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,
#8351
Laurence W. Way
#151015
Overall Influence
#8352
Michael W. Davidson
#151048
Overall Influence
#8353
Steven Frederic Bolling
#151059
Overall Influence
#8354
Mark A. Mcniven
#151074
Overall Influence
#8355
Johan Feehally
#151077
Overall Influence
#8356
Wayne W. Grody
#151078
Overall Influence
#8357
Dominique Meyer
#151085
Overall Influence
#8358
B. Ruby Rich
#83122
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
B. Ruby Rich is an American scholar; critic of independent, Latin American, documentary, feminist, and queer films; and a professor emerita of Film & Digital Media and Social Documentation at UC Santa Cruz. Among her many contributions, she is known for coining the term "New Queer Cinema". She is currently the editor of Film Quarterly, a scholarly film journal published by University of California Press.
Go to Profile#8359
Charles Sheffield
#10300
Overall Influence
1935 - 2002 (67 years)
Charles Sheffield , an English-born mathematician, physicist and science-fiction writer, served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society.
Go to Profile#8360
Theodore Elliott Nash
#151118
Overall Influence
#8361
Juha Hernesniemi
#38268
Overall Influence
1947 - 2023 (76 years)
was a Finnish neurosurgeon and professor emeritus of the neurosurgery department in Helsinki. was born in on 18 October 1947. He had a special interest in cerebrovascular diseases that are surgically amenable, especially aneurysms and AVMs. He published extensively and is widely cited within this particular domain of neurosurgery. died in Helsinki on 25 June 2023, at the age of 75.
Go to Profile#8362
Roberto Carifi
#102403
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Roberto Carifi , is an Italian poet, philosopher, and translator, supported since the beginning from Piero Bigongiari, one of the major exponents of Florentine Hermeticism. Considered one of the most important poet and intellectual of his generation he has been influenced by having a very difficult illness to cope with.
Go to Profile#8363
Robyn Alders
#70603
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Robyn Gwen Alders AO is the first female veterinary scientist to be made an Officer of the Order of Australia. Dr. Alders is most recognised for her work on food security by improvements in poultry health in developing countries. Alders' work on the maintenance of the health of small poultry flocks helps under-resourced women to provide adequate nutritional and financial support for their families.
Go to Profile#8364
Domenico Inzitari
#151156
Overall Influence
#8365
Amy B. Heimberger
#124875
Overall Influence
Amy B. Heimberger is an American neurosurgeon and physician-scientist. She is the Jean Malnati Miller Professor of Neurological Surgery, vice-chair for research in the department of neurological Surgery at Feinberg School of Medicine and scientific director of The Malnati Brain Tumor Institute at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Go to Profile#8366
Marion Danis
#136613
Overall Influence
Marion Danis is an American bioethicist and physician-scientist. She is head of the section on ethics and health policy and chief of the bioethics consultation service at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
Go to Profile#8367
David J. Ewing
#151172
Overall Influence
#8368
Albert Chernenko
#88372
Overall Influence
1935 - 2009 (74 years)
Albert Konstantinovich Chernenko was a Russian philosopher, best known for his innovations in the field of social and legal philosophy. He was the son of Konstantin Chernenko, the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and Faina Chernenko.
Go to Profile#8369
Donald M. Yealy
#151174
Overall Influence
#8370
Harry G. Preuss
#151181
Overall Influence
#8371
John F. Morris
#151184
Overall Influence
#8372
Karl-erik Arfors
#151197
Overall Influence
#8373
Nirmal Kumar Ganguly
#151204
Overall Influence
#8374
Göran Wadell
#151207
Overall Influence
#8375
Kikuo Arakawa
#151215
Overall Influence
#8376
Vito M. Campese
#151228
Overall Influence
#8377
Annick Alpérovitch
#151230
Overall Influence
#8378
Miroslav Šutej
#49434
Overall Influence
1936 - 2005 (69 years)
Miroslav Šutej was a Croatian avant-garde painter and graphic artist. Šutej was born in Duga Resa in 1936. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb and was an associate in Krsto Hegedušić's master's workshop. Since 1970, Šutej was a professor at the Academy.
Go to Profile#8379
Alan B. Retik
#151299
Overall Influence
#8380
Jonathan L. Meakins
#151321
Overall Influence
#8381
Joseph Owen Hendley
#151322
Overall Influence
#8382
Zoltán Rihmer
#151337
Overall Influence
#8383
Marco Solmi
#151376
Overall Influence
#8384
Hannah Kuper
#151392
Overall Influence
#8385
Walter Grassi
#151405
Overall Influence
#8386
William N. Hanafee
#151419
Overall Influence
#8387
Thomas B. Ducker
#151438
Overall Influence
#8388
Marc Rubin. Linzer
#151498
Overall Influence
#8389
Kerry Lamont Lee
#151509
Overall Influence
#8390
Martin J. Lipton
#151554
Overall Influence
#8391
Martin Wabitsch
#151563
Overall Influence
#8392
Åke Wennmalm
#151572
Overall Influence
#8393
Mervyn Gotsman
#60250
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Mervyn S. Gotsman is Professor Emeritus of Cardiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Biography Mervyn Samuel Gotsman was born in 1935 in the town of Hermanus in South Africa to Benjamin, a physicist, and Ada, a housewife. The family originally came to South Africa from Lithuania, with an intermediate station in England.
Go to Profile#8394
Shu‐ichi Ikeda
#151588
Overall Influence
#8395
José S. Pulido
#151621
Overall Influence
#8396
Peter Kaufmann
#151625
Overall Influence
#8397
A. Gerald Shaper
#151631
Overall Influence
#8398
Robert Hillman Fletcher
#151638
Overall Influence
#8399
Paolo Martelletti
#151639
Overall Influence
#8400
D. A. Price Evans
#151644
Overall Influence
