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

#2751

Ulrich Kortz

#134742
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
Ulrich "Uli" Kortz is a German chemist and professor, working in the area of synthetic polyoxometalate chemistry. Biography Ulrich Kortz obtained his education in Chemical Engineering in the period 1982–1989 and was awarded his Diplom from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. In the period of 1989–1995 he was working on his doctorate degree at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, under close supervision of Michael T. Pope. He spent his postdoctoral years with Dante Gatteschi at Florence University, Italy, from 1995 to 1996, and with Andre Tézé and Gilbert Hervé at Versailles University, France, from 1996 to 1997.
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#2752

Rumi Nakamura

#134841
Overall Influence
Rumi Nakamura is an Earth scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She works on solar-terrestrial interactions, with a particular focus on the terrestrial magnetosphere. Nakamura won the 2014 European Geosciences Union Julius Bartels Medal.
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#2753

Jan A. D. Zeevaart

#134948
Overall Influence
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#2754

Edward Seto

#135055
Overall Influence
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#2755

Jane S. Paulsen

#135059
Overall Influence
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#2756

Myron Spector

#135106
Overall Influence
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#2757

Dakshi Agrawal

#135134
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
Dakshi Agrawal, from the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. Agrawal obtained his B.Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1993 and two years later received his M.S. from the Washington University in St. Louis as well as his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, all of which were in electrical engineering. From 1999 to 2000 he worked as a visiting assistant professor at UIUC and in 2000, joined the Thomas J. Watson Research Center of IBM, in Hawthorne, New York as a research scientist. Since 2006 he serves as manager of the Network Management Research Group at the Thomas J.
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#2758

Yan Xiao

Yan Xiao
#135176
Overall Influence
Yan Xiao is an engineer and Professor of Civil Engineering at USC. He is best known for inventing structural uses for bamboo. He describes his research interests as "seismic analysis and design of structures; experimental analysis of structures, components and materials, and implementation of new materials into structural design and retrofit."
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#2759

Ramaswamy S

#135207
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Ramaswamy S is an Indian-American structural biologist of Indian origin. He is currently professor of biological sciences, professor at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Bindley Bioscience Center at Purdue University. He was a senior professor at Institute of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine from 2009 to 2019. Ramaswamy S also abbreviated as "Rams" by his students and colleagues, held the founding dean's position at inStem from May 2009. He was also the founding CEO of Center for Cellular and molecular platforms , Bangalore-Biocluster from May 2009 to May 2016.
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#2760

Reina Maruyama

#135406
Overall Influence
Reina H. Maruyama is a Japanese–American experimental particle/atomic/nuclear physicist. As a professor at Yale University, Maruyama was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for her "innovative and wide-ranging contributions to the experimental study of rare events and fundamental symmetries, especially the search for neutrinoless double beta decay, and for leadership in understanding the signature and nature of dark matter."
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#2761

Catherine Stampfl

#135418
Overall Influence
Catherine Stampfl is a Professor of Physics at the University of Sydney and was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019. Career Stampfl received a PhD in physics from La Trobe University in 1990. She then moved to the United States where she worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Germany. Before her return to Australia in 2003 she worked at Northwestern University. she then settled down in Sydney and had two children named Eva and Elke.
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#2762

Kon-Well Wang

#135462
Overall Influence
Kon-Well Wang is an American academic and engineer, best known for his research work in structural dynamics, especially in the emerging field of adaptive structures & material systems, with applications in vibration & noise controls. acoustic & elastic wave tailoring, shape morphing & deployment, energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, and vehicle and robotic system dynamics. He is the Stephen P. Timoshenko Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Structural Dynamics and Controls Lab at the University of Michigan .
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#2763

Bradford H. Hager

#135481
Overall Influence
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#2764

Shreyas Vasanawala

#135732
Overall Influence
Shreyas Vasanawala is an American pediatric radiologist and biomedical engineer. In 2021, Vasanawala was appointed the Division Chief, Associate Chair, and Radiologist-in-Chief for Pediatric Radiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also the inaugural William R. Brody Professor of Pediatric Radiology and Child Health.
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#2765

