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,
#9651
Andrew Eric Rosenberg
#133184
Overall Influence
#9652
Ramon Berguer
#38143
Overall Influence
Ramon Berguer is Frankel Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, Professor Emeritus of Surgery, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Berguer qualified as a doctor with an MD degree from the University of Barcelona, Spain, in 1962. He trained in general and vascular Surgery at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, US. On his return to Spain he joined the opposition to General Franco's dictatorship and was active in the organization of the resistance among professionals. In 1972 he left for England to avoid detention and there he continued to organize inter...
Go to Profile#9653
Jacques Simard,
#133204
Overall Influence
#9654
Samuel Dagogo-Jack
#21901
Overall Influence
Samuel E. Dagogo-Jack is a Nigerian-American physician. He is the A.C. Mullins Endowed Professor in Translational Research, Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He is also an Editor of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
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Lisa Sowle Cahill
#104781
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Lisa Sowle Cahill is an American ethicist, and J. Donald Monan Professor at Boston College. She first became known in the 1980s with her studies on gender and sexual ethics, but now she has extended her work to social and global ethics. Lisa Sowle Cahill's work focuses on an attempt to discuss the complexity of moral issues while lowering tensions about theological disagreements between the Church and society.
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Anton Brugmans
1732 - 1789 (57 years)
Anton Brugmans was Dutch physicist who proposed a two-fluid theory of magnetism. He did magnetism experiments by putting objects on water or mercury, using surface tension to make them float and magnets to move them. He discovered the diamagnetism of bismuth.
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Chi-Chao Chan
#43554
Overall Influence
Chi-Chao Chan is a Chinese-born American ophthalmologist and physician-scientist specialized in the diagnosis and pathology of eye diseases. She joined the National Eye Institute as a postdoctoral researcher in 1982 and remained until her retirement in 2015. Chan was promoted in 1999 to senior investigator and chief of the NEI immunopathology section and the histopathology core.
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William George Aston
1841 - 1911 (70 years)
William George Aston was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, author and scholar-expert in the language and history of Japan and Korea. Early life Aston was born near Derry, Ireland. He distinguished himself at Queen's College, Belfast , which he attended 1859–1863. There he received a very thorough philological training in Latin, Greek, French, German and modern history. One of his professors was James McCosh.
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John Laird
1887 - 1946 (59 years)
John Laird was a philosopher, in the school of New British Realism, who later turned to metaphysical idealism. Life Laird was born at Durris, Kincardineshire, a parish adjacent to the birthplace of Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid. He was the son of Margaret Laird and D. M. W. Laird, a Church of Scotland minister, and the son of John Laird, a minister and Free Church moderator.
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Akhtar Hameed Khan
#10008
Overall Influence
1914 - 1999 (85 years)
Akhter Hameed Khan was a Pakistani development practitioner and social scientist. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing countries, and widely advocated community participation in development. His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model . It earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines and an honorary Doctorate of law from Michigan State University.
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John Hogeland Pemberton
#133249
Overall Influence
#9662
Howard Mark Chertkow
#133254
Overall Influence
#9663
Kenneth B. Mccredie
#133281
Overall Influence
#9664
Oskar Ewald
1881 - 1940 (59 years)
Oskar Ewald, born Oskar Friedländer, or Friedländer Oszkár was a Hungarian-Austrian philosopher. His father was Moritz Friedländer, a liberal scholar of Judaism who worked with the Jewish community of the Kingdom of Hungary on matters including the expansion of education. Oskar himself would convert to Protestantism and change his last name to Ewald.
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Michael D. Lockshin
#96403
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Michael D. Lockshin is an American professor and medical researcher. He is known for his work as a researcher of autoimmune diseases, with focus on antiphospholipid syndrome and lupus. He is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and the Director Emeritus of the Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease at Hospital for Special Surgery. He retired from HSS on January 31st, 2023.
