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
#37201
Jim Bennett
#37213
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
James Arthur "Jim" Bennett, was a museum curator and historian of science. Bennett's interests lay in the history of practical mathematics from the 16th century to the 18th century, scientific instrumentss and astronomy.
Go to Profile#37202
Richard M. Goody
#37214
Overall Influence
1921 - 2023 (102 years)
Richard Mead Goody was a British-American atmospheric physicist and professor of planetary physics at Harvard University. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 1970. Early life and education A native of Hertfordshire, Goody attended Cambridge University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in physics in 1942. He then worked at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment until October 1946, when he returned to Cambridge to receive his PhD, doing so in 1949. While there, he was instructed to build an infrared spectrometer for use in an airplane to measure stratospheric dryness.
Go to Profile#37203
Jo Ann Rooney
#37215
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Jo Ann Rooney is an American educator with a background in higher education, law, business, health care, and public service. On May 23, 2016, she was named the 24th president of Loyola University Chicago, a Jesuit, Catholic university in Chicago, Illinois. Rooney is the first lay, non-Jesuit president of the university in its history and began her term as president on August 1, 2016. On August 23, 2021, she announced in a statement that the current school year will be her last as President of the University. Dr. Rooney's tenure at Loyola ended on September 30, 2022.
Go to Profile#37204
Kevin Desouza
#37216
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Kevin C. Desouza is an Indian American academic. He is an ASU Foundation professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University and is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 2012 to 2016 he served as Associate Dean for Research at the College of Public Service & Community Solutions.
Go to Profile#37205
Stanisław Koziej
#37217
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Stanisław Marian Koziej is a Polish brigadier general, military science professor, and public official who served as the Head of the National Security Bureau from 2010 to 2015. Biography Koziej was educated at the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale and at the NATO Defense College. He holds a doctorate and a habilitation. Since 1990 Koziej is a professor of military science.
Go to Profile#37206
Tove Lo
#37218
Overall Influence
1987 - Present (39 years)
Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson , known professionally as Tove Lo , is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She has been called "Sweden's darkest pop export" by Rolling Stone. She is known for her raw, grunge-influenced take on pop music. Out referred to her autobiographical lyrical content as making her "the saddest girl in Sweden".
Go to Profile#37207
Charles Wilson
#37219
Overall Influence
1909 - 2002 (93 years)
Sir Charles Haynes Wilson was a Scottish political scientist and university administrator. As Principal of University College Leicester, he led the institution to university status in 1957 and served as the first Vice-Chancellor of the new University of Leicester, before becoming Principal of the University of Glasgow in 1961.
Go to Profile#37208
Jean-Pierre Willem
#37220
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Jean-Pierre Willem, born 24 May 1938 at Sedan, France, is a doctor and founder of Médecins Aux Pieds Nus. He led numerous humanitarian missions to help victims of catastrophes and conflicts. Willem also was a doctor of medicine and president of Organic Union International.
Go to Profile#37209
Cao Wenxuan
#37221
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Cao Wenxuan is a Chinese novelist, best known for his works of children's literature. Cao is the vice president of the Beijing Writers Association. He is also a professor and doctoral tutor at Peking University. His novels have been translated into English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Serbian.
Go to Profile#37210
Jiří Weiss
#37222
Overall Influence
1913 - 2004 (91 years)
Jiří Weiss was a Czech film director, screenwriter, writer, playwright and pedagogue. Life Early life Jiří Weiss was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Prague. His father was a Czech patriot and named his son after Czech king Jiří of Poděbrady. His parents were Emil Weiss and Martha Weissová . Emil Weiss owned a liqueur factory in Libeň district. Since his youth, Jiří was an staunch communist, which was at the heart of disputes with his capitalist parents. As a young boy he was friends with Franz Kafka's niece Marianne Pollaková and thanks to her he was able to read the books of then-unknow...
