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).
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List of the most influential people
#1
Dennis Slamon
#10003
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Dennis Joseph Slamon , is an American oncologist and chief of the division of Hematology-Oncology at UCLA. He is best known for his work identifying the HER2/neu oncogene that is amplified in 25–33% of breast cancer patients and the resulting treatment trastuzumab.
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Jonathan Gottschall
#16826
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Jonathan Gottschall is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He holds the title of Distinguished Fellow in the English department of Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He is the author or editor of eight books.
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Gary Namie
#26584
Overall Influence
Gary Namie is a social psychologist and anti-workplace bullying activist. He is the co-founder and director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, and is widely regarded as North America's foremost authority on the topic of workplace bullying.
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Francis B. Hildebrand
#36153
Overall Influence
1915 - 2002 (87 years)
Francis Begnaud Hildebrand was an American mathematician. He was a Professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1940 until 1984. Hildebrand was known for his many influential textbooks in mathematics and numerical analysis.
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John Astin
#43413
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (94 years)
John Allen Astin is an American actor and director who has appeared in numerous stage, television and film roles, primarily in character roles. He is best known for starring in The Addams Family , as patriarch Gomez Addams, reprising the role in the television film Halloween with the New Addams Family and the animated series The Addams Family .
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John Murtha
#44058
Overall Influence
1932 - 2010 (78 years)
John Patrick Murtha Jr. was an American politician from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Murtha, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1974 until his death in 2010. He is the longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives ever elected from Pennsylvania.
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Henry Wechsler
#54395
Overall Influence
Henry Wechsler was a lecturer at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and was principal investigator of the College Alcohol Study. He died in November of 2021. Wechsler is noted for his studies of drinking by college students and for popularizing the term “binge drinking” to refer to the consumption of four alcoholic drinkss by a woman on an occasion and five alcoholic drinks by a man. Wechsler has brought attention to the large number of problems students who drink at this level produce for themselves, for others on campus, and for residents of neighborhoods where the colleges are l...
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Joe Philbin
#56208
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Joseph Anthony Philbin is an offensive football analyst for the Ohio State Buckeyes, He served as the offensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League . He was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, a position he held from 2012 to 2015. Philbin was also the offensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers from 2007 to 2011, helping them win Super Bowl XLV over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Most recently, Philbin served as interim head coach of the Packers for the final four games of the 2018 season after serving as the offensive coordinator for the first part of the season.
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Brian C. Mitchell
#58559
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Brian Christopher Mitchell is the president and managing principal of Academic Innovators. He is a nationally recognized expert on American higher education. Mitchell lectures widely and has served as a contributor for publications like The Huffington Post and Forbes. Mitchell's second book, "Leadership Matters," was also named by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Books in Higher Education.
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Frederick E. Grine
#82004
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Frederick Edward Grine is an American paleoanthropologist. He is a Professor of anthropology and anatomical sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his bachelor's degree from Washington & Jefferson College, and his Ph.D at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa in 1984.
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William L. Thomas
#85405
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
William L. Thomas is a circuit judge for Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit and former nominee for United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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Tori Haring-Smith
#89461
Overall Influence
Tori Haring-Smith is the former president of Washington & Jefferson College. Education Haring-Smith received a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and doctoral and master's degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an undergraduate, she received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study abroad.
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Tom Rooney
#95325
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Thomas Joseph Rooney is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Florida from 2009 to 2019. He represented from 2009 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party.
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William Edward Sell
#97558
Overall Influence
1923 - 2004 (81 years)
W. Edward Sell was the Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law from 1966 through 1977. Education He graduated from Washington & Jefferson College in 1945. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1947.
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Joshua Stacher
#105029
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Joshua A. Stacher is an American political scientist and scholar of Middle East politics, authoritarianism, and social movements. Background and education Joshua Stacher received his undergraduate degree at Washington and Jefferson College in 1998, having majored in History and English. He subsequently studied comparative politics and Middle Eastern Islamist movements at The American University in Cairo, there receiving his master's in Political Science in 2002.
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Harry E. Miller Jr.
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#108059
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Harry E. Miller Jr. is a retired Army National Guard officer. A veteran of the Iraq War, he attained the rank of major general as commander of the 42nd Infantry Division, a position he held from 2013 to 2017.
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Raymond Yong
#120985
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (95 years)
Raymond Yong, is a retired Canadian environmental engineer. His father, Yong Ngim Djin, was principal of Anglo-Chinese School, and he first studied in the United States at Washington & Jefferson College due to his godfather, who was a Methodist missionary. He started in medicine, but switched to physics. He became an important instructor at McGill University. He is also an authority on contaminated soil and has 60 patents. In 1985 he won the Izaak-Walton-Killam Award.
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John S. Reed
#123982
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
John Shepard Reed is the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. He previously served as chairman and CEO of Citicorp, Citibank, and post-merger, Citigroup. He is the past chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's board of trustees.
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Roger Goodell
#137846
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Roger Stokoe Goodell is an American businessman who has served as the commissioner of the National Football League since 2006. Goodell began his NFL career in 1982 as an administrative intern in the league office in New York under then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle. The position was secured through a letter-writing campaign to the league office and each of its then 28 teams. In 1983, he joined the New York Jets as an intern, but returned to the league office in 1984 as an assistant in the public relations department.
