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 Communications,
#7251
Necil Kazım Akses
#125875
Overall Influence
1908 - 1999 (91 years)
Necil Kazım Akses was a Turkish classical composer. Life Akses studied music and composition at the Musikakademie in Vienna with Joseph Marx and at the Prague Conservatory in Prague with Josef Suk and Alois Hába. He helped co-found the Ankara State Conservatory with the composer Paul Hindemith and served as director of the institution for a while.
Go to Profile#7252
Ken Dodd
#125768
Overall Influence
1927 - 2018 (91 years)
Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd was an English comedian, singer, and occasional actor. He was described as "the last great music hall entertainer", and was primarily known for his live stand-up performances.
Go to Profile#7253
Vani Jairam
#95251
Overall Influence
1945 - 2023 (78 years)
Vani Jairam was an Indian playback singer in Indian cinema. She is fondly referred to as the "Meera of modern India" Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She did playback for over one thousand Indian movies recording over 10,000 songs. In addition, she recorded thousands of devotionals and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.
Go to Profile#7254
Rosemary Colangelo Stewart
#167666
Overall Influence
#7255
Anaïs Mitchell
#82487
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Anaïs Mitchell is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Mitchell has released eight studio albums, including Hadestown , Young Man in America , Child Ballads , and Anaïs Mitchell .
Go to Profile#7256
Lawrence J. Williams
#167675
Overall Influence
#7257
Chris Wilson
#137455
Overall Influence
1956 - 2019 (63 years)
Christopher John Wilson was an Australian blues musician who sang and played harmonica, saxophone and guitar. He performed as part of the Sole Twisters, Harem Scarem and Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, and fronted his band Crown of Thorns. Wilson's solo albums are Landlocked , The Long Weekend , Spiderman , King for a Day , Flying Fish and the self titled Chris Wilson .
Go to Profile#7258
Pnina Salzman
#108119
Overall Influence
1922 - 2006 (84 years)
Pnina Salzman was an Israeli classical pianist and piano pedagogue. Salzman showed an early aptitude for the piano, and gave her first recital at the age of eight. The French pianist and teacher, Alfred Cortot, heard her play in 1932 while she was a student at Shulamit Conservatory and invited her to Paris to study. She graduated at the Ecole Normale de Musique then became a pupil of Magda Tagliaferro at the Conservatoire de Paris, where she was to win the Premier Prix de Piano in 1938, aged 16.
Go to Profile#7259
Andrew Harrison
#106927
Overall Influence
Andrew Harrison is an English music journalist who has worked as a staff writer for NME, Select, Mixmag, The Word, and Q, and freelance for Rolling Stone, The Face, The Guardian, The Observer and Mojo. In 2008 he coined the term landfill indie, which VICE described as referring to the "procession of homogenous [guitar] bands" that dominated the UK charts in the early-2000s.
Go to Profile#7260
David Brewster
#70607
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
David Clark Brewster is an American journalist and the founder, editor and publisher of the Seattle Weekly and the Northwest news website Crosscut.com. He is also the founder, creator and former executive director of the nonprofit cultural center Town Hall Seattle.
Go to Profile#7261
P. Vasu
#68867
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Vasudevan Peethambharan Nair, known professionally as P Vasu, is an Indian director, writer and actor who works predominantly in Tamil and Kannada films apart from a few Telugu, Hindi, and Malayalam language films. In a career spanning three decades, Vasu has directed over 64 films to his credit.
Go to Profile#7262
Martin Butler
#146383
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Martin Butler is a musician and composer of classical music. He studied at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music with Anthony Gilbert. In 1983 he received a Fulbright Award for study at Princeton University, USA, where he was resident until 1987, and in 1985 he received the Master of Fine Arts.
