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,
#6701
Alberto Zangrillo
#134355
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#6702
Klaus Diedrich
#134366
Overall Influence
#6703
Jan Anders Hedner
#134429
Overall Influence
#6704
Rita Kothari
#37694
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Rita Kothari is a Gujarati and English language author and translator from Gujarat, India. In an attempt to preserve her memories and her identity as a member of the Sindhi people, Kothari wrote several books on partition and its effects on people. She has translated several Gujarati works into English.
Go to Profile#6705
Gennady Grushevoy
#42752
Overall Influence
1950 - 2014 (64 years)
Gennady Grushevoy was a Belarusian academic, politician, human rights and environmental activist and the founder of one of the first Chernobyl relief foundations. He was awarded the 1999 Rafto Prize for “his many years of courageous work for democracy and human rights in Belarus”.
Go to Profile#6706
Benjamin R. Brenner
#134450
Overall Influence
#6707
Kiyohiro Houkin
#134477
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#6708
Peter Altmeyer P. Altmeyer
#134492
Overall Influence
#6709
Olle Hernell
#134495
Overall Influence
#6710
Jad Hatem
#52840
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Jad Hatem is a Lebanese poet and philosopher. He has been a distinguished philosophy, literature and religious sciences Professor at the Saint-Joseph University in Beirut since 1976. Hatem has been the Head of Department of Philosophy and the Director of Michel Henry's Study Center within that department. He's also Editor in Chief of Extasis , La Splendeur du Carmel and L'Orient des dieux, and serves on various other academic editorial boards.
Go to Profile#6711
Douglas W. Losordo
#134500
Overall Influence
#6712
Gary Hall
#103774
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Gary Hall is British cultural and media theorist and Professor of Media and Performing Arts in the Coventry University Department of Media, UK. Career Hall is a cultural and media theorist working on continental philosophy, cultural politics, cultural studies, new media technologies, and the digital humanities. In 2008 he authored Digitize This Book!: The Politics of New Media, or Why We Need Open Access Now. Published by the University of Minnesota Press, it was the first book on open access publishing and archiving written specifically from a critical theory perspective.
Go to Profile#6713
Peter A. Banks
#134515
Overall Influence
#6714
Sarah Coupland
#80265
Overall Influence
Sarah Coupland is an Australian-born pathologist and professor who is the George Holt Chair in Pathology at the University of Liverpool. Coupland is an active clinical scientist whose research focuses on the molecular genetics of cancers, with particular interests in uveal melanoma, conjunctival melanoma, intraocular and ocular adnexal lymphomas and CNS lymphoma. Coupland is also an NHS Honorary Consultant Histopathologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Since 2006, Coupland has been head of the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group; from which she runs a multidisciplinary on...
Go to Profile#6715
Karim Chamari
#134558
Overall Influence
#6716
Marc Ereshefsky
#86708
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Marc Ereshefsky is a professor of philosophy at the University of Calgary, specializing in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of biology. His research focuses on issues on the intersection of philosophy and biology. Ereshefsky is specifically known for his work on taxonomy, systematics and natural kinds. His research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the National Science Foundation.
Go to Profile#6717
Markus F. Peschl
#63552
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Markus F. Peschl is an Austrian cognitive scientist, philosopher of mind, philosopher of science and researcher on innovation, and professor for Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Science at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is known for his early work on cognitive modelling, and his more recent work concerning a"socio-epistemological approach to innovation."
Go to Profile#6718
Bruce Evan Johnson
#134597
Overall Influence
#6719
Koichi Shudo
#134599
Overall Influence
#6720
Joe Sacco
#6000
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza , on Israeli–Palestinian relations; and Safe Area Goražde and The Fixer on the Bosnian War. In 2020, Sacco released , published by Henry Holt and Company.
