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
#25251
Bharat Ratra
#25262
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Bharat Vishnu Ratra is an Indian-American physicist, theoretical cosmologist and astroparticle physicist who is currently a university distinguished professor of physics at Kansas State University. He is known for his work on dynamical dark energy and on the quantum-mechanical generation of energy density and magnetic field fluctuations during inflation.
Go to Profile#25252
Karl Taube
#25263
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Karl Andreas Taube is an American Mesoamericanist, Mayanist, iconographer and ethnohistorian, known for his publications and research into the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. He is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, University of California, Riverside. In 2008 he was named the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences distinguished lecturer.
Go to Profile#25253
Terry Francona
#25264
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Terrence Jon Francona , nicknamed "Tito", is an American former baseball manager and player who was the manager of the Cleveland Guardians in Major League Baseball for eleven seasons. Previously, he was the manager of the Boston Red Sox for eight seasons, whom he led to two World Series titles, ending the franchise's 86-year championship drought.
Go to Profile#25254
Philip James DeVries
#25265
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Philip James DeVries is a tropical biologist whose research focuses on insect ecology and evolution, especially butterflies. His best-known work includes symbioses between caterpillars, ants and plants, and community level biodiversity of rainforest butterflies.
Go to Profile#25255
Sergey Aleynikov
#25266
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Sergey Aleynikov is a former Goldman Sachs computer programmer. Between 2009 and 2016, he was prosecuted by NY Federal and State jurisdictions for the same conduct of allegedly copying proprietary computer source code from his employer, Goldman Sachs, before joining a competing firm. His first prosecution in federal court in New York ultimately resulted in acquittal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The outcome of his second prosecution and trial in New York state court was a split verdict dismissed by court, which acquitted him on all counts. One count in that or...
Go to Profile#25256
Brian Mueller
#25267
Overall Influence
Brian E. Mueller is an American academic and university administrator. He is the current president of Grand Canyon University and CEO of Grand Canyon Education. Mueller has been the President of the university since July 1, 2008, and a director since March 2009. Mueller is also notably the CEO of the for-profit publicly traded Grand Canyon Education Inc that provides services to GCU.
Go to Profile#25257
Shashi Kapoor
#25268
Overall Influence
1938 - 2017 (79 years)
Shashi Kapoor was an Indian actor and film producer who is best known for his works in Hindi films. A recipient of several accolades, including four National Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards, he also featured in a number of English-language international films, particularly films produced by Merchant Ivory. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2011, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, in 2014, for his contribution to Indian cinema.
Go to Profile#25258
Clifford Ando
#25269
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Clifford Ando is an American classicist who specializes in Roman law and religion. His work deals primarily with law, religion, and government in the Imperial era, particularly issues of Roman citizenship, legal pluralism, and legal procedure. In the history of law, his work addresses the relations among civil law, public law, and international law.
Go to Profile#25259
Troy Paino
#25270
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Troy D. Paino is an American lawyer and academic administrator serving as the president at the University of Mary Washington . Prior to coming to UMW, Paino served for six years as president of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Previously, he was Truman State's provost and vice president for academic affairs, and he also served as dean of Winona State University's College of Liberal Arts.
Go to Profile#25260
Irfan Essa
#25271
Overall Influence
Irfan Aziz Essa is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing of the College of Computing, and adjunct professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology . He is an associate dean in Georgia Tech's College of Computing and the director of the new Interdisciplinary Research Center for Machine Learning at Georgia Tech .
Go to Profile#25261
Bruce Russett
#25272
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Bruce Martin Russett was Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and Professor in International and Area Studies, MacMillan Center, Yale University, and edited the Journal of Conflict Resolution from 1972 to 2009.
Go to Profile#25262
Dave Anderson
#25273
Overall Influence
1929 - 2018 (89 years)
David Poole Anderson was an American sportswriter based in New York City. In 1981 he won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary on sporting events. He was the author of 21 books and more than 350 magazine articles.