Andrea Donnellan

#135755
Overall Influence
Andrea Donnellan is a principal investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She studies earthquakes using geodetic imaging. Biography She studied at Ohio State University, University of Southern California, and California Institute of Technology.
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#2766

Allan C. Collins

#135763
Overall Influence
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#2767

M. Parker Givens

#135784
Overall Influence
1916 - 2013 (97 years)
Miles Parker Givens was an American optical physicist, former acting director and professor emeritus at The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. His work spanned several topics in physical optics, including holography and photogrammetry. He made important contributions to the development of optical data processing and synthetic holography.
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#2768

Andrew Jenike

Andrew Jenike
#135805
Overall Influence
1914 - 2003 (89 years)
Andrew W. Jenike was an American engineer who developed and expanded the science of bulk material handling. He founded and served as company president for engineering consulting firm Jenike & Johanson, Inc. and published Utah Engineering Experiment Station Bulletins 123 and 108, which introduce the idea of mass flow.
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#2769

Shuguang Deng

#135827
Overall Influence
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#2770

Joseph Piven

#135840
Overall Influence
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#2771

Clarence S. Clay Jr.

#135879
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
Clarence Samuel Clay Jr. was a geophysicist specialized in oceanography. He was known for his contributions in acoustics. Although he signed most of his papers, "C.S. Clay", he was called simply, "Clay" by his friends, students, and colleagues. He was also known as "Clay Clay".
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#2772

Lawrence Ford

#135989
Overall Influence
Lawrence H. Ford is an American physicist. Ford earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Michigan State University in 1970 and pursued graduate study in the subject at Princeton University, completing a Master of Arts in 1970, followed by a doctorate in 1974. He began his teaching career at Tufts University in September 1980 as an assistant professor. Ford was promoted to an associate professorship in 1985 and elevated to full professor in 1992. In 2004, Ford was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, "[f]or pioneering contributions to quantum field theory in flat and curv...
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#2773

Stelios Kyriakides

#136007
Overall Influence
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#2774

Paul H. Steen

#136102
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (73 years)
Paul H Steen was an engineer and scientist. He held the Maxwell M. Upson Chair in Engineering at Cornell University. Steen received degrees in Engineering and English Literature from Brown University, his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and postdoctoral training at Stanford University.
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#2775

Klaus Eichmann

#136250
Overall Influence
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#2776

Colin J. Barnstable

#136286
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
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#2777

John L. Bowman

#136344
Overall Influence
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#2778

Lisa L. Cunningham

Lisa L. Cunningham
#136377
Overall Influence
Lisa Lynn Cunningham is an American scientist. She is Scientific Director and a senior investigator of sensory cell biology at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders . Education Cunningham received a B.A. and M.A. in Audiology from the University of Tennessee. She was first introduced to the field of audiology by Samuel B. Burchfield. Her 1991 thesis was titled: Effects of click polarity on auditory brainstem responses in man using high-pass noise masking. She completed her thesis under the guidance of her major advisor, James W. Thelin and she credits Ravi Krishnan for his part in its conception.
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#2779

Berk Hess

#136388
Overall Influence
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#2780

Donald E. Mosier

#136404
Overall Influence
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#2781

Dan J. Thoma

#136406
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (62 years)
Dan J. Thoma is an American metallurgist who is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the director of the Grainger Institute for Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Thoma is also a past President of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers . Thoma is well-known for his research on 3D printing technology, which he has carried out for over two decades.
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#2782

Quan-Sheng Shu

#136460
Overall Influence
Quan-Sheng Shu is an American physicist and a naturalized American citizen. Born in China, he has a Ph.D in physics and is also the President of AMAC International, a high-tech company with offices in his hometown of Newport News, Virginia and in Beijing.
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#2783

Alexander N. Krot

#136612
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (75 years)
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#2784

Masanao Abe

#136617
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (58 years)
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#2785

Robert Stewart Anderson

#136646
Overall Influence
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#2786

Carlo. G. Pantano

#136688
Overall Influence
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#2787

Kristin Lee Wood

#136729
Overall Influence
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#2788

William Dowhan

#136774
Overall Influence
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#2789

Ashok Mulchandani

#136961
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
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#2790

