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
Max Saenger
1853 - 1903 (50 years)
Max Saenger was a German obstetrician and gynecologist who was a native of Bayreuth. He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, then continued with graduate studies in OB/GYN and pathology under Carl Siegmund Franz Credé . He later became a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Leipzig, and in 1890 was appointed professor of OB/GYN at the German University in Prague. In 1894 he co-founded the journal Monatsschrift für Geburtshilfe und Gynäkologie.
Go to Profile#4352
Giovanni Di Guglielmo
1886 - 1962 (76 years)
Giovanni Di Guglielmo was a Brazilian-born Italian hematologist, best known for the discovery of acute erythroid leukemia. Life and career Di Guglielmo was born in São Paulo, the son of Italian immigrants from Andretta. His parents decided to move back to Italy when Giovanni was 6 years old. After completing his high school studies in Avellino, in 1911 he graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Naples.
Go to Profile#4353
Karl Wilhelm Ernst Joachim Schönborn
1840 - 1906 (66 years)
Karl Wilhelm Ernst Joachim Schönborn was a German surgeon who was a native of Breslau. He studied medicine at the Universities of Breslau, Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin, receiving his medical doctorate in 1863. At Berlin, he worked as an assistant to Robert Ferdinand Wilms at Bethanien Hospital and to Bernhard von Langenbeck at the university hospital. In 1871 he became a professor at the university surgical clinic at Königsberg. From 1886 until his death in 1906, he was a professor of surgery at the University of Würzburg.
Go to Profile#4354
William H. Dietz
#4355
Bernard J. Cigrand
1866 - 1932 (66 years)
Bernard John Cigrand , a dentist, has a strong claim to being considered the father of Flag Day in the United States. Born in Waubeka, Wisconsin, Cigrand practiced dentistry in Chicago, Batavia, and Aurora, and was the third dean of Columbian Dental College, now the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, serving in that post from 1903 to 1906.
Go to Profile#4356
Pierre François Olive Rayer
1793 - 1867 (74 years)
Pierre François Olive Rayer was a French physician who was a native of Saint Sylvain. He made important contributions in the fields of pathological anatomy, physiology, comparative pathology and parasitology.
Go to Profile#4357
Otto Krayer
1899 - 1982 (83 years)
Otto Hermann Krayer was a German-American physician, pharmacologist and university professor. He was the only German scientist who refused on moral grounds to succeed a colleague who had been dismissed from his professorial chair by the National-Socialist government for anti-semitic reasons. Krayer voiced his opinion publicly and aggressively. The medical historian Udo Schagen entitled his historical analysis of Krayer: "Widerständiges Verhalten im Meer von Begeisterung, Opportunismus und Antisemitismus" or 'Resistant Behaviour in a Sea of Enthusiasm, Opportunism and Antisemitism'.
Go to Profile#4358
Martin Kirchner
1854 - 1925 (71 years)
Martin Kirchner was a German hygienist and bacteriologist, known for his work in the fight against tuberculosis. He studied at the universities of Halle and Berlin, receiving his medical doctorate in 1878. From 1887 he worked as a physician under Robert Koch at the institute of hygiene in Berlin. In 1894 he obtained his habilitation for hygiene at the Technische Hochschule in Hannover, and in 1900 became an associate professor at the University of Berlin. From 1911 to 1919 he was head of the medical department at the Ministry of the Interior.
Go to Profile#4359
Mary Harris Thompson
1829 - 1895 (66 years)
Mary Harris Thompson, MD, , was the founder, head physician and surgeon of the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, renamed Mary Harris Thompson Hospital after her death in 1895. She was one of the first women to practice medicine in Chicago.
Go to Profile#4360
Noboru Ogasawara
1888 - 1970 (82 years)
Noboru Ogasawara was a Japanese physician specializing in leprosy. He was an assistant professor at the Department of Kyoto Imperial University. He insisted that leprosy was not incurable and diathesis was an important factor in the development of leprosy. He was against strict segregation of leprosy patients and met strong opposition at a Congress of leprosy.
