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 Philosophy,
#13101
Erich Valentin
#108568
Overall Influence
1906 - 1993 (87 years)
Erich Valentin was a German musicologist. Life Born in Strasbourg, Valentin, the son of a postal clerk, studied musicology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München from 1925 and was awarded a doctorate in 1928 with his dissertation Die Entwicklung der Tokkata im 17. und 18. Jahrhunder. In 1931, he published the first independent Telemann biography on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Georg Philipp Telemann. From 1928 to 1935, he was a teacher at the seminar for music education in Magdeburg and music correspondent for various magazines, then he worked as a critic and music writer in Munich until 1939.
Go to Profile#13102
Pauline Atherton Cochrane
#111281
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Pauline Atherton Cochrane is an American librarian and one of the most highly cited authors in the field of library and information sciences. She is considered a leading researcher in the campaign to redesign catalogues and indexes to provide improved online subject access in library and information services as well as "a leading teacher and theorist in cataloging, indexing, and information access."
Go to Profile#13103
May Cohen
#142606
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
May Cohen, OC is a Canadian physician and educator. She is best known for initiating the creation of a women's health curriculum in Ontario medical schools and for her work as a women's health advocate.
Go to Profile#13104
Marwan Kassab-Bachi
#34004
Overall Influence
1934 - 2016 (82 years)
Marwan Kassab-Bachi , commonly known as Marwan, was a Syrian painter. Born in Damascus, he first studied at Damascus University before moving to Berlin, Germany, where he enrolled in the Hochschule der Bildende Künste. He stayed there for most of his life, and was appointed full professor in 1980.
Go to Profile#13105
Molly Antopol
#53905
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Molly Antopol is an American fiction and nonfiction writer. As of 2016, she is the Jones Lecturer at Stanford University. Her primary research interests include the Cold War and the Middle East. She is married to author Chanan Tigay and lives in San Francisco.
Go to Profile#13106
Byron Burford
#123874
Overall Influence
1920 - 2011 (91 years)
Byron Leslie Burford, Jr. was an American figurative painter. Biography Byron Leslie Burford, Jr., was born July 12, 1920, in Jackson, Mississippi, to Byron and Floy Smith Burford. Growing up in Greenville, Burford became fascinated with the carnivals and circuses booked to perform in the community by his father, who directed the local YMCA. At the age of 14 Burford went to work as a roadie for the Tom Mix Circus, and he painted circus life.
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David Gatten
#175230
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
David Edward Gatten is an American experimental filmmaker and moving image artist. Since 1996 Gatten's films have explored the intersection of the printed word and moving image, cataloging the variety of ways in which texts functions in cinema as both language and image, often blurring the boundary between these categories. His 16mm films often employee cameraless techniques, combined with close-up cinematography and optical printing processes. In addition to the ongoing 16mm films, Gatten is now making hybrid 16mm/digital works and has completed an entirely digital feature-length project cal...
Go to Profile#13108
Aaron Krach
#167932
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Aaron Krach is an American artist, writer, and journalist currently living in New York City. Background Aaron Krach was born in Ionia, Michigan on February 15, 1972. He grew up in Alhambra, California, and graduated from Alhambra High School. He attended the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, CA, graduating with a B.A. in Visual Arts in 1994. Aaron Krach moved to New York City in 1995. He received his MFA from Purchase College in 2012. He lives and works in Manhattan.
Go to Profile#13109
Nico Schüler
#171943
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Nico Schüler is a German-American music theorist, musicologist, composer, and university professor, whose scholarly work has been reviewed in peer-reviewed journals. He is listed in the Biography and Genealogy Master Index, in Who's Who in America and in Who's Who of Emerging Leaders.
Go to Profile#13110
Thomas Keith
#190915
Overall Influence
Thomas Keith is an American filmmaker, educator, and anti-sexist activist. He received both his Masters and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Claremont Graduate University. Keith is a professor of philosophy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and gender studies at Claremont Graduate University. He speaks to audiences throughout the United States on issues of masculinity, gender violence, media, and popular culture.
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Peter Zandstra
#66794
Overall Influence
Peter W. Zandstra, is a Canadian scientist who is the Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. Education Zandstra graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McGill University in the Department of Chemical Engineering and later obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, under the supervision of Jamie Piret and Connie Eaves. He continued his research training as a Post Doctoral Fellow in the field of Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology b...
Go to Profile#13112
Allyson Carlyle
#183461
Overall Influence
1954 - 2020 (66 years)
Allyson Carlyle was a United States of America library and information science scholar, considered a leading scholar in the field of cataloging. Carlyle was one of the initial faculty members of the University of Washington Information School, and served as the school’s first Associate Dean for Academics under Dean Michael Eisenberg. Carlyle worked to increase the diversity of the library profession, and established the Sherman Alexie and Lethene Parks Endowed Fellowship in Tribal and Rural Librarianship at the iSchool.
