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,
#9601
Jo Gwang-jo
1482 - 1520 (38 years)
Jo , also often called by his art name Jeong-am , was a Korean Neo-Confucian scholar who pursued radical reforms during the reign of Jungjong of Joseon in the early 16th century. He was framed with charges of factionalism by the power elite that opposed his reform measures and was sentenced to drink poison in the Third Literati Purge of 1519. He has been widely venerated as a Confucian martyr and an embodiment of "seonbi spirit" by later generations in Korea. Some historians consider him one of the most influential figures in 16th century Korea. He is known as one of the 18 Sages of Korea and...
Go to Profile#9602
Luca Gianni
#132886
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#9603
Profiat Duran
1350 - 1415 (65 years)
Profiat Duran , full Hebrew name Isaac ben Moses ha-Levi; was a Jewish apologist/polemicist, philosopher, physician, grammarian, and controversialist in the 14th century. He was later sometimes referred to by the sobriquet Efodi through association with his two grammars entitled "Ephod." After being forcibly converted in 1391, he also appears in official records under his converso Christian name Honoratus de Bonafide. After escaping Spain, he returned to practicing Judaism openly, and wrote a number of works including polemics against Christianity and grammar.
Go to Profile#9604
E. Darracott Jr. Vaughan
#132900
Overall Influence
#9605
Sayed Hassan Akhlaq
#59623
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Sayed Hassan Hussaini is an Afghan-American philosopher. Life Akhlaq was born in 1976, in Sayghan City, in the province of Bamyan, Afghanistan. He immigrated to Iran when he was four years old. Finishing primary and secondary schools in Mashhad, he started to study classical religious seminaries .
Go to Profile#9606
Charles Chapron
#132908
Overall Influence
#9607
Richard John Heald
#132913
Overall Influence
#9608
Bryce K. A. Weir
#132917
Overall Influence
#9609
A. K. M. Adam
#62319
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Andrew Keith Malcolm Adam , known as A. K. M. Adam, is a biblical scholar, theologian, author, priest, technologist and blogger. He is Tutor in New Testament and Greek at St. Stephen's House at Oxford University. He is a writer, speaker, voice-over artist, and activist on topics including postmodern philosophy, hermeneutics, education, and the social constitution of meaning.
Go to Profile#9610
Karl Theodor Bayrhoffer
1812 - 1888 (76 years)
Karl Theodor Otto Christian August Bayrhoffer was a German American philosopher, free-thinker, and publicist. In 1834 he received his PhD from the University of Marburg, where he later became a professor of philosophy. In 1847 he founded the free-religious movement in Marburg. He became a member of the Diet of Hesse-Kassel in 1848 and in 1850 was President of the Chamber. After impeachment and the defeat of his party, he was imprisoned for a time before emigrating to the United States. and settling in Wisconsin as a farmer. When his sons became old enough to manage the farm, he returned to h...
Go to Profile#9611
Giles of Lessines
1230 - 1304 (74 years)
Giles of Lessines OP was a thirteenth-century Dominican scholastic philosopher, a pupil of Thomas Aquinas. He was also strongly influenced by Albertus Magnus. He was an early defender of Thomism. He is also known as an early scientist, and for economic theory, writing on usury and market prices.
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Edward T. H. Yeh
#132948
Overall Influence
#9613
Edwin Landseer
1802 - 1873 (71 years)
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
Go to Profile#9614
Janine Chanteur
#89118
Overall Influence
1924 - 2015 (91 years)
Janine Chanteur was a French philosopher. She was a professor emeritus of moral and political philosophy at the Paris-Sorbonne University. Biography Chanteur was made an associante professor of philosopher in 1978, when she was awarded her doctorate. She later became a professor of moral and political philosophy at the University of Paris-Sorbonne . In 1989, she was elected to the position of Secretary General of the International Institute of Political Philosophy. Between 1985 and 1997, she oversaw 29 theses.
Go to Profile#9615
David J. Apple
#132953
Overall Influence
#9616
Henry Mark Kuerer
#132954
Overall Influence
#9617
Louis A. Chedid
#132956
Overall Influence
#9618
Pudugramam Murali Doraiswamy
#132978
Overall Influence
#9619
Juan‐carlos García‐pagán
#132981
Overall Influence
#9620
Frank I. Marcus
#86499
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Frank I. Marcus was an American cardiologist and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, the author of more than 290 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and of 90 book chapters. He was considered a world expert on arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and was a member of the Editorial/Scientific Board of 14 Cardiovascular Journals as well as a reviewer for 26 other medical publications.
Go to Profile#9621
Quazi Deen Mohammad
#15122
Overall Influence
Quazi madam r ch od Mohammad is a Bangladeshi physician, academic and neurologist. He is the founding director of National Institute of Neuroscience, Dhaka. He was the 37th principal of Dhaka Medical College and 19th President of Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons .
Go to Profile#9622
Mary L. Disis
#126665
Overall Influence
Mary L. "Nora" Disis is an American physician-oncologist and the editor in chief of JAMA Oncology. She was part of the scientific team who discovered that the HER2/neu molecule is a tumor-specific marker, or antigen.
Go to Profile#9623
Kim Nguyen Chi
#133021
Overall Influence
#9624
Adrian O’dowd
#133028
Overall Influence
#9625
Charles W. Olanow
#133038
Overall Influence
#9626
Cornelis Bernardus Hendrikus Wilhelmus Lamers
#133043
Overall Influence
#9627
Hans Winkler
#133045
Overall Influence
#9628
George Coupland
#48408
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
George Michael Coupland FRS is a Scottish plant scientist, and Research Scientist and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. Education Coupland earned a First Class Honours from University of Glasgow in 1981, and PhD from University of Edinburgh in 1984.
