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,
#9201
Richard Weingardt
#190070
Overall Influence
1938 - 2013 (75 years)
Richard George Weingardt was an American structural engineer. Upon his death, Weingardt had worked on over 5,000 projects. Personal life Richard Weingardt was born in Sterling, Colorado, in 1938. His parents were Caroline and Martin Weingardt. His father was a general contractor. He had three siblings: one brother and two sisters. The family visited the Royal Gorge Bridge on a family vacation. That visit solidified Weingardt's desire to become an engineer.
Go to Profile#9202
Raymond J. Barry
#86176
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Raymond John Barry is an American film, television, and stage actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in the film Steel City. Personal life Raymond John Barry was born in Hempstead, New York. He is married to writer Robyn Mundell. Together they have four children, Oona, Raymond, Liam and Manon.
Go to Profile#9203
Anthony Joseph Penico
#184158
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
Anthony "Tony" Joseph Penico was an American mathematician and engineer. He is known for the Penico theorem, Penico solvability, and Penico series. After graduating from South Philadelphia High School, Penico was awarded scholarships to the University of Pennsylvania. There he graduated in 1946 with a bachelor's degree in physics and in 1950 with a Ph.D. in mathematics. His dissertation, written under the supervision of Richard D. Schafer, is entitled The Wedderburn Principal Theorem for Jordan Algebras. The theorem, which generalizes a theorem of A. A. Albert, was published in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society in 1951.
Go to Profile#9204
Lance Becker
#116640
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Lance B. Becker is an American physician and academic, specializing in emergency medicine and treatment for cardiac arrest, currently at Northwell Health. He is the chairman of the department of emergency medicine at North Shore University Hospital, as well as chair and professor of emergency medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#9205
Frank Baron
#187424
Overall Influence
1914 - 1994 (80 years)
Frank Martin Baron served as professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and held an international reputation as an expert in the fields of bridge and roof-structure design, and seismic and wind analysis. He was twice the recipient of the prized Leon S. Moisseiff Award issued annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers , and among his manifold professional affiliations, served as chairman of the US Council of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.
Go to Profile#9206
Muddathir Abdel-Rahim
#172508
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Muddathir Abdel-Rahim is professor of political science in International University of Africa. Career He taught in Malaysia where he was Distinguished Professor and Head of the Human Rights Programme at the Islamic University Malaysia from 2013 to 2016. He was Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies and Very Distinguished Academic Fellow at ISTAC from 1997 to 2013. He had earlier taught in universities around the world – including University of Manchester, Temple University, Northern Illinois University, Mohammed V University, Makerere University, Bayero University Kano, and University of Khartoum.
Go to Profile#9207
Marian Penner Bancroft
#101110
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Marian Penner Bancroft is a Canadian artist and photographer based in Vancouver. She is an associate professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she has been teaching since 1981. She has previously also taught at Simon Fraser University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She is a member of the board of Artspeak Gallery and is represented in Vancouver by the Republic Gallery.
Go to Profile#9208
Emma Byrne
#98447
Overall Influence
Emma Byrne is a contemporary British writer and scientist, working in the fields of swearing, artificial intelligence and robotics. Career Scientist Byrne completed her PhD in Expectation Violation Analysis at the University College London, UCL, Department of Computer Science in 2005. Her work showed how it is possible to automatically identify and rank unexpected, and therefore interesting, news from the large volumes of news are available around the clock and around the world.
Go to Profile#9209
David W. Andrews
#83698
Overall Influence
David W. Andrews is an American academic, who served as the President of National University from 2016-2021, and serves as the chancellor of University of Massachusetts Global . Education David Andrews earned his associate degree at Pensacola Junior College in 1976. Then in 1977, he completed his bachelor's degree in Psychology from Auburn University. In 1980 Andrews received his M.S. in Child Development from Kansas State University. Finally, he graduated with his Ph.D. in Child Development from Florida State University.
Go to Profile#9210
T. Sasitharan
#77427
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Thirunalan Sasitharan is a Singaporean theatre educator and the co-founder and director of Intercultural Theatre Institute , formerly known as the Theatre Training & Research Programme . Life and career For more than 30 years, Sasitharan, has been actively involved as an actor, director and producer in the Singapore theatre scene.
Go to Profile#9211
Ernest Ferlita
#129002
Overall Influence
1927 - 2015 (88 years)
Father Ernest Ferlita was a Jesuit professor emeritus of drama and speech at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana and a member of the Dramatists Guild. He received his degree in playwriting and dramatic literature at the Yale School of Drama. He was born, the son of a Sicilian immigrant father, in Tampa, Florida.
