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
#34201
Arturo Vidal
#34213
Overall Influence
1987 - Present (39 years)
Arturo Erasmo Vidal Pardo is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Athletico Paranaense and the Chile national team. His displays during his time at Juventus led him to be nicknamed Il Guerriero , Rey Arturo and La Piranha by the Italian press due to his hard-tackling and aggressive, tenacious style of play.
Go to Profile#34202
Gerd Grubb
#34214
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Gerd Grubb is a Danish mathematician known for her research on pseudo-differential operators. She is a professor emerita in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, where she was the first female professor of mathematics.
Go to Profile#34203
Günther Förg
#34215
Overall Influence
1952 - 2013 (61 years)
Günther Förg was a German painter, graphic designer, sculptor and photographer. His abstract style was influenced by American abstract painting. Life Förg was born in Füssen, Allgäu. His father, Michael, worked in a customs office. He studied from 1973 until 1979 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Karl Fred Dahmen. From 1992 until 1999, he taught at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. From 1999 on he was a professor in Munich. He had a home in Areuse, Switzerland, as well as in Freiburg. In 1993 he married Ika Huber.
Go to Profile#34204
David Feldman
#34216
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
David Feldman is an American stand-up comedian, comedy writer, and podcaster. Feldman is a graduate of Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, New Jersey, and Columbia University in New York City. He began as a stand-up comic in San Francisco. Feldman has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show, as well as his own special for Comedy Central. Feldman has won three Primetime Emmys for comedy writing , four Writers Guild Awards , and a CableACE Award .
Go to Profile#34205
Marina Carr
#34217
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Marina Carr is an Irish playwright, known for By the Bog of Cats . Early life and education Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1964, but spent most of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Offaly, adjacent to the town of Tullamore. Carr's father, Hugh Carr, was a playwright and her mother, Maura Eibhlín Breathnach, was an Irish poet. As a child, Carr and her siblings, John and Deirdre, built a theater in their shed.
Go to Profile#34206
Margot Robbie
#34218
Overall Influence
1990 - Present (36 years)
Margot Elise Robbie is an Australian actress and producer. Known for her work in both blockbuster and independent films, she has received various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017, and Forbes named her one of the world's highest-paid actresses in 2019.
Go to Profile#34207
Sondra Locke
#34219
Overall Influence
1944 - 2018 (74 years)
Sandra Louise Anderson , professionally known as Sondra Locke, was an American actress and director. An alumna of Middle Tennessee State University, Locke broke into regional show business with assorted posts at the Nashville-based radio station WSM-AM, then segued into television as a promotions assistant for WSM-TV. She performed in the theater company Circle Players Inc. while employed at WSM. In 1968, she made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned dual Golden Globe Award nominations for Best S...
Go to Profile#34208
Murray Campbell
#34220
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Murray Campbell is a Canadian computer scientist known for being part of the team that created Deep Blue; the first computer to defeat a world chess champion. Biography Campbell was involved in surveillance projects related to petroleum production, disease outbreak, and financial data. In earlier work, Campbell was a member of the teams that developed chess machines: HiTech and a project to culminate in Deep Blue, the latter being the first computer to defeat the reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in a challenge match, in 1997. Kasparov had won an earlier match the previous year.
Go to Profile#34209
Vladimir Rokhlin Jr.
#34221
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Vladimir Rokhlin Jr. is a mathematician and professor of computer science and mathematics at Yale University. He is the co-inventor with Leslie Greengard of the fast multipole method in 1985, recognised as one of the top-ten algorithms of the 20th century.
Go to Profile#34210
Banu Onaral
#34222
Overall Influence
Banu Onaral is the H.H. Sun Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1997, she founded Drexel University's School of Biomedical Engineering Science and Health Systems.
Go to Profile#34211
Simon Tavaré
#34223
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Simon Tavaré is the founding Director of the Herbert and Florence Irving Institute of Cancer Dynamics at Columbia University. Prior to joining Columbia, he was Director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Professor of Cancer Research at the Department of Oncology and Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge.
Go to Profile#34212
Karin Reich
#34224
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Karin Anna Reich is a German historian of mathematics. Career From 1967 to 1973 Reich was a scientific assistant at the Research Institute of the Deutsches Museum in Munich and the Institute for the History of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where in 1973 she graduated under supervision of Helmuth Gericke. In 1980 she completed her time in Munich, publishing The development of tensor calculus, in 1994 in a revised form as a book.
Go to Profile#34213
Dariush Mozaffarian
#34225
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Dariush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Professor of Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine, and an attending physician at Tufts Medical Center. His work aims to create the science and translation for a food system that is nutritious, equitable, and sustainable. Dr. Mozaffarian has authored more than 500 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and on evidence-based policy approaches and innovations to reduce diet-related diseases and improve health equity in the US and globally.
