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
#22151
Joe Hill
#22162
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Joseph Hillström King , better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box , Horns , NOS4A2 , and The Fireman ; the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts and Strange Weather ; and the comic book series Locke & Key . He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.
Go to Profile#22152
Akiva Yaglom
#22163
Overall Influence
1921 - 2007 (86 years)
Akiva Moiseevich Yaglom was a Soviet and Russian physicist, mathematician, statistician, and meteorologist. He was known for his contributions to the statistical theory of turbulence and theory of random processes. Yaglom spent most of his career in Russia working in various institutions, including the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics.
Go to Profile#22153
Eric Schopler
#22164
Overall Influence
1927 - 2006 (79 years)
Eric Schopler was a German born American psychologist whose pioneering research into autism led to the foundation of the TEACCH program. Personal life Eric Schopler was born February 8, 1927, in Fürth, Germany to Erna Oppenheimer Schopler and Ernst Schopler, who were Jewish. In 1938 his family fled Nazi Germany and emigrated to the U.S., where they settled in Rochester, New York.
Go to Profile#22154
Jeremy Thompson
#22165
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Jeremy Gordon Thompson is an English journalist and former news presenter for Sky News, the 24-hour UK television news service operated by Sky UK. He was based at Sky News Centre in west London. He started out as a journalist on the Cambridge Evening News in 1967. In 1971 he joined the BBC as a reporter on Radio Sheffield, moving on to become a reporter on BBC Look North Leeds.
Go to Profile#22155
Sergei Fedorov
#22166
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Sergei Viktorovich Fyodorov is a Russian former professional ice hockey player and the current head coach of CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League . During his playing career, for which he is best known for his 13 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, Fedorov was primarily a centre, but occasionally played as a winger or defenceman.
Go to Profile#22156
Erez Lieberman Aiden
#22167
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Erez Lieberman Aiden is an American research scientist active in multiple fields related to applied mathematics. He is an associate professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, and formerly a fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and visiting faculty member at Google. He is an adjunct assistant professor of computer science at Rice University. Using mathematical and computational approaches, he has studied evolution in a range of contexts, including that of networks through evolutionary graph theory and languages in the field of culturomics. He has published scientific articles in a variet...
Go to Profile#22157
Michael D. Smith
#22168
Overall Influence
Michael D. Smith is the John H. Finley, Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is also a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University from 2007 to 2018. In addition to his academic position, Smith was the Chief Scientist and co-founder of Liquid Machines, Inc., a provider of enterprise rights management software.
Go to Profile#22158
Bob Feller
#22169
Overall Influence
1918 - 2010 (92 years)
Robert William Andrew Feller , nicknamed "the Heater from Van Meter", "Bullet Bob", and "Rapid Robert", was an American baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians between 1936 and 1956. In a career spanning 570 games, Feller pitched 3,827 innings and posted a win–loss record of 266–162, with 279 complete games, 44 shutoutss, and a 3.25 earned run average . His career 2,581 strikeouts were third all-time upon his retirement.
Go to Profile#22159
Jean Taylor
#22170
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Jean Ellen Taylor is an American mathematician who is a professor emerita at Rutgers University and visiting faculty at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. Biography Taylor was born in Northern California. She did her undergraduate studies at Mount Holyoke College, graduating summa cum laude with an A.B. in 1966. She began her graduate studies in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, but after receiving an M.Sc. she switched to mathematics under the mentorship of Shiing-Shen Chern and then transferred to the University of Warwick and received a second M.Sc.
Go to Profile#22160
Steve Wheeler
#22171
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Steve Wheeler is a British academic, author, speaker and learning technologist. Early life Wheeler was born in Devonport, a suburb of Plymouth, England. His father was in the Royal Air Force, and due to constant travelling, Wheeler attended a number of schools across Europe, including St George's School in Gibraltar; Sandwick School in the Shetland Isles, Scotland; Wellington Grammar School in Telford, England; and the AFCENT International School in Brunssum, the Netherlands. He also attended Hereford College of Art and Design, where he studied fine arts, graphic design and photography.
Go to Profile#22161
Martin Heisenberg
#22172
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Martin Heisenberg is a German neurobiologist and geneticist. Before his retirement in 2008, he held the professorial chair for genetics and neurobiology at the Bio Centre of the University of Würzburg. Since then, he continues his research with a senior professorship at the Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Würzburg. Heisenberg studied chemistry and molecular biology in Munich, Tübingen and Pasadena. In 1975 he became Professor of genetics and neurobiology at the University of Würzburg. Heisenberg's work has focused on the neurogenetics of Drosophila , with the aim of investigating t...
