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,
#19801
Sven Gustaf Hedin
1859 - 1933 (74 years)
Sven Gustaf Hedin was a Swedish chemist and physiologist credited with the discovery of histidine. He was born in Alseda parish, Jönköping County. He began his studies in 1878 and received his bachelor's degree in 1881 at Uppsala University. In 1886 he received his doctorate in philosophy and doctorate of medicine in 1893 in Lund and docent in chemistry in 1886 and became a researcher there in 1895. From 1900 to 1907 he was made head of the pathological chemistry division at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London, and professor of medicinal and physiological chemistry at Uppsala University in 1908.
Go to Profile#19802
Alexandr Alexandrovich Fischer von Waldheim
1839 - 1920 (81 years)
#19803
Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley
1872 - 1936 (64 years)
Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley was an English gardening author and instructor. Her Glynde College for Lady Gardeners in East Sussex had the patronage of famous gardening names such as Gertrude Jekyll, Ellen Willmott, and William Robinson.
Go to Profile#19804
Martin J. Kushmerick
#19805
Edward Wyllie Fenton
1889 - 1962 (73 years)
Dr Edward Wyllie Fenton FRSE FLS was a Scottish botanist. He was President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 1944–45. Life He was born in Aberdeen on 4 November 1889, the son of Edward W. Fenton, a clerk living at 13 Bon Accord Street. He attended Aberdeen University graduating in 1913. He began lecturing in Botany at the university as soon as he qualified. As with many, his career was interrupted by the First World War during which he served in the Royal Field Artillery. He was commissioned on 6 July 1915. He served in Britain as Chief Instructor in the Signalling Section at the rank of ...
Go to Profile#19806
René Viguier
1880 - 1931 (51 years)
René Viguier was a French botanist known for his investigations of plants within the family Araliaceae. He worked as a préparateur at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle with Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem, afterwards serving as maître de conférences at the Sorbonne. In 1912 he collected botanical specimens in Madagascar with Jean-Henri Humbert. From 1919 to 1931 he was a professor of botany at the University of Caen as well as director of city's botanical garden.
Go to Profile#19807
Adolph E. Waller
1892 - 1975 (83 years)
Adolph E. Waller was a professor of botany and genetics. Waller was a member of the faculty of The Ohio State University for 45 years, where he was an authority on iris breeding and horticulture, plant ecology and genetics.
Go to Profile#19808
Werner Emmanuel Bachmann
1901 - 1951 (50 years)
Werner Emmanuel Bachmann was an American chemist. Bachmann was born in Detroit, Michigan where he studied chemistry and chemical engineering at Wayne State University and later at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor nearby. He completed his doctorate under Moses Gomberg and spent the rest of his academic career at the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#19809
Bruce B. Collette
#19810
H. Anne Simmonds
#19811
Robert John Pearce Carey
#19812
Winona Hazel Welch
1896 - 1990 (94 years)
Winona Hazel Welch was an American bryologist. As a professor at DePauw University, she became the first female head of the botany and bacteriology department at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
Go to Profile#19813
Wilhelm Fleischmann
1837 - 1920 (83 years)
Wilhelm Fleischmann was a German agriculturist and chemist. He is known for his work on the chemistry of milk. Biography He received his education at Nuremberg, Würzburg, Erlangen and Munich. In Justus von Liebig's laboratory in 1862, he began work on agricultural chemistry, and in 1864-67 while teaching in the Realschule at Memmingen conducted experiments there. From 1867 to 1876, he was principal of the Realschule at Lindau and for the following 10 years directed the first dairy experiment station of Germany, in the vicinity of Lalendorf, Mecklenburg. From 1886 to 1896, he was director of the Agricultural Institute at Königsberg and of that at Göttingen after 1896.
Go to Profile#19814
Jos van der Meer
1947 - 1961 (14 years)
Jos W.M. van der Meer is emeritus professor and former chairman at the department of internal medicine of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences , of which he was vice president and chairman of the division of natural sciences . He is a member of Academia Europaea. Between 2014 and 2016 he was president of European Academies Science Advisory Council . He performs research on cytokines and host defence, chronic fatigue syndrome and hyper-immunoglobulinemia D syndrome . He is also active in gr...
Go to Profile#19815
Lewis G. Longsworth
1904 - 1981 (77 years)
Lewis Gibson Longsworth was an American chemist and biochemist. The New York Times said that his research "helped to make modern biochemistry possible". Longsworth was notable for creating separation methods that allowed to measure trace quantities of biological chemicals, as well as for new methods and improved techniques for studying the structures of proteins. Longsworth was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a professor at Rockefeller University. He was also a member of the American Chemical Society, Electrochemical Society, Harvey Society, and Sigma Xi. He was the recipie...
