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
#24151
Guy Bailey
#24162
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Guy Hubert Bailey is a sociolinguist and the 1st president of the University of Texas–Rio Grande Valley. He was the president of the University of Alabama, his baccalaureate alma mater. He was previously the president of Texas Tech University and held earlier positions at Emory University, Texas A&M University, and Oklahoma State University, prior to serving as dean of liberal arts at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. From there he became provost of the University of Texas at San Antonio. Before assuming the role at Texas Tech, he was the chancellor of the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
Go to Profile#24152
Gary Kubiak
#24163
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Gary Wayne Kubiak is a former American football coach and quarterback. He served as head coach for the National Football League 's Houston Texans from 2006 to 2013 and the Denver Broncos from 2015 to 2016 before stepping down from the position on January 1, 2017, citing health reasons. Earlier in his coaching career, he served as an assistant coach for the Broncos, Texas A&M University and San Francisco 49ers. He was also the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens in 2014. He last served as the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings in 2020.
Go to Profile#24153
Friedwardt Winterberg
#24164
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Friedwardt Winterberg is a German-American theoretical physicist and was a research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is known for his research in areas spanning general relativity, Planck scale physics, nuclear fusion, and plasmas. His work in nuclear rocket propulsion earned him the 1979 Hermann Oberth Gold Medal of the Wernher von Braun International Space Flight Foundation and a 1981 citation by the Nevada Legislature. He is also an honorary member of the German Aerospace Society Lilienthal-Oberth.
Go to Profile#24154
Ian Oliver
#24165
Overall Influence
Ian Oliver, was a British police officer, author, speaker and consultant for the United Nations. He served as Chief Constable of Scotland's Central and Grampian Police force. Since leaving the police, he has worked as a consultant and speaker on the issues of drugs, terrorism and trafficking. He was a board member of the International Scientific & Medical Advisory Forum on Drug Abuse, was appointed a life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and was an elected Member of the Institute of Global Drug Policy. Oliver was the father of Craig Oliver, the Director of Politics...
Go to Profile#24155
Louise Antony
#24166
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Louise M. Antony is an American philosopher who is professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She specializes in epistemology and feminist theory. Education and career Antony received a bachelor's in philosophy from Syracuse University in 1975, after which she went to Harvard University for her doctorate, which she received in 1981. Her first academic position was at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1980-81. She taught at Boston University from 1981 to 1983; Bates College from 1983 to 1986; North Carolina State University from 1986 to 1993; the Univers...
Go to Profile#24156
David Adams Leeming
#24167
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
David Adams Leeming is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, and a specialist in comparative literature of mythology.
Go to Profile#24157
Fenggang Yang
#24168
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Fenggang Yang is professor of sociology and founding director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University. He was elected and served as the president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2014–15, the first Chinese American, nonwhite president since the founding of the association in 1949. He is also the founding president of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2018–2020. He has been listed in the Marquis' Who's Who in America since 2002. Fenggang Yang is openly Christian and has spoken critically and frequently in international media about China's lack of religious freedom.
Go to Profile#24158
James S. Ackerman
#24169
Overall Influence
1919 - 2016 (97 years)
James Sloss Ackerman was an American architectural historian, a major scholar of Michelangelo's architecture, of Palladio and of Italian Renaissance architectural theory. In 2017, Ackerman was awarded the Henry Hope Reed Award.
Go to Profile#24159
Gian Francesco Giudice
#24170
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Gian Francesco Giudice is an Italian theoretical physicist working at CERN in particle physics and cosmology. Academic career After graduating in physics from the University of Padua in 1984, Giudice obtained in 1988 his PhD in theoretical physics from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste. Between 1988 and 1990 he was Research Associate at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. Between 1990 and 1992 he was Research Fellow in the Physics Department of the University of Texas at Austin, in the group led by Steven Weinberg. After being employed by the Istitut...
Go to Profile#24160
Manfred Pinkal
#24171
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Manfred Pinkal is a German computational linguist. He is a senior professor at the Saarland University. Education and career Manfred Pinkal studied Linguistics, Philosophy, German Language and Literature, and Computer Science at the University of Bochum and University of Stuttgart. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Stuttgart.
Go to Profile#24161
Tyler Goodspeed
#24172
Overall Influence
Tyler Beck Goodspeed is an American economist and economic historian who was the acting chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from June 2020 to January 2021. He resigned from his position on January 7 in the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.
Go to Profile#24162
Kenneth W. Ford
#24173
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (100 years)
Kenneth William Ford is an American theoretical physicist, teacher, and writer, currently residing near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the first chair of the physics department at the University of California, Irvine, and later served as president of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and as Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics.
