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 Sociology,
#1701
Susan Cotts Watkins
#147908
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Susan Cotts Watkins is an American demographer. She has been a professor at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. She is now professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has focused on the impact of social networks on cultural change in the demography of the U.S., Western Europe, and Africa.
Go to Profile#1702
Madawi al-Rasheed
#24533
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Madawi al-Rasheed, is a British citizen of Saudi origin and a professor of social anthropology. Al-Rasheed has held a position at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies in King's College London and as a Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She gives occasional lectures in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. She is the granddaughter of Muhammad bin Talāl al-Rashid, the last prince of the Emirate of Ha'il, which was conquered by the Al-Saud in the early 20th century. She has written several books and articl...
Go to Profile#1703
Fiona Devine
#58159
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Fiona Devine CBE FAcSS is a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester and Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester. Education Devine's degrees, master's and doctorate were all gained from the University of Essex.
Go to Profile#1704
María Teresa Uribe
#97589
Overall Influence
1940 - 2019 (79 years)
María Teresa Uribe de Hincapié was a Colombian sociologist, specialising in research into conflict and violence. Early life and education Born in Pereira, Risaralda, in 1940, Uribe grew up during the period of Colombian civil war known as La Violencia. Injured and wounded travellers, displaced from their rural homes, came to her family home in the 1950s seeking medical treatment from her father, a doctor, and Uribe helped him to care for them. She later stated that this early experience of the result of conflict inspired her academic research interests.
Go to Profile#1705
Carole A. Estabrooks
#146377
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Carole Anne Estabrooks is a Canadian applied health services researcher. She is a Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation and a professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta. She has been listed amongst the highest cited researchers in her field and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2016.
Go to Profile#1706
Faina Jyrkilä
#60020
Overall Influence
1917 - 2008 (91 years)
Faina Jyrkilä was the first female Finnish sociologist. She also was one of the first sociologists to study aging. Biography Faina Jyrkilä was born 1 September 1917 in Sortavala, Finland, graduating from high school in 1941 and completing a social work degree in 1945. Between 1952 and 1953, Jyrkilä attended school at Columbia University and Harvard. In 1960, she obtained the first Ph.D earned by a woman in sociology in Finland.
Go to Profile#1707
Fun Sun Chu
#151297
Overall Influence
#1708
Veronika Kalmus
#133722
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (51 years)
Veronika Kalmus is an Estonian sociologist and competitive draughts player. She is a professor of sociology at the University of Tartu. She specializes in trends in societal attitudes, particularly in Estonia, and the uses of educational media. She has won eight gold medals in national competitions of Russian draughts.
Go to Profile#1709
Robert Bartholomew
#28661
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Robert Emerson Bartholomew is an American medical sociologist, journalist and author living in New Zealand. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. In addition to publishing more than 60 academic papers, he has written or co-written 16 popular science and skeptical non-fiction books. He writes for several newspapers and journals on sociological and fringe science topics, including Psychology Today, Skeptical Inquirer, and British magazines The Skeptic and Fortean Times.
Go to Profile#1710
Samantha Brennan
#65273
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Samantha J. Brennan is a British-born philosopher and scholar of women's studies who is currently dean of the College of Arts and faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Guelph. She was previously a professor in the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research at Western University, Canada. She remains a member of Western's Rotman Institute of Philosophy and the graduate faculty of the Departments of Political Science and of Philosophy. Brennan was Department Chair of Philosophy at Western from 2002 to 2007, and 2008–2011. She is a past president of the Canad...
Go to Profile#1711
Kristin Anderson Moore
#151488
Overall Influence
#1712
Mary K. Trigg
#121134
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Mary K. Trigg is Associate Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Trained in women’s history and American Studies, her scholarship focuses on the history of feminism in the United States; motherhood studies and women, work, and family; and women’s/feminist leadership. Trigg is also Director of Leadership Programs and Research at the Institute for Women's Leadership, and the founding director of the Leadership Scholars Certificate Program which she has led since 1998. In her time at Rutgers she has also served as Associate Director of the Center for Wom...
Go to Profile#1713
Mette Andersson
#133508
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (60 years)
Mette Andersson is a Norwegian sociologist. She is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen. Her fields of expertise are cultural and political sociology, especially migration, ethnicity and racism, identity and identity politics, social movements, sociology of sport, transnationality and religion.
