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,
#6401
Herbert Van de Sompel
#94640
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Herbert Van de Sompel is a Belgian librarian, computer scientist, and musician, most known for his role in the development of the Open Archives Initiative and standards such as OpenURL, Object Reuse and Exchange, and the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.
Go to Profile#6402
Kunihiko Tamaki
#131600
Overall Influence
#6403
Jan Marc Orenstein,
#131602
Overall Influence
#6404
Sandra M. Swain
#36185
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Sandra M. Swain is an American oncologist, breast cancer specialist and clinical translational researcher. She is currently a professor of Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and the Associate Dean for Research Development at Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Health as well as an adjunct professor of Medicine at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. She is also a past President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology , serving from 2012 through 2013.
Go to Profile#6405
Alex Toker
#39651
Overall Influence
Alex Toker is currently a professor at the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Signal Transduction and Associate Director of the Cancer Research Institute in the Cancer Center. His research focus on understanding mechanism of cancer including tumor cell survival, invasion and metastasis. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Go to Profile#6406
Paul Cobben
#97761
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Paul Gulian Cobben is a Dutch philosopher. His main contribution to philosophy is that he has given an immanent critique of G.W.F. Hegel's philosophy. His research specializes in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit , Science of Logic and the Elements of the Philosophy of Right . He taught at the universities of Amsterdam and Tilburg.
Go to Profile#6407
Patrick Aebischer
#131642
Overall Influence
#6408
Joshua Salomon
#131649
Overall Influence
Joshua A. Salomon is Professor of Health Policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is also director of the Prevention Policy Modeling Lab. He previously served as Professor of Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Go to Profile#6409
Peter B. Berger
#97681
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Peter B. Berger is the Senior Vice President of Clinical Research throughout the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health Care System, the nation's 14th largest health care system, and the one of the largest non-profit systems. He is also a Professor of Cardiology and of Medicine in the Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine. Berger practices interventional cardiology at North Shore Hospital.
Go to Profile#6410
Peter N. Thoren
#131661
Overall Influence
#6411
Peter Thaysen Laurberg
#131663
Overall Influence
#6412
Andreas Kjær
#129558
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Andreas Kjær is a Danish physician-scientist and European Research Council advanced grantee. He is professor at the University of Copenhagen and chief physician at Rigshospitalet, the National University Hospital of Denmark. He is board certified in Nuclear Medicine and his research is focused on molecular imaging with PET and PET/MRI and targeted radionuclide therapies in cancer. His achievements include development of several new PET tracers that have reached first-in-human clinical use. He has published more than 400 peer-review articles, filed 10 patents, supervised more than 40 PhD students and received numerous prestigious scientific awards over the years.
Go to Profile#6413
Matthias Storme
#34877
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Matthias Edward Storme is a Belgian lawyer, academic and conservative philosopher. Family life Storme was born and raised in a Catholic family in the Belgian city of Ghent. His father Marcel Storme used to be a university law professor, lecturing on the topic of Civil Procedure, and a member of the Belgian Senate for the Flemish Christian Democrats. His grandfather August De Schryver held several ministerships in many Belgian governments, including the Belgian Exile Government in London during World War II. He held his seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives until the late 1965. His...
Go to Profile#6414
Manoj Prasad
#67183
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Manoj Prasad is an Indian plant geneticist, molecular biologist and working as a Senior Scientist and JC Bose National Fellow at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research . Known for his research on the stress biology of plants and virology, he is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Sciences, India, the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Indian Virological Society and was a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award f...
Go to Profile#6415
Fred Evans
#110774
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Fred Evans is an American philosopher. He is a Professor of philosophy at Duquesne University and Director of the Center for Interpretative and Qualitative Research. His research and teaching interests are in contemporary continental philosophy , social and political philosophy, and philosophy of language, psychology and technology.
Go to Profile#6416
Gabriella Campadelli-Fiume
#33447
Overall Influence
Gabriella Campadelli-Fiume is a virologist with a primary research focus on herpes simplex virus, fusion and viral entry. She is a retired professor of virology from the University of Bologna, Italy.
Go to Profile#6417
Paris P. Tekkis
#131693
Overall Influence
#6418
D. Bruce Scott
#131699
Overall Influence
#6419
K. S. (kristin Sharon) Shrader-frechette
#131706
Overall Influence
#6420
Edwin Bryant
#70874
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Edwin Francis Bryant is an American Indologist. Currently, he is professor of religions of India at Rutgers University. He published seven books and authored a number of articles on Vedic history, yoga, and the Krishna tradition. In his research engagements, he lived several years in India where he studied Sanskrit and was trained with several Indian pundits.
Go to Profile#6421
Julie Battilana
#24412
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Julie Battilana is a scholar, educator, and advisor in the areas of social innovation and social change at Harvard University. She is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Go to Profile#6422
L. Barth Reller
#131730
Overall Influence
#6423
Joseph Maroon
#26263
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Joseph Maroon is an American neurosurgeon, author, and triathlon athlete. He is the professor and vice chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is the current medical director of WWE. He is particularly known for his work studying concussions and concussion prevention as well as his hypothesis on the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy .
Go to Profile#6424
Daryl K. Granner,
#131770
Overall Influence
#6425
Robert H. M. Christenson
#131777
Overall Influence
#6426
Bernard Kouchner
#16102
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Bernard Kouchner is a French politician and doctor. He is the co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde. From 2007 until 2010, he was the French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the center-right Fillon government under president Nicolas Sarkozy, although he had been in the past a minister in socialist governments. In 2010, The Jerusalem Post considered Kouchner the 15th most influential Jew in the world. Since 2015 Kouchner is workstream leader for the AMU , where he contributes his expertise in healthcare.
