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,
#10701
Sherif R. Zaki
#142362
Overall Influence
#10702
Antti R. Reunanen
#142389
Overall Influence
#10703
Rafaël Pividal
#75747
Overall Influence
1934 - 2006 (72 years)
Rafaël Pividal was a French writer and philosopher. Biography Rafaël Pividal was the son of a French mother, a classical dancer, and an Argentinean father, a lawyer. Rafael's maternal grandmother was a well-known actress, Germaine Dermoz .
Go to Profile#10704
Do-youn Dy Oh
#142427
Overall Influence
#10705
Mariana Castells
#142432
Overall Influence
Mariana Castells is a Spanish-American allergist who focuses on mast cell diseases, including mastocytosis, mast cell activation syndrome and hereditary alpha tryptasimia. Mastocytosis is a rare disease with limited treatment options. Castells works at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts in the Department of Allergy, Rheumatology, and Immunology and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Go to Profile#10706
A. Mark Fendrick
#142438
Overall Influence
#10707
S. P. Steven P. Roose
#142449
Overall Influence
#10708
Curtis A. Hanson
#142455
Overall Influence
#10709
Tomasz Brzozowski
#142457
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#10710
Michael Jerome Yaszemski
#142458
Overall Influence
#10711
Gary L. Davis
#142519
Overall Influence
#10712
Robert Stevenson
#108569
Overall Influence
1916 - 2012 (96 years)
Robert Murrell Stevenson was an American musicologist. He studied at the College of Mines and Metallurgy of the University of Texas at El Paso , the Juilliard School of Music , Yale University and the University of Rochester ; further study took him to Harvard University , Princeton Theological Seminary and Oxford University . He taught at the University of Texas and at Westminster Choir College in the 1940s. In 1949 he became a faculty member at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he taught until 1987. Stevenson is well known for having studied with Igor Stravinsky when he w...
Go to Profile#10713
Anthony James Comerota
#142531
Overall Influence
#10714
Stuart M. Cobbe
#142532
Overall Influence
#10715
Peter G. Kopelman
#142536
Overall Influence
#10716
Hutan Ashrafian
#142541
Overall Influence
#10717
Stephen Lawn
#134263
Overall Influence
1966 - 2016 (50 years)
Stephen David Lawn was a Professor of Infectious diseases and Tropical medicine known for research on tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Personal life Lawn was married to Professor Joy Lawn. They have a son, Tim, and a daughter, Joanna.
Go to Profile#10718
Pierre Rustin
#142554
Overall Influence
#10719
Richard of Middleton
1249 - 1302 (53 years)
Richard of Middleton was a member of the Franciscan Order, a theologian, and scholastic philosopher. Life Richard's origins are unclear: he was either Norman French or English . As a Bachelor of the Sentences of Peter Lombard at the University of Paris in 1283, he played a part in the Franciscan commission examining Peter Olivi. He was regent master of the Franciscan studium in Paris from 1284 to 1287, and, on 20 September 1295 in Metz, he was elected Franciscan minister provincial of France. He was also subsequently tutor to Louis of Toulouse, son of Charles II of Anjou. He died sometime b...
Go to Profile#10720
Johan M. J. Fevery
#142563
Overall Influence
#10721
Shlomo Mashiach,
#142582
Overall Influence
#10722
Rick Turner
1941 - 1978 (37 years)
Richard Turner , known as Rick Turner, was a South African academic and anti-apartheid activist who was murdered, possibly by the South African security forces, in 1978. Nelson Mandela described Turner "as a source of inspiration".
Go to Profile#10723
Jonathan Rosenbaum
#30034
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for The Chicago Reader from 1987 to 2008, when he retired. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to such notable film publications as Cahiers du cinéma and Film Comment.
Go to Profile#10724
Silke Leopold
#67172
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Silke Leopold is a German musicologist and university lecturer. Life Born in Hamburg, Leopold studied musicology, theatre studies, Romance languages and literature at the University of Hamburg and the University of Rome, besides also singing and transverse flute at the Hamburger Konservatorium from 1969 to 1975. From 1969 to 1980 she was member of the Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg . After receiving her doctorate in 1975 on the Roman Baroque composer Stefano Landi, she spent three years as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Rome, then two years as a fellow of the German Research Foundation.
Go to Profile#10725
Daniel L. Azarnoff
#142625
Overall Influence
#10726
R. Walker Miller
#142630
Overall Influence
#10727
Massimo Galli
#142637
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#10728
Malcolm R. Law
#142642
Overall Influence
#10729
Susheel K. Kodali
#142659
Overall Influence
#10730
Jing Liang Xie
#142662
Overall Influence
#10731
Rowena G. Matthews
#142664
Overall Influence
#10732
Karl B. Kern
#142676
Overall Influence
#10733
Howard A. Reber
#142683
Overall Influence
#10734
Darrell S. Rigel
#142686
Overall Influence
#10735
Franciszek Fiszer
1860 - 1937 (77 years)
Franciszek Fiszer was a Polish metaphysician and alchemist, a friend of the most notable writers and philosophers of contemporary Warsaw and one of Warsaw's semi-legendary people. Described as an erudite bon vivant and gourmand, he is remembered for a large number of anecdotes, jokes and sayings coined by him and about him.
Go to Profile#10736
Richard B. Hornick
#142697
Overall Influence
#10737
Frits W. Prinzen
#142698
Overall Influence
#10738
Richard Cobb-Stevens
#135758
Overall Influence
1935 - 2018 (83 years)
Richard Cobb-Stevens was an American philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Boston College. An expert in American Pragmatism, Continental Philosophy, and Phenomenology, especially Husserl and the philosophy of mathematics, Cobb-Stevens is author of three books including James and Husserl and Husserl and Analytic Philosophy.
Go to Profile#10739
Jeffrey Robert Brook
#142706
Overall Influence
#10740
Louis A. Gilula
#142707
Overall Influence
#10741
Yee-Sin Leo
#97853
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Yee-Sin Leo is a Singaporean physician. Leo is the executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and researches emerging infectious diseases. She has been in charge of Singapore's response to several outbreaks, including Nipah, SARS and COVID-19. In 2020, she was selected as one of the BBC's top 100 Women.
Go to Profile#10742
Trinity Jude Bivalacqua
#142721
Overall Influence
#10743
Paul J. Cannon
#142733
Overall Influence
#10744
Alex Karczmar
#102173
Overall Influence
1917 - 2017 (100 years)
Alexander George Karczmar , was a Polish-American neuroscientist and academic. He was tenured for 30 years as professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Loyola University of Chicago Medical Center, and director of its Institute for Mind, Drugs and Behavior.
Go to Profile#10745
Takeshi Hirayama
#142739
Overall Influence
#10746
Ira Shoulson
#142743
Overall Influence
#10747
Susanne Iwarsson
#142745
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#10748
Sibrandes Poppema
#142752
Overall Influence
#10749
Isaac R. Francis
#142760
Overall Influence
#10750
Richard Gaynor
#51536
Overall Influence
Richard B. Gaynor is an American physician specializing in hematology-oncology, educator, drug developer, and business executive. He served as an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine for nearly a decade, and subsequently as an endowed Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry in 2002. His research on NF-κB, IκB kinase, and other mechanisms regulating viral and cellular gene expression has been covered in leading subject reviews. He has been a top executive at several pharmac...
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