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).
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#9101
Henry C. Jr. Mcgill
#128389
Overall Influence
#9102
Italo Biaggioni
#128400
Overall Influence
#9103
Robert Macnish
1802 - 1837 (35 years)
Robert Macnish was a Scottish surgeon physician, philosopher and writer. Early life and education Robert Macnish was born at Henderson’s Court, Jamaica Street, Glasgow. His father and grandfather were doctors and after private education in Glasgow and at the long-established Old Grammar School of Hamilton , Robert Macnish undertook his medical studies at the University of Glasgow obtaining a C.M. degree in 1820 and an M.D. in 1825. In 1827 he became a Member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow .
Go to Profile#9104
Alic Halford Smith
1883 - 1958 (75 years)
Alic Halford Smith was a British philosopher and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Alic Smith was educated at Dulwich College in south London and New College, Oxford. He began his career at the Scottish Office . Subsequently, he was a Fellow at New College, where he was tutor in philosophy , and then Warden of the College . Smith was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1954 to 1957. He was also a Fellow of Winchester College and Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Go to Profile#9105
Daniel Louvard
#94771
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Daniel Louvard is a French scientist with the Department of Cell Biology in the Curie institute, Paris. In 1996 he won the Richard Lounsbery Award jointly with Jacques Pouysségur for "their contributions to the study of the regulation of cell division and differentiation."
Go to Profile#9106
Frederick Rauscher
#95409
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Frederick Rauscher is a philosophy professor and well known Kant scholar currently teaching at Michigan State University. Rauscher earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. Previously, he taught at Eastern Illinois University and the University of Pennsylvania. Rauscher currently teaches courses on Kant, early modern philosophy, ethical theory, and German Idealism.
Go to Profile#9107
Roberto C. Heros
#128425
Overall Influence
#9108
James Mylne
1757 - 1839 (82 years)
James Mylne was a Scottish philosopher and academic who was born in Perthshire in 1757 and educated at the University of St Andrews. He served as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1797 to 1837. His father-in-law was the philosopher John Millar and the philosopher James McCosh was among his students. He was a member of the Glasgow Literary Society.
Go to Profile#9109
Wiley Post
1898 - 1935 (37 years)
Wiley Hardeman Post was a famed American aviator during the interwar period and the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream. On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's aircraft crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow in the Territory of Alaska.
Go to Profile#9110
Eliezer A. Rachmilewitz
#128436
Overall Influence
#9111
Nausiphanes
400 BC - 400 BC (0 years)
Nausiphanes was an ancient Greek atomist philosopher from Teos. Nausiphanes reportedly had a large number of pupils, and was particularly famous as a rhetorician. He argued that the study of natural philosophy was the best foundation for studying rhetoric or politics, which is attacked in a surviving work of Philodemus, On Rhetoric. Furthermore, Nausiphanes was an adherent of Democritus's sceptical side and deemed human judgment as being no more than a realignment of atoms in the mind. Nausiphanes substituted the term akataplêxia for Democritus’ athambiê, “fearlessness,” as crucial for eudaimonia.
Go to Profile#9112
Cyril Desbruslais
#73488
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Cyril Desbruslais is an Indian Jesuit priest, a playwright and Professor of Philosophy at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, India. Family background and early life Desbruslais was born in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India, on 21 December 1940. He was born to Cyril and Maisie Desbruslais. He has a sister named after his mother. Another sister, Marina, was born two years later but she died of tuberculosis at the age of eighteen months. Desbruslais has stated, "She has always been my little baby intercessor in heaven. Mum and Dad died, also of TB, in the early 1950s . We were brought up b...
Go to Profile#9113
Maurice E. Enriquez-sarano
#128440
Overall Influence
#9114
Marc Cantin
1933 - 1990 (57 years)
Marc Cantin was a Canadian Québécois doctor and professor. His studies were completed at Laval University in Quebec and at the University of Chicago. He was a professor at the University of Montreal and at McGill University and worked with the doctor Hans Selye. In 1980, he began to direct the hypertension research group at the Institute of clinical research at Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Go to Profile#9115
Eiki Kominami
#128456
Overall Influence
#9116
Anders Odén
#128460
Overall Influence
#9117
Luc Van Kaer
#128462
Overall Influence
#9118
Cyril Wecht
#5611
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Cyril Harrison Wecht is an American forensic pathologist. He has been the president of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College of Legal Medicine, and headed the board of trustees of the American Board of Legal Medicine. Wecht served as County Commissioner and Allegheny County Coroner and Medical Examiner, serving the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. He is perhaps best known for his criticism of the Warren Commission's findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Go to Profile#9119
Peter M. Suter
#128471
Overall Influence
#9120
Henry J. M. Barnett
#128477
Overall Influence
#9121
Tomoki Naoe
#128483
Overall Influence
#9122
Annette Lemieux
#68784
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Annette Lemieux is an American artist who emerged in the early 1980s along with the "picture theory" artists . Lemieux brought to the studio a discipline equally based on introspection, and the manifestations of an ideological minimalism. Process is a key component in the execution of her works over the past three decades, creating the lure to the confrontation of issues of social and historical urgency. Lemieux has been the recipient of awards from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Keiser Wilhelm Museum, Germany and an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Monserrat College of Art....
