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,
#11851
Wim G. M. Bastiaanssen
#152223
Overall Influence
#11852
Erik Wilander
#152249
Overall Influence
#11853
Nikolaos Margioris
#132831
Overall Influence
1913 - 1993 (80 years)
Nikolaos Margioris was a Greek esoteric philosopher, and author. He taught for many decades various metaphysical and philosophical subjects. He wrote also many practical and philosophical books. Biography Nikolaos Margioris was born in the island of Samos on 15 December 1913. He moved to Alexandria, Egypt at a very young age. He fought in World War Two and in the Greek Civil War. He fought in World War II as a reserve officer, where he was seriously injured in El Alamein and in Rimini. For his services to the country he was honored with many medals as well as with the veteran’s disability pension.
Go to Profile#11854
Michael A. Vogelbaum
#152251
Overall Influence
#11855
Dean Schillinger
#137749
Overall Influence
Dean-David Schillinger is an American general internist and former Chief of the University of California San Francisco Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital . In 2006, he founded the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, whose mission is to advance health in poor communities. His research focuses on health communication for vulnerable populations, and the prevention and control of type 2 diabetes.
Go to Profile#11856
Hamza Tzortzis
#52421
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Hamza Andreas Tzortzis is a British writer, philosopher, public speaker, researcher on Islam, and Muslim apologist. He is a British Muslim convert of Greek descent. He wrote The Divine Reality: God, Islam and The Mirage of Atheism.
Go to Profile#11857
Stephen Daniel
#152299
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Stephen H. Daniel is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University. He is known for his expertise on George Berkeley. Daniel is the senior editor of Berkeley Studies and was the president of International Berkeley Society between 2006 and 2015.
Go to Profile#11858
Julio F. Turrens
#152314
Overall Influence
#11859
Carlos Alberto Pellegrini
#79765
Overall Influence
Carlos Alberto Pellegrini, M.D., F.A.C.S., is the former president of the American Surgical Association and the current Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair of Surgery at the University of Washington. He is the current president of the Society of Surgical Chairs, a regent of the American College of Surgeons, and a director of the American Board of Surgery.
Go to Profile#11860
Yves Najean
#152320
Overall Influence
#11861
Arne Björk
#152327
Overall Influence
#11862
Bartolomeu de Gusmão
1685 - 1724 (39 years)
Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão was a Portuguese born in Brazil priest and naturalist, who was a pioneer of lighter-than-air airship design. He is also one of the main characters in Nobel Prize-winning José Saramago's Baltasar and Blimunda.
Go to Profile#11863
Tatsurou Irimura
#152345
Overall Influence
#11864
Hermann Stuppner
#152368
Overall Influence
#11865
Paul C. Hébert
#152375
Overall Influence
#11866
Sanford B. Krantz
#152380
Overall Influence
#11867
Li Ding
#127093
Overall Influence
Li Ding is the David English Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Washington University. She is known for the development of multiple computational tools now commonly used in cancer biology research, including VarScan, HotSpot3D, and BreakDancer.
Go to Profile#11868
William George Ondo
#152386
Overall Influence
#11869
Thomas M. Saba
#152391
Overall Influence
#11870
Michael J. G. Harrison
#152395
Overall Influence
#11871
Eugene F. Bernstein
#152397
Overall Influence
#11872
Marc J. N. C. Keirse
#152402
Overall Influence
#11873
Patrick A. Kupelian
#152403
Overall Influence
#11874
Ivan G. Bodis-wollner
#152405
Overall Influence
#11875
Lawrence K. Kvols
#152413
Overall Influence
#11876
Herman Kalman Gold
#152418
Overall Influence
#11877
Jérôme Pugin
#152431
Overall Influence
#11878
Gottfried Kinkel
1815 - 1882 (67 years)
Johann Gottfried Kinkel was a German poet also noted for his revolutionary activities and his escape from a Prussian prison in Spandau with the help of his friend Carl Schurz. Early life He was born at Oberkassel . Having studied theology at Bonn and Berlin, he established himself at Bonn in 1836 as a Privatdozent, or theology tutor, became master at the secondary school there, and was for a short time assistant preacher in Cologne.
