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
#21201
Jeff Randall
#21212
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Jeff William Randall is an English former business journalist and presenter, who presented Jeff Randall Live, a business and politics show on Sky News, until stepping down from his role in March 2014. He was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph, and was the first business editor at BBC News.
Go to Profile#21202
John Calipari
#21213
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
John Vincent Calipari is an American basketball coach. Since 2009, he has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky men's team, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College Coach of the Year three times , and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
Go to Profile#21203
Peter Wasserscheid
#21214
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Peter Wasserscheid is a German chemist and professor for chemical reaction engineering at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Together with Matthias Beller he won the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2006.
Go to Profile#21204
Jussi Hanhimäki
#21215
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Jussi M. Hanhimäki is a Finnish historian, specializing in the history of the Cold War, American foreign policy, transatlantic relations, international organizations and refugees. Background Hanhimäki is currently professor and the Chair of the Department of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, in Geneva. He has previously taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His book The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy has been acclaimed by his academic peers. In the U.S. media, however, its reception was lukewarm.
Go to Profile#21205
John Wermer
#21216
Overall Influence
1927 - 2022 (95 years)
John Wermer is a mathematician specializing in Complex analysis. Wermer received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1951 under the supervision of George Whitelaw Mackey. In 1962 Wermer was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm.
Go to Profile#21206
Paolo Maddalena
#21217
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Paolo Maddalena is an Italian magistrate and academic, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Italy from 2002 to 2011. Biography Academic career After graduating in 1958, Maddalena began his academic activity in the field of Roman law, as an assistant to jurist Antonio Guarino. A free lecturer in Roman law institutions since 1971, after his entry into the judiciary, Maddalena shifted his interests towards administrative and constitutional law.
Go to Profile#21207
Len Fisher
#21218
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Leonard Ross Fisher is an Australian physicist, and visiting senior research fellow at the University of Bristol, UK. He is known for his research into everyday topics, such as the optimal way to dunk a biscuit, and the optimum use of cheese in a cheese sandwich.
Go to Profile#21208
Gustav Ranis
#21219
Overall Influence
1929 - 2013 (84 years)
Gustav Ranis was a leading development economist and the Frank Altschul Professor Emeritus of International Economics at Yale University. Career He was a part of the first ever graduating class at Brandeis University in 1952. He was Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies , a Carnegie Corporation Scholar , Director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale , Assistant Administrator for Program and Policy at USAID , and Director of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics .
Go to Profile#21209
Adiele Afigbo
#21220
Overall Influence
1937 - 2009 (72 years)
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo was a Nigerian historian known for the history and historiography of Africa, more particularly Igbo history and the history of Southeastern Nigeria. Themes emphasised include pre-colonial and colonial history, inter-group relations, the Aro and the slave trade, the art and science of history in Africa, and nation-building.
Go to Profile#21210
Ian P. Howard
#21221
Overall Influence
1927 - 2013 (86 years)
Ian Porteus Howard was a Canadian psychologist and researcher in visual perception at York University in Toronto. Life and career Ian Howard was born in Lancashire, England, close to the Yorkshire border. He studied for a BSc at Manchester University, graduating in 1952. Howard held academic positions in Departments of Psychology at Durham University , at New York University , and at York University in Toronto . At York University, he contributed to the development of the Department of Psychology and, in 1992 founded the Centre for Vision Research .
Go to Profile#21211
James Spudich
#21222
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
James A. Spudich is an American scientist and professor. He is the Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Biochemistry and of Cardiovascular Disease at Stanford University and works on the molecular basis of muscle contraction. He was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2012 with Michael Sheetz and Ronald Vale. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#21212
Ernesto Geisel
#21223
Overall Influence
1907 - 1996 (89 years)
Ernesto Beckmann Geisel was a Brazilian Army officer and politician, who was President of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, during the Brazilian military regime. Early life and family Ernesto Geisel was born in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul province. His father was Guilherme Augusto Geisel , a German Brazilian teacher from Herborn who immigrated to the Empire of Brazil in 1883 at age 16. His mother was the homemaker Lydia Beckmann, born in Brazil in Teutônia colony to German parents from Osnabrück.
