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).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

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List of the most influential female people in Biology,

#3151

Ann Wylie

#176959
Overall Influence
1922 - Present (104 years)
Ann Philippa Wylie is a New Zealand botanist, and was an associate professor at the University of Otago before her retirement in 1987. Early life and family Wylie was born on 12 April 1922, the daughter of noted surgeon David Storer Wylie, who survived the sinking of the SS Marquette in 1915, and his second wife, Isobel Edith Wylie . She was educated at Nga Tawa Diocesan School near Marton, and went on to study at the University of Otago. She completed her Master of Science with first-class honours in botany in 1945, and a Diploma of Honours in zoology the following year. She began working at...
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#3152

Tania Schoennagel

#177670
Overall Influence
Tania Schoennagel is an ecologist who specializes in wildfires and insect outbreaks. She is a research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder and has been involved with INSTAAR since 2011.
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#3153

Betty Kellett Nadeau

#129308
Overall Influence
1905 - 1999 (94 years)
Betty Kellett Nadeau , born Elizabeth Rosina Kellett, was an American paleontologist and micro-paleontologist who studied Palaeozoic ostracod. Numerous marine species were discovered due to the work she had done throughout her fruitful career. This work is evident to the genus Bekena named after her.
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#3154

Ellen S. Kappel

#168518
Overall Influence
Ellen Sue Kappel Berman is a science communicator in the area of oceanography. After earning her Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics, Kappel worked as program manager for the Ocean Drilling Program and later established a company helping to make the case for funding of geoscience programs. She has been the head editor of Oceanography since 2004.
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#3155

LuAnne Thompson

#175548
Overall Influence
LuAnn Thompson is the Walters Endowed Professor at the University of Washington. She is known for her work in modeling the movement of heat and chemicals via ocean currents. Education and career Thompson grew up in northern California and was interested in astrophysics. She received a B.S. in physics from the University of California, Davis , an M.A. in physics from Harvard University , and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . Following her Ph.D. she moved to the University of Washington first as a post-doctoral fellow, and then she joined the faculty in 1993.
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#3156

Molly R. Morris

#178389
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Molly R. Morris is an American behavioral ecologist who has worked with treefrogs and swordtail fishes in the areas of alternative reproductive tactics and sexual selection. Morris received a Bachelor of Arts from Earlham College and a PhD from Indiana University. As a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, her work with Mike Ryan demonstrated equal fitnesses between alternative reproductive tactics in a species of swordtail fish. She joined the faculty at Ohio University in 1997, where she is now a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.
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#3157

Ann Fowler Rhoads

Ann Fowler Rhoads
#180515
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Ann Fowler Rhoads is an American botanist who worked as a plant pathologist at Morris Arboretum for 36 years, retiring in 2013. She is the co-founder of the Pennsylvania Flora Project of Morris Arboretum. In addition, Rhoads is a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a former Research Associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences.
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#3158

Chavonda Jacobs-Young

#157812
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Chavonda J. Jacobs-Young is an American government executive who serves as the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics. Jacobs-Young was previously the administrator of the Agriculture Research Service, first appointed in February 2014; she was the first female and person of color to lead the agency. In 1998, Jacobs-Young became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in paper science.
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#3159

Judith Sulzberger

#101404
Overall Influence
1923 - 2011 (88 years)
Judith Peixotto Sulzberger was an American physician and philanthropist. Her family has been associated with The New York Times since her grandfather Adolph Ochs purchased the paper in 1896. Early life and childhood Sulzberger was one of four children of Iphigene Sulzberger and Arthur Hays Sulzberger , the publisher of The New York Times from 1935-61.
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#3160

Laufey Ámundadóttir

#182949
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Laufey Thora Ámundadóttir is an Icelandic cell biologist and geneticist who researches pancreatic cancer. She is a senior investigator in the laboratory of translational genomics at the National Cancer Institute. She was head of the division of cancer genetics at deCODE genetics from 1998 to 2007.
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#3161