Go to Profile#24163
Darrell Tryon
#24174
Overall Influence
1942 - 2013 (71 years)
Darrell T. Tryon was a New Zealand-born linguist, academic, and specialist in Austronesian languages. Specifically, Tryon specialised in the study of the languages of the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and the French-speaking Pacific.
Go to Profile#24164
Barbara Geddes
#24175
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Barbara Geddes is an American political scientist. One of the main important theorists of authoritarianism and empirical catalogers of authoritarian regimes, she is currently a full professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her 2003 book Paradigms and Sand Castles is an influential research design book in comparative politics.
Go to Profile#24165
Fumihiko Sueki
#24176
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Fumihiko Sueki is a Japanese academic and historian, and one of Japan's leading scholars of Japanese Buddhism. He is a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. A member of the advisory board of Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture's Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, he is also a contributor to the journal itself.
Go to Profile#24166
Jean Varenne
#24177
Overall Influence
1926 - 1997 (71 years)
Jean Varenne was a French Indologist and a prominent figure of the Nouvelle Droite. He taught Sanskrit at the Aix-Marseille University, then at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, where he was eventually nominated professor emeritus. Varenne has also been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, and at other universities in India, Cambodia and Mexico.
Go to Profile#24167
L. Timothy Ryan
#24178
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Lawrence Timothy Ryan is an American chef and the fifth and current president of the Culinary Institute of America . Ryan, a Certified Master Chef, graduated from the CIA in 1977 and joined the school's faculty in 1982, and later moved to administration before heading the education division. In 2001, he became the first CIA alumnus and faculty member to become president of the college, in 2001. Prior to returning to the CIA as a faculty member, he spent five years as a chef in different aspects of the culinary industry. Ryan has received numerous accolades throughout his career from the Ameri...
Go to Profile#24168
Grzegorz Kołodko
#24179
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Grzegorz Witold Kołodko is a distinguished professor of economics. A key architect of Polish economic reforms. He is the author of New Pragmatism original paradigmatic and heterodox theory of economics. University lecturer, researcher, the author of numerous academic books and research papers. As Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance of Poland in 2002–2003 he played a leading role in achieving the entry of Poland into the European Union. Holding the same position in 1994–1997, Kolodko led Poland into the OECD.
Go to Profile#24169
Shaukat Aziz
#24180
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Shaukat Aziz is a Pakistani former banker and financier who served as 17th prime minister of Pakistan from 28 August 2004 to 15 November 2007, as well as the finance minister of Pakistan from 6 November 1999 to 15 November 2007. During his childhood he studied at St Patrick's High School, Karachi. Aziz graduated from the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, and joined the corporate staff of the CitiBank Pakistan in 1969. He served in various countries' governments as CitiBank financier, and became executive vice-president of Citibank in 1999. After accepting a personal request by ...
Go to Profile#24170
Vahakn Dadrian
#24181
Overall Influence
1926 - 2019 (93 years)
Vahakn Norair Dadrian was an Armenian-American sociologist and historian, born in Turkey, professor of sociology, historian, and an expert on the Armenian genocide. Life Dadrian was born in 1926 in Turkey to a family that lost many members during the Armenian genocide. Dadrian first studied mathematics at the University of Berlin, after which he decided to switch to a completely different field, and studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later, international law at the University of Zürich. He completed his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago. Dadrian understood many ...
Go to Profile#24171
Jiří Matoušek
#24182
Overall Influence
1963 - 2015 (52 years)
Jiří Matoušek was a Czech mathematician working in computational geometry and algebraic topology. He was a professor at Charles University in Prague and the author of several textbooks and research monographs.
Go to Profile#24172
Pierre de Meuron
#24183
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#24173
Mark Cleary
#24184
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Mark Cleary was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford in Yorkshire from 2007 to 2013. He took over in 2007 after the previous vice-chancellor, Chris Taylor, retired after 5 years in the position.
Go to Profile#24174
J. H. Hexter
#24185
Overall Influence
1910 - 1996 (86 years)
Jack H. Hexter was an American historian, a specialist in Tudor and seventeenth century British history, and well known for his comments on historiography. Hexter was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Go to Profile#24175
Milton Diamond
#24186
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Milton Diamond is an American Professor Emeritus of anatomy and reproductive biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. After a career in the study of human sexuality, Diamond retired from the university in December 2009 but continued with his research and writing until retiring fully in 2018.
Go to Profile#24176
Kees van der Pijl
#24187
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Kees van der Pijl is a Dutch political scientist who was professor of international relations at the University of Sussex. He is known for his critical approach to global political economy and has published, amongst others, Flight MH17, Ukraine and the New Cold War. Prism of Disaster , a trilogy on Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy ; Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq ; Transnational Classes and International Relations ; and The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class . He resigned his emeritus status at Sussex in 2019 after refusing to apologise for allegations that the Isr...
