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,
#2301
John B. Creeden
1871 - 1948 (77 years)
John Berchmans Creeden was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit, who served in many senior positions at Jesuit universities in the United States. Born in Massachusetts, he attended Boston College, and studied for the priesthood in Maryland and Austria. He taught at Fordham University and then at Georgetown University, where he became the dean of Georgetown College in 1909, and simultaneously served as the principal of Georgetown Preparatory School.
Go to Profile#2302
Samuel Harrison Greene
1845 - 1920 (75 years)
Samuel Harrison Greene was an American Baptist pastor, church leader, and university official. Early life Samuel Harrison Greene was born in Enosburg, Vermont on December 25, 1845. He was educated in local schools. At 21, he was elected as the Superintendent of Schools in Montgomery, Vermont. In 1873, he graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and in 1875 from Hamilton Theological Seminary. He is descended from John Parker.
Go to Profile#2303
Cornelius Gurlitt
1850 - 1938 (88 years)
Cornelius Gustav Gurlitt was a German architect and art historian. Life Gurlitt was born in Nischwitz in Thallwitz, Saxony, the son of the landscape painter Louis Gurlitt and nephew of his namesake, the composer Cornelius Gurlitt. He left the gymnasium of Gotha before graduation and became a carpenter's apprentice. After studying in Stuttgart and Vienna he worked as an architect, then obtained a position at the Arts and Crafts Museum in Dresden.
Go to Profile#2304
Hans Jantzen
1881 - 1967 (86 years)
Hans Jantzen was a German art historian who specialized in Medieval art. Life and work Jantzen first studied law, then history of art, archaeology and philosophy at various universities. For instance, at the University of Berlin he studied under Heinrich Wölfflin and at the University of Halle under Adolph Goldschmidt. In 1908 he completed his PhD dissertation on architecture depicted in Netherlandish paintings. In 1912, after finishing his Habilitationsschrift on color in Dutch painting of the 17th century, he taught art history in Halle.
Go to Profile#2305
Michel Adanson
1727 - 1806 (79 years)
Michel Adanson was an 18th-century French botanist and naturalist who traveled to Senegal to study flora and fauna. He proposed a "natural system" of taxonomy distinct from the binomial system forwarded by Linnaeus.
Go to Profile#2306
Alice Huntington Bushee
1867 - 1956 (89 years)
Alice Huntington Bushee was an American librarian and early pioneer in Hispanic studies. She was a professor at Wellesley College and wrote several books, including Fundamentals of Spanish Grammar. Early years and education Bushee was born on December 4, 1867, in Worcester, Massachusetts. She grew up in Morrisville, Vermont. Bushee graduated from the Peoples Academy in 1886. In 1891, she graduated from Mount Holyoke College. She was the class valedictorian.
Go to Profile#2307
Fritz Grossmann
1902 - 1984 (82 years)
Fritz Grossmann, art historian. Born 26 June 1902 in Stanislau, , now Ivano-Frankivsk in the Ukraine, died 16 November 1984, Croydon, London Biography Fritz Grossmann was the son of a surgeon in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He studied art history at the University of Vienna under Josef Strzygowski. He also attended lectures by Julius von Schlosser, Hans Tietze, Swoboda and Heinrich Gluck. He graduated in 1927 and completed his doctorate in 1932. His thesis was a study of the High Altar in the Benedictine Scottish Monastery in Vienna Die Passions- und Marienlebenfolge im Wiener Schottenstift und ihre Stellungin der Wiener Malerei der Spätgotik.
Go to Profile#2308
Max Loehr
1903 - 1988 (85 years)
Max Loehr was an art historian and professor of Chinese art at Harvard University from 1960 to 1974. As an authority on Chinese art, Loehr published eight books and numerous articles on ancient Chinese painting.
Go to Profile#2309
R. H. Wilenski
1887 - 1975 (88 years)
Reginald Howard Wilenski was an English painter, art historian and critic known for his books The Modern Movement in Art , The Meaning of Modern Sculpture , and his psychological study of John Ruskin .
Go to Profile#2310
Theodore Sizer
1892 - 1967 (75 years)
Theodore Sizer was an American professor of the history of art at Yale University and a director of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. He was named the first Pursuivant of Arms for Yale University in 1963.
