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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Education,
#2251
Bellamkonda Ramaraya Kavindrulu
1875 - 1914 (39 years)
Bellamkonda Ramaraya Kavindrulu was an Indian poet, author, yogi, Sanskrit scholar and a philosopher. Ramaraya Kavi wrote nearly 148 classic works in Sanskrit . All but 45 are missing. While some are available in part, the remaining are available full length.
Go to Profile#2252
Kate Everest Levi
1859 - 1938 (79 years)
Kate Asaphine Everest Levi was an American educator, writer, and social worker. She was the first director of Kingsley House in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a settlement house, and the first woman Ph.D. recipient from the University of Wisconsin. Although both Syracuse University and the College of Wooster had granted doctorates in history to women in the 1880s, Everest Levi is considered the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in history from an organized graduate school in the United States. She wrote on topics such as education and German immigration to the Midwest.
Go to Profile#2253
Franklin Carter
1837 - 1910 (73 years)
Franklin Carter was an American professor of Germanic and romance languages and served as President of Williams College from 1881 to 1901. Carter was born September 30, 1837, in Waterbury, Connecticut, the third son of Deacon Preserve Wood Carter and Ruth Holmes Carter. He attended Phillips Academy Andover, then matriculated at Yale College in 1855. He became sick and retreated to Florida, until 1860, when he entered Williams College. Graduating in 1862, he received a professorship in French and German the following year.
Go to Profile#2254
Ibuka Kajinosuke
1854 - 1940 (86 years)
Ibuka Kajinosuke was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who became a Christian during the Meiji period. He was born in Aizu, and fought in the Boshin War. In his adult life, he also became an ordained minister, and was an educator.
Go to Profile#2255
Pierre Francastel
1900 - 1970 (70 years)
Pierre Francastel was a French art historian, best known for his use of sociological method. Francastel's initial period of study was in literature, at the Sorbonne. He worked in building conservation at Versailles while undertaking research toward his doctoral degree, which was on the sculpture of Versailles, and in 1928 he published a monograph, including a critical catalogue, on the seventeenth-century French sculptor François Girardon. In 1930, he was appointed director of the Warsaw Institut français, and in 1936 he was appointed professor at the University in Strasbourg. In 1948, he was...
Go to Profile#2256
Myrtle Smith Livingston
1902 - 1974 (72 years)
Myrtle Smith Livingston was an American educator and playwright. Early life Myrtle Athleen Smith was born in Holly Grove, Arkansas, in 1902, the daughter of Isaac Samuel Smith and Lulu C. Hall Smith. She graduated from high school in 1920. She studied pharmacy at Howard University for two years , and earned a Colorado teaching certificate in 1924. She later earned a master's degree in 1940, from Columbia University.
Go to Profile#2257
Aubrey Moore
1848 - 1890 (42 years)
Aubrey Lackington Moore was an English Anglo-Catholic priest and one of the first Christian Darwinians. He has been described as "the clergyman who more than any other man was responsible for breaking down the antagonisms towards Evolution then widely felt in the English Church".
Go to Profile#2258
Delia E. Wilder Carson
1833 - 1917 (84 years)
Delia E. Wilder Carson was an American educator from the U.S. state of New York. She taught mathematics, and served as preceptress of Ladies' Hall, at the University of Wisconsin . Early years and education Wilder was born in Athens, New York, January 25, 1833. Her father, Thomas Wilder, was one of eight brothers who migrated from Massachusetts when the eldest was a young man. Several were teachers, and all were closely identified with the development and progress of Genesee and Wyoming counties, New York, where they ultimately settled. Her mother's maiden name was Hannah Dow . Her siblings included: Henry Fayette Wilder, Sarah D.
Go to Profile#2259
Barker Fairley
1887 - 1986 (99 years)
Barker Fairley, was a British-Canadian painter, and scholar who made a significant contribution to the study of German literature, particularly for the work of Goethe, and was an early champion and friend of the Group of Seven.
Go to Profile#2260
Nicholas Russo
1845 - 1902 (57 years)
Nicholas Russo was an Italian Catholic priest, Jesuit, philosopher, and missionary. Born in Italy, he ran away from his family and joined the Society of Jesus in France in 1862, where he was educated and began teaching. In 1875, Russo was sent to the United States to study at Woodstock College. For ten years, he was a professor and the chair of philosophy at Boston College and became its first faculty member to publish a book. Specializing in Thomism, he was regarded as a successful professor. He served as president of the college from 1887 to 1888.
