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
#29151
Angela Warnick Buchdahl
#29162
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Angela Warnick Buchdahl is an American rabbi. She was the first East Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi, and the first East Asian-American to be ordained as a hazzan . In 2011 she was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of America's "Most Influential Rabbis", and in 2012 by The Daily Beast as one of America's "Top 50 Rabbis". Buchdahl was recognized as one of the top five in The Forwards 2014 "Forward Fifty", a list of American Jews who had the most impact on the national scene in the previous year.
Go to Profile#29152
Harry Stinson
#29163
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Harry Stinson is an American multi-instrumentalist, noted as a session drummer and vocalist in the Nashville music community. He is also a songwriter and producer. Biography Stinson grew up in Nashville, where he grew to love country music. He was in a high school band with Morris West, son of country star Dottie West. In 1970, Stinson first worked professionally in Dottie West's band the Heartaches, touring with Red Sovine and Don Gibson, and appearing on the Grand Ole Opry.
Go to Profile#29153
Patrick Vernon
#29164
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Patrick Philip Vernon is a British social commentator and political activist of Jamaican heritage, who works in the voluntary and public sector. He is a former Labour councillor in the London Borough of Hackney. His career has been involved with developing and managing health and social care services, including mental health, public health, regeneration and employment projects. Also a film maker and amateur cultural historian, he runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities, as founder of Every Generation and the "100 Great Black Britons" campaign. He is also an expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK.
Go to Profile#29154
Boshra Salem
#29165
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Boshra Salem is a professor, founder and the Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt. She is president of Unesco's Man and the Biosphere International Coordinating Council and serves on the International Council for Science 's Committee for Scientific Planning & Review. She has received a number of awards, including being recognized as an outstanding female scientist in the Women in Science Hall of Fame by the Embassy of the United States in Cairo, Egypt.
Go to Profile#29155
Rodrigo Arocena
#29166
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Rodrigo Arocena Linn is an Uruguayan mathematician, and rector of the University of the Republic since July 2006. Biography Son of Germán Arocena Capurro and Mercedes Linn Davie, he comes from an Uruguayan upper-class family. His only brother Ignacio Arocena Linn disappeared on 20 August 1978 in Argentina, under circumstances surrounding the military regime. He began his academic life in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Republic of Uruguay. After a short time he began to teach at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, today called "Rafael Laguardia". During the military dictatorship in Uruguay, Arocena was exiled from the country, after spending a period in prison.
Go to Profile#29156
Morihiko Saito
#29167
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Morihiko Saitō is a Japanese mathematician, specializing in algebraic analysis and algebraic geometry. Education and career After graduating from Aiko High School in Matsuyama, Saito completed undergraduate study in mathematics at the University of Tokyo and in 1979 completed the master's program there. In 1986 he received his D.Sc. from Kyoto University. After working as a research assistant at Kyoto University's Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, he was appointed there an associate professor.
Go to Profile#29157
N. Scott Adzick
#29168
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
N. Scott Adzick currently serves as the Surgeon-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Director of CHOP’s Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, which he founded in 1995. Dr. Adzick is also the C. Everett Koop Professor of Pediatric Surgery at CHOP and a Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#29158
Alan Dowty
#29169
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Alan Dowty is an American author, historian and professor of international relations and political science emeritus, University of Notre Dame. He was formerly on the faculty of the Hebrew University , 1964–1975, Kahanoff Chair Professor of Israel Studies at the University of Calgary, 2003–2006, and President of the Association for Israel Studies, 2005–2007. In 2017 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in Israel Studies by the Association for Israel Studies and the Israel Institute.
Go to Profile#29159
Alexei Skorobogatov
#29170
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Alexei Nikolaievich Skorobogatov is a British-Russian mathematician and Professor in Pure Mathematics at Imperial College London specialising in algebraic geometry. His work has focused on rational points, the Hasse principle, the Manin obstruction, exponential sums, and error-correcting codes.
