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).

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List of the most influential people in Biology,

#15851

Eric Plakun

Eric Plakun
#74919
Overall Influence
Eric M. Plakun is an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher and forensic psychiatrist. He is the current medical director/CEO at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Plakun's primary interests include the mental health advocacy, full implementation of the mental health parity law, access-to-care issues, and reducing health disparities; the value of and evidence base for psychosocial treatments and the diagnosis, treatment, longitudinal course and outcome of patients with borderline personality disorder and treatment resistant disorders. Plakun has been widely publis...
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#15852

Jessica L. Blois

#179881
Overall Influence
Jessica Lynn Blois is an American paleoecologist. Early life and education Blois attended Rio Mesa High School, where she graduated with a GPA of 4.67 and was named valedictorian. She was also the recipient of a National Merit Scholarship. From there, Blois attended the University of California, San Diego for her Bachelor of Science degree before moving to Arcata, California to attend Humboldt State University. She completed her education at Stanford University in 2009.
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#15853

Cécile Gueidan

#187776
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Cécile Gueidan is a mycologist and lichenologist who applies morphological and molecular biological methods to the origin and taxonomy of fungi that live in lichen symbioses and within rocks. Early life and education Gueidan began working on lichens during her Maitrise and DEA qualifications from Université Louis Pasteur and National Museum of Natural History, France. This included practical fieldwork experience with Claude Roux.
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#15854

Kathleen D. Gordon-Gray

#127644
Overall Influence
1918 - 2012 (94 years)
Kathleen Dixon Gordon-Gray was a South African botanist, plant collector, and educator noted for her expertise in the flora of Natal. She worked as both a lecturer and professor of botany at the University of Natal. In 1998 she was awarded the Senior Medal of the South African Association of Botanists. Her research publications primarily covered the taxonomy of Acacia, Cassia, Cyperaceae, and Gramineae.
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#15855

Urs Noel Glutz von Blotzheim

#131507
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Urs Noel Glutz von Blotzheim is a Swiss zoologist, who is primarily known for his ornithological work. Glutz von Blotzheim is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bern. He is an honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union.
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#15856

Jennifer Miksis-Olds

#177126
Overall Influence
Jennifer Miksis-Olds is an American marine scientist known for her research using acoustics to track marine mammals. Education Miksis-Olds received an A.B. in biology from Harvard University , and during this time she volunteered in a primate lab which she credits as her introduction to acoustics. Miksis-Olds has an M.S. in biology from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and spent time as a guest student at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . She obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island in 2006, where she studied the connections between sound and manatees.
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#15857

Simon J Pierce

#182089
Overall Influence
Simon J Pierce is a marine biologist and conservationist known for discovering, studying, and protecting large marine animals such as whale sharks and manta rays. He is the co-founder and principal scientist of the Marine Megafauna Foundation.
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#15858

Richard Lacey

#178226
Overall Influence
1940 - 2019 (79 years)
Richard Westgarth Lacey was a British microbiologist and writer, known for arguing that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy "mad cow disease" can be passed to humans. Biography Lacey read medicine at the University of Cambridge. Subsequently he became a lecturer, later reader at the University of Bristol, where he gained his PhD. He was appointed to the chair of clinical microbiology at the University of Leeds in 1983, where he remained until his retirement in 1998 to become an emeritus professor.
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#15859

Nadine Provençal

#184093
Overall Influence
Nadine Provençal is an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University and Investigator at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute. In 2020, she was recognized by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research with an appointment to CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar.
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#15860

Günther Theischinger

#188017
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
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#15861

Charles W. Socarides

Charles W. Socarides
#137634
Overall Influence
1922 - 2005 (83 years)
Charles William Socarides was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, physician, educator and author. He focused much of his career on homosexuality, which he believed could be altered. He helped found the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality in 1992 and worked extensively with the organization until his death.
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#15862

Anoop Misra

#188219
Overall Influence
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#15863

Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana

#187305
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana is a Bolivian ethnobotanist. She investigates the use and protection of traditional knowledge of plants in indigenous communities, particularly in the Bolivian Andes. She is currently an Associated Researcher at the Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andres in Bolivia. Her goal is giving them the knowledge to participate in decision-making on the conservation of their intangible cultural heritage.
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#15864

Elsa Nyholm

#153432
Overall Influence
1911 - 2002 (91 years)
Elsa Cecilia Nyholm was a Swedish botanist, in particular bryologist, and researcher at Lund University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Elsa Nyholm was born at a farm a in Nordanå in rural Scania, southernmost Sweden. Despite a strong interest in natural history, she was not allowed to attend grammar school. Instead, she went to handicraft and household schools and developed her interest in nature on the side. In 1932, she got a job as museum assistant at the Lund University botanical museum. There, she specialized in bryology and conceived the idea of a grand moss flora of Northern Europe.
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#15865

André Aleman

#109319
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Andreas "André" Aleman is a Dutch neuroscientist and professor of cognitive neuropsychiatry at the University Medical Center Groningen and the University of Groningen. Aleman was born in Leiden. He studied psychology at Utrecht University. He obtained his title of doctor at Utrecht University in 2001, with a thesis titled: "Cognitive neuropsychiatry of hallucinations in schizophrenia: how the brain misleads itself". He worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Groningen and in 2006 was promoted to full professor. In 2011 he received a Vici grant by the Netherlands Organisation for S...
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#15866

Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga

#170861
Overall Influence
1907 - 2001 (94 years)
Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga was a Malagasy physician, biochemist and diplomat. Born into a disgraced royal family; Ratsimamanga trained as a doctor of exotic medicine in French Madagascar and France, where he pioneered modern nutraceuticals. Ratsimamanga returned to Madagascar and, with his wife, Suzanne Urverg-Ratsimamanga, in 1957, established the which specialised in herbal medicine.
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#15867

Alicia Pérez-Porro

#184030
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Alicia R. Pérez-Porro is a Spanish marine biologist specialized in the study of marine sponges, an environmental activist and a feminist. Since 2018, she has presided over the Association of Spanish Scientists in the United States , from where she fights to break the glass ceiling in the scientific field and for women to occupy leadership positions.
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#15868

Ayana Jordan

#129269
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Ayana Jordan is an American addiction psychiatrist and immunopathologist. She researches treatments for substance use disorders in marginalized communities. She is the Barbara Wilson Associate Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health and was a professor at Yale School of Medicine. She served as an attending psychiatrist in the Yale University Department of Psychiatry. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association in 2018. She attended Hampton University and received her MD and PhD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
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#15869

Julia Kasper

Julia Kasper
#187511
Overall Influence
Julia Kasper is a New Zealand entomologist specialising in Diptera. As at 2022 she is the lead invertebrate curator at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa. As part of her work Kasper is assisting with a citizen science project informing a national mosquito census. Kasper has previously worked as the principal entomologist at the New Zealand Biosecure Laboratory. She has also undertaken work in forensic entomology assisting the New Zealand police and coroners with cases. Prior to living in New Zealand she worked at the Natural History Museum, Berlin. Kasper obtained her doctorate at Humbol...
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#15870

Christopher Yost

#188279
Overall Influence
Christopher Yost is a Canadian biologist, currently a Canada Research Chair in Microbes, the Environment and Food Safety at University of Regina.
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#15871

Adriana Galván

#176720
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Adriana Galván is an American psychologist and expert on adolescent brain development. She is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles where she directs the Developmental Neuroscience laboratory. She was appointed the Jeffrey Wenzel Term Chair in Behavioral Neuroscience and the Dean of Undergraduate Education at UCLA.
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#15872

James O'Brien

#149167
Overall Influence
1935 - 2016 (81 years)
James J. O'Brien was an emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University. He believed sea levels were rising but predicted a more modest rise instead of by 2100 targeted by some other scientists. He stated that "sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period. Unless we go back into an Ice age, we will continue to rise at over in 10 year. That's without any global warming."
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#15873

