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
#40401
Benjamin S. Cook
#40414
Overall Influence
Benjamin S. Cook is an American scientist, entrepreneur, advisory board member, professor, and author. He is best known for his pioneering work in printed electronics and for implementing the first semiconductor-compatible printed electronics process, VIPRE. He holds over 150 patents and patents pending, and over 100 peer reviewed journal and conference publications.
Go to Profile#40402
Rita Klímová
#40415
Overall Influence
1931 - 1993 (62 years)
Rita Klímová, née Rita Budínová was a Czech economist and politician. She was Czechoslovakia's ambassador to the United States before that country's breakup in 1992. Early life Klímová was born in Romania. Her father was Stanislav Budín , a prominent Communist writer who used the pen name Batya Bat. Due to their Jewish ancestry, her family fled to the United States not long after Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939. She settled in New York City in 1939, returning to Czechoslovakia in 1946 to finish her education. As a result, for the rest of her life she spoke American English with an...
Go to Profile#40403
Muhammad Ibrahim
#40416
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Muhammad Ibrahim is a Bangladeshi academic. He is a former professor of physics at University of Dhaka. He is the moderator of the show Desh o Biggyan on Bangladesh Television. He is the editor of Bigyan Shamoiki, the first monthly science magazine of Bangladesh. Since January 2015, he has been serving as a professor of the General Education Department at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh .
Go to Profile#40404
Brian Sutton-Smith
#40417
Overall Influence
1924 - 2015 (91 years)
Brian Sutton Smith , better known as Brian Sutton-Smith, was a play theorist who spent his lifetime attempting to discover the cultural significance of play in human life, arguing that any useful definition of play must apply to both adults and children. He demonstrated that children are not innocent in their play and that adults are indeed guilty in theirs. In both cases play pretends to assist them in surmounting their Darwinian struggles for survival. His book Play As Emotional Survival is a response to his own deconstruction of play theories in his work, The Ambiguity of Play .
Go to Profile#40405
Monty Panesar
#40418
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Mudhsuden Singh "Monty" Panesar is a former English international cricketer. A left-arm spinner, Panesar made his Test cricket debut in 2006 against India in Nagpur and One Day International debut for England in 2007. In English county cricket, he last played for Northamptonshire in 2016, and has previously played for Northamptonshire until 2009, Sussex from 2010 to 2013 and Essex from 2013 to 2015. He has also played for the Lions in South Africa.
Go to Profile#40406
Ronald Fraser
#40419
Overall Influence
1930 - 2012 (82 years)
Ronald Angus Fraser was a British historian noted for his oral histories and in particular for Blood of Spain, his oral history of the Spanish Civil War. Born in Hamburg to an upper-middle class Scottish father and wealthy American mother, Fraser was educated at boarding school in England and the USA and undertook further studies in Switzerland and France. He chronicled his upbringing in his oral history In Search of a Past: The Rearing of an English Gentleman, 1933-1945 , in which interviews with the servants at his family's Berkshire country house served as a counterpoint to his own memories.
Go to Profile#40407
Eleanor M. Fox
#40420
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Eleanor M. Fox is an academic who studies antitrust, economic development, globalization, International trade law, and the European Union. She is the Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Trade Regulation in the New York University School of Law.
Go to Profile#40408
Giancarlo Genta
#40421
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Giancarlo Genta is Professor of Machine Design and Construction at the Polytechnic University of Turin. His areas of professional interest include vibration, vehicle design, magnetic bearings, and rotordynamics. He has written or co-authored more than 50 articles in professional publications. He has published extensively in the field of SETI research.
Go to Profile#40409
Supriya Chaudhuri
#40422
Overall Influence
Supriya Chaudhuri is an Indian scholar of English literature. She is Professor Emerita at Kolkata's Jadavpur University. Biography She was born in Delhi, India and grew up in Europe and India. She was educated at South Point High School, Presidency College, Calcutta and then University of Oxford, where she was a State Scholar from 1973 to 1975, taking a First in English. After serving a few years at Presidency as Assistant Professor of English, she returned to Oxford on an Inlaks Scholarship for doctoral research in Renaissance Studies. She was awarded D.Phil. in 1981. She joined the faculty of Jadavpur University after having taught at Presidency College and Calcutta University.
