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
#34051
Raoul Franklin
#34063
Overall Influence
1935 - 2021 (86 years)
Raoul Norman Franklin CBE FREng , was a physicist, working in the field of plasma physics, who was Vice-Chancellor of the City University in London for 20 years. Life Franklin was educated at Howick District High School and Auckland Grammar School . He then studied at the University of New Zealand , then at the University of Auckland . He then moved to the University of Oxford, obtaining his doctorate as a member of Christ Church, Oxford. After working as a senior research fellow at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, from 1961 to 1963, he was a Fellow of Keble C...
Go to Profile#34052
Nancy J. Nersessian
#34064
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Nancy J. Nersessian is the Regents' Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her work tends to be in the areas of the philosophy of science, the history of science, and the psychology of science.
Go to Profile#34053
Nate Mendel
#34065
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Nathan Gregor Mendel is an American musician best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band Foo Fighters, as well as a former member of Sunny Day Real Estate. He has also worked with musical acts The Jealous Sound and The Fire Theft. He has released one solo album, If I Kill This Thing We're All Going to Eat for a Week, under the name Lieutenant. Aside from the Foo Fighters' lead vocalist and founder Dave Grohl, he is the second longest serving member of the band, and is the only member to have appeared on all of the band's studio albums as a full band, since The Colour and the Shape.
Go to Profile#34054
Tristan Thompson
#34066
Overall Influence
1991 - Present (35 years)
Tristan Trevor James Thompson is a Canadian-American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association . He won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016 and has also played for the Boston Celtics, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers.
Go to Profile#34055
Ferdinand Ulrich
#34067
Overall Influence
1931 - 2020 (89 years)
Ferdinand Ulrich was a German Catholic philosopher and professor at the University of Regensburg from 1960 to 1996. Life Ulrich studied philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, and fundamental theology at the Freising College and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 1956 he completed his doctorate in philosophy in Munich. In 1959 he completed his Habilitation in philosophy at the University of Salzburg. He worked as a private lecturer in 1960, and in 1961 as associate professor at the Pedagogical College of Regensburg, which would later be integrated into the University of Regensburg. In 1967 he was appointed ordinary Professor of Philosophy.
Go to Profile#34056
Jean Bénabou
#34068
Overall Influence
1932 - 2022 (90 years)
Jean Bénabou was a French mathematician, known for his contributions to category theory. He directed the Research Seminar in Category Theory at the Institut Henri Poincaré and Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu from 1969 to 2001.
Go to Profile#34057
Adeeb Khalid
#34069
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Adeeb Khalid is associate professor and Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor of Asian Studies and History in the history department of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. His academic contributions are highly cited.
Go to Profile#34058
Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy
#34070
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy is the Robert W. Parry Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 2018, he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Go to Profile#34059
Günter Figal
#34071
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Günter Figal is a German philosopher and professor of philosophy at University of Freiburg. He is a specialist in the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Martin Heidegger. His research focuses on hermeneutics, phenomenology, German classical philosophy and the history of metaphysics. Figal was the president of the Martin-Heidegger-Society between 2003 and 2015.
Go to Profile#34060
Ronny Reich
#34072
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Ronny Reich is an Israeli archaeologist, excavator and scholar of the ancient remains of Jerusalem. Education Reich studied archaeology and geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His MA thesis dealt with Assyrian architecture in Palestine , about which he later published several articles .
Go to Profile#34061
Irwin Gunsalus
#34073
Overall Influence
1912 - 2008 (96 years)
Irwin C. "Gunny" Gunsalus was an American biochemist who discovered lipoic acid, a vitamin-like substance that has been used as a treatment for chronic liver disease, and pyridoxal phosphate, one of the active forms of vitamin B6. In his role as assistant secretary general at the United Nations, he led the international body's research on genetic engineering.
Go to Profile#34062
Daniel H. Lowenstein
#34074
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Daniel Hays Lowenstein is an emeritus professor at UCLA Law School and an expert in election law. He was appointed by California governor Jerry Brown as the first chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission in 1974 and was Jerry Brown's Chief Deputy Secretary of State. He was elected to the National Governing Board of Common Cause in 1979 and has been a board member and a vice president of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. He is also the co-author of the groundbreaking California Political Reform Act of 1974.
Go to Profile#34063
Pierre Malotaux
#34075
Overall Influence
1923 - 2016 (93 years)
Pierre Charles-André Malotaux was a Dutch organizational theorist, business consultant, and Professor of Business Administration at the Delft University of Technology. His is known with Jan in 't Veld for developing a specific systems approach to organizational problems, called the Delft Systems Approach.
