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,

#7551

James Allen Graff

#101422
Overall Influence
1937 - 2005 (68 years)
James Allen Graff was a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and an activist focused on human rights in Palestine. Academic background He earned a BA at Lafayette College in 1959 and his doctorate at Brown University in 1963 with a thesis titled: The Concept of a Moral Agent. As a professor at Toronto his teaching focused on ethics and political philosophy. John Irving, then head of the Department of Ethics at Victoria College, hired him as a lecturer in 1963. When Francis Sparshott stepped down as chairman of that department in 1970, Graff was appointed to succeed him. He h...
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#7552

Gérard Bréart

#142986
Overall Influence
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#7553

Nicola Döring

#143002
Overall Influence
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#7554

W. Spencer Payne

#143016
Overall Influence
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#7555

Osmo Hänninen

Osmo Hänninen
#83974
Overall Influence
1939 - 2022 (83 years)
Osmo Otto Päiviö Hänninen is a Finnish scientist and physiologist, a non-fiction writer, opinion-maker, a supporter of the folk medicine, culture and a humanist. He served as rector of the University of Kuopio, 1981–1984, Vice Rector 1973-78, and was appointed to the first permanent professor post of the university as the Professor of Physiology and acted as the head of the institute 1972-2004. Hänninen also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Turku and the University of Joensuu, and research professor of the Academy of Finland 1980-81.
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#7556

Michael Lübbert

#143026
Overall Influence
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#7557

Frank M. Torti

#143032
Overall Influence
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#7558

Michael T. Modic

#143059
Overall Influence
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#7559

Robin T. Cotton

#143062
Overall Influence
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#7560

Eng‐king Tan

#143066
Overall Influence
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#7561

Paul Wehrle

#47473
Overall Influence
1921 - 2004 (83 years)
Paul Francis Wehrle was a researcher and physician who helped develop of methods to prevent and treat polio and smallpox. Education Wehrle graduated from the University of Arizona and received his M.D. degree from Tulane University in 1947. He then became acting chairman of the Microbiology Department of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University at Syracuse, New York.
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#7562

Jacob Charles Langer

#143069
Overall Influence
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#7563

Ian Holliday

#75611
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Ian Holliday is a scholar with expertise in British and Asian Government, particularly Myanmar. He is currently the vice-president and pro-vice-chancellor of The University of Hong Kong . He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social and political science at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1982, before completing his doctor of philosophy degree in politics at New College, Oxford, in 1989. He taught at University of Kent, University of Manchester , New York University, and City University of Hong Kong before teaching at the University of Hong Kong , he once served as Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong.
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#7564

Florence Wong

#94979
Overall Influence
Florence Wong is a Canadian hepatologist and scientist best known for her research into the development and management of complications of cirrhosis. She is a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Toronto and a physician in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Health Network.
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#7565

Carolyn Calfee

#137480
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Carolyn S. Calfee is a Professor of Medicine and Anaesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco. She works in intensive care at the UCSF Medical Center where she specialises in acute respiratory distress syndrome. During the COVID-19 pandemic Calfee studied why SARS-CoV-2 patients experienced such different symptoms.
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#7566

Randall W. Powell

#143138
Overall Influence
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#7567

Dr. David Puett

#143149
Overall Influence
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#7568

Bradley E. Chipps

#143154
Overall Influence
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#7569

Philip B. Clement

#143155
Overall Influence
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#7570

Geoffrey D. Chisholm

#143159
Overall Influence
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#7571

Daniel L. Kastner

#106797
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Daniel L. Kastner is an American physician and researcher specialising in the genetics of autoinflammatory disorders. He is scientific director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, where he is a National Institutes of Health Distinguished Investigator. He was awarded the 2021 Crafoord Prize for Polyarthritis for his pioneering work on autoinflammatory diseases.
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#7572

Ronnie Tung‐ping Poon

#143169
Overall Influence
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#7573

Simone Bignall

#88144
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Simone Bignall is an Australian philosopher. She is Senior Researcher in Jumbunna Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures Hub at the University of Technology Sydney. Bignall completed her doctoral degree in Philosophy at the University of Sydney in 2007, supervised by Professor Moira Gatens. In 2010 she received a postdoctoral award and subsequently was appointed a Faculty Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of New South Wales. She joined the Office of Indigenous Strategy and Engagement at Flinders University of South Australia before taking up her current role at the University of T...
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#7574

Eric George Tangalos

#143176
Overall Influence
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#7575

Rollin K. Daniel

#143178
Overall Influence
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#7576

Benjamin G. Covino

#143198
Overall Influence
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#7577

Esteban Mezey

#143202
Overall Influence
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#7578

C. C. Y. Chan

#143213
Overall Influence
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#7579

H. Jeremy C. Swan

#143266
Overall Influence
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#7580

Clyde Hertzman

#143271
Overall Influence
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#7581

James Q. Del Rosso

#143272
Overall Influence
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#7582

