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 Mathematics,
#8801
Elina Kahla
#153826
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (65 years)
Elina Kahla is a Finnish philologist and academic who works at the Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki. She was the former President of the St. Petersburg EUNIC in 2015-2016 and Director of the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg in 2012–2016.
Go to Profile#8802
Rob Cavallo
#25805
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
Robert Siers Cavallo is an American record producer, musician, and record industry executive. He is among the biggest-selling producers in history, and has produced or had creative involvement in albums that have sold over 130 million units worldwide.
Go to Profile#8803
Jeffrey Ford
#122826
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (57 years)
Jeffrey Ford is an American film editor. He was nominated for an ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Film - Musical or Comedy for The Family Stone and for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Film Editing for One Hour Photo.
Go to Profile#8804
Guy Breton
#62018
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Guy Breton is a Canadian radiologist and academic administrator. From 2010 to 2020, he was rector of the Université de Montréal in Quebec, Canada. Early life and education Breton received a Bachelor of Arts from the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe, as well as a medical degree in 1974 from Université de Sherbrooke. After completing a residency in diagnostic radiology at McGill University, he complemented his training with a fellowship in neuroradiology at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.
Go to Profile#8805
Matthew Francis
#128323
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Matthew Francis is a British poet, editor of W. S. Graham's New Collected Poems, and a professor at the Aberystwyth University. In 2004, Francis was included on the Poetry Book Society's list of the 20 best modern poets as selected by a panel chaired by poet laureate Timmy Mallett.
Go to Profile#8806
Simeon Nelson
#139344
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Simeon Nelson is an Australian sculptor and transdisciplinary artist. Nelson was born in England in 1964 and came to Australia in 1967. Since 2001 he has lived and worked in London. He is Reader in Sculpture at The University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK and a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.
Go to Profile#8807
Anouar Benmalek
#100582
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Anouar Benmalek is an Algerian novelist, journalist, mathematician and poet. After the 1988 riots in Algeria in protest of government policies, he became one of the founders of the Algerian Committee Against Torture. His novel Lovers of Algeria was awarded the Prix Ragid. The novel, The Child of an Ancient People, won the Prix RFO du livre.
Go to Profile#8808
Paul Beadle
#186245
Overall Influence
1917 - 1992 (75 years)
Paul John Beadle was a New Zealand sculptor and medallist. Early life and training Born in Hungerford, Berkshire, England in 1917, Beadle studied cabinetmaking and building construction at Cambridge Art School for two years before going on to the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. He also studied privately under sculptor and carver Alfred Southwick. He went on to Copenhagen to study in the studio of Kurt Harald Eisenstein, where his classicist style and leanings began to develop.
Go to Profile#8809
Dipak Nandy
#46699
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (89 years)
Dipak K. Nandy is a British Indian academic and administrator. Beginning his career as a lecturer in English literature, Nandy developed greater interests in race relations and was the first director of the Runnymede Trust. He was later a special consultant to the Home Office and deputy director of the Equal Opportunities Commission. He was a lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury in the mid 1960s.
Go to Profile#8810
Elguja Medzmariashvili
#81181
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (79 years)
Elguja Viktorovich Medzmariashvili. , Georgian scientist and military figure, Doctor of Military Science, Doctor of Technical Science, Professor, Major-General, academician of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. E. Medzmariashvili is General Constructor of the first Georgian space object launched into orbit on July 23, 1999, and, shifted to an independent orbit on July 28 after its deploying and testings. He established and developed the scientific, academic and applied areas in the fields of space technology and military engineering. He is a companion of the highest military state aw...
Go to Profile#8811
Melinda Tan
#51092
Overall Influence
Melinda Tan is an academic who is currently rector of the University of Central Lancashire campus in the UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus. Career Melinda Tan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English language and literature in 1991 from the National University of Singapore and a post graduate diploma in education from the same institution in 1992. She was awarded a Master of Arts degree in English language teaching and applied linguistics from the University of Nottingham in 1997. Tan remained with the university to study for a doctor of philosophy degree, lecturing there during this time. She received her doctorate in applied linguistics in 2000.
Go to Profile#8812
Gennady Drach
#167676
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (83 years)
Gennady Vladimirovich Drach is a Russian scientist in the fields of culturology and history of ancient Greek philosophy. He is a professor at the Southern Federal University, vice president of the Russian Philosophical Society , and a 2007 Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation. He is a member of the Editorial Boards for Humanitarians of the South of Russia and Scientific Thought of Caucasus.