Go to Profile#21213
Walle Nauta
#21224
Overall Influence
1916 - 1994 (78 years)
Walle Jetze Harinx Nauta was a leading Dutch-American neuroanatomist, and one of the founders of the field of neuroscience. Nauta is best known for his silver staining, which helped to revolutionize neuroscience. He was an Institute Professor of neuroscience at MIT and also worked at the University of Utrecht, the University of Zurich, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and the University of Maryland. In addition, he was a founder and president of the Society for Neuroscience.
Go to Profile#21214
Carlton E. Lemke
#21225
Overall Influence
1920 - 2004 (84 years)
Carlton Edward Lemke was an American mathematician. After fighting in WWII with the 82nd Airborne Division, then under a GI grant, he received his bachelor's degree in 1949 at the University of Buffalo and his PhD in 1953 at Carnegie Mellon University . In 1952-1954 he was instructor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and in 1954–55 at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory of General Electric. In 1955-56 he was an engineer at the Radio Corporation of America in New Jersey. From 1956 he was assistant professor and later professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since 1967, he was ...
Go to Profile#21215
Giovanni Bignami
#21226
Overall Influence
1944 - 2017 (73 years)
Giovanni Fabrizio Bignami was an Italian physicist. From March 2007 until August 2008, he was Chairman of the Italian Space Agency. Between 2010 and 2014, he was the first Italian to chair the Committee on Space Research , and from 2011 until 2015, he was President of INAF. He was also the chairman of the SKA project. He was married to fellow Italian astrophysicist Patrizia A. Caraveo.
Go to Profile#21216
Chris Hughton
#21227
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Christopher William Gerard Hughton is a professional football manager and former player. Born in England, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team. He is the current head coach of the Ghana national team.
Go to Profile#21217
Burgess Meredith
#21228
Overall Influence
1907 - 1997 (90 years)
Oliver Burgess Meredith was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the century". A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, he won several Emmys, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.
Go to Profile#21218
Mark Rosenzweig
#21229
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Mark Richard Rosenzweig is an economist and the Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics at Yale University, where he also directs the Economic Growth Center. Rosenzweig belongs to the world's most prominent agricultural and development economists, and is one of the leading scholars on the subjects of the economics of insurance and migration.
Go to Profile#21219
Jane E. Buikstra
#21230
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Jane Ellen Buikstra, a bioarchaeologist and anthropologist, earned her B.A. in anthropology from DePauw University and her M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Chicago. She is a professor and director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research within the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, president of the Center for American Archaeology and the first editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Palaeopathology. Her research has reflected her interdisciplinary expertise, in fields as diverse as bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology and paleodemography, among others.
Go to Profile#21220
Fabian Udekwu
#21231
Overall Influence
1928 - 2006 (78 years)
Fabian Anene Ositadimma Udekwu born in Enugwu Agidi, Anambra State was a Medical Doctor, Cardiac surgeon. He was a distinguished Professor of Surgery at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and a pioneer of open heart surgery in Africa.
Go to Profile#21221
Robert Bresson
#21232
Overall Influence
1901 - 1999 (98 years)
Robert Bresson was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film. Much of his work is known for being tragic in story and nature.
Go to Profile#21222
Kim Thayil
#21233
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Kim Thayil is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984. Cornell and Thayil remained as the original members of the band until Cornell's death in 2017, and the band's subsequent split in 2018. Thayil was named the 100th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2010, and the 67th greatest guitarist of all time by SPIN in 2012. Thayil has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.
Go to Profile#21223
Michael Chorost
#21234
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Michael Chorost is an American book author, essayist, and public speaker. Born with severe loss of hearing due to rubella, his hearing was partially restored with a cochlear implant in 2001 and he had his other ear implanted in 2007.
Go to Profile#21224
Mablean Ephriam
#21235
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Mablean Deloris Ephriam, Esq. is an American television personality and former Los Angeles prosecuting attorney. She is best known as the adjudicator of the courtroom series Divorce Court for seven seasons from 1999 to 2006. She was replaced by Judge Lynn Toler in the show's 2006-07 season. Ephriam is also known for her judge roles in Tyler Perry's Madea films.
Go to Profile#21225
Peng Zhen
#21236
Overall Influence
1902 - 1997 (95 years)
Peng Zhen was a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party. He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was purged during the Cultural Revolution for opposing Mao's views on the role of literature in relation to the state. He was rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping in 1982 along with other 'wrongly accused' officials, and became the inaugural head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.
