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 Engineering,
#8901
Marco Dezzi Bardeschi
#169325
Overall Influence
1934 - 2018 (84 years)
Marco Dezzi Bardeschi was an Italian architect. He was a professor of Architectural Restoration at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He authored several books, and he was the founding editor of ANANKE, an architectural magazine.
Go to Profile#8902
Lei Ge
#186996
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#8903
John Max
#121686
Overall Influence
1936 - 2011 (75 years)
John Max was a Canadian photojournalist, photography teacher, and art photographer. He is recognized for his use of the narrative sequence, his expressive portraiture, and his intensely personal, subjective approach to photography by a number of critics, curators, artists, and photographers in Canada and abroad. It has also been the source of a number of responses and homages. Robert Frank said about him "When I think of Canadian photography, his name comes up first."
Go to Profile#8904
Sally L. Wood
#179253
Overall Influence
Sally L. Wood is an engineer at Santa Clara University. She became a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2003. Her research focuses on Image and signal processing, computational imaging and super-resolution, and engineering education. In 2009, the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division of American Society for Engineering Education gave her the Distinguished Educator Award.
Go to Profile#8905
Robert M. Epstein
#97339
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Robert Marvin Epstein is an American anesthesiologist, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and the Harold Carron Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Virginia. Early life and education Epstein was born in the Bronx, New York on March 10, 1928, the son of immigrants from Slonim, in present-day Belarus. He attended primary school in the Bronx, and completed his secondary education in Miami Beach, Florida where the family moved in 1940. From there he attended the University of Michigan from 1944 to 1951, where he obtained both his bachelor's and MD degrees. Epstein serv...
Go to Profile#8906
David W. Kennedy
#187020
Overall Influence
#8907
Ivan Osorio
#187026
Overall Influence
#8908
Robert W. Fichter
#110763
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Robert Witten Fichter is an American photographer. Beginning in the 1960s, Fichter was at the forefront of experimental photography; combining drawing, hand photoengraving processes and photographic images in his photographic practice. Fichter has had more than forty solo exhibitions, including a major retrospective, Robert Fichter: Photography and Other Questions, in 1982.
Go to Profile#8909
Evon Streetman
#149171
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Evon Streetman is an American photographer. Streetman's primary subject is Florida, where she lives. Life Evon Streetman was born in 1932 in Fort Meade, Florida. From an early age, Streetman was surrounded by artistic people including her maternal grandmother, a painter, her paternal grandfather, a metalsmith and woodworker, as well as her father, a woodworker, taxidermist and craftsman.
Go to Profile#8910
Kevin Gross
#187102
Overall Influence
#8911
Geetam Tiwari
#187137
Overall Influence
#8912
John McDonnell
#175019
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
John F. McDonnell is an American businessman, engineer, and philanthropist. McDonnell served as the chairman of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation from 1988 until its merger with Boeing in 1997 and its chief executive officer from 1988 until 1994. He was a corporate director at Boeing from the 1997 merger until 2012, when he reached the Boeing-mandated retirement age of 74.
Go to Profile#8913
Martin De Prycker
#181065
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Martin De Prycker is a Belgian engineer and businessman. He was until December 2008 the CEO of Barco, a Belgian display hardware manufacturer. He currently serves as CEO of Caliopa, a spin-off of Ghent University and IMEC and is managing partner at Qbic fund.
Go to Profile#8914
Andrew Anagnost
#178090
Overall Influence
Andrew Anagnost is the President and CEO of Autodesk, having been appointed to the positions in 2017. He took over the positions from Carl Bass, who resigned in February 2017. Before the promotion, he had served in various other roles for the company since joining in 1997. He holds degrees from California State University, Northridge and Stanford University.
Go to Profile#8915
Pedram Sadeghian
#187236
Overall Influence
Pedram Sadeghian is an associate professor in the Civil Engineering Department at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is also a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure.
Go to Profile#8916
Alan Shugart
#167336
Overall Influence
1930 - 2006 (76 years)
Alan Field Shugart was an American engineer, entrepreneur and business executive whose career defined the modern computer disk drive industry. Personal history Born in Los Angeles, he graduated from the University of Redlands, receiving a degree in engineering physics.
