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
#19751
Theodore Postol
#19762
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Theodore A. Postol is a professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his work at MIT, he worked at Argonne National Laboratory, the Pentagon, and Stanford University.
Go to Profile#19752
Samantha Nutt
#19763
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Samantha Joan Nutt is a Canadian physician and philanthropist who is the founder and president of War Child Canada. She has more than sixteen years of experience working in war zones. Her 2011 book Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid details her work over the course of fifteen years in some of the most devastated regions of the world.
Go to Profile#19753
Antonio Skármeta
#19764
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Antonio Skármeta is a Chilean writer, scriptwriter and director descending from Croatian immigrants from the Adriatic island of Brač, Dalmatia. He was awarded Chile's National Literature Prize in 2014.
Go to Profile#19754
Thierry Boutsen
#19765
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Thierry Marc Boutsen is a Belgian former racing driver who raced for the Arrows, Benetton, Williams, Ligier and Jordan teams in Formula One. He competed in 164 World Championship Grands Prix , winning three races, achieving 15 podiums and scoring 132 career points. His best finish in the World Drivers' Championship was fourth in whilst driving for Benetton. He also twice finished second in the 24 Hours of Le Mans sportscar race .
Go to Profile#19755
Edith M. Flanigen
#19766
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Edith Marie Flanigen is a noted American chemist, known for her work on synthesis of emeralds, and later zeolites for molecular sieves at Union Carbide. Early life and education Edith Marie Flanigen was born January 28, 1929, in Buffalo, New York. She and her two sisters, Joan and Jane, were introduced to chemistry by their high school teacher. The three sisters all went on to study chemistry at D'Youville College. Edith Flanigen graduated class president and valedictorian. Joan and Edith both went on to receive master's degrees in chemistry in inorganic physical chemistry at Syracuse University in 1952.
Go to Profile#19756
Mira Wilkins
#19767
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Mira Wilkins is an American economic and business historian and a world authority on the history of American business and foreign direct investment. She is Professor Emerita at the Department of Economics, Florida International University.
Go to Profile#19757
Rolf Rendtorff
#19768
Overall Influence
1925 - 2014 (89 years)
Rolf Rendtorff was Emeritus Professor of Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg. He has written frequently on the Jewish scriptures and was notable chiefly for his contribution to the debate over the origins of the Pentateuch .
Go to Profile#19758
Barnett Rosenberg
#19769
Overall Influence
1926 - 2009 (83 years)
Barnett Rosenberg was an American chemist best known for the discovery of the anti-cancer drug cisplatin. Rosenberg graduated from Brooklyn College in 1948 and obtained his PhD in physics at New York University in 1956. He joined Michigan State University as a professor of biophysics in 1961 and worked there until 1997.
Go to Profile#19759
Angelo Codevilla
#19770
Overall Influence
1943 - 2021 (78 years)
Angelo Maria Codevilla was an Italian-American professor of international relations at what is now the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He served as a U.S. Navy officer, a foreign service officer, and professional staff member of the Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate. Codevilla's books and articles range from French and Italian politics to the thoughts of Machiavelli and Montesquieu to arms control, war, the technology of ballistic missile defenses, and a broad range of international topics. Articles by Codevilla have appeared in Commentary, Foreign Affairs, National Review, and The New Republic.
Go to Profile#19760
K. Subrahmanyam
#19771
Overall Influence
1929 - 2011 (82 years)
Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam was a prominent international strategic affairs analyst, journalist and former Indian civil servant. Considered a proponent of Realpolitik, Subrahmanyam was an influential voice in Indian security affairs for a long time. He was most often referred to as the doyen of India's strategic affairs community, and as the premier ideological champion of India's nuclear deterrent. His son S Jaishankar was appointed India's External Affairs Minister in 2019.
Go to Profile#19761
Ángel Di María
#19772
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Ángel Fabián Di María is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a right winger or attacking midfielder for Primeira Liga club Benfica and the Argentina national team. He is known for his dribbling, playmaking skills and unique finishing.
Go to Profile#19762
Rose Gottemoeller
#19773
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Rose Eilene Gottemoeller is an American diplomat who served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO from October 2016 to October 2019 under Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Before then she was the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. State Department.
Go to Profile#19763
Roger Heath-Brown
#19774
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
David Rodney "Roger" Heath-Brown is a British mathematician working in the field of analytic number theory. Education He was an undergraduate and graduate student of Trinity College, Cambridge; his research supervisor was Alan Baker.
