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.
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List of the most influential people in Medical,
#4001
Nathan Cooley Keep
1800 - 1875 (75 years)
Nathan Cooley Keep was a pioneer in the field of dentistry, and the founding Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Biography Keep was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on December 23, 1800. Adept with his hands, he became interested in dentistry following an apprenticeship with a local jeweler. In 1821, he moved to Boston and graduated from Harvard Medical School with an M.D. in 1827. He practiced dentistry for 40 years, was hailed for his proficiency, and in 1843 was awarded an honorary D.D.S. by the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Keep invented and manufactured many dental tools and is credited with being one of the first to manufacture porcelain teeth.
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Gabriel Anton
1858 - 1933 (75 years)
Gabriel Anton was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist. He is primarily remembered for his studies of psychiatric conditions arising from damage to the cerebral cortex and the basal ganglia. Academic career He was a native of Saaz, Bohemia, and in 1882 received his medical doctorate at Prague. In 1887 he traveled to Vienna in order to work with Theodor Meynert , who was to become an important influence to Anton's medical career. In 1891 he moved to Innsbruck, where he served as an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the university clinic. Later , he relocated to the Universi...
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Karl-Axel Ekbom
1907 - 1977 (70 years)
Karl-Axel Ekbom was a Swedish neurologist. He is mostly known for his detailed description of restless legs syndrome . Ekbom started his medical studies in Stockholm in 1928 and was licensed in 1934. He received the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1945. After working at the Karolinska Institute from 1945 to 1958, he became Professor of Neurology at the University of Uppsala where he worked until 1974.
Go to Profile#4004
Adam Gruca
1893 - 1983 (90 years)
Adam Gruca was a famous Polish orthopaedist, inventor, and surgeon. He is considered to be the founder of modern orthopedic surgery in Poland. Gruca also invented various orthopaedic instruments and appliances.
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Jean Lhermitte
1877 - 1959 (82 years)
Jacques Jean Lhermitte was a French neurologist and neuropsychiatrist. Early life and education Lhermitte was born in Mont-Saint-Père, Aisne, son of Léon Augustin Lhermitte, a French realist painter. Following his early education at Saint-Etienne, he studied in Paris and graduated in medicine in 1907. He specialised in neurology and became Chef-de-clinique for nervous diseases in 1908, Chef de laboratoire in 1910, and professeur agrégé for psychiatry 1922.
Go to Profile#4006
Stewart Duke-Elder
1898 - 1978 (80 years)
Sir William Stewart Duke-Elder was a Scottish ophthalmologist, a dominant force in his field for more than a quarter of a century. Life Duke-Elder was born in the manse in Tealing near Dundee. His father, Rev Neil Stewart Elder, was the village minister of the Free Church of Scotland. His mother was Isabelle Duke, daughter of Rev John Duke of the Free Church in Campsie, Stirlingshire.
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Franz König
1832 - 1910 (78 years)
Franz König was a German surgeon. The son of a physician, he was born in Rotenburg an der Fulda. In 1855 he received his doctorate from the University of Marburg, and was later district wound surgeon in Hanau. Afterwards he was a professor of surgery at the universities of Rostock and Göttingen , and eventually at the Charité-Berlin, where in 1895 he succeeded Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben. In 1904 he was succeeded at the Charité by Otto Hildebrand.
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Theodor Meynert
1833 - 1892 (59 years)
Theodor Hermann Meynert was a German-Austrian psychiatrist, neuropathologist, and anatomist born in Dresden. Meynert believed that disturbances in brain development could be a predisposition for psychiatric illness and that certain psychoses are reversible.
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Moritz Benedikt
1835 - 1920 (85 years)
Moritz Benedikt also spelt Moriz was a Hungarian-Austrian neurologist who was a native of Eisenstadt. He was an instructor and professor of neurology at the University of Vienna. Benedikt was a physician with the Austrian army during the Second Italian War of Independence and the Austro-Prussian War.
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Friedrich Ludwig Meissner
1796 - 1860 (64 years)
Friedrich Ludwig Meissner was a German obstetrician, gynecologist and pediatrician. He studied medicine in Leipzig, earning his PhD in 1819. From 1821, he taught classes at the University of Leipzig, becoming a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in 1831. In 1838, he founded an obstetrics clinic.