Go to Profile#4361
Junichiro Shimoyama
1853 - 1912 (59 years)
Junichiro Shimoyama was a Japanese pharmacologist during the Meiji era. Biography Shimoyama enrolled in The First University District Medical School, now part of the University of Tokyo, in 1873. He graduated in 1878. In 1886, Shimoyama received his Ph.D. from Strasbourg University. In 1887, Shimoyama returned to Tokyo to become a professor of the Department of Pharmacy. He became professor in the laboratory of pharmacognosy in 1893. Shimoyama was the first person in Japan to be awarded a Doctor of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree in 1899.
Go to Profile#4362
William Fletcher Shaw
1878 - 1961 (83 years)
Sir William Fletcher Shaw was an English obstetrics physician and gynaecologist who was most notable along with William Blair-Bell for creating the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists . He was Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Manchester.
Go to Profile#4363
Aubrey Otis Hampton
1900 - 1955 (55 years)
Aubrey Otis Hampton was an American radiologist remembered for describing Hampton's hump and Hampton's line. He graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in 1925, undertook his internship in Dallas and worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1926. He became chief of radiology at Massachusetts General in 1941, serving as chief of radiology at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. from 1942 to 1945. Hampton was said to be one of the most accurate radiologists in diagnosing during his era.
Go to Profile#4364
Friedrich Meggendorfer
1880 - 1953 (73 years)
Friedrich Meggendorfer was a German psychiatrist and neurologist. Life Born in Bad Aibling, Bavaria, he was intended to take over the local colonial goods store of his ancestors. He enjoyed an excellent international education aimed at preparing him for this role. However, his life's goal has always been to become a physician, and finally, he had persuaded his father to agree and to sponsor medical studies. During World War I he was stationed in Turkey as a medical assistant of the German imperial navy. There he learnt much about the Turkish culture and was able to translate ancient Arabic m...
Go to Profile#4365
Wilhelm Baum
1799 - 1883 (84 years)
Wilhelm Baum was a German surgeon born in Elbing. He studied medicine in Königsberg, Göttingen and Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1822. At the University of Göttingen, he was influenced by Konrad Martin Langenbeck , Karl Gustav Himly and Friedrich Benjamin Osiander . After graduation, he spent a year as a surgical assistant to Karl Ferdinand von Graefe in Berlin, followed by several years of study in Austria, Italy, France and the British Isles . In Paris he attended lectures and clinics by Guillaume Dupuytren , Dominique Jean Larrey and Jean Cruveilhier . During his years of travel, h...
Go to Profile#4366
Ushitaro Matsuura
1865 - 1937 (72 years)
was a Japanese dermatologist at Kyoto Imperial University who, after retiring before the specified age of retirement, was engaged in a crusade against alcohol and prostitution. He named the disease pityriasis rotunda and his diagnosis is still being used today.
Go to Profile#4367
Thomas J. Walley
#4368
G.H. Monrad-Krohn
1884 - 1964 (80 years)
Georg Herman Monrad-Krohn , born in Bergen, Norway, is known for his work on the development of neurology early in the 20th century. He studied at the National Hospital, Queens Square in London, and often visited Paris, France to work in the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital facilities. In 1917 he returned to Norway, and began studies at the Neurological University Clinic of Oslo , where he was appointed a Professor in 1922. In 1927 he became Professor of Neurology at the University of Oslo, and later Emeritus Professor of Neurology.. He retired from this professorial chair at the age of 70. His son, the computer engineer and entrepreneur Lars Monrad-Krohn was born in 1933.
Go to Profile#4369
Stanley J. Goldsmith
#4370
Walter Mercer
1890 - 1971 (81 years)
Sir Walter Mercer KBE FRSE FRCSEd FRCPE LLD was a Scottish orthopaedic surgeon. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1951 to 1956. He was affectionately known as 'Wattie.' His collection of anatomical specimens was donated to Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh, and is now known as the Walter Mercer Collection.
Go to Profile#4371
Vida Latham
1866 - 1958 (92 years)
Vida Annette Latham was a British-American dentist, physician, microscopist, and researcher, known for her work in publishing and her research on oral tumors, surgery, and anatomy. Early life and education Vida Latham was born in Lancashire in 1866 to a physician father. Her early education took place in Cambridge and Manchester. She earned her master's degree from the University of London in 1889; she published papers on tooth anatomy and pain in 1888 while working at a London dentist's office. She then moved to the United States because she could not practice in the UK with an American dentistry degree.
