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,
#4051
Nico Van Van Rooijen
#89764
Overall Influence
#4052
Barbara Engelhardt
#9433
Overall Influence
Barbara Elizabeth Engelhardt is an American computer scientist and specialist in bioinformatics. Working as a Professor at Stanford University, her work has focused on latent variable models, exploratory data analysis for genomic data, and QTLs. In 2021, she was awarded the Overton Prize by the International Society for Computational Biology.
Go to Profile#4053
Beverly Wendland
#80278
Overall Influence
Beverly Wendland is the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis. Her laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms and regulation of endocytic vesicle formation, using cell biology, genetic, and structural biology approaches. Wendland's research has successfully taken advantage of the highly genetically tractable eukaryote, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Her research in yeast has advanced the molecular understanding of the cell biology underlying human cancer, cardiovascular disease, lysosomal-storage disorders and infections.
Go to Profile#4054
Eric Vivier
#76695
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Eric Vivier is a French professor of immunology at Aix-Marseille and hospital practitioner at Marseille Public University Hospital. He is also Chief Scientific Officer at Innate Pharma, coordinator of the Marseille Immunopôle immunology cluster, and president of the Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster, the first biocluster selected by the French government as part of the France 2030 program.
Go to Profile#4055
Paul Glimcher
#35877
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Paul W. Glimcher is an American neuroeconomist, neuroscientist, psychologist, economist, scholar, and entrepreneur. He is one of the foremost researchers focused on the study of human behavior and decision-making, and is known for his central role in founding and developing the field of neuroeconomics which takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how humans make decisions. Glimcher also founded the Institute for the Study of Decision Making at New York University . Today he serves as Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Neurosciences Institute at NYU's Gros...
Go to Profile#4056
Steven Haddock
#67033
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Steven H. D. Haddock is a marine biologist known for his work on bioluminescence of the jellylike animals of the open ocean and the deep sea, and the photoproteins and fluorescent proteins of these animals.
Go to Profile#4057
Peter Goodfellow
#66871
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Peter Neville Goodfellow, is a British geneticist best known for his work on sex determination and the SRY gene that encodes testis determining factor. He was Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 1996.
Go to Profile#4058
J. J. Hermans
#89873
Overall Influence
#4059
Charles M. Perou
#89877
Overall Influence
#4060
Alan Peters
#89880
Overall Influence
#4061
Oliver Pybus
#79118
Overall Influence
Oliver George Pybus is a British biologist. He is professor of evolution and infectious disease at the University of Oxford and professor of infectious diseases at the Royal Veterinary College. He is also editor-in-chief of Virus Evolution and co-Director of the Oxford Martin School Program for Pandemic Genomics. He is known for his work on the evolution and epidemiology of viruses and for helping to establish the field of phylodynamics. In recognition of his work, he has received several awards including the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London in 2009, the Daiwa Adrian Prize...
Go to Profile#4062
Leon E. Rosenberg
#73783
Overall Influence
1933 - 2022 (89 years)
Leon Emanuel Rosenberg was an American physician-scientist, geneticist, and educator. He served as chair of the department of human genetics and also as dean of the medical school of Yale University. He then worked as the chief scientific officer of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical company. He wrote more than 300 research articles, chapters, and books on his scientific research and public policy views across his career.
Go to Profile#4063
Don Grierson
#26745
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Don Grierson is a British geneticist, and Emeritus Professor at University of Nottingham. Education Grierson graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in Biological Sciences in 1967, after working for a short time in an industrial research lab, he obtained his PhD in Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1972 for research on ribosomal ribonucleic acid in developing primary leaves of the mung bean Phaseolus aureus supervised by Ulrich Loening.
Go to Profile#4064
William Louis Culberson
#58920
Overall Influence
1929 - 2003 (74 years)
William Louis "Bill" Culberson was an American lichenologist. Professional history Culberson earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Cincinnati, where he was influenced by E. Lucy Braun; he subsequently attended the University of Paris and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Go to Profile#4065
Krzysztof Palczewski
#89931
Overall Influence
#4066
Donald Thomas Anderson
#77137
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Donald Thomas Anderson FRS is an English zoologist, lecturer at King's College London, and Challis Professor of Biology at University of Sydney. He is currently based in Australia. He married Joanne Claridge in 1960.
Go to Profile#4067
Richard Wayne Olsen
#89962
Overall Influence
#4068
Dan Lindsley
#75598
Overall Influence
1925 - 2018 (93 years)
Dan Lindsley was an American geneticist known for his Drosophila research. Lindsley was born on October 13, 1925, and raised in California. He attended the University of Texas while serving in the United States Navy during World War II, and pursued a medical degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. A. B. Griffen, whom Lindsley first met in Texas, convinced him to transfer to the University of Missouri School of Medicine. There, Lindsley left medicine for biology. After earning his bachelor's and master's degree, Lindsley began doctoral study at the California Institute of Technology in 1949, and completed the program in 1952.
Go to Profile#4069
Emiliano Aguirre
#64290
Overall Influence
1925 - 2021 (96 years)
Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez was a Spanish paleontologist, known for his works at archaeological site of Atapuerca, whose excavations he directed from 1978 until his retirement in 1990. He received the Prince of Asturias Award in 1997.