Go to Profile#2261
J. Stuart Blackton
1875 - 1941 (66 years)
James Stuart Blackton was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation, is considered a father of American animation, and was the first to bring many classic plays and books to the screen. Blackton was also the commodore of the Motorboat Club of America and the Atlantic Yacht Club.
Go to Profile#2262
Johann Daniel Major
1634 - 1693 (59 years)
Johann Daniel Major was a German professor of theoretical medicine, naturalist, collector and the founder of museology. From 1654 to 1658 Johann Daniel Major studied at the University of Wittenberg and in 1659 graduated as a magister medicine at the University of Wittenberg and journeyed to Italy gaining from the University of Padua another degree for a dissertation "Description of the bird Albatros and other curious observations". From 1661 to 1663 he practiced as a physician in Wittenberg moving in 1663 to Hamburg, where he was a plague physician and wrote medical publications. In 1666 he conducted the first public dissection of a human corpse now in Kiel.
Go to Profile#2263
Franz von Reber
1834 - 1919 (85 years)
Franz von Reber was a German art historian. After studying in Munich and Berlin, he went to Rome, and in 1858 established himself as lecturer at the University of Munich, was appointed professor at the Polytechnicum of Munich in 1863 and director of the Royal Gallery in 1875.
Go to Profile#2264
William G. Vinal
1881 - 1976 (95 years)
William Gould Vinal was an American naturalist, nature educator, and conservationist who was a faculty at Massachusetts State College—now known as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He wrote numerous books and papers on nature and outdoors education. He has been called the Father of Nature Recreation. He also served as an college football coach while teaching at Marshall College—now known as Marshall University—in 1908.
Go to Profile#2265
Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet
1723 - 1778 (55 years)
Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet was a French pharmacist, botanist and one of the earliest botanical explorers in South America. He was one of the first botanists to study ethnobotany in the Neotropics.
Go to Profile#2266
Paul J. Sachs
1878 - 1965 (87 years)
Paul Joseph Sachs was an American investor, businessman and museum director. Sachs served as associate director of the Fogg Art Museum and as a partner in the financial firm Goldman Sachs. He is recognized for having developed one of the earliest museum studies courses in the United States.
Go to Profile#2267
Gerard Baldwin Brown
1849 - 1932 (83 years)
Gerard Baldwin Brown, FBA was a British art historian. Life Brown was born in London, the son of church minister James Baldwin Brown and his wife, Elizabeth, a sister of the sculptor Henry Leifchild. He attended Uppingham School before earning a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford in 1869; graduating with degrees in classics in 1871 and literae humaniores in 1873. That year Brown became a Fellow at Brasenose College in 1874, appointed in a teaching position, but he left in 1877 and took up studio painting at the National Art Training School in South Kensington .
Go to Profile#2268
Arthur Masterman
1869 - 1941 (72 years)
Arthur Thomas Masterman FRS FRSE was an English zoologist and author. He was an expert on the British fishing industry. Life He was born on 9 April 1869 the son of Thomas W. Masterman of Rotherfield Hall in Sussex. His older brother Howard Masterman, became Bishop of Plymouth. His youngest brother was Charles Masterman. Masterman was educated at University School in Hastings and then Weymouth College. He then won a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge studying under Sir Arthur Shipley. He graduated in physiology and zoology in 1893.
Go to Profile#2269
David Hand
1900 - 1986 (86 years)
David Dodd Hand was an American animator and animation filmmaker known for his work at Walt Disney Productions. He worked on numerous Disney shorts during the 1930s and eventually became supervising director on the animated features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi.
Go to Profile#2270
George Henry Perkins
1844 - 1933 (89 years)
George Henry Perkins was an American naturalist. He was the state entomologist and geologist for Vermont. Biography He was educated at the Knox Academy, Galesburg, Illinois, and at Yale, where he graduated in 1867, and in 1869 received the degree of Ph.D. there for postgraduate studies. In 1869 he was appointed as professor of natural history in the University of Vermont, and in 1898 he became dean of the natural science department. Beginning in 1880, he held the office of state entomologist of Vermont. In 1895, he left that post to become the state geologist. He devoted considerable study to...
Go to Profile#2271
Ernst Buchner
1892 - 1962 (70 years)
Ernst Buchner was a German museum administrator and art historian. A native of Munich, he was director of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, a position in German arts administration second only to the head of the Berlin museum network. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933, played a role in seizing Jewish art, and was eventually responsible for safeguarding German collections and Nazi Plunder from the threat of destruction in war. He largely rehabilitated his career after his post-war denazification trial.