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Patrick Russell
1726 - 1805 (79 years)
Patrick Russell was a Scottish surgeon and naturalist who worked in India. He studied the snakes of India and is considered the "Father of Indian Ophiology". Russell's viper, Daboia russelii, is named after him.
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Harold Stiles
1863 - 1946 (83 years)
Sir Harold Jalland Stiles was an English surgeon who was known for his research into cancer and tuberculosis and for treatment of nerve injuries. Early years Harold Stiles was born in Spalding, Lincolnshire in 1863 the son of Henry Tournay Stiles MD and his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Jalland. He came from a family of doctors. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating MB ChB in 1885. He earned the Ettles scholarship for the most distinguished graduate of the year. For two years he then taught anatomy at Edinburgh. He was House Surgeon to Professor John Chiene FRSE, Demonstrat...
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C. U. Ariëns Kappers
1877 - 1946 (69 years)
Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers was a Dutch neurologist and anatomist. Life As a student, Ariëns Kappers was influenced by the work of the German neurologist Ludwig Edinger and Dutch anatomist Louis Bolk . During his career, he amassed around 450 whole brains from over 300 species and over 30,000 brain slices.
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Adolphe-Marie Gubler
1821 - 1879 (58 years)
Adolphe-Marie Gubler was a French physician and pharmacologist born in Metz. Originally a student of botany, he began his medical studies in 1841 at Paris, where he was a pupil of Armand Trousseau . In 1845 he became an interne des hôpitaux, earning his doctorate in 1849. Afterwards he worked as a physician at the Hôpital Beaujon, and in 1853 earned his agrégation with a thesis on cirrhosis of the liver. In 1868 he was appointed professor of therapy to the medical faculty in Paris, maintaining this position until his death in 1879.
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Ōmori Harutoyo
1852 - 1912 (60 years)
Ōmori Harutoyo was a Japanese surgeon who became the first president of the Fukuoka Medical College that was founded in 1903 as a branch of the Medical Faculty of Kyōto University . Ōmori was born in Edo, but he grew up in the domain Kaminoyama where his father Ōmori Kaishun served as a physician to lord Matsudaira Nobumichi. In 1879 he graduated from Tokyo University; the same year he went to a new post in the newly established Fukuoka Medical School. In 1888 when this school was abolished, he was appointed as the first director of the Fukuoka Prefectural Hospital. In 1885, he performed the first cesarean operation in Japan.
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Stanley Sarnoff
1917 - 1990 (73 years)
Stanley J. Sarnoff was an American doctor who produced over 200 papers and 60 patents during his long career. His work included the development of such widely used devices as the "auto-injector," which included the AtroPen, which was filled with Atropine Hydrochloride as an anti-nerve-gas antidote for military use; the LidoPen, which was filled with Lidocaine hydrochloride, for cardiac patients, the EpiPen, containing Epinephrine, for people whose allergies cause anaphylaxis, and the 24-hour cardiac monitor. In addition to his own work, he was devoted to philanthropy and, though the creation...
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Fred. A. Mettler
#4018
Photinos Panas
1832 - 1903 (71 years)
Photinos Panas was an ophthalmologist born on the Greek island of Cefalonia. In 1860 he obtained his medical degree at Paris, where he would later spend his entire medical career. He was the first professor of ophthalmology at the University of Paris, and in 1879 established the ophthalmology clinic at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. In 1881 with Edmund Landolt and Antonin Poncet , he founded the Archives d'ophtalmologie.
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Johann Hoffmann
1857 - 1919 (62 years)
Johann Hoffmann was a German neurologist born in Hahnheim. He is remembered for describing Hoffmann's reflex and Werdnig–Hoffmann disease . He is also known for the adult-onset hypothyroid myopathy, Hoffmann syndrome. He was educated at Worms and studied medicine at Heidelberg. He worked under Professor Wilhelm Erb, and succeeded him as head of neurology at Heidelberg.
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Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
1863 - 1941 (78 years)
Alexander Carl Otto Westphal was a German neurologist and psychiatrist. He was the son of the psychiatrist Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal and Clara Mendelssohn and the grandson of Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal.
