The Most Influential People in History
Find the most important people in 24 academic disciplines from 4000 BCE to today
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 proprietary AI program, we have ranked everyone in Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef based on the number of citations, publications, and academically relevant web presence.
Students and researchers now have the easiest and fastest way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you ever wanted to find famous medieval biologists, or influential engineers during the industrial revolution, now you can!
We’ve also put together our own custom rankings of people by discipline. And speaking of influential people, don’t forget to check out the interviews we do with the influential people of today!
Use the power of AI for your research! Simply select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) most relevant to your research, and the time periods of interest, and get enlightening results.
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
Search Influential People
List of the most influential people in Nursing, for the years 2010 – 2020
Faye Glenn Abdellah
#16021
Overall Influence
1919 - 2017 (98 years)
Faye Glenn Abdellah was an American pioneer in nursing research. Abdellah was the first nurse and woman to serve as the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States. Preceding her appointment, she served in active duty during the Korean War, where she earned a distinguished ranking equivalent to a Navy Rear Admiral, making her the highest ranked woman and nurse in the Federal Nursing Services at the time. In addition to these achievements, Abdellah led the formation of the National Institute of Nursing Research at the NIH, and was the founder and first dean of the Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences .
Go to ProfileMadeleine Leininger
#14339
Overall Influence
1925 - 2012 (87 years)
Madeleine Leininger was a nursing theorist, nursing professor and developer of the concept of transcultural nursing. First published in 1961, her contributions to nursing theory involve the discussion of what it is to care.
Go to ProfileCarl O. Helvie
#47055
Overall Influence
1932 - 2019 (87 years)
Carl O. Helvie was an American registered nurse and Professor Emeritus of Nursing at Old Dominion University. Helvie is known for his development and implementation of the Helvie Energy Theory of Nursing and Health.
Go to ProfilePatricia Flatley Brennan
#35601
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (70 years)
Patricia Flatley Brennan is the director of the National Library of Medicine. Prior to that, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Brennan received a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She served as chair of University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering's Department of Industrial Engineering from 2007 to 2010.
Go to ProfileAnn Burgess
#45673
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (87 years)
Ann C. Wolbert Burgess is a researcher whose work has focused on developing ways to assess and treat trauma in rape victims. She is a professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College.
Go to ProfileCallista Roy
#17084
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (84 years)
Sister Callista Roy, CSJ is an American nun, nursing theorist, professor and author. She is known for creating the adaptation model of nursing. She was a nursing professor at Boston College before retiring in 2017. Roy was designated as a 2007 Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing.
Go to ProfileMarjory Gordon
#54574
Overall Influence
1931 - 2015 (84 years)
Marjory Gordon was a nursing theorist and professor who created a nursing assessment theory known as Gordon's functional health patterns. Gordon served in 1973 as the first president of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association until 1988. She was a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing beginning in 1977 and was designated a Living Legend by the same organization in 2009.
Go to ProfileLoretta Ford
#48700
Overall Influence
1920 - Present (103 years)
Loretta C. Ford is an American nurse and the co-founder of the first nurse practitioner program. Along with pediatrician Henry Silver, Ford started the pediatric nurse practitioner program at the University of Colorado in 1965. In 1972, Ford joined the University of Rochester as founding dean of the nursing school.
Go to ProfileLauren Drain
#91643
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (38 years)
Lauren Danielle Drain is a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church who wrote the 2013 book Banished, which chronicles her experiences and eventual banishment from the church. Early life Drain was born in Tampa, Florida and lived in nearby Bradenton until age five, when she moved to Olathe, Kansas, with her father, Steve, who enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Kansas.
Go to ProfileMichele McDonald
#213376
Overall Influence
1952 - 2020 (68 years)
Michele Marlene McDonald-Boeke was an American model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 1971. As Miss USA, she represented the United States at Miss Universe 1971, where she placed in the top twelve. McDonald had previously been crowned Miss Pennsylvania USA 1971, and was the first woman from Pennsylvania to win the Miss USA title.
