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
#33701
Stephen Glaister
#33713
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Stephen Glaister is Emeritus Professor of Transport and Infrastructure at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, where he was also director of the Railway Technology Strategy Centre.
Go to Profile#33702
Stephen L. Brusatte
#33714
Overall Influence
1984 - Present (42 years)
Stephen Louis Brusatte is an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in the anatomy and evolution of dinosaurs. He was educated at the University of Chicago for his Bachelors degree, at the University of Bristol for his Master's of Science on a Marshall Scholarship, and finally at the Columbia University for Master's in Philosophy and Doctorate. He is currently a Reader in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh.
Go to Profile#33703
Julian Assange
#33715
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning: footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables.
Go to Profile#33704
Richard A. Young
#33716
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Richard Allen Young is an American geneticist, a Member of Whitehead Institute, and a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a pioneer in the systems biology of gene control who has developed genomics technologies and concepts key to understanding gene control in human health and disease. He has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. Scientific American has recognized him as one of the top 50 leaders in science, technology and business.
Go to Profile#33705
Abigail Doyle
#33717
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Abigail Gutmann Doyle is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she holds the Saul Winstein Chair in Organic Chemistry. Her research focuses on the development of new chemical transformations in organic chemistry.
Go to Profile#33706
Dirk Inzé
#33718
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Dirk Inzé is a Belgian molecular biologist and professor at Ghent University . In 2002, he succeeded Marc Zabeau as scientific director of the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology. His research interest is on the molecular networks underpinning yield and organ growth both under standard as well as mild drought stress conditions in Arabidopsis and the C4 crop maize. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization . He was recipient of the 1994 Körber European Science Prize. In 2005, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Biological and Medical Sciences for his research on pla...
Go to Profile#33707
Arnon Soffer
#33719
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Arnon Soffer is an Israeli geographer and a professor of Geography and environmental sciences, specialising in water issues and demography. Soffer is one of the founders of the University of Haifa. He is known for his research into demographic, water, environmental, political, and strategy issues of the state of Israel.
Go to Profile#33708
Hadiyah-Nicole Green
#33720
Overall Influence
Hadiyah-Nicole Green is an American medical physicist, known for the development of a method using laser-activated nanoparticles as a potential cancer treatment. She is one of 66 black women to earn a Ph.D. in physics in the United States between 1973 and 2012, and is the second black woman and the fourth black person ever to earn a doctoral degree in physics from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Go to Profile#33709
June Clark
#33721
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Dame Margaret June Clark, FAAN FLSW is Professor Emeritus of Community Nursing, at Swansea University in Wales. Career Before her retirement in 2003, Clark was responsible for the development of a program of research in community health nursing and primary health care at Swansea University. Her special interest is the development and use of standardized nomenclaturess to describe nursing practice, in particular in primary health care. In 1990, she left the NHS and went into higher education as Professor of Nursing to start a new School of Nursing at Middlesex University. In 1997 she "went ho...
Go to Profile#33710
Andre Rison
#33722
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Andre Previn Rison is a former American football wide receiver who played professionally for the National Football League 's Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, and the Canadian Football League 's Toronto Argonauts. Rison was selected to the Pro Bowl five times, from 1990 to 1993 and once again in 1997.
Go to Profile#33711
Julian Le Grand
#33723
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Sir Julian Ernest Michael Le Grand, FBA is a British academic specialising in public policy. He is the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and was a senior policy advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Go to Profile#33712
Bryan Chapell
#33724
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Bryan Chapell is an American pastor and theologian who currently serves as the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America. He was previously the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois. Prior to that he was president and chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri for twenty years. Chapell is also an author, lecturer, and conference speaker specializing in homiletics. He served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America in 2014.
Go to Profile#33713
Craig Hawker
#33725
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Craig Jon Hawker is an Australian-born chemist. His research has focused on the interface between organic and polymer chemistry, with emphasis on the design, synthesis, and application of well-defined macromolecular structures in biotechnology, microelectronics, and surface science. Hawker holds more than 45 U.S. patents, and he has co-authored over 300 papers in the areas of nanotechnology, materials science, and chemistry. He was listed as one of the top 100 most cited chemists worldwide over the decade 1992–2002, and again in 2000–2010.
Go to Profile#33714
Klaus Vogel
#33726
Overall Influence
1930 - 2007 (77 years)
Klaus Vogel , born in Hamburg, Germany, was widely recognized as an academic expert on the aspects of international taxation, particularly on tax treaties. He is regarded as having been an authority on the interpretation of double tax treaties.