Go to Profile#9212
Marc P. Keane
#189867
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Marc Peter Keane, a graduate of Cornell University, is an American landscape architect and author. He lived in Kyoto, Japan, for nearly 20 years, and specializes in Japanese garden design. Presently, after many years living in Ithaca, New York, he has moved his home and studio back to Kyoto, Japan.
Go to Profile#9213
Kia Silverbrook
#147110
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Kia Silverbrook is an Australian independent inventor and scientist. He is one of the most prolific inventors in the world, and has been granted 4,747 US utility patents as of 14 February 2022. Internationally, he has 9,874 patents or patent applications registered at the international patent document database . Silverbrook has founded companies and developed products in a wide range of disciplines, including computer graphics, video and audio production, scientific computing, factory automation, digital printing, liquid crystal displays , molecular electronics, internet software, content man...
Go to Profile#9214
Jiang Haokang
#185425
Overall Influence
1935 - 2019 (84 years)
Jiang Haokang was a Chinese aerospace engineer and a professor at Beihang University. An expert on aeroengine testing and flow measurement technology, he won the State Science and Technology Progress Award in 1993.
Go to Profile#9215
Anna Devor
#188766
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Anna Devor is an Israeli-American biomedical engineer who is a full professor at Boston University. Her research considers neuronal imaging and new strategies to better understand brain function. She is the editor of Neurophotonics, an SPIE journal.
Go to Profile#9216
Yang Enze
#185297
Overall Influence
1919 - 2019 (100 years)
Yang Enze was a Chinese telecommunications engineer who served as Chief Engineer of Wuhan Post and Telecommunications Institute and President of the Institute of Fiber-Optic Technology at Tianjin University. He led the development of the "82 Project", China's first fiber-optic communication system that was approved for practical use. He won the National Science Congress Award in 1978 and the State Science and Technology Progress Award in 1985.
Go to Profile#9217
R. J. Parish
#172682
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Richard John Parish was a scholar of French literature. He was Professor of French at the University of Oxford between 1996 and 2015. Career Born in 1948, Parish was educated at Newcastle University, graduating with a BA in 1970. He then completed his doctoral studies at the University of Oxford; his DPhil was awarded in 1974 for his thesis "The abbé de Choisy : a historical and critical study".
Go to Profile#9218
Syed Iqbal Hasnain
#120218
Overall Influence
Syed Iqbal Hasnain is an Indian glaciologist, writer, educationist and the Chairman of the Glacier and Climate Change Commission of the Government of Sikkim. He is a former vice chancellor of the University of Calicut and a member of the United Nations Environment Program Committee on Global Assessment of Black Carbon and Troposphere Ozone.
Go to Profile#9219
Peter Koch
#78105
Overall Influence
1920 - 1998 (78 years)
Peter Koch was an American engineer and wood scientist who was considered an expert in the field of wood technology by his peers. From 1963 to 1982, Koch led a team of US Forest Service scientists in forest products utilization research specific to forests of the southeastern US. Accomplishments by Koch and his research team included eight US patents plus hundreds of research publications.
Go to Profile#9220
Aaron Cohen
#138870
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Aaron Cohen is an American former judoka. He was a 5-time US national champion , and earned a silver medal in the 2008 US Olympic trials. He earned a bronze medal at the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Go to Profile#9221
Chen
#190665
Overall Influence
#9222
Susan Lowdermilk
#172079
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Susan Lowdermilk is a contemporary book artist and print maker who works "primarily in woodcut, wood engraving and etching". She also teaches graphic design and studio art classes at Lane Community College.
Go to Profile#9223
Lisa Wiegand
#174796
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Lisa Marie Wiegand, is an American cinematographer. Biography Lisa Marie Wiegand was born in 1968 in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA. She graduated in 1989 from Wayne State University, and obtained her MFA in cinematography from UCLA in 1998. In 1995, she received a Master's in Cinematography from the American Film Institute AFI.
Go to Profile#9224
Arne E. Holm
#185664
Overall Influence
1911 - 2009 (98 years)
Arne Ellerhusen Holm was a Norwegian painter, graphic artist and architect. Biography He was born in Bergen as a son of banker Arne Holm and Anne Sophie Wibye Ellerhusen . He was a grandson of physician and health pioneer Ingebrigt Christian Holm , founder of Dr. Holms Hotel in Geilo.