Go to Profile#2311
Richard Foerster
1843 - 1922 (79 years)
Richard Foerster was a German classical scholar. He is best known for his extensive research on Greek rhetoric of Late antiquity and for his critical edition of Libanius' works. Biography Though born and raised in Görlitz, Foerster never saw himself a Lusatian and felt the strongest allegiance to Silesia, where he studied since winter term 1861 after a semester at Jena. In Breslau he dropped theology and concentrated on classics in a comprehensive way. Apart from Greek and Roman literature he studied metrics under Rudolf Westphal, archaeology under August Rossbach, Sanskrit under Adolf Friedrich Stenzler.
Go to Profile#2312
William May Wightman
1808 - 1882 (74 years)
Bishop William May Wightman was an American educator and clergyman. He served as the President of Wofford College from 1853 to 1859. He served as the Chancellor of Southern University in Greensboro, Alabama from 1860 to 1866. He became a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1866.
Go to Profile#2313
Elizabeth English Benson
1904 - 1972 (68 years)
Elizabeth English Benson was an American educator for deaf students who taught at Gallaudet College for two decades before being named Dean of Women there. During World War II, she temporarily joined the military so she could help newly deafened soldiers injured in the war. Later she was an occasional interpreter for two U.S. presidents.
Go to Profile#2314
Franz Xaver Kraus
1840 - 1901 (61 years)
Franz Xaver Kraus was a German Catholic priest, and ecclesiastical and art historian. Early life Franz Xaver Kraus was born in Trier in 1840. He completed his studies in the Trier gymnasium, began his theology in 1858-60 in the seminary there, and finished it in 1862-64, having passed in France the time from the autumn of 1860 to the spring of 1862 as tutor in distinguished French families. He was ordained a priest by auxiliary bishop Matthias Eberhard of Trier, 23 March 1864. Even after he became a priest, he continued his studies in theology and philology at the universities of Tübingen, F...
Go to Profile#2315
Grace Foster Herben
1864 - 1938 (74 years)
Grace Ida Foster Herben was an American educator and missionary. The daughter of a minister and the wife of another, her career became intertwined with that of Rev. Stephen J. Herben after their marriage. Beforehand she served as the dean of women at Allegheny College, and afterwards she worked with the Northwestern Branch of the Methodist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. She was a delegate to the 1910 World Missionary Conference, and was the only woman to serve on the New Jersey Council of National Defense during World War I.
Go to Profile#2316
Zhan Ruoshui
1466 - 1560 (94 years)
Zhan Ruoshui , was a Chinese philosopher, educator and a Confucian scholar. Biography Zhan was born in Zengcheng, Guangdong. He was appointed the president of Nanjing Guozijian in 1524. He was later appointed the Minister of Rites , Minister of Personnel , and then Minister of War at Nanjing of the Ming dynasty.
Go to Profile#2317
John Behan
1881 - 1957 (76 years)
Sir John Clifford Valentine Behan , the first Rhodes Scholar from the state of Victoria, was an Australian educationalist and lawyer, the second warden of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, and "beyond the college life [at Trinity,] he was a sound and far-seeing secretary in Australia of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust for 30 years from 1922 to 1952".
Go to Profile#2318
Hugh P. Baker
1878 - 1950 (72 years)
Hugh Potter Baker was a graduate of the Michigan State College of Agriculture; Yale's School of Forestry ; and the University of Munich . He was the second and fourth Dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, from 1912 to 1920 and 1930 to 1933.
Go to Profile#2319
Jean Balthasar Schnetzler
1823 - 1896 (73 years)
Johann Balthasar Schnetzler was a Swiss naturalist. In 1840/41, he studied at Polytechnic Stuttgart and, for a period of time, taught French classes at the Schaffhausen gymnasium. From 1844 to 1847, he furthered his education at the University of Geneva and, from 1847 to 1867, worked as a science teacher at the progymnasium in Vevey. In 1864, he became an associate professor, and, from 1871, was a full professor of botany at the Academy of Lausanne. From 1879 to 1881, he served as academic rector.
Go to Profile#2320
Heinrich Gustav Hotho
1802 - 1873 (71 years)
Heinrich Gustav Hotho was a German historian of art and Right Hegelian. He is famous for being the compiler and editor of Hegel's posthumous work Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik . Biography During boyhood he was affected for two years with blindness consequent on an attack of measles. But recovering his sight he studied so hard as to take his degree at Berlin in 1826. A year of travel spent in visiting Paris, London and the Low Countries determined his vocation.
Go to Profile#2321
Augusto Weberbauer
1871 - 1948 (77 years)
Augusto Weberbauer was a German naturalist, botanist and university professor. He conducted systematic exploration of Peru in search of new plant species. Weberbauer received his PhD in botany at the University of Breslau , continued his studies in natural sciences at universities in Heidelberg and Berlin. He taught at the University of Breslau. He was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin to develop botanical research in Peru . In 1905, he delivered 5200 species of seagrass which he had collected in Peru. The Peruvian government hired him to develop the Zoo and Botanical Garden in 1908.
