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
#35351
Karen King-Aribisala
#35363
Overall Influence
Karen Ann King-Aribisala is a Nigerian novelist, and short story writer. She is a Professor of English at the University of Lagos. Education She was educated at the International School Ibadan, St. George's British International School, Italy , and the London Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Go to Profile#35352
Jeremy A. Rabkin
#35364
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a professor of law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches constitutional law and international law. Prior to joining the George Mason faculty in 2007, he spent 27 years as a professor of government at Cornell University. He holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Cornell.
Go to Profile#35353
Rainer Schüttler
#35365
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Rainer Schüttler is a German former professional tennis player. Schüttler was the runner-up at the 2003 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. He won an Olympic silver medal in doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 5 in April 2004.
Go to Profile#35354
Vernon Grounds
#35366
Overall Influence
1914 - 2010 (96 years)
Dr. Vernon Carl Grounds was an American theologian, Christian educator, Chancellor of Denver Seminary, and one of the leaders in the development of American evangelicalism. Early life and education Grounds was born July 19, 1914, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the youngest of three children born to John and Bertha Grounds. He studied at Rutgers University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1937, then studied theology at Faith Theological Seminary in Wilmington, Delaware and obtained a Bachelor of Divinity. He was part of a group that included notable evangelical leaders such as Arthur Glasser, Kenneth Kantzer, Joseph Bayly, and Francis Schaeffer.
Go to Profile#35355
John Mallard
#35367
Overall Influence
1927 - 2021 (94 years)
John Rowland Mallard OBE FRSE FREng was an English physicist and professor of Medical Physics at the University of Aberdeen from 1965 until his retirement in 1992. He was known for setting up and leading the team that developed the first magnetic resonance imaging full body scanner and, in particular, positron emission tomography . He was born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, England.
Go to Profile#35356
Katherine Verdery
#35368
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Katherine Verdery is an American anthropologist, author, and emeritus professor, following her tenure as the Julien J. Studley Faculty Scholar and Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York's Graduate Center.
Go to Profile#35357
Maria Sakkari
#35369
Overall Influence
1995 - Present (31 years)
Maria Sakkari is a Greek professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 3 by the WTA , which she first achieved on 21 March 2022, making her the highest-ranked Greek player in history alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas. Her career-best doubles ranking is world No. 169, achieved on 9 September 2019.
Go to Profile#35358
Franklin I. Gamwell
#35370
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Franklin I. Gamwell is a scholar of the philosophy of religion, Christian theology, and philosophical ethics. He is the Shailer Mathews Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Religious Ethics, the Philosophy of Religions, and Theology at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he also has served as dean. He is a Presbyterian minister with a strong interest in democracy and justice.
Go to Profile#35359
Maurício Gugelmin
#35371
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Maurício Gugelmin is a Brazilian former racing driver. He took part in both Formula One and Championship Auto Racing Teams . He participated in 80 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting in for the March team. Gugelmin achieved one top-three finish and scored a total of ten championship points in the series. He competed in CART between 1993 and 2001, starting 147 races. Gugelmin won one race, in 1997 in Vancouver, finishing fourth in the championship that year. His best result in the Indianapolis 500 was in 1995 where he started and finished in sixth position, leading 59 laps. For a period, he held the world speed record for a closed race track, set at California Speedway in 1997 at a speed of .
Go to Profile#35360
Cissy Houston
#35372
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Emily "Cissy" Houston is an American soul and gospel singer. After a successful career singing backup for such artists as Roy Hamilton, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, and Aretha Franklin, Houston embarked on a solo career, winning two Grammy Awards for her work.
Go to Profile#35361
Thomas Joseph Tobin
#35373
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Thomas Joseph Tobin is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was bishop of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island from 2005 to 2023. Tobin previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown in Ohio from 1995 to 2005 and as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania from 1992 to 1995.