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Chris Fearne
#115276
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Christopher Fearne is a Maltese physician and politician. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Health in April 2014 and Minister for Health since April 2016. In July 2017, the Labour Party elected him as Deputy Leader for Parliamentary Affairs, thus assuming the role of Deputy Prime Minister of Malta and Leader of the House.
Go to Profile#13114
Kevin O'Rourke
#170372
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Kevin O'Rourke is an American film, stage, and television actor, best known for his role as Scott Sherwood in Remember WENN , Edward Bader in Boardwalk Empire, and as Spencer Tracy in The Aviator. Early life and education Kevin O'Rourke was born January 25, 1956, in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Tacoma, Washington. He graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre.
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Catherine Ellis
#181928
Overall Influence
1935 - 1996 (61 years)
Catherine Joan Ellis was an Australian ethnomusicologist. She co-founded the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at the University of Adelaide in 1972. Early life and education Catherine Joan Caughie was born on 19 May 1935 at Birregurra in Victoria.
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Chang Ching-wen
#181864
Overall Influence
Chang Ching-wen is a Taiwanese scientist and public official. Chang earned a master's of science at National Taiwan University's Institute of Public Health and a doctorate from the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati. Upon her return to Taiwan, Chang became a supervisor and director for the Taiwan Occupational Hygiene Association and Taiwan Society of Indoor Environmental Quality. She also held a professorship at NTU.
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Stephen Lewis
#105839
Overall Influence
1936 - 2015 (79 years)
Stephen Lewis , credited early in his career as Stephen Cato, was an English actor, comedian, director, screenwriter and playwright. He is best known for his roles as Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake in On the Buses, Clem "Smiler" Hemmingway in Last of the Summer Wine and Harry Lambert in Oh, Doctor Beeching!, although he also appeared in numerous stage and film roles.
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Ambika Bumb
#188171
Overall Influence
Ambika Bumb an American biomedical scientist and businessperson. Bumb is a nanomedicine specialist who uses nanotechnology for the detection and treatment of disease. Her discoveries using nanodiamonds while working as postdoctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute led to the launch of the biotech Bikanta.
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Edwin Seroussi
#97476
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Edwin Seroussi is an Israeli musicologist of Uruguayan origin. He is the Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology, director of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting scholar in Jewish studies at Dartmouth College. He is the 2018 Israel Prize laureate in the field of Musicology.
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Cheryl
#132490
Overall Influence
1983 - Present (43 years)
Cheryl Ann Tweedy is an English singer and television personality. Born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, she rose to fame in late 2002 upon winning a place in Girls Aloud, a girl group created through ITV's Popstars: The Rivals. While still in the group, she began a solo career in April 2009, and between then and 2014, she released four studio albums – 3 Words , Messy Little Raindrops , A Million Lights and Only Human . Collectively, the albums included ten singles, five of which – "Fight for This Love", "Promise This", "Call My Name", "Crazy Stupid Love" and "I Don't Care" – reached the top position on the UK Singles Chart.
Go to Profile#13121
Grzegorz Braun
#177276
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Grzegorz Michał Braun is a Polish far-right politician, journalist, academic lecturer, movie director and screenwriter. He is the leader of the monarchist party, Confederation of the Polish Crown and one of the leaders of Confederation Liberty and Independence. He was elected to the Sejm in 2019.
Go to Profile#13122
Rustem Nureev
#45403
Overall Influence
1950 - 2023 (73 years)
Rustem M. Nureev was a Soviet and Russian scientist and economist. Doctor of Sciences in Economics , professor at the Higher School of Economics and Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. He was the first vice chancellor of the Higher School of Economics. He was also Principal Researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#13123
Arthur Porter
#50834
Overall Influence
1956 - 2015 (59 years)
Arthur Thomas Porter IV was a Canadian physician and hospital administrator. In February 2004, Porter was appointed to replace Hugh Scott as the Director General and CEO of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Quebec, one of Canada's largest academic health centres. He left that position in December 2011.
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Anthony A. Goodman
#87887
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Anthony A. Goodman is an American breast cancer surgeon and author. He is Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Montana State University WWAMI Medical Sciences Program and is Affiliate Professor in the Department of Biological Structure at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
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Francisco Amighetti
#65938
Overall Influence
1907 - 1998 (91 years)
Francisco Amighetti was a Costa Rican painter. In addition to his paintings, Amighetti also produced wood engravings, poetry and works of art criticism. He based his artwork on basic lifestyle in Costa Rica.