Maria Cardenas-Corona

#183553
Overall Influence
Maria Elena Cárdenas-Corona is an American geneticist and microbiologist specialized in cell signaling. She is a scientific review officer in the Center for Scientific Review. Cardenas-Corona is a research professor emeritus of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University School of Medicine.
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#3162

Harshini Mukundan

#183559
Overall Influence
Harshini Mukundan is an Indian-American microbiologist. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Life She grew up in India. Mukundan received her Bachelor's of Science Degree in Microbiology from the University of Delhi in 1995. In 1997, she earned in Master's Degree in Microbiology from Barkatullah University and then went on to complete her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
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#3163

Caren Cooper

#178131
Overall Influence
Caren Beth Cooper is an American professor and scholar at North Carolina State University, citizen science advocate, and author of two books on citizen science. Her doctoral dissertation addressed the effects of habitat fragmentation on the Australian passerine. Her scientific publications concentrate primarily on ornithology as well as citizen science contributions to science and diversity, equity, and inclusion in underserved communities.
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#3164

Carrie Manfrino

#115018
Overall Influence
Carrie Manfrino is an American oceanographer who is president and director of research of the Central Caribbean Marine Institute. She also holds an associate professorship at Kean University. Her research concerns coral and climate change.
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#3165

Natacha Aguilar de Soto

#177841
Overall Influence
Natacha Aguilar de Soto is a Spanish marine biologist at the University of La Laguna , Tenerife, Canary Islands. She is a Ramón y Cajal research and teaching fellow at ULL and has been a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at ULL and at the Center for Research in Ecological Modeling of the University of St. Andrews . She is the director of cetacean research within ULL's BIOECOMAC .
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#3166

Libby Liggins

#170477
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Libby Liggins is an evolutionary ecologist and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural and Computational Science at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, as well as a research associate at Auckland Museum. Her research uses genetic and genomic data to explore the biogeography, population ecology, and biodiversity of marine organisms.
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#3167

Kesara Margrét Anamthawat-Jónsson

#182482
Overall Influence
Kesara Margrét Anamthawat-Jónsson is professor of botany and plant genetics at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland. Education Kesara was awarded an entry to the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University. She completed the four-years programme in 1974, with a B.Sc. degree, Botany major, and during the graduation ceremony she received the Gold Medal Award from King Bhumibol Adulyadej Rama IX.
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#3168

Jórunn Erla Eyfjörð

Jórunn Erla Eyfjörð
#181815
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Jórunn Erla Eyfjörð is an Icelandic molecular biologist and professor emerita at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Iceland. She is known for her research on breast cancer genetics. Career Jórunn Erla matriculated from the mathematics division of Reykjavik Junior College in 1966. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Iceland and University of Minnesota. She graduated with a BSc in biology from the University of Iceland in 1971. Along with her undergraduate studies she worked as an assistant to professor Gudmundur Eggertsson at his newly founded molecular genetics laboratory, at Keldur, Institute for Experimental Pathology.
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#3169

Judith Willis

#135459
Overall Influence
Judith H. Willis is an American biologist currently Professor Emeritus at University of Georgia and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her research frequently involved insect cuticular proteins as molecular markers of metamorphic stage, precise role CPs play in constructing insects and annotating the CP genes of Anopheles gambiae, the major vector of malaria.
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#3170

Anna Koltunow

#182810
Overall Influence
Anna M. G. Koltunow is an Australian plant physiologist researching how plants reproduce. As of 2020 she is Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for Crop Science at the University of Queensland. She is leading research for the second phase of a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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#3171

Stacey Harmer

#183632
Overall Influence
Stacey Harmer is a chronobiologist whose work centers on the study of circadian rhythms in plants. Her research focuses on the molecular workings of the plant circadian clock and its influences on plant behaviors and physiology. She is a professor in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis.
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#3172