Go to Profile#35362
Don Lincoln
#35374
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Don Lincoln is an American physicist, author, host of the YouTube channel Fermilab, and science communicator. He conducts research in particle physics at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and was an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, although he is no longer affiliated with the university. He received a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from Rice University in 1994. In 1995, he was a co-discoverer of the top quark. He has co-authored hundreds of research papers, and more recently, was a member of the team that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.
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Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary
#35375
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary is a scientist in the field of organic chemistry from Pakistan. He is known for his research in various areas relating to natural product chemistry. He has more than 800 research publications. In 2015 he was recognised as the second most productive scientist in Pakistan.
Go to Profile#35364
Jean-François Chevrier
#35376
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Jean-François Chevrier is an art theorist and historian, art critic and exhibition curator. He lives and works in Paris. He is Professor in the History of Contemporary Art at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, after having thought at the Université Paris-Nanterre and Paris VIII.
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Sean Garrett
#35377
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Garrett Robin Hamler , known professionally as Sean Garrett, is an American record producer, rapper, singer and songwriter. He was a credited songwriter for a series of successful R&B and hip hop recordings, beginning with Usher's 2004 single "Yeah!". Garrett would then co-write five other songs that peaked the Billboard Hot 100: "Goodies" for Ciara in 2004, "Check on It" for Beyoncé and "Run It!" for Chris Brown in 2005, "London Bridge" for Fergie and "Grillz" for Nelly in 2006. Additionally, he's written seventeen other singles which peaked on the UK Singles, US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, or Dance Club Songs charts.
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Mary Lewis
#35378
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Mary Lewis is Professor of Bioarchaeology at the University of Reading. After completing a PhD in bioarchaeology at the University of Bradford in 1999, Lewis went on to lecture at Bournemouth University before moving to the University of Reading in 2004. She conducted the first osteological study of a body which has been hanged, drawn, and quartered. Lewis has held editorial roles with the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, International Journal of Paleopathology, and the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.
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Jack A. Apsche
#35379
Overall Influence
1947 - 2014 (67 years)
Jack A. Apsche was an American psychologist who has focused his work on adolescents with behavior problems. Apsche was also an author, artist, presenter, consultant and lecturer. Background and education Apsche was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1967 through 1968 Apsche served as a Helicopter Door Gunner with the First Cavalry Division Airmobile in the Vietnam War and he was highly decorated for his service. After returning from his service in Vietnam, Apsche attended the University of Pittsburgh where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Speech, English, Political Science and a minor in Psychology in 1973.
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Bryan Turner
#35380
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Bryan Stanley Turner is a British and Australian sociologist. He was born in January 1945 in Birmingham, England. Turner has held university appointments in England, Scotland, Australia, Germany, Holland, Singapore and the United States. He was a Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Research Team Leader for the Religion Cluster at the Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore .
Go to Profile#35369
David E. Cooper
#35381
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
David Edward Cooper is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Durham University. Life and work David E. Cooper is a British author and philosopher. He was brought up in Surrey and educated at Highgate School and then St Edmund Hall, Oxford, the University at which he was given his first job in 1967, as a Lecturer in Philosophy. He went on to teach at the universities of Miami, London and Surrey before being appointed, in 1986, as Professor of Philosophy at Durham University – where he remained until retiring in 2008. During his academic career, David was a Visiting Professor at universities in the United States, Canada, Malta, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Go to Profile#35370
Ian Henderson
#35382
Overall Influence
1927 - 2013 (86 years)
Ian Stuart McWalter Henderson, also known as Ian Stewart McWalter Henderson, was a British citizen known for his role in resolving the Mau Mau crisis in Kenya in the late 1950s and for managing the Bahraini General Directorate for State Security Investigations from 1966 to 1998. Henderson was dubbed the "Butcher of Bahrain" due to torture and the numerous human rights violations that were alleged to have taken place under his command there, especially during 1990s uprising in Bahrain.