Go to Profile#24177
Christopher Mims
#24188
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Christopher Mims is a technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, which he joined in 2014. Early life Mims received a bachelor's degree in neuroscience and behavioral biology from Emory University in 2001.
Go to Profile#24178
Joan Feigenbaum
#24189
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Joan Feigenbaum is a theoretical computer scientist with a background in mathematics. She is the Grace Murray Hopper Professor of Computer Science at Yale University. At Yale she also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Economics. Feigenbaum co-invented the computer-security research area of trust management.
Go to Profile#24179
Soledad Loaeza
#24190
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Dr. María Soledad Loaeza Tovar is a Mexican academic who specializes in the process of democratization and the transformations of society in Mexico. Biography Soledad Loaeza completed her high school studies at UNAM's Vidal Castañeda y Najera National "Plantel 4" high school. She received a degree in international relations from the College of Mexico , obtaining the title in 1972 with the thesis La política exterior del general Charles de Gaulle, 1962-1970 . She traveled to Europe to study for an international relations specialization at the Geschwister-Scholl-Institut in Munich and a doctora...
Go to Profile#24180
Artie Shaw
#24191
Overall Influence
1910 - 2004 (94 years)
Artie Shaw was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led one of the United States' most popular big bands in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. Though he had numerous hit records, he was perhaps best known for his 1938 recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine." Before the release of "Beguine," Shaw and his fledgling band had languished in relative obscurity for over two years and, after its release, he became a major pop artist within short order. The record eventually became one of the era's defining recordings.
Go to Profile#24181
Hasim Rahman
#24192
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Hasim Sharif Rahman is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2014. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBC, IBF, IBO and lineal titles in 2001; and the WBC title again from 2005 to 2006. He was ranked as a top 10 heavyweight by BoxRec from 2000 to 2005, and reached his highest ranking of world No.6 at the conclusion of 2004.
Go to Profile#24182
Paul McEuen
#24193
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Paul McEuen is an American physicist. He received his B.S. in engineering physics at the University of Oklahoma , and his Ph.D. in applied physics at Yale University . After postdoctoral work at MIT , he became an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He moved to Cornell University in 2001, where he is currently the Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics. He is one of the experts on the electrical property of carbon nanotubes and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#24183
Harvey Karp
#24194
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Harvey Neil Karp, FAAP is an American pediatrician, author, and child development specialist. He is best known for his book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and its accompanying DVD, that use his "5 S's" approach to infant care. He is also the creator of the Snoo, a smart bassinet.
Go to Profile#24184
Michael Kotlikoff
#24195
Overall Influence
Michael I. Kotlikoff is an American biomedical researcher, academic leader, and veterinarian who has served as the provost of Cornell University. His work on cardiovascular biology, optogenetics, mouse genetics, and ion channel function has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1986. He has served on numerous NIH panels, including chair of the Scientific Board of Councillors of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the NIH Council of Councils, as well as national and international Higher Education committees, including Chair of the Jacobs Technion-Cor...
Go to Profile#24185
Susan Reynolds
#24196
Overall Influence
1929 - 2021 (92 years)
Susan Reynolds FBA was a British medieval historian whose book Fiefs and Vassals: the Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted was part of the academic critique on the concept of feudalism as classically portrayed by previous historians such as François-Louis Ganshof and Marc Bloch. Reynolds rejected typical ideas of feudalism and presented a medieval society structured through ‘horizontal’ groups. According to The Guardian, "Few books have been more intensely discussed by professional medieval historians. Largely as a consequence of this work, the word "feudalism", or the "F-word", as it came to be...
Go to Profile#24186
Mike Mayock
#24197
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Michael Francis Mayock Sr. is an American former football executive and player in the National Football League He played as a safety with the New York Giants. After his playing career, he was a draft analyst for the NFL Network, and a game analyst for NBC's coverage of Notre Dame football. He served as the general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders from 2019 to 2021.
Go to Profile#24187
Esther Allen
#24198
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Esther Allen is a writer, professor, and translator of French-language and Spanish-language literature into English. She is on the faculties of Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY . Allen co-founded PEN World Voices: the New York Festival of International Literature , and worked with PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants from their inception in 2003 to 2010. Allen heads the Development Committee of the American Literary Translators Association, and serves on the board of Writers Omi, part of Omi International Arts Center, on the Advisory Council to the Spanish-language program at the CUN...
