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
#35051
Shmuel Weinberger
#35063
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
The mathematician Shmuel Aaron Weinberger is an American topologist. He completed a PhD in mathematics in 1982 at New York University under the direction of Sylvain Cappell. Weinberger was, from 1994 to 1996, the Thomas A. Scott Professor of Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, and he is currently the Andrew MacLeish Professor of Mathematics and chair of the Mathematics department at the University of Chicago.
Go to Profile#35052
Robert Whitaker
#35064
Overall Influence
1939 - 2011 (72 years)
Robert Whitaker was a British photographer, best known internationally for his many photographs of The Beatles, taken between 1964 and 1966, with his best known work, the "Butcher Cover", which featured on the band's 1966's US-only album Yesterday and Today. He also worked with the rock group Cream, photos from which were used in the Martin Sharp-designed collage on the cover of their 1967 LP Disraeli Gears.
Go to Profile#35053
Richard Sambrook
#35065
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Richard Sambrook is a British journalist, academic and a former BBC executive. He is Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. For 30 years, until February 2010, he was a BBC journalist and later, a news executive.
Go to Profile#35054
Sepúlveda Pertence
#35066
Overall Influence
1937 - 2023 (86 years)
José Paulo Sepúlveda Pertence was a Brazilian jurist, magistrate, lawyer, and professor. He served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Federal Court from 1995 to 1997, where he also worked as a Justice from 1989 to 2007. He was a Minister of the Superior Electoral Court from 1990 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2005, having presided over the court twice, during the biennia of 1993/1994 and 2003 to 2005. He was the Attorney General of the Republic from 1985 to 1989; Vice-President of the Brazilian Bar Association from 1977 to 1981; Vice-President of the National Union of Students from 1959 to 1960, and President of the Commission of Public Ethics of the Presidency of the Republic from 2007 to 2012.
Go to Profile#35055
Lili Qiu
#35067
Overall Influence
Lili Qiu is a Chinese computer scientist known for her research on wireless networks. She is currently a professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin and vice managing director of Microsoft Research Asia.
Go to Profile#35056
Mark Guzdial
#35068
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Mark Joseph Guzdial is a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology affiliated with the College of Computing and the GVU Center. He has conducted research in the fields of computer science education and the learning sciences and internationally in the field of Information Technology. From 2001–2003, he was selected to be an ACM Distinguished Lecturer, and in 2007 he was appointed Vice-Chair of the ACM Education Board Council. He was the original developer of th...
Go to Profile#35057
Tyronn Lue
#35069
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Tyronn Jamar Lue is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association . He formerly served as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, helping them win their first NBA title in franchise history.
Go to Profile#35058
Brian Orser
#35070
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Brian Ernest Orser is a Canadian former competitive and professional figure skater and coach to Olympic champions. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medallist, 1987 World champion and eight-time Canadian national champion. At the 1988 Winter Olympics, the rivalry between Orser and American figure skater Brian Boitano, who were the two favorites to win the gold medal, captured media attention and was described as the "Battle of the Brians".
Go to Profile#35059
Jay Michaelson
#35071
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Jay Michaelson is an American writer, journalist, professor, and rabbi. He is a commentator on CNN, and a columnist for Rolling Stone, and other publications, having been the legal affairs columnist at The Daily Beast for eight years. He is the author of ten books, and won the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship and the 2023 New York Society for Professional Journalists Award for Opinion Writing.
Go to Profile#35060
Shep Pettibone
#35072
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Robert "Shep" Pettibone is an American record producer, remixer, songwriter and club DJ, one of the most prolific of the 1980s. Career Shep Pettibone surfaced after his work with Arthur Baker on Afrika Bambaataa & the Jazzy 5's "Jazzy Sensation" and as an in-house mix engineer for Prelude Records. During his recording career, he launched innovative "mastermixes" for New York's KISS FM. The popularity of these mixes persuaded Prelude Records to release some of them commercially.
Go to Profile#35061
Y. Karunadasa
#35073
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Yakupitiyage Karunadasa is a Sri Lankan scholar in Buddhist Studies. His main areas of specialization are Early Buddhism and Theravada Abidhamma. Education and career Y. Karunadasa obtained a First Class Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Ceylon in 1958, a Ph.D. from the University of London in 1963, and was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Kelaniya in 2002. He is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Kelaniya, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and as the Director of its Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies. He has also served as the...
Go to Profile#35062
Carol Myers-Scotton
#35074
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Carol Myers-Scotton is an American linguist. She was a Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Linguistics Program and Department of English at the University of South Carolina until 2003. Education She received her Bachelor of Arts from Grinnell College in 1955, and her Master of Arts in English in 1961 and Doctor of Philosophy in linguistics in 1967, both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Go to Profile#35063
John R. Hauser
#35075
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
John Richard Hauser is the Kirin Professor of Marketing and Head of the Marketing Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is one of the founders of the field of Marketing Science and was Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Marketing Science from 1989 to 1995.
