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,
#7501
Silke Leopold
#67172
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Silke Leopold is a German musicologist and university lecturer. Life Born in Hamburg, Leopold studied musicology, theatre studies, Romance languages and literature at the University of Hamburg and the University of Rome, besides also singing and transverse flute at the Hamburger Konservatorium from 1969 to 1975. From 1969 to 1980 she was member of the Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg . After receiving her doctorate in 1975 on the Roman Baroque composer Stefano Landi, she spent three years as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Rome, then two years as a fellow of the German Research Foundation.
Go to Profile#7502
Daniel L. Azarnoff
#142625
Overall Influence
#7503
R. Walker Miller
#142630
Overall Influence
#7504
Massimo Galli
#142637
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#7505
Malcolm R. Law
#142642
Overall Influence
#7506
Susheel K. Kodali
#142659
Overall Influence
#7507
Jing Liang Xie
#142662
Overall Influence
#7508
Rowena G. Matthews
#142664
Overall Influence
#7509
Karl B. Kern
#142676
Overall Influence
#7510
Howard A. Reber
#142683
Overall Influence
#7511
Darrell S. Rigel
#142686
Overall Influence
#7512
Richard B. Hornick
#142697
Overall Influence
#7513
Frits W. Prinzen
#142698
Overall Influence
#7514
Richard Cobb-Stevens
#135758
Overall Influence
1935 - 2018 (83 years)
Richard Cobb-Stevens was an American philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Boston College. An expert in American Pragmatism, Continental Philosophy, and Phenomenology, especially Husserl and the philosophy of mathematics, Cobb-Stevens is author of three books including James and Husserl and Husserl and Analytic Philosophy.
Go to Profile#7515
Jeffrey Robert Brook
#142706
Overall Influence
#7516
Louis A. Gilula
#142707
Overall Influence
#7517
Yee-Sin Leo
#97853
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Yee-Sin Leo is a Singaporean physician. Leo is the executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and researches emerging infectious diseases. She has been in charge of Singapore's response to several outbreaks, including Nipah, SARS and COVID-19. In 2020, she was selected as one of the BBC's top 100 Women.
Go to Profile#7518
Trinity Jude Bivalacqua
#142721
Overall Influence
#7519
Paul J. Cannon
#142733
Overall Influence
#7520
Alex Karczmar
#102173
Overall Influence
1917 - 2017 (100 years)
Alexander George Karczmar , was a Polish-American neuroscientist and academic. He was tenured for 30 years as professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Loyola University of Chicago Medical Center, and director of its Institute for Mind, Drugs and Behavior.
Go to Profile#7521
Takeshi Hirayama
#142739
Overall Influence
#7522
Ira Shoulson
#142743
Overall Influence
#7523
Susanne Iwarsson
#142745
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#7524
Sibrandes Poppema
#142752
Overall Influence
#7525
Isaac R. Francis
#142760
Overall Influence
#7526
Richard Gaynor
#51536
Overall Influence
Richard B. Gaynor is an American physician specializing in hematology-oncology, educator, drug developer, and business executive. He served as an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine for nearly a decade, and subsequently as an endowed Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry in 2002. His research on NF-κB, IκB kinase, and other mechanisms regulating viral and cellular gene expression has been covered in leading subject reviews. He has been a top executive at several pharmac...
Go to Profile#7527
Allan L. Drash
#51391
Overall Influence
1931 - 2009 (78 years)
Allan Drash was a pediatric endocrinologist and former president of the American Diabetes Association and was the second president of ISGD Publications Honors and awards 2006 ISPAD Prize of Achievement
Go to Profile#7528
Maximilian Muenke
#142765
Overall Influence
#7529
David O. Wiebers
#142786
Overall Influence
#7530
Lorella Cedroni
#60043
Overall Influence
1961 - 2013 (52 years)
Lorella Cedroni was a political philosopher. Cedroni studied political science and philosophy , receiving a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences . She has taught and lectured in many European and American universities, and mainly at Sapienza University of Rome.
Go to Profile#7531
Reiner R. Benecke
#142807
Overall Influence
#7532
N. E. Nathanson
#142809
Overall Influence
#7533
Eckart Fleck
#142811
Overall Influence
#7534
Nikhil Tandon
#62081
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Nikhil Tandon is an Indian endocrinologist, medical academic and the head of the department of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He is a recipient of Dr. B. C. Roy Award, the highest Indian medical award in 2005 and was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Go to Profile#7535
Nanna Brix Finnerup
#142832
Overall Influence
#7536
James Chen-tson Fang
#142836
Overall Influence
#7537
Reynold Spector
#142847
Overall Influence
#7538
Lars V. Sjöström
#142864
Overall Influence
#7539
Robert Clayton Robbins
#142872
Overall Influence
#7540
Keti Chukhrov
#113557
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Keti Chukhrov is a Russian poet and academic, art theorist and philosopher. Doktor Nauk in Philosophical Sciences , Candidate of philological sciences , Docent at the National Research University Higher School of Economics .
Go to Profile#7541
John C. Marshall
#142878
Overall Influence
#7542
Shlomo Raz
#142884
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
#7543
Yukio Homma
#142887
Overall Influence
#7544
Ibo van de Poel
#109151
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Ibo van de Poel is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor in Ethics and Technology at Delft University of Technology. Academic contributions According to Google Scholar, Van de Poel's work has been cited over 3700 times and he currently holds an h-index of 35. Additionally, he is the author of the first Dutch textbook on ethics and technology.
Go to Profile#7545
Kevin Flannery
#136022
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Fr. Kevin Flannery is a Catholic moral philosopher, author, and professor. He is a professor of the history of ancient philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1977. He has served as a consultor of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2002.
Go to Profile#7546
Vera Regitz–zagrosek
#142941
Overall Influence
#7547
Gustavo Saposnik
#142955
Overall Influence
#7548
Milton H. Paul
#142961
Overall Influence
#7549
Gerard Goggin
#46574
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Professor Gerard Goggin is an Australian media and communications researcher at the University of Sydney. He has produced award-winning research in disability and media policy alongside other contemporary works on digital technology and cultures.
Go to Profile#7550
Gary R. Duckwiler
#142968
Overall Influence
