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,
#10101
Leo Lemay
#39223
Overall Influence
1935 - 2008 (73 years)
J. A. Leo Lemay was du Pont Winterthur Professor of English at the University of Delaware. He was most renowned for his lifelong fascination with Benjamin Franklin, although he wrote on many topics, including Edgar Allan Poe, Ebenezer Cooke, and Joel Barlow.
Go to Profile#10102
Helena Cronin
#83181
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Helena Cronin is a British Darwinian philosopher and rationalist. She is the co-director of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and the Darwin Centre at the London School of Economics. Her 1991 book, The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today brought her public attention; she has published and broadcast widely since.
Go to Profile#10103
Cynthia D. (cynthia Diane) Mulrow
#136925
Overall Influence
#10104
John S. Werner
#122253
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
John S. Werner is an American scientist who studies human vision and its changes across the life span. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, and Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. His work has been cited ~ 17,000 times.
Go to Profile#10105
Rainer Cadenbach
#104807
Overall Influence
1944 - 2008 (64 years)
Rainer Cadenbach was a German musicologist and University professor. Life Born in near Kassel, Cadenbach studierte German , philosophy as well as musicology Cadenbach conceived and directed numerous interdisciplinary and cross-faculty artistic-scientific projects, symposia and congresses. Topics were the composer Dieter Schnebel , Musicology in United Berlin , Music and Visualization , Walter Benjamin , John Cage , Friedrich Nietzsche , Paul Hindemith , Joseph Joachim , surrealism and DADA , Bohuslav Martinů , Hermann Kretzschmar , Beethoven , Ernst Pepping , Max Reger , Richard Strauss , Franz Schreker and his pupils and George Enescu .
Go to Profile#10106
Heinz W. Wahner
#136962
Overall Influence
#10107
Rohit Varma
#27672
Overall Influence
Rohit Varma is an Indian-American ophthalmologist and professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine. In 2014, he was named director of the USC Eye Institute and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology for Keck School of Medicine of USC. In March 2016, Varma was named the interim dean of the Keck School of Medicine, and in November was named dean. In October 2017, USC announced that he stepped down as dean. In October 2018, Varma became the founding director of the Southern California Eyecare and Vision Research Institute.
Go to Profile#10108
Hayward Alker
#28815
Overall Influence
1937 - 2007 (70 years)
Hayward R. Alker was a Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California School of International Relations, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and Yale University. Alker was also former President of the International Studies Association and John A. McCone Chair in International Security at the School of International Relations, University of Southern California. Dr. Alker specialized in research methods, core international relations theory, international politics, and security.
Go to Profile#10109
Christos Masouros
#136998
Overall Influence
#10110
Manuel René Malinow
#137002
Overall Influence
#10111
Hoter ben Shlomo
#108495
Overall Influence
Hoter ben Shlomo was a scholar and philosopher from Yemen who was heavily influenced by the earlier works of Natan'el al-Fayyumi, Maimonides, Saadia Gaon and al-Ghazali. The connection between the Epistle of the Brethren of Purity and Isma'ilism might have suggested the adoption of this work as one of the main sources of what would become known as “Jewish Ismailism” as was found in late medieval Yemenite Judaism. This “Jewish Ismailism” consisted of adapting Ismaili doctrines about cosmology, prophecy and hermeneutics. There are many examples of the Brethren of Purity influencing Yemenite Jew...
Go to Profile#10112
John Fred Annegers
#137031
Overall Influence
#10113
Ian S. Trowbridge
#137037
Overall Influence
#10114
Tim Carter
#91227
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Tim Carter is an Australian musicologist with a special focus on late Renaissance music and Italian Baroque music. An active member of the field of musicology, Carter is a department chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he holds the position of David G. Frey Distinguished Professor. He has worked on the editorial boards or staffs of a number of prominent musical publications and has published extensively in the field.
Go to Profile#10115
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș
1872 - 1952 (80 years)
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș was a Romanian art historian, ethnographer, museologist and cultural journalist, also known as local champion of art conservation, Romanian Police leader and pioneer radio broadcaster. Tzigara was a member of the Junimea literary society, holding positions at the National School of Fine Arts, the University of Bucharest and lastly the University of Cernăuți. During his youth, he was secretary to Carol I, the King of Romania. Close to the royal family, he also served as head of the Carol I Academic Foundation, where he set up a large collection of photographic plates.
Go to Profile#10116
Don L. Goldenberg
#137039
Overall Influence
#10117
Jan Pontén
#137051
Overall Influence
#10118
Roger Gibson
#125719
Overall Influence
1944 - 2015 (71 years)
Roger Fletcher Gibson Jr. was an American philosopher specializing in epistemology and the philosophy of language. He was best known as a leading exponent of the philosophy of W. V. Quine. Biography Gibson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Roger Fletcher Gibson Sr. and Virginia Irene Melton. He spent his formative years moving throughout the country, eventually coming to live with his maternal grandparents about whom he would later remark were the most influential people in his life. Gibson joined the United States Marine Corps out of high school and volunteered for duty in Vietnam. He served in Saigon from October 1965 to October 1966.
Go to Profile#10119
J. Craig Morrison
#137074
Overall Influence
#10120
Stephen Benjamin Hulley
#137084
Overall Influence
#10121
Suneet S. P. Chauhan
#137089
Overall Influence
#10122
Jeffrey R. Di Leo
#103977
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Jeffrey R. Di Leo is a Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston–Victoria. He is editor and founder of the critical theory journal symplokē, editor-in-chief of the American Book Review, and Executive Director of the Society for Critical Exchange and its Winter Theory Institute.
