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
#32801
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
#32813
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (37 years)
Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang is a Gabonese professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ligue 1 club Marseille and serves as captain for the Gabon national team. Having been recognised as one of the best strikers in his prime, he was renowned for his pace, finishing, and off-ball movement.
Go to Profile#32802
Nicholas J. Hoff
#32814
Overall Influence
1906 - 1997 (91 years)
Nicholas J. Hoff was a Hungarian-born American engineer specializing in aeronautics and astronautics, which he taught at Stanford University. Biography Hoff spent his adolescence in Budapest, where he went to the same high school that had been attended by Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and John von Neumann. After high school, he enrolled at ETH Zurich, where he studied under Aurel Stodola. He graduated with an engineering degree in 1928.
Go to Profile#32803
Louis Bazin
#32815
Overall Influence
1920 - 2011 (91 years)
Louis Bazin was a French orientalist. Biography Born in Caen, he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1939. When he graduated in 1943, he became a senior research fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, while continuing his studies at the National School for Modern Oriental Languages.
Go to Profile#32804
Vladimír Mečiar
#32816
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Vladimír Mečiar is a Slovak former politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from June 1990 to May 1991, June 1992 to March 1994, and again from December 1994 to October 1998. He was the leader of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia , a populist party in Slovakia.
Go to Profile#32805
Neil R. Grabois
#32817
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Neil R. Grabois is a mathematician and a former university administrator. He held positions as the dean, provost, and chair of the department of mathematical sciences of Williams College; as the thirteenth President of Colgate University, from 1988 to 1999; as Vice President at the Carnegie Corporation in New York; and as the dean of the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School, where he served from 2010 until his departure in 2013.
Go to Profile#32806
Adel Mahmoud
#32818
Overall Influence
1941 - 2018 (77 years)
Adel K. Mahmoud was an Egyptian-born American doctor and expert in infectious diseases. He was credited with helping with the development of the Gardasil HPV vaccine and the rotavirus vaccine while serving as President of Merck Vaccines. Both the HPV and rotavirus vaccines were under development prior to Mahmoud joining Merck Vaccine Division; he assisted in ensuring that they remained a priority for Merck to continue development to commercial launch. After retiring from Merck he became a professor at Princeton University.
Go to Profile#32807
Nematollah Fazeli
#32819
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Nematollah Fazeli is an Iranian anthropologist, author, and translator. Career Fazeli received his PhD in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He received a masters in cultural anthropology from Tehran University. He is currently associate professor of cultural anthropology and cultural studies at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. He has been a Research Associate of SOAS since 2005. Fazeli's formal academic training was in anthropology and the social sciences but he concurrently continued his studies of cultural studies and sociology of literature and art at a professional academic level.
Go to Profile#32808
Guido Goldman
#32820
Overall Influence
1938 - 2020 (82 years)
Guido Goldman was a Swiss-born American academic and philanthropist known for advancing post–World War II US-Germany academic and cultural relations. He was a co-founder of the German Marshall Fund and also set up the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.
Go to Profile#32809
H. W. L. Poonja
#32821
Overall Influence
1910 - 1997 (87 years)
Hariwansh Lal Poonja was an Indian sage. Poonja was called "Poonjaji" or "Papaji" by devotees. He was a key figure in the Neo-Advaita movement. Biography Early life At the age of eight, he claimed he had experienced an unusual state of consciousness:
Go to Profile#32810
Abdi Ismail Samatar
#32822
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Abdi Ismail Samatar is a Somali scholar, writer and professor of geography. Personal life Samatar was born in 1956 in Gabiley in Somaliland. He is the brother of scholar and politician Ahmed Ismail Samatar.
Go to Profile#32811
Adrian Mutu
#32823
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Adrian Mutu is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is in charge of Azerbaijan Premier League club Neftchi Baku. During his playing career, he was deployed as a forward or an attacking midfielder.
Go to Profile#32812
Cheryl Ann Krause
#32824
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Cheryl Ann Krause is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Biography Early life and education Krause was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and her Juris Doctor with highest honors from Stanford Law School in 1993. After graduating from law school, Krause clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1993 to 1994, and then for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy ...
Go to Profile#32813
Willie Carson
#32825
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
William Fisher Hunter Carson, OBE is a retired jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. Life and career Best known as "Willie", Carson was born in Stirling, Scotland in 1942. He was apprenticed to Captain Gerald Armstrong at his stables at Tupgill, North Yorkshire. His first winner in Britain was Pinker's Pond in a seven-furlong apprentice handicap at Catterick Bridge Racecourse on 19 July 1962.
Go to Profile#32814
William Fyfe
#32826
Overall Influence
1927 - 2013 (86 years)
William Sefton Fyfe, was a New Zealand geologist and Professor Emeritus in the department of Earth Sciences at the University of Western Ontario. He is widely considered among the world's most eminent geochemists.