Go to Profile#25263
Purushottama Bilimoria
#25274
Overall Influence
Purushottama Bilimoria is an Australian-American philosopher and Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University. He studied at the University of Auckland and the University of Otago , in New Zealand, and received his PhD in 1983 from La Trobe University in Australia. He is a former Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford . Currently, he is appointed Head of Purushottama Research Center for Philosophy and Culture of India, and Scholar at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russia. He is also Principal Fellow with the School of Philosophical and Historical Studies and se...
Go to Profile#25264
Bill Hader
#25275
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
William Thomas Hader Jr. is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director. Hader gained widespread attention for his eight-year stint as a cast member on the long-running NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2013, for which he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Peabody Award. He became known for his impressions and especially for his work on the Weekend Update segments, where he played Stefon Meyers, a flamboyant New York City nightclub tour guide.
Go to Profile#25265
Roland L. Fischer
#25276
Overall Influence
1915 - 1997 (82 years)
Roland Fischer was an experimental researcher and psychopharmacologist known for his early work on psychedelic drugs, schizophrenia, the perception-hallucination continuum model of altered states of consciousness, and for his work on gustation which later contributed to research supporting supertasting. Fischer was formerly professor of experimental psychiatry and associate professor of pharmacology at Ohio State University , and also held academic posts at George Washington University, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins University.
Go to Profile#25266
Irene Heim
#25277
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Irene Roswitha Heim is a linguist and a leading specialist in semantics. She was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989, where she is Professor Emerita of Linguistics. She served as Head of the Linguistics Section of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.
Go to Profile#25267
Jeanne Guillemin
#25278
Overall Influence
1943 - 2019 (76 years)
Jeanne Harley Guillemin was an American medical anthropologist and author, who for 25 years taught at Boston College as a professor of Sociology and for over ten years was a senior fellow in the Security Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was an authority on biological weapons and published four books on the topic.
Go to Profile#25268
Jacques Mistral
#25279
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Jacques Mistral is a French economist and professor. He is a member of the Conseil d'Analyse Économique in France, a member of the Cercle des économistes, and as of October 2009, a member of the scientific council of the center-right think tank Fondation pour l'innovation politique.
Go to Profile#25269
Rosemary Hutton
#25280
Overall Influence
1925 - 2004 (79 years)
Violet Rosemary Strachan Hutton FInstP FRSE FRAS , known to her peers as Rosemary, was a Scottish geophysicist and pioneer of magnetotellurics. Her research focused on the use of electromagnetic methods to determine the electrical conductivity and structure of the Earth's crust, lithosphere and upper mantle, with a particular focus on the African continent and Scotland. She spent over two decades at the University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences as a researcher and lecturer and was a Fellow of many societies including the American Geophysical Union and The Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#25270
Joyce Lishman
#25281
Overall Influence
1947 - 2021 (74 years)
Joyce Lishman the first woman Professor at Robert Gordon University, was a leader in social work education and research. Education and career Lishman was the first pupil from her girls' high school in Normanton to be admitted to the University of Oxford. She studied philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1968. She then went on to study social studies and social work at the University of Edinburgh graduating in 1970. She practiced as a social worker in child and family psychology. This experience she built on later in her career by developing a new social work service for children s...
Go to Profile#25271
Adam Tickell
#25282
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Adam Tickell FAcSS is a British economic geographer, whose work explores finance, English local governance, and the politics of ideas. He is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, and was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex. He also edited the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.
Go to Profile#25272
Zilda Arns
#25283
Overall Influence
1934 - 2010 (76 years)
Zilda Arns Neumann was a Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker. A sister of Cardinal Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, the former Archbishop of São Paulo known for his efforts against the Brazilian military dictatorship, Zilda Arns became internationally known by founding a Catholic pastoral care for poor children. Her humanitarian work, which also included the poor and the elderly, spanned over three decades.
