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
#32451
Shubha Tole
#32463
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Shubha Tole is an Indian neuroscientist, professor and principal Investigator at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. Her research investigates the development and evolution of the mammalian brain. In 2014, she won the Infosys Prize in the Life Sciences category.
Go to Profile#32452
Claude Ake
#32464
Overall Influence
1939 - 1996 (57 years)
Claude Ake was a Nigerian political scientist from Omoku, in Rivers State, Nigeria. Ake was considered "one of Africa's foremost political philosophers." He specialized in political economy, political theory, and development studies and is well known for his research on development and democracy in Africa. He was professor of political economy and dean of the University of Port Harcourt's Faculty of Social Sciences for some years in the 1970s and 1980s after having taught at Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1966. He held various academic positions at institutions around the...
Go to Profile#32453
Noboru Karashima
#32465
Overall Influence
1933 - 2015 (82 years)
was a Japanese historian, writer and Professor Emeritus in University of Tokyo, Japan. He also served as Professor Emeritus at the Taisho University, Japan. He was a prominent scholar of Asia in the studies of south Indian and South Asian histories. He has rewritten historical accounts on medieval south India and published a number of writings.
Go to Profile#32454
Leonard Stein
#32466
Overall Influence
1916 - 2004 (88 years)
Leonard David Stein was a musicologist, pianist, conductor, university teacher, and influential in promoting contemporary music on the American West Coast. He was for years Arnold Schoenberg's assistant, music director of the Schoenberg Institute at USC, and among the foremost authorities on Schoenberg's music. He was also an influential teacher in the lives of many younger composers, such as the influential minimalist La Monte Young.
Go to Profile#32455
Robert J. Hodrick
#32467
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Robert James Hodrick , is a U.S. economist specialized in International Finance. AB, Princeton, 1972; PhD, University of Chicago, 1976. Until 1983, he served as a professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he worked jointly with Edward C. Prescott on business cycle, and developed the Hodrick–Prescott filter to distinguish trends from cyclical fluctuations. He taught at Northwestern University and joined Columbia University in 1996.
Go to Profile#32456
K. Ruben Gabriel
#32468
Overall Influence
1929 - 2003 (74 years)
Kuno Ruben Gabriel was a statistician known for the inventing the biplot and the Gabriel graph and for his work in statistical meteorology. Gabriel was born in Germany, emigrated to France, grew up in Israel, was educated at the London School of Economics and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, taught at the Hebrew University until 1975, and then moved to the University of Rochester where he remained until his retirement in 1997. He died on May 25, 2003.
Go to Profile#32457
Peter John Wyllie
#32469
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Peter John Wyllie is a British petrologist and academic. He was Professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology from 1983 until his retirement in 1999. Prior to this, he held positions at the University of St Andrews , Pennsylvania State University , the University of Leeds , and the University of Chicago . He is well known for his many contributions to the understanding of magmatism, particularly through his work on the experimental petrology of magmas and volatiles. In the early 1970s, Wyllie wrote two widely used textbooks; The Dynamic Earth and The Way the Earth Works which integrated the new understanding of magmatism and plate tectonics.
Go to Profile#32458
Gábor J. Székely
#32470
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Gábor J. Székely is a Hungarian-American statistician/mathematician best known for introducing energy statistics . Examples include: the distance correlation, which is a bona fide dependence measure, equals zero exactly when the variables are independent; the distance skewness, which equals zero exactly when the probability distribution is diagonally symmetric; the E-statistic for normality test; and the E-statistic for clustering.
Go to Profile#32459
Chris Brink
#32471
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Chris Brink, CBE, FRSSAf is a South African mathematician and academic. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University between 2007 and December 2016. Career After graduating with a degree in maths and computer science from Rand Afrikaans University, Brink undertook post-graduate study at Rhodes University and the University of Cambridge. He became professor and head of mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town in 1995, pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Wollongong in 1999 and rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University in 2002 before being appoin...
