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
#35251
François Cusset
#35263
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
François Cusset is a writer, intellectual historian, and Professor of American Civilisation at the University of Nanterre. Cusset was a student at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Saint-Cloud. He has been an associate researcher at The National Center of Scientific Research , teacher of contemporary French culture at Reid Hall, and professor at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. He is the brother of the writer Catherine Cusset.
Go to Profile#35252
Tony Cox
#35264
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Tony Cox is a British record producer and arranger. As such he was influential in late 1960s and 1970s folk rock developments and the fledgling progressive rock scene, and has since worked primarily as a composer and orchestrator.
Go to Profile#35253
Rodney C. Ewing
#35265
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Rodney Charles Ewing is an American mineralogist and materials scientist whose research is focused on the properties of nuclear materials. He is the Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, a Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, a Senior Fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy, an Affiliate of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and a professor in the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.
Go to Profile#35254
Jeanette Epps
#35266
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Jeanette Jo Epps is an American aerospace engineer and NASA astronaut. Epps received both her M. S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, where she was part of the rotor-craft research group and was a NASA GSRP Fellow. She was chosen for the 20th class of NASA astronauts in 2009, graduating in 2011. Epps currently serves as a member of the ISS Operations Branch and has completed analog astronaut missions, including NEEMO 18 and CAVES 19. She is the second woman and first African-American woman to have participated in CAVES. She has been selected to fly to...
Go to Profile#35255
Aaron Shirley
#35267
Overall Influence
1933 - 2014 (81 years)
Aaron Shirley was an American physician and civil rights activist. Shirley was born in Gluckstadt, Mississippi. He was Chairman of the Board for the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation, and an associate professor in pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Go to Profile#35256
Alden Thompson
#35268
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Alden Lloyd Thompson is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian theologian, author, and seminar presenter. He is also a professor of biblical studies at Walla Walla University in Washington, United States.
Go to Profile#35257
Herschel K. Mitchell
#35269
Overall Influence
1913 - 2000 (87 years)
Herschel Kenworthy Mitchell was an American professor of biochemistry who spent most of his career on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology. He was one of many researchers interested in vitamin B6 in the early 1940s and is credited as one of the discoverers of folic acid. He later focused his research on Drosophila , in particular the genetics and biochemistry of the heat shock response.
Go to Profile#35258
Arthur G. Hunt
#35270
Overall Influence
Arthur G. Hunt is an American plant and soils scientist who is currently a professor at the University of Kentucky and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Education He earned his B.S at University of Lowell in 1976 and his Ph.D at Brandeis University in 1982.
Go to Profile#35259
Macky Sall
#35271
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Macky Sall is a Senegalese politician who has been President of Senegal since April 2012. He was re-elected President in the first round voting in February 2019. Under President Abdoulaye Wade, Sall was Prime Minister of Senegal from July 2004 to June 2007 and President of the National Assembly from June 2007 to November 2008. He was the Mayor of Fatick from 2002 to 2008 and held that post again from 2009 to 2012. Sall was a long-time member of the Senegalese Democratic Party . After coming into conflict with Wade, he was removed from his post as President of the National Assembly in November...
Go to Profile#35260
Stein Ringen
#35272
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Stein Ringen is a Norwegian sociologist and political scientist. He is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford .
Go to Profile#35261
Dmitry Rogozin
#35273
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin is a Russian and Soviet politician serving as the senator from Zaporozhye Oblast since 23 September 2023. He previously served as director general of Roscosmos from 2018 to July 2022, as deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry from 2011 to 2018, and as Russia's ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2011.
Go to Profile#35262
W. M. Gorman
#35274
Overall Influence
1923 - 2003 (80 years)
William Moore "Terence" Gorman was an Irish economist and academic. He was predominantly a theorist and is most famous for his work on aggregation and separability of goods, and in this context he developed his famous Gorman polar form. Gorman's career saw him teach at University of Birmingham, Oxford, and the London School of Economics. He was honoured with the Presidency of the Econometric Society in 1972. His work was often highly technical and theoretical in nature, which made him incomprehensible to many of his contemporaries, but his keen eye for applications has given his work a lastin...
Go to Profile#35263
Linda Katehi
#35275
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Linda Pisti Basile Katehi-Tseregounis is a Greek-born American engineering professor and former university administrator. Katehi was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to three-dimensional integrated circuits and on-wafer packaging and to engineering education. Katehi worked as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's provost from 2006 to 2009 and dean of engineering at Purdue University from 2002 to 2006. Beginning in 2009, she served as the sixth chancellor of the University of California, Davis.
