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,
#7351
Jan Kajstura
#140944
Overall Influence
#7352
Jacques Mallet
#140952
Overall Influence
#7353
Janusz Kochanowski
#140961
Overall Influence
#7354
Naomi F. Rothfield
#140968
Overall Influence
#7355
Gerald G.. Krueger
#140977
Overall Influence
#7356
Larry Sanger
#68617
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Lawrence Mark Sanger is an American Internet project developer and philosopher who was the editor-in-chief of the online encyclopedia Nupedia and co-founded its successor Wikipedia along with Jimmy Wales. Sanger coined the name 'Wikipedia', and wrote many of Wikipedia's early guidelines, including the "Neutral point of view" and "Ignore all rules" policies. Sanger later worked on other encyclopedic projects, including Encyclopedia of Earth, Citizendium, and Everipedia, and advised the nonprofit American political encyclopedia Ballotpedia.
Go to Profile#7357
Elizabeth Manias
#140989
Overall Influence
#7358
Marylin Maeso
#92058
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Marylin Maeso is a French philosopher and teacher, known as a specialist on Albert Camus. She is an antiracist. Education Maeso was born in Montpellier. A graduate of the École normale supérieure where she completed an agrégation in philosophy.
Go to Profile#7359
Christiane Marth
#141011
Overall Influence
#7360
Wilson H. Jr Miller
#141017
Overall Influence
#7361
Dietrich Prof Dr Dr Seidel
#141020
Overall Influence
#7362
Bahman Guyuron
#141030
Overall Influence
#7363
Nicholas D. Smith
#120209
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Nicholas D. Smith is an American philosopher and James F. Miller Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Lewis & Clark College. He won the “Outstanding Academic Book for 1994” award for his book Plato’s Socrates . Smith is known for his research on Ancient Greek philosophy.
Go to Profile#7364
Jürgen Unützer
#141033
Overall Influence
#7365
Masaki Mori
#141039
Overall Influence
#7366
Melvin Dwaine Reuber
#141044
Overall Influence
#7367
Roberto Bergamaschi
#78301
Overall Influence
Dr. Roberto Bergamaschi is a colorectal surgery specialist, Chief of Colorectal Surgery Department at Westchester Medical Center, previously Professor of Division of Colorectal Surgery at State University of New York in Stony Brook, NY
Go to Profile#7368
Kevin Folta
#21569
Overall Influence
Kevin M. Folta is a professor of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida. From 2007 to 2010 he helped lead the project to sequence the strawberry genome, and continues to research photomorphogenesis in plants and compounds responsible for flavor in strawberries. Folta has been active as a science communicator since 2002, especially relating to biotechnology. He has faced controversy over what his critics say are his industry connections. In 2017 he was elected as a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Go to Profile#7369
Elena Osipova
#61249
Overall Influence
1927 - 2018 (91 years)
Elena Vladimirovna Osipova is a Russian philosopher and sociologist. Education and career Elena Osipova graduated from the Lomonosov University in 1950, where she went on to obtain a candidate degree in 1954. For her candidate degree, she performed research in the philosophy of Enlightenment in Poland. In 1974, she successfully defended her thesis “Sociology of Émile Durkheim” and became a Doctor of Sciences. She led research at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Her publications have to do mainly with the history of Western sociology, the problems of power, and t...
Go to Profile#7370
Ogobara Doumbo
#72282
Overall Influence
1956 - 2018 (62 years)
Ogobara Doumbo was a Malian medical researcher at the University of Mali. He was recognised as a global leader in malaria research. He was the recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali, Legion d'honneur and research award on Malaria in Africa.
Go to Profile#7371
Marthinus Versfeld
#111175
Overall Influence
1909 - 1995 (86 years)
Marthinus Versfeld was a South African philosopher. From 1937 to 1972 he taught at the University of Cape Town. He was celebrated as researcher, enjoyed the recognition of the South African literary community and was known as an opponent of the Apartheid system. His work ranged from scholarly books to playful essays on issues like ethics, anthropology, the meaning of life.
