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,
#12301
Jean Emond
#96196
Overall Influence
Jean C. Emond is the current Thomas S. Zimmer Professor of Surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He is also a Vice Chair in the Department of Surgery and the Chief of Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Emond completed both his undergraduate and medical training at the University of Chicago.
Go to Profile#12302
Thaddeus S. Stappenbeck
#156144
Overall Influence
#12303
Vicente Vicente
#156154
Overall Influence
#12304
Margaret M. Mcqueen
#156184
Overall Influence
#12305
Glenn Thurston Iii. Stebbins
#156209
Overall Influence
#12306
Makoto Igarashi
#156213
Overall Influence
#12307
Herbert Gardiner Lord
1849 - 1930 (81 years)
Herbert Gardiner Lord was an American philosopher. Biography Lord was born in Boston on March 29, 1849. He was the son of the Rev. Daniel Miner Lord and was graduated from Amherst College in 1871 and at the Union Theological Seminary in 1877.
Go to Profile#12308
José J. Escarce
#156223
Overall Influence
#12309
Cornelius L. E. Katona
#156234
Overall Influence
#12310
Julia M. Addington‐hall
#12311
M. A. Hamilton Russell
#156253
Overall Influence
#12312
Judith Hoffberg
#74801
Overall Influence
1934 - 2009 (75 years)
Judith Hoffberg was a librarian, archivist, lecturer, a curator and art writer, and editor and publisher of Umbrella, a newsletter on artist's books, mail art, and Fluxus art. Biography Hoffberg received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1956. She went on to get an M.A. in Italian Language and Literature in 1960 and an M.L.S. from the UCLA School of Library Service in June 1964.
Go to Profile#12313
Anthony van den Pol
#123437
Overall Influence
1949 - 2020 (71 years)
Anthony N. van den Pol was Professor of Neurosurgery at Yale University. van den Pol received his PhD from Yale in 1977 and did postdoctoral work at Oxford University, Semmelweis University, and Stanford University. He did research in neuropharmacology, neuroanatomy, and neurophysiology, seeking to understand the basic cellular mechanisms of the normal and diseased brain, and thereby find the treatments of brain disorders.
Go to Profile#12314
Scott Kenneth Durum
#156264
Overall Influence
#12315
Rodolfo Saracci
#156270
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
#12316
Rulan Chao Pian
#45862
Overall Influence
1922 - 2013 (91 years)
Rulan Chao Pian , née Rulan Chao , was an ethnomusicologist and scholar of Chinese language and literature and was one of the first ten female full professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
Go to Profile#12317
Fulco Van Der Veen
#156273
Overall Influence
#12318
Johann Baptist Lüft
1801 - 1870 (69 years)
Johann Baptist Lüft was a German Catholic theologian, known for his contributions made to the Catholic elementary school system in Hesse. He received his education at the episcopal school in Mainz. In 1824 he was ordained as a priest, and later on, he taught classes at the Catholic seminary in Mainz. In 1830 he relocated to Giessen as a pastor and a professor to the theological faculty at the university. In 1835 he became a pastor and superintendent in Darmstadt, then in 1852 was appointed Ehrendomkapitular at Mainz Cathedral.
Go to Profile#12319
Ivan Orlov
1886 - 1936 (50 years)
Ivan Efimovich Orlov was a Russian philosopher, a forerunner of relevant and other substructural logics, and an industrial chemist. The date of his death is unknown, but is most likely between 1936 and 1937.
Go to Profile#12320
John C. Hoak
#156301
Overall Influence
#12321
Jens Robert Chapman
#156304
Overall Influence
#12322
Isaac Ben-Israel
#46895
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
#12323
Leo T. Furcht
#156306
Overall Influence
#12324
Syed Abdul Sayeed
#133191
Overall Influence
Syed Abdul Sayeed is an Indian philosopher and professor of philosophy at The English and Foreign Languages University. He previously taught in Aligarh Muslim University for eighteen years. Sayeed received his PhD in 1985 from IIT Kanpur.
Go to Profile#12325
J. D. Hardcastle
#156310
Overall Influence
#12326
Rebecca A. Taub
#156329
Overall Influence
#12327
William Fuller Fearon
#156339
Overall Influence
#12328
Hans Rudolf Baumgartner
#156351
Overall Influence
#12329
Jacques Eugene Rossouw
#156357
Overall Influence
#12330
Keisuke Asai
#156381
Overall Influence
#12331
Robert a. Eisenberg
#156401
Overall Influence
#12332
David E. Fleischer
#156408
Overall Influence
#12333
John of Mirecourt
1300 - 1349 (49 years)
John of Mirecourt, also known as Monachus Albus , was a Cistercian scholastic philosopher of the fourteenth century, from Mirecourt, Lorraine. He was a follower of William of Ockham; he was censured by Pope Clement VI.
Go to Profile#12334
Heiko Hermeking
#156424
Overall Influence
#12335
Josiah C. Nott
1804 - 1873 (69 years)
Josiah Clark Nott was an American surgeon, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his studies into the etiology of yellow fever and malaria, including the theory that they are caused by germs, and for his espousal of scientific racism.
Go to Profile#12336
Henry H. Bohlman
#156521
Overall Influence
#12337
George Nuki
#156529
Overall Influence
#12338
Robert L. Murphy
#104032
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Robert Leo Murphy is an American infectious disease physician and professor of medicine. He is the John Philip Phair Professor of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University where he serves as executive director of the Institute for Global Health and the Center for Global Communicable Diseases. Murphy earned a MD at the Stritch School of Medicine in 1978. He completed a medical residency and fellowship at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Go to Profile#12339
Eulalia Pérez Sedeño
#106836
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Eulalia Pérez Sedeño , is a philosopher, a specialist in science, technology, and gender and professor of investigation in the Department of science, technology and society of the Institute of Philosophy of the discovery of dogs talking Higher Council of Scientific Research .
Go to Profile#12340
Eugene Lee
#37677
Overall Influence
1939 - 2023 (84 years)
Eugene Edward Lee was an American set designer who worked in film, theater, and television. He was the production designer for Saturday Night Live from the show's premiere in 1975 until his death, with the exception of seasons 6-10 . Lee became resident designer at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1967.
Go to Profile#12341
Hiroshi Matsuda
#156587
Overall Influence
#12342
Frédéric Francis
#156612
Overall Influence
#12343
Douglas J. Carnall
#156616
Overall Influence
#12344
Rafael Alfonso Figueroa Díaz
#156619
Overall Influence
#12345
Michael Oellerich
#156620
Overall Influence
#12346
Charles R. Drew
1904 - 1950 (46 years)
Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of Allied forces' lives during the war. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood, as it lacked scientific foundation, and resigned his position with the American Red Cross, which maintained the policy un...
Go to Profile#12347
Raymond Victor Rajotte
#156643
Overall Influence
#12348
Steinar Tretli
#156673
Overall Influence
#12349
Mary C. Dinauer
#156696
Overall Influence
#12350
Hideyuki Akaza
#144862
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
is a Japanese urologist and an author of more than 17 peer-reviewed articles. He graduated from the University of Tokyo and became a professor in urological oncology there. He also served as a professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba and was a President of both the Asia Pacific Society of Urological Oncology and the 20th Asia Pacific Cancer Conference. From 2005 to 2009 he was a member of both the Japanese Urological Association and the Japan Society of Clinical Oncology in which he started participating in 2006.
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