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,
#4251
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...
Go to Profile#4252
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.
Go to Profile#4253
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.
Go to Profile#4254
Malcolm Harold Lader
#4255
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.
Go to Profile#4256
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 .
Go to Profile#4257
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.
Go to Profile#4258
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.
Go to Profile#4259
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.
Go to Profile#4260
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.
Go to Profile#4261
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.
Go to Profile#4262
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.
Go to Profile#4263
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.
Go to Profile#4264
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...
Go to Profile#4265
Lynne Warner. Stevenson
#4266
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.
Go to Profile#4267
Margaret Arnstein
1904 - 1972 (68 years)
Margaret G. Arnstein was an American health expert who focused her efforts in nursing and public health. Throughout her life Arnstein worked for the United States public health sector and several American colleges, eventually becoming dean of the Yale School of Nursing in 1967. Arnstein also published multiple academic papers discussing nursing practices within the U.S health system of the time. Arnstein also participated in Congress discussions in relation to provisions given to the health sector by the state through the Second Supplemental Appropriation Bill of 1957. In her later career Mar...
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Johnson Symington
1851 - 1924 (73 years)
Johnson Symington FRS FRSE FZS LLD was a British anatomist and zoologist. He was President of the Ulster Medical Society for 1896/7. He served as President of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1904 to 1906. He is noted for his comparative studies of the brain of modern man and prehistoric man, and of man and other primates. From 1923 onwards Queen's University Belfast award a Symington Prize every year to junior anatomists in his honour.
Go to Profile#4269
Jurriaan ten Doesschate
1912 - 1977 (65 years)
Jurriaan ten Doesschate was a Dutch ophthalmologist and medical scientist, who specialized in physiological optics. Biography The son of ophthalmologist and art historian Gezienus ten Doesschate and of linguist Amelia Hermina Henrietta Kortebosch, he attended the Municipal Gymnasium in Utrecht before studying medicine in the same city .
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Norman Purvis Walker
1862 - 1942 (80 years)
Sir Norman Purvis Walker FRCPE was a Scottish dermatologist, and physician-in-charge of the Skin Department at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He was also one of the first persons in Britain to benefit from the discovery of insulin as a treatment for diabetes.
Go to Profile#4271
August Knoblauch
1863 - 1919 (56 years)
August Knoblauch was a German neurologist. He was a nephew of chemist August Kekulé. He studied medicine and sciences at the universities of Berlin, Bonn, Strasbourg and Heidelberg. In 1888 he received his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, where he studied under neurologist Wilhelm Heinrich Erb. In 1898 he was named head of the city infirmary in Frankfurt, then in 1914 was named director of the neurological clinic at the University of Frankfurt am Main.
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Bernard G. Amend
1821 - 1911 (90 years)
Bernard G. Amend was a German-born pharmacist. He ran an important pharmacy and scientific supply business in New York, NY which was sold to Fisher Scientific in 1940. He is also known for contributing to the founding of the American Chemical Society and for his mineralogy collection.
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Christopher Wren
#4274
Édouard Jeanselme
1858 - 1935 (77 years)
Antoine Édouard Jeanselme was a French dermatologist, known for his research of syphilis and leprosy. He was the author of numerous works with history of medicine themes . In 1883 he began work as a hospital intern, receiving his medical doctorate in 1888. In 1898–1900 he conducted research of leprosy in French Indo-China, during which time, he also conducted studies of beriberi, framboesia, syphilis and variola. In 1901 he became an associate professor, and in 1919 attained the chair of chair of dermatology and syphilology at the faculty of medicine in Paris.
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Rudi Cormane
1925 - 1987 (62 years)
Rudi Harold Cormane was a Dutch dermatologist who pioneered research in immunofluorescence studies of the skin. During the Second World War he was interned in a Japanese camp where he received an education from other prisoners. After the war he gained entry to the University of Leiden in the Netherlands to study medicine, but it was interrupted in 1947 when an epidemic of polio caused paralysis of his legs.
Go to Profile#4276
Han Qing-quan
1884 - 1921 (37 years)
Han Qingquan was a Chinese doctor, educator and pioneer of modern medical service and public health in China. Biography Han was born in Cixi City, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in Qing Dynasty. His courtesy name was Shi-hong . From 1899 to 1902, Han studied in Hangzhou, at Hangzhou Yang-Zheng School and later at the Middle School of Hangzhou Prefecture .
Go to Profile#4277
Simon Holdin
1896 - 1975 (79 years)
Simon A. Holdin was Russian Empire-born clinician-oncologist . He was graduated in 1919 from Odessa National Medical University as a Doctor of Medicine. From 1923 to 1926 he worked as Lecturer at the Odessa Anatomical Pathology Institute and conducted experimental studies on chemical factors of carcinogenesis.
