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 Medical,
#1151
Chikwe Ihekweazu
#83178
Overall Influence
Chikwe Ihekweazu is a Nigerian epidemiologist, public health physician and World Health Organization’s Assistant Director-General for Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems. Ihekweazu previously served as Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control , the agency responsible for protecting public health and safety through the control and prevention of communicable diseases in Nigeria. He was appointed to head the agency in August 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Go to Profile#1152
Hasan B. Alam
#54798
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
Hasan Badre Alam is a trauma surgeon, surgeon-scientist, and a medical professor in the United States. He is the Loyal and Edith Davis Professor of Surgery, the Chairman of Department of Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine /Northwestern University, and the Surgeon-in-Chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Go to Profile#1153
John Blenis
#100716
Overall Influence
#1154
Judith S. Stern
#76699
Overall Influence
1943 - 2019 (76 years)
Judith S. Stern was an American nutritionist and longtime professor at the University of California, Davis. She was known for her research on obesity. Stern was a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and co-founded the American Obesity Association.
Go to Profile#1155
Bryan Roth
#61021
Overall Influence
Bryan L. Roth is the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor of Protein Therapeutics and Translational Proteomics, UNC School of Medicine. He is recognized for his discoveries and inventions in the general areas of molecular pharmacology, GPCR structure, and function and synthetic neurobiology. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine
Go to Profile#1156
Jerrold Meinwald
#24527
Overall Influence
1927 - 2018 (91 years)
Jerrold Meinwald was an American chemist known for his work on chemical ecology, a field he co-founded with his colleague and friend Thomas Eisner. He was a Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Cornell University. He was author or co-author of well over 400 scientific articles. His interest in chemistry was sparked by fireworks done with his friend Michael Cava when they were still in junior high school. Meinwald was also a music aficionado and studied flute with Marcel Moyse – the world's greatest flutist of his time.
Go to Profile#1157
John Nevil Insall
#100923
Overall Influence
#1158
Alexander Borbély
#78501
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (86 years)
Alexander A. Borbély is a Hungarian-Swiss pharmacologist known for his sleep research. Borbély proposed the two-process model of sleep regulation in 1982 which postulates there are two complementary processes which together account for one's sleep schedule. This model has been widely influential and strongly influenced the field of circadian neuroscience for decades.
Go to Profile#1159
Zenon Mariak
#54106
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Zenon Mariak is a Polish neurosurgeon, researcher, and professor who is currently head of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical University of Białystok. He previously served as the Deputy President of the Medical University of Białystok. He is a member of the Committee of Neurological Sciences at the 5th Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#1160
Gerald Edgard Pierard
#101011
Overall Influence
#1161
Kenton M. Sanders
#101051
Overall Influence
#1162
A. Thomas Look
#99701
Overall Influence
A. Thomas Look is Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Vice-Chair for Research, Pediatric Oncology, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He is a pioneer in the use of zebrafish in cancer research and made major contributions to the understanding of leukemia and neuroblastoma biology and pathogenesis.
Go to Profile#1163
Stevo Julius
#101158
Overall Influence
#1164
Gregor Wenning
#74209
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Gregor Karl Wenning is a German neurologist best known for his clinical and scientific work in Parkinson's disease and atypical Parkinsonian disorders, particularly multiple system atrophy . In 2006 he was appointed Professor and Head of the Division of Clinical Neurobiology at the Medical University Innsbruck.
Go to Profile#1165
Francis Gillingham
#84957
Overall Influence
1916 - 2010 (94 years)
Francis John Gillingham was a British neurosurgeon. Early life Gillingham was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England, on 15 March 1916, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Gillingham. He was educated at Hardye's School, Dorset, and then studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College of London University.
Go to Profile#1166
Keith D. Lillemoe
#101239
Overall Influence
#1167
Ranjit Roy Chaudhury
#53874
Overall Influence
1930 - 2015 (85 years)
Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, was an Indian clinical pharmacologist, medical academic and health planner, who headed the National Committee for formulating the policy and guidelines on drugs and clinical trials in India. He was the chairman of the joint programme of World Health Organization and Government of India on Rational Use of Drugs in India. He was the founder president of the Delhi Medical Council and the president of the Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs.