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Olivier Chosidow
#133341
Overall Influence
#9667
Estiphan Panoussi
#64912
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Estiphan Panoussi is an Iranian philologist, philosopher, orientalist, and international scholar of Iranian Assyrian origin. He is professor emeritus of the University of Gothenburg and native speaker of Senaya, a Northeastern Neo-Aramaic language.
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Beatrice Bruteau
#90750
Overall Influence
1930 - 2014 (84 years)
Beatrice Bruteau was an American contemplative, philosopher and author. Early life and education Beatrice Bruteau was born on July 25, 1930, in Evanston, Illinois. According to her obituary, her parents were Frederick and Ruth Folgerstrum Bruteau, and she was raised in Jefferson City, Missouri. She was one of the first women to study philosophy at the graduate level at Fordham University, where she earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1954.
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Pedro Cerezo Galán
#106630
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Pedro Cerezo Galán is a Spanish philosopher and university professor. His specialty is contemporary Western philosophy, including modern Spanish thinkers such as José Ortega y Gasset, Xavier Zubiri and Antonio Machado.
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Christopher Shields
#133230
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Christopher Shields is an American philosopher and George N. Shuster Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the editor of Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Books Aristotle's De Anima, Translated with Introduction and Commentary, Oxford University Press 2016Ancient Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction, Routledge 2011Aristotle, Routledge 2007Classical Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction, Routledge 2003The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, with Robert Pasnau, Westview Press 2003Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy, ed., Blackwell Publishers 2002Order in Multiplicity: ...
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Edward Iii Ellis
#133377
Overall Influence
#9672
Keith A. Hruska
#133389
Overall Influence
#9673
Guido Valesini
#133393
Overall Influence
#9674
Kazuhisa Takahashi
#133398
Overall Influence
#9675
Robert F. Jr. Lemanske
#133409
Overall Influence
#9676
Gerald Jr Mcgwin
#133411
Overall Influence
#9677
Vernon K. Sondak
#133415
Overall Influence
#9678
Eugenio Bulygin
#41327
Overall Influence
1931 - 2021 (90 years)
Eugenio Bulygin, born Yevgeny Viktorovich Bulygin was a Russian Argentine jurist and legal philosopher. During a career that spanned over 60 years covering the second half of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century, Bulygin established himself as one of the main representatives of legal positivism in the Latin world.
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Jeffrey Ern Saffitz
#133447
Overall Influence
#9680
Jean-Pierre Voyer
#50617
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
Jean-Pierre Voyer was a post-situationist French philosopher. His main thesis was the non-existence of economy, and he claimed to be inspired by Hegel and Marx, although he was very critical of the latter. He criticized utilitarianism and has been published in the Revue de Mauss, a French anti-utilitarian journal.
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Gilberto de Nucci
#49749
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Gilberto De Nucci is a noted Brazilian physician, scientist and university professor in the field of pharmacology. Education He was born in Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil. His father was a well-known physician in the city. De Nucci studied medicine at the Medical School of Ribeirão Preto of the University of São Paulo, in Ribeirão Preto , where he also did his initial scientific studies in the Department of Pharmacology. Soon after graduation he moved to London, England. He worked from 1982 to 1985 with Dr. John R. Vane, 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, in London, England.
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Cressida Heyes
#96057
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Cressida J. Heyes is a British and naturalized Canadian philosopher, currently employed as the Henry Marshall Tory Chair at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and formerly as the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality. Educated at Oxford University and McGill University , Heyes has also taught at Michigan State University. Her latest book, Anaesthetics of Existence: Essays on Experience at the Edge is the winner of the David Easton prize from the Foundations of Political Thought committee of the American Political Science Association, and a finalist for the 2020 Book Award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy.
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Irene Ghobrial
#124900
Overall Influence
1990 - Present (36 years)
Irene Ghobrial is an American-Egyptian physician who is a professor at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where her research investigates the progression of multiple myeloma. She is interested in why certain patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering multiple myeloma develop B cell malignancies. She leads the Stand Up to Cancer multiple myeloma dream team.
