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 …
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#5251
Johnathan Aicardi
#118304
Overall Influence
#5252
George W. Santos
#56513
Overall Influence
1909 - 2001 (92 years)
George W. Santos was a professor emeritus of oncology and medicine at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. Birth and education George W. Santos was born in 1909. He received his bachelor's degree in quantitative biology from MIT. He completed his master's degree in physical biology from MIT. After his completing his studies at MIT, he received his medical degree and completed a residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
Go to Profile#5253
Massimo Rugge
#118337
Overall Influence
#5254
Rubin M. Tuder
#118380
Overall Influence
#5255
Giulio John D'angio
#118383
Overall Influence
#5256
Gillian M. Keating
#118391
Overall Influence
#5257
Alex C. Michalos
#118402
Overall Influence
#5258
Marshall M. Kaplan
#118405
Overall Influence
#5259
Gordon Anderson
#111839
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Gordon L. Anderson is an American philosopher publishing executive and the author of Philosophy of the United States and Secretary General of Professors World Peace Academy. He is a graduate of Claremont Graduate University, where he earned a doctorate in philosophy of religion in 1986.
Go to Profile#5260
Carol C. Gould
#98497
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Carol C. Gould is an American philosopher and feminist theorist. Since 2009, she has taught at City University of New York, where she is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College, and in the Doctoral Programs of Philosophy and Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is Director of the Center for Global Ethics and Politics at the Ralph Bunche Institute. Gould is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Social Philosophy. Her 2004 book Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights received the 2009 David Easton Award which is given by the American Political Scienc...
Go to Profile#5261
Nathan Wrana And David B. Levin
#118464
Overall Influence
#5262
Edward C. Albuquerque Benzel
#118474
Overall Influence
#5263
Steven j. Burakoff
#118480
Overall Influence
#5264
Erik Nightingale Næsset
#118485
Overall Influence
#5265
Lorenzo Magnani
#94507
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Lorenzo Magnani , is an Italian philosopher who teaches philosophy of science in the Department of Humanities, Philosophy Section, at the University of Pavia, full professor and director of the Computational Philosophy Laboratory and, since 2023, is also professor on contract of Artificial intelligence and knowledge, a course sponsored by Collegio Cairoli and Collegio Giasone del Maino, Pavia. He has been visiting professor at the Sun Yat-sen University in China. In the event of the 50th anniversary of the re-building of the Philosophy Department of Sun Yat-sen University in 2010, an award w...
Go to Profile#5266
Éliane Amado Levy-Valensi
#70204
Overall Influence
1919 - 2006 (87 years)
Éliane Amado Levy-Valensi was a French-Israeli psychologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher. Biography Éliane Levy-Valensi was born in Marseille to a Jewish family. In 1930 she moved with her parents to Saint-Mandé near Paris.
Go to Profile#5267
Kathryn J. Wood
#118495
Overall Influence
#5268
Nasia Safdar
#118498
Overall Influence
#5269
Catherine C. Marshall
#118503
Overall Influence
#5270
Jürgen Dr. Engel
#118518
Overall Influence
#5271
John Walter Kusek
#118519
Overall Influence
#5272
Yazdan Yazdanpanah
#36634
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Yazdan Yazdanpanah is an Iranian born infectiologist who is head of the Infectious Disease department at Bichat–Claude Bernard Hospital. He was Professor of Medicine at Paris Diderot University. He became an MD from the Lille School of Medicine in 1996, obtained a Master of Science in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000, and completed a PhD in public health from the Bordeaux School of Public Health in 2002.
Go to Profile#5273
Eduardo H. Bancalari
#118533
Overall Influence
#5274
Sibylle Loibl*
#118534
Overall Influence
#5275
Noni MacDonald
#58371
Overall Influence
Noni E. MacDonald is a Canadian physician. She is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University. In 2019, MacDonald was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia and Order of Canada.
