Search People Result | Academic Influence

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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School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential female people in Biology,

#1401

Margaret A. Liu

#98573

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Margaret A. Liu is a physician and researcher studying gene expression, immune responses, and vaccines. From 2015 to 2017, Liu served as president of the International Society of Vaccines. She is currently a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco and a foreign adjunct professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Since June 7, 2017, she has been a director of Ipsen S.A. in France.

#1402

Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque

#97081

Overall Influence

Jennifer Y. Webster-Cyriaque is an American dentist and immunologist specializing in the oral microbiome, salivary gland disease in patients with HIV, and cancer-causing viruses. She became the deputy director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in November 2020. Webster-Cyriaque was a faculty member at UNC Adams School of Dentistry and the UNC School of Medicine for 21 years.

#1403

Inga Koerte

#71765

Overall Influence

Inga Katharina Koerte is a German neuroradiologist. She currently holds a dual affiliation as Professor of Biological Research in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Ludwig-Maximilians-University , Munich, Germany and as lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School , Boston, USA. Since 2018 she is associate faculty member of the Graduate School of Systemic Neuroscience in Munich. Her research focusses on the effects of brain trauma on the brain's structure and function, as well as the development of diagnostic markers that can be used for the purpose of both therapeutic, and preventative i...

#1404

Leann Tilley

#87091

Overall Influence

Leann Tilley is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne. Education and awards Leann Tilley was born in Edenhope, Victoria, and attended Marian College in Ararat. Following a BSc in biochemistry at the University of Melbourne, she obtained her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Sydney. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the College de France in Paris, and the University of Melbourne, before joining La Trobe University. In 2011 she moved to the De...

#1405

Betty Flint

#118330

Overall Influence

1909 - 2011 (102 years)

Elizabeth Alice Flint was a New Zealand botanist who specialised in freshwater algae. She co-authored the three-volume series Flora of New Zealand Desmids in the 1980s and 1990s. Early life and education Born in Edmonton, London, England, on 26 May 1909, Flint was raised in the London suburb of New Malden until she emigrated with her family to New Zealand in 1921. There, she was educated at St Margaret's College, Christchurch, and went on to study botany at Canterbury University College, graduating with a Master of Science degree in 1936. Her master's thesis was titled The periodicity of the...

#1406

Fiona Brinkman

#101396

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Fiona Brinkman is a Professor in Bioinformatics and Genomics in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, and is a leader in the area of microbial bioinformatics. She is interested in developing "more sustainable, holistic approaches for infectious disease control and conservation of microbiomes".

#1407

Linda Chang

#88948

Overall Influence

Linda Chang is an American neurologist. She is a professor of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine and the vice-chair for faculty development at University of Maryland School of Medicine. Education Chang completed a bachelor of science in biochemistry through the honors program at University of Maryland, College Park in 1981. Chang earned a master of science in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown University in 1982. Chang completed a medical doctorate at Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1986. Chang completed a residency in neurology at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in 1990.

#1408

Denise Galloway

#120627

Overall Influence

Denise A. Galloway is the associate director of the Human Biology Division and scientific director of the Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and a professor of microbiology and pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her research focuses on human papillomavirus and its role in the development of cancer.

#1409

Jen Sheen

#96122

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Jen Sheen is a biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School who is known for her work on plant signaling networks. She is an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

#1410

Raina MacIntyre

#90641

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Raina MacIntyre is an Australian epidemiologist and academic. She is the Professor of Global Biosecurity within the Kirby Institute at University of New South Wales and a National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellow, who leads a research program on the prevention and control of infectious diseases. She is an expert media advisor and commentator on Australia's response to COVID-19.

#1411

Britt Koskella

#82086

Overall Influence

Britt Koskella is an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She studies evolutionary biology, specialising in host-pathogen relationships. Education Britt Koskella was an undergraduate at University of Virginia, initially studying psychology. Part-time work as a technician with the research group of Janis Antonovics, where she saw experimental evolution laboratory studies of the movement of a plant pathogen between species, changed the direction of her degree and became the foundation of her research interests. She was awarded the degree of Ph. D. by the Indiana Un...

#1412

Bronwyn Gillanders

Bronwyn Gillanders

#107314

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Bronwyn May Gillanders is a marine scientist whose research spans freshwater, estuarine and marine waters while focusing on fish and fisheries ecology. Her studies of the Giant Australian cuttlefish of Northern Spencer Gulf in South Australia revealed the species' sensitivity to increases in salinity; a controversial aspect of the Environmental Impact Study for the expansion of BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine. Gillanders' discovery was published in the scientific journal Marine Environmental Research and prompted environmental activists to call for the relocation of the project's proposed s...

