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,
#11751
Zoltán Rihmer
#151337
Overall Influence
#11752
Niels Dr Mygind
#11753
Marco Solmi
#151376
Overall Influence
#11754
Henning Arnisaeus
1570 - 1636 (66 years)
Henning Arnisaeus was a German physician and moral philosopher. He is now known for his writings on political theory. Life He was born in Schlanstedt, a village in the present-day Harz district of Germany, near Huy. He studied philosophy and medicine at the Protestant University of Helmstedt from 1589. After travels in England and France, he became court physician to Christian IV of Denmark.
Go to Profile#11755
Hannah Kuper
#151392
Overall Influence
#11756
Walter Grassi
#151405
Overall Influence
#11757
William N. Hanafee
#151419
Overall Influence
#11758
Thomas B. Ducker
#151438
Overall Influence
#11759
James Rennie
1787 - 1867 (80 years)
James Rennie was a Scottish naturalist. Life In 1815 he graduated M.A. from Glasgow University where he had previously studied natural sciences, and took holy orders. In 1821 he moved to London. From 1830 to 1834 he was professor of natural history and zoology at King's College. From then on he made his living as a natural history author.
Go to Profile#11760
Ludwig von Herterich
1856 - 1932 (76 years)
Ludwig von Herterich was a German painter and art teacher. He is best known as a painter of portraits and history paintings and is a representative of the Munich School. Biography He was the son of a sculptor and art restorer, Franz Herterich, and the younger brother of painter Johann Caspar Herterich. He taught at the Kunstschule Stuttgart and then from 1898 as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. His pupils included Karl Caspar, Maria Caspar-Filser, , Adolf Erbslöh, David Karfunkle, Käthe Kollwitz, Hermann Mühlen , , Julius Seyler, Maria Slavona, and Anton Zilzer. For his ser...
Go to Profile#11761
Bruce Chown
1893 - 1986 (93 years)
Bruce Chown was a Canadian medical doctor who researched the blood factor known as the Rhesus factor and discovered an Rh immune vaccine, Rh gamma globulin, which helps to prevent Erythroblastosis fetalis.
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Marc Rubin. Linzer
#151498
Overall Influence
#11763
Kerry Lamont Lee
#151509
Overall Influence
#11764
Vitthalanatha
1516 - 1586 (70 years)
Vitthala-natha or Vitthalanath , popularly known as Gusainji, was an Indian philosopher. He was the younger son of Vallabhacharya, who founded the Pushtimarg religious sect of Hinduism. Names Apart from Vitthalanatha, his other names include Vitthaleshvara , Vitthala Dikshita, or Agnikumara. In addition, he is known by the title Gosvami .
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Francisco de Miranda
1750 - 1816 (66 years)
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda , was a Venezuelan military leader and revolutionary who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution and the Spanish American wars of independence. He is regarded as a precursor of South America's liberation from the Spanish Empire, and remains known as the "First Universal Venezuelan" and the "Great Universal American".
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Martin J. Lipton
#151554
Overall Influence
#11767
Martin Wabitsch
#151563
Overall Influence
#11768
Åke Wennmalm
#151572
Overall Influence
#11769
Mervyn Gotsman
#60250
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Mervyn S. Gotsman is Professor Emeritus of Cardiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Biography Mervyn Samuel Gotsman was born in 1935 in the town of Hermanus in South Africa to Benjamin, a physicist, and Ada, a housewife. The family originally came to South Africa from Lithuania, with an intermediate station in England.
Go to Profile#11770
Shu‐ichi Ikeda
#151588
Overall Influence
#11771
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi
1162 - 1231 (69 years)
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī , short for Muwaffaq al-Dīn Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī , was a physician, philosopher, historian, Arabic grammarian and traveller, and one of the most voluminous writers of his time.
Go to Profile#11772
Ernst Philip Boas
1891 - 1955 (64 years)
Ernst Philip Boas was an American physician. He is a pioneer in the fields of pathology and physiology and was a highly respected expert in chronic diseases of the heart. He developed the cardiotachometer, a widely used instrument for measuring the rapidity of heartbeat.
