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,
#6951
John Deathridge
#89711
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
John William Deathridge is a British musicologist. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and at Lincoln College, Oxford culminating with a dissertation on Wagner's sketches for Rienzi, and is currently Emeritus Professor of Music at King's College London. Deathridge lives in Cambridge.
Go to Profile#6952
Yannis Manios
#136814
Overall Influence
#6953
Peggy Sullivan
#32323
Overall Influence
1929 - 2020 (91 years)
Peggy Sullivan was an American librarian and educator. She was elected president of the American Library Association and was a scholar of the history of librarianship. Biography Throughout her career, Sullivan served as:Dean, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University , River Forest, Illinois Executive director, American Library Association, Chicago, Illinois Director and professor, University Libraries, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, Illinois Dean and professor, College of Professional Studies, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, Illinois Assistant...
Go to Profile#6954
Timo Krings
#136835
Overall Influence
#6955
John Joseph Compton
#103650
Overall Influence
1929 - 2014 (85 years)
John Joseph Compton was an American philosopher and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University . Compton was a president of the Metaphysical Society of America . He was the son of Arthur Compton.
Go to Profile#6956
Daniell B. Carr
#136846
Overall Influence
#6957
Wayne A. Border
#136848
Overall Influence
#6958
Jonas Bergström
#136849
Overall Influence
#6959
Timothy L. Cover
#136852
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#6960
Leon Schiff
#136863
Overall Influence
#6961
Marcus L.e. Alden
#136867
Overall Influence
#6962
Hoosen Coovadia
#95068
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Hoosen Mahomed Coovadia was a South African doctor, and Victor Daitz professor at University of KwaZulu-Natal. He was awarded the 2013 AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. He also received the 1999 Star of South Africa Award from President Nelson Mandela and the 2000 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.
Go to Profile#6963
Denis Castaing
#136887
Overall Influence
#6964
Mariana J. Kaplan
#88990
Overall Influence
Mariana J. Kaplan is a rheumatologist and physician-scientist. She researches mechanisms of immune dysregulation, organ damage, and premature vascular disease in systemic autoimmunity. Kaplan is chief of the systemic autoimmunity branch at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
Go to Profile#6965
Raymund A. C. Roos
#136908
Overall Influence
#6966
Leo Lemay
#39223
Overall Influence
1935 - 2008 (73 years)
J. A. Leo Lemay was du Pont Winterthur Professor of English at the University of Delaware. He was most renowned for his lifelong fascination with Benjamin Franklin, although he wrote on many topics, including Edgar Allan Poe, Ebenezer Cooke, and Joel Barlow.
Go to Profile#6967
Helena Cronin
#83181
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Helena Cronin is a British Darwinian philosopher and rationalist. She is the co-director of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and the Darwin Centre at the London School of Economics. Her 1991 book, The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today brought her public attention; she has published and broadcast widely since.
Go to Profile#6968
Cynthia D. (cynthia Diane) Mulrow
#136925
Overall Influence
#6969
John S. Werner
#122253
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
John S. Werner is an American scientist who studies human vision and its changes across the life span. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, and Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. His work has been cited ~ 17,000 times.
Go to Profile#6970
Rainer Cadenbach
#104807
Overall Influence
1944 - 2008 (64 years)
Rainer Cadenbach was a German musicologist and University professor. Life Born in near Kassel, Cadenbach studierte German , philosophy as well as musicology Cadenbach conceived and directed numerous interdisciplinary and cross-faculty artistic-scientific projects, symposia and congresses. Topics were the composer Dieter Schnebel , Musicology in United Berlin , Music and Visualization , Walter Benjamin , John Cage , Friedrich Nietzsche , Paul Hindemith , Joseph Joachim , surrealism and DADA , Bohuslav Martinů , Hermann Kretzschmar , Beethoven , Ernst Pepping , Max Reger , Richard Strauss , Franz Schreker and his pupils and George Enescu .
Go to Profile#6971
Heinz W. Wahner
#136962
Overall Influence
#6972
Rohit Varma
#27672
Overall Influence
Rohit Varma is an Indian-American ophthalmologist and professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine. In 2014, he was named director of the USC Eye Institute and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology for Keck School of Medicine of USC. In March 2016, Varma was named the interim dean of the Keck School of Medicine, and in November was named dean. In October 2017, USC announced that he stepped down as dean. In October 2018, Varma became the founding director of the Southern California Eyecare and Vision Research Institute.
