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,
#7851
Sandra J. Horning
#145908
Overall Influence
#7852
Sabaratnam Arulkumaran
#19947
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran is a Sri Lankan Tamil physician, former president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and president-elect of the British Medical Association.
Go to Profile#7853
Frank Van Breusegem
#145922
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#7854
Susan Ann Dimock
#117366
Overall Influence
Susan Ann Dimock is a Canadian philosopher and professor of philosophy at York University. She is known for her expertise on meta-ethics and applied ethics. Dimock is the editor-in-chief of Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review.
Go to Profile#7855
Jack L. Cronenwett
#145925
Overall Influence
#7856
Douglas E. Berg
#145926
Overall Influence
#7857
Anton F. H. Stalenhoef
#145942
Overall Influence
#7858
Amit Etkin
#145974
Overall Influence
#7859
Wolfgang Grodd
#114150
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Grodd is a German neuroradiologist and professor emeritus of the University hospital at the University of Tübingen. He is known for his scientific works on the development and application of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging in metabolic diseases, sensorimotor representation, language production, and cognitive processing, cerebellum, thalamus, and basal ganglia. Currently, Wolfgang Grodd is a research scientist at the Department of the High-Field MR at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.
Go to Profile#7860
Petr Widimský
#146001
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#7861
Aristides Patrinos
#42427
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Dr. Aristides Patrinos is an expert in synthetic biology, and a former leader of the Human Genome Project. Biography Patrinos was born in 1947 to parents of Greek ancestry in Alexandria, Egypt. After attending and graduating Greek and British schools, in 1965 he left Cairo and moved to Athens, Greece. He studied engineering, both electrical and mechanical, at the National Technical University of Athens. Upon receiving his degree in 1970, he moved to the U.S. and studied in Chicago, Illinois at Northwestern University. In 1975, after receiving his Ph.D, he moved to New York State and taught at the University of Rochester.
Go to Profile#7862
Roger G. Eston
#146025
Overall Influence
#7863
Raymond S. Koff
#146037
Overall Influence
#7864
Lin Nu
#34845
Overall Influence
Lin Nu was a Chinese merchant and scholar in the early Ming dynasty. He is the ancestor of the late Ming philosopher Li Zhi. His family was Han Chinese in origin and the branch that remained true to Han culture cut off the Lin Nu's branch for marrying a foreigner and converting to another religion.
Go to Profile#7865
Leo Schamroth
#146068
Overall Influence
#7866
Roger M. Kurlan
#146079
Overall Influence
#7867
Veronique Zanetti
#103009
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Veronique Zanetti is a German professor of Political Philosophy at Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology, Bielefeld University. Academia The focus of Zanetti's work is in the fields of ethics, philosophy of international relations, and philosophy of law. Issues such as global justice, national and international security, development of normative regulations, new forms of war, and internationally organized crime are at the center of her current research.
Go to Profile#7868
John J. Stuhr
#115053
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
John Jeremy Stuhr is an American philosopher who teaches at Emory University. He has written extensively about a wide assortment of philosophical figures and movements as well as a broad array of cultural problems and issues. His work is known for its lively, engaged, and direct style. He draws critically on thinkers from often separated philosophical traditions . Revealing his impatience with narrow and academic conceptions of philosophy, his writings make deep and consistent use of poetry, painting, photography, and the lyrics of contemporary music, and they exhibit a broad interdiscipl...
Go to Profile#7869
Anthony F. DePalma
#17745
Overall Influence
1904 - 2005 (101 years)
Anthony F. DePalma was an orthopedic surgeon and professor at Thomas Jefferson University, as well as the founder of the orthopedic department at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. DePalma was a commander in the US Navy during World War II, an author of numerous medical manuscripts and textbooks, and the creator and first editor-in-chief of the medical journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.
Go to Profile#7870
Naser Kamalian
#27581
Overall Influence
1921 - Present (105 years)
Nasser Kamalian is an Iranian medical scholar who can be considered the father of modern neuropathology in Iran. He has published around 60 major articles in prominent Iranian and international medical journals, and has for 40 years been associated with Tehran University.
Go to Profile#7871
Didier Picard
#146103
Overall Influence
#7872
Alberto Albanese
#146128
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#7873
E. Jonathan Lowe
#146145
Overall Influence
#7874
Hironobu Ihn
#146166
Overall Influence
#7875
James Shapiro
#24118
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Dr. A. M. James Shapiro is a British-Canadian surgeon best known for leading the clinical team that developed the Edmonton Protocol – an islet transplant procedure for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. Dr. Shapiro is Professor of Surgery, Medicine, and Surgical Oncology at the University of Alberta and the Director of the Clinical Islet Transplant Program and the Living Donor Liver Transplant Program with Alberta Health Services.