Go to Profile#1168
J. T. Lie
#101428
Overall Influence
#1169
Katherine Keyes
#99817
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (45 years)
Katherine Margaret Keyes is an American epidemiologist. She is a professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research focuses on psychiatric and substance use epidemiology across the lifecourse, including early origins of child and adult health and cross-generational cohort effects on substance use, mental health, and injury outcomes including suicide and overdose.
Go to Profile#1170
William M. Landau
#101478
Overall Influence
#1171
Jordi Sunyer
#101495
Overall Influence
#1172
Weiping Zou
#52914
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (60 years)
Weiping Zou is the Charles B. de Nancrede Professor of Pathology, Immunology, Biology, and Surgery at the University of Michigan. He is a scientist noted for his work regarding understanding the nature of human tumor immune responses and developing mechanism-informed combination therapies for cancer. He has developed an international reputation in human tumor immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment.
Go to Profile#1173
Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng
#47573
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (76 years)
Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng is a Ghanaian physician and cardiothoracic surgeon who established the National Cardiothoracic Center in Accra, Ghana and the Ghana Red Cross Society. He is also the president of the Ghana Heart Foundation and was the chief executive officer of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
Go to Profile#1174
Matshidiso Moeti
#56063
Overall Influence
Matshidiso Rebecca Natalie Moeti is a physician, public health specialist and medical administrator from Botswana who has been serving as Regional Director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa , headquartered in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo, since 2015.
Go to Profile#1175
Jennie Brand-Miller
#85180
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Janette Cecile Brand-Miller , also known as Jennie Brand-Miller, Janette Cecile Brand and GI Jennie, is an Australian academic who holds a chair in human nutrition in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney. She is best known for her research and publications on the glycemic index, a term originated by David J. Jenkins of the University of Toronto, and its role in human health.
Go to Profile#1176
Betsy Foxman
#74218
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Betsy Foxman is an American epidemiologist. She is the Hunein F. and Hilda Maassab Endowed Professor of Epidemiology and director of the Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases, is a member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and of the American College of Epidemiology.
Go to Profile#1177
Irwin H. Rosenberg
#101600
Overall Influence
#1178
Kenneth Lance Gould
#101615
Overall Influence
#1179
Clement Adebamowo
#46297
Overall Influence
Clement Adebamowo is a Nigerian medical researcher and academic. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Adebamowo is currently Director For Global Health Cancer Research, and a professor of Epidemiology & Public Health, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is known for his work in cancer epidemiology, nutrition epidemiology, and research ethics, particularly in low resource and under-served in Africa.
Go to Profile#1180
David Joel Cohen
#101734
Overall Influence
#1181
Toichiro Kuwabara
#101760
Overall Influence
#1182
Sten H. Vermund
#93825
Overall Influence
Sten H. Vermund is the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health, and former Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, and also serves as a Professor in Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine. He is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases of low and middle-income countries.
Go to Profile#1183
Linda de Cossart
#67348
Overall Influence
Linda de Cossart CBE is an English general surgeon who specialises in vascular surgery. She is the director of medical education at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Biography Linda de Cossart graduated from the University of Liverpool School of Medicine in 1972 and was admitted as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1978. At the time, there were few female surgeons; de Cossart has said that "women were actively discouraged from going into surgery". After obtaining her surgical fellowship, she completed a Master of Surgery at the University of Liverpool with a thesis on venous disease.
Go to Profile#1184
Malcolm Rowland
#101815
Overall Influence
Malcolm Rowland FBPhS is Emeritus Professor of Pharmacy, University of Manchester, and Adjunct Professor, University of California San Francisco. His research in pharmacology, has been particularly in physiologically based pharmacokinetics . He has written several textbooks on the subject.
Go to Profile#1185
Milton Packer
#73675
Overall Influence
Milton Packer is an American cardiologist who is known for his clinical research concerning heart failure. Early life and education Milton Packer was born in the United States to Holocaust survivors who were saved from the Vilna ghetto by Karl Plagge. He grew up in Philadelphia, where his father worked as a tailor. He was politically active in the 1960s.
