List of Wikipedia people explained

This list of Wikipedians includes notable editors of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia who create and maintain the site, as well as other notable people associated with the project and the larger Wikipedia community.

By surname

A

• Evan Amos, a New York City-based professional photographer known for his numerous stock images of video game consoles, which are frequently used in Wikipedia articles^[1]
• Amin Azzam, an American psychiatrist and clinical professor at the UCSF School of Medicine known for teaching a class of medical students which consists entirely of editing Wikipedia articles^[2]

B

• Nicholson Baker, an author and conservationist who "fell in love with Wikipedia"
• Mark Bernstein, a Russian Wikipedia editor and blogger detained for editing the Russian Wikipedia page for the Russian invasion of Ukraine^[3]
• Yaroslav Blanter, a Russian nanoscientist who specializes in editing Russian-language pages^[4]

C

• Hampton Lintorn-Catlin, an American computer programmer and programming language inventor who wrote several applications for iOS and other mobile platforms, including a Wikipedia browsing client which was later purchased by the Wikimedia Foundation;^[5] Catlin was later hired by Wikimedia Foundation as Mobile development lead^[6]
• Faizul Latif Chowdhury, Bangladeshi economist and writer who uses his real name to edit Wikipedia, primarily the Bengali-language edition
• William Connolley, a climate modeller who edits Wikipedia using his real name, William M. Connolley
• Danese Cooper, an American programmer,^[7] computer scientist^[8] and advocate of open source software^[9] who worked with Wikimedia foundation as Chief Technical Officer^[10]
• Lee Daniel Crocker, an American programmer best known for rewriting MediaWiki, the content-management software upon which Wikipedia and many other websites run, to address scalability problems^[11]
• Anthony Czarnik, an American biochemist, inventor, and professor

D

• Florence Devouard, a French Wikipedian and former Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation^[12]
• Mike Dickison, New Zealand's first "Wikipedian-at-large"

E

• Woja Emmanuel, journalist and co-founder of Wikimedia South Sudan^[13]
• Siân Evans, a librarian, activist, and co-founder of Art+Feminism, a global campaign that challenges gender bias on Wikipedia
• David Eppstein, an American computer scientist and mathematician

F

• Farhad Fatkullin, linguist known for work on development of Wikipedias in languages of Russia

G

• Tomasz Ganicz, former president of Wikimedia Polska (2007–2018)
• Sue Gardner, former executive director, Wikimedia Foundation (2007–2014)
• David Gerard, author about cryptocurrencies
• Susan Gerbic, founder and leader of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project
• Mike Godwin, former general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation (2007–2010)

H

• Martin Haase, a German linguistics professor at the University of Bamberg as well as a linguist, polyglot, and podcaster who is also a Wikipedia volunteer and served as a member of Wikimedia Germany's advisory board (2005–2007)^[14]
• Aaron Halfaker, principal applied scientist at Microsoft Research, a former research scientist at the Wikimedia Foundation
• Hamid Hassani, an Iranian lexicographer and corpus linguist, a senior researcher at the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL)
• James Heilman, a Canadian emergency department physician, and advocate for the improvement of Wikipedia's health-related content^[15]
• Miran Hladnik, a Slovenian literary historian, specializing in quantitative analysis of Slovene rural stories and in Slovene historical fiction
• Netha Hussain, a medical doctor known for her efforts to tackle the spread of misinformation in Wikipedia about the origin of the coronavirus

I

• Maryana Iskander, chief executive officer of the Wikimedia Foundation (2022–present)

J

• Andrea James, transgender activist
• Dariusz Jemielniak, professor of management
• Richard J. Jensen, professor and historian
• Jonathan A. Jones, physics professor at the University of Oxford