Go to Profile#24188
Alfredo Saad-Filho
#24199
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Alfredo Saad-Filho is a Brazilian Marxian economist. Education and career Alfredo Saad-Filho has degrees in Economics from the University of Brasília and the University of London . He is currently Professor of Political Economy and International Development at King's College London. He was Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London between 2000 and 2019, Chair of the SOAS Department of Development Studies , Head of the SOAS Doctoral School , and Chair of Department of International Development at King's College London . Saad-Filho was Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the Un...
Go to Profile#24189
Aldon Morris
#24200
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Aldon Douglas Morris is a professor of sociology and an award-winning scholar, with interests including social movements, civil rights, and social inequality. He is the 2021 president of the American Sociological Association.
Go to Profile#24190
Jack Lang
#24201
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Jack Mathieu Émile Lang is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party, he served as Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993, as well as Minister of National Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002.
Go to Profile#24191
Deco
#24202
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Anderson Luís de Souza , also known as Deco , is a former professional football player who primarily played as an attacking or central midfielder. Born and raised in Brazil, he acquired Portuguese citizenship and played for Portugal. He was one of the best midfielders of his era. He currently works as sporting director in Barcelona.
Go to Profile#24192
Ken Kennedy
#24203
Overall Influence
1945 - 2007 (62 years)
Ken Kennedy was an American computer scientist and professor at Rice University. He was the founding chairman of Rice's Computer Science Department. Kennedy directed the construction of several substantial software systems for programming parallel computers, including an automatic vectorizer for Fortran 77, an integrated scientific programming environment, compilers for Fortran 90 and High Performance Fortran, and a compilation system for domain languages based on the numerical computing environment MATLAB.
Go to Profile#24193
David A. Hodges
#24204
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
David Albert Hodges was an American electrical engineer, digital telephony pioneer, and professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Hodges was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1983 for innovative contributions to integrated circuit design techniques and their application to data and signal processing.
Go to Profile#24194
Wendy Carlin
#24205
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Wendy Joan Carlin, is a professor of economics at University College London, expert advisor to the Office for Budget Responsibility, and research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Her research focuses on macroeconomics, institutions and economic performance, and the economics of transition.
Go to Profile#24195
John Todd
#24206
Overall Influence
1911 - 2007 (96 years)
John Todd was a Northern Irish mathematician most of whose career was spent in England and the USA; he was a pioneer in the field of numerical analysis. He was born in Carnacally, County Down, Ireland, and grew up near Belfast. He attended Methodist College Belfast after winning a scholarship. In his final year at the College he only studied maths as a result of his desire to become an engineer. He received his BSc degree from Queen's University in 1931, and went to St. John's College at Cambridge University, studying for 2 years with J. E. Littlewood, who advised him against getting a doctor...
Go to Profile#24196
Hans F. Zacher
#24207
Overall Influence
1928 - 2015 (87 years)
Hans Friedrich Zacher was a German academician. He was a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and was the President of the Max Planck Society from 1990 till 1996. Biography Zacher was born in Erlach am Inn in Germany and attended school in nearby Simbach. Later he studied law at the Universities of Bamberg, Erlangen and Munich. He was an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Go to Profile#24197
Alain Glavieux
#24208
Overall Influence
1949 - 2004 (55 years)
Alain Glavieux was a French professor in electrical engineering at École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne. He was the coinventor with Claude Berrou and Punya Thitimajshima of a groundbreaking coding scheme called turbo codes.
Go to Profile#24198
Anatoly Khazanov
#24209
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Anatoly Mikhailovich Khazanov is an anthropologist and historian. Born in Moscow, Khazanov attended Moscow State University, where he received an M.A. in 1960. He earned a Ph.D. degree in 1966 and Dr.Sc. in 1976 from the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1990, he became Professor of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and at the moment he is the Ernest Gellner Professor of Anthropology . He is a Fellow of the British Academy, Corresponding Member of the UNESCO International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations, and Honorary Member of the Central Asia...
Go to Profile#24199
Stanley Wasserman
#24210
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Stanley Wasserman is an American statistician and prior to retirement was the Rudy Professor of Statistics, Psychology, and Sociology at Indiana University Bloomington and the Academic Supervisor of the International laboratory for Applied Network Research at Moscow's National Research University – Higher School of Economics . He is known for his work on social network analysis, mathematical sociology, network science and multidimensional network. In 2017 Wasserman launched the Master's program 'Applied statistics with Network Analysis' at National Research University – Higher School of Econo...
Go to Profile#24200
Zhu Qingshi
#24211
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Zhu Qingshi FRSC is a Chinese physical chemist and writer. He is the former president of the University of Science and Technology of China , and the founding president of Southern University of Science and Technology .
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