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
#27851
Jean Duvignaud
#27862
Overall Influence
1921 - 2007 (86 years)
Jean Duvignaud was a French novelist, sociologist and anthropologist. He was born in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, on February 22, 1921. Duvignaud was a secondary school teacher first at Abbeville, then at Étampes , where he taught Georges Perec. After submitting his doctoral thesis, he taught at the University of Tours. In 1972, he founded the magazine Cause commune with Georges Perec and Paul Virilio. For a time he was in a relationship with Clara Malraux, the ex-wife of novelist André Malraux.
Go to Profile#27852
Heather Reid
#27863
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Heather Margaret Murray Reid , also known as "Heather the Weather", is a Scottish meteorologist, physicist, science communicator and educator. She was formerly a broadcaster and weather presenter for BBC Scotland.
Go to Profile#27853
Marcus Mariota
#27864
Overall Influence
1993 - Present (33 years)
Marcus Ardel Taulauniu Mariota is an American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League . He was drafted second overall by the Tennessee Titans in the 2015 NFL Draft. Mariota played college football at Oregon, where he was the starting quarterback from 2012 to 2014. As a junior in 2014, Mariota became the first University of Oregon player, as well as the first Hawaii-born athlete, to win the Heisman Trophy.
Go to Profile#27854
Dilip Abreu
#27865
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Dilip Abreu is an Indian-American economist who is currently Professor of Economics at New York University. Abreu is an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society.
Go to Profile#27855
William H. Stewart
#27866
Overall Influence
1921 - 2008 (87 years)
William H. Stewart was an American pediatrician and epidemiologist. He was appointed tenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1965 to 1969. Biography Early life and education Stewart was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He began college at the University of Minnesota and completed his undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University , after his father moved the family to Baton Rouge during World War II to chair the pediatrics department at LSU. Stewart earned his medical degree through an accelerated program at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, under the auspices of the U.S.
Go to Profile#27856
Les Ferdinand
#27867
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Leslie Ferdinand MBE is an English football coach, former professional footballer and television pundit. A striker, his playing career included notable spells in the Premier League with Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Leicester City and Bolton Wanderers. He also played in Turkey with Beşiktaş and in the Football League with Brentford, Reading and Watford. Prior to becoming a professional player, Ferdinand had played non-league football with both Southall and Hayes. He was capped and 17 caps for England and was part of the Euro 96 and World Cup 98 squads.
Go to Profile#27857
Paul R. Verkuil
#27868
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Paul Robert Verkuil is an American attorney, former dean of the Tulane University Law School, former president of the College of William and Mary, and former dean of Cardozo School of Law. He is currently on the faculty of the Cardozo School of Law.
Go to Profile#27858
Nikolaus Rajewsky
#27869
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Nikolaus Rajewsky is a German system biologist at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine and at the Charité in Berlin. He founded and directs the “Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology” . He leads the Rajewsky lab, where he studies how RNA regulates gene expression. He also co-chairs LifeTime, a pan-European research initiative of more than 90 academic institutions and 70 companies, which aims to revolutionize healthcare by mapping, understanding, and targeting cells during disease progression. LifeTime integrates several technologies: single-cell multiomics, machine learning, and personalized disease models such as organoids.
Go to Profile#27859
Barry Sheene
#27870
Overall Influence
1950 - 2003 (53 years)
Barry Steven Frank Sheene was a British professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing and was a two-time world champion, winning consecutive 500cc titles in 1976 and 1977 for Suzuki. He was the first 500cc champion from the Japanese marque, and remains the only person to win more than one championship on a Suzuki. He was the first as well as the only non-Yamaha rider to win a Formula 750 championship.
Go to Profile#27860
Jean-Pierre Danthine
#27871
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Jean-Pierre Danthine is a Swiss-Belgian economist and deputy chairman of the Swiss National Bank from 2012 to 2015. He has published numerous articles and books. Biography Danthine studied economics at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and earned his PhD in 1976 at Carnegie Mellon University. He then researched and lectured at various universities, including Columbia University, University of Southern California, the University of Laval in Québec and the Aix-Marseille University in France. From 1980 to 2009, Danthine was professor of macroeconomics and financial economics at HEC...
Go to Profile#27861
Anna Popova
#27872
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Anna Yuryevna Popova is a Russian physician and public health official. She is serving as head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, practically the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation since October 23, 2013. Acting State Advisor to the Russian Federation, Class 1 . Epidemiologist, hygienist, MD, professor.
Go to Profile#27862
Gaiti Hasan
#27873
Overall Influence
Gaiti Hasan is an Indian scientist who researches in the fields of molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience and cell signalling. Hasan is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy , the apex body of Indian scientists and technologists. From 2013 onwards she has been serving as a Senior Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences , Bangalore.