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Jared Goff
#32472
Overall Influence
1994 - Present (32 years)
Jared Thomas Goff is an American football quarterback for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League . He played college football for the California Golden Bears, setting Pac-12 Conference season records for passing yards and passing touchdowns. Goff was selected first overall by the Los Angeles Rams in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Go to Profile#32461
Markus Näslund
#32473
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Markus Sten Näslund is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player and former general manager for Modo Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League . He played in the National Hockey League for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vancouver Canucks, and New York Rangers, as well as in the Elitserien with Modo Hockey. Nicknamed "Nazzy" by Canucks fans and "Macke" or "Mackan" in his native Sweden, he was known for his offensive skills, particularly his wrist shot and stickhandling.
Go to Profile#32462
Rebecca Saxe
#32474
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Rebecca Saxe is a professor of cognitive neuroscience and associate Dean of Science at MIT. She is an associate member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and a board member of the Center for Open Science. She is known for her research on the neural basis of social cognition. She received her BA from Oxford University where she studied Psychology and Philosophy, and her PhD from MIT in Cognitive Science. She is the granddaughter of Canadian coroner and politician Morton Shulman.
Go to Profile#32463
Ken Dowden
#32475
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ken Dowden is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Birmingham. Dowden is from Newcastle upon Tyne and studied at Worcester College, Oxford University. He came to Birmingham in 1988, acting as Head of the School of Humanities from 2000 to 2003, as Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity from 2005 to 2012, and as Head of the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion from 2012 to 2016.
Go to Profile#32464
Valentin Koptyug
#32476
Overall Influence
1931 - 1997 (66 years)
Valentin Afanasyevich Koptyug was a Soviet Belarusian scientist, specializing in physical and organic chemistry. Biography Valentin Koptyug was born in 1931 in Yukhnov in the family of Afanasy Koptyug, who was director of the local communication department, and Nadezhda Koptyug, who was a telegrapher. When young Koptyug was studying in school, his family had to evacuate because of Great Patriotic War. In 1949 he finished school in Samarkand and graduated from D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia in 1954 in Moscow. In 1957, Koptyg completed postgraduate studies at this institution.
Go to Profile#32465
Robert A. Kraft
#32477
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Robert A. Kraft was an American religious historian who was the Berg Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He is known for his pioneering work in the application of computing to the study of ancient literature and for his significant contributions to the study of early Judaism and early Christianity. Kraft was president of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2006.
Go to Profile#32466
Joan Bagaria
#32478
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Joan Bagaria Pigrau is a Catalan mathematician, logician and set theorist at ICREA and University of Barcelona. He has made many contributions concerning forcing, large cardinals, infinite combinatorics and their applications to other areas of mathematics. He earned his Ph.D. in Logic & the Methodology of Science at Berkeley in 1991 under the supervision of Haim Judah and W. Hugh Woodin. Since 2001, he has been ICREA Research Professor at University of Barcelona. He served as the first president of the European Set Theory Society . He is also a talented teacher.
Go to Profile#32467
Emma Bonino
#32479
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Emma Bonino is an Italian politician. A senator for Rome, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2014. Previously, she was a Member of the European Parliament and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. She served in the government of Italy as minister of international trade from 2006 to 2008.
Go to Profile#32468
Fritz Peter Schäfer
#32480
Overall Influence
1931 - 2011 (80 years)
Fritz Peter Schäfer was a German physicist, born in Hersfeld, Hesse-Nassau. He is the co-inventor of the organic dye laser. His book, Dye Lasers, is considered a classic in the field of tunable lasers. In this book the chapter written by Schäfer gives an ample and insightful exposition on organic laser dye molecules in addition to a description on the physics of telescopic, and multiple-prism, tunable narrow-linewidth laser oscillators.
Go to Profile#32469
Eric Chivian
#32481
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Eric S. Chivian is the founder and director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, where he is also an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry. Life and career A 1964 graduate of Harvard University , he went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1968.
