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).
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List of the most influential people in Political Science,
#3801
Paul Powell
#90715
Overall Influence
1933 - 2016 (83 years)
Paul W. Powell was the retired Dean of Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor in 1956 and held a degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He received honorary degrees from Baylor, East Texas Baptist University, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Campbell University and Dallas Baptist University.
Go to Profile#3802
Hao Ping
#127101
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (66 years)
Hao Ping is a Chinese historian and academic administrator who has served as the party secretary of Peking University since June 2022. He served as president of Peking University from 2018 to 2022, Chinese vice minister of education from 2009 to 2016, and president of Beijing Foreign Studies University from 2005 to 2009.
Go to Profile#3803
Alexandra Délano
#191086
Overall Influence
#3804
Donald James Kirk
#109105
Overall Influence
Donald James Kirk an American accountant, was chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. He became a partner with Price Waterhouse in 1967. He was one of the initial board members appointed to the Financial Accounting Standards Board in 1973. In 1977 he became the second chairman of FASB, and served in that role for 9 years until his eligibility expired. He oversaw the transition of FASB meetings from closed, confidential meetings to being open and public.
Go to Profile#3805
Pat Gozemba
#180084
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (85 years)
Patricia Andrea Gozemba is an American academic and activist. She grew up in Massachusetts and was involved in the political movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Liberation Movement and protests against the Vietnam War.
Go to Profile#3806
Yoshikazu Sakamoto
#182300
Overall Influence
1927 - 2014 (87 years)
Yoshikazu Sakamoto was a Japanese academic, writer, and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. Sakamoto, a leading proponent of pacifism during Japan's post-war period, has been credited as a pioneer of international political studies in the country.
Go to Profile#3807
Michel Gelobter
#189802
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
Michel Gelobter is an American born social entrepreneur especially in the field of clean technology, who is also known for his research into and advocacy for environmental justice and social sector innovation.
Go to Profile#3808
Daniel Johnson Jr.
#188504
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Daniel Johnson Jr. is a former Canadian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Quebec and was the 25th premier of Quebec for nine months in 1994 until his party's defeat in the provincial general election.
Go to Profile#3809
W. South Coblin
#94319
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Weldon South Coblin, Jr. is an American Sinologist, linguist, and educator, best known for his studies of Chinese linguistics and Tibetan. Life and career Coblin attended the University of Washington as an undergraduate student, graduating with a B.A. in Chinese in 1967. He then continued on at Washington as a graduate student under the Belgian Sinologist and Roman Catholic clergyman Fr. Paul Serruys, earning a Ph.D. in Chinese language and literature in 1972 with a dissertation entitled "An Introductory Study of Textual and Linguistic Problems in Erh-ya". After completing his Ph.D., Coblin ...
Go to Profile#3810
Andrea H. Kendall-taylor
#191156
Overall Influence
#3811
Erek Barron
#182697
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (51 years)
Erek Lawrence Barron is an American attorney and politician serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland since 2021. He is a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 24th district.
Go to Profile#3812
Stacey Abrams
#185957
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (52 years)
Stacey Yvonne Abrams is an American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, serving as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, an organization to address voter suppression, in 2018. Her efforts have been widely credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia, including in the 2020 presidential election, when Joe Biden narrowly won the state, and in Georgia's 2020–21 regularly scheduled and special U.S. Senate elections, which gave Democrats contro...
Go to Profile#3813
Anne Speckhard
#188111
Overall Influence
Anne Speckhard is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington D.C. Her research focuses on developing counter-terrorism initiatives and understanding the motivations of terrorists. She is the Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism .
Go to Profile#3814
Hans-Christof von Sponeck
#106299
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (86 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#3815
Norbert Schedler
#81981
Overall Influence
1933 - 2019 (86 years)
Norbert O. Schedler was a Distinguished Emeritus University Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director of The Honors College at the University of Central Arkansas. Education Schedler received a B.A. in Classics from Concordia Seminary in Clayton, Missouri, in 1955. Concordia Seminary in those days was in deep theological turmoil, on the defensive against relativism, science, and secularism. Still, Schedler met with several young members of the faculty in their homes, where they talked about these ideas, especially the notion of "higher criticism", treating the Bible like any other text. Co...
