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,
#9201
Paul S. Lietman
#160019
Overall Influence
#9202
Susan Guettel Cole
#119532
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Susan Guettel Cole is Professor Emerita at the University at Buffalo in the Department of Classics. She is known for her work on Ancient Greek Religion and gender. Education Cole received her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1975. Her doctoral thesis was entitled The Samothracian Mysteries and the Samothracian Gods: Initiates, Theoroi, and Worshippers.
Go to Profile#9203
Robert Margolskee
#73906
Overall Influence
Robert F. Margolskee is an American academic. He is the director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and adjunct professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Margolskee is also the a co-founder of Redpoint Bio. Margolskee has been a pioneer in the application of molecular biology and transgenic animal models to the study of taste transduction and chemosensation. He has made numerous seminal discoveries in the taste field, including the identification and molecular cloning of taste specific receptors, G proteins, channels and other taste signal transductio...
Go to Profile#9204
Hans‐peter Zenner
#160077
Overall Influence
#9205
Vitaliy V. Khutoryanskiy
#160095
Overall Influence
#9206
Frederick. R. Rickles
#160135
Overall Influence
#9207
Robin M. Winter
#160144
Overall Influence
#9208
Joanne Rycroft-Malone
#146866
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Joanne Rycroft-Malone is a British researcher who is a Distinguished Professor and the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University. She is Programme Director and Chair of the Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme.
Go to Profile#9209
Carl Miller
#76635
Overall Influence
Carl Jack Miller is an author, speaker and researcher at Demos, a think tank based in London, where he co-founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media in 2012. Miller is also a visiting scholar and research fellow at King's College, London.
Go to Profile#9210
Nathan N. Clumeck
#160193
Overall Influence
#9211
Lynne Huffer
#114972
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Lynne Huffer is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor Philosophy at Emory University and widely known for her work on queer theory and Foucault. In her career at Yale, Rice, and Emory Universities, she has won numerous awards, including four major teaching prizes at Emory and Rice Universities, as well as the Modern Languages Association Florence Howe Award for feminist scholarship in English . Huffer is also co-editor, with Shannon Winnubst, of philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Continental Feminism.
Go to Profile#9212
Clifford John Steer
#160220
Overall Influence
#9213
David R. Spriggs
#160221
Overall Influence
#9214
Robert E. Burgeson
#160222
Overall Influence
#9215
Ali Larijani
#39752
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Ali Ardeshir Larijani is an Iranian conservative politician, philosopher and former military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran from 2008 to 2020. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council.
Go to Profile#9216
Enio Martino
#160253
Overall Influence
#9217
Thomas G. Wegmann
#160264
Overall Influence
#9218
Bruce M. Camitta
#160276
Overall Influence
#9219
Elisabeth Gantt
#80755
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Elisabeth Gantt is a botanist, known for her work in plant physiology and structure. Born in Yugoslavia, she later immigrated to the United States, where she got her Ph.D. at Northwestern University. Her work mostly focused on photosynthesis, especially that of algae. Today, she is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where she still studies and teaches botany and cell biology, which is a part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. Her work has garnered her the Darbaker Prize from the Botanical Society of America in 1958 and the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1994.
Go to Profile#9220
Philip E. Thorpe
#160319
Overall Influence
#9221
Julie Bernhardt
#120285
Overall Influence
Julie Bernhardt is an Australian physiotherapist and clinician scientist, a Principal Research Fellow and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Head of the Stroke Division at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne. Bernhardt is Principal Investigator of the 'A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial' and a leader in the field of stroke recovery.
Go to Profile#9222
Flavio Coceani
#160333
Overall Influence
#9223
Lewis S. Nelson
#160341
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#9224
Nortin M. Hadler
#160383
Overall Influence
#9225
Wolfgang H. Jost
#160386
Overall Influence
#9226
Mariusz Papp
#160390
Overall Influence
#9227
Roberto De Franchis
#160429
Overall Influence
#9228
Owen M. Wolkowitz
#160435
Overall Influence
#9229
Dennis E. Hruby
#160436
Overall Influence
#9230
Vered Stearns
#160441
Overall Influence
#9231
Allen R. Wyler
#160446
Overall Influence
#9232
J. Peter Burkholder
#55506
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
J. Peter Burkholder is an American musicologist and author. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has written numerous monographs, essays, and journal articles on twentieth-century music, Charles Ives, musical borrowing, American music, musical meaning, analysis, and music history pedagogy. He is the principal author of A History of Western Music, 10th Edition, published by W. W. Norton & Company.
Go to Profile#9233
Randall J. Olson
#160483
Overall Influence
#9234
Vanessa Lemm
#133557
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Vanessa Lemm was previously vice-president and Executive Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University. She is Chief Editor of the journal, Nietzsche Studien and published on the topics of Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. She was the Executive Dean, Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University .
Go to Profile#9235
Dimitrios T.h. Kremastinos
#160514
Overall Influence
#9236
Elana Goldberg Shohamy
#160548
Overall Influence
#9237
Axel Steiger
#160567
Overall Influence
#9238
Alain Borgeat
#160584
Overall Influence
#9239
Catharina Svanborg
#160589
Overall Influence
#9240
Robert A. Zittoun
#160594
Overall Influence
#9241
Kenneth Frank Binmoeller
#160608
Overall Influence
#9242
Philippe M. Morel
#160609
Overall Influence
#9243
Catherine McDermott
#38558
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Catherine McDermott is a Professor of Design at Kingston University in London, England. In 2001, McDermott set up a masters programme titled "Curating Contemporary Design" with Paul Thompson, then director of the Design Museum in London and now director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. Much of McDermott's personal research has focused on curating British design identity. She is the author of books and articles on design history.
Go to Profile#9244
David J. A. Goldsmith
#160636
Overall Influence
#9245
Donald J. Massaro
#160659
Overall Influence
#9246
Bernd Brinkmann
#18714
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Bernd Brinkmann is a German forensic pathologist. Biography Bernd Brinkmann was the director of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany from 1981 until 2007. From 1990 until 2009 he served as the Coordinating Editor of the International Journal of Legal Medicine.
Go to Profile#9247
Syed Zulfiqar Ali
#160675
Overall Influence
#9248
Richard Joel Friedman
#160687
Overall Influence
#9249
Richard Ian Ogilvie
#160693
Overall Influence
#9250
Richard J. Mcmanus
#160699
Overall Influence
