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,
#4001
Joel D. Kopple
#45513
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Joel D. Kopple is an American professor, physician, and clinical investigator in medicine, nephrology, nutrition, and public health. He is professor at David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine and UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He served from 1982 to 2007 as the chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is also known as the father of the field of Renal Nutrition.
Go to Profile#4002
Daniel Zohary
#73120
Overall Influence
1926 - 2016 (90 years)
Daniel Zohary was an Israeli plant geneticist, agronomist, and influential professor at the Hebrew University. He was the co-author of a comprehensive review of the origin and spread of domesticated plants in southwest Asia, Europe, and North Africa, Domestication of Plants in the Old World, which was first published in 1988 with many later editions.
Go to Profile#4003
Roop Mallik
#72777
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Roop Mallik is an Indian biophysicist who works on nanoscale molecular motor proteins that transport material such as viruses, mitochondria, endosomes etc. inside living cells. The motors, such as kinesin and dynein generate forces of pico-newton order to carry our various cellular processes namely cell division, vesicular transport, endocytosis, molecular tethering etc. His lab is working to understand how motor proteins help in degradation and clearance of pathogens, and also how these motors work inside the liver to maintain systemic lipid homeostasis in the animal. Mallik is currently a ...
Go to Profile#4004
Frederick L. Crane
#89233
Overall Influence
#4005
Saumitra Das
#48756
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Saumitra Das is an Indian microbiologist and a professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology of the Indian Institute of Science. Known for his studies in the fields of molecular virology and molecular biology, Das is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Science Academy. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contr...
Go to Profile#4006
Randy J. Nelson
#86803
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Randy J. Nelson is an American neuroscientist who holds the Hazel Ruby McQuain Chair for Neurological Research and the founding chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. Much of his research has focused on the contribution of circadian and seasonal rhythms on physiology and behavior.
Go to Profile#4007
Carl Bergstrom
#43668
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Carl Theodore Bergstrom is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States. Bergstrom is a critic of low-quality or misleading scientific research. He is the co-author of a book on misinformation called Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World and teaches a class by the same name at University of Washington.
Go to Profile#4008
John B. Neilands
#89259
Overall Influence
#4009
Rodrigo Medellín
#35521
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Rodrigo A. Medellín is a Mexican ecologist and Senior Professor of Ecology at the Institute of Ecology, University of Mexico . Known for his work in bat, jaguar, bighorn sheep and other species conservation, his research has always been designed and conducted to advice conservation policy and conservation decision-making processes in Mexico and 16 other countries for over 40 years.
Go to Profile#4010
J.-gregory Zeikus
#89276
Overall Influence
#4011
Desmond H. Collins
#80941
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Desmond H. Collins is a Canadian paleontologist, associate professor of zoology at the University of Toronto and retired curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum. He is most renowned for his work on the Burgess Shale.
Go to Profile#4012
Adam Gazzaley
#42056
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Adam Gazzaley is an American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor. He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape and the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco . He is co-founder and chief science advisor of Akili Interactive Labs and JAZZ Venture Partners. Gazzaley is the inventor of the first video game approved by the FDA as a medical treatment. He is a board of trustee member, science council member and fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He has authored over 180 ...
Go to Profile#4013
Michael Foote
#65320
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Michael J. Foote is a paleontologist and co-author, with Arnold I. Miller, of Principles of Paleontology . He was awarded the Charles Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society in 2000. He is currently on the faculty at the University of Chicago, where he is Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences and the Committee on Evolutionary Biology.
Go to Profile#4014
Ron Fouchier
#59414
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Ronaldus Adrianus Maria Fouchier is a Dutch virologist who is Deputy head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience, headed by Prof. Marion Koopmans. Notability Fouchier is notable for his research on respiratory viruses of humans and animals, antigenic drift, and influenza virus zoonoses, transmission and pandemics. His team contributed substantially to the identification and characterization of various “new” viruses, such as human metapneumovirus, human coronavirus NL63, SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus, and influenza A virus subtype H16.
Go to Profile#4015
Aaron Shatkin
#77332
Overall Influence
1934 - 2012 (78 years)
Aaron J. Shatkin was an American professor and director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University and a scientist at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He was known for his work as a virologist studying reoviruses.
Go to Profile#4016
Hans D. Ochs
#52862
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Hans Dieter Ochs , is an immunologist and pediatrician. He is Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. Medical and research career Hans D. Ochs graduated from the University of Freiburg, Germany with a degree and Doctorate in Medicine. He was a resident in Pediatrics at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, at the University of Tübingen, Germany and at the University of Washington, Seattle. He received post-graduate training in Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen and in clinical Immunology at the University of Washington.
