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,
#13551
Vincent E. Everts
#166844
Overall Influence
#13552
D. D. H. Thomas
#166860
Overall Influence
#13553
Dan Elmqvist
#166881
Overall Influence
#13554
Nicolas Perrin
#166885
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#13555
John David Cassidy
#166889
Overall Influence
#13556
Björn Kjerfve
#166891
Overall Influence
#13557
Peter Karran
#166902
Overall Influence
#13558
Gregor Thut
#166917
Overall Influence
#13559
Fred Iltis
#113718
Overall Influence
1923 - 2008 (85 years)
Fred Iltis was an American entomologist. His research focused on the biosystematics and life cycle of mosquitoes. Life and work Iltis was born on April 20, 1923 Brno, Czechoslovakia. He was born Wilfred Gregor Iltis to Anni and Hugo Iltis, a botanist and geneticist who was a life sciences teacher at the German-language gymnasium of Brno. His father was also the first biographer of Gregor Mendel and a vocal opponent of Nazi "racial science". In the fall of 1938, the Iltis family was granted visas to enter the United States thanks to the intercession of the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars, along with affidavits of endorsement from Albert Einstein and Franz Boas.
Go to Profile#13560
Guido Torzilli
#166929
Overall Influence
#13561
Alan W. Harris
#166931
Overall Influence
#13562
Kun Lin Jin
#166939
Overall Influence
#13563
Lisa Meier Mcshane
#166943
Overall Influence
#13564
Jack Rootman
#166948
Overall Influence
#13565
Elaine Hsiao
#152712
Overall Influence
Elaine Yih-Nien Hsiao is an American biologist who is Professor in Biological Sciences at University of California, Los Angeles. Her research considers the microbes that impact human health. She was a 2022 Laureate for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
Go to Profile#13566
Michael E. Trulson
#166949
Overall Influence
#13567
Helena M. Käyhty
#166966
Overall Influence
#13568
András Falus
#166974
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#13569
Gro Gulden
#93894
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Gro Sissel Gulden is a Norwegian mycologist. She was hired as a curator at the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo in 1967, and was promoted to professor in 2001. She retired in the autumn of 2006. A replacement curator has not been found as of early 2009. Gulden has published several books, both academic, popular and for children. Her research has been focused largely on the taxonomy of agaric mushrooms, especially the family Tricholomataceae and the genus Galerina. She also has published several articles about alpine and arctic macromycetes.
Go to Profile#13570
Guo‐ping Shi
#166991
Overall Influence
#13571
Peter J. Richardson
#166992
Overall Influence
#13572
Peter A. Meredith
#166994
Overall Influence
#13573
Elena Litchman
#147528
Overall Influence
Elena Litchman is a professor of aquatic ecology at Michigan State University known for her research on the consequences of global environmental change on phytoplankton. Education and career Litchman received an Honors Diploma in biology from Moscow State University, Russia, and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Minnesota in 1997. Following graduate work, Litchman held postdoctoral positions at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, and Rutgers University. From 2003 to 2005, Litchman was a research scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#13574
Takahiro Yamada
#166995
Overall Influence
#13575
Michael A. Webster
#167006
Overall Influence
#13576
Melvin H. Green
#167007
Overall Influence
#13577
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam
#39609
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, is a Norwegian-Iranian neuroscientist and human rights advocate. Early life Amiry-Moghaddam spent his first few years in the city of Kerman about 1000 kilometers south-east of Tehran in Iran. He arrived in Norway as a refugee of minor age, via Pakistan in 1985.
Go to Profile#13578
Nikolaus Osterrieder
#167009
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#13579
Michel Morange
#167028
Overall Influence
#13580
Yoshiroh Niitsu
#167030
Overall Influence
#13581
Nora E. Sarvetnick
#167051
Overall Influence
#13582
Howard L. Levine
#167062
Overall Influence
#13583
A. Murat Eren
#134417
Overall Influence
A. Murat Eren is a computer scientist known for his work on microbial ecology and developing novel, open-source, computational tools for analysis of large data sets. Early life and education Eren grew up in the Barhal Valley in Turkey and studied cryptography as an undergraduate at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart Universitesi where he earned a B.S. in 2002. He moved to the United States and started his Ph.D. at the University of New Orleans. While working at the Children's Hospital of New Orleans, Eren was introduced to microbiology by Michael Ferris. In 2011 Eren completed his Ph.D.; his dissertation...
Go to Profile#13584
Harold Lief
#122498
Overall Influence
1917 - 2007 (90 years)
Harold I. Lief was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He was famous as an advocate of sex education. Lief is credited with the introduction in the DSM of the "inhibited sexual desire". Early life and education Lief, who was born in Brooklyn, attended the University of Michigan and graduated from the New York University School of Medicine in 1942. Lief's psychoanalytic training was at Columbia University.
Go to Profile#13585
James Allen Olson
#167085
Overall Influence
#13586
Gary M. Lovett
#167086
Overall Influence
#13587
Judith A. Ramaley
#43523
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Judith Aitken Ramaley is an American biologist and academic administrator who has served as president of several colleges and universities. She was the president of Winona State University from 2005 to 2012.
Go to Profile#13588
Kiyomi Kikugawa
#167090
Overall Influence
#13589
Christian Wirth
#167095
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
#13590
Gary Lawrence French
#167096
Overall Influence
#13591
Kowichi Jimbow
#167101
Overall Influence
#13592
Hui-Kuan Lin
#158719
Overall Influence
Hui-Kuan Lin is a Taiwanese physician specializing in cancer biology. Lin completed bachelor's and master's degrees in medicine at National Taiwan University, in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He completed a doctoral degree in cancer biology at the University of Rochester in 2002, and pursued postdoctoral research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. From 2007, Lin taught at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, a part of the University of Texas System, as an assistant professor. In 2011, he became an associate professor. Lin moved to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in 2015, as Anderson...
Go to Profile#13593
Achim Walter
#167102
Overall Influence
#13594
Norman C. Deno
#85385
Overall Influence
1921 - 2017 (96 years)
Norman C. Deno was an American chemist and plant scientist. He was a professor of chemistry at Penn State University and is known as one of the foremost researchers in seed germination theory. He researched the biochemical reactions that underlie the germination of all seeds, performing germination research on plant species from 150 families, 800 genera, and 2500 species over the course of his career. Deno authored 150 papers in chemistry and 20 papers in horticulture, and self-published a number of books that combined his scientific results.
Go to Profile#13595
Richard H. Scheuermann
#167106
Overall Influence
#13596
Wayne W. Lautt
#167113
Overall Influence
#13597
Herbert H. Winkler
#167116
Overall Influence
#13598
Mark R. Viant
#167120
Overall Influence
#13599
Werner Falk
#167123
Overall Influence
#13600
Stephen I. Rothstein
#167126
Overall Influence