Go to Profile#35371
Hans Weinberger
#35383
Overall Influence
1928 - 2017 (89 years)
Hans F. Weinberger was an Austrian-American mathematician, known for his contributions to variational methods for eigenvalue problems, partial differential equations, and fluid dynamics. He obtained an M.S. in physics from Carnegie Institute of Technology where he also got his Sc.D. on the thesis Fourier Transforms of Moebius Series advised by Richard Duffin . He then worked at the institute for Fluid Dynamics at University of Maryland, College Park , and as professor at University of Minnesota where he was department head and now is Professor Emeritus . Weinberger was the first director of Institute for Mathematics and its Applications .
Go to Profile#35372
Constantine Dafermos
#35384
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Constantine Michael Dafermos is a Greek-American applied mathematician. He received a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and a Ph.D. in Mechanics from Johns Hopkins University under the direction of Jerald Ericksen . He has been an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and an Associate Professor and Professor in the Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. Since 1984, he has been the Alumni-Alumnae University Professor at Brown.
Go to Profile#35373
Von Miller
#35385
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (37 years)
Vonnie B'VSean Miller is an American football linebacker for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League . Miller played college football at Texas A&M, where he earned consensus All-American honors and the Butkus Award. He was selected by the Denver Broncos second overall in the 2011 NFL Draft.
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Shane Watson
#35386
Overall Influence
1981 - Present (45 years)
Shane Robert Watson is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for and occasionally captained the Australian national cricket team between 2002 and 2016. He was an all-rounder who played as a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. He was ranked as the world's No. 1 all-rounder in Twenty20 Internationals for 150 weeks, including an all-time record of 120 consecutive weeks from 13 October 2011 to 30 January 2014. He began playing during the Australian team's golden era in the early 2000s, and was the last player from this era to retire. In his time p...
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Nikolai Grube
#35387
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Nikolai Grube is a German epigrapher. He was born in Bonn in 1962. Grube entered the University of Hamburg in 1982 and graduated in 1985. His doctoral thesis was published at the same university in 1990. After he received his doctorate, Grube moved to the University of Bonn. Nikolai Grube has been heavily involved in the decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic script.
Go to Profile#35376
Nelson M. Oyesiku
#35388
Overall Influence
Nelson M. Oyesiku is a Nigerian-American professor of neurosurgery and endocrinology. With a specialty in pituitary medicine and surgery, currently, he is the chair of the department of Neurological Surgery and Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. he has been editor-in-chief of Neurosurgery, Operative Neurosurgery, and Neurosurgery Open. He was previously chair of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, among other organizations.
Go to Profile#35377
Antonio Spadaro
#35389
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Antonio Spadaro, SJ is an Italian Jesuit priest, journalist and writer. Career Spadaro has been the editor in chief of the Jesuit-affiliated journal La Civiltà Cattolica since 2011. He is also a consultor to both the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Secretariat for Communications .
Go to Profile#35378
Steve Sansweet
#35390
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Stephen J. Sansweet is the chairman and former president of Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum that houses the world's largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia. Prior to his retirement in April 2011, he was Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Ltd. for 15 years, and remains Fan Relations Advisor for the company. He is author or co-author of eighteen books, sixteen of them about Star Wars.
Go to Profile#35379
David Van Reybrouck
#35391
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
David Grégoire Van Reybrouck is a Belgian cultural historian, archaeologist and author. He writes historical fiction, literary non-fiction, novels, poetry, plays and academic texts. He has received several awards for his works.
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Jason Garrett
#35392
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Jason Calvin Garrett is an American former football player and coach in the National Football League . He played as a quarterback before become a coach. Garrett was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys for seasons from 2010 to 2019.
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Alan Trachtenberg
#35393
Overall Influence
1932 - 2020 (88 years)
Alan Zelick Trachtenberg was an American historian and the Neil Gray Jr. Professor of English and professor emeritus of American Studies at Yale University. Biography Born in Philadelphia, Trachtenberg attended Temple University, and earned his Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, writing his dissertation on the Brooklyn Bridge in American literature.
