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
#39101
Lynne Segal
#39113
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Lynne Segal is an Australian-born, British-based socialist feminist academic and activist, author of many books and articles, and participant in many campaigns, from local community to international. She has taught in higher education in London, England since 1970, at Middlesex Polytechnic from 1973. In 1999 she was appointed Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, where she now works in the School of Psychosocial Studies.
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Mazin Qumsiyeh
#39114
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Mazin Butros Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian scientist and author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University where he teaches. After serving on the faculties of the University of Tennessee , Duke University , and Yale University , he now researches and teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities since 2008. Here Qumsiyeh joined with other professors to introduce the first Biotechnology Masters program in the region. Over the course of his career he has published well over 150 scientific papers on topics ranging from cultural heritage to biodiversity in addition to several books.
Go to Profile#39103
Robert Pollack
#39115
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Robert Elliot Pollack is an American biologist whose interests cross many academic lines. He grew up in Brooklyn, attended public schools, and majored in physics at Columbia University, where he graduated from the College in 1961. He received a PhD in Biological Sciences from Brandeis University in 1966, and subsequently was a postdoctoral Fellow in Pathology with Howard Green at NYU Medical center, and at the Weizmann Institute in Israel with Ernest Winocour. He was then recruited to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory by James Watson to establish a research program on reversion of cancer cells. He...
Go to Profile#39104
Jeremy Robinson
#39116
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Jeremy Robinson , also known as Jeremy Bishop, Jeremiah Knight, and other pen names, is an author of sixty novels and novellas. He is known for mixing elements of science, history, and mythology. Many of his novels have been adapted into comic books, optioned for film and TV, and translated into thirteen languages. He is the author of the Nemesis Saga, the Chess Team series, and the non-fiction title, The Screenplay Workbook .
Go to Profile#39105
Michael Dean Woodford
#39117
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Michael Dean Woodford is an American macroeconomist and monetary theorist who currently teaches at Columbia University. Academic career Woodford holds B.A. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Yale Law School . He completed his Ph.D. in economics at MIT in 1983.
Go to Profile#39106
Thomas von der Dunk
#39118
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Thomas von der Dunk is a Dutch cultural historian, writer, and columnist who has written for de Volkskrant and HP/De Tijd. Von der Dunk was raised in Bilthoven, and from 1979 to 1988 studied art history at the University of Amsterdam. He was a doctoral candidate in the history department at Leiden University , and received his Ph.D. in 1994, having written a dissertation on the political and ideological characteristics of the cult of monuments in the Holy Roman Empire between the fourteenth and the eighteenth century. He worked at Utrecht University from 1994 to 1999, and from 1999 to 2002 ag...
Go to Profile#39107
Douglas P. Woodlock
#39119
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Douglas Preston Woodlock is a United States federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Born in Connecticut, Woodlock graduated from Yale College and worked as a journalist before attending Georgetown University Law Center. After graduating, Woodlock was a lawyer in private practice at the law firm of Goodwin, Procter & Hoar, and had stints at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. Appointed to the federal bench in 1986, Woodlock presided over a number of noteworthy cases and was a key ...
Go to Profile#39108
Ai
#39120
Overall Influence
1947 - 2010 (63 years)
Ai Ogawa was an American poet and educator who won the 1999 National Book Award for Poetry for Vice: New and Selected Poems. Ai is known for her mastery of the dramatic monologue as a poetic form, as well as for taking on dark, controversial topics in her work. About writing in the dramatic monologue form, she's said: "I want to take the narrative 'persona' poem as far as I can, and I've never been one to do things in halves. All the way or nothing. I won't abandon that desire."
Go to Profile#39109
Günter Kießling
#39121
Overall Influence
1925 - 2009 (84 years)
Günter Kießling was a German general in the Bundeswehr, who became famous as the subject of what became known as the Kießling Affair. Kießling was born in Frankfurt in the Province of Brandenburg. In the Second World War, he was a lieutenant in the infantry and served on the Eastern Front. Some time after the war, he joined the Bundesgrenzschutz and later transferred to the Bundeswehr. Before his early retirement he was Commander of NATO land forces and deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
Go to Profile#39110
Jan Vilček
#39122
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Jan T. Vilček is a Slovak-American biomedical scientist, educator, inventor and philanthropist. He is a professor in the department of microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine, and chairman and CEO of The Vilcek Foundation. Vilček received his M.D. degree from Comenius University Medical School in Bratislava in 1957; and his Ph.D. in Virology from the Institute of Virology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, in 1962.