Go to Profile#19764
Wallace Lambert
#19775
Overall Influence
1922 - 2009 (87 years)
Wallace E. Lambert was a Canadian psychologist and a professor in the psychology department at McGill University . Among the founders of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, he is known for his contributions to social and cross-cultural psychology , language education , and bilingualism .
Go to Profile#19765
Avraham Sela
#19776
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Avraham Sela is an Israeli historian and scholar on the Middle East and international relations. Education and Career Sela studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining a BA in 1971, an MA in 1974 and a PhD in 1986. He currently serves as the A. Ephraim and Shirley Diamond Professor of International Relations and a senior research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute, both at the Hebrew University.
Go to Profile#19766
Costas Meghir
#19777
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Konstantinos "Costas" Meghir is a Greek-British economist. He studied at the University of Manchester where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1985, following an MA in economics in 1980 and a BA in Economics and Econometrics in 1979. In 1997 he was awarded the Bodosakis foundation prize and in 2000 he was awarded the “Ragnar Frisch Medal” for his article “Estimating Labour Supply Responses using Tax Reforms” .
Go to Profile#19767
Michael Ballack
#19778
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Michael Ballack is a German former professional footballer. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of the Germany national team. Ballack wore the number 13 shirt for every team he has played for, except 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA's 100 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Known for his passing range, powerful shot, physical strength and commanding presence in midfield, he was regarded as one of the best midfielders in the wor...
Go to Profile#19768
Judith Donath
#19779
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Judith Stefania Donath is a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center, and the founder of the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Lab. She has written papers on various aspects of the Internet and its social impact, such as Internet society and community, interfaces, virtual identity issues, and other forms of collaboration that have become manifest with the advent of connected computing.
Go to Profile#19769
James Chace
#19780
Overall Influence
1931 - 2004 (73 years)
James Clarke Chace was an American historian, writing on American diplomacy and statecraft. His 12 books include the critically acclaimed Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World , the definitive biography of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson. In a debate during the 2000 presidential primary, George W. Bush referred to Chace's Acheson as one of the books he was reading at the time.
Go to Profile#19770
Steve Aoki
#19781
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Steven Hiroyuki "Steve" Aoki is an American DJ and music producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. He has collaborated with artists such as will.i.am, Alan Walker, Afrojack, LMFAO, Tini, Linkin Park, AGNEZ MO, Iggy Azalea, Grandson, Lil Jon, blink-182, Taking Back Sunday, Laidback Luke, BTS, Monsta X, Louis Tomlinson, Backstreet Boys, Rise Against, Vini Vici, Lauren Jauregui, and Fall Out Boy and is known for his remixes of artists such as Kid Cudi.
Go to Profile#19771
Joseph Madachy
#19782
Overall Influence
1927 - 2014 (87 years)
Joseph Steven Madachy was a research chemist, technical editor and recreational mathematician. He was the lead editor of Journal of Recreational Mathematics for nearly 30 years and then served as editor emeritus. He was owner, publisher and editor of its predecessor, Recreational Mathematics Magazine, which appeared from 1961 to 1964.
Go to Profile#19772
François Loeser
#19783
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
François Loeser is a French mathematician. He is Professor of Mathematics at the Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University in Paris. From 2000 to 2010 he was Professor at École Normale Supérieure. Since 2015, he is a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Go to Profile#19773
Deepak B. Phatak
#19784
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Deepak B. Phatak is an Indian computer scientist and academic, and a recipient of the Padma Shri Award for his contribution in science and technology in 2013. He is known for his notable work for upgrading Aakash, advertised by its manufacturer as the 'world's cheapest tablet'. In 2009, he was ranked one of the 50 most powerful people in India.
Go to Profile#19774
Paul Gray
#19785
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Paul Murray Granville Gray is an English bassist notable for playing with the rock bands Eddie and the Hot Rods and The Damned. Biography Paul Gray was born in Leigh-on-Sea. Inspired by a Hawkwind gig he attended, Gray started learning bass guitar at the age of 13, his playing influenced by bassists such as Steve Currie, Lemmy, John Entwistle, Felix Pappalardi and Roger Glover. He joined Eddie and the Hot Rods as bassist after answering an advert in the Southend Evening Echo. The band had several hit singles and albums in the late 1970s, including "Do Anything You Wanna Do". While working wit...
Go to Profile#19775
Mary Stewart
#19786
Overall Influence
1916 - 2014 (98 years)
Mary, Lady Stewart was a British novelist who developed the romantic mystery genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in dangerous situations. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and fantasy.