Go to Profile#6973
Hayward Alker
#28815
Overall Influence
1937 - 2007 (70 years)
Hayward R. Alker was a Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California School of International Relations, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and Yale University. Alker was also former President of the International Studies Association and John A. McCone Chair in International Security at the School of International Relations, University of Southern California. Dr. Alker specialized in research methods, core international relations theory, international politics, and security.
Go to Profile#6974
Christos Masouros
#136998
Overall Influence
#6975
Manuel René Malinow
#137002
Overall Influence
#6976
Hoter ben Shlomo
#108495
Overall Influence
Hoter ben Shlomo was a scholar and philosopher from Yemen who was heavily influenced by the earlier works of Natan'el al-Fayyumi, Maimonides, Saadia Gaon and al-Ghazali. The connection between the Epistle of the Brethren of Purity and Isma'ilism might have suggested the adoption of this work as one of the main sources of what would become known as “Jewish Ismailism” as was found in late medieval Yemenite Judaism. This “Jewish Ismailism” consisted of adapting Ismaili doctrines about cosmology, prophecy and hermeneutics. There are many examples of the Brethren of Purity influencing Yemenite Jew...
Go to Profile#6977
John Fred Annegers
#137031
Overall Influence
#6978
Ian S. Trowbridge
#137037
Overall Influence
#6979
Tim Carter
#91227
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Tim Carter is an Australian musicologist with a special focus on late Renaissance music and Italian Baroque music. An active member of the field of musicology, Carter is a department chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he holds the position of David G. Frey Distinguished Professor. He has worked on the editorial boards or staffs of a number of prominent musical publications and has published extensively in the field.
Go to Profile#6980
Don L. Goldenberg
#137039
Overall Influence
#6981
Jan Pontén
#137051
Overall Influence
#6982
Roger Gibson
#125719
Overall Influence
1944 - 2015 (71 years)
Roger Fletcher Gibson Jr. was an American philosopher specializing in epistemology and the philosophy of language. He was best known as a leading exponent of the philosophy of W. V. Quine. Biography Gibson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Roger Fletcher Gibson Sr. and Virginia Irene Melton. He spent his formative years moving throughout the country, eventually coming to live with his maternal grandparents about whom he would later remark were the most influential people in his life. Gibson joined the United States Marine Corps out of high school and volunteered for duty in Vietnam. He served in Saigon from October 1965 to October 1966.
Go to Profile#6983
J. Craig Morrison
#137074
Overall Influence
#6984
Stephen Benjamin Hulley
#137084
Overall Influence
#6985
Suneet S. P. Chauhan
#137089
Overall Influence
#6986
Jeffrey R. Di Leo
#103977
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Jeffrey R. Di Leo is a Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston–Victoria. He is editor and founder of the critical theory journal symplokē, editor-in-chief of the American Book Review, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute.
Go to Profile#6987
Mantas Adomėnas
#49260
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Mantas Adomėnas is a Lithuanian classicist and politician. He was first elected to the Seimas in 2008 and served until 2020. He earned a Ph.D. degree in classics from the University of Cambridge. His best known work is probably the article The Fluctuating Fortunes of Heraclitus in Plato.
Go to Profile#6988
Giuseppe Banfi
#137107
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#6989
Peter Berlit
#137110
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#6990
Jan Albert
#137118
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#6991
Timothy S. Jr. Blackwell
#137141
Overall Influence
#6992
Timo J. Erkinjuntti
#137152
Overall Influence
#6993
Peter Herscovitch
#137174
Overall Influence
#6994
G. Davey Smith
#137186
Overall Influence
#6995
Norbert Stefan
#137195
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
#6996
Ralf Nauen
#137203
Overall Influence
#6997
David A. Calhoun
#137241
Overall Influence
#6998
Julián Benito‐león
#137242
Overall Influence
#6999
Jack Russell Weinstein
#82386
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Jack Russell Weinstein is an American philosopher specializing in the history of philosophy, political philosophy, Adam Smith, and contemporary liberal theory. He is currently a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Dakota. He is the director of The Institute for Philosophy in Public Life and the host of the public radio show Why? Philosophical discussions about everyday life. He was an influential student activist in the 1980s.
Go to Profile#7000
Gerard Verschuuren
#75882
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Gerard M. Verschuuren is a human biologist, writer, speaker, and consultant, working at the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. He is a human biologist, specialized in human genetics, who also earned a doctorate in the philosophy of science, and studied and worked at universities in Europe and the United States. In 1994, he moved permanently to the United States, and lives now in the southern part of New Hampshire.
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