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,
#11351
Harald Ofstad
#126537
Overall Influence
1920 - 1994 (74 years)
Harald Frithjof Seiersted Ofstad was a Norwegian moral philosopher. He was Professor in Applied Philosophy at Stockholm University for more than 30 years. Born in Bergen, the youngest son of a high-ranking police officer, Ofstad passed the examen artium in 1939 and completed a degree in law in 1945 before changing to philosophy, which he studied under Arne Næss; he was part of the "Bergen group" and one of the most prominent exponents of Næss' "empirical semantics" approach. He became a cand. mag. in philosophy in 1946, studied in the United States at Yale University and other institutions as a Rockefeller Fellow in 1947–49, and was a University Fellow at the University of Oslo in 1949–54.
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Carl W. Gottschalk
#95804
Overall Influence
1922 - 1997 (75 years)
Carl William Gottschalk was the Kenan Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Gottschalk made important discoveries about the function of the kidneys, and helped set government policies that provided dialysis to patients with kidney failure.
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Irena Lasota
#61406
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Irena Lasota is a Polish philosopher, publicist, publisher, social and political activist, and president/co-director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe. Lasota began her political activism as a student in Poland during the 1968 Polish political crisis, which pitted protesting students against the then-Communist government. Soon after the so called March events, Lasota would emigrate to the United States, eventually returning to Europe in the first half of the 1980s to settle down in France. Lasota is to this day a frequent commentator on Polish and American political affairs, an...
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Herbert Johannes Pfister
#148036
Overall Influence
#11355
Francesco Cattani da Diacceto
1446 - 1522 (76 years)
Francesco Cattani da Diacceto was a Florentine Neoplatonist philosopher of the Italian Renaissance. Life Diacceto was born in Florence on 16 November 1466, the son of Zanobi Cattani da Diacceto and Lionarda di Francesco di Iacopo Venturi. In his nineteenth year he married Lucretia di Cappone di Bartolomeo Capponi, with whom he had seven sons and six daughters. From 1491 to 1492 he studied philosophy under Oliviero Arduini at the University of Pisa. When he returned to Florence he became a disciple of Marsilio Ficino and a member of the intellectual group known as the Platonic Academy. He is sometimes considered Ficino's successor.
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David A. Fiellin
#148040
Overall Influence
#11357
John Walker
1731 - 1803 (72 years)
John Walker FRSE was a Scottish minister and natural historian. He was Regius Professor of Natural history at the University of Edinburgh from 1779 to 1803. He was joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783 and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1790.
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Paolo Barone
#148066
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
#11359
Olivier Beauchet
#138453
Overall Influence
Olivier Beauchet is a physician, Professor of Medicine, and Joseph Kaufman Chair in Geriatric Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was also appointed Director of the Centre of Excellence on Longevity at McGill University and is a senior investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research.
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John H. Yardley
#61247
Overall Influence
1926 - 2011 (85 years)
John Howard "Jack" Yardley, M.D. was an American pathologist known for his work in gastrointestinal pathology. He worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1954 until his retirement in 2006. He served as Baxley Professor of Pathology and director of the Department of Pathology from 1988 to 1992. He also served as associate dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1977 to 1984. He is regarded as one of the founders of the field of gastrointestinal pathology.
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G. Richard Iii Locke
#148077
Overall Influence
#11362
S. Joshua Swamidass
#42457
Overall Influence
S. Joshua Swamidass is an American computational biologist, physician, academic, and author. He is an associate professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine, and a Faculty Lead of Translational Bioinformatics in the Institute for Informatics at Washington University in St. Louis.
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David Oliver
#90110
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
David Oliver is a British physician specialising in the geriatric medicine and acute general internal medicine. He was President of the British Geriatrics Society from 2014 to 2016. He is Visiting Professor of Medicine for Older People in the School of Community and Health Sciences at City University London and a King's Fund Senior Visiting Fellow. He was formerly the UK Department of Health National Clinical Director for Older People's Services from 2009 to 2013. He is a researcher, writer, teacher and lecturer on services for older people and a regular blogger, columnist and media commentator.