Go to Profile#2272
Leila Cook Barber
1903 - 1984 (81 years)
Leila Cook Barber was an American art historian and professor, specializing in the Renaissance art and Medieval studies. She was a Professor Emeritus at Vassar College, where she taught from 1931 until 1968.
Go to Profile#2273
Charles de Tolnay
1899 - 1981 (82 years)
Charles de Tolnay, born Károly von Tolnai , was a Hungarian art historian and an expert on Michelangelo. According to Erwin Panofsky, he was "one of the most brilliant art historians" of his time. Life and work De Tolnay was born in Budapest. He was the son of Arnold von Tolnai, an official of the Hungarian administration. In 1918, he began studying art history and archaeology as Karl Tolnai in Germany, first at the University of Berlin , then at the University of Frankfurt .
Go to Profile#2274
Sturla Gudlaugsson
1913 - 1971 (58 years)
Sturla Gudlaugsson was a Danish-born Dutch art historian and director of the RKD and the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Gudlaugsson was born in Skagen as the son of the Icelandic poet Jonas Gudlaugsson, but his father died when he was three and he grew up in Kleef with his mother's extended Dutch family. He studied in Berlin and worked first there until he felt he needed to leave the Nazi regime and got a job in Denmark. He then worked briefly at the Gemeentelijk museum in The Hague before starting work at the RKD in 1942.
Go to Profile#2275
Jomí García Ascot
1927 - 1986 (59 years)
Jomí García Ascot was a poet, essayist, filmmaker, director and educator. Born in Tunisia, he was a Spanish exile who lived in Mexico. Biography José Miguel García Ascot was born on 24 March 1927 in Tunis, Tunisia. The son of a Spanish diplomat, he spent his childhood traveling from Portugal to France to Belgium and Morocco.
Go to Profile#2276
J. Eugene Gallery
1898 - 1960 (62 years)
Joseph Eugene Gallery was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. He studied sociology at Georgetown University, before serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. Upon his return, he graduated, and entered business in Washington, D.C. He then entered the Society of Jesus in 1931, and was later ordained a priest. He became a professor of sociology at the University of Scranton, and also worked in child welfare and in arbitrating industrial disputes. In 1947, Gallery became the president of the University of Scranton. During his presidency, the university's graduate school was established. Hi...
Go to Profile#2277
Carl Georg Heise
1890 - 1979 (89 years)
Carl Georg Heise was a German art historian. From 1945 to 1955 he was director of the Kunsthalle Hamburg. Life Heise was born into a Hamburg mercantile family with artistic interests. In about 1906 Aby Warburg became his mentor, and recommended to him a period of studying art history with Wilhelm Vöge in Freiburg. Subsequently, he went to Adolph Goldschmidt in Halle and—against Warburg's advice—to Heinrich Wölfflin in Munich. In 1910 he travelled to Italy with Wilhelm Waetzoldt and Warburg, visiting Venice and finally Ferrara, where Warburg was researching the frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia.
Go to Profile#2278
Arthur R. M. Spaid
1866 - 1936 (70 years)
Arthur Rusmiselle Miller Spaid was an American educator, school administrator, lecturer, and writer. He served as principal of Alexis I. duPont High School in Wilmington, Delaware, superintendent of New Castle County Public Schools in Delaware, superintendent of Dorchester County Public Schools in Maryland, and Delaware State commissioner of Education .
Go to Profile#2279
Jerome Daugherty
1849 - 1914 (65 years)
Jerome Daugherty was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who served in many different capacities at Jesuit institutions throughout the northeast United States, eventually becoming president of Georgetown University in 1901. Born in Baltimore, he was educated at Loyola College in Maryland, before entering the Society of Jesus and becoming a member of the first class at Woodstock College. He then taught various subjects, including mathematics, Latin, Ancient Greek, rhetoric, and the humanities in Massachusetts, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and served as minister at many of the insti...
Go to Profile#2280
Ludwig von Schorn
1793 - 1842 (49 years)
Johann Karl Ludwig Schorn, after 1838 von Schorn was a German art historian and university Professor. His second wife was the poet, . Biography From 1811 to 1814, he studied evangelical theology at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen. After graduating, he moved to Munich, where he came under the influence of the intellectual circle associated with Friedrich Thiersch; developing an interest in art history and archaeology.