Go to Profile#29160
Gerrit W. Gong
#29171
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Gerrit Walter Gong is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He has been a general authority since 2010 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from October 2015 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. He is the LDS Church's first apostle of Asian descent. Prior to becoming a general authority, he served as assistant to the president of Brigham Young University for planning and assessment. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gong is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.
Go to Profile#29161
Rüdiger Urbanke
#29172
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Rüdiger Leo Urbanke is an Austrian computer scientist and professor at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne . Life Urbanke studied at the Technical University of Vienna with the diploma as an electrical engineer in 1988 and at the Washington University in St. Louis with the master's degree in 1992 and his doctorate in 1995. He then worked at Bell Laboratories.
Go to Profile#29162
Roland Benz
#29173
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Roland Benz is a German biophysicist. Early life and education Benz studied mathematics, chemistry, and physics at the University of Würzburg. In 1972, he obtained his Ph.D. in biology, with Peter Läuger at University of Konstanz as his supervisor; and, in 1977, he obtained his Habilitation in Biophysics.
Go to Profile#29163
Peter Mathieson
#29174
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Sir Peter William Mathieson is an English nephrologist and current principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. Previously, he served as the vice-chancellor and president of the University of Hong Kong . He was the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Bristol before he assumed office at the HKU in April 2014, and was previously director of studies at Christ's College, Cambridge.
Go to Profile#29164
Trevor N. Dupuy
#29175
Overall Influence
1916 - 1995 (79 years)
Trevor Nevitt Dupuy was a colonel in the United States Army and a noted military historian. Early life Born in Staten Island, New York, the son of accomplished illustrator and artist, Laura Nevitt Dupuy, and noted military historian, R. Ernest Dupuy, Trevor Dupuy followed in his father's footsteps.
Go to Profile#29165
Scott Brown
#29176
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Scott Philip Brown is an American diplomat, attorney, and politician who served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He is a former United States Senator for Massachusetts , and also was the 2014 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. Before his Senate tenure, Brown served as a member of the Massachusetts General Court, first in the State House of Representatives and then in the State Senate .
Go to Profile#29166
Pierre Kory
#29177
Overall Influence
Pierre Kory is an American critical care physician who gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for advocating widespread off-label use of certain drugs as treatments for COVID-19, as president and co-founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance . Kory testified twice to the U.S. Senate regarding COVID-19. During his testimony in December 2020, Kory erroneously claimed that the antiparasitic medication ivermectin was a "wonder drug" with "miraculous effectiveness" against COVID-19.
Go to Profile#29167
Terry Labonte
#29178
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Terrance Lee Labonte , nicknamed "Texas Terry" or "the Iceman", is an American former stock car driver. He raced from 1978 to 2014 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup and Sprint Cup Series . A two-time Cup Series champion in 1984 and 1996 and the 1989 IROC champion, he is the older brother of 2000 Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte, and the father of former Nationwide Series driver Justin Labonte. He also co-owns a Chevrolet dealership in Greensboro, North Carolina with Rick Hendrick. He appeared on the CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard in 1984, where he played an unnamed pit crew member.
Go to Profile#29168
Barbra Streisand
#29179
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand is an American singer, actress, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment and is among the few performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony .
Go to Profile#29169
John Everett Robbins
#29180
Overall Influence
1903 - 1995 (92 years)
John Everett Robbins was a Canadian educator and encyclopedia editor. He served as the director of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics and helped found Carleton College. Robbins was a former President of Brandon University and the first Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See.
Go to Profile#29170
Jerzy Bartmiński
#29181
Overall Influence
1939 - 2022 (83 years)
Jerzy Bartmiński was a Polish linguist and ethnologist. Biography Bartmiński was born in Przemyśl to a Polish family of Galician craftsmen, moved to Lublin in 1956, where he lived until his death in 2022.