Go to Profile#34064
Andrew Strauss
#34076
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Sir Andrew John Strauss is an English cricket administrator and former player, formerly the Director of Cricket for the England and Wales Cricket Board . He played county cricket for Middlesex, and captained the England national team in all formats of the game. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favoured scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots. He was also known for his fielding strength at slip or in the covers.
Go to Profile#34065
Ralph Klein
#34077
Overall Influence
1942 - 2013 (71 years)
Ralph Philip Klein was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 2006. Klein also served as the 32nd mayor of Calgary from 1980 to 1989.
Go to Profile#34066
John Henry
#34078
Overall Influence
1939 - 2007 (68 years)
John Anthony Henry was a professor specialising in toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington. He conducted research on the health effects of cannabis, cocaine and other recreational drugs.
Go to Profile#34067
Murray J. Harris
#34079
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Murray J. Harris is professor emeritus of New Testament exegesis and theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He was for a time warden of Tyndale House at Cambridge University. He gained his PhD from the University of Manchester, studying under F. F. Bruce.
Go to Profile#34068
Hans Nielsen
#34080
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Hans Hollen Nielsen is a Danish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1977 to 1999. Nielsen is notable for winning four Speedway World Championship titles. During his career, he won a total of 22 world championships, making him arguably the most successful speedway rider of all time. In 2012, Nielsen was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements. He later managed the Danish national team.
Go to Profile#34069
Jörg-Peter Ewert
#34081
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Jörg-Peter Ewert is a German neurophysiologist and researcher in the field of Neuroethology. From 1973 to 2006, he served as a university professor in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Kassel, Germany.
Go to Profile#34070
Peter Carnley
#34082
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Peter Frederick Carnley is a retired Australian Anglican bishop and author. He was the Archbishop of Perth from 1981 to 2005 and Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from 2000 until May 2005. He ordained the first women priests in Australia. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. He is married to Ann Carnley. He also founded the school Peter Carnley Anglican Community School.
Go to Profile#34071
Paul Kerswill
#34083
Overall Influence
Paul Kerswill, FBA, is a sociolinguist. Since 2012, he has been professor in the department of language and linguistic science at the University of York. After completing his undergraduate degree and doctorate at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he was a research assistant from 1985 to 1986 at the University of Cambridge, before working as a lecturer at the University of Reading until his appointment in 2004 as a professor at Lancaster University.
Go to Profile#34072
James Baddiley
#34084
Overall Influence
1918 - 2008 (90 years)
Sir James Baddiley FRS FRSE was a British biochemist. Early life and education Baddiley was born and brought up in Manchester. His father was director of research at the ICI dyestuffs division in Blackley. He attended Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University in 1937 to read chemistry obtaining a BSc and MSc. He was accepted as a PhD student by the Nobel prizewinner Alexander Todd.
Go to Profile#34073
Charles E. Anderson
#34085
Overall Influence
1919 - 1994 (75 years)
Charles E. Anderson was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Meteorology. He was a dean at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Biography Higher education and army life Anderson was born August 13, 1919, in Clayton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. His mother and father were from Mississippi. He earned a bachelor of science degree in Chemistry in 1941, from Lincoln University and received high accolades as he graduated third in his class. Lincoln University was also the place where he met his wife-to-be, Marjorie Anderson. Upon graduating, World War II had begun and enlisted in U.S. Army Air Forces.
Go to Profile#34074
Ivan Basso
#34086
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Ivan Basso is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1999 and 2015 for seven different teams. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the early 21st century, and was considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the race in 2006 for and 2010 for .
Go to Profile#34075
Mark Judge
#34087
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Mark Gauvreau Judge is an American author and journalist known for books about his suburban Washington, D.C. youth, recovery from alcoholism, and the role of music in American popular culture. Judge briefly drew national attention during the 2018 Supreme Court nomination hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, when professor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Judge was present and laughing as Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high school students over 30 years previously. Judge said that he had no memory of the incident. He wrote a book about his experiences titled The Devil's Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stasi.
Go to Profile#34076
Pete Brewton
#34088
Overall Influence
Pete Brewton teaches journalism and law at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Brewton is best known for an investigative journalism series he wrote for the Houston Post that were the basis of a book, The Mafia, CIA and George Bush. He is a journalist with 15 years reporting experience at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He practiced law in Houston for five years.
Go to Profile#34077
Francesca Vidotto
#34089
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Francesca Vidotto is an Italian theoretical physicist. Biography She earned her UG/MA in theoretical physics at the University of Padova and the PhD as double-degree at the University of Pavia and the Aix-Marseille Université. Afterwards she was a postdoc researcher at the universities of Grenoble, Nijmegen and Bilbao. She was awarded a Rubicon and a Veni fellowship by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
Go to Profile#34078
Paul E. Griffiths
#34090
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Paul Griffiths is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney and works primarily in the Philosophy of Science and more particularly Philosophy of Biology. Born in England in 1962, he received a B.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1984 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Australian National University in 1989 under the supervision of Kim Sterelny. He taught previously at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Queensland and the University of Otago. He spends part of each year at the University of Exeter in the Egenis: the Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences. Griffith...
