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,
#3351
Massimo Franchini
#96667
Overall Influence
#3352
Hausi A. Muller
#46934
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Hausi A. Müller is a Canadian computer scientist and software engineer. He is a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#3353
Albert Greenberg
#53452
Overall Influence
Albert Greenberg is an American software engineer and computer scientist who is notable for his contributions to the design of operating carrier and datacenter networks as well as to advances in computer networking and cloud computing. At Microsoft, he is a Corporate Vice President and the director of development for its Microsoft Azure service, which is a cloud computing infrastructure platform that coordinates data centers around the world. In contrast to hard-wired computer networks, firms such as Microsoft are turning increasingly to software-defined networking approaches to run its cloud computing networks by managing virtual networks across "millions of servers".
Go to Profile#3354
Mark Cleary
#24184
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Mark Cleary was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford in Yorkshire from 2007 to 2013. He took over in 2007 after the previous vice-chancellor, Chris Taylor, retired after 5 years in the position.
Go to Profile#3355
Ilyas Khan
#96726
Overall Influence
#3356
C. Guestrin
#96728
Overall Influence
#3357
Carol Frieze
#70131
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Carol Frieze works in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University as director of the Women@SCS and SCS4ALL professional organizations. She is co-author of a book on the successful efforts to attract and retain women in computing at Carnegie Mellon, where women represented 50% of the incoming class to the computer science major in fall 2018. She has been recognized by the A. Nico Habermann Award of the Computing Research Association and the AccessComputing Capacity Building Award.
Go to Profile#3358
Hiroyuki Ohshima
#96771
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
#3359
Yihui Xie
#58775
Overall Influence
Yihui Xie is a Chinese statistician, data scientist and software engineer for RStudio. He is the principal author of the open-source software package Knitr for data analysis in the R programming language, and has also written the book Dynamic Documents with R and knitr.
Go to Profile#3360
Carlos Díaz Olivo
#20187
Overall Influence
Carlos Eduardo Díaz Olivo is a Puerto Rican attorney, professor of law, former politician, and political analyst. Early years and education Carlos Díaz Olivo was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He completed a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting from the University of Puerto Rico. After certifying himself as a Certified Public Accountant, Díaz Olivo entered the University of Puerto Rico School of Law where he graduated with the highest GPA of his class.
Go to Profile#3361
John Fitch
#52619
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
John Peter Fitch is a computer scientist, mathematician and composer, who has worked on relativity, planetary astronomy, computer algebra and Lisp. Alongside Victor Lazzarini and Steven Yi, he is the project leader for audio programming language Csound, having a leading role in its development since the early 1990s; and he was a director of Codemist Ltd, which developed the Norcroft C compiler.
Go to Profile#3362
Hao Huang
#24601
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Hao Huang is a mathematician known for solving the sensitivity conjecture. Huang is currently an associate professor in the mathematics department at National University of Singapore. Huang was an assistant professor from 2015 to 2021 in the Department of Mathematics at Emory University. He obtained his Ph.D in mathematics from UCLA in 2012 advised by Benny Sudakov. His postdoctoral research was done at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and DIMACS at Rutgers University in 2012-2014, followed by a year at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at University of Minnesota.
Go to Profile#3363
Ted Lewis
#73999
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Theodore Gyle Lewis is an American computer scientist and mathematician, and professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. Biography Lewis received his BS in Mathematics and his PhD in computer Science. He started his career at the Oregon State University, where he became Professor of Computer Science and directed its Industry Research Center OACIS.
Go to Profile#3364
Dick de Zeeuw
#96840
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
#3365
Akira Toriyama
#23163
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama is regarded as one of the authors who changed the history of manga, as his works are highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.
Go to Profile#3366
Jonathan S. Turner
#65396
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Jonathan Shields Turner is a senior professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include the design and analysis of high performance routers and switching systems, extensible communication networks via overlay networks, and probabilistic performance of heuristic algorithms for NP-complete problems.
