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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Medical,
#4201
Otto Veraguth
1870 - 1944 (74 years)
Otto Veraguth was a Swiss neurologist. In 1895 he received his doctorate at Zurich, where he trained under Constantin von Monakow . In 1900 he obtained his habilitation for neurology, and in 1918 was appointed associate professor of physical therapy at the University of Zurich. From 1922 to 1924 he was president of the Schweizerischen Neurologischen Gesellschaft .
Go to Profile#4202
Eduard Hitzig
1838 - 1907 (69 years)
Eduard Hitzig was a German neurologist and neuropsychiatrist of Jewish ancestry born in Berlin. Eduard was the son of Friedrich Hitzig and his grandfather had converted to Protestantism. He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Würzburg under the instruction of famous men such as Emil Du Bois-Reymond , Rudolf Virchow , Moritz Heinrich Romberg , and Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal . He received his doctorate in 1862 and subsequently worked in Berlin and Würzburg. In 1875, he became director of the Burghölzli asylum, as well as professor of psychiatry at the University of Zurich. In 1...
Go to Profile#4203
Stanley Fahn
#4204
Friedrich Jolly
1844 - 1904 (60 years)
Friedrich Jolly was a German neurologist and psychiatrist who was a native of Heidelberg, and the son of physicist Philipp von Jolly . He studied medicine at Göttingen under Georg Meissner , and in 1867 received his doctorate at Munich. In 1868 he became an assistant to Bernhard von Gudden and Hubert von Grashey at the mental institution in Werneck, and in 1870 was an assistant to Franz von Rinecker at the Juliusspital in Würzburg.
Go to Profile#4205
Abraham Myerson
1881 - 1948 (67 years)
Abraham Myerson was a Lithuanian neurologist, psychiatrist, clinician, pathologist, and researcher. He had a special interest in the heredity of psychiatric and neurologic disease. Early life and education Myerson was born in Lithuania, the son of a Jewish school teacher. His father emigrated to the United States in 1885, and sent for his family in 1886, settling in New Britain, Connecticut. In 1892, the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. He attended the Boston public schools, graduated from high school in 1898, and then worked for seven years to earn money to attend medical school. He at...
Go to Profile#4206
Max Lewandowsky
1876 - 1916 (40 years)
Max Lewandowsky was a German neurologist, who was a native of Berlin, born into a Jewish family. Personal life Lewandowsky studied medicine at the Universities of Marburg, Berlin and Halle, earning his medical doctorate at Halle in 1898. In 1902 he obtained his post-graduate qualification for physiology, and in 1904, received training in clinical neurology and psychiatry under Karl Bonhoeffer and Franz Nissl at the University of Heidelberg. Afterwards he travelled to Paris, where he studied under neurologist Pierre Marie. Beginning in 1905 he worked in the Berlin-Friedrichshain hospital. Duri...
Go to Profile#4207
Nathan Ryno Smith
1797 - 1877 (80 years)
Nathan Ryno Smith was an American surgeon and medical school professor. Smith was born in Cornish, New Hampshire. He was the son of Sarah Hall Chase and Nathan Smith. Like his father Smith went into the medical profession, but he went to Yale instead of Harvard, receiving his MD in 1820. Smith had received his bachelor's degree in 1817, and had worked as a tutor for a family in Fauquier County, Virginia for a time before taking up medical studies.
Go to Profile#4208
Vladimir Derevenko
1879 - 1936 (57 years)
Vladimir Nikolaevich Derevenko was a Russian Empire and Soviet medical doctor and surgeon who served at the court of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. Time with the Romanovs Before the revolution, Derevenko was a physician who served at the court of the last Tsar, Nicholas II. He was a specialist doctor assigned to look after the Tsarevich in 1912, who suffered from haemophilia. His son, Kolya Derevenko, was a friend of Alexei. Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917 and was exiled with his family to the Siberian village of Tobolsk that August, a journey on which Derevenko and his family voluntarily embarked.
Go to Profile#4209
Paolo Mantegazza
1831 - 1910 (79 years)
Paolo Mantegazza was an Italian neurologist, physiologist, and anthropologist, noted for his experimental investigation of coca leaves into its effects on the human psyche. He was also an author of fiction.
Go to Profile#4210
Friedrich Schultze
1848 - 1934 (86 years)
Friedrich Schultze was a German neurologist and native of Rathenow, Brandenburg. He is known for being the founder of child neurology. In 1871 he earned his doctorate at Heidelberg, and afterwards spent several years as an assistant to pathologist Nikolaus Friedreich . In 1887 he was invited as a "full professor" to the University of Dorpat, and shortly afterwards became director of the medical clinic and policlinic at the University of Bonn, where he spent the remainder of his career.
