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
#27301
Victor Vianu
#27312
Overall Influence
Victor Vianu is a computer scientist, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the ACM from 2009 to 2015.
Go to Profile#27302
Ivan Reitman
#27313
Overall Influence
1946 - 2022 (76 years)
Ivan Reitman was a Czechoslovak-born Canadian filmmaker. He was best known for his comedy work, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 1998.
Go to Profile#27303
Michael Friendly
#27314
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Michael Louis Friendly is an American-Canadian psychologist, Professor of Psychology at York University in Ontario, Canada, and director of its Statistical Consulting Service, especially known for his contributions to graphical methods for categorical and multivariate data, and on the history of data and information visualisation.
Go to Profile#27304
Charles L. Feinberg
#27315
Overall Influence
1909 - 1995 (86 years)
Charles Lee Feinberg was an American biblical scholar and professor of Semitics and Old Testament. He was an authority on the Jewish history, languages and customs of the Old Testament and biblical prophecies.
Go to Profile#27305
Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen
#27316
Overall Influence
1918 - 2015 (97 years)
Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen was a Danish-born American physiologist, who became the first woman president of the American Physiological Society in 1975. Biography Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1918, the youngest of four children of two eminent physiologists, the Nobel Laureate August Krogh and Marie Krogh.
Go to Profile#27306
Benny Gantz
#27317
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Benjamin "Benny" Gantz is an Israeli politician and retired army general who has served as Minister without portfolio since 2023. Gantz also served as the Minister of Defense, between 2020 and 2022 and as deputy prime minister of Israel between 2021 and 2022. From 2020 to 2021, he was the alternate prime minister of Israel.
Go to Profile#27307
Kazem Behbehani
#27318
Overall Influence
Kazem Behbehani is a Kuwaiti immunologist and retired professor. He is known for his research on tropical diseases before he became International Health Advocate at WHO. Early life and education Behbehani was born in Kuwait City, studied medicine at the Universities of Kuwait, Liverpool and London University and received a PhD in Immunology in 1972.
Go to Profile#27308
Karma Dajani
#27319
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Karma Dajani is a Lebanese-Dutch mathematician whose research interests include ergodic theory, probability theory, and their applications in number theory. She is an associate professor of mathematics at Utrecht University.
Go to Profile#27309
Philip Kotler
#27320
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Philip Kotler is an American marketing author, consultant, and professor emeritus; the S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University . He is known for popularizing the definition of marketing mix. He is the author of over 80 books, including Marketing Management, Principles of Marketing, Kotler on Marketing, Marketing Insights from A to Z, Marketing 4.0, Marketing Places, Marketing of Nations, Chaotics, Market Your Way to Growth, Winning Global Markets, Strategic Marketing for Health Care Organizations, S...
Go to Profile#27310
Hubert Hermans
#27321
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Hubert J.M. Hermans is a Dutch psychologist and Emeritus Professor at the Radboud University of Nijmegen, internationally known as the creator of dialogical self theory. Biography Hermans was born as son of a baker family in Maastricht, The Netherlands. He studied psychology at the Radboud University Nijmegen, where he became staff member at the psychological laboratory of the same university in 1965.
Go to Profile#27311
Dorothy Thompson
#27322
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
Dorothy Katharine Gane Thompson was a social historian, a leading expert on the Chartist movement. She and her famous husband E. P. Thompson became well-known in left-wing intellectual circles. Early life Dorothy Towers was born in Greenwich, south-east London, daughter of professional musicians Reginald and Kathleen Towers, who met at the Royal Academy of Music. To supplement their income, they were teachers and ran shops selling musical instruments, and later televisions. They were supporters, but not members, of the Labour Party. Her paternal grandfather, a shoemaker, had settled in London.
Go to Profile#27312
Stephen Orgel
#27323
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Stephen Orgel is Professor of English at Stanford University. Best known as a scholar of Shakespeare, Orgel writes primarily about the political and historical context of Renaissance literature. Orgel received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1954 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1959. He has taught at Stanford since 1985. He is a noted book collector.
