Search People Result | Academic Influence

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).

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Person Name

School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#4001

Thomas F. Gallagher

#101802

Overall Influence

#4002

Robert Arnold Zimmerman

#101813

Overall Influence

#4003

Predrag Finci

#33840

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Predrag Finci is a Bosnian–British philosopher, author, and essayist. Biography Predrag Finci started his career as an actor. In 1968 Finci played the role of Gavrilo Princip in the film Sarajevski atentat directed by Fadil Hadžić. Later he studied philosophy at the University of Sarajevo and at the University of Paris X: Nanterre under Mikel Dufrenne. He was a visiting researcher at the Freiburg University under the supervision of Werner Marx. He completed his MA in 1977 and PhD in philosophy in 1981. He was a professor of aesthetics at the University of Sarajevo until 1993 when, during the Bosnian war, he left Sarajevo for London.

#4004

Clyde Wayne Bardin

#101824

Overall Influence

#4005

Andrew E. Kertesz

#101826

Overall Influence

#4006

Ljubomir Cuculovski

Ljubomir Cuculovski

#82029

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Ljubomir Cuculovski is a Macedonian philosopher and professor in Skopje. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, with a thesis on The Sources of Bergson’s Theory of Knowledge. Then he received his master's title in sociological science in 1982, at the Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research in Skopje, with a thesis on Religion and Morality. He received his PhD in philosophical sciences from the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje in 1992, with a dissertation on Karl Marx: The Origin of Historical M...

#4007

Patrick Grim

#76558

Overall Influence

Patrick Grim is an American philosopher. He has published on epistemic questions in philosophy of religion, as well as topics in philosophy of science, philosophy of logic, computational philosophy, and agent-based modeling. He is author, co-author or editor of seven books in philosophical logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and computational philosophy. He is currently editor of the American Philosophical Quarterly and founding co-editor of over forty volumes of The Philosopher’s Annual, an attempt to collect the ten best philosophy articles of the year. Grim's popular work i...

#4008

Sengaku Mayeda

#45486

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Sengaku Mayeda is a Japanese writer, philosopher and teacher, known for his writings on Indian philosophy and Adi Shankara. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2014, by bestowing on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his services to the fields of literature and education. He is the fourth Japanese to be honoured with Padma Shri, after Taro Nakayama, Shoji Shiba and Prof. Noboru Karashima. He is also a recipient of the Third Order of Merit with the Middle Cordon of the Rising Sun of the Government of Japan, which he received in 2002.

#4009

Daniel Joseph Clauw

#101890

Overall Influence

#4010

Dennis George Maki

#101955

Overall Influence

#4011

Clare Beghtol

#80322

Overall Influence

1942 - 2018 (76 years)

Clare Beghtol was an American-born classification theorist. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, she studied English at the University of Chicago and American civilization at Brown University. Beghtol began teaching at what became Concordia University in 1967, then became an editor and writer. Beghtol received a master's degree in library science from the University of Toronto in 1979. She joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and continued working there while earning a doctoral degree. From 1987 to 1992, Beghtol was director of research at Ketchum Canada. She taught at the University of Toronto from 1991 to 2009.

#4012

Marvin Meyer

#17389

Overall Influence

1948 - 2012 (64 years)

Marvin W. Meyer was a scholar of religion and a tenured professor at Chapman University, in Orange, California. He was the Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University and Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute. He was also Director of the Coptic Magical Texts Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. Dr. Meyer authored numerous books and articles on Greco-Roman and Christian religions in antiquity and late antiquity, and on Albert Schweitzer's ethic of reverence for life. He had been interviewed on television programs that aired on ABC, BBC, CNN,...

#4013

Harold Ellis

#73045

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (100 years)

Professor Harold Ellis CBE, Mch, FRCS is an English retired surgeon. He was Emeritus Professor of Surgery in the University of London and most recently a professor in the Department of Anatomy & Human Sciences at the King's College London School of Medicine. He qualified as a doctor from the University of Oxford in July 1948, the same month the National Health Service began. From 1950 to 1951 he undertook national service as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, afterwards continuing his training as a surgical registrar in London, Sheffield and Oxford before taking up a post as senior lecturer in the University of London.

