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 Law,
#3351
Alexander Stubb
#125169
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2014 to 2015. He rose to politics as a researcher specialized in the affairs of the European Union and was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 as a member of the National Coalition Party. In 2008, Stubb was appointed as Minister for Foreign Affairs following a scandal surrounding his predecessor, Ilkka Kanerva. In 2011 Stubb stood for election to the Finnish Parliament for the first time and was elected MP with the second highest vote count in the election, which led to Stubb becoming the Min...
Go to Profile#3352
Jean Paul Gaultier
#81749
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Jean Paul Gaultier is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corsets, marinières, and tin canss. Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982, and expanded with a line of fragrancess in 1993. He was the creative director for French luxury house Hermès from 2003 to 2010, and retired following his 50th-anniversary haute couture show during Paris Fashion Week in January 2020.
Go to Profile#3353
Johannes Reich-Rohrwig
#182131
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Johannes Reich-Rohrwig is an Austrian attorney-at-law with a focus on corporate law and commercial law, and a professor at the University of Vienna. He is a member of numerous supervisory boards and boards of trustees.
Go to Profile#3354
Elga Ruth Wasserman
#100952
Overall Influence
1924 - 2014 (90 years)
Elga Ruth Wasserman guided the transformation of Yale College from an all-male undergraduate college into a coeducational institution. She held the newly created position of special assistant to the president of Yale University on the education of women . She became a proponent of equal rights for women during Second-wave feminism and after. Later, Wasserman practiced law, specializing in family law, and advocated policies friendly to women and minorities in the workplace. She wrote The Door in the Dream , highlighting eminent female scientists through interviews and discussion.
Go to Profile#3355
John Lawrence Hill
#177611
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
John Lawrence Hill is an American philosopher and law professor. Hill obtained a J.D. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University. In 2003, he joined the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law where he is currently R. Bruce Townsend Professor of Law and adjunct professor of philosophy. He has published articles in the Cornell Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Iowa Law Review and the New York University Law Review.
Go to Profile#3356
Thomas Tomich
#173528
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Thomas Patrick Tomich is an American researcher in the field of sustainable agriculture. He researches a variety of subjects, including agriculture, natural resource management, food policy, and economic development. He is the founding director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at University of California, Davis and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Tomich advocates for immediate and strategic action on the part of the research community to apply current scientific knowledge to address world-wide issues relating to climate change.
Go to Profile#3357
James E. Duffy Jr.
#155339
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
James E. Duffy Jr. is a retired associate justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court. He served on the court from 2003 to 2013. He also is a former federal judicial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Go to Profile#3358
Scott Major
#135606
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Scott Ian Major is an Australian actor and TV and film director, known for his roles as Peter Rivers in the 1994 television teen drama series Heartbreak High and Lucas Fitzgerald in soap opera Neighbours. After leaving Neighbours in 2013, Major returned to direct over 200 episodes of the serial. He has since gone on to direct episodes of Playing for Keeps, and two miniseries Lie With Me and Riptide. Major reprised his role as Rivers in the 2022 reboot of Heartbreak High.
Go to Profile#3359
Hanoch Dagan
#150577
Overall Influence
Hanoch Dagan is an Israeli lawyer and Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley Law School. He is the founding director of the Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory. He is also Stewart and Judy Colton Professor of Legal Theory at Tel Aviv University and formerly the Justin D'Atri Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School.
Go to Profile#3360
Dawn Edge
#100892
Overall Influence
Dawnette Ethilda Edge is a British medical researcher who is a Professor of Mental Health and Inclusivity at the University of Manchester. Her research investigates racial inequalities in mental health, including the origins of the overdiagnosis of schizophrenia in British African-Caribbean people.
Go to Profile#3361
Karl Korinek
#179948
Overall Influence
1940 - 2017 (77 years)
Karl Korinek was an Austrian constitutional scholar and educator. Korinek taught law at the University of Graz, the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the University of Vienna, and the University for Continuing Education Krems. In 1978, Korinek was appointed to the Austrian Constitutional Court; he served as the president of the court from 2003 until his retirement in 2008.
