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,
#13101
Paolo Cappabianca
#163564
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
#13102
John Niparko
#73050
Overall Influence
1955 - 2016 (61 years)
John K. Niparko was an American surgeon, scientist and otolaryngologist who specialized in cochlear implants. Niparko edited and wrote several chapters of Cochlear Implants: Principles & Practices. Early life Niparko was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. In high school, he became interested in early inner-era implant devices. He attended the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor degree and medical degree. There, he completed his residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. He also completed a fellowship in neurotology, otology, and skull base surgery.
Go to Profile#13103
Elisabeth Tournier-Lasserve
#104558
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Élisabeth Tournier-Lasserve is a French neurologist, medical geneticist, university professor and hospital practitioner in genetics. Together with three colleagues, she was the co-recipient of the Brain Prize in 2019, the world's largest brain research prize.
Go to Profile#13104
Ira S. Ockene
#163595
Overall Influence
#13105
Witold Ruźyłło
#163603
Overall Influence
#13106
Richard H. Jr. Grimm
#163620
Overall Influence
#13107
Francesco Carinci
#163629
Overall Influence
#13108
Neal Stuart Penneys
#163642
Overall Influence
#13109
Peter J. Maddison
#163645
Overall Influence
#13110
Karel G. Terbrugge
#163656
Overall Influence
#13111
Claudine Junien
#163664
Overall Influence
#13112
Theophilus Gould Steward
1843 - 1924 (81 years)
Theophilus Gould Steward was an American author, educator, and clergyman. He was a U.S. Army chaplain and Buffalo Soldier of 25th U.S. Colored Infantry. Life and career Early years Steward was born to James Steward and Rebecca Gould in Gouldtown, New Jersey. The son of free Blacks reared in a family that stressed education, he received his formal education in the Gouldtown public schools.
Go to Profile#13113
Rudolf William Bilous
#163668
Overall Influence
#13114
Jean de Beaugrand
1584 - 1640 (56 years)
Jean de Beaugrand was the foremost French lineographer of the seventeenth century. Though born in Mulhouse , de Beaugrand moved to Paris in 1581. He also worked as a mathematician and published works on geostaticss. He is credited with naming the cycloid. He lived and worked in Paris as an artist until his death in 1640.
Go to Profile#13115
Thomas P. Aufderheide
#163672
Overall Influence
#13116
Tiinamaija Tuomi
#163679
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#13117
Hans Glaumann
#163716
Overall Influence
#13118
Olivier R. C. Busch
#163727
Overall Influence
#13119
Marta Mosca
#163735
Overall Influence
#13120
Robert Mcculloch Herndon
#163739
Overall Influence
#13121
Gregory T. Maclennan
#163746
Overall Influence
#13122
Michel Baulac
#163751
Overall Influence
#13123
Sandra K. Willsie
#163764
Overall Influence
#13124
Reinder A. Feddes
#163770
Overall Influence
#13125
Gerhard Litscher
#163773
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#13126
Daniel H. Teitelbaum
#163775
Overall Influence
#13127
David Kemp
#70552
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
David Thomas Kemp, FRS is a British physicist who is a professor working at the UCL Ear Institute in London. He was educated at King's College London . He discovered the phenomenon of otoacoustic emission in July 1978 while working at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. He founded a company that makes equipment to test for hearing defects by detecting otacoustic emission, which is absent in the ears of people suffering deafness caused by neural impairment. Because the method does not require any cooperation from the subject, it is valuable for detecting deafness in babies.
Go to Profile#13128
Alain Fourquet
#163816
Overall Influence
#13129
Irene Sprague Davis
#163832
Overall Influence
#13130
Bernhard Heine
1800 - 1846 (46 years)
Bernhard Heine was a German physician, bone specialist and the inventor of the osteotome, a medical tool for cutting bones. Apprenticeship in Würzburg Bernhard Heine was born on August 20, 1800, as the son of a tanner in Schramberg. At the age of ten years he was apprenticed to his uncle Johann Georg Heine in Würzburg as an orthopaedic mechanic. Without any enrolment he later attended lectures in medicine at the University of Würzburg.
Go to Profile#13131
Paolo Pederzoli
#163852
Overall Influence
#13132
Peter K. Henke
#163856
Overall Influence
#13133
Henri Filhol
1843 - 1902 (59 years)
Henri Filhol was a French medical doctor, malacologist and naturalist born in Toulouse. He was the son of Édouard Filhol , curator of the Muséum de Toulouse. After receiving his early education in Toulouse, he moved to Paris, where he obtained doctorates in medicine and science. In 1879 he was appointed professor of zoology at the Faculty of Toulouse. From 1894 to 1902 he occupied the chair of comparative animal anatomy at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. In 1897 he became a member of the Académie des sciences.
Go to Profile#13134
Angela Colantonio
#137720
Overall Influence
Angela Colantonio is a Canadian occupational scientist whose work involves improving screening, managing and treating people with traumatic brain injury, with a focus on people belonging to underserved populations. Colantonio is a professor of occupational science and occupational therapy at the University of Toronto, where she leads the Acquired Brain Injury Research Lab, and has a cross-appointment with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is also the director of the University of Toronto's Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, and a senior scientist at the University Health Network's KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
Go to Profile#13135
Albert Houtin
1867 - 1926 (59 years)
Albert Houtin was a French Catholic theologian and historian with a focus on the history of doctrine and on modernism in French religion. Born in La Flèche, he grew up to become a priest and was ordained in 1891. Following the turn of the century, he became disenchanted with religion and came to regard all religious belief systems as fraudulent. In 1907, he had attended the Fourth International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, which had been organised by Unitarians.
Go to Profile#13136
Karl‐ulrich Bartz‐schmidt
#163897
Overall Influence
#13137
William Bernard Weglicki
#163900
Overall Influence
#13138
Birgitta Strandvik
#163904
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
#13139
Edward G. Shaw
#163917
Overall Influence
#13140
Wilson Glenn Mccluggage
#163926
Overall Influence
#13141
Åke Andrén‐sandberg
#163935
Overall Influence
#13142
Morris N. Kotler
#163954
Overall Influence
#13143
Louise Kenny
#140282
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Louise Clare Kenny is a British physician who is Professor and Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Liverpool. She was elected an Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 New Year Honours.
Go to Profile#13144
Stuart H. M. Butchart
#163966
Overall Influence
#13145
Arthur Henfrey
1819 - 1859 (40 years)
Arthur Henfrey was an English surgeon and botanist. Life Henfrey was born of English parents at Aberdeen on 1 November 1819. He studied medicine and surgery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843. Poor health caused him to give up his medical career.
Go to Profile#13146
Saroja Bharati
#163989
Overall Influence
#13147
Clinton D. Kilts
#163999
Overall Influence
#13148
Masanori Shimoyama
#164002
Overall Influence
#13149
D. Brian Morgan
#164005
Overall Influence
#13150
Steven H. Belle
#164014
Overall Influence