#1413

Iva Tolić

#94362

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Iva Marija Tolić is a Croatian biophysicist, known for her work on the microtubule cytoskeleton and associated motor proteins. She is currently Senior Research Group Leader and professor of Biology at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia.

#1414

Susan Weiss

#119760

Overall Influence

Susan R. Weiss is an American microbiologist who is a Professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds vice chair positions for the Department of Microbiology and for Faculty Development. Her research considers the biology of coronaviruses, including SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2. As of March 2020, Weiss serves as Co-Director of the University of Pennsylvania/Penn Medicine Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens.

#1415

Iris Sommer

#98902

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Iris Sommer is a Dutch psychiatrist who is professor of cognitive aspects of neurological and psychiatric disorders at the Departments of Neuroscience of University Medical Center Groningen. She previously served as Professor of Psychiatry at the University Medical Center Utrecht beginning in 2011. She received her PhD cum laude from Utrecht University in 2004. She was elected as a member of the Young Academy of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. She and her husband, Robert Schoevers, have two children.

#1416

Rejji Kuruvilla

#101253

Overall Influence

Rejji Kuruvilla is an Indian-American biologist. She is a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Education Kuruvilla completed a bachelor of science at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata in 1987. In 1998, she earned a doctor of philosophy at University of Houston. Her dissertation was titled "Studies on arachidonic acid depletion in diabetic rat nerve and human Schwann cells cultured in elevated glucose." Her doctoral advisor was Joseph Eichberg. Kuruvilla completed postdoctoral research on neurotrophin signaling in sympathetic neurons at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the l...

#1417

Elizabeth C. Theil

#83898

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (88 years)

Elizabeth C. Theil is an American biochemist who worked on iron biology. She became the first woman to be appointed to a chaired professorship at North Carolina State University, in 1988; in the same year she received the O. Max Gardner Award of the University of North Carolina.

#1418

Maureen Neitz

#69456

Overall Influence

Maureen E. Neitz is an American vision scientist whose research includes work on color vision and color blindness and the prevention of nearsightedness. She holds the Ray H. Hill Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology at the University of Washington.

#1419

Kalanit Grill-Spector

#87933

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Kalanit Grill-Spector is a professor of Psychology at Stanford University and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. She is best known for developing fMRI adaptation, a technique useful for studying the sensitivity of neurons in the brain to changes of a stimulus.

#1420

Angelika Brandt

#109980

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Angelika Brandt is the world leader in Antarctic deep-sea biodiversity and has developed, organised and led several oceanographic expeditions to Antarctica, notably the series of ANDEEP cruises, which have contributed significantly to Antarctica and deep-sea biology. Brandt was the senior scientist of ANDEEP which was devoted entirely to benthic research in the Antarctic abyss.

#1421

Rosie Bradshaw

#58718

Overall Influence

Rosemary E. Bradshaw is a New Zealand mycologist, as of 2019 full professor of genetics at the Massey University. Academic career After a 1983 PhD titled 'Hybridization of Aspergillus species' at the University of Nottingham, Bradshaw moved to the Massey University, rising to full professor in 2016.

#1422

Shamshad Cockcroft

#85808

Overall Influence

Shamshad Cockcroft is a British physiologist and a professor of cell physiology in the Neuro, Physiology and Pharmacology Division of Biosciences at the UCL. She has been a member of The Physiological Society since 1989.

#1423

Kirstin Matthews

Kirstin Matthews

#64761

Overall Influence

Kirstin Matthews is a Fellow in Science and Technology Policy at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Matthews received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Texas Health Science Center. Matthews has published multiple policy recommendations pertaining to stem cell research, climate change, and health care.

#1424

Kristin Hogquist

#120155

Overall Influence

Kristin Ann Hogquist is an American immunologist. She holds the David M. Brown Endowed Professorship and is Associate Director of the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota. Early life and education Hogquist was born and raised in Minnesota. While earning her Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Catherine University, Hogquist was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and recipient of the Tozer Scholarship. After graduating in 1983, she earned the National Science Foundation Fellowship and completed her PhD from Washington University.

#1425

Carola Garcia de Vinuesa

#76556

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Carola Garcia de Vinuesa is a Spanish doctor, scientist, and professor. She is Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London, and at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra. She is a winner of the Australian Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year and the Gottschalk Medal.