Go to Profile#35264
Liew Chin Tong
#35276
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Liew Chin Tong is a Malaysian politician and author who has served as the Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz since April 2023, Member of Parliament for Iskandar Puteri since November 2022 and Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly for Perling since March 2022. He served as Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry in the PH administration under Prime Minister Anwar and Minister Tengku Zafrul from December 2022 to April 2023, Leader of the Opposition of J...
Go to Profile#35265
Helen Danesh-Meyer
#35277
Overall Influence
Helen Victoria Danesh-Meyer is a New Zealand ophthalmology academic, and as of 2018 is a full professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career After an undergraduate at the University of Otago followed by a 2004 MD titled 'The evaluation of diagnostic procedures, visual outcome and optic nerve morphology in giant cell arteritis' and a 2013 PhD titled 'Evaluation of optic nerve morphology in non-glaucomatous optic neuropathies with quantitative optic nerve imaging modalities' at the University of Auckland, Danesh-Meyer joined the staff at Auckland, rising to full professor.
Go to Profile#35266
Hashem El-Serag
#35278
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Hashem B. El-Serag is a Palestinian-American physician and medical researcher best known for his research in liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and the hepatitis C virus. He serves as the Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine as well as the Director of the Texas Medical Center Digestive Disease Center. El-Serag previously served as president of the American Gastroenterological Association and Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Go to Profile#35267
Michael Williams
#35279
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Michael Williams is a British philosopher who is currently Krieger-Eisenhower Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, noted especially for his work in epistemology. Education and career He received his BA from the University of Oxford and his PhD from Princeton University under the direction of Richard Rorty. He taught at Yale University, the University of Maryland, and Northwestern University prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins.
Go to Profile#35268
Philip R. Lee
#35280
Overall Influence
1924 - 2020 (96 years)
Philip Randolph Lee was an American physician who served as the United States Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1998.
Go to Profile#35269
Tam Dalyell
#35281
Overall Influence
1932 - 2017 (85 years)
Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , , known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983, then Linlithgow from 1983 to 2005. He formulated what came to be known as the "West Lothian question", on whether non-English MPs should be able to vote upon English-only matters after political devolution. He was also known for his anti-war, anti-imperialist views, opposing the Falklands War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.
Go to Profile#35270
John Peel
#35282
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
John Peel is a British writer, best known for his TV series tie-in novels and novelisations. He has written under several pseudonyms, including "John Vincent" and "Nicholas Adams". He lives on Long Island, New York. While his wife is a US citizen, Peel continues to travel under a British passport.
Go to Profile#35271
Michael Goddard
#35283
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Michael Edward "Mike" Goddard is a professorial fellow in animal genetics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Education Goddard was educated at the University of Melbourne where he was awarded Bachelor of Veterinary Science and PhD degrees.
Go to Profile#35272
Jan Sładkowski
#35284
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Jan Sładkowski is a Polish physicist. He is notable for his work on the role of exotic smoothness in cosmology, quantum game theory, and applications of thermodynamics in the theory of finance. Education He earned his PhD, under Marek Zrałek, and habilitation in theoretical physics from the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. He has published a number of papers on quantum field theory, mathematical physics, quantum information processing, and econophysics.
Go to Profile#35273
Kenneth P. Miller
#35285
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Kenneth P. Miller is a professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, specializing in state politics, policy, and law. Miller is the Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, a research institute known for its expertise in redistricting, elections, demographic research, polling, and public policy analysis. He has written extensively on state politics and policy, direct democracy, constitutional law, courts, and political polarization.
Go to Profile#35274
Rüdiger Bubner
#35286
Overall Influence
1941 - 2007 (66 years)
Rüdiger Bubner was a German philosopher. Since 1996, he was professor at Heidelberg. He was also member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and honorary member of the Theological Faculty of the University of Fribourg. His main areas of specialisation were aesthetics and practical philosophy with reference to ancient philosophy, German Idealism, and Phenomenology.
Go to Profile#35275
Mauricio Antón
#35287
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Mauricio Antón Ortuzar is a paleoartist and illustrator specializing in the scientific reconstruction of extinct life, well known for his influential paintings of hominids, extinct carnivores and other vertebrate fossil groups. His works illustrate a great number of books, scientific papers, private collections and museums in many parts of the world. He currently works in association with the Natural Science Museum in Madrid.
Go to Profile#35276
Pär Hallström
#35288
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Pär Hallström is a Swedish legal writer and professor emeritus of Law at Umeå University. He graduated from Pantheon-Sorbonne University with a Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures and holds a doctorate in law from Stockholm University.