Go to Profile#13126
Film News Anandan
#68994
Overall Influence
1928 - 2016 (88 years)
Film News Anandan was an Indian film historian and photographer based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was popularly known as the "walking encyclopedia" of Tamil cinema. Early life Anandan was born as Mani. His father P. K. Gnanasagaram was a government servant. When he was being admitted in school he told his principal his name was Anandakrishnan, which later became his legal name, and was further shortened to Anandan. After school, he joined Quaide Millath Arts college, then known as Government Arts college. When he was a college student, he had a chance to interact with the drama troupes of Y. G.
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Piotr Ogrodziński
#118851
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Piotr Andrzej Ogrodziński is a Polish diplomat, activist and philosopher. Activist Ogrodziński was born in Paris where his father, Przemysław Ogrodziński, was serving as the Polish charge d'affairs at the Polish embassy. Ogrodziński's father was a senior diplomat under the Communist regime. Ogrodziński's mother, Halina Jacuńska-Ogrodzińska, was recognized by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem as one of Righteous Among the Nations on 28 June 1979 for hiding two Jewish women, Maria Glass and Olga Lilien during the Holocaust.
Go to Profile#13128
Fred J. Ansfield
#86079
Overall Influence
1910 - 1996 (86 years)
Fred Joseph Ansfield, M.D. was an American pioneer of medical oncology. He was a leader in applying 5-FU to humans, demonstrating its effectiveness as a chemotherapy drug. Ansfield co-founded the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 1964, along with Harry Bisel, Arnoldus Goudsmit, Herman H. Freckman, Robert W. Talley, William Wilson and Jane Cooke Wright. He served as ASCO's third president . "He shall be remembered by cancer treatment specialists everywhere as one of the founders of Medical Oncology."
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Peter Panzica
#150997
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Peter John Panzica is Director of Anesthesiology at Westchester Medical Center and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at New York Medical College. He was prior Vice Chairman for Clinical Services in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School.
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Mwalim
#162325
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Mwalim , also known as "Mwalim *7" and "Mwalim DaPhunkee Professor" is an American performing artist, writer, and educator. He is a tenured associate professor of English and former director of Black Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He is also a founding member of The GroovaLottos, a multiple Grammy Award-nominated soul-funk-blues band, for which he is the keyboard player, a vocalist, and the resident songwriter.
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Richard of Campsall
#191317
Overall Influence
Richard of Campsall was an English theologian and scholastic philosopher, at the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of Balliol College and then of Merton College. He is now considered a possible precursor to the views usually associated with William of Ockham.
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Clifford Mann
#92385
Overall Influence
1962 - 2021 (59 years)
Clifford John Mann OBE was a British Emergency Medicine physician, and President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine 2013–2016, becoming the first President of Royal College of Emergency Medicine when the organisation received its royal charter.
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Hans Einstein
#47726
Overall Influence
1923 - 2012 (89 years)
Hans E. Einstein was the foremost authority on the lung disease Valley Fever. He lived in Bakersfield, California. He was related to Albert Einstein: Hans's grandfather and Albert were first cousins.
Go to Profile#13134
Wilberforce Echezona
#64830
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (100 years)
Wilberforce William Chukudinka Echezona was a Nigerian musicologist and a pioneer teacher of music in Nigerian universities. He was the first Igbo man to be educated at London's Trinity College of Music, and the first African to obtain a degree in music education in the United States, where he received a PhD from Michigan State University in 1963.
Go to Profile#13135
Nora Fisher McMillan
#169331
Overall Influence
1908 - 2003 (95 years)
Born Eleanor Fisher, the first of Ernest and Janet Fisher's two daughters, in Belfast on 16 March 1908, but known even then as "Nora", Nora Fisher McMillan, as she became, was a larger-than-life self-taught expert in natural history, especially conchology, specialising in post-glacial fresh-water Mollusca, but with broad academic interests in the history of natural history, geology and other areas, as well as being a keen amateur botanist, naturalist and local historian. She wrote prolifically, with over 400 publications to her name.
Go to Profile#13136
Ayoka Olufunmilayo Adebambo
#84641
Overall Influence
Ayoka Olufunmilayo Adebambo is a Nigerian scientist and professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics. She is the first female professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics. In September 2010, she was awarded the status of a Fellow of the Animal Science Association of Nigeria .