Go to Profile#3362
Margo Barton
#108137
Overall Influence
Margo Barton is a New Zealand fashion designer, milliner and academic leader of the fashion design programme at Otago Polytechnic. In 2017 she took over the position of chair of the iD Dunedin Fashion Week organising committee.
Go to Profile#3363
Nicola Peart
#178661
Overall Influence
Nicola S Peart is a New Zealand law academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Otago. Academic career After degrees from Leiden University and University of Cape Town, Peart moved to the University of Otago, rising to full professor. Peart is a recognised expert on succession law.
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Yves Saint Laurent
#93537
Overall Influence
1936 - 2008 (72 years)
Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent , referred to as Yves Saint Laurent or YSL, was a French fashion designer who, in 1962, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century. In 1985, Caroline Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its 1960s ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable."
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Lucia Žitňanská
#152572
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Lucia Žitňanská is a Slovak politician and member of Most–Híd. She served as Minister of Justice in the third government of Robert Fico from 2016–2018. In 2006 she served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Justice of Slovakia and in 2010 until 2012 she again served as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Iveta Radičová.
Go to Profile#3366
Frank Galati
#79983
Overall Influence
1943 - 2023 (80 years)
Frank Joseph Galati was an American director, writer, and actor. He was a member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and an associate director at Goodman Theatre. He taught at Northwestern University for many years.
Go to Profile#3367
Judy McGregor
#104390
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Dame Judith Helen McGregor is a New Zealand lawyer, journalist, public servant and academic. She is currently a full professor at Auckland University of Technology and chairs the Waitematā District Health Board.
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Vera Wang
#102429
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Vera Ellen Wang is an American fashion designer. Wang initially pursued a career in figure skating before transitioning to fashion. She worked for Vogue and Ralph Lauren before launching her own bridal gown boutique in 1990.
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Jon Stone
#79849
Overall Influence
1931 - 1997 (66 years)
Jon Arthur Stone was an American writer, director, and producer who was best known as an original crewmember on the children's television show Sesame Street and is credited with helping to develop characters such as Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. Stone won 18 television Emmy Awards. Many regard him as among the best children's television writers.
Go to Profile#3370
Fan Jian
#176127
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Fan Jian is Chinese legal scholar and Professor at Nanjing University School of Law. He is a vice president of China Commercial Law Society and president of Jiangsu Commercial Law Society. Biography Fan was born in 1957 in Nantong, Jiangsu, China.
Go to Profile#3371
Joyoti Basu
#49588
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Joyoti Basu is an Indian biochemist, cell biologist and a senior professor at the Bose Institute. Known for her studies on the membrane structure of red blood cells, Basu is an elected fellow of all three major Indian science academies, namely the National Academy of Sciences, India, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy, as well as the Indian Society for Chemical Biology. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded her the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for her contributions t...
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Marcela Huaita Alegre
#142175
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Marcela Patricia María Huaita Alegre is a Peruvian lawyer and academic specialized in human rights and public policy. She was Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations from 17 February 2015 until 28 July 2016 under president Ollanta Humala.
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Holning Lau
#182454
Overall Influence
Holning S. Lau is an American lawyer, currently the Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law at University of North Carolina School of Law. Education J.D., University of ChicagoB.A., University of Pennsylvania
Go to Profile#3374
Vineeta Bal
#115454
Overall Influence
Vineeta Bal is a scientist in the National Institute of Immunology and she was a member of the Prime Minister's task force for Women in Science under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Education and career She did her MBBS from Pune University and MD in Microbiology from Haffkine Institute in the University of Bombay and later did post-doctoral training in Royal Post-graduate Medical School in London.
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Pierre Cardin
#88293
Overall Influence
1922 - 2020 (98 years)
Pierre Cardin , born Pietro Costante Cardin , was an Italian-born naturalised-French fashion designer. He is known for what were his avant-garde style and Space Age designs. He preferred geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form. He advanced into unisex fashions, sometimes experimental, and not always practical. He founded his fashion house in 1950 and introduced the "bubble dress" in 1954.