Go to Profile#3367
Nitin Hemant Vaidya
#96853
Overall Influence
#3368
Michael J. Franklin
#95715
Overall Influence
Michael Jay Franklin is an American software entrepreneur and computer scientist specializing in distributed and streaming database technology. He is Liew Family Chair of Computer Science and chairman for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago.
Go to Profile#3369
Yunhao Liu
#96873
Overall Influence
#3370
Neil Dodgson
#81566
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Neil Anthony Dodgson is Professor of Computer Graphics at the Victoria University of Wellington. He was previously Professor of Graphics and Imaging in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in England, where he worked in the Rainbow Group on computer graphics and interaction.
Go to Profile#3371
Sandeep Shukla
#60080
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Sandeep Kumar Shukla is currently Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professor and previous head of Computer Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Embedded Systems, and associate editor for ACM transactions on Cyber Physical Systems. He is currently the joint director of C3i centre at IIT Kanpur along with Manindra Agrawal.
Go to Profile#3372
Darrell Whitley
#96881
Overall Influence
#3373
Li Sanli
#33031
Overall Influence
1935 - 2022 (87 years)
Li Sanli was a Chinese computer scientist and also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering , professor of Tsinghua University, dean and professor of School of Computer Engineering and Science in Shanghai University.
Go to Profile#3374
Brenda Baker
#71058
Overall Influence
Brenda Sue Baker is an American computer scientist. She is known for Baker's technique for approximation algorithms on planar graphs, for her early work on duplicate code detection, and for her research on two-dimensional bin packing problems.
Go to Profile#3375
Magdalena Bałazińska
#83897
Overall Influence
Magdalena Bałazińska is a computer scientist whose research concerns databases and data streams. Born in Poland and educated in Algeria, Canada, and the US, she works at the University of Washington, where she directs the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
Go to Profile#3376
Jennifer Wortman Vaughan
#78720
Overall Influence
Jennifer Wortman Vaughan is an American computer scientist and Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research focusing mainly on building responsible artificial intelligence systems as part of Microsoft's Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics in AI initiative. Jennifer is also a co-chair of Microsoft's Aether group on transparency that works on operationalizing responsible AI across Microsoft through making recommendations on responsible AI issues, technologies, processes, and best practices. Jennifer is also active in the research community, she served as the workshops chai...
Go to Profile#3377
Diyi Yang
#76508
Overall Influence
Diyi Yang is a Chinese computer scientist and assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University. Her research combines linguistics and social sciences with machine learning to address social problems like online harassment, as well as user-centered text generation and learning with limited data.
Go to Profile#3378
Yoshio Yamaoka
#96952
Overall Influence
#3379
Xinbo Gao
#96986
Overall Influence
#3380
Alan Rector
#68413
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Alan L. Rector is a Professor of Medical Informatics in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester in the UK. Education Rector received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College, a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 1987.
Go to Profile#3381
Bernard De Baets
#97002
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#3382
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
#77198
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Dr. Pierre-Yves Oudeyer is Research Director at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation and head of the Inria and Ensta-ParisTech FLOWERS team. Before, he has been a permanent researcher in Sony Computer Science Laboratory for 8 years . He studied theoretical computer science at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon, and received his Ph.D. degree in artificial intelligence from the University Paris VI, France. After working on computational models of language evolution, he is now working on developmental and social robotics, focusing on sensorimotor development, language acquisition and lifelong learning in robots.
Go to Profile#3383
Angela Orebaugh
#84722
Overall Influence
Angela Orebaugh is a cyber technology and security author and researcher. In 2011, she was selected as Booz Allen Hamilton's first Cybersecurity Fellow. She is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia Department of Computer Science.
Go to Profile#3384
Balaraman Kalyanaraman
#97036
Overall Influence
#3385
Guang Gao
#83775
Overall Influence
1945 - 2021 (76 years)
Guang R. Gao was a computer scientist and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware. Gao was a founder and Chief Scientist of ETI . Education and early life Born in Tianjin in 1945 and brought up in a prominent physician family in China, Gao has received a strict education from early childhood both in traditional knowledge of Chinese history and culture, as well as in western science and English. Gao has shown his strong interests and curiosity in science subjects, and received his education in the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing. In January 1980, Gao has left China and pursued his graduate education in the United States.