Go to Profile#4017
Walter Reich
#21098
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Walter Reich is an American magazine editor, psychiatrist, and writer. He was the 2003 recipient of the AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. Appointments In the past, Reich held the roles of director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, located in Washington, D.C. ensuring its establishment as an educational institute with serious scholarship; at Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut; a resident in psychiatry, working at the National Institute of Mental Health, located in Washington, D.C.; and was co-chair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists, located in New...
Go to Profile#4018
Chandan K. Sen
#76813
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Chandan K. Sen is an Indian-American scientist who is known for contributions to the fields of regenerative medicine and wound care. He is currently the Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine of the University of Pittsburgh. He is an University Endowed Professor of Surgery who also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of wound care services of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health system. At the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Sen serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Life Sciences Innovation and Commercialization.
Go to Profile#4019
Luca Turin
#30362
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Luca Turin is a biophysicist and writer with a long-standing interest in bioelectronics, the sense of smell, perfumery, and the fragrance industry. Early life and education Turin was born in Beirut, Lebanon on 20 November 1953 into an Italian-Argentinian family, and raised in France, Italy and Switzerland. His father, Duccio Turin, was a UN diplomat and chief architect of the Palestinian refugee camps, and his mother, Adela Turin , is an art historian, designer, and award-winning children's author. Turin studied Physiology and Biophysics at University College London and earned his PhD in 1978.
Go to Profile#4020
David M. Regan
#89404
Overall Influence
#4021
Rosemary Redfield
#55144
Overall Influence
Rosemary Jeanne Redfield is a microbiologist associated with the University of British Columbia where she worked as a faculty member in the Department of Zoology from 1993 until retiring in 2021. Education Redfield completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Monash University. She continued her education at McMaster University where she completed her MSc in 1980. Her thesis titled, "Methylation and chromatin conformation of adenovirus type 12 DNA sequences in transformed cells," dealt with the chromatin structure and SDNA methylation. Redfield received her PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University under Allan M.
Go to Profile#4022
Richard Amasino
#81350
Overall Influence
Richard Arthur is a professor of biochemistry and genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He got his bachelor's degree in biology at Pennsylvania State University. He went on to receive his PhD in biochemistry at Indiana University in 1982 and did post doctoral research at the University of Washington. Amasino's research focuses on plants and how plants know when to flower. In 2006 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#4023
Philip Hieter
#85678
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Philip Hieter is an American scientist specializing in yeast genetics. He is currently a professor of medical genetics at the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#4024
Neil Gemmell
#70198
Overall Influence
Neil John Gemmell , is a New Zealand geneticist. His research areas cover evolutionary genetics and genomics, molecular ecology, and conservation biology. Originally from Lower Hutt, he obtained his PhD at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Since 2008, Gemmell has been a professor at the University of Otago and since 2019 holds one of their seven Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chairs . Significant work includes the search of the Loch Ness Monster and the sequencing of the tuatara genome . In 2020, Gemmell received the Hutton Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
Go to Profile#4025
Michael Foster Green
#89452
Overall Influence
#4026
J. Bruce Beckwith
#43299
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
John Bruce Beckwith is an American pediatric pathologist known for helping to identify Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which is partly named after him. He is also known for his role as reference pathologist for the National Wilms Tumor Study Group, a position he held from 1969 until his retirement thirty years later. He is also recognized for his research on sudden infant death syndrome, which he helped to define in the 1960s.
Go to Profile#4027
Rachel Wilson
#42285
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Rachel Wilson is a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Wilson's work integrates electrophysiology, neuropharmacology, molecular genetics, functional anatomy, and behavior to explore how neural circuits are organized to react and sense a complex environment.
Go to Profile#4028
Masaya Tohyama
#89470
Overall Influence
#4029
Michael Stebbins
#55381
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Michael Stebbins is an American geneticist and former Vice President of Science and Technology at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. He previously served as Assistant Director for Biotechnology, at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Go to Profile#4030
Diego Pol
#82685
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
#4031
Jack Barchas
#61797
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Jack David Barchas is an American psychiatrist who is the Barklie McKee Henry Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University and the Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. He was formerly the Nancy Friend Pritzker professor in psychiatry at Stanford University and dean of research and neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#4032
Xiaoqi Feng
#81493
Overall Influence
Xiaoqi Feng is a Chinese plant geneticist, currently based at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, England. From 2008 to 2010, Feng was a lecturer at the University of Oxford where she won the Mendel Medal in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences category of the SET for Britain award, before moving to work as a postdoctoral researcher under Daniel Zilbermann at the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. She remained at Berkeley until 2014 when she joined the John Innes Centre as a project leader.
Go to Profile#4033
Bernard Malissen
#80341
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Bernard Malissen, born on 29 November 1953 in Agen, is a French biology researcher specialising in immunology. Research Director at the CNRS, he was also Director of the Marseille-Luminy Immunology Centre from 1995 to 2005.
