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,
#2101
Walter J. Hogan
#129100
Overall Influence
#2102
Paul Emile Lambrechts
#129119
Overall Influence
#2103
Fu-Tong Liu
#117496
Overall Influence
Fu-Tong Liu is a Taiwanese dermatologist. Liu studied chemistry at National Taiwan University and completed a doctorate in the same field at the University of Chicago in 1976. He started postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and ended postdoctoral work at Scripps Research. Liu remained at Scripps while earning an MD at the University of Miami School of Medicine. His medical residency took place at the University of California, San Diego. Liu left Scripps for the University of California, Davis faculty in 2001. At UCD, Liu was chair professor and later appointed distinguished professor in 2012.
Go to Profile#2104
Alfred E. Buxton
#129214
Overall Influence
#2105
Steven Kelly Clinton
#129236
Overall Influence
#2106
Michele Emdin
#129246
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
#2107
Patrick J. Stover
#109867
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Patrick J. Stover is an American nutrition scientist who researches B vitamins. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been co-editor of the Annual Review of Nutrition since 2015.
Go to Profile#2108
Megan Clarke
#66386
Overall Influence
Megan A. Clarke is an American cancer epidemiologist who researches anogenital and endometrial cancers. She is a Stadtman investigator in the clinical genetics branch at the National Cancer Institute.
Go to Profile#2109
Franco Cataldo
#129286
Overall Influence
#2110
Anthony Science Russell
#129313
Overall Influence
#2111
Jean-charles E. Preiser
#129319
Overall Influence
#2112
Sanjay Basu
#129338
Overall Influence
#2113
Deborah G. Grady
#129350
Overall Influence
#2114
Barbara Barlow
#112749
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
Barbara Barlow is an American pediatric surgeon who was the first woman to train in pediatric surgery at Babies Hospital, present-day Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. She has also reduced the amount of injuries for inner-city children through her research and efforts to educate the public on prevention of accidents.
Go to Profile#2115
Fr. Andrea Vicini
#129369
Overall Influence
#2116
Alexander M. Walker
#129387
Overall Influence
#2117
John E. Mcgowan,
#129392
Overall Influence
#2118
Frank Lobbezoo
#129398
Overall Influence
#2119
J. Eric Ahlskog
#129414
Overall Influence
#2120
Rebecca J. Troisi
#128402
Overall Influence
Rebecca J. Troisi is an American cancer epidemiologist specialized in the hormonal etiologies of reproductive cancers. She is a staff scientist in the trans-divisional research program at the National Cancer Institute.
Go to Profile#2121
Pan‐chyr Yang
#129426
Overall Influence
#2122
Wilbur H. Sawyer
#129427
Overall Influence
#2123
David S. Satcher
#129488
Overall Influence
#2124
Ileana L. Piña
#129517
Overall Influence
#2125
Allan P. Pollack
#129540
Overall Influence
#2126
Jennie Connor
#89806
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Jennie Lynne Connor is a New Zealand medical researcher and academic, and as of 2018 is a full professor and chair of preventive and social medicine at the University of Otago. Academic career After a 2001 PhD titled Estimating the contribution of driver sleepiness to car crash injuries : the Auckland car crash injury study at the University of Auckland, Connor moved to the University of Otago, rising to full professor. Much of Connor's recent research focuses on the health effects of drinking.
Go to Profile#2127
Matti K. Hakama
#129550
Overall Influence
#2128
Luigi Fontana
#120804
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
Luigi Fontana, M.D., PhD, FRACP is a physician scientist who studies healthy longevity, with a focus on calorie restriction, endurance exercise and metabolism. He is the Leonard P Ullmann Chair in Translational Metabolic Health at the Charles Perkins Centre, where he directs the Charles Perkins Centre Royal Prince Alfred Clinic and the CPC RPA Health for Life Research, Educational and Clinical Program. He is also a Professor of Medicine and Nutrition in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and a Clinical Academic in the Department of Endocrinology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia.
Go to Profile#2129
Wayne H. Giles
#129605
Overall Influence
#2130
Ben A. C. Dijkmans
#129621
Overall Influence
#2131
Jacek Jassem
#129653
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
#2132
Lucien B. Guze
#129655
Overall Influence
#2133
Mitchell H. Katz
#129662
Overall Influence
#2134
Dana Boyd Barr
#129667
Overall Influence
#2135
Jessica Fanzo
#100607
Overall Influence
Jessica Fanzo is an American scientist. She is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food and Agriculture Policy and Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Fanzo was an assistant professor of Nutrition in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University. In January 2023, Columbia announced that Fanzo will rejoin its faculty as a professor in the Columbia Climate School.
Go to Profile#2136
Henry Feffer
#111269
Overall Influence
1918 - 2011 (93 years)
Henry Leon Feffer of Bethesda, Maryland, was an American neurosurgeon. In the mid-1950s, he was one of the first medical doctors to systematically test whether low-back pain could be relieved with epidural injections of hydrocortisone. Today, physicians routinely give such injections before resorting to more invasive surgery. He was a Washington, D.C. spinal surgeon for more than four decades whose patients included Saddam Hussein.
Go to Profile#2137
David B. Bylund
#129721
Overall Influence
#2138
Maurice Victor
#129745
Overall Influence
#2139
Philippe Coumel
#129762
Overall Influence
#2140
Frans J. Kok
#129882
Overall Influence
#2141
Hitoshi Endou
#129889
Overall Influence
#2142
Ann Zauber
#117899
Overall Influence
Ann Graham Zauber is an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, primarily interested in colorectal cancer. Her research has demonstrated the effectiveness of colonoscopy and polyp removal at reducing the incidence of this kind of cancer.
Go to Profile#2143
Elina Hemminki
#129921
Overall Influence
#2144
Yoshihiro Urade
#129929
Overall Influence
#2145
Mary-Louise McLaws
#108976
Overall Influence
1953 - 2023 (70 years)
Mary-Louise McLaws was an Australian epidemiologist. Specialising in infectious diseases, she was a professor of epidemiology at the University of New South Wales for over 30 years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she became a "household name" in Australia, regularly providing public information and advice on the disease.
Go to Profile#2146
Alberto Priori
#129149
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
Alberto Priori is an Italian neurologist, academic, and author. He is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Milan, Director of Neurology 1 Unit at San Paolo Hospital, and the Founder and Coordinator of Aldo Ravelli Center of the University of Milan. He also serves as President of the Neurophysiopatology Tecniques Course, and Professor of Postgraduate Schools - Medicine, Healthcare, Dental Medicine at the same University.
Go to Profile#2147
Patrick Thomas O'gara
#130011
Overall Influence
#2148
Benjamin Wolozin
#107054
Overall Influence
Benjamin Wolozin is an American pharmacologist and neurologist currently at Boston University School of Medicine and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Wolozin received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his M.D., Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is currently a professor of Pharmacology, Neurology and the Program in Neuroscience at Boston University School of Medicine. He is also co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics to treat Alzheimer'...
Go to Profile#2149
Colin Binns
#126702
Overall Influence
Colin William Binns is an Australian public health specialist. He is the John Curtin Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Curtin University and founder of the Curtin Health Service. Early life and education Binns completed his medical degree at the University of Western Australia and worked for several years in hospitals in Perth before moving to Papua New Guinea for eight years. While working as a doctor in Papua New Guinea, Binns received a scholarship to complete a MPH degree at Harvard University.
Go to Profile#2150
John C. Mcgiff
#130095
Overall Influence