#4014

Piero Anversa

#102049

Overall Influence

#4015

Debito Arudou

#10115

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Debito Arudou is an American-born Japanese writer, blogger, and human rights activist. He was born in the United States and became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2000. Arudou has since left Japan after living in the country for over 20 years.

#4016

Michael Rosenak

#41425

Overall Influence

1932 - 2013 (81 years)

Michael Rosenak was an Israeli philosopher of Jewish education. He was the Mandel Professor of Jewish Education at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Biography Michael Rosenak was born in Germany but he grew up in the United States. He graduated Yeshiva University. He emigrated to Israel in 1958. In the 1960s, he taught a popular course at Hebrew University's program for overseas students, "Basic issues in contemporary Jewish life." He held various positions during his academic life, before becoming a full professor at the Melton Centre, and was also noted for his involvement in hands-on ed...

#4017

Leon van der Torre

Leon van der Torre

#48080

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Leendert van der Torre is a professor of computer science at the University of Luxembourg and head of the Individual and Collective Reasoning group, part of the Computer Science and Communication Research Unit. Leon van der Torre is a prolific researcher in deontic logic and multi-agent systems, a member of the Ethics Advisory Committee of the University of Luxembourg and founder of the CSC Robotic research laboratory. Since March 2016 he is the head of the Computer Science and Communication Research Unit.

#4018

Adam Hochschild

Adam Hochschild

#2900

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Adam Hochschild is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include King Leopold's Ghost , To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918 , Bury the Chains , The Mirror at Midnight , The Unquiet Ghost , and Spain in Our Hearts . American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis .

#4019

Benjamin L. Ebert

#77666

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Benjamin Levine Ebert is the Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and the George P. Canellos, MD and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Early life and education Ebert was born in Boston Lying-In Hospital to parents Michael and Ellen Ebert. His father was the Chair of the department of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine while his mother was an artist. Due to his fathers position, Ebert and his family lived in Baltimore, Maryland, and Bethesda, Tennessee. While in Tennessee, Ebert was enrolled at the University School of Nashville where he was ranked nationally in table tennis.

#4020

Patrik Brundin

#102111

Overall Influence

#4021

Sidi Mohamed Barkat

#53167

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Sidi Mohamed Barkat is an Algerian philosopher employed in Paris. He was an associate researcher at the psychology of work and action laboratory at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. After several years of employment by the university, where he was mainly occupied with questions of epistemology in the social sciences, Sidi Mohammed Barkat directed a research programme at the Collège international de philosophie in Paris on the image and condition of "the native Algerian" from 1998 to 2004.

#4022

Peter K. Sorger

#102142

Overall Influence

#4023

Friedrich‐wilhelm Mohr

#102150

Overall Influence

#4024

Hiram C. Jr. Polk

#102160

Overall Influence

#4025

Richard Pazdur

#87335

Overall Influence

Richard Pazdur is an American oncologist serving as the founding director of the Oncology Center of Excellence within the Food and Drug Administration. He was appointed to the position in 2005. He was previously the director of the FDA's Office of Hematology Oncology Products from 1999 to 2005.

#4026

Steven Mark Albelda

#102167

Overall Influence

#4027

Vincent Delecroix

#92054

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Vincent Delecroix is a French philosopher and writer. A graduate from the École normale supérieure, and agrégé of philosophy, a specialist of Søren Kierkegaard on whom he did his doctoral thesis, he has taught philosophy of religion at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes as a lecturer. Also a novelist, he received the Prix Valery Larbaud in 2007 for Ce qui est perdu and the Grand prix de littérature de l'Académie française after he published Tombeau d'Achille . His literary and philosophical work is attentive to existential acts and experiences, such as love, singing and the sacred.

#4028

Joel S. Migdal

#15818

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Joel S. Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. He is a political scientist specializing in comparative politics.

#4029

Harry S. Shwachman

#102210

Overall Influence

#4030

Kornelia Polyak

#82055

Overall Influence

Kornelia Polyak is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized breast cancer expert. Polyak earned her MD from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Medical University in Szeged, Hungary, and her PhD from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences/Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She then did a fellowship in cancer genetics at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center with Bert Vogelstein and Kenneth Kinzler.

