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,
#8501
Pascal Richette
#152591
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#8502
Douglass L. Fraker
#152637
Overall Influence
#8503
Paul T. Jaeger
#152688
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
#8504
Yale E. Goldman
#152696
Overall Influence
#8505
Robert Andrew Robergs
#152713
Overall Influence
#8506
Sukhdev Singh. Malhi
#152721
Overall Influence
#8507
Xenofon Baraliakos
#152744
Overall Influence
#8508
Carol Hay
#145738
Overall Influence
Carol Hay is a Canadian philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is known for her works on feminist theory and moral philosophy. Career Hay's most recent book, Think Like a Feminist: The Philosophy Behind the Revolution , has been called "a crisp, well-informed primer on feminist theory" by Publishers Weekly and "a winning mix of scholarship and irreverence" by Kirkus Reviews. Her academic work focuses primarily on issues in analytic feminism, liberal social and political philosophy, oppression studies, Kantian ethics, and the philosophy of sex and love.
Go to Profile#8509
David Rolland Piwnica-worms
#152752
Overall Influence
#8510
Meir Djaldetti
#152766
Overall Influence
#8511
Judith M. Lumley
#88737
Overall Influence
1941 - 2018 (77 years)
Judith Mary Lumley had a career as an academic, author, public health advocate and perinatal researcher, retiring as Professor Emerita at La Trobe University in December 2008. Early life and education Lumley was born Judith Mary Casey in Cardiff, Wales in 1941. She graduated first from Cambridge University in 1962 and married Peter Lumley in 1964, emigrating to Australia a year later. She completed a medical degree at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She gained her PhD in fetal physiology working on fetal acidosis in labor at the Monash Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and...
Go to Profile#8512
Philip Stell
#101181
Overall Influence
1934 - 2004 (70 years)
Professor Philip Michael Stell was a British surgeon and historian. After a career in otolaryngology he retired early from his chair at the University of Liverpool and developed a second career as a medieval historian based in York; he was appointed MBE in 2004 "for services to history".
Go to Profile#8513
Rex Nettleford
#12786
Overall Influence
1933 - 2010 (77 years)
Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford OM FIJ OCC was a Jamaican scholar, social critic, choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies , the leading research university in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Go to Profile#8514
Qifang Zhang
#152790
Overall Influence
#8515
G. Dean Macewen
#152791
Overall Influence
#8516
Gregory S. Whitt
#152792
Overall Influence
#8517
David Goldstein
#152795
Overall Influence
#8518
Richard R. Ricketts
#152810
Overall Influence
#8519
Richard Eldridge
#113915
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Richard Eldridge is an American philosopher and the Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Swarthmore College. He is known for his works on philosophy of art. Books Werner Herzog––Filmmaker and Philosopher, Bloomsbury, 2019Images of History: Kant, Benjamin, Freedom, and the Human Subject, Oxford University Press, 2016Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism, Richard Eldridge and Bernard Rhie , Continuum, 2011The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature , Oxford University Press, 2009Literature, Life, and Modernity Columbia University P...
Go to Profile#8520
Stephen Peter Mcdonald
#152874
Overall Influence
#8521
Chun-Su Yuan
#103412
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Chun-Su Yuan is a physician scientist. Yuan is the Cyrus Tang Professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. He has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, 8 medical books, and over 25 U.S. and international patents. Yuan also serves as an advisor for government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and law firms.
Go to Profile#8522
Hermann‐josef Gröne
#152877
Overall Influence
#8523
Su Ih-jen
#143015
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Su Ih-jen is a Taiwanese medical researcher and distinguished investigator and was the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan. Career Su received his MD degree from National Taiwan University Medical School in 1976, and a PhD in pathology in 1987. His research focus is on virus and virus-associated human cancers. He co-authored SARS in Taiwan: an overview and lessons learned, published by The International Journal of Infectious Diseases, which aimed to describe the epidemiology of SARS in Taiwan between March and July 2003, along with the public health response.
Go to Profile#8524
Nico van Rooijen
#152903
Overall Influence
#8525
Sylviane Muller
#152923
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#8526
C. Kent Osborne
#152935
Overall Influence
#8527
Eberhardt Grube
#152936
Overall Influence
#8528
Michael S. Conte
#152943
Overall Influence
#8529
Albert B. Deisseroth
#152947
Overall Influence
#8530
Clement Adebamowo
#46297
Overall Influence
Clement Adebamowo is a Nigerian medical researcher and academic. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Adebamowo is currently Director For Global Health Cancer Research, and a professor of Epidemiology & Public Health, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is known for his work in cancer epidemiology, nutrition epidemiology, and research ethics, particularly in low resource and under-served in Africa.
Go to Profile#8531
Thomas Marshburn
#8197
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Thomas Henry Marshburn is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three spaceflights to the International Space Station and holds the record for the oldest person to perform a spacewalk at 61 years old.
Go to Profile#8532
Lester I. Binder
#152974
Overall Influence
#8533
Tanenao Eto
#152989
Overall Influence
#8534
David L. Olson
#152995
Overall Influence
#8535
Oded Langer
#153009
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
#8536
Anthony Howard Goldstone
#153020
Overall Influence
#8537
David de Kretser
#15623
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
David Morritz de Kretser, is an Australian medical researcher who served as the 27th Governor of Victoria, from 2006 to 2011. Early life and medical career David de Kretser was born in British Ceylon . He was educated at St. Paul's Milagiriya and Royal College Primary, before migrating to Australia with his family when he was aged nine. He studied at Camberwell Grammar School, Melbourne , received his Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery degrees from the University of Melbourne in 1962, and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Monash University in 1969.
Go to Profile#8538
Shaun Quegan
#153032
Overall Influence
#8539
Peter A. Lewitt
#153057
Overall Influence
#8540
Lee J. Helman
#153066
Overall Influence
#8541
Raymond J. Kim
#153068
Overall Influence
#8542
Torsten Deckert
#153083
Overall Influence
#8543
Atsushi Masamune
#153095
Overall Influence
#8544
Jeremy C. T. Fairbank
#153104
Overall Influence
#8545
Alain Beaudet
#153106
Overall Influence
#8546
David M. Nanus
#153149
Overall Influence
#8547
Walt Crawford
#68523
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Walt Crawford is an American writer specializing in libraries. He is primarily concerned with technology-related issues in the library sector. He has also written extensively on open access, publishing detailed surveys of gold open access journals based on data in the Directory of Open Access Journals.
Go to Profile#8548
George Alexander
#153159
Overall Influence
#8549
Frits Koning
#153161
Overall Influence
#8550
Monica M. Farley
#153164
Overall Influence
