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 Education,
#751
Elizabeth Broun
#63732
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Elizabeth "Betsy" Broun is an American art historian and curator. Broun served as the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum from 1989 to 2016, and is the longest-serving female director in the history of the Smithsonian Institution.
Go to Profile#752
Jean Sutherland Boggs
#47237
Overall Influence
1922 - 2014 (92 years)
Jean Sutherland Boggs was a Canadian academic, art historian and civil servant. She was the first female Director of both the National Gallery of Canada and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She was also a specialist in the work of Edgar Degas and Picasso.
Go to Profile#753
Juliane Rebentisch
#32502
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Juliane Rebentisch is a German philosopher and art historian whose research focuses on the history and politics of aesthetics. She is the author of three books: Aesthetics of Installation Art , The Art of Freedom: On the Dialectics of Democratic Existence , and Theorien der Gegenwartskunst , and has edited numerous volumes on aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy in both German and English. Josef Chytry, in the academic journal Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, called Aesthetics of Installation Art a "formidable work." In 2017, she received the Lessing Prize from the city of Ha...
Go to Profile#754
Thomas A. Romberg
#98949
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Thomas "Tom" Albert Romberg was Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction at the School of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and former director of the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science, Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Go to Profile#755
Alexander Renkl
#135491
Overall Influence
#756
J. Luke Wood
#90516
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (42 years)
Jonathan Luke Wood , known professionally as J. Luke Wood, is the ninth president of California State University, Sacramento . Wood is an American social scientist, author, and previously served as the first Black distinguished Professor in San Diego State University. Wood is ranked by Education Week as a top 50 scholar in the field of education. In 2023, Wood was appointed by the state Senate to serve on the California Racial Equity Commission. He is consistent voice on leadership theory, black male achievement and school suspensions.
Go to Profile#757
Jerry Farley
#58465
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Jerry B. Farley is a retired American academic administrator and educator serving as the 16th president of Washburn University from 1997 to 2022. Since graduating college in 1968, Farley has served in various administrative positions at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University–Stillwater .
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A. H. Armstrong
#6350
Overall Influence
1909 - 1997 (88 years)
Arthur Hilary Armstrong, was an English educator and author. Armstrong is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the philosophical teachings of Plotinus . His multi-volume translation of the philosopher's teachings is regarded as an essential tool of classical studies.
Go to Profile#759
Brian Schatz
#54201
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Brian Emanuel Schatz is an American educator and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Hawaii, a seat he has held since 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, Schatz served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1998 to 2006, representing the 25th legislative district; as the chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii from 2008 to 2010; and as the 12th lieutenant governor of Hawaii from 2010 to 2012.
Go to Profile#760
Kevin Donnelly
#68393
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Kevin John Donnelly is an Australian educator, author and commentator. He is Senior Fellow at the Australian Catholic University's PM Glynn Institute Donnelly has written numerous articles and books on contemporary developments in education, culture and politics. He is known for contributions to the evaluation of the Australian National Curriculum Australian National Curriculum, and for criticisms of the Australian "Safe Schools" programme.
Go to Profile#761
Priscilla Alderson
#135647
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
#762
Virginia L. Gewin
#135843
Overall Influence
#763
Hristo Kyuchukov
#64105
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Hristo Kyuchukov or Christo Slavov Kütchukov is a German Muslim Rom, born in Bulgaria . He is a leading specialist in the field of Romani language and education of Roma children in Europe. Education Prof. Kyuchukov holds a Ph.D. in General linguistics from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands ; Ph. D. in Education and DrSc in Theory of Education and Didactics from Bulgaria. His Habilitation is also in the field of Education from Bulgaria, and he holds the academic title "Professor of General Linguistics" with focus on Romani and Turkish languages from the Matej Bel University in ...
