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,
#5751
Buddha Basnyat
#124197
Overall Influence
#5752
Basil Hetzel
#14022
Overall Influence
1922 - 2017 (95 years)
Basil Stuart Hetzel was an Australian medical researcher who made a major contribution to combating iodine deficiency, a major cause of goitre and cretinism worldwide. Early life and education Hetzel was born in London to Elinor Hetzel and Kenneth Stuart Hetzel, an anaesthetist. Hetzel's parents were originally from South Australia but in London at the time while Kenneth worked at the University College Hospital. They returned to Adelaide in 1925. There he, along with his brother Peter , was schooled at King's College and St Peter's College, Adelaide.
Go to Profile#5753
Carla Hayden
#11193
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Carla Diane Hayden is an American librarian who is serving as the 14th librarian of Congress. Since the creation of the office of the librarian of Congress in 1802, Hayden is both the first African American and the first woman to hold this post. Appointed in 2016, she is the first professional librarian to hold the post since 1974.
Go to Profile#5754
Raul J. Busto
#124220
Overall Influence
#5755
Richard David Semba
#124222
Overall Influence
#5756
Mohamed Hamouda Bensai
#124236
Overall Influence
1902 - 1998 (96 years)
Mohamed Hamouda Hamouda Bensaï was an Algerian philosopher and essayist. He studied philosophy at Sorbonne, and was one of the major Algerian thinkers from the 1930s onwards. He chaired the circle of the Association of Franco-North Africa, founded by Marcellin Piel.
Go to Profile#5757
Frederick L. Brancati
#124250
Overall Influence
#5758
Robert Thompson
#38794
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Robert James Thompson is an American educator and media scholar. He is the Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. He is widely quoted in media.
Go to Profile#5759
Evelina Tacconelli
#124308
Overall Influence
#5760
Harold J. Burstein
#124322
Overall Influence
#5761
Andrew Pessin
#77813
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Andrew Pessin is an American philosopher who is currently a professor of philosophy at Connecticut College. Biography Pessin is a graduate of Yale University and holds a PhD from Columbia University. He teaches at Connecticut College. In addition to his academic work he has published a number of philosophy books for the general reader, as well as two novels. His most recent novel, The Irrationalist: The Tragic Murder of René Descartes, is a historical murder mystery based on real events: the life of the famous 17th-century philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, and the mysterious circu...
Go to Profile#5762
James Andrew Phillips
#48847
Overall Influence
James Andrew Phillips is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of New South Wales. He is known for his research on philosophy of art, the philosophy of film and performance, and Martin Heidegger's thought.
Go to Profile#5763
Elizabeth Brake
#96381
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Elizabeth Brake is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Rice University. She is known for her works on ethics and political philosophy. Brake coined the term amatonormativity to describe the widespread, but false, belief that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship. Her book Minimizing Marriage received Honorable Mention for the American Philosophical Association Book Prize in 2014. Brake is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Philosophy.
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Nagarjuna G.
#79183
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Nagarjuna G. works in the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. His major research interests include Science Education, Cognitive Science, History and Philosophy of Science and Structure and Dynamics of Knowledge. As an activist he focuses on promoting free knowledge and free software and serves as the chairperson of Free Software Foundation of India.
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Hartmut Beug
#124367
Overall Influence
#5766
Beate Roessler
#106999
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Beate Roessler is a German philosopher and researcher who is a Professor of Ethics at the University of Amsterdam. Biography Roessler studied philosophy in several German and English cities, among them London, Oxford, and Berlin. Her Ph.D. was completed in 1988 at the Free University of Berlin. Roessler’s habilitation developed a theory of the value of privacy, and was finalized in 2001 at the University of Bremen.
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Sigurd Allern
#49863
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Sigurd Allern is a Norwegian media theorist and the first professor of journalism at the University of Oslo. He was also one of the central people in starting the Workers' Communist Party of Norway in the early 1970s, and was the first chairman of the party between 1973 and 1975 and at the same time chairman of the Red Electoral Alliance. He was also editor-in-chief of Klassekampen from 1969 to 1970, and again from 1979 to 1995.
Go to Profile#5768
Jerry L. Martin
#60196
Overall Influence
Jerry L. Martin is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at the American Academy of Religion, editor of the book Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative, and author of God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher which was adapted into a podcast, titled God: An Autobiography, as told to a Philosopher - The Podcast, which takes the form of a dramatic conversation. From 1988 to 1995, Martin held senior positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities, including as acting chairman. From 1967 to 1982, Martin was a tenured professor and chairman of the phi...
Go to Profile#5769
Ronald M. Bukowski
#124411
Overall Influence
#5770
Shu-ichi Kaneko
#124414
Overall Influence
#5771
Angelo Avogaro
#124420
Overall Influence
#5772
Jean‐baptiste Michel
#124423
Overall Influence
#5773
Michael G. Rinaldi
#124430
Overall Influence
#5774
Christoph Wolff
#20100
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Christoph Wolff is a German musicologist. He is best known for his works on the music, life, and period of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of Harvard University, and was part of the faculty since 1976, and former director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig from 2001 to 2014.
