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,
#10751
Allan L. Drash
#51391
Overall Influence
1931 - 2009 (78 years)
Allan Drash was a pediatric endocrinologist and former president of the American Diabetes Association and was the second president of ISGD Publications Honors and awards 2006 ISPAD Prize of Achievement
Go to Profile#10752
Maximilian Muenke
#142765
Overall Influence
#10753
Harris Franklin Rall
1870 - 1964 (94 years)
Harris Franklin Rall , Ph.D. was the first president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado after it reopened in 1910 till 1915, and he also served as the Henry White Warren professor of Practical Theology. Rall later became president of Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois, and taught theology there. Rall was active in the social gospel movement, seeking to relate Christianity to the ills of society. Garrett named its lecture series after him.
Go to Profile#10754
David O. Wiebers
#142786
Overall Influence
#10755
Choe Han-gi
1803 - 1877 (74 years)
Choe Han-gi was a Korean Confucian scholar and philosopher. He is known for integrating Eastern philosophy with Western science in pre-industrial Korea. His art name was Hyegang , and according to some sources, it is mentioned that he also used Paedong .
Go to Profile#10756
Lorella Cedroni
#60043
Overall Influence
1961 - 2013 (52 years)
Lorella Cedroni was a political philosopher. Cedroni studied political science and philosophy , receiving a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences . She has taught and lectured in many European and American universities, and mainly at Sapienza University of Rome.
Go to Profile#10757
Reiner R. Benecke
#142807
Overall Influence
#10758
N. E. Nathanson
#142809
Overall Influence
#10759
Eckart Fleck
#142811
Overall Influence
#10760
Nikhil Tandon
#62081
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Nikhil Tandon is an Indian endocrinologist, medical academic and the head of the department of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He is a recipient of Dr. B. C. Roy Award, the highest Indian medical award in 2005 and was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Go to Profile#10761
Allen Thomson
1809 - 1884 (75 years)
Allen Thomson FRS FRSE FRCSE was a Scottish physician, known as an anatomist and embryologist. Life The only son of Dr John Thomson by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of John Millar, he was born at Brown Square in Edinburgh on 2 April 1809, and was named after his father's friend, John Allen, secretary and confidential friend of Lord Holland. Margaret Mylne was his sister and William Thomson his half-brother. Allen Thomson was educated at the high school and University of Edinburgh, and then in Paris. He graduated doctor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh in August 1830. At the time of his graduation he was president of the Royal Medical Society in Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#10762
Friedrich August Carus
1770 - 1807 (37 years)
Friedrich August Carus was a German philosopher. He was the father of surgeon Ernst August Carus . From 1788 to 1793 he studied philosophy and theology at the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen. In 1796 he became an associate professor of philosophy at Leipzig, where in 1805 he attained a full professorship. In Leipzig he also served as a preacher at the University Church. As a philosopher he was influenced by the writings of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. After his death, his principal philosophical, psychological, theological and historical works were edited and published ...
Go to Profile#10763
Nanna Brix Finnerup
#142832
Overall Influence
#10764
James Chen-tson Fang
#142836
Overall Influence
#10765
Reynold Spector
#142847
Overall Influence
#10766
Robert Foster Kennedy
1884 - 1952 (68 years)
Dr Robert Foster Kennedy MD FRSE was an Irish-born neurologist largely working in America. He gives his name to Foster-Kennedy syndrome, the Kaplan-Kennedy test and Kennedy's Syndrome. He was one of the first medical doctors to use electroconvulsive treatment for mental conditions and one of the first to recognise and define shell shock in the First World War.
Go to Profile#10767
Lars V. Sjöström
#142864
Overall Influence
#10768
Robert Clayton Robbins
#142872
Overall Influence
#10769
Keti Chukhrov
#113557
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Keti Chukhrov is a Russian poet and academic, art theorist and philosopher. Doktor Nauk in Philosophical Sciences , Candidate of philological sciences , Docent at the National Research University Higher School of Economics .
Go to Profile#10770
John C. Marshall
#142878
Overall Influence
#10771
Shlomo Raz
#142884
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
#10772
Yukio Homma
#142887
Overall Influence
#10773
Ibo van de Poel
#109151
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Ibo van de Poel is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor in Ethics and Technology at Delft University of Technology. Academic contributions According to Google Scholar, Van de Poel's work has been cited over 3700 times and he currently holds an h-index of 35. Additionally, he is the author of the first Dutch textbook on ethics and technology.
Go to Profile#10774
Kevin Flannery
#136022
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Fr. Kevin Flannery is a Catholic moral philosopher, author, and professor. He is a professor of the history of ancient philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1977. He has served as a consultor of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2002.
Go to Profile#10775
Edgar Frederick Carritt
1876 - 1964 (88 years)
Edgar Frederick Carritt, FBA was an English philosopher who wrote on aesthetics, moral philosophy and political philosophy. He was a fellow of University College, Oxford, from 1898 to 1945. He was a member of the famous Oxfordshire based Carritt family, whose members included many Marxist academics and revolutionaries.
Go to Profile#10776
Vera Regitz–zagrosek
#142941
Overall Influence
#10777
Gustavo Saposnik
#142955
Overall Influence
#10778
Milton H. Paul
#142961
Overall Influence
#10779
Gerard Goggin
#46574
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Professor Gerard Goggin is an Australian media and communications researcher at the University of Sydney. He has produced award-winning research in disability and media policy alongside other contemporary works on digital technology and cultures.
