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,
#3051
Petra Wilder-Smith
#119924
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Petra Elfrida Erna Beate Wilder-Smith is a professor and director of dentistry at the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine, and a fellow of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine. She is a visiting professor at Aachen University ; and a visiting lecturer at Loma Linda University. Wilder-Smith specializes in the use of light and optics in tracking and treating oral cancer. She has developed innovative noninvasive laser technology used to examine and treat mouth lesions.
Go to Profile#3052
Gautam Chaudhuri
#155691
Overall Influence
#3053
Kelly Gebo
#147694
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Kelly Anne Gebo is an American epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist. She was the inaugural Vice Provost for Education at Johns Hopkins University and served as the Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for the All of Us Research Program at the National Institutes of Health.
Go to Profile#3054
Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi
#103757
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Alberto E. Paniz-Mondolfi MD, MSc, PhD, FFTM RCPS is a Venezuelan pathologist, epidemiologist, and molecular medicine researcher. Currently he is a pathologist and assistant professor in New York City and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West Hospitals and Mount Sinai Hospital. Also, he is the Academic Director and Founder of The Venezuelan Science Incubator , a group focused on infectious diseases research and awareness based in Venezuela.
Go to Profile#3055
T. William Shields
#155871
Overall Influence
#3056
Lydia Bourouiba
#113480
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Lydia Bourouiba is an Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor, an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering departments, and in the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also a Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Faculty, and Affiliate Faculty of Harvard Medical School. She directs the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory at MIT.
Go to Profile#3057
Andrew Peitzman
#155953
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Andrew B. Peitzman is an American surgeon currently the Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Mark M. Ravitch Chair in Surgery at University of Pittsburgh.
Go to Profile#3058
André Louis Blum
#156009
Overall Influence
#3059
M. J. G. Farthing
#156086
Overall Influence
#3060
John R. T. Monson
#156096
Overall Influence
#3061
Richard J. Paulson
#156124
Overall Influence
#3062
Per Hjalmar Nakstad
#138505
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Per Hjalmar Nakstad is a Norwegian professor of medicine. He was born in Kongsvinger and grew up in Kongsvinger, Målselv and Stjørdal. He finished his secondary education at Trondheim Cathedral School in 1965, and graduated in medicine in Freiburg in 1971. From 1979 he got the specialist title in radiology, and in 1985 he took the dr.med. degree at the University of Oslo.
Go to Profile#3063
Elizabeth Elliott
#80773
Overall Influence
Elizabeth Jane Elliott is an Australian clinician scientist. She is a Member of the Order of Australia , for services to paediatrics and child health, as well as an Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science , Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW, and Fellow of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Health. She was the first female to win the James Cook Medal, awarded by the Royal Society of NSW for contributions to human welfare. She is a Distinguished Professor of paediatrics at the University of Sydney and a Consultant Paediatrician at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals...
Go to Profile#3064
Te Kani Kingi
#93332
Overall Influence
Te Kani R. Kingi is a New Zealand mental health academic, are Māori, of Ngāti Pūkeko and Ngāti Awa descent and as of 2019 is a full professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Academic career After a 2002 PhD titled "Hua oranga": best health outcomes for Māori at Massey University, Kingi moved to the Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, rising to full professor.
Go to Profile#3065
Hans Rudolf Baumgartner
#156351
Overall Influence
#3066
Roger G. Deeley
#156400
Overall Influence
#3067
Norifumi Kawada
#156466
Overall Influence
#3068
Eduardo J. Calonje
#156479
Overall Influence
#3069
Hasso Scholz
#156502
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
#3070
Sussan Nourshargh
#145963
Overall Influence
Sussan Nourshargh is a British immunologist, pharmacologist, and professor of microvascular pharmacology and immunopharmacology. She founded the Centre for Microvascular research at Queen Mary University.
