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).
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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#11901
Dirck Coornhert
1522 - 1590 (68 years)
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert , also known as Theodore Cornhert, was a Dutch writer, philosopher, translator, politician, theologian and artist. Coornhert is often considered the Father of Dutch Renaissance scholarship.
Go to Profile#11902
Paul T. Jaeger
#152688
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
#11903
Yale E. Goldman
#152696
Overall Influence
#11904
Robert Andrew Robergs
#152713
Overall Influence
#11905
Sukhdev Singh. Malhi
#152721
Overall Influence
#11906
David Fordyce
1711 - 1751 (40 years)
David Fordyce was a Scottish philosopher, a contributor to the Scottish Enlightenment. Fordyce was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen . He entered the ministry and returned to Marischal as regent in 1742, teaching Moral Philosophy there until 1751, when he died by drowning at sea. His popular Elements of Moral Philosophy was first published in Robert Dodsley's Preceptor, vol. 2 .
Go to Profile#11907
Xenofon Baraliakos
#152744
Overall Influence
#11908
Carol Hay
#145738
Overall Influence
Carol Hay is a Canadian philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is known for her works on feminist theory and moral philosophy. Career Hay's most recent book, Think Like a Feminist: The Philosophy Behind the Revolution , has been called "a crisp, well-informed primer on feminist theory" by Publishers Weekly and "a winning mix of scholarship and irreverence" by Kirkus Reviews. Her academic work focuses primarily on issues in analytic feminism, liberal social and political philosophy, oppression studies, Kantian ethics, and the philosophy of sex and love.
Go to Profile#11909
David Rolland Piwnica-worms
#152752
Overall Influence
#11910
Georg Gustav Fülleborn
1769 - 1803 (34 years)
Georg Gustav Fülleborn was a German philosopher, philologist and miscellaneous writer. Biography Fülleborn was born at Glogau, Silesia. He studied theology at the University of Halle, where he was introduced to classical philology by Friedrich August Wolf. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in recognition of the thesis "De Xenophane, Zenone et Gorgia". He took diaconal orders in 1791, but almost immediately became a professor of classical languages at the Elisabeth-Gymnasium in Breslau. He died from a heart attack at the age of 33 in Breslau.
Go to Profile#11911
Meir Djaldetti
#152766
Overall Influence
#11912
Judith M. Lumley
#88737
Overall Influence
1941 - 2018 (77 years)
Judith Mary Lumley had a career as an academic, author, public health advocate and perinatal researcher, retiring as Professor Emerita at La Trobe University in December 2008. Early life and education Lumley was born Judith Mary Casey in Cardiff, Wales in 1941. She graduated first from Cambridge University in 1962 and married Peter Lumley in 1964, emigrating to Australia a year later. She completed a medical degree at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She gained her PhD in fetal physiology working on fetal acidosis in labor at the Monash Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and...
Go to Profile#11913
Philip Stell
#101181
Overall Influence
1934 - 2004 (70 years)
Professor Philip Michael Stell was a British surgeon and historian. After a career in otolaryngology he retired early from his chair at the University of Liverpool and developed a second career as a medieval historian based in York; he was appointed MBE in 2004 "for services to history".
Go to Profile#11914
Rex Nettleford
#12786
Overall Influence
1933 - 2010 (77 years)
Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford OM FIJ OCC was a Jamaican scholar, social critic, choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies , the leading research university in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Go to Profile#11915
Jozef Israëls
1824 - 1911 (87 years)
Jozef Israëls was a Dutch painter. He was a leading member of the group of landscape painters referred to as the Hague School and was, during his lifetime, "the most respected Dutch artist of the second half of the nineteenth century."
Go to Profile#11916
Qifang Zhang
#152790
Overall Influence
#11917
G. Dean Macewen
#152791
Overall Influence
#11918
Gregory S. Whitt
#152792
Overall Influence
#11919
David Goldstein
#152795
Overall Influence
#11920
John Hutchinson
1884 - 1972 (88 years)
John Hutchinson, OBE, FRS was an English botanist, taxonomist and author. Life and career Born in Blindburn, Wark on Tyne, Northumberland, England, he received his horticultural training in Northumberland and Durham and was appointed a student gardener at Kew in 1904. His taxonomic and drawing skills were soon noticed and resulted in his being appointed to the Herbarium in 1905. He moved from assistant in the Indian section to assistant for Tropical Africa, returning to Indian botany from 1915 to 1919, and from then on was in charge of the African section until 1936 when he was appointed Keeper of the Museums of Botany at Kew.
Go to Profile#11921
Dumitru D. Roșca
1895 - 1980 (85 years)
Dumitru D. Roṣca was a Romanian philosopher, professor and member of the Romanian Academy. Biography Dumitru Roşca attended philosophy classes in Paris at Sorbonne. He is best known for his doctoral thesis defended at Sorbonne in 1928: "The Influence of Taine on Hegel". The book was dedicated to Emile Bréhier.
