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,
#3451
Angelo Tremblay
#92944
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3452
Morris F. White
#92945
Overall Influence
#3453
Valentin Goranko
#66579
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Valentin Feodorov Goranko is a Bulgarian-Swedish logician, Professor of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University. Education and academic career Goranko studied mathematics and obtained Ph.D. in Mathematical Logic at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in 1988. Before joining Stockholm University in 2014, he has had several academic positions at universities in Bulgaria , South Africa , Denmark and Sweden and has taught a wide variety of courses in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Logic.
Go to Profile#3454
Tullio Pozzan
#54661
Overall Influence
1949 - 2022 (73 years)
Tullio Pozzan was an Italian biochemist who was professor at the University of Padua and head of the department of biomedical sciences of the Italian National Research Council. Early life Pozzan was born in Venice on 22 February 1949. He was born into a family associated with the medical profession, including a grandfather whom he was named after. Pozzan studied Medicine at the University of Padua and received a doctor of medicine degree in 1973.
Go to Profile#3455
Hershel Schachter
#24422
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Hershel Schachter is an American Orthodox rabbi, posek and rosh yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , part of Yeshiva University in New York City. Schachter is an halakhic advisor for the Orthodox Union, and has rendered notable decisions in a number of contemporary topic areas.
Go to Profile#3456
Russell K. Portenoy
#93010
Overall Influence
#3457
Michel Marcel Navratil
#42941
Overall Influence
1908 - 2001 (93 years)
Michel Marcel Navratil, Jr. was a French philosophy professor who was one of the last survivors of the sinking of Titanic on 15 April 1912. He, along with his brother, Edmond , were known as the "Titanic Orphans", having been the only children rescued without a parent or guardian. He was three years old at the time of the disaster.
Go to Profile#3458
Katalin Bimbó
#65047
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Katalin Bimbó is a logician and philosopher known for her books on mathematical logic and proof theory. She earned a Ph.D. in 1999 at Indiana University, under the supervision of Jon Michael Dunn, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Alberta after having earned tenure there in 2013.
Go to Profile#3459
Kazuaki Chayama
#93072
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#3460
Jan Holmgren
#72968
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Jan Roland Holmgren is a Swedish physician, microbiologist, immunologist, and vaccinologist, known for his research on cholera and mucosal immunology, specifically, for his leadership in developing "the world's first effective oral cholera vaccine".
Go to Profile#3461
Charles Tator
#53616
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Charles H. Tator is a Canadian physician. Born in Toronto, he studied medicine at the University of Toronto. He interned at the Toronto General Hospital and returned to graduate studies in the neuropathology division at the University of Toronto, completing an MA and PhD and continuing his training in neurosurgery. In 1969, Tator became a fellow in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Neurosurgery. In the same year, he became an assistant professor at the university and he became a Professor in 1980. He was head of the neurosurgery division at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and served as director of the Toronto Hospital Neurosciences Centre from 1983 to 1988.
Go to Profile#3462
Patricia Altenbernd Johnson
#80216
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Patricia Altenbernd Johnson is Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Dayton. She has written books about contemporary philosophers. She is a specialist in philosophy of religion, hermeneutics and 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, and on the works of Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer.
Go to Profile#3463
Snorri S. Thorgeirsson
#93147
Overall Influence
#3464
Ömer Özkan
#14821
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Ömer Özkan is a Turkish plastic surgeon. An associate professor at the Akdeniz University in Antalya, he led the team that performed in 2012 the first full face transplant in Turkey. Education He finished in 1988 Cumhuriyet High School in Ankara. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hacettepe University in 1995, he completed his special studies in plastic and reconstructive surgery between 1995 and 2001 at the same university.
Go to Profile#3465
Ray H. Rosenman
#93179
Overall Influence
#3466
Dimitris Tousoulis
#93212
Overall Influence
#3467
Maynard Adams
#86460
Overall Influence
1919 - 2003 (84 years)
Elie Maynard Adams was an American philosopher of value and meaning devoted to understanding and criticizing the philosophical foundations of modern Western culture and developing an intellectual vision that makes sense of the human condition.
