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,
#9101
Patrice Abry
#138386
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Patrice Abry from the CNRS & Ecole Normale Suprieure de Lyon, Lyon Cedex 07, France was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 "for contributions to the theory and applications of fractal analysis and multifractal analysis in signal and image processing".
Go to Profile#9102
Gary Purdy
#114815
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Gary Rush Purdy is a Canadian materials scientist and engineer. He is a Distinguished University Professor at McMaster University. Early life and education Purdy was born on October 8, 1936, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was born to father Kent Purdy and graduated from McKay Avenue and Victoria Composite High schools. Following high school, he earned his bachelor's degree in mining engineering and his master's degree in metallurgy from the University of Alberta . During his time at the U of A, he won the Robert Tegler Scholarship from 1957 to 1958 and a National Research Council studentship from 1958 to 1959.
Go to Profile#9103
Scott A. Lemaire
#159057
Overall Influence
#9104
Francis T. De Dombal
#159060
Overall Influence
#9105
Norman Bernard Hecht
#159075
Overall Influence
#9106
Ivan Esaulov
#120737
Overall Influence
Ivan A. Esaulov is the author of numerous articles and five monographs, of which the most recent are Paschal’nost’ russokoj slovesnosti , Kategoriia sobornosti v russkoi literature , and Spektr adekvatnosti v istolkovanii literaturnogo proizvedenija . He was also an editor of the periodical Postsymbolizm kak javlenie kul’tury and founder of the web site www.postsymbolism.ru. His main area of specialization is in poetics of Old Russian and Russian literature, and the philosophy of religion.
Go to Profile#9107
Berndt Lüderitz
#159110
Overall Influence
#9108
Ciro Indolfi
#159112
Overall Influence
#9109
Reinhard Dengler
#159118
Overall Influence
#9110
Jerome M. Feldman
#159121
Overall Influence
#9111
Franc¸ois Raffi
#159125
Overall Influence
#9112
Chu Teh-Chun
#40433
Overall Influence
1920 - 2014 (94 years)
Chu Teh-Chun or Zhu Dequn was a Chinese-French abstract painter acclaimed for his pioneering style integrating traditional Chinese painting techniques with Western abstract art. Chu Teh-Chun enrolled in the National School of Fine Arts , where he studied under Fang Ganmin and Wu Dayu. He was the first ethnic Chinese member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of France, and together with Wu Guanzhong and Zao Wou-Ki were dubbed the "Three Musketeers" of modernist Chinese artists trained in China and France.
Go to Profile#9113
Ninan T. Mathew.
#159139
Overall Influence
#9114
Emil Skamene
#68862
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Emil Skamene, is a Canadian Immunologist and medical researcher. He is the Director of Research for the McGill University Health Centre, the Director of the Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, and a Professor in the Department of Medicine, the Department of Human Genetics, and the Institute of Parasitology.
Go to Profile#9115
Norio Hayashi
#159149
Overall Influence
#9116
Diogenes of Phoenicia
#107918
Overall Influence
Diogenes of Phoenicia was a 6th-century Greek philosopher. He is known mainly for the fact that Agathias mentions him as one of the seven well-known philosophers who influenced the Academy in its final years. Diogenes was born in Phoenicia, and like most other academy leaders of that time, a native of the Middle East.
Go to Profile#9117
Giovanni Guaraldi
#159173
Overall Influence
#9118
Hong‐hao Zhou
#159182
Overall Influence
#9119
Johannes F. E. Mann
#159183
Overall Influence
#9120
Jack E. Riggs
#159192
Overall Influence
#9121
Asif Zaman Rashid
#159200
Overall Influence
#9122
Asim Mujkić
#130817
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Asim Mujkić is a Bosnian philosopher and sociologist. Educated at the University of Sarajevo, he works in the areas of ethics, phenomenology, philosophy of existence, philosophy of identity, social and political theory and theories on ethnicity. He has written particularly extensively on ethnicity and identity, ethnic phenomenology, existentialism, and on the works and thought of Richard Rorty and John Rawls. He is a professor at the University of Sarajevo.
