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,
#8401
Charles A. Sklar
#151651
Overall Influence
#8402
August Heidland
#151652
Overall Influence
#8403
Conor Patrick Delaney
#151653
Overall Influence
#8404
Melvin P. Weinstein
#151655
Overall Influence
#8405
Mehmet Oz
#27623
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Mehmet Cengiz Öz , also known as Dr. Oz , is an American television presenter, physician, author, professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University, and former political candidate.
Go to Profile#8406
Mildred T. Stahlman
#29443
Overall Influence
1922 - Present (104 years)
Mildred T. Stahlman is an American neonatologist and academic. She worked as a professor of pediatrics and pathology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Early life Mildred T. Stahlman was born on July 31, 1922, in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father, James Geddes Stahlman, was a Tennessee newspaper publisher who was opposed to desegregation and was a trustee of Vanderbilt University. Her paternal great-grandfather, Major Edward Bushrod Stahlman, was a German-born railroad executive, the owner of the Nashville Banner, and the developer of The Stahlman.
Go to Profile#8407
Jane Sandall
#135736
Overall Influence
Jane Sandall is professor of social science and women's health at the Women's Health Academic Centre of King's College London. Sandall leads the Maternal Health Services and Policy Research Group in King's Health Partners Women’s Health Academic Centre and is also a lead for the National Institute for Health Research South London Applied Research Collaboration. She has authored several Cochrane reviews on midwife-led settings and hundreds of peer-reviewed papers. Her contribution to midwifery and women's health was awarded with an CBE. She also received an honorary doctorate in health scienc...
Go to Profile#8408
E. Neil Moore
#151728
Overall Influence
#8409
Akbar M. Sayeed
#151739
Overall Influence
#8410
Susan Shurin
#36309
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Susan Shurin is a senior adviser at the National Cancer Institute. From 2006–2014, she served as Deputy and Acting Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Go to Profile#8411
Claudio Viscoli
#151757
Overall Influence
#8412
Axel Radlach Pries
#105793
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Axel Radlach Pries is a German professor of physiology and, since 2015, Dean of the board of Charité hospital in Berlin, Germany and President of the World Health Summit. He is married to the photographer Gina Elisabeth Pries.
Go to Profile#8413
Hedy Lee Kindler
#151759
Overall Influence
#8414
Michael Silverman
#151777
Overall Influence
#8415
Bob Brecher
#147178
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Bob Brecher is a British philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Brighton. He is known for his expertise on ethics and political philosophy. Brecher is co-director of Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics and a former president of Association for Social and Political Philosophy . He founded Res Publica in 1995.
Go to Profile#8416
Jean-louis Preud’homme
#151793
Overall Influence
#8417
K. Fred Gey
#151798
Overall Influence
#8418
Kenji Nakashima
#151815
Overall Influence
#8419
Paul Krack
#151820
Overall Influence
#8420
Katherine M.d Bushby
#151831
Overall Influence
#8421
Natesa G. Pandian
#151835
Overall Influence
#8422
Hartmut H. Malluche
#151856
Overall Influence
#8423
Michael M. Todd
#151872
Overall Influence
#8424
St Steven R. Bergmann
#151880
Overall Influence
#8425
Luise Kimme
#101166
Overall Influence
1939 - 2013 (74 years)
Luise Kimme was a German artist, primarily a sculptor. She was a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1976 to 2002. Kimme was born in Bremen in 1939 and grew up in Berlin. She worked at a secretary for the German car company Borgward in London in 1957-58, and also worked as an artist's model.
Go to Profile#8426
Virginia Man-Yee Lee
#85040
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Virginia Man-Yee Lee is a Chinese-born American biochemist and neuroscientist who specializes in the research of Alzheimer's disease. She is the current John H. Ware 3rd Endowed Professor in Alzheimer's Research at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and the director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research and co-director of the Marian S. Ware Alzheimer Drug Discovery Program at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She received the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
Go to Profile#8427
Per-lennart A. Westesson
#151899
Overall Influence
#8428
Peter Mathieson
#29174
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Sir Peter William Mathieson is an English nephrologist and current principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. Previously, he served as the vice-chancellor and president of the University of Hong Kong . He was the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Bristol before he assumed office at the HKU in April 2014, and was previously director of studies at Christ's College, Cambridge.
Go to Profile#8429
Nicholas H. Smith
#132438
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Nicholas Hugh Smith is an Australian philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the Macquarie University. Smith is known for his research on hermeneutics, political philosophy and Charles Taylor's thought.
Go to Profile#8430
Ulrich Keil
#151916
Overall Influence
#8431
Douglas J. Mathisen
#151939
Overall Influence
#8432
Chantal Delsol
#49498
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Chantal Delsol is a French philosopher, political historian and novelist. The founder of the Hannah Arendt research institute, founded in 1993, her work is inspired by Julien Freund and Pierre Boutang, as well as by her Catholic faith. She has described herself as a liberal-conservative.
Go to Profile#8433
Ned Sherrin
#9079
Overall Influence
1931 - 2007 (76 years)
Edward George Sherrin was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He qualified as a barrister and then worked in independent television before joining the BBC. He appeared in a variety of radio and television satirical shows and theatre shows, some of which he also directed.
Go to Profile#8434
Vera Maria Rogiers
#151951
Overall Influence
#8435
Sven Ivar Seldinger
#13651
Overall Influence
1921 - 1998 (77 years)
Sven Ivar Seldinger , was a radiologist from Mora Municipality, Sweden. In 1953, he introduced the Seldinger technique to obtain safe access to blood vessels and other hollow organss. Biography Sven Ivar Seldinger was born on 19 April 1921 in Dalarna, Sweden. He was born to a family who had long run the local Mora Mechanical Workshop. He first began his medical training in 1940 at the Karolinska Institute. After graduating medical school in 1948, he went on to specialize in radiology. While attending at the Karolinska Hospital he came up with an idea of how to administer a catheter that would be able to reach every human artery.
Go to Profile#8436
Robert R. Edelman
#151976
Overall Influence
#8437
Patrick Niaudet
#151984
Overall Influence
#8438
Vincent Meininger
#151996
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
#8439
Daniel Ira Rosenthal
#152016
Overall Influence
#8440
Ernst Behler
#91288
Overall Influence
1928 - 1997 (69 years)
Ernst Behler was a German philosopher. In 1976 he became the founding Chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research included Friedrich von Schlegel, Friedrich Nietzsche and the early Romanticism. Also notable are his books on irony: Irony and the discourse of modernity , Ironie, romantische Ironie, tragische Ironie , Ironie und literarische Moderne .
Go to Profile#8441
Bruno M. Péault
#152056
Overall Influence
#8442
Molly Haskell
#52981
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Molly Clark Haskell is an American film critic and author. She contributed to The Village Voice—first as a theatre critic, then as a movie reviewer—and from there moved on to New York magazine and Vogue. Her most influential book is From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies . She co-hosted Turner Classic Movies' The Essentials with Robert Osborne in 2006 for one season.
Go to Profile#8443
Antoinette Rumley
#152073
Overall Influence
#8444
Manuel Cuenca‐estrella
#152077
Overall Influence
#8445
Georg-wilhelm Bornkamm
#152079
Overall Influence
#8446
Julian Crane
#152081
Overall Influence
#8447
L. J. Jaap Kappelle
#152092
Overall Influence
#8448
Randall R. Betz
#152124
Overall Influence
#8449
George L. Jr. Jordan
#152126
Overall Influence
#8450
Julio García‐aguilar
#152142
Overall Influence
