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 female people in Computer Science,
#501
Rose Dieng-Kuntz
#65549
Overall Influence
1956 - 2008 (52 years)
Rose Dieng-Kuntz was a Senegalese computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence. She was the first African woman to enroll in the École polytechnique. Life and career Her area of specialization for her PhD was the specification of parallelism. She worked for the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control in France, a French national research institution focusing on computer science, control theory and applied mathematics, where her research specialization was on the sharing of knowledge over the World Wide Web.
Go to Profile#502
Joanna McGrenere
#62459
Overall Influence
Joanna McGrenere is a Canadian computer scientist specializing in human–computer interaction, adaptive user interfaces, and universal usability. She is a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia.
Go to Profile#503
Alicia Nicki Washington
#77090
Overall Influence
Alicia Nicki Washington is an American computer scientist, author, and professor at Duke University. She is the author of the book Unapologetically Dope. She was the first Black woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science from North Carolina State University in 2005.
Go to Profile#504
Barbara Webb
#70359
Overall Influence
Barbara H. Webb is a professor of robotics at the University of Edinburgh. She builds robotic models of insects. Education Webb completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University of Sydney in 1988. She earned her PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh in 1993.
Go to Profile#505
Rita McBride
#35917
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Rita McBride is an American artist and sculptor. She is based in Los Angeles and Düsseldorf. Alongside her artistic practice, McBride is a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and served as its director until 2017. McBride is married to Glen Rubsamen, an American painter from Los Angeles.
Go to Profile#506
Catherine Stanton
#100715
Overall Influence
#507
Himabindu Lakkaraju
#85160
Overall Influence
Himabindu "Hima" Lakkaraju is an Indian-American computer scientist who works on machine learning, artificial intelligence, algorithmic bias, and AI accountability. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School and is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science at Harvard University. Lakkaraju is known for her work on explainable machine learning. More broadly, her research focuses on developing machine learning models and algorithms that are interpretable, transparent, fair, and reliable. She also investigates the practical and ethical implications of depl...
Go to Profile#508
Ingrid Verbauwhede
#88376
Overall Influence
Ingrid Verbauwhede is a professor at the COSIC Research Group of the Electrical Engineering Department, KU Leuven, where she leads the embedded systems team. She is a pioneer in the field of secure embedded circuits and systems, with several awards recognising her contributions to the field. She is member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts since 2011. She is a fellow of IEEE.
Go to Profile#509
Ivona Brandić
#85906
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Ivona Brandić is a Bosnian–Austrian computer scientist known for her research on cloud computing. She is University Professor for High Performance Computing Systems in the Institute of Information Systems Engineering of TU Wien.
Go to Profile#510
Lora Aroyo
#74075
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Lora Aroyo is a Dutch computer scientist at Google Research, and formerly a professor at The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is best known for her work in user modeling, digital humanities, and for the CrowdTruth crowdsourcing method. She was the founding head of the user-centric data science research group in the VU Computer Science department, president of the User Modeling Society, a former vice-president of Semantic Technology Institute, Chief Scientist at Tagasauris, and a member of over 100 scientific program committees and editorial boards. She was one of the few female...
Go to Profile#511
Jacquelyn Ford Morie
#83290
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Jacquelyn Ford Morie is an artist, scientist and educator working in the areas of immersive worlds, games and social networks. Until 2013 she was a senior research scientist at the Institute for Creative Technologies. In 2013 she started a spin-off company called All These Worlds, to take her work in virtual worlds and avatars to a broader audience.
Go to Profile#512
Stephanie Wehner
#70423
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Stephanie Dorothea Christine Wehner is a German physicist and computer scientist. She is the Roadmap Leader of the Quantum Internet and Networked Computing initiative at QuTech, Delft University of Technology. She is also known for introducing the noisy-storage model in quantum cryptography. Wehner's research focuses mainly on quantum cryptography and quantum communications.
Go to Profile#513
Sylvia Wilbur
#70153
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Sylvia B. Wilbur was a British computer scientist who helped develop the ARPANET, was one of the first to exchange email in Britain, and became a leading researcher on computer-supported cooperative work.
