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,
#351
David Hargreaves
#59984
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
David Hargreaves FAcSS was educated at Bolton School and Christ's College, Cambridge. He was Associate Director for Development and Research of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust . He is a Fellow Emeritus of Wolfson College, Cambridge and was a Foundation Academician of the Academy of the Social Sciences.
Go to Profile#352
Antoine de La Garanderie
#36362
Overall Influence
1920 - 2010 (90 years)
Antoine de La Garanderie was a French educator and philosopher. Honours 1970, Montyon Prize: La Valeur de l'ennui Bibliography Charles Gardou , La gestion mentale en questions. À propos des travaux d'Antoine de La Garanderie. Ramonville Saint-Agne, Éditions Érès, 1995.Jean-Pierre GatéÉduquer au sens de l'écrit. Paris, Éditions Nathan, 1998.T. Payen de la Garanderie , Introduction à Antoine de La Garanderie. Naissance d'un pédagogue. Lyon, Chroniques sociales, 2007.A. Géninet, M. Giroul, T. Payen de La Garanderie , Vocabulaire de la gestion mentale. Lyon, Chroniques sociales, 2009.La pensée d'...
Go to Profile#353
Denis Williams
#30193
Overall Influence
1923 - 1998 (75 years)
Denis Williams was a Guyanese painter, author and archaeologist. Biography Dr. Denis Joseph Ivan Williams, C.C.H., Hon. D. Lit., M.A., called by his friends "Sonny" Williams, was born in Georgetown, Guyana, where he received his early education; he was granted a Cambridge Junior School Certificate in 1940 and a Cambridge Senior School Certificate in 1941. His promise as a painter won him a two-year British Council Scholarship to the Camberwell School of Art in London in 1946. He lived in London for the next 10 years, during which he taught fine art as a lecturer at the Central School of Art and visiting tutor at the Slade School of Art.
Go to Profile#354
Michael Wehmeyer
#79391
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Michael Lee Wehmeyer is the Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor in Special Education in the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on self-determination and self-determined learning, the application of positive psychology and strengths-based approaches to disability, and the education of students with intellectual or developmental disabilities. He is Director and Senior Scientist at Kansas University's Beach Center on Disability. He formerly directed the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities.
Go to Profile#355
Caroline van Eck
#22909
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Caroline Alexandra van Eck is a Dutch art historian and academic, specialising in the art and architecture of the early modern period. Since 2016, she has been Professor of Art History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. She was Professor of Art and Architecture before 1800 at Leiden University from 2006 to 2016, and previously taught at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Groningen. She was the 2017 Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford.
Go to Profile#356
John T. Guthrie
#55211
Overall Influence
John T. Guthrie is a researcher and scholar in the area of student motivation as it relates to literacy. Education Guthrie received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Earlham College in 1964. He earned both his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois, where he majored in educational psychology, completing his Ph.D. in 1968. While attending the University of Illinois, Guthrie worked as a research assistant from 1964 to 1968.
Go to Profile#357
D. Bruce Johnstone
#74348
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Donald Bruce Johnstone, also known as D. Bruce Johnstone, is an American educator who served as Chancellor of the State University of New York , headquartered in Albany, New York; and President of Buffalo State College, in Buffalo, New York. Johnstone is also Professor Emeritus at the University at Buffalo . He was named SUNY Chancellor Emeritus in 2014.
Go to Profile#358
Mario Firmenich
#11044
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Mario Eduardo Firmenich is a former Argentine urban guerrilla leader and politician. He was one of the commanders of Montoneros group and the most significant figure in the Argentine guerrillas in the 70s. In 1987, He was sentenced to life in prison for killing a businessman and attempting to murder multiple politicians in Argentina, but was pardoned by president Carlos Menem in 1990.
Go to Profile#359
Igor Ivanov
#55036
Overall Influence
1923 - 1992 (69 years)
Igor Petrovich Ivanov was a Soviet pedagogue, initiator and founder of the "social-pedagogical youth movement" known in Russia as the Communard movement. He was a member of the Soviet Academy of Pedagogy, full professor of the Herzen Pedagogical State University, author of several books, laureate of the Makarenko Prize named after early Soviet educator Anton Makarenko. Russian scholars consider Ivanov to be a creator of the "Communard methodology" or, as the author himself called it, the Collective Creative Deeds methodology , founder of the "pedagogy of partnership", which is also named "collective creative pedagogy" and "pedagogy of social creativity".
Go to Profile#360
Stephen Gorard
#85246
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Stephen A. C. Gorard is a British academic who specialises in the sociology of education. He is Professor of Education and Public Policy at Durham University. Stephen Gorard is the most published and cited UK author in education, and in the top ten academic journals worldwide.
