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,
#7651
Angelos E. Halaris
#143911
Overall Influence
#7652
Katherine L Nathanson
#143959
Overall Influence
#7653
M. J. Van Der Moore
#143961
Overall Influence
#7654
Michael Eliasziw
#143970
Overall Influence
#7655
Roger W. Blamey
#143986
Overall Influence
#7656
Fumitake Gejyo
#143991
Overall Influence
#7657
Clyde F. Barker
#143992
Overall Influence
#7658
Henning Scheich
#29783
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Henning Scheich is a German brain researcher and psychiatrist. He was director of the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology until 2010 and head of the institute department until 2013. Since 2014 he serves as the chairman of an emeritus group at the institute. He has made substantial contributions to the field of brain research, in particular on the mechanisms of perception, behaviour and their adaptability. Within the framework of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Science Association he has exerted a lasting influence on the German community of researchers.
Go to Profile#7659
John N. Whitaker
#72384
Overall Influence
1940 - 2001 (61 years)
John Nicholas Whitaker was an American neurologist and immunologist dedicated to multiple sclerosis research. He was a pioneer in the field of neuroimmunology and contributed with the identification of myelin basic protein production in urine.
Go to Profile#7660
Melville R. Klauber
#144029
Overall Influence
#7661
Nita Forouhi
#75834
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Nita Gandhi Forouhi is a British physician and academic, specialising in nutrition and epidemiology. She is Professor of Population Health and Nutrition at the University of Cambridge, the programme leader of the nutritional epidemiology programme of its MRC Epidemiology Unit, and an honorary consultant public health physician with Public Health England.
Go to Profile#7662
Lê Phổ
#38515
Overall Influence
1907 - 2001 (94 years)
Lê Phổ was a Vietnamese painter. From 1925 until 1930, Le Pho studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Hanoi. At this point, he earned a scholarship to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he studied there for the next two years under the instruction of Victor Tardieu, a friend and companion of Henri Matisse. Upon returning to Vietnam he taught at the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de l'Indochine in Hanoi.
Go to Profile#7663
Paul M. Vespa
#144044
Overall Influence
#7664
Anthony Sean Neal
#128867
Overall Influence
Anthony Sean Neal is an American philosophy professor and author. In 2021, Neal was awarded the title Beverly B. and Gordon W. Gulmon Dean's Eminent Scholar. Neal is an author and an associate professor of philosophy at Mississippi State University. Neal is a Fellow of the American Institute of Philosophical and Cultural Thought. Neal is also an American Philosophical Association Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He is also a Fellow of the Shackouls Honors College. He is a 2019 inductee into the Morehouse College Collegium of Scholars.
Go to Profile#7665
Narahari Tirtha
#107142
Overall Influence
Narahari Tirtha was a Dvaita philosopher, scholar, statesman and one of the disciples of Madhvacharya. He is considered to be the progenitor of the Haridasa movement along with Sripadaraja. Though only two of his scholarly works are extant, they are characterised by their verbosity and lack of digressions. A few songs of his survive under the pen name Raghukulatilaka. As a minister of considerable influence to the Eastern Ganga rulers and later as the pontiff of Madhvacharya mutt, Narahari converted the Simhachalam temple into an educational establishment of renown and a religious centre for ...
Go to Profile#7666
Michael Brooks
#58607
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Michael Edward Brooks is an English science writer, noted for explaining complex scientific research and findings to the general population. Career Brooks holds a PhD in Quantum Physics from the University of Sussex. He was previously an editor for New Scientist magazine, and currently works as a consultant for that magazine. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Times Higher Education Supplement, and Playboy. His first novel, Entanglement, was published in 2007. His first non-fiction book, an exploration of scientific anomalies entitled 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, was published in 2009.
Go to Profile#7667
Nicholas M. Greene
#144069
Overall Influence
#7668
Emmanuele A. Jannini
#97000
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Angelo Francesco Emmanuele Jannini is an Italian sex therapist , medical doctor, and academic. Biography He was professor of medical sexology at the University of L'Aquila and is full professor of endocrinology and medical sexology at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Systems Medicine of the University of Rome Tor Vergata . From 2016 to 2018 president of SIAMS as well as the president of the Italian Academy for couple's health. He is also member of Publication Committee of ISSM . His studies in the male and female sexual and reproductive fields have been published in various internation...