Go to Profile#4211
Christian Heinrich Bünger
1782 - 1842 (60 years)
Christian Heinrich Bünger was professor of anatomy and was the first surgeon to introduce rhinoplasty. Education He received his MD in c. 1805 from the University of Helmstedt under Justus Ferdinand Christian Loder and Gottfried Christoph Beireis.
Go to Profile#4212
Matthew Flinders
1774 - 1814 (40 years)
Captain Matthew Flinders was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land , a title he regarded as being "more agreeable to the ear" than previous names such as Terra Australis.
Go to Profile#4213
Hilda Lloyd
1891 - 1982 (91 years)
Dr. Dame Hilda Nora Lloyd, DBE was a British physician and surgeon. She was the first woman to be elected as president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Born in Birmingham, the younger of two daughters, she attended King Edward VI High School, Edgbaston before entering Birmingham University .
Go to Profile#4214
William Thorburn
1861 - 1923 (62 years)
Sir William Thorburn KBE, CB, CMG, FRCS DL was an English surgeon and pioneer in modern spinal surgery. At the time of his death he was Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Victoria University of Manchester.
Go to Profile#4215
Walter Webb Allport
1824 - 1893 (69 years)
Walter Webb Allport, M.D., D.D.S was an American dentist from New York. Raised on a farm, he left home at the age of fourteen following the Panic of 1837. He studied dentistry at the New York College of Dental Surgery and moved to Chicago, Illinois, shortly after receiving his Doctor of Dental Surgery. He became the preeminent dentist in Chicago, noted for his early use of crystalline gold fillings. He co-founded the American Dental Association in 1859, serving on its board of directors and later serving as president. He also co-founded the Chicago Dental Infirmary. Allport is also noted for ...
Go to Profile#4216
George R. Buchanan
#4217
Hans Heinrich Georg Queckenstedt
1876 - 1918 (42 years)
Hans Heinrich Georg Queckenstedt was a German neurologist remembered for describing Queckenstedt's phenomenon. He graduated from the University of Leipzig in 1900, having studied under Emil Kraepelin. He worked under Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser, and gained his doctorate in 1904. He worked in Rostock, and was habilitated as Privatdozent in 1913. He studied cerebrospinal fluid dynamics, noting the fluctuation of pressure with respiration. This led to experiments with the Valsalva manoeuvre and jugular vein pressure from which his eponymous test was published. He took part in the First World War ...
Go to Profile#4218
William Guy
1859 - 1950 (91 years)
William Guy BDA FDS LLD was a British pioneer of modern dentistry and the widespread use of anaesthesia. He was instrumental in the creation of the 1921 Dentists Act in the United Kingdom. Life He was born in Biddenden in Kent on 3 December 1859, the son of Dr William Guy of Norwich, and attended Norwich Grammar School. He received a Licentiate from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1892 In 1899 he succeeded William Bowman MacLeod as Dean of the Edinburgh Dental Hospital and served this role for 40 years. The final 5 years were in a transition period with Arthur Cyril William Hu...
Go to Profile#4219
Paul Michaux
1854 - 1923 (69 years)
Doctor Paul Michaux was a French surgeon. After studying at the Paul Verlaine University – Metz, he migrated to Paris, where he actively participated in the Conférence Olivaint and later became president of the organisation. After completing an internship and thesis, his career led him into various hospitals in the city and suburbs, where he developed medical innovations and performed research. As a member of the parish patronage committee, Michaux's moral and religious beliefs led him to establish a type of gymnastics specifically intended for Christian Patriots. His enthusiasm for the sport...
Go to Profile#4220
Hugo Magnus
1842 - 1907 (65 years)
Hugo Magnus was a German ophthalmologist and historian of medicine. He was of Jewish ancestry. He studied medicine at the University of Breslau, where he was a pupil of Albrecht Theodor Middeldorpf and Hermann Lebert. In 1867 he received his medical doctorate, and in 1873 qualified as a lecturer in ophthalmology. In 1883 he became an associate professor at the University of Breslau.
Go to Profile#4221
Robert Scot Skirving
1859 - 1956 (97 years)
Robert Scot Skirving was a physician and surgeon in Australia. He was born in the United Kingdom. The University of Sydney named the Scot Skirving Prize in his honour. Life He was born on 18 December 1859 at Campton Farm in the parish of Drem near Haddington, East Lothian. He was the son of Robert Scot Skirving, a farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Owen, daughter of William Owen of Rathdowney in Ireland. His paternal ancestors included both Adam Skirving the songwriter, and Archibald Skirving the artist.