K

• Uładzimir Katkoŭski (1976–2007), a Belarusian blogger, web designer and website creator^[16] who was a founder of Belarusian Wikipedia
• Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, a Kazakh entrepreneur and NGO activist who was named the first Wikipedian of the Year in August 2011 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales at Wikimania^[17]
• Osama Khalid, an Arab Wikipedia administrator and medical doctor who was sentenced to 32 years in prison for contributing information critical to the Saudi government.^[18]
• Bassel Khartabil (1981–2015), a Palestinian Syrian open-source software developer who contributed to projects like Creative Commons, Wikipedia, and Mozilla Firefox. On 15 March 2012, the one-year anniversary of the Syrian uprising, he was detained by the Syrian government at Adra Prison in Damascus.^[19] Khartabil was executed by the Syrian regime shortly after his disappearance in 2015.^[20]
• Justin Knapp, an American Wikipedian who in 2012 became the first person to make 1 million Wikipedia edits^[21]
• Dan Koehl, pioneer and first admin on Swedish Wikipedia and prolific contributor to different Wikimedia projects^[22]
• Ihor Kostenko (1991–2014), a Ukrainian journalist, student activist and Wikipedian killed during the Euromaidan events^[23]

L

• Deena Larsen, American new media and hypertext fiction author involved in the creative electronic writing community since the 1980s.^[24]
• Siobhan Leachman, a New Zealand citizen scientist, open knowledge advocate, and Wikipedian whose work is focused on natural history
• Andrew Lih, an American new media researcher, consultant and writer, as well as an authority on internet censorship in the People's Republic of China^[25] and a long-time Wikipedian
• Yuri Lushchai, a Ukrainian historian and poet, who died in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

M

• Katherine Maher, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation (2016–2021)
• Michael Mandiberg, co-founder of the Art+Feminism project
• Magnus Manske, developer of MediaWiki and related software tools
• Ira Brad Matetsky, American lawyer
• Rémi Mathis, historian and curator, Wikipedian of the Year (2013), author of Wikipédia. Dans les coulisses de la plus grande encyclopédie du monde (2021)
• Emna Mizouni, Wikimedian of the Year (2019)
• Erik Möller, former deputy director of Wikimedia Foundation (2008–2015)
• Jason Moore, editor and organizer

N

• Felix Nartey, a Ghanaian social entrepreneur and open advocate who was named the Wikimedian of the Year in August 2017 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales at Wikimania^[26]
• Alaa Najjar, a physician, Wikipedian and internet activist who was named the Wikimedian of the Year at Wikimania in August 2021 for his pioneering role in the development of the Arab and medical communities, as well as for his role in the development of COVID-19 topics

O

• Tron Øgrim (1947–2007), a Norwegian journalist, author and politician. He was active in Socialist Youth Union (later Red Youth) from 1965 to 1973, and a central^[27] figure in the Workers' Communist Party from 1973 to 1984. From 2005 till his death in 2007, he contributed to Wikipedia both online and offline.

P

• Olga Paredes, Wikimedian of the Year (2022)
• Pavel Pernikaŭ, a Belarusian Wikipedia editor and human rights activist
• Tobias Preis, professor of social science
• Steven Pruitt, highest edit count on the English Wikipedia
• Simon Pulsifer, prolific Wikipedia contributor

R

• Annie Rauwerda, creator of Depths of Wikipedia
• Steven Rubenstein (1962–2012), anthropologist

S

• Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia
• Tony Santiago, editor recognized in 2007 by the 23rd Senate of Puerto Rico for his contributions to Puerto Rico–related content^[28]
• Seedfeeder, explicit illustrator
• María Sefidari, chair of Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees (2018–2021)
• David Shankbone, photographer and blogger
• Chris Sherwin (1962–2017), scientist and researcher
• Gage Skidmore, photographer
• Revo Soekatno, linguistic researcher and co-founder of Wikimedia Indonesia
• Jan Sokol (1936–2021), a Czech philosopher, university professor and promoter of WMCZ project Senior Citizens Write Wikipedia
• Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, joint Wikipedian of the Year (2016); Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees (2021–)
• Aaron Swartz (1986–2013), programmer and political activist

T

• Audrey Tang, a Taiwanese programmer and politician
• Sandister Tei, Wikimedian of the Year (2020) and co-founder of Wikimedia Ghana User Group
• Emily Temple-Wood, joint Wikipedian of the Year (2016)
• Lila Tretikov, former executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation (2014–2016)