Go to Profile#361
Nikolay Drozdov
#14539
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Nikolay Nikolaievich Drozdov is a Russian doctor of biological sciences, candidate of geographical sciences, zoological sciences, professor of Moscow State University, a public figure, member of the expert council of the national award "Crystal Compass," a member of the media council of the Russian Geographical Society.
Go to Profile#362
Gwo‐jen Hwang
#99754
Overall Influence
#363
Chris Sarra
#52710
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Chris Sarra is an Australian educationalist, and the founder & Chairman of the Stronger Smarter Institute. Sarra grew up in Bundaberg, Queensland as the youngest of ten children to parents of Italian and Aboriginal heritage, and he experienced many of the issues faced by Indigenous students throughout their schooling.
Go to Profile#364
Geoffrey Caston
#49109
Overall Influence
1926 - 2018 (92 years)
Geoffrey Kemp Caston CBE was Registrar of the University of Oxford and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific . Life and career Geoffrey Kemp Caston was born on 17 May 1926 and was educated at St Dunstan's College, London. He then studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge and Harvard University .
Go to Profile#365
Oren Brown
#50345
Overall Influence
1909 - 2004 (95 years)
Oren Brown was a well-known and highly successful American vocal pedagogue and voice teacher. Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, Brown attended Boston University, where he earned a Bachelor of Music with an emphasis in vocal performance and a master's degree in music composition. In 1932 he began his long career as a voice teacher which would last up until his death 72 years later. He notably served as a faculty member of the Mannes College of Music during the late 1940s and was on the voice faculty at the Juilliard School from 1972 through 1991. His students include John Aler, Cecilia, Eva J...
Go to Profile#366
Neil Selwyn
#100395
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
#367
Susan Fuhrman
#36117
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Susan Harriet Fuhrman is an American education policy scholar and served from 2006 as the first female president of Teachers College, Columbia University. Fuhrman earned her doctorate in Political Science and Education from Columbia University. She became very engaged in issues of educational equity and emerged as an authority on school reform. Fuhrman is known for her early and ongoing critical analysis of the standards movement and for her efforts to foster research that provides a scientific basis for effective teaching.
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Edward Lucie-Smith
#16415
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith , known as Edward Lucie-Smith, is a Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster. He has been highly prolific in these fields, writing or editing over a hundred books, his subjects gradually shifting around the late 1960s from mostly literature to mostly art.
Go to Profile#369
Michael G. Pressley
#100655
Overall Influence
#370
Bonny Norton
#51766
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Bonny Norton, , is a professor and distinguished university scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. She is also research advisor of the African Storybook and 2006 co-founder of the Africa Research Network on Applied Linguistics and Literacy. She is internationally recognized for her theories of identity and language learning and her construct of investment. A Fellow of the American Educational Research Association , she was the first recipient in 2010 of the Senior Research Leadership Award of AERA's Second Language Research SIG. I...
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Steven H. Tallant
#52285
Overall Influence
Steven H. Tallant is the former president of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, a part of the Texas A&M University System. He was succeeded by Dr. Mark A. Hussey in January 2019. He is a member of the executive committee for the Texas Council of Public Universities Presidents and Chancellors and a past chair of the Lone Star Council of Presidents. Tallant has been a member of several off-site review committees for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on College. In addition, he is a board member for KEDT/South Texas Public Broadcasting System, Inc.
Go to Profile#372
John Willinsky
#42130
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
John Willinsky is a Canadian educator, activist, and author. Willinsky is currently on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Education where he is the Khosla Family Professor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and directs the Public Knowledge Project.
Go to Profile#373
David Moursund
#74666
Overall Influence
1936 - 2021 (85 years)
David Garvin Moursund was an American mathematician, computer scientist, author and educator. From 2002 until his death, he was a Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. He wrote and taught extensively in the areas of computers, mathematics, and brain science in education.
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Thomas E. Crow
#15268
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Thomas E. Crow is an American art historian and art critic who is best known for his influential writing on the role of art in modern society and culture. Since 2007, Crow has served as the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.
Go to Profile#375
Pedro Almodóvar
#16145
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narratives. Desire, LGBT issues, passion, family, and identity are among Almodóvar's most prevalent subjects in his films. Acclaimed as one of the most internationally successful Spanish filmmakers, Almodóvar and his films have gained worldwide interest and developed a cult following.
Go to Profile#376
Mem Fox
#17669
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Merrion Frances Fox AM is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox has been semi-retired since 1996, but she still gives seminars and lives in Adelaide, South Australia.