Go to Profile#21226
Onur Güntürkün
#21237
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Onur Güntürkün is a Turkish-German neuroscientist. He is professor of behavioral neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum. Güntürkün studied psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum from 1975 to 1980 and received his PhD in 1984.
Go to Profile#21227
Kevin Nealon
#21238
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Kevin Nealon is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Nealon first gained widespread attention during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1995, where he anchored the show's news parody segment Weekend Update. After leaving SNL, he acted in several of the Happy Madison films, played Doug Wilson on the Showtime series Weeds, and provided the voice of the title character, Glenn Martin, on Glenn Martin, DDS.
Go to Profile#21228
Nathan Lane
#21239
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Nathan Lane is an American actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards, including three Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, an Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".
Go to Profile#21229
Ray J. Ball
#21240
Overall Influence
Raymond J. Ball is a researcher and educator in accounting and financial economics. He is the Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting in the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He has published foundational research on the economics of financial reporting and financial markets.
Go to Profile#21230
Behnaam Aazhang
#21241
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Behnaam Aazhang is the J.S. Abercrombie Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University and Director of the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative. Early life and education Aazhang was born in Bandar-Anzali, Iran, and attended Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran from 1975 until 1978. He moved to the United States in 1979. Aazhang received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1981, 1983, and 1986, respectively, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Aazhang was a research assistant in the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois from 1981 to 1985.
Go to Profile#21231
Romesh Batra
#21242
Overall Influence
Romesh C. Batra is a University Distinguished Professor and Clifton C. Garvin Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , Blacksburg, Virginia. He was born in Village Dherowal , Punjab, India. His family migrated from Dherowal to Shahabad Markanda, Haryana, India after India became an independent country. Dr. Batra has authored the book, Elements of Continuum Mechanics, AIAA Educational Series. His research group has published in reputable refereed and widely read journals more than 460 papers of which about 40 are single-authored and...
Go to Profile#21232
Chris Gayle
#21243
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Christopher Henry Gayle is a Jamaican cricketer who has been playing international cricket for the West Indies since 1999. Nicknamed "The Universe Boss", Gayle is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most destructive batsmen to have played Twenty20 cricket, and by some as the best ever. He played a crucial role in the West Indies teams that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, 2012 ICC World Twenty20 and 2016 ICC World Twenty20. He also performed well as a batsman in ODI and Test matches.
Go to Profile#21233
Adam McKay
#21244
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Adam McKay is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian. McKay began his career as a head writer for the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2001. Following his departure from SNL, he rose to fame in the 2000s for his collaborations with comedian Will Ferrell and co-wrote his comedy films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys. Ferrell and McKay later co-wrote and co-produced numerous television series and films, with McKay himself co-producing their website Funny or Die through their company Gary Sanchez Productions.
Go to Profile#21234
Sergei Kan
#21245
Overall Influence
Sergei A. Kan is an American anthropologist known for his research with and writings on the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, focusing on the potlatch and on the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Tlingit communities.
Go to Profile#21235
Sigmar Wittig
#21246
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Dr. Sigmar Wittig has been the chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center since March 2002. He was the chair of the European Space Agency Council for a two-year term between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2007.
Go to Profile#21236
Elson Floyd
#21247
Overall Influence
1956 - 2015 (59 years)
Elson S. Floyd was an American educator who served as the 10th president of the four-campus Washington State University from May 21, 2007 to June 20, 2015. Floyd was also the first African American to be named president of Washington State University. Floyd also served as president of the University of Missouri System and president of Western Michigan University. Floyd was the Chairman of the Pac-12 CEO Group.
Go to Profile#21237
Volker Gerhardt
#21248
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Volker Gerhardt is a German philosopher. He specializes in ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, metaphysics and theology. His historical studies are centered on Plato, Kant and Nietzsche but have also dealt with Hegel, Marx, Jaspers, Voegelin, Hannah Arendt, Carl Schmitt and others.
Go to Profile#21238
Carl Emil Schorske
#21249
Overall Influence
1915 - 2015 (100 years)
Carl Emil Schorske , known professionally as Carl E. Schorske, was an American cultural historian and professor emeritus at Princeton University. In 1981 he won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture , which remains significant to modern European intellectual history. He was a recipient of the first year of MacArthur Fellows Program awards in 1981 and made an honorary citizen of Vienna in 2012.
