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,
#2451
Elizabeth Fontham
#109111
Overall Influence
Elizabeth Terrell Hobgood "Terry" Fontham is an American cancer epidemiologist, public health researcher, and founding dean of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health.
Go to Profile#2452
David Brown
#80606
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
David Anthony Brown, was Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at University College London, having joined the department in April 1987 and served as Head of Department from October 1987 to April 2002.
Go to Profile#2453
Herbert H. Schaumburg
#138483
Overall Influence
#2454
Kalipso Chalkidou
#101599
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Kalipso Chalkidou is the Head of Health Finance at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. Previously she was Director of Global Health Policy at the Center for Global Development and Professor of Practice in Global Health at Imperial College London. Her research considers how local expertise can inform the allocation of scientific and healthcare resources.
Go to Profile#2455
Nancy L. Ascher
#138616
Overall Influence
#2456
Raymond E. Ideker
#138637
Overall Influence
#2457
Lasse Kanerva
#138671
Overall Influence
#2458
Liv K. Hatle
#138736
Overall Influence
#2459
H. Allen. Tucker
#138744
Overall Influence
#2460
Jane Anderson
#82990
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Jane Anderson is a British physician who specialises in the management of HIV/AIDS. She has served as an expert advisor for Public Health England and is Chair of the National AIDS Trust. Early life and education Anderson was born in Swindon, Wiltshire on 23 December 1952. She originally trained as a nutritionist at Queen Elizabeth College. In an interview with The BMJ Anderson revealed that as a teenager she had underperformed in her A-levels and had initially not secured a place at medical school. Eventually she was accepted as a mature student to St Mary's Hospital Medical School. She started work as a research assistant in a metabolic unit.
Go to Profile#2461
Sherry Chou
#97211
Overall Influence
Sherry Hsiang-Yi Chou is a Canadian neurologist and an Associate Professor of Neurology and Chief of Neurocritical Care at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Medicine. She is a Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic Chou assembled a worldwide team of physicians and scientists to better understand the neurological impacts of COVID-19, forming the Global Consortium Study of Neurologic Dysfunction in COVID-19 . The first report of this large, multicenter, multicontinent consortium foun...
Go to Profile#2462
Lewis Seiden
#137476
Overall Influence
1934 - 2007 (73 years)
Lewis Stanford Seiden was an American pharmacologist and professor at the University of Chicago. Early life and education Seiden was born in Chicago on August 1, 1934, where he grew up in the South Shore neighborhood. After graduating from high school, he received a full scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he had intended to study medicine. However, in 1950, when he was about to graduate from high school, he developed dystonia; he resumed studies at the University of Chicago the following year after recovering. He continued to struggle with dystonia for the rest of his life. He received his A.B.
Go to Profile#2463
Ralph R. Frerichs
#121012
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Ralph R. Frerichs is professor emeritus of epidemiology at UCLA where he was active as a full-time faculty member in the School of Public Health for 31 years and as the Epidemiology department chair for 13 years, before retiring in late 2008. Both at UCLA and in international workshops he taught epidemiologic methods, the use of rapid community-based surveys, epidemiologic simulation models for focused research, and screening and surveillance methods for HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Go to Profile#2464
Michael E. Farkouh
#138920
Overall Influence
#2465
C. Glenn Begley
#84480
Overall Influence
C. Glenn Begley is a hematologist and oncologist who was the CEO of BioCurate, an Australia-based joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Monash University that was launched in 2016. Previously, he worked at the California-based biotech company Akriveia Therapeutics as their chief scientific officer. His other previous positions include global head of hematology and oncology research at Amgen, senior vice president and chief scientific officer at TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals, and executive director of the Western Australian Institute of Medical Research.
Go to Profile#2466
Kristian Anton Thygesen
#139049
Overall Influence
#2467
Jerome Donar Waye
#139129
Overall Influence
#2468
Mathias Bähr
#92258
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Mathias Bähr is a German neurologist. Career Mathias Bähr joined the Medical School in Tübingen, in the South of Germany, where he passed his Medical Licensing Examination in 1985. He obtained his MD in neuropathology at the Institute for Brain Research Tübingen in 1986 supervised by the late Prof. Jürgen Peiffer. For his initial training in Neurology he moved to the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Düsseldorf . In 1987 he obtained a Research Fellowship from the German Research Council for which he joined the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen . In 1988 a Max-Planck-Fellowship was granted and allowed him to join the Group of the late Prof.
Go to Profile#2469
Lalit Dandona
#139166
Overall Influence
#2470
Robert A. Wolff
#139180
Overall Influence
#2471
Theodore G. Karrison
#139194
Overall Influence
#2472
Jacques Glowinski
#48150
Overall Influence
1936 - 2020 (84 years)
Jacques Glowinski was a French pharmacist and biology researcher specializing in neurobiology and neuropharmacology for which he is considered one of the founding fathers in France. Glowinski was a professor at the Collège de France and was also its administrator. He was a member of the French Academy of sciences.