Go to Profile#33715
Ferenc Gyurcsány
#33727
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Ferenc Gyurcsány is a Hungarian entrepreneur and politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he held the position of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports between 2003 and 2004.
Go to Profile#33716
Chris Bohjalian
#33728
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Chris A. Bohjalian is an Armenian-American novelist and the author of 20 novels, including Midwives , The Sandcastle Girls , The Guest Room , and The Flight Attendant . Bohjalian's work has been published in over 30 languages, and three of his novels have been adapted into films. Bohjalian's The Flight Attendant has been adapted for a television drama starring Kaley Cuoco.
Go to Profile#33717
James G. Neal
#33729
Overall Influence
James G. Neal is an American librarian, library administrator, and a prominent figure in American and international library associations. In 2022 President Joe Biden appointed him to the National Museum and Library Services Board which advises the agency on general policies with respect to the duties, powers, and authority of the Institute of Museum and Library Services relating to museum, library, and information services, as well as the annual selection of National Medals recipients.
Go to Profile#33718
Norman Solomon
#33730
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Norman Solomon is a British rabbi, professor, and scholar in the field of Jewish studies and Jewish–Christian relations. Biography Norman Solomon was born in Cardiff, South Wales in 1933 and attended Cardiff High School and St. John's College, Cambridge. He attained rabbinic ordination at Jews' College in London, England and a Ph.D. at the University of Manchester. He served Orthodox congregations in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Birmingham, England. He was later director of the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham and a Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
Go to Profile#33719
Bill Monroe
#33731
Overall Influence
1911 - 1996 (85 years)
William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys, who named their group for the bluegrass of Monroe's home state of Kentucky. He described the genre as "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Go to Profile#33720
A. Jay Cristol
#33732
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
A. Jay Cristol is a judge, poet, author, pilot, and a lecturer of naval warfare. He served as a Special Assistant Attorney General of Florida from 1959 to 1965 and as a trustee in bankruptcy from 1977 to 1985. He was appointed judge to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida on April 17, 1985, and served as the district's Chief Bankruptcy Judge from 1993 to 1999.
Go to Profile#33721
Frank Spotnitz
#33733
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Frank Charles Spotnitz is an American television screenwriter and executive producer, best known for his work on The X-Files and The Man in the High Castle. Spotnitz is also the chief executive officer and founder of Big Light Productions, a London- and Paris-based production company, which specializes in international television series, including drama, comedy and documentaries. Spotnitz's career includes creating, writing and producing series with networks, cable, streaming and other broadcast platforms around the world.
Go to Profile#33722
Drew Pinsky
#33734
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
David Drew Pinsky , commonly known as Dr. Drew, is an American media personality, internist, and addiction medicine specialist. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline from the show's inception in 1984 until its end in 2016. On television, he hosted the talk show Dr. Drew On Call on HLN and the daytime series Lifechangers on The CW. In addition, he served as producer and starred in the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and its spinoffs Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House. Pinsky currently hosts several podcasts, including The Dr. Drew Podcast, This Life with Dr.
Go to Profile#33723
Hans-Arwed Weidenmüller
#33735
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Hans-Arwed Weidenmüller is a German theoretical physicist, who works primarily in the field of nuclear physics. Life and work Weidenmüller studied in Bonn and from 1956 to 1957 in Heidelberg under J. Hans D. Jensen, who was his doctoral thesis advisor for his thesis on stripping reactionss , in which the nuclei used as projectiles lose nucleons to the nuclei used as targets. He was from 1963 professor for theoretical physics at the University of Heidelberg. From 1968 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics and was director there from 1972 until his 2001 retirement.
Go to Profile#33724
Felipe Alou
#33736
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Felipe Rojas Alou is a Dominican former Major League Baseball outfielder, first baseman, coach and manager. He managed the Montreal Expos and the San Francisco Giants . The first Dominican to play regularly in the major leagues, he is the most prominent member of one of the sport's most notable families of the late 20th century: he was the oldest of the trio of baseball-playing brothers that included Matty and Jesús, who were both primarily outfielders, and his son Moisés was also primarily an outfielder; all but Jesús have been named All-Stars at least twice. His son Luis, in turn, managed ...
Go to Profile#33725
Jeff Tweedy
#33737
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Jeffrey Scot Tweedy is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high school in his band The Plebes with Jay Farrar, which subsequently transitioned into the alternative country band Uncle Tupelo. After Uncle Tupelo broke up, Tweedy formed Wilco which found critical and commercial success, most notably with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, the latter of which received a Grammy for Best Alternative Album in 2005.
