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
David Charles Klonoff
#127568
Overall Influence
#9002
Karl Oskar Medin
1847 - 1927 (80 years)
Karl Oskar Medin was a Swedish pediatrician. He was born at Axberg, Örebro and died in Stockholm. He is most famous for his study of poliomyelitis, a condition sometimes known as the Heine-Medin disease, named after Medin and another physician, Jakob Heine. Medin was the first to describe the epidemic character of infantile paralysis.
Go to Profile#9003
Daniel J. Lasker
#66691
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Daniel Judah Lasker is an American-born Israeli scholar of Jewish philosophy. As of 2017, he is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Jewish thought at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Biography Born on April 5, 1949, in Flint, Michigan, United States, to Arnold and Miriam Lasker, he grew up in Orange, New Jersey, where his father served as a congregational Rabbi. As a teenager he was active in USY and served as chapter head and on the regional board. He received his B.A., M.A. and PhD from Brandeis University, all in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, he also was a visiting research student at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Go to Profile#9004
Ian T. Magrath
#127589
Overall Influence
#9005
William U. Shipley
#127592
Overall Influence
#9006
Justin Stebbing
#61129
Overall Influence
Justin Stebbing is editor-in-chief of Nature’s cancer journal Oncogene, a visiting Professor of Cancer Medicine and Oncology at Imperial College, London and a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at ARU, Cambridge. In October 2022 he joined the Phoenix Hospital Group in London to provide medical services to patients for the management of cancer, in person and remotely. He specialises in a range of solid malignancies including difficult cases with few conventional options and has published over 700 papers, the majority regarding new therapeutic and translational approaches including use of immuno...
Go to Profile#9007
Heliodorus of Alexandria
450 - Present (1576 years)
Heliodorus of Alexandria was a Neoplatonist philosopher who lived in the 5th century AD. He was the son of Hermias and Aedesia, and the younger brother of Ammonius. His father, Hermias, died when he was young, and his mother, Aedesia, raised him and his brother in their home city of Alexandria until they were old enough to go to philosophy school. Aedesia took them to Athens where they studied under Proclus. Eventually they returned to Alexandria, where they both taught philosophy. Damascius, who was taught by Heliodorus, describes him as less gifted than his elder brother, and more superfici...
Go to Profile#9008
Leonard Harris
#105914
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Leonard Harris is a professor of philosophy at Purdue University, where he has directed the Philosophy and Literature Ph.D. program and the African American Studies and Research Center. Before Purdue he taught at Morgan State University, a public, historically Black research university in Baltimore, where he created and directed a Philosophy for Children Center as an affiliate of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State University. He wrote about his experience introducing philosophy to Washington, D.C. public schools in his book, Children in Chaos: A "Philosophy for Children" Experience .
Go to Profile#9009
Hans F. Stich
#127611
Overall Influence
#9010
Bruce Daniel Minsky
#127622
Overall Influence
#9011
Adriana Albini
#103082
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Adriana Albini is an Italian pathologist and cancer researcher. She developed the concept of angioprevention which can be used to control cancer development. She is a competitive fencer and six of her novels have been published. In 2000 she was the Scientific Director at the Fondazione MultiMedica Onlus in Milan.
Go to Profile#9012
Beth Karlan
#98164
Overall Influence
Beth Young Karlan is an American gynecologic oncologist. In 2008, she was named editor-in-chief of the medical journals Gynecologic Oncology and Gynecologic Oncology Reports. In 2012, Karlan was appointed by the White House to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board, and in 2015, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Go to Profile#9013
Johannes de Raey
1618 - 1702 (84 years)
Johannes de Raey was a Dutch philosopher and an early Cartesian. Early life and education De Raey was born in 1622 in the Dutch town of Wageningen as son to Jan Jansz van Ray and Hendersken van Lennep. In 1645 he married his cousin Cunera van Lennep. He died in Amsterdam on 30 November 1702. De Raey studied in Utrecht with Henricus Regius and from 1643 at the university of Leiden. He read philosophy with Prof. Adriaan Heereboord and on 16 July 1647 obtained his doctorate in medicine with Adolphus Vorstius. The previous day he had obtained the title of magister artium.
