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,
#7751
Robert F. Wilson
#144905
Overall Influence
#7752
Randall W. Burt
#144925
Overall Influence
#7753
Jeffrey Lynn Probstfield
#144934
Overall Influence
#7754
Jacob Sadé
#48251
Overall Influence
1925 - 2020 (95 years)
Jacob Sadé was a German-born Israeli otolaryngologist, also an emeritus professor at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. Biography Jacob Sadé was born in Berlin to Naum Sadé-Sadowsky and Ronja Feinberg, both of Kaunas, Lithuania, who were living in Germany for Naum Sadé-Sadowsky's medical studies.
Go to Profile#7755
Stephanos J. Hadziyannis
#144959
Overall Influence
#7756
David Nabarro
#20941
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Sir David Nunes Nabarro is a British Special Envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organization. He has made his career in the international civil service, working for either the Secretary-General of the United Nations or the Director-General of the World Health Organization. Since February 2020, he has helped the DGWHO deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Go to Profile#7757
Ilmari Pyykkö
#130570
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Vilho Ilmari Pyykkö is currently a professor and the head of the Hearing and Balance Research Unit at Tampere University School of Medicine. He is a specialist in Oto-rhino-laryngology. Prof. Pyykko has been awarded numerous awards and grants for research including an Honor Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology in 2000.
Go to Profile#7758
Michael C. Gregg
#144981
Overall Influence
#7759
Friedhelm Hildebrandt
#115553
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Friedhelm Hildebrandt is the William E. Harmon Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Boston Children's Hospital. He was formerly an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#7760
Michael L. J. Apuzzo
#144988
Overall Influence
#7761
Sarah S. Long
#144997
Overall Influence
#7762
Richard Baron
#85372
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Richard Baron is a British philosopher. He was educated at Aylesbury Grammar School and at Selwyn College, Cambridge. His first book, Projects and Values, argues for a foundationalist virtue ethic, against the background of a structured approach to the cultural relativity of value-concepts and a conception of the human subject that is inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Go to Profile#7763
John Guillebaud
#145017
Overall Influence
#7764
Pierre Pollak
#145019
Overall Influence
#7765
Yutaka Imai
#145020
Overall Influence
#7766
Robert L. Hamlin
#145029
Overall Influence
#7767
Achille Cesare Pessina
#145031
Overall Influence
#7768
Jean‐louis Mas
#145040
Overall Influence
#7769
Kenneth Ira Berns
#145052
Overall Influence
#7770
Harold L. Israel
#145054
Overall Influence
#7771
Gary D. V. Hankins
#145056
Overall Influence
#7772
Eckart Altenmüller
#112562
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Eckart Altenmüller is a German physician and musician and one of the leading researchers in the field of neurophysiology and neuropsychology of musicians. Life Born in Rottweil, Altenmüller studied medicine in Eberhard-Karls-Universität and Hôtel-Dieu in Paris from 1974 to 1981 and music at the Musikhochschule Freiburg from 1979 to 1985 . After receiving his doctorate in medicine from the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, he also trained as a specialist in neurology.
Go to Profile#7773
Michael F. Good
#96459
Overall Influence
Michael F. Good was the Director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, from 2000 to 2010. He was Chair of the National Health and Medical Research Council. He graduated from the Queensland University Medical School in 1978. He later undertook further training in medical research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.
Go to Profile#7774
Roman Hovorka
#145110
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
#7775
Roger Sinclair Kirby
#145125
Overall Influence
#7776
Morton Kanter Schwartz
#145156
Overall Influence
#7777
Alberto Julio Kaumann
#145162
Overall Influence
#7778
David C. Makinson
#145165
Overall Influence
#7779
Brian G. Barratt‐boyes
#145170
Overall Influence
#7780
Nicholas J. Lowe
#145182
Overall Influence
#7781
Thomas Myron Coffman
#145186
Overall Influence
#7782
Michael H. Crawford
#145189
Overall Influence
#7783
Lawrence D. True
#145203
Overall Influence
#7784
XinQi Dong
#127626
Overall Influence
XinQi Dong is a doctor of medicine in geriatric medicine and internal medicine, and President and CEO of the Institute for Population Health Sciences. Founded in 2022, the Institute for Population Health Sciences seeks to advance population health sciences through scientific research, adaptive training and coaching, and partnership development to improve health and wellbeing of diverse populations.