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Tito Vanzetti
1809 - 1888 (79 years)
Tito Vanzetti was a famous surgeon and professor of medicine of the 19th century. He studied surgery at the University of Padua under Bartolomeo Signoroni and at the University of Vienna with Joseph Wattmann . Several years later, he was appointed professor of clinical surgery and ophthalmology at the University of Kharkiv. In 1853 he returned to Padua as a professor of clinical surgery.
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Rudolf Boehm
1844 - 1926 (82 years)
Rudolf Albert Martin Boehm was a German pharmacologist, known for his work in the field of experimental pharmacology. He studied medicine at the universities of Munich and Würzburg, and in 1868–70 served as an assistant to Franz von Rinecker at the Juliusspital in Würzburg. In 1871 he obtained his habilitation under Adolf Fick, then during the following year was named a professor of pharmacology, dietetics and history of medicine at the University of Dorpat. Later on, he worked as professor of pharmacology at the universities of Marburg and Leipzig , where on four separate occasions he was named dean to the medical faculty.
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Pierre Dominique Delmas
#4024
Roy R. Grinker Sr.
1900 - 1993 (93 years)
Roy Richard Grinker Sr. was an American neurologist and psychiatrist, Professor of Psychiatry at University of Chicago, and pioneer in American psychiatry and psychosomatics. Biography Grinker was born in Chicago, where his father was a neuropsychiatrist. He received a B.S. from the University of Chicago in 1919 and a M.D. in 1921 from Rush Medical College. Directly afterwards he spent a postgraduate year in Europe. In 1933 back in Europe he took psychoanalytic training with Sigmund Freud.
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Francesco Flarer
1791 - 1859 (68 years)
Francesco Flarer was an Italian ophthalmologist born near Merano, South Tyrol. He initially planned to study theology at Innsbruck, but instead enrolled to take classes in medicine, later relocating to the University of Landshut. Political turmoil made his stays at both institutions brief, and in 1809 transferred to the University of Pavia. In 1815 he received his degree in medicine, followed by a doctorate in surgery shortly afterwards.
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Alexis Boyer
1757 - 1833 (76 years)
Alexis Boyer was a French surgeon, born in Corrèze. He was the son of a tailor, and he obtained his first medical knowledge in the shop of a barber surgeon. When he moved to Paris, he had the good fortune to attract the attention of renowned surgeons Antoine Louis and Pierre-Joseph Desault . Boyer persevered at his profession, and became notorious for his anatomical knowledge and surgical dexterity. At the age of 37 he was appointed second surgeon to the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. On the establishment of the École de Sante, he was named chair of operative surgery, but soon exchanged it for the chair of clinical surgery.
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Julius Geppert
1856 - 1937 (81 years)
August Julius Geppert was a German pharmacologist born in Berlin. He studied medicine at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, earning his doctorate in 1880 with a thesis titled . From 1880 to 1885 he worked as an assistant at the second medical clinic in Berlin, becoming a lecturer at the University of Bonn during the following year. From 1893 he was an associate professor of pharmacology, attaining the title of "full professor" in 1899 at the University of Giessen.
Go to Profile#4028
Klaus Conrad
1905 - 1961 (56 years)
Klaus Conrad was a German neurologist and psychiatrist with important contributions to neuropsychology and psychopathology. He joined the Nazi Party in 1940. He was best known as a professor of psychiatry and neurology, and director of the University Psychiatric Hospital in Göttingen from 1958 until his death.
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Karl Fürstner
1848 - 1906 (58 years)
Karl Fürstner was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Strasburg, Uckermark. He studied medicine in Würzburg and Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1871. In 1872 he was an assistant at the pathological institute of the University of Greifswald, and afterwards worked under Karl Westphal in the psychiatric department at the Berlin-Charité. In 1878 he became the first physician to hold the chair of psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg. He kept this position until 1890, when he became professor of nervous and mental diseases at the University of Strasbourg. At Heidelberg his vacancy was filled by Emil Kraepelin .
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Charles Loomis Dana
1852 - 1935 (83 years)
Charles Loomis Dana was an American physician, professor of nervous and mental disease at Cornell Medical College. Early and personal life Dana was born in Woodstock, Vermont. He was a descendant of Richard Dana .