Go to Profile#514
Paulina Komar
#101729
Overall Influence
#515
Marilyn Tremaine
#72107
Overall Influence
Marilyn Mantei Tremaine is an American computer scientist. She is an expert in human–computer interaction and considered a pioneer of the field. Education Tremaine received a BS in mathematics, physics and French from the University of Wisconsin, and later in 1982 obtained a PhD in communication theory at the University of Southern California - with the last two years of her PhD spent at Carnegie Mellon University under the direction of Professor Allen Newell.
Go to Profile#516
Felienne Hermans
#87772
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (40 years)
Felienne Hermans, Felienne , is a scientist working at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as a full professor. Her research interests include programming education and spreadsheets. Academic career Hermans received her MSc in computer science from Eindhoven University of Technology, and her PhD in software engineering in 2013 from Delft University of Technology. Following that she was an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, heading the Spreadsheet Lab.
Go to Profile#517
Angelika Steger
#57275
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Angelika Steger is a mathematician and computer scientist whose research interests include graph theory, randomized algorithms, and approximation algorithms. She is a professor at ETH Zurich. Education and career After earlier studies at the University of Freiburg and Heidelberg University, Steger earned a master's degree from Stony Brook University in 1985. She completed a doctorate from the University of Bonn in 1990, under the supervision of Hans Jürgen Prömel, with a dissertation on random combinatorial structures, and earned her habilitation from Bonn in 1994. After a visiting position a...
Go to Profile#518
Emma Pierson
#67599
Overall Influence
Emma Pierson is an American computer scientist who specializes in artificial intelligence. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. She earned a degree in physics and then a master's in computer science from Stanford University, where she studied cognitive psychology and biocomputation. She received a PhD in 2020 at Stanford under Jure Leskovec. She was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for her work in using computers to solve biological problems, and specifically to work on cancer treatments.
Go to Profile#519
Andrea Danyluk
#52022
Overall Influence
1963 - 2022 (59 years)
Andrea Pohoreckyj Danyluk was an American computer scientist and computer science educator. She was Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Computer Science at Williams College, and co-chair of the Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research of the Computing Research Association.
Go to Profile#520
Nancy Burson
#69121
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Nancy Burson is an American artist known for creating photographs using computer morphing technology, including the Age Machine, Human Race Machine and Anomaly Machine. Biography Artist/photographer Nancy Burson's work is shown in museums and galleries internationally. "Seeing and Believing", her traveling 2002 retrospective originating at the Grey Art Gallery, was nominated for Best Solo Museum Show of the Year in New York City by the International Association of Art Critics. She has served as a visiting professor at Harvard and was a member of the adjunct photography faculty at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for five years.
Go to Profile#521
Michal Rosen-Zvi
#81761
Overall Influence
Michal Rosen-Zvi is an Israeli academic and researcher in the fields of artificial intelligence and deep learning and their applications to healthcare. She is research director for Healthcare Informatics at IBM Research in Haifa.
Go to Profile#522
Audrey Girouard
#80226
Overall Influence
Audrey Girouard is a Canadian computer scientist. She researches human–computer interaction. Girouard is an associate professor at Carleton University and the Director and Principal Investigator of the Collaborative Learning of Usability Experiences program. She is the first female faculty member at Carleton School of Information Technology.
Go to Profile#523
Boshra Salem
#29165
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Boshra Salem is a professor, founder and the Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt. She is president of Unesco's Man and the Biosphere International Coordinating Council and serves on the International Council for Science 's Committee for Scientific Planning & Review. She has received a number of awards, including being recognized as an outstanding female scientist in the Women in Science Hall of Fame by the Embassy of the United States in Cairo, Egypt.
Go to Profile#524
Raissa D'Souza
#49945
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Raissa M. D'Souza is the Associate Dean of Research for the College of Engineering and a Professor of Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Davis as well as an External Professor and member of the Science Board at the Santa Fe Institute. She was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016 and Fellow of the Network Science Society in 2019. D'Souza works on theory and complex systems.