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Eric Kripke
#35394
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Eric Kripke is an American writer and television producer. He came to prominence as the creator of the fantasy drama series Supernatural which aired on The CW. He served as the showrunner during the first five seasons of the series. Since then he has created and/or produced a number of television series including the post-apocalyptic drama series Revolution , the science fiction series Timeless , the superhero series The Boys and its spin-off Gen V .
Go to Profile#35383
Allan R. Wagner
#35395
Overall Influence
1934 - 2018 (84 years)
Allan R. Wagner was an American experimental psychologist and learning theorist, whose work focused upon the basic determinants of associative learning and habituation. He co-authored the influential Rescorla–Wagner model of Pavlovian conditioning as well as the Standard Operating Procedures or "Sometimes Opponent Process" theory of associative learning , the Affective Extension of SOP and the Replaced Elements Model of configural representation . His research involved extensive study of the conditioned eyeblink response of the rabbit, of which he was one of the initial investigators .
Go to Profile#35384
Thomas P. Stossel
#35396
Overall Influence
1941 - 2019 (78 years)
Thomas P. Stossel was an American hematologist, inventor, medical researcher, and writer that discovered gelsolin, and invented the BioAegis technology estate. He was also a professor emeritus of medicine at Harvard Medical School and professor emeritus of clinical research at the American Cancer Society. He was Chief Scientific Advisor to BioAegis Therapeutics Inc., a clinical stage biotech company developing a non-immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory with potential to address a wide range of infectious, inflammatory and degenerative diseases. He is the holder of more than 50 patents and had authored more than 300 papers, studies, and reviews.
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Irene Schloss
#35397
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Irene R. Schloss is an Antarctic researcher, best known for her work on plankton biology. She is a researcher at the Argentine Antarctic Institute and was a correspondent researcher of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina until July 2017. She became an independent researcher since August 2017 and an associate professor at the University of Quebec.
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Bloeme Evers-Emden
#35398
Overall Influence
1926 - 2016 (90 years)
Bloeme Evers-Emden was a Dutch lecturer and child psychologist who extensively researched the phenomenon of "hidden children" during World War II and wrote four books on the subject in the 1990s. Her interest in the topic grew out of her own experiences during World War II, when she was forced to go into hiding from the Nazis and was subsequently arrested and deported to Auschwitz on the last transport leaving the Westerbork transit camp on 3 September 1944. Together with her on the train were Anne Frank and her family, whom she had known in Amsterdam. She was liberated on 8 May 1945.
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Dušan Ivković
#35399
Overall Influence
1943 - 2021 (78 years)
Dušan "Duda" Ivković was a Serbian professional basketball player and coach. He served as head coach of the senior Serbian national basketball team from 2007 to 2013, and of the senior Yugoslavian national basketball team, from 1987 to 1995. He was also the president of the Serbian club BKK Radnički.
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Louis Ducruet
#35400
Overall Influence
1992 - Present (34 years)
Louis Robert Paul Ducruet is the son of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco and Daniel Ducruet. Early life Ducruet grew up in Monaco-Ville. His parents, Princess Stéphanie of Monaco and Daniel Ducruet, were married in 1995, but divorced a year later. For a couple of years, he lived in Auron, France, then he moved with his mother and sisters to the Zurich area. After 2002, he and his mother and sisters returned to live in Monaco.
Go to Profile#35389
Yang Fujia
#35401
Overall Influence
1936 - 2022 (86 years)
Yang Fujia was a Chinese nuclear physicist. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a renowned nuclear physicist and a Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, England. He was President of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China .
