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
#33601
S. E. Gontarski
#33613
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Stanley E. Gontarski specializes in twentieth-century Irish Studies, in British, U.S., and European modernism, and in performance theory. He is a leading scholar of the work of Samuel Beckett, and is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University.
Go to Profile#33602
Valsamma Eapen
#33614
Overall Influence
Valsamma Eapen is a chair of infant, child and adolescent psychiatry at UNSW Sydney. She is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK.
Go to Profile#33603
Gerald R. Salancik
#33615
Overall Influence
1943 - 1996 (53 years)
Gerald R. Salancik was an American organizational theorist, and Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is best known for his work with Jeffrey Pfeffer on "organizational decision making" and "the external control of organizations."
Go to Profile#33604
John P. Schlegel
#33616
Overall Influence
1943 - 2015 (72 years)
John P. Schlegel, S.J. was the 23rd President of Creighton University from 2000 to 2011. He formerly served as 26th President of the University of San Francisco from 1991 until 2000. Biography Schlegel received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and classics from Saint Louis University in 1969. He then completed a master's degree in political science in 1970, also from Saint Louis University. Schlegel also holds a degree in theology, which he obtained from the University of London in 1973, and a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, which he obtained in 1977.
Go to Profile#33605
Elise Mertens
#33617
Overall Influence
1995 - Present (31 years)
Elise Mertens is a Belgian professional tennis player. She became the world No. 1 in doubles in May 2021, the third Belgian to hold a top ranking in either singles or doubles after Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. Mertens is a three-time Major champion in doubles, having won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open partnering Aryna Sabalenka, and the 2021 Wimbledon Championships with Hsieh Su-wei. She also finished runner-up at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships with Zhang Shuai and at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships with Storm Hunter.
Go to Profile#33606
Philip Eaton
#33618
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Philip E. Eaton was an American chemist. He served as Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Eaton and his fellow researchers were the first to synthesize the "impossible" cubane molecule in 1964.
Go to Profile#33607
Winston H. Bostick
#33619
Overall Influence
1916 - 1991 (75 years)
Winston H. Bostick was an American physicist who discovered plasmoids, plasma focus, and plasma vortex phenomena. He simulated cosmical astrophysics with laboratory plasma experiments, and showed that Hubble expansion can be produced with repulsive mutual induction between neighboring galaxies acting as homopolar generators. His work on plasmas was claimed to be evidence for finite-sized elementary particles and the composition of strings, but this is not accepted by mainstream science.
Go to Profile#33608
Tricia Carmichael
#33620
Overall Influence
Tricia L. Carmichael is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Windsor. She develops new materials for stretchable electronics with a current focus on wearable electronic devices.
Go to Profile#33609
Mick Farren
#33621
Overall Influence
1943 - 2013 (70 years)
Michael Anthony Farren was an English rock musician, singer, journalist, and author associated with counterculture and the UK underground. Early life Farren was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and after moving to Worthing, Sussex, attended Worthing High School for Boys, which was a state grammar school. In 1963, he moved to London, where he studied at Saint Martin's School of Art.
Go to Profile#33610
McKey Sullivan
#33622
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Brittany "McKey" Alvey is an American fashion model most notable as the winner of the eleventh cycle of America's Next Top Model. Early life Sullivan was born to Michael and Gayle Sullivan and has three siblings, Bridgette, Jimmy, and Mikey. She is a graduate of Lake Forest High School and attended Ripon College where she majored in government and chemical biology and was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She also trains in mixed martial arts with her husband, Sam Alvey. She was known for appearing at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, which inspired her medieval fashion sense. Sullivan got i...
Go to Profile#33611
Matt Millen
#33623
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Matthew George Millen is an American former professional football player and executive in the National Football League . Millen played as a linebacker for 12 years for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, and Washington Redskins, playing on four Super Bowl-winning teams and winning a Super Bowl ring for each of the three franchises for which he played.
Go to Profile#33612
Buddy Ebsen
#33624
Overall Influence
1908 - 2003 (95 years)
Buddy Ebsen , also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies ; afterwards he starred as the title character in the television detective drama Barnaby Jones .
Go to Profile#33613
Daniele De Rossi
#33625
Overall Influence
1983 - Present (43 years)
Daniele De Rossi is a former Italian professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is mostly known for his time playing with his hometown club Roma in Serie A, as well as a former FIFA World Cup-winning Italian international.
Go to Profile#33614
Félix Trinidad
#33626
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Félix Juan Trinidad García , popularly known as "Tito" Trinidad, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes and is considered to be one of the greatest Puerto Rican boxers of all time.
