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,
#7051
Henry F. Mcfarland
#137903
Overall Influence
#7052
Nicholas Mann
#46749
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Colin Nicholas Jocelyn Mann, CBE, FBA is a scholar of Italian humanism, and especially of Petrarch. He was director of the Warburg Institute from 1990 to 2001. He is now an emeritus professor in the University of London.
Go to Profile#7053
Emmanuella Guenova
#137918
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
#7054
Nancy Keating
#94809
Overall Influence
Nancy Keating is an American physician who works at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and is a professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research considers the factors that influence quality care for people suffering from cancer.
Go to Profile#7055
Darren K. Mcguire
#137922
Overall Influence
#7056
Herbert N. Hultgren
#137923
Overall Influence
#7057
John Warner Duckett
#137924
Overall Influence
#7058
Kenneth Ouriel
#137938
Overall Influence
#7059
Leila Azadbakht
#137954
Overall Influence
#7060
Jerome H. Check
#137993
Overall Influence
#7061
John A. Glaspy
#138010
Overall Influence
#7062
Thomas Gil
#124345
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Thomas Gil is a Spanish-born German philosopher, currently University Professor of Practical Philosophy at the Technical University of Berlin. Born in Madrid on Oct. 21, 1954, he received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Münster in 1981 and his Habilitation from the University of Stuttgart in 1992.
Go to Profile#7063
Humayun Ahmed
#35360
Overall Influence
1948 - 2012 (64 years)
Humayun Ahmed was a Bangladeshi novelist, dramatist, screenwriter, filmmaker, songwriter, scholar, and academic. His breakthrough was his debut novel Nondito Noroke published in 1972. He wrote over 200 fiction and non-fiction books. He was one of the most popular authors and filmmakers in post-independence Bangladesh. Dawn referred to him as the cultural legend of Bangladesh.
Go to Profile#7064
Robert O. Becker
#22442
Overall Influence
1923 - 2008 (85 years)
Robert Otto Becker was a U.S. orthopedic surgeon and researcher in electrophysiology/electromedicine. He worked mainly as professor at Upstate Medical Center in State University of New York, Syracuse, and as Director of Orthopedic Surgery at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Syracuse, New York.
Go to Profile#7065
Vincent J. Felitti
#138056
Overall Influence
#7066
Pierre Tiollais
#138061
Overall Influence
#7067
David Brown
#33241
Overall Influence
1929 - 2014 (85 years)
David Clifford Brown was an English musicologist, most noteworthy for his major study of Tchaikovsky’s life and works. Brown attended Gravesend Grammar School and then studied English, Latin and music at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 1951, and took his MusB there . During national service he studied Russian and was commissioned in the Intelligence Corps. He taught in secondary schools before becoming music librarian of the University of London, working at Senate House 1959–62. In 1962 he became a lecturer at the University of Southampton, becoming senior lecturer in 1970 and reader in 1975; he was awarded a doctorate for his book on Thomas Weelkes in 1971.
Go to Profile#7068
Edward L. Jr. Spitznagel
#138109
Overall Influence
#7069
Michael D. Greicius
#138117
Overall Influence
#7070
C. T. Cent Tsai
#138121
Overall Influence
#7071
Jean-Michel Macron
#21909
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is a French doctor and professor of neurology at the University of Picardy. He is the father of French president Emmanuel Macron. Early life Jean-Michel Macron was born in 1950. His father was André Macron , a railway executive, and his mother was Jacqueline Macron , née Robertson, of half English origin. He wrote a thesis on feline neurology in 1981.
Go to Profile#7072
Emmanuel Lévinas
#138129
Overall Influence
#7073
Roy L. Freeman
#138133
Overall Influence
#7074
Abraham M. Y. Nomura
#138135
Overall Influence
#7075
Adam Torbicki
#138148
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#7076
Robert A. Wolfe
#138156
Overall Influence
#7077
Ray R. Larson
#138177
Overall Influence
#7078
Melanie Wakefield
#96123
Overall Influence
Melanie Ann Wakefield is an Australian psychologist and behavioural researcher at the Cancer Council of Victoria. She has worked extensively on cancer prevention including tobacco control, through the introduction of plain-paper packaging.
Go to Profile#7079
Alfred Mann
#43184
Overall Influence
1917 - 2006 (89 years)
Alfred Mann , was an American musicologist who specialized in the history of Western musical theory. He was a professor of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. His parents were the portrait painter Wilhelm Mann and the well-known harpsichordist and musicologist Edith Weiss-Mann.
Go to Profile#7080
Omid Tofighian
#54445
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Omid Tofighian is an Iranian-Australian philosopher and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney. He is known for his research on ancient Greek philosophy and his translation of the award-winning book by Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker Behrouz Boochani, No Friend But the Mountains from Persian into English.
Go to Profile#7081
Lari Pittman
#43932
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Lari George Pittman is a Colombian-American contemporary artist and painter. Pittman is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Painting and Drawing at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Early life Pittman's American father met his Colombian mother while the former was working abroad in the latter's homeland. At the age of five, Pittman's family moved back to Colombia, returning to California in 1963. In contrast to his childhood in Colombia, Pittman's experience in the United States keeps him alert to "the overwhelming hatred that is exhibited by the American population and through...
Go to Profile#7082
Donald W. Macglashan
#138214
Overall Influence
#7083
Régis Bataille
#138220
Overall Influence
#7084
Tjalf Ziemssen
#138222
Overall Influence
#7085
Reinhard Ziegler
#138235
Overall Influence
#7086
José Pablo Feinmann
#59144
Overall Influence
1943 - 2021 (78 years)
José Pablo Feinmann was an Argentine philosopher, writer, playwright, and television host. He also penned several screenplays for domestic film production and international coproductions. Born to Abraham and Elena Feinmann, Feinmann was a Peronist Youth militant during the 1970s, considering Peronism as a real mass movement with the potential to change the country for the better. Nevertheless, he opposed armed violence to achieve political ends, criticizing the foco theory of Che Guevara which, years after the Cuban Revolution, became popular in some sectors of the Marxist-Peronist movement,...
Go to Profile#7087
Stephen E. Straus
#138262
Overall Influence
#7088
Thomas Louis Mckenzie
#138277
Overall Influence
#7089
Colin M. Bloor
#138279
Overall Influence
#7090
Badrinath R. Konety
#138282
Overall Influence
#7091
Tomoyoshi Soga
#138301
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#7092
George W. Bruyn
#138303
Overall Influence
#7093
Charles B. Pratt
#138323
Overall Influence
#7094
Atsushi Ohtsu
#138329
Overall Influence
#7095
Peter Wolfe Kaplan
#138332
Overall Influence
#7096
Magnus Björkholm
#138369
Overall Influence
#7097
Arlan L. Rosenbloom
#138379
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
#7098
David Erlinge
#138390
Overall Influence
#7099
Edward Downes
#63970
Overall Influence
1911 - 2001 (90 years)
Edward Olin Davenport Downes was an American musicologist, professor, radio personality, and music critic. He was the host of the Texaco Opera Quiz on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts for nearly forty years. These broadcasts were heard across North America and Europe.
Go to Profile#7100
Juerg Hodler
#138396
Overall Influence
