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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Philosophy,
#4601
Paul D. Stein
#110176
Overall Influence
#4602
Morris Reichlin
#110206
Overall Influence
#4603
Sian Ellard
#110209
Overall Influence
#4604
Sherrilyn Roush
#106271
Overall Influence
Sherrilyn Roush is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy in UCLA Department of Philosophy specializing in the philosophy of science and epistemology. Career She joined King's College London in 2014 after accepting the inaugural Peter Sowerby Chair in Philosophy and Medicine. Previously, Roush was an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy at Rice University . She was then an associate professor and then a full professor of philosophy at U. C. Berkeley. Starting winter quarter 2018, she is professor of philosophy at UCLA.
Go to Profile#4605
Tung‐tien Sun
#110228
Overall Influence
#4606
Joseph D. Zuckerman
#53859
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Joseph D. Zuckerman is an American orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder, hip and knee replacement surgery. Zuckerman is the surgeon-in-chief of the Hospital for Joint Diseases of NYU Langone Medical Center New York University Langone Medical Center. He is the Walter A.L. Thompson Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center which includes the Hospital for Joint Diseases. He has published over 350 publications, including articles in Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeo...
Go to Profile#4607
Ugo Perone
#96704
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Ugo Perone is an Italian philosopher and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy. Biography After studying with Luigi Pareyson, Ugo Perone graduated in philosophy at the University of Turin with a thesis on "Charles Secrétan’s Philosophy of Freedom." The thesis received the Luisa Guzzo Award for the best philosophy dissertation discussed during that academic year.
Go to Profile#4608
Demetrios G. Demetriades
#110287
Overall Influence
#4609
Bruce E. Sands
#110296
Overall Influence
Bruce E. Sands is an American gastroenterologist, focusing in colonoscopy, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowl disease, ulcerative colitis and upper GI endoscopy, currently the Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is an Elected Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology and American Gastroenterological Association.
Go to Profile#4610
Michael G.m. Hennerici
#110302
Overall Influence
#4611
Prashanthan Sanders
#110309
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#4612
Beatrice H. Hahn
#110342
Overall Influence
#4613
Cesare Riccardo Sirtori
#110354
Overall Influence
#4614
Inder J. Chopra
#110386
Overall Influence
#4615
Donlin M. Long
#110399
Overall Influence
#4616
Deborah Mash
#18995
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Deborah Carmen Mash is an American professor of neurology and of molecular and cellular pharmacology at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, and director of the Brain Endowment Bank at the University of Miami. She is also the Chief Executive Officer and founder of DemeRx.
Go to Profile#4617
Lazar John Greenfield
#110415
Overall Influence
#4618
Ian Wilson
#24440
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Ian Wilson is a British prolific author of historical and religious books. He has investigated such topics as the Shroud of Turin and life after death. Life He was born in Clapham, south London, during World War II. Neither of his parents was religious. His school was nominally Church of England, but during scripture classes he was always, as he put it, "the number one sceptic". He graduated in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1963.
Go to Profile#4619
Bernard Andrieu
#72195
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Bernard Andrieu is a French philosopher and historian of the body. Biography Andrieu was born on 24 December 1959 in Agen. He studied in Bordeaux from 1978 to 1984. He is a professor at the University of Nancy. He has written on the philosophy of neuroscience and the mind-body problem, as well as the history of bodily practices such as tanning, touch, the open air, and immersion. He is the editor of a 450-article Dictionary of the Body.
Go to Profile#4620
Lisa Iezzoni
#98951
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Lisa I. Iezzoni is an American medical researcher with expertise in health policy. She is a professor at Harvard Medical School, as well as the director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is known for her research on health disparities among people with disabilities.
Go to Profile#4621
Anthony-jake Demetris
#110479
Overall Influence
#4622
Sushil Kumar Saxena
#57971
Overall Influence
1921 - Present (105 years)
Sushil Kumar Saxena is an Indian musicologist, academic, scholar and the author of several books on music, philosophy and aesthetics. He is a former member of the faculty of the University of Delhi and has served the University Court as a member. His works include Studies in the Metaphysics of Bradley, Hindustan Music and Aesthetics Today, Art and Philosophy: Seven Aestheticians, Croce, Dewey, Collingwood, Santayana, Ducasse Langer, Reid, and Swinging Syllables Aesthetics of Kathak Dance and his lectures have been included in a book, Indian Music: Eminent Thinkers on Core Issues ; Discourses by Premlata Sharma, S.
Go to Profile#4623
Timothy James Gabbett
#110485
Overall Influence
#4624
Linda-Gail Bekker
#84863
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Linda-Gail Bekker MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP is a Professor of Medicine and Chief Operating Officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation. She is also Director of the Desmund Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town. She is a Past President of the International AIDS Society .
Go to Profile#4625
Charles Bluestone
#110505
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Charles D. Bluestone is an American physician, focusing in otitis, currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Otolarngology at University of Pittsburgh.
Go to Profile#4626
A. Victor Hoffbrand
#110511
Overall Influence
#4627
Lee H. Schwamm
#110518
Overall Influence
#4628
Norman l. Letvin
#110554
Overall Influence
#4629
Ralf Baron
#110556
Overall Influence
#4630
Edward M. Iii Copeland
#110571
Overall Influence
#4631
Richard M. Capobianco
#102188
Overall Influence
Richard M. Capobianco is an American philosophy professor and one of the leading commentators on the thought of the 20th century German philosopher Martin Heidegger. His three books, Engaging Heidegger, Heidegger's Way of Being, and Heidegger's Being: The Shimmering Unfolding have led the way to a renewed appreciation of Heidegger's core concern with Being as temporal radiant emergence or manifestation. He has also brought Heidegger into closer proximity with American authors such as Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, and E. E. Cummings, and with English poets s...
