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,
#1801
Robert Alan Figlin
#119987
Overall Influence
#1802
Mary J. Roman
#120135
Overall Influence
#1803
Lawrence Bruce Marks
#120151
Overall Influence
#1804
Scot E. Moss
#120174
Overall Influence
#1805
Sharon Ann Hunt
#115543
Overall Influence
Sharon Ann Hunt is a cardiology professor and Director of the Post Heart Transplant Programme in Palo Alto, California and is affiliated with Stanford University Medical Center, professionally known for her work in the care of patients after heart transplantation.
Go to Profile#1806
Kirsten McCaffery
#79514
Overall Influence
Kirsten McCaffery is a British-Australian public health researcher who is Principal Research Fellow and Director of Research at the Sydney School of Public Health. Her research considers the psychosocial aspects of over diagnosis in healthcare. She was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2020.
Go to Profile#1807
János Szolcsányi
#120187
Overall Influence
#1808
Chen Zhu
#87688
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Chen Zhu is a Chinese hematologist and molecular biologist who has served as president of the Red Cross Society of China since 2015. He previously served as vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee from 2013 to 2023, chairman of the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party Central Committee from 2012 to 2022, president of the Chinese Medical Association from 2010 to 2015, Minister of Heath of China from 2007 to 2013, and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2000 to 2007.
Go to Profile#1809
Smita Bhatia
#119534
Overall Influence
Smita Bhatia is an Indian-born American oncologist. She is the Director of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, as well as the Vice Chair for Outcomes in the Department of Pediatrics and Senior Advisor for Cancer Outcomes Research at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB.
Go to Profile#1810
Sidney J. Winawer
#120230
Overall Influence
#1811
Tim Peto
#113611
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Timothy Edward Alexander Peto is a professor of medicine at the University of Oxford. He is the co-leader for the Infection Theme of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, and a National Institute for Health and Care Research Senior Investigator.
Go to Profile#1812
Fernando Cendes
#120256
Overall Influence
#1813
T. Kendall Harden
#120289
Overall Influence
#1814
Robert Beamish
#86023
Overall Influence
1916 - 2001 (85 years)
Robert Earl Beamish, was a Canadian physician and cardiologist. Early life and education Beamish was born in Shoal Lake, Manitoba on September 16, 1916, the son of Henry and Mary May Beamish. He graduated with a B.A. from Brandon College in 1937. In 1942 he was awarded an M.D. in 1942 and two years later B. Sc. from the University of Manitoba. From 1947 to 1948, he studied in London after being awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship.
Go to Profile#1815
Donald H. Gilden
#120307
Overall Influence
#1816
Emily Oken
#120309
Overall Influence
#1817
Chandra Ford
#87848
Overall Influence
Chandra L. Ford is an American public health academic who is Professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. She serves as Founding Director at the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health. Her research considers relationships between racism and health outcomes.
Go to Profile#1818
Meyer‐michel Samama
#120344
Overall Influence
#1819
Jennifer Mary Weller
#48438
Overall Influence
Jennifer Mary Weller is a New Zealand anaesthesiology academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career Weller graduated from University of Adelaide, with her post-graduation training in hospitals in Canberra, Nottingham and Adelaide. She moved to Wellington Hospital in 1994 as a full-time specialist anaesthetist, eventually taking a Masters of Clinical Education from the University of New South Wales and taking on teaching at Victoria University of Wellington as well as medical duties. A move to Auckland and the University of Auckland led to a PhD in 2005.
Go to Profile#1820
John Garrow
#106507
Overall Influence
1929 - 2016 (87 years)
John Stuart Garrow was a British nutritionist. He was the editor of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition from 1988 to 1999. Career Garrow was born in Dundee. He was formerly Professor of Human Nutrition, University of London, Honorary consultant physician St Bartholomew's Hospital, St Mark's Hospital, Royal London Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital.
Go to Profile#1821
Seth Love
#120398
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
#1822
P. Hemachandra Reddy
#120411
Overall Influence
#1823
Sarah S. Donaldson
#120412
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (86 years)
#1824
Paolo Antonio Boccasanta
#107183
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Paolo Antonio Boccasanta is an Italian general surgeon, a professor at the University of Milan and a specialist in general, vascular and thoracic surgery. He took a qualification in Coloproctology in 2000 in Brighton from the European Board of Surgery.