Go to Profile#8813
Christine Lang
#47562
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (68 years)
Christine Lang is a German microbiologist and entrepreneur. Life and work Lang was raised in Bochum, West Germany, with her brother Joachim Lang. She studied biology from 1976 to 1981 at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Sussex. In 1985, she obtained a Dr. rer. nat. in Biology in Bochum on the molecular genetics of fungi, with her thesis entitled "Extrachromosomal in vitro genetics in fungi: chondriome vectors in yeasts." She then worked in industrial research at the Hüls Chemie research center . In 1993 she moved to the Technical University of Berlin and habilitated in the field of microbiology and molecular genetics under the supervision of Ulf Stahl.
Go to Profile#8814
Ashok Banerjee
#89951
Overall Influence
Ashok Banerjee is a professor of finance at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Banerjee holds an M.Com. degree from Calcutta University and a Ph.D. from Rajasthan University. At IIM Calcutta, he is a senior Professor in the Finance and Control group, and takes several advanced courses in Finance like Financial Accountancy, Corporate Finance, Corporate Restructuring and Behavioural Finance. He is also the faculty in-charge of the Finance Research and Trading Lab at IIM-C.
Go to Profile#8815
Alan Abel
#187041
Overall Influence
1928 - 2020 (92 years)
Alan Abel was an American percussionist, music educator, and inventor of musical instruments. He was the associate principal percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1959 until his retirement in 1997. He is widely regarded as one of the most important percussion educators of the second half of the twentieth century, having taught at Temple University beginning in 1972. Abel's inventions include several unique and ubiquitous triangles and a bass drum stand that allowed the instrument to be suspended with the use of rubber bands.
Go to Profile#8816
Ursula Wertheim
#132280
Overall Influence
1919 - 2006 (87 years)
Ursula Wertheim was a German literary scholar and university teacher at Jena in East Germany. The primary focus of her writing and teaching was on Germany's eighteenth and nineteenth century classical literature.
Go to Profile#8817
Gonzalo Pérez Iribarren
#131626
Overall Influence
1936 - 1998 (62 years)
Gonzalo Pérez Iribarren was an Uruguayan mathematician and statistical expert.
Go to Profile#8818
Jean Brihault
#112675
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (78 years)
Jean Brihault was a professor at the University of Rennes 2 which he holds as position of President from 1996 to 2001. Alongside his teaching activities, he held executive positions in the world of Handball. He was the President of European Handball Federation and the vice-president of International Handball Federation from 2012 to 2016.
Go to Profile#8819
Josh Schwartz
#53313
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (49 years)
Joshua Ian Schwartz is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for creating and executive producing the Fox teen drama series The O.C. which ran for 4 seasons. Schwartz is also known for developing The CW's series Gossip Girl based on the book of the same name and for co-creating NBC's action-comedy-spy series, Chuck.
Go to Profile#8820
Tracy Mackenna
#169737
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
Tracy Mackenna is a British sculptor and artist, creating works with her partner Edwin Janssen. She was Course Director at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. Education Tracy Mackenna studied at the Glasgow School of Art between 1981 and 1986. She is a Royal Scottish Academy's Academician.
Go to Profile#8821
Ruby Keeler
#147798
Overall Influence
1909 - 1993 (84 years)
Ethel Ruby Keeler was an American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly 42nd Street . From 1928 to 1940, she was married to actor and singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s, but made a widely publicized comeback on Broadway in 1971.
Go to Profile#8822
Bogumiła Lisocka-Jaegermann
#91970
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (69 years)
Bogumiła Lisocka-Jaegermann is a Polish social scientist and writer, specialising in the fields of history and development of the Third World and developing countries. Most of her works focus on Latin American history, social and economic development. She is currently working for the Institute of Regional and Global Studies of the Warsaw University and Collegium Civitas. In the past she also collaborated with the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#8823
László Filep
#192237
Overall Influence
1941 - 2004 (63 years)
László Filep was a Hungarian mathematician who specialized in history of mathematics. His Ph.D. advisors at the University of Debrecen were Barna Szénássy and Lajos Tamássy. Selected publications
Go to Profile#8824
Elmar Hillebrand
#64021
Overall Influence
1925 - 2016 (91 years)
Elmar Hillebrand was a German sculptor. Life and education After graduating from high school at Apostelgymnasium and then doing military service and being a prisoner of war, Elmar Hillebrand studied from 1946 to 1950 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Joseph Enseling and as a master student with Ewald Mataré, Joseph Beuys, among others. After studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris with Ossip Zadkine as well as stays abroad and trips , he exhibited his own work for the first time in 1952.