Go to ProfileIan Norman
#103678
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (71 years)
Ian James Norman is a British nursing researcher and author, based in Surrey, UK. His research and writing is focused primarily in the fields of psychiatric and mental health nursing, and psychological treatments for people with mental health difficulties. Norman is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King's College London. He is a former Executive Dean of Faculty and Assistant Principal at King's. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Nursing Studies and a practising cognitive behavioural psychotherapist.
Go to ProfileGeorge Castledine
#125899
Overall Influence
1940 - 2018 (78 years)
George Castledine, FRCN was a British nursing educator and nursing consultant. George Castledine won a scholarship to Oxford University, later attending Liverpool University. He worked as a staff nurse before relocating to the Manchester Royal Infirmary to be charge nurse in a trauma unit as well as lecturer. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing from 1980.
Go to ProfileSineenat
#195259
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (38 years)
Niramon Ounprom is an army officer, member of the Thai royal court, and a former Thai nurse. She was named concubine and a long-time mistress of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, who granted her several military ranks and positions, including the noble name of Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi . After Prince Vajiralongkorn ascended the throne as King Rama X, he appointed her as his Royal Noble Consort, giving her the noble title of Chao Khun Phra Sineenat Bilaskalayani in July 2019. She is the first woman to hold the title of a royal concubine of the King of Thailand in almost a century as th...
Go to ProfileHalyna Kolotnytska
#75671
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (51 years)
Galyna Kolotnytska is a Libyan-Ukrainian nurse and a former member of her country's Antarctic research mission. She is mostly known for her close association with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Go to ProfileRachel Robinson
#16688
Overall Influence
1922 - Present (101 years)
Rachel Annetta Robinson is the widow of professional baseball player Jackie Robinson, as well as an American former professor and registered nurse. Life and work Rachel Isum was born in Pasadena, California, and attended Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, California, and the University of California, Los Angeles . At UCLA, she met Robinson in 1941 prior to his leaving UCLA when his baseball eligibility ran out. She graduated from UCLA on June 1, 1945, with a bachelor's degree in nursing. Rachel and Robinson married on February 10, 1946, the year before he broke into the big leagues. They had three children: Jackie, Jr.
Go to ProfileKatharine Kolcaba
#78563
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (79 years)
Katharine Kolcaba is an American nursing theorist and nursing professor. Dr. Kolcaba is responsible for the Theory of Comfort, a broad-scope mid-range nursing theory commonly implemented throughout the nursing field up to the institutional level.
Go to ProfileRobin Quivers
#8806
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (71 years)
Robin Ophelia Quivers is an American radio personality, author, and actress, best known for being the long-running co-host of The Howard Stern Show. Early life Quivers was born on August 8, 1952, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Lula Louise Quivers, a homemaker and housekeeper, and Charles Quivers Sr., a steelworker at Bethlehem Steel. She has an older brother, Charles Jr., and two adopted brothers, Harry and Howard. Both parents were educated only to the seventh grade. In her 1995 autobiography, Quivers revealed that she was molested by her father at a young age. At seventeen, Quivers enrolled at a pre-nursing program at Maryland General Hospital.
Go to ProfileJean Watson
#11248
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (83 years)
Jean Watson is an American nurse theorist and nursing professor who is best known for her theory of human caring. She is the author of numerous texts, including Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring. Watson's research on caring has been incorporated into education and patient care at hundreds of nursing schools and healthcare facilities across the world.
Go to ProfileCharles Cullen
#12170
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (63 years)
Charles Edmund Cullen is an American serial killer. Cullen, a nurse, murdered dozens – possibly hundreds – of patients during a 16-year career spanning several New Jersey medical centers, until being arrested in 2003. He confessed to committing as many as 40 murders, at least 29 of which have been confirmed, though interviews with police, psychiatrists and journalists suggest he committed many more.
Go to ProfileMargo McCaffery
#99020
Overall Influence
Margo McCaffery was an American registered nurse and pioneer of the field of pain management nursing. McCaffery's oft-quoted definition of pain as "whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever and wherever the person says it does", stated as early as 1968, has become the prevailing conceptualization of pain for clinicians over the past few decades.