Go to Profile#3468
Todd Huntley Baron
#93231
Overall Influence
#3469
Lauren Swayne Barthold
#78497
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Lauren Swayne Barthold is an American philosopher and Philosophy Professor at Emerson College. Previously she was Associate Professor of Philosophy at Gordon College, with tenure, and has also taught at Haverford College, Siena College and Endicott College. Barthold is known for her works on Gadamer's thought. She is a co-founder and former president of the North American Society of Philosophical Hermeneutics. In 2018 she co-founded the Heathmere Center for Cultural Engagement, a non-profit devoted to dialogue and deliberation, and currently serves as its program developer.
Go to Profile#3470
Alf L. Nachemson
#93248
Overall Influence
#3471
Aaron Ben-Ze'ev
#55635
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Aaron Ben-Ze'ev is an Israeli philosopher. He was President of the University of Haifa from 2004 to 2012. Biography Aaron Ben-Ze'ev and his two older brothers Yehuda and Avinoam were born to Israel and Haika Ben-Ze'ev and were raised on kibbutz Ein Carmel. When Aaron was 18, his eldest brother Yehuda, 32, was killed in the Six-Day War. Aaron is married to Ruth, with whom he has two sons, Dean and Adam.
Go to Profile#3472
Elizabeth Kiss
#41787
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Elizabeth Kiss is an American philosopher and academic administrator, specialising in moral and political philosophy. Since 2018, she has been the Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford University, and CEO of the Rhodes Trust. She is responsible for administering the Rhodes Scholarship, providing pastoral support to existing Rhodes Scholars and coordinating the Rhodes Trust. She is the first woman to hold this role. Previously she served as president of Agnes Scott College.
Go to Profile#3473
Janna Thompson
#68394
Overall Influence
1942 - 2022 (80 years)
Janna Lea Thompson was an American-born philosopher and ethicist, who spent the majority of her academic career in Melbourne, Australia. She is best known for her work on reparative and intergenerational justice.
Go to Profile#3474
David A. Savitz
#30949
Overall Influence
David A. Savitz is a professor of Community Health in the Epidemiology Section of the Program in Public Health, Vice President for Research, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at The Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and Associate Director for Perinatal Research in The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women & Infants Hospital, both in Providence, Rhode Island. Savitz is the author of Interpreting epidemiologic evidence: strategies for study design and analysis and more than 275 peer-reviewed articles. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2007.
Go to Profile#3475
Jorge Ángel Livraga Rizzi
#42033
Overall Influence
1930 - 1991 (61 years)
Jorge Ángel Livraga Rizzi was an Argentinian poet, novelist, self-taught philosopher, essayist, educator and lecturer of Italian heritage best known for having founded and directed New Acropolis, an international philosophical educational and cultural organisation.
Go to Profile#3476
Stephen Schwartz
#79583
Overall Influence
1942 - 2020 (78 years)
Stephen M. Schwartz was an American pathologist at the University of Washington. He researched vascular biology, investigating the structure of blood vessels and smooth muscle cells. He died from complications brought on by COVID-19 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Seattle.
Go to Profile#3477
Paul Marks
#35434
Overall Influence
1926 - 2020 (94 years)
Paul Alan Marks was a medical doctor, researcher and administrator. He was a faculty member and president at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Background Marks was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, in 1926, to Robert Marks and Sarah Bohorad. Marks attended Columbia College and Columbia Medical School. After completing postdoctoral research at the United States National Institutes of Health and at the Institut Pasteur in France, he joined the faculty at Columbia University. Marks served as dean of the Medical Faculty at Columbia University from 1970 to 1973. He was president and chief executive officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 1980 until 1999.