Go to Profile#35064
Emma Johnston
#35076
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Emma Letitia Johnston is the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Sydney. She was former, Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales and President of Science & Technology Australia. She is an authority in marine ecology and a former Pro Vice-Chancellor at UNSW.
Go to Profile#35065
Rick Kittles
#35077
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Rick Antonius Kittles is an American biologist specializing in human genetics and a Senior Vice President for Research at the Morehouse School of Medicine. He is of African-American ancestry, and achieved renown in the 1990s for his pioneering work in tracing the ancestry of African Americans via DNA testing.
Go to Profile#35066
Veturi
#35078
Overall Influence
1936 - 2010 (74 years)
Veturi Sundararama Murthy , known mononymously by his surname Veturi, was an Indian poet, lyricist and journalist who is popular for writing Telugu songs. His career in Telugu cinema spanned more than four decades. He was highly admired and cherished for his deep and thoughtful lyrics in Telugu songs.
Go to Profile#35067
Manuel Marchena
#35079
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Manuel Marchena Gómez is a Spanish judge and prosecutor. He currently serves as Magistrate of the Supreme Court and Chairman of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. Biography Marchena was born in Las Palmas. He studied in General Alonso High School of Laayoune, in the Spanish Sahara and in the San Ignacio de Loyola School of Las Palmas. He graduated in Law from the University of Deusto, Bilbao, in 1981, obtaining the highest score in the degree exam . He received his doctorate in Law from the University of La Laguna in 1991, also obtaining the highest score, cum laude.
Go to Profile#35068
Mary M. Schroeder
#35080
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Mary Murphy Schroeder is an American attorney and jurist serving as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Early life and education Born on December 4, 1940, in Boulder, Colorado, Schroeder received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in 1962 and her Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1965, one of six women in her class. She received an honorary Doctor of Laws
Go to Profile#35069
Alfredo Co
#35081
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Alfredo Pimentel Co is a Filipino Sinologist and philosopher. He is the only contemporary Asian scholar to deliver a plenary lecture at the COMIUCAP conference, in 2008. Early years and education In 1967, Co was named "Outstanding Chinese Youth in the Philippines" by the Republic of China during his sophomore year in high school in Naga City. Co graduated with a philosophy degree at the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas in 1972 and earned a master's degree in 1974. He also earned a doctorate degree in 1976 at the same university.
Go to Profile#35070
Whitney Houston
#35082
Overall Influence
1963 - 2012 (49 years)
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "the Voice", she is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 220 million records sold worldwide. In 2023, Rolling Stone named her the second-greatest singer of all time. Houston influenced many singers in popular music, and was known for her powerful, soulful vocals, vocal improvisation skills, and use of gospel singing techniques in pop music. She had 11 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the only artist to have seven consecutive number-one singles on the chart. Her accolades include eight Grammy Awards, 16 Billboard Music Awards, two Emmy Awards, and 30 Guinness World Records.
Go to Profile#35071
Joanna Rutkowska
#35083
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Joanna Rutkowska is a Polish computer security researcher, primarily known for her research on low-level security and stealth malware, and as founder of the Qubes OS security-focused desktop operating system.
Go to Profile#35072
Sebastian Kappen
#35084
Overall Influence
1924 - 1993 (69 years)
Sebastian Kappen was an Indian Jesuit priest and liberation theologian. Formation and studies Born into a traditional Nasrani family in Kodikulam, Travancore, during the British Raj, Kappen entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20 , and was ordained a priest on 24 March 1957. He pursued studies at the Gregorian University , obtaining a doctorate in Theology with a thesis on Religious Alienation and Praxis according to Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. This was a time when Marxism was growing in influence in his home state of Kerala, in India.
Go to Profile#35073
Annica Dahlström
#35085
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Annica Dahlström is a Swedish physician and Professor Emerita of Histology and Neuroscience at the Department of Medical Chemistry and Cell Biology at Gothenburg University. Dahlström's research focuses on how nerve cells store and transport signals, but she has also published research on many other areas of histology and neuroscience. She earned her doctorate at 25 as the youngest Swedish physician to earn a doctorate. She was Professor of Histology and Neuroscience at Gothenburg University from 1983 until her 2008 retirement.
Go to Profile#35074
Henry Jarecki
#35086
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Henry George Jarecki is a German-born American academic, psychiatrist, entrepreneur, producer and philanthropist. Early life and career Henry Jarecki was born into a German-Jewish family in Stettin , the son of Max Jarecki, a physician, and Gerda Kunstmann, the scion of a shipping family. As a child, he fled Nazi Germany with his family for the United Kingdom and subsequently the United States. His wealthy family was able to transfer their wealth from occupied Poland.