Go to Profile#4278
Love Gantt
1875 - 1935 (60 years)
Love Rosa Hirschmann Gantt , was an American physician based in South Carolina. Early life and education Love Rosa Hirschmann was born in Camden, South Carolina, the daughter of Solomon Hirschmann and Lena Nachman Hirschmann. Her family was Jewish; her father was an immigrant from central Europe.
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Jørgen Pedersen
1914 - 1978 (64 years)
Jørgen Pedersen was an Epidemiologist. He is known for his hypothesis concerning the correlation of hyperglycemia during pregnancy and disease in later life. Life and work In 1952 he formulated the hypothesis that hyperglycemia in pregnant women might lead to hyperglycemia in their fetuses, causing complications in infancy and later life.
Go to Profile#4280
Marriott Fawckner Nicholls
1898 - 1969 (71 years)
Sir Marriott Fawckner Nicholls CBE, FRCS, was an English surgeon who specialised in the genitourinary tract. He served in the British Army in both the First and Second World Wars and was dean of the medical school at St George's Hospital for 20 years. At the age of 64 he became professor of surgery at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, where he maintained the position until his death five years later.
Go to Profile#4281
George Ian Scott
1907 - 1989 (82 years)
George Ian Scott CBE, FRSE, FRCSEd was a 20th-century Scottish ophthalmic surgeon who in 1954, became the first holder of the Forbes Chair of Ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh. He specialised in neuro-ophthalmology, studies of the visual fields and diabetic retinopathy. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1964 to 1967, Surgeon-Oculist to the Queen in Scotland from 1965 and president of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1972.
Go to Profile#4282
William E. Ashton
1859 - 1933 (74 years)
William Easterly Ashton was a noted gynecologist and surgeon. He also served in the United States Army as a regimental surgeon during World War I. Early life and education Ashton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 5, 1859, to Samuel Keen and Caroline M. Ashton. His brother is Thomas G. Ashton.
Go to Profile#4283
Robert Smith
1840 - 1885 (45 years)
Robert Smith FRCSE , also known as Bob Smith, was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor who served as an Assistant Colonial Surgeon in Sierra Leone during the late nineteenth century. Smith was the first African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh after completing his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh.
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Jørn Olsen
#4285
Yasuhiko Asahina
1881 - 1975 (94 years)
Yasuhiko Asahina was a Japanese chemist and lichenologist. Early life During his childhood, Asahina developed an interest in plants. In 1902, he enrolled in the School of Pharmacy at Tokyo Imperial University, from which he graduated in 1905. Asahina stayed at the university to research the chemical principles of Chinese traditional medicine under Junichiro Shimoyama. His first paper, on styracitol isolation from Styrax obassia, was published in 1907. In 1909, Asahina travelled to Zurich to study phytochemistry under Richard Willstätter. He continued his research on chlorophyll until 1912, when he moved to Berlin.
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Elise Käer-Kingisepp
1901 - 1989 (88 years)
Elise Käer-Kingisepp was an Estonian physician, pharmacologist, physiologist and sports medicine specialist. She was one of the founders of the Estonian Association of University Women and was the second female scientist to graduate from the University of Tartu in Estonia.
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Otto Tunmann
1867 - 1919 (52 years)
Otto Tunmann was a German pharmacologist and phytochemist. He studied pharmacy at the Universities of Leipzig and Erlangen, obtaining his doctorate in 1900 from the University of Bern. Afterwards, he worked as a pharmacist in Schöneck, Vogtland. From 1905 he was an assistant to Alexander Tschirch at Bern, where he conducted studies in the fields of phytomicrochemistry, microchemical toxicology and forensic chemistry. In May 1919, Tunmann was appointed professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Vienna. He died in Innsbruck, Austria a few months later.
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David M. Bosworth
1897 - 1979 (82 years)
David Marsh Bosworth was an American orthopedic surgeon and medical educator. He is remembered for describing the Bosworth fracture. Biography David Bosworth was born in New York City in 1897, the son of a minister. He attended the City College of New York and the University of Vermont, graduating B.A. cum laude in 1918. He studied medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, member of Phi Chi Medical Fraternity, graduating cum laude in 1921, and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Go to Profile#4289
Regina Kapeller-Adler
1900 - 1991 (91 years)
Regina Kapeller-Adler, born Regina Kapeller, was an Austrian biochemist who, in 1934, devised an innovative test for early pregnancy based on the detection of histidine in urine. As a Jew, she was forced to leave Austria following the country's annexation into Nazi Germany in the Anschluss and went to work with the noted geneticist Francis Crew at the Institute of Animal Genetics at the University of Edinburgh.