Go to Profile#3816
Christopher Fettweis
#191286
Overall Influence
Christopher J. Fettweis is an American political scientist and Professor of Political Science at Tulane University. He is known for his expertise on American foreign relations. Books Making Foreign Policy Decisions: A Presidential Briefing Book, Transactions Press, 2015The Pathologies of Power: Fear, Honor, Glory and Hubris in U.S. Foreign Policy, Cambridge University Press, 2013Dangerous Times? The International Politics of Great Power Peace, Georgetown University Press, 2010Losing Hurts Twice as Bad: The Four Stages to Moving Beyond Iraq, W.W. Norton, 2008
Go to Profile#3817
George Poede
#132549
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
George Poede is a Romanian political philosopher, professor emeritus at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași. In 2016 he was nominated by the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of France for the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
Go to Profile#3818
Daniel L. Nagin
#53136
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (55 years)
Daniel L. Nagin is an American law professor. He is Clinical Professor of Law and the Vice Dean for Experiential and Clinical Education at the Harvard Law School. Early life Nagin was born circa 1969. He graduated from Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He earned a master's degree from Stanford University, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Go to Profile#3819
Viron P. Vaky
#170400
Overall Influence
1925 - 2012 (87 years)
Viron Peter Vaky was an American diplomat who was United States Ambassador to Costa Rica , Colombia , and Venezuela . He was a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and Council on Foreign Relations.
Go to Profile#3820
Jonathan Jackson
#188805
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
Jonathan Luther Jackson is an American politician, businessman, and activist serving as the U.S. representative for since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was previously the national spokesman for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a financial analyst, and a partner in the Chicago-based beer distributorship River North Sales and Service.
Go to Profile#3821
Birgit Kellner
#165618
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Birgit Kellner is an Austrian Buddhologist and Tibetologist. She studied Buddhology and Tibetology at University of Vienna, where she received a master's degree in 1994 under the supervision of Ernst Steinkellner, and at the Hiroshima University, where she earned her doctorate in 1999 under the supervision of Katsura Shōryū.
Go to Profile#3822
Rula Quawas
#118757
Overall Influence
1960 - 2017 (57 years)
Dr. Rula Butros Audeh Quawas was a Jordanian academic known for her advocacy for women's advancement in Jordan and as the first academic to introduce courses on feminism at the University of Jordan.
Go to Profile#3823
Huang Teh-fu
#191135
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (71 years)
Huang Teh-fu is a Taiwanese political scientist and politician who served in the Legislative Yuan from 2002 to 2008. Education and early career Huang earned a bachelor's and master's degree in political science from National Chengchi University, and later obtained a doctoral degree in the subject from Northwestern University in the United States. Upon returning to Taiwan, Huang joined the faculty of NCCU. In 2000, Huang proposed that several party positions be directly elected. The implementation of Huang's reforms resulted in the first direct election for Kuomintang chairman held in March 20...
Go to Profile#3824
John Moore
#167892
Overall Influence
1957 - 2002 (45 years)
John Moore was a British anarchist author, teacher, and organiser. A member of the Anarchist Research Group in London in the 1980s, he was one of the main theorists of the pro-Situ anarchism of the 1990s , and was attracted to anarcho-primitivism in particular; his best-known work is the essay "A Primitivist Primer." Despite the heavy influence of theorist Fredy Perlman, Moore later turned to theorists of language and subjectivity, such as Julia Kristeva, Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner.
Go to Profile#3825
Ole T. Berg
#168659
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (81 years)
Ole Trond Berg is a Norwegian political scientist. He graduated from the University of Oslo with the mag.art. degree in 1968, and he later took the dr.philos. degree in 1983. He worked as a research fellow at the University of Oslo from 1970 to 1974, and had stays at Yale University from 1973 to 1974 and the University of Minnesota from 1980 to 1981. After a short career as a civil servant, as a subdirector in the Ministry of Finance from 1983 to 1985, he returned to academia and was appointed as a professor of health administration at the University of Oslo. He is a member of the Norwegian ...
Go to Profile#3826
George Th. Mavrogordatos
#191482
Overall Influence
#3827
Chen Qingying
#172156
Overall Influence
1942 - 2022 (80 years)
Chen Qingying , is a Chinese Tibetologist. He is the director of the History Research Institute under the China Tibetology Research Center . Education At the age of 17, Chen Qingyin and his parents moved to Qinghai province . He began his studies in physics at the Qinghai Nationalities College. After completing his studies, in 1964 he became a teacher of physics in the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture first at Delingha High School, then at the Teachers' College for Ethnic Minorities.
