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,
#851
Nabi Bakhsh Baloch
#63889
Overall Influence
1917 - 2011 (94 years)
Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch was a Pakistani research scholar, historian, sindhologist, educationist, linguist and writer. He predominantly wrote in Sindhi, but sometimes in Urdu, English, Persian and Arabic. He has been described as the "moving library" of the Pakistani province of Sindh.
Go to Profile#852
Caroline Homer
#128373
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Caroline Susan E. Homer is an Australian midwifery researcher and international advocate for women's health rights. She is Co-Program Director, Maternal and Child Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne and Visiting Distinguished Professor of Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney.
Go to Profile#853
Christos Kyriacou
#146171
Overall Influence
#854
Dorothy Hollingsworth
#124958
Overall Influence
1920 - Present (104 years)
Dorothy L. Hollingsworth was an American educator based in Seattle. Hollingsworth was born on October 29, 1920, in Bishopville, South Carolina. Her family moved to North Carolina when she was young. She graduated from Paine College in 1941. In 1946 she moved to Seattle with her husband. She worked as a social worker in Seattle's Central District in the 1950s and 1960s.
Go to Profile#855
Natalie Carter Barraga
#64876
Overall Influence
1915 - 2014 (99 years)
Natalie Carter Barraga was an American educator and researcher who studied visual impairment, recognized for contributions to the education of children with low vision. Early life Barraga was born on October 10, 1915, in Troy, Texas. In college she initially studied home economics and child development, receiving her bachelor's in 1938 from the North Texas State Teacher's College, University of North Texas. She then earned a Master's in education from University of Texas in Austin, followed by an EdD from George Peabody College for Teachers in special education for the visually impaired. Init...
Go to Profile#856
Christopher Morphew
#122925
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Christopher Clark Morphew is an American academic and the current dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Education, a position he assumed on August 1, 2017. He has held leadership positions in the Association for the Study of Higher Education and American Educational Research Association. His work has been published in many journals, such as The Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, Educational Finance, Higher Education Policy, and Studies in Higher Education. He has presented his work in more than two dozen different countries. His work has b...
Go to Profile#857
Diana Coben
#131360
Overall Influence
Diana Coben is an adult education academic, and visiting professor of the University of East Anglia. Between 2011 and 2018 she was Director of New Zealand's National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults and full professor at University of Waikato.
Go to Profile#858
Scientific
#146652
Overall Influence
#859
William A. Firestone
#146868
Overall Influence
#860
Tara Jane Amelia. Fenwick
#146977
Overall Influence
#861
Kalevi Kull
#3237
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Kalevi Kull is a biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1975. His earlier work dealt with ethology and field ecology. He has studied the mechanisms of species coexistence in species-rich communities and developed mathematical modelling in ecophysiology. Since 1975, he has been the main organiser of annual meetings of theoretical biology in Estonia. In 1992, he became a Professor of Ecophysiology in the University of Tartu. In 1997, he joined the Department of Semiotics, and became a Professor in Biosemiotics. From 2006 to 2018, he was the Head of the Department of Semiotics in the University of Tartu, Estonia.
Go to Profile#862
Terrence E. Deal
#147034
Overall Influence
#863
Ramón E. López
#76423
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Ramón E. López is a Puerto Rican physics professor at the University of Texas at Arlington whose research focuses on space physics and science education. He is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society and the recipient of its 2002 Dwight Nicholson Medal for Outreach for his contributions to science education. He is also an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science .
Go to Profile#864
Robert Bagley
#60708
Overall Influence
Robert Bagley is a professor of Chinese art history and archaeology in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Career Bagley specialises in pre-Han art and archaeology with other academic interests, including ornament, archaeometallurgy and ancient metal technology, archaic Chinese jades, comparative study of the first civilizations and the first writing systems, and the archaeology of ancient Chinese music.
