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,
#7151
Peter Wicke
#83674
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Peter Wicke is a German musicologist, who is particularly interested in popular music; he teaches as a university professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Life and achievements Born in Zwickau, Wicke studied musicology in Berlin until 1974 and received his PhD in 1980 with a dissertation on the music aesthetics of popular music. In 1986, he was awarded a doctorate with a thesis on the aesthetics and sociology of rock music and in 1988 he was appointed Adjunct Research Professor at the Department of Music of Carleton University in Ottawa. In 1992 he was appointed to the Humboldt Universit...
Go to Profile#7152
Ricardo Azziz
#109837
Overall Influence
#7153
Garrett John Gross
#109854
Overall Influence
#7154
Joy Lawn
#86881
Overall Influence
Joy Elizabeth Lawn is a British paediatrician and professor of maternal, reproductive and child health. She is Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive & Child Health Centre. She developed the epidemiological evidence for the worldwide policy and programming that looks to reduce neonatal deaths and stillbirths and works on large-scale implementation research.
Go to Profile#7155
Cecil Arthur Hoare
#109869
Overall Influence
#7156
Nanda Thein Zan
#46870
Overall Influence
1947 - 2011 (64 years)
Nanda Thein Zan was a well-known author from Burma who wrote on philosophy and Buddhism. Zan was born on 21 February 1947 in Paungde Township of Pegu Division, the youngest of three siblings. At an early age he began writing under the pen name "Thein Zan" in the Thit Bawa Magazine. His first article was on Memory and Thought, appearing in the November 1963 issue. Later he changed his pen name to "Nandar Thein Zan" to avoid confusion with another writer publishing under the name "Thein Zan". He studied at the University of Rangoon, obtaining a BA degree in 1966 and a master's degree in philosophy in 1968.
Go to Profile#7157
Willem Andries Buurman
#109893
Overall Influence
#7158
Robert Irwin Henkin
#109897
Overall Influence
#7159
Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet
1707 - 1782 (75 years)
Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet was a British physician who has been called the "father of military medicine" . Biography Youth and early career John Pringle was the youngest son of Sir John Pringle, 2nd Baronet, of Stichill, Roxburghshire , by his spouse Magdalen , daughter of Sir Gilbert Eliott, 3rd Baronet, of Stobs.
Go to Profile#7160
V. Levachkova Yu.
#109927
Overall Influence
#7161
Howard Wilbur Jones
#109936
Overall Influence
#7162
Miura Baien
1723 - 1789 (66 years)
In Japanese names here, surname is first. "Baien" was a pen-name, "plum garden". was a Japanese philosopher and scholar of the Tokugawa era. Life Born as Miura Susumu into the family of a village physician in the present Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū, he became himself a physician and declined invitations to take office in the service of a local feudal lord. Complex and enigmatic, his philosophical work fell into obscurity after his death until the two volumes of Baien Zenshū were published in 1912. They received little attention apart from the 1953 publication of Saegusa Hiroto...
Go to Profile#7163
William S. Tillett
1892 - 1974 (82 years)
William Smith Tillett was an American internist and microbiologist. He is best known for the discovery of C-reactive protein and the streptokinase. He was also a professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#7164
Johannes Schreiter
#58876
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Johannes Schreiter is a German graphic artist, printmaker, designer of stained glass, theoretician and cultural critic. Born in Buchholz in 1930, Schreiter studied in Munster, Mainz, and Berlin, before receiving a scholarship from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in 1958. His invention of the Brandcollage in 1959 first brought him to broader cultural attention, and in 1963 he became professor of Painting and Graphic Art at the Frankfurt/Main School of Decorative Arts, and later Rector of the same. He was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuze , the highest civilian honour granted by West Germany, in 1979.
Go to Profile#7165
Arthur E. Weyman
#109978
Overall Influence
#7166
D. Craig Miller
#109979
Overall Influence
#7167
Michael G. Shlipak
#109989
Overall Influence
#7168
Ernst Marcus
1856 - 1928 (72 years)
Ernst Moses Marcus was a German lawyer and philosopher. He developed a theory of aether based on Immanuel Kant's posthumous work Opus Postumum, however sharply disagreeing with Erich Adickes interpretation. He used this to mount a criticism of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. He was a major influence on Salomo Friedlaender.
Go to Profile#7169
John Deacon
#15328
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
John Richard Deacon is an English retired musician, best known for being the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits "You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want to Break Free"; co-wrote "Under Pressure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision"; and he was involved in the band's financial management.
Go to Profile#7170
Christopher H. Evans
#110062
Overall Influence
#7171
T. Edward Damer
#106447
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
T. Edward Damer is an American philosopher and author. Biography Damer was a professor of philosophy and chair of the Division Visual and Performing Arts at Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia. He started on the Emory faculty in 1967 and retired in 2012. In 1991, he won the James A. David Faculty Recognition Award from the Emory alumni in recognition of his teaching.
Go to Profile#7172
Norihiro Kokudo
#110081
Overall Influence
#7173
Erick K. Rowinsky
#110088
Overall Influence
#7174
Roberto Bernabei
#7175
Gómez Pereira
1500 - 1567 (67 years)
Gómez Pereira was a Spanish philosopher, doctor, and natural humanist from Medina del Campo. Pereira worked hard to dispel medieval concepts of medicine and proposed the application of empirical methods; as for his philosophy, it is of the standard direction and his reasonings are a clear precedent of René Descartes. He was the first to propose the famous "Cogito ergo sum", in 1554, commonly attributed to Descartes. He was famous for his practice of medicine, although he had many diverse occupations, such as owning businesses, engineering, and philosophy.