Go to Profile#525
Hilary Kahn
#84263
Overall Influence
1943 - 2007 (64 years)
Hilary J. Kahn was a South African British computer scientist who spent most of her career as a professor at the University of Manchester, where she worked on computer-aided design and information modelling. Kahn participated in the development of the Manchester MU5 computer. Later she became involved in standards development and was both the chair of the Technical Experts Group and a member of the Steering Committee for the development of the EDIF standard. Kahn retired from Manchester in 2006 and died in 2007.
Go to Profile#526
Mary Elizabeth Ramsay
#102870
Overall Influence
#527
Sibel Adalı
#48431
Overall Influence
Sibel Adalı is a Turkish-American computer scientist who studies trust in social networks and uncertainty in decision-making. She is a professor of computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and associate dean for research at Rensselaer.
Go to Profile#528
Kausalya Hart
#25628
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (94 years)
Kausalya Hart is a scholar of Tamil language at UC Berkeley. She is famous for translating Sangam literature from Tamil to English and for writing many Tamil textbooks. Life Kausalya Hart is a scholar of Tamil. She taught in the Department of South Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She has written many books for students and has translated many works of bhakti literature from the 6th to 15th century CE.
Go to Profile#529
Sophie Calle
#7321
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like tendency to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. Her photographic work often includes panels of text of her own writing.
Go to Profile#530
Margaret Feldner
#63351
Overall Influence
Sr. Margaret Feldner, O.S.F., Ph.D., served as Quincy University's 21st president. Feldner assumed the post January 1, 2004. She was the first woman president appointed to the role at Quincy. On December 19, 2006, the university announced that Feldner had been excused from her duties following a vote of no confidence by the school's faculty, a move precipitated by a 30% decrease in freshmen enrollment over two years. Sr. Margaret earned the nickname "Head Nun" while occupying the office of President at Quincy University.
Go to Profile#531
Solange Ghernaouti
#77544
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Solange Ghernaouti is a professor at the University of Lausanne and an international expert on cybersecurity and cyberdefence. She regularly collaborates with various United Nations, European and government institutions as well as with private corporations.
Go to Profile#532
Marie-Claude Gaudel
#67880
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Marie-Claude Gaudel is a French computer scientist. She is a professor emerita at the University of Paris-Sud. She helped develop PLUSS language for software specifications and was involved in both theoretical and applied computer science. Gaudel is still active in professional societies.
Go to Profile#533
Ina Wagner
#42185
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Ina Wagner is an Austrian physicist, computer scientist and social scientist. She is an emeritus professor of computer science at TU Wien , where she was active from 1987 until 2011. Wagner completed a doctorate in nuclear physics at the University of Vienna in 1972. In 1979 she received her habilitation in education sciences from the University of Klagenfurt, and in 1998 completed a second habilitation in "multidisciplinary design and computer-supported cooperative work" in Vienna. In 1987 she became the TU Wien's second ever female professor and the first to be appointed from outside the un...
Go to Profile#534
Moira Burke
#90924
Overall Influence
Moira Burke is an American computer scientist working in the field of human-computer interaction. She currently works as a data scientist for Facebook. Education Burke received her bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in 2001 and her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011 under the supervision of Robert E. Kraut.
Go to Profile#535
Anicia Peters
#74089
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Anicia Peters is a Namibian computer scientist specializing in human–computer interaction . She is the CEO of the National Commission of Research, Science and Technology . Early life and education Peters was born in Rehoboth, Namibia, and attended Origo Primary School. Her family moved to the Khomasdal suburb of Windhoek when she was about 8; there, she attended M.H. Greeff Primary School and later Concordia College.
Go to Profile#536
Moyra Davey
#34144
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Moyra Davey is an artist based in New York City. Davey works across photography, video, and writing. Early life Moyra Davey was born in 1958 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She grew up in Montreal, where she studied photography and received a BFA from Concordia University in 1982. She then achieved an MFA from the University of California, San Diego in 1988. In 1989, she attended The Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.
Go to Profile#537
Alexandra Boltasseva
#66682
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Alexandra Boltasseva is Ron And Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, and editor-in-chief for The Optical Society's Optical Materials Express journal. Her research focuses on plasmonic metamaterials, manmade composites of metals that use surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature.