Go to Profile#865
Jasleen Dhamija
#54648
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Jasleen Dhamija was an Indian textile art historian, crafts expert and former UN worker. Based in Delhi, she was best known for her pioneering research on the handloom and handicraft industry, especially history of textiles and costumes. She was professor of living cultural traditions at the University of Minnesota. Over the years, during her career as a textile revivalist and scholar, she authored several books on textiles, including Sacred Textiles of India .
Go to Profile#866
Max Kozloff
#30593
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Max Kozloff is an American art historian, art critic of modern art and photographer. He has been art editor at The Nation, and Executive Editor of Artforum. His essay "American Painting During the Cold War" is of particular importance to the criticism on American Abstract Expressionism.
Go to Profile#867
Erik De Corte
#147746
Overall Influence
#868
Henrietta Mann
#86535
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Henrietta Mann (Cheyenne, b. 1934) is a Native American academic and activist. She was one of the designers of the Native American studies programs at University of California, Berkeley, the University of Montana and Haskell Indian Nations University. In 2000 she became the first American Indian to hold the endowed chair of Native American studies at Montana State University and was honored with the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award. She retired in 2004 and became a special advisor to the president of Montana State University. In 1970, Mann completed her master’s degree in English literature...
Go to Profile#869
Michael Bakalis
#91598
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Michael J. Bakalis is an American academic and politician. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Illinois in 1978, losing to incumbent Republican Governor James R. Thompson. Bakalis received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University in 1959, 1962, and 1966, respectively. His academic career includes service as assistant dean at Northern Illinois University, dean of the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago, and as the President of Triton College. He has also been a member of the faculty at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at North...
Go to Profile#870
George M. Sugai
#148000
Overall Influence
#871
Ahmad Eghtedari
#72377
Overall Influence
1925 - 2019 (94 years)
Ahmad Eghtedari was an Iranian teacher, lawyer, writer, historian and geographer who was regarded as a prominent scholar in Persian Gulf studies. Historically, he was a descendant of Gerashi thanes . In his youth, he traveled on foot along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea and began mapping and documenting their topography.
Go to Profile#872
Michael Murphy
#71436
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Michael B. Murphy is an Irish doctor and academic. He was the President of University College Cork from 2007 to 2017. Since April 2019, Murphy is president of the European University Association . Early life and education Murphy earned his undergraduate degree in medicine at University College Cork , graduating in 1973. He undertook further studies at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London, England. He then studied for a doctorate at the National University of Ireland, which he completed in 1984.
Go to Profile#873
Mary Jo Watson
#64891
Overall Influence
Mary Jo Watson is a Seminole art historian and director emeritus and a regents professor at the School of Art and Art History at the University of Oklahoma. Her work focuses on the theory and development of teaching methodology for Native American art.
Go to Profile#874
Okhee Lee
#70551
Overall Influence
Okhee Lee is an American education scholar and professor of childhood education. Career Okhee Lee is a professor of childhood education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Lee is involved in establishing equity in the education of STEM and computational thinking for all K-12 students, including students learning English as an additional language, referred to as English learners by the U.S. Department of Education. She is an author of five books and more than 100 refereed journal articles on educational research, policy and practice.
Go to Profile#875
Billy C. Hawkins
#131845
Overall Influence
Billy C. Hawkins is an American academic administrator, and teacher. He served as a past president of Talladega College. Hawkins also serves as a board member of the United Negro College Fund and is a past member of the White House Board of Advisors on historically black colleges and universities.
Go to Profile#876
Gaston Diehl
#36283
Overall Influence
1912 - 1999 (87 years)
Gaston Diehl was a French professor of art history and an art critic. Biography Diehl graduated from the Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie in 1934 and the Ecole du Louvre in 1936. In October 1935, Diel and his classmates formed a student group called 'Regain', where they conducted a weekly review of the same name dedicated to discuss once or twice a month of contemporary creativity with different artists in the basement of the Capoulade Quartier. Beginning 1938, Diehl participated in the weekly magazine Marianne and kept for a year a chronicle of art called "The rostrum of Youth." In 1939, he ...
