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,
#10301
Norman G. Levinsky
#138752
Overall Influence
#10302
Paul David Brown
#138753
Overall Influence
#10303
Emad El-Omar
#88646
Overall Influence
Emad Munir El-Omar is a British physician and gastroenterologist who chairs the department of medicine at the University of New South Wales and is the editor in chief of The BMJ's Gut academic journal.
Go to Profile#10304
Joel D. Meyers
#138764
Overall Influence
#10305
Louis-Marie Régis
1903 - 1988 (85 years)
Louis-Marie Régis was a Canadian philosopher, medievalist, and Dominican priest. He was the founder of the Institute for Medieval Studies in 1942 and served as its director from 1943 until 1952. In 1971 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Go to Profile#10306
Hans Foerstl
#138770
Overall Influence
#10307
Lester Asheim
#52744
Overall Influence
1914 - 1997 (83 years)
Lester Eugene Asheim was an American librarian and scholar of library science and film history. He was on the faculty of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School and the University of North Carolina and held positions in the American Library Association . He was included among the "100 most important leaders we had in the 20th century" by the American Library Association.
Go to Profile#10308
Arnold Jacobshagen
#105521
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Arnold Jacobshagen is a German musicologist. He has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln since 2006. Career Born in Marburg, Jacobshagen studied musicology, history and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin , the University of Vienna and Paris as well as culture and media management at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler". In 1996 he received his doctorate at the Free University. He then worked as a music dramaturg at the Staatstheater Mainz. He later held a scholarship at the German Historical Institute in Rome and at the . From 1997 to 2006 he worked as a research assistant at the Forschungsinstitut für Musiktheater of the University of Bayreuth.
Go to Profile#10309
John Mueller Anderson
#101655
Overall Influence
1914 - 1999 (85 years)
John Mueller Anderson was an American philosopher. He was known for his expertise on post-Kantian philosophy, philosophy of art and logic. Anderson was Evan Pugh Professor of Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University.
Go to Profile#10310
Walter Stewart Scacchi
#10311
Hanna Pickard
#113864
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Hanna Pickard is a philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychiatry, moral psychology, and medical ethics. She is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University with appointments in the William H. Miller III Department of Philosophy in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Go to Profile#10312
Otto Erich Deutsch
1883 - 1967 (84 years)
Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of Franz Schubert's compositions, first published in 1951 in English, with a revised edition published in 1978 in German. It is from this catalogue that the D numbers used to identify Schubert's works derive.
Go to Profile#10313
Floyd C. Rector
#138855
Overall Influence
#10314
Edward F. Mooney
#77781
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Edward F. Mooney is an internationally recognized Kierkegaard scholar. A retired professor of religion and philosophy, he taught at Syracuse University, and in Israel at Haifa and Tel Aviv Universities. As president of the International Kierkegaard Society, he lectured at n Vilnia, Frankfurt, Reykjavik, Jerusalem, Ber-Shiva, Tel Aviv, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Auburn, and elsewhere. 2013–2015 he was visiting professor at Tel-Aviv and Hebrew University, Jerusalem, teaching seminars in American Studies on Thoreau. He received his B.A. in philosophy from Oberlin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from The University of California, Santa Barbara .
Go to Profile#10315
Andrew G. Frantz
#138864
Overall Influence
#10316
Herbert Mayo
1796 - 1852 (56 years)
Herbert Mayo, M.D. , was a British physiologist, anatomist and medical writer. Biography Mayo was born in Queen Anne Street, London, the third son of John Mayo. He entered Middlesex Hospital as a surgical pupil on 17 May 1814, and was a pupil of Sir Charles Bell . He also studied at the Leyden University, where he graduated with a D.M. degree. He became house-surgeon at Middlesex Hospital in 1818, and M.R.C.S. in 1819.
Go to Profile#10317
J. Hume Adams
#138867
Overall Influence
#10318
Paul Calabresi
#138873
Overall Influence
#10319
Dariusz Dudek
#138885
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
#10320
Michael E. Farkouh
#138920
Overall Influence
#10321
Yadunandana Swami
#87153
Overall Influence
Yadunandana Swami, Principal of Bhaktivedanta College, is the first Spanish second generation sannyasi of ISKCON. He was approved by ISKCON's GBC body, in February 2009, as an ISKCON sannyasa. He is one of the original developers of VTE courses and is currently an Executive Member of Governing Body Commission Ministry of Educational Development.