Go to Profile#32470
Aninda Sinha
#32482
Overall Influence
Aninda Sinha is an Indian theoretical physicist working as a professor at Center for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. Early life and education Sinha finished his schooling from Don Bosco Park Circus, Kolkata. He obtained his B.Sc. From Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 1999, and MA, CASM and PhD from University of Cambridge. Sinha ranked first in B.Sc. and won the Mayhew prize for the part III mathematics degree in University of Cambridge. His PhD advisor was Professor Michael Green. He is a member of the Kandi Raj family and is the son of late Atish Chandra ...
Go to Profile#32471
A. Charles Muller
#32483
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
A. Charles Muller is a Japan-based academic specializing in Korean Buddhism and East Asian Yogacara, having published numerous books and articles on these topics. He was one of the earliest developers of online research resources for the field of Buddhist Studies and the founder and managing editor of the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, the CJKV-English Dictionary, and the H-Buddhism Scholars Information Network, along with having digitized and published numerous reference works.
Go to Profile#32472
Patricia H. Thornton
#32484
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Patricia H. Thornton is an American organizational theorist, and Grand Challenge Initiative Professor of Sociology and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University as well as Adjunct Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She is known for her work on "the sociology of entrepreneurship" and "the Institutional Logics Perspective."
Go to Profile#32473
Emil Constantinescu
#32485
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Emil Constantinescu is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president of the Civic Alliance . In addition, he also served as the acting president of the Democratic Romanian Anti-Totalitarian Forum, the first associative structure of the democratic opposition in post-1989 Romania, which was later transformed into a centre-right political and electoral alliance known as the Romanian Democratic Convention . He had also subsequently presided the People's Action party from the early 2000s until it merged into the National Liberal Party in 2008.
Go to Profile#32474
Eric Mottram
#32486
Overall Influence
1924 - 1995 (71 years)
Eric Mottram was a British teacher, critic, editor and poet who was one of the central figures in the British Poetry Revival. Early life and education Mottram was born in London and educated at Purley Grammar School, Croydon, and Blackpool Grammar School, Lancashire. In 1943, he was awarded a scholarship to Pembroke College, Cambridge, but opted to serve in the Royal Navy instead, only taking up the scholarship in 1947. He graduated with honours in 1950, obtaining a first in both parts of the English Literature, Life and Thought tripos . M.A. in 1951. Over the following decade, Mottram travel...
Go to Profile#32475
Robert Tijdeman
#32487
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Robert Tijdeman is a Dutch mathematician. Specializing in number theory, he is best known for his Tijdeman's theorem. He is a professor of mathematics at the Leiden University since 1975, and was chairman of the department of mathematics and computer science at Leiden from 1991 to 1993. He was also president of the Dutch Mathematical Society from 1984 to 1986.
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Luiz Felipe Pondé
#32488
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Luiz Felipe de Cerqueira e Silva Pondé is a Brazilian writer and professor of philosophy. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. He was awarded a Doctor's Degree by the University of Sao Paulo, together with an exchange program with the University of Paris. He finished his Post-Doctorate at the University of Tel Aviv. Currently, he works as a professor in the Brazilian Educational Institution Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado and Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo.
Go to Profile#32477
Michael Frese
#32489
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Michael Frese is a psychologist who teaches management and organizational behaviour at Asia School of Business, Malaysia and Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. He is a visiting professor at Makerere University Business School in Kampala, Uganda, and at National University of Singapore Business School. He was head of the department and Provost Chair at National University of Singapore Business School.
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Michael L. Marin
#32490
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Michael L. Marin is an American vascular surgeon. Together with Drs. Frank Veith, Juan C. Parodi and Claudio J. Schonholz, he was the first in the United States to perform minimally invasive aortic aneurysm surgery . In 2004, he was the first doctor to implant an intravascular telemetric monitor -- a device that alerts to physicians any leakage in aortic stent-grafts.