Go to Profile#27313
Judy Baca
#27324
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Judith Francisca Baca is an American artist, activist, and professor of Chicano studies, world arts, and cultures based at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice, California. Baca is the director of the mural project that created the Great Wall of Los Angeles, which was the largest known communal mural project in the world as of 2018.
Go to Profile#27314
Rekha R. Thomas
#27325
Overall Influence
Rekha Rachel Thomas is a mathematician and operations researcher. She works as a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington, and was the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps Professor there from 2008 until 2012. Her research interests include mathematical optimization and computational algebra.
Go to Profile#27315
Izak Benbasat
#27326
Overall Influence
Izak Benbasat is a Turkish–Canadian professor and scientist, currently the Sauder Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and professor of information-system management at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business. He is also a published author, being largely cited as a researcher.
Go to Profile#27316
David Buchsbaum
#27327
Overall Influence
1929 - 2021 (92 years)
David Alvin Buchsbaum was a mathematician at Brandeis University who worked on commutative algebra, homological algebra, and representation theory. He proved the Auslander–Buchsbaum formula and the Auslander–Buchsbaum theorem.
Go to Profile#27317
Pablo Carreño Busta
#27328
Overall Influence
1991 - Present (35 years)
Pablo Carreño Busta is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 by the ATP, which he first achieved on 11 September 2017. He also reached a best doubles ranking of No. 16 on 17 July 2017.
Go to Profile#27318
Allan Jacobs
#27329
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Allan B. Jacobs is an urban designer, renowned for his publications and research on urban design. His well-known paper "Toward an Urban Design Manifesto", written with Donald Appleyard, describes how cities should be laid out.
Go to Profile#27319
Nate Archibald
#27330
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald is an American retired professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the National Basketball Association , most notably with the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City–Omaha Kings and Boston Celtics. In 1991, he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Go to Profile#27320
Gego
#27331
Overall Influence
1912 - 1994 (82 years)
Gertrud Louise Goldschmidt , known as Gego, was a modern German-Venezuelan visual artist. Gego is perhaps best known for her geometric and kinetic sculpturess made in the 1960s and 1970s, which she described as "drawings without paper".
Go to Profile#27321
Tony Pérez
#27332
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Atanasio "Tony" Pérez Rigal is a Cuban-American former professional baseball player, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and third baseman from through , most notably as a member of the Cincinnati Reds dynasty that won four National League pennants and two World Series championships between 1970 and 1976. He also played for the Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Go to Profile#27322
Tammy Wynette
#27333
Overall Influence
1942 - 1998 (56 years)
Tammy Wynette was an American country music singer, considered among the genre's most influential and successful artists. Along with Loretta Lynn, Wynette helped bring a woman's perspective to the male-dominated country music field that helped other women find representation in the genre. Her characteristic vocal delivery has been acclaimed by critics, journalists and writers for conveying unique emotion. Twenty of her singles topped the Billboard country chart during her career. Her signature song "Stand by Your Man" received both acclaim and criticism for its portrayal of women's loyalty to...
Go to Profile#27323
Minoru Kanehisa
#27334
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Minoru Kanehisa is a Japanese bioinformatician. He is a project professor at Kyoto University, technical director of Pathway Solutions Inc and president of NPO Bioinformatics Japan. He is one of Japan's most recognized and respected bioinformatics experts and is known for developing the KEGG bioinformatics database.
Go to Profile#27324
Katarina Srebotnik
#27335
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Katarina Srebotnik is a Slovenian former professional tennis player. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 20 on 7 August 2006. On 4 July 2011, she reached No. 1 of the WTA doubles rankings, holding this ranking for 10 weeks.
Go to Profile#27325
Eric L. Schwartz
#27336
Overall Influence
1947 - 2018 (71 years)
Eric L. Schwartz was Professor of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York University Medical Center and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.
Go to Profile#27326
Kate Pullinger
#27337
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Kate Pullinger is a Canadian novelist and author of digital fiction, and a professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, England. Early life and education She was born 1961 in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, and went to high school on Vancouver Island. She dropped out of McGill University, Montreal, after a year and a half.
Go to Profile#27327
Reinhard Zimmermann
#27338
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Reinhard Zimmermann is a German jurist and a director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. Since 2011 he has been the President of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.
