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
#39201
Greg Ginn
#39213
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Gregory Regis Ginn is an American musician and songwriter, best known for being the leader, primary songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986, and again in 2003. The band announced another reunion in 2013. Since the breakup of Black Flag, Ginn has recorded solo albums, and performed with such bands as October Faction, Gone, Confront James, Mojack, and others. He was 99th on Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Go to Profile#39202
Robert Weinberg
#39214
Overall Influence
1946 - 2016 (70 years)
Robert Edward Weinberg was an American author, editor, publisher, and collector of science fiction. His work spans several genres including non-fiction, science fiction, horror, and comic books. Biography Born in New Jersey in 1946, Weinberg sold his first story in 1967. Most of his writing career was conducted part-time while also owning a bookstore; he became a full-time writer after 1997.
Go to Profile#39203
R. Kent Weaver
#39215
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Kent Weaver is a professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. His focus is on a variety of fields in U.S. political science, including comparative social policy, comparative political institutions, and the politics of expertise. Weaver joined the Georgetown Public Policy Institute in the fall of 2002, after 19 years at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to Brookings, Weaver taught in the Political Science Department at the Ohio State University for several years. He received his B.A. from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in Po...
Go to Profile#39204
Tamara Sher
#39216
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Tamara Goldman Sher, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of Behavioral Medicine and Couples Therapy. Sher was awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health which combined both of these fields in a study measuring the benefits of couples' involvement in cardiac treatment. This grant is part of Sher's work with the National Institute of Health's Behavior Change Consortium. Sher's research has been mentioned in t...
Go to Profile#39205
Janet Lowe
#39217
Overall Influence
1940 - 2019 (79 years)
Janet Celesta Lowe was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. Biography Lowe was born May 15, 1940, in Santa Rosa, California, to Celesta and Deke Lowe. She worked as production assistant or producer for several television stations, usually in their news departments. She then positioned herself as a marketing resource for television stations, preparing regular newsletters, providing web pages and web content, and holding workshops for station workers.
Go to Profile#39206
Spud Webb
#39218
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Anthony Jerome "Spud" Webb is an American former professional basketball player. Webb, who played in the National Basketball Association , is known for winning a Slam Dunk Contest despite being one of the shortest players in NBA history, being listed at tall. He is currently the president of basketball operations for the Texas Legends, the NBA G League team for the Dallas Mavericks in Frisco, Texas.
Go to Profile#39207
Alan Manning
#39219
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Alan Manning is a British economist and professor of economics at the London School of Economics. Manning is one of the leading labour economists globally, having made major contributions to the analysis of the imperfections of labour markets, the minimum wage literature, migration, and job polarization.
Go to Profile#39208
Lloyd Schwartz
#39220
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Lloyd Schwartz is an American poet, and the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was the classical music editor of The Boston Phoenix, a publication that is now defunct. He is Poet Laureate of Somerville, Massachusetts , Senior Music Editor at New York Arts and the Berkshire Review for the Arts, and a regular commentator for NPR's Fresh Air.
Go to Profile#39209
Israel Singer
#39221
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Israel Singer was secretary general of the World Jewish Congress from 1986 to 2007. Life Singer grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Austrian refugees. He teaches political science in Touro University, New York, Lander College for Men, and taught at the Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
Go to Profile#39210
Kemba Walker
#39222
Overall Influence
1990 - Present (36 years)
Kemba Hudley Walker is an American professional basketball player for AS Monaco of the French LNB Pro A and the EuroLeague. Walker was picked ninth overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in the 2011 NBA draft. He played college basketball for the Connecticut Huskies. In their 2010–11 season, Walker was the nation's second-leading scorer and was named consensus first-team All-American; he also led the Huskies to the 2011 NCAA championship and claimed the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award. Walker is a four-time NBA All-Star.
