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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Computer Science,
#11351
Gert Bange
#136076
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Gert Bange is a German structural biologist and biochemist. He is Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Vice President for Research at Philipps-Universität Marburg. Career After graduating from high school in 1996 and doing his civil service in Halle/Saale, Bange studied biochemistry at Martin Luther University Halle/Saale from 1997 to 2002. In 2007, he received his PhD in biochemistry and worked until 2012 at the Biochemistry Center of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg under Irmgard Sinning. He then moved to the LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology at Philipps University Marburg as an independent junior research group leader.
Go to Profile#11352
Olabisi Ugbebor
#88696
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Olabisi Oreofe Ugbebor is the first female professor in mathematics in Nigeria. Born in Lagos, she studied mathematics at the University of Ibadan and then at the University of London, where she obtained a PhD in 1976.
Go to Profile#11353
Richard G. Whitman
#108666
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Professor Richard G. Whitman is an academic, think tank member and media commentator focusing on the European Union's international role and the UK's foreign policy. He is professor of politics and international relations and a member of the Global Europe Centre at the University of Kent. He is also an associate fellow at Chatham House .
Go to Profile#11354
Chik Patrick Yue
#126299
Overall Influence
Chik Patrick Yue from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for contributions to the advancement of CMOS radio-frequency integrated circuits and device modeling.
Go to Profile#11355
Johnny Kin On Sin
#66324
Overall Influence
Johnny Kin On Sin is a well-known professor of electronic engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 "for contributions to the design and commercialization of power semiconductor devices".
Go to Profile#11356
Paul Watson
#180282
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#11357
Jurgen Faust
#101313
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Jurgen Faust is a design professor who has worked in four different countries as a Professor for Design, Theory and Media as well as an administrative Dean. He is a co-founder of a private university in Germany, as well as a developer of many undergraduate and graduate programs in a variety of fields.
Go to Profile#11358
Genpei Akasegawa
#27675
Overall Influence
1937 - 2014 (77 years)
Genpei Akasegawa was a pseudonym of Japanese artist Katsuhiko Akasegawa, born March 27, 1937 – October 26, 2014 in Yokohama. He used another pseudonym, Katsuhiko Otsuji, for literary works. A member of the influential artist groups Neo-Dada Organizers and Hi-Red Center, Akasegawa went on to maintain a multi-disciplinary practice throughout his career as an individual artist. He has had retrospective exhibitions at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Chiba City Museum, and Oita City Museum. His work is in the permanent collection at Museum of Modern Art in New York. Artist Nam June P...
Go to Profile#11359
Paul Marshall
#180315
Overall Influence
#11360
Dipen J Parekh
#82036
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Dipen J. Parekh is Chief Operating Officer at the University of Miami Health System, Chairman of Urology and the Dr. Victor Politano Endowed Chair in Clinical Urology at the Miller School of Medicine at University of Miami in Miami. He also serves as the Director of Robotic surgery at the University of Miami Health System . In 2012, he was awarded the American Urological Association Gold Cystoscope Award for his excellence in "establishing programs in urologic oncology and robotic surgery and outstanding contributions in transformative research".
Go to Profile#11361
Sarah Kay
#56398
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Sarah Kay is a professor of French at New York University. Education Kay was a student in the UK at the University of Oxford. Career She started her teaching career at the University of Liverpool then moved to the University of Cambridge. She was head of department at Cambridge from 1996 until 2001 and Director of Studies at Girton College, Cambridge, from 2003 to 2005. Kay has been a fellow of the British Academy since 2004 and was awarded a D.Litt. in 2005.
Go to Profile#11362
Charles F. Abernathy
#29040
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Charles F. Abernathy is an American legal scholar who works as a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a graduate of Harvard University and of Harvard Law School. Books Abernathy, Charles F. Civil Rights: Cases and Materials. St. Paul, Minn. : West Pub. Co., 2012 Shulman, Stephen N., and Charles F. Abernathy. The law of equal employment opportunity. Boston: Warren, Gorham & Lamont. 1990 Abernathy, Charles F. Law in the United States: Cases and Materials. Washington, D.C: International Law Institute, 1995.
