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,
#12501
Roberta I. Shaffer
#83995
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Roberta Ivy Shaffer is an American librarian and attorney and is the former Director of the Law Library of Congress. Shaffer received a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1974 and a master's degree in library science from Emory University in 1975. She received her Juris Doctor from Tulane University in 1980.
Go to Profile#12502
Jesper Juul
#43579
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Jesper Juul is a Danish game designer, educator, and theorist in the field of video game studies. He is an associate professor at the Danish Design School. Juul is co-editor, with William Uricchio and Geoffrey Long, of the MIT Press Playful Thinking series.
Go to Profile#12503
Bernard Keen
1890 - 1981 (91 years)
Sir Bernard Augustus Keen FRS was a British soil scientist and Fellow of University College London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1935. Further reading ‘KEEN, Sir Bernard ’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 4 June 2011
Go to Profile#12504
Kenneth Walton
#103326
Overall Influence
1919 - 2008 (89 years)
Major Kenneth Walter William Henry Walton FRCP was a leading British experimental pathologist and rheumatologist. He published over 160 papers during his lifetime and was a member of 18 learned societies. One of the pathologists who helped form the current scientific era within his field, his death was described as 'the end of an earlier period of British rheumatology', and papers of his from the 1960s continue to be academically cited.
Go to Profile#12505
Jens Lykkesfeldt
#158206
Overall Influence
#12506
Rolf Bodmer
#158207
Overall Influence
#12507
Yasuhiro Yonekawa
#158225
Overall Influence
#12508
Aristion
150 BC - 86 BC (64 years)
Aristion was a philosopher who became tyrant of Athens from c. 88 BC until his death in 86 BC. Aristion joined forces with king Mithridates VI of Pontus against Greece's overlords, the Romans, fighting alongside Pontic forces during the First Mithridatic War, but to no avail. On 1 March 86 BC, after a long and destructive siege, Athens was taken by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla who had Aristion executed.
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Melvin I. Marks
#158247
Overall Influence
#12510
Christopher P. Long
#88960
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Christopher P. Long is an American academic, Professor of Philosophy and current Dean of the College of Arts & Letters and the Honors College and MSU Foundation Professor at Michigan State University. He is the author of four monographs, the co-founder of the Mellon-funded Public Philosophy Journal, a primary investigator on the Mellon-funded HumetricsHSS grant, and an advocate for open access.
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Lincoln T. Potter
#158273
Overall Influence
#12512
Mark J. Kupersmith
#158280
Overall Influence
#12513
Jean-Louis Schefer
#80930
Overall Influence
1938 - 2022 (84 years)
Jean Louis Schefer was a French writer, philosopher, art critic, and theoretician of cinema and image. Career Born in Paris, France, a graduate of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales on Les écritures figuratives, a problème de grammaire égyptienne , Schefer worked in Milan from 1965 to 1966, in the preparation of a dictionary, then in Venice from 1967 to 1968. In Italy he presented works of Gianfranco Pardi, Titina Maselli, , Gianni Colombo and others. From 1970 to 1981 he taught in Paris.
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Paul S. Bass
#158286
Overall Influence
#12515
Andrea Apolo
#62784
Overall Influence
Andrea B. Apolo is an American medical oncologist specialized in bladder cancer research. She is an investigator in the National Cancer Institute's genitourinary malignancies branch and head of the bladder cancer section.
Go to Profile#12516
William Dana Middleton
#158303
Overall Influence
#12517
Sohita Dhillon
#158308
Overall Influence
#12518
Agostino Carracci
1557 - 1602 (45 years)
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. Intended to devise alternatives to the Mannerist style favored in the preceding decades, this teaching academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
Go to Profile#12519
Schahram Akbarian
#158325
Overall Influence
#12520
Franklyn G. Prendergast
#158327
Overall Influence
#12521
Joseph Beene Bolen
#158350
Overall Influence
#12522
Brian A. Wharton
#158375
Overall Influence
#12523
Terence R. Flotte
#158376
Overall Influence
#12524
Allan T. Van Oosterom
#158377
Overall Influence
#12525
David W. Mozingo
#158378
Overall Influence
#12526
Luc F. Van Gaal
#158386
Overall Influence
#12527
Robertson Parkman
#158388
Overall Influence
#12528
Albrecht von Graefe
1828 - 1870 (42 years)
Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von Gräfe, often Anglicized to Graefe , was a Prussian pioneer of German ophthalmology. Graefe was born in Finkenheerd, Brandenburg, the son of Karl Ferdinand von Graefe . He was the father of the far right politician Albrecht von Graefe .
