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
#27651
Hal Greer
#27662
Overall Influence
1936 - 2018 (82 years)
Harold Everett Greer was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Syracuse Nationals / Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association from 1958 through 1973. A guard, Greer was a 10-time NBA All-Star and was named to the All-NBA Second Team seven times. He was named to the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, the NBA 75th Anniversary Team, and his uniform number was among Philadelphia 76ers retired numbers. Greer is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Go to Profile#27652
Sylvain Charlebois
#27663
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Sylvain Charlebois is a Canadian researcher and professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He is a former dean of the university's Faculty of Management.
Go to Profile#27653
Claire Danes
#27664
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Claire Catherine Danes is an American actress. Prolific in film and television since her teens, she is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2012, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Go to Profile#27654
Jean Marais
#27665
Overall Influence
1913 - 1998 (85 years)
Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , known professionally as Jean Marais , was a French actor, film director, theatre director, painter, sculptor, visual artist, writer and photographer. He performed in over 100 films and was the muse and lover of acclaimed director Jean Cocteau. In 1996, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his contributions to French cinema.
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Jennifer Hill
#27666
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Jennifer Lynn Hill is an American statistician specializing in causal inference with applications to social statistics. She is a professor of applied statistics at New York University in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Go to Profile#27656
Jeff Todd Titon
#27667
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Jeff Todd Titon is a professor emeritus of music at Brown University. He holds the B.A. from Amherst College; and the M.A. and the Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He taught American literature, folklore, and ethnomusicology in the departments of English and Music at Tufts University , where he co-founded the American Studies program and also the M.A. program in Ethnomusicology. He taught at Brown University where he was director of the Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology. He held visiting professorships at Amherst College, Carleton College, Berea College, East Tennessee State University, and Indiana University's Folklore Institute.
Go to Profile#27657
George Michalopoulos
#27668
Overall Influence
George K. Michalopoulos is a Greek-American pathologist and academic. He served as Maud L. Menten Professor of Experimental Pathology and Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC from 1991 to 2023.
Go to Profile#27658
Tyler Jacks
#27669
Overall Influence
Tyler Jacks is a David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , a long-time HHMI investigator, and Founding Director of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, which brings together biologists and engineers to improve detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. Dr. Jacks is a member of the board of directors of Thermo Fisher Scientific and Amgen, two of the major biotechnology corporations in the world. He is the President of Break Through Cancer, a foundation dedicated to supporting multi-institutional teams of researchers focused on finding solutions to some of the most difficult to treat cancers.
Go to Profile#27659
Grace Oladunni Taylor
#27670
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Grace Oladunni Taylor is a biochemist, formerly at University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She was the second woman to be inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Science and the first African awarded a L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.
Go to Profile#27660
Katharine Ellis
#27671
Overall Influence
Katharine Ellis, is a British musicologist and academic, specialising in music history. Since 2017, she has been the 1684 Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge. She previously taught at the Open University, at Royal Holloway, University of London and at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, before serving as Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music at the University of Bristol .
Go to Profile#27661
Rohit Varma
#27672
Overall Influence
Rohit Varma is an Indian-American ophthalmologist and professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine. In 2014, he was named director of the USC Eye Institute and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology for Keck School of Medicine of USC. In March 2016, Varma was named the interim dean of the Keck School of Medicine, and in November was named dean. In October 2017, USC announced that he stepped down as dean. In October 2018, Varma became the founding director of the Southern California Eyecare and Vision Research Institute.
Go to Profile#27662
Erik Fosse
#27673
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Erik Torgeir Fosse is a Norwegian surgeon, lieutenant colonel, political activist, solidarity worker and musician. As professor of medicine he has headed the Intervention Centre at the National Hospital since 1995. He has been involved in international medical solidarity work since 1979 and co-founded the Norwegian Aid Committee NORWAC in 1983, of which he remains a leader. He is noted for his humanitarian work for NORWAC in the Gaza Strip with Mads Gilbert during the Gaza War.
Go to Profile#27663
Jeremy R. Knowles
#27674
Overall Influence
1935 - 2008 (73 years)
Jeremy Randall Knowles was a professor of chemistry at Harvard University who served as dean of the Harvard University faculty of arts and sciences from 1991 to 2002. He joined Harvard in 1974, received many awards for his research, and remained at Harvard until his death, leaving the faculty for a decade to serve as Dean. Knowles died on 3 April 2008 at his home.