Go to Profile#2322
John Berrien Lindsley
1822 - 1897 (75 years)
John Berrien Lindsley was an American Presbyterian minister and educator in Nashville, Tennessee. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he married an heiress to the Carnton plantation and ministered to slaves and the poor. He was Professor of Medicine at the University of Nashville and co-founder of its Medical Department . He served as the Dean of the Medical Department from 1850 to 1855, and as the Chancellor of the University of Nashville from 1855 to its demise in 1873.
Go to Profile#2323
Bradford Knapp
1870 - 1938 (68 years)
Bradford Knapp was the President of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University from 1928 to 1933. Biography Bradford Knapp was born in Vinton, Iowa, on December 24, 1870, to Seaman A. Knapp. In 1899, he attended Iowa State College and graduated with a B.A. in chemistry from Vanderbilt University in 1892. In 1894, he attended Georgetown University and received a B.L. from the University of Michigan in 1896. In 1909, he worked as an assistant for his father in the Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. From 1911 to 1915, he took up his father's position as Chief of Farm Demonstration Work.
Go to Profile#2324
John Green
1867 - 1922 (55 years)
John Alfred Green was a British educationalist, professor of education at Sheffield University.
Go to Profile#2325
Samuel Harris
1814 - 1899 (85 years)
Samuel Harris was the fifth president of Bowdoin College and the first to be an alumnus. After having left Bowdoin in 1871, he went on to teach at Yale Divinity School for 25 years. Career Harris was born in East Machias, Maine, on June 14, 1814, and attended Washington Academy in the same town. After having graduated from Bowdoin in 1833, he attended Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. Harris had been a pastor in Conway, Massachusetts, and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from 1841 to 1855 and had taught at the Divinity School in Bangor, Maine, before becoming president of Bowdoin in 1867.
Go to Profile#2326
John Hancock
1808 - 1890 (82 years)
John Hancock was an English naturalist, ornithologist, taxidermist and landscape architect. Working during the golden age of taxidermy when mounted animals became a popular part of Victorian era interior design, Hancock is considered the father of modern taxidermy
Go to Profile#2327
Annie Riley Hale
1859 - 1944 (85 years)
Annie Riley Hale was an American teacher, writer, and social critic. In her lifetime she was known for her criticism of Theodore Roosevelt and her anti-suffrage and anti-vaccine activity. Family Annie Riley Hale was born in Rogersville, Tennessee in 1859. Hale was married to James Richards Hale, a lawyer, who died in 1897. She had three children, including the feminist Ruth Hale who as an adult opposed many of her mother's views. Hale was also a cousin of John K. Shields, a justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court and U.S. Senator.
Go to Profile#2328
Carl Wille Schnitler
1879 - 1926 (47 years)
Carl Wille Schnitler was a Norwegian art historian. He became noted for his national orientated writings on art history, which spanned from the antiquity to his contemporary society. He became best known for his work Slegten fra 1814, which became a primer in Norwegian historiography.
Go to Profile#2329
Peter D. Martin
1923 - 1988 (65 years)
Peter Dean Martin was an American college professor and bookstore owner, known for his founding of the City Lights Bookstore. He was the son of Carlo Tresca and Sabina 'Bina' Flynn, and the nephew of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
Go to Profile#2330
Alexis Rannit
1914 - 1985 (71 years)
Alexis Rannit was an Estonian poet, critic and literature researcher. Biography He was born in Kallaste, in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire . He spent his childhood in Saint Petersburg. In 1939, he graduated from the University of Tartu. He studied applied arts. He did research on Lithuanian literature and knew personally many Lithuanian authors. From 1938 to 1940 he worked as a correspondent of the Riga newspaper Segodnya.
Go to Profile#2331
Ernst Kühnel
1882 - 1964 (82 years)
Ernst Kühnel was a German art historian who specialized in Islamic art. He was notable for his research on the connection between Islamic and Coptic art, particularly in textiles. Kühnel served as director of the Museum of Islamic Art from 1931 to 1951, and was a professor at the University of Berlin from 1935 to 1954. He was also a consultant for the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., and president of Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft .
Go to Profile#2332
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#2333
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#2334
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#2335
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#2336
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#2337
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#2338
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#2339
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#2340
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#2341
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#2342
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#2343
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#2344
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#2345
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#2346
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#2347
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#2348
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#2349
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#2350
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