Go to Profile#9123
Federico Riu
1925 - 1985 (60 years)
Federico Riu Farré was a philosopher and university professor. Riu was born in Lleida, Spain where he worked from an early age as a teacher in the small towns of his province. He emigrated to Venezuela in 1947 and became a Venezuelan citizen in 1954. In Caracas, Riu studied philosophy at the Central University of Venezuela and won a scholarship to study in Europe after receiving the highest grades in his class. He went to the University of Freiburg where he attended the lectures of Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink. He taught philosophy at the Central University of Venezuela from 1956 to 1980 a...
Go to Profile#9124
Carlos Brandt
1875 - 1964 (89 years)
Carlos Brandt was a Venezuelan author, naturopath, philosopher and vegetarianism activist. Biography He was born in Miranda, Venezuela, the son of a German immigrant Karl Brandt, a coffee planter and exporter, and Zoraida Tortolero, mother to Carlos, Juan Luis, Fernando, Augusto, Asteria and Mary. His younger brother was the composer Augusto Brandt. He studied in Puerto Cabello Elementary School and was sent to Germany to join the Pro Gymnasium in Hamburg, aged 14 to 19. He toured Germany and France, and returned to Venezuela at 19, fluent in German, French and English. At 25, he met Leo Tolstoy, which encouraged his literary ambitions.
Go to Profile#9125
Phillip Cary
#49734
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Phillip S. Cary is an American philosopher who serves as a professor at Eastern University with a concentration on Augustine of Hippo and the history of the reception of Augustine's thought. Born on June 10, 1958, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale University under Nicholas Wolterstorff. He has written a number of books, including three published by Oxford University Press. Additionally, he has provided lectures on the history of Christian theology as well as on major figures in ecclesiastical history for The Teaching Company. Cary is a former Chair of the Augustine and Aug...
Go to Profile#9126
D. M. Burnes Boje
#128535
Overall Influence
#9127
Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth
1772 - 1835 (63 years)
Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth was a German physician born in Stuttgart. He studied medicine at Karlsschule Stuttgart, and following graduation attended lectures by Antonio Scarpa and Johann Peter Frank at Pavia. Afterwards he accompanied his father to the United States, where he practiced medicine for several months in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1797 he was appointed professor of anatomy, physiology, surgery and obstetrics at the University of Tübingen. In 1805 he founded an in-patient clinic at Tübingen, where in 1822 he was appointed chancellor of the university.
Go to Profile#9128
Stanley N. Cohen
#128581
Overall Influence
#9129
Saju Chackalackal
#82034
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Saju Chackalackal is an Indian author and professor of Philosophy at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram Bangalore. He is also a Catholic religious priest of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Congregation. He is a Kantian scholar who obtained a PhD from Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas Rome. He was the former chief editor of the Journal of Dharma. He has authored many books and articles. He was instrumental in preparing a number of course materials for Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi.
Go to Profile#9130
Dimitar Gyuzelov
1902 - 1945 (43 years)
Dimitar Gyuzelov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary and philosopher. He is the father of Macedonian writer Bogomil Gyuzel and artist Liljana Gyuzelova, who between 1996 and 2006 worked on an art installation titled The Perpetual Return, dedicated to her father, his murder, and the stigma that the children of prominent Bulgarians who had been persecuted by the Yugoslav authorities after 1945 had to endure.
Go to Profile#9131
Karl Julius Perleb
1794 - 1845 (51 years)
Karl Julius Perleb was a German botanist and natural scientist. Life From 1809 to 1811, Karl Julius Perleb studied at the University of Freiburg and earned a doctorate in philosophy and in 1815 a degree in medicine. He lived in Vienna for a brief period of time. In 1818 he returned to the University of Freiburg and began a post-doctoral fellowship. He remained at the university for the remainder of his life. He became an associate professor of natural history in 1821, and in 1823 he became a full professor. From 1828 to 1845 he served as director of the Freiburg Botanical Garden. In 1838 he was appointed prorector at Freiburg University.
Go to Profile#9132
Paul L. Gepts
#128607
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#9133
Cédric Blanpain
#82331
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Cédric Blanpain is a Belgian researcher in the field of stem cells . He is a tenured professor of developmental biology and genetics at Université Libre de Bruxelles and director of the stem cell and cancer lab at its Faculty of Medicine. He was one of the first researchers in the world to use cell lineage tracing in cancer research and he showed for the first time the existence of cancer stem cells in solid tumors in vivo. He was selected by Nature as one of 10 People who mattered most in 2012 and he received the outstanding young investigator award of the International Society for Stem Cell...