Go to Profile#22162
Patrick Boucheron
#22173
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Patrick Boucheron is a French historian. He previously taught medieval history at the École normale supérieure and the University of Paris. He is a professor of history at the Collège de France. He is the author of 12 books and or the editor of 5 books. His 2017 book, Histoire mondiale de la France , compiled work by 122 historians and became an unexpected bestseller, with more than 110 000 copies sold. From 2017 to 2020, he hosted Quand l'histoire fait dates, a TV program of 22 episodes which explored different important dates in world history.
Go to Profile#22163
Stephen Fry
#22174
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He first came to prominence as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster . He also starred in the sketch series Alfresco alongside Laurie, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane, and in Blackadder alongside Rowan Atkinson. Since 2011, he has served as president of the mental health charity Mind.
Go to Profile#22164
Alexander Varchenko
#22175
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Alexander Nikolaevich Varchenko is a Soviet and Russian mathematician working in geometry, topology, combinatorics and mathematical physics. Education and career From 1964 to 1966 Varchenko studied at the Moscow Kolmogorov boarding school No. 18 for gifted high school students, where Andrey Kolmogorov and Ya. A. Smorodinsky were lecturing mathematics and physics. Varchenko graduated from Moscow State University in 1971. He was a student of Vladimir Arnold. Varchenko defended his Ph.D. thesis Theorems on Topological Equisingularity of Families of Algebraic Sets and Maps in 1974 and Doctor of S...
Go to Profile#22165
Lois Rice
#22176
Overall Influence
1933 - 2017 (84 years)
Lois Ann Dickson Fitt Rice was an American corporate executive, scholar, and education policy expert. Known as the ‘‘mother of the Pell Grant” because of her work lobbying for its creation, she was national vice president of the College Board from 1973 until 1981. According to the Wall Street Journal, she was “among the first wave of African-American women serving on boards of major US corporations,” and under president Bill Clinton, she was a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. For years, she was an economic studies expert at the Brookings Institution concentrating on edu...
Go to Profile#22166
Gita Sen
#22177
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Gita Sen is an Indian feminist scholar. She is a Distinguished Professor & Director at the Ramalingaswami Centre on Equity & Social Determinants of Health, at the Public Health Foundation of India. She is also an adjunct professor at Harvard University, a professor emeritus at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and the General Coordinator of DAWN .
Go to Profile#22167
Anthony Walsh
#22178
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
#22168
Jermaine O'Neal
#22179
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Jermaine Lee O'Neal Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. The center–power forward had a successful high school career and declared his eligibility for the 1996 NBA draft straight out of high school. O'Neal, at just 17 years of age, was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 17th overall pick, and played his first professional game at 18. At the time, he was the youngest player to ever play an NBA game.
Go to Profile#22169
John D. Anderson
#22180
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
John D. Anderson Jr. is the Curator of Aerodynamics at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Professor Emeritus in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Go to Profile#22170
Anthony Shaffer
#22181
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Anthony Shaffer is a former U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who became known for his claims about mishandled intelligence before the September 11 attacks, and for the censoring of his ghost written book Operation Dark Heart. Shaffer was a member of the Able Danger project, having joined in 1999.
Go to Profile#22171
Hans Oeschger
#22182
Overall Influence
1927 - 1998 (71 years)
Hans Oeschger was a Swiss climatologist. He founded the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern in 1963 and was the director until his retirement in 1992.
Go to Profile#22172
Norman Whitfield
#22183
Overall Influence
1940 - 2008 (68 years)
Norman Jesse Whitfield was an American songwriter and producer, who worked with Berry Gordy's Motown labels during the 1960s. He has been credited as one of the creators of the Motown Sound and of the late-1960s subgenre of psychedelic soul.
Go to Profile#22173
Rudi Matthee
#22184
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Rudolph P. Matthee, best known as Rudi Matthee , is John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History in the History Department at the University of Delaware, teaching Middle Eastern history and specializing in the history of early modern Iran. He received his PhD in 1991 from the University of California. Matthee is a member of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies, for which he also functioned as president twice in 2003-2005 and 2009–2011. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Safavid and Qajar Iran.
Go to Profile#22174
N. Chandrababu Naidu
#22185
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Nara Chandrababu Naidu , also known as Chandrababu Naidu or CBN, is an Indian politician and the current Leader of Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He also served as Chief Minister from 1995 to 2004 and as Opposition Leader from 2004 to 2014 of Andhra Pradesh. He is the National President of the Telugu Desam Party . He suffered a major political set back in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Elections where he won only 23 seats out of the total 175 seats.