Go to Profile#7263
Allegra Fuller Snyder
#58848
Overall Influence
1927 - 2021 (94 years)
Allegra Fuller Snyder was an American dance ethnologist , choreographer, professor, and author specializing in dance and culture. Her research focused on dances among Native American nations, particularly the Yaqui, and on dance among several ethnic groups in Africa and Asia. She was Professor Emerita of dance ethnology from the University of California at Los Angeles .
Go to Profile#7264
Nancy Allen
#96522
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Nancy Allen is a harpist from the United States. The daughter of a public school music teacher in the Carmel, New York district, she won numerous international competitions starting at a young age. In 1973 she won first prize at the Fifth International Harp Competition in Israel, one of the most prestigious international harp competitions in the world. Since 1999 she has been the Principal Harpist of the New York Philharmonic, playing under music director and conductor Lorin Maazel, and in her 20-year teaching career has trained many successful students as well as serving concurrently as head of the harp departments at the Juilliard School and Aspen Music Festival and School.
Go to Profile#7265
Achilles Liarmakopoulos
#134289
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Achilles Liarmakopoulos is a Greek trombonist. He has been a member of the Canadian Brass since 2011. Early life and education Born in Athens, Greece, Liarmakopoulos started trombone lessons at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory, graduating with Excellent Unanimous and first prize. At the age of 18, Liarmakopoulos performed as a soloist at the Walt Disney Hall as the Grand Prize Winner of the Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition, judged by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Go to Profile#7266
Charlie Musselwhite
#67480
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Charles Douglas Musselwhite is an American blues harmonica player and bandleader, one who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal figure in helping to revive the Chicago Blues movement of the 1960s. He has often been identified as a "white bluesman".
Go to Profile#7267
Geoffrey Douglas
#117436
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Geoffrey Douglas is an American author and journalist and former adjunct professor of writing at the University of Massachusetts/Lowell. His most recent nonfiction book is "The Grifter, The Poet, and The Runaway Train," a collection of his stories in Yankee Magazine. Other books include The Game of Their Lives , about the 1950 FIFA World Cup soccer match between the United States and England2005200819941992
Go to Profile#7268
John Antonakis
#167870
Overall Influence
#7269
Divine
#78483
Overall Influence
1990 - Present (36 years)
Vivian Wilson Fernandes , known professionally as Divine , is an Indian rapper of Goan descent. Born and raised in Andheri, Mumbai, Divine started gaining popularity after the release of his single "Yeh Mera Bombay" in 2013. He broke through with the release of "Mere Gully Mein" in 2019, which featured fellow Mumbai-based rapper Naezy.
Go to Profile#7270
Gürer Aykal
#96496
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Gürer Aykal is a Turkish conductor and adjunct professor at Bilkent University. He has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999. Education Aykal was born in Eskişehir, Turkey. He studied at the Ankara State Conservatory, completing a course on violin in 1963 and another on composition in 1969 . He went on to study conducting in London at the Guildhall School of Music, where he was taught by such conductors as André Previn and George Hurst. He then went to Italy for further study, graduating with a D.M.A. in conducting from Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in 1973.
Go to Profile#7271
Ronnie Laws
#92614
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ronald Wayne Laws is an American jazz, jazz fusion and smooth jazz saxophonist, and singer. He is the younger brother of jazz flutist Hubert Laws, jazz vocalist Eloise Laws and the older brother of Debra Laws.
Go to Profile#7272
Danielle Nierenberg
#85538
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Danielle J. Nierenberg is an American activist, author and journalist. In 2013, Nierenberg co-founded Food Tank: The Think Tank For Food and currently serves as its president. She founded Nourishing the Planet while working at the Worldwatch Institute.
Go to Profile#7273
Kevin Scannell
#89206
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Kevin Scannell is an American professor of mathematics and computer science at Saint Louis University. Career Kevin Scannell is the professor of mathematics and computer science at Saint Louis University. His work focuses on developing online computing resources for small, minority or under-resourced languages, with a particular interest in Irish and other Celtic languages. He has developed an Irish thesaurus, grammar checker, and spell checker, and dictionaries and translation engines for Irish, Scottish, and Manx Gaelics. Scannell is a member of the team which localises platforms including Gmail, Twitter and WhatsApp into Irish.