Go to Profile#27328
David Schindler
#27339
Overall Influence
1940 - 2021 (81 years)
David William Schindler, , was an American/Canadian limnologist. He held the Killam Memorial Chair and was Professor of Ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. He was notable for "innovative large-scale experiments" on whole lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area which proved that "phosphorus controls the eutrophication in temperate lakes leading to the banning of phosphates in detergents. He was also known for his research on acid rain. In 1989, Schindler moved from the ELA to continue his research at the University of Alberta in ...
Go to Profile#27329
Hans H. Bass
#27340
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Hans Heinrich Bass is a German Economist and Economic Historian and professor at the City University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany. Bass obtained his M. A. in Economics and his PhD in Economics and Social Sciences under the supervision of Richard H. Tilly from the University of Münster, Germany.
Go to Profile#27330
George Rochester
#27341
Overall Influence
1908 - 2001 (93 years)
George Dixon Rochester, FRS was a British physicist known for having co-discovered, with Sir Clifford Charles Butler, a subatomic particle called the kaon. Biography Rochester was born in Wallsend, the only child of Thomas Rochester, a blacksmith, who was later a toolsmith in the Swan Hunter shipyard, and his wife, Ellen, née Dixon.
Go to Profile#27331
Aline Bonami
#27342
Overall Influence
Aline Bonami is a French mathematician known for her expertise in mathematical analysis. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Orléans, and was president of the Société mathématique de France for 2012–2013.
Go to Profile#27332
John Turturro
#27343
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
John Michael Turturro is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied complex roles in independent films. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler, and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Go to Profile#27333
Eli Friedman
#27344
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Eli A. Friedman is an American nephrologist. Education Friedman attended New Utrecht High School, Brooklyn College, and the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center where he received an M.D. degree in 1957. In 1957, Friedman married Mildred Barrett-Lennard with whom he fathered three daughters: Amy Louise, Rebecca Alica, and Sara Jo. He served as Intern, Nephrology Fellow, and Senior Medical Resident at Harvard Medical School's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1957 to 1961. After two years as an Epidemic Intelligence Officer for the United States Public Health Service's Communic...
Go to Profile#27334
Wade Phillips
#27345
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Harold Wade Phillips is an American football coach who is currently the head coach of the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL. He has served as head coach of the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, and Dallas Cowboys. He has also served as interim head coach for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and the Houston Texans. Additionally, Phillips has long been considered to be among the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. In his long career, he has served as defensive coordinator in eight separate stints with seven different franchises . Multiple players under Phillips' system have won Defensive Player of the Year: Reggie White, Bryce Paup, Bruce Smith, J.
Go to Profile#27335
Friedrich Bassler
#27346
Overall Influence
1909 - 1992 (83 years)
Friedrich Bassler was a German hydraulic engineer. From 1961 to 1977 he was director of the Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. From 1964 till 1973 Bassler helped to develop the hydro-solar energy project at the Qattara Depression further. He directed the "Board of Advisers" which was responsible for the planning and financing of the project. For the Egyptian government he served as an advisor on the project.
Go to Profile#27336
Arnold Machin
#27347
Overall Influence
1911 - 1999 (88 years)
Arnold Machin OBE RA FRSS was a British artist, sculptor, and coin and postage stamp designer. Biography Machin was born Stoke-on-Trent in 1911. He started work at the age of 14 as an apprentice china painter at the Minton Pottery. During the Depression he learnt to sculpt at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art, which was opposite the Minton factory. In the 1930s he moved to Derby, where he worked at Royal Crown Derby and met his wife Patricia. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London.
Go to Profile#27337
William Bronk
#27348
Overall Influence
1918 - 1999 (81 years)
William Bronk was an American poet. For his book, Life Supports , he won the National Book Award for Poetry. He was also a veteran of World War II and a businessman. After teaching at Union College for a brief period, he took over the family business of Bronk Coal and Lumber after his father's early death. He ran it for 30 years in Hudson Falls, New York.
Go to Profile#27338
Piers Forster
#27349
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Piers Forster is a Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. A physicist by training, his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds. He is best known for his work on radiative forcing, climate sensitivity, contrails and Climate engineering. He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, including acting as a Lead Author for the Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports, and a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Report.
