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 Philosophy,
#5001
David-Hillel Ruben
#109831
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
David-Hillel Ruben is a University of London professor emeritus of philosophy, now at Birkbeck, University of London. He gained his PhD in Philosophy at Harvard University . He previously held posts at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Essex University, The City University London, and the London School of Economics. He served as Founding Director of NYU's campus programme in London. His research relates to the philosophy of the social sciences, metaphysics, and the philosophy of action. In 2011, Ruben resigned from the Universities and Colleges Union in protest at their stance on ant...
Go to Profile#5002
John Anderson
#52048
Overall Influence
1918 - 2011 (93 years)
John Russell Anderson was a Scottish pathologist, Professor of Pathology at the Western Infirmary, University of Glasgow, 1967–1983. Colleagues knew him as JRA. Life Anderson was born in Middlesbrough on 31 May 1918, the son of a Glasgow-trained GP. He won a scholarship to study medicine at the University of St Andrews. He 1939 he graduated with a BSc in Anatomy, and MB in 1942.
Go to Profile#5003
Delos M. Cosgrove
#115546
Overall Influence
#5004
Yoon Bo-hyun
#31501
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Yoon Bo-hyun is a South Korean physician and scientist in the medical area of obstetrics and gynecology. He researches in the area of preterm births, intra-amniotic infection or inflammation and fetal damage. For his theoretical and clinical academic achievements he received the Top Scientist and Technologist Award of Korea in 2012.
Go to Profile#5005
D. Frank Benson
#115566
Overall Influence
#5006
Jean‐paul Ortonne
#115570
Overall Influence
#5007
Frederick Lawrence Grinnell
#115597
Overall Influence
#5008
M. D. Melvin L. Marcus
#115602
Overall Influence
#5009
Jay P. Sanford
#34727
Overall Influence
1928 - 1996 (68 years)
Jay Philip Sanford was a noted American military physician and infectious disease specialist. He held a chair in Tropical Medicine and was author of The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy. From 1975 until 1990, he was dean, then president, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He received numerous lifetime honors, awards, and accolades.
Go to Profile#5010
John Fordtran
#87452
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
John Satterfield Fordtran is an emeritus professor of gastroenterology and past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Education and career Fordtran was born in November 1931 in San Antonio, TX. He went to high school at the Texas Military Institute, graduating in 1949.
Go to Profile#5011
Victor J. Marder
#115668
Overall Influence
#5012
Ulrich Klotz
#115682
Overall Influence
#5013
Kim Michael Fox
#115705
Overall Influence
#5014
John K. Lattimer
#12425
Overall Influence
1914 - 2007 (93 years)
John Kingsley Lattimer, MD was a urologist who did extensive research on the Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy assassinations, becoming the first medical specialist not affiliated with the United States government to examine the medical evidence related to Kennedy's assassination. Lattimer studied at Columbia University and became the urologist-in-chief of Presbyterian Hospital and chairman of the urology department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University for 25 years. He wrote 375 papers helping to establish pediatric urology as a field and is credited with develop...
Go to Profile#5015
Michel Goldman
#61836
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Michel Goldman is a Belgian medical doctor who specialized in internal medicine and immunology. Biography Michel Goldman graduated as a medical doctor from Université Libre de Bruxelles , Belgium, and received his PhD in medical sciences from Université de Genève, Switzerland. He is board certified in internal medicine and clinical biology .
Go to Profile#5016
William A. Petri
#98170
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
William A. Petri is a physician-scientist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the Wade Hampton Frost Professor of Epidemiology. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation, both medical honor societies recognizing distinguished physicians. Petri is the past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He developed an FDA-approved test to detect amebiasis, and later, with significant funding from NIH, developed a vaccine program.
Go to Profile#5017
Roger J. Hajjar
#115721
Overall Influence
#5018
Michael Lauer
#87587
Overall Influence
Michael S. Lauer is an American cardiologist and physician-scientist. He is the deputy director for extramural research at the National Institutes of Health . Education Lauer received education and training at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany Medical College, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Framingham Heart Study.