Go to Profile#4034
Edith Widder
#39125
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Edith Anne "Edie" Widder Smith is an American oceanographer, marine biologist, author and the Co-founder, CEO and Senior Scientist at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association. Early life and education Widder was born in Arlington, Massachusetts to Dr. David Widder, a Harvard University mathematics professor, and Dr. Vera Widder, a mathematician turned stay at home mother. She also had an older brother, David Charles Widder.
Go to Profile#4035
Attila Borhidi
#86368
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Borhidi Attila , is a Széchenyi Prize winning Hungarian botanist, ecologist, professor, politician and full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is most noted for his extensive work on plant taxonomy. 1989 to 1992, he was at the Janus Pannonius University Teacher Training Faculty, and from 1992 to 1994 the newly formed Faculty of Science. Between 1997 and 2002 he was Institute director of the Institute of Ecology and Botany. He is a member of the Batthyány Society of Professors.
Go to Profile#4036
Jonathan E. Bennett
#89545
Overall Influence
#4037
Marianne V. Moore
#55449
Overall Influence
Marianne V. Moore is an American aquatic ecologist, whose area of expertise is the threat posed to lakes from manmade origins. She was awarded the Ramón Margalef Award for Excellence in Education in 2015 for an innovative teaching program she designed which combines cultural and scientific research to give students an interdisciplinary understanding of the impact of changes in lake habitat to organisms in the water, as well as the people who populate the shores surrounding the lake.
Go to Profile#4038
Richard Faull
#40920
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Sir Richard Lewis Maxwell Faull is a New Zealand neuroscientist and academic who specialises in human neurodegenerative diseases. He is a professor of anatomy and director of the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland.
Go to Profile#4039
Yves Van de Peer
#89585
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
#4040
Doreen Cantrell
#81865
Overall Influence
Doreen Ann Cantrell CBE, FRS, FRSE, FMedSci is a Scottish scientist and Professor of Cellular Immunology at the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee. She researches the development and activation T lymphocytes, which are key to the understanding the immune response.
Go to Profile#4041
Mark W. Dewhirst
#89618
Overall Influence
#4042
Thomas D. Sharkey
#87780
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Thomas D. Sharkey is a plant biochemist who studies gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere. His research has covered carbon metabolism of photosynthesis from carbon dioxide uptake to carbon export from the Calvin-Benson Cycle, isoprene emission from plants, and abiotic stress tolerance. Four guiding questions are: how leaf photosynthesis affects plant yield, does some carbon fixation follow an oxidative pathway that reduces sugar output but stabilizes photosynthesis, why plants make isoprene, and how plants cope with high temperature.
Go to Profile#4043
Gregory Poland
#46382
Overall Influence
Gregory A. Poland is an American physician and vaccinologist. He is the Mary Lowell Leary professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as well as the director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. He is also the editor-in-chief of the medical journal Vaccine.
Go to Profile#4044
Francesco Lacquaniti
#41471
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Francesco Lacquaniti is an Italian neurologist and neuroscientist. He received his medical education and completed his Neurology residency at the University of Turin. He is Professor of Physiology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and the Director of the Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology at Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, Rome. His research focuses on the laws of movement control in humans and other animals and their development in children and alteration after neurological lesions . He also studied the neural representation of spatial information in the brain , the neural representation of gravity effects on the body , and how the brain adapts to weightlessness .
Go to Profile#4045
John M. Goldman
#89664
Overall Influence
#4046
Eva Olsson Engvall
#89670
Overall Influence
#4047
Mark G. Thomas
#64393
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Mark G. Thomas is a human evolutionary geneticist, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London since 2009. Prior to this, he was Cancer Research Campaign Postdoctoral Research Fellow at King's College London and then Wellcome Trust postdoctoral researcher in the department of Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He has acted as Editor-in-chief of the journal Annals of Human Genetics from 2015 to 2019 and Oct 2020 to Jan 2021.
Go to Profile#4048
Roger Allen Leigh
#83342
Overall Influence
Roger Allen Leigh is a Plant Scientist. He is a former Professor of Botany, Cambridge University, where he was a fellow of Girton College. Between 2006 and 2010 he was head of school of Agriculture, Food & Wine at the University of Adelaide. He was then appointed as the Director of the Waite Research Institute at the University of Adelaide.
Go to Profile#4049
James W. Truman
#84106
Overall Influence
James "Jim" William Truman is an American chronobiologist known for his seminal research on circadian rhythms in silkmoth eclosion, particularly the restoration of rhythm and phase following brain transplantation. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington and a former senior fellow at Howard Hughes Medical Institution Janelia Research Campus.
Go to Profile#4050
Ülo Niinemets
#89763
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