Go to Profile#33615
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight
#33627
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Rosie Gojich Stephenson-Goodknight , known on Wikipedia as Rosiestep, is an American Wikipedia editor who is noted for her attempts to address gender bias in the encyclopedia by running a project to increase the quantity and quality of women's biographies. She has contributed thousands of new articles.
Go to Profile#33616
Mary Jo Bane
#33628
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Mary Jo Bane is an American political scientist who focuses on children and welfare. She is currently the Thornton Bradshaw Professor at Harvard Kennedy School, and formerly the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy.
Go to Profile#33617
M. Rainer Lepsius
#33629
Overall Influence
1928 - 2014 (86 years)
M. Rainer Lepsius was a German sociologist. A particular interest was in the work of Max Weber: he was prominent among the co-compilers of the 47 volume edition of the Complete Works of Weber. Life Mario Rainer Lepsius was born in Rio de Janeiro, at that time the capital of Brazil. His Portuguese first name reflected the country where the family lived when he was born, while his second name reflected the German provenance of the family. After moving to Germany he would stop using the name "Mario", substituting the initial "M", which is why most sources identify him as "M. Rainer Lepsius...
Go to Profile#33618
Paula Franzese
#33630
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Paula Ann Franzese is an American legal scholar based in New Jersey who focuses on government ethics and property law. She is the Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law at the Seton Hall University School of Law. Franzese is an educator who has been named one of the 26 best law teachers in the United States. She is also a prominent advocate for government ethics reform, a spokesperson for legal education, a housing advocate, and an author.
Go to Profile#33619
Peter M. Gruber
#33631
Overall Influence
1941 - 2017 (76 years)
Peter Manfred Gruber was an Austrian mathematician working in geometric number theory as well as in convex and discrete geometry. Biography Gruber obtained his PhD at the University of Vienna in 1966, under the supervision of Nikolaus Hofreiter. From 1971, he was Professor at the University of Linz, and from 1976, at the TU Wien. He was a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Go to Profile#33620
Bill Buckner
#33632
Overall Influence
1949 - 2019 (70 years)
William Joseph Buckner was an American first baseman and left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for five teams from through , most notably the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. Beginning his career as an outfielder with the Dodgers, Buckner helped the team to the pennant with a .314 batting average, but a serious ankle injury the next year led to his trade to the Cubs before the season. The Cubs moved him to first base, and he won the National League batting title with a .324 mark in 1980. He was named to the All-Star team the following year as he led the major leagues in doubles.
Go to Profile#33621
David J. Wales
#33633
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
David John Wales is a professor of chemical physics in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Education Wales was educated at Newport Free Grammar School followed by the University of Cambridge where he was awarded an open scholarship to study at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge receiving his BA degree in 1985. He went on to complete a PhD on cluster chemistry, awarded in 1988 for research supervised by Anthony J. Stone. In 2004 he was awarded a ScD degree from Cambridge.
Go to Profile#33622
Andrea Pető
#33634
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Andrea Pető is a Hungarian historian. She is a professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University and a Doctor at Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She writes on political extremism and how it shapes the collective memory of society. Pető's work evaluates contemporary society from an inter-disciplinary and gendered perspective. She has analyzed the effects of Nazism and Stalinism on Hungary and Eastern Europe, as well as the participation of women in those movements. Pető has been recognized for her contributions with the Officer's Cross of the Hungarian ...
Go to Profile#33623
Ellen Stofan
#33635
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Ellen Renee Stofan is Under Secretary for Science and Research at The Smithsonian and was previously the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the National Air and Space Museum. As a planetary geologist, Stofan served as Chief Scientist of NASA and as principal advisor to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the agency's science programs, planning and investments. Previously, she was vice president of Proxemy Research in Laytonsville, Maryland, and as an honorary professor in the Earth sciences department at the University College London.
Go to Profile#33624
Samuel Epstein
#33636
Overall Influence
1919 - 2001 (82 years)
Samuel Epstein was a Canadian-American geochemist who developed methods for reconstructing geologic temperature records using stable isotope geochemistry. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1977, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1997.
Go to Profile#33625
Modjtaba Sadria
#33637
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Modjtaba Sadria is an Iranian-born philosopher, socio-cultural theorist and international social policy development specialist. Professor Sadria has particular expertise in cross-cultural relations and East Asian studies. He has published many books and articles, including: "Global Civil Society and Ethics: Finding Common Ground" , "People Who Live on the Edge of the World" , "Realism: Trap of International Relations" , and "Prayer for Lost Objects: A Non-Weberian Approach to the Birth of Modern Society" . He has been the head of «Think Tank for Knowledge Excellence» since 2009, in Tehran, Iran.
