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,
#3251
Merrill J. Egorin
#161496
Overall Influence
#3252
Joel D. Morrisett
#161530
Overall Influence
#3253
Juliann Bluitt Foster
#132540
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
Juliann Bluitt Foster was the first African American woman to graduate from dentistry school. Bluitt was born and raised in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 1938. She was the only child to Marion Eugenia Hughes and Stephen Bernard Bluitt. In 1993, she became the first woman President of the American College of Dentists, as well as the first woman President of the Chicago Dental Society in 1992.
Go to Profile#3254
Laura Soucek
#112114
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Laura Soucek is a Group Leader at VHIO , Research Professor at ICREA, and CEO of Peptomyc S.L. She works on the Myc oncoprotein, the deregulation of which occurs during almost all cancers. Soucek has designed a dominant negative variant, Omomyc, which allows her to investigate the benefits of inhibiting Myc in cancer.
Go to Profile#3255
Toyozo Uno
#161560
Overall Influence
#3256
Robert W. Massof
#161566
Overall Influence
#3257
Krzysztof Palczewski
#113621
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Krzysztof Palczewski is a Polish-American biochemist working at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. In 2012 he was awarded Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science, the most prestigious scientific award for Polish scientists, for characterizing crystal structures of native and activated G protein-coupled receptor, rhodopsin, involved in eyesight.
Go to Profile#3258
Clyde A. Helms
#161607
Overall Influence
#3259
John Joseph Eckert
#161638
Overall Influence
#3260
Theodore L. Munsat
#161654
Overall Influence
#3261
Corneel Vandelanotte
#161655
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3262
Bernhard J. Hering
#135205
Overall Influence
Bernhard J. Hering is professor of surgery and medicine and executive director of the Schulze Diabetes Institute at the University of Minnesota, where he serves as Vice Chair of Translational Medicine in the Medical School's Department of Surgery and where he holds the McKnight Presidential Chair in Transplantation Science and the Jeffrey Dobbs and David Sutherland, MD, PhD Chair in Diabetes Research.
Go to Profile#3263
Lori L. Isom
#140647
Overall Influence
Lori L. Isom is an American pharmacologist, an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Biography Isom was raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1982 and her PhD in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University in 1987. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in 1993 at the University of Washington in the Catterall lab. Currently, she serves as the chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan, as well as a Professor of Molecular and Int...
Go to Profile#3264
Mohamed Zaazoue
#131861
Overall Influence
1987 - Present (39 years)
Mohamed A. Zaazoue is a specialist neurosurgeon, a social entrepreneur and a resident physician at the neurosurgery department at Indiana University. He plans to specialize in spine surgery. He was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in 2019 and was elected for membership to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society in 2021.
Go to Profile#3265
Jens‐uwe Voigt
#161709
Overall Influence
#3266
Helena Ranta
#42537
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Meri Helena Ranta is a Finnish forensic dentist. She became well known as a result of her contributions to several international forensic investigations of conflict situations, such as those in Kosovo. She testified at the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević after her forensic work in the Kosovo village of Račak. She was also part of the investigation of the victims of the sinking of .
Go to Profile#3267
Pavel Vasilyevich Sergeyev
#145273
Overall Influence
1931 - 2007 (76 years)
Pavel Vasilyevich Sergeyev was a Soviet Russian pharmacologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and Correspondent Member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences . Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation , and Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology for the year 1997.
Go to Profile#3268
Yasuyuki Igarashi
#161766
Overall Influence
#3269
Les Roberts
#90349
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Les Roberts is an American epidemiologist. He was the first winner of the Centers for Disease Control's Paul C. Schnitker Award for contributions to global health. He became prominent in the news just before the 2004 U.S. presidential election for his study estimating that 100,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed in the Iraq war at a time when official U.S. government counts were much lower. When a 2006 follow-up study confirmed the report, U.S. President George W. Bush dismissed it, saying the approach had been "pretty well discredited", without explaining how.
Go to Profile#3270
Christine Alewine
#105122
Overall Influence
Christine Campo Alewine is an American oncologist and biologist researching immunotoxin therapeutics in pancreatic cancer. She is an investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Education Campo completed a B.A. in chemistry and Asian studies at Dartmouth College. In college, she interned under chemist Karen Wetterhahn focusing on the environmental effects of toxic metals. It was in this lab that Alewine was introduced to MD–PhD programs and became interested in becoming a physician-scientist. She completed a postbaccalaureate program at the National Cancer Institute's laboratory of pathology from 1998 to 1999.
Go to Profile#3271
Jack F. Schnelle
#161797
Overall Influence
#3272
David. E. Schuller
#161801
Overall Influence
#3273
Sergio Luigi Chierchia
#161852
Overall Influence
#3274
Ubaldo Bonuccelli
#161913
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
#3275
Maurice B. Mittelmark
#161914
Overall Influence
#3276
Pavlos K. Toutouzas
#161927
Overall Influence
#3277
Lawrence T. Glickman
#161999
Overall Influence
#3278
Karl E. Hammermeister
#162009
Overall Influence
#3279
Stephen A. Mcclave
#162103
Overall Influence
#3280
Richard W. Smalling
#162134
Overall Influence
#3281
Peter Douwe Van Der Meer
#162164
Overall Influence
#3282
Dolores Cooper Shockley
#71438
Overall Influence
1930 - 2020 (90 years)
Dr. Dolores C. Shockley was the first black woman to receive a PhD in pharmacology in the United States and one of the first African American students to receive a PhD from Purdue University. After obtaining her PhD she became faculty at the historically black school Meharry Medical College where she subsequently became the first black woman to chair a Pharmacology department in the United States in 1988. Her research contributions included studying the effects of chemical pollutants on the brain and identifying pharmacological agents that interact with drugs of abuse such as cocaine. She was...
Go to Profile#3283
Robert W. Haile
#162186
Overall Influence
#3284
Richard Sullivan
#162209
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#3285
Norio Matsuki
#162247
Overall Influence
#3286
Kelly J. Henning
#136550
Overall Influence
Kelly J. Henning is an epidemiologist and medical doctor currently leading the public health program of Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has led the program since it began in 2007. She was the first person to serve as director of epidemiology for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Henning said of working in public health "I have the opportunity to help improve the health and lives of millions of people. That's what really speaks to me."
Go to Profile#3287
Mahmood Ayaz
#162317
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Mahmood Ayaz is Vice Chancellor of king Edward Medical University, Lahore and ex-principal of Services Institute of Medical Sciences and patron of Services Hospital since 1 August 2017. He was awarded an honorary fellowship by the American College of Surgeons in November 2013.
Go to Profile#3288
Andrew E. Budson
#95722
Overall Influence
Andrew E. Budson is an American neurologist, academic and researcher. He is a Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, Lecturer in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology and Associate Chief of Staff for Education at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, where he also serves as a Director of the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience. He is Associate Director and Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core Leader at the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Go to Profile#3289
Moshe H. Schein
#162326
Overall Influence
#3290
Sally Ann Shumaker
#162351
Overall Influence
#3291
Gérard M. Guiraudon
#162386
Overall Influence
#3292
Erin G. Schuetz
#162388
Overall Influence
#3293
Steven R. Childers
#162393
Overall Influence
#3294
Norbert W. Schuff
#162396
Overall Influence
#3295
Yuichiro Ogura
#162416
Overall Influence
#3296
Masaaki Arakawa
#162426
Overall Influence
#3297
Andrzej Pilc
#162493
Overall Influence
#3298
Richard K. Albert
#162516
Overall Influence
#3299
Silvio Brusaferro
#162631
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
#3300
Federica Agosta
#162634
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
