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
#1
John Robert Greene
#23501
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
John Robert Greene is an American historian who was the Paul J. Schupf Professor, History and Humanities, the director of the History Program, co-director of the History/Social Science major, and the College Archivist, at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York. Greene specializes in American history, with research and writing interests in the American presidency. He has edited or written twenty books, including works on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. He has also written several volumes on the history of higher education.
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Hind Rassam Culhane
#44429
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Hind Rassam Culhane is an Iraqi-born American educator and former journalist. Early life and education Rassam Culhane was born in Mosul, Iraq, to an Iraqi-Assyrian father and a Lebanese mother. As a child, she and her family moved to the United States. Rassam Culhane studied at Cazenovia College before earning a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in early childhood education from Rockford College.
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Lisle C. Carter
#66164
Overall Influence
1925 - 2009 (84 years)
Lisle Carleton Carter Jr. was an American administrator who worked for civic organizations, educational institutions, and the federal government. He was also the first modern President of the University of the District of Columbia following the merger of three DC universities.
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Barbara W. Woodlee
#122201
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Barbara W. Woodlee is an American college administrator. She was president of Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, Maine, from 1984 to 2012, and since 2013 has served as chief academic officer of the Maine Community College System. She was the first woman president in both the state technical college and community college systems. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2015.
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David Rogers Andrews
#190913
Overall Influence
#6
Jesse Owen Harasta
#192239
Overall Influence
#7
Nathan Smith Davis
1817 - 1904 (87 years)
Nathan Smith Davis Sr., M.D., LLD was a physician who was instrumental in the establishment of the American Medical Association and was twice elected its president. He became the first editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Joseph R. Ferrari
#9
Willard Fiske
1831 - 1904 (73 years)
Daniel Willard Fiske was an American librarian and scholar, born on November 11, 1831, at Ellisburg, New York. Biography Fiske studied at Cazenovia Seminary and started his collegiate studies at Hamilton College in 1847. He joined the Psi Upsilon but was suspended for a student prank at the end of his sophomore year. He was educated at Copenhagen and at Uppsala University. Upon his return to the United States, he acted as a General Secretary to the American Geographical Society and edited the Syracuse Daily Journal.
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Leland Stanford
1824 - 1893 (69 years)
Amasa Leland Stanford was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party politician from California. He served as the 8th Governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1885 until his death in 1893. He and his wife Jane founded Stanford University, named after their late son.
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Jimmy Van Heusen
1913 - 1990 (77 years)
James Van Heusen was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Life and career Born in Syracuse, New York, Van Heusen began writing music while at high school. He renamed himself at age 16, after the shirt makers Phillips-Van Heusen, to use as his on-air name during local shows. His close friends called him "Chet". Jimmy was raised Methodist.
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Frederic M. Wheelock
1902 - 1987 (85 years)
Frederic Melvin Wheelock was an American Latin professor, best known for his authorship of Wheelock's Latin. Early life He was the son of Franklin M. and Etta R. Wheelock. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1925 and later received both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.
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