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,
#1601
Esther Choo
#104233
Overall Influence
Esther Choo is an emergency physician and professor at the Oregon Health & Science University. She is a popular science communicator who has used social media to talk about racism and sexism in healthcare. She was the president of the Academy of Women in Academic Emergency Medicine and is a member of the American Association of Women Emergency Physicians. She was a co-founder and a board member of Time's Up. On February 26, 2021, Choo was named in a lawsuit against OHSU alleging that Choo failed to take action when she was made aware of an alleged sexual assault involving Dr. Jason Campbell, w...
Go to Profile#1602
Colin L. Masters
#84381
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (78 years)
Colin Louis Masters is an Australian neuropathologist who researches Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. He is laureate professor of pathology at the University of Melbourne.
Go to Profile#1603
Rebecca Katz
#65744
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (52 years)
Rebecca Katz is a professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center. She is an expert in global health and international diplomacy, specializing in emerging infectious diseases. From 2004 to 2019, she was a consultant for the United States Department of State on matters related to the Biological Weapons Convention and emerging infectious disease threats. Katz served on the Joe Biden presidential campaign's public health panel to advise on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Go to Profile#1604
Joaquim Bellmunt
#114226
Overall Influence
#1605
Nancy Milio
#51563
Overall Influence
Nancy Rosalie Milio, Ph.D., FAPHA, FAAN , is Professor Emeritus of Nursing and Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Milio's career was given its foundation during her high school years in Denby High School, Detroit, Michigan. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree and master's degree at Wayne State University, Detroit, and her PhD at Yale University .
Go to Profile#1606
Tulio de Oliveira
#88982
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (49 years)
Tulio de Oliveira is a Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African permanent resident professor of bioinformatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and associate professor of global health at the University of Washington. He has studied outbreaks of chikungunya, dengue, hepatitis B and C, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, yellow fever and Zika. During the COVID-19 pandemic he led the team that confirmed the discovery of the Beta variant of the COVID-19 virus in 2020 and the Omicron variant in 2021.
Go to Profile#1607
Gordon David Rubenfeld
#114246
Overall Influence
#1608
Sallie Permar
#79215
Overall Influence
Sallie Robey Permar is the pediatrician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center and the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Her research focuses on infections affecting newborns.
Go to Profile#1609
Judith Goldberg
#89508
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Judith D. Goldberg is an American biostatistician and a professor in the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Her research interests include the statistics of medical tests used for screening and medical diagnosis, clinical trials, and observational studies.
Go to Profile#1610
Jack Page Whisnant
#114383
Overall Influence
#1611
Paolo Guido Camici
#114401
Overall Influence
#1612
Julie Renee Brahmer
#114469
Overall Influence
#1613
Nina F. Schor
#95209
Overall Influence
Nina Felice Schor is an American physician-scientist and pediatric neurologist. She has served as director of the NIH Intramural Research Program since the Fall of 2022. Schor was the deputy director of National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke from 2018 to 2022. She was the William H. Eilinger Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at University of Rochester and Pediatrician-in-Chief of the Golisano Children’s Hospital from 2006 to January 2018.
Go to Profile#1614
Anthony Y. H. Lu
#114481
Overall Influence
#1615
Pierre Amarenco
#114519
Overall Influence
#1616
William B. Campbell
#114550
Overall Influence
#1617
Daniel J. Diekema
#114573
Overall Influence
#1618
Ernest Hodgson,
#114616
Overall Influence
#1619
Udo Hoffmann
#114628
Overall Influence
#1620
Daniel b. Drachman
#114633
Overall Influence
#1621
Masatoshi Fujishima
#114670
Overall Influence
#1622
Kurt J. Bloch
#114672
Overall Influence
#1623
Dun‐ Xian Tan
#114720
Overall Influence
#1624
Manuel Rodríguez Gómez
#94717
Overall Influence
1928 - 2006 (78 years)
Manuel Rodríguez Gómez was an American neurologist most noted for his work on tuberous sclerosis, a rare genetic disorder. Life Manuel Gómez was born in the Spanish city of Minaya in La Mancha. He spent his childhood outside Sevilla in a town called Alcala de Guadaira, where his father had a pharmacy, and summers in Cadiz. As a child he recalled seeing the great flamenco singer, Bernardo, El de los Lobitos, walking on the street. He attended boarding school with his brother and was schooled by a group of strict priests. Recently the mayor of Alcala renamed a street Calle Manuel Rodriguez Gomez.
