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,
#8751
Nikolaus Amrhein
#155230
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
#8752
Christopher M. Filley
#155235
Overall Influence
#8753
Michael Bouvet
#155236
Overall Influence
#8754
Wil Waluchow
#69172
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Wilfrid Joseph Waluchow , known as Wil Waluchow or W. J. Waluchow, is a Canadian philosopher, currently the Senator William McMaster Chair in Constitutional Studies at McMaster University, where he has taught since 1984. General jurisprudence and the philosophy of constitutional law are his main research interests.
Go to Profile#8755
Richard Bruce Schuessler
#155261
Overall Influence
#8756
Franke Lehmann‐horn
#155263
Overall Influence
#8757
Clivе P. Duncan
#155276
Overall Influence
#8758
Giora Weisz
#155291
Overall Influence
#8759
Kenneth D. Bloch
#155300
Overall Influence
#8760
Zorba Paster
#22754
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Robert Zorba Paster is a physician and radio show host. Paster was born on August 19, 1947, and raised in Chicago. He hosts a weekly radio call-in show on personal health issues called Zorba Paster on Your Health. The show is produced by Wisconsin Public Radio, syndicated by the Public Radio Exchange, and is broadcast on public radio stations around the United States. The show's trademark is a lighthearted, humorous approach, made possible by Zorba's banter with his co-host, Tom Clark. The show's style is somewhat similar to National Public Radio's program, Car Talk, providing callers both ...
Go to Profile#8761
John Charin Somberg
#155309
Overall Influence
#8762
Paul B. Kantor
#55748
Overall Influence
Paul B. Kantor is an American information scientist. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and an Honorary Research Associate in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Go to Profile#8763
Howard H. Hiatt
#155330
Overall Influence
#8764
Catherine O'Brien
#39511
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Catherine O'Brien is a British academic, film scholar, linguist and writer. Her main fields are French cinema; the First World War in French and German cultures in relation to art and comparative literature and the intersections between cinema, theology and religion.
Go to Profile#8765
Paul Tazewell
#33054
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Paul Tazewell is an American costume designer for the theatre, dance, and opera and television. After training at New York University Tisch School of the Arts he started his career on Broadway. He went on to win a Tony Award and a Emmy Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.
Go to Profile#8766
David H. Adams
#18448
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
David H. Adams is an American cardiac surgeon and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Dr. Adams is a recognized leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve reconstruction. As director of Mount Sinai Mitral Valve Repair Center, he has set national benchmarks with >99% degenerative mitral valve repair rates, while running one of the largest valve repair programs in the United States. Dr. Adams is the co-inventor of 2 mitral valve annuloplasty repa...
Go to Profile#8767
Donald B. Doty
#155370
Overall Influence
#8768
Jeffry B. Mitton
#155371
Overall Influence
#8769
Michael Freissmuth
#155377
Overall Influence
#8770
Ikuo Morita
#155400
Overall Influence
#8771
Kate Crawford
#87175
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Kate Crawford is a researcher, writer, composer, producer and academic, who studies the social and political implications of artificial intelligence. She is based in New York and works as a principal researcher at Microsoft Research , the co-founder and former director of research at the AI Now Institute at NYU, a visiting professor at the MIT Center for Civic Media, a senior fellow at the Information Law Institute at NYU, and an associate professor in the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. She is also a member of the WEF's Global Agenda Council on Data...
Go to Profile#8772
John. J. Treanor
#155405
Overall Influence
#8773
Michael D. Mcgoon
#155422
Overall Influence
#8774
A˚ke Seiger
#155432
Overall Influence
#8775
Mary-Jane Rubenstein
#126807
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Mary-Jane Rubenstein is a scholar of religion, philosophy, science studies, and gender studies. At Wesleyan University, she is Professor of Religion and Science in Society. She is also affiliated with Environmental Studies and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. From 2014 to 2019, she was co-chair of the Philosophy of Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. She is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion.
Go to Profile#8776
Anneke Brand
#155437
Overall Influence
#8777
Daryl J. Hoban
#155439
Overall Influence
#8778
Gordon Ralph Corey
#155451
Overall Influence
#8779
Stephen J. Mcphee
#155457
Overall Influence
#8780
Wilford F. Weeks
#155493
Overall Influence
#8781
David S Rosenblatt
#72935
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
David Rosenblatt is a Canadian medical geneticist, pediatrician, and professor in the departments of Human Genetics, Medicine, Pediatrics, and Biology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he was the chairman of the Department of Human Genetics from 2001 to 2013. He is known for his contributions to the field of inborn errors of folate and vitamin B12 metabolism.
Go to Profile#8782
Hermann Danuser
#114277
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Hermann Danuser is a Swiss-German musicologist. Life Born in Frauenfeld, Danuser studied piano, oboe, musicology, philosophy and German language and literature at the Musikhochschule and the University of Zurich from 1965; he received his doctorate with a dissertation on musical prose. From 1973 he studied in Berlin with Carl Dahlhaus and Gerhard Puchelt . After working as a research assistant, he habilitated in 1982 at the Technical University of Berlin with a thesis on the music of the 20th century . From 1982 to 1988, Danuser taught as professor for musicology at the Hochschule für Musik,...
Go to Profile#8783
Mark Eli Kalderon
#147015
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Mark Eli Kalderon is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy in the University College London Department of Philosophy. He is known for his expertise on philosophy of color and philosophy of perception.
Go to Profile#8784
Gerald S. Levey
#155529
Overall Influence
#8785
Petter Andreas Steen
#155533
Overall Influence
#8786
Stephen Gershom Simpson
#155537
Overall Influence
#8787
Daniel J. Deangelo
#155547
Overall Influence
#8788
Joachim W. Thüroff
#155558
Overall Influence
#8789
John Francis Horty
#155564
Overall Influence
#8790
Michael Brada
#155580
Overall Influence
#8791
John Cornell Drummond
#155588
Overall Influence
#8792
William H. Brackney
#102166
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
William Henry Brackney was the Millard R. Cherry Distinguished Professor of Christian Thought and Ethics Emeritus at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and an ordained Baptist minister, accredited by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches and the American Baptist Churches, USA. He was previously the Dean of Theology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and published numerous books and articles dealing with post-Reformation Protestant thought, particularly the Baptist and Radical Reformation traditions. Brackney did significant work in the areas of global ethics and human rights, and was the director of the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies .
Go to Profile#8793
Alan Cass
#155606
Overall Influence
#8794
Hans‐peter Dienes
#155630
Overall Influence
#8795
Yoshikazu Kinoshita
#155636
Overall Influence
#8796
Yasushi Shiratori
#155639
Overall Influence
#8797
Joann Elmore
#105956
Overall Influence
Dr. Joann G. Elmore is a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, professor of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Director of the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program, the endowed chair in Health Care Delivery for The Rosalind and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and a practicing physician . She publishes studies on diagnostic accuracy of cancer screening and medical tests in addition to AI/machine learning, using computer-aided tools to aid in the early detection process of high-risk cancers Previously, she held faculty and leadership ...
Go to Profile#8798
Pertti Törmälä
#155647
Overall Influence
#8799
Tomás Berl
#155650
Overall Influence
#8800
Satyavara Tirtha
#155660
Overall Influence
Satyavara Tirtha was an Indian philosopher, scholar and the pontiff of Uttaradi Math, a math dedicated to Dvaita philosophy. He was the successor of Satyasandha Tirtha and the 27th pontiff of Uttaradi Math since Madhvacharya, the chief proponent and the one who rejuvenated this Dvaita philosophy and served the pontificate from 1794 to 1797.
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