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,
#3451
Salman A. Avestimehr
#26300
Overall Influence
Salman A. Avestimehr is a Dean's professor at the Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Departments of University of Southern California, where he is the inaugural director of the USC-Amazon Center for Secure and Trusted Machine Learning and the director of the Information Theory and Machine Learning research lab. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of FedML. Avestimehr's contributions in research and publications are in the areas of information theory, machine learning, large-scale distributed computing, and secure/private computing and learning. In particular, he is best known for deterministic approximation approaches to network information theory and coded computing.
Go to Profile#3452
Qingfu Zhang
#98244
Overall Influence
#3453
Sarada K. Sarma
#41462
Overall Influence
Sarada Kanta Sarma is a geotechnical engineer, emeritus reader of engineering seismology and senior research investigator at Imperial College London. He has developed a method of seismic slope stability analysis which is named after him, the Sarma method.
Go to Profile#3454
John G. McNutt
#49433
Overall Influence
John G. McNutt was a professor of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware until his retirement in 2021. He is a leading researcher on the use of information and communication technologies in the nonprofit sector. Much of his current work focuses on electronic advocacy, especially the application of technology, data and data science to social action and public policymaking and the use of evidence in informing McNutt has conducted research on child advocacy groups, professional associations, environmental advocacy organizations, political action committees, transnational advocacy organizations and community development corporations.
Go to Profile#3455
Der-Tsai Lee
#44383
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Der-Tsai Lee is a Taiwanese computer scientist, known for his work in computational geometry. For many years he was a professor at Northwestern University. He has been a distinguished research fellow of the Institute for Information Science at the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan since 1998. From 1998 to 2008, he was director of this institute. He was the 14th President of National Chung Hsing University from August 1, 2011.
Go to Profile#3456
Sabine Van Huffel
#60807
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Sabine J. A. Van Huffel is a Belgian computer scientist, applied mathematician, and electrical engineer, whose research concerns computational methods for medical diagnostics, and in particular methods based on total least squares.
Go to Profile#3457
Sherali Zeadally
#98359
Overall Influence
#3458
Cristopher Moore
#61501
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Cristopher David Moore, known as Cris Moore, is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and physicist. He is resident faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, and was formerly a full professor at the University of New Mexico.
Go to Profile#3459
Huchuan Lu
#98408
Overall Influence
#3460
Michael E. Auer
#72759
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Michael E. Auer is a German computer scientist and engineering educator and professor at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria. He is the head of the Center of Competence Online Laboratories at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences and serves as President of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies until 2018. In June 2006 Michael Auer was elected as President and CEO of the International Association of Online Engineering . He is founder and chair of the annual International Conference Interactive Computer aided Learning in Villach / Austria, chair...
Go to Profile#3461
Ken P. Chong
#29695
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Ken P. Chong Chong grew up and obtained high school education at the Queen Elizabeth School, Hong Kong. He pursued higher education for the B.S. degree in Civil Engineering with major in Structures at the Taiwan National Cheng Kung University, and M.S. degree for Structural Mechanics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He also obtained advanced degrees at Princeton University: M.A., M.S. in Engineering, and completed the Ph.D. in Mechanics, 1969. After that he received post-doctoral management training at the Federal Executive Institute, for senior federal executives, Class 221, 1996....
Go to Profile#3462
Carla Savage
#53780
Overall Influence
Carla Diane Savage is an American computer scientist and mathematician, a professor of computer science at North Carolina State University and a former secretary of the American Mathematical Society .
Go to Profile#3463
Gholamreza Mesri
#68435
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Gholamreza Mesri is a geotechnical engineering researcher, professor, and consultant. He currently lectures at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Mesri emigrated from Iran to the United States in 1960. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where he earned his B.S. M.S. and PhD. , all in civil engineering. His research areas include consolidation and construction methods. He has worked extensively in Mexico City both on the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral and the new airport. He has also investigated the causes of the settlement of Kansai International Air...