Go to Profile#7274
Don McGlashan
#105820
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Donald McGlashan is a New Zealand composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist who Is best known for membership in the bands Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds, before going solo. He has also composed for cinema and television. Among other instruments, McGlashan has played guitar, drums, euphonium and French horn.
Go to Profile#7275
Nana Mizuki
#114057
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Nana Kondō, better known by the stage name , is a Japanese voice actress, singer and narrator from Niihama, Ehime. She is represented by the agency StarCrew. Mizuki was trained as an enka singer, releasing one single under her birth name in 1993 and made her debut as a voice actress in 1996. Her prominent roles include Hinata Hyuga in the long-running ninja series Naruto as well in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Tamao Tamamura in Shaman King 2001 and 2021, Colette Brunel in Tales of Symphonia, Fate Testarossa in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Tsubasa Kazanari in Symphogear, Moka Akashiya in Rosario + Vampire, Tsubomi Hanasaki in Heartcatch Precure! and Ann Takamaki in Persona 5.
Go to Profile#7276
Jimmy Cliff
#98163
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
James Chambers OM , known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.
Go to Profile#7277
A. C. Greene
#114222
Overall Influence
1923 - 2002 (79 years)
A. C. Greene was an American writer – important in Texas literary matters as a memoirist, fiction writer, historian, poet, and influential book critic in Dallas. As a newspaper journalist, he had been a book critic and editor of the Editorial Page for the Dallas Times Herald when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which galvanized his role at the paper to help untangle and lift a demoralized city in search of its soul. Leaving full-time journalism in 1968, Greene went on to become a prolific author of books, notably on Texas lore and history. His notoriety led to stints on radio and TV as a talk-show host.
Go to Profile#7278
Luca Francesconi
#119794
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Luca Francesconi is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, then with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. Early years Luca Francesconi was born in Milan. His father was a painter who edited Il Corriere dei piccoli and conceived Il Corriere dei ragazzi, while his mother was an advertiser. Francesconi spent his early years in QT8, a working class quarter in Milan. At the age of five he began to learn the piano. Although he was accepted into the junior high school section of the city's conservatory six years later, he pulled out. Instead, Francesconi opted to attend the...
Go to Profile#7279
Jack Nelson
#118529
Overall Influence
1929 - 2009 (80 years)
John Howard "Jack" Nelson was an American journalist. He was praised for his coverage of the Watergate scandal, in particular, and he was described by New York Times editor Gene Roberts as "one of the most effective reporters in the civil rights era." He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.
Go to Profile#7280
Saiman Miah
#63070
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (40 years)
Saiman Miah is a British Bangladeshi architect and graphic designer. He designed one of the two £5 commemorative coins for the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Early life Miah's parents immigrated from Sylhet District, Bangladesh. He grew up in inner city Birmingham and moved to Moseley at the age of 11.
Go to Profile#7281
Cho Gab-je
#68832
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Cho Gab-je is a conservative South Korean journalist and entrepreneur. He was born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan in 1945 and raised in Busan, South Korea. Jo served as the chief editor and president of the Monthly Chosun. He authored several books including "Spit On My Grave" , a biography of the former president, Park Chung Hee, that was originally published serially in the Monthly Chosun.
Go to Profile#7282
Janusz Rieger
#124258
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Janusz Andrzej Rieger is a Polish linguist and slavist specializing in the history of Polish language in Kresy, professor of the humanities, member of the Warsaw Scientific Society. He worked at the Institute of Slavic Studies and at the Institute of Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and lectured at the University of Warsaw.