Go to Profile#3478
Steven T. DeKosky
#23806
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Steven T. DeKosky is the Aerts-Cosper Professor of Alzheimer's Research at the University of Florida College of Medicine, deputy director of UF’s Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute and associate director of the 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Go to Profile#3479
Lawrence Shapiro
#43805
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Lawrence Shapiro is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the United States. His research focuses in the philosophy of psychology. He also works in both the philosophy of mind, and philosophy of biology.
Go to Profile#3480
Donald Brian Calne
#93417
Overall Influence
#3481
Torsti Lehtinen
#46925
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Torsti Lehtinen was a Finnish writer and philosopher. Life and career Torsti Lehtinen was born in Helsinki on 25 July 1942. He studied philosophy, theology and literature at the University of Helsinki.
Go to Profile#3482
Xu Fancheng
#57460
Overall Influence
1909 - 2000 (91 years)
Xu Fancheng , Courtesy name Jihai , also known as Hu Hsu and F.C. Hsu in India, was a Chinese scholar and translator, indologist and philosopher. He translated 50 of the Upanishads into classical Chinese. He also translated Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, Kalidasa's lyric poem Meghaduuta , and several of Sri Aurobindo's works into Chinese. He was familiar with Greek, Latin, English, French, as well as Sanskrit and German. A 16-volume edition of his complete works was published in 2006.
Go to Profile#3483
Melvin M. Grumbach
#86842
Overall Influence
1925 - 2016 (91 years)
Melvin Malcolm Grumbach was an American pediatrician and academic who specialized in pediatric endocrinology. Called Edward B. Shaw Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Grumbach was noted for his research and writing on the effect of hormones and the central nervous system on growth and puberty and their disorders; the function of the human sex chromosomes; and disorders of sexual development.
Go to Profile#3484
Aage Møller
#84713
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Aage R. Møller was an American professor of cognition and neuroscience. He was the Founders Professor and Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. The Aage and Margareta Møller Distinguished Professorship at The University of Texas at Dallas is named after him.
Go to Profile#3485
Sean J. Morrison
#19660
Overall Influence
Sean J. Morrison is a Canadian-American stem cell biologist and cancer researcher. Morrison is the director of Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern, a nonprofit research institute established in 2011 as a joint venture between Children’s Health System of Texas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. The CRI was established in 2011 by Morrison with the mission to perform transformative biomedical research at the interface of stem cell biology, cancer, and metabolism to better understand the biological basis of disease. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Go to Profile#3486
Douglas R. Lowy
#30194
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Douglas R. Lowy is the current Acting Director and Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute and Chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology within the Center for Cancer Research at NCI. Lowy served as Acting Director of NCI between April 2015 and October 2017 following the resignation of Harold E. Varmus, M.D., and again between April and November 2019, while Director Norman Sharpless served as the Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He resumed the role of Acting Director on May 1, 2022, when Sharpless stepped down until October 3, 2022 when Monica Bertagnolli was appointed Director.
Go to Profile#3487
Carmine Zoccali
#86331
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Carmine Zoccali is an Italian nephrologist and a clinical investigator. He has contributed to research in several fields, most notably hypertension and cardiovascular complications in chronic kidney disease , CKD progression and clinical epidemiology of kidney diseases at large. He is known for his studies on cardiovascular risk in CKD and dialysis patients. He was among the earliest investigators that focused on the relevance of endothelial dysfunction and inflammation for the high risk of cardiovascular disease in these populations. In this research area, he was the first to link endogenous inhibitors of the nitric oxide system with death and cardiovascular disease.
Go to Profile#3488
Max van Manen
#79361
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Max van Manen is a Dutch-born Canadian scholar who specializes in phenomenological research methods and pedagogy. There are several interesting publications to conduct phenomenology of practice. He is an emeritus professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, where he is also a Distinguished Scholar at the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology.