Go to Profile#3828
Jacques Rougeot
#98352
Overall Influence
1938 - 2021 (83 years)
Jacques Rougeot was a French literary critic and political activist. Biography After earning a doctorate in literature in 1978, Rougeot was a French professor at Paris-Sorbonne University. He was one of the founders and served as President of Union Nationale Inter-universitaire from 1969 to 2009. He was also founding President of the Initiative and Liberty Movement.
Go to Profile#3829
Richard B. Mather
#112803
Overall Influence
1913 - 2014 (101 years)
Richard Burroughs Mather was an American Sinologist who was a professor of Chinese at the University of Minnesota for 35 years. Life and career Richard Burroughs Mather was born on November 11, 1913, in Baoding, China, where his American parents were serving as Protestant missionaries. He lived in China for his entire youth before going to the United States in the early 1930s to attend Princeton University, where he graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude in 1935. Even though he intended to return to China after his graduation, he was unable to do so due to the chaos of World War II. Instead, he entered the University of California, Berkeley, as a graduate student, where he earned a Ph.D.
Go to Profile#3830
Hideo Kiyama
#191530
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (91 years)
Hideo Kiyama is a Japanese Sinologist. He was born in Arakawa, Tokyo and graduated from the University of Tokyo. Selected works Beijing kujūanki: Zhou Zuoren in the Era of the Sino-Japanese War, 『北京苦住庵記 日中戦争時代の周作人』, Chikuma Shobō, Publishers, 1978
Go to Profile#3831
Stefan Heidemann
#77221
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (64 years)
Stefan Heidemann is a German orientalist at Hamburg University, Hamburg. Biography Islamic studies including Islamic Art and economics in Regensburg, Berlin, Damascus and Cairo 1982–1993; Ph.D. in Islamic studies 1993 at Free University Berlin; Graduate seminar of the American Numismatic Society New York, 1993; 1994–2001 at Jena University; 2001 at Jena University; visiting Professor 2001–2003 at University of Leipzig; 2002–2004 at Jena University; 2007-2008 Fellowship of the Aga Khan-Program of Islamic Architecture at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts; 2008 Fellowship at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK; 2004–2010 at Jena University.
Go to Profile#3832
Jan Blits
#69751
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Jan H. Blits is an American educational researcher and professor emeritus in the University of Delaware School of Education. He is also the president of the Delaware chapter of the National Association of Scholars . He received the Prometheus Award from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in 2009, and the Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in 2011. Along with his colleague Linda Gottfredson he helped to shut down a Residence Life Program at the University of Delaware in 2007, which the NAS had described as an "indoctrination center".
Go to Profile#3833
Mark Choate
#177463
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (54 years)
Mark Irvan Choate is a history professor at Brigham Young University and adjunct research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, specializing in the history of Europe, the Mediterranean, and the world, specifically international relations, migration, colonialism, and grand strategy. He emphasizes the relationships between international emigration, immigration, and colonialism, and transnational influences in the fields of diplomacy, trade, currency exchange, and military power.
Go to Profile#3834
Norman Finkelstein
#191605
Overall Influence
#3835
Gregory P. Conko
#191626
Overall Influence
#3836
Stephan Bierling
#118164
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
Stephan Bierling is a German political scientist. He teaches at the University of Regensburg, where he holds the only international relations-professorship in the country dedicated to transatlantic relations.
Go to Profile#3837
Huston Diehl
#100290
Overall Influence
1948 - 2010 (62 years)
Huston Diehl was Professor of English and CLAS Collegiate Fellow at the University of Iowa. Diehl received a B.A. from Colorado College , a M.A. from Duke University , as well a Ph.D. in English from Duke . She was a noted specialist in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature, writing and lecturing on the theatrical, visual, and religious cultures of early modern England. Diehl's books include An Index of Icons in English Emblem Books , and Staging Reform, Reforming the Stage: Protestantism and Popular Theater in Early Modern England , which was named an "Outstanding Academic...
Go to Profile#3838
Kenichi Itō
#150170
Overall Influence
1938 - 2022 (84 years)
Ito Ken'ichi was a Japanese diplomat and political scientist who was engaged in international politics and strategic studies. He was president and CEO of the Japan Forum on International Relations since it was founded in 1987, and served as chairman of the Global Forum of Japan , chairman of the Council on East Asian Community , and vice president of the Worldwide Support for Development . He was professor emeritus of Aoyama Gakuin University and held an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Cambodia.