Go to Profile#10780
Gary R. Duckwiler
#142968
Overall Influence
#10781
Mustafa 'Abd ar-Raziq
1885 - 1947 (62 years)
Shaykh Mustafa Abd ar-Raziq was an Egyptian Islamic philosopher. Early life He was born in Abu Jirj, Minya Governorate. Career Abd ar-Rizq succeeded Mustafa al-Maraghi as rector of al-Azhar. His appointment encountered resistance, since he was not a member of the Council of Supreme ulama: King Farouk pressured for the law to be altered to allow him to assume office. Historian Fawaz Gerges characterized ar-Rizq as a "rebel member of al-Azhar" during his era.
Go to Profile#10782
James Allen Graff
#101422
Overall Influence
1937 - 2005 (68 years)
James Allen Graff was a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and an activist focused on human rights in Palestine. Academic background He earned a BA at Lafayette College in 1959 and his doctorate at Brown University in 1963 with a thesis titled: The Concept of a Moral Agent. As a professor at Toronto his teaching focused on ethics and political philosophy. John Irving, then head of the Department of Ethics at Victoria College, hired him as a lecturer in 1963. When Francis Sparshott stepped down as chairman of that department in 1970, Graff was appointed to succeed him. He h...
Go to Profile#10783
Gérard Bréart
#142986
Overall Influence
#10784
Nicola Döring
#143002
Overall Influence
#10785
Prince George of Greece and Denmark
1869 - 1957 (88 years)
Prince George of Greece and Denmark was the second son and child of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, and is remembered chiefly for having once saved the life of his cousin the future Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II in 1891 during their visit to Japan together. He served as high commissioner of the Cretan State during its transition towards independence from Ottoman rule and union with Greece.
Go to Profile#10786
W. Spencer Payne
#143016
Overall Influence
#10787
Osmo Hänninen
#83974
Overall Influence
1939 - 2022 (83 years)
Osmo Otto Päiviö Hänninen is a Finnish scientist and physiologist, a non-fiction writer, opinion-maker, a supporter of the folk medicine, culture and a humanist. He served as rector of the University of Kuopio, 1981–1984, Vice Rector 1973-78, and was appointed to the first permanent professor post of the university as the Professor of Physiology and acted as the head of the institute 1972-2004. Hänninen also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Turku and the University of Joensuu, and research professor of the Academy of Finland 1980-81.
Go to Profile#10788
Michael Lübbert
#143026
Overall Influence
#10789
Frank M. Torti
#143032
Overall Influence
#10790
Jan Brueghel the Elder
1568 - 1625 (57 years)
Jan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborator with Peter Paul Rubens, the two artists were the leading Flemish painters in the first three decades of the 17th century.
Go to Profile#10791
Michael T. Modic
#143059
Overall Influence
#10792
Robin T. Cotton
#143062
Overall Influence
#10793
Eng‐king Tan
#143066
Overall Influence
#10794
Paul Wehrle
#47473
Overall Influence
1921 - 2004 (83 years)
Paul Francis Wehrle was a researcher and physician who helped develop of methods to prevent and treat polio and smallpox. Education Wehrle graduated from the University of Arizona and received his M.D. degree from Tulane University in 1947. He then became acting chairman of the Microbiology Department of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University at Syracuse, New York.
Go to Profile#10795
Jacob Charles Langer
#143069
Overall Influence
#10796
Ian Holliday
#75611
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Ian Holliday is a scholar with expertise in British and Asian Government, particularly Myanmar. He is currently the vice-president and pro-vice-chancellor of The University of Hong Kong . He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social and political science at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1982, before completing his doctor of philosophy degree in politics at New College, Oxford, in 1989. He taught at University of Kent, University of Manchester , New York University, and City University of Hong Kong before teaching at the University of Hong Kong , he once served as Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong.
Go to Profile#10797
Florence Wong
#94979
Overall Influence
Florence Wong is a Canadian hepatologist and scientist best known for her research into the development and management of complications of cirrhosis. She is a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Toronto and a physician in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Health Network.
Go to Profile#10798
Ionel Gherea
1895 - 1978 (83 years)
Ionel Gherea, also known as Ioan Dobrogeanu-Gherea or Ion D. Gherea , was a Romanian philosopher, essayist, and concert pianist. The son of Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, a Marxist theoretician and critic, and the brother of communist militant Alexandru "Sașa" Gherea, he was only mildly interested in politics of any kind, embracing an apolitical form of left-libertarianism. Largely self-taught, he became interested in the aestheticism of his brother-in-law, Paul Zarifopol, who became one of his main references. As a youth, Zarifopol took him to meet playwright Ion Luca Caragiale and his family, who were also influential on Gherea's writing, and the focus of his old-age memoirs.
Go to Profile#10799
Carolyn Calfee
#137480
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Carolyn S. Calfee is a Professor of Medicine and Anaesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco. She works in intensive care at the UCSF Medical Center where she specialises in acute respiratory distress syndrome. During the COVID-19 pandemic Calfee studied why SARS-CoV-2 patients experienced such different symptoms.
Go to Profile#10800
Randall W. Powell
#143138
Overall Influence
