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 Business,
#751
Robert Edward Spekman
#141170
Overall Influence
#752
Freddy Delbaen
#128107
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Freddy Delbaen is a Belgian-Swiss mathematician. He is professor emeritus of financial mathematics at ETH Zurich. Delbaen made fundamental contributions to the mathematical theory of arbitrage including proving, together with Walter Schachermayer, a general version of the fundamental theorem of asset pricing. He also introduced in a jointly written paper the notion of the risk measure.
Go to Profile#753
Jay Alden Conger
#141350
Overall Influence
#754
Scott Sonenshein
#93697
Overall Influence
Scott Sonenshein is the Henry Gardiner Symonds Professor at the Jesse H. Jones School of Business, Rice University. He is an organizational psychologist that primarily uses field methodologies to examine questions around work and organizations. Sonenshein is also the author of the book Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less – and Achieve More than You Ever Imagined. His latest book is Joy at Work, co-written with Marie Kondo, which was released in 2020.
Go to Profile#755
Jack Treynor
#141639
Overall Influence
#756
Ronnie Coffman
#45683
Overall Influence
Ronnie Coffman is an American plant scientist and professor. He is director of numerous research projects dedicated to international agriculture, food security and gender equity in agriculture. He received the World Agriculture Prize in 2013. He was named a 2019 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#757
Steve Salbu
#106600
Overall Influence
Steve Salbu is an American academic. He served as the Cecil B. Day Chair in Business Ethics and dean emeritus of the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Early life Salbu was born in New York. He graduated from Hofstra University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree. He earned a master of arts degree from Dartmouth College and a JD from the William & Mary Law School. He subsequently earned another master's degree followed by a PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#758
Bruno Henri Solnik
#141742
Overall Influence
#759
Bryan Thwaites
#18081
Overall Influence
1923 - Present (101 years)
Sir Bryan Thwaites, FIMA, FRSA is an English applied mathematician, educationalist and administrator. Early life Bryan Thwaites was born on 6 December 1923, the eldest son of Ernest and Dorothy Thwaites. He was educated at Dulwich College, from 1936–1940, and, thereafter, at Winchester College, aided in both colleges by scholarships. He was graduated with an MA from Clare College, Cambridge University, in 1944, gaining a First in the Maths Tripos. He received his doctorate from London University.
Go to Profile#760
Fang Lee Cooke
#142122
Overall Influence
#761
Peter Matz
#91596
Overall Influence
1928 - 2002 (74 years)
Peter Matz was an American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent artists, including Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and Barbra Streisand. Matz won three Emmys and a Grammy Award and is best known for his work on Streisand's early albums as well as for his work as the orchestral conductor and musical director for The Carol Burnett Show.
Go to Profile#762
Janny Leung
#79878
Overall Influence
Janny May-yee Leung is a Chinese operations researcher and academic administrator, the master of Choi Kai Yau College at the University of Macau and courtesy professor in the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City of the University of Macau. Topics in her research have included transportation scheduling, logistics, facility location, and polyhedral combinatorics.
Go to Profile#763
Mohan Maheswaran Kumaraswamy
#142328
Overall Influence
#764
Hideaki Karaki
#142385
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
#765
Pramodita Sharma
#137845
Overall Influence
Pramodita Sharma is a business academic. She is the a professor and the Schlesinger-Grossman Chair of Family Business at the Grossman School of Business , University of Vermont. Sharma was editor-in-chief of the Family Business Review.
Go to Profile#766
Ian R. Dohoo
#142476
Overall Influence
#767
Richard Gerard Netemeyer
#142518
Overall Influence
#768
Paschalis Alexandridis
#142593
Overall Influence
#769
Alfred A. Marcus
#117996
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Alfred Allen Marcus is an American author and the Edson Spencer Professor of Strategy and Technology Leadership at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota and the Technological Leadership Institute. He has worked as a consultant with companies such as 3M, Corning Inc., Xcel Energy, Medtronic, General Mills, and IBM and has also taught as a visiting professor at Technion, INCAE, BI Norwegian Business School, Fordham University, and MIT.
Go to Profile#770
G. Thomas Lumpkin
#142776
Overall Influence
#771
Richard Halliwell
#57433
Overall Influence
Richard E. W. Halliwell is a British veterinary surgeon. He has been President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the American College of Veterinary Dermatology and European College of Veterinary Dermatology. He twice served as Dean of the Dick Vet School in Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#772
Michaelbecca Sivak
#143040
Overall Influence
#773
H. Kent Baker
#143105
Overall Influence
#774
Stephen H. Penman
#143264
Overall Influence
#775
John M. Hull
#31736
Overall Influence
1935 - 2015 (80 years)
John Martin Hull was Emeritus Professor of Religious Education at the University of Birmingham. He was the author of a number of books and many articles in the fields of religious education, practical theology and disability. The latter interest arose from his experiences, and personal and theological reflections, on becoming blind in mid-career. He edited the British Journal of Religious Education for 25 years, and co-founded the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values, of which he was general secretary for 32 years, and president emeritus at the time of his death. After reti...
Go to Profile#776
V. H. Van Der
#143538
Overall Influence
#777
Werner Doppler
#73094
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Werner Doppler Life and professional career As son of a farmer and wine producer, Werner Doppler managed the family farm on his own for some years. After this he studied agriculture and economics at the universities of Hohenheim and Kiel in Germany. He did his PhD in economics under the guidance of Günther Weinschenck in 1974 in the field of Application of recursive linear mathematical models to analyze and predict regional development in the agricultural sector. He then joined the research team of Hans-Hartwig Ruthenberg as research scientist dealing with the development in the Tropics and Sub Tropics.
