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,
#4351
Gilbert Girdwood
1832 - 1917 (85 years)
Gilbert Prout Girdwood was an English army and civilian physician and surgeon, academic and author, noted for his service in the Canadian Army. He was a pioneer in medical education and radiography in Canada.
Go to Profile#4352
Josef Albert Amann
1866 - 1919 (53 years)
Josef Albert Amann was a German gynecologist. His father, Josef Albert Amann , was also a gynecologist. He studied medicine at the University of Munich, where his teachers included Karl Wilhelm von Kupffer, Otto Bollinger and Franz von Winckel. For several years he worked as an assistant at the university women's clinic in Munich, receiving his habilitation in 1892. In 1898 he succeeded his father as head of the second gynecological department at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus in Munich. In 1905 he became an associate professor at the university.
Go to Profile#4353
Otto Hildebrand
1858 - 1927 (69 years)
Otto Hildebrand was a German pathologist and surgeon. He was the son of economist Bruno Hildebrand and the brother of sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand . He studied anatomy and surgery at the University of Jena, and from 1886 served as assistant to Franz König at the University of Göttingen. In 1888 he obtained his habilitation for surgery, and in 1896 was named head of the surgical polyclinic at the Berlin-Charité. In 1899 he succeeded August Socin as a professor of surgery at the University of Basel, then in 1904 returned to Berlin as successor to his former mentor, Franz König, at the Charité...
Go to Profile#4354
Henry J. Dargie
#4355
Hermann Edler von Zeissl
1817 - 1884 (67 years)
Hermann Edler von Zeissl was a Moravia-born Austrian Jewish dermatologist who was born in the village of Vierzighuben , near Zwittau, Moravia. Zeissl received his medical doctorate from the University of Vienna, and from 1846 worked as a medical assistant in the surgical and dermatological hospitals at the university. In 1861 he became an associate professor in Vienna, and in 1869 was appointed professor and chief physician of the second department for syphilis at General Hospital Vienna. During his career, he was an authority on skin diseases and syphilis.
Go to Profile#4356
Xavier Vilanova i Montiu
1902 - 1965 (63 years)
Xavier Vilanova I Montiu was a Catalan dermatologist. His father, Pelai Vilanova i Massanet, was considered one of the creators of Catalan dermatology. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Barcelona in 1923. Subsequently, following his family's advice he moved to Paris to specialize in dermatology at the Hospital Saint Louis, then stayed for a period in Strasbourg and Milan where he received training from other leading scientists. On his return to Spain, he obtained a doctorate in Medicine in Madrid in 1928. In the wake of the Spanish Civil War, he traveled in 1936 to Colombia to run the leprosarium Aguas de Dios.
Go to Profile#4357
Philipp Phoebus
1804 - 1880 (76 years)
Philipp Phoebus was a German physician and pharmacologist. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin, obtaining his doctorate in 1827. Afterwards he continued his education in Würzburg with Johann Lukas Schönlein and Karl Friedrich Heusinger , in Paris under Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis and at Strasbourg, where he focused on anatomical studies. Following travels in Switzerland and northern Italy, he returned to Berlin, where in 1832 he became privat-docent for normal and pathological anatomy. His interests soon turned to pharmacology. In 1835 he relocated to Stolberg, where along with a medical practice, he conducted pharmacological and toxicological research.
Go to Profile#4358
Alfred Charles Post
1806 - 1886 (80 years)
Alfred Charles Post was an American surgeon. Post was born in New York City. He graduated from Columbia College in 1822 and from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1827, studied in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and London .
Go to Profile#4359
Bernard Waeber
#4360
Julian Taylor
1889 - 1961 (72 years)
Professor Julian Taylor, C.B.E., M.S., F.R.C.S., Hon.F.R.A.C.S. was a specialist in neurological surgery, Senior Surgeon at University College Hospital, a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons and later Professor of Surgery at the University of Khartoum.
Go to Profile#4361
Nicolae Blatt
1890 - 1965 (75 years)
Nicolae Blatt was a Romanian ophthalmologist, surgeon, and medical researcher. He was the founder of the first Romanian journal of ophthalmology, "Revista de Oftalmologie" and he published numerous research papers and monographs in foreign ophthalmology journals. and foreign publications'. He was the official ophthalmologist to the Romanian Royal Court from 1931 to 1947 and during World War II secretly helped Queen Helen of Romania rescue Jewish families from concentration camps. Blatt held the positions of University Professor, Chair of the Clinic and Laboratories of the Department of Ophtha...
Go to Profile#4362
Roberta M. Goldwyn
#4363
Judith K. Ockene
#4364
Leonard Leibovici
#4365
Walter R. Nickel
1907 - 1989 (82 years)
Walter Russell "Nick" Nickel, M.D. was an American dermatologist who was one of the founders of the field of dermatopathology. He was a co-founder and president of four different professional societies and was the founding chairman of the Division of Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center.
Go to Profile#4366
Lindo Ferguson
1858 - 1948 (90 years)
Sir Henry Lindo Ferguson , known as Lindo Ferguson, was a New Zealand ophthalmologist, university professor and medical school dean. He was born in London, England, on 7 April 1858. Ferguson's parents were Louisa Ann Du Bois and William Ferguson. The family moved from Burton upon Trent, England, to Dublin, Ireland, in 1866.
Go to Profile#4367
Bernhard Seyfert
1817 - 1870 (53 years)
Bernhard Seyfert was an Austrian obstetrician and gynecologist. In 1844 he earned his medical degree from Charles University in Prague, spending the next two years as a secondary hospital physician. From 1847 he worked as an assistant to Antonín Jan Jungmann and later Franz Kiwisch von Rotterau at the Prague maternity hospital. In 1854 became a full professor and director of the obstetrics and gynecology hospital in Prague.
Go to Profile#4368
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#4369
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#4370
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#4371
George R. Buchanan
#4372
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#4373
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#4374
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#4375
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#4376
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#4377
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#4378
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#4379
Bernard R. Jr. Bach
#4380
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#4381
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#4382
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#4383
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#4384
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#4385
Takashi Uchiyama
#4386
Gerhard Zbinden
#4387
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#4388
William E. Waters
#4389
David Ca Mant
#4390
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#4391
Joachim Yahalom
#4392
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#4393
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#4394
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#4395
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#4396
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#4397
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#4398
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#4399
Richard L. Gamelli
#4400
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