Go to Profile#22175
Gillian Sankoff
#22186
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Gillian Elizabeth Sankoff is a Canadian-American sociolinguist, and professor emerita of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Sankoff's notable former students include Miriam Meyerhoff. Biography She earned her PhD in 1968 from McGill University, with a dissertation entitled, "Social aspects of multilingualism in New Guinea."
Go to Profile#22176
Jimmie Johnson
#22187
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Jimmie Kenneth Johnson is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for his team, Legacy Motor Club. Johnson's seven Cup championships, the first five of which are consecutive, are tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time. From 2021 to 2022, Johnson competed in the IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing, and has competed occasionally in sports car racing throughout his career.
Go to Profile#22177
Leszek Nowak
#22188
Overall Influence
1943 - 2009 (66 years)
Leszek Nowak was a Polish philosopher and legal theoretician. Biography Education In 1965, he graduated in law from Adam Mickiewicz University's Faculty of Law and Administration, having written Master of Jurisprudence thesis under the supervision of Zygmunt Ziembiński, who introduced Nowak to the field of legal theory and convinced him to major in the subject. In 1966 he completed his Master of Philosophy degree in philosophy at the University of Warsaw under the supervision of . In 1967 he obtained a Doctor of Law degree, writing a dissertation on the legal interpretation, the rule of law and semiotic functions of language.
Go to Profile#22178
Heino Falcke
#22189
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Heino Falcke is a German professor of radio astronomy and astroparticle physics at the Radboud University Nijmegen . His main field of study is black holes, and he is the originator of the concept of the 'black hole shadow'. In 2019, Falcke announced the first Event Horizon Telescope results at the EHT Press Conference in Brussels.
Go to Profile#22179
Stanley Brodsky
#22190
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Stanley J. Brodsky is an American theoretical physicist and emeritus professor in the SLAC Theory Group at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. Biography Brodsky obtained an undergraduate degree in 1961 and Ph.D. in physics in 1964 from the University of Minnesota, where his advisor was Donald R. Yennie. After two years as a research associate for Tsung-Dao Lee at Columbia University, in 1966 he began working for SLAC, where he became a professor in 1976.
Go to Profile#22180
Jeanne Marie Laskas
#22191
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Jeanne Marie Laskas is an American writer, journalist, and professor. Career Laskas is the author of eight books, including To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope , based on a New York Times Magazine article, and Concussion . Similarly, Concussion is based on her 2009 GQ article "Game Brain" about forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, who tried to publicize his findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in American football players despite NFL opposition. The article was also adapted by Laskas and screenwriter Peter Landesman into a film of the same name, starring Will Smith as Omalu. Lask...
Go to Profile#22181
Paul G. Cassell
#22192
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Paul George Cassell is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah, who is currently the Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and University Distinguished Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is best known as an expert in, and proponent of, victims' rights.
Go to Profile#22182
Stephen Batchelor
#22193
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Stephen Batchelor is a Scottish Buddhist author and teacher, known for his writings on Buddhist subjects and his leadership of meditation retreats worldwide. He is a noted proponent of agnostic or secular Buddhism.
Go to Profile#22183
Cahal Daly
#22194
Overall Influence
1917 - 2009 (92 years)
Cahal Brendan Cardinal Daly KGCHS was a Roman Catholic prelate, theologian and writer from Northern Ireland. Daly served as the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh from late 1990 to 1996, the oldest man to take up this role for nearly 200 years. He was later created a Cardinal-Priest of S. Patrizio by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of 28 June 1991.
Go to Profile#22184
Alan Moulder
#22195
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Alan Moulder is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from an early age, listing Cream and The Beatles among his favourite artists. The first album he bought was Electric Warrior by T. Rex, and he was impressed by the quality of the recording. He joined his first band as a teenager and recorded a demo in a local studio. During this time, he began to take interest in music production.
Go to Profile#22185
Eva Vivalt
#22196
Overall Influence
Eva Love Vivalt is a Canadian economist. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto and the director of the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford.
Go to Profile#22186
Gary Marks
#22197
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Gary Marks is an American-based academic and an expert on multilevel governance and the European Union. He is a Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a recurring Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre, EUI, Florence. Marks developed the concept of "multilevel governance.”