Go to Profile#778
Nigel Nicholson
#135175
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Nigel Nicholson is a British business psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. He is known for his work advocating the application of evolutionary psychology to business management.
Go to Profile#779
David J. Cooper
#93652
Overall Influence
David J. Cooper is a Professor of Accounting at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the co-founder, along with Anthony Tinker, of the academic journal Critical Perspectives on Accounting and is also a long-time associate editor of Accounting, Organizations and Society. He is best known as a central figure and co-founder of the critical accounting and public interest accounting movements: movements which emphasize the importance of not only studying the roles of accounting in organizations and society but also using this knowledge to intervene in the public sphere.
Go to Profile#780
Erik Steen Jensen
#143762
Overall Influence
#781
Martti Vaara
#143818
Overall Influence
#782
Karen Michele Kacmar
#143825
Overall Influence
#783
Paul R. Kleindorfer
#143915
Overall Influence
#784
Mark Nordenberg
#45564
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Mark A. Nordenberg is the chancellor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh and chair of the university's Institute of Politics. A professor of law and university administrator, Nordenberg served as the seventeenth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh from 1996 to 2014. Nordenberg served as the Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law between 1985 and 1993 and other various administrative positions before becoming interim Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh in 1995, a position which became permanent the following year. He became known as Nordy to many Pitt students, ...
Go to Profile#785
Charles M.c. Lee
#144429
Overall Influence
#786
Anil Kr. Gupta
#144503
Overall Influence
#787
Katharine Lyall
#88941
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Katharine Culbert Lyall was the president of the University of Wisconsin System from 1992 to 2004. Lyall was the first woman president in the UW system. She had previously served as Executive Vice President of the System, and Director of the Graduate Program in Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University. She was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She received a B.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University, and an MBA from New York University.
Go to Profile#788
Pradeep K. Chintagunta
#144697
Overall Influence
#789
Greg N. Gregoriou
#144819
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Greg N. Gregoriou was a professor of finance and a native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Gregoriou received his joint Ph.D. in 2004 with a specialization in the area of finance from the University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada. He has edited 52 scientific books, authored 100 refereed publications in scientific journals and book chapters since he started teaching at the State University of New York Plattsburgh in 2003. Professor Gregoriou specialized in hedge funds and CTAs, including research into the optimal number of hedge fund managers in a fund of hedge funds whereby the variance-reducing effects of diversification decrease once FoHFs maintain more than 20 underlying hedge funds .
Go to Profile#790
Terri Goss Kinzy
#50932
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Terri Goss Kinzy is an American biochemist, educator and academic administrator. Life Kinzy was born in Canton, Ohio. Kinzy was partly inspired by a high school physics teacher to pursue a career in science. She completed a B.S. in chemistry, magna cum laude, at the University of Akron in 1985. She was a chemist at BP America in Warrensville Heights, Ohio from 1985 to 1987, focusing on biofuel development. Kinzy completed a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Case Western Reserve University. Her 1991 dissertation was titled Characterization of GTP and aminoacyl-tRNA binding to eukaryotic initiation factor 2 and elongation factor 1.
Go to Profile#791
Mark Steven Grinblatt
#145039
Overall Influence
#792
James J. Stukel
#85451
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
James J. Stukel is an American former educator who served as the 15th president of the University of Illinois system. Early life James Stukel was born on March 30, 1937, in Joliet, Illinois, to Philip and Julia Stukel. James and his sole sibling, a sister 13 years older than he was, had a modest upbringing. His father, a pulp mill worker, and his mother, a homemaker, maintained a small, clapboard house. While neither of his parents had more than an eighth grade education, Stukel would say of them, "my father had a real gift for numbers. He could do things in his head that were remarkable,...
Go to Profile#793
Robert He Ennis
#145347
Overall Influence
#794
Jonna Mazet
#36214
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Jonna Ann Keener Mazet is an American epidemiologist and Executive Director of the University of California, Davis One Health Institute. Recognized for her innovative and holistic approach to emerging environmental and global health threats, she is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mazet is a professor of Epidemiology and Disease Ecology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where she focuses on global health problem solving, especially for emerging infectious disease and conservation challen...
Go to Profile#795
Douglas John Skinner
#145691
Overall Influence
#796
Isaac Ashkenazi
#53082
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Isaac Ashkenazi is an Israeli Professor of Disaster Medicine at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and a consultant to Harvard University. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in medical preparedness for complex emergencies and disasters.
Go to Profile#797
Jane Andrew
#131483
Overall Influence
Jane Andrew is an Australian academic who is an associate professor of accounting at the University of Sydney Business School and co-editor-in-chief of Critical Perspectives on Accounting. Andrew's research focuses on environmental accounting and on accountability in public policy. Andrew has also been a prominent critic of prison privatization in Australia.
Go to Profile#798
Richard G. Staelin
#146017
Overall Influence
#799
H. Kent Bowen
#146348
Overall Influence
#800
David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn
#79610
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (89 years)
David Clive Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, is a retired British administrator, diplomat and Sinologist. He was the penultimate Commander-in-Chief and 27th Governor of Hong Kong . He served as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the British Monarch's representative to the Assembly, in 2010 and 2011. He is also one of the two living former governors of Hong Kong with Chris Patten. He retired from the House of Lords on 12 February 2021 after sitting as a crossbencher for over 28 years.
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