Alan Finkel

Alan Finkel
#168426
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
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#15874

Bryant Villeponteau

#187932
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Bryant Villeponteau is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and longevity expert who has worked in both academia and industry. His early work included the cloning of the RNA component of human telomerase when working at Geron Corporation, which led to his winning the 1997 Distinguished Inventor Award for cloning human telomerase along with three of his Geron teammates. In 2008, Villeponteau went on to serve as Vice President of Research of the aging genetics company Genescient, Inc., which uses machine learning technologies, biochemistry, and Drosophila genetics to develop therapeutics to help delay the aging process.
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#15875

Ping Zhang

#183573
Overall Influence
Ping Zhang is an American structural biologist researching the structural and mechanistic basis of multi-component kinase signaling complexes that are linked to human cancers and other diseases, with a long-term goal of developing new therapeutic strategies. She is a NIH Stadtman Investigator in the Structural Biophysics Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute.
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#15876

Guy Cheron

#174669
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Guy Cheron is a professor of neurophysiology and movement biomechanics. He works at the Faculty of Motor Science in the Université Libre de Bruxelles and is a professor of neuropsychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences in the University of Mons. He is the co-founder of the spinoff Human Waves.
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#15877

Tony Silva

#147865
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Tony Silva, also known as Antonio H. Silva is an American aviculturist and ornithologist, and the author of books and articles about parrots. From 1989 to 1992, he was curator of birds at Loro Parque, the largest parrot park in the world. In 1996, he was convicted of conspiring to smuggle rare parrots into the United States and of tax evasion.
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#15878

David B. Williams

#188387
Overall Influence
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#15879

Philip Solomon

#113157
Overall Influence
1926 - 2002 (76 years)
Dr. Philip Solomon was an American psychiatrist and researcher. Life and work A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Solomon served as a Commander in the U.S. Navy attached to the sixth Marine division during World War II as the Division Psychiatrist. He was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Physician in Chief of Psychiatry at Boston City Hospital from 1952 until 1969. He founded the College Mental Health Center in Boston in 1968. In 1969, Solomon moved to La Jolla, California where he served as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry a...
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#15880

Bryan Nelson

#98386
Overall Influence
1932 - 2015 (83 years)
Joseph Bryan Nelson MBE FRSE was a British ornithologist, environmental activist and academic. He was a prominent authority on seabirds, publishing numerous books and articles on gannets, cormorants and other species, teaching zoology at the University of Aberdeen, and conducting pioneering ornithological research in Jordan, Christmas Island and the Galápagos Islands. In his lifetime, Nelson was "acclaimed as the world's leading expert on the northern gannet". He also contributed to the creation of Christmas Island National Park, which helped to preserve the habitat of the endangered Abbott'...
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#15881

Attila Ősi

#161706
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
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#15882

Silvie Huijben

#184583
Overall Influence
Silvie Huijben is an evolutionary biologist and Assistant Professor at Arizona State University. The Huijben Lab uses fieldwork, lab experiments, and mathematical modeling to study antimalarial and insecticide resistance in parasites, such as disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Her work is focused on applying evolutionary theory to produce resistance management strategies to best combat malaria.
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#15883

Mahendra S. Rao

#188455
Overall Influence
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#15884

Shubulade Smith

#72380
Overall Influence
Shubulade Smith is a British academic and consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust . She is a senior lecturer at King's College, London and Clinical Director at the NCCMH and forensic services at SLaM, and is .
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#15885

Blessings Chinsinga

#184408
Overall Influence
Professor Blessings Chinsinga is a Malawian lecturer at the centre of the Malawi Academic Freedom Stand off and eventual protests. He was a Senior Lecturer in Development Administration, Public Policy Analysis and Institutions, and Development at University of Malawi's Chancellor College.
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#15886

Anthony R. West

#188468
Overall Influence
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#15887

