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

#3001

Susan L. Beck

#151737
Overall Influence
Susan L. Beck is a geophysicist and professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona specializing in seismology and tectonics of the American Cordillera. Beck earned first a B.S. in geology in 1979 and then an M.S. in structural geology in 1982 from the University of Utah before obtaining her Ph.D. in seismology from the University of Michigan in 1987. She did postdoctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining the faculty in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona. She became a full professor in 2001 and served as head of the department from 2000 to 2007.
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#3002

Ronald J. Konopka

#151822
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (78 years)
Ronald J. Konopka was an American geneticist who studied chronobiology. He made his most notable contribution to the field while working with Drosophila in the lab of Seymour Benzer at the California Institute of Technology. During this work, Konopka discovered the period gene, which controls the period of circadian rhythms.
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#3003

Isabella Velicogna

#151990
Overall Influence
Isabella Velicogna is a geoscientist known for her work using gravity measurements from space to study changes in the polar ice sheets and water storage on Earth. Education and career Velicogna has a B.S. and M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. from the University of Trieste, Italy. Following her Ph.D. she moved to the University of Colorado, Boulder where she worked from 1999 until 2007. Velicogna started an appointment at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2006. At the same time, she joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine where she ...
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#3004

Donald S. Burnett

#152040
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (88 years)
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#3005

Alberto Montanari

#152059
Overall Influence
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#3006

Vance P. Lemmon

#152134
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
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#3007

Jongyoon Han

#152170
Overall Influence
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#3008

Jason Crain

Jason Crain
#152329
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
Jason Crain is an American physicist based in the United Kingdom. He was appointed to IBM Research in 2016. He previously held the chair of applied physics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and was appointed director of research at the UK's National Physical Laboratory in London where he also held the role of head of physical sciences . He is also visiting professor at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in New York. His background is in the structure and physics of disordered matter at the molecular scale with a view to applications.
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#3009

Mary Beth Stearns

#152331
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (100 years)
Mary Beth Stearns was an American solid-state physicist known for her work on magnetism. Early life and career Mary Beth Gorman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 5, 1925. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1946. She completed a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1952 at Cornell University.
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#3010

John A. Pollock

#152349
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
John A. Pollock, is a Full Professor of Biological Science at Duquesne University Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, where he researches and teaches molecular neurobiology. He is Principal Investigator for The Partnership in Education, a non-profit multidisciplinary health literacy and informal science education project at Duquesne University funded primarily through a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health.
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#3011

Charles David Stout

#152394
Overall Influence
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#3012

Stephen Bernard Libby

#152499
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (25 years)
Stephen Bernard Libby is an American theoretical physicist and the Theory and Modeling Group Leader in the Physics Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is known for the application of quantum field theory to diverse systems including perturbative quantum chromodynamics and transport in the quantum Hall effect, as well as inventing computational algorithms for radiation driven kinetics in plasmas, and the invention of novel short wavelength laser applications.
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#3013

Benton C. Clark

#152563
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (88 years)
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#3014

William G. Thilly

#152659
Overall Influence
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#3015

Tabbetha Dobbins

Tabbetha Dobbins
#152707
Overall Influence
Tabbetha A. Dobbins is an American physicist and an associate professor of Physics & Astronomy at Rowan University, where she also serves as the vice president for research. Her research investigates the relationship between structure and dynamics in composite materials using neutron and X-ray scattering with applications to modern engineering problems in carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, the hydrogen fuel economy and polymer self-assembly.
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#3016

Elaine Hsiao

#152712
Overall Influence
Elaine Yih-Nien Hsiao is an American biologist who is Professor in Biological Sciences at University of California, Los Angeles. Her research considers the microbes that impact human health. She was a 2022 Laureate for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
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#3017

Julie Law

#152862
Overall Influence
Julie Law is an American molecular and cellular biologist. Law's pioneering work on DNA methylation patterns led to the discovery of the role of the CLASSY protein family in DNA methylation. Law is currently an associate professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
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#3018