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Ernst. Wolner
#148096
Overall Influence
#11365
Fevzi Okumuş
#148108
Overall Influence
#11366
Eldon A. Shaffer
#148109
Overall Influence
#11367
Nicolae Simionescu
#100296
Overall Influence
1926 - 1995 (69 years)
Nicolae Simionescu was a Romanian physician. Born in Bucharest, he attended Dimitrie Cantemir and then Saint Andrew High School, graduating in 1944. He then enrolled in the medical faculty of the University of Bucharest, which he completed in 1950, earning his doctorate in 1966. From 1946 to 1970, he was on the staff of the same institution, rising from junior teaching assistant to teaching assistant to associate professor and department chairman. Meanwhile, he improved his skills as a surgeon until 1957, when he transferred to the Bucharest Endocrinology Institute. Working there until 1970, ...
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Howard Neil Hodis
#148137
Overall Influence
#11369
John Heydon
1629 - 1667 (38 years)
John Heydon was an English Neoplatonist occult philosopher, Rosicrucian, astrologer and attorney. Life Rosicrucian sources, including Heydon's own English Physician's Guide and Frederick Talbot's The Wise Man's Crown, give a florid biography for Heydon, including a claim to be descended from a King of Hungary. However, he was actually born in "Green Arbour" , London, the son of Francis Heydon and Mary . He was baptised at St. Sepulchre's Church. He had one sibling, a sister, Anne, two years his junior.
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Steven m. Rothman
#148141
Overall Influence
#11371
Jan Gralewski
1912 - 1943 (31 years)
Jan Gralewski was a Polish philosopher, essayist and soldier. Member of Polish resistance during World War II, he died in the controversial 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash. Life Gralewski was born on 3 March 1912 in Warsaw. He graduated from the University of Warsaw's philosophy department where he studied under Władysław Tatarkiewicz. He researched topics related to philosophy and literary theory, publishing several articles and essays on those topics even before graduating the university. Before World War II he published some essays in Arkady and Życie Sztuki. He continued writing and publishing...
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Nancy J. Tarbell
#148163
Overall Influence
#11373
Lorenz Studer
#44526
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Lorenz Studer is a Swiss biologist. He is the founder and director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is a developmental biologist and neuroscientist who is pioneering the generation of midbrain dopamine neurons for transplantation and clinical applications. His expertise in cell engineering spans a wide range of cells/tissues within the nervous system geared toward disease modeling and exploring cell replacement therapy. Currently, he is a member of the Developmental Biology Program and Department of Neurosurgery at Memorial Slo...
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Jane Roland Martin
#83378
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Jane Roland Martin is an American philosopher known for her work on education. She is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has published a number of works relating to issues of gender in education. In 1987, she received a Guggenheim Award for her work.
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Hendrik van Riessen
#115527
Overall Influence
1911 - 2000 (89 years)
Hendrik Van Riessen was one of the second generation of reformational philosophers arising from the Free University in Amsterdam, after the first generation of Herman Dooyeweerd and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven. Other second generationers were: K. J. Popma, S. U. Zuidema and J. P. A. Mekkes.
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Jan E. Lindsten
#148194
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
#11377
Richard J. Ablin
#36520
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Richard J. Ablin is an American scientist, most notable for research on prostate cancer. According to the Wall Street Journal: Early years Ablin received a bachelor's degree from Lake Forest College in 1962 and a doctorate in microbiology from the University at Buffalo in 1967, where he received the distinguished alumni award in 2010.
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Graham Frcp Jackson
#148228
Overall Influence
#11379
Samuel Martin Thompson
1902 - 1983 (81 years)
Samuel Martin Thompson was an American philosopher, frequent contributor to scholarly journals and author of three bestselling textbooks of philosophy. His textbooks were used by many top universities and seminaries in the United States. An expert on the works of philosopher Immanuel Kant, he published analyses of Kant's work. Thompson was also one of the three authors of the Confession of 1967, one of the major statements of faith of the Presbyterian Church .