Go to Profile#4222
Santosh Kumar Sen
1910 - 1979 (69 years)
Santosh Kumar Sen was an Indian surgeon and the president of the Association of Surgeons of India. He was the first Indian surgeon to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Go to Profile#4223
Octave Terrillon
1844 - 1895 (51 years)
Octave Roch Simon Terrillon was a French physician and surgeon, known as a pioneer of aseptic surgery. From 1868 he worked as a hospital interne in Paris, where in 1873 he received his medical doctorate. In 1876 he qualified as a hospital surgeon, and eventually became associated with the Salpêtrière Hospital. In 1878 he became an associate professor at the faculty of medicine in Paris.
Go to Profile#4224
Bernard R. Jr. Bach
#4225
Reid Hunt
1870 - 1948 (78 years)
Reid Hunt , was an American pharmacologist, known for his work on adrenal glands; where he postulated that extracts from which cause rise in blood pressure due to its content of adrenaline. When he removed the adrenaline from the extract and he found that it causes fall in blood pressure, which he concluded was due to a derivative of choline, later on known as acetylcholine.
Go to Profile#4226
John Ryle
1889 - 1950 (61 years)
John Alfred Ryle was a British physician and epidemiologist. He was born the son of Brighton medical doctor R J Ryle and brother of the Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle. He was educated at Brighton College and Guy's Hospital where he qualified in 1913. He served in the military during World War I and afterwards qualified MD at the University of London. After teaching at Guy's Hospital he was appointed in 1935 Regius Professor of Physic [not Physics; "Physic" here is an archaic term for Medicine] at the University of Cambridge. In 1943 he was appointed chair of the newly created Institute of So...
Go to Profile#4227
Leah Lowenstein
1930 - 1984 (54 years)
Leah Miriam Lowenstein was an American nephrologist, academic administrator, and cellist. In 1982, she became the first woman dean of a co-educational, medical school in the United States upon her appointment at Jefferson Medical College. Lowenstein was previously associate dean and professor of medicine and biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine. She served in the Carter administration as a medical advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health. Lowenstein was an advocate for women in medicine.
Go to Profile#4228
Hugo Liepmann
1863 - 1925 (62 years)
Hugo Karl Liepmann was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Berlin, into a Jewish family. Initially, he studied both chemistry and philosophy at the Universities of Freiburg and Leipzig, obtaining his doctorate in 1885. His interests later turned to medicine, and after completion of studies, worked as an assistant to Carl Wernicke in the psychiatric clinic at Breslau. In 1906 he became head physician at Dalldorf , followed by an assignment as director of the Städtische Irrenanstalt zu Lichtenberg in 1914.
Go to Profile#4229
Louis Barnett
1865 - 1946 (81 years)
Sir Louis Edward Barnett was a New Zealand professor of surgery and founder of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. His work at the Otago Medical School, where he was one of the school's earliest students, and with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons led to the recognition of hydatid disease , a potentially fatal parasitic disease.
Go to Profile#4230
Takashi Uchiyama
#4231
Gerhard Zbinden
#4232
John Smith
1825 - 1910 (85 years)
John Smith was a Scottish dentist, philanthropist and pioneering educator. The founder of the Edinburgh school of dentistry, he served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and president of the British Dental Association. He was the official surgeon/dentist to Queen Victoria when in Scotland.
Go to Profile#4233
William E. Waters
#4234
David Ca Mant
#4235
Pierre-Félix Lagrange
1857 - 1928 (71 years)
Pierre-Félix Lagrange was a French ophthalmologist. Early life Pierre-Félix Lagrange was born on January 22, 1857, in Soumensac, département lot-et-Garonne, France. He studied medicine at the University of Bordeaux in Bordeaux.
Go to Profile#4236
Joachim Yahalom
#4237
Vasily Stroganov
1858 - 1938 (80 years)
Vasily Vasilyevich Stroganov, also known as Stroganoff, was a Russian physician specializing in obstetrics and gynaecology. His works mostly dealt with treatment of eclampsia. The Stroganoff method is named after him.
Go to Profile#4238
Erich Harnack
1852 - 1915 (63 years)
Friedrich Moritz Erich Harnack was a pharmacologist and toxicologist from the Russian Empire of Baltic-German ethnicity. From 1869 he studied medicine at the University of Dorpat, receiving his doctorate in 1873 with the dissertation Zur Pathogenese und Therapie des Diabetes mellitus . From 1873 he worked as an assistant at the pharmacological institute of the University of Straßburg, and in 1877 obtained his habilitation. In 1880 he became an associate professor of pharmacology and physiological chemistry at the University of Halle, where in 1889 he attained a full professorship. In 1891 he founded an institute of pharmacology at the university.