Go to Profile#764
Victor Margolin
#16310
Overall Influence
1941 - 2019 (78 years)
Victor Margolin was an American design historian, researcher and educator. He was a Professor of design history at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where he taught from 1982 until 2006. Margolin published widely and was the founding editor and co-editor of the academic design journal, Design Issues. A major work was his comprehensive World History of Design.
Go to Profile#765
Lorrie Shepard
#132986
Overall Influence
Lorrie A. Shepard is a University Distinguished Professor of research and evaluation methodology and former Dean of the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She joined the faculty of CU Boulder in 1974, and was named the dean of the School of Education there in 2001. She retired from her position as School of Education Dean in 2016, but remains a distinguished professor there. She has been the president of the National Academy of Education, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. She has also been editor-in-chief of the Journal of Educational Measurement and the American Educational Research Journal.
Go to Profile#766
Mark-anthony Bray
#136935
Overall Influence
#767
Craig Clunas
#46917
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Alistair Craig Clunas is Professor Emeritus of History of Art at the University of Oxford. As a historian of the art and history of China, Clunas has focused particularly on the Ming Dynasty . Life Clunas attended Aberdeen Grammar School from 1959 to 1972, which was followed by a Diploma with Distinction in spoken and written modern Chinese from the Peking Languages Institute in Beijing. He next majored in Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge as an undergraduate, graduating with a BA in 1977 and afterwards went to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of Lon...
Go to Profile#768
Katja Terlau
#73787
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Katja Terlau is a German art historian and provenance researcher. She was a co-initiator and founding member of the international in Germany, founded in 2000 and is considered a pioneer of German , which she entered after the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art of 1998. Her main subject area is looted art; a number of museum holdings and large Jewish collections have been processed by her.
Go to Profile#769
Hans Belting
#14317
Overall Influence
1935 - 2023 (88 years)
Hans Belting was a German art historian and media theorist with a focus on image science, and this with regard to contemporary art and to the Italian art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Biography Belting was born in Andernach, Rhine Province, on 7 July 1935. He studied at the universities of Mainz and Rome, and took his doctorate in art history at the University of Mainz. Belting taught as a professor of art history at the University of Hamburg in 1966, then at the University of Heidelberg, and from 1980 to 1992 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität at Munich.
Go to Profile#770
Richard L. Allington
#137162
Overall Influence
#771
Jack Naglieri
#60468
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Jack Anthony Naglieri is an American school psychologist and research professor at the University of Virginia. He is also a senior research scientist at the Devereux Center for Resilient Children and an emeritus professor at George Mason University, as well as a former professor at Ohio State University. He is known for his development of the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test and the Das–Naglieri cognitive assessment system.
Go to Profile#772
Cordelia Candelaria
#64388
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Cordelia Chávez Candelaria is an American educator and writer of Hispanic descent. Early life and education Candelaria was born in Deming, New Mexico, to Ray J. Chávez and Eloida Trujillo. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fort Lewis College, where she studied English and French. She then earned a Master of Arts in English and a PhD in American literature and structural linguistics from the University of Notre Dame.
Go to Profile#773
Balamurali Ambati
#9942
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Balamurali Krishna "Bala" Ambati is an Indian-American ophthalmologist, educator, and researcher. On May 19, 1995, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's youngest doctor, at the age of 17 years, 294 days.
Go to Profile#774
Kenneth T. Henson
#46303
Overall Influence
Kenneth T. Henson is a retired professor of education at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He was the first dean of the School of Education from 2001 through 2004. He retired in 2012.
Go to Profile#775
Baird Tipson
#69164
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
L. Baird Tipson is an American academic and college administrator. Education Tipson graduated from The Hill School in 1961. He earned an A.B. degree from Princeton University in 1965 and a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University in 1972.
Go to Profile#776
Terrell Lamont Strayhorn
#105538
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Terrell Lamont Strayhorn is an American scholar who publishes on college student success and issues of equity and diversity in higher education. He is founder and chief executive officer of Do Good Work Educational Consulting, LLC, a private education research firm. Until his resignation on May 3, 2017, he was a tenured professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology's Department of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University. Strayhorn formerly directed the Center for Higher Education Enterprise. He is a cousin of famed musician Billy Strayhorn.