Go to Profile#11363
James H Lewis
#180346
Overall Influence
#11364
Jiha Moon
#87443
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Jiha Moon is a contemporary artist who focuses on painting, printmaking, and sculptural ceramic objects. Born in Daegu, South Korea, Moon is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. Early life and education Moon was born in Daegu, South Korea in 1973. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Korea University and her Master of Fine Arts in Western Painting from Ewha Womans University. After graduating, Moon relocated to the United States to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in painting at the University of Iowa.
Go to Profile#11365
Eva Rieger
#67125
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Eva Rieger is a German musicologist. Rieger specialized in the social and cultural history of women in music. Together with the German-Swiss patron Mariann Steegmann, Rieger founded the Mariann-Steegmann-Foundation, which is dedicated to the advancement of women in music and the arts. In 2012, she was appointed Honorary Senator of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
Go to Profile#11366
Sanghamitra Pati
#110379
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Sanghamitra Pati, a physician cum scientist is currently the director of Public health at RMRC, Bhubaneswar the regional institution of the ICMR & the only institute in Odisha. She is an expert on multimorbidity research in public health settings, having been a lead in the first ever study of multimorbidity in India.
Go to Profile#11367
Norman Carlberg
#32801
Overall Influence
1928 - 2018 (90 years)
Norman K. Carlberg was an American sculptor, photographer, and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style. Early life and education Carlberg was born in Roseau, Minnesota. He was the son of Gustav Carlberg and his wife Alma Forsberg. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and then enlisted in the Air Force. He finished his undergraduate and graduate degree in art at the Yale School of Art under Josef Albers, who was instrumental in his acceptance as a student at Yale and his nomination for a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
Go to Profile#11368
James R. Dow
#29983
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
James R. Dow is a Professor Emeritus of German at Iowa State University with research interests in German Volkskunde , Old Order Amish of Kalona and Amana Colonists of Amana. He took his doctorate from the University of Iowa in German literature in 1966. He taught at University of Wyoming before taking his permanent post at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Dow served for ten years as the editor of the Internationale Volkskundliche Bibliographie. He was also guest professor at the University of Bremen in Germany. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005 for the study and grammar of the Cimbrian language, resulting in a highly regarded book Dow edited by the late Bruno Schweizer.
Go to Profile#11369
Susan Crile
#48155
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Susan Crile is an American painter and printmaker. Biography Crile was born in 1942 in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Bennington College, graduating in 1965. In 1972 Crile was interviewed by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art. The same year her image was included the iconic poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Go to Profile#11370
Hallvard Ødegaard
#101542
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Hallvard Ødegaard is a Norwegian professor emeritus from Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He is known as the inventor of the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor for wastewater treatment. Career Ødegaard graduated with a master's degree in civil engineering in 1969 from the Norwegian Institute of Technology . In 1975 he received his doctoral degree from the same institution. He was employed at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research from 1970 to 1973. Subsequently, he was employed from 1973 to 1975 at the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering at NTH. He worked from 1975 to 1977 at the regional office for Sør-Trøndelag as a senior engineer.
Go to Profile#11371
Takashi Okamoto
#180384
Overall Influence
#11372
Walter Lang
#180394
Overall Influence
#11373
Michael Peter Kaye
#138509
Overall Influence
1901 - 2017 (116 years)
Michael Peter Kaye was an American surgeon and researcher who co-founded the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation in 1981. He developed the society's registry and edited the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.
Go to Profile#11374
Pierre Charneau
#165196
Overall Influence
Pierre Charneau is a French virologist, inventor, and head of the Molecular Virology and Vaccinology Unit at the Pasteur Institute and an acknowledged specialist in HIV, lentiviral gene transfer vectors, and their medical applications. His discovery of the central DNA-flap structure in the HIV genome, and its role in viral entry into the nucleus of the infected cell, grounded the optimization of lentiviral vectors and allowed for more than 20 years of development in gene therapy and vaccines based on this gene delivery technology. Charneau has published more than 100 research articles and hol...