Go to Profile#34079
Wilhelm Meise
#34091
Overall Influence
1901 - 2002 (101 years)
Wilhelm Meise was a German ornithologist. He studied at the University of Berlin from 1924 to 1928, where he did his Ph.D. dissertation on the distribution of the carrion crow and the hooded crow, and hybridization between them under the supervision of Professor Erwin Stresemann, . He also analysed taxonomic and historic relationships between the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow in particular the status of the "Italian sparrow". He was curator of vertebrates at the Museum of Natural History in Dresden from 1929 until World War II.
Go to Profile#34080
Jürgen Mlynek
#34092
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Jürgen Mlynek is a German physicist and was president of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres from 2005 to 2015. Biography Mlynek studied physics from 1970 to 1976 at the Technical University of Hannover and the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1979, he obtained his doctor´s degree and habilitated in 1984.
Go to Profile#34081
Heiko von der Leyen
#34093
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Heiko Echter von der Leyen is a German physician. He was born into the von der Leyen family, which belonged to the German nobility. Von der Leyen is married to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Go to Profile#34082
Martin Wilk
#34094
Overall Influence
1922 - 2013 (91 years)
Martin Bradbury Wilk, was a Canadian statistician, academic, and the former Chief Statistician of Canada. In 1965, together with Samuel Shapiro, he developed the Shapiro–Wilk test, which can indicate whether a sample of numbers would be unusual if it came from a Gaussian distribution. With Ramanathan Gnanadesikan he developed a number of important graphical techniques for data analysis, including the Q–Q plot and P–P plot.
Go to Profile#34083
Sen-itiroh Hakomori
#34095
Overall Influence
1929 - 2020 (91 years)
Sen-itiroh Hakomori was a Japanese-American biochemist. Hakomori was born in Sendai on 13 February 1929, and graduated from Tohoku University Medical College in 1951. He elected for further study in biochemistry under Hajime Masamune. As a Fulbright Scholar, Hakomori also worked with Roger W. Jeanloz. In 1959, Hakomori began teaching at the Tohoku College of Pharmaceutical Science.
Go to Profile#34084
Barry Naughton
#34096
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Barry J. Naughton is the So Kwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. =He specializes in the modern Chinese economy and is a recognized expert in the field. His 1995 book "Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978–1993" won the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. He stated that the Chinese economic reform was accomplished without a grand vision. Rather, it was the result of a mix between laissez-faire and experimentation with business incentives by the government.
Go to Profile#34085
Hans Erich Slany
#34097
Overall Influence
1926 - 2013 (87 years)
Hans Erich Slany was a German designer considered by many to have been the first industrial designer to design plastic housings for power tools. Slany is also thought of as one of the icons of design in Germany. He founded TEAMS Design GmbH, was a Professor of Industrial Design for more than 20 years and helped found the Verband Deutscher Industrie Designer e. V. in 1959 . He then helped the VDID with their entry into the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design .
Go to Profile#34086
Rupprecht Geiger
#34098
Overall Influence
1908 - 2009 (101 years)
Rupprecht Geiger was a German abstract painter and sculptor. Throughout his career, he favored monochromicity and color-field paintings. For a time, he concentrated solely on the color red. Life and work Geiger was born in Munich, the only child of painter Willi Geiger. Besides Germany, the family spent time in Spain, and he also joined his father on trips to Morocco and the Canary Islands. It was on these trips that Geiger began painting. From 1926 through 1935, he studied and taught architecture and art at academic institutions in Munich. From 1936 to 1940, he worked as an architect at several firms, also in Munich.
Go to Profile#34087
Mark Thomson
#34099
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Mark Ian "Tommo" Thomson is a former English professional darts player who played in Professional Darts Corporation events. Career From Swindon, Wiltshire. Thomson played in six stages on the UK Open, reaching the last 8, but lost to Tom Wilson of England in 2003 and Mark Walsh of England in 2005.
Go to Profile#34088
Sultan Kösen
#34100
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Sultan Kösen is a Turkish farmer who holds the Guinness World Record for tallest living male at . Kösen's growth resulted from the conditions gigantism and acromegaly, caused by a tumour affecting his pituitary gland. Due to his condition, he uses crutches to walk.