Go to Profile#12529
Leon Carnovsky
1903 - 1975 (72 years)
Leon Carnovsky was an American librarian and educator who focused much of his time to the survey of libraries in the United States and around the globe. Carnovsky was recognized by American Libraries as being one of the 100 most influential figures in Library and Information Sciences.
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Stephen Y. Nakada
#158431
Overall Influence
#12531
Daniel L. Clarke‐pearson
#158433
Overall Influence
#12532
Karl Richard Lepsius
1810 - 1884 (74 years)
Karl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his magnum opus Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien. Early life Karl Richard Lepsius was the son of Karl Peter Lepsius, a classical scholar from Naumburg, and his wife Friederike , who was the daughter of composer Carl Ludwig Traugott Gläser. The family name was originally "Leps" and had been Latinized to "Lepsius" by Karl's paternal great-grandfather Peter Christoph Lepsius. He was born in Naumburg on the Saale, Saxony.
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William A. Littler
#158458
Overall Influence
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Rafael John Tamargo
#158482
Overall Influence
#12535
Mortimer Poncz
#158499
Overall Influence
#12536
Nan‐shan Zhong
#158506
Overall Influence
#12537
Philippe Collas
#158507
Overall Influence
#12538
Ptolemy-el-Garib
200 - Present (1826 years)
Ptolemy-el-Garib was a Hellenistic pinacographer, probably of the Peripatetic school, who wrote a Life of Aristotle notable for its catalog of Aristotle's works. This work survives in an Arabic manuscript in Istanbul. A critical edition, with French translation was published by Marwan Rashed.
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Richard D. Brunning
#158524
Overall Influence
#12540
Ricardo J. Komotar
#44307
Overall Influence
Ricardo Jorge Komotar is an American neurosurgeon who specializes in the field of brain tumors. He serves as director of the University of Miami Brain Tumor Initiative, director of the UM Neurosurgery Residency Program, and director of the UM Surgical Neurooncology Fellowship Program.
Go to Profile#12541
Margarete Seeler
#80280
Overall Influence
1909 - 1996 (87 years)
Margarete Seeler was a German-born American artist, designer, educator, and author. She was known for work as a goldsmith, her enamelwork, graphic design, and her paintings. She was one of the best known enamelers in the United States, specifically for her cloisonné work. She published two books on enameling, The Art of Enameling and Enamel Medium for Fine Art . Seeler was elected as a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 1993.
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Gregory John Del Zoppo
#158551
Overall Influence
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George Wilding
#158558
Overall Influence
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Anita Kay Simonds
#158562
Overall Influence
#12545
Christine Chomienne
#158571
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#12546
Sabine Tejpar
#158573
Overall Influence
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David Thomson
#35968
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
David Thomson is a British film critic and historian based in the United States, and the author of more than 20 books. His reference works in particular — Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films and The New Biographical Dictionary of Film — have been praised as works of high literary merit and eccentricity despite some criticism for self-indulgence. Benjamin Schwarz, writing in The Atlantic Monthly, called him "probably the greatest living film critic and historian" who "writes the most fun and enthralling prose about the movies since Pauline Kael". John Banville called hi...
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Juan Jesús Gómez‐reino
#158588
Overall Influence
#12549
Elizabeth Anne Bukusi
#157263
Overall Influence
Elizabeth Anne Bukusi FAAS is a research professor working within the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, and global health. Bukusi's main areas of research focus around sexually transmitted infections, women's health, reproductive health, and HIV care, prevention and treatment. Bukusi is the Chief Research Officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and led a "landmark" study on the use of PrEP in Kenya.
Go to Profile#12550
Mary‐ellen Taplin
#158594
Overall Influence