Go to Profile#3839
Leonid Alaev
#113702
Overall Influence
1932 - 2023 (91 years)
Leonid Borisovich Alaev was a Soviet and Russian historian and indologist, Doctor of Sciences in Historical Sciences, principal researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and honorary professor at the Pedagogical Institute of Irkutsk State University.
Go to Profile#3840
Martin Schmeding
#161425
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (50 years)
Martin Schmeding is a German church musician, concert organist and academic teacher, who has made recordings of the complete organ works by composers such as Brahms, Mendelssohn, Franz Schmidt, Max Reger and Tilo Medek.
Go to Profile#3841
Guy Brown
#190702
Overall Influence
1936 - 2009 (73 years)
Guy A. C. Brown was a politician in Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented Cumberland Centre, and then Cumberland South in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, from 1974 to 1998. He was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia in 1936, and served in the Canadian Army from 1956 to 1962. Brown served in the Executive Council of Nova Scotia as Minister of Consumer Affairs from 1976 to 1978, and Minister of Housing and Consumer Affairs from 1993 to 1996. Brown was mayor of Springhill from 2004 to 2008.
Go to Profile#3842
Vittorio Mathieu
#79109
Overall Influence
1923 - 2020 (97 years)
Vittorio Mathieu was an Italian philosopher and historian. Biography Mathieu was born in 1923 in Varazze. After his secondary studies, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Turin. He graduated from the University of Turin with a degree in theoretical philosophy.
Go to Profile#3843
James J. Shinn
#189973
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (74 years)
James Joseph Shinn is a technology entrepreneur, scholar, and former U.S. government official. Education Born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, Shinn earned his BA degree from Princeton University in 1973, followed by an MBA at Harvard in 1981. He returned to complete his PhD at Princeton in 2001.
Go to Profile#3844
Tomasz Młynarski
#141541
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (48 years)
Tomasz Młynarski is a Polish political scientist and the former ambassador to France . Life Tomasz Młynarski was born in 1977. He has earned his master's degree from the Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Law and Administration. In 2005 he defended there his Ph.D. thesis on France strategy toward European Union institutional reform and enlargement. In 2014 he received his post-doctoral degree . He has been educated also at the Institut d'études politiques de Rennes , Sciences Po in Paris and Sorbonne University .
Go to Profile#3845
Sascha Meinrath
#189130
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (51 years)
Sascha Meinrath is an American policy activist and educator. He is currently the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University. Meinrath founded the Open Technology Institute in 2008 and directed the Institute while also serving as Vice President of the New America Foundation.
Go to Profile#3846
Mohammad Sadegh Khayatian
#189419
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (45 years)
Mohammad-Sadegh Khayatian is an Iranian policy analyst and assistant professor of science and technology at Shahid Beheshti University. Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian president, appointed Mohammad Sadegh Khayatian as head of the Center for Strategic Studies in November 2021. fa:محمدصادق خیاطیان
Go to Profile#3847
David Fleischer
#191503
Overall Influence
David Verge Fleischer is an American-born Brazilian social scientist and professor. Fleischer is professor emeritus at the University of Brasília, having taught there since 1972. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Washington and the State University of New York.
Go to Profile#3848
Bernhard Fuehrer
#161742
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (65 years)
Bernhard Fuehrer is a Professor of Sinology at the School of Oriental and African Studies . As well as teaching classes on Classical Chinese, he has co-authored a series of textbooks on Southern Hokkien with Yang Hsiu-fang. In 1999, SOAS became the first institution in the United Kingdom to teach a course in Hokkien. Professor Fuehrer has advocated that the study of Taiwan should include the study of Hokkien, as without it the student would be "lacking an important aspect of this field".
Go to Profile#3849
Tim Bale
#178810
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (60 years)
Timothy Paul Bale is professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. He was previously a Professor of Politics at the University of Sussex. His main research interests are in the fields of British, European and Comparative politics, especially in relation to centre-right and conservative politics.
Go to Profile#3850
Frederick M. Bernthal
#55998
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (82 years)
Frederick M. Bernthal was United States Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs from 1988 to 1990. Biography Frederick M. Bernthal was born in Sheridan, Wyoming on January 10, 1943. He was educated at Valparaiso University, receiving a B.S. in chemistry in 1964. He worked at the Argonne National Laboratory in 1964, and then did graduate research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1969. He then did postdoctoral research at Yale University in 1969-70.
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