Go to Profile#27664
Genpei Akasegawa
#27675
Overall Influence
1937 - 2014 (77 years)
Genpei Akasegawa was a pseudonym of Japanese artist Katsuhiko Akasegawa, born March 27, 1937 – October 26, 2014 in Yokohama. He used another pseudonym, Katsuhiko Otsuji, for literary works. A member of the influential artist groups Neo-Dada Organizers and Hi-Red Center, Akasegawa went on to maintain a multi-disciplinary practice throughout his career as an individual artist. He has had retrospective exhibitions at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Chiba City Museum, and Oita City Museum. His work is in the permanent collection at Museum of Modern Art in New York. Artist Nam June P...
Go to Profile#27665
Tippi Hedren
#27676
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is a retired American actress. Initially a fashion model, appearing on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines , Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films, notably, the suspense-thriller The Birds , for which she won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, and the psychological drama Marnie . She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong , the political satire Citizen Ruth , and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees .
Go to Profile#27666
Lizzo
#27677
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Melissa Viviane Jefferson , known professionally as Lizzo , is an American rapper and singer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston, Texas, with her family when at the age of ten. After college, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she began her recording career in hip hop music. Prior to signing with Nice Life Recording Company and Atlantic Records, Lizzo released two studio albums, Lizzobangers and Big Grrrl Small World . Her first major-label extended play , Coconut Oil, was released in 2016.
Go to Profile#27667
Spenta R. Wadia
#27678
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Spenta R. Wadia is an Indian theoretical physicist with research interests in elementary particle physics, quantum field theory and statistical physics, string theory and quantum gravity. His other scientific interests are in complex systems including cross-disciplinary biology. He is a recipient of the 2004 TWAS Prize in Physics; the 1995 Physics Prize of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics ; and the J. C. Bose Fellowship of the Govt of India. He is an elected member of TWAS, and a Fellow of all the Science Academies of India.
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Anatoly V. Oleynik
#27679
Overall Influence
Anatoly Vasilievich Oleynik, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nizhni Novgorod. Currently serving as the scientific supervisor for the photochemistry lab as well as the v-rector for the University for scientific research at University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia.
Go to Profile#27669
Crodowaldo Pavan
#27680
Overall Influence
1919 - 2009 (90 years)
Crodowaldo Pavan was a Brazilian biologist and geneticist, and a scientific leader in Brazil. Early life Pavan was born to a family of second-generation immigrants from Italy in 1919, in the city of Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil. His great-grandfather was an expert in textile paints and a militant anarchist, who was frequently persecuted and imprisoned in Italy as well as in Brazil for his political activism. As a boy, influenced by his father's porcelain manufacturing plant at Mogi das Cruzes, he wished to follow a career in engineering, but changed radically when he had the opportunity ...
Go to Profile#27670
Esfandiar Maasoumi
#27681
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Esfandiar Maasoumi is an econometrician and an economist. He is a Distinguished Professor at Emory University. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the London School of Economics. He earned his Ph.D.in 1977, also from the London School of Economics. He is fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and a fellow of the Journal of Econometrics. He is ranked in the Econometricians Hall of Fame. Maasoumi has served as Editor of Econometric Reviews since 1987. He has influential contributions in forecasting, specification analysis, information theory, multidimensional welfare/wellbeing, mobility and inequality.
Go to Profile#27671
Michelle Dawson
#27682
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Michelle Dawson is a Canadian autism researcher who was diagnosed with autism in 1993–1994. Since 2004, she has worked as an autism researcher affiliated with the Autism Specialized Clinic of Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Go to Profile#27672
Georges Skandalis
#27683
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Georges Skandalis is a Greek and French mathematician, known for his work on noncommutative geometry and operator algebras. After following secondary education and classes préparatoires scientifiques in the parisian Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Skandalis studied from 1975 at 1979 at l’École Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm with agrégation in 1977. From 1979 he was an at the University of Paris VI, where under Alain Connes in 1986 he earned his doctorate . From 1980 to 1988 he was attaché de recherches and then chargé de recherches at CNRS and as of 1988 Professor at the University of Paris VII .
Go to Profile#27673
Sergey Fomin
#27684
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Sergey Vladimirovich Fomin is a Russian American mathematician who has made important contributions in combinatorics and its relations with algebra, geometry, and representation theory. Together with Andrei Zelevinsky, he introduced cluster algebras.
Go to Profile#27674
Heinz Oberhummer
#27685
Overall Influence
1941 - 2015 (74 years)
Heinz Oberhummer was an Austrian physicist and skeptic. Biography Heinz Oberhummer was born in Bischofshofen and grew up in Obertauern, Austria. He studied physics at the University of Graz and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He lived in the village of Oberwölbling in the Dunkelsteinerwald, Lower Austria. Heinz Oberhummer was married and had two children.