Go to Profile#9629
William Russell Miller
#133054
Overall Influence
#9630
Robert B. Diasio
#133065
Overall Influence
#9631
Eugene D. Jacobson
#133083
Overall Influence
#9632
Robert Naquet
#133086
Overall Influence
#9633
Johann Heinrich Pabst
1785 - 1838 (53 years)
Johann Heinrich Pabst was a German-Austrian physician, philosopher and lay theologian who was a native of Lindau in Eichsfeld. Biography In 1807 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Göttingen and afterwards relocated to Vienna. Subsequently, he served as a military physician for an Austrian battalion during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1810 he resigned from his position at a hospital in Eger on account of severe illness. During convalescence his primary interests turned to theology and philosophy.
Go to Profile#9634
Frederick E. Mohs
#133090
Overall Influence
#9635
Margaret Fischl
#70670
Overall Influence
Margaret Fischl is an American physician, HIV/AIDS researcher, and professor of medicine at the University of Miami. She is notable for being one of the first researchers to discover the effectiveness of the antiretroviral medication azidothymidine in treating patents with HIV/AIDS, as well as for helping build the University of Miami's AIDS Clinical Research Unit, of which she served as director. Fischl attended the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, from which she earned her M.D. in 1976, and later served her residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
Go to Profile#9636
David John Sugarbaker
#133099
Overall Influence
#9637
Brigitte Vollmar
#133108
Overall Influence
#9638
Michael Joseph Day
#133113
Overall Influence
#9639
Gani Bobi
#86737
Overall Influence
1943 - 1995 (52 years)
Gani Bobi was an Albanian philosopher and sociologist from Kosovo. He was born in Lubenić, municipality of Peć, at the time Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. He was one of the first Albanian professors of sociology and philosophy at the University of Pristina . He got a doctorate degree in sociology at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy in 1986 after finishing his studies in language and literature at the University of Pristina. He lived in Pristina. His publications have been published in five volumes called Vepra. Among his main publications were Sprovimet e modernitetit , Parado...
Go to Profile#9640
Sanduk Ruit
#8588
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Sanduk Ruit is an ophthalmologist from Nepal who has restored the sight of over 180,000 people across Africa and Asia using small-incision cataract surgery. Ruit is the founder and the executive director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, which manufactures high-quality intraocular lenses for surgery at a fraction of the price of the previous manufacturing cost. The low cost has made cataract surgeries affordable to the world's poorest people.
Go to Profile#9641
Gerhard Croll
#54891
Overall Influence
1927 - 2019 (92 years)
Gerhard Croll was a German-Austrian musicologist. Life Born in Düsseldorf, Croll studied Kapellmeister at the Robert Schumann Hochschule and musicology with Rudolf Gerber at the University of Münster. He received his doctorate in 1954 with his thesis on Das Motettenwerk von Gaspar van Weerbeke. After his habilitation in 1961, he became involved with the study of the operas of Agostino Steffani.
Go to Profile#9642
Howard P. Baden
#133129
Overall Influence
#9643
Murray K. Dalinka
#133134
Overall Influence
#9644
Thomas Peter Sculco
#133149
Overall Influence
#9645
Walter (buzz) F. Stewart
#133158
Overall Influence
#9646
Gerald Gunther
#18050
Overall Influence
1927 - 2002 (75 years)
Gerald Gunther was a German-born American constitutional law scholar and a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School from 1962 until his death in 2002. Gunther was among the twenty most widely cited legal scholars of the 20th century, And his 1972 Harvard Law Review article, "The Supreme Court, 1971 Term Foreword: In Search of Evolving Doctrine on a Changing Court: A Model for a Newer Equal Protection," is the fourth most-cited law review article of all time. Gunther's path-breaking casebook, Constitutional Law, originally published in 1965 and now in its 17th edition , is the most widely used ...
Go to Profile#9647
Alexander Margulis
#62993
Overall Influence
1921 - 2018 (97 years)
Alexander R. Margulis was a Serbian American physician who was a professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University. He was formerly the Associate Chancellor and Chairman of Radiology at University of California, San Francisco. Over 8 of his papers have each been cited over 100 times.
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Richard H. Rothman
#133165
Overall Influence
#9649
Lyda Osorio
#66076
Overall Influence
Lyda Elena Osorio Amaya is a Colombian physician, epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist. She is an associate professor at the Universidad del Valle, and a researcher at the Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas in Cali, Valle del Cauca. Osorio's research has focused mainly on vector-borne diseases like malaria, leishmaniasis, Zika and dengue fever. She has also played a role in Colombia's response against COVID-19.
Go to Profile#9650
Honoré Bonet
1350 - 1410 (60 years)
Honoré Bonet was a Provençal Benedictine, the prior of Salon near Embrun. Bonet studied at the University of Avignon where he received a doctorate and traveled around France and Aragon. He wrote on philosophy, law, politics, and heraldry. In his work L'arbre des batailles Bonet deals with war and the laws of war, written in the form of a scholastic dialogue: each chapter starts with a yes–no question, proceeds with a dialogue, and concludes. The book was written to obtain favour of Charles V of France, but without much effect. However, it became a manual for commanders and a lot of European rulers and gentlemen had this book in their libraries as well.
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