Go to Profile#33726
Igor Rodnianski
#33738
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Igor Rodnianski is an American mathematician at Princeton University. He works in partial differential equations, mathematical physics, and general relativity. Life Rodnianski studied at the University of Saint Petersburg, graduating in Physics in 1996. He graduated in 1999 from Kansas State University.
Go to Profile#33727
Chuck Roberts
#33739
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Charles S. Roberts is an American broadcast journalist, most notable for being the former weekday news anchor on Headline News, based at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the longest-serving anchor among the CNN networks, anchoring weekday broadcasts from the network's debut on January 1, 1982— when he was the first anchor on-air— until his retirement on July 30, 2010.
Go to Profile#33728
Angie Brooks
#33740
Overall Influence
1928 - 2007 (79 years)
Angie Elizabeth Brooks was a Liberian diplomat and jurist. She was the only African female President of the United Nations General Assembly. She was also the second woman from any nation to head the U.N. body.
Go to Profile#33729
Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru
#33741
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who has been secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts since 15 February 2007. A bishop since 2008, he has held several other appointments in the Roman Curia.
Go to Profile#33730
Robert Gordis
#33742
Overall Influence
1908 - 1992 (84 years)
Robert Gordis was an American leading conservative rabbi. He founded the first Conservative Jewish day school, served as President of the Rabbinical Assembly and the Synagogue Council of America, and was a professor at Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1940 to 1992.
Go to Profile#33731
Charles D. Strang
#33743
Overall Influence
1921 - 2018 (97 years)
Charles Daniel Strang was an American inventor who was the President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Outboard Marine Corporation, a multibillion-dollar Fortune 500 corporation. Strang was born in Brooklyn, New York in April 1921. He graduated from what is now NYU Poly. Prior to joining Outboard Marine, Strang was a faculty member at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chief engineer for Mercury Marine. Strang is the inventor of the modern Sterndrive. From 1998 to 2009, Strang was NASCAR National Commissioner. Strang died in March 2018 at the age of 96.
Go to Profile#33732
Joan E. Spero
#33744
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Joan Edelman Spero is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she researches and writes about international philanthropy and its role in the global system. From 2009 to 2010, Ms. Spero was a visiting scholar at the Foundation Center, where she conducted research on the role of American private foundations in U.S. foreign policy and in the global system.
Go to Profile#33733
Joan Littlewood
#33745
Overall Influence
1914 - 2002 (88 years)
Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
Go to Profile#33734
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
#33746
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is an American journalist whose works focus on the marginalized members of society: adolescents living in poverty, prostitutes, women in prison, etc. She is best known for her 2003 non-fiction book Random Family. She was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship—popularly known as the "Genius Grant"—in 2006.
Go to Profile#33735
Tamara Hundorova
#33747
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Tamara Ivanivna Hundorova is a Ukrainian literary critic, culturologist and writer. She is a professor and head of the Theory of Literature Department at the Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and a professor and dean at the Ukrainian Free University.
Go to Profile#33736
Valerie Smith
#33748
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Valerie Smith is an American academic administrator, professor, and scholar of African-American literature and culture. She is the 15th and current president of Swarthmore College. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she is a graduate of Bates College and the University of Virginia. She taught at Princeton University from 1980 to 1989 and at University of California, Los Angeles from 1989 to 2000. In 2001, Smith returned to Princeton upon being appointed the director of Princeton's African-American studies program. From 2006 to 2009, Smith was the founding director of Princeton's interdisciplinary Center for African American Studies.
Go to Profile#33737
Rob Schneider
#33749
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Robert Michael Schneider is an American actor and comedian. After several years performing stand-up comedy, Schneider achieved wider success as a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1994.
Go to Profile#33738
Martin Keown
#33750
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Martin Raymond Keown is an English football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1984 to 2005, notably in the Premier League for Arsenal, where he made over 400 appearances for the club and won ten honours.
Go to Profile#33739
Emil Horozov
#33751
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Emil Horozov is a Bulgarian mathematician known for his work in dynamical systems theory and mathematical physics and work related to Hilbert's sixteenth problem. Education Horozov obtained Master's degree from Sofia University in 1972 and then got his Ph.D. from Moscow State University in 1978, where he was under the supervision of V. I. Arnold and Y. V. Egorov. His thesis was Bifurcations of symmetric vectorfields on the plane. In 1990, Horozov obtained his D.Sc. degree, this time from Sofia University, after completing his thesis, which was titled Hamiltonian systems and Abelian integrals.