Go to Profile#32815
Toi Derricotte
#32827
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Toi Derricotte is an American poet. She is the author of six poetry collections and a literary memoir. She has won numerous literary awards, including the 2020 Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry awarded by the Poetry Society of America, and the 2021 Wallace Stevens Award, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. From 2012–2017, Derricotte served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She is currently a professor emerita in writing at the University of Pittsburgh .
Go to Profile#32816
Hermann Flaschka
#32828
Overall Influence
1945 - 2021 (76 years)
Hermann Flaschka was an Austrian-American mathematical physicist and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arizona, known for his important contributions in completely integrable systems . Childhood Flaschka had lived in the USA since his family immigrated when he was a teenager. They lived in Atlanta, GA. His father Hermenegild Arved Flaschka taught Chemistry at Georgia Tech. Hermann graduated from Druid Hills High School with the class of 1962 and received his Bachelor's degree at Georgia Tech in 1967. Among other achievements there he also received the "William Gilmer Perry Awa...
Go to Profile#32817
Vance Haynes
#32829
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Caleb Vance Haynes Jr. , known as Vance Haynes or C. Vance Haynes Jr., is an archaeologist, geologist and author who specializes in the archaeology of the American Southwest. Haynes "revolutionized the fields of geoarchaeology and archaeological geology." He is known for unearthing and studying artifacts of Paleo-Indians including ones from Sandia Cave in the 1960s, work which helped to establish the timeline of human migration through North America. Haynes coined the term "black mat" for a layer of 10,000-year-old swamp soil seen in many North American archaeological studies.
Go to Profile#32818
Christophe Szpajdel
#32830
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Christophe Szpajdel is a Belgian-born international calligraphist and illustrator, principally known for designing band logos. Life Szpajdel was born on 29 September 1970 in Gembloux, Namur, Belgium, and grew up in Louvain-la-Neuve, Walloon Brabant, Belgium. His parents are of Polish origin but immigrated to Belgium before he was born. He grew up speaking Polish and French, and eventually learned English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Szpajdel began drawing at the age of 3 when he drew a praying mantis while vacationing with his parents in the south of France.
Go to Profile#32819
Piet Borst
#32831
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Piet Borst CBE is emeritus professor of clinical biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Amsterdam , and until 1999 director of research and chairman of the board of directors of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis . He continued to work at the NKI-AVL as a staff member and group leader until 2016.
Go to Profile#32820
Judith Roitman
#32832
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Judith "Judy" Roitman is a mathematician, a retired professor at the University of Kansas. She specializes in set theory, topology, Boolean algebras, and mathematics education. Biography Roitman was born in 1945 in New York City. She attended Oberlin College, followed by Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1966 with a degree in English literature. Next, she became interested in mathematical linguistics. As she had little formal mathematical education, Roitman started taking mathematics classes at the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. She had enjoyed mathematics as a high school student and found her interest renewed.
Go to Profile#32821
Joan Breton Connelly
#32833
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Joan Breton Connelly is an American classical archaeologist and Professor of Classics and Art History at New York University. She is Director of the Yeronisos Island Excavations and Field School in Cyprus. Connelly was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1996. She received the Archaeological Institute of America Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2007 and held the Lillian Vernon Chair for Teaching Excellence at New York University from 2002 to 2004. She is an Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Peyia, Republic of Cyprus.
Go to Profile#32822
Rolf Potts
#32834
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Rolf Potts is an American travel writer, essayist, podcaster, and author. He has written five books, including Vagabonding , Marco Polo Didn't Go There , Souvenir , and The Vagabond's Way . The lifestyle philosophies he outlined in Vagabonding are considered to have been a key influence on the digital nomad movement.
Go to Profile#32823
Jonathan Bush
#32835
Overall Influence
1931 - 2021 (90 years)
Jonathan James Bush was an American banker. Bush was the fourth child and third son of U. S. Senator Prescott Bush and his wife Dorothy Bush. Through his brother President George H. W. Bush, he was an uncle of President George W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. He died in Florida, hours before his 90th birthday.
Go to Profile#32824
Jonah Frankel
#32836
Overall Influence
1928 - 2012 (84 years)
Jonah Frankel, also spelled Yonah Frankel, Jonah Fraenkel was an author, Hebrew literature professor and Israel Prize laureate. Biography Jonah Frankel was born in Munich in 1928 and emigrated to Israel in 1937 when the Nazis came to power. He was a Professor Emeritus of Aggadah and Midrash in the Department of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been described as "One of the most important scholars of the modern study of midrash"
Go to Profile#32825
Wadim Zudilin
#32837
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Wadim Zudilin is a Russian mathematician and number theorist who is active in studying hypergeometric functions and zeta constants. He studied under Yuri V. Nesterenko and worked at Moscow State University, the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics and the University of Newcastle, Australia. He now works at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Go to Profile#32826
Dorothy Cheney
#32838
Overall Influence
1950 - 2018 (68 years)
Dorothy Leavitt Cheney was an American scientist who studied the social behavior, communication, and cognition of wild primates in their natural habitat. She was Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#32827
Bethany McLean
#32839
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Bethany Lee McLean is an American journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for Fortune, and a contributor to Slate.
