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,
#5551
Frederic C. Bartter
#121873
Overall Influence
#5552
Paul Dorian
#56188
Overall Influence
Paul Dorian is a Canadian physician. He is a professor of pharmacology and director of the Division of Cardiology at the University of Toronto. His primary research focus is the clinical pharmacology of antiarrhythmic drugs.
Go to Profile#5553
Denis Lerrer Rosenfield
#92679
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Denis Lerrer Rosenfield is a Brazilian writer and columnist. Along with Patrícia Carlos de Andrade, Rosenfield has co-founded the Millennium Institute in 2005. Academic life Rosenfield has a degree in philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and in 1982 he earned a doctorate in philosophy from Université Paris 1 . In 1999, he obtained a post-doctorate at the École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines .
Go to Profile#5554
A. C. Dornhorst
#121947
Overall Influence
#5555
Neil S. Cherniack
#121949
Overall Influence
#5556
Emanuela Taioli
#121975
Overall Influence
#5557
Michael J. Brody
#121979
Overall Influence
#5558
Mogens Stig Norn
#121999
Overall Influence
#5559
Jean-François Mattéi
#19975
Overall Influence
1941 - 2014 (73 years)
Jean-François Mattéi was a French philosopher and professor of Greek philosophy and political philosophy at the University of Nice.
Go to Profile#5560
Kuno Gonschior
#59612
Overall Influence
1935 - 2010 (75 years)
Kuno Gonschior was a German painter. From 1957 to 1961, Gonschior studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1959, he was one of the first students of Karl Otto Götz, his classmates being Gotthard Graubner and HA Schult. From 1961 to 1963 he studied at the University of Cologne. In 1972, he became lecturer at the Pädagogische Hochschule Münster. From 1982 to 2000, he was a professor of painting at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Berlin.
Go to Profile#5561
Hans Konrad Biesalski
#45694
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Hans Konrad Biesalski is a German physician and professor of biological chemistry and nutritional medicine at the University of Hohenheim. Life Biesalski enrolled first in physics at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz before he switched to medicine at Bonn and Mainz where he graduated in 1979. He received his PhD in 1981 for a work about progressive loss of hearing during childhood at Mainz. While working at the Department of Physiology in Mainz, he received his habilitation for a work about vitamin A and the inner ear. In 1993, Biesalski was appointed full professor at the Institute of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition Science at University of Hohenheim.
Go to Profile#5562
Paul C. Gillette
#122040
Overall Influence
#5563
Neal S. Kleiman
#122055
Overall Influence
#5564
Sherita Hill Golden
#51893
Overall Influence
Sherita Hill Golden is an American physician who is the Hugh P. McCormick Family Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins University. She also serves as vice president and chief diversity officer. Her research considers biological and systems influences on diabetes and its outcomes. She was elected Fellow of National Academy of Medicine in 2021.
Go to Profile#5565
Richard Brian Rothman
#122098
Overall Influence
#5566
Sagar Lonial
#122119
Overall Influence
#5567
Sergio E. Starkstein
#122124
Overall Influence
#5568
Marian Knight
#97765
Overall Influence
Marian Knight is a British physician who is a Professor of Maternal and Child Population Health at the University of Oxford. She is an Honorary Consultant of Public Health for Public Health England. During the COVID-19 pandemic Knight studied the characteristics and outcomes of pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19.
Go to Profile#5569
Kim James Burchiel
#122130
Overall Influence
#5570
Blaise Cronin
#68498
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Blaise Cronin is an Irish-American information scientist and bibliometrician. He is the Rudy Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was Dean of the School of Library and Information Science for seventeen years. From 1985 to 1991 he held the Chair of Information Science and was Head of the Department of Information Science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K.
Go to Profile#5571
Edward A. Sickles
#122163
Overall Influence
#5572
Christian B. Miller
#102642
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Christian B. Miller is an American philosopher specializing in ethics and philosophy of religion. He is the A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. Education and career Miller earned his B.A. at Princeton University and his Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame. He has taught at Wake Forest University since 2004. Miller has written five books, edited five books, and published over 95 articles, introductions and commentaries.
Go to Profile#5573
Meenhard Herlyn
#122188
Overall Influence
#5574
Robert Anthony Rapp
#122198
Overall Influence
#5575
Jason P. Sheehan
#122228
Overall Influence
#5576
Shimon Slavin
#122229
Overall Influence
#5577
Siddhartha Mukherjee
#7476
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Siddhartha Mukherjee is an Indian-American physician, biologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, that won notable literary prizes including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, and Guardian First Book Award, among others. The book was listed in the "All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books" by Time magazine in 2011. His 2016 book The Gene: An Intimate History made it to #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, and was among The New York Times 100 best books of 2016, and a finalist for the Wellcome Trust Prize and the Roya...
Go to Profile#5578
Khosrow Bagheri
#74684
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Khosrow Bagheri Noaparast is an Iranian philosopher, educational theorist and the president of Philosophy of Education Society of Iran . Biography Bagheri was born in 1957 in Tehran. He took his Ph.D. degree from the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1994. He is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Tehran. He has made contributions to a wide range of topics in philosophy of education, Religion and personal construct psychology; topics from different viewpoints, such as constructive realism, neo-Pragmatism, action theory, deconstruction, Hermeneutics, and Islamic philosophy of education.
