Search People Result | Academic Influence

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).

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Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#5701

A. G. Everson Pearse

#123771

Overall Influence

#5702

Esmail Zanjani

#27985

Overall Influence

1938 - 2019 (81 years)

Esmail D. Zanjani is a professor and medical researcher at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research involves growing human cells within sheep embryos. In March 2007, it was announced that Zanjani had created a human-sheep chimera. Zanjani has stated that his work involves sheep because of the blood-forming systems of sheep and humans are similar.

#5703

Lennart Hansson

#123780

Overall Influence

#5704

Stefan Mundlos

#123786

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

#5705

Günter Burg

#123787

Overall Influence

#5706

Noah Wardrip-Fruin

#32237

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is a professor in the Computational Media department of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is an advisor for the Expressive Intelligence Studio. He is an alumnus of the Literary Arts MFA program and Special Graduate Study PhD program at Brown University. In addition to his research in digital media, computer games, and software studies, he served for 10 years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Literature Organization.

#5707

Louis L. Scharf

#123796

Overall Influence

#5708

Hiroshi Okamoto

#123800

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

#5709

Robert F. Breiman

#123820

Overall Influence

#5710

Milan Damnjanović

#83222

Overall Influence

1924 - 1994 (70 years)

Milan Damnjanović was a Serbian philosopher, full professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Belgrade University. Milan Damnjanović was the founder and the president of the Aesthetic Society of Serbia , vice president of the International Aesthetics Society, a member of the International Committee of Greek Humanistic Society for Philosophy in Athens, a member of the presiding committee of the International Society for Dialectic Philosophy , a member of the American Aesthetics Society.

#5711

Thomas Laubach

#49874

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Thomas Laubach is a German Catholic theologian. He wrote the texts for numerous hymns of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied . He has used his birth name in publications. Under his family name Weißer, he worked in education and journalism, specifically as representative of the Catholic Church at the broadcaster SWR. He has been professor of ethics at the University of Bamberg from 2003.

#5712

Christopher Cordner

#102057

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Christopher Donald Cordner is an Australian philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. He is known for his expertise on ethics. Cordner is a recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship .

#5713

Sadiq Jalal al-Azm

Sadiq Jalal al-Azm

#28141

Overall Influence

1934 - 2016 (82 years)

Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm was a Professor Emeritus of Modern European Philosophy at the University of Damascus in Syria and was, until 2007, a visiting professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His main area of specialization was the work of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, but he later placed a greater emphasis upon the Islamic world and its relationship to the West, evidenced by his contribution to the discourse of Orientalism. Al-Azm was also known as a human rights advocate and a champion of intellectual freedom and free speech.

#5714

Ann Partridge

#105409

Overall Influence

Ann Hart Partridge is an American medical oncologist. She is the founder and director of the Young and Strong Program for Young Women with Breast Cancer at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute.

#5715

Joseph Hamill

#123841

Overall Influence

#5716

David Cockburn

#84096

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

David Cockburn studied philosophy at St Andrews and Oxford, and has taught at Swansea, the Open University, and, until 2010, has spent over 30 years at the University of Wales, Lampeter, where he teaches courses on the philosophy of mind, Spinoza, Wittgenstein among others. He held a British Academy Readership in 1994–96, during which he wrote Other Times. He also holds a deep interest and involvement in the human rights group Amnesty International.

#5717

Jean E. Sealey

#123849

Overall Influence

#5718

David Roochnik

#98666

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

David Roochnik is an American philosopher and the Maria Stata professor of philosophy at Boston University. Prior to completing his doctorate degree at Pennsylvania State University in 1995, Professor Roochnik taught at Iowa State University and Williams College. He joined the philosophy department at Boston University in 1995.

#5719

Brian E. Kendall

#123862

Overall Influence

#5720

Gabriel Lopez‐berestein

#123887

Overall Influence

#5721

B. J. Kennedy

#47072

Overall Influence

1921 - 2003 (82 years)

Byrl James "B.J." Kennedy was an American physician who is considered to be the "Father of Medical Oncology." Born in Plainview, Minnesota, in 1921, B.J. Kennedy received his MD from the University of Minnesota Medical School. He served his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and received further training at McGill University and Cornell Medical College.

#5722

Helen Hobbs

#27600

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Helen Haskell Hobbs is an American medical researcher who is professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, who won a 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the 2018 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine. She and Jonathan C. Cohen found that people with hypomorphic PCSK9 mutations had lower LDL-cholesterol levels and were almost immune to heart disease. This finding led to the development of a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that mimic the effects of the PCSK9 mutations. She and Cohen also identified t...

#5723

Mitchell M. Levy

#123898

Overall Influence

#5724

Patrick Flandrin

#123904

Overall Influence

#5725

George Elder Davie

George Elder Davie

#93262

Overall Influence

1912 - 2007 (95 years)

George Elder Davie was a prominent Scottish philosopher whose well-received book, The Democratic Intellect , concerns the treatment of philosophy in 19th century Scottish universities. Life He was born at no. 4 Baxter Park Terrace, Dundee on 18 March 1912. His father, George Myles Davie was a pharmacist and chemistry teacher, and his mother was Isabella Calder Elder. He married Elspeth Mary Dryer, an art teacher, on 5 October 1944 at Bonnyrigg Church in Midlothian. Elspeth Davie later became a respected writer and was awarded the Katherine Mansfield Prize in 1978. They had one daughter with w...