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Jon McGregor
#32491
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Jon McGregor is a British novelist and short story writer. In 2002, his first novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize, making him then the youngest ever contender. His second and fourth novels were longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006 and 2017 respectively. In 2012, his third novel, Even the Dogs, was awarded the International Dublin Literary Award. The New York Times has labelled him a "wicked British writer".
Go to Profile#32480
Judith Walzer Leavitt
#32492
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Judith Walzer Leavitt is an American historian. She was the Rupple Bascom and Ruth Bleier Professor of History of Medicine, History of Science, and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her book subjects have included a study of Mary Mallon, a history of childbirth in America, and a history of public health in Milwaukee. She is the wife of Waisman Center medical director Lewis Leavitt, as well as the sister of political theorist Michael Walzer.
Go to Profile#32481
Mark Trodden
#32493
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Mark Trodden is a theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist. He is the Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics and Co-Director of the Center for Particle Cosmology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go to Profile#32482
Tapan Mitra
#32494
Overall Influence
1948 - 2019 (71 years)
Tapan Mitra was an Indian-born economist. Life and career Tapan Mitra was born to parents Ashok and Santi Mitra. He attended St. Xavier's High School, Bombay, and Rajkumar College, Raipur. In 1968, Mitra graduated from the University of Calcutta with a degree in economics. He further studied the subject, completing a master's degree at Delhi University two years later. Mitra subsequently immigrated to the United States, where he obtained a second master's in economics, followed by a doctorate in the same subject at the University of Rochester in 1973 and 1975 respectively. He lectured at Roch...
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Ossie Davis
#32495
Overall Influence
1917 - 2005 (88 years)
Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame; were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1994.
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Jonny Lee Miller
#32496
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Jonathan Lee Miller is a British actor. He achieved early success for his portrayal of Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson in the dark comedy-drama film Trainspotting and as Dade Murphy in Hackers before earning further critical recognition for his performances in Afterglow , Mansfield Park , The Flying Scotsman , Endgame , and T2 Trainspotting . For The Flying Scotsman he received a London Film Critics' Circle nomination for Actor of the Year. He was also part of the principal cast in the films Melinda and Melinda , Dark Shadows , and Byzantium . He has appeared in several theatrical productions, ...
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Alan Palmer
#32497
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (100 years)
Alan Warwick Palmer was a British author of popular historical and biographical books. A number of these books were translated into other languages. Background Palmer was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, London, and Oriel College, Oxford. He spent 19 years as senior history teacher at Highgate School before becoming a full-time writer and researcher. His late wife, Veronica Palmer collaborated on several of his books.
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Helena Suková
#32498
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Helena Suková is a Czech former professional tennis player. During her career, she won 14 major doubles titles, nine in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. She is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in doubles, a four-time major singles runner-up, and won a total of 10 singles titles and 69 doubles titles.
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Goose Gossage
#32499
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Richard Michael "Goose" Gossage is an American former baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball between 1972 and 1994. He pitched for nine different teams, spending his best years with the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres.
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Richard Heimberg
#32500
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Richard Heimberg is a researcher, psychotherapist, and current professor at Temple University. Early life Heimberg graduated magna cum laude from the University of Tennessee in 1972, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. He earned a Master of Science in 1974 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1977, both from Florida State University.
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Ray Cooper
#32501
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Raymond Cooper is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist. During his career, Cooper has worked and toured with numerous musically diverse bands and artists including Elton John , Harry Nilsson, Billy Joel, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Art Garfunkel. Cooper absorbed the influence of rock drummers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice and John Bonham.
Go to Profile#32490
Juliane Rebentisch
#32502
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Juliane Rebentisch is a German philosopher and art historian whose research focuses on the history and politics of aesthetics. She is the author of three books: Aesthetics of Installation Art , The Art of Freedom: On the Dialectics of Democratic Existence , and Theorien der Gegenwartskunst , and has edited numerous volumes on aesthetics, ethics, and political philosophy in both German and English. Josef Chytry, in the academic journal Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, called Aesthetics of Installation Art a "formidable work." In 2017, she received the Lessing Prize from the city of Ha...