Go to Profile#39211
Leo Lemay
#39223
Overall Influence
1935 - 2008 (73 years)
J. A. Leo Lemay was du Pont Winterthur Professor of English at the University of Delaware. He was most renowned for his lifelong fascination with Benjamin Franklin, although he wrote on many topics, including Edgar Allan Poe, Ebenezer Cooke, and Joel Barlow.
Go to Profile#39212
Werner Rügemer
#39224
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Werner Rügemer is a left-wing German commentator, lecturer and writer. Biography Rügemer was born in Amberg. Originally from the Upper Palatinate region of Germany, he attended primary and secondary school in Brendlorenzen / Rhön, Bad Neustadt an der Saale and Berchtesgaden. He studied literature, philosophy and economics at University of Munich, University of Tübingen and at universities in Berlin and Paris. In 1979 he published his doctoral thesis about the argument "Philosophical anthropology and epoch crisis" at University of Bremen, a study on the relationship between the general crisis of capitalism and the anthropological basis of philosophy as exemplified by Arnold Gehlen.
Go to Profile#39213
Robert Heinich
#39225
Overall Influence
1923 - 2020 (97 years)
Robert Heinich was an American instructional designer, instructional technologist, author, and editor. Early life and education Robert Heinich attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He then studied at The Cooper Union, a private college in Manhattan. However, his studies were interrupted by World War II. During the war he joined the Army Air Corps and served from 1943 to 1946. In 1946 he enrolled at Colorado State College, currently known as the University of Northern Colorado, and became a student assistant in a department that used audiovisual equipment. This experience spurred him into his career in instructional design.
Go to Profile#39214
Andrew Hughes Hallett
#39226
Overall Influence
1947 - 2019 (72 years)
Andrew Jonathan Hughes Hallett FRSE was a British economist. He was University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at George Mason University, Senior Research Fellow at Kings College and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of St Andrews He was also a member of the Scottish Growth Commission.
Go to Profile#39215
Richard Sherman
#39227
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Richard Kevin Sherman is a former American football cornerback who played 11 seasons in the NFL. Sherman played college football at Stanford, beginning his career as a wide receiver before moving to cornerback as a junior. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He was selected to the Pro Bowl five times and voted All-Pro five times, including three times to the first team, and led the NFL in interceptions in 2013, when he also helped the Seahawks win their first Super Bowl. Sherman is regarded as one of the greatest cornerbacks of all time.
Go to Profile#39216
Ayesha Verrall
#39228
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Ayesha Jennifer Verrall is a New Zealand politician, infectious-diseases physician, and researcher with expertise in tuberculosis and international health. She is a Labour Party Member of the New Zealand Parliament and a Cabinet Minister with the roles of Minister of Health and Minister for Research, Science and Innovation. She has worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Otago, Wellington and as a member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board. During the COVID-19 pandemic she provided the Ministry of Health with an independent review and recommendations for its contact-trac...
Go to Profile#39217
Sefi Atta
#39229
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Sefi Atta is a Nigerian-American novelist, short-story writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her books have been translated into many languages, radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC, and her stage plays have been performed internationally. Awards she has received include the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Go to Profile#39218
Julius Moravcsik
#39230
Overall Influence
1931 - 2009 (78 years)
Julius Matthew Emil Moravcsik was a Hungarian-American philosopher who specialized in ancient Greek philosophy. His main professional interests were in Greek philosophy – especially Plato, Aristotle, and the pre-Socratic philosophers. He also made important contributions to the philosophy of language, aesthetics, metaphysics, and ethics. In particular, he was engaged by the notion of friendship.
Go to Profile#39219
Lil Nas X
#39231
Overall Influence
1999 - Present (27 years)
Montero Lamar Hill , known by his stage name Lil Nas X , is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single "Old Town Road", which spent 19 weeks atop the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the longest-running number-one song since the chart debuted in 1958. As the song was atop the Hot 100, Lil Nas X came out as gay, becoming the only artist to do so while having a number-one record.