Go to Profile#11375
Paul Hoffman
#148658
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Paul E. Hoffman is an Internet pioneer, based in Santa Cruz, California. Hoffman has been involved with the Internet Engineering Task Force since the early 1990s, and has chaired numerous IETF working groups. He was the founder of the Internet Mail Consortium and the Virtual Private Network Consortium. He is currently a technologist at ICANN.
Go to Profile#11376
Michel White
#180419
Overall Influence
#11377
Ted Selker
#180420
Overall Influence
#11378
Taiwo Abioye
#90069
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Taiwo Olubunmi Abioye is a Nigerian professor of English with specialization in Stylistics and applied linguistics. She is the first woman to be Deputy Vice Chancellor in Covenant University. Early life and education Born January 17, 1958, in Kaduna to parents from Ogun State, Abioye had her first degree in Language Arts from Ahmadu Bello University. Graduating with second class upper division in 1987. She got her master's degree and doctorate degrees from the same institution in 1992 and 2004 respectively. In 1982, Abioye was the best graduating student in English department.
Go to Profile#11379
Abla Mehio Sibai
#125878
Overall Influence
Abla Mehio Sibai is a Professor of Epidemiology at the American University of Beirut , Lebanon. Sibai has served as the Interim Dean of AUB's Faculty of Health Sciences from 2020-22 and is currently the Dean of FHS. She is also the co-founder of the Center for Studies on Aging in Lebanon and co-founding director of the AUB University for Seniors Program.
Go to Profile#11380
Haskell Monroe
#51562
Overall Influence
1931 - 2017 (86 years)
Haskell Moorman Monroe Jr. was an American educator and university administrator who led the University of Texas at El Paso from 1980 to 1987 and the University of Missouri from 1987 to 1993. Early life and education Monroe was the only child of Haskell Moorman Monroe, Sr and Myrtle Marie Monroe of Garland, Texas. The family lived in Garland, Wichita Falls, Texas, Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Orange, Texas, from 1942, where the elder Monroe was employed at Consolidated Steel Corporation shipyard.
Go to Profile#11381
Hasso Plattner
#180485
Overall Influence
#11382
André H. Caron
#123073
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
André H. Caron is a Canadian communication scholar whose research focuses predominantly on young people and media, and the appropriation of emerging technologies in society. Through his books and research projects, he examines social, cultural and policy issues, as well as the overall influence that traditional and new media have on family and the lives of children and youth.
Go to Profile#11383
Mary A. Sewell
#172024
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Mary Anne Sewell is a New Zealand marine biology academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career After a 1993 PhD titled 'Reproductive cycle, sex change, and mortality during brooding of a viviparous sea cucumber Leptosynapta clarki' at the University of Alberta, she moved to the University of Auckland, rising to full professor.
Go to Profile#11384
Vaughan Grylls
#98376
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Vaughan Grylls is a British artist, photographer, and author. Known for his fine art photography and sculptures, Grylls first received recognition for his 1960s pun-sculptures and, later, for his 1980s photography and panoramic photo collages.
Go to Profile#11385
Mel Edwards
#63047
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Melvin "Mel" Edwards is an American artist, teacher, and abstract steel-metal sculptor. Additionally he has worked in drawing and printmaking. His artwork has political content often referencing African-American history, as well as the exploration of themes within slavery. Visually his works are characterized by the use of straight-edged triangular and rectilinear forms in metal. He lives between Upstate New York and in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Go to Profile#11386
Margo Davis
#98104
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Margo Baumgarten Davis is a photographer, educator and author of several photographer's books. Personal life Margo was raised in Connecticut and has lived for over 30 years in Palo Alto, California. She attended Bennington College, spent time at the Sorbonne studying French literature, and graduated from University of California, Berkeley. It was at UC Berkeley where she met her first husband Gregson Davis and traveled frequently to his home country of Antigua. She has a daughter, Anika and a son, Julian.
Go to Profile#11387
Paolo Brambilla
#180551
Overall Influence
#11388
Teresa Pellegrino
#170010
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Teresa Pellegrino is an Italian chemist who is Professor of Chemistry at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Her research considers nanomaterials for biomedical applications. She was appointed Associate Editor of Nanoscale in 2022.