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Ronald Garet
#180876
Overall Influence
Ronald Reed Garet is an American religion law scholar, currently the Carolyn Craig Franklin Chair in Law and Religion at USC Gould School of Law. He graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, received his PhD in religious studies from Yale University, and his JD from USC Gould. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
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Christophe Crombez
#83311
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Christophe Crombez is a political economist at KU Leuven and Stanford University. Biography Crombez obtained a Licentiate in Applied Economics from KU Leuven , and a Ph.D. in Business from Stanford University .
Go to Profile#3378
Mónica de Miranda
#93887
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (48 years)
Mónica de Miranda is a Portuguese visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, and researcher of Angolan ancestry known for her artwork on socially inspired themes, including postcolonial issues of geography, history, and subjectivity related to Africa and its diaspora. Her media include photography, mixed media and video. De Miranda first became known for her photographic records of the ruins of modern hotels in post-war Angola, and their surrounding sociopolitical circumstances. Her photographic series, videos, short films, and installations have been internationally exhibited at art biennales, galleries, and museums, some of which keep her work in their permanent art collections.
Go to Profile#3379
Santiago Muñoz Machado
#170943
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Santiago Muñoz Machado is a Spanish jurist and academic, director of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language since 10 January 2019. As a jurist, he specialized in administrative and constitutional rights. He is also a member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and editor of the Diccionario del español jurídico and the Diccionario panhispánico del español jurídico .
Go to Profile#3380
John Delaney
#122079
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
John Adrian Delaney is an American lawyer, politician, and university and college President. He served as mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, from 1995 to 2003, and as the president of the University of North Florida from 2003 to 2018. In 2021, he was named President of Flagler College after a few months as Interim. He is a member of the Republican Party.
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Diane Harper
#33130
Overall Influence
Diane Medved Harper is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan. Her area of expertise is human papillomavirus and the diseases associated with it, as well as colposcopy, and she was one of the investigators in the clinical trials of Gardasil and Cervarix, vaccines against HPV.
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Alison Quentin-Baxter
#149030
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Dame Alison Burns Quentin-Baxter was a New Zealand public and international lawyer. She advised a number of small island states on the drafting of their constitutional documents. Early life and education Quentin-Baxter was born in Auckland on 28 December 1929 to Bill and Barbara Souter and grew up there. Both sets of her grandparents were farmers and she spent many holidays on their farms in the Waikato and Kaipara. She attended Epsom Girls' Grammar School and then Nga Tawa Diocesan School and studied law at Auckland University College where she became chair of the students' law society in her final year, the first woman to hold the position.
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V. David Zvenyach
#180588
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (42 years)
Vladlen David Zvenyach is an American government technology executive, author, lawyer, and professor. From 2021 to 2022, he served in the Biden Administration as the Director of the Technology Transformation Services and the Deputy of the Federal Acquisition Service in the U.S. General Services Administration. Zvenyach's prior roles in public service included serving was the Executive Director of the federal innovation organization 18F and the Acting Assistant Commissioner, Office of Systems Management within the Federal Acquisition Service. In his role at 18F, he pioneered new methods of government procurement.
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Tae Ashida
#85155
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
is a well-known fashion designer who has designed many uniforms in high-profile businesses and venues across Japan. She is the daughter of Japanese fashion designer Jun Ashida who at one point of his career was the dressmaker of Empress Michiko.
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Brian A. Jackson
#186187
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Brian Anthony Jackson is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. Early life and education Born in New Orleans, Jackson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1982 and a Juris Doctor in 1985 from Southern University Law Center. He also earned a Master of Laws degree in international and comparative law from Georgetown University Law Center in 2000.
Go to Profile#3386
Iza Hussin
#182188
Overall Influence
Iza Hussin is an academic at the University of Cambridge, who writes on Islamic law in colonial and post-colonial states. Hussin is an Associate Professor in Asian Politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies and Mohamed Noah Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. She is a series editor for the Cambridge University Press Series Asian Connections, and on the editorial boards of the Social Science Research Council’s The Immanent Frame, andIndonesia and the Malay World.
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Siti Musdah Mulia
#87534
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Siti Musdah Mulia is an Indonesian women's right activist and professor of religion. She was the first woman appointed as a research professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and is currently a lecturer of Islamic political thought at the School of Graduate Studies at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Since 2007, Musdah has served as chairperson of the NGO Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace, which aims to promote interfaith dialogue in Indonesia. She also served as director of the Megawati Institute, a think-tank established by former president Megawati Soekarnop...