Go to Profile#39111
Victor Emery
#39123
Overall Influence
1934 - 2002 (68 years)
Victor John Emery was a British specialist on superconductors and superfluidity. His model for the electronic structure of the copper-oxide planes is the starting point for many analyses of high-temperature superconductors and is commonly known as the Emery model.
Go to Profile#39112
Freda Ahenakew
#39124
Overall Influence
1932 - 2011 (79 years)
Freda Ahenakew was a Canadian author and academic of Cree descent. Ahenakew was considered a leader in Indigenous language preservation and literary heritage preservation in Canada. She was a sister-in-law to the political activist David Ahenakew.
Go to Profile#39113
Edith Widder
#39125
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Edith Anne "Edie" Widder Smith is an American oceanographer, marine biologist, author and the Co-founder, CEO and Senior Scientist at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association. Early life and education Widder was born in Arlington, Massachusetts to Dr. David Widder, a Harvard University mathematics professor, and Dr. Vera Widder, a mathematician turned stay at home mother. She also had an older brother, David Charles Widder.
Go to Profile#39114
Francisco Brines
#39126
Overall Influence
1932 - 2021 (89 years)
Francisco Brines Bañó was a Spanish poet. Biography Brines was born in Oliva . He is regarded as one of the Generation of '50 of Spanish poets, along with Claudio Rodríguez, Jaime Gil de Biedma and Ángel González.
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Danutė Jočienė
#39127
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Danutė Jočienė is a Lithuanian lawyer. Jočienė graduated from the law faculty of Vilnius University and worked as a lecturer in the Department of the International and European Union Law of the Faculty.
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Julian Hopkin
#39128
Overall Influence
Julian Hopkin CBE FRCP FMedSci FLSW is a physician, researcher and medical teacher. In 2004, he became the founding Head of the new Medical School at Swansea University. He is now Professor of Experimental Medicine at Swansea University Medical School and Honorary Physician at the Abertawe-Bro-Morgannwg University Hospital. He was appointed a CBE in 2011 for his services to medicine.
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Margaret T. Fuller
#39129
Overall Influence
Margaret "Minx" T. Fuller is an American developmental biologist known for her research on the male germ line and defining the role of the stem cell environment in specifying cell fate and differentiation.
Go to Profile#39118
James Larus
#39130
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
James R. Larus is an American computer scientist specializing in the fields of programming languages, compilers, and computer architecture. He is currently at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he has served as the Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences from 2014 until 2021.
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Stephen Rea
#39131
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Stephen Rea is an Irish actor of stage and screen. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin’s Focus Theatre, and came to the attention of film audiences as one of the close collaborators of director Neil Jordan. He is an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee, a two-time BAFTA Award winner, and a three-time Irish Film and Television Award winner.
Go to Profile#39120
George Alberti
#39132
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Sir Kurt George Matthew Mayer Alberti, is a British doctor. His long-standing special interest is diabetes mellitus, in connection with which he has published many research papers and served on many national and international committees. In the 1970s, Alberti published recommendations for the management of diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious metabolic emergency which affects people suffering from severe insulin deficiency. This 'Alberti regime' rationalised the use of insulin and fluid therapy in this condition to the undoubted benefit of many patients.
Go to Profile#39121
Charles S. Cockell
#39133
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Charles Cockell is a British astrobiologist who is professor of astrobiology in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh and co-director of the UK Centre for Astrobiology.
Go to Profile#39122
Lothar Zenetti
#39134
Overall Influence
1926 - 2019 (93 years)
Lothar Zenetti was a German Catholic theologian, priest, and author of books and poetry. In Frankfurt, he was both a minister for young people and a parish priest. He was also active on radio and television. His songs, for example the popular "Das Weizenkorn muss sterben" and "Segne dieses Kind", appear in both Protestant and Catholic hymnals.
Go to Profile#39123
Barbara Kellerman
#39135
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Barbara Kellerman is an American professor of public leadership, currently at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Previously, she was a professor at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, and Uppsala universities and Dartmouth College. She was one of the founders of the International Leadership Association.
Go to Profile#39124
Eric Erlandson
#39136
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Eric Theodore Erlandson is an American musician, guitarist, and writer, primarily known as founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole from 1989 to 2002. He has also had several musical side projects, including Rodney & the Tube Tops, which he formed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and RRIICCEE with Vincent Gallo.
Go to Profile#39125
Keren Elazari
#39137
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Keren Elazari , also known as k3r3n3, is an Israeli cybersecurity analyst, writer, and speaker. She is a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv University Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center. Early life and education Elazari was born in and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her father is Ami Elazari, the CEO of an electric company and a former member of the Israel Defense Forces intelligence group, Unit 8200. Her mother works for an airline. Internet became available in Tel Aviv when Elazari was eleven or twelve years old, and she says she learned English and learned about hacking in online chat rooms.