Go to Profile#6721
Nir Barzilai
#134601
Overall Influence
#6722
Alan Guyatt Parks
#134602
Overall Influence
#6723
Prof. Peter Weidmann
#134615
Overall Influence
#6724
Kelly M. McMasters
#111614
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Kelly M. McMasters is an American surgeon and researcher. He is the Ben A. Reid Sr., MD Professor and Chair of the Hiram C. Polk Jr., MD Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#6725
Robert Saxton Taylor
#34782
Overall Influence
1918 - 2009 (91 years)
Robert Saxton Taylor was an influential library scholar and information scientist who served as Dean of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies from 1972 to 1981. His research and publications focused attention on users of information systems and information services.
Go to Profile#6726
David A. Hamburg
#134631
Overall Influence
#6727
Israel Frederic. Charo
#134647
Overall Influence
#6728
Francesco Cosentino
#134648
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#6729
Steven C. Hebert
#85850
Overall Influence
1946 - 2008 (62 years)
Steven C. Hebert, M.D., , a board certified nephrologist, was the chair and C.N.H. Long Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and professor of medicine at Yale University, beginning in 2000.
Go to Profile#6730
Nir Y. Uriel
#134652
Overall Influence
#6731
Charles E. Rackley
#134661
Overall Influence
#6732
Leslie Dewart
#59450
Overall Influence
1922 - 2009 (87 years)
Leslie Dewart was a Canadian philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the Graduate Department of Philosophy and the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Dewart was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1922, but he was raised by his mother in Cuba. Coming to Canada at the age of 19, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in bomber-reconnaissance operations on the Atlantic Coast from 1942 to 1947, subsequently becoming a Canadian citizen. He then began his studies at the University of Toronto.
Go to Profile#6733
Thomas R. Flynn
#116767
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Thomas Robert Flynn is an American philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor at Emory University. He is a former president of the Metaphysical Society of America . Flynn was ordained in 1961, and studied at Columbia University.
Go to Profile#6734
Anthony John Bron
#134698
Overall Influence
#6735
Brian F. Mccabe
#134718
Overall Influence
#6736
Electron Kebebew
#90517
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Electron Kebebew is an American surgeon, educator, and scientist. Kebebew is currently the Harry A. Oberhelman Jr. and Mark L. Welton Professor and Chief of General Surgery at Stanford University. Early life and education Electron Kebebew was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 26, 1968. Kebebew graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. In 1995, he graduated with a medicine degree from the University of California, San Francisco where he also went on to do his general surgery residency and postdoctoral fellowship.
Go to Profile#6737
P. Meza-junco J. Angulo
#134736
Overall Influence
#6738
Gary Tomlinson
#53955
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Gary Alfred Tomlinson is an American musicologist and the John Hay Whitney Professor of Music and Humanities at Yale University. He was formerly the Annenberg Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Ph.D., in 1979 with thesis titled Rinuccini, Peri, Monteverdi, and the humanist heritage of opera.
Go to Profile#6739
Emanuel Wolinsky
#134766
Overall Influence
#6740
Jean Talairach
#134771
Overall Influence
#6741
Hans Christian Korting
#39776
Overall Influence
1952 - 2012 (60 years)
Hans Christian Korting was a German dermatologist and medical researcher specializing in causes and treatment of infectious and non-infectious inflammatory skin diseases as well as non-melanoma skin cancer".
Go to Profile#6742
David Rosner
#20625
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
David Rosner is the Ronald H. Lauterstein Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and professor of history in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. He is also co-director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine in 2010.
Go to Profile#6743
F. William Blaisdell
#134787
Overall Influence
#6744
Masato Fujisawa
#134800
Overall Influence
#6745
Peter Robert Schofield
#134833
Overall Influence
#6746
William E. Bradley
#134834
Overall Influence
#6747
Wyndham H. Wilson
#134836
Overall Influence
#6748
Nikolaos Scarmeas
#134844
Overall Influence
#6749
Susan Domchek
#110254
Overall Influence
Susan M. Domchek is an oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Executive Director of the Basser Center for BRCA, the Basser Professor in Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Mariann and Robert MacDonald Cancer Risk Evaluation Program at Penn Medicine. She has authored more than 250 articles in scholarly journals and serves on a number of editorial review boards. In 2018, Domchek was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Go to Profile#6750
Leonard L. Gunderson
#134875
Overall Influence