Go to Profile#37211
Lucy Allais
#37223
Overall Influence
Lucy Allais is a philosopher who holds academic positions at both the University of the Witwatersrand and Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include the philosophy of Immanuel Kant as well as forgiveness, punishment, and bioethics.
Go to Profile#37212
Peter Staats
#37224
Overall Influence
Peter Sean Staats is an American physician, specializing in interventional pain medicine. He is the founder of the Division of Pain Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and was the Division's chief for nearly a decade. He is a past president of the North American Neuromodulation Society, the New Jersey Society of Interventional Pain Medicine,the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians the World Institute of Pain , The Southern Pain Society.
Go to Profile#37213
Ellen Ueberschär
#37225
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Ellen Ueberschär is a German Evangelical Theologian. Early life and education Ueberschär was born in 1967 in East Berlin where she also grew up. After finishing school she intended to study medicine, yet the East German authorities refused permission. In 1988 she began to study theology at the Sprachenkonvikt Berlin. After reunification she continued her studies at Heidelberg University as well as in Berlin, graduating in 1995.
Go to Profile#37214
Megan Mullally
#37226
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Megan Mullally is an American actress, singer, and comedian. She is best known for playing Karen Walker in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace , for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning twice, in 2000 and 2006. She also received nominations for numerous other accolades for her portrayal, including seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, winning three times, in 2001, 2002, and 2003, as well as receiving four Golden Globe Award nomination...
Go to Profile#37215
Virgilio Elizondo
#37227
Overall Influence
1935 - 2016 (81 years)
Virgilio P. Elizondo was a Mexican-American Catholic priest and community activist, who was also a leading scholar of liberation theology and Hispanic theology. He was widely regarded as "the father of U.S. Latino religious thought."
Go to Profile#37216
E. A. Johnson
#37228
Overall Influence
Edward A. Johnson is a Canadian ecologist. His research focuses on the contact between geosciences and ecology. Johnson is currently a professor of biological sciences at the University of Calgary, located in Alberta. He was formerly the director of the Biogeoscience Institute at the university, which promotes research in the Canadian rockies and surrounding areas, where he is involved in research programs.
Go to Profile#37217
Ralf Wagner
#37229
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Ralf Wagner is a German university professor for administration in the field of business science at the University of Kassel. Since 2006 he has been the chair of the SVI Endowed Chair for International Direct Marketing there.
Go to Profile#37218
Hans Georg Bock
#37230
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Hans Georg Bock is a German university professor for mathematics and scientific computing. He has served as managing director of Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing of Heidelberg University from 2005 to 2017. Before this, he had been vice managing director from 1993 to 2004. Hans Georg Bock is a member of the European Mathematical Society's committee for developing countries and responsible member for the region of Asia therein.
Go to Profile#37219
Jason Reitman
#37231
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Jason R. Reitman is a Canadian-American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films Thank You for Smoking , Juno , Up in the Air , Young Adult and Ghostbusters: Afterlife . He has received one Grammy Award, one Golden Globe and four Academy Award nominations, two of which are for Best Director. Reitman is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. He is the son of director Ivan Reitman, and known for frequently collaborating with screenwriter Diablo Cody.
Go to Profile#37220
Vanessa Northington Gamble
#37232
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Vanessa Northington Gamble is a physician who chaired the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee in 1996. Early life and education Born in West Philadelphia, Gamble was primarily raised by her maternal grandmother. She attended Philadelphia High School for Girls and graduated in 1970, then studied medical sociology and biology at Hampshire College, graduating with her bachelor's degree in 1974. Gamble then attended medical school and graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, earning her M.D. in 1983 and her Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science in 1987. She completed her gr...
Go to Profile#37221
Peter Wright
#37233
Overall Influence
Peter Edwin Wright is a scientist, an NMR spectroscopist and a professor at the Scripps Research Institute. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Molecular Biology. Education and early life Wright is from New Zealand and studied at the University of Auckland. He graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree followed by a Master of Science degree in 1969. He completed his PhD in chemistry in 1972 with a thesis on the physico-chemical properties of metal ion sites in cuproproteins: an investigation of selected copper complexes.