Go to Profile#25273
Maurice Berger
#25284
Overall Influence
1956 - 2020 (64 years)
Maurice Berger was an American cultural historian, curator, and art critic, who served as a Research Professor and Chief Curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Berger was recognized for his interdisciplinary scholarship on race and visual culture in the United States.
Go to Profile#25274
Antawn Jamison
#25285
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Antawn Cortez Jamison is an American former professional basketball player who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association . He serves as director of pro personnel for the Washington Wizards. Jamison played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, being named national player of the year in 1998. He was selected by the Toronto Raptors as the fourth overall pick of the 1998 NBA draft before being traded to the Golden State Warriors for former Tar Heel teammate Vince Carter.
Go to Profile#25275
Tobias Adrian
#25286
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Tobias Adrian is a German and American economist who has been Financial Counsellor of the International Monetary Fund and Head of their Monetary and Capital Markets Department since 2017. He was previously employed at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he was a Senior Vice President and the Associate Director of the Research and Statistics Group. His research covers aspects of risk to the wider economy of developments in capital markets. His work has covered the global financial crisis, monetary policy transmission, and the yield curve.
Go to Profile#25276
Richard Zemel
#25287
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Richard Stanley Zemel is a Canadian-American computer scientist and professor at Columbia University, Department of Computer Science, and a leading figure in the field of Machine Learning and Computer Vision.
Go to Profile#25277
Ramón Díaz
#25288
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Ramón Ángel Díaz is a former Argentine footballer and manager. He played for River Plate as a striker, and coached it for three tenures, winning eight titles. He is also known by the nickname of El Pelado . He is the manager of the Brazilian club Vasco da Gama.
Go to Profile#25278
C. A. J. Coady
#25289
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Cecil Anthony John Coady, more commonly publishing as C. A. J. Coady and less formally known as Tony Coady , is a prominent Australian philosopher with an international reputation for his research, particularly in epistemology but also in political and applied philosophy. Coady's best-known work relates to the epistemological problems posed by testimony, most fully expounded in his book Testimony: a Philosophical Study . It was influential in establishing a new branch of inquiry within the field of epistemology. He is also well known for his publications on issues related to political violence.
Go to Profile#25279
Hugh McDevitt
#25290
Overall Influence
1930 - 2022 (92 years)
Hugh O'Neill McDevitt ForMemRS was an immunologist and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Biography McDevitt was born in Ohio. His father was a surgeon and was Irish. After receiving his M.D. from Harvard University in 1955 and completing his residency in New York, McDevitt was a captain in the U.S. Army and a special fellow for the National Institutes of Medical Research in London.
Go to Profile#25280
Leonard Peltier
#25291
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and a member of the American Indian Movement who, following a controversial trial, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment and has been imprisoned since 1977 . Peltier became eligible for parole in 1993. , Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman in Florida.
Go to Profile#25281
Gaston-Armand Amaudruz
#25292
Overall Influence
1920 - 2018 (98 years)
Gaston-Armand "Guy" Amaudruz was a Swiss neo-fascist political philosopher and Holocaust denier. Biography Initially a supporter of the Swiss fascist movement of Arthur Fonjallaz, he came to wider attention in 1949 when he published Ubu Justicier au Premier Procès de Nuremberg, one of the first works to question the veracity of the Holocaust. Increasingly active in neo-fascism, he organized conferences in Malmö in 1951 which led to the formation of a pan-European nationalist group known as the European Social Movement and then led the more radical splinter group known as the New European Order later that year.
Go to Profile#25282
Robert Foley
#25293
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Robert Andrew Foley, FBA is a British anthropologist, archaeologist, and academic, specialising in human evolution. From 1977 to 1985, he was a lecturer in anthropology at the University of Durham. He has been a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, since 1987, and Leverhulme Professor of Human Evolution at the University of Cambridge since 2003.