Go to Profile#4372
Anita K. Bahn
1920 - 1980 (60 years)
Anita Kaplan Bahn was an American epidemiologist, biostatistician, and cancer researcher. Education and career Bahn was originally from New York City. She left high school at the age of 15, and earned a bachelor's degree in biology four years later from Hunter College, together with a certification allowing her to teach high school biology. She would also go on to study "physics at New York City College; botany and bacteriology at Cornell University; mathematics and statistics at American University and at George Washington University", but without completing those programs to a graduate degr...
Go to Profile#4373
Arthur Schüller
1874 - 1957 (83 years)
Arthur Schüller was an Austrian medical doctor who served as professor at Vienna University and was the founder of the discipline of neuroradiology. He is credited with coining the term "Neuro-Röntgenologie" and he contributed particularly to three neurosurgical procedures; antero-cordotomy, cisternal hydrocephalic drainage and the transsphenoidal approach to pituitary tumours, and is associated with three bone diseases; the Hand–Schüller–Christian disease, osteoporosis circumscripta and cephalohaematoma deformans.
Go to Profile#4374
Gustav Biedermann Günther
1801 - 1866 (65 years)
Gustav Biedermann Günther was a German surgeon and orthopedist. From 1818 to 1824, he studied medicine and surgery at the University of Leipzig, obtaining his doctorate with the thesis "Analecta ad anatomiam fungi medullari". While still a student, he embarked on a scientific journey with ornithologist Ludwig Thienemann to Norway and Iceland. In 1825 he began work as an assistant to Johann Karl Georg Fricke in the surgical department at the general hospital in Hamburg. In 1829 he settled as a general practitioner in Hamburg, where in 1831 he founded an orthopedic institute.
Go to Profile#4375
Alexander Ellinger
1870 - 1923 (53 years)
Alexander Ellinger was a German chemist and pharmacologist. From 1887 he studied chemistry at the University of Berlin under August Wilhelm von Hofmann and at the University of Bonn as a pupil of August Kekulé. Afterwards, he studied medicine at the University of Munich, followed by work as an assistant in the institute of pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg. In 1897 he became an assistant to Max Jaffé in the laboratory of medicinal chemistry and experimental pharmacology at the University of Königsberg. In 1914 he was appointed professor of pharmacology at the newly established Univ...
Go to Profile#4376
Andrew Fyfe
1792 - 1861 (69 years)
Professor Andrew Fyfe FRSE FRCSE PRSSA PRMS was a Scottish surgeon and chemist. Following early studies on Fox Talbot's newly created photographic techniques he was one of the first to work out the theory behind positive rather than negative prints. He had an amateur interest in photography but appears not to have pursued his own theories and limited his experiments to ferns lying on chemical papers.
Go to Profile#4377
V. Ishwaraiah
1898 - 1983 (85 years)
V. Ishwaraiah MBBS, MRCP, FRFPS was an eminent professor of Pharmacology in India. He received his M.R.C.P with Pharmacology as special subject and F.R.F.P.S . He worked as lecturer in Pharmacology, Andhra Medical College to succeed Dr. B. B. Dikshit . He was promoted as Professor in 1943. He was transferred to Madras as Professor of Pharmacology for both Madras Medical College and Stanley Medical College.
Go to Profile#4378
Anton Drasche
1826 - 1904 (78 years)
Anton Drasche was an Austrian internist and epidemiologist. Biography Drasche studied medicine in Prague, Vienna and Leipzig, earning his doctorate in 1853. In Vienna, his instructors included Johann Ritter von Oppolzer, Carl von Rokitansky and Joseph Škoda. In 1858 he was habilitated for special pathology and therapy. and in 1872 was appointed physician-in-chief at the . On a recommendation from German hygienist Max Pettenkofer, he became an associate professor of epidemiology in 1874.
Go to Profile#4379
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...
Go to Profile#4380
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#4381
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 .
Go to Profile#4382
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#4383
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.
Go to Profile#4384
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.
Go to Profile#4385
Christopher Wren
#4386
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.
Go to Profile#4387
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#4388
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#4389
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#4390
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.
Go to Profile#4391
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#4392
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#4393
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#4394
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#4395
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.
Go to Profile#4396
Jørn Olsen
#4397
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.
Go to Profile#4398
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.
Go to Profile#4399
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.
Go to Profile#4400
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