Go to Profile#9014
Sornchai Looareesuwan
#127694
Overall Influence
#9015
Karl Joel
1864 - 1934 (70 years)
Karl Joel was a German philosopher and professor. Joel was born in Hirschberg, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, and died in Walenstadt, Switzerland. His father was a rabbi who studied under Schelling. Joel was a professor at the University of Basel from 1902. His father R. Herman Joel, had been a pupil of Schelling and apparently had a great influence on his son's attitude toward philosophy. He was born in Hirschberg, studied in Leipzig, and spent some time in Berlin , where he became a friend of Georg Simmel. In 1897 he was appointed to the University of Basle, where he taught until his death.
Go to Profile#9016
Dwight Harken
#21485
Overall Influence
1910 - 1993 (83 years)
Dwight Emary Harken was an American surgeon. He was an innovator in heart surgery and introduced the concept of the intensive care unit. Life Dwight Harken was born in Osceola, Iowa. He received his Bachelor's and Medical degrees from Harvard. While working at the Bellevue hospital in New York, he was awarded a fellowship to London to continue his studies in medicine.
Go to Profile#9017
Mihail Sokolov
#60857
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Mihail Eduardovich Sokolov is a Russian scientist and surgeon who is Deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Studies of Complex Systems of Moscow State University, Adviser to the rector of Moscow State University.
Go to Profile#9018
David Castle
#95261
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
David Castle is a Canadian philosopher and bioethicist. He is a professor in Public Administration and Business at the University of Victoria . He had previously served as Vice-President of Research at UVic from 2014 to 2019. Prior to his appointment at UVic, he was a Professor and the Chair of Innovations in the Life Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, where he investigated how to get others to innovate. From 2006 to 2010, he served as Canada Research Chair in Science and Society at the University of Ottawa, where he developed ideas leading to the creation of the Institute for Science, S...
Go to Profile#9019
Thomas Matthew Habermann
#127733
Overall Influence
#9020
Ziauddin Ahmad
1878 - 1947 (69 years)
Sir Ziauddin Ahmad was an Indian mathematician, parliamentarian, logician, natural philosopher, politician, political theorist, educationist and a scholar. He was a member of the Aligarh Movement and was a professor, principal of MAO College, first pro vice-chancellor, vice chancellor and rector of Aligarh Muslim University, India.
Go to Profile#9021
Lucy Balian Rorke
#127748
Overall Influence
#9022
Barry Alan Siegel
#127757
Overall Influence
#9023
Otmar Dieter Wiestler
#127773
Overall Influence
#9024
Clyde Thornsberry
#127782
Overall Influence
#9025
Robert Stephen Kass
#127789
Overall Influence
#9026
Vernon Grounds
#35366
Overall Influence
1914 - 2010 (96 years)
Dr. Vernon Carl Grounds was an American theologian, Christian educator, Chancellor of Denver Seminary, and one of the leaders in the development of American evangelicalism. Early life and education Grounds was born July 19, 1914, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the youngest of three children born to John and Bertha Grounds. He studied at Rutgers University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1937, then studied theology at Faith Theological Seminary in Wilmington, Delaware and obtained a Bachelor of Divinity. He was part of a group that included notable evangelical leaders such as Arthur Glasser, Kenneth Kantzer, Joseph Bayly, and Francis Schaeffer.
Go to Profile#9027
Augustin Berque
#20724
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Augustin Berque , is a French geographer, Orientalist and philosopher. He is the son of the famous Egyptologist Jacques Berque. He is professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris . His specialist field of interest is Japan.
Go to Profile#9028
Ruth Sonntag Nussenzweig
#60628
Overall Influence
1928 - 2018 (90 years)
Ruth Sonntag Nussenzweig was an Austrian-Brazilian immunologist specializing in the development of malaria vaccines. In a career spanning over 60 years, she was primarily affiliated with New York University . She served as C.V. Starr Professor of Medical and Molecular Parasitology at Langone Medical Center, Research Professor at the NYU Department of Pathology, and finally Professor Emerita of Microbiology and Pathology at the NYU Department of Microbiology.
Go to Profile#9029
Rasmus Bartholin
1625 - 1698 (73 years)
Rasmus Bartholin was a Danish physician and grammarian. Biography Bartholin was born in Roskilde. He was the son of Caspar Bartholin the Elder and Anna Fincke, daughter of the mathematician Thomas Fincke.