Go to Profile#25283
Stan L. Albrecht
#25294
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Stan LeRoy Albrecht is an American educator, university administrator, and scholar. He served as the president of Utah State University from 2005 to 2016. Early life and education Albrecht was raised on a farm near Fremont in Wayne County, Utah. Albrecht began college as an undergraduate student at Southern Utah State College , later transferring to BYU. Albrecht initially majored in veterinary science, but soon switched to political science and history before settling on sociology. Albrecht completed both his master's and doctorate degrees in sociology from Washington State University.
Go to Profile#25284
Mazarine Pingeot
#25295
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Mazarine Marie Pingeot who changed her name to Mazarine Marie Mitterrand Pingeot in November 2016, is a French writer, journalist and professor. Biography Pingeot is the daughter of former French president François Mitterrand and his mistress Anne Pingeot. She is said to be named after the Bibliothèque Mazarine, the oldest library in France, because of her parents' love for books. She could also be named after cardinal Mazarin, who was admired by her father. Her existence was long hidden from the press but was once almost revealed by the French writer Jean-Edern Hallier. Keeping Mazarine Ping...
Go to Profile#25285
Niki Erlenmeyer-Kimling
#25296
Overall Influence
Niki Erlenmeyer-Kimling was a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and chief of the Division of Genetics at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Research Her research interests included genetic aspects of mental disorders and human behavior genetics generally. She conducted a longitudinal, prospective study of early indicators of later schizophrenia and a genetic-linkage, gene search study of schizophrenia in Croatia.
Go to Profile#25286
Abraham J. Twerski
#25297
Overall Influence
1930 - 2021 (91 years)
Abraham Joshua Heshel Twerski was an Israeli-American Hasidic rabbi, a scion of the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty, and a psychiatrist specializing in substance abuse. Early life and education Abraham Joshua Twerski was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents were Devorah Leah , daughter of the second Rebbe of Bobov, and Rabbi Jacob Israel Twerski , who was the rabbi of Beth Jehudah synagogue in Milwaukee. The elder Rabbi Twerski immigrated to America in 1927, and was a descendant of Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twerski, the founder of the Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty, and a student of the Baal Shem Tov. Twerski was the third of five brothers.
Go to Profile#25287
Eric Dane
#25298
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Eric William Dane is an American actor. After multiple television roles in the 1990s and 2000s, which included his recurring role as Jason Dean in Charmed, Dane was cast as Dr. Mark Sloan on the ABC medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy. Following this, he made appearances in films such as Marley & Me , Valentine's Day , and Burlesque . Dane has since played Captain Tom Chandler in the post-apocalyptic drama The Last Ship and currently stars as Cal Jacobs in the HBO series Euphoria.
Go to Profile#25288
Duncan Snidal
#25299
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Duncan Snidal, FBA is professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and professor emeritus at University of Chicago. Snidal has research interests in international relations theory, institutional organizations, cooperation, international law, and rational choice.
Go to Profile#25289
Eamon Martin
#25300
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Eamon Columba Martin KC*HS is an Irish Catholic prelate from Northern Ireland who has served as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland since 2014. Early life and education Martin was born in Pennyburn, Derry, on 30 October 1961, one of twelve children to John James Martin and his wife Catherine . He attended primary school at St Patrick's Primary School, Pennyburn, and secondary school at St Columb's College.
Go to Profile#25290
Asif Nazrul
#25301
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Md. Nazrul Islam, better known as Asif Nazrul, is a Bangladeshi writer, novelist, columnist, political commentator, and a professor of law at the University of Dhaka. Renowned for his bold critique of Bangladeshi politics, Nazrul wrote more than ten novels and nonfiction books.
Go to Profile#25291
Andrei Voronkov
#25302
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Andrei Anatolievič Voronkov is a Professor of Formal methods in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. Education Voronkov was educated at Novosibirsk State University, graduating with a PhD in 1987.