Go to Profile#39220
Gerard Washnitzer
#39232
Overall Influence
1926 - 2017 (91 years)
Gerard Washnitzer was an American mathematician specializing in algebraic geometry. Washnitzer studied at Princeton University under Emil Artin and in 1950 received a Ph.D. under the supervision of Salomon Bochner. In 1952 he was a C. L. E. Moore instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After that, he was an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and then a professor at Princeton University. From 1960 to 1961 and from 1967 to 1968 he was at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Go to Profile#39221
Russell Leong
#39233
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Russell Charles Leong is an academic editor, professor, writer, and long-time Chen-style tai chi student. The long-time editor of Amerasia Journal , Leong was an adjunct professor of English and Asian-American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles and currently serves as senior editor for international projects. He is the founding editor of the CUNY FORUM: Asian American / Asian Studies, published by the Asian American / Asian Research Institute - CUNY, and served as a Dr. Thomas Tam Visiting Professor at Hunter College/CUNY. He is the author of Phoenix Eyes and Other Stories which received the American Book Award.
Go to Profile#39222
T. J. Jackson Lears
#39234
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
T. J. Jackson Lears is an American cultural and intellectual historian with interests in comparative religious history, literature and the visual arts, folklore and folk beliefs. "It may seem unlikely that there is still something original to say about deep America; so many brilliant minds, starting with Tocqueville, have been at work deciphering the paradoxes of our all too mythic, all too preponderant country. But if anyone can, it is likely to be the author of Something for Nothing.No one is thinking with more spiritedness and subtlety about the roots of American culture and the distincti...
Go to Profile#39223
Steven D. Eppinger
#39235
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Steven D. Eppinger is an American engineer, and Professor of Management, Professor of Management Science and Innovation, and Professor of Engineering Systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known for his work on product design and product development.
Go to Profile#39224
Mark A. O'Neill
#39236
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Mark A. O'Neill is an English computational biologist with interests in artificial intelligence, systems biology, complex systems and image analysis. He is the creator and lead programmer on a number of computational projects including the Digital Automated Identification SYstem for automated species identification and PUPS P3, an organic computing environment for Linux.
Go to Profile#39225
Garry Bushell
#39237
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Garry Bushell is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Cockney Oi! bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York City Oi! band Maninblack until the death of the band frontman Andre Schlessinger. Bushell's recurring topical themes are comedy, country and class. He has campaigned for an English Parliament, a Benny Hill statue and for variety and talent shows on TV. He has been a columnist for several newspapers, including The Sun, The People and the Daily Star Sunday, and has worked as ...
Go to Profile#39226
Frank Conroy
#39238
Overall Influence
1936 - 2005 (69 years)
Frank Conroy was an American author. He published five books, including the highly acclaimed memoir Stop-Time. Published in 1967, this ultimately made Conroy a noted figure in the literary world. The book was nominated for the National Book Award.
Go to Profile#39227
Antonio Valero Vicente
#39239
Overall Influence
1925 - 2001 (76 years)
Antonio Valero Vicente was a Spanish industrial engineer, professor and the first dean of IESE Business School, part of the University of Navarra. A pioneer in executive education and in using the case method to teach management in Spain, he was committed to the world of business. Valero served as a board member and advisor in public and private sector companies, and was an advisor to various government ministries. He helped found the first centrist political parties in Catalonia. In 1968, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise.
Go to Profile#39228
Peter Kramer
#39240
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Peter Kramer is a German physicist. Personal life Kramer studied physics at the University of Münster, the University of Tübingen, the University of Bristol and the University of Marburg. He received his PhD in 1964 in Marburg and in 1968 his Habilitation in Tübingen. He was a postdoc at the UNAM in Mexico City, where he collaborated with Marcos Moshinsky. He was a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Tübingen from 1970 until 1998 when he retired. He has also served as a Dean and a Vice President at the University of Tübingen. Kramer married in 1962 and has two children.
