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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Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential female people in Biology,

#2201

Christine L. Clouser

#38389

Overall Influence

Christine Clouser is an American virologist. During her graduate studies she discovered an interest in retro viruses and has since published scientific articles on the feline leukemia virus and HIV virus.

#2202

Tao Dong

#154046

Overall Influence

Tao Dong is a Chinese-British immunologist who is Professor of Immunology at Oxford University. Her work focuses on the study of T-cells which respond to viral infections and viral associated cancer. She is a founding director for both the CAMS-Oxford joint International Center for Transnational Immunology and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Oxford Institute .

#2203

Matilene Berryman

Matilene Berryman

#101436

Overall Influence

1926 - 2003 (77 years)

Matilene Spencer Berryman was an American oceanographer and attorney. Originally from Prince Edward County, Virginia. Early life Berryman was born in Darlington Heights, Prince Edward County, Virginia, to parents Mary and Charles Spencer. She was the fifth of nine children.

#2204

Inke Nathke

#158011

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Inke Näthke is a German-British cell biologist. She is Professor of Epithelial Biology at the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, Interim Dean and Associate Dean for Professional Culture at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee in Scotland. She is known for her work on the role of the adenomatous polyposis coli protein in colorectal cancer.

#2205

Luana Colloca

#158439

Overall Influence

#2206

Catharina Larsson

#158465

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

#2207

Natalia Rybczynski

#86959

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Natalia Rybczynski is a Canadian paleobiologist, professor and researcher. She is a research scientist with the Canadian Museum of Nature and holds a professorship at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Her doctorate was obtained at Duke University and her main interests are evolutionary functional morphology, particularly at the polar climes.

#2208

Renee Reijo Pera

Renee Reijo Pera

#135918

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Renee Reijo Pera is a stem cell biologist and the President of the McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls, MT. She previously served as Vice President of Research and Economic Development, for more than 8 years at the California Polytechnic State University and at Montana State University. Reijo Pera's research focuses on human development and disease, in particular, on the development and differentiation of somatic and germ cell lineages and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and also infertility in men and women.

#2209

Nada Stotland

#60035

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Nada Logan Stotland is an American psychiatrist and the 135th president of the American Psychiatric Association. Education Stotland received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, where she later received her M.D. and also completed her residency.

#2210

Paola Dazzan

#158676

Overall Influence

#2211

Kelly Anne Shepherd

#140027

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Kelly Anne Shepherd is an Australian botanist, who has published some 91 names. Career Shepherd earned a B.Sc. in 1992 with a thesis entitled "Faecal Analysis of Mammalian Herbivores in the Perup Forest, Western Australia." and a Ph.D.

#2212

Janet Hering

#106673

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Janet Gordon Hering is the former Director of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and Professor emeritus of Biogeochemistry at ETH Zurich and EPFL . She works on the biogeochemical cycling of trace elements in water and the management of water infrastructure.

#2213

Brenda L. Bass

#103094

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Brenda L. Bass is a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah who holds the H.A. and Edna Benning Endowed Chair. She is also an adjunct professor of human genetics and an investigator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on RNA silencing and the cellular dynamics of double-stranded RNA. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015.

#2214

Alta Schrock

#134976

Overall Influence

1911 - 2001 (90 years)

Alta Elizabeth Schrock was an American biology professor and community activist in Western Maryland who was the first Mennonite woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. Early life Schrock was born on April 3, 1911, on Strawberry Hill Farm, near Grantsville, Maryland, the oldest of eight children.

#2215

Esther Lutgens

#115391

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Esther Lutgens is a Dutch physician and molecular biologist who is Professor of Vascular Immunopathology at Amsterdam University Medical Centre. She studies the modulation of co-stimulatory pathways and the immune system.

#2216

Kristine Novak

#159032

Overall Influence

#2217

Michelle R. Leishman

#159113

Overall Influence

#2218

Christine Goodale

#152735

Overall Influence

Christine Goodale is an ecosystem ecologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. Goodale conducts research that studies the cycling of water, carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients through forest ecosystems.

#2219

Mikala Egeblad

#159255

Overall Influence

#2220

Mary Pickford

#71010

Overall Influence

1902 - 2002 (100 years)

Lillian Mary Pickford was a pioneering British neuroendocrinologist. She was the first woman to be elected to the Pharmacological Society and the first woman appointed to a medical professorship at the University of Edinburgh.