Louis du Preez

#188070
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Louis Heyns Du Preez is a South African professor of zoology who specialises in parasitology and herpetology at the North-West University. Du Preez is best known for his research on South African frog species, writing a widely used wildlife guide for the frogs of Southern Africa, and contributions to global parasitology with special focus studies on polystome worms. His contributions to polystome research have led to a recently discovered Malagasy frog species, Blommersia dupreezi, being named in his honour.
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#15888

Dmitry Telnov

Dmitry Telnov
#187833
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Dmitry Telnov is a Latvian entomologist, biogeographer, and conservationist. He is a fellow and vice president of the Entomological Society of Latvia as well as the executive editor of the "Biodiversity, biogeography and nature conservation in Wallacea and New Guinea" book series, as well as a member of the editorial board of the "Latvijas Entomologs", ZooKeys and Tijdschift voor Entomologie journals. He is primarily known for his taxonomic works on Coleoptera and biogeographic research in the Papuan region and in the Wallacea .
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#15889

Antonei Csoka

#188490
Overall Influence
Antonei Benjamin Csoka is a biogerontologist at Howard University who works on the molecular biology of aging, regenerative medicine, and epigenetics. Education Csoka earned a bachelor's degrees at Newcastle University in Genetics. He has a master's in Molecular Pathology from University of Leicester and a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from University of Debrecen.
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#15890

Jaap J. Vermeulen

#153662
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Jaap J. Vermeulen is a Dutch botanist, specializing in the Orchidaceae genus Bulbophyllum. Publications by Jaap Vermeulen Books Bulbophyllum of Sulawesi Orchids of Borneo Volume 2 Bulbophyllum BULBOPHYLLUM OF BORNEO
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#15891

Collin Y. Ewald

#188211
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Collin Yvès Ewald is a Swiss scientist investigating the molecular mechanisms of healthy aging. He is a molecular biologist and a professor at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Laboratory of Extracellular Matrix Regeneration. His research focuses on the remodeling of the extracellular matrix during aging and upon longevity interventions.
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#15892

Min Chen

Min Chen
#167206
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Min Chen is an Australian plant physiologist. She was born in China and educated in Northeast Normal University China - BSc in 1984 and MSc in 1987 and received her PhD in 2003 from The University of Sydney Australia. She is a full professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her research is primarily concerned with elucidating the molecular and biochemical mechanism of the energy-storing reactions in photosynthetic organisms, especially the function of novel photopigments in oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria.
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#15893

Diana Reiss

#188514
Overall Influence
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#15894

James Robinson Scott

#105524
Overall Influence
James Robinson Scott FRSE FLS PRMS was an 18th/19th century Scottish naval surgeon and amateur botanist. He served as Senior President of the Royal Medical Society 1818/19. Life He was born in Edinburgh around 1763.
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#15895

Marieke Lettink

#186966
Overall Influence
Marieke Lettink is a New Zealand herpetologist. Biography Lettink holds a master's in science from the University of Canterbury, and a postgraduate diploma in wildlife management and a PhD in Zoology both from the University of Otago.
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#15896

Daniel D. Langleben

#173735
Overall Influence
Daniel Langleben is a psychiatrist, professor, and scientific researcher. He pioneered a technique for using functional magnetic resonance imaging as a means of lie detection. He has also studied the brain effects of packaging and advertising and how infants' cuteness motivates caretaking in adults.
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#15897

Eve Van Cauter

#188523
Overall Influence
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#15898

Virgil Griffith

Virgil Griffith
#64779
Overall Influence
1983 - Present (43 years)
Virgil Griffith , is an American programmer and convicted felon. He worked extensively on the Ethereum cryptocurrency platform, designed the Tor2web proxy along with Aaron Swartz, and created the Wikipedia indexing tool WikiScanner. He has published papers on artificial life and integrated information theory. Griffith was arrested in 2019 and in 2021 pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate U.S. laws relating to money laundering using cryptocurrency and sanctions related to North Korea. On April 12, 2022, Griffith was sentenced to 63 months imprisonment for assisting North Korea with evading sa...
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#15899

Chandan Chakraborty

#188532
Overall Influence
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#15900

Olavi Kurina

#188549
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
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