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,
#1301
Asim Duttaroy
#67506
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Asim K. Duttaroy is an Indian-born American medical scientist who, since 2001, has worked as a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway. He was born in Gopinagar , Nadia district, West Bengal, India.
Go to Profile#1302
Michele K. Evans
#56951
Overall Influence
Michele Kim Evans is an American internist and medical oncologist. She is a senior investigator and Deputy Scientific Director at the National Institute on Aging. Education Evans graduated from Barnard College in 1977 with an A.B. degree in biology. She received a medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1981. Evans received postgraduate training in internal medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and fellowship training in medical oncology within the Medicine Branch of the Clinical Oncology Program at the National...
Go to Profile#1303
Maria Abbracchio
#87276
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Maria Pia Abbracchio is an Italian pharmacologist who researches the biochemical effect of drugs at the cellular level. She has conducted research all over the world and is one of the scientists Thomson Reuters has named as most cited scientists since 2006. She is known for her work with purinergic receptors and identification of GPR17. In 2014 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for her individual scientific accomplishments.
Go to Profile#1304
Rober T. Machemer
#105298
Overall Influence
#1305
Elliott Richelson
#105303
Overall Influence
#1306
Stephen W. Macmahon
#105327
Overall Influence
#1307
Guido N. J. Tytgat
#105330
Overall Influence
#1308
Meaghan Kall
#59882
Overall Influence
Meaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency. In 2021 the journal Nature named her in Natures 10, their global top ten list of people who helped shape science that year. Early life and education Kall grew up in a small, conservative town in Michigan. Kall completed a bachelor of science in nutrition science at Michigan State University and master of health science at Johns Hopkins University. She is completing her doctorate at University College London. Her doctoral thesis is National longitudinal survey of healthcare needs and risk behaviours of HIV positive people and i...
Go to Profile#1309
Robert Jerome Myerburg
#105432
Overall Influence
#1310
M. V. Padma Srivastava
#76243
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (60 years)
Madakasira Vasantha Padma Srivastava is an Indian neurologist, medical academic and writer, and the professor of neurology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. She is known for pioneering Acute Stroke Programme , a medical initiative for supporting patients afflicted with epilepsy and stroke, incorporating Hyperacute Reperfusion strategies including the thrombolysis program. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for her contributions to medical science.
Go to Profile#1311
Lisa Iezzoni
#98951
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
Lisa I. Iezzoni is an American medical researcher with expertise in health policy. She is a professor at Harvard Medical School, as well as the director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is known for her research on health disparities among people with disabilities.
Go to Profile#1312
David Ozonoff
#96656
Overall Influence
David Michael Ozonoff is the Chair Emeritus of Environmental Health and Professor Emeritus at Boston University School of Public Health, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the online journal, Environmental Health and Professor, Sociomedical Sciences, Boston University School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#1313
Lee Eui-kyung
#73755
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
Lee Eui-kyung is a South Korean professor of pharmacy at Sungkyunkwan University who has previously served as President Moon Jae-in's Minister of Food and Drug Safety from 2019 to 2020. Education Lee holds three degrees in pharmacy: Bachelor and Master's from Seoul National University and Ph.D. from University of Iowa.
Go to Profile#1314
Keith Francis Tipton
#105573
Overall Influence
#1315
Clarice Weinberg
#94258
Overall Influence
Clarice Ring Weinberg is an American biostatistician and epidemiologist who works for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences as principal investigator in the Biostatistics and Computational Biology Branch. Her research concerns environmental epidemiology, and its combination with genetics in susceptibility to disease, including running the Sister Study on how environmental and genetic effects can lead to breast cancer. She has also published highly cited research on fertility.
Go to Profile#1316
Justine Sergent
#66779
Overall Influence
1950 - 1994 (44 years)
Justine Saade-Sergent was a researcher in the cognitive neuroscience field. From 1979 to 1982, she was an associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University.
Go to Profile#1317
E. Stasnley Crawford
#105760
Overall Influence
#1318
Eugenio Picano
#105777
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
#1319
Keith Jones
#67717
Overall Influence
1911 - 2012 (101 years)
Sir Keith Stephen Jones, MB BS FRCS FRACS FRAGP FACEM was an Australian general practitioner, surgeon and medical executive, who served as the 6th President of the Australian Medical Association, from 1973–1976, during the introduction of universal health care in Australia.
Go to Profile#1320
Åke Senning
#105795
Overall Influence
#1321
Tatjana Rundek
#68619
Overall Influence
Tatjana Rundek is an American neurologist and epidemiologist. She is the Director of the Clinical Translational Research Division, Vice Chair of the Clinical Translational Research Neurology, and Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging at the University of Miami's Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#1322
Tolullah Oni
#99198
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (45 years)
Tolullah "Tolu" Oni is a Nigerian urban epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. She is a NextEinstein Forum Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Go to Profile#1323
Sean Ekins
#67313
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (55 years)
Sean Ekins is a British pharmacologist and expert in the fields of ADME/Tox, computational toxicology and cheminformatics at Collaborations in Chemistry, a division of corporate communications firm Collaborations in Communications. He is also the editor of four books and a book series for John Wiley & Sons.
Go to Profile#1324
Walter Spitzer
#89600
Overall Influence
1937 - 2006 (69 years)
Walter O. Spitzer was a Canadian epidemiologist and professor of epidemiology and health at McGill University, a position he held from 1975 until his retirement in 1995. Early life and education Spitzer was born in Asuncion, Paraguay on February 19, 1937. He was the eldest son of Paul Rosenberg and Elsa Spitzer, both of whom were Baptist missionaries. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto in 1962 and his Master of Public Health degree from Yale University in 1970.