Go to Profile#5579
Dominique F. Figarella-branger
#122257
Overall Influence
#5580
Norman Zamcheck
#122262
Overall Influence
#5581
Wafaa El-Sadr
#21418
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Wafaa El-Sadr is a Columbia University Professor and the director of ICAP at Columbia University, Columbia World Projects and the Center for Infectious Disease Epidemiologic Research at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.
Go to Profile#5582
Yuji Naito
#122282
Overall Influence
#5583
Mezri Haddad
#63249
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Mezri Haddad is a Tunisian journalist, writer, philosopher and diplomat. Haddad was a doctor of moral and political philosophy at the Paris-Sorbonne University, and the first Muslim candidate to be qualified by the National Council of French universities as a lecturer in Catholic theology. He is the author of several essays that focus on politics and religion .
Go to Profile#5584
Henk G. Sol
#24319
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Henk Gerard Sol is a Dutch organizational theorist and Emeritus Professor of Business Engineering and ICT at Groningen University. His research focuses on the development of services enabled by ICT, management information systems, decision enhancement and telematics.
Go to Profile#5585
David P. Faxon
#122294
Overall Influence
#5586
Dan Rebellato
#44268
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Dan Rebellato is an English dramatist and academic born in South London. He is Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London and has written extensively for radio and the stage. He has twice been nominated for a Sony Award, and writes regularly for The Guardian Theatre Blog.
Go to Profile#5587
Jordi Pigem
#91796
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Jordi Pigem is a Catalan philosopher and writer. Career Pigem holds a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona . He coordinated the ecology journal Integral between 1989 and 1992. From 1998 to 2003 he was a lecturer and coordinator of the Philosophy module for the Masters in Holistic Science at Schumacher College in Dartington, United Kingdom. In 1999 he won the Philosophy Award of the Institute of Catalan Studies with the dissertation El pensament de Raimon Panikkar: Una filosofia de la interdependència , and in 2006 he was awarded the Resurgence and Scientific and Medical Networ...
Go to Profile#5588
Lindsey Robert Baden
#122358
Overall Influence
#5589
Yew-‐kwang Ng
#122360
Overall Influence
#5590
Stephen Boonen
#122369
Overall Influence
#5591
David Pogue
#4635
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
David Welch Pogue is an American technology and science writer and TV presenter, and correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning. He has hosted 18 Nova specials on PBS, including Nova ScienceNow, the Making Stuff series in 2011 and 2013, and Hunting the Elements in 2012. Pogue has written or co-written seven books in the For Dummies series, and in 1999, he launched his own series of computer how-to books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes more than 100 titles. He also wrote The World According to Twitter and Pogue's Basics , a New York Times bestseller.
Go to Profile#5592
Raymond R. Townsend
#122375
Overall Influence
#5593
Asım Kurjak
#122382
Overall Influence
#5594
Victor Ovcharenko
#50757
Overall Influence
1943 - 2009 (66 years)
Victor Ovcharenko was a Russian philosopher, sociologist, historian and psychologist. He also was a PhD., professor, academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences , academician of the Academy for Humanities Research and academician of the Academy of Pedagogical and Social Sciences . He co-edited the journals "The Psychoanalytical Bulletin", "The Bulletin of Psychoanalysis", etc. He was a forerunner of the Minsk philosophical school "Humanities Encyclopedia". He is considered one of the founders of modern Belarusian sociology.
Go to Profile#5595
Miles Groth
#88626
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Dr. Miles Groth is a Professor Emeritus in Psychology at Wagner College who has written on philosophy and psychotherapy. Background Groth has described himself as an existential analyst or Daseinsanalyst. Educated at Franklin and Marshall College, Duquesne University and Fordham University, he has taught psychology and philosophy at St. Vincent College and Wagner College , where he is Professor Emeritus .
Go to Profile#5596
Teguest Guerma
#24157
Overall Influence
Teguest Guerma is an Ethiopian medical doctor specializing in public health and HIV/AIDS. Guerma is appointed by the African Medical and Research Foundation Board of Directors as Director General in June 2010. She has been the Associate Director of the HIV/AIDS Department of the World Health Organization between 2004–2010. She has started her career in HIV/AIDS in Burundi and has since extensively worked in Africa and South East Asia, including as country representative for the World Health Organization and Regional Advisor of HIV/AIDS for the Africa Regional Office of the WHO. She also repr...
Go to Profile#5597
Gary Gottlieb
#44862
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Gary L. Gottlieb , is a prominent psychiatrist, healthcare executive and healthcare investor who served as CEO of Partners in Health from 2015-2019. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Gottlieb established, chaired, or led various medical centers and departments. From 2010 to 2015, he was president and CEO of Partners HealthCare. He is the only person to appear eight consecutive times in Modern Healthcare magazine's list of the "50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare."
Go to Profile#5598
Aruni Bhatnagar
#122487
Overall Influence
#5599
James K. Min
#50050
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
James K. Min is an American physician, a former professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a former director of the Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill-Cornell Medical Center. Prior to this, he held the title of professor of medicine at both Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, and David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California. He is an expert in cardiovascular imaging and has led numerous multi-center international clinical trials. He studied clinical utility and coronary artery diseases for over ten years.
Go to Profile#5600
Christopher Titmuss
#45923
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Christopher Titmuss is a British Dhamma teacher. He offers retreats on ethics, insight meditation , and wisdom. He is the author of 20 books on such themes as mindfulness, spirituality, teachings of the Buddha, and global issues. He has lived in Totnes, Devon, since 1982.
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