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,
#10951
Kenneth 0. Lloyd
#144454
Overall Influence
#10952
Bernhard Pankok
1872 - 1943 (71 years)
Bernhard Wilhelm Maria Pankok was a German painter, graphic artist, architect, and designer. His works are characterized by the transition between Art Nouveau and the International Style. His furniture and book design, such as the catalog for the German section of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, have garnered him the most recognition.
Go to Profile#10953
Haruhiko Akiyama
#144460
Overall Influence
#10954
Wu Enyu
1909 - 1979 (70 years)
Wu Enyu was a Manchu-Chinese philosopher, political scientist and literary critic. For the literacy part he was especially known for his criticism of The Dream of the Red Chamber. Wu graduated from the Department of Philosophy of Tsinghua University in 1933, and served as an editor of the philosophical and literary monthly periodical Wenzhe yuekan and the Sibian , a literary and philosophical supplement of Chenbao magazine . He was a student of professor Zhang Dongsun at Tsinghua. Wu then went for a short-term further study to London in 1936.
Go to Profile#10955
Ilya Shmulevich
#144519
Overall Influence
#10956
Ricardo Gelpi
#54051
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ricardo Jorge Gelpi is an Argentine physician and professor, and the current Rector of the University of Buenos Aires , the largest university in Argentina. Gelpi previously served as dean of the UBA Faculty of Medical Sciences.
Go to Profile#10957
Catharine Gale
#144533
Overall Influence
Catharine Rose Gale is a British epidemiologist. She is Professor of Cognitive Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton. She is also Reader in Cognitive Epidemiology in the Department of Psychology and co-leader of the Cognitive Epidemiology research group in the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. She received her PhD from the University of Southampton's MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit.
Go to Profile#10958
Ernest Noble
#132782
Overall Influence
1901 - 2017 (116 years)
Ernest Pascal Noble was Pike Professor of Alcohol Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He also served as the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism from 1976 to 1978.
Go to Profile#10959
Mehmet Haberal
#6370
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Mehmet Haberal , is the founder of Başkent University in Ankara, Turkey, best known for becoming the first transplant surgeon in Turkey after leading the team that performed Turkey's first living-related kidney transplant in 1975, after he returned from surgical training under the mentorship of American surgeon Thomas Starzl, with whom he also performed some of the longest surviving early liver transplantations.
Go to Profile#10960
Paul C. M. D. Mcafee
#144585
Overall Influence
#10961
Bruce Richard Carr
#144588
Overall Influence
#10962
Paul A. Corris
#144589
Overall Influence
#10963
Adolf Grünbaum
#144590
Overall Influence
#10964
Michael Joseph Krowka
#144600
Overall Influence
#10965
Thomas Spray
#96274
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Thomas L. Spray was Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Mortimer J. Buckley Jr. MD Endowed Chair in Cardiac Surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Professor of Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He retired in 2018.
Go to Profile#10966
Francesco Fiorentino
1834 - 1884 (50 years)
Francesco Fiorentino was an Italian philosopher and historiographer. Biography He was born in Sambiase on May 1, 1834. His father was Gennaro Fiorentino, a chemist and a pharmacist, and his mother was Saveria Sinopoli. He was educated by Giorgio and Bruno Sinopoli, the uncle and the brother of his mother, respectively. He studied literature and theology, but he quit in 1851. After two years spent in Sambiase studying theology, he moved to Catanzaro where he studied jurisprudence, but he couldn't graduate because he was just 19.
Go to Profile#10967
Michael A. Weber
#144619
Overall Influence
#10968
Richard S. Farr
#144620
Overall Influence
#10969
Charles W. Francis
#144634
Overall Influence
#10970
Patrick G. Johnston
#73808
Overall Influence
1958 - 2017 (59 years)
Patrick G. Johnston was a Northern Irish physician and a leading expert in cancer research. He was a professor of oncology at Queen's University Belfast, where he served as vice-chancellor and president from 1 March 2014, until his death.
Go to Profile#10971
Allan J. Fischman
#144641
Overall Influence
#10972
John Furnival
#86430
Overall Influence
1933 - 2020 (87 years)
John Furnival was a British artist and teacher, active in visual and concrete poetry. He was best known for his 'wordscapes'. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Tate, the British Museum and the V&A in London.