#1426

Pamela Taylor

#37637

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Pamela Jane Taylor, is a British psychiatrist and academic, who specialises in the links between psychosis and violence, and mental and physical health in the criminal justice system. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in the Department Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences of Cardiff University.

#1427

Sophie G. Martin

#121274

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (47 years)

Sophie Geneviève Elisabeth Martin Benton is a Swiss biologist who is Professor and Director of the Department of Fundamental Microbiology at the University of Lausanne. Her research investigates the molecular processes that underpin cellular fusion. She was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal in 2014.

#1428

Norma Andrews

#110068

Overall Influence

Norma W. Andrews is a cell biologist and professor at the University of Maryland Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. She chaired the department from 2009 to 2014. Education and career Norma Andrews received her B.S. in 1977 and Ph.D. in 1983, both from the University of São Paulo. She then went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Victor Nussenzweig at New York University, which she completed in 1990. She then began her own laboratory at Yale University, where she joined the Department of Cell Biology and the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis becoming a Full Professor in 1999.

#1429

Winifred Hallwachs

Winifred Hallwachs

#115266

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Winifred Hallwachs is an American tropical ecologist who helped to establish and expand northwestern Costa Rica's Área de Conservación Guanacaste . The work of Hallwachs and her husband Daniel Janzen at ACG is considered an exemplar of inclusive conservation.

#1430

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick

#26027

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick is an American forensic scientist, genealogist and entrepreneur. She helped identify remains found in the crash site of Northwest Flight 4422, that crashed in Alaska in 1948, and co-founded the DNA Doe Project which identifies previously unidentified bodies and runs Identifinders International, an investigative genetic genealogy consulting firm which helps identify victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.

#1431

Hailan Hu

#50370

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Hu Hailan is a Chinese neuroscientist, professor, and executive director of the Center for Neuroscience at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China. Hu explores neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors and psychiatric diseases. She specifically explores the neural substrates of social rank and the role of neuron-glia interactions in driving depressive behaviors. Hu discovered the anatomical and molecular targets of ketamine's fast-acting antidepressant effects to be localized to the lateral habenular circuits in rodents. Hu was also the first scientist outside of Europe and America to be awarded the IBRO-Kemali Prize in over 20 years.

#1432

Isabelle Rapin

#28025

Overall Influence

1927 - 2017 (90 years)

Isabelle Juliette Martha Rapin, M.D. , was a Professor of both Neurology and Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. She was a leading authority on autism for decades, and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

#1433

Maureen Goodenow

#97734

Overall Influence

Maureen Goodenow is an American scientist and Professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine. She is best known for her work on HIV/AIDS research and advocacy. Biography Goodenow received her B.A. in biology from Fordham University, and her Ph.D. in 1983 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. From 1983 to 1987, she completed postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. From 1998 to 2016, she was a member of the faculty of the University of Florida where she held the Stephany W. Holloway University Chair in AIDS Research. In 2016, Goodenow was appoint...

#1434

Judith S. Eisen

#112290

Overall Influence

Judith S. Eisen is an American neuroscientist and professor of biology at the University of Oregon. Eisen conducts fundamental research in the specification and patterning of the vertebrate nervous system with a focus on developmental interactions between the nervous system, immune system, and host-associated microbiota. Eisen is a member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon.

#1435

Patricia Berjak

#115635

Overall Influence

1939 - 2015 (76 years)

Patricia Berjak was a South African botanist known for her work on the biology of plant seeds, especially seed recalcitrance. She was professor for 48 years at the University of Kwazulu-Natal . She earned a B.Sc. degree in biochemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand , then went on to the University of Natal , earning a M.Sc. in mammalian physiology and biochemistry and PhD in seed biology . She was a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and a Fellow of the University of Natal, the Royal Society of South Africa and the Third World Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the...

#1436

Betsy Rivers Jackes

#46007

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (89 years)

Betsy Rivers Jackes is an Australian botanist, researcher, taxonomist and author. Her research interests are the plants in the families Myrsinaceae and Vitaceae. Education Jackes completed her BSc in 1957, followed by her MSc in 1959, at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. She won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States and took up a position as a research scholar at the University of Chicago , where she earned her PhD in 1961.

#1437

Rachel Tyndale

#99969

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Rachel Fynvola Tyndale is a Canadian pharmacogeneticist. She is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, and Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Pharmacogenomics. Tyndale is also the Senior Scientist and Head of Pharmacogenetics in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health .