Go to Profile#32491
Jack Endino
#32503
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Jack Endino is an American producer and musician based in Seattle, Washington. Long associated with Seattle label Sub Pop and the grunge movement, Endino worked on seminal albums from bands including Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Nirvana. He was also the guitarist for Seattle band Skin Yard, which was active between 1985 and 1992. Endino currently manages a studio in Seattle called Soundhouse Recording.
Go to Profile#32492
Per Andersen
#32504
Overall Influence
1930 - 2020 (90 years)
Per Oskar Andersen was a Norwegian brain researcher at the University of Oslo. Research by his lab, specifically by Terje Lømo , led to the discovery of long-term potentiation in 1966. He was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Royal Society. He held honorary degrees at the University of Zürich and the University of Stockholm.
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Luol Deng
#32505
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Luol Ajou Deng is a South Sudanese-British former professional basketball player. He was a two-time NBA All-Star and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2012. Born in what is now South Sudan, Deng fled the country with his family as a child, eventually settling in the United Kingdom. He became a British citizen in 2006, and has played for the Great Britain national team.
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Howard M. Wiseman
#32506
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Howard Mark Wiseman is an Australian theoretical and quantum physicist, who notable for his work on quantum feedback control, quantum measurements, quantum information , open quantum systems, the many interacting worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and other topics in quantum foundations.
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Frédéric Encel
#32507
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Frédéric Encel is a French writer and scholar of geopolitics. He received his DEA in geopolitics from the Centre of Geopolitical Analysis and Research at the University of Paris VIII in 1992. He remained there studying under Yves Lacoste and earned his doctorate in geopolitics in 1997. He teaches international relations at the ESG Management School. He frequently points out the Iranian danger in French press.
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Richard Fleischer
#32508
Overall Influence
1916 - 2006 (90 years)
Richard Owen Fleischer was an American film director whose career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. Though he directed films across many genres and styles, he is best known for his big-budget, "tentpole" films, including: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , The Vikings , Barabbas , Fantastic Voyage , the musical film Doctor Dolittle , the war epic Tora! Tora! Tora! , the dystopian mystery-thriller Soylent Green , the controversial period drama Mandingo , and the Robert E. Howard sword-and-sorcery films Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja .
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Rob Kling
#32509
Overall Influence
1944 - 2003 (59 years)
Rob Kling was a North American professor of Information Systems and Information science at the School of Library and Information Science and adjunct professor of computer science, Indiana University, United States. He directed the interdisciplinary Center for Social Informatics , at Indiana University. He is considered to have been a key founder of social analyses of computing and a leading expert on the study of social informatics.
Go to Profile#32498
Angeline Stoll Lillard
#32510
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Dr. Angeline Stoll Lillard is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where she directs the Early Development Laboratory, one of four child development laboratories in the psychology department at the university. Lillard is an internationally recognized expert in Montessori education and the author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, which is in its third edition, has been translated into several languages, and was awarded the Cognitive Development Society Book Award in 2006.
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Opal Palmer Adisa
#32511
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Opal Palmer Adisa is a Jamaican and American poet, novelist, performance artist and educator. Anthologized in more than 400 publications, she has been a regular performer of her work internationally. Professor Emeritus at California College of the Arts, Adisa is also the current Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica, where she currently resides.
Go to Profile#32500
Santino Marella
#32512
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Anthony 'Tony' Carelli , better known by the ring name, Santino Marella, is a Canadian professional wrestler and judoka. He is currently signed with Impact Wrestling. He is best known for his 11-year tenure with WWE. He is the founder of and instructor at Battle Arts Academy, a martial arts and professional wrestling training facility in Mississauga, Ontario, and the official ambassador of Judo Canada.
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