Go to Profile#34214
Aaron Novick
#34226
Overall Influence
1919 - 2000 (81 years)
Aaron Novick is considered one of the founders of molecular biology. He started the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, in 1959.
Go to Profile#34215
David Vogan
#34227
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
David Alexander Vogan, Jr. is a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who works on unitary representations of simple Lie groups. While studying at the University of Chicago, he became a Putnam Fellow in 1972. He received his Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1976, under the supervision of Bertram Kostant. In his thesis, he introduced the notion of lowest K type in the course of obtaining an algebraic classification of irreducible Harish Chandra modules. He is currently one of the participants in the Atlas of Lie Groups and Representations.
Go to Profile#34216
Ference Marton
#34228
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Ference Marton is a Swedish educational psychologist who is best known for introducing the distinction between deep and surface approaches to learning, and developing phenomenography as a methodology for educational research. More recently, he developed a theory of classroom learning based on establishing the prerequisites for learning conceived as the "space of learning". Marton is a professor of education at the Göteborg University.
Go to Profile#34217
Tarcisio Bertone
#34229
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church and a Vatican diplomat. A cardinal since 2003, he served as Archbishop of Vercelli from 1991 to 1995, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop of Genoa from 2002 to 2006, and as Cardinal Secretary of State from 2006 to 2013. On 10 May 2008, he was named Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.
Go to Profile#34218
David Finkelhor
#34230
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
David Finkelhor is an American sociologist known for his research into child sexual abuse and related topics. He is the director of the Crimes against Children Research Center, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire.
Go to Profile#34219
Mavis Staples
#34231
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again". In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album.
Go to Profile#34220
Ellsworth Vines
#34232
Overall Influence
1911 - 1994 (83 years)
Henry Ellsworth Vines Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 in 1932 as an amateur, and in 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1937 as a professional. He won three Grand Slam titles, the U.S. National Championships in 1931 and 1932 and the Wimbledon Championships in 1932. Vines also was able to win Pro Slam titles on three different surfaces. He later became a professional golfer and reached the semifinals of the PGA Championship in 1951.
Go to Profile#34221
Shinsuke Nakamura
#34233
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
Shinsuke Nakamura is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. Nakamura is known for his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling , where he is a former three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, with his first reign coming at the age of 23 years and 9 months; making Nakamura the youngest IWGP Heavyweight Champion. His other accomplishments within the company include winning the 2011 G1 Climax and the 2014 New Japan Cup, and being the final IWGP Third Belt Champion, the final NWF Heavyweight Champion, and the longest reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion for his first reign .
Go to Profile#34222
Peter J. Freyd
#34234
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Peter John Freyd is an American mathematician, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, known for work in category theory and for founding the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. Mathematics Freyd obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1960; his dissertation, on Functor Theory, was written under the supervision of Norman Steenrod and David Buchsbaum.
Go to Profile#34223
Ivan Dodig
#34235
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Ivan Dodig is a Croatian professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles. He reached his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 2 in September 2023. He is a seven-time Grand Slam champion, having won men's doubles titles at the 2015 French Open with Marcelo Melo, the 2021 Australian Open with Filip Polášek and the 2023 French Open with Austin Krajicek.
Go to Profile#34224
Tony Robinson
#34236
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Sir Anthony Robinson is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder and has presented many historical documentaries, including the Channel 4 series Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. He has written 16 children's books.
Go to Profile#34225
Ryan Williams
#34237
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Richard Ryan Williams, known as Ryan Williams , is an American theoretical computer scientist working in computational complexity theory and algorithms. Education Williams graduated from the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science before receiving his bachelor's degree in math and computer science from Cornell University in 2001 and his Ph.D in computer science in 2007 from Carnegie Mellon University under the supervision of Manuel Blum. From 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the Theory Group of IBM Almaden Research Center. From Fall 2011 to Fall 2016, he was a professor at Stanford University.
Go to Profile#34226
Richard Marggraf Turley
#34238
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Richard Marggraf Turley is a British literary critic, poet and novelist. He specialises in Romanticism and the poetry of Timmy Mallett, surveillance studies and ecocriticism. He is professor of English Literature at Aberystwyth University, and between 2013 and 2018 was that institution's Professor of Engagement with the Public Imagination.