Go to Profile#37222
Deborah Charlesworth
#37234
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Deborah Charlesworth is a population geneticist from the UK, notable for her important discoveries in population genetics and evolutionary biology. Her most notable research is in understanding the evolution of recombination, sex chromosomes and mating system for plants.
Go to Profile#37223
Dick Smith
#37235
Overall Influence
1922 - 2014 (92 years)
Richard Emerson Smith was an American special make-up effects artist and author, known for his work on such films as Little Big Man, The Godfather, The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, Scanners and Death Becomes Her. He won a 1985 Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work on Amadeus and received a 2012 Academy Honorary Award for his career's work.
Go to Profile#37224
Edna Andrews
#37236
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Edna Andrews is an American scholar and the Nancy & Jeffrey Marcus Distinguished Professor of Slavic & Eurasian Studies at Duke University and holds an honorary doctorate by St. Petersburg State University. Her current concerns are second language education.
Go to Profile#37225
Egor Popov
#37237
Overall Influence
1913 - 2001 (88 years)
Egor Pavlovich Popov was a structural and seismic engineer who helped transform the design of buildings, structures, and civil engineering around earthquake-prone regions. A relative of inventor Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Egor Popov was born in Kiev, Russian Empire and after moving to the United States of America in 1927, he eventually earned a B.S. from UC Berkeley, his master's degree from MIT and his doctorate degree from Stanford in 1946.
Go to Profile#37226
Rick Lowe
#37238
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Rick Lowe is a Houston-based artist and community organizer, whose Project Row Houses is considered an important example of social-practice art. In 2014, he was among the 21 people awarded a MacArthur "genius" fellowship.
Go to Profile#37227
John Semple Galbraith
#37239
Overall Influence
1916 - 2003 (87 years)
John Semple Galbraith was a British Empire historian concentrating on Canada and South and East Africa. He served as chancellor of the University of California San Diego, from 1964 to 1968. He was a native of Glasgow; his family emigrated to the United States in 1926. He received a BA from Miami University in Ohio in 1938, and Ph.D. in 1943 at the University of Iowa, working under his dissertation adviser, C. W. de Kiewiet. He served as an Army historical officer for the Third Air Force until 1946, and assumed a professorship at UCLA in 1948.
Go to Profile#37228
Jayanta Kumar Ghosh
#37240
Overall Influence
1937 - 2017 (80 years)
Jayanta Kumar Ghosh was an Indian statistician, an emeritus professor at Indian Statistical Institute and a professor of statistics at Purdue University. Education He obtained a B.S. from Presidency College, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta, and subsequently a M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Calcutta under the supervision of H. K. Nandi. He started his research career in the early 1960s, studying sequential analysis as a graduate student in the department of statistics at the University of Calcutta.
Go to Profile#37229
Andrzej Siemieniewski
#37241
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Andrzej Siemieniewski is the Polish Roman Catholic bishop of Legnica . Biography Early life Andrzej Henryk Siemieniewski was born in Wrocław, the son of Henryk and Teresa, née Hofman. He attended the Second High School in Wroclaw, where he graduated in 1976.
Go to Profile#37230
David S. Adams
#37242
Overall Influence
David S. Adams is a Professor of Biology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Education In 1974, Adams received his BS in physiology from Oklahoma State University.In 1976, he obtained his MS in Biophysical Sciences from the University of Houston.In 1979, he obtained his PhD Molecular Biology from the University of Texas.From 1979 to 1984 Adams received his Postdoc in Molecular Biology from Rockefeller University, New York City.
