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,
#13001
Gary P. Carlson
#162742
Overall Influence
#13002
Leon D. Sabath
#162746
Overall Influence
#13003
Clifford Ray Qualls
#162750
Overall Influence
#13004
Michael Cholbi
#144805
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Michael Cholbi is an American philosopher and Chair in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his research on ethical issues related to death and dying, including suicide, grief, and immortality. Cholbi has also published work in moral psychology and Kantian ethics, as well as on topics in practical ethics such as work and labor, punishment, and paternalism.
Go to Profile#13005
Michael J. A. Tanner
#162770
Overall Influence
#13006
Marcello Iriti
#162783
Overall Influence
#13007
S. F. Mullan
#162784
Overall Influence
#13008
Alix Cohen
#134809
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Alix Cohen is a British philosopher and a Reader of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. She is known for her works on Kant's thought. She is the current Co-Editor with Sacha Golob of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
Go to Profile#13009
Anthony Manser
#118730
Overall Influence
1909 - 1995 (86 years)
Anthony Richards Manser was a British philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Southampton University. He was a president of Aristotelian Society and a member of the Mind Association. He is known for his works on the philosophy of F. H. Bradley.
Go to Profile#13010
Maureen Andrew
#162816
Overall Influence
#13011
Bonnie Ramsey
#154973
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Bonnie W. Ramsey is the Endowed Chair in Cystic Fibrosis at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research at Seattle Children's Research Institute. Her research focuses on treatments for cystic fibrosis.
Go to Profile#13012
Thomas H. Lee
#162856
Overall Influence
#13013
Augustus D. Mazzocca
#162861
Overall Influence
#13014
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
1829 - 1887 (58 years)
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Go to Profile#13015
Cynthia E. Dunbar
#153522
Overall Influence
Cynthia Dunbar is an American scientist and hematologist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute , which is part of the National Institutes of Health . She is the Branch Chief of the Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch.
Go to Profile#13016
Hajo A. Bruining
#162872
Overall Influence
#13017
Donald. R. Stanski
#162876
Overall Influence
#13018
Joseph D. Schulman
#76554
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Joseph Daniel Schulman is a physician, medical researcher, and biomedical entrepreneur in the fields of genetic diseases and human reproduction. Life Schulman was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1966 and trained in pediatrics, genetics, and obstetrics & gynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, and Cornell-New York Hospital Medical Center. Schulman worked at Cambridge University with Drs. Robert Geoffrey Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, contributing to the development of the first methods for successful human in-vitro fertilization .
Go to Profile#13019
Peter John Mckenna
#162894
Overall Influence
#13020
Dennis Hart Mahan
1802 - 1871 (69 years)
Dennis Hart Mahan [məˈhæn] was a noted American military theorist, civil engineer and professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1824–1871. He was the father of American naval historian and theorist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan.
Go to Profile#13021
Charles C. Bass
1875 - 1975 (100 years)
Charles Cassidy Bass was an American medical doctor and researcher on tropical medicine who made significant contributions to understanding malaria, hookworm, and other diseases. Later Bass studied the relationship between dental health and general well-being. Bass articulated and promoted the "Bass Technique of Toothbrushing" and developed improved means of flossing teeth, for which some refer to Bass as "The Father of Preventive Dentistry". He subsequently became a university administrator, serving as dean of the Tulane University School of Medicine, from 1922 to 1940.
Go to Profile#13022
Brian Manning Delaney
#115977
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Brian Manning Delaney is a venture investor and researcher in the biogerontology space. Delaney is a partner at the longevity biotech venture fund Emerging Longevity Ventures. Previously he was a philosophy professor and translator of the works of Hegel. He divides his time between Stockholm and the U.S.
Go to Profile#13023
Lyubomir Ivanov
#73652
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Lyubomir Ivanov is a Bulgarian scientist, non-governmental activist, and Antarctic explorer. He is a graduate of the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia with M.S. degree in mathematics in 1977, earned his PhD from Sofia University in 1980 under the direction of Dimiter Skordev, with a dissertation titled Iterative Operative Spaces, and was the 1987 winner of Acad. Nikola Obreshkov Prize, the highest Bulgarian award in mathematics.
