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
Roberta Baskin
#20252
Overall Influence
Roberta Baskin is an American journalist and nonprofit director. She co-founded and served as Executive Director of the AIM2Flourish global learning initiative, hosted at Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Go to Profile#2
Wilhelmina Holladay
#44946
Overall Influence
1922 - 2021 (99 years)
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay was an American art collector and patron. She was the co-founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2006. Early life Holladay, known as "Billie", was born in Elmira, New York, on October 10, 1922. Her father, Chauncey Cole, worked as a businessman; her mother, Claire Elisabeth née Strong, was a housewife. She was close to her maternal grandmother, whom she credits with inculcating a perception of beauty. Holladay graduated with a degree in art history from Elmira College in 1944. She went on to study art history...
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Sheila Williams
#51318
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Sheila Williams is an American science fiction editor who is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Early life and education Sheila Williams grew up in a family of five in western Massachusetts. Her mother had a master's degree in microbiology. Williams’ interest in science fiction came from her father, who read Edgar Rice Burroughs books to her as a child. After studying at the London School of Economics in her junior year, she studied at and received a bachelor's degree from Elmira College in Elmira, New York. Williams received her Master's degree in philosophy from Washington University in St.
Go to Profile#4
Fay Kanin
#98182
Overall Influence
1917 - 2013 (96 years)
Fay Kanin was an American screenwriter, playwright and producer. Kanin was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983. Biography Born Fay Mitchell in New York City to David and Bessie Mitchell, she was raised in Elmira, New York, where she won the New York State Spelling Championship at twelve and was presented with a silver cup by then Governor Franklin Roosevelt. She was encouraged to write for money by supplying small items to the Elmira Star Gazette. She was Jewish.
Go to Profile#5
Diane Lockward
#144431
Overall Influence
Diane Lockward is an American poet. The author of four full-length books of poetry, Lockward serves as the Poet Laureate of West Caldwell, New Jersey. Biography Diane Lockward earned her bachelor's degree from Elmira College and her master's from Montclair State University. She is the author of four full-length books of poetry: The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement , Temptation by Water , What Feeds Us , recipient of the Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, and Eve's Red Dress , all from Wind Publications. She is also the author/editor of four poetry craft books, The Strategic Poet: Honing the Craft, T...
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Stephanie Kugelman
#150157
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Stephanie Kugelman is a retired advertising executive, branding expert and executive mentor. She is the former Vice Chairman and Chief Strategic officer of Young & Rubicam Inc, which was a publicly traded S&P company until its acquisition by British holding company WPP plc in 2000 for $4.7 billion. Her career at Y&R started as a junior researcher and she remains a Vice Chairman Emeritus of the company. As a brand strategist, since 2011 has most recently served on the public boards of Whole Foods Market, and Young & Rubicam Inc, and sits on the board of Home Shopping Network. She is also Vice...
Go to Profile#7
Matt E. Baker
#158354
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (67 years)
Matthew E. Baker is a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 68th District and was elected in 1992. He resigned from the House on February 19, 2018, to accept a job with the Trump Administration, regional director of the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services office in Philadelphia. For the 2017–18 legislative session, Baker was Republican Chairman of the House Health Committee. Upon his resignation, Rep. Kathy Rapp was named to chair the committee.
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Julia Boyer Reinstein
#175738
Overall Influence
1906 - 1998 (92 years)
Julia Boyer Reinstein was an American teacher and historian who grew up in western New York and began her career teaching in Deadwood, South Dakota. After more than a decade of teaching, she became a founder of the Erie County Historical Federation and the first historian of Cheektowaga, New York. Committed to preserving the history of the area and educating citizens about their heritage, she and her husband were instrumental in donating properties for the establishment of a nature preserve, several libraries and to higher education. She was a subject of an anthropological study evaluating ge...
Go to Profile#9
Kevin B. Winebold
#189485
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (45 years)
Kevin B. Winebold is a New York music director and actor. Winebold has musically directed productions of Kiss Me, Kate, The Irish… and How They Got That Way, and The Threepenny Opera. Often cast as a piano player, Winebold has starred in the television shows On the Case with Paula Zahn and Celebrity Ghost Stories, and in the films The Letter and Vengeance.
Go to Profile#10
Frances Woodworth Wright
1897 - 1989 (92 years)
Frances Woodworth Wright was an American astronomer based at Harvard University. During World War II, she taught celestial navigation to military officers and engineers. Early life Frances Woodworth Wright was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of George William Wright and Nellie Woodworth Wright. As a child in 1907, Wright wrote a short essay titled "My Favorite Poem", for the popular national children's magazine St. Nicholas. She earned a bachelor's degree at Brown University in 1920. She was granted a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College in 1958, as a student of Fred Whipp...
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Mary Gray Peck
1867 - 1957 (90 years)
Mary Gray Peck was an American journalist, educator, suffragist, and clubwoman. She was interested in economic and industrial problems of women, and investigated labor conditions in Europe and the United States. Born in New York, she studied at Elmira College, University of Minnesota, and University of Cambridge before becoming an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Minnesota. Later, she became associated with the General Federation of Women's Clubs, College Equal Suffrage League, National American Woman Suffrage Association, Women's Trade Union League, Woman Suffrage Party, and the Modern Language Association.
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Frances Linfield
1852 - 1940 (88 years)
Frances Ross Linfield was an American educator, social activist and philanthropist. In 1922, she made a gift to McMinnville College worth $250,000, prompting the school to change its name to Linfield College, in honor of her late husband, the Rev. George Fisher Linfield. In 2020, the school became Linfield University.
Go to Profile#13
Alice Mary Robertson
1854 - 1931 (77 years)