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Paul Leopold Friedrich
1864 - 1916 (52 years)
Paul Leopold Friedrich was a German surgeon and bacteriologist born in the town of Roda, Saxe-Altenburg. In 1888 he received his doctorate at the University of Leipzig, and as a young assistant worked under Robert Koch at the Reich Health Office in Berlin. From 1894 he worked as a privat-docent of surgery in Leipzig, where in 1896 he became an associate professor. Later he served as a professor at the Universities of Greifswald , Marburg and Königsberg . At Greifswald he succeeded August Bier as director of the Surgical University Hospital. Two of Friedrich's well-known assistants were Fer...
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Albert Narath
1864 - 1924 (60 years)
Albert Narath was an Austrian surgeon and anatomist. He was an assistant of Theodor Billroth at the University of Vienna, and from 1896 to 1906 was a professor of surgery at Utrecht. In 1906 he succeeded Vincenz Czerny as chair of surgery at the University of Heidelberg surgical clinic. He resigned this position in 1910 due to health reasons, but continued to contribute articles to scientific publications during the ensuing years.
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R. C. Williams
1888 - 1984 (96 years)
Ralph Chester Williams was an Assistant Surgeon General with the U.S. Public Health Service, with rank of rear admiral. He also served as the national president of Tau Kappa Epsilon and Theta Kappa Psi fraternities.
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Malcolm Harold Lader
#4035
Morinosuke Chiwaki
1870 - 1947 (77 years)
Morinosuke Chiwaki was a dentist and the Chairman of the Japan Dental Association. He was one of the founders of Takayama Dental School , which was later named Tokyo Dental College . He was known as Hideyo Noguchi's patron.
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Joseph Hasner
1819 - 1892 (73 years)
Joseph Hasner, Ritter von Artha was an Austrian ophthalmologist born in Prague. His brother, Leopold Hasner von Artha , was an influential Austrian politician. He studied medicine at the University of Prague, and subsequently worked at the local general hospital . In 1843 he was an assistant at Johann Fischer's eye clinic. In 1848 he gained his habilitation, and in 1852 he became an associate professor. From 1856 he was a "full professor" of ophthalmology and a primary physician in Prague. Starting in 1869 he was an editor of the Vierteljahrsschrift für die praktische Heilkunde .
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James Spence
1812 - 1882 (70 years)
James Spence FRSE FRCSEd was a Scottish surgeon. He served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1867/68. Life He was born on 31 March 1812 at 12 South Bridge in Edinburgh, the son of James Spence, a perfumer, and his third wife.
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Zheng Ji
1900 - 2010 (110 years)
Zheng Ji also known as Libin T. Cheng , was a Chinese nutritionist and a pioneering biochemist. He was reputed to be the world's oldest professor and the founder of modern nutrition science in China, having lived to the age of 110.
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Alfred Goldscheider
1858 - 1935 (77 years)
Johannes Karl Eugen Alfred Goldscheider was a German neurologist born into a Jewish family in Sommerfeld, Kingdom of Prussia. He studied medicine at Friedrich-Wilhelm Medical-Surgical Institute in Berlin , and subsequently spent the next seven years as a military physician. During this period of time, he also served as an assistant to physiologist Emil du Bois-Reymond . He later became a professor at the University of Berlin.
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Anton von Frisch
1849 - 1917 (68 years)
Anton von Frisch , full name Anton Ritter von Frisch, was an Austrian urologist. Frisch was born in Vienna. He studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, afterwards returning to Vienna, where he served as a demonstrator under Josef Hyrtl and as an assistant to Theodor Billroth . In 1874 he became a professor at the University of Vienna. In 1899 he was appointed head of the department of urology at the Allgemeine Poliklinik Wien . Through Frisch's efforts, urology became recognized as an independent subject at the medical faculty in Vienna.
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Jacob Fidelis Ackermann
1765 - 1815 (50 years)
Jacob Fidelis Ackermann was a German professor of anatomy and surgery. Ackermann was born in Rüdesheim am Rhein. He began his studies at Würzburg and earned his doctorate in Mainz in 1787. After extensive research travel he was promoted to private lecturer for forensic medicine in 1789. He acquired the regular professorship in botanics and later in anatomy when Samuel Thomas von Sömmering resigned his office.