Go to Profile#4632
Arnold Epstein
#48805
Overall Influence
Arnold Epstein is an American health scholar currently the John H. Foster Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has had over 20 authored or co-authored papers cited each over 100 and 1,000 times, starting with his currently highest one published in 1991.
Go to Profile#4633
Bonaventura Clotet
#101748
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Bonaventura Clotet Sala is a Spanish physician. He has been the head of the HIV unit at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital in Badalona from 1987 to 2015, and since then he has been the head of the Infectious Diseases service at the same hospital. He has been the director of the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute since 1995 and chairman of the Fight Against AIDS Foundation since 1992. Since 2006 he has been co-director of the HIVACAT AIDS vaccine research program. He has been an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona since 1986 and director of the Chair in AID...
Go to Profile#4634
Lorraine Smith Pangle
#85334
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Lorraine Smith Pangle is a professor of political philosophy in the Department of Government and co-director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin. Her interests are ancient, early modern, and American political philosophy, ethics, the philosophy of education, and problems of justice and moral responsibility. She has won fellowships from the Searle, Olin, and Earhart Foundations, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Pangle received her B.A. in history from Yale, a B.Ed.
Go to Profile#4635
Vojin Rakić
#82830
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Vojin B. Rakic is a Serbian philosopher and political scientist. He publishes in English, but also in Serbian. He has a PhD in political science from Rutgers University in the United States. His publications on ethics, bioethics , Kant, and cosmopolitan justice are considered as influential writings in the international academic arena, as can be read in the references to Rakić`s works, the endorsements of his two latest books, as well as in the open letter of support for Rakić that has been signed by dozens of the world`s most reputed ethicists and philosophers, in which they state their opin...
Go to Profile#4636
Hiroyuki Tsutsui
#110633
Overall Influence
#4637
José Benardete
#82576
Overall Influence
1928 - 2016 (88 years)
José Amado Benardete was an American philosopher and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. He was the son of Maír José Benardete and the brother of Seth Benardete and Diego Benardete, professor of mathematics at the University of Hartford. He is known for his works on metaphysics and infinity.
Go to Profile#4638
Kurt Hostettmann
#110655
Overall Influence
#4639
A. Etc. Pinchera
#110679
Overall Influence
#4640
Hans O. L. Lithell
#110687
Overall Influence
#4641
Rachel Ankeny
#62392
Overall Influence
Rachel Ankeny is a professor of history and philosophy of science at University of Adelaide. In 2020, she was elected as a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science "for her contributions to our understanding of the foundational roles that organisms play in biological research and her leadership in history and philosophy of science." She is currently the president-elect of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology .
Go to Profile#4642
Trevor J. Phillips
#61112
Overall Influence
1927 - 2016 (89 years)
Trevor Joeseph Phillips was a British-born educational philosopher and Professor of Educational Foundations and Inquiry at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He wrote a dissertation on the philosophy transactionalism.
Go to Profile#4643
Ezequiel Di Paolo
#60159
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Ezequiel A Di Paolo is a full-time Research Professor at Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science. He also has affiliations with the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at the University of Sussex. His field of research covers enactivism and embodiment in cognitive science.
Go to Profile#4644
William C. Koller
#110730
Overall Influence
#4645
Razi Shirazi
#60319
Overall Influence
1927 - 2021 (94 years)
Ayatollah Sayyid Radhi al-Husayni al-Shirazi , also known as Razi Shirazi, was an Iraqi-Iranian Shia who was a jurist, philosopher and theologian. He was the great-grandson of the renowned Shia jurist, Mirza Shirazi, the pioneer of the Tobacco protest. He was the Imam of the Shifa mosque in Yousefabad.
Go to Profile#4646
Warwick Anderson
#67559
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Warwick Hugh Anderson , medical doctor, poet, and historian, is Janet Dora Hine Professor of Politics, Governance and Ethics in the Department of History and the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, where he was previously an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow . He is also honorary professor in the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of New South Wales, from which he received the History and Philosophy of Science Medal in 2015.
Go to Profile#4647
Ed. Dewey W. Hall
#110751
Overall Influence
#4648
Michael Broyde
#13702
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Michael Jay Broyde is a professor of law and the academic director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University School of Law. He is also a senior fellow in the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. His primary areas of interest are law and religion, Jewish law and Jewish ethics, and comparative religious law. Broyde has published 200 articles on various aspects of law and religion and Jewish law, and a number of articles in the area of federal courts.
Go to Profile#4649
Donald Hubin
#42549
Overall Influence
Donald Clayton Hubin is an American philosopher, specializing in ethics, legal philosophy and political philosophy. He has published research on justice and future generations, parental rights, paternity, instrumental rationality and benefit-cost analysis, among other topics. Hubin is a professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at Ohio State University and the Founding Director Emeritus of its Center for Ethics and Human Values. He serves as the Chair of the national board of National Parents Organization.
Go to Profile#4650
Hans E. Grossniklaus
#110788
Overall Influence