Go to Profile#777
Martha L. Thurlow
#137946
Overall Influence
#778
Elizabeth Neilson
#50747
Overall Influence
1911 - 2001 (90 years)
Elizabeth A. Neilson, EDD was a prominent figure in the field of health education and a leader in promoting the wellness and holistic health perspectives in public health. She was born in West Medford, Massachusetts, the daughter of William and Anatasia Neilson. She graduated from Medford High School in Medford, Massachusetts. She then attended Boston Bouve College and Northeastern University. She graduated from Boston University with a doctorate in education.
Go to Profile#779
Carl W. Condit
#29160
Overall Influence
1914 - 1997 (83 years)
Carl Wilbur Condit was an American historian of urban and architectural history, a writer, professor, and teacher. He was professor at Northwestern University 1945–82. He wrote numerous books and articles on the history of American building, especially Chicago, Cincinnati, and the Port of New York. He founded the History of Science Department at Northwestern University, where he taught for over 30 years. His research specialty was the architecture of Chicago, Illinois, and he lived in Chicago most of his life, having moved there in 1945 in order to study its urban and technological developmen...
Go to Profile#780
William Jordy
#39098
Overall Influence
1917 - 1997 (80 years)
William H. Jordy was a leading American architectural historian. At the time of his death, Jordy was Henry Ledyard Goddard Professor Emeritus of Art History at Brown University, where he taught for many years.
Go to Profile#781
Lucienne Peiry
#70940
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Lucienne Peiry, born in Lausanne on 4 September 1961, holds a doctorate in the history of art; she is a specialist in Outsider Art , an exhibition curator, a lecturer and the author of several publications. She gives lectures in both Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe, and has been teaching Outsider Art at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne since 2010. Since 2016, she has also been teaching at the University of Lausanne
Go to Profile#782
Annie Sprinkle
#45334
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, and sex film producer and director. In 1996, she became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a PhD in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Identifying as ecosexual, Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornography, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle .
Go to Profile#783
Michelle Dickinson
#48673
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Michelle Emma Dickinson , also known as Nanogirl, is a nanotechnologist and science educator based in New Zealand. Early life and education Dickinson grew up in Hong Kong, the USA, and the United Kingdom. She had a grandmother from Malta, a grandfather who was English, and a Hong Kong Chinese mother. This may have heightened her awareness of cultural differences. Her father was an English-Maltese soldier.
Go to Profile#784
Elizabeth Edwards
#89339
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Elizabeth Jane Mary Edwards, is a visual and historical anthropologist. Career Born on 24 February 1952, Elizabeth Jane Mary Edwards is Professor Emerita of Photographic History at De Montfort University; Curator Emerita at Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford; Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford; and Honorary Professor in the Department of Anthropology at University College London. In 2017 she was appointed the Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Professor at the V&A Research Institute, London. Her focus of research is the relationship bet...
Go to Profile#785
Ton De Jong
#139124
Overall Influence
#786
David W. Graves
#85803
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
David W. Graves is an American educator and theologian who serves as a General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene. Education and family Graves was educated at Olivet Nazarene University and received a Master of Divinity degree from Nazarene Theological Seminary. Graves received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Olivet Nazarene University. Graves and his wife, Sharon, have four grown children.
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Nancy Butler Songer
#64202
Overall Influence
Nancy Butler Songer is the Associate Provost of STEM Education at the University of Utah . Songer was a 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar with the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communication in Brazil. Songer was previously Dean of the School of Education at Drexel University and the University of Utah. Songer was a Professor of Science Education and Learning Technologies at The University of Michigan for 18 years . Songer received a Presidential Faculty Fellow Award from President William J. Clinton in 1995. Her work focuses on the design of educational innovations for promoting ...