Go to Profile#5019
Jacques Marescaux
#15298
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Jacques Marescaux is a French doctor. He is Chairman of the digestive and endocrine surgery at the University Hospital, Strasbourg. Biography 1948: Born in Clermont1971: Major in the contest for the Internat1977: Doctor in surgery1980: He obtained a chair professor at the Universities digestive surgery. He was only 33 years old.1989 - 1992: Director of special education Visceral surgery at the Medical School of Strasbourg.1989 - 1992: Vice President of the regional council of the Inserm.Since 1989: Head of digestive and endocrine surgery University Hospitals of Strasbourg.Since 1994: Founding...
Go to Profile#5020
Kyle Powys Whyte
#23432
Overall Influence
Kyle Powys Whyte is an Indigenous philosopher and climate/environmental justice scholar. He is a Professor of Environment and Sustainability and George Willis Pack Professor at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. Whyte formally served as the Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University's College of Arts & Letters.
Go to Profile#5021
Ingo Potrykus
#18143
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Ingo Potrykus is Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology , Zurich from which he retired in 1999. His research group applied gene technology to contribute to food security in developing countries. Together with Peter Beyer, he is one of the co-inventors of golden rice. In 2014 he was chairman of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board.
Go to Profile#5022
G. Gordon Steel
#115780
Overall Influence
#5023
Harold Ridley
#11973
Overall Influence
1906 - 2001 (95 years)
Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley was an English ophthalmologist who invented the intraocular lens and pioneered intraocular lens surgery for cataract patients. Early years Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley was born in Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, the elder son of Nicholas Charles Ridley and his wife, Margaret . He had a younger brother. Known from childhood by his middle name , Ridley had a stammer which he was largely able to manage. As a child he met and sat on the lap of Florence Nightingale, a close friend of his mother.
Go to Profile#5024
Mortimer M. Elkind
#115797
Overall Influence
#5025
Leo Ferrari
#56604
Overall Influence
1927 - 2012 (85 years)
Leo Charles Ferrari was a St. Thomas University philosophy professor, noted Saint Augustine scholar, and founding member of the organization Flat Earth Society of Canada. Flat Earth Society activities Leo Ferrari was a founding member and head of the Flat Earth Society of Canada, later renamed the Flat Earth Society .
Go to Profile#5026
William J. (bill) Sibbald
#115839
Overall Influence
#5027
Robbie Collin
#41217
Overall Influence
Robbie Collin is a British film critic. Collin studied aesthetics and the philosophy of film at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He edited the university's student newspaper, The Saint. Collin has been the chief film critic at The Daily Telegraph since 2011. From 2007 to 2011 he wrote a weekly film column for the News of the World until the newspaper's closure. That year he was shortlisted for Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards, and was shortlisted again in 2017, when he was highly commended by the jury.
Go to Profile#5028
Frank B. Cerra
#115872
Overall Influence
#5029
Norbert H. Lameire
#115877
Overall Influence
#5030
F. Estelle R. Simons
#104645
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Frances Estelle Reed Simons is a Canadian physician and researcher. She was named to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2017. She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up there. Simons received her BSc and MD from the University of Manitoba. She studied pediatrics and immunology at the University of Washington. In 1975, she founded the Allergy and Clinical Immunology section in the Pediatrics department at the University of Manitoba and served as its section head from 1975 to 2005. From 1976 to 1991, she was training program director for Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She was ...
Go to Profile#5031
Sally Davies
#8176
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Dame Sally Claire Davies is a British physician. She was the Chief Medical Officer from 2010 to 2019 and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health from 2004 to 2016. She worked as a clinician specialising in the treatment of diseases of the blood and bone marrow. She is now Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, appointed on 8 February 2019, with effect from 8 October 2019. She is one of the founders of the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Go to Profile#5032
Kari Christine Nadeau
#115888
Overall Influence
#5033
Dr David M. Eddy
#115889
Overall Influence
#5034
Marcel Roche
#23072
Overall Influence
1920 - 2003 (83 years)
Marcel Roche Dugand was a physician, scientist and scientific leader. He was born into a wealthy family of French origin. His father, Luis Roche was a well known urbanist. His secondary education was conducted in Paris, France, graduating in 1938. Following this, he moved to the US and got a Bachelor of Science degree at St. Joseph's College, in Philadelphia, followed by studies in medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School, in Baltimore. After graduation in 1946, he specialized in endocrinology and nuclear medicine. Before returning to Venezuela in 1951, he carried out biomedical research for...