Go to Profile#32828
Herbert Kliebard
#32840
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
Herbert M. Kliebard was an American historian of education, and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is best known for his 1995 book, The Struggle for the American Curriculum. Early life Kliebard was born in the Bronx on July 24, 1930, the only child of Yetta and Morris Kliebard. He graduated from Christopher Columbus High School, thereafter attending City College in New York, where he obtained his A.B. in English and, thereafter, his M.A. After teaching for a year at Bronx Vocational College - the inspiration for the novel and movie Blackboard Jungle - he served in the Army's Medical Corps, returning upon completion of his stint to his prior teaching position.
Go to Profile#32829
Enes Karić
#32841
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Enes Karić is a Bosnian Islamic scholar and full professor of Quranic Studies at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo. From 1994 to 1996, he served as the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Go to Profile#32830
Herman Saatkamp
#32842
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Herman Saatkamp was the fourth president of Stockton University in Galloway Township, New Jersey. He succeeded Vera King Farris in June 2003. Prior to his appointment at Stockton, Saatkamp fulfilled numerous roles at other universities. On April 22, 2015, Saatkamp submitted his resignation as president, to be effective by August 31. However, on April 28, he initiated a medical leave of absence, citing "past and present health considerations." His departure occurred amidst controversy surrounding Stockton's purchase of the shuttered Showboat casino, which Saatkamp intended to repurpose as an "...
Go to Profile#32831
Nazik Al-Malaika
#32843
Overall Influence
1922 - 2007 (85 years)
Nazik al-Malaika was an Iraqi poet. Al-Malaika is noted for being among the first Arabic poets to use free verse. Early life and career Al-Malaika was born in Baghdad to a cultured family. Her mother Salma al-Malaika was also a poet, and her father was a teacher. She wrote her first poem at the age of 10. During her life, she studied English and French literature, Latin, and Greek poetry. Al-Malaika graduated in 1944 from the College of Arts in Baghdad and later completed a master's degree in comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a Degree of Excellence. She entered the Institute of Fine Arts and graduated from the Department of Music in 1949.
Go to Profile#32832
Mark Eaton
#32844
Overall Influence
1957 - 2021 (64 years)
Mark Edward Eaton was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association . Named an NBA All-Star in 1989, he was twice voted the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and was a five-time member of the NBA All-Defensive Team. The Eaton became one of the best defensive centers in NBA history. He led the league in blocks four times and holds the NBA single-season records for blocks and blocked shots per game average , as well as career blocked shots per game . His 53 was retired by the Jazz.
Go to Profile#32833
Bence Nanay
#32845
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Bence Nanay is Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor at the University of Antwerp and has worked as a film critic. He is co-director of the Centre for Philosophical Psychology at the University of Antwerp and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge University.
Go to Profile#32834
Carter Lindberg
#32846
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Carter Lindberg is an American historian. He is Professor Emeritus of Church History at Boston University School of Theology and is best known for his book The European Reformations. Lindberg studied at Augustana College, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and the University of Iowa.
Go to Profile#32835
Wilhelm Heitmeyer
#32847
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Wilhelm Heitmeyer is sociologist and professor of education specializing in socialisation. From 1996 to 2013 he headed the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at Bielefeld University. Since retiring as director, he has held the position of Senior Research Professor at IKG.
Go to Profile#32836
Anthony Mason
#32848
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Anthony Mason is an American broadcast journalist. He has worked as a reporter, anchor and correspondent for CBS News since 1986, and was weekday co-host of its flagship morning program CBS This Morning from 2019 until early September 2021. He has also served as an interim anchor for the weekday editions of the CBS Evening News.
Go to Profile#32837
Chen Jie
#32849
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Chen Jie is a Chinese engineer who is a professor and the current president of Tongji University, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Biography Chen was born in Fuqing, Fujian, on 8 July 1965. He attended the Fuqing Experimental Primary School. He secondary studied at Fuqing No. 1 High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1986, a master's degree in 1996, and a doctor's degree in 2001, all from Beijing Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#32838
Antonis Samaras
#32850
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Antonis Samaras is a Greek politician who served as 14th Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his national political career as Minister of Finance in 1989; he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 and Minister of Culture in 2009.