Go to Profile#40410
Montel Vontavious Porter
#40423
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Hassan Hamin Assad is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs under the ring name MVP and is also the manager of Omos. He is also known for his tenures in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling . Between the three promotions, he is a two-time WWE United States Champion, one-time WWE Tag Team Champion , and was the inaugural IWGP Intercontinental Champion. He was trained by Soulman Alex G and Norman Smiley. Following the completion of his training, he began wrestling for numerous independent promotions, including a stint in TNA.
Go to Profile#40411
Carlos Alberto Menezes Direito
#40424
Overall Influence
1942 - 2009 (67 years)
Carlos Alberto Menezes Direito was a Brazilian judge who sat on the Supreme Federal Court, the highest court of law in Brazil, from his appointment in 2007 until his death in 2009. Direito received his law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in 1965. He served as a judge on the Superior Court of Justice until 2007.
Go to Profile#40412
Keith Gull
#40425
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Professor Keith Gull is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Molecular microbiology at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. He was the principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford from 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2018, succeeding Michael Mingos.
Go to Profile#40413
Philip Coppens
#40426
Overall Influence
1971 - 2012 (41 years)
Philip Coppens was a Belgian author, radio host, and commentator whose writings, speeches and television appearances focused on areas of fringe science and alternative history. Coppens was born in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. He was a cohost of the Spirit Revolution radio show, his writing was featured in Nexus and Atlantis Rising magazines, and he appeared in 56 episodes of the History Channel's Ancient Aliens television series.
Go to Profile#40414
Carli Lloyd
#40427
Overall Influence
1982 - Present (44 years)
Carli Anne Hollins is an American former professional soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist , two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion , two-time FIFA Player of the Year , and a four-time Olympian . Lloyd scored the gold medal-winning goals in the finals of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Lloyd also helped the United States win their titles at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cups, the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and she played for the team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup where the U.S. finished in second place. After the 2020 Summe...
Go to Profile#40415
Michael Hanchard
#40428
Overall Influence
#40416
Tatyana Tolstaya
#40429
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Tatyana Nikitichna Tolstaya is a Russian writer, TV host, publicist, novelist, and essayist from the Tolstoy family. Family Tolstaya was born in Leningrad into a family of writers. Her paternal grandfather, Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, was a pioneering science fiction writer, and the son of Count Nikolay Alexandrovich Tolstoy and Alexandra Leontievna Turgeneva , a relative of Decembrist Nikolay Turgenev and the writer Ivan Turgenev. Tolstaya's paternal grandmother was the poet Natalia Krandievskaya. Mikhail Lozinsky , her maternal grandfather, was a literary translator renowned for his translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy.
Go to Profile#40417
Vincent Dole
#40430
Overall Influence
1913 - 2006 (93 years)
Vincent Dole was an American doctor, who, along with his wife, Marie Nyswander , developed the use of methadone to treat heroin addiction. Dole and Nyswander, in establishing methadone maintenance treatment , improved treatment options in addiction medicine which for a century had been based on the conventional view that narcotic addiction was the result of an intractable moral defect. His work resulted in the partial re-legalization of opioid maintenance in the United States. For this contribution he was a recipient of the 1970 Canada Gairdner International Award, and the 1988 Albert Laske...
Go to Profile#40418
Gordon Zubrod
#40431
Overall Influence
1914 - 1999 (85 years)
Charles Gordon Zubrod was an American oncologist who played a prominent role in the introduction of chemotherapy for cancer. He was one of the recipients of the 1972 Albert Lasker Awards in recognition of his contributions to the field, amongst many other doctorates and awards.