Go to Profile#4239
T.R. Johns
1924 - 1988 (64 years)
Thomas Richard Johns II, MD was an American neurologist, a subspecialist in neuromuscular disease, and a clinical researcher on myasthenia gravis based at the University of Virginia. Johns founded the Department of Neurology in 1963 and was its first chairman. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School.
Go to Profile#4240
Grace Arabell Goldsmith
1904 - 1975 (71 years)
Grace Arabell Goldsmith was a U.S. physician best known for her research on nutritional deficiency diseases, B-complex vitamins, and the vitamin enrichment of foods. She identified the cause of the disease pellagra.
Go to Profile#4241
Filipp Ovsyannikov
1827 - 1906 (79 years)
Filipp Vasilievich Ovsyannikov was the first Russian histologist and the founder of sturgeon breeding. Ovsyannikov graduated from the University of Dorpat in 1853. He worked in Claude Bernard's laboratory in 1860 and in Carl Ludwig's laboratory in 1869. He held the chair in physiology at the University of Kazan from 1858 to 1862 and the chair in anatomy at the University of Saint Petersburg from 1864 to 1886. In 1864, he established the Physiological Laboratory for the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Ovsyannikov's laboratory was used for research by such young physiologists as Elias von Cyon ...
Go to Profile#4242
Hermann Zingerle
1870 - 1935 (65 years)
Hermann Zingerle was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist born in Trento. In 1894 he earned his medical degree from the University of Innsbruck, becoming an assistant at the University of Graz during the following year. In 1899 he received his habilitation for psychiatry and neuropathology, and from 1909 to 1926 was an associate professor at Graz.
Go to Profile#4243
Henry Piffard
1842 - 1910 (68 years)
Henry Granger Piffard was author of the first systematic treatise on dermatology in America. He is heralded as one of the founders of dermatology in the U.S., having founded the Journal of Cutaneous and Venereal Diseases, which later became JAMA Dermatology. He invented the dermal curette, was the first to use x-ray to treat skin diseases and was a pioneer of flash photography in medicine.
Go to Profile#4244
Richard L. Gamelli
#4245
Harvey J. Howard
1880 - 1956 (76 years)
Harvey James Howard was an American ophthalmologist. He was notable for:Serving as head of the Ophthalmology Department at the University Medical School, Canton Christian College in China between 1910 and 1915.Inventing the Howard-Dolman apparatus for measuring the accuracy of perception of distance while serving as a captain in the US Army during World War I.Serving as head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Peking Union Medical College between 1917 and 1927.Serving as ophthalmologist to Pu Yi, the boy emperor in the Forbidden City, between 1921 and 1925.Being kidnapped, with his son, by ...
Go to Profile#4246
Ludwig Franz Alexander Winther
1812 - 1871 (59 years)
Ludwig Franz Alexander Winther was a German pathologist and ophthalmologist who was a native of Offenbach am Main. From 1848–1867, he was an associate professor of general pathology and therapy at the University of Giessen, where, from 1867 to 1871, he served as the first full professor of pathological anatomy and therapy. After his death in 1871, his position at Giessen was filled by Theodor Langhans .
Go to Profile#4247
Berta Ottenstein
1891 - 1956 (65 years)
Berta Ottenstein was a German dermatologist who was the first woman to obtain her habilitation at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau and the first woman in Germany to habilitate in dermatology. Life Ottenstein, the youngest of six children born into a Nuremberg merchant family, studied at the University of Erlangen, where she received her doctorate in chemistry in 1914. After a position at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem , she moved to the University of Freiburg in 1928, where she received an assistant post. As early as 1930, her superior, hospital director ...
Go to Profile#4248
James G. Marks
#4249
Vladimir Barykin
1879 - 1939 (60 years)
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Barykin was a Russian microbiologist and epidemiologist. Biography Vladimir Aleksandrovich Barykin was born on 22 November 1879 in Oryol Governorate. He graduated from the Kazan Imperial University in 1900.
Go to Profile#4250
Georg Schaltenbrand
1897 - 1979 (82 years)
Georges Schaltenbrand was a German neurologist known for his work on the organization and diagnostics of the motor system, to the physiology and pathology of the cerebrospinal fluid, and to multiple sclerosis. He coauthored an influential textbook and atlas on stereotaxy and he also published some unethical experiments performed in Nazi Germany.
Go to Profile