Go to Profile#29171
F. Murray Abraham
#29182
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
F. Murray Abraham is an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he came to prominence for his acclaimed leading role as Antonio Salieri in the drama film Amadeus for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama as well as a BAFTA Award nomination.
Go to Profile#29172
Bonno Thoden van Velzen
#29183
Overall Influence
1933 - 2020 (87 years)
Hendrik Ulbo Eric "Bonno" Thoden van Velzen was a Dutch anthropologist, Surinamist and Africanist. Life Thoden van Velzen was born on 5 April 1933 in Vlissingen. His father was a coxswain in the merchant navy and teacher at the Rijksnormaalschool in the city of Deventer. His ancestors are Protestant pastors from the neighbourhood of Emden in East-Frisia, which is now part of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. In the Second World War he moved together with his parents and siblings to Utrecht because of the German Heer declaring the city of Vlissingen and its surrounds as Sperrgebiet. He finished his secondary school in the Indonesian city of Batavia and later in Vlissingen.
Go to Profile#29173
Edward Brinton
#29184
Overall Influence
1924 - 2010 (86 years)
Edward Brinton was a professor of oceanography and research biologist. His particular area of expertise was Euphausiids or krill, small shrimp-like creatures found in all the oceans of the world. Early life Brinton was born on January 12, 1924, in Richmond, Indiana to a Quaker couple, Howard Brinton and Anna Shipley Cox Brinton. Much of his childhood was spent on the grounds of Mills College where his mother was Dean of Faculty and his father was a professor. The family later moved to the Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation, in Pennsylvania where his father and mother bec...
Go to Profile#29174
Zhang Dongju
#29185
Overall Influence
Zhang Dongju is a Chinese archeologist and an associate professor at the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Lanzhou University. Zhang's research determined that the Xiahe mandible found in the Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau shared DNA with fossilized remains found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia. This moved to 120,000 years earlier the dates of earliest proven hominin activities in the Tibetan Plateau, and revealed for the first time that the Denisovan hominins had spread throughout Asia rather than being located only near the Denisova Cave. Zhang's work is considered likely to prompt reconsideration of other fossil remains using ancient protein analysis.
Go to Profile#29175
David Jhave Johnston
#29186
Overall Influence
David Jhave Johnston is a Canadian poet, videographer, and motion graphics artist working chiefly in digital and computational media,. and a researcher at the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen. This artist's work is often attributed, simply, to the name Jhave.
Go to Profile#29176
Linh Dinh
#29187
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow. He writes a column for The Unz Review. Biography Dinh came to the US in 1975, lived in Philadelphia and in 2018 is moving back to Vietnam.
Go to Profile#29177
Joachim Nitsche
#29188
Overall Influence
1926 - 1996 (70 years)
Joachim A. Nitsche was a German mathematician and professor of mathematics in Freiburg, known for his important contributions to the mathematical and numerical analysis of partial differential equations. The duality argument for estimating the error of the finite element method and a scheme for the weak enforcement of Dirichlet boundary conditions for Poisson's equation bear his name.
Go to Profile#29178
Ronan Keating
#29189
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Ronan Patrick John Keating is an Irish singer, songwriter, actor and television and radio presenter. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Michael Graham, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately, as the co-lead singer of Irish pop group Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999 and he has recorded eleven albums. He gained worldwide attention when his single "When You Say Nothing At All" was featured in the film Notting Hill and reached number one in several countries. Keating currently hosts a breakfast show on Magic Radio.
Go to Profile#29179
Wibool Piyawattanametha
#29190
Overall Influence
Wibool Piyawattanametha is the head of Advanced Imaging Research Center, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand. Education Piyawattanametha completed his Bachelor of Electronics Engineering from the King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand. He completed his post graduate degrees in Electrical engineering from University of California, Los Angeles, USA in 1999 and 2004 .