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Bryan Thwaites
#18081
Overall Influence
1923 - Present (101 years)
Sir Bryan Thwaites, FIMA, FRSA is an English applied mathematician, educationalist and administrator. Early life Bryan Thwaites was born on 6 December 1923, the eldest son of Ernest and Dorothy Thwaites. He was educated at Dulwich College, from 1936–1940, and, thereafter, at Winchester College, aided in both colleges by scholarships. He was graduated with an MA from Clare College, Cambridge University, in 1944, gaining a First in the Maths Tripos. He received his doctorate from London University.
Go to Profile#378
Bernard Jennings
#84637
Overall Influence
1928 - 2017 (89 years)
Bernard Jennings was an English adult educationist and historian. He was president of the Workers' Educational Association in the 1980s, and was known for his local histories of Yorkshire. Jennings was born in Nelson, Lancashire in 1928. He was educated at St Mary's College in Blackburn and the College of St Mark and St John in London. After national service in the Army Education Corps he joined the Workers' Educational Association as an organising tutor in Yorkshire. In 1958 he took a master's degree in adult education at Leeds University, and then became a lecturer at Leeds. In 1973 he...
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Arlene Raven
#44464
Overall Influence
1944 - 2006 (62 years)
Arlene Raven was a feminist art historian, author, critic, educator, and curator. Raven was a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Life and work Arlene Raven's parents were Joseph and Annette Rubin, middle-class Jewish-American parents, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father was a bar owner, and her mother a homemaker.
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Svetlana Alpers
#17139
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
Svetlana Leontief Alpers is an American art historian, also a professor, writer and critic. Her specialty is Dutch Golden Age painting, a field she revolutionized with her 1984 book The Art of Describing. She has also written on Tiepolo, Rubens, Bruegel, and Velázquez, among others.
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Henry King Stanford
#24342
Overall Influence
1916 - 2009 (93 years)
Henry King Stanford was the interim president of the University of Georgia from 1986 through 1987 and the third president of the University of Miami from 1962 to 1981. Early life and education Stanford attended Emory University, where he obtained a A.B., the University of Denver, where he earned a M.Sc., and New York University, where he earned a PhD.
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Konai Helu Thaman
#54373
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Konai Helu Thaman is a poet and academic from Tonga. Career Between 1969 and 1972, Thaman was a teacher in Tonga. She has worked at the University of the South Pacific since 1974 and currently holds a Personal Chair in Pacific Education and Culture, a position she has held since its establishment in 1998. She has also held management positions at the university including Director of the Institute of Education, Head of the School of Humanities, and Pro-vice-chancellor.
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Don West
#52116
Overall Influence
1906 - 1992 (86 years)
Donald Lee West was an American writer, poet, educator, trade union organizer, civil-rights activist and a co-founder of the Highlander Folk School. Early life and career West was born in Devil's Hollow, Gilmer County, Georgia, the child of North Georgia sharecroppers. In high school he led a protest against an on-campus showing of the film The Birth of a Nation and was eventually expelled for other conflicts. He was also expelled from Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate, Tennessee, for leading another protest against the paternalism of the campus, though he eventually returned and graduated in 1929.
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John Bardo
#47485
Overall Influence
1948 - 2019 (71 years)
John William Bardo was an American educator, most recently serving as the 13th President of Wichita State University . Previously, Bardo served as a faculty member at Western Carolina University after serving as the 10th Chancellor for 16 years.
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Richard Rodriguez
#24456
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Richard Rodriguez is an American writer who became famous as the author of Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez , a narrative about his intellectual development. Early life He was born on July 31, 1944, into a Mexican immigrant family in San Francisco, California. Rodriguez spoke Spanish until he went to a Catholic school at 6. As a youth in Sacramento, California, he delivered newspapers and worked as a gardener. He graduated from Sacramento's Christian Brothers High School.
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Daniel Filmus
#55487
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Daniel Fernando Filmus is an Argentine politician and academic, currently serving as the country's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, since 2021. Filmus formerly served as a National Senator for the City of Buenos Aires from 2007 to 2013, and as Minister of Education, Science and Technology in the government of President Néstor Kirchner. From 2014 to 2015, and later from 2019 to 2021, he was Secretary of Affairs pertaining to the Malvinas .
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Claire Van Ummersen
#46913
Overall Influence
2000 - 2021 (21 years)
Claire Van Ummersen was an American scholar and academic administrator, who served as President of Cleveland State University from 1993 to 2001. She was also national leader in career flexibility in higher education and women's advancement and leadership.