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Rudolf Kobert
1854 - 1918 (64 years)
Rudolf Kobert was a German pharmacologist and toxicologist born in Bitterfeld. In 1877 he graduated from the University of Halle, afterwards working as an assistant to physiologist Friedrich Goltz and pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg at the University of Strasbourg. In 1887 he was appointed professor of pharmacology, dietetics and history of medicine at the University of Dorpat. One of his students was Peter Hermann Stillmark who was the founder of lectinology with the publication of his thesis about ricin.
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Ida Mann
1893 - 1983 (90 years)
Professor Dame Ida Caroline Mann, Mrs Gye, DBE, FRCS was "a distinguished ophthalmologist ... equally well known for her pioneering research work on embryology and development of the eye, and on the influences of genetic and social factors on the incidence and severity of eye disease throughout the world". Only six other women were Fellows at this time.
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Bernice Eddy
1903 - 1989 (86 years)
Bernice Eddy was born on September 30, 1903. She is best-known for her work as an epidemiologist and virologist, particularly her work with polio vaccine trials. Eddy was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia. She attended Marietta College for her undergraduate work and pursued a master’s degree and PhD in bacteriology from the University of Cincinnati. After graduation, Eddy began working for the Biologics Control Division National Institutes of Health. She tested polio vaccines for 5 different companies in this capacity. One of the five vaccines tested was made by Cutter Laboratories. Eddy disco...
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Lynne Warner. Stevenson
#4046
Jacob Hermann Knapp
1832 - 1911 (79 years)
Jacob Hermann Knapp , also known as Hermann Knapp, was a German-American ophthalmologist and otolaryngologist. Biography Knapp was born in Dauborn, Nassau. He earned his medical degree from the University of Giessen in 1854. As a young physician he studied with Franciscus Cornelis Donders in Utrecht, William Bowman in London, Albrecht von Graefe in Berlin and Hermann von Helmholtz in Heidelberg. From 1860 until 1868 he was a professor of ophthalmology at Heidelberg.
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Gabriel Steiner
1883 - 1965 (82 years)
Gabriel Steiner was a German-American neurologist known for his research of multiple sclerosis. In his studies, he postulated a link between multiple sclerosis and certain forms of spirochetes. Of Jewish ancestry, he studied medicine at the universities of Munich, Würzburg, Freiburg and Strasbourg, receiving his doctorate at the latter university in 1910. In 1913 he qualified as a lecturer in neurology and psychiatry, and from 1920, worked as an associate professor at the University of Heidelberg. Here, he was also head of the laboratory for pathological anatomy at the psychiatric-neurologica...
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Roswell Park
1852 - 1914 (62 years)
Roswell Park was an American physician and cancer researcher, best known for starting Gratwick Research Laboratory in 1898, which is now known as Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Biography When Park was thirty-one, he went to Buffalo, New York in 1883. He came from Chicago where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University in 1876. He received his B.A. in 1872 and M.A. in 1875 from Racine College in Racine, Wisconsin. He then went on to finish his Doctor of Medicine studies at the Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1876. Park received an honorary M.A.
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Isidor Neumann
1832 - 1906 (74 years)
Isidor Neumann, Edler von Heilwart was a dermatologist from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was a student at the so-called Vienna School of Dermatology under Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra , earning his doctorate in 1858. In 1863 he received his habilitation, and in 1873 became an associate professor. In 1881 he was appointed professor of dermatology and successor to Carl Ludwig Sigmund as director of the clinic for syphilis.
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Kenji Takagi
1888 - 1963 (75 years)
Professor Kenji Takagi was a Japanese orthopedic surgeon, noted for being one of the first people to carry out a successful arthroscopy of the knee. Takagi was attached to Tokyo University in 1918 when he carried out the ground-breaking operation on a cadaver. He had been influenced by the work of Danish surgeon Severin Nordentoft. In 1922, he went to Germany to study the use of x-ray technology there. Following World War II, Takagi's pupil Masaki Watanabe, carried on his work.
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