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
#35401
Howard Green
#35413
Overall Influence
1925 - 2015 (90 years)
Howard Green was an American scientist, and George Higginson Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. He was the first to culture human cells in a laboratory setting for therapeutic use. He is one of the founding fathers of stem-cell research and regenerative medicine. One famous case involving Doctor Green concerned Jamie and Glenn Selby, two children from Wyoming who were burned over 95% of their bodies. Green cut small patches of undamaged skin from the boys, grew them in a lab and was able to harvest skin grafts to cover their burns.
Go to Profile#35402
Rubén Gallo
#35414
Overall Influence
Rubén Gallo is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor in Language, Literature, and Civilization of Spain at Princeton University, specializing in modern and contemporary Spanish America. He also serves as Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures, and has directed Princeton's program in Latin American Studies since 2008. He holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University.
Go to Profile#35403
Becky Hammon
#35415
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Rebecca Lynn Hammon is a Russian-American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association . She previously served as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association . A three-time All-American basketball player for the Colorado State Rams, Hammon went on to play for the San Antonio Stars and New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association and for several other teams outside the United States. Hammon was born and raised in the United States, but she be...
Go to Profile#35404
Courtney Fitzhugh
#35416
Overall Influence
Courtney D. Fitzhugh is an American hematologist-oncologist and scientist. She is a clinical researcher and head of the laboratory of early sickle cell mortality prevention at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Go to Profile#35405
John Ochsendorf
#35417
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
John Ochsendorf is an American educator, structural engineer, and historian of construction; he is a professor in the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is widely known for becoming a MacArthur Fellow in 2008 He served as the Director of the American Academy in Rome from 2017 to 2020. In 2022, he was appointed the founding director of the newly created MIT Morningside Academy for Design.
Go to Profile#35406
Michael Rose
#35418
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
General Sir Hugh Michael Rose, , often known as Sir Mike Rose, is a retired British Army general. As well as Special Air Service Regiment commanding officer, he was Commander UNPROFOR Bosnia in 1994 during the Yugoslav Wars.
Go to Profile#35407
Alessandro Figà Talamanca
#35419
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Alessandro Figà Talamanca was an Italian mathematician who had been given several prestigious tasks, both in Italy and abroad. Several times, he took part in managing the Italian University system and shared his opinions in newspapers, such as La Repubblica. He was a close friend of Carlo Pucci, a mathematician who spent most of his energy in improving the method of teaching maths in Italy, and the management of Italian Maths Departments. From 1995 to 2003, Figà Talamanca, successor to Pucci, was President of the Istituto, and he continued what Pucci had set up. He was also Vice-President of...
Go to Profile#35408
Joey Harrington
#35420
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
John Joseph Harrington Jr. is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League for seven seasons, primarily with the Detroit Lions. He played college football at the University of Oregon, where he was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year as a senior, and was selected third overall by the Lions in the 2002 NFL Draft. Unable to duplicate his collegiate success, Harrington left the Lions after four seasons. Harrington spent his final three seasons as the primary starter for the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons and a backup with the New Orleans Saints.
Go to Profile#35409
John Magufuli
#35421
Overall Influence
1959 - 2021 (62 years)
John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was the fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021. He served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015 and was chairman of the Southern African Development Community from 2019 to 2020.
Go to Profile#35410
Kristen Stewart
#35422
Overall Influence
1990 - Present (36 years)
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Go to Profile#35411
Nancy Ezer
#35423
Overall Influence
1947 - 2022 (75 years)
Nancy Ezer was a scholar, critic of Hebrew literature, author, and Senior Lecturer in Hebrew in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. Education She earned her B.A. from Tel Aviv University as well as a teaching certificate. She received her master's degree in 1983 and her PhD in Hebrew literature, also from UCLA in 1987.
Go to Profile#35412
Jeffrey Hunker
#35424
Overall Influence
1957 - 2013 (56 years)
Jeffrey Hunker was an American cyber security consultant and writer. Biography Hunker received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College and Ph.D. from Harvard Business School. He joined the Boston Consulting Group before becoming an advisor in the Department of Commerce and the founding director of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office . This led him to serve on the National Security Council as the Senior Director for Critical Infrastructure.
Go to Profile#35413
Anne Holton
#35425
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Anne Bright Holton is an American lawyer and judge who served as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 to 2016. She is married to United States Senator and former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the vice presidential running mate of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Go to Profile#35414
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
#35426
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham is a professor of Afro-American Studies, African American Religion and the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard University. Higginbotham wrote Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church: 1880–1920, which won several awards. She has also received several awards for her work, most notably the 2014 National Humanities Medal.