#2221

Elisabeth Mann Borgese

Elisabeth Mann Borgese

#18470

Overall Influence

1918 - 2002 (84 years)

Elisabeth Veronika Mann Borgese, was an internationally recognized expert on maritime law and policy and the protection of the environment. Called "the mother of the oceans", she received the Order of Canada and awards from the governments of Austria, China, Colombia, Germany, the United Nations and the World Conservation Union.

#2222

Helen Matusevich Oujesky

Helen Matusevich Oujesky

#112909

Overall Influence

1930 - 2010 (80 years)

Helen Matusevich Oujesky was an American professor of microbiology at the University of Texas, San Antonio. In this capacity she actively pursued environmental research on pollution of soil and water, particularly of toxic wastes.

#2223

Outi Vaarala

#159368

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

#2224

Katriona Shea

#146610

Overall Influence

Katriona Shea is a British-American ecologist. She is currently the endowed Alumni Chair of Biology Science at Eberly College of Science, Pennsylvania State University. Education Shea studied physics at New College, Oxford, and graduated in 1990. She joined Imperial College London where she completed a Natural Environment Research Council sponsored PhD in population ecology. Her thesis, Matrix Models in Population Ecology, was supervised by Michael Hassell.

#2225

Shioko Kimura

#153014

Overall Influence

Shioko Kimura is a Japanese-American biochemist specialized in endocrinology and the physiology and pathogenesis of diseases including thyroid and lung cancers. She heads the endocrinology section in the laboratory of metabolism at the National Cancer Institute.

#2226

Christina Smolke

#96264

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Christina Smolke is an American synthetic biologist whose primary research is in the use of yeast to produce opioids for medical use. She is a Full Professor of Bioengineering and of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. She is the editor of The metabolic pathway engineering handbook . She is an advisory board member for Integrative Biology.

#2227

Yolarnie Amepou

#39959

Overall Influence

1988 - Present (36 years)

Yolarnie Amepou is a zoologist and conservationist from Papua New Guinea. She is known for her work to protect the Papuan softshell turtle in Kikori. In 2017 she was a Youth Champion for the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. She was also received a Pride of Papua New Guinea Award for Environment in 2015.

#2228

Andrea C. Gore

#159775

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

#2229

Kimberly Ritchie

#157951

Overall Influence

Kimberly B. Ritchie is an American marine biologist. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Her research is focused on marine microbiology and how microbes affect animal health in hosts such as corals and sharks.

#2230

Lin Fritschi

#159797

Overall Influence

#2231

Hey-Kyoung Lee

#100754

Overall Influence

Hey-Kyoung Lee is a neuroscience professor at Johns Hopkins University. She studies cross-modal plasticity between visual and auditory systems. Early life Lee's mother is a chemist and her father is a physicist. She completed her undergraduate degree in biology at the Yonsei University in Korea. During her junior year at Yonsei University, Lee participated in an exchange program at Brown University in New Providence, RI

#2232

Anne Croy

#146064

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Barbara Anne Croy is a Canadian reproductive immunologist and professor emerita in Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Queen's University. From 2004 until 2016, Croy was a Canada Research Chair in Reproduction, Development and Sexual Function. In 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her research focus is on mice pregnancy and natural killer cells.

#2233

Nancy Beckage

#130336

Overall Influence

1950 - 2012 (62 years)

Nancy Elizabeth Beckage was an American entomologist known for her work on host–parasitoid interactions. She held professorships in entomology and in cell biology and neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside.

#2234

Rosmarie Honegger

#123024

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Rosmarie Honegger is a Swiss lichenologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Zurich. Academic career Honegger was born in 1947 and grew up in Emmental, Switzerland. She graduated with a PhD in biology from the University of Basel in 1976. In 1977 she accepted a postdoctoral research position in the Institute of Plant Biology at the University of Zurich. After a time working at the University of California, Riverside she returned to Switzerland as professor in the Institute of Plant Biology of the University of Zurich. Honegger retired in 2009 as Emeritus Professor. From 2011 she wor...

#2235

Monika Rhein

#112571

Overall Influence

Monika Rhein is a physical oceanographer and Professor of Oceanography at University of Bremen. Rhein has led the authorship of over 29 peer reviewed publications, and is an author of over 100 peer reviewed publications. Rhein has broad ranging interests across oceanography, specialising in understanding the water masses in the oceans and their circulation, ocean mixing and the role of oceans in climate. Rhein's expertise has led to her authoring chapters of the "Technical Summary" and "Summary for Policymakers" of the 5th International Panel of Climate Change report and acting as president o...