Go to Profile#10973
Kiwamu Okita
#144658
Overall Influence
#10974
Richard A. Lockshin
#144662
Overall Influence
#10975
Dale t. Umetsu
#144664
Overall Influence
#10976
Stephen Priest
#107979
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Stephen Martin Priest is a British philosopher. He is a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Blackfriars, Oxford and a member of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Oxford. He is also a member of Wolfson College, Oxford and Hughes Hall, Cambridge. Priest has held visiting professorships in the United States, Europe and Asia, and is best known for bringing the methods of analytic philosophy to Continental thinkers including Hegel, Husserl, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.
Go to Profile#10977
Catherine Y. Spong
#119408
Overall Influence
Catherine Y. Spong is an American physician and scientist. She is Chief of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Paul C. MacDonald Distinguished Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Prior to this, she worked for the National Institute of Child Health for 23 years, most recently serving as deputy director. Spong is an expert in maternal and child health, especially regarding prematurity, fetal complications, and improving child outcomes. She has several patents to her name for neuroprotective agents that help prevent fetal injury.
Go to Profile#10978
Allen M. Putterman
#144673
Overall Influence
#10979
Hans‐georg Borst
#144688
Overall Influence
#10980
Thomas C. Quinn
#134785
Overall Influence
Thomas C. Quinn is an American physician and infectious disease researcher specializing in the study of HIV/AIDS. He is a professor of medicine and pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. He is also a professor of international health, epidemiology, and molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a professor of nursing the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. In addition, he serves as Associate Director for International Research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disea...
Go to Profile#10981
Francisco Lopez‐jimenez
#144704
Overall Influence
#10982
Renate Holub
#104511
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Renate Holub is a German political philosopher and critical social theorist living in California. She has published several books. Life Holub was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. After studying in Paris, Madrid, London and Rome she received advanced degrees at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her dissertation focused on the Italian enlightenment philosopher Giambattista Vico. She has also published a study of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, entitled Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism. Currently, she lives in the San Francisco area and is Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies department at the University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#10983
Ronald A. Lubet
#144742
Overall Influence
#10984
Philip S. Barie
#144767
Overall Influence
#10985
S. Eva Singletary
#100168
Overall Influence
1952 - 2015 (63 years)
Sonja Eva Singletary was an American surgeon who specialized in the care of breast cancer. She was a faculty member at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and a past president of the Society of Surgical Oncology.
Go to Profile#10986
David E. Schteingart
#144785
Overall Influence
#10987
Manfred Kaufmann
#144789
Overall Influence
#10988
Claude Degott
#144795
Overall Influence
#10989
Heiner Fangerau
#64294
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Heiner Fangerau is a German historian of medicine and medical ethicist at Heinrich-Heine-University of Duesseldorf. Teaching positions Since 2009 Heiner Fangerau held chairs in the history, philosophy and ethics of medicine at Ulm University , the University of Cologne and the Heinrich-Heine-University of Duesseldorf.
Go to Profile#10990
Andrew Herxheimer
#144811
Overall Influence
#10991
John M. Esdaile
#144820
Overall Influence
#10992
Samuel Katz
#38956
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
Samuel Lawrence Katz was an American pediatrician and virologist whose career has been devoted to infectious disease research, focusing principally on vaccine research and development. Katz was the Wilburt Cornell Davison Professor and Chairman of Pediatrics at Duke University.
Go to Profile#10993
Vincenzo Villanacci
#144821
Overall Influence
#10994
Pablo Alonso‐coello
#144822
Overall Influence
#10995
Kafait U. Mali̇k
#144825
Overall Influence
#10996
Osamu Matsui
#144848
Overall Influence
#10997
Giuseppe Di Giacomo
#110204
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Giuseppe Di Giacomo is an Italian philosopher and essayist. Author of about a hundred scientific publications on the relationship between aesthetics and literature, as well as on the relationship between aesthetics and the visual arts, with an emphasis on modern and contemporary culture, and on topics such as the image, representation, the art/life nexus, memory and the notion of testimony.
Go to Profile#10998
Judith E. Schlanger
#117829
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Judith Epstein Schlanger is a French writer and philosopher. She is Chaim Perelman Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has written over a dozen books on intellectual invention.
Go to Profile#10999
Ramon Avenida De La Cacabelos
#144872
Overall Influence
#11000
Roger Malcolm Greenhalgh
#144891
Overall Influence