Go to Profile#10322
John Foster Marshall
#138930
Overall Influence
#10323
Richard A. Polin
#138936
Overall Influence
#10324
Dr. Daniel Rachmilewitz
#138943
Overall Influence
#10325
Professor P. J. Lefèbvre
#138983
Overall Influence
#10326
Tadashi Yoshino
#138995
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
#10327
Louis U. Bigliani
#138996
Overall Influence
#10328
Jorge Albores‐saavedra
#138999
Overall Influence
#10329
Daniel Benhamou
#139003
Overall Influence
#10330
Arnold Brossi
#139006
Overall Influence
#10331
Stefan Gradmann
#96653
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Stefan Gradmann is a professor at KU Leuven and former manager of the University Library. After studying Philosophy and Literature in Paris and Freiburg and his PhD in 1986 and a post-graduate studies in Cologne, he worked as a research librarian at the State and University Library of Hamburg.
Go to Profile#10332
Itzhak Fried
#139015
Overall Influence
#10333
Gerald Fischbach
#59269
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Gerald D. Fischbach is an American neuroscientist. He received his M.D. from the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in 1965 before beginning his research career at the National Institutes of Health in 1966, where his research focused on the mechanisms of neuromuscular junctions. After his tenure at the National Institutes of Health, Fischbach was a professor at Harvard University Medical School from 1972 to 1981 and from 1990 to 1998 and the Washington University School of Medicine from 1981 to 1990. In 1998, he was named the director of the National Institute of Neurological...
Go to Profile#10334
Lena Marie Napolitano
#139018
Overall Influence
#10335
Nasser Khaled Altorki
#139025
Overall Influence
#10336
Masunori Matsuzaki
#139043
Overall Influence
#10337
Christian H. Herfarth
#139045
Overall Influence
#10338
Léon Cogniet
1794 - 1880 (86 years)
Léon Cogniet was a French history and portrait painter. He is probably best remembered as a teacher, with more than one hundred notable students. Biography He was born in Paris. His father was a painter and wallpaper designer. In 1812, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-arts, where he studied with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. He also worked in the studios of Jean-Victor Bertin. After failing an attempt to win the Prix de Rome in 1816, he won the following year with his depiction of Helen Rescued by Castor and Pollux and received a stipend to study at the French Academy in Rome until 1822. Before l...
Go to Profile#10339
Thomas Joseph White
#88336
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Thomas Joseph White, O.P., is an American Roman Catholic priest and theologian. On September 14, 2021, he succeeded Michał Paluch, OP, as rector of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome .
Go to Profile#10340
Ingmar Persson
#139096
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#10341
Randolph Warren Evans
#139099
Overall Influence
#10342
Stephen J Smith
#72346
Overall Influence
Stephen J Smith is Meritorious Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science [1] and Emeritus Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University [2]. He held faculty and Howard Hughes Medical Institute positions at the Yale University School of Medicine 1980-1989. He served 1990-2014 as a Stanford Professor, teaching many courses in synaptic physiology and cellular microscopy while mentoring many students and fellows [3]. He also taught in many expert workshops and summer courses at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Go to Profile#10343
Ashutosh Tewari
#18623
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Ashutosh K. Tewari is the chairman of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is a board certified American urologist, oncologist, and principal investigator. Before moving to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2013, he was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at Weill Cornell Medical College and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Tewari was the Ronald P. Lynch endowed Chair of Urologic Oncology and the hospital's Director of Robotic Prostatectomy, treating patients with prostate, urinary bladder and other urological cancers.
Go to Profile#10344
Brian Staskawicz
#107608
Overall Influence
Brian John Staskawicz ForMemRS is professor of plant and microbial miology at the University of California, Berkeley and scientific director of agricultural genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute .
Go to Profile#10345
Jerome Donar Waye
#139129
Overall Influence
#10346
William Robert Wilson
#139142
Overall Influence
#10347
Thomas Prof. Dr. Schwarz
#10348
Dr. Duncan M. Geddes
#139146
Overall Influence
#10349
Kenneth Lee Carder
#61504
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Kenneth Lee Carder is a retired American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1992. Carder distinguished himself as a pastor, a member of Annual Conference and General U.M. agencies, a bishop, seminary professor, and an author.
Go to Profile#10350
Dominique M. Elias
#139162
Overall Influence