Go to Profile#33740
John Engler
#33752
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
John Mathias Engler is an American politician, lawyer, businessman, and lobbyist who served as the 46th governor of Michigan from 1991 to 2003. Considered one of the country's top lobbyists, he is a member of the Republican Party.
Go to Profile#33741
Richard Butler
#33753
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Richard William Butler, is a retired Australian public servant, United Nations weapons inspector, and a former Governor of Tasmania. Early life and career Butler was born in Coolah in rural New South Wales. He grew up in Sydney and was educated at Randwick Boys High School, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, Canberra. He married Susan Ryan in 1963 and they had a son and a daughter; they divorced in 1972.
Go to Profile#33742
Benjamin Drake Wright
#33754
Overall Influence
1926 - 2015 (89 years)
Benjamin Drake Wright was an American psychometrician. He is largely responsible for the widespread adoption of Georg Rasch's measurement principles and models. In the wake of what Rasch referred to as Wright's “almost unbelievable activity in this field” in the period from 1960 to 1972, Rasch's ideas entered the mainstream in high-stakes testing, professional certification and licensure examinations, and in research employing tests, and surveys and assessments across a range of fields. Wright's seminal contributions to measurement continued until 2001, and included articulation of philosophi...
Go to Profile#33743
Lam Siu-por
#33755
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Lam Siu-por is a Hong Kong mathematician and the husband of Carrie Lam, who served as the fourth Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2017 to 2022. Career Lam earned his doctorate in algebraic topology from the University of Cambridge in 1983, after writing his thesis under the direction of Frank Adams.
Go to Profile#33744
Radhia Cousot
#33756
Overall Influence
1947 - 2014 (67 years)
Radhia Cousot was a French computer scientist known for inventing abstract interpretation. Studies Radhia Cousot was born on 6 August 1947, in Sakiet Sidi Youssef in Tunisia, where she survived the massacre of the children in her school on February 8, 1958. She then went to the Lycée de jeunes filles at Sousse, the Lycée français at Algiers and then the Polytechnic School of Algiers . She specialized in mathematical optimization and integer linear programming. Supported by a UNESCO fellowship , she obtained a master's degree in Computer Science at the Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble in 1972.
Go to Profile#33745
Péter Érdi
#33757
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Péter Érdi is a Hungarian born computational neuroscientist who now lives in Michigan, United States where he is a Henry R. Luce Professor at Kalamazoo College. In his career he wrote several books and published many scholarly articles in the fields of Chemical kinetics, Computational neuroscience and Complex systems
Go to Profile#33746
Timothy Beal
#33758
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Timothy Beal is a writer and scholar in the field of religious studies whose work explores matters of religion, ecology, and technology. He is Distinguished University Professor, Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, and Director of h.lab at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He has been Interim Dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences , Chair of the Department of Religious Studies , and Director and Associate Director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities.
Go to Profile#33747
Ed Byrne
#33759
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Sir Edward Byrne is a neuroscientist who served as Principal of King's College London from August 2014 until January 2021. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of Monash University. Early life and education Born 15 February 1952, Byrne grew up in northeast England, the son of a general practitioner, and moved to Australia at the age of 15. He studied medicine at the University of Tasmania, graduating with a Bachelor of Medical Science in 1971, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with First Class Honours in 1974, and a Doctor of Medicine in 1982. Byrne also holds a Master of Business A...
Go to Profile#33748
Hanspeter Kriesi
#33760
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Hanspeter Kriesi is a professor of political science at the European University Institute in Florence where he holds the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics. Previously, he has been teaching at the universities of Amsterdam, Geneva and Zurich. He was born in Bischofszell, Switzerland.
Go to Profile#33749
Mehmet Aksoy
#33761
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Mehmet Aksoy is a Turkish sculptor. His sculptures often contain sensual figurative elements, but he is strongly rooted in a modernist sensibility with strong conceptual and abstract elements in his work. He works primarily in stone but also incorporates other material, fusing metal or differing stones in a single sculpture. He presently resides and works in a studio of his own dramatic design on the outskirts of Istanbul.
Go to Profile#33750
Dave Cousins
#33762
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Dave Cousins is an English musician who is the leader, singer and most-active songwriter of Strawbs since 1967. Cousins is a founding member of Strawbs, which started out as the Strawberry Hill Boys, playing bluegrass music, then moved on to folk, folk rock, and progressive rock. He has also performed as an acoustic duo with Strawbs guitarist Brian Willoughby, and as Acoustic Strawbs with Willoughby , Dave Lambert and Chas Cronk .
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