Go to Profile#19816
David Nelson
1740 - 1789 (49 years)
David Nelson was gardener-botanist on the third voyage of James Cook, and botanist on under William Bligh at the time of the famous mutiny. Nothing is known of his ancestry or early life. In 1776, while working as a gardener at Kew Gardens, he accepted a position as a servant to William Bayly, the official astronomer on . He was promoted to able seaman; however, his real task as arranged between Joseph Banks and Cook was to collect as many botanical specimens as possible for the Royal Gardens, as Cook, who had failed to attract an established botanist to the position. He received a small amount of botanical training and instruction from Banks and William Aiton before embarking.
Go to Profile#19817
Robert E. Hales
#19818
James M. Parry
#19819
Bernard J. Ransil
#19820
Jean D. Wilson
#19821
Hugh Alistair Reid
#19822
Marian Irwin Osterhout
1888 - 1973 (85 years)
Marian Irwin Osterhout , was an American plant physiologist born in Japan. She was the first woman to receive a National Research Council fellowship. Early life and education Marian Irwin was born in Tokyo, the daughter of Iki Takechi Irwin and Robert Walker Irwin . Her mother was a Japanese noblewoman, daughter of a samurai; her father was an American diplomat, the son of William W. Irwin and a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin. Her older sister Bella Irwin founded a school in Tokyo. Their aunt, Agnes Irwin, was also an educator, the first dean of Radcliffe College.
Go to Profile#19823
H. G. H. Kearns
1902 - 1986 (84 years)
Howard George Henry Kearns, was a researcher in entomology whose knowledge of entomology and engineering influenced the design of spraying equipment before and after the Second World War. He was a long-time researcher at the University of Bristol and the Deputy Director of its Long Ashton Research Station. He was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Bath in 1967.
Go to Profile#19824
Lois Clark
1884 - 1967 (83 years)
Lois Clark was an American botanist, bryologist, and professor who studied plants of the Northwestern United States, particularly the genus Frullania. She taught at the University of Idaho and the University of Washington.
Go to Profile#19825
Hampus Wilhelm Arnell
1848 - 1932 (84 years)
Hampus Wilhelm Arnell was a Swedish bryologist. He was the father of hepaticologist Sigfrid Vilhelm Arnell . In 1875, he became a privat-docent of botany at the University of Uppsala, later working as a schoolteacher in Umeå and Harnosand. In 1880 he became an associate professor of natural history and chemistry in Jönköping. He later taught classes in Gävle and Uppsala .
Go to Profile#19826
Sidney Hugh Reynolds
1867 - 1949 (82 years)
Sidney Hugh Reynolds DSc, FGS was an English geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist who was born in Brighton. He died in Clifton, Bristol, aged 81 leaving behind a widow and a daughter. Education and career Reynolds was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received B.A. 1889; ; M.A. 1894; Sc.D. 1913. He was acting professor of zoology at Madras Christian College in 1891–1892 and in 1897–1898. He taught Geology and Zoology at the University of Bristol in 1894 where he became an assistant professor in 1899 and then a professor in 1900. In 1910 he was appointed the chair of geology, a position held until he retired as professor emeritus in 1933.
Go to Profile#19827
Raymond E. Zirkle
1902 - 1988 (86 years)
Raymond Elliot Zirkle was an American biologist who was a pioneer in the field of radiation biology, and served as director of the Institute of Radio-Biology and Biophysics at the University of Chicago, Damon Runyon Fellow. Zirkle was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1959.
Go to Profile#19828
Oswald Seeliger
1858 - 1908 (50 years)
Oswald Seeliger was a German zoologist, known for his studies involving the anatomy and developmental history of tunicates. From 1877 he studied natural sciences at the universities of Leipzig, Jena and Vienna, receiving his doctorate from the latter institution in 1882. He took a study trip to southern France, Spain and North Africa, and from 1883 conducted research at the zoological station in Trieste. In 1886, he obtained his habilitation for zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Berlin, and from 1898 to 1908 was a full professor at the University of Rostock. In 1903/04 he s...
Go to Profile#19829
José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage
1823 - 1907 (84 years)
José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage was a Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was the curator of Zoology at the Museu Nacional de Lisboa in Lisbon. He published numerous works on mammals, birds, and fishes. In the 1880s he became the Minister of the Navy and later the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Portugal. The zoology collection at the Lisbon Museum is called the Bocage Museum in his honor.