Go to Profile#1625
Christine Berg
#89494
Overall Influence
Christine Dorothy Berg is an American radiation oncologist and physician-scientist who was chief of the early detection research group at the National Cancer Institute. Life Berg completed a M.D. at the Northwestern University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine from 1977 to 1981 at the McGaw Medical Center. Berg conducted a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology from 1981 to 1984 at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. She was a resident in radiation oncology from 1984 to 1986 with MedStar Health.
Go to Profile#1626
David Stuckler
#114805
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
#1627
Alison Field
#92493
Overall Influence
Alison Ellen Field is an American epidemiologist. Field currently serves as professor and chair of epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health and professor of pediatrics at Brown's Alpert Medical School.
Go to Profile#1628
Cathryn Lewis
#102651
Overall Influence
Cathryn Lewis is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics at King's College London. She is Head of Department at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.
Go to Profile#1629
Kanu Chatterjee
#114892
Overall Influence
#1630
Louisee. Underwood
#114966
Overall Influence
#1631
Douglas P. Kiel
#114985
Overall Influence
#1632
Watson W. Buchanan
#115004
Overall Influence
#1633
David Grob
#115032
Overall Influence
#1634
Brian R. Flay
#115048
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (78 years)
#1635
Luiz Belardinelli
#115058
Overall Influence
#1636
Valerii Kryshen
#78520
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Valerii Kryshen is a Ukrainian scientist, Doctor of Medicine, and professor of general surgery. Biography Kryshen was born on 11 September 1955 in Dnipropetrovsk in what was then the Soviet Union to a medical family. He completed his medical degree in 1978 and began working in the surgical unit in Dnipropetrovsk city hospital. He chairs the general surgery department at Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy.
Go to Profile#1637
Jozsef Dr Knoll
#115197
Overall Influence
#1638
Giuseppe Boriani
#115198
Overall Influence
#1639
Nicholas T. Kouchoukos
#115219
Overall Influence
#1640
Patricia K. Donahoe
#107490
Overall Influence
Patricia Kilroy Donahoe is an American pediatric surgeon and a leading researcher in the field of developmental biology and oncology. She was the president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association from 2006 to 2007. She currently serves as the director of pediatric surgical research laboratories and chief emerita of pediatric surgical services at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Go to Profile#1641
Augusto Sarmiento
#115307
Overall Influence
#1642
Shuji Ogino
#115364
Overall Influence
#1643
Mark Norman Levine
#115394
Overall Influence
#1644
Kelly M. McMasters
#111614
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (60 years)
Kelly M. McMasters is an American surgeon and researcher. He is the Ben A. Reid Sr., MD Professor and Chair of the Hiram C. Polk Jr., MD Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#1645
Peter R. Kowey
#104644
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Peter R. Kowey is an American cardiologist and medical researcher. He is Professor of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and holds the William Wikoff Smith Chair in Cardiovascular Research at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research.
Go to Profile#1646
Cushman D. Haagensen
#115436
Overall Influence
#1647
Richard Deth
#81023
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (80 years)
Richard Carlton Deth is an American neuropharmacologist, a former professor of pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and is on the scientific advisory board of the National Autism Association. Deth has published scientific studies on the role of D4 dopamine receptors in psychiatric disorders, as well as the book, Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection. He has also become a prominent voice in the controversies in autism and thiomersal and vaccines, due to his hypothesis that certain children are more at risk than others because they lack...
Go to Profile#1648
Norito Kawakami
#115484
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (68 years)
#1649
Elisabeth Tournier-Lasserve
#104558
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
Élisabeth Tournier-Lasserve is a French neurologist, medical geneticist, university professor and hospital practitioner in genetics. Together with three colleagues, she was the co-recipient of the Brain Prize in 2019, the world's largest brain research prize.
Go to Profile#1650
Delos M. Cosgrove
#115546
Overall Influence