Go to Profile#8917
Harold Palmer Smith Jr.
#149260
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Harold Palmer Smith Jr. is an American professor, consultant, and expert on defense policy. He was Assistant to the Secretary of Defense from June 1993 to March 1996, when the name of the position changed to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs, and remained in the position until January 1998.
Go to Profile#8918
Yehia Bahei El-Din
#186821
Overall Influence
Yehia Bahei El-Din FAAS is an Egyptian professor of materials Science. He was the Dean of Engineering and, as of December 2022, the Vice-president for Research and Postgraduate Studies at the British University in Egypt.
Go to Profile#8919
James C Liao
#187289
Overall Influence
#8920
Bruce Simonson
#65464
Overall Influence
Bruce Simonson is an American planetary scientist and geologist notable for his contributions to meteoroid astronomy and glaciology. He is credited as one of the foremost experts in glacial till plains as well as one of the developers of the E-belt model. He has served as professor of geology at Oberlin College since 1979.
Go to Profile#8921
Diana Gannett
#93331
Overall Influence
Diana Gannett is an American classical double bassist and educator, Professor Emeritus of Double Bass at the University of Michigan School of Music. Career Previous appointments include the faculties of Yale University School of Music, Theatre & Dance and Hartt School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Connecticut, Oberlin College Conservatory in Ohio, University of Iowa School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and the University of South Florida.
Go to Profile#8922
Ya-Qin Zhang
#175252
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Ya-Qin Zhang is a Chinese-American scientist, technologist and business executive. He is currently a Chair Professor at Tsinghua University and the founding Dean of the Tsinghua institute for AI Industry Research .
Go to Profile#8923
Robin Selinger
#120172
Overall Influence
Robin Lillian Blumberg Selinger is an American materials scientist. She is professor of physics at Kent State University and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute. In 2016, Selinger became the first female Kent State University faculty member to be elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#8924
Maureen Braziel
#169786
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Maureen Braziel was one of the pioneers of Women's Judo competition. She has been thought of as being one of the top Judoka in the United States, and within the 1970s. Competition She won the silver medal heavyweight in the 1971 British Open, and bronze in the open division. She was the first female to place in international competition in Judo. As a result, helped to make women's Judo a sport under the Amateur Athletic Union. Maureen was the women's US National 1st-place winner for the heavyweight division and the grand champion for the years 1974, 1975, and 1976. At a competition weight of 180 lbs, Maureen was strong enough to compete with men.
Go to Profile#8925
Giotto Bizzarrini
#179861
Overall Influence
1926 - 2023 (97 years)
Giotto Bizzarrini was an Italian automobile engineer who was active from the 1950s through the 1970s. After graduating from the University of Pisa in 1953, Bizzarrini eventually joined Alfa Romeo as a test driver. He gained a reputation for identifying and solving problems and was head hunted by Ferrari in 1957. Bizzarrini's responsibility increased until he became sports car development chief at Ferrari in the late 1950s, working on such notable projects as the Ferrari 250 GTO. He split from the company as part of the 'Great Walkout' in 1961, worked first with ATS, and then in 1962 started his own company, Società Autostar, whose name was changed to Bizzarrini in 1964.
Go to Profile#8926
Anne C. Roberts
#79724
Overall Influence
Anne Christine Roberts is an American interventional radiologist who is credited with the invention of the Roberts Uterine Catheter , a catheter designed to facilitate navigation through the uterine arteries and currently used widely for uterine artery embolization procedures. She also served as president of the Society of Interventional Radiology and was the second woman to become president of the society.
Go to Profile#8927
Barbara Niethammer
#49582
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Barbara Niethammer is a German mathematician and materials scientist who works as a professor at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics at the University of Bonn. Her research concerns partial differential equations for physical materials, and in particular the phenomenon of Ostwald ripening by which particles in liquids grow over time.
Go to Profile#8928
Murthy Devarakonda
#187381
Overall Influence
Murthy Devarakonda is a computer scientist at the AI Innovation Center of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for his contributions to measurement-based analytics of distributed systems for data center optimization.
