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,
#13201
Walter Feinberg
#164425
Overall Influence
#13202
José Manuel Briceño Guerrero
#98818
Overall Influence
1929 - 2014 (85 years)
José Manuel Briceño Guerrero was a Venezuelan writer, philologist and philosopher. A large part of his work was published under the pen-name Jonuel Brigue. After doctoring in Vienna in 1961 with a thesis entitled “The Socio-Psychological Foundations of Latin American Spanish,” Briceño Guerrero worked for decades as Professor of Philosophy and Classical languages at the Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida. In 1981 he was awarded the Venezuelan Premio Nacional de Ensayo, and in 1996 the Premio Nacional de Cultura . He is considered one of the most influential and original Latin-American thinkers, ...
Go to Profile#13203
Michael Rawlins
#35170
Overall Influence
1941 - 2023 (82 years)
Sir Michael David Rawlins was a British clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. During his medical career he chaired several executive agencies including the Committee on Safety of Medicines from 1993 to 1998, followed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for 14 years from its formation in 1999 and then the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for six years from 2014. From 2012 to 2014 he was president of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Go to Profile#13204
Kenneth L. Casey
#164444
Overall Influence
#13205
Arthur J. Hartz
#164459
Overall Influence
#13206
Tor D. Scd Tosteson
#164462
Overall Influence
#13207
Andries Mac Leod
1891 - 1977 (86 years)
Andries Hugo Donald Mac Leod was a Belgian-Swedish philosopher and mathematician. Andries Mac Leod was born in Ledeberg, a suburb of Ghent, as a son of Julius Mac Leod, a botanist and professor at Ghent University, and of Fanny Mac Leod born Maertens, who was translator from English into Dutch of two books by Kropotkin.
Go to Profile#13208
Donald J. Cohen
#40633
Overall Influence
1940 - 2001 (61 years)
Donald Jay Cohen was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and director of the Yale Child Study Center and the Sterling Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology at the Yale School of Medicine. According to the New York Times, he was "known for his scientific work, including fundamental contributions to the understanding of autism, Tourette's syndrome and other illnesses, and for his leadership in bringing together the biological and the psychological approaches to understanding psychiatric disorders in childhood"; his work "reshaped the field of child psychiatry". He was ...
Go to Profile#13209
Robert A. O’reilly
#164499
Overall Influence
#13210
Joseph P. Costantino
#164508
Overall Influence
#13211
Gregory B. Bulkley
#164526
Overall Influence
#13212
Andreas Du Bois
#164554
Overall Influence
#13213
Katherine O'Brien
#36600
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Katherine "Kate" L. O'Brien is a Canadian American pediatric infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and vaccinologist who specializes in the areas of pneumococcal epidemiology, pneumococcal vaccine trials and impact studies, and surveillance for pneumococcal disease. She is also known as an expert in infectious diseases in American Indian populations. O’Brien is currently the Director of the World Health Organization's Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals.
Go to Profile#13214
Jeffrey m. Leiden
#164575
Overall Influence
#13215
Frederik A. Olesen
#164581
Overall Influence
#13216
Marc Haas
#164582
Overall Influence
#13217
Sunil Kripalani
#164616
Overall Influence
#13218
Antoine Hadengue
#164620
Overall Influence
#13219
Irene Petersen
#164632
Overall Influence
#13220
Maurizio Muscaritoli
#164674
Overall Influence
#13221
Wayne A. J. Morrison
#164679
Overall Influence
#13222
Joseph M. Zabramski
#164692
Overall Influence
#13223
Adam of Łowicz
1500 - 1514 (14 years)
Adam of Łowicz was a professor of medicine at the University of Krakow, its rector in 1510–1511, a humanist, writer and philosopher. Life Adam studied in the Department of Liberal Arts at the University of Krakow, earning a baccalaureate in 1488 and a master's degree in 1492. He then studied medicine in Italy. Returning to Poland, he served as court physician to Kings Jan I Olbracht, Alexander Jagiellon and Zygmunt I. In 1510 and 1511 he was twice elected rector of the University of Krakow. He opposed the clergy's dominance over the secular estate. An unconventional thinker, he hypothesized t...
Go to Profile#13224
Victor L. Serebruany
#164706
Overall Influence
#13225
Dan W. Brock
#164716
Overall Influence
#13226
Marc Tardieu
#164728
Overall Influence
#13227
P. Lund‐johansen
#164745
Overall Influence
#13228
Christy L. Ludlow
#164747
Overall Influence
#13229
Jane E. Freedman
#164752
Overall Influence
#13230
Donald W. Landry
#164754
Overall Influence
#13231
Ajit Lalvani
#164756
Overall Influence
#13232
Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec
#117417
Overall Influence
1921 - 2008 (87 years)
Mieczysław Albert Maria Krąpiec OP – a Polish Roman Catholic priest, philosopher , theologian, humanist and social scientist, the rector of Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski , the founder of the Lublin Philosophical School, the initiator and president of the scientific committee of Powszechna Encyklopedia Filozofii.
Go to Profile#13233
Volker Musahl
#164766
Overall Influence
#13234
André La Gerche
#164778
Overall Influence
#13235
Wouter Wieling
#164794
Overall Influence
#13236
Julian T. Parer
#164800
Overall Influence
#13237
John Allen Mccutchan
#164807
Overall Influence
#13238
Nigel K. Spurr
#164826
Overall Influence
#13239
Philippe A. Halban
#164830
Overall Influence
#13240
Tore Saxne
#164832
Overall Influence
#13241
Alfred Dürr
#25460
Overall Influence
1918 - 2011 (93 years)
Alfred Dürr was a German musicologist. He was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Professional career Dürr studied musicology and Classical philology at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 1945 to 1950. He wrote his thesis about Bach's early cantatass. From 1951 until his retirement in 1983 he was an employee of the Johann Sebastian Bach Institute in Göttingen, West Germany, from 1962 to 1981 its deputy director. His work involved collaboration with colleagues in East Germany. He was a principal editor of the...
Go to Profile#13242
Aloisio Galea
1851 - 1905 (54 years)
Aloisio Galea was a Maltese theologian and minor philosopher. He specialised mostly in moral philosophy. Life Galea was born in Valletta in 1851. He studied at the bishop’s seminary and at the University of Malta. He was ordained a priest in 1874. His main intellectual endeavour was to study, elaborate upon and teach Thomistic writings and doctrines, of which he was an expert. Specifically, he applied his studies to his pastoral work, particularly by focusing on Aquinas’ moral philosophy. Galea died in 1905.
Go to Profile#13243
Tapani Luukkainen
#164859
Overall Influence
#13244
Linheng Li
#164867
Overall Influence
#13245
Anders Celsius
1701 - 1744 (43 years)
Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Germany, Italy and France. He founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741, and in 1742 proposed the Centigrade temperature scale which was later renamed Celsius in his honour.
Go to Profile#13246
Dietrich Niethammer
#164884
Overall Influence
#13247
Alireza Minagar
#164890
Overall Influence
#13248
Maurice S. Albin
#164900
Overall Influence
#13249
Brian Earp
#120776
Overall Influence
Brian David Earp is an American bioethicist, philosopher, and interdisciplinary researcher. He is best known for his writings on intersex medical interventions, circumcision, and drug use in the United States. He is currently associate director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University and The Hastings Center, and a Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.
Go to Profile#13250
Ignazio Olivieri
#164906
Overall Influence