Go to Profile#27339
Sarah Parker
#27350
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Sarah Parker is an American judge who served as the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from February 2006 until August 2014. Education and career Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Parker attended Meredith College, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with an Education degree and served with the Peace Corps in Turkey from 1964 to 1966 before returning to Chapel Hill to earn a J.D. degree . After working in private law practice for 15 years, Parker was named by Governor Jim Hunt to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in late 1984. Voters elected and re-...
Go to Profile#27340
Joseph Platt
#27351
Overall Influence
1915 - 2012 (97 years)
Joseph B. Platt was an American physicist and academic administrator who served as founding president of Harvey Mudd College from 1956 to 1976 and as eighth president of Claremont Graduate University from 1976 to 1981.
Go to Profile#27341
Hoyt C. Hottel
#27352
Overall Influence
1903 - 1998 (95 years)
Hoyt Clarke Hottel was a professor in the department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He was an expert on energy, radiant heat transfer, fire, fuels and combustion.
Go to Profile#27342
Daniel Lidar
#27353
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Daniel Amihud Lidar is the holder of the Viterbi Professorship of Engineering at the University of Southern California, where he is a professor of electrical engineering, chemistry, physics and astronomy. He is the director and co-founder of the USC Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology as well as scientific director of the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center, notable for his research on control of quantum systems and quantum information processing.
Go to Profile#27343
Linda Keen
#27354
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Linda Jo Goldway Keen is a mathematician and a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Since 1965, she has been a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Lehman College of the City University of New York and a Professor of Mathematics at Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Go to Profile#27344
Emma Lundberg
#27355
Overall Influence
Emma Lundberg is a Swedish cell biologist who is a professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Director of Cell Profiling at the Science for Life Laboratory. Her research considers spatial proteomics and cell biology, making use of an antibody-based approach to assess fundamental aspects of human biology. She looks to understand why certain variations in human proteins can cause disease.
Go to Profile#27345
Keith J. Laidler
#27356
Overall Influence
1916 - 2003 (87 years)
Keith James Laidler , born in England, was notable as a pioneer in chemical kinetics and authority on the physical chemistry of enzymes. Education Laidler received his early education at Liverpool College. He received his BA and MA degrees from Oxford University as a student of Trinity College. His MA was in the area of chemical kinetics under Cyril Hinshelwood. He completed his PhD in 1940 from Princeton University, with a thesis entitled: The Kinetics of Reactions in Condensed and Heterogeneous Systems, under Henry Eyring. He was a National Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow ....
Go to Profile#27346
Charles L. Briggs
#27357
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Charles Leslie Briggs is an anthropologist who works at the University of California, Berkeley, United States. Before working at Berkeley he held a position as Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department and Director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at University of California, San Diego.
Go to Profile#27347
J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.
#27358
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr. was an African American nuclear scientist, mechanical engineer and mathematician. A child prodigy, he attended the University of Chicago at the age of 13, becoming its youngest ever student. His graduation at a young age resulted in him being hailed as "the Negro Genius" in the national media.
Go to Profile#27348
Henriette Avram
#27359
Overall Influence
1919 - 2006 (87 years)
Henriette Davidson Avram was a computer programmer and systems analyst who developed the MARC format , the international data standard for bibliographic and holdings information in libraries. Avram's development of the MARC format in the late 1960s and early 1970s at the Library of Congress had a revolutionizing effect on the practice of librarianship, making possible the automation of many library functions and the sharing of bibliographic information electronically between libraries using pre-existing cataloging standards.
Go to Profile#27349
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
#27360
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
#27350
Alton L. Becker
#27361
Overall Influence
1932 - 2011 (79 years)
Alton L. Becker was an American linguist known for his studies of Burmese grammar and other Southeast Asian languages, including Malaysian, Javanese and Kawi. He was a professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan from 1968 to 1986. Becker published studies in philology, rhetoric, and the ethnography of communication. He was coauthor with Richard E. Young and Kenneth L. Pike of the widely influential college writing textbook, Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, which introduced a Rogerian framework for communication and rhetoric studies as an alternative to the Aristotelian approach. To...
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