Go to Profile#21239
Siegfried S. Hecker
#21250
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Siegfried S. Hecker is an American metallurgist and nuclear scientist. He served as Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 to 1997 and is now affiliated with Stanford University, where he is research professor emeritus in the Department of Management Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering, and senior fellow emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. During this time, he was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for outstanding research on plutonium and the forming of materials, and for leadership in developing en...
Go to Profile#21240
Clarence E. Walker
#21251
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Clarence Earl Walker is an American historian and Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Davis. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from San Francisco State University and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#21241
Dora Akunyili
#21252
Overall Influence
1954 - 2014 (60 years)
Dora Nkem Akunyili was the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control of Nigeria from 2001 to 2008. Early life and education Dora Edemobi was born in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria to Chief Paul Young Edemobi who hailed from Nanka, Anambra State. She received her First School Leaving Certificate from St. Patrick's Primary School, Isuofia, Anambra State, in 1966 and had her West African School Certificate Examination at Queen of the Rosary Secondary School Nsukka, Enugu State in 1973, where she graduated with Grade I Distinction consequently, she won th...
Go to Profile#21242
Yash Ghai
#21253
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Yash Pal Ghai CBE is a Kenyan academic in constitutional law. As of 2007 he is the head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal. Until 2008, he was a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cambodia on human rights. In September 2008, he resigned his post, following bitter arguments with the Government of Cambodia. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2005.
Go to Profile#21243
Alex Trebek
#21254
Overall Influence
1940 - 2020 (80 years)
George Alexander Trebek was a Canadian-American game show host and television personality. He is best known for hosting the syndicated general knowledge quiz game show Jeopardy! for 37 seasons from its revival in 1984 until his death in 2020. Trebek also hosted a number of other game shows, including The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, and To Tell the Truth. He also made appearances, usually as himself, in numerous films and television series.
Go to Profile#21244
Arthur Fine
#21255
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Arthur Isadore Fine is an American philosopher of science now emeritus at the University of Washington. Education and career Having studied physics, philosophy, and mathematics, Fine graduated from the University of Chicago in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. He then, in 1960, earned a Master of Science in mathematics from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a thesis supervised by Karl Menger,
Go to Profile#21245
Morio Kasai
#21256
Overall Influence
1922 - 2008 (86 years)
Morio Kasai was a Japanese surgeon who had a strong interest in pediatric surgery. While Kasai went into practice at a time when pediatric surgery was not an established subspecialty, much of his clinical and research work was related to the surgical care of children. He is best known for devising a surgical procedure, the hepatoportoenterostomy, to address a life-threatening birth defect known as biliary atresia. The modern form of the operation is still known as the Kasai procedure.
Go to Profile#21246
David Schmittlein
#21257
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
David C. Schmittlein is an American academic administrator serving as the John C Head III Dean and Professor of Marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He was appointed on August 27, 2007. Prior to joining MIT, Schmittlein was the Ira A. Lipman Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#21247
Dave Chappelle
#21258
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
David Khari Webber Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in and co-created the satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show before quitting in the middle of production during the third season. After a hiatus, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the U.S. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time".
Go to Profile#21248
Daniel Birnbaum
#21259
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Daniel Birnbaum is a Swedish art curator and an art critic. Since 2019, he has been director and curator of Acute Art in London, UK. Early life and education Birnbaum studied at Stockholm University, Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and Columbia University in New York. In 1998, he completed his doctorate in philosophy at Stockholm University.
Go to Profile#21249
Roos Vonk
#21260
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Roosje Vonk is a Dutch professor of social psychology at the Radboud University in Nijmegen author, and motivational speaker. Life and work Vonk studied psychology at Leiden University. She received her PhD in 1990 for her dissertation The cognitive representation of persons: A multidimensional study of Implicit Personality Theory, impression formation, and person judgments. In 1999 she became professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen. In addition to her work at the university, she popularized psychology by means of books, articles, and lectures for the general public.
Go to Profile#21250
Alexander Davydov
#21261
Overall Influence
1912 - 1993 (81 years)
Alexander Sergeevich Davydov was a Soviet and Ukrainian physicist. Davydov graduated from Moscow State University in 1939. In 1963-1990 he was Director of Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
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