Go to Profile#35075
Wes Brown
#35087
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Wesley Michael Brown is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender. Brown began his career with Manchester United, joining the club's academy at the age of 12 in 1992. After turning professional in 1996, he made his senior debut in 1998 and became a semi regular first team player during the 1998–99 season, when the club won the Treble. After a year-long hiatus due to injury, Brown became a regular fixture in the first team from 2000 onwards. Over the next eight years, he won numerous honours, including four more Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup and another Champions League.
Go to Profile#35076
Barry H. Corey
#35088
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Barry H. Corey is the eighth and current president of Biola University, located in Southern California. Corey became Biola's president on July 1, 2007, succeeding Clyde Cook, who retired after serving as Biola's president for 25 years.
Go to Profile#35077
Paul Draper
#35089
Overall Influence
1909 - 1996 (87 years)
Paul Draper Jr. was a noted American tap dancer and choreographer. Born into an artistic, socially prominent New York family, the nephew of Ruth Draper was an innovator in the arts. His passion and unique style led him to international stardom. One signature piece was Sonata for Tap Dancer, danced without musical accompaniment.
Go to Profile#35078
Wang Yi
#35090
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Wang Yi , pen name Wang Shuya , is the founding pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church , a Calvinist house church in Chengdu. He is also a productive writer, editor, and social activist, and was a legal scholar at Chengdu University before he resigned to take up the pastorate.
Go to Profile#35079
Martin Neil Baily
#35091
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Martin Neil Baily is an economist at the Brookings Institution and formerly at the Peterson Institute. He is best known for his work on productivity and competitiveness and for his tenure as a cabinet member during the Clinton Administration. He was one of three members of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1994 to 1996, and chairman of the Council from 1999 to 2001. He currently co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative and serves as a senior advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group.
Go to Profile#35080
Jan Sapp
#35092
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Jan Anthony Sapp is a professor in the Department of Biology, York University, Canada. His writings focus especially on evolutionary biology beyond the classical neo-Darwinian framework, and emphasize the fundamental importance of symbiosis and horizontal gene transfer in heredity and evolution.
Go to Profile#35081
William Thomas Fletcher
#35093
Overall Influence
William Thomas Fletcher is an American mathematician. Education He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from North Carolina Central University , Durham, NC in 1956 and 1958 respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in mathematics from the University of Idaho in 1966.
Go to Profile#35082
Al Roker
#35094
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's Today, and occasionally co-hosts 3rd Hour Today. He has an inactive American Meteorological Society Television Seal #238.
Go to Profile#35083
Ram Charan
#35095
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Ram Charan is an Indian-American business consultant, speaker, and writer resident in Dallas, Texas. Career Charan has consulted for companies such as GE, KLM, Bank of America, Praxair and Jaypee Associates. He is the author of various books on business, including Talent Masters, Leaders At All Levels, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times, Boards That Deliver, What The CEO Wants You To Know, Boards At Work, Every Business Is A Growth Business , Profitable Growth Is Everyone's Business, Confronting Reality, Know How a...
Go to Profile#35084
Keith Shine
#35096
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Keith Peter Shine FRS is the Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading. He is the first holder of this post, which was awarded to the university by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Diamond Jubilee.
Go to Profile#35085
Pierre-Arnoul de Marneffe
#35097
Overall Influence
Pierre-Arnoul Frédéric Guy Donat de Marneffe was a Belgian computer scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Liège . He studied civil engineering at the Faculté polytechnique de Mons and obtained a PhD in applied sciences at the University of Liège , in addition he obtained a Ph.D. in Computer science at Cambridge University in 1982.
Go to Profile#35086
Larry Yaeger
#35098
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Larry Steven Yaeger is a former Apple Distinguished Scientist and Full Professor of Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington, currently employed at Google. Outside of academia he is best known for designing the handwriting recognition software used in the Apple Newton and Inkwell. Yaeger's academic research focused on the evolution of true artificial intelligence through natural selection. He is the lead developer of Polyworld.
Go to Profile#35087
James Reason
#35099
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
James T. Reason CBE is a former professor of Psychology at the University of Manchester, from where he graduated in 1962 and where he tenured from 1977 until 2001. He wrote books on human error, including such aspects as absent-mindedness, aviation human factors, maintenance errors, and risk management for organizational accidents. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary DSc by the University of Aberdeen. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the British Psychological Society, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Royal College of General Practitioners. He received a CBE in 2003 for his services in the reduction of the risks in health care.
Go to Profile#35088
Terry Manning
#35100
Overall Influence
Terry Manning is an American photographer, composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, audio engineer, and visual artist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has worked with Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Bryan Adams, ZZ Top, the Tragically Hip, Zeno, Jay Boy Adams, Booker T. & the MG's, Shakira, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rhino Bucket, Johnny Winter, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Big Star, Johnny Taylor, Jason and the Scorchers, the Staple Singers, Molly Hatchet, George Thorogood, Al Green, Widespread Panic, Shania Twain, Joe Cocker, Joe Walsh, and Lenny Kravitz, amo...
