25 Georgios Plethon Gemistos (1355 - 1452/1454)
a Greek scholar of Neoplatonic philosophy
advisor of the thesis (1436: NN, Mystras) of

24 Basilios Bessarion (1403 - 1472)
Roman Catholic Cardinal Bishop
advisor of the thesis (1472: Magister artium, Universita di Padova) of

23 Janus Lascaris (John Rhyndacenus) (about 1445 - 1535 Rome)
Ambassador of France at Venice
advisor of the thesis (1486: Magister artium, Universite d'Orleans) or (1491: NN, Universite de Paris) of

22 Guillaume Bude (1467 - 1540)
Ambassador of France at Rome
advisor of the thesis (1521: Magister artium, Universite de Paris) of

21 Jacques Toussain (Jacobus Tusanus) (about 1498 - 1547)
Greek professor's chair, College Royal, Paris
advisor of the thesis (1532: Magister artium, College de France) of

20 Adrien Turnebe (1512 - 1565)
Professor at the College Royal, Paris
advisor of the thesis (1563: Magister artium, College de France) of

19 Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540 - 1609)
Professor of the academy of Geneva
advisor of the thesis (1608: Artium Liberalium Magister, Universiteit Leiden) of

18 Thomas Erpenius (Thomas van Erpe) (1584 Gorinchem/Holland - 1624)
Dutch Orientalist
co-advisor of (1612: Artium Liberalium Magister, Philosophiae Doctor, Universiteit Leiden) of

17 Jacobus Golius (1596 The Hague - 1667 Leiden)
Dutch mathematician
advisor of (1635: Artium Liberalium Magister, Universiteit Leiden) of

16 Frans van Schooten, Jr. (1615 - 1660)
Dutch mathematician
advisor of (1647: Artium Liberalium Magister, Universiteit Leiden) or (1655: Juris utriusque Doctor, Universite d'Angers) of

15 Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 1695)
Fellow of the Royal Society of London and of the Academie Royale des Sciences of Paris
co-advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1666: Disputatio Inauguralis De Casibus Perplexis In Jure, Altdorf University near Nuremberg) of

14 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 Leipzig - 1716 Hanover)
Member of the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, factotum to two major German noble houses
usually (co-advisor Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus) described as a co-advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1704: Dissertatio Algebraica De Algorithmo Infinitesimali Differentiali, Leipzig University) of

13 Christian M. von Wolff (Christian von Wolfius) (1679 Breslau, Silesia - 1754 Halle)
Professor at Halle University (1706-23, 1740-54) and at Marburg University (1723-40)
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1733, Dissertatio metaphysica de aeternitate mundi impossibili, Koenigsberg University) of

12 Martin Knutzen (1713 Koenigsberg - 1751 Koenigsberg)
Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Koenigsberg University
viewed as the closest and most important of Kant's teachers at the university (also of Johann Georg Hamann), with lasting influence on Kant's later Ph.D. thesis (1770: De Mundi Sensibilis et Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis)

11 Immanuel Kant (1724 Koenigsberg, East Prussia - 1804 Koenigsberg, East Prussia)
Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Koenigsberg University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1792: Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarungen) of

10 Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762 Rammenau, Upper Lusatia - 1814 Berlin)
Professor at Jena University (1794-1799), Erlangen University, and Berlin University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1795: De Marcione Paulinarum epistolarum emendatore, Tuebingen University) of

9 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775 Leonberg - 1854 Bad Ragaz)
Professor at Jena University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1801: De orbitis planetarum) of

8 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 Stuttgart - 1831 Berlin)
Professor at Jena University and at University of Berlin
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1830: Quid intersit inter Philosophiam et Theologiam, Kiel University) of

7 Johann Eduard Erdmann (1805 Wolmar [now Valmiera, Latvia] - 1892 Halle)
Professor at Halle University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1847: [Latin or German title unknown; on Plato's dialogue of Parmenides]) of

6 (Ernst) Kuno (Berthold) Fischer (1824 Sandewalde near Guhrau/Silesia - 1907 Heidelberg)
Professor at Jena University and Heidelberg University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1877: Ueber den intelligiblen Charakter. Zur Kritik der Kantischen Freiheitslehre) of

5 (Friedrich Otto) Richard Falckenberg (1851 Magdeburg - 1920 Jena)
Professor at Erlangen-Nuernberg University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1913: Schleiermacher und Goethe; Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Geistes) of

4 Heinrich Scholz (1884 Berlin - 1956 Muenster)
Professor at Muenster University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1941: Ein allgemeiner Kalkuelbegriff) of

3 Karl Schroeter (1905 Biebrich near Wiesbaden - 1977 Berlin)
Professor at Humboldt-University Berlin and Academy of Sciences Berlin
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1958: Theorie der endlichwerigen Lukasiewiezschen Praedikatenkalkuele der ersten Stufe) of

2 Helmut Thiele (1926 Saratoga - 2003 Koeln)
Professor at Jena University, Humboldt University Berlin, and University Dortmund
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1968: Sequentielle Operatoren und ihre Anwendung beim Studium sequentieller (diskreter) Codierungen) of

1 Rolf Lindner (1937 Jena - 1979 Jena)
Professor at Jena University
advisor of the Ph.D. thesis (1978: Verschiedene Typen der Erkennung Rekursiver Funktionen) of

0 Reinhard Klette (1950 Tiefenort near Eisenach)
Professor at the Academy of Sciences Berlin (1988-1990), TU Berlin (1990-1996), and The University of Auckland (since 1996)

  The Mathematics Genealogy Project

(This path was one of the the few paths which led back to the 14th century). Interestingly, this graph (starting at my node 0) had on 30 March 2010 a maximum of 31 layers, defined by subsequent advisorships, but only 112 people there defining the nodes of this graph. Co-advisorships were fairly rare in this graph. Older people in one path acted sometimes as co-adviors `further down' on the path, thus creating various kinds of `short cuts' between different layers in this graph, and also causing the non-planarity of this academic ancestor graph.

The chain from node 0 to node 11 (Kant) above does not have any co-advisorship; thus this linear chain of the graph could be replaced by any other ancestor chain leading to Kant. By removing this chain, inclusive node 10 (Fichte), the remaining academic ancestor graph of Immanuel Kant had 20 layers and 101 nodes on 30 March 2010 on The Mathematics Genealogy Project, and contains also people such as Justus Lipsius, Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, Erhard Weigel, Philipp Melanchthon, Rudolf Agricola, Desiderius Erasmus, or Marin Mersenne.

It would be interesting to learn more about the intellectual network created by such academic ancestorships - how knowledge, ideas, opinions, or principles have been transported or reflected within this graph, which was created by somehow random relationships, depending on location, time, and social circumstances, but also established based on individual interests.

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