Go to Profile#19830
Charles Ethelbert Foweraker
1886 - 1964 (78 years)
Charles Ethelbert Foweraker was a New Zealand botanist, forester, and academic, primarily focused on mountain plants and rainforests in New Zealand. Early life and education Foweraker was born at Waimate, South Canterbury, New Zealand in 1886 to Waimate stationmaster William Foweraker , formerly of Pleasant Point, Timaru, and his second wife Harriette Frances, daughter of Robert Morgan, of Belfast. The Foweraker family were of Honiton, Devon; William came to New Zealand aboard the British Empire, arriving on 6 September 1864.
Go to Profile#19831
Otto Neubauer
1874 - 1957 (83 years)
Otto Neubauer was a Bohemia-born physician and biochemist who was responsible for several clinical diagnostic innovations including the Neubauer-Fischer test to evaluate kidney function and the Neubauer counting chamber.
Go to Profile#19832
Edgard Hérouard
1858 - 1932 (74 years)
Edgard Joseph Émile Hérouard was a French marine biologist. In 1889 he started work as a préparateur at the Sorbonne, earning his doctorate in natural sciences during the following year. From 1895 he served as chef des travaux pratiques de zoologie. In 1901 he was named vice-president of the Société zoologique de France, and soon afterwards was appointed assistant director of the Station biologique de Roscoff. In 1910 he attained the title of associate professor, becoming a professor "without chair" in 1921.
Go to Profile#19833
Johann Hedwig
1730 - 1799 (69 years)
Johann Hedwig , also styled as Johannes Hedwig, was a German botanist notable for his studies of mosses. He is sometimes called the "father of bryology". He is known for his particular observations of sexual reproduction in the cryptogams. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Ioannis Hedwig or Ioanne Hedwig.
Go to Profile#19834
Peter Rona
1871 - 1945 (74 years)
Peter Rona, born as Peter Rosenfeld was a Hungarian German Jewish physician and physiologist.
Go to Profile#19835
Jan Boeke
1874 - 1956 (82 years)
Jan Boeke was a Dutch anatomist and neuro-histologist who worked at the University of Utrecht serving as Rector Magnificus in 1937 and in 1945 with a gap due to the German invasion in World War II. His major experimental work was on nerve degeneration and regeneration. In 1940 he published Problems of nervous anatomy which review nerve histology in relation to physiology. Boeke was born in Hengelo to Mennonite pastor Izak Herman and Sara Maria van Gelder. His brother Julius Herman Boeke became an economist. Educated at the Gymnasium he went to study medicine at the University of Amsterdam. G...
Go to Profile#19836
Bertha Stoneman
1866 - 1943 (77 years)
Bertha Stoneman was an American-born South African botanist. She was president of Huguenot College from 1921 to 1933, and founder of the South African Association of University Women. Early life and education Bertha Stoneman was born on a farm near Jamestown, New York, the daughter of Byron Stoneman and Mary Jane Markaham Stoneman. Her aunt, Kate Stoneman, was the first woman admitted to the New York State bar, and her uncle George Stoneman was a general in the American Civil War and later governor of California. Bertha Stoneman completed undergraduate and doctoral studies in botany at Cornell University in 1894 and 1896, respectively.
Go to Profile#19837
G. Archdall Reid
1860 - 1929 (69 years)
Sir George Archdall O'Brien Reid KBE FRSE was a Scottish physician, and a writer on public health and on the subject of evolution. He was interested in the effects of alcohol on society, and in the evolution of races. He was one of the first to identify alcoholism as a disease.
Go to Profile#19838
Georg Duncker
1870 - 1953 (83 years)
Paul Georg Egmont Duncker was a German ichthyologist. Biography He studied at the universities of Kiel, Freiburg, and Berlin, receiving his doctorate at Kiel in 1895. Following graduation he lived and worked in Karlsruhe, Plymouth, Naples, Cold Spring Harbour , and Würzburg. From 1901 he worked as a curator for a year at the Selangor State Museum in Kuala Lumpur, afterwards returning to Europe, where he spent another year in Naples.
Go to Profile#19839
Adolf Schenck
1857 - 1936 (79 years)
Adolf Schenck was a German geographer, mineralogist and botanist who was a native of Siegen. He was a brother to botanist Heinrich Schenck . Schenck studied at the Universities of Berlin and Bonn, obtaining his doctorate in 1884. From 1884 to 1887 he was a geographer on a mineralogical expedition to German Southwest Africa. The expedition was organized by merchant Adolf Lüderitz and was under the leadership of Karl Höpfner . Several noted scientists participated in the venture, including Swiss botanist Hans Schinz , who performed botanical investigations in the northern part of German Southwest Africa.
