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,
#9001
Ed Halter
#52332
Overall Influence
Ed Halter is a film programmer, writer, and founder of Light Industry, a microcinema in Brooklyn, New York. He currently teaches at Bard College, where he is Critic in Residence. Criticism His writing has been featured in Artforum, The Believer, Bookforum, Cinema Scope, frieze, Little Joe, Mousse, Rhizome, Triple Canopy, and Village Voice. Halter is interested in the intersection of video games, digital media, and American experimental film.
Go to Profile#9002
Bahram Mokri
#158114
Overall Influence
#9003
David L. Katz
#18373
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
David L. Katz is an American physician, nutritionist and writer. He was the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center that was founded at Griffin Hospital in 1998. Katz is the founder of True Health Initiative and is an advocate of plant-predominant diets.
Go to Profile#9004
Stanley H. Kleven
#158125
Overall Influence
#9005
Guido Finazzi
#158153
Overall Influence
#9006
Douglas Harding
#26970
Overall Influence
1909 - 2007 (98 years)
Douglas Edison Harding was an English philosophical writer, mystic, spiritual teacher and author of a number of books, including On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious , which describes simple techniques he invented for readers to experience the non-duality of consciousness.
Go to Profile#9007
Peter Greenwald
#158170
Overall Influence
#9008
Mark V. Braimbridge
#158172
Overall Influence
#9009
Alexander I. Spira
#158176
Overall Influence
#9010
Armine C. Ernst
#158184
Overall Influence
#9011
Roberta I. Shaffer
#83995
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Roberta Ivy Shaffer is an American librarian and attorney and is the former Director of the Law Library of Congress. Shaffer received a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1974 and a master's degree in library science from Emory University in 1975. She received her Juris Doctor from Tulane University in 1980.
Go to Profile#9012
Jesper Juul
#43579
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Jesper Juul is a Danish game designer, educator, and theorist in the field of video game studies. He is an associate professor at the Danish Design School. Juul is co-editor, with William Uricchio and Geoffrey Long, of the MIT Press Playful Thinking series.
Go to Profile#9013
Kenneth Walton
#103326
Overall Influence
1919 - 2008 (89 years)
Major Kenneth Walter William Henry Walton FRCP was a leading British experimental pathologist and rheumatologist. He published over 160 papers during his lifetime and was a member of 18 learned societies. One of the pathologists who helped form the current scientific era within his field, his death was described as 'the end of an earlier period of British rheumatology', and papers of his from the 1960s continue to be academically cited.
Go to Profile#9014
Jens Lykkesfeldt
#158206
Overall Influence
#9015
Rolf Bodmer
#158207
Overall Influence
#9016
Yasuhiro Yonekawa
#158225
Overall Influence
#9017
Melvin I. Marks
#158247
Overall Influence
#9018
Christopher P. Long
#88960
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Christopher P. Long is an American academic, Professor of Philosophy and current Dean of the College of Arts & Letters and the Honors College and MSU Foundation Professor at Michigan State University. He is the author of four monographs, the co-founder of the Mellon-funded Public Philosophy Journal, a primary investigator on the Mellon-funded HumetricsHSS grant, and an advocate for open access.
Go to Profile#9019
Lincoln T. Potter
#158273
Overall Influence
#9020
Mark J. Kupersmith
#158280
Overall Influence
#9021
Jean-Louis Schefer
#80930
Overall Influence
1938 - 2022 (84 years)
Jean Louis Schefer was a French writer, philosopher, art critic, and theoretician of cinema and image. Career Born in Paris, France, a graduate of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales on Les écritures figuratives, a problème de grammaire égyptienne , Schefer worked in Milan from 1965 to 1966, in the preparation of a dictionary, then in Venice from 1967 to 1968. In Italy he presented works of Gianfranco Pardi, Titina Maselli, , Gianni Colombo and others. From 1970 to 1981 he taught in Paris.
Go to Profile#9022
Paul S. Bass
#158286
Overall Influence
#9023
Andrea Apolo
#62784
Overall Influence
Andrea B. Apolo is an American medical oncologist specialized in bladder cancer research. She is an investigator in the National Cancer Institute's genitourinary malignancies branch and head of the bladder cancer section.
Go to Profile#9024
William Dana Middleton
#158303
Overall Influence
#9025
Sohita Dhillon
#158308
Overall Influence
#9026
Schahram Akbarian
#158325
Overall Influence
#9027
Franklyn G. Prendergast
#158327
Overall Influence
#9028
Joseph Beene Bolen
#158350
Overall Influence
#9029
Brian A. Wharton
#158375
Overall Influence
#9030
Terence R. Flotte
#158376
Overall Influence
#9031
Allan T. Van Oosterom
#158377
Overall Influence
#9032
David W. Mozingo
#158378
Overall Influence
#9033
Luc F. Van Gaal
#158386
Overall Influence
#9034
Robertson Parkman
#158388
Overall Influence
#9035
Stephen Y. Nakada
#158431
Overall Influence
#9036
Daniel L. Clarke‐pearson
#158433
Overall Influence
#9037
William A. Littler
#158458
Overall Influence
#9038
Rafael John Tamargo
#158482
Overall Influence
#9039
Mortimer Poncz
#158499
Overall Influence
#9040
Nan‐shan Zhong
#158506
Overall Influence
#9041
Philippe Collas
#158507
Overall Influence
#9042
Richard D. Brunning
#158524
Overall Influence
#9043
Ricardo J. Komotar
#44307
Overall Influence
Ricardo Jorge Komotar is an American neurosurgeon who specializes in the field of brain tumors. He serves as director of the University of Miami Brain Tumor Initiative, director of the UM Neurosurgery Residency Program, and director of the UM Surgical Neurooncology Fellowship Program.
Go to Profile#9044
Margarete Seeler
#80280
Overall Influence
1909 - 1996 (87 years)
Margarete Seeler was a German-born American artist, designer, educator, and author. She was known for work as a goldsmith, her enamelwork, graphic design, and her paintings. She was one of the best known enamelers in the United States, specifically for her cloisonné work. She published two books on enameling, The Art of Enameling and Enamel Medium for Fine Art . Seeler was elected as a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 1993.
Go to Profile#9045
Gregory John Del Zoppo
#158551
Overall Influence
#9046
George Wilding
#158558
Overall Influence
#9047
Anita Kay Simonds
#158562
Overall Influence
#9048
Christine Chomienne
#158571
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#9049
Sabine Tejpar
#158573
Overall Influence
#9050
David Thomson
#35968
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
David Thomson is a British film critic and historian based in the United States, and the author of more than 20 books. His reference works in particular — Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films and The New Biographical Dictionary of Film — have been praised as works of high literary merit and eccentricity despite some criticism for self-indulgence. Benjamin Schwarz, writing in The Atlantic Monthly, called him "probably the greatest living film critic and historian" who "writes the most fun and enthralling prose about the movies since Pauline Kael". John Banville called hi...
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