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,
#101
Scott Thornbury
#23472
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Scott Thornbury is an internationally recognized academic and teacher trainer in the field of English Language Teaching . Along with Luke Meddings, Thornbury is credited with developing the Dogme language teaching approach, which emphasizes meaningful interaction and emergent language over prepared materials and following an explicit syllabus. Thornbury has written over a dozen books on ELT methodology. Two of these, 'Natural Grammar' and 'Teaching Unplugged', have won the British Council's "ELTon" Award for Innovation, the top award in the industry .
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Jeffrey Eugenides
#1669
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American author. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: The Virgin Suicides , Middlesex , and The Marriage Plot . The Virgin Suicides served as the basis of a feature film, while Middlesex received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in addition to being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, and France's Prix Médicis.
Go to Profile#103
Okwui Enwezor
#10266
Overall Influence
1963 - 2019 (56 years)
Okwui Enwezor was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ArtReview list of the 100 most powerful people of the art world.
Go to Profile#104
Joel Spring
#30220
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Joel H. Spring is an American academic at the City University of New York who specializes in American and global educational policy. His major research interests are history of education, globalization and education, multicultural education, Native American culture, the politics of education, and human rights education. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in educational policy studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Go to Profile#105
Annemarie von Gabain
#25233
Overall Influence
1901 - 1993 (92 years)
Annemarie von Gabain was a German scholar who dealt with Turkic studies, both as a linguist and as an art historian. Early life and education Gabain was born in Morhange on 7 April 1901. Her father, Arthur von Gabain, was a general and from Protestant family, Hugenotte. However, her mother raised her as a Catholic. Gabain received primary and secondary education in Mainz and Brandenburg. She went to Berlin for university education. She took courses on mathematics, sciences, Sinology and Turcology. She completed a dissertation in Sinology. Von Gabain then studied Turcology with Johann Wilhelm Bang Kaup who was the founder of the Berlin school of Turkic studies.
Go to Profile#106
Chris Woodhead
#12959
Overall Influence
1946 - 2015 (69 years)
Sir Christopher Anthony Woodhead was a British educationalist. He was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England from 1994 to 2000, and was one of the most controversial figures in debates on the direction of English education policy. He was Chairman of Cognita, a company dedicated to fostering private education, from 2004 to 2013.
Go to Profile#107
Max Lerner
#5475
Overall Influence
1902 - 1992 (90 years)
Max Lerner was a Russian Empire-born American journalist and educator known for his controversial syndicated column. Background Maxwell Alan Lerner was born on December 20, 1902, in Minsk, in the Russian Empire, the son of Bessie and Benjamin Lerner. His Russian-Jewish family emigrated to the U.S. in 1907, where his father sold milk door to door. Lerner earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1923. He studied law there, but transferred to Washington University in St. Louis for an M.A. in 1925. He earned a PhD from Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, Washington, D.C., ...
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Gregory Cajete
#19693
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Gregory Cajete is a Tewa author and professor from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Cajete earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology and sociology from New Mexico Highlands University, with a minor in secondary education. His Masters of Arts degree is from the University of New Mexico, and his doctorate is from the International College, Los Angeles’s New Philosophy Program. His Doctorate of Philosophy is in social science Education with an emphasis in Native American Studies. Currently he is director of the Native American Studies program and associate professor of education at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Go to Profile#109
Hilton Kramer
#5204
Overall Influence
1928 - 2012 (84 years)
Hilton Kramer was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor's degree in English; Columbia University; he studied literature and philosophy at Harvard University, Indiana University, and the New School for Social Research.
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John Hersey
#2032
Overall Influence
1914 - 1993 (79 years)
John Richard Hersey was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reportage. In 1999, Hiroshima, Hersey's account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was adjudged the finest work of American journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel associated with New York University's journalism department.
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Walter Mignolo
#3417
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Walter D. Mignolo is an Argentine semiotician and professor at Duke University, who has published extensively on semiotics and literary theory, and worked on different aspects of the modern and colonial world, exploring concepts such as decoloniality, global coloniality, the geopolitics of knowledge, transmodernity, border thinking, and pluriversality. He is one of the founders of the modernity/coloniality critical school of thought.
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Dylan Wiliam
#36043
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Dylan ap Rhys Wiliam is a Welsh educationalist. He is emeritus professor of educational assessment at the UCL Institute of Education. He lives in Bradford County, Florida, United States. Early life and education Born in North Wales, Wiliam grew up in a monoglot Welsh-speaking family. He did not learn English until attending Whitchurch Grammar School in Cardiff and Altrincham Grammar School for Boys in Greater Manchester. He continued further education at the University of Durham , the Open University , the Polytechnic of the South Bank and the University of London .