Go to Profile#40419
Thomas Lindsay
#40432
Overall Influence
Thomas Kevin Lindsay is an American academic who briefly served as President of Shimer College. He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities until December 2008. He was also the Director of the NEH We the People initiative, which funds programs, research and other activities that explore significant events and themes in US history and culture, and advance knowledge of the principles that define America. He serves as the Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Go to Profile#40420
Chu Teh-Chun
#40433
Overall Influence
1920 - 2014 (94 years)
Chu Teh-Chun or Zhu Dequn was a Chinese-French abstract painter acclaimed for his pioneering style integrating traditional Chinese painting techniques with Western abstract art. Chu Teh-Chun enrolled in the National School of Fine Arts , where he studied under Fang Ganmin and Wu Dayu. He was the first ethnic Chinese member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of France, and together with Wu Guanzhong and Zao Wou-Ki were dubbed the "Three Musketeers" of modernist Chinese artists trained in China and France.
Go to Profile#40421
James Lewis Abbruzzese
#40434
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
James Lewis Abbruzzese is the Chief of the Duke Division of Medical Oncology and associate director for Clinical Research for the Duke Cancer Institute. Previously, Abbruzzese was Chairman of the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center where he held the M. G. and Lillie A. Johnson Chair for Cancer Treatment and Research and the Annie Laurie Howard Research Distinguished Professorship. Abbruzzese is one of the world's leaders in the clinical study and treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Go to Profile#40422
Jerzy Samp
#40435
Overall Influence
1951 - 2015 (64 years)
Jerzy Samp was a Polish writer, publicist and historian of the literature and culture of Pomerania and especially of the Kashubian literature. He was also an activist in the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association .
Go to Profile#40423
Richard Smeyne
#40436
Overall Influence
Richard Jay Smeyne is a neuroscientist who is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Thomas Jefferson University, where he is also Director of the Jefferson Comprehensive Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorder Center at the Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience. His research is focused on the cell biology of Parkinson's disease, as well as neuroprotection.
Go to Profile#40424
Richard Marius
#40437
Overall Influence
1933 - 1999 (66 years)
Richard Curry Marius was an American academic and writer. He was a scholar of the Reformation, novelist of the American South, speechwriter, and teacher of writing and English literature at Harvard University. He was widely published, leaving behind major biographies of Thomas More and Martin Luther, four novels set in his native Tennessee, several books on writing, and a host of scholarly articles for academic journals and mainstream book reviews.
Go to Profile#40425
Emilio Rosenblueth
#40438
Overall Influence
1926 - 1994 (68 years)
Emilio Rosenblueth Deutsch was a Mexican engineer who devoted himself to the research of seismic events, and in particular to study the behavior of buildings against earthquakes and other seismic activity.
Go to Profile#40426
James E. Cheek
#40439
Overall Influence
1932 - 2010 (78 years)
James Edward Cheek was president emeritus of Howard University. He was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Howard University President In 1989, Cheek appointed Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater as a member of the Howard University Board of Trustees. Students rose up in protest against Atwater's appointment, disrupting Howard's 122nd anniversary celebrations, and eventually occupied the university's administration building. Within days, both Atwater and Cheek resigned.
Go to Profile#40427
Osmo Kontula
#40440
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Osmo Johannes Kontula is a Finnish sociologist and sexologist currently employed as a research professor at the Population Research Institute of the Family Federation of Finland . He is also honorary associate professor at the Faculty of Health Science, University of Sydney, Australia.
Go to Profile#40428
Mark Recchi
#40441
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Mark Louis Recchi is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and an assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League . He played 22 seasons in the NHL, playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins from 1988 to 2011. Recchi won the Stanley Cup three times in his playing career: in 1991 with the Penguins, in 2006 with the Hurricanes, and in 2011 with the Bruins. Recchi was the last active player who had played in the NHL in the 1980s. In Game 2 of th...