Go to Profile#1825
René A. Adam
#120430
Overall Influence
#1826
Stefania Jabłońska
#120431
Overall Influence
#1827
Heinz‐peter Schultheiss
#120444
Overall Influence
#1828
Martin Paul
#115539
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Martin Alfons Paul is a German clinical pharmacologist. On 1 May 2011 he succeeded Jo Ritzen as president of Maastricht University. On 29 April 2021 it was announced that he will succeed Axel Schölmerich as rector of the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany on 1 November 2021.
Go to Profile#1829
Michael W. Vannier
#75460
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (76 years)
Michael W. Vannier is a radiologist in Chicago. On July 19, 1983, M. Vannier and his co-workers J. Marsh and J. Warren published the first three-dimensional reconstruction of single CT slices of the human head.
Go to Profile#1830
James D. Luketich
#120616
Overall Influence
#1831
Robert A. Guyton
#120621
Overall Influence
#1832
Robert J. Vandenberg
#120626
Overall Influence
#1833
Mary Fowkes
#82751
Overall Influence
1954 - 2020 (66 years)
Mary Fowkes was an American physician and neuropathologist. She is noted for her early autopsies of COVID-19 victims that significantly contributed to the identification of long-term effects of the novel coronavirus. Her findings that victims had suffered multiple organ failures resulted in the recommendation for use of blood thinners as a part of the treatment process.
Go to Profile#1834
Leigh Hochberg
#74264
Overall Influence
Leigh Robert Hochberg is an American neurologist, neuroscientist, and neuroengineer. He is the Director of the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital and the L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering at Brown University. He is also affiliated with the VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology. Hochberg is known with his involvement in BrainGate and brain-computer interface research more broadly. In 2021, he led a clinical trial demonstrating the first high-bandwidth wireless human brain-computer interface.
Go to Profile#1835
Arthur S. Tischler
#120677
Overall Influence
#1836
Esther E. Freeman
#89024
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (46 years)
Esther Ellen Freeman is an American physician who is an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at the Harvard Medical School and Director of Global Health Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research considers HIV infection with AIDS-defining malignancies, including Kaposi's sarcoma. During the COVID-19 pandemic Freeman established the American Academy of Dermatology register of COVID-19 skin complaints, through which she identified the novel symptom of COVID toes.
Go to Profile#1837
Dele Ogunseitan
#53178
Overall Influence
Oladele "Dele" Abiola Ogunseitan is a Nigerian public health researcher who is the University of California Presidential Chair at the University of California, Irvine. His research considers how toxic pollutants impact human and environmental health. He is an elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#1838
Shelby Kutty
#100997
Overall Influence
Shelby Kutty is an Indian-born American cardiologist, a professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He holds the Helen B. Taussig endowed professorship at Johns Hopkins and is Director of the Helen B. Taussig Heart Center at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Prior to this, he held the title of assistant dean for research and development and vice chair of pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine.
Go to Profile#1839
Edward E. Carmeliet
#120790
Overall Influence
#1840
Dr Daniel T. Lackland
#120811
Overall Influence
#1841
Keiichi Fukuda
#120815
Overall Influence
#1842
Allan H. Ropper
#120817
Overall Influence
#1843
Rachel Tyndale
#99969
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
Rachel Fynvola Tyndale is a Canadian pharmacogeneticist. She is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, and Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Pharmacogenomics. Tyndale is also the Senior Scientist and Head of Pharmacogenetics in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health .
Go to Profile#1844
Christopher Cleon Rowe
#120855
Overall Influence
#1845
Vivian Lin
#106026
Overall Influence
Vivian Kwang-wen Lin is Executive Associate Dean and Professor of Public Health Practice in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Early life and education Lin earned her bachelor's degree at Yale University in 1977. She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for her graduate studies, first earning a master's degree in public health and subsequently a doctorate .
Go to Profile#1846
Brenda R. Hemmelgarn
#120971
Overall Influence
#1847
Joseph P. Ornato
#120992
Overall Influence
#1848
Robert Eyre Johnson
#121036
Overall Influence
#1849
Thomas H. Hostetter
#121092
Overall Influence
#1850
Timothy J. Eberlein
#121106
Overall Influence
