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,
#9851
Søren Riis Paludan
#166791
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
#9852
Richard S. Foster
#166802
Overall Influence
#9853
Dallas M. Hyde
#166814
Overall Influence
#9854
Maria Feychting
#166817
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#9855
Craig Michael Mellis
#166824
Overall Influence
#9856
Steven A. Atlas
#166836
Overall Influence
#9857
Michael Lewis
#133994
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Michael Andrew Lewis is a British philosopher. He is the co-founder and general editor of the Journal of Italian Philosophy. Lewis is known for his expertise on continental philosophy. Books The Beautiful Animal: Sincerity, Charm, and the Fossilised Dialectic, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018Phenomenology: An Introduction, with Tanja Staehler, Continuum, 2010Derrida and Lacan: Another Writing, Edinburgh University Press, 2008Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction: On Nature, Bloomsbury, 2007Heidegger and the Place of Ethics: Being-with in the Crossing of Heidegger's Thought, Bloomsbury, 2005
Go to Profile#9858
M. Mohemed Rela
#166849
Overall Influence
#9859
Felix “buddy” H. Savoie
#166855
Overall Influence
#9860
D. D. H. Thomas
#166860
Overall Influence
#9861
John Crofton
#61269
Overall Influence
1912 - 2009 (97 years)
Sir John Wenman Crofton was a pioneer in the treatment of tuberculosis, who also spent the better part of his life raising awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco. Early life and family Crofton was born in Dublin, Ireland to a well-off Anglo-Irish family. His father was physician William Mervyn Crofton, who conducted medical research at the Royal University in Dublin, wrote books on endocrinology and virology, and had flourishing private medical practices both in Dublin and London. His mother was Mary Josephine Abbott, known as Molly. Crofton was sent to prep school at Baymount, in the...
Go to Profile#9862
Hiromasa Ishii
#166862
Overall Influence
#9863
Rose Tremain
#16046
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Dame Rose Tremain is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Life Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and Keith Nicholas Home Thomson. Her paternal great-grandfather is William Thomson, who was Archbishop of York from 1862 to 1890.
Go to Profile#9864
Axel Stuart Merseburger
#166888
Overall Influence
#9865
Barnett S. Kramer
#166909
Overall Influence
#9866
Barbara Dudley Alexander
#66170
Overall Influence
Barbara Dudley Alexander is an American infectious disease physician. She is a professor of medicine and pathology at the Duke University School of Medicine. Alexander earned an M.D. at ECU Brody School of Medicine in 1993. She completed a residency in medicine at Duke University. She conducted fellowships in infectious diseases and medical microbiology at Duke University. Alexander was president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Go to Profile#9867
Paul Walfish
#82385
Overall Influence
1935 - 2018 (83 years)
Paul Gerald Walfish, was a Canadian endocrinologist "whose research in the area of thyroid physiology and pathology has contributed to improved health care in Canada, especially for newborn infants".
Go to Profile#9868
Ziyad Al-Aly
#155668
Overall Influence
Ziyad Al-Aly is an American physician and clinical epidemiologist who is currently Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center and Chief of the Research and Development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System. He is also a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. He has led multiple studies on long COVID and its sequelae.
Go to Profile#9869
Guido Pennings
#166940
Overall Influence
#9870
Lisa Meier Mcshane
#166943
Overall Influence
#9871
Jack Rootman
#166948
Overall Influence
#9872
Helena M. Käyhty
#166966
Overall Influence
#9873
D. E. Royston
#166982
Overall Influence
#9874
Andrei Konchalovsky
#40746
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Andrei Sergeyevich Konchalovsky is a Russian filmmaker. He has worked in Soviet, Hollywood, and contemporary Russian cinema. He is a laureate of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", a National Order of the Legion of Honour, an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, a Cavalier of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and a People's Artist of the RSFSR. He is the son of writer Sergey Mikhalkov, and the brother of filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov.
Go to Profile#9875
Peter A. Meredith
#166994
Overall Influence
#9876
Salamishah Tillet
#26309
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Salamishah Margaret Tillet is an American scholar, writer, and feminist activist. She is the Henry Rutgers Professor of African American Studies and Creative Writing at Rutgers University–Newark, where she also directs the New Arts Justice Initiative. Tillet is also a contributing critic-at-large at The New York Times.
Go to Profile#9877
Susan Brison
#141323
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Susan Brison is Professor of Philosophy and Eunice and Julian Cohen Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values at Dartmouth College, where she also teaches in the Program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. For the 2016-17 academic year, she was the Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. She has also held visiting appointments at New York University, Tufts University, and Princeton University. Brison's work has succeeded in increasing the amount of attention that philosophy, as a field, pays to issues of rape and domestic...
Go to Profile#9878
S. Serge Barold
#167029
Overall Influence
#9879
David G. Simons
#167039
Overall Influence
#9880
Vito Brusasco
#167058
Overall Influence
#9881
Howard L. Levine
#167062
Overall Influence
#9882
Tefko Saračević
#167064
Overall Influence
#9883
Jan Deutsch
#41821
Overall Influence
1935 - 2016 (81 years)
Jan Ginter Deutsch was a Polish-born American philosopher and legal scholar best known for his work on the philosophy of corporate law, jurisprudence, and the cultural underpinnings of capitalist democracy. Deutsch's most recent book, Power and Precedent , is a summation of his work on United States jurisprudence over the past few decades.
Go to Profile#9884
Rosemary D. Higgins
#167080
Overall Influence
#9885
Bernard Isaacs
#167089
Overall Influence
#9886
Nabil el-khoury
#103437
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Nabil Melhem el-Khoury is a Lebanese philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at the Lebanese University in Beirut. His research focuses on Enlightenment philosophy, the Christian Orient, and the Christian-Islamic Dialogue.
Go to Profile#9887
Antonius J. M. De Craen
#167109
Overall Influence
#9888
Werner Falk
#167123
Overall Influence
#9889
Eric Arthur D'asaro
#167150
Overall Influence
#9890
Lauren B. Gerson
#167152
Overall Influence
#9891
Katy Börner
#67597
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Katy Börner is an engineer, scholar, author, educator, and speaker specializing in data analysis and visualization, particularly in the areas of science and technology studies and biomedical applications. Based out of Indiana University, Bloomington, Börner is the Victor Yngve Distinguished Professor of Engineering & Information Science in the Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering and the Department of Information and Library Science at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and a member of the Core Cognitive Science Faculty. Since 2012, she has also held the pos...
Go to Profile#9892
William J. Aronson
#167180
Overall Influence
#9893
Christina M. Surawicz
#167193
Overall Influence
#9894
Yves Lacasse
#167205
Overall Influence
#9895
Michael G. Jr. Hanna
#167208
Overall Influence
#9896
Quique Bassat
#167210
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#9897
Robert Stuart Holzman
#167211
Overall Influence
#9898
Philip D. Henry
#167216
Overall Influence
#9899
Scott J. Mubarak
#167221
Overall Influence
#9900
Robert. S. Baltimore
#167236
Overall Influence