Go to Profile#9225
Nathan Kundtz
#190687
Overall Influence
#9226
Céline d'Orgeville
#188090
Overall Influence
Céline d'Orgeville is a Professor and instrument scientist at the Australian National University Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. She leads teams designing laser and optical systems for ground based astronomical telescopes. She is a Fellow of SPIE and the Astronomical Society of Australia.
Go to Profile#9227
Gordon MacDonald
#169174
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Gordon MacDonald works with photography as an artist, writer, curator, press photographer and educator. He is the founding editor of Photoworks magazine and was head of publishing at Photoworks in Brighton. He co-founded Brighton Photo Fringe in 2003; and was for a time its chair of the board of trustees. He was co-founder and co-director, alongside Stuart Smith, of the visual arts publisher GOST. MacDonald is also half of the collective MacDonaldStrand, with his wife Clare Strand.
Go to Profile#9228
Ruan Xueyu
#189804
Overall Influence
1933 - 2019 (86 years)
Ruan Xueyu was a Chinese pressure processing specialist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering . He had hailed as the "Father of Cold Extrusion Technology" in China. He was a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a part-time professor at Tsinghua University, and honorary professor at Kumamoto University.
Go to Profile#9229
Richard Johnson
#71068
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Richard Johnson is a retired English National Hunt jockey. Johnson is the second most prolific winner in the history of National Hunt Racing behind Sir Anthony McCoy, a long-time rival of Johnson's, with over 3500 winners. Richard Dunwoody previously held the record with 1874.
Go to Profile#9230
Rajiv Ratan
#55431
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Rajiv Ratan is an Indian American academic, professor, administrator and scientist based in New York. He is the Burke Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine. Since 2003, he has served as the executive director of Burke Neurological Institute and as a member of the Council of Affiliated Deans of Weill Cornell Medicine.
Go to Profile#9231
Norman de Bruyne
#185286
Overall Influence
1904 - 1997 (93 years)
Norman Adrian de Bruyne FRS was born in Punta Arenas Chile on 8 November 1904, and baptised on 19 March 1905 at the Anglican St. James Church, by the Rev. Edwin Aspinall. His father was Dutch and his mother English. He grew up in England, studied science at the University of Cambridge and became a physics researcher. Around 1930, he became interested in aviation. de Bruyne was the first student of the new flying school which Arthur Marshall established in Cambridge in 1931.
Go to Profile#9232
Zhihong Chen
#187176
Overall Influence
Zhihong Chen is a Chinese-American nanoelectronics engineer known for her research on the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes and graphene. She is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.
Go to Profile#9233
Jan Rusinek
#178472
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Jan Rusinek is a Polish mathematician and chess composer, particularly noted for his brilliant endgame studies. He was editor of the study section of Szachy from 1971 to the magazine's closure in 1990. Rusinek became an International Judge of chess composition in 1983, and a Grandmaster of chess composition in 1992. He won over 30 first prizes in composing tourneys. The Oxford Companion to Chess opines that "his achievements are likely to rival those of his greatest predecessors".
Go to Profile#9234
Markand Bhatt
#188869
Overall Influence
1929 - 2016 (87 years)
Markand Jashbhai Bhatt was an Indian Gujarati theatre actor and director. Born and studied in Vadodara, he taught theatre for more than thirty years at M. S. University. He acted in and directed several Gujarati plays.
Go to Profile#9235
Craig Walker
#158411
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Craig Stewart Walker is a Canadian writer, theatre director, actor and educator. Walker graduated from Bayview Secondary School and afterwards, began his career in the theatre as an actor with the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival and the National Arts Centre of Canada and other companies. After returning to complete an M.A. in English and a Ph.D. in Drama at the University of Toronto, he was appointed to the Department of Drama at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he is currently Professor and Director of the Dan School of Drama and Music.
Go to Profile#9236
Ashleigh Gnat
#130770
Overall Influence
1994 - Present (32 years)
Ashleigh Marie Gnat is a former American collegiate gymnast and coach. She competed for the Louisiana State University gymnastics team from 2014 to 2017. Gnat coached as an assistant coach at Penn State in 2020. She is now an assistant coach at her alma mater, Louisiana State University.
Go to Profile#9237
David Welch
#187242
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
David F. Welch is an American businessman and research scientist. Welch is a pioneer in the field of optical devices and optical transport systems for telecommunications networks. Welch first made it possible to commercially deploy reliable 980 nm laser pumps, needed in low noise optical amplifiers employed in dense wavelength division multiplexing telecommunications systems. He also achieved the first commercial optoelectronics integrated circuit, several years ahead of any competing research or developments laboratory.