Go to Profile#37231
David P. McAllester
#37243
Overall Influence
1916 - 2006 (90 years)
David Park McAllester was an American ethnomusicologist and Professor of Anthropology and Music at Wesleyan University, where he taught from 1947–1986. He contributed to the development of the field of ethnomusicology through his studies of Navajo and Comanche musics, and he helped to establish the ethnomusicology department and the World Music Program at Wesleyan. His recordings of Navajo and Comanche music led to the establishment of the World Music Archives at the University.
Go to Profile#37232
Itamar Singer
#37244
Overall Influence
1946 - 2012 (66 years)
Itamar Singer was an Israeli author and historian of Jewish-Romanian origin. He is known for his research of the Ancient Near East and as a leading Hittitologist, pioneering the study of this ancient Anatolians culture in Israel and elucidating the tensions which brought about its demise.
Go to Profile#37233
Allison Mack
#37245
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Allison Christin Mack is an American actress. She played Chloe Sullivan on the superhero series Smallville and had a recurring role on the comedy series Wilfred . Mack was a member of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company widely described as a cult. In 2018 she was arrested by federal authorities on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy related to her involvement in NXIVM and its subgroup, DOS. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy charges and in 2021 was sentenced to three years in prison. She served 21 months in Federa...
Go to Profile#37234
Rodney S. Ruoff
#37246
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Rodney S. "Rod" Ruoff is an American physical chemist and nanoscience researcher. He is one of the world experts on carbon materials including carbon nanostructures such as fullerenes, nanotubes, graphene, diamond, and has had pioneering discoveries on such materials and others. Ruoff received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and his Ph.D. in chemical physics at the University of Illinois-Urbana . After a Fulbright Fellowship at the MPI fuer Stroemungsforschung in Goettingen, Germany and postdoctoral work at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center , Ruoff became a staff scientist in the Molecular Physics Laboratory at SRI International .
Go to Profile#37235
David G. Victor
#37247
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
David G. Victor is a professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego, where he holds the Center for Global Transformation Endowed Chair in Innovation and Public Policy.
Go to Profile#37236
Mahlon Hoagland
#37248
Overall Influence
1921 - 2009 (88 years)
Mahlon Bush Hoagland was an American biochemist who discovered transfer RNA , the translator of the genetic code. Biography Early life Mahlon Bush Hoagland was born in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. in 1921 to Hudson Hoagland and Anna Hoagland. Hudson was an American physiologist who was known for co-founding the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology with Gregory Pincus. He graduated from The Hill School in 1940 and attended Williams College, and in 1948 received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School with intentions of becoming a pediatric surgeon. After a bout with tuberculosis, Hoaglan...
Go to Profile#37237
Robert E. Dickinson
#37249
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
Robert Earl Dickinson is an American meteorologist and geoscientist. Dickinson studied chemistry and physics at Harvard University with a bachelor's degree completed in 1961. As a graduate student, he studied meteorology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master's degree in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1966. After being a researcher at MIT, he joined in 1968 the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. There, he co-created the Roble–Dickinson–Ridley, the first general circulation model of the thermosphere; eventually, he became in 1975 head of the climate division and in 1981 Deputy Director of the Climate and Global Dynamics Division.
Go to Profile#37238
Norman Davidson
#37250
Overall Influence
1916 - 2002 (86 years)
Norman Ralph Davidson was an American molecular biologist notable for advancing genome research, member of the National Academy of Sciences, received a National Medal of Science from U.S. President Bill Clinton, was a professor at Caltech. The New York Times called Davidson "major figure in advancing genome research ... whose groundbreaking work in molecular biology led to the earliest understanding of the overall structure of genomes". The Los Angeles Times called him "a groundbreaking Caltech chemical biologist". President Bill Clinton cited the scientist for "breakthroughs in chemistry a...
Go to Profile#37239
Zena Cardman
#37251
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Zena Maria Cardman is an American geobiologist and NASA astronaut. Early life and education Cardman was born on October 26, 1987. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in biology, minored in chemistry and marine sciences, and wrote an honors thesis in creative writing.