Go to Profile#35277
Marianne Simmel
#35289
Overall Influence
1923 - 2010 (87 years)
Marianne Leonore Simmel was a German-American psychologist with a special interest in cognitive neuropsychology. The granddaughter of famed sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel, she was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Jena, Thuringia, Germany, to doctors Hans Eugen Simmel, a professor, and his wife, Else Rose, a pediatrician. She had younger siblings Eva Barbara, Arnold Georg and Gerhard Friedrich. She immigrated to the United States in March 1940 with her family as a stateless refugee and applied for citizenship later that year. The family was initially divided across New York City; the parents stayed at a lodging house while their children lived at various friends' homes.
Go to Profile#35278
Neville Wran
#35290
Overall Influence
1926 - 2014 (88 years)
Neville Kenneth Wran, was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party from 1980 to 1986 and chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1986 to 1991.
Go to Profile#35279
Fred Inglis
#35291
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Frederick Charles Inglis is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sheffield in the UK. Previously Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick, he has been a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and Visiting Fellow Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra.
Go to Profile#35280
Andre Dubus III
#35292
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Andre Dubus III is an American novelist and short story writer. He is a member of the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Early life and education Born in Oceanside, California, to Patricia and Louisiana-born writer Andre Dubus, Dubus grew up in mill towns in the Merrimack River valley along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border with his three siblings: Suzanne, Jeb, and Nicole. His father left his mother for one of his students, leaving his mother to support the family alone, under straitened financial circumstances.
Go to Profile#35281
Vijay Mishra
#35293
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Vijay Chandra Mishra is an academic, author and cultural theorist from Fiji. He is currently a professor at Murdoch University, Australia. Academic and professional career Born in Suva, Fiji on 4 May 1945 to Hari Mishra and Lila Mishra, Vijay was educated at Lelean Memorial School where he completed his Senior Cambridge Higher School Certificate in the First Division. Following this he did his New Zealand University Entrance Examination at Suva Grammar School where he won both the Arts and the History Prize. A British colonial scholarship took him to Victoria University of Wellington and to Christchurch Teachers’ College from which institutions he gained, respectively, a B.A.
Go to Profile#35282
Delia Sherman
#35294
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Cordelia Caroline Sherman , known professionally as Delia Sherman, is an American fantasy writer and editor. Her novel The Porcelain Dove won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Background Sherman attended The Chapin School in New York. She received her B.A. at Vassar College in 1972, her Masters of Arts from Brown University in 1975, and her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1981. She has worked as a lecturer at Boston University from 1978 to 1987 and again from 1989 to 1992; and a reviewer with the Women's Review of Books, the New York Review of Science Fiction, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Review Annual between 1988 and 1989.
Go to Profile#35283
Ariel Fenster
#35295
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Ariel Fenster is a Canadian science educator, chemist, and founding member of McGill University's Office for Science and Society. Fenster lectures extensively in both French and English on topics of health, the environment, and technology. He was a frequent television and radio presenter on science-related subjects.
Go to Profile#35284
Eva Brann
#35296
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Eva T. H. Brann is a former dean and the longest-serving tutor at St. John's College, Annapolis. She is a 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal. Brann was born to a Jewish family in Berlin. She immigrated in 1941 to the United States and received her B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1950, her M.A. in Classics from Yale University in 1951, and her Ph.D. in Archaeology from Yale in 1956. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Middlebury College.
Go to Profile#35285
Richard A. Lutz
#35297
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Richard Arthur Lutz is an American marine biologist and deep-sea oceanographer. He is known for deep-sea research using the Alvin submersible, and is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
Go to Profile#35286
Robert Schimke
#35298
Overall Influence
1932 - 2014 (82 years)
Robert Tod Schimke was an American biochemist and cancer researcher. He was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of a dentist and a homemaker. Schimke obtained an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1954, and an MD degree in 1958.
Go to Profile#35287
Francesca Rossi
#35299
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Francesca Rossi is an Italian computer scientist, currently working at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center as an IBM Fellow and the IBM AI Ethics Global Leader. Education and career She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from the University of Pisa in 1986, and a PhD in computer science from the same university in 1993. After her graduation, she stayed at the University of Pisa as an assistant professor until 1998. She then moved to the University of Padova where she was an associate professor until 2001, and a full professor until 2018. In 2014–2015 she was on sabbatical as a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University.