Go to Profile#7669
James H. Shelhamer
#144084
Overall Influence
#7670
Franco Berrino
#144118
Overall Influence
#7671
Nils Erik Gilhus
#144132
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#7672
Pancras C.W. Hogendoorn
#144151
Overall Influence
#7673
Carlos Hugh Schenck
#144154
Overall Influence
#7674
Robert John Delorenzo
#144155
Overall Influence
#7675
Kurt Thomas Barnhart
#144159
Overall Influence
#7676
Jon J. Van Rood
#144162
Overall Influence
#7677
Thomas Lübberstedt
#144179
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#7678
Raymond V. Gilden
#144180
Overall Influence
#7679
Ian Stuart Fentiman
#144184
Overall Influence
#7680
Patrick J. Mulrow
#144199
Overall Influence
#7681
Petro Zheji
#64279
Overall Influence
1929 - 2015 (86 years)
Petro Zheji was an Albanian linguist, translator, philosopher, and author from Gjirokastër who lived and worked intellectually in Tiranë, Albania. As a polyglot, he was deeply knowledgeable in the Italian, French, English, Spanish, German, Russian, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin languages. The Albanologist Elsie considers him "the spiritual father to a whole generation of Albanian intellectuals".
Go to Profile#7682
Dennis M. Krikler
#144213
Overall Influence
#7683
Renata Pasqualini
#144224
Overall Influence
#7684
Peter J. Allen
#144235
Overall Influence
#7685
Simon Horenblas
#144237
Overall Influence
#7686
Marjorie Hass
#64985
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Dr. Marjorie Hass is an American academic who serves as the President of the Council of Independent Colleges. She served as the 20th president of Rhodes College in Memphis, TN from July 2017 to June 2021. She also served as president of Austin College in Sherman, TX from July 2009 to June 2017. Earlier at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, she headed the Center for Ethics.
Go to Profile#7687
David Planchard
#144289
Overall Influence
#7688
Nancy Pearl
#32940
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Nancy Pearl is an American librarian, best-selling author, literary critic and the former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library. Her prolific reading and her knowledge of books and literature first made her locally famous in Seattle, Washington, where she regularly appears on public radio recommending books. She achieved broader fame with Book Lust, her 2003 guide to good reading. Pearl was named 2011 Librarian of the Year by Library Journal. She is also the author of a novel and a memoir.
Go to Profile#7689
Viktor Bychkov
#121879
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Viktor Vasilyevich Bychkov is a Soviet and Russian philosopher, historian of aesthetics, doctor of philosophy. His research interests include Byzantine, Russian religious aesthetics of the twentieth century, philosophy and phenomenology of modern art.
Go to Profile#7690
Waldemar Olszewski
#72763
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Prof. Waldemar Lech Olszewski is a Polish lymphologist. His main area of study is the human lymphatic system. Clinical and research interests comprise vascular surgery, transplantationation, physiology and surgery of the lymphatic system and immunology. He discovered fundamental processes in human tissues connected with function of the lymphatic system.
Go to Profile#7691
Larissa T. Bilaniuk
#144319
Overall Influence
#7692
Francis John Jr Hornicek
#144322
Overall Influence
#7693
Ian Grierson
#144323
Overall Influence
#7694
Leopoldo Raij
#144327
Overall Influence
#7695
Joseph Gerald Reves
#144342
Overall Influence
#7696
François Dubeau
#144346
Overall Influence
#7697
Hannu O. Kalimo
#144376
Overall Influence
#7698
Allan Schore
#19381
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Allan N. Schore is an American psychologist and researcher in the field of neuropsychology. Schore works at the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and at the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development.
Go to Profile#7699
Jack Paradise
#73865
Overall Influence
Jack Leon Paradise was a pediatrician, pediatric primary care researcher, and professor emeritus of pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Research Paradise asserts that the common fear of developmental problems caused by persistent ear infections in children are unfounded. According to Paradise's research, for children up to 3 years old, "ear disease does not cause any developmental problems." The research asserts that if the insertion of tympanostomy tubes into a child's ear is delayed, there is "no effect on a child's performance on language tests and speech tests."
Go to Profile#7700
Robert Paul Hasserjian
#144386
Overall Influence
