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
#30551
Ervin László
#30563
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Ervin László is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He is an advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness. Early life and education László was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a shoe manufacturer and a mother who played the piano; László himself started playing the piano when he was five years old, and gave his first piano concert with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine. After World War II, he moved to the United States.
Go to Profile#30552
John E. Hunter
#30564
Overall Influence
1939 - 2002 (63 years)
John E. "Jack" Hunter was an American psychology professor known for his work in methodology. His best-known work is Methods of Meta-Analysis: Correcting Error and Bias in Research Findings. The International Communication Association named a research award in his honor.
Go to Profile#30553
Barry Bearak
#30565
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Barry Leon Bearak is an American journalist and educator who has worked as a reporter and correspondent for The Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. He taught journalism as a visiting professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Go to Profile#30554
Dick Bulterman
#30566
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Dick C. A. Bulterman is a senior researcher at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam, where he heads the Distributed Multimedia Languages and Interfaces theme. He is also a professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Dr. Bulterman was President and CEO of FX Palo Alto Laboratory from 2013–2015.
Go to Profile#30555
Maurizio Lenzerini
#30567
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Maurizio Lenzerini is an Italian professor of computer science and engineering at the Sapienza University of Rome , where he specializes in database theory, Ontology language, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning as well as service modeling. He is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed articles, a fellow of both the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence and ACM, and a member of the Academia Europaea - The Academy of Europe.
Go to Profile#30556
David Gress
#30568
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
David Richard Gress is a Danish historian, known for his 1998 survey From Plato to Nato on Western identity and grand narratives. Life He was born in Copenhagen, the son of R. W. B. Lewis, an American literary historian, and the Danish writer, playwright and essayist Elsa Gress. The two were not married, which is why Gress uses his mother's maiden name. She subsequently married the American painter Charles Clifford Wright.
Go to Profile#30557
Patrick Kane
#30569
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Patrick Timothy Kane II is an American professional ice hockey right winger for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League . He was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks with the first overall pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft and played for the Blackhawks until February 2023 when he was traded to the New York Rangers. Kane has represented the United States at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
Go to Profile#30558
Atticus Ross
#30570
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross is an English musician, record producer, composer, and audio engineer. Along with Trent Reznor, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2010. In 2013, the pair won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for their soundtrack to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In 2021, alongside Jon Batiste, they won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for the soundtrack for Pixar's Soul.
Go to Profile#30559
Paul Sally
#30571
Overall Influence
1933 - 2013 (80 years)
Paul Joseph Sally, Jr. was a professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago, where he was the director of undergraduate studies for 30 years. His research areas were p-adic analysis and representation theory.
Go to Profile#30560
Jim McGreevey
#30572
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
James Edward McGreevey is an American politician who served as the 52nd governor of New Jersey from 2002 until his resignation in 2004. McGreevey served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1990 to 1992, as the 19th mayor of Woodbridge Township from 1991 to 2002, and in the New Jersey Senate from 1994 to 1998. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 1997, but was narrowly defeated by Republican incumbent Christine Todd Whitman. He ran for governor again in 2001 and was elected by a large margin.
Go to Profile#30561
Kireet Joshi
#30573
Overall Influence
1931 - 2014 (83 years)
Kireet Joshi was an Indian philosopher, and disciple of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. In 1976, the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, appointed Kireet as Education Advisor to the Government of India. He also served as the Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research.
Go to Profile#30562
John Caldwell
#30574
Overall Influence
1928 - 2016 (88 years)
John Charles "Jack" Caldwell was an Australian demographer. He researched extensively in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia since 1959, particularly the fields of fertility transition and health transition. Caldwell had a significant impact on demographic teaching, research and policy formulation.
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Ed Nather
#30575
Overall Influence
1926 - 2014 (88 years)
Roy Edward Nather was an American astronomer, who at the time of his death, was professor emeritus in Astronomy at University of Texas at Austin. He pioneered the fields of asteroseismology of white dwarfs, and observational studies of interacting binary collapsed starss.
Go to Profile#30564
Martin Popoff
#30576
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Martin Popoff is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, he has additionally written over twenty books that both critically evaluate heavy metal and document its history. He has been called "heavy metal's most widely recognized journalist" by his publisher. Popoff lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Go to Profile#30565
Bill Curtis
#30577
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Bill Curtis is a software engineer best known for leading the development of the Capability Maturity Model and the People CMM in the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and for championing the spread of software process improvement and software measurement globally. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his contributions to software process improvement and measurement. He was named to the 2022 class of ACM Fellows, "for contributions to software process, software measurement, and human factors in software engine...