#4031

John I. Gallin

#102234

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

#4032

Russell Hittinger

#45116

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Francis Russell Hittinger III is the Warren Chair of Catholic Studies and Research Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa. Hittinger's scholarship is focused on the intersection of philosophy, religion, and law, with particular emphasis on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. For the past several years he has worked and published extensively on the history of Catholic social thought since the 18th century.

#4033

Rakesh Aggarwal

#14895

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Rakesh Aggarwal is an Indian gastroenterologist, who is currently the Director of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research , Puducherry, India. He was previously a Professor of Gastroenterology at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences. Known for his studies on Gastrointestinal diseases, Liver diseases, and Viral Hepatitis, Aggarwal is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies, namely National Academy of Sciences, India, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy, and of the National Academy of Medical Sciences.

#4034

Daniel Richter

#26165

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Daniel Richter is a German artist. He is based in Berlin, and was previously active in Hamburg. He is known for large-scale oil paintings. Life and work Daniel Richter was born in 1962 in Eutin, West Germany. Richter attended Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg from 1991 to 1995. Between 1992 and 1996 he studied with Werner Büttner, one of the protagonists, along with Martin Kippenberger, of the revival of expressive trends in painting during the 1980s, and worked as assistant to Albert Oehlen.

#4035

Marie-Germaine Bousser

#60462

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Marie-Germaine Bousser is a French neuroscientist. She won the Brain Prize in 2019 for her work on CADASIL. Biography Bousser graduated from Paris-Sorbonne University in neuro-psychiatry in 1972 with her thesis devoted to the prevention of cortical artery thrombosis in rabbits by aspirin and PGE1.

#4036

Stephen A. Sahn

#102326

Overall Influence

#4037

Hans Aarsleff

#51498

Overall Influence

1925 - Present (101 years)

Hans Christian Aarsleff is a Danish linguist and academic, who has served as emeritus professor of English at Princeton University since 1997. Aarsleff is a renowned specialist in the history of linguistics, the history of ideas, and the history of philosophy of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

#4038

David A. Drachman

#102342

Overall Influence

#4039

John Emery

#93152

Overall Influence

1915 - 2000 (85 years)

John Lewis Emery was a British-born paediatric pathologist and emeritus professor at the University of Sheffield. Emery was most notable for being one of the founding fathers of paediatric pathology in the country, and for conducting research into haematology, developmental anatomy, congenital deformities, particularly hydrocephalus, and was probably Britain's leading scientist in the subject of unexplained infant deaths, or cot death.

#4040

Charles Miller Fisher

#102360

Overall Influence

#4041

Atul H. Goel

#102362

Overall Influence

#4042

Masatsugu Hori

#102372

Overall Influence

#4043

Frederick Neuhouser

#77581

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Frederick Neuhouser is the Viola Manderfeld Professor of German and a professor of Philosophy at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is a specialist in European philosophy of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially Rousseau, Fichte, and Hegel.

#4044

Lainie Friedman Ross

#74007

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Lainie Friedman Ross is an American physician and bioethicist who works at the University of Chicago. Early life Lainie Friedman Ross is a 1982 graduate of Princeton University where she majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She has a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and she also obtained an M.Phil and a PhD in philosophy from Yale University.

#4045

Gerard F. Gilmore

Gerard F. Gilmore

#29738

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Gerard Francis Gilmore FRS FRAS FInstP is Emeritus Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge. His research has centred on studying stars in the Galaxy to understand its structure and evolutionary history.

#4046

Henri‐géry Hers

#102415

Overall Influence

#4047

Christian de Quincey

#61871

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Christian de Quincey is an American philosopher and author who teaches consciousness, spirituality and cosmology at universities and colleges in the United States and Europe. He is also an international speaker on consciousness.

#4048

Christoph von Blumröder

#35858

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Christoph von Blumröder is a German musicologist. Career Born in Northeim, Blumröder studied musicology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in Breisgau with Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, philosophy and history of the .

#4049

Rodger A. Warnke

#102427

Overall Influence

#4050

Adrian Bardon

#83937

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Adrian Bardon is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest College. He is known for his works on philosophy of time. Books The Truth About Denial: Bias and Self-Deception in Science, Politics, and Religion A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time

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