Go to Profile#40429
Mohammad-Amin Riahi
#40442
Overall Influence
1923 - 2009 (86 years)
Mohammad-Amin Riahi was a prominent Iranian literary scholar of Persian literature, a historian, writer and statesman. Apart from being one of the authors of Dehkhoda Dictionary and Encyclopædia Iranica, he was the author and editor of several well-known scholarly books. Mohammad-Amin Riahi received his PHD on Persian literature from Tehran University under the supervision of Badiozzaman Forouzanfar. Riahi is best known for his scholarly works on Shahnameh and Ferdowsi, Hafiz, and the ancient iranian languages . He has produced critical editions of some of the major classical Persian texts such as Mersad-al-ebad and Nozhat-al-majalis.
Go to Profile#40430
Olga Jonasson
#40443
Overall Influence
1934 - 2006 (72 years)
Olga Jonasson, MD, FACS was an American transplant surgeon. She performed the first kidney transplant in the state of Illinois. She was also the first woman to be appointed head of an academic department of surgery at a coeducational school of medicine and the first woman to be appointed chief of surgery of a major medical center.
Go to Profile#40431
Morten H. Christiansen
#40444
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Morten H. Christiansen is a Danish cognitive scientist known for his work on the evolution of language, and connectionist modeling of human language acquisition. He is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Co-Director of the Cognitive Science Program at Cornell University as well Senior Scientist at the Haskins Labs and Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University. His research has produced evidence for considering language to be a cultural system that is shaped by general-purpose cognitive and learning mechanisms, rather than from innate language-specific ...
Go to Profile#40432
James Vorenberg
#40445
Overall Influence
1927 - 2000 (73 years)
James Vorenberg was the Roscoe Pound Professor of Law and Dean of Harvard Law School, former Watergate Associate Special Prosecutor, and first chair of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. Biography Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Vorenberg attended Harvard College, from which he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948, and Harvard Law School, from which he earned the Juris Doctor degree in 1951. In his first year at Harvard Law, he achieved the highest grades in his class and was awarded the Sears Prize. He served as the president of the Harvard Law Review while attending the school.
Go to Profile#40433
Daniel Gros
#40446
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Daniel Gros is a German economist who currently serves as the Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies , a European think tank. Gros worked for the CEPS from 1986 to 1988 and has worked there continuously since 1990. His current research primarily focuses on EU economic policy, specifically on the impact of the euro on capital and labour markets, as well as on the international role of the euro, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. He also monitors the transition towards market economies and the process of enlargement of the European Union towards the east.
Go to Profile#40434
Kamlesh Khunti
#40447
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Kamlesh Khunti is a British physician who is Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester. His research considers diabetes and public health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Khunti studied the impact of COVID-19 on people living with diabetes. He served on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies . He is the director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands.
Go to Profile#40435
June Gruber
#40448
Overall Influence
June Gruber is an American psychologist. She is associate professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is known for her research on positive affectivity and mental health. She is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Go to Profile#40436
Jack Tatum
#40449
Overall Influence
1948 - 2010 (62 years)
John David Tatum was an American professional football safety who played 10 seasons, from 1971 through 1980 with the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Oilers in the National Football League . He was popularly known as "the Assassin" because of his playing style. Tatum was voted to three consecutive Pro Bowls and was a member of one Super Bowl-winning team in his nine seasons with the Raiders. He is also known for a hit he made against New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley in a 1978 preseason game, that paralyzed Stingley from the neck down.
Go to Profile#40437
Igor Mezić
#40450
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Igor Mezić is a mechanical engineer, mathematician, and Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering and mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is best known for his contributions to operator theoretic, data driven approach to dynamical systems theory that he advanced via articles based on Koopman operator theory, and his work on theory of mixing, that culminated in work on microfluidic mixer design, and mapping oil refuse from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to aid in cleaning efforts,.
Go to Profile#40438
Christian Catalini
#40451
Overall Influence
Christian Catalini is a co-creator of Diem , the Chief Economist of the Diem Association, and the Theodore T. Miller Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Catalini is known for his research on the economics of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, and for the economical design of Diem. His past research focused on the economics of crowdfunding, early stage capital formation, the economics of science and technology.