Go to Profile#11922
Richard R. Ricketts
#152810
Overall Influence
#11923
Richard Eldridge
#113915
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Richard Eldridge is an American philosopher and the Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Swarthmore College. He is known for his works on philosophy of art. Books Werner Herzog––Filmmaker and Philosopher, Bloomsbury, 2019Images of History: Kant, Benjamin, Freedom, and the Human Subject, Oxford University Press, 2016Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies: Consequences of Skepticism, Richard Eldridge and Bernard Rhie , Continuum, 2011The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature , Oxford University Press, 2009Literature, Life, and Modernity Columbia University P...
Go to Profile#11924
Stephen Peter Mcdonald
#152874
Overall Influence
#11925
Chun-Su Yuan
#103412
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Chun-Su Yuan is a physician scientist. Yuan is the Cyrus Tang Professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. He has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, 8 medical books, and over 25 U.S. and international patents. Yuan also serves as an advisor for government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and law firms.
Go to Profile#11926
Hermann‐josef Gröne
#152877
Overall Influence
#11927
Su Ih-jen
#143015
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Su Ih-jen is a Taiwanese medical researcher and distinguished investigator and was the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan. Career Su received his MD degree from National Taiwan University Medical School in 1976, and a PhD in pathology in 1987. His research focus is on virus and virus-associated human cancers. He co-authored SARS in Taiwan: an overview and lessons learned, published by The International Journal of Infectious Diseases, which aimed to describe the epidemiology of SARS in Taiwan between March and July 2003, along with the public health response.
Go to Profile#11928
Nico van Rooijen
#152903
Overall Influence
#11929
Samuel Siegmund Rosenstein
1832 - 1906 (74 years)
Samuel Siegmund Rosenstein was a German physician. He was the son of Rabbi Elhanan Rosenstein. He studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Berlin, receiving his medical doctorate in 1854. From 1856 to 1858 he served as an assistant at the general hospital in Danzig, and afterwards worked as a physician in Berlin. In 1864 he obtained his habilitation and later became a professor of clinical medicine at the universities of Groningen and Leiden . In 1898 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#11930
Sylviane Muller
#152923
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#11931
C. Kent Osborne
#152935
Overall Influence
#11932
Eberhardt Grube
#152936
Overall Influence
#11933
Michael S. Conte
#152943
Overall Influence
#11934
Albert B. Deisseroth
#152947
Overall Influence
#11935
Clement Adebamowo
#46297
Overall Influence
Clement Adebamowo is a Nigerian medical researcher and academic. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Adebamowo is currently Director For Global Health Cancer Research, and a professor of Epidemiology & Public Health, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is known for his work in cancer epidemiology, nutrition epidemiology, and research ethics, particularly in low resource and under-served in Africa.
Go to Profile#11936
Thomas Marshburn
#8197
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Thomas Henry Marshburn is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three spaceflights to the International Space Station and holds the record for the oldest person to perform a spacewalk at 61 years old.
Go to Profile#11937
John Browne
1904 - 1984 (80 years)
John Symonds Lyon Browne was an English-born Canadian physician. He was born in Wembley, London, the son of a civil engineer, and came to Canada with his family in 1905. In 1912, the family moved to Montreal. Browne was educated at Westmount High School and at McGill University. He went on to work in Germany, Austria and England under a travelling fellowship from the Royal Society of Canada. Browne returned to McGill as a research fellow, later becoming a professor of medicine, Medical Department chairman and director of the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was forced to leave those positions due ...
Go to Profile#11938
Lester I. Binder
#152974
Overall Influence
#11939
Tanenao Eto
#152989
Overall Influence
#11940
David L. Olson
#152995
Overall Influence
#11941
Oded Langer
#153009
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
#11942
Anthony Howard Goldstone
#153020
Overall Influence
#11943
Sun Ce
175 - 200 (25 years)
Sun Ce , courtesy name Bofu, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was the eldest child of Sun Jian, who was killed during the Battle of Xiangyang when Sun Ce was only 16. Sun Ce then broke away from his father's overlord, Yuan Shu, and headed to the Jiangdong region in southern China to establish his own power base there. With the help of several people, such as Zhang Zhao and Zhou Yu, Sun Ce managed to lay down the foundation of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period.
Go to Profile#11944
David de Kretser
#15623
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
David Morritz de Kretser, is an Australian medical researcher who served as the 27th Governor of Victoria, from 2006 to 2011. Early life and medical career David de Kretser was born in British Ceylon . He was educated at St. Paul's Milagiriya and Royal College Primary, before migrating to Australia with his family when he was aged nine. He studied at Camberwell Grammar School, Melbourne , received his Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery degrees from the University of Melbourne in 1962, and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Monash University in 1969.
Go to Profile#11945
Shaun Quegan
#153032
Overall Influence
#11946
Peter A. Lewitt
#153057
Overall Influence
#11947
Lee J. Helman
#153066
Overall Influence
#11948
Raymond J. Kim
#153068
Overall Influence
#11949
Torsten Deckert
#153083
Overall Influence
#11950
Atsushi Masamune
#153095
Overall Influence
