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 Computer Science,
#5201
Vlado Perkovic
#101529
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Vlado Perkovic is an Australian renal physician and researcher who is the Provost at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, having previously been Dean of Medicine & Health at that University between 2019 and 2023.
Go to Profile#5202
Lynn Hershman Leeson
#83191
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Lynn Hershman Leeson is a multimedia American artist and filmmaker. Her work combines art with social commentary, particularly on the relationship between people and technology. Leeson is a pioneer in new media, and her work with technology and in media-based practices helped legitimize digital art forms. Her interests include feminism, race, surveillance, and artificial intelligence and identity theft through algorithms and data tracking. She has been referred to as a "new media pioneer" for the prescient incorporation of new science and technologies in her work. She is based in San Francis...
Go to Profile#5203
Vi Balachander Krishnamurthy
#125032
Overall Influence
#5204
Christopher W. Johnson
#86377
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Christopher W. Johnson, FRSE, FRAeS, FBCS, is a British computer scientist and Pro Vice Chancellor for Engineering and Physical Sciences at Queen's University, Belfast. Previously he was Professor and Head of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, UK.
Go to Profile#5205
Zhuowen. Tu
#125081
Overall Influence
#5206
Shen Chun-shan
#20327
Overall Influence
1932 - 2018 (86 years)
Shen Chun-shan was a Taiwanese physicist who served as president of National Tsing Hua University from 1994 to 1997. He was known as one of the "four princes of Taiwan" along with Chen Li-an, Fredrick Chien, and Lien Chan, all of whose fathers attained prominence in politics prior to their sons' successes.
Go to Profile#5207
Wei Zhao
#79515
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Wei Zhao is a Chinese-American computer scientist who served as rector of the University of Macau from 2008 to 2017. He currently serves as chief research officer and professor at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
Go to Profile#5208
Zatollah Asemi
#125094
Overall Influence
#5209
Hui Lei
#123137
Overall Influence
Hui Lei is a Chinese-American Computer Scientist and Software Engineer. He is known for his work in cloud computing, big data, and mobile computing. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Vice President at Futurewei Technologies.
Go to Profile#5210
Yoshiki Miyachi
#125106
Overall Influence
#5211
Kohji Fukunaga
#125133
Overall Influence
#5212
Alfredo Fusco
#125138
Overall Influence
#5213
Samuel Strober
#125152
Overall Influence
#5214
Fredrik Mertens
#125158
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#5215
Subrata Ghosh
#125160
Overall Influence
#5216
Piotr Doll'ar
#125173
Overall Influence
#5217
Ziad Mallat
#125177
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#5218
Joakim Nivre
#125181
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
#5219
Igal Gery
#125215
Overall Influence
#5220
Deepak Srivastava
#125220
Overall Influence
#5221
Ulrik Brandes
#109756
Overall Influence
Ulrik Brandes is a German computer scientist, social scientist, and network scientist known for his work on centrality, cluster analysis, and graph drawing. He is Professor for Social Networks at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, in the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences.
Go to Profile#5222
Wilhelm Kriz
#125247
Overall Influence
#5223
Boo Cheong Khoo
#125251
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#5224
Lazarus Hangula
#74616
Overall Influence
Lazarus Hangula has been the vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia ,from 2004 to 2018. He replaced Peter Katjavivi, who left to become an ambassador for Namibia. Hangula earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany. Before his appointment as vice-chancellor he served in various other roles at UNAM, among them Pro vice-chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research. Hangula was a member of Namibia's Delimitation Commission, a body advising on the country's administrative division.
Go to Profile#5225
Gretchen Oliver
#125271
Overall Influence
#5226
Luigi Atzori
#125273
Overall Influence
#5227
Harry Shum
#125284
Overall Influence
#5228
Mark Jit
#125316
Overall Influence
#5229
Jeffrey A. Menlo Park Dean
#125323
Overall Influence
#5230
Chris A. Johnson
#125329
Overall Influence
#5231
Lesley Visser
#60638
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Lesley Candace Visser is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, NBA Finals, World Series, Triple Crown, Monday Night Football, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Figure Skating Championships and the U.S. Open network broadcasts. Visser, who was voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of all time in a poll taken by the American Sportscasters Association, was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Hall of Fame...
Go to Profile#5232
Fabio Ciceri
#125340
Overall Influence
#5233
Daniel Menasce
#124514
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Daniel Menasce from the George Mason University was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2014 for contributions to research and education in performance evaluation of computer systems.
Go to Profile#5234
Florian Krampe
#98737
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Florian Krampe is a German/Swedish political scientist and international relations scholar at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute .[2] He is best known for his work on climate-related security risks, Environmental Peacebuilding, and the governance of natural resources after armed conflict. He also serves as Affiliated Researcher at the Research School for International Water Cooperation at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. Between 2020 and 2022 Krampe was cross appointed Specially Appointed Professor at the Network for Education and Research...
Go to Profile#5235
Glynn Winskel
#125397
Overall Influence
#5236
Hiroshi Akima
#125398
Overall Influence
#5237
Ueli Grossniklaus
#125404
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
#5238
Shigeru Saito
#125424
Overall Influence
#5239
Sumit Ranjan Majumdar
#125443
Overall Influence
#5240
Jagidesa Moodley
#125464
Overall Influence
#5241
Ian W. Craig
#125469
Overall Influence
#5242
Claes Wohlin
#125470
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#5243
Lan Tan
#125475
Overall Influence
#5244
Jaideep Srivastava
#125482
Overall Influence
#5245
Jill Slay
#105624
Overall Influence
Jill Slay is a British-Australian engineer and computer scientist. Her work has attracted international attention and she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to the information technology industry through contributions in the areas of forensic computer science, security, critical infrastructure protection, and cyberterrorism."
Go to Profile#5246
Randy Larry Haupt
#125490
Overall Influence
#5247
Dieter Schmalstieg
#125491
Overall Influence
#5248
David Malcolm Nicol
#125500
Overall Influence
#5249
Andrew Oates
#45077
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Andrew 'Andy' Charles Oates is an Australian and British developmental biologist and embryologist specialized in biological pattern formation. He is professor at EPFL and head of the Segmentation Timing and Dynamics Laboratory at EPFL's School of Life Sciences. Since 2021, he has been dean of EPFL's School of Life Sciences.
Go to Profile#5250
Yizhou Yu
#125524
Overall Influence