Go to Profile#4070
Shinichi Nakagawa
#89989
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#4071
Clotilde Théry
#70184
Overall Influence
Clotilde Théry is a professor and INSERM director of research at Institut Curie in Paris, France. She is president of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles , where she previously served as founding secretary general and as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. She is team leader of the group "Extracellular Vesicles, Immune Responses and Cancer" within the INSERM Unit 932 on "Immunity and Cancer." Théry researches extracellular vesicles that are released by immune and tumor cellss, including exosomess that originate in the multivesicular body.
Go to Profile#4072
Martin Zobel
#78225
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Martin Zobel is an Estonian plant ecologist and professor at the University of Tartu. His name is particularly associated with the idea of an impact of regional species diversity on diversity at smaller spatial scales – known as the species pool effect. He has been professor since 1992. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Ecography.
Go to Profile#4073
Richard F. Johnston
#65474
Overall Influence
1925 - 2014 (89 years)
Richard Fourness Johnston was an American ornithologist, academic and author. He was born in Oakland, California, and early developed an interest in zoology, especially birds. He served in the Army during World War II, and was injured in the European theater. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in biology. In 1958, he joined the Zoology Department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence and became curator of its Natural History Museum. His research interests included the house sparrow P. domesticus and the feral pigeon C. livia. He was awarded the title of professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Go to Profile#4074
Morris Ziff
#90074
Overall Influence
#4075
Ib Friis
#69439
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Ib Friis is a Danish professor of botany at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. Friis has mainly studied the taxonomy of tropical Urticaceae and related families, flora and vegetation of Africa south of the Sahara, with special experience in the flora and vegetation in Horn of Africa, botanical nomenclature and the history of exploration of the plant world of the tropics.
Go to Profile#4076
Christina Riesselman
#42075
Overall Influence
Christina Riesselman is an American paleoceanographer whose research focus is on Southern Ocean response to changing climate. Early life and education After completing her bachelor's degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Geology and English in 2001, Riesselman spent time at the Joint Oceanographic Institution in Washington DC, then moved to Stanford for her PhD which was completed in 2011.
Go to Profile#4077
Pierdomenico Perata
#70128
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Pierdomenico Perata is an Italian physiologist whose activities are focused on plant physiology and plant biology. Since 8 May 2013 he has been the rector of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Perata is a member of the Accademia dei Georgofili and of the National Academy of Sciences, known as Academy of the XL.
Go to Profile#4078
Marina Picciotto
#57569
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Marina Rachel Picciotto is an American neuroscientist known for her work on the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in addiction, memory, and reward behaviors. She is the Charles B. G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry and professor in the Child Study Center and the Departments of Neuroscience and of Pharmacology at the Yale University School of Medicine. She was named Director of the Yale University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program in September 2023. From 2015-2023, she was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroscience. She will become President of the Society for Neuroscience afte...
Go to Profile#4079
Danielle N. Lee
#47085
Overall Influence
Danielle N. Lee is an American assistant professor of biology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, best known for her science blogging and outreach efforts focused on increasing minority participation in STEM fields. Her research interests focus on the connections between ecology and evolution and its contribution to animal behavior. In 2017, Lee was selected as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. With this position Lee traveled to Tanzania to research the behavior and biology of landmine-sniffing African giant pouched rats.
Go to Profile#4080
John Wahren
#90126
Overall Influence
#4081
Richard J. Youle
#90127
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#4082
Kevan Shokat
#68600
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Kevan Michael Shokat is an American chemical biologist. He is a Professor and chair in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at University of California, San Francisco, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley, and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Go to Profile#4083
Lorne Mendell
#67203
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Lorne Mendell is a neurobiologist currently employed as a distinguished professor in the department of neurobiology and behavior at Stony Brook University in New York. His research focuses primarily on neurotrophins in neonatal and adult mammals, and on the neuroplasticity of the mammalian spinal cord. His research interests lie in other areas including pain, nerve wind-up, and specifically the neurotrophin NT-3. He has contributed to the growing pool of knowledge of axonal development and regeneration of immature and mature neurons. He has been a part of the search for novel treatments for sp...
Go to Profile#4084
Jane Roskams
#60439
Overall Influence
Angela Jane Roskams is a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia with a joint appointment in Neurosurgery at the University of Washington. She is professor at the Centre for Brain Health at UBC, and directed the laboratory of neural regeneration and brain repair, before winding down her lab in 2015–16 to become Executive Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and a leader in the Open Science movement. After leading Strategy and Alliances for the Allen institute's multiple branches, she has become an influencer in the fields of neuroinformatics, public-private partners...
Go to Profile#4085
Bodhraj Acharya
#53385
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Bodhraj Acharya is a Nepalese-born American professional, working in the field of laboratory medicine, Cell Biology and chemistry. He has received many honors, grants and travel fellowships in United States and other countries. He has published patents, abstracts and articles in the field. He had worked previously as a clinical laboratory technical director in various hospitals. He also work as Clinical Laboratory expert for various non-profit organizations.