Go to Profile#22187
Sergey Khoruzhiy
#22198
Overall Influence
1941 - 2020 (79 years)
Sergey Khoruzhiy was a Russian physicist, mathematician, philosopher, and theologian. Biography Khoruzhiy's father was an Arctic pilot who died while serving in World War II in 1941, the same year Khorouzhiy was born. His mother, Vera Kharuzhaya, was a leader in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. She was one of the leaders in World War II in Vitebsk, but was captured and tortured by the Germans in 1942. Khoruzhiy was then brought up by his mother's family.
Go to Profile#22188
Gaylord Perry
#22199
Overall Influence
1938 - 2022 (84 years)
Gaylord Jackson Perry was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for eight teams from 1962 to 1983, becoming one of the most durable and successful pitchers in history. A five-time All-Star, Perry was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues. He won the American League award in 1972 after leading the league with 24 wins with a 1.92 earned run average for the fifth-place Cleveland Indians, and took the National League award in 1978 with the San Diego Padres after again leading the league with 21 wins; his Cy Young Award announcement just as he turned the age of 40 made him the oldest to win the award, which stood as a record for 26 years.
Go to Profile#22189
John Rechy
#22200
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
John Francisco Rechy is a Mexican-American novelist and essayist. His novels are written extensively about gay culture in Los Angeles and wider America, among other subject matter. City of Night, his debut novel published in 1963, was a best seller. Drawing on his own background, he has contributed to Mexican-American literature, notably with his novel The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, which has been taught in several Chicano studies courses throughout the United States. But, even after the success of his first novel, he still worked as a prostitute, teaching during the day, and hustling at night.
Go to Profile#22190
Jonathan Pryce
#22201
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Sir Jonathan Pryce is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a knighthood for services to drama.
Go to Profile#22191
James D. Jamieson
#22202
Overall Influence
1934 - 2018 (84 years)
James Douglas Jamieson was an American cell biologist and professor at the Yale School of Medicine. His early research in cell biology of pancreatic acinar cells in the lab of George Palade established the function of the Golgi apparatus in secretory protein trafficking.
Go to Profile#22192
Chris Quigg
#22203
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Chris Quigg is an American theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory . He graduated from Yale University in 1966 and received his Ph.D. in 1970 under the tutelage of J. D. Jackson at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been an associate professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, and was head of the Theoretical Physics Department at Fermilab from 1977 to 1987.
Go to Profile#22193
Kevin Mitnick
#22204
Overall Influence
1963 - 2023 (60 years)
Kevin David Mitnick was an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. He is best known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and five years in prison for various computer and communications-related crimes. Mitnick's pursuit, arrest, trial, and sentence along with the associated journalism, books, and films were all controversial. After his release from prison, he ran his own security firm, Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC, and was also involved with other computer security businesses.
Go to Profile#22194
William Desmond Evans
#22205
Overall Influence
#22195
Kevin Owens
#22206
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (42 years)
Kevin Yanick Steen is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Kevin Owens. Steen began his career in 2000, at the age of 16. Prior to joining WWE in late 2014, he wrestled under his birth name for Ring of Honor , where he held the ROH World Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship. He also wrestled extensively on the independent circuit for 14 years, most notably in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla , where he held the PWG World Championship a record three times, as well as the PWG World Tag Team Championship on three occasions.
Go to Profile#22196
Ashok Lavasa
#22207
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Ashok Lavasa is a retired 1980 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Haryana cadre and was one of the two Election Commissioners of India. He has also served as the Finance Secretary of India, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary of India and Civil Aviation Secretary of India. He served as the Vice President of Asian Development Bank from August 2020 to August 2023.
Go to Profile#22197
Elisha Qimron
#22208
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Elisha Qimron is an academic who studies ancient Hebrew. He took his Doctor of Philosophy in 1976 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with the dissertation The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Hebrew Language at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. For several decades, he has been one of the team of international scholars working on the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly on the texts found in Cave 4 at Qumran.
Go to Profile#22198
Barry Bluestone
#22209
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Barry Alan Bluestone is an American academic who is the Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy, founding director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and the founding dean of the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#22199
Stephen Bronner
#22210
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Stephen Eric Bronner is a political scientist and philosopher, Board of Governors Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, and is the Director of Global Relations for the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Bronner has published over 25 books and 200 journal articles.
Go to Profile#22200
Félix Houphouët-Boigny
#22211
Overall Influence
1905 - 1993 (88 years)
Félix Houphouët-Boigny , affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux , was an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he worked as a medical aide, union leader, and planter before being elected to the French Parliament. He served in several ministerial positions within the French government before leading Ivory Coast following independence in 1960. Throughout his life, he played a significant role in politics and the decolonisation of Africa.
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