Go to Profile#1186
Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez
#69579
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
Hugo López-Gatell is a Mexican epidemiologist, author, and public health official who has served as head of the Undersecretariat of Prevention and Health Promotion at the Mexican Secretariat of Health since 2018. Since January 2020, he has also been the spokesman and one of the lead members of the federal governments response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.
Go to Profile#1187
John Reid
#98116
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
John Low Reid is a British clinical pharmacologist. Reid graduated in medicine from the University of Oxford, then completed his training in clinical pharmacology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, where he was subsequently a senior lecturer and reader. He also undertook a Medical Research Council travelling fellowship to the United States' National Institutes of Health.
Go to Profile#1188
Brian J. Nickoloff
#102020
Overall Influence
#1189
Jonathan S. Lewin
#74000
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (66 years)
Jonathan S. Lewin is an American neuroradiologist specializing in medical imaging research with an emphasis on the investigation, development, and translation of new magnetic resonance imaging techniques. He is the former executive vice president for health affairs and executive director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center for Emory University, and former President, CEO, and chairman of the board of Emory Healthcare. He currently serves as professor of radiology, biomedical engineering, and neurosurgery in the Emory School of Medicine and as professor of health policy and management...
Go to Profile#1190
Piero Anversa
#102049
Overall Influence
#1191
Anjan Chatterjee
#47463
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Anjan Chatterjee is a professor of neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics and a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. His research focuses on spatial cognition and its relationship to language. He also conducts neuroaesthetics research and writes about the ethical use of neuroscience findings in society.
Go to Profile#1192
Patrik Brundin
#102111
Overall Influence
#1193
Richard Houlston
#89313
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Richard Somerset Houlston is a British medical geneticist. He is a professor of molecular and population genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. Education Houlston graduated BSc, MB BS from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, University of London and was subsequently awarded MD and PhD degrees from the University of London and a DSc from Imperial College, London.
Go to Profile#1194
Nise Yamaguchi
#77359
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (66 years)
Nise Hitomi Yamaguchi is a Brazilian physician with the American ECFMG-ES tests. She has a master's degree in immunology and a doctorate in oncology clinical medicine, and is an international speaker for matters of health. As a scientist, her areas of research are personalized medicine, translational research in oncology, and immunology. She utilizes knowledge of genetics, epigenetics, and omics to understand and treat many diseases, including cancer. As of April 2022, she is not affiliated with any political party.
Go to Profile#1195
Hiram C. Jr. Polk
#102160
Overall Influence
#1196
Jim Mann
#100593
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Sir Joel Ivor Mann , generally known as Jim Mann, is a New Zealand nutritionist and endocrinologist. He is professor in human nutrition and medicine at the University of Otago and consultant physician at Dunedin Hospital. He has researched the role of lipids and carbohydrates in coronary heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, as well as the relationship between obesity and cancer. He was knighted in the 2022 New Year Honours.
Go to Profile#1197
Charles M. Poser
#102198
Overall Influence
#1198
Rolf G. Behrents
#102205
Overall Influence
Rolf Gordon "Buzz" Behrents is an American orthodontist. Behrents graduated from St. Olaf College and earned his dental degree from Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry. Behrents received a master's degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1975, where he trained as an orthodontist. He taught at Case Western between 1978 and 1984, when he completed a doctorate in human growth and development at the University of Michigan. Behrents joined the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry soon after completing his Ph.D., remaining on the faculty until 1997. From 1998 to 2003, he taught at Baylor College of Dentistry.
Go to Profile#1199
Louise A. Brinton
#97236
Overall Influence
Louise Annette Brinton is an American epidemiologist. She was a senior investigator, Chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch, and the first Scientific Advisor for International Activities of the National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.
Go to Profile#1200
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo
#80630
Overall Influence
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo is an American epidemiologist and physician. She is the 17th Editor in Chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association and the JAMA Network. She is Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Lee Goldman, MD Endowed Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. She is a general internist and attending physician at San Francisco General Hospital.
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