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,
#7901
Mark Philp
#146440
Overall Influence
#7902
Shereen Z. Ezzat
#146447
Overall Influence
#7903
Yasuo Kishimoto
#146454
Overall Influence
#7904
Jean Wactawski-Wende
#140394
Overall Influence
Jean Wactawski-Wende is an American epidemiologist specializing in women's health. She is a Full professor of epidemiology and environmental health, and dean of the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions.
Go to Profile#7905
Rebecca Alpert
#90966
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Rabbi Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert is Professor of Religion Emerita at Temple University, and was one of the first women rabbis. Her chief academic interests are religions and sports and sexuality in Judaism, and she says that her beliefs were transformed by a Sabbath prayer book that refers to God as 'She'.
Go to Profile#7906
Gregory T. Everson
#146480
Overall Influence
#7907
Laurie Shrage
#124289
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Laurie J. Shrage is an American political and moral philosopher whose analysis of the agendas for social change advanced by gender and sexual dissidents has been influential. Education and career Shrage has taught at Howard University, Lake Forest College, Scripps College, California State Polytechnic University, and now teaches at Florida International University. She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Davis and her M.A. and Ph.D from the University of California, San Diego, Philosophy.
Go to Profile#7908
Andrew S. Wechsler
#146501
Overall Influence
#7909
Philip E. Oyer
#146508
Overall Influence
#7910
David L. Carr‐locke
#146513
Overall Influence
#7911
Evangelos Kontopantelis
#146520
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
#7912
Philip E. Bernatz
#98060
Overall Influence
1921 - 2010 (89 years)
Philip Eugene Bernatz was an eminent American physician and thoracic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, and an international authority on the diagnosis and treatment of thymoma and other tumors of the chest. Bernatz was born on April 18, 1921, in Decorah, Iowa, as one of four children of Frank and Martha Bernatz, and he died on October 6, 2010, in Rochester, Minnesota.
Go to Profile#7913
Michael Anthony Pogrel
#146533
Overall Influence
#7914
Tim Dornan
#113149
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Tim Dornan is a British physician, endocrinologist and medical educationalist. He is Professor at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at the Queen's University Belfast. He was formerly Professor of Medical Education at Maastricht University, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He has been a visiting professor at Aarhus University, the University of Dundee and the University of British Columbia. Dornan's work has been cited over 10,000 times, nearly 40,000 times if counting two collective articles. His main research interest is clinical workplace learning and especially t...
Go to Profile#7915
Chang Shan-chwen
#89309
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Chang Shan-chwen is a Taiwanese medical researcher and academic administrator. He convenes the advisory specialist panel of the Central Epidemic Command Center , which is associated with the Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan. Chang Shan-chwen is vice president of National Taiwan University and professor of medicine in the university's medical college.
Go to Profile#7916
Chen Wei-jao
#22690
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Chen Wei-jao is a Taiwanese surgeon and academic administrator. Early life and career Chen was born in Taichū Prefecture on 15 November 1939. He studied medicine at National Taiwan University and completed his residency at National Taiwan University Hospital. He became a lecturer at NTU and continued postgraduate study. Chen earned a DMS in 1973 at Tohoku University in Japan before completing a master's in public health at Johns Hopkins University in 1989. Chen was the lead surgeon in a groundbreaking September 1979 operation to separate conjoined twins. The twins were born with three legs between them and joined at the hip.
Go to Profile#7917
Michael A. Chirigos
#146589
Overall Influence
#7918
Emilio Chuvieco
#146590
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
#7919
Richard Hocking
#120422
Overall Influence
1906 - 2001 (95 years)
Richard Boyle O'Reilly Hocking was an American philosopher and a professor of philosophy at Emory University. He was the son of William Ernest Hocking and grandson of John Boyle O'Reilly. He was a president of the Metaphysical Society of America .
Go to Profile#7920
Tadeusz P. Chorzelski
#146607
Overall Influence
#7921
Hans A. Messner
#146608
Overall Influence
#7922
Thomas Lindsay
#40432
Overall Influence
Thomas Kevin Lindsay is an American academic who briefly served as President of Shimer College. He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities until December 2008. He was also the Director of the NEH We the People initiative, which funds programs, research and other activities that explore significant events and themes in US history and culture, and advance knowledge of the principles that define America. He serves as the Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Go to Profile#7923
Trevor J. Powles
#146624
Overall Influence
#7924
Duanqing Pei
#109903
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Dr. Duanqing Pei is a research scientist who specializes in regenerative medicine. Originally from a small agricultural college in southern China, Dr. Pei went on to complete his graduate work at and obtained his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He then became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan before becoming a faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in 1996. He joined the medical faculty at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China in 2002 and became the head of the pharmacology department soon after. In 2004, Dr. Pei moved to the newly f...