Go to Profile#30566
André Fabre
#30578
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
André Fabre is a French thoroughbred horse racing trainer. The son of a diplomat, Fabre graduated from university with a law degree but then decided to pursue a career in thoroughbred horse racing. He began by working in the stables as a groom then as a schooling rider. He became France's leading jump jockey, winning more than two hundred and fifty races including the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. When he turned to training horses, Fabre proved even more successful, first with jump horses then with flat racers.
Go to Profile#30567
Fabio Fortuna
#30579
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Fabio Fortuna is an Italian rector and economist. Life Fortuna was born in Rome. From October 2013 he is rector of the Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano. He was vice Rector and Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Niccolò Cusano University of Rome, where he teaches Accounting and Financial Reporting; he was also teaches "Auditing" at Luiss University of Rome and he is member of the Advisory Board of the "Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale" . Fortuna is member of the Advisory Board of the "Dean Conference of the Economics and Statistics Faculties" and he is member of several Editorial Boards and Scientific Committees.
Go to Profile#30568
Barry Alvarez
#30580
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Barry Lee Alvarez is an American former college football coach and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He served as the head football coach at Wisconsin for 16 seasons, from 1990 to 2005, compiling a career record of 119–72–4. He has the longest head coaching tenure and the most wins in Wisconsin Badgers football history. Alvarez stepped down as head coach after the 2005 season, and remained as athletics director until July 1, 2021.
Go to Profile#30569
Maria Campbell
#30581
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Maria Campbell is a Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker, and Elder. Campbell is a fluent speaker of four languages: Cree, Michif, Western Ojibwa, and English. Four of her published works have been published in eight countries and translated into four other languages . Campbell has had great influence in her community as she is very politically involved in activism and social movements. Campbell is well known for being the author of Halfbreed, a memoir describing her own experiences as a Métis woman in society and the difficulties she has faced, which are commonly faced by many o...
Go to Profile#30570
Desmond Morton
#30582
Overall Influence
1937 - 2019 (82 years)
Desmond Dillon Paul Morton was a Canadian historian and political advisor who specialized in the history of the Canadian military, as well as the history of Canadian political and industrial relations.
Go to Profile#30571
Russel E. Caflisch
#30583
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Russel E. Caflisch is an American mathematician. Biography Caflisch is Director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University , and a Professor in the Mathematics Department. Russel Edward Caflisch was born in Charleston, West Virginia. He received his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University in 1975. He earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. His dissertation was titled "The Fluid Dynamic Limit and Shocks for a Model Boltzmann Equation." He has also held faculty positions at Stanford and NYU.
Go to Profile#30572
Philip S. Khoury
#30584
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Philip S. Khoury is Ford International Professor of History and Vice Provost at MIT. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut. Life Khoury was born on October 15, 1949, in Washington, D.C. the son of Shukry E. Khoury, a naturalized American lawyer, and Angela Jurdak Khoury, a Lebanese diplomat and educator. He was educated at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington and then at the American University of Beirut, Trinity College , and Harvard University . In 1981, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of history, rising to the rank of professor.
Go to Profile#30573
Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar
#30585
Overall Influence
1908 - 1991 (83 years)
Vishnu Vasudev Narlikar FRAS was an Indian physicist specializing in general relativity. He is considered "the doyen of General Relativity in India." The Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia has instituted the annual "V. V. Narikar Memorial Lecture" in memory of him.
Go to Profile#30574
Regina Spektor
#30586
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian-born American singer, songwriter, comedian, and pianist. After self-releasing her first three records and gaining popularity in New York City's independent music scenes, particularly the anti-folk scene centered on New York City's East Village, Spektor signed with Sire Records in 2004 resulting in greater mainstream recognition. After giving her third album a major label re-release, Sire released Spektor's fourth album, Begin to Hope, which achieved a Gold certification by the RIAA. Her following two albums, Far and What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, each...
Go to Profile#30575
Ole Holger Petersen
#30587
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Ole Holger Petersen , MAE, FLSW is a research professor at Cardiff University where he studies physiology, especially calcium signalling and the pancreas. He was born in 1943 in Copenhagen, the first son of Joergen Petersen, an officer in the Danish navy, and Elisabeth née Klein, a pianist.
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Ruth Watkins
#30588
Overall Influence
Ruth V. Watkins is an American scholar of child language and speech pathology. She was the 16th president of the University of Utah. She stepped down from the role on April 7, 2021, to enter the private sector.