Go to Profile#8929
Mark Osborne
#78937
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Mark Randolph Osborne is an American film director, writer, producer and animator. Biography Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Osborne grew up in Woodstock, Vermont until at age 14 he moved to Flemington, New Jersey and graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School in 1988. He began his career by studying Foundation Art at Pratt Institute in New York before receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts in June 1992. His thesis film, Greener, won numerous awards and was screened at more than 40 film festivals worldwide. He has...
Go to Profile#8930
Don Thompson
#175756
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Donald Thompson is an American engineer and business executive who was the president and chief executive of McDonald's Corporation from 2012 until 2015. He announced on January 28, 2015, that he would retire from the company and leave his position on March 1, 2015, and was succeeded by Steve Easterbrook, the senior executive vice president and chief brand officer. He is currently the CEO of Cleveland Avenue, an investment group and accelerator that focuses on building new food, beverage, and restaurant concepts, which he founded in 2015. Cleveland Avenue has invested in Beyond Meat and Taste ...
Go to Profile#8931
Peter Turner
#94492
Overall Influence
1947 - 2005 (58 years)
Peter Turner was a photographer, curator, and writer. He was the longest-serving editor of Creative Camera. Life and work Turner was born in London on 3 February 1947. He studied photography at Guildford School of Art between 1965 and 1968.
Go to Profile#8932
Bill Melendez
#65130
Overall Influence
1916 - 2008 (92 years)
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez was an American character animator, voice actor, film director and producer. Melendez is known for working on the Peanuts animated specials. Before Peanuts, he previously worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, and UPA. Melendez provided the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.
Go to Profile#8933
William A. Davis Jr.
#136159
Overall Influence
1927 - 2017 (90 years)
William Ames "Bill" Davis Jr. was an engineer and distinguished leader in Ballistic Missile Defense for the United States Army at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Davis was an inaugural member of the United States Senior Executive Service and recipient of numerous accolades and awards from the army, including the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service .
Go to Profile#8934
Karl James Jalkanen
#137509
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Karl James Jalkanen, FRSC, , is a research scientist in molecular biophysics. He is currently a research scientist at the Gilead Sciences new La Verne, California manufacturing facility in the Department of Technical Services.
Go to Profile#8935
Gerard Reinmuth
#179654
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Gerard Kerry Reinmuth is an Australian architect. He is a director of architectural practice TERROIR, which has been featured in a number of international exhibitions and publications the Venice Biennale, AV Monographs’ 20 International Emerging Architects, Phaidon’s 10×10/3 and Atlas of 21st Century Architecture, Australian Financial Review , TEDXSydney, AV Monographs’ 20 International Emerging Architects, Phaidon’s 10×10/3 and Atlas of 21st Century Architecture. Most recently he was selected to be a judge at the 2020 World Architecture Festival to be held in Lisbon.
Go to Profile#8936
Lisa Curran
#56542
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Lisa Curran is an American tropical forester, and Roger and Cynthia Lang Professor in Environment & Anthropology, at Stanford University. Education Curran graduated from Harvard University, and Princeton University with a Ph.D.
Go to Profile#8937
Michael J. Battle
#64056
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Michael Jesse Battle is an Episcopal moral theologian known for his works on spirituality, reconciliation, and the thought of Desmond Tutu. Biography Born in New Orleans, Battle received a B.A. in 1986 from Duke University, an M.Div. in 1989 from Princeton Theological Seminary, a S.T.M. in 1991 from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in 1995 in theology and ethics from Duke University.
Go to Profile#8938
Lois Conner
#111952
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Lois Conner is an American photographer. She is noted particularly for her platinum print landscapes that she produces with a 7" x 17" format banquet camera. Early life Conner was born in New York City in 1951 and grew up in southern Pennsylvania. She dedicated herself to the arts from a young age: learning about photography from her father at 9 years old, apprenticing with a painter as a teenager, and later studying fashion design and taking dance, art, and photography classes in New York City. Conner credits Philippe Halsman, her photography teacher at The New School, for her ultimately cho...