Go to Profile#39229
Daniel W. Dobberpuhl
#39241
Overall Influence
1945 - 2019 (74 years)
Daniel "Dan" William Dobberpuhl was an electrical engineer in the United States who led several teams of microprocessor designers. Background Dobberpuhl was born in Streator, Illinois on March 25, 1945. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1967. He worked as an engineer for the Department of Defense until 1973 when he worked for GE Integrated Circuits Laboratory in Syracuse, New York, making application-specific integrated circuits.
Go to Profile#39230
Charles Arnold-Baker
#39242
Overall Influence
1918 - 2009 (91 years)
Charles Arnold-Baker, OBE was an English member of MI6, barrister and historian. He was the author of the Companion to British History. He was awarded an OBE and the King Haakon VII Medal of Freedom .
Go to Profile#39231
Patrick Hayden
#39243
Overall Influence
Patrick Hayden is a physicist and computer scientist active in the fields of quantum information theory and quantum computing. He is currently a professor in the Stanford University physics department and a distinguished research chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Prior to that he held a Canada Research Chair in the physics of information at McGill University. He received a B.Sc. from McGill University and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study for a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Artur Ekert. In 2007 he was awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship in Computer Science.
Go to Profile#39232
Josef Aschbacher
#39244
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Josef Aschbacher is Director General of the European Space Agency , a position he has held since 1 March 2021. His international career in space combines more than 35 years' of experience at ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency, the Asian Institute of Technology and the University of Innsbruck.
Go to Profile#39233
Rob Blake
#39245
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Robert Bowlby Blake is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He is the current general manager of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League . He was originally drafted by the Kings in 1988, appearing in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, winning the James Norris Memorial Trophy and serving as team captain for five seasons in his initial 11-season stint with the club. In 2001, Blake was traded to the Colorado Avalanche and was a member of their 2001 Stanley Cup championship team. It was his only Stanley Cup as a player, though he won the Cup again as a member of the Kings' front office in 2014.
Go to Profile#39234
Daniel Tranel
#39246
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Daniel T. Tranel is an American professor of neurology at the University of Iowa. He has been recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. While a graduate student at the University of Iowa, he helped establish the Iowa Neurological Patient Registry, which he currently directs. The Iowa Neurological Patient Registry includes cases of unique brain injuries, such as Patient S.M. and Patient E.V.R. Tranel also directs the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Iowa. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical and ...
Go to Profile#39235
Cliff Hagan
#39247
Overall Influence
1931 - Present (95 years)
Clifford Oldham Hagan is an American former professional basketball player. A 6′ 4″ forward who excelled with the hook shot, Hagan, nicknamed "Li’l Abner", played his entire 10-year NBA career with the St. Louis Hawks. He was also a player-coach for the Dallas Chaparrals in the first two-plus years of the American Basketball Association's existence . Hagan is a five-time NBA All-Star and an ABA All-Star. He won an NCAA basketball championship in 1951 as a member of the Kentucky Wildcats, and he won an NBA championship with the Hawks in 1958.
Go to Profile#39236
Martha Field
#39248
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Martha Amanda Field is an American legal scholar who serves as the Langdell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is a noted scholar of constitutional law, family law, and issues bioethics such as the rights of the mentally challenged.
Go to Profile#39237
Garikapati Narahari Sastry
#39249
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Garikapati Narahari Sastry is an Indian chemist. He has taken charge as Director of CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam on 19 February 2019. After taking charge as the Director, he has worked towards converting knowledge in the areas of computational modelling and Artificial intelligence from basic to translational research, by working closely with society and industry. Ultimately, revitalizing the strength of science and technology is essential in achieving the self-reliant and strong India. In the era of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, combining our traditional wisdom w...
Go to Profile#39238
K. K. Downing
#39250
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Kenneth Downing Jr. is an English guitarist and a founder member of the heavy metal band Judas Priest and KK's Priest. Early life and career Downing was born in West Bromwich, West Midlands. In the late 1960s, he developed a passion for rock music and the guitar, which led to his being kicked out of his home at age 15 and dropping out of school soon afterwards. He is a mostly self-taught guitarist. He was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, whom Downing said he was "very quick to recognize" as the future. He was also influenced by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Eric Clapton.