Go to Profile#7176
Michael J. Cousins,
#110103
Overall Influence
#7177
Robert E Kingston
#110108
Overall Influence
#7178
Gregory Poland
#46382
Overall Influence
Gregory A. Poland is an American physician and vaccinologist. He is the Mary Lowell Leary professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as well as the director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. He is also the editor-in-chief of the medical journal Vaccine.
Go to Profile#7179
Massimo Volpe
#110118
Overall Influence
#7180
Hendrik Verwoerd
1901 - 1966 (65 years)
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd , also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a South African politician, scholar, and newspaper editor who served as Prime Minister of South Africa and is commonly regarded as the architect of apartheid. Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies, as Minister of Native Affairs and then as prime minister . Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership.
Go to Profile#7181
Johannes Hoff
#67497
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Johannes Hoff is a German Christian philosopher, theologian and university professor. Born in Trier, Hoff completed his doctorate and habilitation at the University of Tübingen in 2006 and is currently senior research associate at the van Hügel Institute of the University of Cambridge and honorary professor at the Department of Theology and Religion of Durham University. Until 2018, he has been professor of philosophical theology at Heythrop College . Previously he has been teaching at St David's Catholic College in Wales and at the University of Tübingen.
Go to Profile#7182
Paul D. Stein
#110176
Overall Influence
#7183
Hermann Conring
1606 - 1681 (75 years)
Hermann Conring was a German intellectual. He made significant contributions to the study of medicine, politics and law. Descended from Lutheran clergy on both sides of his family, second-youngest of ten children, Conring showed early promise as a student. During his life as a professor in North Germany, Conring addressed himself first to medicine, producing significant studies on blood circulation, and later in his career addressed himself to politics.
Go to Profile#7184
Morris Reichlin
#110206
Overall Influence
#7185
Sian Ellard
#110209
Overall Influence
#7186
Sherrilyn Roush
#106271
Overall Influence
Sherrilyn Roush is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy in UCLA Department of Philosophy specializing in the philosophy of science and epistemology. Career She joined King's College London in 2014 after accepting the inaugural Peter Sowerby Chair in Philosophy and Medicine. Previously, Roush was an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy at Rice University . She was then an associate professor and then a full professor of philosophy at U. C. Berkeley. Starting winter quarter 2018, she is professor of philosophy at UCLA.
Go to Profile#7187
Tung‐tien Sun
#110228
Overall Influence
#7188
Tafazzul Husain Kashmiri
1727 - 1801 (74 years)
Tafazzul Husain Khan Kashmiri , also known as Khan-e-Allama, was a Twelver Shia scholar, physicist, and philosopher. He produced an Arabic translation of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia. Some of his descendants who are currently living in Lucknow are Husain Abbas, Asher Husain, Muntazir Abbas, Amaan Ali Abbas, Ali Jafar, Rahbar Abbas, Wasif Abbas, Furqan Abbas, Salman Abbas, Nadeem Abbas, etc.
Go to Profile#7189
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
1783 - 1840 (57 years)
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America. He also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics, in addition to work he had already completed in Europe.
Go to Profile#7190
Joseph D. Zuckerman
#53859
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Joseph D. Zuckerman is an American orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder, hip and knee replacement surgery. Zuckerman is the surgeon-in-chief of the Hospital for Joint Diseases of NYU Langone Medical Center New York University Langone Medical Center. He is the Walter A.L. Thompson Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center which includes the Hospital for Joint Diseases. He has published over 350 publications, including articles in Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeo...
Go to Profile#7191
Ugo Perone
#96704
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Ugo Perone is an Italian philosopher and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy. Biography After studying with Luigi Pareyson, Ugo Perone graduated in philosophy at the University of Turin with a thesis on "Charles Secrétan’s Philosophy of Freedom." The thesis received the Luisa Guzzo Award for the best philosophy dissertation discussed during that academic year.
Go to Profile#7192
Demetrios G. Demetriades
#110287
Overall Influence
#7193
Bruce E. Sands
#110296
Overall Influence
Bruce E. Sands is an American gastroenterologist, focusing in colonoscopy, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowl disease, ulcerative colitis and upper GI endoscopy, currently the Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is an Elected Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology and American Gastroenterological Association.
Go to Profile#7194
Michael G.m. Hennerici
#110302
Overall Influence
#7195
Prashanthan Sanders
#110309
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#7196
Arulenus Rusticus
35 - 93 (58 years)
Quintus Junius Arulenus Rusticus was a Roman Senator and a friend and follower of Thrasea Paetus, and like him an ardent admirer of Stoic philosophy. Arulenus Rusticus attained a suffect consulship in the nundinium of September to December 92 with Gaius Julius Silanus as his colleague. He was one of a group of Stoics who opposed the perceived tyranny and autocratic tendencies of certain emperors, known today as the Stoic Opposition.
Go to Profile#7197
Beatrice H. Hahn
#110342
Overall Influence
#7198
Cesare Riccardo Sirtori
#110354
Overall Influence
#7199
Christopher John Bulpitt
#7200
Inder J. Chopra
#110386
Overall Influence