Go to Profile#7785
Annarosa Leri
#96170
Overall Influence
Annarosa Leri is a medical doctor and former associate professor at Harvard University. Along with former professor Piero Anversa, Leri was engaged in biomedical research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Since at least 2003 Anversa and Leri had investigated the ability of the heart to regenerate damaged cells using cardiac stem cells.
Go to Profile#7786
Jeffrey Sean Healey
#145215
Overall Influence
#7787
Detlef Altenburg
#78693
Overall Influence
1947 - 2016 (69 years)
Detlef Altenburg was a German musicologist. Life and career Born in Hersfeld, Altenburg studied musicology, Protestant theology, religious studies and philosophy in University of Marburg and University of Cologne, where he received his doctorate in 1973. He remained there as Wissenschaftlicher Assistent and habilitated in 1980. In 1980/81 he took over a substitute professorship at the University of Göttingen. In 1983 he held a visiting professorship at the New University of Lisbon. From 1983 to 1994 he taught at the University of Paderborn and at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and the . From 1994 to 1999 he was and director of the Institute for Musicology at the University of Regensburg.
Go to Profile#7788
Robert Clarke
#95968
Overall Influence
Robert Clarke is a Northern Irish oncology researcher and academic administrator. He is the executive director of The Hormel Institute, a professor of biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota, and an adjunct professor of oncology at Georgetown University.
Go to Profile#7789
Eiichi Tahara
#145308
Overall Influence
#7790
Ali Oumlil
#82217
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Ali Oumlil is a Moroccan philosopher, thinker, human rights activist, diplomat and political persona. Early life and education Ali Oumlil, born in Kenitra, Morocco in 1940, graduated from the University of Cairo with a Bachelor's Degree in philosophy in 1960. He then attended Sorbonne University and earned in 1977 a State Doctorate in Philosophy focusing on Ibn Khaldun methodology under the supervision of French scholar and Islamologist Roger Arnaldez Ali Oumlil joined Mohamed V University in Rabat, Morocco in 1962 as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Arab Thought.
Go to Profile#7791
Brenda Gallie
#128823
Overall Influence
Brenda Louise Gallie is a Canadian ophthalmologist. She is the Head of the Retinoblastoma Program in the Hospital for Sick Children Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences. Early life and education Gallie completed her medical degree at Queen's University at Kingston in 1969. Following this, she completed her residency and fellowship training at the University of Toronto and a second research fellowship in Immunology and Cancer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Go to Profile#7792
Volkan Cevher
#145332
Overall Influence
#7793
Daniel Ricquier
#145341
Overall Influence
#7794
Sandrine Bergès
#123289
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Sandrine Berges is a French philosopher and novelist, currently Professor of Philosophy at Bilkent University. She is known for her works on feminist philosophy, ethics and political philosophy. Books Bergés has written a number of non-fiction books on philosophy and political theory, including:Plato on Virtue and the Law, Continuum, 2012The Routledge Guidebook to Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Routledge, 2013A Feminist Perspective on Virtue Ethics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015The Social and Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft, edited by Sandrine Bergès and Alan Co...
Go to Profile#7795
Aous Shakra
#100349
Overall Influence
1908 - 1992 (84 years)
Aous Shakra was an existential philosopher and politician. He was the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. in 1991; a position he held for 6 months. Education He was raised a Christian, and attended Catholic School in Safed during the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1935, he immigrated to Canada with his family where he graduated with a Bachelors in Philosophy. He received his PhD in Law and International Relations from Harvard University and taught there until his return to the Middle East in 1965 after an absence of 30 years.
Go to Profile#7796
Herman Mielants
#145365
Overall Influence
#7797
Martin L. Lipkin
#145372
Overall Influence
#7798
Robert A. Mueller
#145385
Overall Influence
#7799
Michael R. Matthews
#108921
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Michael Robert Matthews is an honorary associate professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. He has researched and published in philosophy of education, history and philosophy of science , and science education. For nearly fifty years he has taught, researched and published on the utilisation of HPS in illuminating theoretical, curricular and pedagogical problems in science education.
Go to Profile#7800
Peter R. Kowey
#104644
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Peter R. Kowey is an American cardiologist and medical researcher. He is Professor of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and holds the William Wikoff Smith Chair in Cardiovascular Research at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research.
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