Go to Profile#8825
Petra Vinšová
#189719
Overall Influence
1991 - Present (34 years)
Petra Vinšová is a Czech curler. At the national level, she is a three-time Czech mixed champion . Personal life As of 2020, she is a PhD candidate in polar science. Teams Women's Mixed Mixed doubles
Go to Profile#8826
Jill Thompson
#80424
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
Jill Thompson is an American illustrator and writer who has worked for stage, film, and television. Well known for her work on Neil Gaiman's The Sandman characters and her own Scary Godmother series, she has worked on The Invisibles, Swamp Thing, and Wonder Woman as well.
Go to Profile#8827
David Davis
#125944
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (88 years)
David Davis was an American television producer and television writer. He co-created the sitcoms The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi . He also wrote, produced, and developed the sitcom Rhoda, co-starring his partner Julie Kavner. He also wrote and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show, off of which Rhoda was spun. In 1979, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his producing work on Taxi.
Go to Profile#8828
Jonathan B. Tucker
#43073
Overall Influence
1954 - 2011 (57 years)
Jonathan B. Tucker was a United States chemical and biological weapons expert. Early life and education Tucker was born on August 2, 1954, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Deborah Tucker. Tucker earned a B.S. in biology from Yale University and a Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Go to Profile#8829
Martin Birch
#33103
Overall Influence
1948 - 2020 (72 years)
Martin Birch was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden.
Go to Profile#8830
Héctor Chang
#192279
Overall Influence
Héctor Chang Lara is a Venezuelan mathematician working at CIMAT, Guanajuato unit, in Mexico. Chang received his BA in Mathematics from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela, his MS from the University of New Mexico and his PhD in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin, advised by Luis Caffarelli. Chang works in partial differential equations, specializing in elliptic and parabolic differential equations as well as integro-differential equations and free boundary problems.
Go to Profile#8831
Roger Greenaway
#58127
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (87 years)
Roger John Reginald Greenaway, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for his collaborations with Roger Cook and Tony Burrows. His compositions have included "You've Got Your Troubles" and the transatlantic million selling songs "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing " and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress". They were the first UK songwriting partnership to be granted an Ivor Novello Award as 'Songwriters of the Year' in two successive years.
Go to Profile#8832
Shirish Panchal
#66181
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Shirish Jagjivandas Panchal is a Gujarati critic, fiction writer, translator and editor. He won the 2009 Sahitya Akademi Award for Gujarati language for his criticism Vaat Aapanaa Vivechan-ni. He refused the award.
Go to Profile#8833
Debbie Reynolds
#188441
Overall Influence
1932 - 2016 (84 years)
Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer with her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words. Her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain . Her other successes include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis , Susan Slept Here , Bundle of Joy , The Catered Affair , and Tammy and the Bachelor , in which her performance of the song "Tammy" topped the Billboard music charts. In 1959, she starred in The M...
Go to Profile#8834
Werner G. Krebs
#107683
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (48 years)
Werner G. Krebs is an American data scientist. He is currently CEO of data science and artificial intelligence startup Acculation, Inc. and has previously held positions at what are now Virtu Financial, Bank of America, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center.
Go to Profile#8835
Tony Waddington
#185909
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Anthony Brandon Joseph Waddington is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, film producer, screenplay writer, and creative media executive. He became well known with Wayne Bickerton, as writer and producer of a series of UK chart hits in the 1970s for The Rubettes. He also received an Ivor Novello Award as "Songwriter of the Year".
Go to Profile#8836
Michele Perkins
#96160
Overall Influence
Michele D. Perkins is an American university administrator, who served as the 15th president of New England College. Education She completed a bachelor's degree in theatre and performance studies from Northwestern University. She then earned a master's degree in communication from Emerson College. Perkins completed a doctorate in education in higher education management from University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#8837
Thomas Wunderlich
#96290
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (70 years)
Thomas Alexander Wunderlich is a Professor of Geodesy at the Technical University of Munich.
Go to Profile#8838
John Reed
#185853
Overall Influence
1916 - 2010 (94 years)
John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Reed has been called "the last great exponent" of the Gilbert and Sullivan comedy roles.