Go to Profile#35415
Stephan Jenkins
#35427
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Stephan Douglas Jenkins is an American singer, guitarist, and the frontman of the alternative rock band Third Eye Blind. He began his musical career in 1992 as part of the short-lived rap duo Puck and Natty, alongside Detroit rapper Herman Anthony Chunn. Following the breakup of the duo, Jenkins and guitarist Kevin Cadogan formed Third Eye Blind in 1993. The band released their eponymous debut studio album in 1997, which went multi-platinum in the United States. Since then, they have released nine more albums: Blue , Out of the Vein , Ursa Major , Dopamine , We Are Drugs , Thanks for Everything , Screamer , Our Bande Apart , and Unplugged .
Go to Profile#35416
Denny Hamlin
#35428
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (46 years)
James Dennis Alan Hamlin is an American professional stock car racing driver and NASCAR team owner. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing as well as part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also co-owns and operates 23XI Racing, another NASCAR Cup Series team, with basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.
Go to Profile#35417
Pierre Hassner
#35429
Overall Influence
1933 - 2018 (85 years)
Pierre Hassner was a geopolitologist and philosopher naturalized Romanian French. He was director of research emeritus at Center for International Studies and Research and at the Paris Institute of Political Studies . He has also taught at the European Center at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna.
Go to Profile#35418
David L. Dill
#35430
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
David Lansing Dill is a computer scientist and academic noted for contributions to formal verification, electronic voting security, and computational systems biology. In 2013, Dill was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for the development of techniques to verify hardware, software, and electronic voting systems.
Go to Profile#35419
Noel Edmonds
#35431
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Noel Ernest Edmonds is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK, presenting the breakfast show for almost five years. He has presented various radio shows and light-entertainment television programmes for 50 years, originally working for the BBC, later Sky UK and Channel 4.
Go to Profile#35420
Tashi Tsering
#35432
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Serme Khen Rinpoche Geshe Tashi Tsering BEM is abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University in India. From 1994 to 2018, he was the resident Tibetan Buddhist teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London. Tsering was born in Purang, Tibet in 1958, and his parents escaped to India in 1959. He entered Sera Mey Monastic University in South India when he was 13 years old, and graduated with a Lharampa Geshe degree 16 years later. Geshe Tashi then entered the Higher Tantric College for a year of study.
Go to Profile#35421
Marko Snoj
#35433
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Marko Snoj is a Slovenian Indo-Europeanist, Slavist, Albanologist, lexicographer, and etymologist employed at the Fran Ramovš Institute for Slovene Language of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He served as director of the institute from 2008 to 2018. He has made numerous scholarly contributions to Indo-European linguistics, particularly in the realms of Slovene and Albanian, and is noted for his work in advancing Slavic etymology in both scholarly and popular domains. He is a full fellow of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences a...
Go to Profile#35422
Paul Marks
#35434
Overall Influence
1926 - 2020 (94 years)
Paul Alan Marks was a medical doctor, researcher and administrator. He was a faculty member and president at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Background Marks was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, in 1926, to Robert Marks and Sarah Bohorad. Marks attended Columbia College and Columbia Medical School. After completing postdoctoral research at the United States National Institutes of Health and at the Institut Pasteur in France, he joined the faculty at Columbia University. Marks served as dean of the Medical Faculty at Columbia University from 1970 to 1973. He was president and chief executive officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 1980 until 1999.
Go to Profile#35423
Xiaohong Rose Yang
#35435
Overall Influence
Xiaohong Rose Yang is an American biomedical scientist researching the genetics of dysplastic nevus syndrome and chordoma, and etiologic heterogeneity of breast cancer. She is a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Yang leads breast cancer studies in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
Go to Profile#35424
Joe Lutkenhaus
#35436
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Joe Lutkenhaus is a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He received a B.S. in organic chemistry from Iowa state University and then a PhD in biochemistry for the University of California, Los Angeles. Following his PhD, Lutkenhaus pursued his postdoctoral studies with William Donachie at the University of Edinburgh and then continued at the University of Connecticut Health Science center. In 2002, Lutkenhaus became a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Go to Profile#35425
Jack P. Greene
#35437
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Jack Philip Greene is an American historian, specializing in Colonial American history and Atlantic history. Greene was born in Lafayette, Indiana and received his PhD from Duke University in 1956. He spent most of his career as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University’s history department. In 1990-1999 he was a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and he has been a visiting professor at the College of William and Mary, Oxford University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Universi...