Go to Profile#3464
Ramesh Govindan
#98471
Overall Influence
#3465
Ilmārs Poikāns
#59400
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Ilmārs Poikāns is a Latvian AI researcher at the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Latvia. He has used the pseudonym Neo , and is also known in the press as Latvia's "Robin Hood".
Go to Profile#3466
Lenhart Schubert
#98479
Overall Influence
Lenhart Schubert is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, as well as a member of the Center for Language Sciences and the Center for Computation and the Brain. Schubert is a prominent researcher in the field of common sense reasoning.
Go to Profile#3467
Sergey Brin
#57183
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin is an American businessman best known for co-founding Google with Larry Page. Brin was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on December 3, 2019. He and Page remain at Alphabet as co-founders, controlling shareholders and board members. As of November 2023, Brin is the 10th-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $111 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Go to Profile#3468
Narla Mohandas
#98513
Overall Influence
#3469
Erik Winfree
#23675
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Erik Winfree is an American applied computer scientist, bioengineer, and professor at California Institute of Technology. He is a leading researcher into DNA computing and DNA nanotechnology. In 1998, Winfree in collaboration with Nadrian Seeman published the creation of two-dimensional lattices of DNA tiles using the "double crossover" motif. These tile-based structures provided the capability to implement DNA computing, which was demonstrated by Winfree and Paul Rothemund in 2004, and for which they shared the 2006 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology.
Go to Profile#3470
Sun-yuan Kung
#98523
Overall Influence
#3471
Robert McCool
#62809
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Robert Martin McCool , more commonly known as Rob McCool, is a software developer and architect. McCool was the author of the original NCSA HTTPd web server, later known as the Apache HTTP Server, and until Apache version 2.2, httpd.conf files as distributed contain comments signed with his name. He wrote the first version while he was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was working with the original NCSA Mosaic team. His twin brother, Mike, also attended the university and would join the Mosaic team to work on a port of the Mosaic software to the Macintosh computer.
Go to Profile#3472
Hillel Weiss
#22013
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Hillel Weiss is a professor emeritus of literature at Bar Ilan University in Israel. Academic career Hillel Weiss is a tenured professor at the Joseph & Norman Berman Department of Literature of the Jewish People, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. As head of the Department of Hebrew Literature, he changed its name to the Department of Literature of the Jewish People. He is the editor of “Bikoret U’parshanut,” a journal of literary criticism.
Go to Profile#3473
Rafael Fonseca
#98575
Overall Influence
#3474
Gregory Dudek
#65768
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Gregory L. Dudek is a Canadian computer scientist specializing in robotics, computer vision, and intelligent systems. He is a chaired professor at McGill University where he has led the Mobile Robotics Lab since the 1990s . He was formerly the director of McGill's school of computer science and before that director of McGill's center for intelligent machines.
Go to Profile#3475
Norman Paton
#75692
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Norman William Paton is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester in the UK where he co-leads the Information Management Group with Carole Goble. Education Paton was educated at the University of Aberdeen where he was awarded a first class Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science in 1986 and a PhD in 1989 for research into object-oriented database systems using Prolog supervised by Peter Gray.
Go to Profile#3476
Toshio Ogihara
#98643
Overall Influence
#3477
Klaus Peter Jantke
#85157
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Klaus Peter Jantke is a German mathematician, computer scientist, university teacher and academic researcher focusing on Artificial intelligence, Educational technology, Game studies and gamification.
Go to Profile#3478
Diane Gromala
#69962
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Diane Gromala is a Canada Research Chair and a Professor in the Simon Fraser University School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Her research works at the confluence of computer science, media art and design, and has focused on the cultural, visceral, and embodied implications of digital technologies, particularly in the realm of chronic pain.
Go to Profile#3479
Gaurav S. Sukhatme
#98717
Overall Influence
#3480
Abdelouahed Tounsi
#98728
Overall Influence
#3481
Daniel F Hayes
#98759
Overall Influence
#3482
Farhad Ravandi
#98778
Overall Influence
#3483
Semih Tezcan
#9457
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Semih Tezcan is a Turkish academic. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Civil engineering in 1954. In 1962, he went to Canada, and joined University of British Columbia as an assistant professor.