Go to Profile#7372
Martin Richard Tramèr
#141103
Overall Influence
#7373
Howard Waitzkin
#141116
Overall Influence
#7374
Wolfgang H. Dillmann
#141117
Overall Influence
#7375
Michel Gustave Jules Fardeau
#141120
Overall Influence
#7376
Usman Baber
#141138
Overall Influence
#7377
Prof. P. R. Lichtlen
#141139
Overall Influence
#7378
Jens Henrik Henriksen
#141151
Overall Influence
#7379
Reinhold Vieth
#141159
Overall Influence
#7380
Robert Allinson
#64658
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Robert Elliott Allinson is an American philosopher, and a Professor of Philosophy at Soka University of America. He was formerly Full Professor of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Go to Profile#7381
Giuseppe D’amico
#141227
Overall Influence
#7382
Gabriel E. Rosselin
#141257
Overall Influence
#7383
Robert M. Donaldson
#141261
Overall Influence
#7384
Earl Francis Cook
#141262
Overall Influence
#7385
Martin William Francis Stone
#97942
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Martin William Francis Stone is an Irish philosopher who served as a professor of philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. In 2010 he was found guilty of plagiarizing texts in more than 40 publications and subsequently dismissed from his university post.
Go to Profile#7386
Saul Amarel
#11181
Overall Influence
1928 - 2002 (74 years)
Saul Amarel was a professor of computer science at Rutgers University, and best known for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence . He also had a career as a scientist, engineer, and teacher. He was a contributor to advanced computing and AI methodologies, both applied to scientific inquiry as well as engineering practice.
Go to Profile#7387
Alfred A. Bartolucci
#141284
Overall Influence
#7388
Robert G. Ojemann
#141296
Overall Influence
#7389
Nelson Morgan
#141317
Overall Influence
#7390
Matthias Preusser
#89745
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Matthias Preusser is an Austrian oncologist and Professor of Medical Oncology as well as Head of the Clinical Division of Oncology at the Medical University of Vienna. He is known for his work on neurooncology, Molecular Therapy targets and biomarkers and immunotherapy of cancer.
Go to Profile#7391
Dieter Felsenberg
#141321
Overall Influence
#7392
Keith R. Jerome
#114538
Overall Influence
Keith R. Jerome is an American virologist whose research focuses on viruses such as herpes simplex, HIV and hepatitis B that persist in their hosts. He published on the first known case of COVID-19 in the United States detecting SARS-CoV-2 in Washington State and helped forge the nation's COVID-19 testing. In 2021, Jerome and Alexander Greninger shared the Washington Innovator of the Year award for developing the laboratory based assay for detecting COVID-19. He was senior author on a research article published in Science describing the cryptic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 alongside Trevor Bedford, Alexander Greninger, Jay Shendure, and Helen Chu.
Go to Profile#7393
Jens Fiehler
#141351
Overall Influence
#7394
Arnold H. Menezes
#141354
Overall Influence
#7395
Bruce Evan Landon
#141357
Overall Influence
#7396
Tõnu Viik
#107394
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Tõnu Viik is an Estonian philosopher. Since 2021 he is the rector of Tallinn University. He was born in Jõhvi. In 2003 he finished his doctoral studies at Emory University, USA. Since 1993 he is teaching at Tallinn University.
Go to Profile#7397
Stephen M. Gardiner
#140895
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Stephen Gardiner is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy and Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment at the University of Washington. He is known for his works on environmental philosophy and ancient Greek philosophy.
Go to Profile#7398
Ian Robinson
#82988
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Ian Robinson is president emeritus of the Rationalist Society of Australia and immediate past chairman of the Rationalist Association of Australia. Biography He was educated at Ivanhoe Grammar School and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated with honours in philosophy. Subsequently, he has been a tutor in philosophy at the University of Melbourne, a lecturer in philosophy of education at Coburg Teachers' College, leader of the Curriculum Project Team for the Victoria Ministry of Education and manager of the Music and Writing Department at Chisholm Institute, from which he retired i...
Go to Profile#7399
Caroline Haythornthwaite
#67061
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Caroline Haythornthwaite is a professor emerita at Syracuse University School of Information Studies. She served as the School's director of the Library Science graduate program from July 2017 to June 2019. She previously served as Director and Professor at the Library, Archival and Information Studies, School of SLAIS, at The iSchool at The University of British Columbia . Her research areas explore the way interaction, via computer media, supports and affects work, learning, and social interaction, primarily from a social-network-analysis perspective. Previously, during 1996–2010, at the Uni...
Go to Profile#7400
Theodore S. Zimmerman
#141421
Overall Influence