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Michel Aubier
#148243
Overall Influence
#11381
Elyse D. Foster
#148264
Overall Influence
#11382
Michael L. Steer
#148275
Overall Influence
#11383
Raymond C. Harris, Jr.
#148288
Overall Influence
#11384
Gustavo Cudkowicz
#148291
Overall Influence
#11385
Liu Yuxi
772 - 842 (70 years)
Liu Yuxi was a Chinese essayist, philosopher, and poet active during the Tang dynasty. Biography Family background and education His ancestors were Xiongnu nomadic people. The putative ‘seventh generation’ family head, Liu Liang, was an official of the Northern Wei , who followed the Emperor Xiaowen when he established the capital at Luoyang in 494. Following the government sinification policy, he became Han and register his surname as Liu. From then on the family was based in Luoyang.
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Angelo Pirotta
1894 - 1956 (62 years)
Angelo Pirotta, O.P. was a Maltese philosopher and educator. In philosophy, his areas of specialization were epistemology and metaphysics. Life Early life Pirotta was born in Naxxar, Malta. His parents were John Mary Pirotta and Antonia Née Camilleri . He was the oldest of thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy.
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Bernd C. Kieseier
#148311
Overall Influence
#11388
Raymond G. Hoffmann
#148326
Overall Influence
#11389
John Patrick Donohue
#148327
Overall Influence
#11390
Martin G. Zeier
#148335
Overall Influence
#11391
William Dampier
1651 - 1715 (64 years)
William Dampier was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He has also been described as Australia's first natural historian, as well as one of the most important British explorers of the period between Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook ; he "bridged those two eras" with a mix of piratical derring-do of the former and scientific inquiry of the latter. His expeditions were among the first to identify and name a number of p...
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Thomas J. Herzog
#148347
Overall Influence
#11393
Lukáš Plank
#50539
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Lukáš Plank is a Slovak medical researcher, pathologist, and author. Career He studied medicine at, and is currently a professor of pathology at the Jessenius School of Medicine in Martin which is a part of the Comenius University in Bratislava. He is also the head of the department of Pathology at the Martin University Hospital. He is the former chairman of the Slovak Scientific Council .
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Bruce Arroll
#11395
Ferdinand Hartmann
1774 - 1842 (68 years)
Christian Ferdinand Hartmann was a German portrait and Classical history painter. Biography He was the youngest son of the Ducal finance councilor, and his wife Juliane Friederike née Spittler , daughter of the Mayor of Cannstatt. Three of his brothers also became well-known: , a State Councilor, , a paleontologist, and , an industrial entrepreneur. His father's home was also a literary salon, frequented by many notable writers, including Goethe, Schiller and Hölderlin.
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Samuel Maximilian Rieser
1893 - 1981 (88 years)
Samuel Maximilian Rieser was an Austrian-born American lawyer and philosopher. Born in Kraków, where he went to school, he began the study of law in Vienna. His studies were interrupted by World War I, during which he lived in Switzerland. After the war he returned to Vienna, completed his law studies and obtained a position at an insurance company. In 1938 he opened a private law practice. Among his clients was Reinhold Hanisch, a childhood friend of Adolf Hitler. Rieser immigrated to the United States in 1939. Here he earned his living by writing under different pseudonyms for the New Yorker Staatszeitung.
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Gere S. Dizerega
#148373
Overall Influence
#11398
Shirish M. Gadgeel
#148395
Overall Influence
#11399
Walter R. Wilson
#148400
Overall Influence
#11400
Jon Oberlander
#96221
Overall Influence
1962 - 2017 (55 years)
Jon Reid Oberlander FRSE was a British philosopher and cognitive scientist who was Professor of Epistemics at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. He received a BA in Philosophy from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1983 and a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1987.
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