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,
#6901
Carol J. Oja
#36854
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Carol J. Oja is a musicologist and scholar of American Studies. Biography Since 2003, she has held the post of William Powell Mason Professor at Harvard University. She has served as the Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence with the New York Philharmonic. Her previous appointments have been at the College of William and Mary and the City University of New York , where she was professor of music at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, as well as director of the Institute for Studies in American Music . She attended St. Olaf College , the University of Iowa , and the Graduate School of ...
Go to Profile#6902
Tilottama Rajan
#98613
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Tilottama Rajan is a Canadian scholar and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Western Ontario. She is Canada Research Chair and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Rajan is known for her research on Romantic literature, post-Kantian philosophy and contemporary theory. She is the daughter of Balachandra Rajan.
Go to Profile#6903
Eleazar Shafrir
#136382
Overall Influence
#6904
J. Michael Drake
#136384
Overall Influence
#6905
Niccolò Guicciardini
#55004
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Niccolò Guicciardini Corsi Salviati is an Italian historian of mathematics. He is a professor at the University of Milan, and is known for his studies on the works of Isaac Newton. Guicciardini obtained his Ph.D. from Middlesex Polytechnic in 1987 under the supervision of Ivor Grattan-Guinness.
Go to Profile#6906
Alexander Murray Harper
#136397
Overall Influence
#6907
Judith Clements
#106450
Overall Influence
Judith Ann Clements is an Australian academic and educator, specializing in Kallikrein proteases in prostate and ovarian cancers. Clements is the scientific director at the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre – Queensland and was head of the Cancer Research Program at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation of Queensland University of Technology at the Translational Research Institute from 1997–2014.
Go to Profile#6908
Charles E. Scott
#127584
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Charles E. Scott is an American philosopher and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Research Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Previously, he was Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University.
Go to Profile#6909
Adrian Heath
#65503
Overall Influence
1920 - 1992 (72 years)
Adrian Heath was a 20th-century British painter. Heath was born in Burma and attended Bryanston School in Dorset, southern England. In 1938, he studied art under Stanhope Forbes at Newlyn. In 1939 and 1945–47, he attended the Slade School of Art. He served in the RAF as a tail gunner in a[Wellington bomber in World War II, but spent almost the entire war as a prisoner of war at Stalag 383. During this period he became friends with and taught fellow POW Terry Frost to paint.
Go to Profile#6910
Blaženka Despot
#94455
Overall Influence
1930 - 2001 (71 years)
Blaženka Despot was a Croatian philosopher, socialist feminist, and sociologist. After finishing high school in Zagreb in 1948 and graduating in philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, she received her PhD in Ljubljana in 1970 with a thesis on humanity of the technological society. During the period 1956-64 she worked as a high school professor, and later as an assistant at the Department of Socialism at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In 1974 she was appointed as an associate professor of sociology and political economy, receiving full professorship in 1980 as a Professor of Marxism, socialism and socialist self-management at the Veterinary Faculty in Zagreb.
Go to Profile#6911
Eva Brann
#35296
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Eva T. H. Brann is a former dean and the longest-serving tutor at St. John's College, Annapolis. She is a 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal. Brann was born to a Jewish family in Berlin. She immigrated in 1941 to the United States and received her B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1950, her M.A. in Classics from Yale University in 1951, and her Ph.D. in Archaeology from Yale in 1956. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College.
Go to Profile#6912
Frank Jessen
#136466
Overall Influence
#6913
Ronald A. Asherson
#136470
Overall Influence
#6914
Jacques Clémenty
#136471
Overall Influence
#6915
Frank Schalow
#65922
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Frank Schalow is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy and university research professor at the University of New Orleans. He is known for his exegesis of Martin Heidegger's writings. He is a co-editor of, the journal Heidegger Studies.
Go to Profile#6916
Eckhart George Hahn
#136473
Overall Influence
#6917
Athol Williams
#26374
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Athol Williams is a South African poet, social philosopher and public intellectual based at Oxford University. Life Williams was born in Lansdowne, Cape Town, South Africa, and grew up in Mitchells Plain, the coloured township established under apartheid. Before becoming a professional writer and social philosopher, he worked in business for fifteen years, mainly as a strategy advisor.
Go to Profile#6918
Joshua B. Bederson
#34527
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Joshua B. Bederson is an American neurosurgeon, Leonard I. Malis, MD/Corinne and Joseph Graber Professor of Neurosurgery, and System Chair of Neurosurgery at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an attending neurosurgeon at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
Go to Profile#6919
John W. Holaday
#136525
Overall Influence
#6920
Bradley R. Wilcox
#82746
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Bradley Ray Wilcox is a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University and has been a counselor in the Young Men general presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2020.