Go to Profile#27863
Mario Mandžukić
#27874
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (40 years)
Mario Mandžukić is a Croatian football coach and a former player who is an assistant coach of the Croatia national team. As a player, he played as a forward and became known for his aggressiveness, defensive contribution, and aerial prowess.
Go to Profile#27864
Huang Kun
#27875
Overall Influence
1919 - 2005 (86 years)
Huang Kun was a Chinese physicist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award by President Jiang Zemin in 2001. Born in Beijing, China, in 1919, Huang graduated from Yenching University with a degree in physics. In 1948, he earned his PhD from the H. H. Wills Physics Lab of Bristol University in England and continued his postdoctoral studies at Liverpool University, where he coauthored the book Dynamical Theory of Crystal Lattices with Max Born between 1949 and 1951.
Go to Profile#27865
Franz Alt
#27876
Overall Influence
1910 - 2011 (101 years)
Franz Leopold Alt was an Austrian-born American mathematician who made major contributions to computer science in its early days. He was best known as one of the founders of the Association for Computing Machinery, and served as its president from 1950 to 1952.
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Sonny Bill Williams
#27877
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Sonny William Williams is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player. He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in rugby union after first playing for the country in rugby league, and is one of only 43 players to have won the Rugby World Cup twice.
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Alan McGee
#27878
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Alan John McGee is a Scottish businessman and music industry executive. He has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian. He co-founded the independent Creation Records label, running it from 1983 until its closure in 1999.
Go to Profile#27868
Bernard Salanié
#27879
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Bernard Salanié is a French economist. He is professor of economics at Columbia University. He was formerly the director of ENSAE ParisTech and the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics. Biography Salanié graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1984 and the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique in 1986. He received a PhD from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in 1992. His doctoral advisor was François Bourguignon, who was the former Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2003 to 2007.
Go to Profile#27869
C. T. K. Chari
#27880
Overall Influence
1909 - 1993 (84 years)
C. T. K. Chari was Head of the Department of Philosophy at Madras Christian College from 1958 to 1969 and the most prominent among contemporary Indian philosophers who paid close attention to psi phenomena. Chari published extensively on extremely diverse topics, such as logic, linguistics, information theory, mathematics, quantum physics, philosophy of mind, and, of course, psi research.
Go to Profile#27870
Paul Epworth
#27881
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Paul Richard Epworth is an English record producer, songwriter, musician, and remixer. He has worked with artists including Adele, Florence and the Machine, Rihanna, and Maxïmo Park, among many others. He is a member of the Music Producers Guild and is the founder and owner of the independent record label Wolf Tone, which has released music from Glass Animals, Rosie Lowe, and The Horrors.
Go to Profile#27871
M. A. Muqtedar Khan
#27882
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Muhammad Abdul Muqtedar Khan is an Indian American academic and a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. Khan is the founding director of the Islamic Studies Program at the university. He chaired the Department of Political Science and was Director of International Studies at Adrian College. He was a senior non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2003 to 2008. He was a senior fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding from 2011-2014 and is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Global Policy since 2014.
Go to Profile#27872
Andrew Symonds
#27883
Overall Influence
1975 - 2022 (47 years)
Andrew Symonds was an Australian international cricketer, who played all three formats as a batting all-rounder. Commonly nicknamed "Roy", he was a key member of two World Cup winning squads. Symonds was a part of the team that won both the 2003 Cricket World Cup, and four years later the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Symonds played as a right-handed, middle order batsman and alternated between medium pace and off-spin bowling. He was also notable for his exceptional fielding skills.
Go to Profile#27873
Edward S. Reed
#27884
Overall Influence
1954 - 1997 (43 years)
Edward Steven Reed was an American philosopher of science and an ecological psychologist in the vein of James J. Gibson. Reed was born in New York, New York. He died in Mohnton, Pennsylvania. Partial bibliography Reed, E.S. & Jones, R. . . Reasons for Realism: Selected essays of James J. Gibson. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Reed, E.S. . James Gibson's ecological revolution in perceptual psychology: A case study in the transformation of scientific Ideas. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 17, 65–99.Reed, E.S. . James Gibson's Ecological Approach to Cognition . In A. Costall & A.
Go to Profile#27874
Gabriel J. Chin
#27885
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Gabriel Jack Chin is an author, legal scholar, and Professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law. He teaches a variety of courses, including Criminal Law, Immigration, Criminal Appellate Advocacy, and Race and Law.