Go to Profile#11879
Frans Snyders
1579 - 1657 (78 years)
Frans Snyders or Frans Snijders was a Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes, market scenes, and still lifes. He was one of the earliest specialist animaliers and he is credited with initiating a wide variety of new still-life and animal subjects in Antwerp. He was a regular collaborator with leading Antwerp painters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens.
Go to Profile#11880
Tohru Masuyama
#152452
Overall Influence
#11881
O. J. Kronborg
#152457
Overall Influence
#11882
Wilhelm Fischer
1886 - 1962 (76 years)
Wilhelm Fischer was an Austrian musicologist. Life Born in Vienna, Fischer studied musicology at the University of Vienna with Guido Adler, as well as geography and history and took private composition lessons with Hermann Graedener. From 1912 to 1928 he was assistant to his former teacher and now patron Adler. After his habilitation with the topic Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Wiener klassischen Still in 1915, he was appointed professor in 1923. In 1928 he took over the chair of musicology at the University of Innsbruck as successor of Rudolf von Ficker.
Go to Profile#11883
Jonathan H. Epstein
#152468
Overall Influence
#11884
William F. Hendry
#152473
Overall Influence
#11885
Dan Michael Cooper
#152482
Overall Influence
#11886
Hunter C. Champion
#152494
Overall Influence
#11887
Julian David Gillmore
#152503
Overall Influence
#11888
Wim Robberecht
#152506
Overall Influence
#11889
Benjamin Lee
#40976
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Benjamin Lee is a professor of anthropology and philosophy at The New School, where he also served as provost from 2006 until 2008. Lee's primary academic interests include contemporary China; the cultural dimensions of globalization, particularly the effects of global financial flows; and modern theories of language.
Go to Profile#11890
Dino Amadori
#152524
Overall Influence
#11891
Masao Endoh
#152527
Overall Influence
#11892
Peter Parker
1804 - 1888 (84 years)
Peter Parker was an American physician and a missionary who introduced Western medical techniques into Qing dynasty China, at the city of Canton. It was said that Parker "opened China to the gospel at the point of a lancet."
Go to Profile#11893
Jannis Kountouras
#152566
Overall Influence
#11894
Jitsuo Higaki
#152571
Overall Influence
#11895
Émile Lasbax
1888 - 1966 (78 years)
Émile Lasbax was a French philosopher and sociologist of the early 20th century. Biography Lasbax was born in the commune of Rieumes of southwestern France in 1888. He completed his doctoral thesis, Le Problème du Mal [The Problem of Evil], at the University of Bordeaux under the supervision of Gaston Richard in 1918. He taught in the French lycée at Tarbes and Roanne until he was granted a professorship in philosophy and sociology in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1925. It is here that he would remain until his retirement in 1942. Lasbax was best known for b...
Go to Profile#11896
Pascal Richette
#152591
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#11897
William Martin
1772 - 1851 (79 years)
William Martin was an English eccentric and self-described natural philosopher. Life Born on 21 June 1772, at the Towhouse in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, he was eldest son of Fenwick Martin and his wife Isabella Thompson; Jonathan Martin and John Martin the artist were brothers. He was brought up by his mother's parents, who in 1775 moved to Kintyre in western Scotland, to farm. On their deaths, he went to live with his father, then in business at Ayr.
Go to Profile#11898
Karl Wilhelm von Kupffer
1829 - 1902 (73 years)
Karl Wilhelm Ritter von Kupffer was a Baltic German anatomist who discovered stellate macrophage cells that bear his name. Academic career He was the eldest son of pastor Karl Hermann Kupffer . In 1854, he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Dorpat, where shortly afterwards he served as an assistant to Friedrich Heinrich Bidder . In 1856–1857 he took a scientific journey to Vienna, Berlin and Göttingen, an extended trip in which he studied physiology with Emil Du Bois-Reymond and Johannes Peter Müller . Afterwards, he returned to Dorpat, where he later became an associate p...
Go to Profile#11899
Frederick Douglass
1817 - 1895 (78 years)
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.
Go to Profile#11900
Douglass L. Fraker
#152637
Overall Influence
