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,
#10851
Charles Folsom
1794 - 1872 (78 years)
Charles Folsom was a classical scholar, librarian, and editor. He was librarian at Harvard College from 1823 to 1826. Folsom, born in Exeter, N. H., 24 December 1794, was the son of James and Sarah Folsom. After studying at Phillips Academy, Exeter, he entered Harvard in the sophomore class and graduated in 1813. During the winter vacations while an undergraduate and for the year after his graduation, he taught school. Returning to Cambridge the next year, he began to prepare himself for the ministry, but poor health forced him to give it up. Meanwhile, he was a proctor and regent in the college, and in 1816 received the degree of A.M.
Go to Profile#10852
J. Michael Mccune
#143544
Overall Influence
#10853
John Speer Schroeder
#143556
Overall Influence
#10854
Leonard N. Horowitz
#143562
Overall Influence
#10855
Felix Rosenow
#143588
Overall Influence
#10856
Martin Luther King
#143594
Overall Influence
#10857
Jozef J. Janssens
#143604
Overall Influence
#10858
Sheldon Laurence Spector
#143615
Overall Influence
#10859
Joseph D. Khoury
#143668
Overall Influence
#10860
Al Aynsley-Green
#101358
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Sir Albert Aynsley-Green is a paediatric endocrinologist and Professor Emeritus of Child Health at University College London. Aynsley-Green is most notable for advancing the idea of the rights of children. He was appointed to the first Children's Commissioner for England in March 2005, serving in this position until 2009. During this time he launched an initiative to publicize and combat bullying.
Go to Profile#10861
Walter S. Gamertsfelder
1885 - 1967 (82 years)
Walter Sylvester Gamertsfelder was a professor of philosophy, dean and thirteenth president of Ohio University, serving during the final years of World War II from 1943 to 1945. Called to serve on an interim basis, Gamertsfelder came to the presidency of Ohio University from a dual deanship of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College. He had been a member of the faculty of philosophy and religion since 1921.
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Nicole Eisenman
#30943
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Nicole Eisenman is a French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship , the Carnegie Prize , and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial . On September 29, 2015, she won a MacArthur Fellowship award for "restoring the representation of the human form a cultural significance that had waned during the ascendancy of abstraction in the 20th century."
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Heinrich Knirr
1862 - 1944 (82 years)
Heinrich Knirr was an Austrian Empire-born German painter, known for genre scenes and portraits, although he also did landscapes and still-lifes. He is best known for creating the official portrait of Adolf Hitler for 1937 and is the only artist known to have painted Hitler from life.
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Dina Brooks
#143715
Overall Influence
#10865
Hirofumi Hamada
#143724
Overall Influence
#10866
Richard Dennis Sontheimer
#143749
Overall Influence
#10867
Robert Trundle
#99407
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Robert Christner Trundle, Jr. is an American philosopher, author, and college professor. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Fate Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in Ufology in 2005 based on his book Is E.T. Here? and an article published in Science and Method in the Netherlands.
Go to Profile#10868
Abram R. Recht
#143756
Overall Influence
#10869
Margot Shiner
#30503
Overall Influence
1923 - 1998 (75 years)
Margot Shiner was a German-British gastroenterologist and medical researcher who worked in London and Israel. As a result of her development of a new technique to biopsy the small intestine in children, she has been credited with launching the subspecialty of paediatric gastroenterology.
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Gabriel Chodick
#143769
Overall Influence
#10871
Alastair J. J. Wood
#143771
Overall Influence
#10872
Robert Michael Tuttle
#143773
Overall Influence
#10873
Daniel Cherqui,
#143775
Overall Influence
#10874
Wim G. V. Quint
#143780
Overall Influence
#10875
Eli Chester Ridgway
#143782
Overall Influence
#10876
Do-ol
#56512
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Kim Yong-ok is a South Korean philosopher. His art name is Do-ol. His name is sometimes rendered as To-ol Kim Young-oak. Career and education Kim Yong-ok was born June 14, 1948, in Cheonan. Once a leading professor of the Oriental Classics at Korea University, Kim became a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a playwright and movie-director, and is now professor emeritus of Chung-ang University. He lectures on KBS TV on his modern interpretations of classical Daoism , the Analects of Confucius, and Zen Buddhism .
Go to Profile#10877
Joseph Verghese
#143819
Overall Influence
#10879
Stephen Callender Schimpff
#143823
Overall Influence
#10880
Cesare Robert Valeri
#143832
Overall Influence
#10881
Jacob Rajfer
#143839
Overall Influence
#10882
Michel Kahaleh
#86864
Overall Influence
Michel Kahaleh is an American gastroenterologist and an expert in therapeutic endoscopy. He is a Professor of Medicine, and is currently the Clinical Director of Gastroenterology, Chief of Endoscopy, and Director of the Pancreas Program at the Department of Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is the Founder and Director of the Therapeutic Endoscopic Ultrasound Society. He is the Founder and CEO of the non-profit organization Innovative Digestive Health Education & Research Inc. since 2018 He is also the Founder and CEO of the non-profi...
Go to Profile#10883
William L. Farrar
#143855
Overall Influence
#10884
Marc E. De Broe
#143858
Overall Influence
#10885
Robert H. Steffen
#143870
Overall Influence
#10886
Allan B. Lumsden
#143874
Overall Influence
#10887
Arthur Ripstein
#97882
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Arthur Ripstein is a Canadian philosopher and Professor of Law and Philosophy and University Professor at the University of Toronto where he is Howard Beck QC Chair in law. He is known for his works on Kantian philosophy and is a winner of Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize.
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Per Fugelli
#29616
Overall Influence
1943 - 2017 (74 years)
Per Fugelli was a Norwegian physician and professor of General Practice at the University of Bergen from 1984 to 1992, and social medicine at the University of Oslo from 1992 until his death in 2017.
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Hiroshi Nagura
#143885
Overall Influence
#10890
Jacob J. Schacter
#66351
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Jacob J. Schacter is an American Orthodox rabbi. Schacter, a historian of intellectual trends in Orthodox Judaism, is University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University.
Go to Profile#10891
Jonathan Benfield
#143904
Overall Influence
#10892
Angelos E. Halaris
#143911
Overall Influence
#10893
Katherine L Nathanson
#143959
Overall Influence
#10894
M. J. Van Der Moore
#143961
Overall Influence
#10895
Michael Eliasziw
#143970
Overall Influence
#10896
Roger W. Blamey
#143986
Overall Influence
#10897
Fumitake Gejyo
#143991
Overall Influence
#10898
Clyde F. Barker
#143992
Overall Influence
#10899
Oliver Strunk
1901 - 1980 (79 years)
William Oliver Strunk was an American musicologist. Charles Rosen called him one of the most influential American musicologists of the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known for his anthology Source Readings in Music History and his work on Byzantine music. He was the son of Elements of Style coauthor William Strunk, Jr.
Go to Profile#10900
Andreas Stübel
1653 - 1725 (72 years)
Andreas Stübel, also: Stiefel was a German Lutheran theologian, pedagogue and philosopher. Career Born in Dresden the son of an innkeeper, Stübel attended the from 1668. After the Abitur, he studied philosophy, philology and theology at the University of Leipzig, graduating in 1674 a Baccalaureus and in 1676 a Magister of philosophy. He then worked as a private teacher. From 1682 he was Tertius at the , promoted to Konrektor in 1684. In 1687 he was a Baccalaureus of theology, appointed a private lecturer at the Leipzig University. In 1697 he lost the position due to theological disputes. He ...
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