Go to Profile#2281
Hannah Keziah Clapp
1824 - 1908 (84 years)
Hannah Keziah Clapp was a teacher, activist and feminist in Nevada, US. She organized the state's first private school and was co-founder of the state's first kindergarten. She served as principal of the Lansing Female Seminary; taught at Michigan Female College; and was the first instructor and librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno. Clapp co-founded Reno's 20th Century Club, which in 1983 was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Washoe County, Nevada. She was born in Albany, New York in 1824, and arrived in Carson City in 1860, where she established the Sierra Seminary.
Go to Profile#2282
John James Tigert III
1856 - 1906 (50 years)
John James Tigert III was an American clergyman, editor and academic. He was a professor of Moral Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, and a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Early life Tigert was born on November 25, 1856, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Go to Profile#2283
Queena Mario
1896 - 1951 (55 years)
Queena Marian Tillotson , known professionally as Queena Mario, was an American soprano opera singer, newspaper columnist, voice teacher, and fiction writer. Early life Queena Marian Tillotson was born in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of James Knox Tillotson and Rose Tillotson. Queena was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, where she graduated from Plainfield High School. She studied voice with Marcella Sembrich, who advised her name change. She paid for voice lessons by writing newspaper advice columns under the name Florence Bryant, including childrearing advice; "You know a lot when you're 16, y...
Go to Profile#2284
Lucy Langdon Wilson
1864 - 1937 (73 years)
Lucy Langdon Wilson was an American educator and ethnographer who became widely known for her models of progressive education and for using laboratory methods to teach natural science to young school children. She was also a published ethnographer.
Go to Profile#2285
William Allen
1784 - 1868 (84 years)
William Allen was an American biographer, scholar and academic. He served as president of both Dartmouth University and Bowdoin College. Biography William Allen was born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1784. He graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge in 1802 and after a few years of work became assistant librarian at Harvard. He became Pastor of Pittsfield 1810; President of Dartmouth University, 1817; and President of Bowdoin College 1820-1839. He was largely responsible for establishing the Medical School of Maine at Bowdoin College in 1820. He resigned in 1839, and died at Northampto...
Go to Profile#2286
Karl Lehmann
1894 - 1960 (66 years)
Karl Leo Heinrich Lehmann was a German-born American art historian, archaeologist, and professor. He was known for archaeology work in Samothrace, Greece and the related publications. He was a professor at New York University Institute of Fine Arts from 1935, until his death in 1960. Lehmann was the founder and director of the Archaeological Research Fund at New York University
Go to Profile#2287
Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl
1782 - 1849 (67 years)
Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl was a German Germanist, pedagogue, musicologist and conductor. Life Griepenkerl was born in Peine the son of a preacher, he first attended the school in Peine and changed in 1796 to the . From 1805 to 1808 he studied theology at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, where he also studied philosophy and pedagogy with Johann Friedrich Herbart and philology with Christian Gottlob Heyne. In addition he studied music theory, piano and organ with Johann Sebastian Bach's devotee Johann Nikolaus Forkel . In 1808, on Herbart's advice, he went to Hofwil in Switzerland, wh...
Go to Profile#2288
John C. Young
1803 - 1857 (54 years)
John Clarke Young was an American educator and pastor who was the fourth president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. A graduate of Dickinson College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he entered the ministry in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1828. He accepted the presidency of Centre College in 1830, holding the position until his death in 1857, making him the longest-serving president in the college's history. He is regarded as one of the college's best presidents, as he increased the endowment of the college more than five-fold during his term and increased the graduating class size from t...
Go to Profile#2289
Mikhail Alpatov
1902 - 1986 (84 years)
Mikhail Vladimirovich Alpatov was a Soviet historian and art theorist, notable for his contribution to the history of the culture of ancient Rus. Biography Alpatov graduated from Moscow State University, where he studied the history of arts from 1919 and 1921. Subsequently, he worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and, from 1923 to 1930, in the Institute of Archeology and Art History of the Academy of Sciences. In 1943 he became a professor at the Surikov State Institute of Arts, also in Moscow. In 1954, he became a member of the USSR Academy of Art. He died in 1986.