Go to Profile#27875
David Halliday
#27886
Overall Influence
1916 - 2010 (94 years)
David Halliday was an American physicist known for his physics textbooks, Physics and Fundamentals of Physics, which he wrote with Robert Resnick. Both textbooks have been in continuous use since 1960 and are available in more than 47 languages.
Go to Profile#27876
David A. Karp
#27887
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
David Allen Karp is a Professor of Sociology at Boston College where he has taught since 1971. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1966 and his Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University in 1971. He has written or co-authored nine books and more than fifty journal articles and book chapters. His work appears in such periodicals as Symbolic Interaction, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Journal of Qualitative Health Research, the Gerontologist, and the International Journal of Aging and Human Development. His work has largely clustered in three areas: urban life and ...
Go to Profile#27877
Christian Wulff
#27888
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union , he previously served as minister president of the state of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010. He was elected to the presidency in the 30 June 2010 presidential election, defeating opposition candidate Joachim Gauck and taking office immediately, although he was not sworn in until With the age of 51, he became Germany's youngest president.
Go to Profile#27878
Michael W. Smith
#27889
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Michael Whitaker Smith is an American musician who has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in This World" hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over the course of his career, he has sold more than 18 million albums.
Go to Profile#27879
Karl Rawer
#27890
Overall Influence
1913 - 2018 (105 years)
Karl Maria Alois Rawer was a German specialist in radio wave propagation and the ionosphere. He developed the analytical code to determine suitable frequency ranges for short wave communication by which German forces built-up their long distance communications during World War II.
Go to Profile#27880
Joshua Ronen
#27891
Overall Influence
Joshua Ronen is an American editor, author, academic, accountant, and researcher. He is a professor of accounting at New York University Stern School of Business and co-editor of the "Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting"
Go to Profile#27881
David Thompson
#27892
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
David O'Neil Thompson is an American former professional basketball player. He played with the Denver Nuggets of both the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association , as well as the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA. He was previously a star in college for North Carolina State, leading the Wolfpack to its first NCAA championship in 1974. Thompson is one of the eight players to score 70 or more points in an NBA game. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Go to Profile#27882
Max Mirnyi
#27893
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Maksim "Max" Mikalaevich Mirnyi is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 and finished in the top 50 in the world for seven straight years despite only winning one ATP singles title . He represented Belarus in Davis Cup competition from April 1994, where he holds a record of 47 wins and 27 losses in 35 ties played. He reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in June 2003 and won ten Grand Slam titles: Men's doubles in the 2000 and 2002 US Open and the 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012 French Open; and mixed doubles in the 1998, 2007, and 2013 U.S.
Go to Profile#27883
Eugene Lazowski
#27894
Overall Influence
1913 - 2006 (93 years)
Eugene Lazowski born Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski was a Polish medical doctor who saved thousands of people during World War II by creating a fake epidemic which played on German phobias about hygiene. He also used his position as a doctor treating people travelling through a nearby train station to conceal his supply of medicine to Jews in the local ghetto, which backed on to his home. By doing this, he risked the death penalty, which was applied to Poles who helped Jews in the Holocaust.
Go to Profile#27884
Joseph Boyden
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#27895
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Irish and Scottish descent. He also claims Indigenous descent, but this is widely disputed. Joseph Boyden is best known for writing about First Nations culture. Three Day Road, a novel about two Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military during World War I, was inspired by Ojibwa Francis Pegahmagabow, the legendary First World War sniper. Joseph Boyden's second novel, Through Black Spruce, follows the story of Will, son of one of the characters in Three Day Road. The third novel in the Bird family trilogy was published in 20...
Go to Profile#27885
Gianni Celati
#27896
Overall Influence
1937 - 2022 (85 years)
Gianni Celati was an Italian writer, translator, and literary critic. Biography Gianni Celati was born in Sondrio, Italy, but spent his infancy and adolescence in the province of Ferrara. He graduated in English literature with a degree on James Joyce by the teacher Carlo Izzo of the University of Bologna, where he would later teach .
Go to Profile#27886
Phil Murphy
#27897
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Philip Dunton Murphy is an American politician, diplomat, and financier from the state of New Jersey. Murphy has served as the 56th governor of New Jersey since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the United States ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama.
Go to Profile#27887
Charles Gilchrist Adams
#27898
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Charles Gilchrist Adams was an American pastor who served as the first Nickerson Professor of the Practice of Ethics and Ministry at Harvard Divinity School from 2007 to 2012. Biography Charles Gilchrist Adams was born on December 13, 1936 in Detroit, Michigan.
Go to Profile#27888
Bill Laimbeer
#27899
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
William Laimbeer Jr. is an American former professional basketball coach and player who spent the majority of his career with the Detroit Pistons. Known for his physical style of play, he played a big part in the Pistons earning the nickname the “Bad Boys" in the mid-1980s before helping them win back-to-back NBA championships.