Go to Profile#11773
José S. Pulido
#151621
Overall Influence
#11774
Peter Kaufmann
#151625
Overall Influence
#11775
A. Gerald Shaper
#151631
Overall Influence
#11776
Robert Hillman Fletcher
#151638
Overall Influence
#11777
Paolo Martelletti
#151639
Overall Influence
#11778
D. A. Price Evans
#151644
Overall Influence
#11779
Gustave Reese
1899 - 1977 (78 years)
Gustave Reese was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications Music in the Middle Ages and Music in the Renaissance ; these two books remain the standard reference works for these two eras, with complete and precise bibliographical material, allowing for almost every piece of music mentioned to be traced back to a primary source.
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Charles A. Sklar
#151651
Overall Influence
#11781
August Heidland
#151652
Overall Influence
#11782
Conor Patrick Delaney
#151653
Overall Influence
#11783
Melvin P. Weinstein
#151655
Overall Influence
#11784
Mehmet Oz
#27623
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Mehmet Cengiz Öz , also known as Dr. Oz , is an American television presenter, physician, author, professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University, and former political candidate.
Go to Profile#11785
Mildred T. Stahlman
#29443
Overall Influence
1922 - Present (104 years)
Mildred T. Stahlman is an American neonatologist and academic. She worked as a professor of pediatrics and pathology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Early life Mildred T. Stahlman was born on July 31, 1922, in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father, James Geddes Stahlman, was a Tennessee newspaper publisher who was opposed to desegregation and was a trustee of Vanderbilt University. Her paternal great-grandfather, Major Edward Bushrod Stahlman, was a German-born railroad executive, the owner of the Nashville Banner, and the developer of The Stahlman.
Go to Profile#11786
Jane Sandall
#135736
Overall Influence
Jane Sandall is professor of social science and women's health at the Women's Health Academic Centre of King's College London. Sandall leads the Maternal Health Services and Policy Research Group in King's Health Partners Women’s Health Academic Centre and is also a lead for the National Institute for Health Research South London Applied Research Collaboration. She has authored several Cochrane reviews on midwife-led settings and hundreds of peer-reviewed papers. Her contribution to midwifery and women's health was awarded with an CBE. She also received an honorary doctorate in health scienc...
Go to Profile#11787
William Lambe
1765 - 1847 (82 years)
William Lambe was an English physician and early veganism activist. He has been described as a pioneer of vegan nutrition. Biography William Lambe was born in Warwick, the son of Lacon Lambe, a Hereford attorney. He was educated at Hereford Grammar School, where he was head boy, and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating B.D. in 1786, M.B. in 1789, and M.D. in 1802. He was admitted a fellow of his college on 11 March 1788.
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E. Neil Moore
#151728
Overall Influence
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Akbar M. Sayeed
#151739
Overall Influence
#11790
Susan Shurin
#36309
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Susan Shurin is a senior adviser at the National Cancer Institute. From 2006–2014, she served as Deputy and Acting Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Go to Profile#11791
Claudio Viscoli
#151757
Overall Influence
#11792
Axel Radlach Pries
#105793
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Axel Radlach Pries is a German professor of physiology and, since 2015, Dean of the board of Charité hospital in Berlin, Germany and President of the World Health Summit. He is married to the photographer Gina Elisabeth Pries.
Go to Profile#11793
Hedy Lee Kindler
#151759
Overall Influence
#11794
Michael Silverman
#151777
Overall Influence
#11795
Bob Brecher
#147178
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Bob Brecher is a British philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Brighton. He is known for his expertise on ethics and political philosophy. Brecher is co-director of Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics and a former president of Association for Social and Political Philosophy . He founded Res Publica in 1995.
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Jean-louis Preud’homme
#151793
Overall Influence
#11797
K. Fred Gey
#151798
Overall Influence
#11798
Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur
159 BC - 87 BC (72 years)
Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur was a politician of the Roman Republic and an early authority on Roman law. He was first educated in law by his father and in philosophy by the stoic Panaetius of Rhodes.
Go to Profile#11799
Kenji Nakashima
#151815
Overall Influence
#11800
Paul Krack
#151820
Overall Influence