Go to Profile#30577
Hans-Wolfgang Arndt
#30589
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Hans-Wolfgang Arndt is a German lawyer, professor for tax law and former president of the University of Mannheim from 2001 to 2012. Previously he was professor for tax law at the Department für Rechtswissenschaften at the University of Konstanz.
Go to Profile#30578
Bernard Faure
#30590
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Bernard Faure is a Franco-American author and scholar of Asian religions, who focuses on Chan/Zen and Japanese esoteric Buddhism. His work draws on cultural theory, anthropology, and gender studies. He is currently a Kao Professor of Japanese Religion at Columbia University and an Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. He also previously taught at Cornell University, and has been a visiting a professor at the University of Tokyo, the University of Sydney, and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. He co-founded the Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University and the ARC: Asian Religions and Cultures Series within Stanford University Press.
Go to Profile#30579
Jan Hatzius
#30591
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Jan Hatzius is the chief economist of investment bank Goldman Sachs. Notable for his bearish forecasts prior to the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, he is a two-time winner of the Lawrence R. Klein Award for the most accurate US economic forecast over the prior four years. He has also won a number of other forecasting awards, including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Institutional Investor annual forecaster rankings.
Go to Profile#30580
Robert Kolb
#30592
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Robert Kolb is professor emeritus of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and a world-renowned authority on Martin Luther and the history of the Reformation. Biography and education Robert Kolb was born on June 17, 1941, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He married Pauline J. Ansorge on August 14, 1965.
Go to Profile#30581
Max Kozloff
#30593
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Max Kozloff is an American art historian, art critic of modern art and photographer. He has been art editor at The Nation, and Executive Editor of Artforum. His essay "American Painting During the Cold War" is of particular importance to the criticism on American Abstract Expressionism.
Go to Profile#30582
Alan Merten
#30594
Overall Influence
1941 - 2020 (79 years)
Alan Gilbert Merten was the fifth president of George Mason University. Personal life Merten was married to Sally Merten, and they had two children and four grandsons. Merten died on May 21, 2020, at a nursing home in Naples, Florida after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Go to Profile#30583
Dennis Erickson
#30595
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Dennis Brian Erickson is an American football coach who most recently served as the head coach for the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football league. He was also the head coach at the University of Idaho , the University of Wyoming , Washington State University , the University of Miami , Oregon State University , and Arizona State University . During his tenure at Miami, Erickson's teams won two national championships, in 1989 and 1991. His record as a college football head coach is
Go to Profile#30584
Carin Boalt
#30596
Overall Influence
1912 - 1999 (87 years)
Carin Margareta Boalt was a Swedish professor of Building Function Analysis at Lund University, who at the time of her appointment was the first female professor in Lund. She was head of research at the Home Research Institute from 1944 until 1956.
Go to Profile#30585
W. Bradford Wilcox
#30597
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
William Bradford Wilcox is an American sociologist. He serves as director of the National Marriage Project and professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Go to Profile#30586
Malcolm Quantrill
#30598
Overall Influence
1931 - 2009 (78 years)
Malcolm Quantrill was a British architect, academic and architecture theorist. His best known books are The Environmental Memory – Man and Architecture in the Landscape of Ideas and Finnish Architecture and the Modernist Tradition . He was a specialist in the history of the modern architecture of Finland. He was the first person to write critical monographs in any language on three individual Finnish modernist architects, Alvar Aalto – Alvar Aalto: A Critical Study – Reima Pietilä – Reima Pietilä: Architecture, Context, Modernism – and Juha Leiviskä – Juha Leiviska and the Continuity of Finnish Modern Architecture .
Go to Profile#30587
Leo Rafael Reif
#30599
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
#30588
Akbar Muhammad
#30600
Overall Influence
Akbar Muhammad was an associate Professor Emeritus of history and Africana studies at Binghamton University in New York. He specialized in African history, West African social history, as well as the study of Islam in Africa and the Americas. He is the co-editor of Racism, Sexism, and the World-System, along with Joan Smith, Jane Collins, and Terrence K. Hopkins. His own writings focused on slavery in Muslim Africa, Muslims in the United States, and integration in Nigeria through the use of education. He holds a notable role in the history of the Nation of Islam.
Go to Profile#30589
Dennis Jennings
#30601
Overall Influence
Dennis M. Jennings is an Irish physicist, academic, Internet pioneer, and venture capitalist. In 1985–1986 he was responsible for three critical decisions that shaped the subsequent development of NSFNET, the network that became the Internet.
