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,
#3351
Hitonobu Tomoike
#164037
Overall Influence
#3352
Ken-ichi Kosaka
#164049
Overall Influence
#3353
D. A. T. Southgate
#164066
Overall Influence
#3354
Nicolaas I.l.j. Bohnen
#164067
Overall Influence
#3355
Orly Vardeny
#164083
Overall Influence
#3356
Thomas C. Wright,
#164088
Overall Influence
#3357
Richard M. Kostrzewa
#164169
Overall Influence
#3358
Catherine Donnelly
#80068
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Catherine Wright Donnelly is Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Vermont, and the Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Companion to Cheese, which won the 2017 James Beard Award for Reference and Scholarship.
Go to Profile#3359
Jean‐marie Boeynaems
#164227
Overall Influence
#3360
Scott Haldeman
#164236
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
#3361
Arthur H. Jr. Aufses
#164237
Overall Influence
#3362
Stacy Alan Brethauer
#164252
Overall Influence
#3363
Miles H. Irving
#164329
Overall Influence
#3364
Giuseppe Bifulco
#164404
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#3365
Anne Rimoin
#135278
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Anne Walsh Rimoin is an American infectious disease epidemiologist whose research focuses on emerging infectious diseases , particularly those that are crossing species from animal to human populations. She is a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Infectious Disease Division of the Geffen School of Medicine and is the Director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health. She is an internationally recognized expert on the epidemiology of Ebola, human monkeypox, and disease emergence in Central Africa.
Go to Profile#3366
Mary Armanios
#115538
Overall Influence
Mary Armanios is Professor of Oncology, Genetic Medicine, Pathology and Molecular Biology, and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Director of the Telomere Center at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on the role of telomeres in disease.
Go to Profile#3367
Robert A. O’reilly
#164499
Overall Influence
#3368
Melissa Haendel
#112683
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Melissa Anne Haendel is an American bioinformaticist who is the Chief Research Informatics Officer of the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado as well as a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and the Marsico Chair in Data Science. She serves as Director of the Center for Data to Health . Her research makes use of data to improve the discovery and diagnosis of diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Haendel joined with the National Institutes of Health to launch the National COVID Cohort Collaborative , which looks to identify the risk factors that can predict seve...
Go to Profile#3369
Abby Lippman
#110999
Overall Influence
1939 - 2017 (78 years)
Abby Lippman was a Canadian feminist and epidemiologist who served as a professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University. She was known for her advocacy for human rights and women's health, and for her research applying a feminist perspective to biotechnology and pharmaceutical drugs. Among her most notable works were her critiques of hormone replacement therapy, the pharmaceutical industry, the HPV vaccine, and the "geneticization" of reproductive technologies. In 2001, Lippmann helped the Center for Genetics and Society to continue the...
Go to Profile#3370
John Grant
#72667
Overall Influence
1922 - 2013 (91 years)
John MacDonald Falconar Grant, AO, OBE was an Australian neurosurgeon and disability sport administrator. He was president of the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games Organising Committee. He played a leading role in the development of disability sport in Australia.
Go to Profile#3371
Joseph M. Zabramski
#164692
Overall Influence
#3372
Richard Henry Whitehouse
#164702
Overall Influence
#3373
Victor L. Serebruany
#164706
Overall Influence
#3374
André La Gerche
#164778
Overall Influence
#3375
Timo R. Hakulinen
#164799
Overall Influence
#3376
Inga Zerr
#164843
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
#3377
Michael N. Brant‐zawadzki
#164847
Overall Influence
#3378
Ignazio Olivieri
#164906
Overall Influence
#3379
Sheila Leatherman
#138068
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Sheila Tayback Leatherman, Hon. CBE, Hon FRCP , is Professor in Global Health at the University of North Carolina UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health whose professional experience stretches across the breadth of health care management, public health and health policy with expertise in quality of care, performance improvement in the health sector, and health systems reforms. She has worked with over 50 countries globally.
Go to Profile#3380
Nathan Michael Bass
#165020
Overall Influence
#3381
Kirkwood F. Jr. Adams
#165043
Overall Influence
#3382
Barbara A. Bowman
#88748
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Barbara Ann Brown Bowman is an American nutritionist who spent more than twenty years of her career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in various positions. Before she retired in 2016, she was the director of the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. Her retirement came shortly after her emails with a former Coca-Cola executive were made public, which were held as evidence that Coca-Cola tried to influence the CDC. She was co-editor of the Annual Review of Nutrition from 2015 to 2017.
Go to Profile#3383
Charles L. Poole
#165146
Overall Influence
#3384
Simon Thornley
#135266
Overall Influence
Simon James Thornley is a New Zealand medical doctor and academic specialising in epidemiology and biostatistics, and as of 2021 is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland. Career Thornley trained as a medical doctor prior to joining the University of Auckland as a public health academic specialising in epidemiology and biostatistics. He graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Human Biology in 1997, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in May 2000, and Master of Public Health with First Class Honours in 2006 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine in 2015.
Go to Profile#3385
Ali S. Salim
#165190
Overall Influence
#3386
Caroline Quach-Thanh
#135873
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Caroline Quach-Thanh is a Canadian pediatric microbiologist, epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist. She is a professor in the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine and Medical Lead in the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at CHU Sainte-Justine. She served as the Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and oversaw the approval process of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada.
Go to Profile#3387
Dale C. Snover
#165237
Overall Influence
#3388
James Enlou Tcheng
#165258
Overall Influence
#3389
Ulrich Heininger
#165272
Overall Influence
#3390
Michele De Bonis
#165276
Overall Influence
#3391
Mathuram Santosham
#165317
Overall Influence
#3392
Katsutoshi Yoshizato
#165324
Overall Influence
#3393
William A. Pettinger
#165331
Overall Influence
#3394
Thomas W. Klein
#165337
Overall Influence
#3395
Lisa Ann Cassis
#165338
Overall Influence
#3396
Sigmund Alfred Anderssen
#165356
Overall Influence
#3397
Jaap Willem Deckers
#165370
Overall Influence
#3398
Hannah Steinberg
#89532
Overall Influence
1926 - 2019 (93 years)
Hannah Steinberg was a pioneer of experimental psychopharmacology, the study of the interaction of drugs on the human mind. Early life Steinberg was born in Vienna to the lawyer Michael Steinberg and his wife Marie . They arranged for her to leave Vienna in 1938 and she was one of the first Jewish children to travel on the Kindertransport. and arrived in London where she was educated at Putney High School and Queen Anne's School, Caversham. After studying for a Certificate in Commerce at Reading University and then at Denton Secretarial College she changed course. After beginning a degree in...
Go to Profile#3399
Helen Ward
#45972
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Helen Ward is a British physician who is professor of public health at Imperial College London and director of the patient experience research centre. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ward called for the Government of the United Kingdom to be more proactive in their response to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2.
Go to Profile#3400
Yu Ming Hu
#165462
Overall Influence