Go to Profile#35288
Labrinth
#35300
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (37 years)
Timothy Lee McKenzie , better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Labrinth signed as a recording artist with Simon Cowell’s record label Syco Music in 2010, initially collaborating with the English rapper Tinie Tempah. He appeared as a featured artist: uncredited on the single "Pass Out", but later officially on "Frisky"; then he released his first solo single, "Let the Sun Shine" in September. All three songs peaked in the top five on the UK Singles Chart.
Go to Profile#35289
Long Yifei
#35301
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Long Yifei is the Associate Dean of Renmin University of China Law School, expert on civil law. Biography Long was born in Liaoning in 1959. He received his LL.B. degree from Jilin University Department of Law, LL.M. and LL.D degrees from Renmin University of China Department of Law in 1985 and 1991.
Go to Profile#35290
Christopher Winship
#35302
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Christopher Winship is Diker-Tishman Professor of sociology at Harvard University, and principal of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard. He is best known for his contributions to quantitative methods in sociology and, since 1995, has served as editor of Sociological Methods and Research. He received the 2006 Paul Lazarsfeld Award from the Methodology Section of the American Sociological Association, which recognizes outstanding contributions over a career to sociological methodology.
Go to Profile#35291
Jost Gippert
#35303
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Jost Gippert is a German linguist, Caucasiologist, author, and professor for Comparative Linguistics at the Institute of Empirical Linguistics at the Goethe University of Frankfurt. Professional history In 1972, Gippert graduated from the Leibniz-Gymnasium in Essen, Germany. Having studied Comparative Linguistics, Indology, Japanese studies, and Chinese studies from 1972 to 1977 at the University of Marburg and the Free University of Berlin, he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1977 on the basis of his work on the syntax of infinitival formations in the Indo-European languages. From 1977 to 1990, he worked as a research fellow and held lectures at the universities of Berlin, Vienna and Salzburg.
Go to Profile#35292
Perez Hilton
#35304
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. , known professionally as Perez Hilton, is an American blogger, columnist, and media personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities, and for posting tabloid photos over which he has added his own captions or "doodles". His blog has garnered controversy for its attitude, its former practice of outing alleged closeted celebrities, and its role in the increasing coverage of celebrities in all forms of media.
Go to Profile#35293
Scott Litt
#35305
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Scott Warren Litt is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most successful period.
Go to Profile#35294
Lewis M. Branscomb
#35306
Overall Influence
1926 - 2023 (97 years)
Lewis McAdory Branscomb was an American physicist, government policy advisor, and corporate research manager. He was best known for being head of the National Bureau of Standards and, later, chief scientist of IBM; and as a prolific writer on science policy issues.
Go to Profile#35295
Vine Deloria Jr.
#35307
Overall Influence
1933 - 2005 (72 years)
Vine Victor Deloria Jr. was an author, theologian, historian, and activist for Native American rights. He was widely known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto , which helped attract national attention to Native American issues in the same year as the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement. From 1964 to 1967, he served as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, increasing its membership of tribes from 19 to 156. Beginning in 1977, he was a board member of the National Museum of the American Indian, which now has buildings in both New York City and in Washi...
Go to Profile#35296
Carlos Cordon-Cardo
#35308
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Carlos Cordon-Cardo is a Spanish-born American physician and scientist known for his research in experimental pathology and molecular oncology. He holds the "Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given" Chair in Pathology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Go to Profile#35297
Roger Matthews
#35309
Overall Influence
1948 - 2020 (72 years)
Roger Matthews , was a British criminologist. He was a Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom. Prior to joining the University of Kent, he was a professor of criminology at London South Bank University and Middlesex University.
Go to Profile#35298
Justin C. Reed
#35310
Overall Influence
#35299
Petr Pravec
#35311
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Petr Pravec is a Czech astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets, born in Třinec, Czech Republic. Pravec is a prolific discoverer of binary asteroids, expert in photometric observations and rotational lightcurves at Ondřejov Observatory. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery and co-discovery of 350 numbered minor planets, and is leading the effort of a large consortium of stations called "BinAst" to look for multiplicity in the near-Earth objects and inner main-belt populations.
Go to Profile#35300
Archon Fung
#35312
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Archon Fung , is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Democracy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and co-founder of the Transparency Policy Project. Fung served as an assistant professor of public policy at the Kennedy School from July 1999–June 2004, then as an associate professor of public policy at the Kennedy School from July 2004–October 2007, and finally as a professor of public policy from October 2007–March 2009 before being named as the Ford Foundation Chair of Democracy and Citizenship in March 2009. In 2015, he was elected to the Common Caus...
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