Go to Profile#538
Nalini Venkatasubramanian
#89189
Overall Influence
Nalini Venkatasubramanian is a Professor of Computer Science in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She is known for her work in effective management and utilization of resources in the evolving global information infrastructure. Her research interests are Multimedia Computing, Networked and Distributed Systems, Internet technologies and Applications, Ubiquitous Computing and Urban Crisis Responses. Dr. Venkatasubramanian's research focuses on enabling effective management and utilization of resources in the evolving global information infrastructure.
Go to Profile#539
Emina Torlak
#98720
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (45 years)
Emina Torlak is an American computer scientist and software engineer whose research concerns software verification, program synthesis, and the integration of these techniques into domain-specific languages. She is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Washington, and a senior principal scientist for Amazon Web Services.
Go to Profile#540
Leysia Palen
#92518
Overall Influence
Leysia Palen is an American computer scientist known for her contributions to human–computer interaction and disaster informatics. She is a professor of computer science, professor of information science, and founding chair of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder. At Colorado, she directs a research project titled "Empowering the Public with Information during Crisis", and is co-director of the Center for Software & Society. She also holds an adjunct affiliation with the University of Agder, and is a member of the CHI Academy.
Go to Profile#541
Jin Zou
#104352
Overall Influence
#542
Adenike Osofisan
#78114
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Adenike Osofisan , is a Nigerian professor of Computer science, who specializes in data mining and knowledge management. She is the first Nigerian woman to hold a Ph.D. in Computer science, a feat she accomplished in 1989. In 2006, she became a full professor at University of Ibadan, a promotion that made her the first African woman to become a Computer Science professor.
Go to Profile#543
Elaine Oran
#77081
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Elaine Surick Oran is an American physical scientist and is considered a world authority on numerical methods for large-scale simulation of physical systems. She has pioneered computational technology to solve complex reactive flow problems, unifying concepts from science, mathematics, engineering, and computer science in a new methodology. An incredibly diverse range of phenomena can be modeled and better understood using her techniques for numerical simulation of fluid flows, ranging from the tightly grouped movements of fish in Earth's oceans to the explosions of far-flung supernovae in space.
Go to Profile#544
Lee E. Brasseur
#70957
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Lee Ellen Brasseur is an American Professor of technical communication at the Department of English at the Illinois State University, and expert in the field of visualization, known from her 2003 book "Visualizing Technical Information: A Cultural Critique".
Go to Profile#545
Catherine Pelachaud
#97527
Overall Influence
Catherine Pelachaud is a French computer scientist specializing in human–computer interaction and known for her work virtual assistants and on recognizing and generating facial expressions. She is a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research , affiliated with the Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique , a shared research center of CNRS and Sorbonne University.
Go to Profile#546
Fernanda Viégas
#52562
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Fernanda Bertini Viégas is a Brazilian computer scientist and graphical designer, whose work focuses on the social, collaborative and artistic aspects of information visualization. Biography Viégas studied graphic design and art history at the University of Kansas, where she obtained her bachelor's degree in 1997. She then moved to the MIT Media Lab, where she received an M.S. in 200 and a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences in 2005 under the supervision of Judith Donath. The same year she began work at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of the Visual Com...
Go to Profile#547
Sylvie Chevret
#104686
Overall Influence
#548
Lourdes Agapito
#76449
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Lourdes de Agapito Vicente is the Professor of 3D Vision in the department of computer science at University College London where she leads a research group with a focus on 3D dynamic scene understanding from video. Agapito is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the British Machine Vision Association. Furthermore, she is the co-founder of the software company Synthesia.
Go to Profile#549
Dana G. Hoyt
#23704
Overall Influence
Dana Gibson Hoyt was the thirteenth president of Sam Houston State University. She was appointed on September 1, 2010, following unanimous approval by The Texas State University System. She is the first female president in the university’s history.
Go to Profile#550
Isabel Cruz
#69729
Overall Influence
Isabel Cruz was an American Portuguese computer scientist known for her research on databases, knowledge representation, geographic information systems, AI, visual languages, graph drawing, user interfaces, multimedia, information retrieval, and security. She was a University of Illinois Chicago Distinguished Professor and a Professor Computer Science in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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