Go to Profile#13137
James Bogen
#187338
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
James Bogen is an American science philosopher currently at University of Pittsburgh and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#13138
Uché Blackstock
#92467
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Uché Blackstock is an American emergency physician and former associate professor of emergency medicine at the New York University School of Medicine. She is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, which has a primary mission to engage with healthcare and related organizations around bias and racism in healthcare with the goal of mobilizing for health equity and eradicating racialized health inequities. During the COVID-19 pandemic Blackstock used social media to share her experiences and concerns as a physician working on the front lines and on racial health disparities and inequities exposed by the pandemic.
Go to Profile#13139
A Satyanarayana Shastri
#172023
Overall Influence
1925 - 2004 (79 years)
A Satyanarayana Shastri was an Indian philosopher. After his BSc in 1943 from Central College and MSc from Dharwar, he worked at Vijaya College as a lecturer and later as a Professor for 18 years in the Department of Chemistry.
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Armen Dzhigarkhanyan
#75197
Overall Influence
1935 - 2020 (85 years)
Armen Borisovich Dzhigarkhanyan was a Soviet, Armenian, and Russian actor. Born and raised in Yerevan, Dzhigarkhanyan started acting in the academic and Russian theaters of the city, before moving to Moscow to continue stage acting. Since 1960, he appeared in a number of Armenian films. He became popular in the 1970s with the various roles he portrayed in Soviet films like The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers , its sequel The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers and The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed . After almost 30 years on the stage of the Mayakovsky The...
Go to Profile#13141
Norma Restieaux
#120239
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Dame Norma Jean Restieaux is a New Zealand physician, medical researcher, cardiologist and author. Early life Restieaux was born in the Dunedin suburb of St Kilda on 16 July 1934, the daughter of Frank Charles Restieaux and Florence Jean May Restieaux . She was educated at Otago Girls' High School.
Go to Profile#13142
Alan Farthing
#22961
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Alan John Farthing is an English obstetrician and gynaecologist who served as Surgeon-Gynaecologist to Queen Elizabeth II's Royal Household. Career Farthing was born in Winchester, Hampshire. He attended Beacon School in Crowborough, East Sussex, where his father was headmaster. After training at St George's Hospital Medical School, London, Farthing qualified as a doctor in 1986. He became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1991, and a Fellow in 2003.
Go to Profile#13143
Henci Goer
#70962
Overall Influence
Henci Goer is an American author who writes about pregnancy and childbirth. She is the author of The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. Her previous book, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities is a resource for childbirth professionals. Goer has written consumer education pamphlets and articles for magazines such as Reader's Digest, Birth, Journal of Perinatal Education, Midwifery today with international midwife, and the Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing. Previously appearing on ParentsPlace.com as the “Birth Guru,” she is currently a resident expert for the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth Forum.
Go to Profile#13144
Maria T. Accardi
#149685
Overall Influence
Maria T. Accardi is an academic in the field of library science at Indiana University Southeast. She is the 2014 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries Award for Significant Achievement in Woman's Studies Librarianship for her book Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction. Published in 2013 by Library Juice Press, the work examines "the intersection of information literacy and feminist theory." The chair of the awarding committee, Jennifer Mayer of the University of Wyoming, hailed the book as a "must-read for any librarian with interests in feminist issues, pedagogy,...
Go to Profile#13145
Ann-Marie MacDonald
#126535
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Life and career MacDonald is the daughter of a member of Canada's military; she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany. She is of partial Lebanese descent through her mother.
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Robin Peace
#82867
Overall Influence
Robin Peace is a social scientist from New Zealand. In 2018 she was appointed a Companion of the Royal Society Te Apārangi for her contribution to the promotion and advancement of the social sciences in New Zealand.
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Lisa Kahn
#186134
Overall Influence
1927 - 2013 (86 years)
Liselott Margarete "Lisa" Kahn was a German-American poet and scholar of psychology and German studies. She studied at the University of Heidelberg, where she obtained a PhD in psychology in 1953. She married the German-American scholar Robert L. Kahn and emigrated to the United States, where she was a teacher at The Kinkaid School from 1964 to 1968 and professor of German at Texas Southern University from 1968 to 1990, serving as head of the foreign language department from 1988.
Go to Profile#13148
Roganie Govender
#178818
Overall Influence
Roganie Govender is a British-South African speech and language therapist. She is a consultant clinical academic speech and language therapist at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Go to Profile#13149
Ivan Prpić
#169900
Overall Influence
1927 - 2019 (92 years)
Ivan Prpić was a Croatian physician. He was born in Sisak in 1927 and graduated from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in 1952, specializing in plastic reconstructive surgery. Prpić became a full professor at the Faculty of Medicine in 1976.
Go to Profile#13150
Clarence Major
#53046
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Clarence Major is an American poet, painter, and novelist; winner of the 2015 "Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts", presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. He was awarded the 2016 PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award.
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