#1438

Serena Nik-Zainal

#82123

Overall Influence

Serena Nik-Zainal is a British-Malaysian clinician who is a consultant in clinical genetics and Cancer Research UK advanced clinician scientist at the University of Cambridge. She makes use of genomics for clinical applications. She was awarded the Crick Lecture by the Royal Society in 2021. Serena Nik-Zainal was also recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily.

#1439

Angela N. H. Creager

Angela N. H. Creager

#103937

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Angela N. H. Creager is a biochemist, historian of science, and the Thomas M. Siebel Professor in the History of Science at Princeton University, where she is also the director of the Shelby Collum Davis Center for Historical Studies. Prior to the Siebel chair's creation in 2015, she was the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History. She served as president of the History of Science Society from 2014 to 2015. She focuses on the history of biomedical research in the 20th century. In 2020 she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

#1440

Patricia Simpson

#113819

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Patricia "Pat" Simpson FRS is a distinguished British developmental biologist. Simpson was a professor of Comparative Biology at the University of Cambridge from 2003 to 2010, and was the University's Director of Research for the academic year 2010/2011. She is currently an Emeritus Professor of the Department of Zoology of the University of Cambridge, having previously been Professor of Comparative Embryology, and a Fellow of Newnham College. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000.

#1441

Georgia M. Dunston

#97487

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Georgia Mae Dunston is an American geneticist who is professor of human immunogenetics at Howard University and founding director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University. Early life and education Georgia Mae Dunston was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to a hard working African-American family. Her parents did not attend college but instead worked various commercial jobs. Ulysses, her father, was employed as a cook at a commercial barbecue wholesaler and Rosa, her mother, worked as a cleaner, presser, and dishwasher. While growing up Dunston attended the local Baptist church and Su...

#1442

Asha de Vos

#87293

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (45 years)

Asha de Vos Life and career De Vos was born in 1979 in Sri Lanka. When she was six-years-old her parents would bring her second-hand National Geographic magazines. She would look through the pages and "imagine that that would be me one day – going places where no-one else would ever go and seeing things no-one else would ever see", inspiring her to dream of being an "adventure-scientist".

#1443

Irina Dryagina

#91122

Overall Influence

1921 - 2017 (96 years)

Irina Viktorovna Dryagina was botanist and veteran of the Second World War. During the conflict, she served as a squadron commissar in the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment until the post of squadron commissar was abolished, after which she transferred to the post of assistant chief of the political department for the Komsomol of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, commanded by Alexander Pokryshkin.

#1444

Jane Glazebrook

#102214

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Jane Glazebrook is an American botanist known for her work on understanding plant defenses against pathogens and increasing crop yields. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 and is now a professor of Plant Biology at the University of Minnesota. She was the editor-in-chief of the journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. She is married to Fumiaki Katagiri, who also works at the University of Minnesota as a professor of Plant Biology.

#1445

Paulina Kernberg

#68156

Overall Influence

1935 - 2006 (71 years)

Paulina F. Kernberg was a Chilean American child psychiatrist, an authority on personality disorders, and a professor at Cornell University. Early life Kernberg was born in Santiago, Chile. She was married to Otto F. Kernberg, a professor of psychiatry at Cornell University. She earned a Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Chile.

#1446

Adina Paytan

#111350

Overall Influence

Adina Paytan is a research professor at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. known for research into biogeochemical cycling in the present and the past. She has over 270 scientific publications in journals such as Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Geophysical Research Letters.

#1447

Linda Koch

#122226

Overall Influence

Linda Koch is a German-French geneticist, and the chief editor of academic journal Nature Reviews Genetics. She is a specialist in mouse genetics. Education Koch has a PhD in genetics from the University of Cologne.

#1448

Maria Concetta Morrone

#123525

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

#1449

Teresa Lambe

#82215

Overall Influence

Teresa "Tess" Lambe OBE is an Irish scientist working at Oxford University's Oxford Vaccine Group. She is one of the co-developers of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine against the new coronavirus causing COVID-19.

#1450

Athena Aktipis

#98834

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (43 years)

Christina Athena Aktipis is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University. She is the director of the Interdisciplinary Cooperation Initiative and the co-director of the Human Generosity Project. She is also the director of the Cooperation and Conflict lab at Arizona State University, vice president of the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer , and was the director of human and social evolution and co-founder of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF. She is a cooperation theorist, an evolutionary biologist, an evolutionary psychologist, and a cancer biologist who works at the intersection of those fields.

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