Go to Profile#19840
James Sutherland
1638 - 1719 (81 years)
James Sutherland was the first Professor of Physic at the University of Edinburgh, from 1676 to 1705. He was intendant of the Physic Garden , and his innovative publication Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis placed Scotland at the forefront of European botany. He was also a renowned coin collector.
Go to Profile#19841
Richard Falck
1873 - 1955 (82 years)
Richard Falck was a German-American botanist and mycologist, who worked as a professor of mycology at the forest academy in Hannoversch Münden before he fled Nazi Germany and the persecution of Jews to finally settle in the United States of America. Falck was a specialist on fungi and on the preservation of timber from fungal damage.
Go to Profile#19842
James Toumey
1865 - 1932 (67 years)
James Toumey was a pioneer in American forestry, an influential botanist, and a distinguished educator at the Yale School of Forestry . Early life and education James William Toumey was born April 17, 1865, in Lawrence, Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree and M.Sc. from Michigan State Agricultural College .
Go to Profile#19843
Paul Marquard Schlegel
1605 - 1653 (48 years)
Paul Marquard Schlegel Latinized as Paulus Marquartus Slegelius was a German physician and anatomist known for his public demonstrations in anatomy and for being an early proponent of blood circulation. The plant genus Schlegelia was named in his honour.
Go to Profile#19844
Henry C. Greene
1904 - 1967 (63 years)
Henry Campbell Greene was an American mycologist at the University of Wisconsin. He was involved in the study of low prairie habitat and initiated the restoration, preservation, and protection of a parcel of restored prairie land. Greene co-discovered the erysiphe sparsa and erysiphe cichoracearum DC. var. latispora. He committed suicide.
Go to Profile#19845
Genkei Masamune
1899 - 1993 (94 years)
Genkei Masamune was a Japanese botanist. Biography Masamune Genkei worked on the island of Formosa and then, after World War II, at Kanazawa University. He was noted for his comprehensive botanical indexes of Borneo and Taiwan, as well as for the identification of large numbers of new species.
Go to Profile#19846
Bolesław Konorski
1892 - 1986 (94 years)
Bolesław Konorski was a Polish engineer and electrotechnician. He was Rector of the Lodz University of Technology in 1952–1953. He graduated from the Vienna University of Technology in 1918. In 1946 he started work at the Lodz University of Technology , where he largely contributed to the organising of the didactic process for electricians. He was a founder and then Head of the Fundamentals of Electrotechnology Departament. From 1948 to 1952 he was Pro-Rector of the TUL, then Rector in 1952–1953. He became a full professor in 1951.
Go to Profile#19847
Dmitry Sabinin
1889 - 1951 (62 years)
Dmitry Anatolievich Sabinin – Soviet botanist, plant physiologist, Vice-Rector , Head of the Department of Plant Physiology of Perm University, Head of the Department of Plant Physiology of Moscow State University , Head of the Laboratory of the Institute of Plant Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences .
Go to Profile#19848
Willem Marius Docters van Leeuwen
1880 - 1960 (80 years)
Willem Marius Docters van Leeuwen was a Dutch botanist and entomologist who worked in the Dutch colony in Indonesia, where he was prominent for conducting studies on insect-plant interactions as well as for his long-term studies on the island of Krakatoa.
Go to Profile#19849
Edvard August Vainio
1853 - 1929 (76 years)
Edvard August Vainio was a Finnish lichenologist. His early works on the lichens of Lapland, his three-volume monograph on the lichen genus Cladonia, and, in particular, his study of the classification and form and structure of lichens in Brazil, made Vainio renowned internationally in the field of lichenology.
Go to Profile#19850
Dorothy G. Downie
1894 - 1960 (66 years)
Dorothy G. Downie was a Scottish botanist and forester. She is known for her research on the fungal symbionts and nutritional requirements of orchids. Biography Dorothy G. Downie graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1917 with a B.S. in science and in 1919 with a B.S. in forestry. She was the first woman to receive a degree in forestry from the University of Edinburgh. From 1919 to 1920 she studied at Moray House Training College, where she qualified in professional training for teachers. From 1920 to 1925 she worked at the University of Aberdeen as an assistant to William Grant Cra...
Go to Profile