Go to Profile#25292
Claudio Pavone
#25303
Overall Influence
1920 - 2016 (96 years)
Claudio Pavone was an Italian historian and archivist. Pavone was the president of the Historic Institute of the Liberation movement in Italy, the president of the Italian Society of Contemporary History and the director of the historical journal Parolechiave . He died aged 95, just one day shy of his 96th birthday.
Go to Profile#25293
Miles Yu
#25304
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Miles Maochun Yu is an American historian and strategist who served as the principal China policy and planning adviser to former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Yu is a professor of military history and modern China at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He is also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he directs the China Center, director of the Project 2049 Institute, and the Robert Alexander Mercer Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Go to Profile#25294
Ivan Izquierdo
#25305
Overall Influence
1937 - 2021 (84 years)
Ivan Antonio Izquierdo was an Argentine Brazilian scientist and a pioneer in the study of the neurobiology of learning and memory. Born in 1937 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Izquierdo graduated in Medicine and completed his Ph.D. in Pharmacology , both in the University of Buenos Aires . For nearly a decade, Izquierdo taught at National University of Cordoba , in Argentina, but, due to a number of reasons, both political and personal , he moved to Brazil in the beginning of the 1970s, and lived in Porto Alegre since 1978. For more than 20 years, he worked in the "Center of Memory" of the Bioc...
Go to Profile#25295
Chris Beckett
#25306
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Chris Beckett is a British social worker, university lecturer, and science fiction author. He has written several textbooks, dozens of short stories, and six novels. Background Beckett was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Bryanston School in Dorset, England. He holds a BSc degree in Psychology from the University of Bristol , a CQSW from the University of Wales , a Diploma in Advanced Social Work from Goldsmiths College, University of London , and an MA in English Studies from Anglia Ruskin University , Cambridge . He has been a senior lecturer in social work at ARU since 2000. He...
Go to Profile#25296
Joseph S. Fruton
#25307
Overall Influence
1912 - 2007 (95 years)
Joseph Stewart Fruton , born Joseph Fruchtgarten, was a Polish-American biochemist and historian of science. His most significant scientific work involved synthetic peptides and their interactions with proteases; with his wife Sofia Simmonds he also published an influential textbook, General Biochemistry . From 1970 until his death, Fruton worked extensively on the history of science, particularly the history of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Go to Profile#25297
Doğan Kuban
#25308
Overall Influence
1926 - 2021 (95 years)
Doğan Kuban was a Turkish architectural historian. Biography Kuban was born in Paris. He received his bachelor's degree in architecture from Istanbul Technical University . Shortly thereafter he started his academic career. In the 1960s and 1970s he spent time as a research fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library with a scholarship from Harvard University. He became a professor in 1965, and he retıred recently. Among his other work, he aided Professor Cecil L. Striker, of the University of Pennsylvania, in his scholarly restoration of the Kalenderhane Mosque in Istanbul.
Go to Profile#25298
Anne Dufourmantelle
#25309
Overall Influence
1964 - 2017 (53 years)
Anne Dufourmantelle was a French philosopher and psychoanalyst. Education and career Dufourmantelle was educated at Brown University and at Paris-Sorbonne University, where she earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1994. She practised psychoanalysis and was a professor at the European Graduate School and a contributor to the French daily newspaper Libération.
Go to Profile#25299
Gibson Burrell
#25310
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Gibson Burrell is a British sociologist and organizational theorist, Professor of Organisation Theory at University of Manchester, Honorary Professor at the University of York, and formerly the University of Leicester. He became known as writer of the 1979 book Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis with Gareth Morgan, and is recognized for introducing the critical management project to the University of Leicester.
Go to Profile#25300
Loyal Rue
#25311
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Loyal D. Rue is an American philosopher of religion. He is a professor emeritus of religion and philosophy at Luther College of Decorah, Iowa. He focuses on naturalistic theories of religion and has been awarded two John Templeton Foundation fellowships. He has been for many years a member and lecturer at the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science .
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