Go to Profile#113
Nathaniel Gage
#12167
Overall Influence
1917 - 2008 (91 years)
Nathaniel Lees Gage was an American educational psychologist who made significant contributions to a scientific understanding of teaching. He conceived and edited the first Handbook of Research on Teaching , led the Stanford Center for Research and Development of Teaching, and served as president of the American Educational Research Association. Gage was a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where he moved in 1962 after 14 years at the University of Illinois. Deborah Stipek, dean of the Stanford School of Education, called Gage a "giant among educational researchers." David C.
Go to Profile#114
Joel Westheimer
#13394
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Joel Westheimer is an American-born academic, and is a full professor at the University of Ottawa, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is known for his work in citizenship education. Biography Joel Westheimer was born to Manfred and Ruth Westheimer in Washington Heights, New York City. Ruth Westheimer, better known as Dr. Ruth, is a sex therapist, professor, author, and media personality, and one of the first to develop the field of media psychology.
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Lily Eskelsen García
#32321
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Lily Eskelsen García is an American teacher and labor union leader. She served as president of the National Education Association from 2014 to 2020. Early life and education Lily Eskelsen García was born Lilia Laura Pace on May 1, 1955, in Fort Hood, Texas. Her father was in the United States Army. Her mother is from Panama.
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Edgar Z. Friedenberg
#37706
Overall Influence
1921 - 2000 (79 years)
Edgar Zodaig Friedenberg was an American scholar of education and gender studies best known for The Vanishing Adolescent and Coming of Age in America . The latter was a finalist for the 1966 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
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Linda Tuhiwai Smith
#17362
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith , previously a professor of indigenous education at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, is now Distinguished Professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Smith's academic contribution is about decolonising knowledge and systems. The Royal Society Te Apārangi describes Smith’s influence on education as creating "intellectual spaces for students and researchers to embrace their identities and transcend dominant narratives".
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Linda Nochlin
#3360
Overall Influence
1931 - 2017 (86 years)
Linda Nochlin was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art historian, she became well known for her pioneering 1971 article "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" published by ARTnews.
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Francisco Marmolejo
#40533
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Francisco Marmolejo is an international educational administrator. Currently, he is the President of Higher Education at the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, based in Doha, Qatar. From 2012 to 2020, he served as Lead Tertiary Education Specialist of the World Bank. At this institution, he served as Global Coordinator of Tertiary Education from 2012 to 2018, and, from 2016 to 2020 as Lead Education Specialist for India and Asia, based in Delhi, India.
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Mara Sapon-Shevin
#38250
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Mara Sapon-Shevin is a professor of inclusive education at Syracuse University. She is a critic of gifted education and turned down an offer of a place for her daughter in a gifted education program on the grounds that "I would never have wanted to raise a child who thought that she was better or smarter than other people". She is also an advocate against bullying, especially bullying against perceived or actual members of the LGBT community.
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Ashish Nanda
#8771
Overall Influence
Ashish Nanda is a business economist and professor who is the former Director of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad . Nanda joined IIMA as Director on 2 Sept 2013. Upon taking charge, Nanda described IIMA as "a hidden jewel."
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Eva Moskowitz
#21656
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Eva Sarah Moskowitz is an American politician and education reform leader, who is the founder and CEO of the Success Academy Charter Schools. A member of the Democratic Party, Moskowitz served on the New York City Council, representing the 4th district on the Upper East Side, from 1999 to 2005. Moskowitz interviewed to be Donald Trump's Secretary of Education, but decided not to pursue the position.
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Deborah Britzman
#16314
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Deborah P. Britzman is a professor and a practicing psychoanalyst at York University. Britzman's research connects psychoanalysis with contemporary pedagogy, teacher education, social inequality, problems of intolerance and historical crisis.
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Madhav Chavan
#19073
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Madhav Chavan is a social activist and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the educational non-profit, Pratham. He also started the Read India campaign, which aims to teach basic reading, writing and arithmetic to underprivileged children across India. Pratham has been recognized by the Kravis Prize and the Skoll Award for its innovativeness and leadership as a social entrepreneurial organization in the area of education. Chavan was the 2012 recipient of the WISE Prize for Education, which is widely considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the field of education and recipien...