Go to Profile#4086
Barton Childs
#43727
Overall Influence
1916 - 2010 (94 years)
Barton Childs was an American pediatrician and geneticist. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated from Williams College in 1938. In 1942, he received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Following military service in World War II, he returned to Johns Hopkins for a residency in pediatrics. After a fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, he returned to Johns Hopkins University in 1949, where he remained until his retirement in 1981. He remained a professor emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine until his death.
Go to Profile#4087
Juan Manuel Guayasamin
#88357
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Juan Manuel Guayasamin is an Ecuadorian biologist. He earned his Ph.D. in 2007 from University of Kansas, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and as of 2017 he is working as professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. His research interests include the evolution of glass frogs and direct-developing anurans. His main contributions have been: phylogenetic taxonomy of glassfrogs, description of the variation of skin texture in frogs, description of numerous species of amphibians and reptiles, and a monographic review of all Ecuadorian glassfrogs . A team led by Juan M.
Go to Profile#4088
T. S. Kemp
#66768
Overall Influence
Thomas Stainforth Kemp is a British zoologist and palaeontologist. He is known for his work on the evolution of mammals, and particularly for identifying the criteria by which proto-mammals should be classified as mammals. He is an emeritus fellow of St John's College, Oxford, and he was the curator of the zoological collections in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History until his retirement in 2009.
Go to Profile#4089
Susan Band Horwitz
#38283
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Susan Band Horwitz is an American biochemist and professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where she holds the Falkenstein chair in Cancer Research as well as co-chair of the department of Molecular Pharmacology.
Go to Profile#4090
Kenneth C. Macdonald
#64649
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Kenneth Craig Macdonald is an American oceanographer and marine geophysicist born in San Francisco, California in 1947. As of 2018 he is professor emeritus at the Department of Earth Science and the Marine Sciences Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara . His work focuses on the tectonics and geophysics of the global mid-oceanic ridge including its spreading centers and transform faults, two of the three types of plate boundaries central to the theory of plate tectonics. His work has taken him to the north and south Atlantic oceans, the north and south Pacific oceans, the Ind...
Go to Profile#4091
George Weinstock
#69346
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
George M. Weinstock is an American geneticist and microbiologist on the faculty of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, where he is a professor and the associate director for microbial genomics. Before joining The Jackson Laboratory, he taught at Washington University in St. Louis and served as associate director of The Genome Institute. Previously, Dr. Weinstock was co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Professor of Molecular and Human Genetics there.[1] He received his B.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 1970 and his Ph.D.
Go to Profile#4092
Julian Parkhill
#63307
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Julian Parkhill is Professor of Bacterial Evolution in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. He previously served as head of pathogen genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Go to Profile#4093
Giovanni Benelli
#90239
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (40 years)
#4094
Naomi Wray
#72565
Overall Influence
Naomi Ruth Wray is an Australian statistical geneticist at the University of Queensland, where she is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and an Affiliate Professor in the Queensland Brain Institute. She is also a National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellow and, along with Peter Visscher and Jian Yang, is one of the three executive team members of the NHMRC-funded Program in Complex Trait Genomics. Naomi pioneered the use of polygenic scores in human genetics, and has made significant contributions to both the development of met...
Go to Profile#4095
Stanley Perlman
#89124
Overall Influence
Stanley Marc Perlman is an American microbiologist and coronavirus researcher. He is professor of microbiology and immunology, professor of pediatrics, and the Mark Stinski Chair in Virology in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. He has been researching coronaviruses for 38 years. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the American Society for Microbiology.
Go to Profile#4096
Masao Miyamoto
#28785
Overall Influence
1948 - 1999 (51 years)
Masao Miyamoto was a Japanese psychiatrist, cultural critic, and one-time deputy director for Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare . Miyamoto graduated from Nihon University Medical College in Tokyo in 1973 :ja:宮本政於. He subsequently spent a year in post-graduate training for pathology before moving to the United States where he spent three years studying psychiatry and psychoanalysis at Yale University. Upon completion, he took the position of assistant professor at Cornell University in 1980. In 1984, he accepted a position as assistant professor at New York Medical College. In 1...
Go to Profile#4097
Sharon Weiss
#59727
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Sharon Ann Whelan Weiss is an American pathologist who is best known for her contribution to the subspecialty of soft tissue pathology. She is the main author of Soft Tissue Tumors, one of the most widely used textbooks in the field of sarcoma and soft tissue pathology. She is also well known for her seminal descriptions of multiple soft tissue tumors, such as epithelioid hemangioendothelioma and pleomorphic hyalinizing angiectatic tumor of soft parts among others. She has also mentored and trained other well-known soft tissue pathologists.
Go to Profile#4098
Jane Sowden
#75005
Overall Influence
Jane Caroline Sowden is a British biologist who is Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust. Her research investigates eye formation and repair by developing a better understanding the genetic pathways that regulate eye development.
Go to Profile#4099
Debora Marks
#82195
Overall Influence
Debora S. Marks is a researcher in computational biology and a Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Her research uses computational approaches to address a variety of biological problems.
Go to Profile#4100
Elizabeth Shull Russell
#90304
Overall Influence