Go to Profile#11389
Zi-Qiang Zhu
#89816
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Zi-Qiang Zhu , better known Z. Q. Zhu, is a Chinese-born British professor in electrical machines and control. He is the head of the Electrical Machines and Drives Research Group at the University of Sheffield in the UK, which is one of the largest research groups consisting of more than 100 personnel, specializing in permanent magnet brushless machines and drives for applications ranging from automotive, aerospace, renewable energy, to industrial and domestic products. The group also hosts the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre on Advanced Electrical Machines and Drives and the Sheffield Siemens Wind Power Research Centre .
Go to Profile#11390
Frank Sobott
#169309
Overall Influence
Frank Sobott, Ph.D. , is a German chemist, who is active in the fields of mass spectrometry and biochemistry; he is a professor of the University of Leeds from February 2017. He obtained a PhD in physical and theoretical chemistry in 2000 at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, under the supervision of professors Bernhard Brutschy and Michael Karas. He was an associate professor of mass spectrometry at the Center for Proteomics of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, from 2009 to 2017.
Go to Profile#11391
Lennox Superville
#120365
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Lennox Emmanuel Superville is a Trinidadian-American professor, mathematician, and engineer. Early life and education Lennox E. Superville was born on June 10, 1942, in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago. While attending Nelson Street Boys' R.C. School in Port of Spain, Trinidad, his mother unexpectedly died from a heart attack at St. Ann's Hospital Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Go to Profile#11392
John Douglas Simon
#86403
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
John D. Simon was the 14th President of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2021. He previously served as executive vice president and provost at the University of Virginia.
Go to Profile#11393
Doug Elliott
#180609
Overall Influence
#11394
Christina Slade
#61967
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Christina M. Slade is an Australian academic and author who was Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University, England, from 2012 to 2017. Biography Slade is an Emeritus Professor of Bath Spa University, having held the position of Vice-Chancellor from January 2012 to August 2017. During her time in office she was responsible for the University's strategic plan, financial management, academic quality and the external profile. One of her first projects, which she inherited, was the re-development of the university's Newton Park campus at a cost of £40 million. She was also responsible for driving a s...
Go to Profile#11395
Jeremy Howard
#178317
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Jeremy Howard is an Australian data scientist, entrepreneur, and educator. He is the co-founder of fast.ai, where he teaches introductory courses, develops software, and conducts research in the area of deep learning.
Go to Profile#11396
Richard Grayson
#115421
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Richard Grayson is a British artist, writer and curator. His art practice encompasses installation, video, painting and performance. He investigates ways that narratives shape our understandings of the world. His art and curatorial practice focus on narrative and the visual arts, belief systems and material expression, and ways cultural practices allow translation between the subjective and social/political realms.
Go to Profile#11397
Gerth Stølting Brodal
#173489
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Gerth Stølting Brodal is a professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Contributions Brodal queues - a heap/priority queue structure.
Go to Profile#11398
Kinshuk Dasgupta
#62150
Overall Influence
Kinshuk Dasgupta is an Indian research scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. He also holds a professorship at the Homi Bhabha National Institute. He earned his Bachelor in Engineering from Jadavpur University in metallurgy and PhD from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai in chemical engineering. His research expertise mainly includes work on carbon based nano materials and composite synthesis of the use of nano materials.
Go to Profile#11399
Alan Amory
#85807
Overall Influence
Alan Amory is a professor of educational technologies at the University of Johannesburg, where he promotes and drives the use of educational technologies. He has contributed to numerous fields of research, including information and communication technologies in education, video games and learning, tool-mediated knowledge construction, authentic learning, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory .
Go to Profile#11400
Emilio Sacristan Rock
#60271
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Emilio Sacristan Rock is a respected Mexican researcher, inventor and entrepreneur in the field of medical technology. He is currently professor of electrical and biomedical engineering, Director and Founder of the National Center for Medical Instrumentation and Imaging Research, CI3M, at the UAM-Iztapalapa, Mexico City, and Mexican National Researcher level III. He holds a B.S. in EE and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He has been research assistant professor at WPI , associate researcher at University of Massachusetts Medical School , and visiting professor at Yale School of Medicine and Stanford University .
Go to Profile