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,
#12851
Gary A. Levy
#161268
Overall Influence
#12852
Nancy G. Klimas
#161287
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#12853
Terry Joe Housh
#161303
Overall Influence
#12854
Richard C. Daly
#161307
Overall Influence
#12855
Warren J. Strittmatter
#161342
Overall Influence
#12856
Daniel W. Bradley
#161346
Overall Influence
#12857
Xavier Leleu
#161386
Overall Influence
#12858
Kyongtae Ty Bae
#161395
Overall Influence
#12859
Nusret Fişek
1914 - 1990 (76 years)
Hasan Nusret Fişek was a Turkish physician and Minister of Health. Early years Nusret Hasan Fişek was born in Sivas to Hayrullah Fişek, a commander at the Turkish War of Independence, and Mukaddes on November 21, 1914. He had a brother, A. Hicri Fişek. He was registered in Istanbul.
Go to Profile#12860
Andrew H. Henderson
#161402
Overall Influence
#12861
Claudio Ferri
#161409
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
#12862
Li Rong
#83952
Overall Influence
Li Rong was a Chinese philosopher from the Tang dynasty. He compiled a commentary on the Taoist book Tao Te Ching, called the Laozi Commentary by Li Rong .
Go to Profile#12863
Katrina Karkazis
#73336
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Katrina Alicia Karkazis is an American anthropologist and bioethicist. She is a professor of Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College. She was previously the Carol Zicklin Endowed Chair in the Honors Academy at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and a senior research fellow with the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale University. She has written widely on testosterone, intersex issues, sex verification in sports, treatment practices, policy and lived experiences, and the interface between medicine and society. In 2016, she was jointly awarded a Guggenheim Fell...
Go to Profile#12864
Richard D. Bulbrook
#161483
Overall Influence
#12865
Jong Seung Kim
#161486
Overall Influence
#12866
Merrill J. Egorin
#161496
Overall Influence
#12867
Per‐olov Wester
#161506
Overall Influence
#12868
Sydney S. Jr. Schochet
#161509
Overall Influence
#12869
Phillip Samuel Gardner
#161516
Overall Influence
#12870
Hanno Millesi
#161519
Overall Influence
#12871
Annette Kuhn
#32569
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Annette Frieda Kuhn, FBA is a British author, cultural historian, educator, researcher, editor and feminist. She is known for her work in screen studies, visual culture, film history and cultural memory. She is Professor and Research Fellow in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London.
Go to Profile#12872
Ann D. Thor
#161558
Overall Influence
#12873
Vincent L. Wimbush
#81058
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Vincent Lee Wimbush is an American New Testament scholar, known for his work in African American biblical hermeneutics. Biography Wimbush received a BA in philosophy from Morehouse College , an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and an AM and Ph.D. from Harvard University in the study of religions, with a focus on the New Testament. He taught at a number of institutions, including Union Theological Seminary and Claremont Graduate University . He is the founding director of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures.
Go to Profile#12874
Bengt Rippe
#161563
Overall Influence
#12875
Monica Gandhi
#38325
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Monica Gandhi is an American physician and professor. She teaches medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and is director of the UCSF Gladstone Center for AIDS Research and the medical director of the San Francisco General Hospital HIV Clinic, Ward 86. Her research considers HIV prevalence in women, as well as HIV treatment and prevention. She has been noted as a critic of some aspects of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the US.
Go to Profile#12876
Nobuyuki Enomoto
#161574
Overall Influence
#12877
Joachim Camerarius
1500 - 1574 (74 years)
Joachim Camerarius , the Elder, was a German classical scholar. His critical abilities, his deep understanding of Greek and Latin, and his wide-ranging knowledge of the ancient world made him one of the foremost German scholars of his time.
Go to Profile#12878
Edmund Dickinson
1624 - 1707 (83 years)
Edmund Dickinson or Dickenson was an English royal physician and alchemist, author of a syncretic philosophical system. Life He was son of the Rev. William Dickinson, rector of Appleton in Berkshire , by his wife Mary, daughter of Edmund Colepepper, and was born on 26 September 1624. He received his primary education at Eton College, and in 1642 entered Merton College, Oxford, where he was admitted one of the Eton postmasters. He took the degree of B.A. 22 June 1647, and was elected probationer-fellow of his college, On 27 November 1649 he had the degree of M.A. conferred upon him. Applying himself to the study of medicine, he obtained the degree of M.D.