Go to Profile#5035
Clarence J. Peters
#115941
Overall Influence
#5036
Alexander N. Chumakov
#89487
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Alexander N. Chumakov is a Russian philosopher, theoretician of science, scientific community organizer, and specialist in the fields of philosophy and the theory of globalistics. Biography Alexander N. Chumakov was born in 1950 to a fisherman's family of Severnoe village, Caspian District, Astrakhan region, USSR. In 1972, he graduated from an industrial, technical college in the city of Khadyzhensk in Krasnodar Krai. Between 1972 and 1975, he worked as a bore-hole drilling master in the nuclear testing areas in Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya. In 1975, he was accepted into the preparatory di...
Go to Profile#5037
John Dossetor
#31228
Overall Influence
1925 - 2020 (95 years)
John Beamish Dossetor, was a Canadian physician and bioethicist who is notable for co–coordinating the first kidney transplant in Canada and the Commonwealth. Biography Born in Bangalore, India, Dossetor attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire before receiving a B.M. and B.Ch. from St John's College, Oxford in 1950. In 1955, he immigrated to Canada to accept a position at McGill University. From 1960 to 1969, he worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Go to Profile#5038
Hans A. Kretzschmar
#115979
Overall Influence
#5039
Maria Rakhmaninova
#113195
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Mariya Dmitrievna Rakhmaninova is a Russian specialist in social and political philosophy, a doctor of philosophy. Her fields of interest are society, the state, anarchism, feminism, protest movements, theories of revolution, art, aesthetics, pedagogy and philosophy of animals. A photographer and artist, she is a member of the Russian Union of Photographers and participates in a number of activist initiatives.
Go to Profile#5040
Harvey V. Fineberg
#15426
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Harvey Vernon Fineberg is an American physician. A noted researcher in the fields of health policy and medical decision making, his past research has focused on the process of policy development and implementation, assessment of medical technology, evaluation and use of vaccines, and dissemination of medical innovations. Fineberg has held several prominent positions over the course of his career, including Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, Provost of Harvard University, and President of the Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine.
Go to Profile#5041
Gerald E. Hanks
#116002
Overall Influence
#5042
Gaetanus Matthew Perez
#105363
Overall Influence
Gaetanus Matthew Perez was a minor Maltese philosopher. His area of specialisation in philosophy was chiefly ethics. No portrait of Perez is known to exist so far. Life Absolutely nothing is yet known about Perez’ personal life.
Go to Profile#5043
David Charles
#76512
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
David Charles is an American neurologist, professor and vice-chair of neurology, and the medical director of Telehealth at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Education David Charles attended Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, graduating in 1990. After completing his neurology residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, he joined the faculty of the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University in 1994. In 1995, he obtained his fellowship in Movement Disorders and Clinical Neurophysiology. In 1996, he completed the Health Care Management Program from the Owen Graduate School of Management.
Go to Profile#5044
Gustavo Perednik
#38444
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Gustavo Daniel Perednik is an Argentinian-born Israeli author and educator. Perednik graduated from the Universities of Buenos Aires and Jerusalem , has a PhD in education and completed doctoral studies in Philosophy in New York. He took courses at the Sorbonne , San Marcos , and Uppsala . He was distinguished as an outstanding lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he ran the four-year, preparatory, and freshman programs. In Jerusalem, he was also Director of the Institute for Jewish Leaders from Abroad and the Sephardic Educational Centre. He ran the Ai Tian Program for Jewish Understanding in China, and the Program for Education on the Jewish Role in Civilization.
Go to Profile#5045
John Z. Ayanian
#116085
Overall Influence
#5046
Colm A. O’morain
#116089
Overall Influence
#5047
Timothy Cloughesy
#105451
Overall Influence
Timothy Frances Cloughesy is a professor of Clinical Neurology and director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is an expert on the treatment of brain cancer.
Go to Profile#5048
Jared J. Grantham
#116124
Overall Influence
#5049
Norman H. Nie
#15142
Overall Influence
1943 - 2015 (72 years)
Norman H. Nie was an American social scientist, university professor, inventor, and pioneering technology entrepreneur, known for being one of the developers of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences . Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1943, Nie was educated at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, Washington University in St. Louis and Stanford University, where he received a Ph.D. in political science in 1971. He died on April 2, 2015, of lung cancer.
Go to Profile#5050
Solange Peters
#116156
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