Go to Profile#2290
Andreas Stübel
1653 - 1725 (72 years)
Andreas Stübel, also: Stiefel was a German Lutheran theologian, pedagogue and philosopher. Career Born in Dresden the son of an innkeeper, Stübel attended the from 1668. After the Abitur, he studied philosophy, philology and theology at the University of Leipzig, graduating in 1674 a Baccalaureus and in 1676 a Magister of philosophy. He then worked as a private teacher. From 1682 he was Tertius at the , promoted to Konrektor in 1684. In 1687 he was a Baccalaureus of theology, appointed a private lecturer at the Leipzig University. In 1697 he lost the position due to theological disputes. He ...
Go to Profile#2291
Olive Cowell
1887 - 1984 (97 years)
Olive Thompson Cowell was a patron of the arts and music, and a professor of International Relations. Career Cowell graduated from Barnard College in 1910. She taught in high schools for several years before becoming professor at San Francisco State University. She went on to found the International Relations department as part of the Government program at San Francisco State University in 1927, the first International Relations department in the USA. She taught at the university until 1956.
Go to Profile#2292
Rose Zeller
1891 - 1975 (84 years)
Rose Margaret Zeller was a New Zealand artist. Biography Zeller was born at the family home at 325 Cashel Street, Christchurch, New Zealand, where she lived until her death. Her parents were Hubert Andrew Zeller and Sarah Ann Zeller, who had arrived in New Zealand from London in 1890.
Go to Profile#2293
James Mason Hoppin
1820 - 1906 (86 years)
James Mason Hoppin was an American educator and writer. Biography James Mason Hoppin was born at Providence, Rhode Island on January 17, 1820. He graduated from Yale College in 1840 from Harvard Law School in 1842, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1845. He studied for some time abroad; and was pastor of a Congregational church at Salem, Massachusetts from 1850 to 1859. From 1861 to 1879 he was professor of homiletics at Yale, where he was also professor of art history from 1879 to 1899, when he became professor emeritus. He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science...
Go to Profile#2294
George William Cook
1855 - 1931 (76 years)
George William Cook was an American educator who served as instructor, dean, alumni secretary and manager at Howard University. Born a slave in Winchester, Virginia, he was one of 8 children of Eliza and Peyton Cook. He graduated from the university, as a student of both the liberal arts college, and the law school. His career spanned fifty-eight of the first sixty-six of Howard University's history.
Go to Profile#2295
Antoine Risso
1777 - 1845 (68 years)
Giuseppe Antonio Risso , called Antoine Risso, was a Niçard and naturalist. Risso was born in the city of Nice in the Duchy of Savoy, and studied under Giovanni Battista Balbis. He published , and . Risso's dolphin was named after him. He is denoted by the author abbreviation Risso when citing a botanical name; the same abbreviation is used for zoological names.
Go to Profile#2296
Cady Staley
1840 - 1928 (88 years)
Cady Staley was the first president of Case School of Applied Science, now Case Western Reserve University. Biography Staley was born in Florida, Montgomery County, New York on December 12, 1840. He earned three degrees from Union College of Schenectady, New York, to include his B.A. , C.E. , and Ph.D. . He worked at Union College as an instructor in Civil Engineering from 1867-1868, a professor of that subject from 1868-1876, and the Dean of the Faculty from 1876-1886.
Go to Profile#2297
Bhaskar Vishwananth Ghokale
1903 - 1962 (59 years)
Bhaskar Vishwanath Gokhale , also known as Vaidya Bhaskar Vishwanath Gokhale, and popularly called Mama Gokhaleji, was an Indian Ayurveda practitioner, Ayurvedic teacher, freedom fighter, and philosopher.
Go to Profile#2298
Edward Bradby
1827 - 1893 (66 years)
Rev. Edward Henry Bradby was a classicist. Academic timeline Educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford Canon of St. AlbansPrincipal at Hatfield College, Durham University House Master at Harrow Headmaster of Haileybury College Bradby retired somewhat early from Haileybury to do mission work in the east end of London, where he remained until his death.
Go to Profile#2299
Miriam E. Carey
1858 - 1937 (79 years)
Miriam Eliza Carey was an American librarian who helped establish the first libraries in prisons and hospitals in Iowa and Minnesota. Education and career Carey studied at Rockford Seminary , Oberlin College, Ohio and the library school of the University of Illinois, .
Go to Profile#2300
Hermann Goetz
1898 - 1976 (78 years)
Hermann Goetz was a German art historian and museum director, known for his scholarly contributions in the field of Indian art history. He was the Director of the Baroda Museum & Picture Gallery, and the Director of history of art at the Heidelberg University's Südasien-Institut .
Go to Profile