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Stephen Kresovich
#138101
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Stephen Kresovich is a plant geneticist and the Coker Endowed Chair of Genetics in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Clemson University and professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Since 2019 he has served as director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
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Luke Ravenstahl
#149818
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Luke Robert Ravenstahl is an American politician who served as the 59th Mayor of Pittsburgh from 2006 until 2014. A Democrat, he became the youngest mayor in Pittsburgh's history in September 2006 at the age of 26. He was among the youngest mayors of a major city in American history.
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Paul C. Quinn
#166105
Overall Influence
#23
David A. Steinberg
#173089
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
David A. Steinberg is the founder and chief executive officer of Zeta Global, one of multiple successful companies that he has founded. Zeta Global is a big-data and artificial intelligence driven marketing company that integrates data, technology, and marketing technology, aiming to help brands acquire, grow and retain customers.
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Richard Clark
#187214
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (78 years)
Richard T. Clark is a former chairman of the Merck & Co. pharmaceutical company, a position he held from 2007 to 2011. His previous leadership positions at Merck & Co. include CEO , president and president of the Merck & Co. manufacturing division .
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William Holmes McGuffey
1800 - 1873 (73 years)
William Holmes McGuffey was an American college professor and president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, the first widely used series of elementary school-level textbooks. More than 120 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.
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John Work Scott
1807 - 1879 (72 years)
John Work Scott, son of Andrew Scott and Mary Dinsmore, was the sixth and last president of Washington College before its merger with Jefferson College to form Washington & Jefferson College. A native of Wheeling, West Virginia, Scott graduated from Jefferson College in 1827 and worked as a Presbyterian minister. He was elected president of Washington College on November 10, 1852 and was inaugurated in 1853. He earned a salary of $1000 per year and received a raise to $1500 per year in 1859. In 1860, he was elected president of the Maryland Agricultural College, but was unavailable to serve. B...
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John W. Geary
1819 - 1873 (54 years)
John White Geary was an American lawyer, politician, Freemason, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was the final alcalde and first mayor of San Francisco, a governor of the Kansas Territory, and the 16th governor of Pennsylvania.
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Henry Collin Minton
1855 - 1924 (69 years)
Henry Collin Minton was the chairman of Systematic Theology in the San Francisco Theological Seminary from December 2, 1891 to October 1, 1902. He then became the minister for the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey.
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Daniel Lynn Carroll
1797 - 1851 (54 years)
Daniel Lynn Carroll was the sixth President of Hampden–Sydney College from 1835 to 1838. Biography Carroll was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania in May, 1797 to poor Irish immigrant parents . Carroll had been a farm-hand, iron-factory foreman, music teacher, and school teacher before entering Jefferson College , where he went on to graduate in 1823 after only three years. He then enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary and took the three-year curriculum, staying for another six months of study after graduation. Of Carroll, Archibald Alexander said that he was one of his finest students.
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James Caruthers Rhea Ewing
1854 - 1925 (71 years)
Sir James Caruthers Rhea Ewing was a prominent American Presbyterian missionary, educationist, theologian, and author who worked in India. Ewing was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania to Eleanor Rhea and James Henry Ewing. Many of the family where clergymen including granduncle Rev. James Ewing Caruthers. The family moved to Saltsburg in 1860. He went to a local school which was called "Clawson's" and then taught at school for a while. He joined Washington & Jefferson College in 1873 and graduated in 1876. He joined the Presbyterian Church of Washington and was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.
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John Livingston Lowes
1867 - 1945 (78 years)
John Livingston Lowes was an American scholar and critic of English literature, specializing in Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Geoffrey Chaucer. Life John Livingston Lowes was born in Decatur, Indiana on December 20, 1867. He earned a B.A. from Washington and Jefferson College in 1888 and did postgraduate work in Germany and at Harvard University. He taught mathematics at Washington and Jefferson College until 1891 when he received his M.A.
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Joseph Smith
1736 - 1792 (56 years)
Joseph Smith was a prominent Presbyterian minister in Western Pennsylvania. He is one of the founders of Washington & Jefferson College. Biography Early life Smith was born in Cecil County, Maryland, not far from the modern location of the Conowingo Dam. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1764 at the relatively mature age of 28. He was "tall, blond, slender, and had piercing eyes" and was "emotional to a degree we do not usually associate with Englishmen."
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Alfred Gilmore
1812 - 1858 (46 years)
Alfred Gilmore was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Biography Alfred Gilmore was born in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1833. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1836 and commenced practice in Butler.
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Matthew Brown Riddle
1836 - 1916 (80 years)
Matthew Brown Riddle was a United States theologian. Biography His father was the educator David Hunter Riddle. Matthew graduated from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1859, after which he studied at Heidelberg. In 1861, he was chaplain of the 2d New Jersey regiment, and in 1862-69 he was pastor successively of Dutch Reformed Churches in Hoboken and Newark, New Jersey. He traveled in Europe from 1869 until 1871, and in the latter year was appointed professor of New Testament exegesis in the theological seminary of Hartford, Connecticut.