Go to Profile#10123
Mantas Adomėnas
#49260
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Mantas Adomėnas is a Lithuanian classicist and politician. He was first elected to the Seimas in 2008 and served until 2020. He earned a Ph.D. degree in classics from the University of Cambridge. His best known work is probably the article The Fluctuating Fortunes of Heraclitus in Plato.
Go to Profile#10124
Giuseppe Banfi
#137107
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#10125
Peter Berlit
#137110
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#10126
Jan Albert
#137118
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#10127
Thomas Lawrence
1711 - 1783 (72 years)
Thomas Lawrence was an English physician and biographer, who became President of the Royal College of Physicians in 1767. Life The second son of Captain Thomas Lawrence, R.N., by Elizabeth, daughter of Gabriel Soulden of Kinsale, and widow of a Colonel Piers, Lawrence was born in the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, on 25 May 1711. He was grandson of another Dr. Thomas Lawrence , a royal physician who was nephew of Henry Lawrence. Accompanying his father when appointed to the Irish station about 1715, he was for a time at school in Dublin. His mother died in 1724, and his father then left the navy and settled with his family at Southampton.
Go to Profile#10128
Timothy S. Jr. Blackwell
#137141
Overall Influence
#10129
David Ca Mant
#10130
Timo J. Erkinjuntti
#137152
Overall Influence
#10131
Hans Christian Jacobaeus
1879 - 1937 (58 years)
Hans Christian Jacobaeus was a Swedish internist born in Skarhult. In 1916 he became a professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. From 1925 until his death in 1937, he was a member of the Nobel Prize Committee.
Go to Profile#10132
Peter Herscovitch
#137174
Overall Influence
#10133
Benjamin Smith Barton
1766 - 1815 (49 years)
Benjamin Smith Barton was an American botanist, naturalist, and physician. He was one of the first professors of natural history in the United States and built the largest collection of botanical specimens in the country. He wrote the first American textbook on botany.
Go to Profile#10134
G. Davey Smith
#137186
Overall Influence
#10135
Norbert Stefan
#137195
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
#10136
Ralf Nauen
#137203
Overall Influence
#10137
David A. Calhoun
#137241
Overall Influence
#10138
Julián Benito‐león
#137242
Overall Influence
#10139
Jack Russell Weinstein
#82386
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Jack Russell Weinstein is an American philosopher specializing in the history of philosophy, political philosophy, Adam Smith, and contemporary liberal theory. He is currently a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Dakota. He is the director of The Institute for Philosophy in Public Life and the host of the public radio show Why? Philosophical discussions about everyday life. He was an influential student activist in the 1980s.
Go to Profile#10140
Gerard Verschuuren
#75882
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Gerard M. Verschuuren is a human biologist, writer, speaker, and consultant, working at the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. He is a human biologist, specialized in human genetics, who also earned a doctorate in the philosophy of science, and studied and worked at universities in Europe and the United States. In 1994, he moved permanently to the United States, and lives now in the southern part of New Hampshire.
Go to Profile#10141
Robert D. Timmerman
#137279
Overall Influence
#10142
Greg Dawes
#103403
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Gregory Dawes is a distinguished professor of Latin American Studies at North Carolina State University. He has written on Latin American studies and literary theory and is the editor of A Contracorriente, an online academic journal dedicated to approaching social history and Latin American literature from a left-wing perspective, and managing editor of Editorial A Contracorriente, the Journal's publishing spin-off.
Go to Profile#10143
Patricia Thompson
#72754
Overall Influence
1926 - 2016 (90 years)
Patricia J. Thompson , also known as Yelena Vladimirovna Mayakovskaya , was an American philosopher and author of more than 20 books. She was one of the two known children of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, the other being Gleb-Nikita Lavinsky . This fact was kept a secret until 1991.
Go to Profile#10144
Donald. G. Mitchell
#137319
Overall Influence
#10145
Giovanni Corrao
#137324
Overall Influence
#10146
Vic Dudman
#122036
Overall Influence
1935 - 2009 (74 years)
Victor Howard Dudman was an Australian logician based at Macquarie University. Born in Sydney, he was greatly influenced by Willard Van Orman Quine on whose work he based his undergraduate logic courses.
Go to Profile#10147
Melvil Dewey
1851 - 1931 (80 years)
Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey was an influential American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, a founder of the Lake Placid Club, and a chief librarian at Columbia University. He was also a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and antisemitism.
Go to Profile#10148
Ian Hargreaves
#19499
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Ian Richard Hargreaves CBE is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Career His career in British journalism includes several beats at the Financial Times, as well as Directorship of BBC News & Current Affairs, Editorship of The Independent, and Editorship of the New Statesman.
Go to Profile#10149
Kjetil Søreide
#137426
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
#10150
Krystal Tsosie
#23144
Overall Influence
Dr. Krystal Tsosie is a Navajo geneticist and bioethicist at Arizona State University and activist for Indigenous data sovereignty. She is also an educator and an expert on genetic and social identities. Her advocacy and academic work in ameliorating disparities in genetics through community-based participatory research has been covered by various national news sources, including The New York Times, Nova, The Washington Post, NPR, The Atlantic, Forbes, and The Boston Globe.
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