Go to Profile#1714
Stuart George Hall
#151599
Overall Influence
#1715
Douglas John Mcadam
#151600
Overall Influence
#1716
Michael J. Mulkay
#151740
Overall Influence
#1717
Thomas Heberer
#151769
Overall Influence
#1718
Robert D. Mare
#151827
Overall Influence
#1719
Francine Descarries
#116241
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (82 years)
Francine Descarries is a Canadian sociologist. She is a professor of sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is considered a leading figure in feminist studies in Quebec. Biography At the age of 16, after the death of her father, Descarries left school so that her family could afford her brother's medical training. Descarries found work as a legal secretary then as a travel agent, then left the workforce to care for her children. She returned to school at age 27, shortly after the birth of her second child. She attended Cégep Édouard-Montpetit. With a scholarly interest in women...
Go to Profile#1720
Charles R. Tittle
#151910
Overall Influence
#1721
Augustine Kposowa
#126909
Overall Influence
Prince Augustine Joseph Kposowa is a Sierre Leonean-American sociologist and previously was a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, where he was also the chair of the sociology department.
Go to Profile#1722
Mario Savio
#5781
Overall Influence
1942 - 1996 (54 years)
Mario Savio was an American activist and a key member of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "Bodies Upon the Gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964.
Go to Profile#1723
Ivan Kuvačić
#52652
Overall Influence
1923 - 2014 (91 years)
Ivan Kuvačić was a Croatian Marxist sociologist and a professor emeritus at Zagreb University. He was a member of the advisory board of Praxis.
Go to Profile#1724
Dennis Hogan
#93575
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Dennis P. Hogan is an American sociologist, currently the Robert E. Turner Distinguished Professor in Population at Brown University, and also a published author. From 1987 to 1995, he was the Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University. His highest cited paper is "The impact of social status, family structure, and neighborhood on the fertility of black adolescents" at 1102 times, according to Google Scholar .
Go to Profile#1725
Dagmar Schultz
#93836
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Dagmar Schultz is a German sociologist, filmmaker, publisher and professor. Biography Schultz grew up in a female household; her father committed suicide in World War II. After a few semesters studying journalism, North American studies and Romance studies at the Free University of Berlin. In 1965, she graduated from the University of Michigan inbroadcasting, television and film, with a master's thesis on "The Role of Broadcasting in Africa with Special Emphasis on West Africa". However, her dream of working as a documentary filmmaker on television proved to be unrealizable: "My job interview...
Go to Profile#1726
Phillip Brown
#70501
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Professor Phillip Brown FLSW , a British sociologist of education, economy and social change, is Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He is a prominent modern sociologist and currently the author of seventeen books and over 100 articles and reports. Since 2005 he has given keynote presentation in over 17 counties around the world, including the World Bank in Washington and International Labour Organization in Geneva and EU in Brussels.
Go to Profile#1727
Pierre Bourdieu
#152351
Overall Influence
#1728
Luigi Berzano
#95034
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Luigi Berzano is an Italian sociologist and Catholic priest. Biography He is national coordinator of the Scientific Council of Religion Section of the Italian Association of Sociology and, since 1992, president of the Center for Studies on New Religions . He is full professor at the Department of Cultures, Politic and Society of the University of Turin. He collaborates with the Faculty of Theology and Rebaudengo University in Turin. Since 2005, he is member of the Scientific Council of the Journal Studi di Sociologia of the Catholic University of Milan.
Go to Profile#1729
Daniel J. Brass
#63573
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Daniel Joseph Brass is an American organizational theorist and Professor of Innovation Management at the University of Kentucky, and Director of its LINKS Center for Social Network. Biography Brass studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where in 1969 he received his BA in Psychology, in 1975 his MA in Labor and Industrial Relations, and in 1979 his PhD in Business Administration and Management.
Go to Profile#1730
Ursula Apitzsch
#126004
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Ursula Apitzsch is a German political scientist and sociologist. Since 1993, she has been Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Frankfurt. Her research fields are cultural analysis, biographical research, migration, ethnicity and gender.
Go to Profile#1731
Arun K. Bhunia
#152561
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
#1732
Robert C. Baker
#10030
Overall Influence
1921 - 2006 (85 years)
Robert Carl Baker was an American inventor and Cornell University professor. He invented the chicken nugget as well as many other poultry-related inventions. Due to his contributions to the poultry sciences, he is a member of the American Poultry Hall of Fame.
Go to Profile#1733
Delbert S. Elliott
#152819
Overall Influence
#1734
Yves Gingras
#152829
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
#1735
Saul Becker
#58690
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Saul Becker is a British academic and social scientist renowned for his work on Young Carers and considered as the pioneer and world leader in the field. He is author of author and editor of 18 books, including Young Carers and their families and Responding to Poverty. He is currently the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the Faculty of Health and Education of Manchester Metropolitan University.
Go to Profile#1736
Kim TallBear
#36893
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Kim TallBear (born 1968) is a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in racial politics in science. Holding the first ever Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment, TallBear has published on DNA testing, race science and Indigenous identities, as well as on polyamory as a decolonization practice. TallBear is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota, as well as a descendant from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma. TallBear pursued post-secondary education at the University of Massachusetts Boston obtaining an undergraduate degree in community planning.