Go to Profile#7283
Clive Palmer
#113803
Overall Influence
1943 - 2014 (71 years)
Clive Harold Palmer was an English folk musician and banjoist, best known as a founding member of the Incredible String Band. Biography Born in Edmonton, North London, Palmer first went on stage at the age of 8, and took banjo lessons from the age of 10. Around 1957 he began playing with jazz bands in Soho. He began busking with Wizz Jones in Paris in 1959–60, before moving to Edinburgh in late 1962. By now a virtuoso banjo player, he teamed up as a duo with singer and guitarist Robin Williamson in 1963, playing traditional and bluegrass songs. They became the Incredible String Band in 1965...
Go to Profile#7284
Buckwild
#86681
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Anthony Best professionally known as Buckwild, is an American hip hop producer. Hailing from The Bronx borough of New York City, he is a member of Diggin' in the Crates Crew, along with Lord Finesse, Showbiz and A.G., Diamond D, Fat Joe, Big L, and O.C. He has produced a number of tracks for prominent rappers in the music industry, including The Notorious B.I.G.'s "I Got a Story to Tell" and Black Rob's "Whoa!". In 2013, he was described by HipHopDX as "one of Hip Hop's most prolific and acclaimed producers".
Go to Profile#7285
Lili Chookasian
#128224
Overall Influence
1921 - 2012 (91 years)
Lili Chookasian was an American contralto of Armenian ethnicity, who appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties. She arose as one of the world's leading contraltos during the 1960s and 1970s, and notably had a long and celebrated career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1962 through 1986. She was admired for her sonorous, focused tone as well as her excellent musicianship. She often chose, against tradition, to...
Go to Profile#7286
Sergei Solovyov
#98380
Overall Influence
1944 - 2021 (77 years)
Sergei Alexandrovich Solovyov was a Soviet and Russian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. In 1993 he was awarded the People's Artist of Russia title. Biography Solovyov first experienced theatrical production as a child at the Theater of Youth Creativity , directed by Matvey Dubrovin.
Go to Profile#7287
Deb Margolin
#28590
Overall Influence
Deb Margolin is an American performance artist and playwright. She came to prominence in the 1980s in the feminist political theatre troupe Split Britches, which she co-founded with Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw. Margolin has since created a string of one-woman shows. A compilation of her texts, Of All The Nerve: Deb Margolin SOLO, was published in 1999 by Cassell/Continuum Press. Literary theorist Lynda Hart edited and wrote a commentary on each piece.
Go to Profile#7288
Maaya Sakamoto
#128571
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
is a Japanese actress and singer. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime Little Twins, and became known as the voice of Hitomi Kanzaki in The Vision of Escaflowne. Other major roles in anime include Leila Malcal in Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, Jeanne d'Arc in Fate/Apocrypha, Shiki Ryōgi in The Garden of Sinners, Eto in Tokyo Ghoul, Riho Yamazaki in Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective, Moe Katsuragi in Risky Safety, Princess Tomoyo in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club, Sayaka Nakasugi in Birdy the Mighty, Cie...
Go to Profile#7289
Angelika Kirchschlager
#134165
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Angelika Kirchschlager is an Austrian mezzo-soprano opera and lieder singer. Career Kirchschlager began her musical training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she studied percussion and piano. In 1984, she went to the Vienna Music Academy, where she studied with Gerhard Kahry and Walter Berry. Her first engagements were at the Wiener Kammeroper and the Graz Opera. Kirchschlager won 1st Prize together with Morenike Fadayomi in Wien's international Operncafé HArtauer-COmpetition and third prize in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition both in 1991. Her stage debut was in Graz in 1993 as Octavian .
Go to Profile#7290
Ramesh Srinivasan
#56260
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Ramesh Srinivasan is a professor of Information Studies. Professional life Ramesh Srinivasan is a professor of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies Graduate Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Stanford, a Masters degree in Science from the MIT Media Laboratory, and PhD from Harvard. Srinivasan is the founder of the research group Digital Cultures Lab, a UC-wide research group focused on technological advances and their impacts on various sectors.
