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,
#8901
Randy H. Kardon
#156871
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#8902
Gerd U. Auffarth
#70885
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Gerd Uwe Auffarth is a German eye surgeon and is Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Heidelberg University Eye Hospital and Head of the David J. Apple Center for Vision Research which includes the David J. Apple International Laboratory for Ocular Pathology.
Go to Profile#8903
Daniel Morgensztern
#156884
Overall Influence
#8904
John Michael Webster
#156916
Overall Influence
#8905
Kenneth Megill
#87247
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Kenneth Megill is an American philosopher, trade unionist, political activist, and records and knowledge manager. Philosopher Megill's primary philosophical contribution is the development of a democratic theory in the tradition of Democratic Marxism. Megill defined democracy as a political and social order where people control where they live and work.
Go to Profile#8906
Kevin M. Spencer
#156970
Overall Influence
#8907
Harvey Wolinsky
#156982
Overall Influence
#8908
Harold A. Oberman
#156986
Overall Influence
#8909
Alan M. Fein
#157004
Overall Influence
#8910
Emerson Franchini
#157007
Overall Influence
#8911
Bruno Pot
#157015
Overall Influence
#8912
Helmut Beckmann
#157019
Overall Influence
#8913
Tong Shijun
#54238
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Tong Shijun is a Chinese philosopher and Chancellor of New York University Shanghai. From 2011 to 2019, Tong served as professor of philosophy and party secretary at East China Normal University , where he also held several positions in the philosophy faculty and university administration from 1984 to 2004. He served as a researcher and Deputy Party Secretary at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences from 2004 to 2011.
Go to Profile#8914
Albert B. Lowenfels
#157059
Overall Influence
#8915
Leonard Morgenstern
#157061
Overall Influence
#8916
Leo Kuper
#24785
Overall Influence
1908 - 1994 (86 years)
Leo Kuper was a South African sociologist specialising in the study of genocide. Early life and legal career Kuper was born to a Lithuanian Jewish family. His siblings included his sister Mary , who in later life directed the Johannesburg Legal Aid Bureau.
Go to Profile#8917
Tracey J. Woodruff
#157075
Overall Influence
#8918
Alan H. Goldman
#40362
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Alan Harris Goldman is an American philosopher and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the College of William & Mary. He is known for his works on philosophy and popular culture, literature, morality, love, and beauty.
Go to Profile#8919
Charles J. Coté
#157110
Overall Influence
#8920
Hiroshi Ito
#157140
Overall Influence
#8921
Daniel Memmert
#157157
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
#8922
Charles Seth Landefeld
#157168
Overall Influence
#8923
Joseph J. Barboriak
#157174
Overall Influence
#8924
Eva J. Engel
#114754
Overall Influence
1919 - 2013 (94 years)
Eva J. Engel, later known as Eva Engel-Holland was a scholar of German studies and an important editor of the collected works of Moses Mendelssohn. Biography Eva Johanna Engel, born in 1919, was the oldest of three children in a Jewish family in Dortmund. Her father, Stefan Engel, was a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics. She grew up in Westend, Berlin. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Engel family faced growing oppression under Nazism, and they emigrated in 1936 to Great Britain and settled in London. The mother, Margerethe Katharina, née Litten, died there two years later. A...
Go to Profile#8925
Scott Fisher
#19462
Overall Influence
Scott Fisher is the Professor and Founding Chair of the Interactive Media Division in the USC School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, and Director of the Mobile and Environmental Media Lab there. He is an artist and technologist who has worked extensively on virtual reality, including pioneering work at NASA, Atari Research Labs, MIT's Architecture Machine Group and Keio University.
Go to Profile#8926
Ghassan Khaled Abou-alfa
#157238
Overall Influence
#8927
Antonio Jose Jimeno
#157254
Overall Influence
#8928
Eddie Glaude
#36324
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is an American academic, author, and current-affairs pundit. He is currently the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. He has previously been the chair of Princeton's Center for African American Studies and the chair of its Department of African American Studies. He has authored five books, and edited or co-edited two others. He has published articles on U.S. media platforms such as Time and the Huffington Post. He is a contributor to the MSNBC cable news channel, and frequently appears as a commentator o...