Go to Profile#7876
Walter L. Henry
#146173
Overall Influence
#7877
Harry E. Rubash
#146184
Overall Influence
#7878
Bruce S. Rabin
#146219
Overall Influence
#7879
Barry Bresnihan
#146226
Overall Influence
#7880
Julio Palmaz
#8340
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Julio Palmaz is a doctor of vascular radiology at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He studied at the National University of La Plata in Argentina, earning his medical degree in 1971. He then practiced vascular radiology at the San Martin University Hospital in La Plata before moving to the University of Texas Health and Science Center at San Antonio. He is known for inventing the balloon-expandable stent, for which he received a patent filed in 1985. It was recognized in Intellectual Property International Magazine as one of "Ten Patents that Changed the World" in the last century.
Go to Profile#7881
Twinkle Khanna
#6692
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Twinkle Khanna , also known as Tina Jatin Khanna, is an Indian author, columnist, interior designer, film producer, and former actress. In 2015, Khanna released her first non-fiction book, Mrs Funnybones which was declared a bestseller, making Khanna India's highest-selling woman writer that year. Khanna's second book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, a collection of short stories, one of which was based on social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, was later made into National Award winning feature film, Pad Man with the focus on dispelling taboos around menstruation. It was produced under Khanna's production house Mrs.
Go to Profile#7882
Nobuyuki Amino
#146278
Overall Influence
#7883
Sonia S. Hassan
#146291
Overall Influence
#7884
Yves Michaud
#42184
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Yves Michaud is a French philosopher. As a student, he studied philosophy and science at École Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne in Paris. His early research involved the study of political violence and empiricism, especially the works of John Locke and David Hume. He was Director of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts from 1989 to 1997. In 2000, Michaud partnered with Jean-Jacques Aillagon to establish the Université de tous les savoirs , a French government initiative to disseminate information on new scientific advances.
Go to Profile#7885
Willis C. Maddrey
#146300
Overall Influence
#7886
Ross Zafonte
#58822
Overall Influence
Ross D. Zafonte is an American board-certified physiatrist known for his academic work in traumatic brain injury and is recognized as an expert in his field. His textbook, Brain Injury Medicine: Principles and Practice, is regarded as a standard in brain injury care. Zafonte has spoken at national and international conferences about traumatic brain injury, spasticity and other neurological disorders, and has authored more than 300 peer review journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Neurotrauma and NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.
Go to Profile#7887
Wilfred Y. Fujimoto
#146322
Overall Influence
#7888
Jacques Derrida
#146326
Overall Influence
#7889
Albert Pacifico
#111822
Overall Influence
Albert D. Pacifico is an American cardiac surgeon. Born in Brooklyn New York, he spent his entire career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, arriving as a resident in 1967, and retiring in 2006. During his career he was known as a skillful surgeon who performed a very high volume of pediatric and adult cardiovascular surgeries.
Go to Profile#7890
David Bordwell
#146344
Overall Influence
#7891
William W. Mapleson
#146357
Overall Influence
#7892
Rosely Sichieri
#146367
Overall Influence
#7893
Kevin B. Weiss
#146372
Overall Influence
#7894
Richard Martin Satava
#146375
Overall Influence
#7895
Abdulmassih S. Iskandrian
#146387
Overall Influence
#7896
Michael Attal
#146389
Overall Influence
#7897
Patricia Anne Cleary
#146410
Overall Influence
#7898
Michael L. Marin
#32490
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Michael L. Marin is an American vascular surgeon. Together with Drs. Frank Veith, Juan C. Parodi and Claudio J. Schonholz, he was the first in the United States to perform minimally invasive aortic aneurysm surgery . In 2004, he was the first doctor to implant an intravascular telemetric monitor -- a device that alerts to physicians any leakage in aortic stent-grafts.
Go to Profile#7899
Arthur Kellermann
#12031
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Arthur L. Kellermann is an American physician and epidemiologist. Until his resignation in November 2022, he served as a professor of emergency medicine at the VCU School of Medicine, senior vice president of health sciences for Virginia Commonwealth University, and CEO of the VCU Health System. He was formerly professor and dean of the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Kellerman served as director of the RAND Institute of Health and founded the department of emergency medicine at Emory University and the Center for Injury Control at Rollins School of Public Health.
Go to Profile#7900
Andrej Tarkowski
#146439
Overall Influence