Camillo Mac Bica

Camillo Mac Bica
#52161
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Camillo Mac Bica is an American philosopher, poet, activist, and author. Biography Bica was born on January 7, 1947, in Brooklyn. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Long Island University in 1968 and a Master of Arts from New York University in 1986. He then attended the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he received a Master's of Philosophy in 1993 and a Ph.D in Philosophy in 1995.
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#7583

Stephen Sternberg

Stephen Sternberg
#49017
Overall Influence
1920 - 2021 (101 years)
Stephen Stanley Sternberg was an American surgical pathologist, who worked at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for his entire career. He was well known because of his editorship of two widely used reference books in anatomical pathology . He was also the founding Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, a position he held for 24 years, and an expert in colorectal neoplasia.
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#7584

John Michael Finnis

#143280
Overall Influence
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#7585

Kenneth J. Fotherby

#143285
Overall Influence
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#7586

Simcha Yagel

#143289
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
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#7587

Kenneth B. Schechtman

#143301
Overall Influence
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#7588

Hazim J. Safi

#143313
Overall Influence
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#7589

D. Bradford Sanders

#143315
Overall Influence
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#7590

Joseph McElroy

#24656
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Joseph Prince McElroy is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is noted for his long postmodern novels such as Women and Men. Personal background McElroy was born on August 21, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Brooklyn Heights. He graduated from Poly Prep Country Day School in 1947 and was given an Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007 from the school's Board of Governors. He graduated from Williams College in 1951. The following year, McElroy earned a master's degree from Columbia University. He served in the Coast Guard from 1952 to 1954, and then returned to Columbia to complete his Ph.D.
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#7591

Andrea Bonomi

#117642
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Andrea Bonomi is an Italian philosopher and logician, who studied with Enzo Paci. After an initial interest in phenomenology , he decided to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to the study of analytic philosophy, particularly the philosophy of language.
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#7592

Bernd Saletu

#143340
Overall Influence
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#7593

Evan Flatow

#75968
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Evan Flatow is an American orthopaedic surgeon-scientist. As of 2023, he is President of Mount Sinai West , part of the Mount Sinai Health System. He published more than 400 book chapters and peer-reviewed articles. Flatow is indicated as principal or co-principal investigator for nine research grants and listed on six patents for influential shoulder implant systems.
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#7594

Amy Allen

#128382
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Amy Allen is a liberal arts research professor of philosophy and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at The Pennsylvania State University, where she is also head of department. Previously, she was the Parents distinguished research professor in the humanities, and professor of philosophy and gender and women's studies, at Dartmouth College, and was chair of its department of philosophy from 2006 to 2012. Her research takes a critical approach to feminist approaches of power, and attempts to broaden traditional feminist understandings of power to apply to transnational issues.
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#7595

Anushka Patel

#87941
Overall Influence
Anushka Patel is Chief Executive Officer at The George Institute for Global health, a Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, and Cardiologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
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#7596

Gary Cox

#132689
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Gary Cox is a British philosopher and biographer and the author of several books on Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism, general philosophy, ethics and philosophy of sport. A Philosophy graduate of the University of Southampton, UK, in 1988, he was awarded his PhD in 1996 from the University of Birmingham, UK, for his thesis on Jean-Paul Sartre's theory of consciousness, freedom and bad faith and is an honorary research fellow of that same university. His most notable works to date are The Sartre Dictionary , How to Be an Existentialist, or How to Get Real, Get a Grip and Stop Making Excuses , T...
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#7597

Jeffrey Long

#24700
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Jeffrey Long is an American author and researcher into the phenomenon of near-death experiences . A physician by training, Long practices radiation oncology at a hospital in Louisiana. Long is the author of Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences, which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list. In 1998, he founded the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, which is concerned with documenting and researching NDEs.
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#7598

Janice Bishop

#59802
Overall Influence
Janice Bishop is a planetary scientist known for her research into the minerals found on Mars. Education and career In 1988, Bishop earned a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in Applied Earth Science from Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1994 and then was a postdoctoral associate at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin until 1997. From 1997 to 1999 she was a fellow at the National Aeronautics Space Agency Ames Research Center before becoming a research scientist at the SETI Institute. Starting in 2015 she joined the Science Council at the SETI Institute and is a...
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#7599

Amable Liñán

#47738
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Amable Liñán Martínez is a Spanish aeronautical engineer considered a world authority in the field of combustion. Biography He holds a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid, advised by :es:Gregorio Millán Barbany and Degree of Aeronautical Engineer from the Caltech advised by Frank E. Marble.
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#7600

Shigeaki Hinohara

Shigeaki Hinohara
#23279
Overall Influence
1911 - 2017 (106 years)
Shigeaki Hinohara was a Japanese physician. In 1941 he began his long working association with St. Luke's International Hospital in central Tokyo and worked as a medical doctor throughout the wartime firebombing of the city. From 1990 he served as the hospital's honorary director. He was also Sophia University's Grief Care Institute director emeritus. He was honorary chairman of the Foundation Sasakawa Memorial Health Cooperation. Hinohara is credited with establishing and popularizing Japan's practice of annual medical checkups.
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