Go to Profile#29180
Kyle Lowry
#29191
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (40 years)
Kyle Terrell Lowry is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . A six-time All-Star, he was named to the All-NBA Third Team in 2016 and won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, their first and only title in franchise history. He was a member of the U.S. national team that won a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Go to Profile#29181
Barbara Ross-Lee
#29192
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O. is an American physician, academic, and the first African-American woman to serve as dean of a U.S. medical school; she is also known as the sister of Diana Ross along with being the aunt of actress Tracee Ellis Ross, and singer-songwriters Rhonda Ross Kendrick and Evan Ross. She majored in biology and chemistry at Wayne State University, graduating in 1965. Then, in 1969, she entered Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. Ross-Lee then went on to open her own private family practice, teach as a professor, and hold other positions within the medical community.
Go to Profile#29182
Elie Bursztein
#29193
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Elie Bursztein, born 1 June 1980 in France, is a French computer scientist and software engineer. He currently leads Google’s Security and Anti-Abuse Research Team. Education and early career Bursztein obtained a computer engineering degree from EPITA in 2004, a master’s degree in computer science from Paris Diderot University/ENS in 2005, and a PhD in computer science from École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay in 2008 with a dissertation titled Anticipation games: Game theory applied to network security. His PhD advisor was Jean Goubault-Larrecq.
Go to Profile#29183
Brison D. Gooch
#29194
Overall Influence
1925 - 2014 (89 years)
Brison D. Gooch was an American historian specializing in 19th century European history, especially Belgium and France. He was author of numerous monographs, and especially wrote undergraduate oriented textbooks.
Go to Profile#29184
David McCallum
#29195
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
David Keith McCallum was a Scottish actor and musician. He gained wide recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. His other notable television roles include Simon Carter in Colditz and Steel in Sapphire & Steel . Beginning in 2003, McCallum gained renewed international popularity for his role as NCIS medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard in the American television series NCIS, which he played for 20 seasons until his death. On film, McCallum notably appeared in The Great Escape .
Go to Profile#29185
Valson Thampu
#29196
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Revd. Valson Thampu is an Indian educator, Christian theologian, who was the Principal of St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Delhi, from 2008 to February 2016. Prior to this he was a lecturer at the college and its officiating principal since May 2007. He is a translator from Malayalam to English and his translation of The Scent of the Other Side won the Crossword award. His second translated work, Gift in Green was published by HarperCollins in 2011.
Go to Profile#29186
Bernhard Sabel
#29197
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Bernhard Sabel is a German neuropsychologist and brain researcher. His more than 40 years of research are documented in over 200 publications, investigating treatment options for visual impairments through the activation and rehabilitation of residual vision capabilities.
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K. Karunakaran
#29198
Overall Influence
1918 - 2010 (92 years)
Kannoth Karunakaran , was an Indian politician who served as the fifth chief minister of Kerala in 1977, from 1981 to March 1982, from May 1982 to 1987 and from 1991 to 1995. He is the founder of the Indian National Congress -led United Democratic Front coalition, which has been the main opposition in Kerala .
Go to Profile#29188
Andreas Wagner
#29199
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Andreas Wagner is an Austrian/US evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. He is known for his work on the role of robustness and innovation in biological evolution. Wagner is professor and chairman at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zürich.
Go to Profile#29189
John H. Sununu
#29200
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
John Henry Sununu is an American politician who was the 75th governor of New Hampshire from 1983 to 1989 and later White House chief of staff under President George H. W. Bush. Born in Cuba to an American father and a Salvadoran mother, he is of Greek, Hispanic, and Lebanese descent, making him the first Arab American, Greek American, and Hispanic American to be governor of New Hampshire and White House chief of staff. He is the father of John E. Sununu, the former United States Senator from New Hampshire, and Christopher Sununu, the current governor of New Hampshire. Sununu was the chairman ...
Go to Profile#29190
Peter A. Loeb
#29201
Overall Influence
Peter Albert Loeb is a mathematician at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He co-authored a basic reference text on nonstandard analysis . Reviewer Perry Smith for MathSciNet wrote:This book is a welcome addition to the literature on nonstandard analysis.The notion of Loeb measure named after him has become a standard tool in the field.
