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,
#7251
Ahmad Vaezi
#71384
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Ahmad Vaezi is an Iranian philosopher, scholar and clergyman. As of 2023, he is the chief of Islamic propagation office of the Center for the Islamic Iranian Model of Progress in Qom. Early life and education Ahmad Vaezi was born in Rey, Iran, in 1963. He entered Qom seminary in 1982 and studied preliminary courses in religious sciences in 1986. He then took courses in Islamic jurisprudence, including the classes of scholars such as Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani, Shiekh Jawad Tabrizi, Seyed Kazem Haeri, and Sadeq Larijani. Mastering Philosophy under Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi and H.
Go to Profile#7252
Robert Alan Goldberg
#139776
Overall Influence
#7253
Peter S. Aronson
#139790
Overall Influence
#7254
Anthony M. Vintzileos
#139795
Overall Influence
#7255
Henry D. Appelman
#139796
Overall Influence
#7256
Jean M. Carlet
#139812
Overall Influence
#7257
Richard Horton
#139817
Overall Influence
#7258
Václav Benda
#73447
Overall Influence
1946 - 1999 (53 years)
Václav Benda was a Czech Roman Catholic activist and intellectual, and mathematician. Under Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, Benda and his wife were rare in that they were devout Roman Catholics among the leadership of the anti-communist dissident organization Charter 77. After the Velvet Revolution, Benda became the head of an organization charged with investigating the former Czechoslovakian secret police and their many informants.
Go to Profile#7259
Donald Rutherford
#87404
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Donald Paul Rutherford is a Canadian philosopher and a professor of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. He is known for his research on early modern philosophy. Rutherford is a former president of Leibniz Society of North America and a winner of its Essay Prize . He is an editor of Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy.
Go to Profile#7260
Frank S. Chytil
#139834
Overall Influence
#7261
Heidi L. Rehm
#139835
Overall Influence
#7262
Bette Kay Kleinschmidt‐demasters
#139837
Overall Influence
#7263
Ethylin Wang Jabs
#37588
Overall Influence
Ethylin Wang Jabs is an American physician and scientist with expertise in medical genetics, pediatrics, and craniofacial biology. She is currently vice chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Jabs is also a professor in the departments of developmental and regenerative biology and pediatrics at Mount Sinai and an adjunct professor in pediatrics, medicine, and surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her research and clinical practice have focused on development genetics and patients with birth defects.
Go to Profile#7264
John Buster
#36387
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
John Edmond Buster is an American physician who, while working at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, directed the research team that performed the first embryo transfer from one woman to another resulting in a live birth. It was performed at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, reported in July 1983, and culminated in the announcement of the birth on February 3, 1984. In the procedure, an embryo that was just beginning to develop was transferred from the woman in whom it had been conceived by artificial insemination to another woman who gave birth to the infant 38 weeks later.
Go to Profile#7265
Alan Tyson
#24517
Overall Influence
1926 - 2000 (74 years)
Alan Walker Tyson, was a Glasgow-born British musicologist who specialized in studies of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. He wrote the Thematic catalogue of the works of Muzio Clementi which appeared in 1967 at Hans Schneider of Tutzing/Germany, with no following editions up to date. Tyson was Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy.
Go to Profile#7266
Gerald M. Pohost
#139867
Overall Influence
#7267
Helmuth Baumgartner
#139871
Overall Influence
#7268
Xavier Lacroix
#100181
Overall Influence
1947 - 2021 (74 years)
Xavier Lacroix was a French philosopher and theologian. He was a professor of philosophy and moral theology at the Catholic University of Lyon.
Go to Profile#7269
Iris Zalaudek
#139899
Overall Influence
#7270
Claire Hopkins
#116777
Overall Influence
Claire Hopkins is a British Ear, Nose & Throat surgeon at Guy's Hospital and Professor of Rhinology at King's College London. She is the President of the British Rhinological Society. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkins successfully campaigned to have anosmia recognised as a symptom of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.
Go to Profile#7271
Andre I. Calin
#139935
Overall Influence
#7272
Peter J. Davies
#89993
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Peter John Davies is a professor emeritus of Plant Physiology in the Departments of Plant Biology and Horticulture at Cornell University who is notable for his work on plant development, plant hormones, and in educating the public on agricultural technology and genetically modified organisms as a Jefferson Science Fellow from 2011 to 2014. As a Jefferson Science Fellow Davies monitored developments in agriculture and food security, monitored the status of biotech crops in Europe, and provided input to promote the acceptance of these crops on a scientific basis.