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James Woodhouse
1770 - 1809 (39 years)
James Woodhouse was an American surgeon and chemist. Biography He was the son of English emigrants to the United States. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1787, and from its medical department in 1792. In 1791 he served as a surgeon in General Arthur St. Clair's expedition against the western Indians. When Joseph Priestley declined to accept the chair of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1795, Woodhouse received the appointment, which he held until his death.
Go to Profile#4291
Clemens V. Rault
1896 - 1989 (93 years)
Clemens Vincent Rault was a rear admiral in the United States Navy and dean of the Georgetown University School of Dentistry. He served as the Chief of the United States Navy Dental Corps twice, from 1932 to 1933 and again from 1948 to 1950.
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Kurt Singer
1885 - 1944 (59 years)
Kurt Singer was a German neurologist, musicologist, conductor and chairman of the Jüdischer Kulturbund. He was murdered in the Holocaust. Life Born in Kościerzyna, Singer, son of a rabbi, spent his youth in Koblenz. After graduating from high school he studied medicine, psychology and musicology. In 1908, he received his doctorate in medicine and initially worked as a neurologist at the Berlin Charité.
Go to Profile#4293
Louise Stevens Bryant
1885 - 1956 (71 years)
Louise Stevens Bryant was an American public health specialist, writer, editor and publicist. She was especially involved in the fields of human sexuality and maternal health, and was the executive secretary of Robert Latou Dickinson's Committee on Maternal Health from 1927 to 1935.
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Arthur Hutchinson
1889 - 1969 (80 years)
Arthur Cyril William Hutchinson FRSE was a British professor of dentistry. Life Hutchinson was born in Oldham on 26 July 1889, the son of Reverend William Roberts Hutchinson. He was raised in Oldham and educated at Oundle School. He studied dentistry at the University of Manchester, graduating with a BDS in 1911.
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John Murray
1775 - 1807 (32 years)
John Murray was a seaman and explorer of Australia. He was the first European to land in Port Phillip, the bay on which the cities of Melbourne and Geelong are situated. He is notable for his explorations and surveying work in Victoria and New South Wales, including being the first European captain to enter Port Phillip Bay, then known as Narrm-Narrm by the local Aboriginal people, and exploring the area around present-day Melbourne.
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Lucy Mabel Hall-Brown
1843 - 1907 (64 years)
Lucy M. Hall-Brown was an American physician and writer. She was a general practitioner and a physician at the Sherborn Reformatory for Women, now the Massachusetts Correctional Instituion – Framingham.
Go to Profile#4297
Ivan Gevorkyan
1907 - 1989 (82 years)
Ivan Khristoforovich Gevorkyan, born Hovannes Khachaturi Gevorkyan , was a Soviet Armenian surgeon and scientist who published 10 monographs and more than 230 scientific papers. His main research was dedicated to anesthesia, blood transfusion, the treatment of endarteritis of extremities and other surgical illnesses.
Go to Profile#4298
Włodzimierz Godłowski
1900 - 1940 (40 years)
â Włodzimierz Józef Godłowski was a Polish neurologist and psychologist. A professor of the Stefan Batory University in Wilno , he was also an officer in the Polish Army during the German and Soviet invasion of Poland. He was made a prisoner of war by the Soviets in 1939 and was murdered in the 1940 Katyn massacre.
Go to Profile#4299
Dietfried Müller-Hegemann
1910 - 1989 (79 years)
Dietfried Müller-Hegemann was a German physician specialising in Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Neurology. Despite having joined the Communist Party in 1930, he was able to pursue his medical studies and career after 1933, becoming a military "staff doctor" when war broke out in 1939. Between 1944 and 1948 he was held as a prisoner of war by the Soviets. After that he was able to resume his medical career in the Soviet occupation zone / German Democratic Republic, achieving eminence both as a senior hospital physician and as a professor with the teaching chair in Psychiatry and Neurology at the prestigious Karl-Marx University in Leipzig.
Go to Profile#4300
Lloyd Turton Price
1873 - 1933 (60 years)
Lloyd Turton Price FRCPE was a 20th-century Scottish surgeon who was professor of surgery at the University of St Andrews. Life He was born in Shrewsbury in 1873. He was educated at Oswestry School. He then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh winning both the Lister Prize and the Crichton Research Scholarship. He graduated in 1901 with an MB ChB. In 1904 Price was awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for his essay, “Congenital stenosis of the pylorus”.
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