Go to Profile#29191
Victoria Coleman
#29202
Overall Influence
Victoria Stavridou-Coleman is currently serving as the 37th chief scientist of the United States Air Force. She took her oath of office on April 6, 2021, administered by the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.
Go to Profile#29192
Naseer Aruri
#29203
Overall Influence
1934 - 2015 (81 years)
Naseer H. Aruri was an American scholar-activist and expert on Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and human rights. Aruri was Chancellor Professor of Political Science, having served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth from 1965-1998. In 1993, he was the recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences “Distinguished Research Award”. Aruri’s papers have been preserved and are on display at the Claire T. Carney Library Archives and Special Collections at UMASS-Dartmouth.
Go to Profile#29193
Daniel Cremers
#29204
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Daniel Cremers is a German computer scientist, Professor of Informatics and Mathematics and Chair of Computer Vision & Artificial Intelligence at the Technische Universität München. His research foci are computer vision, mathematical image, partial differential equations, convex and combinatorial optimization, machine learning and statistical inference.
Go to Profile#29194
Martin Fridson
#29205
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Martin Steven Fridson is an American author known for his application of rigorous financial theory to the field of high yield bonds. He is also a philanthropist and an author in the subjects of financial reporting, financial history, and political economy. Fridson has been referred to as the "dean of high yield debt." He is currently chief investment officer of Lehmann, Livian, Fridson Advisors LLC, an investment firm based in New York, and publisher of Income Securities Investor newsletter. He lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side with his wife, Elaine Sisman.
Go to Profile#29195
Mark D. Griffiths
#29206
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Mark D. Griffiths is an English chartered psychologist focusing in the field of behavioural addictions, namely gambling disorder, gaming addiction, Internet addiction, sex addiction, and work addiction. He is a Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent University and director of the International Gaming Research Unit. He is the author of five books including Gambling Addiction and its Treatment Within the NHS, Gambling and Gaming Addictions in Adolescence, and Adolescent Gambling. He has also authored over 600 refereed papers, 140+ book chapters and more than 1,500 articles, and h...
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Ryszard Terlecki
#29207
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Ryszard Iwon Terlecki is a Polish politician, the Parliamentary Caucus Head of the Law and Justice party between 2015–2023. Terlecki, a historian and professor of humanities, lectures at the Pontifical University of John Paul II. He is a member of the Sejm, serving since 2007. He served as the Deputy Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland 2015–2023.
Go to Profile#29197
Dan Suciu
#29208
Overall Influence
Dan Suciu is a full professor of computer science at the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 under the supervision of Val Tannen. After graduation, he was a principal member of the technical staff at AT&T Labs until he joined the University of Washington in 2000. Suciu does research in data management, with an emphasis on Web data management and managing uncertain data. He is a co-author of an influential book on managing semistructured data.
Go to Profile#29198
Arnulf Kolstad
#29209
Overall Influence
1942 - 2020 (78 years)
Arnulf Kolstad was a Norwegian social psychologist. He was professor emeritus of Social Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology . He was appointed by the King-in-Council at the then-University of Trondheim in 1986 and was head of department for the Department of Psychology from 1990 to 1992. He became professor emeritus in 2012.
Go to Profile#29199
Mark Moyar
#29210
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Mark A. Moyar is the former Director of the Office for Civilian-Military Cooperation at the US Agency for International Development. He currently serves as the William P. Harris Chair of Military History at Hillsdale College. He served previously as the Director of the Project on Military and Diplomatic History at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and has been a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a member of the Hoover Institution Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict.
Go to Profile#29200
Rohan Bopanna
#29211
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Rohan Machanda Bopanna is an Indian professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He reached his highest doubles ranking of world No. 3 in July 2013, and was a finalist at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2012 and 2015.
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