Go to Profile#5775
Harry R. Keiser
#124436
Overall Influence
#5776
Paul Weiss
#67081
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Paul S. Weiss is a leading American nanoscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds numerous positions, including UC Presidential Chair, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bioengineering, and of Materials Science and Engineering, and founder and editor-in-chief of ACS Nano. From 2019–2014, he held the Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences and was the director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Weiss has co-authored over 400 research publications and holds over 40 US and international patents.
Go to Profile#5777
David L. Pauls
#124477
Overall Influence
#5778
Erich K. Lang
#124481
Overall Influence
#5779
Thomas Hedner,
#124485
Overall Influence
#5780
Olivier Ameisen
#17085
Overall Influence
1953 - 2013 (60 years)
Olivier Ameisen was a French-American cardiologist who wrote a best-selling book about curing alcoholism using the drug baclofen. Education and career Ameisen began his medical studies in 1969 at age 16 at Université René Descartes Faculté de Médecine Cochin Port-Royal.
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Gilbert H. Mudge
#124507
Overall Influence
#5782
Jean‐luc Harousseau
#124522
Overall Influence
#5783
Guido I. Marcucci
#124526
Overall Influence
#5784
Monika Safford
#117676
Overall Influence
Monika M. Safford is an American clinician-investigator. She is the Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and John J. Kuiper Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She was the inaugural Endowed Professor of Diabetes Prevention and Outcomes Research and Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.
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Georges Dicker
#124527
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Georges Dicker is an American philosopher, currently a SUNY Distinguished Professor at The College at Brockport, State University of New York.
Go to Profile#5786
Fathollah K. Mostofi
#124537
Overall Influence
#5787
Stephen Westaby
#124566
Overall Influence
#5788
Hans Maes
#73687
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Hans Maes is a senior philosophy lecturer and co-director of the Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Kent. He is known for his work in aesthetics and philosophy of art. Books Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight: A Philosophical Exploration. Routledge. 2021.Portraits and Philosophy. Routledge. 2020Conversations on Art and Aesthetics. Oxford University Press. 2017Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography. Palgrave. 2013Art and Pornography: Philosophical Essays, ed. H. Maes and J. Levinson. Oxford University Press. 2012
Go to Profile#5789
Daniel J. Wallace
#84905
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Daniel Jeffrey Wallace is an American rheumatologist, clinical professor, author, and fellow. Wallace has published 500 peer reviewed publications, 9 textbooks, and 28 book chapters on topics such as lupus, Sjögren syndrome, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia. He has the largest cohort of lupus patients in the United States . A full professor of medicine , he is associate director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program at Cedars-Sinai. His seminal contributions to research include being an author of the first paper to demonstrate vitamin D dysfunction and the importance of interleukin 6 in lupu...
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James A. De Lemos
#124582
Overall Influence
#5791
Stephen E. Lipshultz
#124586
Overall Influence
#5792
Thomas A. Buchholz
#124588
Overall Influence
#5793
Ralph D. Feigin
#124641
Overall Influence
#5794
Thomas J. McKay
#120814
Overall Influence
Thomas McKay is an American philosopher currently professor of philosophy and director of graduate studies at the department of philosophy of Syracuse University. He was chairman of the department there from 1995 to 2002. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1969, his M.A. from University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1972, and his Ph.D., also from the University of Massachusetts, 1974, for a dissertation on "Essentialism and Quantified Modal Logic: Quine's Argument and Kripke's Semantics"
Go to Profile#5795
Alasdair Muir Breckenridge
#124669
Overall Influence
#5796
Jaakko Perheentupa
#124671
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
#5797
H. Richard Winn
#23377
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Dr. H. Richard Winn is an American neurosurgeon, and professor of neurosurgery and neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Winn was chairman of neurological surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1983 to 2002. Winn has made numerous contributions to the field of neurosurgery, specifically to the physiology of cerebral blood flow regulation and clinical studies of the natural history of cerebral aneurysms. A leading international Neurosurgical Prize is named after Dr. Winn.
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Janet McCracken
#97478
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Janet McCracken is the Chair of Classical Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Lake Forest College. She specializes in aesthetics. Biography McCracken earned a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and a Master of Arts and PhD from University of Texas at Austin. She currently serves as the Director of the Ethics Center at Lake Forest College and was the Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty from 2005 to 2011 and the Associate Dean of the Faculty from 2000 to 2002.
Go to Profile#5799
Norman Bradburn
#101860
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Norman M. Bradburn is an American social scientist and the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at University of Chicago and former University Provost, and an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, American Statistical Association, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#5800
Marcello Pera
#69826
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Marcello Pera is an Italian philosopher and politician. He was the President of the Italian Senate from 2001 to 2006. Career Pera, who was born in Lucca, graduated in accounting, and he worked for the Banca Toscana and for the Camera di Commercio in Lucca. He went on to study philosophy at the University of Pisa, concentrating on the works of Karl Popper and his open society theory, and advocating these principles during the difficult 1970s, the anni di piombo.
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