Go to Profile#7291
Simon Streatfeild
#111977
Overall Influence
1929 - 2019 (90 years)
Simon Nicolas Streatfeild was a British-Canadian violist, conductor and teacher. Simon Nicolas Streatfeild was born in Windsor, Berkshire, England in 1929. He studied viola with Frederick Riddle at the Royal College of Music from 1946 to 1950. He then played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Opera Orchestra, Covent Garden, became Principal Viola with the Sadler's Wells Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra , and was a founding member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields .
Go to Profile#7292
Julie E. Wollman
#54382
Overall Influence
Julie Wollman is an American academic administrator. She was the 10th president of Widener University. Wollman took office in January 2016. She was previously the president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#7293
Ralph Johnson
#108247
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Ralph Randolph Johnson is an American singer, songwriter, musician and producer. Johnson is a member and percussionist of the funk/soul/disco band Earth, Wind & Fire. Early life Johnson was born and raised in Los Angeles. His father was a lyricist and his mother was a vocalist, and they had music always playing in their home. At the age of eight years old Johnson received his first snare drum and drum lesson. Johnson developed a love of R&B music, listening mainly to Motown and Stax and Sly and the Family Stone. He played in elementary, junior high and high school bands. At age 13, he attende...
Go to Profile#7294
Julia Fischer
#116786
Overall Influence
1983 - Present (43 years)
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year. Biography Julia Fischer is of German-Slovak ancestry. Her parents met as students in Prague. Her mother is Viera Fischer . Her father, Frank-Michael Fischer, a mathematician from East Germany, also moved from Eastern Saxony to West Germany in 1972. In addition to German, Fischer is also fluent in English and French.
Go to Profile#7295
Jerry Peters
#94472
Overall Influence
Jerry Peters is an American songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, conductor and arranger. He is best known for writing the hit songs "Love Or Let Me Be Lonely" and "Going In Circles" by The Friends of Distinction.
Go to Profile#7296
Margie Holmes
#12762
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Margarita Go-Singco Holmes, popularly known as Dr. Margie Holmes, is a popular psychologist specializing in sex therapy in the Philippines. Education Holmes graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1973. She was one of only seven people to graduate magna cum laude among more than two thousand who graduated that year. Holmes was adjudged "most outstanding graduate" for 1973 by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.
Go to Profile#7297
Paul Smith
#137036
Overall Influence
1922 - 2013 (91 years)
Paul Thatcher Smith was an American jazz pianist. He performed in various genres of jazz, most typically bebop, but is best known as an accompanist of singers, especially Ella Fitzgerald. Early life Smith was born in San Diego, California to parents, Lon Smith and Constance Farmer, who were vaudeville performers and encouraged his interest in music. He began studying piano at age 8, and led a jazz band in high school and became a professional musician at 19 with the Johnny Richards band.
Go to Profile#7298
Jean Papineau-Couture
#144866
Overall Influence
1916 - 2000 (84 years)
Jean Papineau-Couture, was a Canadian composer and academic. Born in Montreal, Papineau-Couture is the grandson of conductor and composer Guillaume Couture. As a child he studied piano with his mother. He first studied privately in Montreal with Gabriel Cusson before entering the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1937. He then attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1941. He studied with Nadia Boulanger at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#7299
Manny Albam
#114041
Overall Influence
1922 - 2001 (79 years)
Manny Albam was an American jazz arranger, composer, record producer, saxophonist, and educator. Early life A native of the Dominican Republic, Albam grew up in New York City. He was attracted to jazz at an early age when heard the music of Bix Beiderbecke.
Go to Profile#7300
Richard M. Perloff
#94868
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Richard M. Perloff is an American academic. He is professor of communication at Cleveland State University, where he has taught since 1979. He has written on persuasion, on political communication, on the psychology of perception of the effects of mass media, and on the third-person effect.
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