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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#8301
Peter Thielke
#145530
Overall Influence
Peter G. Thielke is an American historian of modern philosophy who specializes in Immanuel Kant, German idealism, epistemology, and aesthetics. He is the Robert C. Denison Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Go to Profile#8302
Bernard M. Nordlinger
#150587
Overall Influence
#8303
Andreas Scorilas
#150591
Overall Influence
#8304
Arthur Bank
#150598
Overall Influence
#8305
Georg Reiser
#150612
Overall Influence
#8306
Richard E. Tashian
#150613
Overall Influence
#8307
Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson
#26784
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Iceland and a frequent commentator on current affairs in the Icelandic media. He is best known as a staunch spokesman for free market policies, and for neoliberalism or classical liberalism, as well as for his frequent climate change denial.
Go to Profile#8308
Harry Suryapranata
#150631
Overall Influence
#8309
Georg Rajka
#110006
Overall Influence
1925 - 2013 (88 years)
Georg Rajka was a Norwegian of Hungarian origin dermatologist and legend of allergy and immunology. Rajka fled his native Hungary in the wake of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, where he had taken education as a dermatologist, following in the footsteps of his father. Originally settling in Sweden, he worked at Karolinska University Hospital—where he took his doctorate in 1964—and the University Hospital of Umeå.
Go to Profile#8310
Fredrik Kiil
#120387
Overall Influence
1921 - 2015 (94 years)
Fredrik Kiil was a Norwegian physician, known for his improvements on the artificial kidney. He was born in Narvik to Arne Kristoffersen and Marthea Kiil, and was married to physician Ragnhild Valberg. He died in December 2015.
Go to Profile#8311
Philip Spencer Rudland
#150645
Overall Influence
#8312
David Boulware
#125577
Overall Influence
David Boulware is a professor of medicine and a practicing infectious disease physician at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He is a member of the graduate faculty for the University of Minnesota School of Public Health Epidemiology PhD program and for the Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology graduate program. Boulware was the first Lois & Richard King Distinguished Assistant Professorship at the University of Minnesota. Boulware is an active medical researcher engaged in clinical trials in infectious diseases.
Go to Profile#8313
Clifford W. Jr. Colwell
#150651
Overall Influence
#8314
Vert. L. Mooney
#150655
Overall Influence
#8315
Dorothy Dinnerstein
#24145
Overall Influence
1923 - 1992 (69 years)
Dorothy Dinnerstein was an American academic and feminist activist, best known for her 1976 book The Mermaid and the Minotaur. Drawing from elements of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, particularly as developed by Melanie Klein, Dinnerstein argued that sexism and aggression were both inevitable consequences of child rearing being left exclusively to women. As a solution, Dinnerstein proposed that men and women equally share infant and child care responsibilities. Her theories were not widely accepted at the time they were published. Dorothy Dinnerstein was a feminist, expressing her position b...
Go to Profile#8316
Andrew McAfee
#9405
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Andrew Paul McAfee is a principal research scientist at MIT and cofounder and codirector of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He studies how digital technologies are changing the world.
Go to Profile#8317
Stephan Baldus
#150665
Overall Influence
#8318
Günter Dörner
#150677
Overall Influence
#8319
Klaus Kühn
#150678
Overall Influence
#8320
D. Ralph Millard
#150680
Overall Influence
#8321
Ian Mcdowell
#150682
Overall Influence
#8322
Janet Woodcock
#37592
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Janet Woodcock is an American physician serving as Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs, having previously served as Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration . She joined the FDA in 1986, and has held a number of senior leadership positions there, including terms as the Director of Center for Drug Evaluation and Research from 1994 to 2004 and 2007 to 2021.
Go to Profile#8323
Zilda Arns
#25283
Overall Influence
1934 - 2010 (76 years)
Zilda Arns Neumann was a Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker. A sister of Cardinal Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, the former Archbishop of São Paulo known for his efforts against the Brazilian military dictatorship, Zilda Arns became internationally known by founding a Catholic pastoral care for poor children. Her humanitarian work, which also included the poor and the elderly, spanned over three decades.