V

• Volodymyr Vakulenko (1972–2022), Ukrainian literary figure who was murdered during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Oscar van Dillen, first chairperson of the Dutch chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation
• Luis Villa, an American attorney and programmer who worked for the Wikimedia Foundation

W

• Jess Wade, physicist who has written over 1700 articles about women in STEM
• Adrianne Wadewitz (1977–2014), an American scholar of 18th-century British literature^[29]
• Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia^[30]
• Maia Weinstock, science journalist and gender equality activist
• Molly White, cryptocurrency skeptic and author of website Web3 Is Going Just Great

Y

• Taha Yasseri, associate professor of sociology at University College Dublin, Ireland

See also

• List of people imprisoned for editing Wikipedia

Notes and References

1. News: Preserving video game history one photo at a time . Lien . Tracey . 2013-10-31 . Polygon . 2018-01-06 . 2017-12-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171201182014/https://www.polygon.com/2013/10/31/5051928/preserving-video-game-history-one-photo-at-a-time . live .
2. News: America's future doctors are starting their careers by saving Wikipedia . Feltman . Rachel . 2014-01-28 . Quartz . 2018-01-06 . en-US . 2019-01-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190104034647/https://qz.com/171162/americas-future-doctors-are-starting-their-careers-by-saving-wikipedia/ . live .
3. Web site: Популяризатору интернет-энциклопедии Wikipedia Марку Берштейну дали 15 суток — за «неповиновение» . ru . . 2022-03-12 . 2023-08-26 . 2022-03-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220312165314/https://news.zerkalo.io/life/11149.html . live.
4. News: The greatest movie that never was . Morris . Kevin . 2013-04-25 . The Daily Dot . 2018-01-24 . en-US . 2021-01-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210122224237/https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/wikipedia-hoax-yuri-gadyukin-nitrate-movie/ . live .
5. Web site: Meet the merbists: Hampton Catlin. Merbist. 30 August 2013. 2 April 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140402214412/http://merbist.com/2009/01/06/meet-the-merbists-hampton-catlin/. live.
6. Web site: Wikimedia Mobile is Officially Launched. Wikimedia Foundation. 30 June 2009. 30 August 2013. 21 March 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150321113008/http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/30/wikimedia-mobile-launch/. live.
7. Web site: Simon. Leslie. Geek Girl Of The Week: Danese Cooper. leslie-simon.com. Leslie Simon. 11 March 2016. programmer. 11 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160311130857/http://www.leslie-simon.com/danese-cooper-geek-girl/. live.
8. Web site: PayPal names Danese Cooper head, open source. Finextra Research. 21 February 2014. 2016-03-11. 2016-03-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20160311135524/https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/25756/paypal-names-danese-cooper-head-open-source. live.
9. 2010 . Noted & Quoted. . Computers in Libraries . 30 . 4 . 36–37 .
10. 2010 . Content News . EContent . 33 . 3 . 13 . 13 April 2011 . 15 March 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220315163923/https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=49011049&site=ehost-live . live .
11. Book: MediaWiki. Barrett, Daniel J.. Daniel J. Barrett. O'Reilly Media. October 2008. 978-0-596-51979-7. April 23, 2010. mdy-all. registration.
12. Web site: Board of Trustees . Wikimedia Foundation . 2012-02-15 . 2018-02-26 . 2017-08-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170819202216/https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees#Florence_Nibart-Devouard . live .
13. Web site: Radio Miraya . Radio Miraya . South Sudanese urged to document the country’s activites. . audioboom.com . Radio Miraya . 20 November 2024.
14. News: Ex-Wikimedia-Vorstand Haase: "Wikipedia ist in einer Sackgasse" . Die Zeit . 2014-11-18 . 2011-01-13 . 2019-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190402022514/https://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2011-01/wikimedia-wikipedia . live .