Go to Profile#35089
Mary Robison
#35101
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Mary Cennamo Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One on the Way. She has been categorized as a founding "minimalist" writer along with authors such as Amy Hempel, Frederick Barthelme, and Raymond Carver. In 2009, she won the Rea Award for the Short Story.
Go to Profile#35090
Erika Weinzierl
#35102
Overall Influence
1925 - 2014 (89 years)
Erika Weinzierl was an Austrian historian, gender researcher, and historian of Nazism. A member of the Austrian People's Party and the Curatorium of the Austrian Mauthausen Committee, she was the second director of the Department of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna, succeeding Ludwig Jedlicka. Weinzierl was a recipient of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, the Preis der Stadt Wien für Geisteswissenschaften, the Benemerenti medal, and the Theodor Körner Prize.
Go to Profile#35091
Werner Flume
#35103
Overall Influence
1908 - 2009 (101 years)
Werner Flume was a German jurist and professor of Roman law, private law, tax law and a legal historian. He has significantly influenced the modern development of German private law and has been called a "lawyer of the century" for his contributions.
Go to Profile#35092
Mark E. Smith
#35104
Overall Influence
1957 - 2018 (61 years)
Mark Edward Smith was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester and was its leader until his death. During their 42-year existence, the Fall's line-up included some sixty musicians, with whom Smith released 32 studio albums and numerous singles and EPs.
Go to Profile#35093
Eddie Kohler
#35105
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Eddie Kohler is a computer scientist specializing in networks and operating systems. He is currently a professor of computer science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prior to Harvard, he was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Go to Profile#35094
Oscar Dathorne
#35106
Overall Influence
1934 - 2007 (73 years)
Oscar Ronald Dathorne was a Guyanese educator, novelist, poet and critic. He was the founder of the Association of Caribbean Studies and the Journal of Caribbean Studies. Biography Born in Georgetown, Guyana, Dathorne attended Queen's College, prior to his parents moving the family to England in 1953. He attended the University of Sheffield in 1955, obtaining his BA English degree in 1958 and subsequently completing his MA in 1960 and his PhD, English, in 1966.
Go to Profile#35095
James Milne
#35107
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
James S. Milne is a New Zealand mathematician working in arithmetic geometry. Life Milne attended the High School in Invercargill in New Zealand until 1959, and then studied at the University of Otago in Dunedin and Harvard University . From then to 1969 he was a lecturer at University College London. After that he was at the University of Michigan, as Assistant Professor , Associate Professor , Professor , and Professor Emeritus . He has also been a visiting professor at King's College London, at the Institut des hautes études scientifiques in Paris , at the Mathematical Sciences Research...
Go to Profile#35096
Holly Johnson
#35108
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
William Holly Johnson is an English artist, musician, and writer, best known as the lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s. Prior to that, in the late 1970s he was a bassist for the band Big in Japan. In 1989, Johnson's debut solo album, Blast, reached number one in the UK albums chart. Two singles from the album – "Love Train" and "Americanos" – reached the top 5 of the UK Singles Chart. In the 1990s, he also embarked on writing, painting, and printmaking careers.
Go to Profile#35097
Joel Greenspoon
#35109
Overall Influence
1920 - 2004 (84 years)
Joel Greenspoon was an American psychology researcher, professor, and clinician. Greenspoon made notable contributions to the field of behaviorism in psychology through pioneering work on verbal operant conditioning and counterconditioning in the treatment of anxiety.
Go to Profile#35098
Mary E. Hunt
#35110
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Mary E. Hunt is an American feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual in Silver Spring, Maryland, US. A Catholic active in the women-church movement, she lectures and writes on theology and ethics with particular attention to social justice concerns.
Go to Profile#35099
Jaime Manrique
#35111
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Jaime Manrique is a bilingual Colombian American novelist, poet, essayist, educator, and translator. His work is a representation of his cultural upbringing and heritage mixed with the flavors of his education in English. A primary distinction of his work comes from his bilingualism, and his choice to write in both English and Spanish. Many of his novels are published in English whereas his poetry is often printed and shared in Spanish. Manrique's writing covers a variety of themes and topics with some of his more notable works ranging from talking about his father's corpse and the adventures of a young gay Colombian immigrant.
Go to Profile#35100
Barbara Simpson
#35112
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Barbara Allan Simpson is an American retired TV reporter, news anchor, and conservative radio talk show host. She is currently an on-line columnist. Early life and education Simpson was born Barbara Allan in New York City and raised in Ocean County, New Jersey. Her parents were Rose , of Italian descent, and John Allan , a Croatian immigrant. She has a brother, Henry Allan.
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