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Ted Sizer
#33453
Overall Influence
1932 - 2009 (77 years)
Theodore Ryland Sizer was a leader of educational reform in the United States, the founder of the Essential school movement and was known for challenging longstanding practices and assumptions about the functioning of American secondary schools. Beginning in the late 1970s, he had worked with hundreds of high schools, studying the development and design of the American educational system, leading to his major work Horace's Compromise in 1984. In the same year, he founded the Coalition of Essential Schools based on the principles espoused in Horace's Compromise.
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Roger Kaufman
#18318
Overall Influence
1932 - 2020 (88 years)
Roger Kaufman was an American figure in the history of educational technology and performance improvement as well as in strategic thinking and planning for public and private-sector organizations. Regarded as one of the founding figures of the field, he is referred to as the father of needs assessment.
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Katherine Rowe
#22006
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Katherine Anandi Rowe is an American scholar of Renaissance literature and media history. She was named the twenty-eighth president of the College of William & Mary on February 20, 2018. She began her service on July 2, 2018 succeeding W. Taylor Reveley III, who had served as president since 2008. After seven months in office, Rowe was formally inaugurated February 8, 2019 as part of the university's annual Charter Day ceremony.
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Fernando Reimers
#45291
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice in International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is interested in advancing understanding of the ways schools can empower students to participate civically and economically, and to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He served on UNESCO's Commission on the Futures of Education that authored the report Reimagining Our Futures Together. A New Social Contract for Education.
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Rudy Crew
#17797
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Rudolph Franklin "Rudy" Crew is an American educator, academic administrator, and former government employee who currently serves as President of Medgar Evers College. A lifelong educator and public school administrator, Crew served as Oregon's first Chief Education Officer in 2012 and 2013. Appointed by Governor John Kitzhaber, Crew oversaw the integrated public education system in Oregon from pre-kindergarten through college and career readiness.
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Michael R. Simonson
#37680
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Michael R. Simonson is an American academic who is professor of Instructional Technology & Distance Education at Nova Southeastern University, Editor of the Quarterly Review of Distance Education and Distance Learning Journal, and author of 4 texts in the area of ITDE.
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J. Michael Spector
#51424
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Jonathan Michael Spector is an American academic working as the professor of learning technologies and the doctoral program coordinator at the University of North Texas. He was previously professor of educational psychology at the University of Georgia and instructional systems at Florida State University.
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Madeleine Atkins
#31177
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Dame Madeleine Julia Atkins, is a British academic administrator, scholar of education, and former teacher. Since 2018, she has served as the 9th President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She was formerly vice-chancellor of Coventry University, and the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England .
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John Goodlad
#50878
Overall Influence
1920 - 2014 (94 years)
John I. Goodlad was an educational researcher and theorist who published influential models for renewing schools and teacher education. Goodlad's book, In Praise of Education , defined education as a fundamental right in democratic societies, essential to developing individual and collective democratic intelligence. Goodlad designed and promoted several educational reform programs, and conducted major studies of educational change. Books he authored or co-authored include The Moral Dimensions of Teaching, Places Where Teachers Are Taught, Teachers for Our Nation's Schools, and Educational Re...
Go to Profile#134
Shearer West
#17208
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Shearer Carroll West is a British-American art-historian, academic and university administrator. West is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham since October 2017 and formerly deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield.
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Jean Anyon
#32516
Overall Influence
1941 - 2013 (72 years)
Jean Anyon , was an American critical thinker and researcher in education, a professor in the Doctoral Program in Urban Education at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, and a civil rights and social activist.
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Daniel Chandler
#20817
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Daniel Chandler is a British visual semiotician based since 2001 at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University, where he has taught since 1989. His best-known publication is Semiotics: The Basics , which is frequently used as a basis for university courses in semiotics, and the online version Semiotics for Beginners . He has a particular interest in the visual semiotics of gender and advertising.
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Vincent Scully
#3544
Overall Influence
1920 - 2017 (97 years)
Vincent Joseph Scully Jr. was an American art historian who was a Sterling Professor of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject. Architect Philip Johnson once described Scully as "the most influential architectural teacher ever." His lectures at Yale were known to attract casual visitors and packed houses, and regularly received standing ovations. He was also the distinguished visiting professor in architecture at the University of Miami.
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Deborah Loewenberg Ball
#19878
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Deborah Loewenberg Ball is an educational researcher noted for her work in mathematics instruction and the mathematical preparation of teachers. From 2017 to 2018 she served as president of the American Educational Research Association. She served as dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan from 2005 to 2016, and she currently works as William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of education. Ball directs TeachingWorks, a major project at the University of Michigan to redesign the way that teachers are prepared for practice, and to build materials and tools that will serve the field of teacher education broadly.
