
#12895
Susana Aurora Magallón Puebla
#157828
Overall Influence
Susana Aurora Magallón Puebla is a Mexican biologist and scientist. Her research areas are evolutionary biology and bioinformatics, mainly focused on plant evolution. In 2019 she was appointed director of the UNAM Institute of Biology for the period 2019–2023. In 2022, she was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#12896
Jorge H. Capdevila
#162079
Overall Influence
#12897
Jeanne A. Teresi
#162080
Overall Influence
#12898
Robert J. Bache
#162086
Overall Influence
#12899
Kevin M. Shakesheff
#162092
Overall Influence
#12900
Francis A. Fitzpatrick
#162108
Overall Influence