Go to Profile#8939
Kenneth L Jones
#187496
Overall Influence
#8940
Basu Chatterjee
#54008
Overall Influence
1930 - 2020 (90 years)
Basu Chatterjee was an Indian film director and screenwriter in Hindi Cinema. Through the 1970s and 1980s, he became associated with what came to be known as middle cinema or middle-of-the-road cinema filmmakers, such as Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Bhattacharya, whom he assisted on Teesri Kasam . Like their films, his films dealt with light-hearted stories of middle-class families often in urban settings, focusing on marital and love relationships, with exceptions such as Ek Ruka Hua Faisla and Kamla Ki Maut , which delved into social and moral issues. He is best known for his films Us Paa...
Go to Profile#8941
Mostafa Oskooyi
#55463
Overall Influence
1924 - 2005 (81 years)
Mostafa Oskooyi was the first professional actor, director, arts critic, and veteran activist of Iranian theatre who qualified as an actor in Tehran. At the Moscow State Institute of Performing Arts, Oskooyi specialized in direction and art criticism .
Go to Profile#8942
Ghotbeddin Sadeghi
#84421
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Ghotbedin Sadeghi in Sanandaj, Iran is an Iranian theatre director, playwright, stage and film actor, and arts instructor. He is also known as a prominent scholar of Iranian arts and culture. Sadeghi established Honar Theater Group in early 80's which is referred to as one of the most serious and artistic theater groups in Iran. His theatrical productions's fame is beholden to Mostafa Abdollahi and Michael Shahrestani who played the leading roles in his plays.
Go to Profile#8943
Manoj Kumar
#168475
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Manoj Kumar is an Indian film director, producer and television actor who has directed Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films and Tamil serials. He is the brother-in-law of Bharathiraja. Career After assisting Bharathiraja in various films, he made his directorial debut with Mannukkul Vairam . He directed several films in 1990s such as, Guru Paarvai starring Prakash Raj, won positive reviews. He attempted to collaborate again with Prakash Raj and Prabhu in a film titled Vasantha Kaalam, but the project was stalled. He then went on to make medium budget action films including Vaanavil and Jaisurya ...
Go to Profile#8944
Leslie Kay
#181031
Overall Influence
1922 - 2020 (98 years)
Leslie Kay was a British–New Zealand electrical engineer, particularly known for the development of ultrasonic devices to assist the blind. Early life and family Kay was born in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England, on 14 January 1922, the son of a colliery manager. He left school at the age of 14, and accepted an electrical apprenticeship at the local colliery managed by his father, and took night classes in electrical engineering.
Go to Profile#8945
J. Reece Roth
#187550
Overall Influence
#8946
Gurpreet Singh
#84503
Overall Influence
Gurpreet Singh is a professor of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at [Kansas State University]. He is endowed by the Harold O. and Jane C. Massey Neff Professorship in Mechanical Engineering. Singh was born in Ludhiana, India; he currently resides in the United States.
Go to Profile#8947
Teresa Alonso-Rasgado
#181863
Overall Influence
Maria Teresa Alonso-Rasgado is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Dean for Global Engagement in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Queen Mary University of London. She was awarded the Ohtli Award in 2016, the most significant honour of the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs. In 2019 she was awarded the Lázaro Cárdenas medal for academic excellence.
Go to Profile#8948
Ronald Hubert Sims
#174479
Overall Influence
1923 - 1999 (76 years)
Ronald Hubert Sims was a British architect and artist. Influential in the Bournemouth area, he is best known for designing the Punshon Memorial Church which earned him the R.I.B.A. bronze medal in 1958. The church was demolished in 2015. In the 1960s, he designed the Broadmead Baptist Church in Bristol - it remains standing and is a fine example of Brutalist architecture.
Go to Profile#8949
Tony Martin
#109929
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Tony Martin is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation events. Career Martin started his darts career playing in British Darts Organisation tournaments and was a runner-up in the British Classic to Mervyn King in 2002. He reached other finals at the Swedish Open in 2004, losing to Shaun Greatbatch and the Norway Open in 2005, which he lost to Michael van Gerwen. He also reached the quarter finals of the Dutch Open in 2004.
Go to Profile#8950
Tom Palmer
#49968
Overall Influence
Thomas A. Palmer was an Italian-American animator, cartoon director, and U.S. training film supervisor. He was active in the animation industry throughout the 1920s and 1930s and was best known for his animation work at Walt Disney Productions. He spent a good chunk of his later career directing training films for the United States Army.
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