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,
#9151
Jerry M. Rice
#159516
Overall Influence
#9152
Stefano Bianchi
#159535
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#9153
Thomas A. Orszulak
#159538
Overall Influence
#9154
R. J. Johnson
#159540
Overall Influence
#9155
Vivian Lee
#33059
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Vivian S. Lee is an American radiologist and health care/health technology executive. An Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Lee is the author of the book, The Long Fix: Solving America's Health Care Crisis with Strategies That Work for Everyone . Lee is also a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2019, she was named No. 11 in Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and is a frequent speaker at national and international meetings...
Go to Profile#9156
Ralph J. Jr. Damiano
#159575
Overall Influence
#9157
Paul Wayne Eggers
#159593
Overall Influence
#9158
Nicholas J. Gross
#159595
Overall Influence
#9159
Harold Ellis
#159614
Overall Influence
#9160
Michel B. Vallotton
#159625
Overall Influence
#9161
Karl Bormann
#139674
Overall Influence
1928 - 2015 (87 years)
Karl Bormann was a German historian of philosophy. His area of research was ancient and medieval philosophy, in particular the work of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. Biography Bormann spent his entire scientific career at the University of Cologne. After graduating from the state humanistic high school in Cologne-Mülheim in 1949, he studied classical philology and philosophy with the professors Josef Koch, Günther Jachmann and Josef Kroll and received his doctorate in 1955 with a dissertation on Philon's theory of ideas and logos, in which Bormann explained Philon's concept of the logos in criti...
Go to Profile#9162
Michel Ovize
#159636
Overall Influence
#9163
Michael H. Merson
#159643
Overall Influence
#9164
Paulo Caramelli
#159654
Overall Influence
#9165
Margit Sutrop
#111326
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Margit Sutrop is an Estonian philosopher, ethicist, academic, and politician. She is a member of XIV Riigikogu. She was born in Tartu. In 1989, she graduated from the University of Tartu , and in 1991 . She is married to Urmas Sutrop.
Go to Profile#9166
Peter Vorderer
#52070
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Peter Vorderer, Prof. Dr. phil. is a German professor of media and Communication studies at the University of Mannheim focusing on the area of media psychology, entertainment research, and the social change related to the use of new media. He made major contributions to the field of mass communication, primarily in the area of media effects research. From May 2014 until May 2015, he was president of the International Communication Association .
Go to Profile#9167
Thomas l. Rothstein
#159717
Overall Influence
#9168
Jack S. Mandel
#159732
Overall Influence
#9169
Cees A. Visser
#159736
Overall Influence
#9170
Jacob Valk
#159741
Overall Influence
#9171
Kousuke Shimamoto
#159745
Overall Influence
#9172
Richard J. Zarbo
#159758
Overall Influence
#9173
Reinhardt Kandolf
#159781
Overall Influence
#9174
Emanuele Di Angelantonio
#159786
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#9175
Hannah A. Valantine
#159795
Overall Influence
#9176
Thomas J. Merimee
#159800
Overall Influence
#9177
Günther Rötter
#106127
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Günther Rötter is a German musicologist and music psychologist. Life and career Born in , Rötter studied school music, educational science and philosophy in Detmold and Paderborn as well as musicology, psychology and philosophy at the Technical University Berlin. There, he received his doctorate in 1985 under the direction of Helga de la Motte-Haber on the subject: Die Beeinflussbarkeit emotionalen Erlebens von Musik durch analytisches Hören. From 1989 to 1994, he was a research assistant at the University of Münster. After a professorship at the University of Vechta and the habilitation in 1996, Günther Rötter received a professorship for musicology at the Technische Universität Dortmund.
Go to Profile#9178
Marianne Schroll
#133605
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Marianne Schroll née Bruun is a Danish specialist in geriatric medicine. As head of the Danish Geriatrics Society from 1986 to 1992, she has played a key role in promoting interest in the ailments of elderly people. Until her retirement in 2007, she was Professor of Geriatrics at the University of Copenhagen and principal specialist in geriatrics at Bispebjerg Hospital. An active participant in international cooperation, she was honoured as an interRAI Fellow in 1991.
Go to Profile#9179
J. Å. A. Risberg
#159804
Overall Influence
#9180
Paolo Corradini
#159805
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#9181
Ronald William Dworkin
#159811
Overall Influence
#9182
Sotirios A. Raptis
#159818
Overall Influence
#9183
Robert Thomas Dorr
#159823
Overall Influence
#9184
John Ferguson Macdonald
#159825
Overall Influence
#9185
Carl F. Weiner
#159858
Overall Influence
#9186
C. Richard Chapman
#159859
Overall Influence
#9187
Jerry J. Buccafusco
#159862
Overall Influence
#9188
Terence E. Horgan
#159863
Overall Influence
#9189
Cliff Lampe
#70076
Overall Influence
Clifford Lampe is a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He is best known for his research in the fields of human-computer interaction, social computing, and computer supported cooperative work. Since 2018 he has been Executive Vice President for ACM SIGCHI. Lampe made foundational contributions in the areas of social networking sites, social capital, and online communities, work that has been cited over 34,000 times according to Google Scholar.
Go to Profile#9190
Santiago Ewig
#159896
Overall Influence
#9191
Bodo Grimbacher
#159897
Overall Influence
#9192
LaSalle D. Leffall Jr.
#44190
Overall Influence
1930 - 2019 (89 years)
LaSalle Doheny Leffall Jr. was an American surgeon, oncologist, and medical educator. Recognized as very committed to those he served and his profession, he served as the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine and in leadership positions for several healthcare organizations. He served as president of the American Cancer Society and the American College of Surgeons.
Go to Profile#9193
Maurice Harold Laughlin
#159911
Overall Influence
#9194
Eva Marie Lonn
#159942
Overall Influence
#9195
Seshadri Raju
#159947
Overall Influence
#9196
E. Rolland Dickson
#159949
Overall Influence
#9197
Joseph M. R. Furman
#159953
Overall Influence
#9198
Chih‐ping Chen
#159975
Overall Influence
#9199
Robert C. Roberts
#159980
Overall Influence
#9200
Gerhard P. Baumann
#159988
Overall Influence
