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
#8801
Néstor García Canclini
#8811
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Néstor García Canclini is an Argentinian academic and anthropologist known for his theorization of the concept of "hybridity." Biography García Canclini was born December 1, 1939 in La Plata, Argentina. Three years after receiving his PhD in philosophy at the University of La Plata in 1975, thanks to a scholarship awarded from CONICET , García Canclini also received another PhD in philosophy from the Paris Nanterre University. He taught at the University of La Plata between 1966 and 1975 and at the University of Buenos Aires in 1974 and 1975. Throughout his academic career he has also served...
Go to Profile#8802
Eugene T. Booth
#8812
Overall Influence
1912 - 2004 (92 years)
Eugene Theodore Booth, Jr. was an American nuclear physicist. He was a member of the historic Columbia University team which made the first demonstration of nuclear fission in the United States. During the Manhattan Project, he worked on gaseous diffusion for isotope separation. He was the director of the design, construction, and operation project for the 385-Mev synchrocyclotron at the Nevis Laboratories, the scientific director of the SCALANT Research Center, and dean of graduate studies at Stevens Institute of Technology. Booth was the scientific director of the SCALANT Research Center, i...
Go to Profile#8803
Michael Merzenich
#8813
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Michael Matthias Merzenich is an American neuroscientist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco. He took the sensory cortex maps developed by his predecessors and refined them using dense micro-electrode mapping techniques. Using this, he definitively showed there to be multiple somatotopic maps of the body in the postcentral sulcus, and multiple tonotopic maps of the acoustic inputs in the superior temporal plane.
Go to Profile#8804
Dave Thomas
#8814
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Dave Thomas is a computer programmer, author and editor. He has written about Ruby and together with Andy Hunt, he co-authored The Pragmatic Programmer and runs The Pragmatic Bookshelf publishing company. Thomas moved to the United States from England in 1994 and lives north of Dallas, Texas.
Go to Profile#8805
Kazutoshi Mori
#8815
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
is a Japanese molecular biologist known for research on unfolded protein response. He is a professor of Biophysics at the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, and shared the 2014 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Peter Walter for discoveries concerning the unfolded protein response — an intracellular quality control system that detects harmful misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and signals the nucleus to carry out corrective measures.
Go to Profile#8806
Chris Van Allsburg
#8816
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Chris Van Allsburg is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji and The Polar Express , both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Hum...
Go to Profile#8807
M. A. R. Barker
#8817
Overall Influence
1929 - 2012 (83 years)
Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker was an American linguist who was professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies and created one of the first roleplaying games, Empire of the Petal Throne. He wrote several fantasy/science fantasy novels based in his associated world setting of Tékumel.
Go to Profile#8808
Russell Westbrook
#8818
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Russell Westbrook III is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association . A point guard, Westbrook made his NBA debut in 2008 and became a star as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has played for five NBA teams.
Go to Profile#8809
Leonard Lawlor
#8819
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Leonard "Len" Lawlor is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He specializes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Continental philosophy. Career Lawlor received his doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook in 1988 and taught at the University of Memphis from 1989–2008, where he held the position of Faudree-Hardin University Professor of Philosophy from 2004 to 2008 before joining the faculty at Penn State, as Sparks Professor of Philosophy. He is known for his writings on phenomenology and on the figures Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Henri Bergson, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Edmund Husserl, and Jean Hippolyte.
Go to Profile#8810
S. P. Kothari
#8820
Overall Influence
Professor S. P. Kothari is an Indian-American academic and the Gordon Y. Billard Professor of Accounting and Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Padma Shree awardee. His field of research is strategic and policy issues, securities regulation, auditing, and corporate governance.
Go to Profile#8811
Julia Gillard
#8821
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Julia Eileen Gillard is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as leader of the Australian Labor Party , having previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010, under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She is the first and only female to hold either office in Australian history.
Go to Profile#8812
Jenijoy La Belle
#8822
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Jenijoy La Belle is an American professor emeritus of English literature at California Institute of Technology. Hired in 1969, she became the first female professor in Caltech history. She is known for her fight to attain tenure in the early '70s, also at Caltech. She was granted tenure in 1979. She retired in 2007.
Go to Profile#8813
Brice Marden
#8823
Overall Influence
1938 - 2023 (85 years)
Nicholas Brice Marden Jr. was an American artist generally described as minimalist, although his work has roots in abstract expressionism, color field painting. and lyrical abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City; Tivoli, New York; Hydra, Greece; and Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#8814
Alan I. Leshner
#8824
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Alan Leshner is an American scientist and academic. Education Leshner received an undergraduate degree with Honors in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College in 1965. He earned an M.S. in physiological psychology from Rutgers University in 1967, and a Ph.D. degree in physiological psychology from Rutgers in 1969.