Go to Profile#877
Eeva Leinonen
#88334
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Eeva Kaarina Leinonen is a Finnish educator and educational administrator. Since 1 October 2021, she has been president of Maynooth University in Ireland, having previously headed Murdoch University in Australia.
Go to Profile#878
William Peter Blatty
#31156
Overall Influence
1928 - 2017 (89 years)
William Peter Blatty was an American writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel, The Exorcist, and for his 1973 screenplay for the film adaptation of the same name. Blatty won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Exorcist, and was nominated for Best Picture as its producer. The film also earned Blatty a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as producer.
Go to Profile#879
Miwon Kwon
#74108
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Miwon Kwon is a Korean curator and art history educator. Her work focuses on contemporary art, land art and site-specific art. She has curated several exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and most recently she co-curated the exhibition Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles with Philipp Kaiser. She began her position in the Art History Department at UCLA in 1998, where she currently maintains her tenure as the department chair.
Go to Profile#880
Joan Stringer
#87036
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Professor Dame Joan Kathleen Stringer, DBE, FRSE, FRSA is a British political scientist and former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#881
George W. Hynd
#148937
Overall Influence
#882
Michael Dorris
#25781
Overall Influence
1945 - 1997 (52 years)
Michael Anthony Dorris was an American novelist and scholar who was the first Chair of the Native American Studies program at Dartmouth College. His works include the novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water and the memoir The Broken Cord .
Go to Profile#883
Shirley Neilsen Blum
#57367
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Shirley Neilsen Blum, also known as Shirley Hopps is an American art historian, author, gallerist, and professor emeritus at the State University of New York, Purchase . She specializes in Northern Renaissance art, early Netherlandish art, and modern art. In the 1950s through the 1960s, she was active in the Los Angeles gallery scene, and she co-founded and co-ran Ferus Gallery.
Go to Profile#884
Patricia Wasley
#115085
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Patricia Wasley, EdD, is the Chief Executive Officer at Teaching Channel and is responsible for setting the educational direction of the website. Prior to joining Teaching Channel, Dr. Wasley was dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington from 2000 to 2012. Wasley has conducted a variety of research on student voice, teacher education and whole-school reform. She is the author of several books on school reform, including Teachers Who Lead and Stirring the Chalkdust, and is the co-author of Kids and School Reform.
Go to Profile#885
Margarita Zhukova
#26697
Overall Influence
1929 - 2010 (81 years)
Margarita Georgievna Zhukova was a Soviet and Russian educator and scientist. She was also a member of the Russian Union of Journalists and wrote many publications about her father, Marshal Georgy Zhukov.
Go to Profile#886
Jerlando F. L. Jackson
#140208
Overall Influence
Jerlando F. L. Jackson is an American educator studying organizational science in higher education, with a special interest in hiring practices, career mobility, workforce diversity and workplace discrimination.
Go to Profile#887
Ivory A. Toldson
#100989
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Ivory Achebe Toldson is an American academic and author. He is a professor of Counseling Psychology at Howard University, national director of Education Innovation and Research for the NAACP, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Negro Education, and executive editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Research, published by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. He is formally the president of Quality Education for Minorities. He served as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities under President Barack Obama.
Go to Profile#888
Fred McBagonluri
#49745
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Fred McBagonluri is a Ghanaian engineer, inventor, novelist, educator and thought leader, who is currently Provost and President at Academic City College. He was previously the founding Dean at the Faculty of Engineering at Ashesi University College. He was also the founding executive director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Center, a new cleantech incubator backed by the World Bank. Prior to his role at Ashesi University College, Prof. McBagonluri lived and worked in the United States. He was the Vice President of the New Product Development Joerns Healthcare in Arlington, Texas. He has held...
Go to Profile#889
Louise Archer
#139444
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Louise Archer is Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at the University College London Institute of Education. On 12 October 2017 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the British Academy in 2023.