Go to Profile#34227
Chrys Ingraham
#34239
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Chrys Ingraham is Professor of Sociology at Purchase College of the State University of New York. Biography Dr. Ingraham is a native of New York State where she worked for 12 years at U.S.Air and co-owned a feminist bookstore before returning to school at Onondaga Community College. She transferred to Syracuse University's Maxwell School where she graduated with a Masters in Public Administration , Graduate Certification in Women's Studies and a Ph.D. in Sociology . Her dissertation research addressed how the Comstock Law allowed for the censorship and suppression of feminist thought in 19th century U.S.
Go to Profile#34228
Chris Impey
#34240
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Christopher David Impey is a British astronomer, educator, and author. He has been a faculty member at the University of Arizona since 1986. Impey has done research on observational cosmology, in particular low surface brightness galaxies, the intergalactic medium, and surveys of active galaxies and quasars. As an educator, he has pioneered the use of instructional technology for teaching science to undergraduate non-science majors. He has written many technical articles and a series of popular science books including The Living Cosmos, How It Began, How It Ends: From You to the Universe, Dreams of Other Worlds, and Humble Before the Void.
Go to Profile#34229
Melvin L. Morse
#34241
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Melvin L. Morse is an American medical doctor who specializes in pediatrics. He has authored several books and articles on paranormal science and near-death experiences in children, including the 1987 New York Times bestseller Closer to the Light, written jointly with Paul Perry, and with a foreword written by Raymond Moody. Morse has authored many journal articles, and has given media interviews on the subject of near death experiences.
Go to Profile#34230
Mary P. Anderson
#34242
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Mary Pikul Anderson is a hydrologist, geologist, and professor emerita of hydrogeology. She is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the National Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#34231
Helen Dannetun
#34243
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Helen Dannetun is a Swedish professor of physics and rector of Linköping University. In 1980 Helen Dannetun received a Master of Science in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Linköping University, Sweden, and in 1987 a doctoral degree in applied physics. In 1996, she became an associate professor and in 1994 a senior lecturer. In 2002, she was appointed as a professor of physics at Linköping University.
Go to Profile#34232
Paolo Rossi Monti
#34244
Overall Influence
1923 - 2012 (89 years)
Paolo Rossi Monti was an Italian philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of Florence. Career Paolo Rossi studied first in Ancona and then in Bologna, where in 1942 he enrolled in philosophy. He graduated in 1946 in Florence, with the philosopher of humanism Eugenio Garin, with whom he also obtained a specialization diploma in 1947. Between 1947 and 1949 he taught history and philosophy at the Liceo Classico "Plinio il Giovane" in Città di Castello . From 1950 to 1959 he was assistant to Antonio Banfi at the University of Milan. Between 1950 and 1955 he worked on the Children's Encyclopedia at the Mondadori publishing house.
Go to Profile#34233
Lawrence Gowing
#34245
Overall Influence
1918 - 1991 (73 years)
Sir Lawrence Burnett Gowing was an English artist, writer, curator and teacher. Initially recognised as a portrait and landscape painter, he quickly rose to prominence as an art educator, writer, and eventually, curator and museum trustee. He was described as a prominent member of the "English Establishment". As a student of art history he was largely self-taught.
Go to Profile#34234
Giulio Lepschy
#34246
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Giulio Ciro Lepschy is an Italian academic. He was Professor of Italian at the University of Reading from 1975 to 1997. Born in Venice in 1935, Lepschy attended the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. He carried out research at various European universities until 1964, when he was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Reading. He was promoted to a readership in 1967 and then to Professor of Italian in 1975. He remained in that post full-time until 1997, when he reduced his workload to part-time; he retired completely in 2000.
Go to Profile#34235
James B. Orlin
#34247
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
James Berger Orlin is an American operations researcher, the Edward Pennell Brooks Professor in Management and Professor of Operations Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Biography Orlin did his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1974. In 1976, he earned two master's degrees, an MSc from California Institute of Technology and an MMath from University of Waterloo. Orlin received his Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University in 1981 under the supervision of Arthur Fales Veinott Jr. He joined the MIT fa...
Go to Profile#34236
William R. Maples
#34248
Overall Influence
1937 - 1997 (60 years)
William Ross Maples, Ph.D. was an American forensic anthropologist working at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His specialty was the study of bones. He worked on several high-profile criminal investigations, including those concerning historical figures such as Francisco Pizarro, the Romanov family, Joseph Merrick , President Zachary Taylor and Medgar Evers. His insights often proved beneficial in closing cases that otherwise may have remained unsolved.
Go to Profile#34237
Said Sheikh Samatar
#34249
Overall Influence
1943 - 2015 (72 years)
Said Sheikh Samatar was a prominent Somali scholar and writer. Biography Early years Said was born in 1943 in the Ogaden in Ethiopia to Faduma and Sheikh Samatar. He came from a large family consisting of fourteen people, including his father's second wife. He hailed from Fiqi Ismaciil a subclan of Leelkase Tanade Daarood.