#2236

Cynthia Shannon Weickert

#160145

Overall Influence

#2237

Winnie Kiiru

#119153

Overall Influence

Winnie Kiiru is a Kenyan biologist, elephant conservationist, and the chairperson of the Wildlife Research Institute in Naivasha. She is currently the chairperson of Friends of Karura Forest, a Community-Based Organization that helps manage Karura forests.

#2238

Carolyn Brooks

#126984

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Carolyn Branch Brooks is an American microbiologist known for her research in immunology, nutrition, and crop productivity. Early life and education Brooks was born July 8, 1946, in Richmond, Virginia to Shirley Booker Branch and Charles Walker Branch, grocery store owners. Her grandparents and her older sister also helped raise her. She attended high school on the north side of Richmond. In the 1950s, the family moved to the west side of town and this made schooling a little more difficult for the children because they had to take public transportation. Brooks wanted to attend her old school so every day she would ride the public bus across town.

#2239

Terri S. Armstrong

Terri S. Armstrong

#70553

Overall Influence

Terri S. Armstrong is an American scientist and nurse practitioner. She is a senior investigator in the Center for Cancer Research Neuro-Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Armstrong held the Dunn Distinguished Professorship in Oncology Nursing at UTHealth Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing.

#2240

Lissy Jarvik

#131171

Overall Influence

1924 - 2021 (97 years)

Lissy Jarvik was a Dutch-born American geriatric psychiatrist. The National Library of Medicine featured her in their interactive "Changing the Face of Medicine" exhibit, describing her as "a pioneer in the field of neuropsychogeriatrics."

#2241

Magdalena Borsuk-Białynicka

#128526

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Maria Magdalena Borsuk-Białynicka is a Polish paleontologist and phylogeneticist born in 1940 in Warsaw, Poland. She received both her Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Warsaw University, before completing her Doctor of Science at Jagiellonian University. In 2001 she became an official Professor in Paleontology. Borsuk-Białynicka has taught alternately at Warsaw University and University of Adam Mickiewicz , while also supervising MSc and PhD students at both universities and the Silesian University. Her current PhD students are Marec Dek, Piotr Skrzycki and Dawid Surmik, who specialize in agnathan fishes, Triassic lungfish and Triassic marine reptiles respectively.

#2242

Celia A. Schiffer

#160395

Overall Influence

#2243

Betül Kırdar

#126925

Overall Influence

Betül Kırdar is a Turkish molecular and systems biologist researching design strategies of microorganisms, metabolic engineering, and biological networks. She is a professor in the department of chemical engineering at Boğaziçi University.

#2244

Romina Goldszmid

#153680

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Silvana Romina Goldszmid is an Argentine-American biologist researching tumor immunology. She is an NIH Stadtman Investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Education Romina Goldszmid completed a M.S. in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in tumor immunology working on dendritic cell-based vaccines for melanoma immunotherapy from the University of Buenos Aires, part of which was performed as a visiting scholar in the laboratory of Ralph M. Steinman at the Rockefeller University. In 2004, she came to the National Institutes of Health to conduct postdoctoral research in infectious disease immunology wi...

#2245

Sara Sawyer

#141614

Overall Influence

Dr. Sara Lea Sawyer is a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She has received national and international prizes in virology. In 2011 she was as awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by President Barack Obama at the White House. She serves as a Senior Editor at the journal eLIFE, and as a government consultant on the topic of pandemic preparedness. In 2020, she co-founded Darwin Biosciences, an infectious disease diagnostics company located in Boulder, Colorado. In 2022, she was awarded the National Institutes of Health Director’s “Pioneer” award.

#2246

Amytis Towfighi

#101163

Overall Influence

Amytis "Amy" Towfighi is Professor of Neurology, Director of Neurological Services and Innovation for Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and Chief of Neurology and Associate Medical Director of Neurological Services at LAC+USC Medical Center.

#2247

Margery L. Cook

#154109

Overall Influence

1925 - 2001 (76 years)

Margery Louise Cook was an American virologist. She was a researcher at University of California, Los Angeles in the field of herpes virology. Life Cook was born in Independence, Missouri in 1925. She completed a Ph.D. in medical microbiology and immunology from University of California, Los Angeles . For her 1968 dissertation, Cook researched varicella-zoster under mentor Jack G. Stevens.

#2248

María Cristina Añón

María Cristina Añón

#160814

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

#2249

Elizabeth Haswell

#98976

Overall Influence

Elizabeth Haswell is an American biologist who is a professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Simons Faculty Scholar at the Washington University in St. Louis. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021.

#2250

Jennifer Jacquet

#112277

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Life Born in 1980, she grew up in Ohio. She graduated from Western Washington University, from Cornell University, and from University of British Columbia. Jacquet is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami.

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