Go to Profile#39126
Hiroshi Shiono
#39138
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Hiroshi Shiono is a Japanese legal scholar specializing in administrative law. He holds the title of Order of Culture and is an honorary professor at the University of Tokyo, a member of the Japan Academy and its president since 2016, and a recipient of the Person of Cultural Merit.
Go to Profile#39127
Douglas Stuart
#39139
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Douglas K. Stuart is Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an interdenominational Evangelical Seminary. Life Stuart received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1964, spent two years at Yale Divinity School, and in 1971 received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literature from Harvard University, on meter in Hebrew Poetry.
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John Lowe
#39140
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
John Lowe is an English former professional darts player. Along with Eric Bristow and Jocky Wilson, he was known for dominating darts during the 1980s. Lowe was world champion on three occasions, in 1979, 1987 and 1993. He was also a two-time winner of the Winmau World Masters and a two-time World Cup singles champion. In total, Lowe won 15 BDO and WDF majors. He held the World No. 1 ranking on four occasions. In October 1984, he became the first player to hit a televised nine-dart finish.
Go to Profile#39129
Steve Chimombo
#39141
Overall Influence
1945 - 2015 (70 years)
Steve Bernard Miles Chimombo was a Malawian writer, poet, editor and teacher. He was born in Zomba. Life He was educated at Zomba Catholic Secondary School, then at the University of Malawi where he earned a B.A. At the University of Wales, he took a teaching diploma in English as a Second Language. At Columbia University in the United States, he was awarded his M.A. and Ph.D. in teaching. After studying at Leeds, England, Chimombo returned to Malawi to edit the literary bulletin Outlook-lookout.
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John E. Casida
#39142
Overall Influence
1929 - 2018 (89 years)
John Edward Casida was an American entomologist, toxicologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Birth and education Casida was born in 1929 in the United States. He completed his BS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1951. He completed his MS in 1951 and PhD in 1954 from the same university.
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Nicholas J. Belkin
#39143
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Nicholas J. Belkin is a professor at the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. Among the main themes of his research are digital libraries; information-seeking behaviors; and interaction between humans and information retrieval systems. Belkin is best known for his work on human-centered Information Retrieval and the hypothesis of Anomalous State of Knowledge . Belkin realized that in many cases, users of search systems are unable to precisely formulate what they need. They miss some vital knowledge to formulate their queries. In such cases it is more suitable to attem...
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Mike Rotunda
#39144
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Lawrence Michael Rotunda is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s under the ring names Mike Rotunda, Mike Rotundo, Michael Wallstreet, Irwin R. Schyster, and V.K. Wallstreet.
Go to Profile#39133
Eugênio Bucci
#39145
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Eugênio Bucci is a Brazilian journalist, known for his works at many Brazilian publications and also for his time as president of Radiobras . Biography Bucci graduated in Social Communication at Communication and Arts School of the University of São Paulo in 1982 and in Law at the same university.
Go to Profile#39134
Steven Walt
#39146
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Steven D. Walt is a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. He teaches courses on contracts, sales/commercial paper, legal philosophy, bankruptcy and secured transactions. Biography Walt graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Kalamazoo College in 1976. Walt also holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago .
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Joseph Kahn
#39147
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Joseph Jun-hee Kahn is a Grammy-winning South Korean-American film and music video director. Kahn has worked with various artists such as Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Backstreet Boys, Imagine Dragons, Lady Gaga, Rob Thomas, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Ava Max, Mariah Carey, and Destiny's Child.
Go to Profile#39136
David Bercuson
#39148
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
David Jay Bercuson is a Canadian labour, military, and political historian. Career Born on 31 August 1945 in Montreal, Quebec, he attended Sir George Williams University, graduated there in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, and was awarded the Lieutenant-Governor's Silver Medal for the highest standing in history. He continued his studies at the University of Toronto under Ken McNaught and Ramsay Cook and received Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in history in 1967 and 1971, respectively. His doctoral thesis was Labour in Winnipeg: The Great War and the General Strike.
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Brian Grant
#39149
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Brian Wade Grant is an American former professional basketball player. He played the power forward and center positions for five teams during 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He was known for his tenacious rebounding and blue-collar defense. During his career, he played with the Sacramento Kings , Portland Trail Blazers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns.
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Hans-Joachim Gehrke
#39150
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Hans-Joachim Gehrke, in full Hans-Joachim Günter Adolf Gehrke, is a German historian of ancient and classical antiquity. He was president of the German Archaeological Institute from 2008 to 2011. Life Hans-Joachim Gehrke studied at the city-run Ratsgymnasium Goslar from 1961 to 1965 and passed his final exams there in 1965. He went on to study history and classical philology at the University of Göttingen from 1967 to 1973, where he received his doctorate in 1973 with a study on Phocion. Gehrke conducted research under the supervision of Alfred Heuß and later became his research assistant from 1973 to 1977.