Go to Profile#6427
Jacques Marescaux
#131808
Overall Influence
#6428
Burne Hogarth
#7881
Overall Influence
1911 - 1996 (85 years)
Burne Hogarth was an American artist and educator, best known for his work on the Tarzan newspaper comic strip and his series of anatomy books for artists. Early life Hogarth was born in Chicago in 1911, the younger son of Pauline and carpenter Max He displayed an early talent for drawing. His father saved these efforts and some years later presented them and the young Hogarth to the registrar at the Art Institute of Chicago. At age 12, Hogarth was admitted, embarking on a formal education that took him through such institutions as Chicago's Crane College and Northwestern University, and New...
Go to Profile#6429
Muir Gray
#71592
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Sir John Armstrong Muir Gray is a British physician, who has held senior positions in screening, public health, information management. and value in healthcare. He is the Chief Knowledge Officer for EXI, a digital health therapeutic company prescribing exercise to people with or at risk of up to 23 long-term health conditions, and Chief Wellbeing Officer for Learning with Experts, a health related online learning company working with the NHS.
Go to Profile#6430
Christopher P. Ames
#131821
Overall Influence
#6431
J. Wai-kuoshihandjohn L. Gerin
#131849
Overall Influence
#6432
Michael Forsting
#131851
Overall Influence
#6433
Vincent Timmerman
#35039
Overall Influence
Vincent Timmerman is a Belgian scientist working at the VIB Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Antwerp of Christine Van Broeckhoven. His research is focused on inherited disorders of the peripheral nervous system, classified as hereditary motor and/or sensory neuropathies and the most common inherited peripheral neuropathy is Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease or Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy .
Go to Profile#6434
Gilbert Thompson
#102354
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Gilbert R. Thompson is a British physician and researcher in lipidology. Thompson studied at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, graduating in 1956. After National Service, he was at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School Hospital from 1963 to 1998, but including time at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Methodist Hospital, Houston and the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, as a researcher.
Go to Profile#6435
Sarah-Jane Leslie
#87330
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Sarah-Jane Leslie is the Class of 1943 Professor of Philosophy and former Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University, where she is also affiliated faculty in the Department of Psychology, the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy, the Program in Cognitive Science, the Program in Linguistics, and the University Center for Human Values.
Go to Profile#6436
Daniel Rynhold
#80356
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Professor Daniel Rynhold is Dean at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University in New York City where he has worked since August 2007. He became the Shoshana Shier Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto's Centre for Jewish Studies in 2019. He was previously Lecturer in Judaism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College, London.
Go to Profile#6437
Kyle Johannsen
#62189
Overall Influence
Kyle Johannsen is a Canadian philosopher who is the author of a A Conceptual Investigation of Justice and Wild Animal Ethics . He specialises in animal and environmental ethics, as well as political and social philosophy. He is presently affiliated with Trent University, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Queen's University.
Go to Profile#6438
Alan B. Sandler
#131901
Overall Influence
#6439
David J. Mayer
#131902
Overall Influence
#6440
Mortimer Jerome Adler
#131906
Overall Influence
#6441
Shlomo Shinnar
#131915
Overall Influence
#6442
Holger Ursin
#124246
Overall Influence
1934 - 2016 (82 years)
Holger Thorvald Ursin was a Norwegian physician and psychologist. He was born in Oslo. He lectured at the University of Bergen from 1967, and was appointed professor from 1974. His research interests focused on neurophysiological mechanisms related to behavior and coping with stress.
Go to Profile#6443
Walter T. Mcnicholas
#131926
Overall Influence
#6444
W. D. Hudson
#126794
Overall Influence
1920 - 2003 (83 years)
William Donald Hudson, who published as W. D. Hudson was an English Baptist minister and philosopher. He wrote on ethics, philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of Wittgenstein.
Go to Profile#6445
Viktor Afanasyev
#113559
Overall Influence
1922 - 1994 (72 years)
Viktor Grigoryevich Afanasyev was a Soviet and Russian public figure, journalist and professor of philosophy who is remembered for his work as a philosophy academic, politician, and newspaper editor. Afanasyev was editor-in-chief of the journal Kommunist and deputy editor and editor-in-chief of Pravda.
Go to Profile#6446
Tom Coburn
#27803
Overall Influence
1948 - 2020 (72 years)
Thomas Allen Coburn was an American politician and physician who served as a United States senator from Oklahoma from 2005 to 2015. A Republican, Coburn previously served as a United States representative from 1995 to 2001.
Go to Profile#6447
Philip J. Rosenfeld
#131986
Overall Influence
#6448
Murray Barr
#64277
Overall Influence
1908 - 1995 (87 years)
Murray Llewellyn Barr was a Canadian physician and medical researcher who discovered with graduate student Ewart George Bertram, in 1948, an important cell structure, the "Barr body". Born in Belmont, Ontario, he was educated at the University of Western Ontario, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1930, M.D. in 1933, and Master of Science in 1938. He was an RCAF wing commander between 1939 and 1945. From 1936 to 1977, he served as a faculty member at the University of Western Ontario. He was a member of The Harvey Club of London, the oldest medical club in Canada, which consisted of o...
Go to Profile#6449
Bertram Myron Gross
#36187
Overall Influence
1912 - 1997 (85 years)
Bertram Myron Gross was an American social scientist, federal bureaucrat and Professor of Political Science at Hunter College . He is known from his book Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America from 1980, and as primary author of the [[HumphreyHawkins Full Employment Act]].
Go to Profile#6450
Yasuko Rikihisa
#132002
Overall Influence