Go to Profile#33626
Frederica de Laguna
#33638
Overall Influence
1906 - 2004 (98 years)
Frederica Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna was an American ethnologist, anthropologist, and archaeologist influential for her work on Paleoindian and Alaska Native art and archaeology in the American northwest and Alaska.
Go to Profile#33627
Antonio Remiro Brotóns
#33639
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Antonio Remiro Brotóns is a Spanish international lawyer and academic. He is an emeritus professor of public international law at the Autonomous University of Madrid and a member of the Institut de Droit International and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Go to Profile#33628
Colin Todd
#33640
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Colin Todd is an English football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB. As a player, he made more than 600 appearances in the Football League, playing for Sunderland, Derby County, Everton, Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest, Oxford United and Luton Town, and also played in the North American Soccer League for the Vancouver Whitecaps. He won two Football League titles with Derby County during the 1970s, and won the PFA Players' Player of the Year award in 1975. He was capped by England on 27 occasions.
Go to Profile#33629
Tatau Nishinaga
#33641
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Tatau Nishinaga is the fifth president of Toyohashi University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Nagoya University in 1967. He became a professor at the engineering faculty of Toyohashi University of Technology in 1977, the engineering faculty of Nagoya University in 1980, the engineering faculty of University of Tokyo in 1983, and the engineering and science faculty of Meijo University in 2000. In April 2002, he became the president of Toyohashi University of Technology.
Go to Profile#33630
Carol Propper
#33642
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Dame Carol Propper is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, Professor of Economics of Public Policy at Bristol University, and Professor of Health Economics at Monash University. She is also a senior research associate with the Nuffield Trust, and has served on the Economic and Social Research Council Research Grants Board.
Go to Profile#33631
György Márkus
#33643
Overall Influence
1934 - 2016 (82 years)
György Márkus was a Hungarian philosopher, belonging to the small circle of critical theorists closely associated with György Lukács and usually referred to as the Budapest School. Biography Márkus was born in Budapest in 1934 and survived the Holocaust as a young boy. After the war and the final victory of the Communist government he was sent to complete his philosophical training at Lomonosov University in Moscow from 1953 until 1957. There he met his future wife Maria Márkus who was also studying philosophy. They had their first of two sons György in 1956 and Andras two years later in Bud...
Go to Profile#33632
Jamal Harrison Bryant
#33644
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Jamal Harrison Bryant is an American minister, author and former political candidate. He is the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Early life and education Jamal Harrison Bryant was born on May 21, 1971 in Boston, Massachusetts to John Richard and Cecelia Bryant . He has a younger sister. He was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where, as a child, he attended his father's church Bethel A.M.E. Church. He preached his first sermon when he was just a bean head baby at Bethel titled "No Pain, No Gain."
Go to Profile#33633
David W. Tank
#33645
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
David W. Tank is an American molecular biologist and neuroscientist who is the Henry L. Hillman Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and the co-director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute along with psychology professor Jonathan Cohen.
Go to Profile#33634
Andrei Markovits
#33646
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Andrei S. Markovits is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and the Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author and editor of many books, scholarly articles, conference papers, book reviews and newspaper contributions in English and many foreign languages on topics as varied as German and Austrian politics, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, social democracy, social movements, the European right and the European left. Markovits has also worked extensively on comparative sports culture in Europe and North America. In Au...
Go to Profile#33635
Alex Higgins
#33647
Overall Influence
1949 - 2010 (61 years)
Alexander Gordon Higgins was a Northern Irish professional snooker player and a two-time world champion who is remembered as one of the most iconic figures in the sport's history. Nicknamed "Hurricane Higgins" for his rapid play, and known as the "People's Champion" for his popularity and charisma, he is often credited as a key factor in snooker's success as a mainstream televised sport in the 1980s.
Go to Profile#33636
Laurie Levenson
#33648
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Laurie Lou Levenson is a professor of law, William M. Rains Fellow, the David W. Burcham Chair in Ethical Advocacy, and Director of the Center for Legal Advocacy at Loyola Law School of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She teaches evidence, criminal law, criminal procedure, ethics, anti-terrorism, and white collar crime. She served as Loyola's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1996 to 1999. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she is the Director of the Loyola Center for Ethical Advocacy. She received the 2003 Professor of the Year awards from both Loyola Law School...