Brian P. Wernicke

#136999
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Brian Philip Wernicke is an American geologist and a professor of geology. He has been the Chandler Family Professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California since 2001.
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#2791

Robert Quimby

#137108
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (49 years)
Robert M. Quimby is an American astronomer who received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to pursuing a career in astronomy, Robert Quimby was a member of the ska band 'Reel Big Fish', serving as a second trombonist. As a lead member of the Texas Supernova Search , Quimby and his team used the relatively small 18-inch ROTSE-IIIb robotic telescope on McDonald Observatory's Mount Fowlkes, along with a program he designed to track supernovae. In 2005, Quimby discovered SN 2005ap, at this writing the brightest explosion ever recorded. Quimby measured the burst at 100 billion times the luminosity of the Sun, at a distance of 4.7 billion light-years.
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#2792

Norman Malmuth

#137137
Overall Influence
Norman David Malmuth was an American aeronautical engineer. Malmuth was a native of Brooklyn, born on January 22, 1931. He was one of four children born to parents Jacob and Selma Malmuth. He had one sister, Gail, and two brothers, Bruce and Daniel. Norman Malmuth left New York to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1953. After completing his undergraduate study, Malmuth worked for Grumman Aircraft for three years. He continued studying aeronautical engineering, and earned a master's degree in the subject in 1956, from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.
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#2793

Christy Holland

#137218
Overall Influence
Christy K. Holland is an American scientist and professor of internal medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. After a B.A. with majors in physics and music at Wellesley College, she obtained her Ph.D.in engineering and applied science from Yale University. Holland is editor-in-chief of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. Holland's articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals have been cited over 6300 times, giving her an h-index of 46.
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#2794

Findlay E. Russell

#137287
Overall Influence
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#2795

Tasso J. Kaper

#137314
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (61 years)
Tasso Joost Kaper is an American mathematician at Boston University, where he chairs the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. His research concerns dynamical systems and applied mathematics. Kaper's father is Hans G. Kaper, a Dutch-born retired mathematician at Argonne National Laboratory. Tasso Kaper did his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1986. He earned a Ph.D. in 1992 from the California Institute of Technology, under the supervision of Stephen Wiggins. On finishing his doctorate, he joined the faculty at Boston University, where he has remained. He ...
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#2796

David B. Nicodemus

#137346
Overall Influence
1916 - 1999 (83 years)
David Bowman Nicodemus was a physicist, Physics Professor and Administrator at Oregon State University, and part of the Manhattan Project team. Life and times David B. Nicodemus was born on 1 July 1916 in Kobe, Japan to Frederick B. Nicodemus of Forreston, Illinois and Ella N. Nicodemus of Highland, Illinois. His parents were missionaries. The family sailed from Hong Kong on 30 November 1916 aboard the S.S. Empress of Asia and arrived at the ports of Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada on 18 December 1916. Nicodemus was 5 months old when he voyaged across the Pacific Ocean. The Nicodemus family disembarked in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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#2797

Venkataraman Thangadurai

#137386
Overall Influence
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#2798

Jin Kim Montclare

Jin Kim Montclare
#137494
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Jin Kim Montclare is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at New York University. She creates novel proteins that can be used in drug delivery, tissue regeneration and as medical treatment. She is a 2019 AAAS Leshner Leadership Fellow and has been inducted to the AIMBE College of Fellows.
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#2799

Karl James Jalkanen

Karl James Jalkanen
#137509
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (67 years)
Karl James Jalkanen, FRSC, , is a research scientist in molecular biophysics. He is currently a research scientist at the Gilead Sciences new La Verne, California manufacturing facility in the Department of Technical Services.
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#2800

Oriol Valls

#137510
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (78 years)
Oriol Tomas Valls is a physics professor at the University of Minnesota. After obtaining his BSc in Physics at the University of Barcelona he earned a PhD at Brown University, in 1976. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago he held a Miller Fellowship at the University of California Berkeley before joining the University of Minnesota faculty. He specializes in Condensed Matter Theory. He is an American Physical Society fellow since 1998 and has won the APS Outstanding Referee Award. From 2016 he has also been the Editor of the Newsletter published by the Forum of Physi...
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