Go to Profile#3071
George Nuki
#156529
Overall Influence
#3072
Harry H. Roenigk
#156546
Overall Influence
#3073
Rafael Alfonso Figueroa Díaz
#156619
Overall Influence
#3074
Mollie McGeown
#113445
Overall Influence
1923 - 2004 (81 years)
Mary Graham "Mollie" McGeown was a Northern Irish nephrologist and biochemist. She was a pioneer in dialysis and kidney transplantation, overseeing the first dialysis centre in Northern Ireland and designing the "Belfast recipe" for post-transplantation care.
Go to Profile#3075
Lorenzo Breschi
#156630
Overall Influence
#3076
Una Martin
#106069
Overall Influence
Una Martin is an emeritus professor of clinical pharmacology and was formerly the deputy pro-vice chancellor for equalities at the University of Birmingham. She is an expert in hypertension and ambulatory monitoring. She is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society.
Go to Profile#3077
Raina Merchant
#153303
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Raina Martha Merchant is an American emergency medicine specialist, a member of the National Academy of Medicine. . She is the associate vice president and director of the Center for Digital Health in Penn Medicine and associate professor of emergency medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#3078
Mark Chance
#156675
Overall Influence
Mark Chance is an American chemist currently interested in structural and cellular proteomics. He is currently the Charles W. and Iona A. Mathias Professor of Cancer Research at Case Western Reserve University.
Go to Profile#3079
Juan‐pablo Casas
#156717
Overall Influence
#3080
Peter F. Whitington
#156730
Overall Influence
#3081
Shigetoshi Kadota
#156736
Overall Influence
#3082
Soichiro Kitamura
#156760
Overall Influence
#3083
Beverly Winikoff
#156785
Overall Influence
#3084
Thierry Ponchon
#156828
Overall Influence
#3085
Teresa C. Horan
#156841
Overall Influence
#3086
Albert P. Rocchini
#156842
Overall Influence
#3087
Michael E. Bertrand
#156851
Overall Influence
#3088
Lindo Bacon
#85183
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Lindo Bacon, born and published as Linda Bacon, is a nutritionist, researcher and author. They have a doctorate in physiology and master's degrees in exercise science and psychotherapy. Much of Bacon's earliest work is in the Health at Every Size field, including Health at Every Size and Body Respect. Bacon's latest book, Radical Belonging: How to Survive and Thrive in an Unjust World was published in November 2020.
Go to Profile#3089
John Frank
#156557
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
John Frank FRCPC, FCAHS, is a Canadian epidemiologist. Career He was trained in medicine and community medicine at the University of Toronto, in family medicine at McMaster University, and in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Go to Profile#3090
Robert Lyngle Waters
#156979
Overall Influence
#3091
Tsuyoshi Miyakawa
#157012
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3092
Brian L. Hazleman
#157028
Overall Influence
#3093
Teruhiko Tamaya
#157083
Overall Influence
#3094
Spencer Frankl
#157090
Overall Influence
1934 - 2007 (73 years)
Spencer N. Frankl was an American dentist. Biography Frankl grew up in Philadelphia where he became friends with Rhoda Stein and married her seven years later. In 1958 he graduated from Temple University School of Dentistry and became a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric dentistry at Tufts University, where he received an MSD. Three years later, he became a faculty member at Boston University, where he founded the department of pediatric dentistry in 1964. During the same years he was the chief of the dental service at Beth Israel Hospital and by 1972 he launched the DMD program at Boston University.
Go to Profile#3095
Marshall B. Kapp
#157094
Overall Influence
#3096
Ann Aschengrau
#147821
Overall Influence
Ann Aschengrau is an epidemiologist who focuses on environmental and reproductive health. She is a professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health and is the Associate Chairman of the department.
Go to Profile#3097
Ghassan Khaled Abou-alfa
#157238
Overall Influence
#3098
Kathy D. Miller
#157291
Overall Influence
#3099
Joyce A. Goldstein
#157297
Overall Influence
#3100
Sofia Merajver
#122824
Overall Influence
Sofia Diana Merajver is an American-Argentine medical oncologist. She is the GreaterGood Breast Cancer Research Professor and director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Evaluation Program at Michigan Medicine. In 2022, Merajver was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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