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,
#2151
Ruth Oniang'o
#95041
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (79 years)
Ruth Khasaya Oniang’o is a Kenyan Professor of Nutrition and a former member of Parliament. She created Rural Outreach Africa to empower smallholders to address malnutrition, she oversees her country's nutrition policy and she is on the board of the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International.
Go to Profile#2152
Seigou Kitano
#130124
Overall Influence
#2153
Wolfgang Maret
#130138
Overall Influence
#2154
Ruth Malone
#102093
Overall Influence
Ruth E. Malone is an American tobacco control researcher and policy analyst. She is professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. She was the editor-in-chief of Tobacco Control from 2009 to 2023. She holds the Mary Harms/Nursing Alumni Endowed Chair.
Go to Profile#2155
Robert L. Sufit
#74180
Overall Influence
Robert L. Sufit is a professor of neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and the husband of Judge Diane Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Dr. Sufit received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. He studied medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed a residency in neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Sufit studies peripheral nervous system disorders. He currently directs the Lois Insolia ALS Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where ...
Go to Profile#2156
Marek Witold Radomski
#130164
Overall Influence
#2157
Dan Reinstein
#90725
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
Dan Z. Reinstein is a specialist ophthalmic surgeon in the UK and is a board-certified registered specialist ophthalmologist in the US, Canada and the UK, specialising in the field of refractive surgery . He is medical director of the London Vision Clinic and a voluntary faculty member as Professor of Ophthalmology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as well as a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, UK and Professeur Associé at the Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
Go to Profile#2158
Luigi Naldi
#130331
Overall Influence
#2159
H. Joel Laks
#130340
Overall Influence
#2160
Jordan Deschamps-Braly
#94944
Overall Influence
Jordan Christopher Deschamps-Braly is an American maxillofacial and craniofacial surgeon specializing in facial gender-affirming surgery for transgender people. He co-developed a procedure for building a new Adam's apple for trans men and is known for his work as a plastic surgeon for trans women.
Go to Profile#2161
Evangelos S. Gragoudas
#130378
Overall Influence
#2162
R. Osanna Abbate
#130424
Overall Influence
#2163
Ian Ramsay. Sibbald
#130492
Overall Influence
#2164
Fritz Schick
#130509
Overall Influence
#2165
L. Joseph Iii Melton
#130547
Overall Influence
#2166
Thomas Meade
#103482
Overall Influence
1936 - 2022 (86 years)
Thomas Wilson Meade was a British epidemiologist. He was a pioneer in epidemiology—in particular, in the role blood clotting factors have in cardiovascular disease. Meade underwent medical training at Christ Church, Oxford, and afterwards at St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying in 1960.
Go to Profile#2167
Paul D. Sorlie
#130561
Overall Influence
#2168
Dobromir Petkov Dobrev
#130574
Overall Influence
#2169
Kathryn H. Schmitz
#126595
Overall Influence
Mary Kathryn "Katie" Haltiwanger Schmitz is an American exercise physiologist. She is the Associate Director of Population Sciences at Penn State University College of Medicine and a Full Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#2170
Pasquale Calabrese
#95141
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
Pasquale Calabrese born 27 February 1961 in Naples, Italy, is an Italian professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Basel, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences. He is a neuroscientist, experimental neurologist and medical neuropsychologist.
Go to Profile#2171
Jan P. Arends
#130606
Overall Influence
#2172
Michael A. Gerber
#130648
Overall Influence
#2173
James L. Linzell
#130683
Overall Influence
#2174
Fátima Cardoso
#130733
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
#2175
Jan Ivar Pedersen
#88316
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (89 years)
Jan Ivar Pedersen is a Norwegian professor of nutrition. He grew up in Karmøy and took his secondary education at Lycée Corneille in France. He took the cand.med. degree in 1962 and the dr.med. degree in 1973, both at the University of Oslo. He has been employed at the University of Oslo since 1964, and was promoted to professor in 1984. He has also been a member of the Norwegian National Council on Nutrition. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 1988 and is a Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav since 2007.