Go to Profile#1325
Martin Addy
#105919
Overall Influence
#1326
Gelareh Zadeh
#102148
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (54 years)
Gelareh Zadeh is an Iranian-Canadian physician who is a professor and the Wilkins Family Chair in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. She is a neurosurgeon-scientist at Toronto Western Hospital. In 2020, Zadeh became the first woman to be elected Chair of the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto.
Go to Profile#1327
Souhel Najjar
#69464
Overall Influence
Souhel Najjar is a Syrian-American neurologist whose story with Susannah Cahalan turned into an American drama film. He is considered an expert in the field of encephalopathy, specifically the treatment of encephalitis.
Go to Profile#1328
James D. Cox
#105972
Overall Influence
#1329
David Carter
#79678
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (85 years)
Sir David Craig Carter is a surgeon who was Chief Medical Officer for Scotland from 1996–2000. Early life and education David Craig Carter was born on 1 September 1940 to Mary Florence and Horace Ramsay Carter. He attended Cockermouth Grammar School, and went on to study medicine at the University of St Andrews, graduating with an MB ChB in 1964 and continuing on to receive his MD.
Go to Profile#1330
William Hardy Hendren
#106201
Overall Influence
#1331
Ira B. Lamster
#93377
Overall Influence
Ira B. Lamster is an American board certified periodontist. He is a professor of health and policy management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Formerly, he was the dean and professor of dentistry at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine until stepping down the end of the 2012 school year.
Go to Profile#1332
Richard C. Mohs
#106242
Overall Influence
#1333
Edward Peirson Richardson
#106247
Overall Influence
#1334
Erin D. Michos
#105686
Overall Influence
Erin Kathleen Donnelly Michos is an American cardiologist. She is an associate professor of Medicine and Director of Women's Cardiovascular Health at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Michos is also an Associate Faculty of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Johns Hopkins, and has a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Go to Profile#1335
Martin J. Lohse
#80947
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Martin J. Lohse is a German physician and pharmacologist. Career Lohse performs ongoing research on G protein-coupled receptors. Since 1993, he is a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Würzburg, Germany, and he was the Founding Chairman of the Rudolf Virchow Center . From 2016 to 2019, he was Chairman of the Board and Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin, a national research center of the Helmholtz Association for molecular medicine. In 2017, he also became Speaker of the Board of the Berlin Institute of Health, a joint research center of the Max Delbrück Center...
Go to Profile#1336
Thomas Rolland Fleming
#106317
Overall Influence
#1337
Umberto Veronesi
#106330
Overall Influence
#1338
L. Royal Christensen
#85805
Overall Influence
1915 - 1997 (82 years)
L. Royal Christensen was an American epidemiologist who, along with André Cournand and William S. Tillett, won the 1949 Lasker Award for their work in showing that the enzymes streptokinase and streptodornase can be used to treat disease. Christensen was born in Everson, Washington. He did his undergraduate work at University of Washington and received a PhD from St. Louis University in 1941. He then taught microbiology at New York University School of Medicine-Bellevue Medical.
Go to Profile#1339
Derek Albert Willoughby
#106364
Overall Influence
#1340
Grant R. Wilkinson
#106369
Overall Influence
#1341
William Douglas Figg Sr.
#106189
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
William Douglas Figg is an American scientist . He is a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute , National Institutes of Health , Bethesda, Maryland. He holds multiple titles within the NCI: Associate Director of the Center for Cancer Research, Co-Director of the Office of Translational Resources, Acting Branch Chief for the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, Chief of the Clinical Pharmacology Program, and head of the Molecular Pharmacology Section. Dr. Figg is also the Co-Chief of Basic Research at the Center for Prostate Disease Research within the Walter Reed National Military...
Go to Profile#1342
Raina MacIntyre
#90641
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Raina MacIntyre is an Australian epidemiologist and academic. She is the Professor of Global Biosecurity within the Kirby Institute at University of New South Wales and a National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellow, who leads a research program on the prevention and control of infectious diseases. She is an expert media advisor and commentator on Australia's response to COVID-19.
Go to Profile#1343
Gerhardt Hindricks
#106454
Overall Influence
#1344
Stephen Nicholls
#106021
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (54 years)
Stephen J. Nicholls FRACP, FACC, FESC, FAHA, FAHMS, is an Australian cardiologist. He was appointed to the position of director of MonashHeart, Monash Health and professor of cardiology, Monash University in October 2018. He is the inaugural clinical director of the Victorian Heart Hospital. He is also the inaugural director of Monash University’s Victorian Heart Institute, an organisation dedicated to creating the cardiovascular health solutions of the future.
Go to Profile#1345
Heiner Wedemeyer
#106461
Overall Influence
#1346
William Gregory Stevenson
#106501
Overall Influence
#1347
Tammy C. Hoffmann
#106516
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
#1348
C. Lockard Conley
#97298
Overall Influence
1915 - 2010 (95 years)
Carroll Lockard "Lock" Conley was a hematologist and founder of the Division of Hematology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Early life and education Conley was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His father owned The Leib Packing Co., an oyster packing firm, and his mother was a homemaker. He attended Forest Park High School, graduating in 1931. He then attended Johns Hopkins University, graduating with a degree in biology. He attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine, then transferred to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving his M.D. degree in 1940.
Go to Profile#1349
G. Prof. Dr. Med. Plewig
#106601
Overall Influence
#1350
Richard E. Chaisson
#106602
Overall Influence