Go to Profile#3489
Robert Burton Nussenblatt
#93606
Overall Influence
#3490
Tom Sorell
#85260
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Tom Sorell is a Canadian philosopher based in the UK. His interests range from the theory of knowledge and the philosophy of science to early modern philosophy, ethics and political philosophy. He is noted for his writings on Hobbes, scientism and applied ethics. Since 2008, he has worked in ethics and technology both as a researcher and as a consultant. He is the author of Hobbes ; Descartes ; Moral Theory and Capital Punishment ; Scientism ; Business Ethics ; Moral Theory and Anomaly ; Descartes Reinvented ; and Emergencies and Politics .
Go to Profile#3491
Cornelis Verhoeven
#59059
Overall Influence
1928 - 2001 (73 years)
Cornelis Verhoeven was a Dutch philosopher and writer. Early life and education Verhoeven was born in Udenhout, the fourth child of seven from a farmer's family in the south of the Netherlands. He attended a catholic priest seminary but was asked to leave. He then studied classics, philosophy and religious studies at the University of Nijmegen and earned his Ph.D. with the thesis Symboliek van de voet on 19 October 1956.
Go to Profile#3492
Lester Luborsky
#35455
Overall Influence
1920 - 2009 (89 years)
Lester B. Luborsky was one of the founders of scientific research in psychotherapy. Luborsky was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Philadelphia Central High School and then earned his bachelor's degree at Pennsylvania State University.
Go to Profile#3493
Habib Malik
#34304
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Habib Malik is a retired associate professor of history and cultural studies at the Lebanese American University . His father Charles Malik was a leading figure in the drafting and adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Go to Profile#3494
Owen Witte
#29914
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Owen Witte is an American physician-scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, founding director of the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, and the UC Regents’ David Saxon Presidential Chair in developmental immunology . Witte is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a member of the President's Cancer Panel . He also served on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2013.
Go to Profile#3495
Stephen Chanock
#79357
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Stephen Jacob Chanock is an American physician and geneticist. He currently serves as Director of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the U.S. National Cancer Institute . Biography Stephen Chanock is the son of NIH scientist Robert M. Chanock, discoverer of human respiratory syncytial virus.
Go to Profile#3496
Jorge Sérgio Reis‐filho
#93696
Overall Influence
#3497
Howard Adelman
#51990
Overall Influence
1938 - 2023 (85 years)
Howard Adelman was a Canadian philosopher and university professor. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at York University in 2003. Adelman was one of the founders of Rochdale College, as well as the founder and director of York's Centre for Refugee Studies. He was editor of Refuge for ten years, and since his retirement he has received several honorary university and governmental appointments in Canada and abroad. Adelman was the recipient of numerous awards and grants, and presented the inaugural lecture in a series named in his honor at York University in 2008.
Go to Profile#3498
Deni Elliott
#58747
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Deni Elliott, D.Ed. is an ethicist and ethics scholar, and has been active in ethics scholarship and application since the 1980s. She is professor emeritus at University of South Florida. She held the Eleanor Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics and Press Policy, professor in the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication and served as Interim Regional Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and was Department Chair . University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus. Elliott is co-Chief Project Officer for the National Ethics Project and is one of 33 content experts for the National Center of Disability and Journalism.
Go to Profile#3499
İbrahim Özdemir
#60489
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
İbrahim Özdemir is a Kurdish philosopher, academic and Islamic environmentalist. He is a professor of philosophy at Uskudar University and Director General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Education, Turkey.
Go to Profile#3500
Harvey Locke
#27643
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Harvey Locke is a Canadian conservationist, writer, and photographer. He is a recognized global leader in the field of parks, wilderness, wildlife and large landscape conservation. He is a founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, with the goal to create a continuous corridor for wildlife from Yellowstone National Park in the United States to the Yukon in Northern Canada. In 2017, Locke was appointed chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Beyond the Aichi Targets Task Force, with the goal of ensuring the new global conservation targets set at the next Conferen...
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