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Bill Shorten
#35402
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
William Richard Shorten is an Australian politician and former trade unionist. He is the incumbent Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. Previously, Shorten was leader of the opposition and leader of the Australian Labor Party from 2013 to 2019. A member of parliament for the division of Maribyrnong since 2007, Shorten also held several ministerial portfolios in the Gillard and Rudd governments from 2010 to 2013.
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Horace R. Byers
#35403
Overall Influence
1906 - 1998 (92 years)
Horace Robert Byers was an American meteorologist who pioneered in aviation meteorology, synoptic weather analysis , severe convective storms, cloud physics, and weather modification. Byers is most well known for his work as director of U.S. Weather Bureau's Thunderstorm Project in which, among other things, the modern cell morphology and life cycle of a thunderstorm were established. He is also known for his professional involvement with Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby and Tetsuya Theodore Fujita.
Go to Profile#35392
Laura Linney
#35404
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress. She is the recipient of several awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and five Tony Awards.
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W. Taylor Reveley III
#35405
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Walter Taylor Reveley III is an American legal scholar and former lawyer. He served as the twenty-seventh president of the College of William & Mary. Formerly Dean of its law school from August 1998 to February 2008, Reveley was appointed interim president of William & Mary on February 12, 2008, following Gene Nichol's resignation earlier that day, and was elected the university's 27th president by the Board of Visitors on September 5, 2008. While president, Reveley continued his service as the John Stewart Bryan Professor of Jurisprudence at the law school.
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Gata Kamsky
#35406
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion. Kamsky reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 at the age of 22, and reached a ranking of fourth in the world rankings in 1995. He played almost no FIDE-rated games between 1997 and late 2004.
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John Herivel
#35407
Overall Influence
1918 - 2011 (93 years)
John William Jamieson Herivel was a British science historian and World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park. As a codebreaker concerned with Cryptanalysis of the Enigma, Herivel is remembered chiefly for the discovery of what was soon dubbed the Herivel tip or Herivelismus. Herivelismus consisted of the idea, the Herivel tip and the method of establishing whether it applied using the Herivel square. It was based on Herivel's insight into the habits of German operators of the Enigma cipher machine that allowed Bletchley Park to easily deduce part of the daily key. For a brief but critical per...
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Colwyn Trevarthen
#35408
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Colwyn Trevarthen is Emeritus Professor of Child Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Edinburgh. Background After training as a biologist in New Zealand at Auckland University College and Otago University, Trevarthen researched infancy at Harvard in 1967.
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E. Earle Ellis
#35409
Overall Influence
1926 - 2010 (84 years)
Edward Earle Ellis was an American biblical scholar. Ellis served as Research Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, joining the institution in 1985.
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Johnny Rutherford
#35410
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
John Sherman "Johnny" Rutherford III , also known as "Lone Star JR", is an American former automobile racing driver. During an Indy Car career that spanned more than three decades, he scored 27 wins and 23 pole positions in 314 starts. He became one of six drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 at least three times, winning in 1974, 1976, and 1980. He also won the CART championship in 1980.
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Forrest Gregg
#35411
Overall Influence
1933 - 2019 (86 years)
Alvis Forrest Gregg was an American professional football player and coach. A Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive tackle for 16 seasons in the National Football League , he was a part of six NFL championships, five of them with the Green Bay Packers before closing out his tenure with the Dallas Cowboys with a win in Super Bowl VI. Gregg was later the head coach of three NFL teams , as well as two Canadian Football League teams . He was also a college football coach for the SMU Mustangs.
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Paweł Machcewicz
#35412
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Paweł Mateusz Machcewicz is a Polish historian and university professor. Biography Machcewicz graduated in 1989 from the Department of History at the University of Warsaw. In 1990 he became a research analyst at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1993 Machcewicz defended the doctorate, and in 2000 received a post-doctoral degree in humanities in the field of Political Theories. He was a grant recipient from the Fulbright Foundation of the Georgetown University and from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs among others. In 2009 Machcewicz received a title of the Professor of Humanities at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
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