Go to ProfileGed Kearney
#108568
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (60 years)
Gerardine Mary "Ged" Kearney is an Australian politician and trade unionist. She has been a member of the House of Representatives since March 2018, representing the Division of Batman and later the Division of Cooper for the Labor Party. She was previously president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 2010 to 2018.
Go to ProfilePatricia Benner
#37200
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (81 years)
Patricia Sawyer Benner is a nursing theorist, academic and author. She is known for one of her books, From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice . Benner described the stages of learning and skill acquisition across the careers of nurses, applying the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition to nursing practice. Benner is a professor emerita at the University of California, San Francisco UCSF School of Nursing.
Go to ProfileJudith Shamian
#189400
Overall Influence
Judith Shamian is an Irish nurse. She served as president of the International Council of Nurses from 2013-2017. Career She was elected to the position at ICN's May 2013 Quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, Australia. She was also the president of the Victorian Order of Nurses and the Canadian Nurses Association respectively. She was succeeded as president by Annette Kennedy in 2017.
Go to ProfileAnne Marie Rafferty
#81227
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (65 years)
Dame Anne Marie Rafferty FRCN is a British nurse, academic and researcher. She is professor of nursing policy and former dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King's College London. She served as President of the Royal College of Nursing from 2019 to 2021.
Go to ProfileNancy Fugate Woods
#243381
Overall Influence
Nancy Fugate Woods is emerita professor in Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics at the University of Washington. She previously served as the dean of the University of Washington's nursing program and as the president of the American Academy of Nursing.
Go to ProfilePatricia Horoho
#50571
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (63 years)
Patricia D. Horoho is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 43rd Surgeon General of the United States Army and Commanding General of the United States Army Medical Command. She was the second female Nurse Corps officer to hold the title of Army surgeon general but the first to be appointed and hold the position for a full term. In 2016, she was inducted into the United States Army Women's Foundation Hall of Fame.
Go to ProfileColin Norris
#76749
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (47 years)
Colin Campbell Norris is a serial killer nurse from Milton in Glasgow, Scotland, who murdered four "difficult" elderly patients and attempted to murder another in two hospitals in Leeds, England in 2002. Norris, who self-admittedly disliked elderly patients and had previously stolen hospital drugs, was the only person on duty when all the five patients inexplicably fell into sudden hypoglycaemic comas, despite the non-diabetic women only being in minor injury wards with merely broken hips. Suspicions were raised when Norris predicted that healthy Ethel Hall would die at 5:15 am one night, whi...
Go to ProfileNola Pender
#80016
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (82 years)
Nola J. Pender is a nursing theorist, author, and academic. She is a professor emerita of nursing at the University of Michigan. She created the Health Promotion Model. She has been designated a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing.
Go to ProfileRoger Watson
#133718
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (68 years)
Roger Watson is a British academic. He is currently Academic Dean in the School of Nursing, Southwest Medical University, China and until 2022 was the Professor of Nursing at the University of Hull. He is the editor-in-chief of Nurse Education in Practice and an Editorial Board Member of the WikiJournal of Medicine. Watson was the Founding Chair of the Lancet Commission on Nursing, and a founding member of the Global Advisory Group for the Future of Nursing. Watson was elected Vice President of the National Conference of University Professors in 2020 and became President in 2022 until 2024.
Go to ProfileKeith Paora Curry
#202350
Overall Influence
Keith Paora Curry was the first male nurse in New Zealand's Plunket maternal health service. On 23 May 2005, the Northland Polytechnic-trained bilingual nurse with 10 years nursing experience started work at the Plunket Society, New Zealand's century-old maternal health organisation.
Go to ProfileTom Quinn
#145972
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (23 years)
Tom J. Quinn was the UK's first Professor of cardiac nursing, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing for his outstanding contribution to research and practice of cardiac nursing. He currently works at the Kingston University covering research, development and consultancy in cardiovascular care issues, particularly emergency and critical cardiac care and policy. He was previously Professor of Cardiac Nursing at Coventry University. His NHS experience over almost three decades included periods at St Bartholomew's Hospital, the National Heart Hospital and York Hospital and at regional o...