#5726

Bill S. Hansson

Bill S. Hansson

#71910

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Bill S. Hansson is a Swedish neuroethologist. From June 2014 until June 2020, he was vice president of the Max Planck Society. Scientific career Hansson studied biology at Lund University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1982. In 1988 he defended his PhD thesis in Ecology. From 1989 to 1990 he worked as postdoc at the University of Arizona and returned 1990 to a junior professorship in Lund. In 1992 he became Associate Professor and from 2000 until 2001 he was a Professor for Chemical Ecology at Lund University . From 2001 he was Professor and Head of the Chemical ...

#5727

Ronald D. G. Mckay

#123943

Overall Influence

#5728

William S. Dalton

William S. Dalton

#47071

Overall Influence

William S. Dalton is an American physician and oncologist, who is board certified in internal medicine and oncology. Since 2002 he has been the President, CEO, and Center Director of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida . He served as dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, 2001–2002.

#5729

Meinhard Prof Dr Med Classen

#123952

Overall Influence

#5730

Ulf I. Ulmsten

#123954

Overall Influence

#5731

Havi Carel

#61960

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Havi Hannah Carel is a professor of philosophy at the University of Bristol. Education and career Carel studied for a BA and MA at Tel-Aviv University and was awarded her PhD by the University of Essex. She was lecturer at the University of the West of England then moved to the University of Bristol as a senior lecturer and was later promoted to professor. Carel also teaches at the Bristol Medical School.

#5732

T. Andrew Lister

#123992

Overall Influence

#5733

Diane R. Gold

#124005

Overall Influence

#5734

Herbert F. Oettgen

#124016

Overall Influence

#5735

Wiebke Arlt

#94453

Overall Influence

Wiebke Arlt is a German endocrinologist and William Withering Chair of Medicine at the University of Birmingham. She specialises in adrenal disease and disorders of sex development. Career Arlt studied medicine at the University of Cologne, completing a MBChB in 1990 and an academic MD in 1993. She trained in endocrinology at Universitätsklinikum Würzburg and finished her training in 1998. She then embarked on a research career, beginning in the University of California in San Francisco under the supervision of pediatric endocrinologist Walter L. Miller, with a fellowship grant from the German Research Council.

#5736

James W. Haviland

James W. Haviland

#83268

Overall Influence

1911 - 2007 (96 years)

James W. Haviland was an American medical doctor and specialist in Internal Medicine co-founder of the University of Washington School of Medicine and co-founder of the Northwest Kidney Centers. Haviland graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1936. Haviland married twice, to Marion Bertram ; Mary Katherine in 1997. Haviland had four children.

#5737

Maura L. Gillison

#124041

Overall Influence

#5738

Peter Krustrup

#124047

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

#5739

Michael Stoker

#52694

Overall Influence

1918 - 2013 (95 years)

Sir Michael George Parke Stoker CBE FRS FRSE MD FRCP was a British physician and medical researcher in virology. Scientific career Stoker studied medicine at Clare College, Cambridge and St Thomas' Hospital in London, gaining his MD in 1947, after serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II. On return to civilian life he became a Fellow of Clare College from 1948 and an assistant tutor and director of medical studies from 1949 to 1958. Between 1953 and 1956, he researched the structure of Coxiella burnetii, the bacteria causing Q fever, with Paul Fiset.

#5740

Eric G. Neilson

#124067

Overall Influence

#5741

William Feindel

#39666

Overall Influence

1918 - 2014 (96 years)

William Howard Feindel was a Canadian neurosurgeon, scientist and professor. Born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, he received a B.A. in Biology from Acadia University in 1939, a M.Sc. from Dalhousie University in 1942, and an M.D., C.M. from McGill University in 1945. Attending Merton College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar he received his D. Phil in 1949.

#5742

Laurent Degos

#124082

Overall Influence

#5743

Peter Vajkoczy

#124085

Overall Influence

#5744

Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi

#57739

Overall Influence

1916 - 1996 (80 years)

Masaki Kobayashi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, best known for the epic trilogy The Human Condition , the samurai films Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion , and the horror anthology Kwaidan . Senses of Cinema described him as "one of the finest depicters of Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s."

#5745

John J. Orloff

#124109

Overall Influence

#5746

Robert William Rebar

#124121

Overall Influence

#5747

Richard P. T. M. Grol

#124129

Overall Influence

#5748

Lloyd F. Mayer

#124155

Overall Influence

#5749

Michel Feher

#69058

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Michel Feher is a Belgian philosopher and cultural theorist who writes in English and French. He is the founding editor of Zone Books and the co-founder and president of Cette France-là, Paris, a monitoring group on French immigration policy. Feher writes for a number of outlets and has a semi-regular blog with the French journal Mediapart. He has held the positions of Professor and Visiting Lecturer at various universities, including École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the University of California, Berkeley, and most recently, Goldsmiths, University of London.

#5750

Carl Gustaf Bernhard

#44310

Overall Influence

1910 - 2001 (91 years)

Carl Gustaf Bernhard was a Swedish physician, neurophysiologist and academic. He was married to Gurli Lemon-Bernhard, opera singer and soprano. Together they had four children: Carl Johan, Pontus, Per and Blenda.

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