Go to Profile#13024
Laurence W. Bassett
#162957
Overall Influence
#13025
Michael S. Makaroun
#162960
Overall Influence
#13026
Jean E. Chastre
#162966
Overall Influence
#13027
Richard A. Proctor
#162976
Overall Influence
#13028
George T. Tindall
#162980
Overall Influence
#13029
Charles Le. Vogel
#162990
Overall Influence
#13030
Gunnar O. Klein
#163012
Overall Influence
#13031
Nathan Judson Mcdannold
#163014
Overall Influence
#13032
Roel Kuiper
#130282
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Roelof Kuiper is a Dutch historian, philosopher, ideologue, politician and university professor. He was from 2007 to 2019 a member of the Dutch Senate, and is professor of Reformational philosophy at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam in the name of the Association for Reformational philosophy, teaching Society Issues at the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede and Gereformeerde Hogeschool Zwolle and Political and social philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam .
Go to Profile#13033
Colin Escott
#27981
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Colin Escott is a British music historian and author specializing in early U.S. rock and roll and country music. His works include a biography of Hank Williams, histories of Sun Records and The Grand Ole Opry, liner notes for more than 500 albums and compilations, and major contributions to stage and television productions. Honors include multiple Grammy Awards and a Tony Award nomination.
Go to Profile#13034
Roderick Macdonald
#163024
Overall Influence
#13035
Emilio Pettoruti
1892 - 1971 (79 years)
Emilio Pettoruti was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development. Pettoruti's career was thriving during the 1920s when "Argentina witnessed a decade of dynamic artistic activity; it was an era of euphoria, a time when the definition of modernity was developed." While Pettoruti was influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Abstraction, he did not claim to paint in any of those styles in particular. Exhibiting all over Europ...
Go to Profile#13036
Garyy D. Webb
#163026
Overall Influence
#13037
Christopher E. Cann
#163036
Overall Influence
#13038
Leo J. Hofland
#163039
Overall Influence
#13039
Elizabeth Plimack
#151490
Overall Influence
Elizabeth R. Plimack is an American medical oncologist. She is a professor in the Department of Hematology/Oncology and Chief of the Division of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. In these roles, she researches the treatment of genitourinary malignancies with a focus on bladder and kidney cancers.
Go to Profile#13040
Guido Silvestri
#163052
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#13041
Timothy R. Sterling
#163064
Overall Influence
#13042
Musa Bigiev
1874 - 1949 (75 years)
Musa Bigiev was a Tatar Hanafi Maturidi scholar, theologian philosopher, publicist and one of the leaders of the Jadid movement. After receiving his education in Kazan, Bukhara, Istanbul and Cairo, he became a political activist for the Ittifaq, the political organisation of the Muslims of Russia. He also taught in Orenburg, wrote journalistic texts and translated classic works into Tatar. After emigrating from the Soviet Union, he travelled Europe and the Middle and Far East while writing and publishing.
Go to Profile#13043
Giovanni Apolone
#163066
Overall Influence
#13044
Hans Olaf Bang
#163075
Overall Influence
#13045
Brian P. Kavanagh
#163099
Overall Influence
#13046
Pierre‐françois Plouin
#163119
Overall Influence
#13047
Dale H. Rice
#163125
Overall Influence
#13048
Robert Mark Wenley
1861 - 1929 (68 years)
Prof Robert Mark Wenley FRSE DCL LLD was a 19th/20th-century Scottish philosopher. Life He was born in Edinburgh on 19 July 1861 the son of Jemima Isabella Veitch and her husband, James Adams Wenley FRSE , Treasurer of the Bank of Scotland. The family lived at 4 Buccleuch Place, just south of George Square, Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#13049
Daniel Ross
#118813
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Daniel Ross is an Australian philosopher and filmmaker, best known as the author of Violent Democracy and the co-director of the film The Ister . His work is influenced by Bernard Stiegler, and he is a translator or co-translator of numerous texts by Stiegler, including eleven books.
Go to Profile#13050
Reinhold Begas
1831 - 1911 (80 years)
Reinhold Begas was a German sculptor. Biography Begas was born in Berlin, son of the painter Carl Joseph Begas. He received his early education studying under Christian Daniel Rauch and Ludwig Wilhelm Wichmann. During a period of study in Italy, from 1856 to 1858, he was influenced by Arnold Böcklin and Franz von Lenbach in the direction of a naturalistic style in sculpture. This tendency was marked in the group Borussia, executed for the facade of the exchange in Berlin, which first brought him into general notice.
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