Go to ProfileSuzanne Pinel
#145421
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (70 years)
Suzanne Pinel, is a Canadian children's entertainer and former citizenship judge. Using the stage name Marie-Soleil, Pinel performed for twenty years, using stories and songs to teach the French language to kids. She recorded albums, releasing her first disc in 1976, and starred in the television series Marie-Soleil.
Go to ProfileCirie Fields
#80349
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (53 years)
Cirie Tiffany Fields is an American nurse and reality TV personality who competed on four seasons of Survivor. She first appeared in 2006 on Survivor: Panama, finishing in 4th place. In 2008, she returned and placed 3rd on Survivor: Micronesia. She made her third appearance on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains in 2010, finishing 17th after being targeted and blindsided early in the game. She made her fourth and final appearance on Survivor: Game Changers, where she finished 6th and was eliminated without receiving a vote.
Go to ProfileAbasse Ndione
#219957
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (77 years)
Abasse Ndione is a Senegalese author and nurse. Life Ndione was born 16 December 1946 in the village of Bargny, close to Dakar, the son of a shopkeeper. He attended the local Koranic school at first; then, with pressure from his father, he and his brother attended French school. He studied nursing and got his first job in 1966, staying in this profession until his retirement. In 1968 he married Meriem, a teacher; they have seven children. He lives in Rufisque, a fishing town about 20 kilometers from Dakar. The New African said of him, "It would be safe to bet that Abasse Ndione has seldom earned more than a pittance from any publisher.
Go to ProfileJane Cummings
#369568
Overall Influence
Jane Frances Cummings is a former Chief Nursing Officer for England, formerly at the Department of Health and subsequently at NHS England. In November 2013 she was interviewed about the demand for safe staffing levels in NHS hospitals and told ITV Daybreak: "The most important thing to do is to use evidence to determine what the staffing levels should be. "It's actually quite dangerous to to suggest that there must be a particular minimum and what we really need to do is to look at the needs of the patients on a particular ward or service and that will vary.".
Go to ProfileJames Derham
#39691
Overall Influence
1762 - Present (261 years)
James Derham , also known as James Durham, was the first African American to formally practice medicine in the United States, though he never received an M.D. degree. Biography James Derham was born into slavery in Philadelphia in 1762. As a child, Derham was transferred to Dr. John Kearsley Jr. under whom Derham studied medicine. From Dr. Kearsley, Derham learned about compound medicine with a focus on curing illnesses of the throat, as well as patient bedside manner. Upon Dr. Kearsley's death, Derham, then fifteen years old, was moved between several different masters before finally settling with Dr.
Go to ProfileTom Ahrens
#102154
Overall Influence
Thomas Ahrens is an American nurse, researcher, and educator at Barnes-Jewish Hospital specializing in critical-care nursing. Education Ahrens graduated from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis with a PhD in physiology and nursing in 1987.
Go to ProfileStephan Letter
#133033
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (45 years)
Stephan Letter is a German serial killer and former nurse responsible for the murder of at least 29 patients while he worked at a hospital in Sonthofen, Bavaria, between January 2003 and July 2004. His murders have been described as the largest number of killings in Germany since the Second World War.
Go to ProfileStephanie Klick
#120007
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (67 years)
Stephanie Klick is an American nurse and politician. A Republican, she has represented District 91 in the Texas House of Representatives since 2013. She served one term as Majority Leader of the Texas House's GOP Caucus.
Go to ProfilePatty Judge
#37275
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (80 years)
Patty Jean Poole Judge is an American politician who served as the 45th lieutenant governor of Iowa from 2007 to 2011 and previously the 13th Secretary of Agriculture of Iowa from 1999 to 2007. She unsuccessfully ran for reelection as lieutenant governor in 2010 after being elected to the office in 2006 with Chet Culver as governor.
Go to ProfileAfaf Meleis
#82158
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (81 years)
Afaf Ibrahim Meleis is an Egyptian-American nurse-scientist, researcher, and medical sociologist. She is a Professor of Nursing and Sociology and Dean Emerita at the University of Pennsylvania, where she served from 2002 through 2014. This followed her 34-year tenure as a nursing faculty professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco .
Go to ProfileSarah Mullally
#43970
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (61 years)
Dame Sarah Elisabeth Mullally, is a British Anglican bishop, Lord Spiritual and former nurse. She has been Bishop of London since 8 March 2018. She is the first woman to hold this position. From 1999 to 2004, she was England's Chief Nursing Officer and the National Health Service's director of patient experience for England; from July 2015 until 2018, she was Bishop of Crediton, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Exeter.
Go to ProfileLucile Randon
#49000
Overall Influence
1904 - Present (119 years)
Lucile Randon , also known as Sister André , is a French supercentenarian. At the age of , she has been the world's oldest verified living person since 19 April 2022, following the death of Kane Tanaka. She is currently the fourth-oldest human ever recorded, as well as the oldest known survivor of the COVID-19 pandemic, having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 a month before her 117th birthday.
Go to ProfileLiliane Juchli
#144996
Overall Influence
1933 - 2020 (87 years)
ciao Liliane Juchli was a Swiss nurse and member of the Merciful Sisters of the Holy Cross , a Swiss Catholic order that follows the Franciscan tradition. Biography She was the main author of a highly influential German-language nursing textbook which was simply called "the Juchli". She was also responsible for extending Nancy Roper's activities of daily living nursing model and disseminating it in Europe. She died of COVID-19.
Go to ProfileClaire Bertschinger
#85629
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (70 years)
Dame Claire Bertschinger, DBE, DL is an Anglo-Swiss nurse and advocate on behalf of suffering people in the developing world. Her work in Ethiopia in 1984 inspired Band Aid and subsequently Live Aid, the biggest relief programme ever mounted. Bertschinger received the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991 for her work in nursing, and was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for "services to Nursing and to International Humanitarian Aid".
Go to ProfileLuther Christman
#70361
Overall Influence
1915 - 2011 (96 years)
Luther Parmalee Christman was an American nurse, professor of nursing, university administrator and advocate for gender and racial diversity in nursing. His career included service with the Michigan Department of Mental Health and academic posts at the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University and Rush University. In 1967, Christman became the first man to hold the position of dean at a nursing school.
Go to ProfileClaire Fagin
#71033
Overall Influence
1926 - Present (97 years)
Claire Mintzer Fagin FAAN is an American nurse, educator, academic, and consultant. She has a bachelor's degree in science from Wagner College, a master's in nursing from Columbia University and a Ph.D from New York University, all in New York City. Fagin’s major contributions to psychiatric nursing, nursing education and geriatric care were always underlined with a strong belief in the power of the activist consumer. As a result of her work to change hospital visiting policies, Fagin is considered to be one of the founders of family centered care and is the first woman to serve as president ...
Go to ProfileCatherine Bybee
#379185
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (55 years)
Catherine Bybee is a #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Indie Reader bestselling author. In addition, her books have also graced The New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. In total, she has written thirty-nine beloved books that have collectively sold more than 10 million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Go to ProfileJonathan Asbridge
#119737
Overall Influence
Sir Jonathan Elliott Asbridge is an English nurse who was the first president of the UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council and a registrant member for England . His first introduction to the caring profession was as a St John Ambulance Cadet at Cardiff Castle Division, Cardiff, South Wales. He studied to be a state registered nurse at the Nightingale School, St Thomas' Hospital, London, and gained a diploma in nursing at Swansea University. He began his career as a staff nurse and charge nurse in critical care, then senior nurse an in-patient manager at Singleton Hospital in 1983 before moving to...
Go to ProfileKaye Lani Rae Rafko
#94267
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (60 years)
Kaye Lani Rae Rafko Wilson is the winner of the 1988 Miss America Pageant. She is from Monroe, Michigan, where a street is now named for her. Biography On September 19, 1987, Rafko was named as the Miss America 1988, after winning the Miss Michigan pageant of 1987. In the Miss America competition her platform included help for hospice services and her talent was a Tahitian dancing performance. Rafko has participated in a number of fundraising activities and has been a vocal advocate for nursing and hospice programs. She has addressed medical professional organizations around the world on th...
Go to Profile