Go to Profile#40439
Deborah Sugg Ryan
#40452
Overall Influence
Deborah Sugg Ryan is a British design historian, Professor of Design History and Theory and Associate Dean at the University of Portsmouth. Sugg Ryan was previously Associate Professor of History and Theory of Design at Falmouth University.
Go to Profile#40440
Ibrahim al-Marashi
#40453
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Doctor Ibrahim al-Marashi is an associate professor at California State University, San Marcos, researching modern Iraqi history. He holds a doctor of philosophy in history from Oxford University , where his thesis was on the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait; a master's degree in political science from Georgetown University, which he had received in 1997; and a bachelor's degree in history and Near Eastern studies from the University of California Los Angeles.
Go to Profile#40441
Marilyn Chin
#40454
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Marilyn Chin is a prominent Chinese American poet, writer, activist, and feminist, as well as an editor and Professor of English. She is well-represented in major canonical anthologies and textbooks and her work is taught all over the world. Marilyn Chin's work is a frequent subject of academic research and literary criticism. Marilyn Chin has read her poetry at the Library of Congress.
Go to Profile#40442
Pınar Keskinocak
#40455
Overall Influence
Pınar Keskinocak is a Turkish-American systems engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is William W. George Chair, Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, and College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor. Her research involves the application of operations research and management science to health care and supply-chain management. She is the former president of INFORMS.
Go to Profile#40443
Derek Chollet
#40456
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Derek Chollet is an American foreign policy advisor and author currently serving as the counselor of the United States Department of State. Previously, Chollet was the executive vice president for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 2012 to 2015, Chollet was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, where he managed U.S. defense policy involving Europe, NATO, the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere for Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel.
Go to Profile#40444
Sascha Konietzko
#40457
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Sascha Kegel Konietzko , also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and record producer. He is the founder, frontman and "anchor" of the industrial band KMFDM. Konietzko jokingly purports himself to be the father of industrial rock. Keyboard Magazine wrote of him, "You won't find a more imaginative or effective keyboardist on the hard-core scene."
Go to Profile#40445
Alan Heslop
#40458
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
David Alan Heslop is an American academic and government consultant and advisor. He was born in 1938 in England and gained BA and MA degrees from Magdalen College, Oxford. He later became a naturalized American citizen, and gained his PhD from the University of Texas.
Go to Profile#40446
Barbara Wohlmuth
#40459
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Barbara I. Wohlmuth is a German mathematician specializing in the numerical solution of partial differential equations. She holds the chair of numerical mathematics at the Technical University of Munich .
Go to Profile#40447
Marjorie Agosín
#40460
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Marjorie Agosín is a Chilean-American writer. She has gained notability for her outspokenness for women's rights in Chile. The United Nations has honored her for her work on human rights. The Chilean government awarded her with the Gabriela Mistral Medal of Honor for Life Achievement in 2000. She is a recipient of the Belpré Medal. In the United States, she has received the Letras de Oro, the Latino Literary Prize, and the Peabody Award, together with the United Nations Leadership Award in Human Rights.
Go to Profile#40448
Roberto Serrano
#40461
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Roberto Serrano is a Spanish–American economist, currently serving as the Harrison S. Kravis University Professor of Economics at Brown University. Serrano is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a former Member of the Council of the Game Theory Society.
Go to Profile#40449
Hope A. Olson
#40462
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Hope A. Olson is Professor Emerita at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She was previously a professor at the University of Alberta. From 2000 to 2004 Olson was the editor-in-chief for Knowledge Organization and she currently serves on its editorial board. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Library Metadata. Olson has authored or co-authored over thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has published three books: Subject Analysis in Online Catalogs, 2nd ed., co-authored by John J. Boll ; Information Sources in Women'...
Go to Profile#40450
Gerasimos Danilatos
#40463
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Gerasimos D. Danilatos is a Greek-Australian physicist and inventor of the environmental scanning electron microscope . He was born in Cefalonia, Greece. After the 1953 Ionian earthquake, his family moved to Patras, where he attended elementary and high school.
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