15. Fleck. Fiona. 1 January 2013. Online encyclopedia provides free health info for all. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. World Health Organization. 91. 1. 8–9. 10.2471/BLT.13.030113. 3537258. 23397345.
16. News: Пяць гадоў без Уладзі Каткоўскага . Радыё Свабода . 25 May 2012 . 2019-03-19 . 2016-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234916/http://www.svaboda.org/content/article/24592038.html . live . Свабода . Радыё .
17. Web site: Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales restricts discussion of Tony Blair friendship . The Telegraph . 24 December 2012 . 24 June 2016 . Williams, Christopher . 17 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190817033031/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/9764719/Wikipedia-co-founder-Jimmy-Wales-restricts-discussion-of-Tony-Blair-friendship.html . live .
18. News: Saudi Arabia 'infiltrated' Wikipedia to control content, activists say . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230401211457/https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/investigation-concludes-saudi-arabia-infiltrated-wikipedia-agents-to-control-content . 1 April 2023 . 28 January 2024 . Middle East Eye . en.
19. News:
    1. FREEBASSEL: a campaign to free Bassel Khartabil from Syrian jail
    . 5 July 2012. Al Bawaba. 4 July 2012. 2 January 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140102051556/http://www.albawaba.com/blog_roundup/freebassel-kharatable-syria-432588. dead.
20. Web site: Horrific: Reports that Bassel Khartabil Has Been Executed in Syria. Jimmy Wales Foundation. 1 August 2017. 1 August 2017. 2 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170802000234/http://jimmywalesfoundation.org/horrific-reports-that-bassel-khartabil-has-been-executed-in-syria/. dead.
21. Web site: Justin Knapp Makes History On Wikipedia . 2012-04-20 . NPR . en . 2018-01-06 . 2017-04-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170413223213/http://www.npr.org/2012/04/20/151023826/justin-knapp-makes-history-on-wikipedia . live .
22. Web site: Så fungerar Wikipedia/Wikipedias historia . Lennart Guldbrandsson, sv.wikisource.org . 2010-03-09 . 2015-11-24 . 2015-11-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151125123752/https://sv.wikisource.org/wiki/S%C3%A5_fungerar_Wikipedia/Wikipedias_historia#Tinget_och_skilkom . live .
23. Web site: In memoriam of Ihor Kostenko. Wikimedia Ukraine. 23 February 2014. uk. 19 March 2019. 2 March 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140302151429/http://wikimediaukraine.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/in-memoriam-of-ihor-kostenko/. live.
24. See the Deena Larsen Collection and Currents in Electronic Literacy 5 (Fall 2001)
25. Cohen, Noam. "Chinese Government Relaxes Its Total Ban on Wikipedia ." The New York Times. October 16, 2006. Retrieved on February 28, 2012.
26. Web site: Elsharbaty. Samir. Felix Nartey named Wikimedian of the Year for 2017. Wikimedia Blog. Wikimedia Foundation. 2017-08-16. 2017-08-18. 2018-12-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20181225145329/https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/08/16/felix-nartey-wikimedian-of-the-year/. live.
27. Toralv Østvang, "Tron Øgrim er død" in PC World Norge, 24.05.2007, accessed June 2, 2007.
28. Web site: Archived copy . 2022-03-08 . 2013-12-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131213055604/http://www.oslpr.org/files/docs/%7B01BAB82E-1A7A-4EC4-A081-5F5E03747D62%7D.doc . dead .
29. News: Adrianne Wadewitz, 37, Wikipedia Editor, Dies in Rock Climbing Fall . Cohen . Noam . 2014-04-19 . The New York Times . 2018-01-06 . en-US . 0362-4331 . 2014-04-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140420015133/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/business/media/adrianne-wadewitz-37-wikipedia-editor-and-academic-dies.html . live .
30. News: Jimmy Wales makes Wikia stickier with a social revamp . Kiss . Jemima . 2010-11-09 . The Guardian . 2018-01-06 . 2017-07-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170730170110/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/pda/2010/nov/09/wikia-wikipedia-jimmy-wales . live .