Go to Profile#2473
Charles H. Kirkpatrick
#139204
Overall Influence
#2474
Henric Blomgren
#139210
Overall Influence
#2475
Satoshi Minoshima
#139214
Overall Influence
#2476
Jan H. Egelberg
#139244
Overall Influence
#2477
Linda Bauer Cottler
#139248
Overall Influence
#2478
Benjamin Breyer
#132253
Overall Influence
Benjamin N. Breyer is an American urologic surgeon. As a Professor of Urology, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, he specializes in complex urethral and penile reconstruction, male incontinence, male fistula, surgical treatment for erectile dysfunction.
Go to Profile#2479
Jürgen B. Schnermann
#139324
Overall Influence
#2480
Allyn C Howlett
#139332
Overall Influence
#2481
Pierre-marie Laduron
#139333
Overall Influence
#2482
Mark Batshaw
#112650
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Mark Levitt Batshaw is a Canadian-born physician, medical researcher and academic administrator. He is a professor in the department of pediatrics and an associate dean at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences and is the physician-in-chief and chief academic officer at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is known for his research into urea cycle disorders and gene therapy, and is the author of the classic textbook "Children with Disabilities".
Go to Profile#2483
Gunter K. Von Noorden
#139337
Overall Influence
#2484
Douglas A. Canning
#139346
Overall Influence
#2485
Sanjay Shete
#102431
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Sanjay Shete is a professor in statistical genetic, genetic epidemiology, behavioral genetics and biostatistics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is Barnhart Family Distinguished Professor in Targeted Therapies and section chief of behavioral and social statistics in the division of Quantitative Sciences.
Go to Profile#2486
Friedrich Jung
#78419
Overall Influence
1915 - 1997 (82 years)
Friedrich Jung was a German doctor who became a leading Academic and Research Pharmacologist in the German Democratic Republic. Between 1949 and 1972 he was a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He also served as the director of various research institutes outside the universities sector including, between 1972 and 1980, the at Berlin-Buch.
Go to Profile#2487
Mark Jay Kransdorf
#139438
Overall Influence
#2488
Jordi Camí
#96889
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Jordi Camí is Professor of Pharmacology at Pompeu Fabra University, General Director of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park , and vice president of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation. He has been the promoter and first director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation between 2008 and 2020. His scientific activity has been focused on the field of Neurosciences , having explored other fields such as Bibliometry, Evaluation and Scientific Policy. His academic activity has been carried out between the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Pompeu Fabra University , having held the positions of Delegate of the Rector, Dean and Director of the department.
Go to Profile#2489
William H. Gaasch
#139477
Overall Influence
#2490
Alexander Wagenaar
#114962
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Alexander C. Wagenaar is professor of health outcomes and policy at the University of Florida College of Medicine, where he also serves on the graduate faculty. Education Wagenaar received his B.A. in sociology from Calvin College and his M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#2491
Leopold Saverio Vaccaro
#77358
Overall Influence
Leopold Saverio Vaccaro was a noted surgeon and scientist who was decorated for assisting with the reconstruction of Italy in the aftermath of World War I. Biographical Information Born February 2, 1887, in Rionero in Vulture, Italy, to Giovanni Battista Vaccaro, a tailor, and Maria Rachele Laus. Vaccaro immigrated to the United States from his native country as a child, in 1902. He took his medical training at the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, graduating in 1916. In the first years of his career, he worked as a staff surgeon at munitions plants run by E.I. DuPont de Numours Co.,...
Go to Profile#2492
William Chadwick Wood
#139529
Overall Influence
#2493
Fung‐chang Sung
#139538
Overall Influence
#2494
Frank Arnold Flachskampf
#139540
Overall Influence
#2495
Ian Chopra
#139549
Overall Influence
#2496
Anne Haney Cross
#135825
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Anne Cross is an American neurologist and neuroimmunologist and the Section Head of Neuroimmunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Cross holds the Manny and Rosalyn Rosenthal–Dr. John L. Trotter Endowed Chair in Neuroimmunology at WUSTL School of Medicine and co-directs the John L Trotter Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Cross is a leader in the field of neuroimmunology and was the first to discover the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis in animals and then in humans. Cross now develops novel imaging techniques to...
Go to Profile#2497
Jeremy Daniel Pearson
#139595
Overall Influence
#2498
Gunter K. Von Noorden
#139631
Overall Influence
#2499
Kevin Brindle
#137080
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Kevin Michael Brindle, , is a British biochemist, currently Professor of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Senior Group Leader at Cancer Research UK. He is known for developing magnetic resonance imaging techniques for use in cell biochemistry and new imaging methods for early detection, monitoring, and treatment of cancer.
Go to Profile#2500
Michelle Glass
#129848
Overall Influence
Michelle Glass is a New Zealand pharmacology academic. She is currently a full professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the University of Otago. Career Since a 1994 PhD titled 'Receptor alterations in human neuro-degenerative diseases' at the University of Auckland, she has worked at both the University of Auckland and the University of Otago, rising to full professor.
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