Go to Profile#34238
Gerta Keller
#34250
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Gerta Keller is a geologist and paleontologist who contests the Alvarez hypothesis that the impact of the Chicxulub impactor, or another large celestial body, directly caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Keller maintains that such an impact predates the mass extinction and that Deccan volcanism and its environmental consequences were the most likely major cause, but possibly exacerbated by the impact.
Go to Profile#34239
Frank M. Snowden Jr.
#34251
Overall Influence
1911 - 2007 (96 years)
Frank M. Snowden Jr. , was an American historian and classicist, best known for his study of black people in classical antiquity. He was a Distinguished Professor emeritus of classics at Howard University.
Go to Profile#34240
Michael Fishbane
#34252
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Michael A. Fishbane is an American scholar of Judaism and rabbinic literature. Formerly at Brandeis University, he is currently Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the Divinity School, University of Chicago.
Go to Profile#34241
James A. Jackson
#34253
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
James Anthony Jackson CBE FRS is Professor of Active Tectonics and head of Bullard Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University. He made his name in geophysics, using earthquake source seismology to examine how continents are deformed. His central research focus is to observe the active processes shaping our continents.
Go to Profile#34242
Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi
#34254
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi is a computer scientist and Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Milan. He is a researcher in the field of machine learning, and co-author of the books "Prediction, Learning, and Games" with Gabor Lugosi and "Regret analysis of stochastic and nonstochastic multi-armed bandit problems"
Go to Profile#34243
David Vitter
#34255
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
David Bruce Vitter is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist who represented Louisiana in the United States Senate from 2005 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Vitter served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005.
Go to Profile#34244
Richard L. Hunter
#34256
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Richard Lawrence Hunter FBA is an Australian classical scholar. From 2001 to 2021, he was the 37th Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge. Early life and education Hunter was born on 30 October 1953. He grew up in Australia, and was educated at Cranbrook School, an independent school in Sydney. He studied at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974. He then moved to England, where he studied for a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Cambridge; he was a member of Pembroke College, Cambridge. His doctoral thesis was titled "A c...
Go to Profile#34245
Kirsten Bomblies
#34257
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Kirsten Bomblies is an American biological researcher. Her research focuses primarily on species in the Arabidopsis genus, particularly Arabidopsis arenosa. She has studied processes related to speciation and hybrid incompatibility, and currently focuses on the adaptive evolution of meiosis in response to climate and genome change.
Go to Profile#34246
Ole-Kristian Hope
#34258
Overall Influence
Ole-Kristian Hope is a Norwegian economist, and Professor of Accounting at the Rotman School of Management, particularly known for his work on accounting standards and disclosure practices. Biography Hope obtained his Siviløkonom degree in 1988 from the Norwegian School of Economics, his MBA with High Distinction in 1991 from the University of Michigan. In 2002 he received his PhD in Accounting Information and Management at the Kellogg School of Management with a thesis entitled "A Study of International Variations in the Financial Reporting Environment, Disclosure Practices and Analysts’ For...
Go to Profile#34247
Caroline Uhler
#34259
Overall Influence
1983 - Present (43 years)
Caroline Uhler is a Swiss statistician working in the field of machine learning and applications in genomics. Her research focuses on developing methods for causal inference to infer regulatory relationships from different data modalities . She is a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Institute for Data, Systems and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, she is a Core Institute Member at the Broad Institute, where she directs the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center.
Go to Profile#34248
Claude Nicolet
#34260
Overall Influence
1930 - 2010 (80 years)
Claude Nicolet was a 20th-21st century French historian, a specialist of the institutions and political ideas of ancient Rome. Biography Career A former student of the École normale supérieure, agrégé d'histoire and a member of the École française de Rome from 1957 to 1959, he was a professor of ancient history at the University of Tunis, Caen University then de Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and emeritus director of studies from 1997 at the École pratique des hautes études. Elected a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1986, he was director of the École française de Rom...
Go to Profile#34249
Peter Toon
#34261
Overall Influence
1939 - 2009 (70 years)
Peter Toon was a priest and theologian and an international advocate of traditional Anglicanism. Early life and education Toon was born to Thomas Arthur and Hilda Toon in Yorkshire, England, in 1939. His younger siblings were Paul, David and Christine.
Go to Profile#34250
Susan M. Phillips
#34262
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Susan Meredith Phillips is an American economist who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 1991 to 1998. She was the third woman to sit on the Board. After leaving the Fed, Phillips served as dean of the George Washington University School of Business from 1998 to 2010.
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