Go to Profile#9134
Scott David Ramsey
#128621
Overall Influence
#9135
Robert H. Goetz
#38074
Overall Influence
1910 - 2000 (90 years)
Robert Hans Goetz was the surgeon who performed the first successful clinical coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The surgery was performed May 2, 1960 using the left internal thoracic artery. The graft remained patent, as demonstrated by angiography, and the patient remained free of angina for one year. While names such as Michael Debakey, Christiaan Barnard , and others are well known, Goetz gained little recognition.
Go to Profile#9136
Edwin Lankester
1814 - 1874 (60 years)
Edwin Lankester FRS, FRMS, MRCS was an English surgeon and naturalist who made a major contribution to the control of cholera in London: he was the first public analyst in England. Life Edwin Lankester was born in 1814 in Melton, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, to 'poor but clever parents' according to his son E. Ray Lankester . His father was a builder.
Go to Profile#9137
Sadaf Farooqi
1900 - Present (126 years)
Ismaa Sadaf Farooqi is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research fellow in Clinical Science, professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a consultant physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK.
Go to Profile#9138
Michael Fredrick Vaezi
#128670
Overall Influence
#9139
Donald A. Goldmann
#128685
Overall Influence
#9140
Hal V. Barron
#26967
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Hal V. Barron is an American clinician-scientist and drug developer who served as president of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline from March 2018 until 2022, when he resigned in order to join the cellular reprogramming venture Altos Labs in August of that year. Prior to this he served as president of research and development at Calico. He has served as executive vice president, head of global product development, and chief medical officer of Hoffman-La Roche.
Go to Profile#9141
Johann Hast
1808 - 1852 (44 years)
Johann Hast was a German philosopher born in Ottenstein-Ahaus. He studied philosophy and philology at the Academy of Münster, and afterwards taught classes at a vocational school in Münster. Later in his career, he worked as a bookseller and private journalist in Berlin and Münster, publishing works on philosophy, religion, education, et al. Among his literary works were two books involving Hermesian philosophy:Hauptmomente der Hermesischen Philosophie , Über das Fürwahrhalten der theoretischen und das Fürwahrannehmen der praktischen Vernunft im Hermesischen Systeme .He was the author of a cr...
Go to Profile#9142
William f. Hickey
#128741
Overall Influence
#9143
James E. Udelson
#128747
Overall Influence
#9144
Steven Michael Opal
#128750
Overall Influence
#9145
Hellmut Federhofer
#104435
Overall Influence
1911 - 2014 (103 years)
Hellmut Federhofer was an Austrian musicologist. Born in Graz, he studied music there and in Vienna at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, graduating in 1936. In 1937, he became a librarian at the library of the Technische Hochschule Graz and later the Universitätsbibliothek Graz. He became director of the BTH in 1940. In 1959 he became professor of music theory. From 1962 until 1979 he was director of the musicology Institute of Mainz University, where he became Emeritus Professor of musicology.
Go to Profile#9146
Ernest McCulloch
#17985
Overall Influence
1926 - 2011 (85 years)
Ernest Armstrong McCulloch was a University of Toronto cellular biologist, best known for demonstrating – with James Till – the existence of stem cells. Biography McCulloch was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 27 April 1926, and was educated at Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto.
Go to Profile#9147
Roberts S. Negrin
#128764
Overall Influence
#9148
Mahendra Bhandari
#20501
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Mahendra Bhandari is an Indian surgeon who has made substantial contributions to the specialty of urology, medical training, hospital administration, robotic surgery and medical ethics. For his efforts, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India in 2000. Bhandari is currently Senior Bio-scientist and Director of Robotic Surgery Research & Education at the Vattikuti Urology Institute in Detroit, MI. He was the Symposium coordinator of the International Robotic Urology Symposium. He also has been the CEO of the Vattikuti Foundation since 2010.
Go to Profile#9149
Adolf Phalén
1884 - 1931 (47 years)
Adolf Krister Hermansson Phalén, born 19 January 1884 in Tuna, Kalmar County, died 16 October 1931 in Uppsala, was a Swedish philosopher. Biography Phalén entered Uppsala University in 1902 where he intended to study law. However, after passing the preparatory examination for law students in 1903, he switch to philosophy instead. He took a bachelor's degree in 1907 and a licentiate degree in 1910, studying for professor Karl Reinhold Geijer. He became a Ph.D. in 1912, after having written a thesis on Hegelian philosophy. Phalén became acting professor in theoretical philosophy in Uppsala from ...
Go to Profile#9150
Richard J. Hawkins
#128767
Overall Influence