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Julie Underwood
#55829
Overall Influence
Julie K. Underwood is a former dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Education and is the first woman to lead UW's School of Education as dean. She served in her role as dean of UW's School of Education from August 2005 to July 2015.
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Pamela Balch
#37046
Overall Influence
Pamela Balch is the 18th president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Balch is a 1971 graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College, and was the unanimous choice as the eighteenth president of the college by the board of trustees.
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Peter Smagorinsky
#72519
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Peter Smagorinsky is an American educator, researcher, and theorist currently who worked at the University of Georgia. He holds the title of Distinguished Research Professor of English Education. Following high school, Smagorinsky received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1974. He went on to receive a Master of Arts in Teaching in English Education from the University of Chicago in 1977. During his career as a high school English teacher, Smagorinsky continued his education at the University of Chicago, receiving his Ph.D. in English Education in 1989, advised by George Hillocks.
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Philip Guthrie Hoffman
#60018
Overall Influence
1915 - 2008 (93 years)
Philip Guthrie Hoffman was the fifth president of the University of Houston, and the first chancellor of the University of Houston System. While at the university, he was instrumental in obtaining state affiliation, transitioning to a racially integrated status, and expanding enrollment in multiple locations. Hoffman also served as president of the Texas Medical Center. Prior to his appointment as president of UH, he was a professor and administrator for several universities.
Go to Profile#392
Elizabeth Fennema
#45521
Overall Influence
1928 - 2021 (93 years)
Ann Elizabeth Fennema was an American educator specializing in the teaching of mathematics. Early life and education Fennema was born in El Dorado, Kansas, on April 8, 1928, and attended the local Methodist college for two years, before transferring to Kansas State University where she majored in psychology. She received her master's degree in education from the University of Wisconsin in 1952.
Go to Profile#393
Agneta Marell
#27957
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Agneta Marell is professor in Business Administration and since 2010, Deputy vice-chancellor for external relations and innovation at Umeå University in northern Sweden. Between 2004 and 2007, she was the Dean of Umeå School of Business, succeeding Anders Söderholm. In 2008–2011, she was a municipal manager for Örnsköldsvik municipality. She received the assignment as vice rector for collaboration and innovation at Umeå University. As such, she was also chairman of Uminova Holding, the business incubator Uminova Innovation AB and Uminova eXpression AB, which runs Sliperiet at the Umeå Arts Ca...
Go to Profile#394
Nínive Clements Calegari
#45522
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Nínive Clements Calegari is an educator in the United States. Following ten years of classroom experience in public schools, she became an author and founded a national literacy program, 826 National. She also founded The Teacher Salary Project. Currently she is the CEO of Enterprise for Youth, an organization that empowers young people to prepare for and discover career opportunities in the San Francisco area through a three-phase program model of job-readiness training, paid internships with college credit, and ongoing career development and networking support.
Go to Profile#395
Naledi Pandor
#61837
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor is a South African politician, educator and academic serving as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation since 2019. She has served as a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress since 1994.
Go to Profile#396
Nancy E. Gary
#23780
Overall Influence
1937 - 2006 (69 years)
Nancy E. Gary was president and chief executive officer of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, executive vice president of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and dean of its F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine. She was also clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She was considered a change agent in medical education and "a 'powerhouse' in academic medicine."
Go to Profile#397
Minnie Bruce Pratt
#28553
Overall Influence
1946 - 2023 (77 years)
Minnie Bruce Pratt was an American poet, educator, activist, and essayist. She retired in 2015 from her position as Professor of Writing and Women's Studies at Syracuse University where she was invited to help develop the university's first LGBT studies program.
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J. Elliot Cameron
#73063
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
J. Elliot Cameron was an American educator and leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Early life and education Cameron was born in Panguitch, Utah to Benjamin Archie Cameron and Leonia Sargent. He served in the United States Army during World War II and became a specialist in hospital administration. Cameron attended the University of Utah, Utah State University , and Southern Utah State College and earned bachelor's, master's , and doctorate degrees from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Go to Profile#399
Bill Cope
#53236
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
William Cope, known as Bill Cope, is an Australian academic, author and educational theorist who was a research professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, He has also been the Managing Director of Common Ground Publishing at the university.
Go to Profile#400
Teresa P. Pica
#56317
Overall Influence
1945 - 2011 (66 years)
Teresa P. Pica , also known as Tere Pica, was Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, a post she held from 1983 until her death in 2011. Her areas of expertise included second language acquisition, language curriculum design, approaches to classroom practice, and classroom discourse analysis. Pica was well known for her pioneering work in task-based language learning and published widely in established international journals in the field of English as a foreign or second language and applied linguistics.
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