Go to Profile#30590
Pat LaFontaine
#30602
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Patrick Michael LaFontaine is an American former ice hockey center who played in the National Hockey League and spent his entire playing career with the league's New York State-based teams. LaFontaine played for the New York Islanders from 1983 until 1991, the Buffalo Sabres from 1991 until 1997, and the New York Rangers from 1997 until his retirement in 1998, scoring 468 goals and 1,013 points along the way before his career was ended by concussions. His 1.17 points per game is the best among American-born ice hockey players, active or retired. In 2017, LaFontaine was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.
Go to Profile#30591
Jose L. Torero
#30603
Overall Influence
José Luis Torero FREng FTSE FRSE FRSN is the Head of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London. He took this appointment after two years as the John L. Bryan Chair in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering and Director of the Center for Disaster Resilience in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland . He was formerly the Head of the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland . He is Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering since 2010, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering since 2014 and The Royal Society of Edinburgh since 2008.
Go to Profile#30592
Man Haron Monis
#30604
Overall Influence
1964 - 2014 (50 years)
Man Haron Monis was an Iranian-born refugee and Australian citizen who took hostages in a siege at the Lindt Chocolate Café at Martin Place, Sydney on 15 December 2014, lasting for 17 hours, until the early hours of the following morning. The siege resulted in the death of Monis and two hostages.
Go to Profile#30593
Andre Reed
#30605
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Andre Darnell Reed is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League for 16 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football at Kutztown and was selected by the Bills in the fourth round of the 1985 NFL Draft with the 86th overall selection. Following 15 seasons with the Bills, where he earned Pro Bowl honors seven times, Reed spent his final season as a member of the Washington Redskins in 2000.
Go to Profile#30594
Saleem Ali
#30606
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Saleem H. Ali is a Pakistani American Australian academic who is the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware and also directs the university's Minerals, Materials and Society program. He has also held the chair in Sustainable Resources Development at the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia where he retains affiliation as an Honorary Professor. He is also a senior fellow at Columbia University's Center on Sustainable Investment. Previously he was Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein Sc...
Go to Profile#30595
Ronen Palan
#30607
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Ronen Palan is an Israeli-born economist and Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of International Politics at the City University London. He has many books and articles on the political economy of the state, globalisation and state strategies, and evolutionary approaches to the study of international relations. Ronen Palan was of the founding editors of the Review of International Political Economy. Palan's major empirical work is the area of offshore financial centres and tax havens. Palan has argued that offshore finance "is certainly not the sole cause for the de...
Go to Profile#30596
Albert Reynolds
#30608
Overall Influence
1932 - 2014 (82 years)
Albert Martin Reynolds was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1992 to 1994, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994, Minister for Finance from 1988 to 1991, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1987 to 1988, Minister for Industry and Energy from March 1982 to December 1982, Minister for Transport from 1980 to 1981 and Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1979 to 1981. He served as a Teachta Dála from 1977 to 2002.
Go to Profile#30597
Barbara Levick
#30609
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Barbara M. Levick is a British historian and epigrapher, focusing particularly on the Late Roman Republic and Early Empire. She is recognised within her field as one of the leading Roman historians of her generation.
Go to Profile#30598
Wolfgang Haber
#30610
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (101 years)
Wolfgang Haber is a biologist who helped establish the field of landscape ecology. Life Haber studied Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, and Geography at the University of Münster, University of Munich, University of Basel, University of Stuttgart, and University of Hohenheim. From 1957 to 1962 he was a research assistant for Heinrich Walter in Hohenheim, then from 1962 to 1966 a curator and deputy director of the Museum of Natural History, Münster. From 1966 he was head of the newly founded Institute for Landscape Management at TU Munich in Weihenstephan , which he later renamed the Chair for Landscape Ecology.
Go to Profile#30599
Jun-iti Nagata
#30611
Overall Influence
1925 - 2007 (82 years)
was a Japanese mathematician specializing in topology. In 1956, Jun-iti Nagata earned his PhD from Osaka University under the direction of Kiiti Morita. He was the author of two standard graduate texts in topology: Modern Dimension Theory and Modern General Topology. His name is attached to the Nagata–Smirnov metrization theorem, which was proved independently by Nagata in 1950 and by Smirnov in 1951, as well as the Assouad–Nagata dimension of a metric space, which he introduced in a 1958 article.
Go to Profile#30600
Christian Barry
#30612
Overall Influence
Christian Barry is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Political Philosophy and a former head of the School of Philosophy in the Research School of the Social Sciences at the ANU. Barry is known for his research on international justice. Christian was a program officer at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs before joining the ANU and is the Ethics Matters podcast co-presenter.
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