Go to Profile#32839
Mark Cavendish
#32851
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Mark Simon Cavendish is a Manx professional road racing cyclist from the Isle of Man who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . As a track cyclist he specialises in the madison, points race, and scratch race disciplines; as a road racer he is a sprinter. He is widely considered one of the greatest road sprinters of all time, and in 2021 was called "the greatest sprinter in the history of the Tour and of cycling" by Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France.
Go to Profile#32840
Jerry Uelsmann
#32852
Overall Influence
1934 - 2022 (88 years)
Jerry Norman Uelsmann was an American photographer. As an emerging artist in the 1960s, Jerry Uelsmann received international recognition for surreal, enigmatic photographs made with his unique method of composite printing and his dedication to revealing the deepest emotions of the human condition. Over the next six decades, his contributions to contemporary photography were firmly established with important exhibitions, prestigious awards and numerous publications. Among his awards were a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment, Royal Photographic Society Fellowship, and Lucie Award.
Go to Profile#32841
Marty Friedman
#32853
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Martin Adam Friedman is an American guitarist, best known for his tenure as the lead guitarist of thrash metal band Megadeth from 1990 to 2000. He is also known for playing alongside Jason Becker in Cacophony from 1986 until 1989, as well as his 13 solo albums and tours. Friedman has resided in Tokyo since 2003, where he has appeared on over 700 Japanese television programs such as Rock Fujiyama, Hebimeta-san, Kōhaku Uta Gassen and Jukebox English. He has released albums with several record labels, including Avex Trax, Universal, EMI, Prosthetic, and Shrapnel Records.
Go to Profile#32842
Bernd Schuster
#32854
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Bernd Schuster is a German former professional footballer of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides FC Barcelona and Real Madrid . He played as a midfielder and was nicknamed "der Blonde Engel" . After retiring as a player, he managed a number of European clubs, including Real Madrid, taking them to the league title in the 2007–08 season.
Go to Profile#32843
Delphine Parrott
#32855
Overall Influence
1928 - 2016 (88 years)
Delphine Mary Vera Parrott FRSE was a British endocrinologist, immunologist, and academic. She did research at the National Institute for Medical Research in the 1950s and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in the 1960s.
Go to Profile#32844
Eduardo Giannetti
#32856
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Eduardo Giannetti da Fonseca is a Brazilian economist and author, educated at the University of São Paulo, with specialization in Social Science, Economics, Administration, and Accounting. He received his doctorate in economics from the University of Cambridge, where he was also a professor from 1984 to 1987. From 1988 to 2001 he taught at the FEA/USP . He is currently a full-time professor at Insper, São Paulo.
Go to Profile#32845
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
#32857
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is an American sociologist who examines the culture of schools, the patterns and structures of classroom life, socialization within families and communities, and the relationships between culture and learning styles. She is the Emily Hargroves Fisher professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a 1984 MacArthur Genius.
Go to Profile#32846
Fiona Alpass
#32858
Overall Influence
Fiona Margaret Alpass is a New Zealand academic at Massey University. Academic career Alpass completed a master's degree at Massey University in 1992, looking at how anger management and social contact can modulate the effects of alcohol and tobacco use. After a 1994 PhD titled 'The effects of organisational change in the military: a comparison of work related perceptions and experiences in military and non-military environments' at Massey University, Alpass started working at Massey and rose to full professor in 2013.
Go to Profile#32847
Chrystelle Trump Bond
#32859
Overall Influence
1938 - 2020 (82 years)
Chrystelle Lee Trump Bond was an American dancer, choreographer, dance historian, and author. Bond was the founding chair of the dance department at Goucher College. She was the co-founder and director of Chorégraphie Antique, the dance history ensemble at Goucher. Bond was a dance critic for The Baltimore Sun.
Go to Profile#32848
Mark Bils
#32860
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Mark Bils is a macroeconomist at the University of Rochester. Bils obtained his PhD in economics from MIT in 1985 and BA in economics from Ohio State University in 1979. He has taught at the University of Chicago GSB and is currently professor and chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Rochester.
Go to Profile#32849
David Chase
#32861
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
David Henry Chase is an American writer, producer and director. He is best known for being the creator, head writer and executive producer of the HBO drama The Sopranos which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2007. Chase has also produced and written for shows such as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He created the original series Almost Grown which aired for 10 episodes in 1988 and 1989. He has won seven Emmy Awards. Chase's film debut came in 2012 with Not Fade Away, followed by The Many Saints of Newark , a prequel film to the TV series The Sopranos.
Go to Profile#32850
Amnon Rubinstein
#32862
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Amnon Rubinstein is an Israeli legal scholar, politician, and columnist. A member of the Knesset between 1977 and 2002, he served in several ministerial positions. He is currently dean of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a patron of Liberal International.
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