Go to Profile#12879
Ho-and Keung Ng
#161576
Overall Influence
#12880
Jason X.-J. Yuan
#123155
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Jason X.-J. Yuan is an American physician scientist whose research interests center on pulmonary vascular pathobiology and pulmonary hypertension. His current research is primarily focused on the pathogenic mechanisms of pulmonary vascular diseases and right heart failure.
Go to Profile#12881
Virginia Gildersleeve
1877 - 1965 (88 years)
Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve was an American academic, the long-time dean of Barnard College, co-founder of the International Federation of University Women, and the only woman delegated by United States to the April 1945 San Francisco United Nations Conference on International Organization, which negotiated the charter for and creation of the United Nations.
Go to Profile#12882
Clyde A. Helms
#161607
Overall Influence
#12883
Joel E. Gallant
#161623
Overall Influence
#12884
Eberhard Passarge
#161636
Overall Influence
#12885
John Joseph Eckert
#161638
Overall Influence
#12886
S. -c. Huang
#161660
Overall Influence
#12887
Gorge Melville Williams
#161672
Overall Influence
#12888
Mandy Cohen
#15843
Overall Influence
Mandy Krauthamer Cohen is an American internist, public health official, and healthcare executive serving as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since July 10, 2023. She was previously the executive vice president at Aledade and chief executive officer of Aledade Care Solution, a healthcare company.
Go to Profile#12889
Thomas Louis Hanna
1928 - 1990 (62 years)
Thomas Louis Hanna was a philosophy professor and movement theorist who coined the term somatics in 1976. He called his work Hanna Somatic Education. He proposed that most negative health effects are due to what he called Sensory Motor Amnesia. He claimed that many common age-related ailments are not simply a matter of time but the result of poor movement habits.
Go to Profile#12890
Makoto Mayumi
#161703
Overall Influence
#12891
Holk Cruse
#161705
Overall Influence
#12892
Nathan Smith Davis
1817 - 1904 (87 years)
Nathan Smith Davis Sr., M.D., LLD was a physician who was instrumental in the establishment of the American Medical Association and was twice elected its president. He became the first editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Go to Profile#12893
David Beukelman
#89496
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
David R. Beukelman was an American speech-language pathologist who specialized in augmentative and alternative communication and communication disorders associated with neurological conditions. He was the Barkley Professor Emeritus of Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and used to be the Director of Research and Education of the Communication Disorders Division, Munroe/Meyer Institute of Genetics and Rehabilitation, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska.
Go to Profile#12894
Elena Esposito
#45409
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Elena Esposito is an Italian sociologist who works in the field of social systems theory. She teaches general sociology at Bielefeld University and prediction and the future of public policy at the University of Bologna . Her research is embedded in Luhmannian social systems theory.
Go to Profile#12895
Hate Man
#140025
Overall Influence
1936 - 2017 (81 years)
The Hate Man was an American philosopher, activist, and former reporter for The New York Times. His beliefs centered on people being honest about their negative feelings. He was locally famous in Berkeley, California, where he lived since 1973. In the late 1970s he was a regular presence in upper Sproul Plaza on the University of California, Berkeley campus, and often gave speeches in Ludwig's Fountain. In addition to being known as "Hate Man", he was also called "Berkeley Baby".
Go to Profile#12896
Peter Marynen
#161759
Overall Influence
#12897
James Agee
1909 - 1955 (46 years)
James Rufus Agee was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for Time Magazine, he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family , won the author a posthumous 1958 Pulitzer Prize. Agee is also known as a co-writer of the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and as the screenwriter of the film classics The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter.
Go to Profile#12898
Douglas Husak
#108227
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Douglas N. Husak is an American legal philosopher, academic and author. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and co-directs the Institute for Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University. Husak has authored over 100 scholarly articles and 6 books. He has conducted research on the intersection between moral philosophy and the substantive criminal law, focusing especially on criminalization decisions and the moral limits of the criminal sanction. Husak's books include The Philosophy of Criminal Law: Selected Essays, Overcriminalization: The Limits of the Criminal Law, Legalize This! The C...
Go to Profile#12899
Mulla Hamzah Gilani
Mulla Hamzah Gilani was an Iranian shia philosopher. He was one of the pupils of Muhammad Sadiq Ardestani. Life He was come from Gilan province but most of his life has been passed in Isfahan because of this, he also called as isfahani. It is not clear when he was born but according to Hazin lahiji, Molla Hamzeh died around 1134 lunar Hijrah. there is little information about his life in the main sources.
Go to Profile#12900
Joseph L. Pater
#161789
Overall Influence