Go to Profile#2176
Scott D. Holmberg
#130739
Overall Influence
#2177
Adebowale A. Adeyemo
#110493
Overall Influence
Adebowale A. Adeyemo is a Nigerian physician-scientist and genetic epidemiologist specialized in genomics and cardiometabolic disorders. He is the deputy director and chief scientific officer of the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health at the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Go to Profile#2178
Fabrice Bartolomei
#113842
Overall Influence
Fabrice Bartolomei is a French neurophysiologist, and University Professor at Aix-Marseille University , leading the Service de Neurophysiologie Clinique of the Timone Hospital at the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille, and he is the medical director of the ‘Centre Saint-Paul - Hopital Henri Gastaut’. He is the coordinator of the clinical network CINAPSE that is dedicated to the management of adult and pediatric cases of severe epilepsies and leader of the Federation Hospitalo-Universitaire Epinext. He is also member of the research unit Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes], UMR110...
Go to Profile#2179
K. Kian Ang
#130771
Overall Influence
#2180
John D. Meeker
#130818
Overall Influence
#2181
Miguel Srougi
#130829
Overall Influence
#2182
Harvey A. Risch
#130908
Overall Influence
#2183
Jose‐ramón González‐juanatey
#130924
Overall Influence
#2184
James Gary Mcleod
#130932
Overall Influence
#2185
Mapuana Antonio
#62434
Overall Influence
Mapuana C. K. Antonio is a Native Hawaiian public health academic specializing in Native Hawaiian and indigenous health. She is the inaugural Queen Liliʻuokalani Distinguished Professor in Native Hawaiian Culture at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She heads the Native Hawaiian and indigenous health program in its office of public health studies.
Go to Profile#2186
Karla Zadnik
#97960
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Karla Zadnik is an American optometrist. She is the dean of the Ohio State University College of Optometry. Biography An internationally recognized leader in optometric research and education, Dr. Karla Zadnik became The Ohio State University College of Optometry's dean in June 2014. She received her OD and PhD degrees from the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. Professional highlights include: American Academy of Optometry President : American Optometric Foundation Glenn A. Fry Award Recipient ; National Advisory Eye Cou...
Go to Profile#2187
Dianna Josephine Magliano
#131086
Overall Influence
#2188
Pietro Ghezzi
#131124
Overall Influence
#2189
Gavin C. E. Stuart
#101713
Overall Influence
Gavin C. E. Stuart FRCPC is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UBC Faculty of Medicine, where he formerly was Dean of Medicine and Vice-Provost Health . Stuart was born in Manitoba and attended medical school at the University of Western Ontario. He pursued postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynecology and then a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He has held faculty appointments at Wayne State University and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, where later served as the centre's director and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Go to Profile#2190
Allan Hamilton
#112338
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Allan J. Hamilton is an American physician and medical consultant to ABC's medical drama Grey’s Anatomy based in Tucson, Arizona. A professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, Dr. Hamilton was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1994. In 1995, Dr. Hamilton was promoted to Chief of Neurosurgery and became Chairman of the Department of Surgery in 1998. He currently holds a tenured professorship in Neurosurgery, as well as additional professorships in the Departments of Psychology, Radiation Oncology, and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Go to Profile#2191
Felix Zijlstra
#131279
Overall Influence
#2192
Martin R. Bennett
#131286
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
#2193
Dixie. E. Snider
#131391
Overall Influence
#2194
Alain E. Reinberg
#131446
Overall Influence
#2195
Ralf J. Radlanski
#101167
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Ralf Johannes Radlanski is a German anatomist, orthodontist and university professor. Since 1992 he is director of the Dept. of Craniofacial Developmental Biology at the Center for Dental and Craniofacial Sciences, Charité – University Medicine Berlin . He is a guest professor at the University of California, San Francisco , at the University of Turku , at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, at the University of Basle , and at the University of Zurich . He is a Dr. honoris causa at Coorg Institute of Dental Sciences Virajpet .
Go to Profile#2196
William G. Couser
#131499
Overall Influence
#2197
Angela M. Christiano
#131519
Overall Influence
#2198
D. Bruce Scott
#131699
Overall Influence
#2199
Caroline A. Macera
#131704
Overall Influence
#2200
David García‐dorado
#131721
Overall Influence