Go to Profile#788
Tina Besley
#109406
Overall Influence
Athlone Christine Besley is an education academic. Education With degrees from University of Canterbury, Christchurch Teachers' College, and Massey University, Besley has a PhD in Education in 2001 from University of Auckland titled Self, identity, adolescence and the professionalisation of school counselling in New Zealand: a Foucauldian-inspired approach.
Go to Profile#789
Samuel Kirk
#92568
Overall Influence
1904 - 1996 (92 years)
Samuel Alexander Kirk was an American psychologist and educator, who is best known for coining the term learning disability. Early life Kirk was born in Rugby, North Dakota on 1 September 1904, to the farmers Richard and Nellie Kirk. He grew up on in a farm town and taught farmhands how to read at night. Kirk served in the military where he created a program for recruits who struggled with reading and writing.
Go to Profile#790
Koro Dewes
#105705
Overall Influence
1930 - 2010 (80 years)
Te Kapunga Matemoana "Koro" Dewes was a kaumātua of the Ngāti Porou iwi of New Zealand. He was a pioneer of Māori education and an advocate for the Māori language. Dewes attended Horoera Native Primary School and won a scholarship to Wesley College, where he became dux and head prefect. He went to Ardmore Teachers' College in 1949 and taught at Tikitiki District High School and St. Stephen's Anglican Māori boarding school. From 1962 to 1966, he lectured in the University Extension Department of the University of Auckland, and then was appointed as a lecturer in Māori language at the Victoria University of Wellington.
Go to Profile#791
William Frederick Pinar
#139868
Overall Influence
#792
David Carrier
#31878
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
David Carrier is an American philosopher of art and cultural critic. Education Carrier received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University, where he was a student of Arthur Danto, in 1972. He was a Getty Scholar , a Clark Fellow , a Senior Fellow, National Humanities Center, 2006–2007 and holder of the Fulbright-Luce Lectureship, Spring 2009.
Go to Profile#793
Reinhard Moratz
#60624
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Reinhard Moratz is a German science educator, academic and researcher. He is Ausserplanmässiger Professor at the University of Münster’s Institute for Geoinformatics. He has worked on spatial cognition and reasoning, qualitative theories of low-dimensional entities like straight line segments and oriented points, artificial intelligence and specifically the OPRA calculus. His research is based on computational models that account for the varying reference frames used in giving verbal instructions about navigation.
Go to Profile#794
Arthur Martin Cohen
#140344
Overall Influence
#795
Sibel Erduran
#140495
Overall Influence
#796
Elaine Macmann Willoughby
#114598
Overall Influence
1926 - 2012 (86 years)
Elaine Macmann "Mac" Willoughby was an American educator and writer of children's books. Life Elaine Maybelle Macmann, known as "Mac", was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, and was the only child of Walter and Mabel Macmann. She received a B.S. of Education from Wheelock College, graduating in 1949 as vice-president of her class. In the summer of 1951 she also attended the University of Rhode Island, and in the summer of 1953 attended the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College. She received her MA and PhD in Education from the Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1954 to 195...
Go to Profile#797
Bruce Cole
#40935
Overall Influence
1938 - 2018 (80 years)
Bruce Milan Cole was a longtime professor of art history at Indiana University, a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., a member of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, and the eighth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Go to Profile#798
David Yates
#36411
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
David Yates is an English filmmaker, who has directed feature films, short films, and television productions. He is best known for directing the final four films in the Harry Potter series and the three films of its prequel series, Fantastic Beasts. His work on the Harry Potter series brought him critical and commercial success along with accolades, such as the British Academy Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing.
Go to Profile#799
Edwin L. Alderman
#140859
Overall Influence
#800
Becky Wai-Ling Packard
#87221
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Becky Wai-Ling Packard is Professor of Psychology and Education, and former Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership, Associate Dean of Faculty, and Founding Director of Teaching and Learning at Mount Holyoke College.
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