Go to Profile#35426
Michael Cohen
#35438
Overall Influence
Michael Cohen is an American pharmacist, and president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices . He was a 2005 MacArthur Fellow. Life He graduated from Temple University with a BS and MS in pharmacy. He has also been awarded honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Thomas Jefferson University, the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and Long Island University, and an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from the University of Maryland. He wrote a column for the journal Hospital Pharmacy. He writes a column for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Go to Profile#35427
Elaine Graham
#35439
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Elaine L. Graham is the Grosvenor Research Professor at the University of Chester. She was until October 2009 the Samuel Ferguson Professor of Social and Pastoral Theology at the University of Manchester. In March 2014, she was installed as Canon Theologian of Chester Cathedral.
Go to Profile#35428
Yan Yunxiang
#35440
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Yunxiang Yan is a Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA. He is known for his field work studies in Xiajia Village, Heilongjiang Province, which locates in the northeastern part of China.
Go to Profile#35429
Joseph Straus
#35441
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Joseph Straus is professor of intellectual property law, former director of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich, Germany, and Chairman of the Managing Board of the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center . According to the Intellectual Asset Management magazine, he is "one of the world's most influential patent scholars." He is member and dean of the Class "Social Sciences, Law and Economics" of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Go to Profile#35430
Max Reinhardt
#35442
Overall Influence
1915 - 2002 (87 years)
Max Reinhardt was a British publisher. He published Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, George Bernard Shaw and Graham Greene. Biography Max Reinhardt was born on 30 November 1915 in Istanbul to Austrian parents. He attended an English High School in Istanbul. His parents set up an import and export business in London which he headed. After the Second World War he took a course in international relations at the London School of Economics. During a bridge game, he met A. S. Frere, who inspired him to change his import and export business into a publishing house. Reinhardt then bought HFL Publishers, a ...
Go to Profile#35431
Robert F. Coleman
#35443
Overall Influence
1954 - 2014 (60 years)
Robert Frederick Coleman was an American mathematician, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Biography After graduating from Nova High School, he completed his bachelor's degree at Harvard University in 1976 and subsequently attended Cambridge University for Part III of the mathematical tripos. While there John H. Coates provided him with a problem for his doctoral thesis , which he completed at Princeton University in 1979 under the advising of Kenkichi Iwasawa. He then had a one-year postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study and then taught at Harvard University for three years.
Go to Profile#35432
Natacha Polony
#35444
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Natacha Polony is a French journalist and essayist. She notably worked on the France 2 television show On n'est pas couché, hosted by Laurent Ruquier, from 2011 until 2014. Since 2018, she is editor-in-chief of the French newspaper Marianne.
Go to Profile#35433
Jakov Brdar
#35445
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Jakov Brdar is a Slovene sculptor of Bosnian descent. He is the author of many public statues and sculptures in Ljubljana. In 1998, he received the Prešeren Fund Award for the sculpture group Pridiga ptičem .
Go to Profile#35434
Wu Zhaohui
#35446
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Wu Zhaohui is a Chinese computer scientist. He is a professor who had served as president of Zhejiang University from 2015 to 2022. He was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017. Early life and education Wu was born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang in December 1966. His father Wu Xuequan was academic director of Wenzhou No. 7 High School. He has a younger sister. He entered Zhejiang University in 1984, where he received his Ph.D. in computer science in 1993.
Go to Profile#35435
Edgar Martínez
#35447
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Edgar Martínez , nicknamed "Gar" and "Papi", is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a designated hitter and third baseman for the Seattle Mariners from 1987 through 2004. He served as the Mariners' hitting coach from 2015 through 2018 and turned into a hitting advisor for them since then.
Go to Profile#35436
Russell Mulcahy
#35448
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Russell Mulcahy is an Australian film director. Mulcahy's work is recognisable by the use of fast cuts, tracking shots and use of glowing lights, neo-noir lighting, windblown drapery, and fans. He directed music videos in the 1980s, worked in television since the early 1990s and directed the films Razorback , Highlander and Resident Evil: Extinction .
Go to Profile#35437
Pete Rock
#35449
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Peter O. Phillips , better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American music producer, DJ and rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongside DJ Premier, RZA, and Q-Tip as one of the mainstays of 1990s East Coast hip hop production. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Early on in his career, he was also famed for his remix work.
Go to Profile#35438
Kensō Soai
#35450
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
is a Japanese organic chemist. He is a university lecturer in the Applied Chemistry Department of Tokyo University of Science. Soai studied at the University of Tokyo, where he received his Ph.D. in 1979 in organic synthesis under Teruaki Mukaiyama and was a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He conducted his postdoctoral studies with Ernest L. Eliel at the University of North Carolina. In 1981, he became a lecturer at Tokyo University of Science, and was promoted to associate professor and full professor .
