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,
#13001
S. F. Mullan
#162784
Overall Influence
#13002
Danilo S. Balete
#137619
Overall Influence
1960 - 2017 (57 years)
Danilo S. Balete , also known as Danny Balete, was a Filipino zoologist and biologist. His is known for his work on the Philippines' endemic mammal species. He pursued the question of what determines species diversity. The research by Balete and his team overturned previously held notions that diversity decreased in mountainous regions, showing that harsh environments could generate, rather than suppress, species diversity.
Go to Profile#13003
Ann B. Moser
#120338
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Ann Boody Moser is an American biochemist specializing in neurology. She researches the development of therapies for adrenoleukodystrophy. Moser is an associate professor emerita in neurology at the Johns Hopkins University. She is a research associate in neurology and the co-director of the peroxisomal diseases laboratory at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.
Go to Profile#13004
Yasushi Kuraishi
#162802
Overall Influence
#13005
Peter Poschlod
#162804
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#13006
Maureen Andrew
#162816
Overall Influence
#13007
Russell Coope
#150243
Overall Influence
1930 - 2011 (81 years)
Russell Coope, also Geoffrey Russell Coope and G. Russell Coope was a Quaternary paleoentomologist and neontologist and a paleoclimatologist specializing in the British Pleistocene. He was an expert and leader in the reconstruction of Quaternary paleoenvironmental conditions from fossil beetles. The relatively young age of his fossils allowed Coope to explore construction sites for fossils, in addition to geological field sites.
Go to Profile#13008
Yves Germain Constant Courtois
#162841
Overall Influence
#13009
Cagla Eroglu
#146938
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Cagla Eroglu is a Turkish neuroscientist and associate professor of cell biology and neurobiology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Eroglu is also the director of graduate studies in cell and molecular biology at Duke University Medical Center. Eroglu is a leader in the field of glial biology, and her lab focuses on exploring the role of glial cells, specifically astrocytes, in synaptic development and connectivity.
Go to Profile#13010
Craig D. Allen
#162845
Overall Influence
#13011
David Michael Nelson
#162873
Overall Influence
#13012
Sui-bin Huang
#162874
Overall Influence
#13013
Markus Stefan Huber-lang
#162889
Overall Influence
#13014
Emma Yhnell
#125929
Overall Influence
Emma Yhnell is a British scientist, science communicator and senior lecturer based at Cardiff University. She has previously conducted research on computerised cognitive training and Huntington's disease. An advocate for public engagement and science communication, and a STEM ambassador, Yhnell won the British Science Association's Charles Darwin Award Lecture for Agricultural, Biological and Medical Sciences and the British Neuroscience Association's Public Engagement Award.
Go to Profile#13015
Frederick W. Oehme,
#162912
Overall Influence
#13016
Geert Berx
#162942
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#13017
J. F. Cañada Martín
#162952
Overall Influence
#13018
Joseph C. Touchstone
#162956
Overall Influence
#13019
Ulrik Gether
#162959
Overall Influence
#13020
Christopher F. Mason
#162962
Overall Influence
#13021
Hsin‐hsiung Tai
#162968
Overall Influence
#13022
Richard A. Proctor
#162976
Overall Influence
#13023
Catherine Nobes
#154159
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Catherine D. Nobes is a Professor of Cell Biology and Head of School of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol. She studies the regulation of cell migration and invasion of cancer cells by Eph receptors.
Go to Profile#13024
David Berson
#94129
Overall Influence
David M. Berson is Professor of Medical Science at Brown University. He helped lead the way in the discovery of a third class of mammalian photoreceptors by providing the first electrophysiological recordings from intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells.
Go to Profile#13025
Ulrich Ing. Grad. Pohl
#162994
Overall Influence
#13026
Ronald Seifer
#163002
Overall Influence
#13027
Gunnar O. Klein
#163012
Overall Influence
#13028
James R. West
#163029
Overall Influence
#13029
Frans Jongejan
#163032
Overall Influence
#13030
Glen R. Nemerow
#163047
Overall Influence
#13031
Guido Silvestri
#163052
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#13032
Edda Neele
#55563
Overall Influence
1910 - 2005 (95 years)
Edda Neele was a German psychiatrist, and a student and collaborator of Karl Kleist, who worked at the Goethe University Frankfurt Neuropsychiatric Clinic. Along with Karl Leonhard, she was among Kleist's most prolific disciples and contributed significantly to popularizing the terms unipolar and bipolar that are now used in the concepts of unipolar depression and bipolar disorder, and which had been coined by Kleist. Her 1949 Habilitation dissertation, a study of "cyclical psychoses" admitted to the Frankfurt University Neuropsychiatric Clinic between 1938 and 1942, was the first written p...
Go to Profile#13033
Colin S. Stewart
#163057
Overall Influence
#13034
Mike M. Mueckler
#163079
Overall Influence
#13035
Mary M. Herman
#163088
Overall Influence
#13036
Brian P. Kavanagh
#163099
Overall Influence
#13037
Axel Le Cesne
#163104
Overall Influence
#13038
Paul J. Tesar
#142612
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Paul J. Tesar is an American developmental biologist. He is the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. His research is focused on regenerative medicine.
Go to Profile#13039
Margaret Morgan Lawrence
#27025
Overall Influence
1914 - 2019 (105 years)
Margaret Cornelia Morgan Lawrence was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, gaining those qualifications in 1948. Her work included clinical care, teaching, and research, particularly into the presence and development of ego strength in inner-city families. Lawrence studied young children identified as "strong" by their teachers in Georgia and Mississippi, as well as on sabbatical in Africa in 1973, writing two books on mental health of children and inner-city families. Lawrence was chief of the Developmental Psychiatry Service for Infants and Children at Harlem Hospital for 21 years, ...
Go to Profile#13040
Robert Lee Metzenberg
#163122
Overall Influence
#13041
David Charles
#76512
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
David Charles is an American neurologist, professor and vice-chair of neurology, and the medical director of Telehealth at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Education David Charles attended Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, graduating in 1990. After completing his neurology residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, he joined the faculty of the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University in 1994. In 1995, he obtained his fellowship in Movement Disorders and Clinical Neurophysiology. In 1996, he completed the Health Care Management Program from the Owen Graduate School of Management.
Go to Profile#13042
Dale H. Rice
#163125
Overall Influence
#13043
Seymour Van Gundy
#91233
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Seymour Dean Van Gundy was an American professor emeritus of nematology at University of California, Riverside and former dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Background After graduating from Monclova High School in 1949, Van Gundy attended Bowling Green State University on an Edwin Mosley scholarship. While an undergraduate, Van Gundy worked part-time at an H.J. Heinz research facility. There he met J.C. Walker: a professor teaching at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Walker offered Van Gundy an assistantship to continue studying cucumbers after Van Gundy's graduation from Bowling Green State University.
Go to Profile#13044
Carlos Cruchaga
#158977
Overall Influence
Carlos Cruchaga is a human genomicist with expertise in multi-omics, informatics, and neurodegeneration, with a focus on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease. He is a Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Genetics and Washington University School of Medicine. He is founding director of the Neurogenomics and Informatic center at Washington University School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#13045
W. Michael Mccormack
#163154
Overall Influence
#13046
Donald A. Phillips
#163161
Overall Influence
#13047
Ichiro Kudo
#163163
Overall Influence
#13048
Allan J. Baker
#163169
Overall Influence
#13049
Yi‐wei Li
#163172
Overall Influence
#13050
Shirley Hansen
#163173
Overall Influence