Go to Profile#37240
Elena Likhovtseva
#37252
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva is a Kazakhstani-born Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992, at the age of 16. Together with Mahesh Bhupathi she won the Wimbledon mixed-doubles championship in 2002, and the Australian Open mixed-doubles championship with Daniel Nestor in 2007.
Go to Profile#37241
Ole Martin Moen
#37253
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Ole Martin Moen is a Norwegian philosopher who works primarily with applied ethics and value theory. He is Professor of Ethics at Oslo Metropolitan University and Researcher in Philosophy and Principal Investigator for the 5-year research project "What should not be bought and sold?" at the University of Oslo, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Go to Profile#37242
Izabella Łaba
#37254
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Izabella Łaba is a Polish-Canadian mathematician, a professor of mathematics at the University of British Columbia. Her main research specialties are harmonic analysis, geometric measure theory, and additive combinatorics.
Go to Profile#37243
Antonio Millán-Puelles
#37255
Overall Influence
1921 - 2005 (84 years)
Antonio Millán-Puelles was a Spanish philosopher interested in phenomenology and metaphysics, who published many books and articles. He discovered his vocation to philosophy when he read Husserl’s Logical Investigations and abandoned the medical studies he had just begun.
Go to Profile#37244
Vladimir Lefebvre
#37256
Overall Influence
1936 - 2020 (84 years)
Vladimir Alexandrovich Lefebvre was a mathematical psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. He created equations to predict the large-scale consequences of individual actions. Among the parameters in the equations are the self image of the individual and the action as perceived via this self-image. The result is a number expressing the probability that the individual in question will perform a specific action.
Go to Profile#37245
Arie Rip
#37257
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Arie Rip is a Dutch professor emeritus of Philosophy of Science and Technology. Career During 1988–1989 he was the President of the international Society for Social Studies of Science. From 2000 until 2005 he was the head of WTMC, the Netherlands Graduate School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture. The WTMC is a formal collaboration of Dutch researchers studying the development of science, technology and modern culture. In 2006 Rip formally retired as the Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Twente, a position he held since 1987. He has published extens...
Go to Profile#37246
Pedro Cruz Villalón
#37258
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Pedro Cruz Villalón is a Spanish jurist who served as an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. He was chief justice of the Constitutional Court of Spain . Cruz Villalón was awarded Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía in 2001.
Go to Profile#37247
Brian O. Murdoch
#37259
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Brian Oliver Murdoch is a British philologist who is Emeritus Professor of German at the University of Stirling. He specializes in the study of early Germanic and Celtic literature, on which he has authored and edited several influential works.
Go to Profile#37248
Billy Sims
#37260
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Billy Ray Sims is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League for five seasons during the 1980s. Sims played college football for the University of Oklahoma, where he was a two-time consensus All-American, and won the Heisman Trophy in 1978. He was the first overall pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the NFL's Detroit Lions.
Go to Profile#37249
Sundaram Thangavelu
#37261
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
S. Thangavelu is an Indian mathematician who specialised in harmonic analysis. He is a professor in the Department of Mathematics of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. After obtaining an MSc degree from Madras University in 1980, Thangavelu moved to Princeton University and obtained the PhD degree in 1987 from there under the supervision of Elias Stein. He returned to India and worked at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research until 1993 when he moved to Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore. In 2005, he shifted to Indian Institute of Science and continues there as Professor in the D...
Go to Profile#37250
Andreas Aarflot
#37262
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Andreas Aarflot is a Norwegian theologian and bishop emeritus in the Church of Norway. He was bishop of Oslo from 1977 to 1998. Early life Aarflot was born in Yiyang, China where his mother and father served the Norwegian Missionary Society in the Hunan province. Aarflot earned his cand.theol. from MF Norwegian School of Theology and dr.theol. from University of Oslo . Furthermore, he has studied in Heidelberg, England and the United States, has an honorary doctor's degree from St. Olaf College and is an honorary member of Finska kyrkohistoriska sälllskapet .
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