Go to Profile#3386
Katherine Isbister
#73266
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Katherine Isbister is a game and human computer interaction researcher and designer, currently a professor in computational media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Until June 2015, she was an associate professor at New York University, with a joint appointment in computer science and in the Game Center at the Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, she was founding research director of the Game Innovation Lab. Isbister's research and design contributions center on how to create more compelling emotional and social qualities in games and other digital experiences. She has innovated in the areas of character/avatar/agent design and in researching and evaluating the user experience.
Go to Profile#3387
Hal Foster
#13478
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Harold Foss "Hal" Foster is an American art critic and historian. He was educated at Princeton University, Columbia University, and the City University of New York. He taught at Cornell University from 1991 to 1997 and has been on the faculty at Princeton since 1997. In 1998 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Go to Profile#3388
John M. McQuillan
#51874
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
John M. McQuillan is an American computer scientist who did studies of adaptive routing in the early ARPANET and the subsequent Internet. After receiving his A.B. in 1970 and a M.S. in 1971, he completed a Ph.D. in 1974 in applied mathematics from Harvard University. He was since 1971 employed at the computer networking equipment manufacturer Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, MA, where he programmed the Interface Message Processor, work that in part led to his dissertation Adaptive routing for distributed computer networks advised by Jeffrey P. Buzen in 1974. In his dissertation, McQu...
Go to Profile#3389
Georg E. Schulz
#97181
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
#3390
Michel Hamon
#97183
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
#3391
Henri Brunner
#97186
Overall Influence
#3392
Christian S. Jensen
#96714
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Christian S. Jensen is a Danish computer scientist who is a professor at Aalborg University. Jensen's research focuses on temporal, spatial, spatio-temporal, geo-textual, and multidimensional data; data management, analytics, machine learning; data models, query languages, database design, query and update processing and optimization, and indexing.
Go to Profile#3393
Yonas Beyene
#28206
Overall Influence
Yonas Beyene is an Ethiopian archaeologist. He is known for his works on the Paleolithic archaeology of Konso and the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Recently, he prepared the Nomination Files that eventually led to the registration of the Konso Cultural Landscape of southern Ethiopia in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2011.
Go to Profile#3394
John C Byrd
#97246
Overall Influence
#3395
Mengjie Zhang
#97283
Overall Influence
#3396
Giancarlo Guizzardi
#31651
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Giancarlo Guizzardi is a Brazilian–Italian computer scientist specializing in conceptual modeling, enterprise modeling, applied ontology and ontology-driven information systems. He is a professor in the University of Twente in The Netherlands and a senior researcher and founding member of the Ontology & Conceptual Modeling Research Group in Vitoria, Brazil.
Go to Profile#3397
Sankar Kumar Ghosh
#97350
Overall Influence
#3398
Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau
#71042
Overall Influence
Andrea Carol Arpaci-Dusseau is an American computer scientist interested in operating systems, file systems, data storage, distributed computing, and computer science education. She is a professor of computer sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Go to Profile#3399
Monique Laurent
#40954
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Monique Laurent is a French computer scientist and mathematician who is an expert in mathematical optimization. She is a researcher at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam where she is also a member of the Management Team. Laurent also holds a part-time position as a professor of econometrics and operations research at Tilburg University.
Go to Profile#3400
Peter J. Bentley
#67449
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Dr Peter John Bentley is a British author and computer scientist based at University College London. Peter J. Bentley is an honorary professor and teaching fellow at UCL, a visiting professor at Autodesk and a collaborating professor at KAIST. He is also a popular science author and consultant. He was a contributing editor for WIRED UK and was the monthly host of the Royal Institution's café scientifique. He currently writes for BBC Science Focus magazine.
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