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Everette James
#133864
Overall Influence
Everette James is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Health Policy Institute . Biography In September, 2014 James was named to the M. Allen Pond Endowed Chair in Health Policy and Management. He teaches graduate courses on the history of U.S. health reform and writes and speaks frequently on healthcare business and legal issues.
Go to Profile#3389
Payam Akhavan
#187812
Overall Influence
#3390
Mona al-Kuwari
#183947
Overall Influence
Mona Jassim Mohammed al-Kuwari Early life and education Al-Kuwari studied at the Beirut Arab University Faculty of Law and Political Science, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Law in 2000, a postgraduate diploma in Public Law in 2005, a Master of Studies in Law in Criminal Law in 2007 for the thesis التفتيش شروطه وحالات بطلانه دراسة مقارنة , and a Doctor of Criminal Justice in 2013 for the thesis جريمة التزوير الإلكتروني دراسة مقارنة .
Go to Profile#3391
Michael Baker
#140893
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Michael Allen Baker, is a Canadian physician, academic, and cancer researcher. He is Rose Family Chair in Medicine, former Physician-in-Chief, University Health Network and Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research has helped to improve the understanding of human leukemia and other cancers.
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He Bingsong
#173003
Overall Influence
1932 - 2019 (87 years)
He Bingsong was a Chinese legal scholar. Life and career He was born in 1932 in Guiping, Guangxi, Republic of China. He had four brothers. After graduating from Peking University in 1952, he taught at the China University of Political Science and Law. After the Cultural Revolution, he served as a lawyer in the trial of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four counter-revolutionary groups.
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Alan D. Schnitzer
#171805
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Alan D. Schnitzer is an American executive who holds the position the chairman and chief executive officer at The Travelers Companies, Inc., a provider of property casualty insurance for auto, home and business.
Go to Profile#3394
Valentina Durán Medina
#186887
Overall Influence
Valentina Alejandra Durán Medina is an international jurist in environmental and climate change law, and both a Professor of Law at Universidad de Chile and Director of the Centre for Environmental Law . In addition to coordinating the Clinic of Environmental Law and Conflict Resolution, Durán is Lead Counsel for Peace, Justice and Governance at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law.
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Harvey Goldschmid
#182182
Overall Influence
1940 - 2015 (75 years)
Harvey Jerome Goldschmid was the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. From 2002 to 2005, he served as a member of the Securities & Exchange Commission, where, though a Democrat, often sided with chairman William H. Donaldson. He was also an advisory board member of the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management.
Go to Profile#3396
Ceri Warnock
#167656
Overall Influence
Ceri Warnock is a British-born New Zealand environmental lawyer and professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Otago. Academic career Warnock has an LLB from Cardiff University and an LLM from the University of Auckland. She graduated from the University of Oxford with a DPhil.
Go to Profile#3397
Sean O'Donnell
#120490
Overall Influence
Sean W. O'Donnell is the current Inspector General of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He was previously appointed to be the acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense in April 2020, resulting in his membership on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which oversees $2.2 trillion in government spending.
Go to Profile#3398
Marco D'Alberti
#186680
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Marco D'Alberti is an Italian jurist, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy since 2022. Biography Graduated in law at the Sapienza University of Rome, D'Alberti began his career as assistant in administrative law to Massimo Severo Giannini, a chair that he was later to assume from 1985 as full professor.
Go to Profile#3399
Hans-Christof von Sponeck
#106299
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck is a German diplomat. He served as a UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. Life Hans-Christof von Sponeck was born in Bremen, Germany. His father, Hans Graf von Sponeck, was a general of the Wehrmacht in World War II and was executed on 23 July 1944 in the aftermath of the 20 July plot.
Go to Profile#3400
Jessica Palmer
#178860
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Jessica Palmer is a New Zealand academic lawyer, as of 2019 is a full professor and dean of law at the University of Otago. Academic career After an undergraduate degree at the University of Auckland Palmer completed LLM's at the University of Cambridge and the University of Auckland, before rising to professor and dean of law at the University of Otago, replacing Mark Henaghan.
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