Go to Profile#27675
Donald F. Steiner
#27686
Overall Influence
1930 - 2014 (84 years)
Donald Frederick Steiner was an American biochemist and a professor at the University of Chicago. Birth and education Donald F. Steiner was born in 1930 in Lima, Ohio. He completed his B.S. in Chemistry and Zoology from the University of Cincinnati in 1952. He completed his M.S. in biochemistry and his M.D. from the University of Chicago in 1956. He then completed his medical and research training – with an internship at King County Hospital and residency/post-doctoral research at the University of Washington – before returning to the University of Chicago as a faculty member in 1960.
Go to Profile#27676
Víctor Paz Estenssoro
#27687
Overall Influence
1907 - 2001 (94 years)
Ángel Víctor Paz Estenssoro was a Bolivian politician who served as the 45th president of Bolivia for three nonconsecutive and four total terms from 1952 to 1956, 1960 to 1964 and 1985 to 1989. He ran for president eight times and was victorious in 1951, 1960, 1964 and 1985. His 1951 victory was annulled by a military junta led by Hugo Ballivián, and his 1964 victory was interrupted by the 1964 Bolivian coup d'état.
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Leslie A. Baxter
#27688
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Dr. Leslie A. Baxter is an American scholar and teacher in communication studies, best known for her research on family and relational communication. Her work is focused on relationships: romantic, marital, and friendly. She is best known for her Relational Dialectics theory. She is a professor emeritus at The University of Iowa's department of Communication Studies.
Go to Profile#27678
Gabriel Barkay
#27689
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Gabriel Barkay is an Israeli archaeologist. Biography Gabriel Barkay was born in the Budapest Ghetto, Hungary, he immigrated to Israel in 1950. He studied archaeology, comparative religion and geography at Tel Aviv University, graduated summa cum laude, and received his PhD in archaeology from the same university in 1985. His dissertation was about LMLK seal impressions on jar handles. He participated in the Lachish excavations with David Ussishkin. His academic areas of interest include the archaeology of Jerusalem, biblical archaeology, burials and burial customs, art, epigraphy, and glypt...
Go to Profile#27679
Nii Quaynor
#27690
Overall Influence
Nii Narku Quaynor is a Ghanaian scientist and engineer who has played an important role in the introduction and development of the Internet throughout Africa. Biography Quaynor graduated in engineering science from Dartmouth College in 1972, and received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Thayer School of Engineering in 1973. He then studied Computer Science, obtaining an M.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974, and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1977. He attended the Kinbu Secondary Technical School, Adisadel College and Achimota School in Ghana.
Go to Profile#27680
Bob Twiggs
#27691
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Robert J. Twiggs is an American professor of Astronautics and Space Science at Morehead State University. He is responsible, along with Jordi Puig-Suari of California Polytechnic State University, for co-inventing the CubeSat reference design for miniaturized satellites which became an Industry Standard for design and deployment of the satellites.
Go to Profile#27681
Jerzy Vetulani
#27692
Overall Influence
1936 - 2017 (81 years)
Jerzy Adam Gracjan Vetulani was a Polish neuroscientist, pharmacologist and biochemist, professor of natural sciences, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning, one of the most frequently cited Polish scientists in the field of biomedicine after 1965.
Go to Profile#27682
Miles Hewstone
#27693
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Miles Ronald Cole Hewstone is a British social psychologist who is well known for his work on social relations. Biography He graduated from the University of Bristol in 1978 and then moved to the University of Oxford from which he obtained a D.Phil. in social psychology in 1981. He pursued post-doctoral work at the University of Tübingen, Germany from which he obtained a Habilitation in 1986. He then undertook further work with Serge Moscovici and Wolfgang Stroebe .
Go to Profile#27683
Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa
#27694
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa is a mathematician, scientist, author, professor, and expert on the history of science and Islam. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1967, his Master of Science degree from East Texas State University in 1968, and his PhD from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1972.
Go to Profile#27684
David J. McClements
#27695
Overall Influence
David Julian McClements is a British food scientist who is a distinguished professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Food Science. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, and Institute of Food Technologists, as well as the editor of the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology.
Go to Profile#27685
Melvin L. Kohn
#27696
Overall Influence
1928 - 2021 (93 years)
Melvin Lester Kohn was an American sociologist and past president of the American Sociological Association. He was a professor at Johns Hopkins University and conducted research on social structure and personality.
Go to Profile#27686
Kamran Talattof
#27697
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Kamran Talattof is the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Chair in Persian and Iranian studies at the University of Arizona. His research focus is on gender, ideology, culture, and language, with an emphasis on literature ; contemporary Islamic issues, Middle Eastern culture; and the Persian language. He has translated contemporary debates in Islam from Persian, Arabic, French, and Urdu into English.