Go to Profile#9030
Jacques Cohen
#24160
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Jacques Cohen is a Dutch embryologist based in New York, U.S. He is currently Director at Reprogenetics LLC, Laboratory Director at ART Institute of Washington at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center , and Scientific Director of R & D at IVF-online.
Go to Profile#9031
Dale Scott Ridley
#127825
Overall Influence
#9032
Christopher L. Corless
#127829
Overall Influence
#9033
Edward Forbes
1815 - 1854 (39 years)
Edward Forbes FRS, FGS was a Manx naturalist. In 1846, he proposed that the distributions of montane plants and animals had been compressed downslope, and some oceanic islands connected to the mainland, during the recent ice age. This mechanism, which was the first natural explanation to explain the distributions of the same species on now-isolated islands and mountain tops, was discovered independently by Charles Darwin, who credited Forbes with the idea. He also incorrectly deduced the so-called azoic hypothesis, that life under the sea would decline to the point that no life forms could ex...
Go to Profile#9034
Edwin A. M. Gale
#127855
Overall Influence
#9035
R. Michael Blaese
#127858
Overall Influence
#9036
Abraham Cohen de Herrera
1570 - 1635 (65 years)
Abraham Cohen de Herrera , also known as Alonso Nunez de Herrera or Abraham Irira , was a religious philosopher and cabbalist . He is supposed by the historian Heinrich Graetz to have been born in 1570. He is widely supposed to have been descended from a Marrano family: place of birth is unknown but may have been Lisbon, Portugal. Other sources link him to Italy, specifically Tuscany, and as the son of the last Chief Rabbi of Córdoba in Spain.
Go to Profile#9037
Friedrich Groos
1768 - 1852 (84 years)
Friedrich Groos was a German physician and philosopher born in Karlsruhe. Initially a student of law in Tübingen and Stuttgart, his interest later turned to medicine. From 1792 studied medicine in Freiburg im Breisgau and Pavia, and following graduation became city physician in Karlsruhe. From 1805 to 1813 he worked as a doctor in several locations, and in 1814 became a senior physician at the asylum and Siechenanstalt in Pforzheim. With the 1826 relocation of the Pforzheim mental asylum to Heidelberg, he moved to the latter city, where he also gave lectures in psychiatry at the university.
Go to Profile#9038
Seiichiro Tarui
#127878
Overall Influence
#9039
Robert w. Finberg
#127890
Overall Influence
#9040
Gordon Waddell
#127891
Overall Influence
#9041
Alberto Benchimol
#127907
Overall Influence
#9042
Michael L. Sr. Blute
#127908
Overall Influence
#9043
Basil Hirschowitz
#19747
Overall Influence
1925 - 2013 (88 years)
Basil Isaac Hirschowitz was an academic gastroenterologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham best known in the field for having invented an improved optical fiber which allowed the creation of a useful flexible endoscope. This invention revolutionized the practice of gastroenterology and also was a key invention in optical fiber communication in multiple industries.
Go to Profile#9044
Jerrold F. Rosenbaum
#127918
Overall Influence
#9045
Walter E. Siegenthaler
#127932
Overall Influence
#9046
Henry Gewurz
#127945
Overall Influence
#9047
Ali Kianfar
#83019
Overall Influence
Ali Kianfar is an Iranian Sufi master, author, teacher, philosopher and international speaker. He is a co-founder and co-director of the International Association of Sufism and Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Sufism: An Inquiry. He teaches Sufism and Islamic Philosophy.
Go to Profile#9048
Francoise Baylis
#97937
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Françoise Elvina Baylis FISC is a Canadian bioethicist whose work is at the intersection of applied ethics, health policy, and practice. The focus of her research is on issues of women's health and assisted reproductive technologies, but her research and publication record also extend to such topics as research involving humans , gene editing, novel genetic technologies, public health, the role of bioethics consultants, and neuroethics. Baylis' interest in the impact of bioethics on health and public policy as well as her commitment to citizen engagement]and participatory democracy sees her ...
Go to Profile#9049
Yasuto Itoyama
#127965
Overall Influence
#9050
Sverker Ljunghall
#127968
Overall Influence