Go to Profile#7273
Karl Y. Bilimoria
#139958
Overall Influence
#7274
David T. Purtilo
#139959
Overall Influence
#7275
Sharon Lewin
#76778
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Sharon Ruth Lewin , is an Australian physician who is the inaugural Director of The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity . She is also a Professor of Medicine at The University of Melbourne, a National Health and Medical Research Council Practitioner Fellow, Director of the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics, and President of the International AIDS Society .
Go to Profile#7276
Daniel Stuart Kapp
#140013
Overall Influence
#7277
Oscar Howard Frazier
#140017
Overall Influence
#7278
Elizabeth M. Mcnally
#140022
Overall Influence
#7279
Rajesh Balkrishnan
#140053
Overall Influence
#7280
John Paul Leonard
#140057
Overall Influence
#7281
Harry J. De Koning
#140095
Overall Influence
#7282
Paulo Cesar Duque-Estrada
#105848
Overall Influence
Paulo Cesar Duque-Estrada is a Professor of Contemporary Philosophy and Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro . He has served as executive secretary , vice-president and president of the National Forum of Associate Vice-Presidents for Research and Graduate Programs .
Go to Profile#7283
Ronal D. G. Michels
#140104
Overall Influence
#7284
Andreas Von Deimling
#140118
Overall Influence
#7285
Adam Hart
#43173
Overall Influence
Areas of Specialization: Entomology, Ecology Adam Hart is a Professor of Science Communication in the School of Natural and Social Sciences at the University of Gloucestershire. He is also an author, broadcaster, and scientist for the BBC.. He earned a BA in zoology at University of Cambridge’s Churchill College and a PhD from the University of Sheffield. He is a well known scientist specializing in entomology. Among his projects have been large-scale public science projects such as Spider in da House, the Big Wasp Survey and the Starling Murmuration. These research projects, supported by the Royal Society of Biology, have been widely referenced and used as the basis for other research.
Go to Profile#7286
Rainer Prof Dr Dietz
#140132
Overall Influence
#7287
Klaus Püschel
#140138
Overall Influence
#7288
J. A. Giles
#140148
Overall Influence
#7289
Joseph Rösch
#140161
Overall Influence
#7290
Branko Despot
#116064
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Branko Despot is Croatian philosopher. He is the son of Miroslava Despot, a prominent economic and cultural historian. After finishing gymnasium in Zagreb in 1961, he graduated in philosophy and Ancient Greek in 1965 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, where he also received his PhD in 1975 with a thesis on the philosophy of Vladimir Dvorniković. He worked as a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy since 1968, and since 1971 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, at first as an assistant, as a docent and then as a professor at the Chair of History of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy.
Go to Profile#7291
Allan G. Farman
#74080
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Allan George Farman is a Professor of Radiology and Imaging Science, Department of Surgical and Hospital Dentistry, The University of Louisville School of Dentistry, and also serves both as Adjunct Professor of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology and as Clinical Professor of Diagnostic Radiology of the School of Medicine in the same institution.
Go to Profile#7292
David. A. Gewirtz
#140216
Overall Influence
#7293
William A. Sibley
#140223
Overall Influence
#7294
Fiona J. Stanley
#140224
Overall Influence
#7295
Mahdi Fadaei Mehrabani
#108319
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Mahdi Fadaei Mehrabani is an Iranian writer and researcher in Islamic philosophy, mysticism and political philosophy. He is one of the winners of Farabi International Award, 2009 and the Winner of Iran’s Book of the Year Awards, 2016. Mehrabani has written several books and articles</ref> and currently is an assistant Professor at University of Tehran. Mehrabani used to be a researcher at State University of New York from 2017 to 2018.
Go to Profile#7296
Shigeo Koyasu
#140246
Overall Influence
#7297
Masahiro Fukuoka
#140300
Overall Influence
#7298
Jussi K. Huttunen
#140313
Overall Influence
#7299
Christian Paul Speer
#140321
Overall Influence
#7300
Bruce Allen Runyon
#140340
Overall Influence