Go to Profile#6921
Mark E. Nesbit
#136534
Overall Influence
#6922
Daniel Heartz
#32696
Overall Influence
1928 - 2019 (91 years)
Daniel Heartz was an American musicologist and professor emeritus of music at the University of California, Berkeley. Heartz studied at Harvard University. He lived in Berkeley, California. Honors Recipient of Guggenheim FellowshipsASCAP–Deems Taylor AwardsKinkeldey Award of the American Musicological Society.
Go to Profile#6923
Raymondd T. Krediet
#136544
Overall Influence
#6924
Delphine Parrott
#32855
Overall Influence
1928 - 2016 (88 years)
Delphine Mary Vera Parrott FRSE was a British endocrinologist, immunologist, and academic. She did research at the National Institute for Medical Research in the 1950s and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in the 1960s.
Go to Profile#6925
Alarcos Cieza
#136549
Overall Influence
#6926
Ana S. Iltis
#136553
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Ana S. Iltis is an American philosopher and Carlson Professor of University Studies at Wake Forest College. She is known for her works on bioethics. Iltis is a co-editor of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics and a former president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities .
Go to Profile#6927
Hans-Werner Bothe
#74958
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Hans-Werner Bothe is a German philosopher and neurosurgeon working in the field of Neurobionics. Life Bothe studied Philosophy and Medicine from 1973 until 1981 in Tübingen und Mainz, graduated 1978 in Philosophy with Magister Artium, later working for three years at the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne. He received his PhD in 1983 .
Go to Profile#6928
Hendrik Lehnert
#136574
Overall Influence
#6929
K. Michael Laurence
#136585
Overall Influence
#6930
Mike Levin
#134153
Overall Influence
Michael Levin is professor of paediatrics and international child health at Imperial College London.
Go to Profile#6931
Özlem Türeci
#115559
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Özlem Türeci is a German physician, scientist and entrepreneur. In 2008, she co-founded the biotechnology company BioNTech, which in 2020 developed the first messenger RNA-based vaccine approved for use against COVID-19. Türeci has served as BioNTech's chief medical officer since 2018. Since 2021, she has been Professor of Personalized Immunotherapy at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Türeci and her spouse, Uğur Şahin, have won a number of awards.
Go to Profile#6932
Paul M. Harari
#136630
Overall Influence
#6933
Hirotaka Iwase
#136640
Overall Influence
#6934
J. Stewart Cameron
#136649
Overall Influence
#6935
George Dale Zuidema
#136651
Overall Influence
#6936
Eugene Howard Courtiss
#136659
Overall Influence
#6937
Samuel A. Yousem
#136674
Overall Influence
#6938
Jeffrey L. Ponsky
#136677
Overall Influence
#6939
Tamar Sovran
#83715
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Tamar Sovran is an Israeli linguist and Hebrew Culture Studies researcher in the Language Department of Tel Aviv University. Biography Sovran was born in Rishon leZion, the second daughter of Lea and Gershon Mann , sister of Nira and Na'ama. She served in the Israel Defence Forces.
Go to Profile#6940
James Brooks
#34715
Overall Influence
1906 - 1992 (86 years)
James David Brooks was an American Abstract Expressionist, muralist, abstract painter, art teacher, and winner of the Logan Medal of the Arts. Life and career Brooks was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906. He attended Southern Methodist University and the Dallas Art Institute. In 1926, he moved to New York, where he worked as a commercial letterer and display artist and attended night classes at the Art Students League.
Go to Profile#6941
Nicholas J. Petrelli
#136719
Overall Influence
#6942
Alan Richard Dyer
#136722
Overall Influence
#6943
Twan Lammers
#136730
Overall Influence
#6944
Knut A. Engedal
#136742
Overall Influence
#6945
Peter Moore
#10924
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Peter B. Moore is Sterling Professor emeritus of Chemistry, Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. He has dedicated his entire career to understanding the structure, function, and mechanism of the ribosome.
Go to Profile#6946
Luce Irigaray
#136761
Overall Influence
#6947
Sebastian Gardner
#91260
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Sebastian Angus Gardner is a British philosopher and Professor of Philosophy in the University College London. He is known for his expertise on Kant, German Idealism, Sartre and Freud, and for his philosophical interpretations and investigations in the subject of psychoanalytic theory.
Go to Profile#6948
Anna N. A. Tosteson
#136793
Overall Influence
#6949
Messoud Ashina
#136798
Overall Influence
#6950
James P. Quigley
#136800
Overall Influence