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John McDowell Leavitt
1824 - 1909 (85 years)
John McDowell Leavitt was an early Ohio lawyer, Episcopal clergyman, poet, novelist, editor and professor. Leavitt served as the second President of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and as President of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.
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David Hayes Agnew
1818 - 1892 (74 years)
David Hayes Agnew was an American surgeon. Biography Agnew was born on November 24, 1818, Nobleville, Pennsylvania . His parents were Robert Agnew and Agnes Noble. Agnew grew up as a Christian. He was surrounded by a family of doctors and had always known he was going to become a physician. As a young boy, he had a sharp sense of humor and was very intelligent.
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Alfred Ryors
1812 - 1858 (46 years)
Alfred Ryors served as the second president of Indiana University and the fifth president of Ohio University. Early life and education Born June 23, 1812 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ryors was orphaned at an early age. He lived with family friends until 1823, when he began studying with the Presbyterian Church in preparation for ministry. In 1831, he entered Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he studied for two years before leaving to teach Latin and Greek in the School of C.J. Halderman, at Bristol, Pennsylvania. He returned to Jefferson College in 1834 and graduated in 183...
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Jim Aiken
1899 - 1961 (62 years)
James Wilson Aiken was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Akron , the University of Nevada , and the University of Oregon , compiling a career college football record of 78–53–5. Aiken was also the head basketball coach at Nevada for a season in 1944–45, tallying a mark of 8–9.
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William Seaman Bainbridge
1870 - 1947 (77 years)
William Seaman Bainbridge was an American surgeon and gynecologist. He served as a naval physician in the United States Navy and was co-founder of the International Committee of Military Medicine located in Liège.
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Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg
1818 - 1901 (83 years)
Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg was an American educator and Lutheran clergyman who served as president of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and as a Greek language and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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Andrew Dousa Hepburn
1830 - 1921 (91 years)
Andrew Dousa Hepburn was a Presbyterian pastor, professor and President of Miami University and Davidson College. Hepburn was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to Samuel Hepburn, a lawyer and judge, and Rebecca Williamson. Hepburn grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, before attending Jefferson College, Canonsburg; the University of Virginia; and Princeton University, from where he graduated with a degree in theology in 1857, the same year in which he married Henrietta McGuffey, daughter of William Holmes McGuffey. Together, they had two children: Henrietta Williamson Hepburn and Charles McG...
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Boyd Crumrine Patterson
1902 - 1988 (86 years)
Boyd Crumrine Patterson was an American mathematician and the ninth president of Washington & Jefferson College. Patterson was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1902, and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1923, completing his studies in three years. He was a member of the well-known Crumrine family of Washington County and a third-generation W&J graduate. His father, John P. Patterson, was a member of W&J's class of 1885; his grandfather, Boyd Crumrine, a noted local historian, was in Jefferson College's class of 1860. He was also a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fra...
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Henry A. Wise
1806 - 1876 (70 years)
Henry Alexander Wise was an American attorney, diplomat, politician and slave owner from Virginia. As the 33rd Governor of Virginia, Wise served as a significant figure on the path to the American Civil War, becoming heavily involved in the 1859 trial of abolitionist John Brown. After leaving office in 1860, Wise also led the move toward Virginia's secession from the Union in reaction to the election of Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of Fort Sumter.
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Andrew Wylie
1789 - 1851 (62 years)
Andrew Wylie was an American academic and theologian, who was president of Jefferson College and Washington College before becoming the first president of Indiana University . Early life and education The son of Adam Wylie, a Presbyterian immigrant of Scottish descent from County Antrim, Ireland and farmer in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Andrew was educated at home and in local schools in Washington County, Pennsylvania. In 1804, at age fifteen, Wylie entered Jefferson College, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors in 1810 and was immediately appointed a tutor at the coll...
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Stephen Foster
1826 - 1864 (38 years)
Stephen Collins Foster , known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" , "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer", and many of his compositions remain popular today.
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James G. Blaine
1830 - 1893 (63 years)
James Gillespie Blaine was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the United States House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1869 to 1875, and then in the United States Senate from 1876 to 1881.
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Absalom Baird
1824 - 1905 (81 years)
Absalom Baird was a career United States Army officer who distinguished himself as a Union Army general in the American Civil War. Baird received the Medal of Honor for his military actions. Early life Baird was born in Washington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the preparatory department of Washington College in 1841. He enrolled in the United States Military Academy and graduated in 1849, ranked ninth in a class of 43. From 1852 to 1859, he was a mathematics instructor at West Point, where one of his students was James McNeill Whistler. From 1859 to 1861, he served in Texas and Virginia.
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Joseph Ruggles Wilson
1822 - 1903 (81 years)
Joseph Ruggles Wilson Sr. was a prominent Presbyterian theologian and father of President Woodrow Wilson, Nashville Banner editor Joseph Ruggles Wilson Jr., and Anne E. Wilson Howe. In 1861, as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, he organized the General Assembly of the newly formed Presbyterian Church in the United States, known as the Southern Presbyterian Church, and served as its clerk for thirty-seven years.
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