Go to Profile#3484
Michael Dean
#98780
Overall Influence
#3485
Jacopo Meldolesi
#98802
Overall Influence
#3486
Jennifer Bartlett
#19446
Overall Influence
1941 - 2022 (81 years)
Jennifer Bartlett was an American artist and novelist. She was best known for paintings and prints that combine the system-based aesthetic of conceptual art with the painterly approach of Neo-Expressionism. Many of her pieces were executed on small, square, enamel-coated steel plates that are combined in grid formations to create very large works.
Go to Profile#3487
Tsachy Weissman
#77582
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Tsachy Weissman is a professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He is the founding director of the Stanford Compression Forum. His research interests include information theory, statistical signal processing, their applications, with recent emphasis on biological applications, in genomics in particular, lossless compression, lossy compression, delay-constrained and complexity-constrained compression and communication, network information theory, feedback communications, directed information, the interplay between estimation theory and information theory, entropy, noise reduct...
Go to Profile#3488
Paul S. Wang
#61764
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Paul S. Wang is a Chinese-American computer scientist, researcher, author, consultant, and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Kent State University. Wang's expertise lies in automation of mathematical computation. He has conducted over forty research projects. His research mainly focuses on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation , automatic code generation, Internet Accessible Mathematical Computation , polynomial factoring and GCD algorithms, enabling technologies and classroom delivery of Web-based Mathematics Education , and parallel and distributed SAC. He has also autho...
Go to Profile#3489
Skylar Tibbits
#61334
Overall Influence
Skylar Tibbits is an American designer and computer scientist known for his work on self-assembly and 4d printing. Education Skylar Tibbits graduated from Philadelphia University with a Bachelor of Architecture and received a Master of Science in Computer Science as well as a Master of Science in Design and Computation from MIT.
Go to Profile#3490
Kilian Quirin Weinberger
#98882
Overall Influence
#3491
Eesa Mohammadi
#98903
Overall Influence
#3492
Suman Pokhrel
#12331
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Suman Pokhrel is a Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist. Universities in Nepal and India have included his poetry in their syllabus. Pokhrel is the sole writer to receive the SAARC Literary Award twice. He received this award in 2013 and 2015 for his own poetry and his contributions to poetry and art in general in the South Asian region.
Go to Profile#3493
Douglas R. Tocher
#98937
Overall Influence
#3494
Siddhartha Paul Tiwari
#43215
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Siddhartha Paul Tiwari FRAS is an academic, technologist and researcher. Currently, he works with Google Asia Pacific, Singapore. Prior to this, he led Google's global learning and development efforts from Tokyo. He is known for his work in the areas of e-governance, mobile technologies, digital intervention strategies, and information and communication technologies . Among his publications are the monograph, 'The Impact of New Technologies on Society: A Blueprint for the Future', as well as numerous essays and speeches. As a keynote speaker at numerous conferences, he has presented his viewpoints on technology.
Go to Profile#3495
Larry Coon
#61160
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Larry Coon is a computer scientist and information technology manager at the University of California, Irvine, who is known for his expertise on the National Basketball Association collective bargaining agreement. The New York Times writes that Coon is cited more frequently than basketball inventor James Naismith.
Go to Profile#3496
Conor McBride
#55886
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Conor McBride is a Reader in the department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde. In 1999, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Dependently Typed Functional Programs and their Proofs at the University of Edinburgh for his work in type theory. He formerly worked at Durham University and briefly at Royal Holloway, University of London before joining the academic staff at the University of Strathclyde.
Go to Profile#3497
Aiwen Lei
#98992
Overall Influence
#3498
Luís Moniz Pereira
#85365
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Luís Moniz Pereira is Professor of Computer Science and Director of the AI centre at New University of Lisbon. His research is in the field of logic programming and in knowledge representation, reasoning and cognitive science more generally.
Go to Profile#3499
Leon Cohen
#98996
Overall Influence
#3500
Sally E. Green
#99002
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