Go to Profile#890
Howard Colvin
#27551
Overall Influence
1919 - 2007 (88 years)
Sir Howard Montagu Colvin was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 and The History of the King's Works.
Go to Profile#891
Mary Miller
#42300
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Mary Ellen Miller is an American art historian and academician specializing in Mesoamerica and the Maya. Academic career A native of New York State, Miller earned her A.B. degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. from Yale in 1981 with a thesis titled The Murals of Bonampak, Chiapas Mexico. Miller joined the Yale faculty in 1981, and in 1998 was appointed as the Vincent Scully, Jr. Professor of the History of Art.
Go to Profile#892
Adán Nigaglioni Loyola
#34491
Overall Influence
1930 - 2016 (86 years)
Adán Nigaglioni Loyola was a Puerto Rican doctor and educator. He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in 1954 where he was top of his class. He did his internship at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity. He was the first Puerto Rican and first alumni to be dean of the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine from 1963 to 1967. In 1967, he became the first rector of the newly formed University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus.
Go to Profile#893
Betty Gibson
#109757
Overall Influence
1911 - 2001 (90 years)
Betty Gibson was a Canadian educator considered by the community to be instrumental in developing and implementing the Mathematics and Language Arts Curriculum in Manitoba. Celebrated as "an exemplary educator", the Betty Gibson School in Brandon, Manitoba was named in her honour.
Go to Profile#894
Michel Pastoureau
#43379
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Michel Pastoureau is a French professor of medieval history and an expert in Western symbology. Biography Pastoureau was born in Paris on 17 June 1947. He studied at the École Nationale des Chartes, a college for prospective archivists and librarians. After writing his 1972 thesis about heraldic bestiaries in the Middle Ages, he worked in the coins, medals and antiquities department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France until 1982.
Go to Profile#895
Samy Azer
#53140
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Samy A. Azer is an Egyptian-born Australian physician author and medical educator who has contributed to medical education internationally. Academic career Professor Azer has contributed to medical education at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne . He is Professor of Medical Education and the Chair of Curriculum and Research Unit at King Saud University College of Medicine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was Professor of Medical Education and the Chair of Medical Education Research and Development Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, from 2007 to 2009.
Go to Profile#896
Rafiqul Islam
#43465
Overall Influence
1934 - 2021 (87 years)
Rafiqul Islam was a Bangladeshi educationist, scholar, writer, linguist and cultural activist. He was the president of Bangla Academy since May 2021 until his death. He was inducted as a National Professor by the Government of Bangladesh in July 2018. He was a vice-chancellor , professor emeritus and adviser to the Centre for Bangla Studies of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh . He served as the chairman of the Nazrul Institute Trustee Board. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2001 and Independence Day Award in 2012 by the Government of Bangladesh.
Go to Profile#897
Geraldine McDonald
#129424
Overall Influence
1926 - 2018 (92 years)
Geraldine McDonald was a New Zealand academic and teacher. She was a pioneer of research into women's education and early childhood education, and advocated for women and girls throughout her life. After an early teaching career, she completed her doctoral thesis on the development of preschool-aged Māori children, and began working for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Throughout her later career she ran and chaired various organisations including the New Zealand Mental Health Foundation and the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, and was influential in govern...
Go to Profile#898
Joseph Siry
#89268
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Joseph M. Siry is a leading American architectural historian and professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Wesleyan University. Siry's publications have focused particularly on the architecture of Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School.
Go to Profile#899
Eric Anderson
#65629
Overall Influence
1936 - 2020 (84 years)
Sir William Eric Kinloch Anderson was a British teacher and educator, who was head master of Eton College from 1980 to 1994 and provost of Eton College from September 2000 to January 2009. He is notable also for having played a part in the education of a King and four Prime Ministers, at four separate educational institutions .
Go to Profile#900
Oleg Grabar
#11487
Overall Influence
1929 - 2011 (82 years)
Oleg Grabar was a French-born art historian and archeologist, who spent most of his career in the United States, as a leading figure in the field of Islamic art and architecture in the Western academe.
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