Go to Profile#19776
Joel Best
#19787
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Joel Gordon Best is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware. He specializes in topics such as social problems and deviance. His current research focuses on awards, prizes, and honors in American culture. He is an author of over ten books and dozens of academic articles.
Go to Profile#19777
Lilli Alanen
#19788
Overall Influence
1941 - 2021 (80 years)
Lilli Kristina Alanen was a Finnish philosopher and Professor Emeritus of History of Philosophy at Department of Philosophy at Uppsala University. She was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018.
Go to Profile#19778
Dana Ulery
#19789
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Dana Ulery is an American computer scientist and pioneer in scientific computing applications. Career Ulery received her BA from Grinnell College in 1959, with a double major in English Literature and Mathematics. She earned her MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Delaware, in 1972 and 1975 respectively.
Go to Profile#19779
F. Lee Bailey
#19790
Overall Influence
1933 - 2021 (88 years)
Francis Lee Bailey Jr. , better known to the general public as F. Lee Bailey and to his detractors as Flea Bailey , was an American criminal defense attorney. Bailey's name first came to nationwide attention for his involvement in the second murder trial of Sam Sheppard, a surgeon accused of murdering his wife. He later served as the attorney in a number of other high-profile cases, such as Albert DeSalvo, a suspect in the "Boston Strangler" murders, heiress Patty Hearst's trial for bank robberies committed during her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army, and US Army Captain Ernest Medina for the My Lai Massacre.
Go to Profile#19780
Steven M. Stanley
#19791
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Steven M. Stanley is an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is best known for his empirical research documenting the evolutionary process of punctuated equilibrium in the fossil record.
Go to Profile#19781
Robert P. Goldman
#19792
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Robert Philip Goldman is the William and Catherine Magistretti Distinguished Professor of Sanskrit at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since April 1996.
Go to Profile#19782
Božidar Debenjak
#19793
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Božidar Debenjak is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, social theorist and translator. Biography He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1961, he became professor at the University of Ljubljana. For more than thirty years, he taught Marxist theory and history of philosophy at the Ljubljana University; many renowned Slovenian philosophers and sociologists were among his pupils, including Slavoj Žižek, Mladen Dolar, Rastko Močnik, Renata Salecl and Tonči Kuzmanić. He was one of the first scholars to introduce the thought of the Frankfurt school in the curric...
Go to Profile#19783
A. Kimball Romney
#19794
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (101 years)
Antone Kimball Romney is an American social sciences professor and one of the founders of cognitive anthropology. He spent most of his career at the University of California, Irvine. Romney was born in Rexburg, Idaho in August 1925. He received his B.A. from Brigham Young University in sociology, his M.A. from Brigham Young University also in sociology, his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Social Anthropology, Social Relations Department. 1955‑56 Assistant Professor, at the University of Chicago. 1957‑60 Assistant Professor, Stanford University. 1960‑66 Associate Professor, Stanford University.
Go to Profile#19784
John Quarterman
#19795
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
John S. Quarterman is an American author and longtime Internet participant. He wrote one of the classic books about networking prior to the commercialization of the Internet. He has also written about risk management.
Go to Profile#19785
Ronnie Lott
#19796
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Ronald Mandel Lott is an American former professional football player in the National Football League for 14 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Lott played college football for the University of Southern California , and was honored as a consensus All-American. A first-round pick in the 1981 NFL Draft, he played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders, New York Jets, and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL. Lott was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2023, and is widely considered to be one of the best of all time at the saf...
Go to Profile#19786
Judith Curry
#19797
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Judith A. Curry is an American climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, air-sea interactions, climate models, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research. She was a member of the National Research Council's Climate Research Committee, published over a hundred scientific papers, and co-edited several major works. Curry retired from academia in 2017 at age 63, coinciding with her public climate change ...
Go to Profile#19787
Karl Edward Wagner
#19798
Overall Influence
1945 - 1994 (49 years)
Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He wrote numerous dark fantasy and horror stories. As an editor, he created a three-volume set of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian fiction restored to its original form as written, and edited the long-running and genre-defining The Year's Best Horror Stories series for DAW Books. His Carcosa publishing company issued four volumes of the best stories by some of the major authors of the so-called Golden Age pulp magazines.