Go to Profile#27889
Walter W. Arndt
#27900
Overall Influence
1916 - 2011 (95 years)
Walter Werner Arndt was a world-renowned scholar and translator of Russian, German and Polish. At the time of his death, he was the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, of Russian Language and Literature at Dartmouth College. With degrees in business administration from Warsaw University, in political science and economics from Oxford University , a master's degree in engineering from Robert College , and a PhD in comparative literature from UNC, Chapel Hill, Arndt was well known for his metric translations, which included versions of Goethe's Faust, Aleksandr Pushkin's Eugene...
Go to Profile#27890
Orlando Cepeda
#27901
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes , nicknamed "the Baby Bull" and "Peruchin", is a Puerto Rican former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played for six teams from 1958 to 1974, primarily the San Francisco Giants. A 7-time All-Star, Cepeda was one of the most consistent power hitters in the National League through the 1960s. Breaking in with the Giants in their first season after relocating to San Francisco, he was named the NL Rookie of the Year by unanimous vote in 1958 after batting .312 with 25 home runs and 96 runs batted in , also leading the NL with 38 doubles. Every year from 1958 ...
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Marguerite Littleton Kearney
#27902
Overall Influence
Marguerite T. Littleton Kearney is an American nurse scientist. She is the director of the National Institute of Nursing Research's Division of Extramural Science Programs. Littleton Kearney was the associate dean for research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Graduate School of Nursing.
Go to Profile#27892
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
#27903
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is an American philosopher specializing in ethics, epistemology, neuroethics, the philosophy of law, and the philosophy of cognitive science. He is the Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
Go to Profile#27893
Kazuo Ueda
#27904
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Kazuo Ueda is a Japanese economist who has been serving as the 32nd Governor of the Bank of Japan since April 2023. He is a professor emeritus at University of Tokyo and now working as a professor at Kyoritsu Women's University. He was a dean of Faculty of Economics at University of Tokyo and a president of the Japanese Economic Association.
Go to Profile#27894
Marshall D. Shulman
#27905
Overall Influence
1916 - 2007 (91 years)
Marshall Darrow Shulman was an American diplomat, scholar of Soviet studies and the founding director of W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union at Columbia University. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Shulman earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, a graduate degree in English literature from Harvard University, and a master's degree from Columbia University's Russian Institute.
Go to Profile#27895
Dennis F. Thompson
#27906
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Dennis Frank Thompson is a political scientist and professor at Harvard University, where he founded the university-wide Center for Ethics and the Professions . Thompson is known for his pioneering work in the fields of both political ethics and democratic theory. According to a recent appraisal, he has become “influential within the world of political theory" by offering “greater concrete political thought than Rawls” and by showing “an atypical grasp, for a political theorist, of the real political world.”
Go to Profile#27896
Daniel Alfredsson
#27907
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Daniel Alfredsson is a Swedish-Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He spent 18 seasons in the National Hockey League , primarily with the Ottawa Senators. He also briefly played for the Detroit Red Wings before his retirement in 2014.
Go to Profile#27897
Jeff Porcaro
#27908
Overall Influence
1954 - 1992 (38 years)
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the United States as the drummer on the Steely Dan album Katy Lied.
Go to Profile#27898
Menachem Brinker
#27909
Overall Influence
1935 - 2016 (81 years)
Menachem Brinker was an Israeli philosopher, literary scholar and activist. Background Menachem Brinker was born in Jerusalem in 1935. Before entering university, Brinker worked as a shepherd in a left-wing kibbutz. In 1956, he received his B.A. in literature and philosophy from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1960, he earned his M.A. in philosophy at Hebrew University, and in 1973, he received his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. Brinker's early academic career included teaching in the philosophy and literature departments at Tel Aviv University, editing an Israeli literary journal , and founding and editing a journal for culture and social affairs .
Go to Profile#27899
Deborah Gray White
#27910
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Deborah Gray White is the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. In addition to teaching at Rutgers, she also directed, "The Black Atlantic: Race, Nation and Gender", a project at The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis from 1997 to 1999. Throughout 2000-2003 she was the chair of the history department at Rutgers. White has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellowship, the Carter G. Woodson Medallion for excellence in African American histo...
Go to Profile#27900
Annika Sörenstam
#27911
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Annika Charlotta Sörenstam is a Swedish professional golfer. She is regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she had won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the female golfer with the most wins to her name. She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 24 other tournaments internationally. After turning 50, she came back from her retirement and added a win in the 2021 U.S. Senior Women's Open.
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