Go to Profile#35439
Janis Roze
#35451
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (100 years)
Jānis Arnolds Roze, born in Latvia in 1926, is a herpetologist and Professor of Biology Emeritus of City College and Graduate School of the City University of New York. He was professionally associated with the American Museum of Natural History and the United Nations. A founder of the International Center for Integrative Studies, he published several books and narrated several videos on Creative Evolution. He co-edited What Does it Mean to Be Human.
Go to Profile#35440
Asamoah Gyan
#35452
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Asamoah Gyan is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is a former captain of the Ghana national team. Gyan began his career in 2003 with Ghana Premier League club Liberty Professionals scoring ten goals in sixteen matches then spent three seasons with Serie A club Udinese via two seasons loan at Modena netting on fifteen occasions in 53 league matches and at Udinese where he scored 11 times in 39 league matches. In 2008, Gyan joined Ligue 1 club Rennes, netting fourteen times in forty-eight league matches during two seasons. In 2010, Gyan joined Premier League ...
Go to Profile#35441
Angel G. Jordan
#35453
Overall Influence
1930 - 2017 (87 years)
Angel G. Jordan was a Spanish-born American electronics and computer engineer known as the founder of the Software Engineering Institute and co-founder of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and served on its faculty for 55 years, since 2003 as Emeritus. He was instrumental in the formation of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. He has made contributions to technology transfer and institutional development. He served as Dean of Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering and later as the provost of Carnegie Mellon University.
Go to Profile#35442
Don Showalter
#35454
Overall Influence
Donald L. Showalter is a professor emeritus and former chairman of the department of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he attended Saint Xavier High School. Afterwards, he received his bachelor's degree from Eastern Kentucky University in 1964 and his Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Kentucky. He spent one year as a research fellow at Oregon State University's Radiation Center before moving to UWSP in 1971. For a brief time he taught at Iowa Western Community College before returning to UWSP, where he would receive many teaching awards, such as the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents Excellence in Teaching Award in 1994.
Go to Profile#35443
Lester Luborsky
#35455
Overall Influence
1920 - 2009 (89 years)
Lester B. Luborsky was one of the founders of scientific research in psychotherapy. Luborsky was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Philadelphia Central High School and then earned his bachelor's degree at Pennsylvania State University.
Go to Profile#35444
Harvey Brooks
#35456
Overall Influence
1915 - 2004 (89 years)
Harvey Brooks was an American physicist, "a pioneer in incorporating science into public policy", notable for helping to shape national science policies and who served on science advisory committees in the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Brooks was also notable for his contributions to the fundamental theory of semiconductors and the band structure of metals. Brooks was dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences of the Harvard University.
Go to Profile#35445
Nigel Adkins
#35457
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Nigel Howard Adkins is an English professional football manager and former player and physiotherapist. He is currently the manager and technical director at Tranmere Rovers. Adkins played as a goalkeeper for Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic. He finished his playing career and began his managerial career at Welsh club Bangor City before spells at Scunthorpe United and Southampton, where he led both clubs to promotion. His tenure with the latter was noted for taking the Saints from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons.
Go to Profile#35446
Anthony Trewavas
#35458
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Anthony James Trewavas FRS FRSE is Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Edinburgh best known for his research in the fields of plant physiology and molecular biology. His research investigates plant behaviour.
Go to Profile#35447
Paul Young
#35459
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Paul Antony Young is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. His hit singles include "Love of the Common People", "Wherever I Lay My Hat", "Come Back and Stay", "Every Time You Go Away" and "Everything Must Change", all reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. Released in 1983, his debut album, No Parlez, was the first of three UK number-one albums.
Go to Profile#35448
James T. Harris III
#35460
Overall Influence
James T. Harris III is the fourth president of the University of San Diego. Previously, he served as president of Widener University and Defiance College , where he was named one of the top 50 character-building presidents in the United States by the John Templeton Foundation.
Go to Profile#35449
Agnar Sandmo
#35461
Overall Influence
1938 - 2019 (81 years)
Agnar Sandmo was a Norwegian economist at the Norwegian School of Economics . He made a series of important contributions in the study of disparities, redistribution, insurance arrangements and tax systems.
Go to Profile#35450
Hans-Ulrich Schmincke
#35462
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Hans-Ulrich Schmincke is a German volcanologist. Formation Hans-Ulrich Schmincke studied between 1957 and 1964 geology and petrology at different universities in Germany and the USA: Universität Göttingen, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, RWTH Aachen as well as Johns Hopkins University and University of California, Santa Barbara
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