Go to Profile#19788
Amir H. Hoveyda
#19799
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Amir H. Hoveyda is an American organic chemist and professor of chemistry at Boston College, and held the position of department chair until 2018. In 2019, he embarked as researcher at the Institute of Science and Supramolecular Engineering at University of Strasbourg.
Go to Profile#19789
Dave Thomas
#19800
Overall Influence
1932 - 2002 (70 years)
Rex David Thomas was an American businessman, philanthropist, and fast-food tycoon. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. In this role, Thomas appeared in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history.
Go to Profile#19790
Robert Dewar
#19801
Overall Influence
1945 - 2015 (70 years)
Robert Berriedale Keith Dewar was an American computer scientist and educator. He helped to develop programming languages and compilers and was an outspoken advocate of freely licensed open-source software. He was a cofounder, CEO, and president of the AdaCore software company. He was also an enthusiastic amateur performer and musician, especially with the Village Light Opera Group in New York City.
Go to Profile#19791
Linda Siegel
#19802
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Linda S. Siegel is an American-born psychologist and academic known for her research into the cognitive aspects of learning disabilities. She is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada where she held the Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education.
Go to Profile#19792
Jacques Miller
#19803
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller AC FRS FAA is a French-Australian research scientist. He is known for having discovered the function of the thymus and for the identification, in mammalian species of the two major subsets of lymphocytes and their function.
Go to Profile#19793
Vic Allen
#19804
Overall Influence
1923 - 2014 (91 years)
Vic Allen was a British communist, human rights activist, political prisoner, sociologist, historian, economist and emeritus professor at the University of Leeds who worked closely with British trade unions, and was considered a key player in the resistance against Apartheid in South African. He was also known for being a key activist within the Communist Party of Great Britain , and for spending his life supporting the South African National Union of Mineworkers .
Go to Profile#19794
Igor Hawryszkiewycz
#19805
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Igor Titus Hawryszkiewycz is an American computer scientist, organizational theorist, and Professor at the School of Systems, Management and Leadership of the University of Technology, Sydney, known for his work in the field of database systems, systems analysis, and knowledge management.
Go to Profile#19795
C. Chapin Cutler
#19806
Overall Influence
1914 - 2002 (88 years)
Cassius Chapin Cutler was an American electrical engineer at Bell Labs. His notable achievements include the invention of the corrugated waveguide and differential pulse-code modulation . Biography He was born on December 16, 1914 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Paul A. Cutler and Myra Chapin. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1937. On September 27, 1941 he married Virginia Tyler in Waterford, Maine.
Go to Profile#19796
Richard H. Helmholz
#19807
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Richard H. Helmholz is the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He received his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1965 and also earned an A.B. in French literature at Princeton University, and a Ph.D. in medieval history from the University of California at Berkeley.
Go to Profile#19797
Edith Ackermann
#19808
Overall Influence
1946 - 2016 (70 years)
Edith K. Ackermann was a Swiss-born American psychologist who explored the interactions between developmental psychology, play, learning and design. A graduate of the University of Geneva, and a protege to Jean Piaget, she held permanent and visiting positions at several institutions in the United States and Europe, including the MIT Media Lab.
Go to Profile#19798
Richard E. Dickerson
#19809
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Richard E. Dickerson is an American biochemist. He was the first to carry out a single-crystal structure analysis of B-DNA, with what has become known as the "Dickerson dodecamer": C-G-C-G-A-A-T-T-C-G-C-G. At UCLA he has continued his investigations of the structures of A- and B-DNA, and of complexes between DNA and drugs or proteins. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985. During the academic year 1997-1998, Dickerson was the Newton-Abraham Visiting Professor in Medical, Biological and Chemical Science at Lincoln College and the L...
Go to Profile#19799
Judd Apatow
#19810
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Judd Apatow is an American director, producer and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin , Knocked Up , Funny People , This Is 40 , Trainwreck , The King of Staten Island , and The Bubble .
Go to Profile#19800
Raimund Abraham
#19811
Overall Influence
1933 - 2010 (77 years)
Raimund Johann Abraham was an Austrian architect. Early life and formal education Raimund Johann Abraham was born in 1933 in Lienz, East Tyrol, Austria. Throughout a 40-year career, Abraham created visionary projects and built works of architecture in Europe and in the United States. From 1952 to 1958, Abraham studied at the Graz University of Technology. In 1959, he established a studio in Vienna, where he explored the depths and boundaries of architecture through building, drawing, and montage. Abraham's first book, the 1965 publication "Elementare Architektur" was made at a time of transition between architecture studies and practice.
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