Go to Profile#8815
Gérald Tremblay
#8825
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Gérald Tremblay is a former Canadian politician and businessman who served as mayor of Montreal from 2002 until his resignation in 2012. He also served as president of the Montreal Metropolitan Community. Before becoming mayor he had a long career in business and management. Tremblay resigned as Mayor on November 5, 2012, following allegations of corruption made at the Charbonneau Commission.
Go to Profile#8816
John Dugard
#8826
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Christopher John Robert Dugard , known as John Dugard, is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, human rights, criminal procedure and international criminal law. He has served on the International Law Commission, the primary UN institution for the development of international law, and has been active in reporting on human-rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
Go to Profile#8817
Jay R. Galbraith
#8827
Overall Influence
1939 - 2014 (75 years)
Jay R. Galbraith was an American organizational theorist, consultant and professor at the International Institute for Management Development, known for his work on strategy and organization design. Biography Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Galbraith obtained his BSc in chemical engineering in 1962 at the University of Cincinnati, and at the Indiana University Bloomington his MBA in 1964, and his PhD in Business Administration with the thesis, entitled "Motivational Determinants of Job Performance: An Empirical Study."
Go to Profile#8818
Neven Sesardić
#8828
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Neven Sesardić is a Croatian philosopher known for his writings on heritability and race who worked most of his career as a professor at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Life and career He grew up in communist Yugoslavia. From 1977 to 1983 he worked as a lecturer at the University of Zagreb, and, from then, until 1989 he was assistant professor at the same university. In the 1980s he was listed as an "internal enemy" of the Yugoslav regime.
Go to Profile#8819
Robert Ryman
#8829
Overall Influence
1930 - 2019 (89 years)
Robert Ryman was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. He lived and worked in New York City.
Go to Profile#8820
Vincenzo Di Nicola
#8830
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Vincenzo Di Nicola is an Italian-Canadian psychologist, psychiatrist and family therapist, and philosopher of mind. Di Nicola is a tenured Full Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry & Addiction Medicine at the University of Montreal, where he founded and directs the postgraduate course on Psychiatry and the Humanities, and Clinical Professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The George Washington University, where he gave The 4th Annual Stokes Endowment Lecture in 2013. He has taught in the Global Mental Health Faculty of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
Go to Profile#8821
Jack Mezirow
#8831
Overall Influence
1923 - 2014 (91 years)
Jack Mezirow was an American sociologist and Emeritus Professor of Adult and Continuing Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Mezirow received his B.A. and M.A. Degree in Social Sciences and Education from the University of Minnesota, and his Ed.D. Degree in Adult Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was an Emeritus Professor of Adult and Continuing Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, and the founder of the Adult Education Guided Intensive Study doctoral program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Go to Profile#8822
Asima Chatterjee
#8832
Overall Influence
1917 - 2006 (89 years)
Asima Chatterjee was an Indian organic chemist noted for her work in the fields of organic chemistry and phytomedicine. Her most notable work includes research on vinca alkaloids, the development of anti-epileptic drugs, and development of anti-malarial drugs. She also authored a considerable volume of work on medicinal plants of the Indian subcontinent. She was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science from an Indian university.
Go to Profile#8823
Daniel A. Bell
#8833
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Daniel A. Bell is a Canadian political theorist. He is currently Chair of Political Theory at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. He was previously Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University and professor at Tsinghua University .
Go to Profile#8824
Steve Barri
#8834
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Steve Barri is an American songwriter and record producer. Career Early in his career, Barri was a staff writer with Dunhill Records. He produced such huge hits as "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe. As both songwriter and producer he frequently collaborated with P. F. Sloan, and the partners were responsible for the success of The Grass Roots and contributed largely to the band's first album. They co-produced the global hit version of Sloan's song "Eve of Destruction" – a 1965 US number one by Barry McGuire . Barri and Sloan co-wrote and/or co-produced many other hit records in the mid-1960s including "...
Go to Profile#8825
Lauren Bacall
#8835
Overall Influence
1924 - 2014 (90 years)
Betty Joan Perske , professionally known as Lauren Bacall , was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2009 in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures. She was known for her alluring, sultry presence and her distinctive, husky voice. Bacall was one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
Go to Profile#8826
Alexander Reid Ross
#8836
Overall Influence
Alexander Reid Ross is an American author and adjunct geography lecturer at Portland State University with fellowships at the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right in the UK and at Political Research Associates. He is author of Against the Fascist Creep.
