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,
#13401
Alan Forrest
#166161
Overall Influence
#13402
Pascale Barberger‐gateau
#166162
Overall Influence
#13403
Nir Peled
#166165
Overall Influence
#13404
Publius Anteius Antiochus
150 - 200 (50 years)
Publius Anteius Antiochus, or Antiochus of Aegae , was a sophist—or, as he claimed to be, a Cynic philosopher—of ancient Rome, from the Cilician port city of Aegeae . He lived around the 2nd century AD, during the reigns of the Roman emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla, and is known from a number of inscriptions that indicate him to have been a student of Philostratus, as well as a Syrian named Dardanus and a certain Milesian named Dionysius.
Go to Profile#13405
Joel Michael Reynolds
#141452
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Joel Michael Reynolds is an American philosopher whose research focuses on disability. His areas of specialization include Philosophy of Disability, Bioethics, Continental Philosophy, and Social Epistemology. He is an assistant professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies in the Department of Philosophy at Georgetown University, a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, a senior bioethics advisor to The Hastings Center, and core faculty in Georgetown's Disability Studies Program. In 2022, he was named a Faculty Scholar of The Greenwall Foundation in support of his proje...
Go to Profile#13406
Jonathan S. Lewin
#74000
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Jonathan S. Lewin is an American neuroradiologist specializing in medical imaging research with an emphasis on the investigation, development, and translation of new magnetic resonance imaging techniques. He is the former executive vice president for health affairs and executive director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center for Emory University, and former President, CEO, and chairman of the board of Emory Healthcare. He currently serves as professor of radiology, biomedical engineering, and neurosurgery in the Emory School of Medicine and as professor of health policy and management...
Go to Profile#13407
Frances Melville
1873 - 1962 (89 years)
Frances Helen Melville , was a Scottish suffragist, advocate for higher education for women in Scotland, and one of the first women to matriculate at the University of Edinburgh in 1892. She was president of the British Federation of University Women from 1935 to 1942.
Go to Profile#13408
Heymeric de Campo
1395 - 1460 (65 years)
Heymeric de Campo was a Dutch theologian and scholastic philosopher. He was a prominent Albertist, and forerunner of Nicholas of Cusa. He studied at the University of Paris, and taught at Cologne , and Leuven.
Go to Profile#13409
Joseph S. Torg
#166238
Overall Influence
#13410
Lee D. Kaufman
#166252
Overall Influence
#13411
David L. Vesely
#166262
Overall Influence
#13412
David B. Rye
#166274
Overall Influence
#13413
Nour Sneige
#166277
Overall Influence
#13414
Ernest G. McClain
#85335
Overall Influence
1918 - 2014 (96 years)
Ernest Glenn McClain was a professor of music at Brooklyn College from 1951 to 1982. McClain is known for his efforts to analyze music in the context of ancient knowledge of mathematics and philosophy.
Go to Profile#13415
Marshall i. Hertz
#166292
Overall Influence
#13416
Pierre-Charles Marcel
#109815
Overall Influence
1910 - 1992 (82 years)
Biography Pierre-Charles Marcel was a leading French Reformed Protestant Christian pastor and philosopher who studied under France's leading evangelical-confessional mind, M. Auguste Lecerf . Marcel was sent to the Netherlands by Lecerf to study Christian philosophy under Herman Dooyeweerd.
Go to Profile#13417
Melissa Little
#109617
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Melissa Helen Little is an Australian scientist and academic, currently Theme Director of Cell Biology, heading up the Kidney Regeneration laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She is also a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, and Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia. In January 2022, she became CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine reNEW, an international stem cell research center based at University of Copenhagen, and a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Murdoc...
Go to Profile#13418
Pier Giorgio Crosignani
#166328
Overall Influence
#13419
Ulrich K. Göbel
#166331
Overall Influence
#13420
Annette Majnemer
#166334
Overall Influence
#13421
Tomáš Štítný ze Štítného
1333 - 1409 (76 years)
Tomáš Štítný ze Štítného was a Czech nobleman, writer, theologian, translator, and Christian preacher. Tomáš Štítný came from a lower nobility from the Štítná fortress External links Reprint from 1852, some of his manuscripts
Go to Profile#13422
Jean-marie Régis
#166339
Overall Influence
#13423
Robert D. Udelsman
#166341
Overall Influence
#13424
Musashi
#20177
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Akio Mori, better known by the name Musashi, is a Japanese former professional karateka and kickboxer. He is a four-time K-1 Japan tournament champion, a former WAKO Heavyweight Muay Thai champion and two-time K-1 World Grand Prix finalist. Following a 14-year career, he announced his retirement at a press conference in Tokyo on August 26, 2009.
Go to Profile#13425
Donald G. Payan
#166373
Overall Influence
#13426
Cees J. Cornelisse
#166384
Overall Influence
#13427
M. M. Mcpartlin
#166385
Overall Influence
#13428
Annibale Volpe
#166389
Overall Influence
#13429
Claude Chastang
#166395
Overall Influence
#13430
Stefano Ponte
#166425
Overall Influence
#13431
Yoshigoro Kuroiwa
#166444
Overall Influence
#13432
Gunnar Hillerdal
#166450
Overall Influence
#13433
Max Ellenberg
#166453
Overall Influence
#13434
Kevin Raymond Loughlin
#166454
Overall Influence
#13435
Anthony B. Nesburn
#166461
Overall Influence
#13436
Vern Thiessen
#62099
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Vern Thiessen is a Canadian playwright. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thiessen studied at the University of Winnipeg and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He later attended the University of Alberta, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Go to Profile#13437
Thomas C. Calcaterra
#166480
Overall Influence
#13438
Dharam P. Singal
#166491
Overall Influence
#13439
Michiaki Mishima
#166509
Overall Influence
#13440
Filippo Maria Santorelli
#166515
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
#13441
Victor Hoffstein
#166526
Overall Influence
#13442
Jürgen Meyer
#166544
Overall Influence
#13443
Dennis F. Bandyk
#166551
Overall Influence
#13444
Anthony Meager
#166573
Overall Influence
#13445
Harry McFarland Bracken
#137292
Overall Influence
1926 - 2011 (85 years)
Harry McFarland Bracken was an American philosopher, a specialist in Descartes and friend of Noam Chomsky. His academic career was framed in relation to his anti-Vietnam War activism. Bracken received a BA in philosophy from Trinity College of Connecticut , an MA in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University , and a PhD in philosophy from University of Iowa . He held the position of assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa ; Associate Professor of philosophy at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and then Arizona State University ; and finally Professor of philosophy at McGill University .
Go to Profile#13446
Maarten Frank Bobbert
#166594
Overall Influence
#13447
Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer
#84142
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer is a German sinologist who served as director of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel between 1993 and 2015. Since 2016 he has been director of China Centrum Tübingen .
Go to Profile#13448
Irwin Jon Russell
#166630
Overall Influence
#13449
J. A. P. Apelqvist
#166633
Overall Influence
#13450
Henk Tideman
#166643
Overall Influence