Go to Profile#7925
Nino Stocchetti
#146631
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#7926
Heinz Wolff
#3538
Overall Influence
1928 - 2017 (89 years)
Heinz Siegfried Wolff, was a German-born British scientist as well as a television and radio presenter. He was best known for the BBC television series The Great Egg Race. Early life Wolff was born in Berlin. His father, Oswald Wolff, was a volunteer in World War I and a publisher specializing in German history. His mother, Margot Wolff died "of an acute heart infection" in 1938. Father and son fled to the Netherlands in August 1939, and then arrived as Jewish refugees in Britain on 3 September 1939, on the same day that World War II was declared by Britain and France; Wolff was 11. He was ...
Go to Profile#7927
Anne E. Tattersfield
#146678
Overall Influence
#7928
Gordon W. Duff
#146685
Overall Influence
#7929
Michael F. Seldin
#146690
Overall Influence
#7930
Sam Ahmedzai
#128968
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Professor Emeritus Sam H Ahmedzai FRCP, FRCPGlas, FFPMRCoA is a British supportive and palliative care specialist and an Honorary Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine. Ahmedzai studied medicine at the University of St Andrews and at the University of Manchester.
Go to Profile#7931
Peter J. Fitzgerald
#146710
Overall Influence
#7932
Robert Herman Wagner
#146736
Overall Influence
#7933
Howard M. Yonas
#146742
Overall Influence
#7934
Jan G. M. Klijn
#146748
Overall Influence
#7935
E. William Hancock
#146785
Overall Influence
#7936
Lorenzo Bonomo
#146799
Overall Influence
#7937
Donald J. Woodward
#146833
Overall Influence
#7938
Ferris M. Hall
#146869
Overall Influence
#7939
Jo Fox
#70910
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Joanne Clare Fox , is a British historian specialising in the history of film and propaganda in twentieth-century Europe. Director of the Institute of Historical Research at the School of Advanced Study, University of London from 2018 to 2020, Fox was promoted as Dean of London University's School of Advanced Study in 2020.
Go to Profile#7940
Pieter Johannes Slootweg
#146873
Overall Influence
#7941
Rohan Pethiyagoda
#28698
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Rohan David Pethiyagoda is a Sri Lankan biodiversity scientist, amphibian and freshwater-fish taxonomist, author, conservationist and public-policy advocate. Early life and career Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 19 November 1955 Pethiyagoda had his secondary education at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia. He was awarded a BSc Hons. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from King's College, University of London in 1977, and a M.Phil. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Sussex in 1980.
Go to Profile#7942
Saul Krugman
#74111
Overall Influence
1911 - 1995 (84 years)
Saul Krugman was a physician, and later pediatrician, whose studies of hepatitis, rubella, and measles resulted in the development of vaccinations for these debilitating diseases. The results of these studies were acquired through unethical medical practices involving experimentation on disabled children, which came to light during the Willowbrook State School scandal of 1987.
Go to Profile#7943
John E. Houston
#146895
Overall Influence
#7944
Jeanne Clark
#68368
Overall Influence
Jeanne Marie Clark is an American internist and physician-scientist specializing in the epidemiology and treatment of obesity, type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. She is a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#7945
Dirk Görlich
#121582
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Dirk Görlich, born October 18, 1966, in Halle of Germany, is a German biochemist. He is now director at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen. His research focuses on cellular logistics, the transport mechanism of proteins in cells between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Görlich became a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2005. He is also a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.
Go to Profile#7946
Siegfried Hoyer
#146911
Overall Influence
#7947
Leonard J. Waks
#64798
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Leonard J. Waks is an American philosopher and scholar working in philosophy with specializations in social and political philosophy; ethics, American philosophy, and philosophy of education. Waks also serves as an author and editor. He has held faculty appointments at Purdue University , Stanford University
Go to Profile#7948
Helga de la Motte-Haber
#76404
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Helga de la Motte-Haber is a German musicologist focusing on the study of systematic musicology. Life Haber was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein as the first child of Paula Haber, née Kilian, and the physicist and mathematician Gustav Haber. Two brothers followed in 1939 and 1941. She survived the Second World War and the post-war period, according to her own statement, "in the back of the Palatinate" - a few kilometres from the French border and the Siegfried Line. She attended school in Kaiserslautern and in Kusel, where she passed her Abitur in 1957. Her father also taught at the grammar sch...
Go to Profile#7949
Achim Hoerauf
#146930
Overall Influence
#7950
Hiroshi Abe
#146935
Overall Influence