Go to Profile#8827
María Zambrano
#8837
Overall Influence
1904 - 1991 (87 years)
María Zambrano Alarcón was a Spanish essayist and philosopher associated with the Generation of '36 movement. Her extensive work between the civic engagement and the poetic reflection started to be recognised in Spain over the last quarter of the 20th century after living many years in exile. She was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize .
Go to Profile#8828
Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh
#8838
Overall Influence
Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh is an Iranian British academic who is a professor at University College London. She was awarded a senior research fellowship at the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022. Early life and education Sadrzadeh is from Iran. She received her undergraduate and master's degrees at Sharif University of Technology. After earning her master's degree Sadrzadeh moved to Canada. She was a doctoral researcher first at the University of Ottawa, where she was awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, a University of Ottawa Excellence Scholarship, and a Canada Female Doctoral Student Award, and then at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Go to Profile#8829
Paul Biya
#8839
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been the President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982, having previously been Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982. He is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa, the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world.
Go to Profile#8830
Russell T. McCutcheon
#8840
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Russell Tracey McCutcheon is a Canadian religion scholar who earned a PhD in religious studies from the University of Toronto in 1995. Biography McCutcheon is a professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Alabama, and was department chair from 2001 to 2009. He was an editor of the quarterly periodical Method & Theory in the Study of Religion from 1997 to 2001. In 2005, McCutcheon was elected President of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion, headquartered at Rice University. He is the founder and series editor for the anthology series, Critical Categor...
Go to Profile#8831
Tim Keller
#8841
Overall Influence
1950 - 2023 (73 years)
Timothy James Keller was an American Calvinist pastor, preacher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He was the chairman and co-founder of Redeemer City to City, which trains pastors for service around the world. He was also the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of The New York Times bestselling books The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith , Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God , and The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism . The prequel for the latter is Making Sense of GOD: An Invitation to the Skeptic...
Go to Profile#8832
Stuart A. Kirk
#8842
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Stuart A. Kirk holds the Marjorie Crump Chair in Social Welfare at UCLA and is a former psychiatric social worker. His research interests include mental health issues, particularly the creation and use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . Kirk has authored, co-authored and edited many books, including most recently Mad Science: Psychiatric Coercion, Diagnosis, and Drugs . He was former chief editor of the Social Work Research journal.
Go to Profile#8833
Larry Hurtado
#8843
Overall Influence
1943 - 2019 (76 years)
Larry Weir Hurtado , was an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, and Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh . He was the head of the School of Divinity from 2007 to 2010, and was until August 2011 Director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#8834
Viktor Gerashchenko
#8844
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Viktor Vladimirovich Gerashchenko , nicknamed Gerakl , was the chairman of the Soviet State bank and the Russian Central Bank during much of the Perestroika and post-Perestroika periods. Biography Viktor Gerashchenko was born in Leningrad on 21 December 1937. His father was a leading Soviet banker who ran the Financial Department of the Foreign Office in the 1940s before ending his career as deputy chairman of the State Bank. Due to his father's connections, Viktor made a brilliant career in the Soviet banking system. At the age of 28 he became director of the first Soviet bank abroad, Moscow...
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J. Mark G. Williams
#8845
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
J. Mark G. Williams, is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry. He held previous posts at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge and the University of Wales Bangor, where he founded the Institute for Medical and Social Care Research and the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the British Academy. He was educated at Stockton Grammar School, Stockton-on-Tees, and at St Peter's College, Oxford.
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Johann-Dietrich Wörner
#8846
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Johann-Dietrich "Jan" Wörner is a German civil engineer, university professor and former president of Technische Universität Darmstadt. He served as chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center DLR from 1 March 2007 to 30 June 2015. On 1 July 2015, he succeeded Jean-Jacques Dordain as Director General of the European Space Agency.
Go to Profile#8837
Louis Lasagna
#8847
Overall Influence
1923 - 2003 (80 years)
Louis Cesare Lasagna was an American physician and professor of medicine, known for his revision of the Hippocratic Oath. Early life and education Lasagna was an internationally recognized and respected expert in clinical pharmacology. Born in Queens, New York in 1923, Lasagna was raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey, by his Italian immigrant parents, and graduated from New Brunswick High School. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1943 and earned his medical degree from Columbia University in 1947. During his time at Rutgers University, he joined Kappa Sigma Fraternity . After completing ...