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Anthony Bryk
#42846
Overall Influence
Anthony S. Bryk is an American educational researcher and served as the ninth president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Biography Bryk earned his B.S. from Boston College and his Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before becoming president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2008, he held the Spencer Chair in Organizational Studies in the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 2004, he was the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education at the University of Chicago, where he co-founded the Center for Urban School Improvement.
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Christopher Emdin
#27457
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Christopher Emdin is the Robert Naslund Endowed Chair in Curriculum and Teaching at the University of Southern California. He is an American academic who was previously an Associate Professor of Science Education at the Teachers College, Columbia University where he also served as Director of Science Education at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education . He was a noted author of the Obama White House and regular contributor to HuffPost. He developed and partnered with the rapper GZA and the website Rap Genius to develop the Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S, which engages students in science through the creation of raps and a final rap battle competition.
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David H. Jonassen
#50457
Overall Influence
1947 - 2012 (65 years)
David Jonassen was an educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in instructional design and educational technology. Although Jonassen is best known for his publications about constructivism, he also wrote about computer-based technologies in education and learning with media, not from it.
Go to Profile#142
Jean Houston
#3955
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Jean Houston is an American author involved in the human potential movement. Along with her husband, Robert Masters, she co-founded the Foundation for Mind Research. Biography Early life and education Houston was born in New York City to Mary Todaro Houston who was of Sicilian descent, and Jack Houston who was related to Sam Houston of Texas. Her father was a comedy writer who developed material for stage, television and the movies, including for comedians Bob Hope and George Burns. His work required him, and the family, to move frequently. After the breakup of her parents' marriage, she spe...
Go to Profile#143
Franklin Graham
#5385
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
William Franklin Graham III is an American evangelical evangelist and missionary. He frequently engages in Christian revival tours and political commentary. He is president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief organization. Graham became a "committed Christian" in 1974 and was ordained in 1982, and has since become a public speaker and author. He is a son of the American evangelist Billy Graham.
Go to Profile#144
Thomas Sebeok
#4216
Overall Influence
1920 - 2001 (81 years)
Thomas Albert Sebeok was a Hungarian-born American polymath, semiotician, and linguist. As one of the founders of the biosemiotics field, he studied non-human and cross-species signaling and communication. He is also known for his work in the development of long-time nuclear waste warning messages, in which he worked with the Human Interference Task Force to create methods for keeping the inhabitants of Earth away from buried nuclear waste that will still be hazardous 10,000 or more years in the future.
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Madeleine Grumet
#52870
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Madeleine R. Grumet is an American academic in curriculum theory and feminist theory. Her 1988 work Bitter Milk: Women and Teaching explored women and teaching. She edits a book series on feminist theory and education for the State University of New York Press, and a series on the Politics of Identity and Education for Teachers College Press.
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Deborah Bial
#32679
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Deborah Bial is an education strategist, the founder and president of the Posse Foundation and a trustee of Brandeis University. Bial is known for the concept of her foundation, which is to send groups of around ten students to collaborating colleges so that they can support each other and achieve a greater success rate. She is also known for the Bial–Dale College Adaptability Index, an activity-based test of college readiness that incorporates Lego play.
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Michael Scriven
#4569
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (96 years)
Michael John Scriven was a British-born Australian polymath and academic philosopher, best known for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation. Biography Scriven was born in the UK and grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He held BSc and MS degrees in mathematics from the University of Melbourne, where he was in residence at Trinity College from 1946, winning an entrance scholarship. He then completed a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford .
Go to Profile#148
Reuven Feuerstein
#10081
Overall Influence
1921 - 2014 (93 years)
Reuven Feuerstein was a Romanian-born Israeli clinical, developmental, and cognitive psychologist, known for his theory of intelligence which states “it is not ‘fixed’, but rather modifiable”. Feuerstein is recognized for his work in developing the theories and applied systems of structural cognitive modifiability, mediated learning experience, cognitive map, deficient cognitive functions, learning propensity assessment device, instrumental enrichment programs, and shaping modifying environments. These interlocked practices provide educators with the skills and tools to systematically develop...
Go to Profile#149
Richard Arum
#27999
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Richard Arum is an American sociologist of education and stratification, best known for his research on student learning, school discipline, race, and inequality in K-12 and higher education. Arum has a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University, an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#150
Simon Marginson
#23622
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Simon Marginson is an Australian academic who researches higher education. He held professorships in education or higher education at Monash University and the University of Melbourne before moving to the United Kingdom as professor of international higher education at University College London . As of 2021, he is the director of the ESRC/OFSRE Centre for Global Higher Education and professor of higher education at the University of Oxford.
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