Raul F. Lobo

#153304
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (59 years)
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#3019

James Alger Fee

#153347
Overall Influence
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#3020

Caroline Chick Jarrold

#153414
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (58 years)
Caroline Chick Jarrold is a physical chemist who was named the Class of 1948 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor ats at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, in 2018. The research done by her group aims to alleviate issues with energy and the environment.
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#3021

Stephen Buratowski

#153429
Overall Influence
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#3022

Tom H. Stevens

#153443
Overall Influence
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#3023

W. T. Imothy Liu

#153494
Overall Influence
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#3024

Sean Sun

#153634
Overall Influence
Sean X. Sun is an American biophysicist. Sun completed a Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1994, and obtained a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University, where he operates the Cell Mechanics Group laboratory. Sun was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016. The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering granted Sun an equivalent honor the following year.
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#3025

Peng George Wang

#153687
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (63 years)
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#3026

Claudio Canali

#153737
Overall Influence
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#3027

Ohyun Kwon

#153816
Overall Influence
Ohyun Kwon is a Korean-American chemist who is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research considers new methodologies for organic transformations and the development of chiral catalysts.
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#3028

Robert Michael Haberle

#153970
Overall Influence
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#3029

Chai Wah Wu

#154026
Overall Influence
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#3030

Yusuke Yokoyama

#154031
Overall Influence
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#3031

Suzanne Madden

#154065
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (124 years)
Suzanne Madden is an American astronomer who works as a researcher at the Saclay Nuclear Research Centre in Paris, France. The American Astronomical Society honored her work by awarding her the Annie J. Cannon Prize in 1995.
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#3032

Peter L. Olson

#154096
Overall Influence
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#3033

Dennis W. Hess

#154121
Overall Influence
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#3034

Yaron Ilan

#154144
Overall Influence
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#3035

William M. Vollmer

#154194
Overall Influence
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#3036

Kenneth L. Tanaka

#154279
Overall Influence
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#3037

Andrew Alford

#154417
Overall Influence
1904 - 1992 (88 years)
Andrew Alford was an American electrical engineer and inventor. Born in Samara, Russia, Alford invented and developed antennas for radio navigation systems, now used for VHF omnidirectional range and instrument landing systems.
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#3038

William Ross Gray

#154428
Overall Influence
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#3039

David A. Hutchins

#154454
Overall Influence
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#3040

Tong Sun

#154611
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (57 years)
Tong Sun is a Professor of Sensor Engineering and Director of the Research Centre for Photonics and Instrumentation at City, University of London. She was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal in 2016 and awarded an Order of the British Empire in the 2018 Birthday Honours. In 2020 she was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
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#3041

Richard Latter

#154621
Overall Influence
1923 - 1999 (76 years)
Richard Latter was a theoretical physicist, who was famous for his political involvement in the United States during the Cold War, where he warned against MIRVs developed in Soviet Russia, by which arms-reduction treaties could be evaded.
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#3042

Dharmarajan Sriram

#154711
Overall Influence
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#3043

Donald Eugene Shemansky

#154780
Overall Influence
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#3044

Eni G. Njoku

#154800
Overall Influence
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#3045

Timothy S. Bates

#154888
Overall Influence
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#3046

Bruce W. Birren

#154906
Overall Influence
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#3047

Edward Anton Bender

#155061
Overall Influence
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#3048

Tracy Northup

#155112
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (47 years)
Tracy E. Northup is an American physicist who works at the Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck. Her research considers the development optical cavities and trapped ions to better quantum mechanical interactions. She was awarded the 2016 Start-Preis of the Austrian Science Fund.
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#3049

Roger Wootton

#155234
Overall Influence
1944 - 2017 (73 years)
Leslie Roger Wootton was an aeronautical engineer and balloonist. He was dean of engineering for City University and in 1966 prepared a report on the aircraft maintenance industry for the British Civil Aviation Authority.
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#3050

Larry R. Nittler

#155280
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (56 years)
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