Go to Profile#9123
George A. Gregory
#159225
Overall Influence
#9124
Hans‐dieter Flad
#159234
Overall Influence
#9125
Mikala Egeblad
#159255
Overall Influence
#9126
Shlomo Kalo
#65578
Overall Influence
1928 - 2014 (86 years)
Shlomo Kalo was a writer and microbiologist. He published approximately 80 fiction and nonfiction books in Hebrew, some of which are published in translation internationally. Biography Shlomo Kalo was born on 25 February 1928, in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the age of 12, Kalo joined the anti-Fascist underground in Bulgaria. Aged 15, when Bulgaria was under Nazi occupation, Kalo was imprisoned in an improvised concentration camp in Somovit.", Aged 18, in 1946, he won a prize in a poetry competition and went to Prague, where he studied medicine at the Charles University, worked as a freelance journali...
Go to Profile#9127
Paul F. Engstrom
#159265
Overall Influence
#9128
Kent E. Wallner
#159271
Overall Influence
#9129
John L. Wallwork
#159274
Overall Influence
#9130
Craig T. Simmons
#157190
Overall Influence
Craig T. Simmons is an Australian hydrogeologist and was named South Australia's Scientist of the Year in 2015. Career Simmons began working at Flinders University in 1997 at the age of 25. He went on to establish the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training in 2009 and was appointed the inaugural Schultz Chair in the Environment at Flinders University, South Australia. In August 2015, Simmons was named South Australian Scientist of the Year. As of August 2015, Simmons is also The Advertiser's official scientist in residence. He is a member of the Statutory Independent Expert Sci...
Go to Profile#9131
Rune Slagstad
#39037
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Rune Slagstad is a Norwegian historian, philosopher, legal theorist, professor and journal editor. In addition to professional work, he has since the late 1960s contributed actively to public debate on a variety of issues from Norway.
Go to Profile#9132
André‐bernard Tonnel
#159311
Overall Influence
#9133
Bronislaw L. Slomiany
#159333
Overall Influence
#9134
Wolfgang Baehr
#159349
Overall Influence
#9135
Roger D. Sturrock
#159351
Overall Influence
#9136
Albert Prof. Dr. Gollhofer
#159353
Overall Influence
#9137
Richard L. Lindstrom
#159372
Overall Influence
#9138
Asif Saifuddin
#159386
Overall Influence
#9139
Thomas Scammell
#155216
Overall Influence
Thomas E. Scammell is an American neurologist, known for his research in sleep medicine pertaining to neurobiology of sleep and sleep disorders, particularly narcolepsy and cataplexy. Scammell is a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, serving the department of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston Children's Hospital.
Go to Profile#9140
Federico Caligaris‐cappio
#159398
Overall Influence
#9141
Micha Tomkiewicz
#25744
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Micha Tomkiewicz is a Polish scientist, professor and writer. Biography Marcelli Robert Tomkiewicz was born on May 25, 1939, in Warsaw, Poland, and lived in the Warsaw Ghetto before his family was sent off to the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. On Friday, April 13, 1945, Tomkiewicz was among the 2,500 Jewish prisoners rescued from one of what have now come to be known as the Bergen-Belsen Death Trains. As the war drew to a close, the Germans, anticipating the arrival of Allied forces had evacuated these prisoners and loaded them onto trains headed to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp further from the front lines.
Go to Profile#9142
Lucy Chappell
#104800
Overall Influence
Lucy Chappell is a British professor of obstetrics at King’s College London and the Chief Scientific Adviser for the UK Department of Health and Social Care. As part of her CSA role, she oversees the National Institute for Health and Care Research as Chief Executive Officer. Her research areas include medical problems during pregnancy such as pre-eclampsia, and the safety of medicines in pregnancy.
Go to Profile#9143
Tetsuo Arakawa
#159434
Overall Influence
#9144
Wishwa N. Kapoor
#159449
Overall Influence
#9145
Samia Mora
#159451
Overall Influence
#9146
Masahiko Tsujii
#159458
Overall Influence
#9147
L. Henry Jr. Edmunds
#159460
Overall Influence
#9148
Scott A. Mcewen
#159468
Overall Influence
#9149
Yogesh Kumar Chawla
#159487
Overall Influence
#9150
Michael Perry Marks
#159501
Overall Influence
