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,
#9901
Eva Hellström‐lindberg
#167238
Overall Influence
#9902
Hans Th. M. Folgering
#167247
Overall Influence
#9903
Allan Victor Hoffbrand
#103358
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Allan Victor Hoffbrand is Emeritus Professor of Haematology at University College, London. He is distinguished for his research and as an author of internationally read textbooks of haematology. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1935. After education at Bradford Grammar School, he gained an Open Scholarship in 1953 to The Queen's College, Oxford. He gained a BA degree in Physiology and began clinical studies at The London Hospital in 1957 and qualified in medicine at University of Oxford, BM BCH in 1959.
Go to Profile#9904
Elbert S. Huang
#167275
Overall Influence
#9905
Elisabeth Samsonov
#110338
Overall Influence
Elisabeth von Samsonow is an Austrian artist and philosopher. She is the Professor for Philosophical and Historical Anthropology at the Kunst an der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna. She is also a member of GEDOK Munich.
Go to Profile#9906
Chelsea S. Kidwell
#167283
Overall Influence
#9907
David Bloor
#167284
Overall Influence
#9908
Khalid F. Tabbara
#167293
Overall Influence
#9909
Sabeeha Merchant
#63054
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Sabeeha Sabanali Merchant is a professor of plant biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the photosynthetic metabolism and metalloenzymes In 2010 Merchant led the team that sequenced the Chlamydomonas genome. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.
Go to Profile#9910
Geert Kazemier
#167306
Overall Influence
#9911
David Kirsch
#75825
Overall Influence
David Guy Kirsch is an American oncologist currently the Barbara Levine University Professor at Duke University and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Education He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2000.
Go to Profile#9912
Eira R. A. Viikari-juntura
#167321
Overall Influence
#9913
George Bartzokis
#167352
Overall Influence
#9914
Hiroshi Ashihara
#167357
Overall Influence
#9915
Lennart Nilsson
#167358
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#9916
Masaomi Tomonaga
#167359
Overall Influence
#9917
Solomon Posen
#167366
Overall Influence
#9918
Paul J. Elson
#167371
Overall Influence
#9919
Richard Page
#122823
Overall Influence
Richard L. Page is Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and holds the George R. and Elaine Love Professor endowed Chair. Education Page received his bachelor's and medical degrees from Duke University and the Duke University School of Medicine, followed by residency and specialty training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He then completed a fellowship at Duke and joined the Duke faculty.
Go to Profile#9920
George Forell
#81696
Overall Influence
1919 - 2011 (92 years)
George Wolfgang Forell was the Carver Distinguished Chair of Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa. He was a scholar, author, lecturer, and guest professor in the field of Christian ethics.
Go to Profile#9921
Sjoerd Rodenhuis
#167393
Overall Influence
#9922
Lars‐gunnar Kindblom
#167399
Overall Influence
#9923
P. J. De Biévre
#167405
Overall Influence
#9924
Clarence E. Davis
#167410
Overall Influence
#9925
Juan Carlos Balasch
#167421
Overall Influence
#9926
C. Wayne Moss
#167447
Overall Influence
#9927
Wendy Moyle
#167462
Overall Influence
#9928
Michael J. Droller
#167475
Overall Influence
#9929
Jean‐françois Pittet
#167487
Overall Influence
#9930
Scott D. Flamm
#167488
Overall Influence
#9931
Takashi Miyauchi
#167511
Overall Influence
#9932
Warren Dewayne Heston
#167518
Overall Influence
#9933
Noreen M. Clark
#137076
Overall Influence
1943 - 2013 (70 years)
Noreen M. Clark was the Myron E. Wegman Distinguished University Professor, Director of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease, Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education, and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. From 1995-2005 she served as Dean of Public Health and Marshall H. Becker Professor of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She was interested in systems, policies and programs that promote health, prevent illness, and enable individuals to manage disease.
Go to Profile#9934
Johan Arild Aarli
#167566
Overall Influence
#9935
David Armstrong
#167574
Overall Influence
#9936
Krister Segerberg
#167586
Overall Influence
#9937
Waisang W.s. Poon
#167592
Overall Influence
#9938
Carlos Castrodeza
#114368
Overall Influence
1945 - 2012 (67 years)
Carlos Castrodeza Ruíz de la Cuesta was a Spanish biologist and philosopher. He taught philosophy of science at Madrid's Complutense University. Biography Work Authority on Darwin and Darwinism, Castrodeza’s thought focuses on bioethical problems from an ethological viewpoint and on scientific problems and ideologies from a naturalistic perspective. Castrodeza's Darwinian trilogy Biology's Deep Ways Razón biológica , Nihilismo y supervivencia y La darwinización del mundo intends to show how little control we have over our future despite our profound preoccupation for things past. For Cast...
Go to Profile#9939
Howard D. Homesley
#167633
Overall Influence
#9940
Gary John Schiller
#167637
Overall Influence
#9941
Robert Sears
#75942
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Robert William Sears, known as Dr. Bob, is an American pediatrician from Capistrano Beach, California, noted for his unorthodox and dangerous views on childhood vaccination. While Sears acknowledges the efficacy of vaccines—for instance, he supports the claim that Chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria have all disappeared because of vaccines—he has proposed alternative vaccination schedules that depart from accepted medical recommendations. His proposals have enjoyed celebrity endorsement but are not supported by medical evidence and have contributed to dangerous under-vaccination in the national child population.
Go to Profile#9942
Joachim Prof. Dr. Bonn De Bargon
#167641
Overall Influence
#9943
Julia K. Terzis
#167643
Overall Influence
#9944
Rainer W. G. Gruessner
#167650
Overall Influence
#9945
Sergio Piomelli
#167652
Overall Influence
#9946
Tetsuo Shiohara
#167655
Overall Influence
#9947
Donato Nitti
#167659
Overall Influence
#9948
Janet Abbate
#22824
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Janet Abbate is an associate professor of science, technology, and society at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on the history of computer science and the Internet, particularly on the participation of women in the field.
Go to Profile#9949
Ronald Levy
#53725
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Ronald Levy is an American medical doctor and scientist at Stanford University. He specializes in lymphoma, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Burkitt's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease. His research investigates how the immune system can be harnessed to fight lymphoma. His work has led to the concept that antibodies can be used as personalized anticancer drugs and to the development of an antibody-based drug, Rituxan, that is widely used to treat lymphoma.
Go to Profile#9950
Peter Henry St. George-hyslop
#167679
Overall Influence