Go to Profile#8324
Elaine Shemilt
#69692
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Elaine Shemilt is a British artist and researcher especially known as a fine art printmaker. Her work does not take a conventional approach to the medium and ranges across a wide variety of media. According to the art historian and theorist Alan Woods: "Her work initially focused on installation, the various printmaking media were used in an attempt to continue and develop the installations by other means. If the event is inevitably lost, a new artwork is launched from it, and as themes and subjects occur and re-occur, their re-generation might usefully be imagined as located within an extend...
Go to Profile#8325
Fini M. Schulsinger
#150741
Overall Influence
#8326
Don McGregor
#110093
Overall Influence
1938 - 2020 (82 years)
Donald Dalglish McGregor was a New Zealand scientist and research advisor. Early life and education McGregor was born and raised in Christchurch to Roy and Elsie . He married Marjorie in Timaru on Easter Monday, 1966. After having completed an MSc with first Class Honours at the University of Canterbury, he arrived in Dunedin in 1962 to work as a Research Officer in the Wellcome Medical Research Institute at the University of Otago, where he obtained his PhD in 1969.
Go to Profile#8327
Dianna Mcgookey Milewicz
#150772
Overall Influence
#8328
E.j.d. Van Cutsem
#150779
Overall Influence
#8329
Rafael Lozano
#150787
Overall Influence
#8330
Raghuvarya Tirtha
#58249
Overall Influence
Raghuvarya Tirtha was a Hindu philosopher, scholar, theologian and saint. He served as the pontiff of Shri Uttaradi Math from 1502-1557. He was the thirteenth in succession from Madhvacharya. According to tradition Sri Raghuvarya Tirtha taught the famous Nyayasudha of Jayatirtha seven times to his disciples.
Go to Profile#8331
Kenneth W. Kizer
#150803
Overall Influence
#8332
Jacques Trotel-klausz Remy
#150809
Overall Influence
#8333
Carmelo Scarpignato
#150818
Overall Influence
#8334
David H. Johnson
#150840
Overall Influence
#8335
Sueli Carneiro
#38477
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Aparecida Sueli Carneiro Jacoel, best known as Sueli Carneiro is a Brazilian philosopher, writer and anti-racism activist. Carneiro is the founder and current director of Geledés — Instituto da Mulher Negra and a leading author on black feminism in Brazil.
Go to Profile#8336
Jukka H. Meurman
#150853
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#8337
Marc R. Nuwer
#150875
Overall Influence
#8338
Gerard Reedy
#90135
Overall Influence
1939 - 2016 (77 years)
Gerard C. Reedy, S.J., was an American Jesuit priest, academic and academic administrator. Reedy served as the 30th President of the College of the Holy Cross from 1994 until 1998. He also served as a professor of English and academic dean at Fordham University for almost forty years.
Go to Profile#8339
Harisios K. Boudoulas
#150901
Overall Influence
#8340
William. L. Weston
#150905
Overall Influence
#8341
Wadih Arap
#150915
Overall Influence
#8342
David G. Mcleod
#150916
Overall Influence
#8343
Amiram Eldor
#150925
Overall Influence
#8344
Philip H. Gutin
#150946
Overall Influence
#8345
Alfred A. Bové
#150952
Overall Influence
#8346
Harvey D. Preisler
#150953
Overall Influence
#8347
Anupama Chopra
#29840
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Anupama Chopra is an Indian author, journalist, film critic and director of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. She is also the founder and editor of the digital platform Film Companion, which offers a curated look at cinema. She has written several books on Indian cinema and has been a film critic for NDTV, India Today, as well as the Hindustan Times. She also hosted a weekly film review show The Front Row With Anupama Chopra, on Star World. She won the 2000 National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema for her first book Sholay: The Making of a Classic. She presently critiques movies and interv...
Go to Profile#8348
Cyril Chantler
#150963
Overall Influence
#8349
Laurence Collette
#150978
Overall Influence
#8350
Massimo Santoro
#151001
Overall Influence