Go to Profile#39239
Pedro Cuatrecasas
#39251
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Pedro Cuatrecasas is an American biochemist and an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology & Medicine at the University of California San Diego. Birth and education Pedro Cuatrecasas was born in 1936 in Madrid, Spain. He completed his A.B. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1958. He completed his M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine in 1962.
Go to Profile#39240
Tim Brown
#39252
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Timothy Donell Brown is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League . He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, where he won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first wide receiver to do so. He spent sixteen years with the Los Angeles / Oakland Raiders, during which he established himself as one of the NFL's greatest wide receivers of all time. Brown has also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2015, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Go to Profile#39241
Shahrzad Mojab
#39253
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Shahrzad Mojab is an academic activist and professor, teaching at the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education and Women and Gender Studies Institute, at the University of Toronto. Shahrzad has been living in Canada since 1986 with her lifelong partner, colleague and comrade, Amir Hassanpour, and their son, Salah.
Go to Profile#39242
Montserrat Sagot
#39254
Overall Influence
Montserrat Sagot Rodríguez is a Costa Rican sociologist especially known for her work on violence against women and girls. She was a pioneer in research on femicide in Central America. In 2010, she published the first research on femicide in Costa Rica.
Go to Profile#39243
Thad Cochran
#39255
Overall Influence
1937 - 2019 (82 years)
William Thad Cochran was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator for Mississippi from 1978 until his resignation due to health issues in 2018. A Republican, he previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1978.
Go to Profile#39244
Nikhil Koratkar
#39256
Overall Influence
Nikhil Koratkar is the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who has pursued research into one-dimensional and two-dimensional materials and devices. In 2010, he was appointed Editor of the Elsevier journal CARBON.
Go to Profile#39245
Fabio Reinhart
#39257
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Fabio Reinhart is a Swiss architect. Biography Reinhart studied architecture at the Polytechnic of Zürich, where he graduated in 1969. In the 1970s he got associated with Bruno Reichlin and opened a practice in Lugano. They were strongly influenced by Italian architect Aldo Rossi.
Go to Profile#39246
Kevin P. Clements
#39258
Overall Influence
Kevin Clements is an Emeritus Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He was formerly Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland. He has also been Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association since January 2009. Since 2016 he was appointed Director of the Toda Peace Institute , Tokyo, Japan.
Go to Profile#39247
Tōta Kaneko
#39259
Overall Influence
1919 - 2018 (99 years)
Tōta Kaneko, was a Japanese writer. Kaneko was born in Chichibu. He studied at the University of Tokyo and worked for the Bank of Japan. Kaneko died in Kumagaya on February 20, 2018, of Acute respiratory distress syndrome in Kumagaya, Saitama at the age of 98.
Go to Profile#39248
Phylicia Rashad
#39260
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Phylicia Rashad is an American actress. She is dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University and best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show which earned her Emmy Award nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on Cosby . She was dubbed "The Mother of the Black Community" at the 2010 NAACP Image Awards.
Go to Profile#39249
Frank Ruskey
#39261
Overall Influence
Frank Ruskey is a combinatorialist and computer scientist, and professor at the University of Victoria. His research involves algorithms for exhaustively listing discrete structures, combinatorial Gray codes, Venn and Euler diagrams, combinatorics on words, and enumerative combinatorics. Frank Ruskey is the author of the Combinatorial Object Server , a website for information on and generation of combinatorial objects.
Go to Profile#39250
Gareth Roberts
#39262
Overall Influence
1940 - 2007 (67 years)
Sir Gareth Gwyn Roberts was a Welsh physicist specialising in semiconductors and molecular electronics, who was influential in British science policy through his chairmanship of several academic bodies and his two reports on the future supply of scientists and how university research should be assessed. He was knighted in 1997 for his services to higher education.
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