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Hwang Jini
1506 - 1544 (38 years)
Hwang Jini or Hwang Jin-yi , also known by her gisaeng name Myeongwol , was one of the most famous gisaeng of the Joseon Dynasty. She lived during the reign of King Jungjong. She was noted for her exceptional beauty, charming quick wit, extraordinary intellect, and her assertive and independent nature. She has become an almost myth-like figure in modern Korea, inspiring novels, operas, films, and television series.
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Mandy Eberhart
#133495
Overall Influence
#9686
Max Holzmann
1899 - 1994 (95 years)
Max Holzmann was a Swiss cardiologist. Early life Max Holzmann was born on 31 March 1899 in Zurich, the son of physician Moritz Holzmann and Anna Helena Lerch. Holzmann took a degree in medicine in Zurich and Lausanne, and in 1923 graduated with a doctor of medicine degree. Holzmann worked as a doctor in Vienna, Paris and at the University Hospital in Zurich.
Go to Profile#9687
Sergio L. Pecorelli
#133516
Overall Influence
#9688
Aaron Polliack
#133537
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
#9689
Björn Wiman
#133538
Overall Influence
#9690
Elizabeth Nabel
#26864
Overall Influence
Elizabeth Nabel is an American cardiologist and Executive Vice President of Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics and OPKO Health. Prior to this role, she served as President of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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Robert E. Condon
#133573
Overall Influence
#9692
Kenneth A. Foon
#133589
Overall Influence
#9693
Moses Amyraut
1596 - 1664 (68 years)
Moïse Amyraut, Latin Moyses Amyraldus , in English texts often Moses Amyraut, was a French Huguenot, Reformed theologian and metaphysician. He was the architect of Amyraldism, a Calvinist doctrine that made modifications to Calvinist theology regarding the nature of Christ's atonement and covenant theology.
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Michael J. Loux
#108807
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Michael J. Loux is an American philosopher and George N. Shuster Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He is known for his works on metaphysics. Books Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction, 4th. ed. Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction, 3rd. ed. Nature, Norm, and Psyche: Explorations in Aristotelian Psychology Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics, co-editor Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings Primary Ousia The Possible and the Actual The Synoptic Vision, Substance and Attribute Ockham's Theory of Terms: Part I of the Summa Logica Universals and Particulars
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Oliva Blanchette
#93580
Overall Influence
1929 - 2021 (92 years)
Oliva Blanchette was an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. He was a former president of the Metaphysical Society of America . Blanchette won the J.N. Findlay Award of the Metaphysical Society of America in 2007 for Philosophy of Being . He is also known for having translated works of Maurice Blondel into English.
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Alain Duhamel
#133610
Overall Influence
#9697
Glenda Gray
#116499
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Glenda Elisabeth Gray MB BCh, FC Paeds, DSc , is a South African physician, scientist and activist specializing in the care of children and in HIV medicine. In 2012, she was awarded South Africa's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe . She became the first female president of the South African Medical Research Council in 2014, was recognized as one of the "100 Most Influential People" by Time in 2017 and was listed amongst "Africa's 50 Most Powerful Women" by Forbes Africa in 2020. Her research expertise involves developing microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV vaccines.
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Georg von Dadelsen
#33586
Overall Influence
1918 - 2007 (89 years)
Georg von Dadelsen was a German musicologist, who taught at the University of Hamburg and the University of Tübingen. He focused on Johann Sebastian Bach, his family and his environment, and the chronology of his works. As director of the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen, he influenced the Neue Bach-Ausgabe , the second complete edition of Bach's works.
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Stephen Malawista
#43100
Overall Influence
1934 - 2013 (79 years)
Stephen Evan Malawista was an American medical researcher and Professor of medicine within the rheumatology department of Yale University. Malawista is credited as the co-discover of Lyme disease and led the research team which identified the disease.
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María José Frápolli
#118358
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
María José Frápolli Sanz is a Spanish philosopher. As of 2022, she is professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Granada. Her work is focused on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of logic.
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