Go to Profile#8839
Sabrina Raaf
#162181
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (53 years)
Sabrina Raaf is an American, Chicago-based, mechanized sculpture artist, and photographer. Career Sabrina Raaf attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. receiving her Bachelors in the School of Foreign Service. After graduating in 1994, she attended Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C.. At Corcoran she befriended David Adamson while attending his computer-art class, and in 1995, Raaf became gallery intern at the David Adamson Gallery. As a photographer and aspiring curator, Raaf organized a show of women photographers including herself.
Go to Profile#8840
Marcel Lesieur
#110846
Overall Influence
1945 - 2022 (77 years)
Marcel Lesieur was a French scientist. He was a student of the École polytechnique and held a doctorate in science. A researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, he then became a professor of fluid mechanics at the Institut polytechnique de Grenoble. He led a research team at the Geophysical and Industrial Flow Laboratory.
Go to Profile#8841
Richard Lippold
#22026
Overall Influence
1915 - 2002 (87 years)
Richard Lippold was an American sculptor, known for his geometric constructions using wire as a medium. Life Lippold was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Chicago, and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in industrial design in 1937. Lippold worked as an industrial designer from 1937 to 1941. After he became a sculptor, Lippold taught at several universities, including Hunter College at the City University of New York, from 1952 to 1967.
Go to Profile#8842
Sergey Lozhkin
#169756
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
Sergey Lozhkin is a Russian mathematician, Professor, Dr.Sc., a professor at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Moscow State University. He defended the thesis «Asymptotic estimates of a high degree of accuracy for the complexity of control systems» for the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences .
Go to Profile#8843
Simon Price
#108980
Overall Influence
1954 - 2011 (57 years)
Simon Rowland Francis Price was an English classical scholar, specializing in the imperial cult of ancient Rome. Personal life He was born in London and was the son of the Anglican bishop Hetley Price.
Go to Profile#8844
Andrew Noakes
#147251
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (55 years)
Andrew Noakes is an Associate Senior Lecturer in journalism, specialising in automotive journalism, at the Coventry University Department of Media and Communication. Early career An award-winning motoring journalist, author and photographer, he originally trained as an engineer at Loughborough University. After two years of working as a freelance motoring journalist he joined Fast Car, where he concentrated on technical articles and in-depth product tests. He quickly rose to the position of Deputy Editor.
Go to Profile#8845
Anna Jaquez
#58942
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (72 years)
Anna Jaquez is an American artist, art professor and metalsmith. She lives and works in El Paso, Texas. Jaquez is an art professor at the University of Texas at El Paso . She has work in the permanent collection of the El Paso Museum of Art.
Go to Profile#8846
Paolo Petrocelli
#166755
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (41 years)
#8847
Mike Young
#191412
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (80 years)
Michael Emlyn Young is a Welsh Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning producer. He is the founder of two animation companies in both the UK and the US. His company in 2015 changed its name from Mike Young Productions to Splash Entertainment, which also is a majority owner of Popular AVOD network Kabillion.
Go to Profile#8848
Nanette Fabray
#153185
Overall Influence
1920 - 2018 (98 years)
Nanette Fabray was an American actress, singer and dancer. She began her career performing in vaudeville as a child and became a musical-theatre actress during the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed for her role in High Button Shoes and winning a Tony Award in 1949 for her performance in Love Life. In the mid-1950s, she served as Sid Caesar's comedic partner on Caesar's Hour, for which she won three Emmy Awards, and appeared with Fred Astaire in the film musical The Band Wagon. From 1979 to 1984, she played Katherine Romano, the mother of lead character Ann Romano, on the TV series One Day at a Time.
Go to Profile#8849
Vasily Nalimov
#12162
Overall Influence
1910 - 1997 (87 years)
Vasiliy Vasilievich Nalimov was a Russian philosopher and humanist and wrote on Transpersonal Psychology. His main areas of research were the philosophy of probability and its biological, mathematical, and linguistic manifestations. He also studied the roles of gnosticism and mysticism in science. Thompson summarizes Nalimov as: "...philosopher, educator, devoted husband, mathematician, dissident, writer, and visionary".
Go to Profile#8850
John Bolton
#122426
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
John Bolton is a British comic book artist and illustrator most known for his dense, painted style, which often verges on photorealism. He was one of the first British artists to come to work in the American comics industry, a phenomenon which took root in the late 1980s and has since become standard practice.
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