Go to Profile#1737
James Robert Carey
#153189
Overall Influence
#1738
Anna Johnson Julian
#57655
Overall Influence
1903 - 1994 (91 years)
Anna Johnson Julian was the first African-American woman awarded a PhD in sociology by the University of Pennsylvania , a civic activist, and fourth national president of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically black sorority. In the 1930s, Julian studied factors inhibiting children's education and taught sociology at the University of the District of Columbia then known as Miner Teachers College. Her doctoral work was an analysis of the case records of 100 families receiving income support. She was married to prominent chemist, Percy Lavon Julian, from 1935 to his death in 1975, and had three children.
Go to Profile#1739
Verta Taylor
#112512
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Verta Ann Taylor is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with focuses on gender, sexuality, social movements, and women's health. Education and career Taylor earned a degree in social work from Indiana State University in 1970, and then went to Ohio State University for graduate study in sociology, earning a master's degree in 1971 and completing her Ph.D. there in 1976.
Go to Profile#1740
Terry Nicholls Clark
#153419
Overall Influence
#1741
Margaret Poloma
#71719
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
Margaret M. Poloma is an American sociologist, professor, and author who is known for her research on the Pentecostal movement in American Christianity. Poloma began her career as a sociologist with her research on two-career and child-free couples.
Go to Profile#1742
Lynne Cossman
#123616
Overall Influence
Jeralynn Sittig Cossman, also known as Lynne Cossman, is the founding dean of UTSA's College for Health, Community and Policy. Prior to that appointment in 2020, she was Professor and head of the Department of Sociology at West Virginia University and before that, Department Head and Chair in the department of sociology at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. Dr. Cossman was also a research fellow at the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University. She is the co-editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Population Research and Policy Review.
Go to Profile#1743
Guo Yuhua
#105565
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Guo Yuhua is a Chinese liberal intellectual and professor of sociology at Tsinghua University, noted for her criticism of the Chinese government. Early life and education Guo was born in 1956 to parents who worked as military officers for the central government in Beijing. Her father was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, dying of liver cirrhosis in 1968 after being denied medication. Guo was sent "Down to the Countryside" to perform labor in Wuhan, returning to Beijing in 1980.
Go to Profile#1744
Joseph G. Grzywacz
#153673
Overall Influence
#1745
Carolyn Baylies
#82551
Overall Influence
1947 - 2003 (56 years)
Carolyn Louise Baylies , was an American academic and activist. She was particularly active in the fields of health and sociology of the third world and international development, and especially on the gendered aspects of development. Baylies was particularly notable for her work on the ways in which the AIDS epidemic threatened existing social structures and food security, a connection which she was one of the first to make.
Go to Profile#1746
Heino Meyer-Bahlburg
#128065
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg is a German-born psychologist best known for his work on biology of sexual orientation, gender identity, intersexuality, and HIV. Education and career Meyer-Bahlburg earned his Diplom from University of Hamburg in 1966 and his Dr. rer. nat. in Psychology from University of Düsseldorf in 1970. He took a position at State University of New York, Buffalo and at Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York in 1970. Since 1977 he has held appointments at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University where he has been Professor of Clinical Psychology since 1990.
Go to Profile#1747
Mildred Blaxter
#99494
Overall Influence
1925 - 2010 (85 years)
Mildred Lillington Blaxter was a British sociologist and writer. According to her obituary in The Guardian, she "shed new light on the causes of deprivation". Early life She was born Mildred Lillington Hall on 27 March 1925 in Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the elder child and only daughter of Robert Charlton Hall, a bank manager, and his wife, Mildred Violet Hall, née Gleed , an actress. She was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford, and earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1949, and was the first woman to be assistant editor of the student newspaper, Isis.
Go to Profile#1748
Stephen Steinberg
#104793
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Stephen Steinberg is an American sociologist, currently a Distinguished Professor at Queens College, who is noted for his work on ethnicity. Recently he has produced a critique on sociology.
Go to Profile#1749
Radhika Balakrishnan
#73479
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Radhika Balakrishnan is the faculty director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University. Currently, she serves as the Chair of the Board of the United States Human Rights Network and Chair on the Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Commissioner for the Commission for Gender Equity for the City of New York, and President of the International Association for Feminist Economics for 2020-2021.
Go to Profile#1750
Christopher Wildeman
#129279
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (45 years)
Christopher James Wildeman is an American sociologist and professor of policy analysis and management in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. He is also Director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and Associate Vice Provost for the Social Sciences at Cornell University. Wildeman is known for researching the effects of incarceration on children's health, homelessness, and racial inequality.
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