Go to Profile#33637
Alberto P. León
#33649
Overall Influence
1909 - 2001 (92 years)
Alberto P. León was the Secretary of Health of Mexico beginning in 1939. He is the 1991 holder of the Mexican National Prize on Medicine and Health. Biography León was born in Irapuato, Mexico, on July 12, 1909, and died on August 4, 2001, in Mexico City.
Go to Profile#33638
Michael Gruninger
#33650
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Michael Gruninger is a Canadian computer scientist and Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, known for his work on Ontologies in information science. particularly with the Process Specification Language, and in enterprise modelling on the TOVE Project with Mark S. Fox.
Go to Profile#33639
William Pugh
#33651
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
William Worthington Pugh Jr. is an American computer scientist who invented the skip list and the Omega test for deciding Presburger arithmetic. He was the co-author of the static code analysis tool FindBugs, and was highly influential in the development of the current memory model of the Java language. Pugh received a Ph.D. in computer science, with a minor in acting, from Cornell University.
Go to Profile#33640
Nai-Chang Yeh
#33652
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Nai-Chang Yeh is a Taiwanese-American physicist specializing in experimental condensed matter physics. Early life and education She was born and grew up in Chiayi, Taiwan and received her B. Sc. from National Taiwan University in the capital Taipei City in 1983. She went to the US for graduate education and obtained her Ph.D. in physics in 1988 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Go to Profile#33641
Lennart Johnsson
#33653
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Lennart Johnsson is a Swedish computer scientist and engineer. Johnsson started his career at ABB in Sweden and moved on to UCLA, Caltech, Yale University, Harvard University, the Royal Institute of Technology , and Thinking Machines Corporation. He is currently based at the University of Houston, where he holds the Hugh and Lillie Roy Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering as a lecturer at a summer school at the KTH PDC Center for High Performance Computing.
Go to Profile#33642
Nana Akufo-Addo
#33654
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 2017. He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the Kufuor-led administration.
Go to Profile#33643
Charles Zastrow
#33655
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Charles Harold Zastrow is an American social scientist and Professor of Social Work at the George Williams College of the Aurora University, known for his work on the theory and practice of social work.
Go to Profile#33644
Martin Huxley
#33656
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Martin Neil Huxley FLSW is a British mathematician, working in the field of analytic number theory. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1970, the year after his supervisor Harold Davenport had died. He is a professor at Cardiff University.
Go to Profile#33645
Aaron Paul
#33657
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Aaron Paul is an American actor and producer. He is best known for portraying Jesse Pinkman in the AMC series Breaking Bad , for which he won several awards, including the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series , Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film , and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. This made him one of only two actors to win the latter category three times since its separation into comedy and drama. He has also won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television three times , more than any other actor in that category.
Go to Profile#33646
John Jonas
#33658
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
John J. Jonas was born in Montreal and graduated from McGill University with a bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering in 1954. He later attended Cambridge University on an Athlone Fellowship and received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Sciences in 1960. On returning to Montreal, he began teaching "mechanical metallurgy" at McGill and built up a research laboratory that includes a number of specialized testing machines and is particularly well equipped for experimental investigations in the field of high temperature deformation.
Go to Profile#33647
Igor Kovalyov
#33659
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Igor Adolfovich Kovalyov is Russian animator, director and educator, co-founder of Pilot — the first private animation studio in the Soviet Union. From 1991 to 2005 he worked at Klasky Csupo where he co-created Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and co-directed The Rugrats Movie. He currently serves as a creative producer at Soyuzmultfilm. Kovalyov is also known for his auteur films for which received multiple international awards, including three Grand Prizes at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Go to Profile#33648
Michael Czinkota
#33660
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Michael R. Czinkota is an American organizational theorist and Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Czinkota is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the United States Department of Commerce and a former head of U.S. delegation for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Industry Committee in Paris . From 1986-1987, Czinkota was a Senior Advisor for Export Controls in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Czinkota was awarded the Significant Contribution to Global Marketing award from the American Marketing Association in 2007.
Go to Profile#33649
Dianne Wiest
#33661
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Dianne Evelyn Wiest is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994’s Bullets over Broadway , one Golden Globe Award for Bullets over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989’s Parenthood.
Go to Profile#33650
Oona A. Hathaway
#33662
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Oona Anne Hathaway is an American professor and lawyer. She is the founder and director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges at Yale Law School. She is also a professor of international and area studies at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies and a faculty member at the Jackson School of Global Affairs.
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