Go to Profile#8838
David Hilliard
#8848
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
David Hilliard is a former member of the Black Panther Party, having served as Chief of Staff. He became a visiting instructor at the University of New Mexico in 2006. He also is the founder of the Dr. Huey P. Newton foundation.
Go to Profile#8839
Wing-tsit Chan
#8849
Overall Influence
1901 - 1994 (93 years)
Wing-tsit Chan was a Chinese scholar and professor best known for his studies of Chinese philosophy and his translations of Chinese philosophical texts. Chan was born in China in 1901 and went to the United States in 1924, earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1929. Chan taught at Dartmouth College and Chatham University for most of his academic career. Chan's 1963 book A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy was highly influential in the English-speaking world, and was often used as a source for quotations from Chinese philosophical classics.
Go to Profile#8840
Tony Iommi
#8850
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Anthony Frank Iommi Jr. is an English-Italian musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. Iommi was ranked number 13 in Rolling Stone magazine's 2023 list of greatest guitarists of all time.
Go to Profile#8841
James Serrin
#8851
Overall Influence
1926 - 2012 (86 years)
James Burton Serrin was an American mathematician, and a professor at University of Minnesota. Life He received his doctorate from Indiana University in 1951 under the supervision of David Gilbarg. From 1954 till 1995 he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota.
Go to Profile#8842
Kamal Salibi
#8852
Overall Influence
1929 - 2011 (82 years)
Kamal Suleiman Salibi was a Lebanese historian, professor of history at the American University of Beirut and the founding Director of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies in Amman, Jordan. He was a lifetime bachelor, who devoted his life to books.
Go to Profile#8843
Syed Ali Ahsan
#8853
Overall Influence
1920 - 2002 (82 years)
Syed Ali Ahsan was a Bangladeshi poet, writer and university academic. He was awarded Ekushey Padak and Independence Day Award by the Government of Bangladesh. In 1987, he was selected as the National Professor of Bangladesh. He was credited as the official English translator of the National Anthem of Bangladesh.
Go to Profile#8844
Amrita Pritam
#8854
Overall Influence
1919 - 2005 (86 years)
Amrita Pritam was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award. Her body of work comprised over 100 books of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were all translated into several Indian and foreign languages.
Go to Profile#8845
Jeff Sessions
#8855
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States attorney general from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as United States senator from Alabama from 1997 to 2017 before resigning that position to serve as attorney general in the administration of President Donald Trump.
Go to Profile#8846
Robert I. Sutton
#8856
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Robert I. Sutton is a professor of management science at the Stanford University School of Engineering and a researcher in the field of evidence-based management. He is a New York Times best-selling author.
Go to Profile#8847
Braj Kachru
#8857
Overall Influence
1932 - 2016 (84 years)
Braj Bihari Kachru was an Indian-American linguist. He was Jubilee Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He published studies on the Kashmiri language. Personal life Braj Bihari Kachru was a friend of Kashmiri poet and writer Zinda Kaul Masterji. Lala Sahab and his friends and colleagues had discussions on politics, literature and philosophy at his house. During their visits, Braj had the opportunity to interact with Masterji and his father's other teacher colleagues.
Go to Profile#8848
Vaughan Oliver
#8858
Overall Influence
1957 - 2019 (62 years)
Vaughan Oliver was a British graphic designer based in Epsom, Surrey. Oliver was best known for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. Both studios maintained a close relationship with record label 4AD between 1982 and 1998 and gave distinct visual identities for the 4AD releases by many bands, including Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pale Saints, Pixies, and Throwing Muses. Oliver also designed record sleeves for such artists as David Sylvian, The Golden Palominos, and Bush.
Go to Profile#8849
Hilde Levi
#8859
Overall Influence
1909 - 2003 (94 years)
Hilde Levi was a German-Danish physicist. She was a pioneer of the use of radioactive isotopes in biology and medicine, notably the techniques of radiocarbon dating and autoradiography. In later life she became a scientific historian, and published a biography of George de Hevesy.
Go to Profile#8850
Roger Pearson
#8860
Overall Influence
1927 - Present (99 years)
Roger Pearson is a British anthropologist, eugenicist, white supremacist, political organiser for the extreme right, and publisher of political and academic journals. Pearson was a part of the faculty of the Queens University of Charlotte, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Montana Tech, before his retirement. It has been noted that Pearson was surprisingly successful in combining a career in academia with political activities on the far right.
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