Go to Profile#34089
Russell Slade
#34101
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Russell Mark Slade is an English former professional football manager and coach. Having had an extended career at reserve team level, Slade entered professional sports coaching with Notts County in 1993. He briefly took charge of the club as caretaker manager during the 1994–95 season. Slade then had spells in charge of non-league sides Armitage and Leicester United before joining the coaching staff of Sheffield United in 1997. He had two spells as caretaker manager of The Blades in 1998 and 1999 before the appointment of Neil Warnock. In 2001, he took over the managerial post at Conference National side Scarborough before later moving to Grimsby Town in 2004 and Yeovil Town in 2006.
Go to Profile#34090
Mark Webber
#34102
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Mark Andrew Webber is an English rock guitarist. He is most famous for playing in Pulp , and appearing on all of their albums since their Mercury Music Prize-winning LP Different Class. Webber first met the band in 1986 while producing a fanzine called Cosmic Pig. He was originally the president of Pulp's fan club. Before joining the group Webber had helped make stage sets and was their tour manager.
Go to Profile#34091
Burton Weisbrod
#34103
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Burton A. Weisbrod is an American economist who pioneered the theory of option value, and the theory of why voluntary nonprofit organizations exist, He also developed the methodology for valuing voluntary labor. He advanced methods for benefit-cost analysis of public policy by recognizing the roles of externality effects and collective public goodss in program evaluation. He applied those methods to the fields of education, health care, poverty, public interest law, and nonprofit organization. Over a career of fifty years, he published 16 books and over 200 scholarly articles. He is current...
Go to Profile#34092
José Antonio Reyes
#34104
Overall Influence
1983 - 2019 (36 years)
José Antonio Reyes Calderón was a Spanish professional footballer who played mainly as a left winger and also as a forward. He made his debut for Sevilla aged 16 and signed for English club Arsenal in January 2004, winning the Premier League and FA Cup in his spell in London. He returned to Spain in September 2006, on loan with Real Madrid, where he won La Liga. He then moved to Atlético Madrid, and won the Europa League twice. He also had a short loan spell in Portugal with Benfica, before re-joining Sevilla late in his career and winning the Europa League another three times, reaching a record individual total of five.
Go to Profile#34093
William Floyd
#34105
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
William J. Floyd is an American mathematician specializing in topology. He is currently a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Floyd received a PhD in mathematics from Princeton University 1978 under the direction of William Thurston.
Go to Profile#34094
Mario Einaudi
#34106
Overall Influence
1904 - 1994 (90 years)
Mario Einaudi was an Italian scholar of political theory and European comparative politics. Biography He was born in 1904 in Italy in one of the most influential intellectual family in Italy. His father, Luigi Einaudi, was one of Italy's great economic thinkers and later became the second President of the Republic of Italy . His brother, Giulio Einaudi, was antifascist and the founder of the leading intellectual publishing house Giulio Einaudi Editore. A graduate of the University of Turin's distinguished law faculty, Mario Einaudi married Manon Michels, the daughter of the sociologist Rober...
Go to Profile#34095
Donald Quataert
#34107
Overall Influence
1941 - 2011 (70 years)
Donald George Quataert was a historian at Binghamton University. He taught courses on Middle East/Ottoman history, with an interest in labor, social and economics, during the early and modern periods. He also provided training in the reading of Ottoman archival sources.
Go to Profile#34096
Sheila E.
#34108
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Sheila Escovedo , known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American singer and drummer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist for the George Duke Band. After separating from the group in 1983, Sheila began a solo career, starting with the release of her debut album in 1984, which included her biggest hit song, "The Glamorous Life". She also saw a hit with the single "A Love Bizarre". She is sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Percussion".
Go to Profile#34097
David Gordon Scott
#34109
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
David Gordon Scott is a British criminologist, abolitionist and author. He is a criminologist at The Open University in Milton Keynes. Scott's research interests span the field of criminology, particularly focusing on socialist ethics, abolitionism, social harm, liberative justice, harms of capitalist states, and state-corporate harm.
Go to Profile#34098
Liz Walker
#34110
Overall Influence
Liz Walker is an American pastor and retired journalist. She was the first black woman to co-anchor a newscast in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She became the Pastor of the Roxbury Presbyterian Church in 2014.
Go to Profile#34099
Gerald E. McClearn
#34111
Overall Influence
1927 - 2017 (90 years)
Gerald "Jerry" McClearn was an American behavior geneticist and professor emeritus of health and human development and biobehavioral health at the Pennsylvania State University. Education McClearn received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College and took his Ph.D. in psychology at University of Wisconsin. After two year-long spells as instructor at Yale University, and then assistant professor of psychology at Allegheny College, he took up postdoctoral positions at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and University College London.
Go to Profile#34100
Liam Fox
#34112
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Liam Fox is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Defence from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Conservative Party, Fox has served as the Member of Parliament for North Somerset, formerly Woodspring, since 1992.
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