Go to Profile#8929
Marian Wilson Kimber
#53591
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Marian Wilson Kimber is an American musicologist and a Professor of Music at the University of Iowa. Having completed a dissertation on the autograph scores of Felix Mendelssohn's piano concertos, Wilson Kimber received her PhD in Musicology from Florida State University in 1993. Her work covers topics of gender, biography, performance, and bibliography in the nineteenth century. Specifically, she has published on Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Jane Austen, spoken-word recitation to musical accompaniment, and female performance genres. Wilson Kimber's recent book The...
Go to Profile#8930
Richard L. Kempson
#157292
Overall Influence
#8931
Christine Paulin-Mohring
#60812
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Christine Paulin-Mohring is a mathematical logician and computer scientist, and Professor Faculté des Sciences at Paris-Saclay University, best known for developing the interactive theorem prover Coq.
Go to Profile#8932
Jordan D. Berlin
#157298
Overall Influence
#8933
Anthony Jack. Gow
#157314
Overall Influence
#8934
Burton P. Drayer
#157353
Overall Influence
#8935
Jack Shonkoff
#67435
Overall Influence
Jack P. Shonkoff is an American pediatrician, currently the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. He is a member of the research staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves as Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. He currently chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and the JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress.
Go to Profile#8936
Giancarlo C. Viberti
#157358
Overall Influence
#8937
James C. Reynolds
#157392
Overall Influence
#8938
Arthur I. Alterman
#157401
Overall Influence
#8939
Paul Mischel
#113246
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Paul S. Mischel is an American physician-scientist whose laboratory has made pioneering discoveries in the pathogenesis of human cancer. He is currently a Professor and Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Pathology and Institute Scholar of ChEM-H, Stanford University. Mischel was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation , serving as ASCI president in 2010/11. He was inducted into the Association of American Physicians, and was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#8940
Esther Tyldesley
#30085
Overall Influence
Esther Tyldesley is an academic based in the School of Literature, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, where she is a professor in Asian Studies. She has also translated Chinese literature, as well language textbooks and translated academic articles for various journalists. In addition to this, she is also a member of the Society of Authors.
Go to Profile#8941
J. Peter H. Burbach
#157459
Overall Influence
#8942
Richard Cruess
#105359
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Richard Leigh Cruess, is a Canadian orthopaedic surgeon and academic. Born in London, Ontario, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1951 and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1955. From 1955 to 1962, he did his internship and residency at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal and at the New York Orthopaedic Hospital of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. From 1957 to 1959, he served with the Navy Medical Corps of U.S. Naval Reserve with a rank of Lieutenant.
Go to Profile#8943
Shigenobu Kanba
#157462
Overall Influence
#8944
Alberto A. Peña
#157465
Overall Influence
#8945
Koji Tsuda
#157470
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
#8946
Olaf Gjerlöw Aasland
#157483
Overall Influence
#8947
Purshottam Lal Wahi
#33014
Overall Influence
1928 - 2000 (72 years)
Purshottam Lal Wahi was an Indian cardiologist and the director of the department of cardiology at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh. Born in Sargodha in the Punjab province of the erstwhile British India on 4 December 1928 to Bindra Ban Wahi and Devki Devi, he was an honorary fellow of the Indian Society of Cardiology and is credited with several publications on cardiology. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1983.
Go to Profile#8948
Gennaro Auletta
#105642
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Gennaro Auletta is an Italian philosopher of science actively involved in scientific research. He is an internationally acknowledged expert in quantum mechanics and in the foundation and interpretation of this discipline. His main interests in quantum information led him to focus his further research on the way in which biological and cognitive systems deal with information. He is also active in the field of the dialogue between science, philosophy and theology, and has been the Vice-Director of the international conference on Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories, held at the Pontifical G...
Go to Profile#8949
Patrick Vermersch
#157510
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#8950
William R. Shapiro
#157514
Overall Influence