Go to Profile#27687
Mindy Finn
#27698
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Mindy Finn is an American digital media expert, political and technology consultant, and entrepreneur. She worked as a digital strategist for the Republican Party, most notably for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, respectively, and became the vice presidential candidate for Evan McMullin's 2016 presidential campaign. She co-founded the organizations Stand Up Republic and Empowered Women, and works to make elections more inclusive.
Go to Profile#27688
Clive Ruggles
#27699
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Clive L. N. Ruggles is a British astronomer, archaeologist and academic. He is the author of academic and popular works on the subject. In 1999, he was appointed professor of archaeoastronomy at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, when it is believed to have been the only appointed chair for archaeoastronomy among the world's universities. , he was Emeritus Professor at this university.
Go to Profile#27689
Kwabena Boahen
#27700
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Kwabena Adu Boahen is a Professor of Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Education and early life Kwabena Boahen was born on September 22, 1964, in Accra, Ghana. He attended secondary school at Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, Ghana, and at the Presbyterian Boys' Senior High School in Accra, Ghana. While at Mfantsipim, he invented the corn-planting machine that won the national science competition and graduated as the valedictorian of the Class of 1981. He received his B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering ...
Go to Profile#27690
Daniela Rhodes
#27701
Overall Influence
Daniela Bargellini Rhodes FRS is an Italian structural and molecular biologist. She was a senior scientist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where she worked, and later studied for her PhD under the supervision of Nobel laureate Aaron Klug. Continuing her work under the tutelage of Aaron Klug at Cambridge, she was appointed group leader in 1983, obtained tenure in 1987 and was promoted to senior scientist in 1994 . Subsequently, she served as director of studies between 2003 and 2006. She has also been visiting professor at both "La Sapienza" in Rome, Italy and the...
Go to Profile#27691
Robert Stickgold
#27702
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Robert Stickgold is a full professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A sleep researcher, his work focuses on the relationship between sleep and learning. His articles in the popular press are intended to illustrate the dangers of sleep deprivation.
Go to Profile#27692
Albert Brooks
#27703
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Albert Brooks is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's Broadcast News and was widely praised for his performance in the 2011 action drama film Drive. Brooks has also acted in films such as Taxi Driver , Private Benjamin , Unfaithfully Yours , and My First Mister . He has written, directed, and starred in several comedy films, such as Modern Romance , Lost in America , and Defending Your Life . He is also the author of 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America .
Go to Profile#27693
Josh Bongard
#27704
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Josh Bongard is a professor at the University of Vermont and a 2010 PECASE awardee. He attended Northern Secondary School in Toronto, and received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from McMaster University , Canada, his master's degree from the University of Sussex, UK, and his PhD from the University of Zurich , Switzerland. He served as a postdoctoral associate under Hod Lipson in the Computational Synthesis Laboratory at Cornell University in the United States from 2003 to 2006.
Go to Profile#27694
G. "Anand" Anandalingam
#27705
Overall Influence
G. "Anand" Anandalingam is currently Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Management Science at the University of Maryland. He was dean of Imperial College Business School at Imperial College London from 2013 to 2017. Prior to that, from 2008 to 2013, he was dean of Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Before joining the Smith School in 2001, Anandalingam worked at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#27695
William H. Durham
#27706
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
William H. Durham, a biological anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, is the Bing Professor Emeritus in Human Biology at Stanford University. Education William Durham earned a B.S. at Stanford University in 1971, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s and PhD .
Go to Profile#27696
Ryan Howard
#27707
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Ryan James Howard , nicknamed "the Big Piece", is an American former professional baseball first baseman. Howard spent his entire Major League Baseball career playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, from to . He is known for being the fastest player in baseball history to reach 100 home runs and 200 home runs. Howard holds numerous Phillies franchise records.
Go to Profile#27697
Vicki C. Jackson
#27708
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Vicki C. Jackson is the Laurence H. Tribe Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. The New York Times has described her as "an authority on state-federal questions". Biography Jackson received her BA, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1972. She earned her JD from Yale Law School in 1975, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She was a clerk for Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. Jackson was an associate and then partner at the firm of Rogovin, Huge & Lenzner in Washington, D.C. She served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice.
Go to Profile#27698
Tracy Camp
#27709
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Tracy Kay Camp is an American computer scientist noted for her research on wireless networking. She is also noted for her leadership in broadening participation in computing. She was the co-chair of CRA-W from 2011 to 2014 and she was the co-chair of ACM-W from 1998 to 2002.
Go to Profile#27699
Tim Dyson
#27710
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Tim Dyson is a British demographer with a focus on India's population. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Population Studies at the London School of Economics. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001.
Go to Profile#27700
Erik Reitzel
#27711
Overall Influence
1941 - 2014 (73 years)
Erik Reitzel was a Danish civil engineer who started work in 1964 and was for many years a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and at the Technical University of Denmark, in the disciplines of bearing structures and structural design.
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