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Suzan Johnson Cook
#39151
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Suzan Denise Johnson Cook is a U.S. presidential advisor, pastor, theologian, author, activist, and academic who served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from April 2011 to October 2013. She has served as a policy advisor to President Bill Clinton and later to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, a dean and professor of communications at Harvard University, a professor of theology at New York Theological Seminary, a pastor at a number of churches, a television producer, and the author of nearly a dozen books. She was the fir...
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Martha Derthick
#39152
Overall Influence
1933 - 2015 (82 years)
Martha Ann Derthick was an American public administration scholar and academic. She is most known for her work on social security programs, deregulation and federalism. Biography Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, on June 20, 1933, she graduated from Hiram College in Ohio in 1954. In 1962, she earned a doctorate in political science from Radcliffe College.
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Joshua Shemer
#39153
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Joshua Shemer is an Israeli professor, doctor, and chair of the Assuta Medical Centers network in Israel, currently building and developing the new advanced highly sophisticated public hospital in the city of Ashdod, the first of its kind built in Israel in the past forty years. He formerly served as Director General of Maccabi Healthcare Services, providing health services to 24% of the Israeli population. Shemer served as director general of the Ministry of Health and Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces Military Health Corps, holding the rank of brigadier general.
Go to Profile#39142
Nkiru Nzegwu
#39154
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Nkiru Nzegwu is a Nigerian philosopher, painter, author, curator and art historian. She is Distinguished Professor for Research at State University of New York at Binghamton. Among Dr. Nzegwu’s areas of expertise are African aesthetics, philosophy, African feminist issues, multicultural studies in art, and digital publishing.
Go to Profile#39143
Mohamed Adhikari
#39155
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Mohamed Adhikari is a professor of history and author of several books on both Coloured identity and politics in South Africa as well as on settler colonialism and genocide. He is a professor at the University of Cape Town. He was born in Cape Town in 1953, matriculated from Harold Cressy High School in 1971, and obtained a bachelor's degree at the University of Cape Town in 1980.
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Antoine Bozio
#39156
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Antoine Bozio is a French-Swiss economist who currently works as Associate Professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and Associate Researcher at the Paris School of Economics , where he directs the Institut des politiques publiques. His research focuses on labour economics and the economics of ageing. In 2017, Bozio was awarded the Prize of the Best Young Economist of France for his research on the structure of pension systems and the impact of social security contributions on the supply of labour and wage levels.
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Ivor Wilks
#39157
Overall Influence
1928 - 2014 (86 years)
Professor Emeritus Ivor G. Wilks was a noted British Africanist and historian, specializing in Ghana. Considered one of the founders of modern African historiography, he was an authority on the Ashanti Empire in Ghana and the Welsh working-class movement in the 19th century. At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus of History at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA.
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Kerwin Kofi Charles
#39158
Overall Influence
Kerwin Kofi Charles is the Indra K. Nooyi Dean and Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an elected Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. He has been chair of the Board of trustees of NORC, serves on the board of trustees of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, is a member of the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee, and sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Labor Economics. He was previously the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distin...
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Roel Nusse
#39159
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Roeland "Roel" Nusse is a professor at Stanford University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research was seminal in the discovery of Wnt signaling, a family of pleiotropic regulators involved in development and disease.
Go to Profile#39148
G. D. Yadav
#39160
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Ganapati Dadasaheb Yadav is an Indian chemical engineer, inventor and academic, known for his research on nanomaterials, gas absorption with chemical reaction and phase transfer catalysis. He served as the vice chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai from 2009 until November 2019. He is currently the Emeritus Professor of Eminence at ICT Mumbai.
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Patti Austin
#39161
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Patti Austin is an American Grammy Award-winning R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter best known for "Baby, Come to Me", her 1982 duet with James Ingram, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 after its re-release that same year.
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Tadeusz Ślipko
#39162
Overall Influence
1918 - 2015 (97 years)
Tadeusz Ślipko was a Polish philosopher, chiefly ethicist. Biography He studied at the John Casimir University in Lwów . In 1939, he entered the Society of Jesus and underwent a two-year noviciate in Stara Wieś near Krosno. He studied philosophy at the Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy in Kraków , 1941-1944, and theology at the Bobolanum Jesuit Faculty of Theology in Warsaw , 1944-1948. He was ordained a priest in 1947. He studied ethics and sociology at the Jagellonian University in Kraków , where he earned a Ph.D.
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