Go to Profile#5276
Walter H Kaye
#118549
Overall Influence
#5277
Paul N. Durrington
#118569
Overall Influence
#5278
Barron H. Lerner
#40116
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Barron H. Lerner is an American member of the faculty at the New York University Langone School of Medicine. He received his M.D. from Columbia in 1986 and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 1996. In addition to his research, Lerner practices internal medicine and teaches medical ethics and the history of medicine.
Go to Profile#5279
Prakash C. Deedwania
#118579
Overall Influence
#5280
Karin B. Nelson
#118581
Overall Influence
#5281
Donna Dickenson
#79710
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Donna L. Dickenson is an American philosopher who specializes in medical ethics. She is Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of London, fellow of the Ethox and HeLEX Centres at the University of Oxford, and visiting fellow at the Centre for Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol.
Go to Profile#5282
Mark L. Entman
#118597
Overall Influence
#5283
Stephane Marie Oudard
#118620
Overall Influence
#5284
Kåre Berg
#43266
Overall Influence
1932 - 2009 (77 years)
Kåre Ingmar Berg, MD was a Norwegian professor in medical genetics, physician-in-chief and well-cited researcher. Education and positions Kåre Berg was born in Hammerfest. He graduated as MD in 1957 and dr.med. in 1964 at the University of Oslo. From 1964 to 1967 he was a fellow researcher at Rockefeller University, New York.
Go to Profile#5285
Christine Battersby
#114782
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Christine Battersby FRSA is a British philosopher and Reader Emerita in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. She was the visiting Fleishhacker Chair of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco during April 2013. Battersby is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is known for her research on feminist aesthetics.
Go to Profile#5286
David F. Mcdermott
#118648
Overall Influence
#5287
Michel P. Ducreux
#118675
Overall Influence
#5288
Lennart Hardell
#52307
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Lennart Hardell , is a Swedish oncologist and professor at Örebro University Hospital in Örebro, Sweden. He is known for his research into what he says are environmental cancer-causing agents, such as Agent Orange, and has said that cell phones increase the risk of brain tumors.
Go to Profile#5289
James A. Russell
#118695
Overall Influence
#5290
Paul Lee
#28640
Overall Influence
Paul Lee was a professor of existential and religious philosophy living in Santa Cruz, California. He was chair of the Romero Institute . While an assistant professor of Humanities at MIT in the 1960s, Lee was a founding editor of the infamous Psychedelic Review, started by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert at Harvard.
Go to Profile#5291
Prasad Devarajan
#118699
Overall Influence
#5292
Richard F. Keep
#118700
Overall Influence
#5293
Meir H. Kryger
#118710
Overall Influence
#5294
Bengt Björkstén
#118711
Overall Influence
#5295
Karin Bijsterveld
#77568
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Karin Theda Bijsterveld is a Dutch historian. She is a professor of Science, Technology, and Modern Culture at Maastricht University. Bijsterveld is active in the field of sound studies. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has called her one of the founders of the field.
Go to Profile#5296
Lars-Henrik Schmidt
#75694
Overall Influence
1953 - 2021 (68 years)
Lars-Henrik Schmidt was a Danish idea-historian and philosopher. Since the early 1980s the pivotal point of his writings has been the development of a specific philosophical perspective termed Social Analytics.
Go to Profile#5297
Massimo Piepoli
#118716
Overall Influence
#5298
Stuart S. Sherman
#118719
Overall Influence
#5299
Youssef Seddik
#56806
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Youssef Seddik is a noted Tunisian philosopher and anthropologist specializing in Ancient Greece and the anthropology of the Qur'an. Biography In 1966, he obtained a master's degree in philosophy and a degree in French literature and civilization. During the next four years, he taught at the French school in Compiègne in 1967 and obtained a DES in Philosophy and a degree in Ancient Greece.
Go to Profile#5300
Tom Polger
#93822
Overall Influence
Tom Polger is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati in the United States. His research focuses on naturalistic accounts of the metaphysics of mind. Polger is a past president of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
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