Go to Profile#9238
Claudia Reinhardt
#151896
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Claudia Reinhardt is a contemporary German photographer. She lives and works in Norway and Berlin. Early life Claudia Reinhardt was born in southern Germany in 1964. In the age of eighteen she left her home town to live for one year in London. Back in Germany she studied philosophy and literary history in Heidelberg. After two years she broke her studies and started to teach herself in photography. She moved to Berlin to work as a photo assistant. After few years she moved to Hamburg to work as a freelance fashion photographer. Her work was published in different magazines . In 1988–1994 she was a student at the art academy in Hamburg.
Go to Profile#9239
Georgia Litwack
#189483
Overall Influence
1922 - 2020 (98 years)
Georgia Shuset Litwack was born in January 27 in Pennsylvania. She was an American photographer and photojournalist, best known for her portraits of notable women in the arts, science and technology.
Go to Profile#9240
Pavlos Vlachos
#190575
Overall Influence
Pavlos P. Vlachos is a Greek-American engineer, scientist, academic, and entrepreneur. He is professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering and in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and the St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering. He serves as the Director for the Purdue Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering .
Go to Profile#9241
Davood Parsa-Pajouh
#150374
Overall Influence
1941 - 2015 (74 years)
Davood Parsa-Pajouh was a prominent scholar at the University of Tehran. He was professor of the Department of Wood Science and Technology at the Faculty of Natural Resources, and the author and translator of several books and articles in this area.
Go to Profile#9242
Laura Waters
#124077
Overall Influence
Laura Jane Waters is a British physician, genitourinary consultant at the National Health Service Mortimer Market Centre in London. She is chair of the British HIV Association and advises the NHS on HIV treatment. Waters is a regular contributor to Boyz magazine, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic provided regular advice to HIV-positive people.
Go to Profile#9243
Stephanie Cole
#61175
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Patricia Stephanie Cole is an English stage, television, radio and film actress, known for high-profile roles in shows such as Tenko , Open All Hours , A Bit of a Do , Waiting for God , Keeping Mum , Doc Martin , Cabin Pressure , Still Open All Hours , Man Down and as Sylvia Goodwin in ITV soap opera Coronation Street .
Go to Profile#9244
Robert W. Newmann
#169040
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Robert W. Newmann is an American painter and sculptor. He was a member of the Washington Color School art movement. In his early career he painted canvas and transitioned in his late career to working in sculpture and installation art.
Go to Profile#9245
Lisa Kron
#88030
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Elizabeth S. "Lisa" Kron is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for writing the lyrics and book to the musical Fun Home for which she won both the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. Fun Home was also awarded the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015 and the 2014 Obie Award for writing for musical theater.
Go to Profile#9246
Chia Chih-ta
#175312
Overall Influence
Chia Chih-ta is the dean of the College of Science at National Taiwan Normal University, NTNU, and teaches at the Department of Physics. To promote the education of physics and its popularity among high school students in Taiwan, Chia participates in many tournaments for physicists. He has led high school students in Taiwan to win three silver medals at the International Young Physicists’ Tournament. He has also held physicists’ tournaments for college students in Taiwan and has invited students from China to join such summits and competitions. Meanwhile, he has long been dedicated to integra...
Go to Profile#9247
Harold Prince
#108072
Overall Influence
1928 - 2019 (91 years)
Harold Smith Prince , commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre. One of the foremost figures in 20th century American theatre, Prince became associated throughout his career with many of the most noteworthy musicals in Broadway history, including West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, and Phantom of the Opera, the longest running show in Broadway history. Many of his productions broke new ground for musical theater, expanding the possibilities of the form by incorporating more serious and political su...
Go to Profile#9248
Leslie Reid
#184655
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Leslie Reid is a Canadian painter and printmaker from Ottawa, Ontario, known for adding a visual and sensory experience of light to the landscape tradition of painting in Canada. She is also an educator.
Go to Profile#9249
Dannielle Engle
#188543
Overall Influence
Dannielle Engle is an American biologist and assistant professor of the regulatory biology laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Engle’s research aims at improving detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Go to Profile#9250
Martin Masai Andersen
#174165
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Martin Masai Andersen is a Danish photographer, art director and designer, based in South London. He also lectures at a number of universities. Andersen has made long-term documentary photography projects on football fans and dog shows, and made music videos for The Breeders, Lush and Iceage. His animation work has won a Clio Award and been shown in group exhibitions at Manchester Art Gallery and at SeaCity Museum in Southampton.
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