Nina J. Karnovsky

#177143
Overall Influence
Nina J. Karnovsky is an American ecologist and ornithologist. She is the Willard George Halstead Zoology Professor of Biology at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Early life and education Karnovsky attended Wesleyan University. She loved the liberal arts and the philosophy of science offerings there but disliked science courses and petitioned out of her required ones. She ended up majoring in science and society. After college, she taught children at the Point Blue Bird Observatory, a field station at Point Reyes. She earned a master's degree at Montana State University, where she studi...
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#3173

Sarah Coulthurst

#173768
Overall Influence
Sarah Coulthurst a molecular bacteriologist and Professor of Microbial Interactions at the University of Dundee, UK. Her research focuses increasing understanding of how bacteria can cause disease, and how this information can eventually lead to new medical treatments.
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#3174

Jasmin Fisher

#180917
Overall Influence
Jasmin Fisher , is an Israeli-British biologist who is Professor of computational biology at University College London. She is Group Leader of the Fisher Lab at UCL Cancer Institute, which develops state-of-the-art computational models and analysis techniques to study cancer evolution and mechanisms of drug resistance to identify better personalised treatments for cancer patients.
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#3175

Josefa González Blanco Ortiz Mena

#45678
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Josefa González Blanco Ortiz Mena is a Mexican ecologist, politician and diplomat from the National Regeneration Movement who was the Secretary of Environment from 2018 to 2019. She has served as the Mexican ambassador to the United Kingdom since 23 April 2021. On 9 June 2021, she presented her credentials to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace accrediting her as Mexico's representative to the United Kingdom.
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#3176

Emma Fransson

#79853
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Emma Fransson is a child psychologist and epidemiologist at Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Her expertise is in the health and social implication of shared parenting arrangements on children after their parents are divorced. She has also studied the effects of stress during pregnancy.
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#3177

Jacqueline Beggs

#124997
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Jacqueline Rae Beggs is a New Zealand entomologist and ecologist specialising in biodiversity and biosecurity. Beggs is a professor at the University of Auckland. Her research includes managing the impact of invasive invertebrates on the biosystem. She has also researched the identification of drivers of pollination and evaluated the use of the molecular approach to identify possible causes of detrimental changes in the environment. Beggs is associated with organisations focused on raising awareness of a wide range of issues relevant to biosecurity and advises New Zealand government agencies...
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#3178

Kendra Daly

#181663
Overall Influence
Kendra Lee Daly is an oceanographer known for her work on zooplankton, particularly in low oxygen regions of the ocean. She is a professor at the University of South Florida, and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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#3179

Vera Byers

#168606
Overall Influence
Vera Steinberger Byers is an American immunologist who currently practices as a consultant in Incline Village, Nevada and was formerly a professor at the University of California San Francisco, before changing affiliations to University of Nottingham, where she helped conduct research on tumor immunology, later moving on to immunodermatology. While at UCSF, she helped develop a monoclonal antibody for use as an anticancer treatment, specifically against osteogenic sarcoma, though it was originally used against graft-versus-host disease. While at the University of Nottingham, she published some...
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#3180

Bonnie Bartel

#174576
Overall Influence
Bonnie Bartel is an American geneticist and plant biologist. She is the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of BioSciences at Rice University. Education Bonnie Bartel received a B.A. in biology from Bethel College and a PhD in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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#3181

Lisa Jones

#181875
Overall Influence
Lisa Michelle Jones is an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore . Her research is in structural proteomics, using mass spectrometry together with fast photochemical oxidation of proteins , allowing researchers to study the solvent accessibility of proteins experimentally.
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#3182

Agnès Bernet

#87158
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Agnès Bernet, is a French cell biologist and professor of cancer biology at the University Claude Bernard Lyon I. A co-founder of NETRIS Pharma, she has led within the Laboratory of Apoptosis, Cancer and Development, the research team that validated the use of interference ligand/dependence receptors as novel targeted therapies for cancer.
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#3183

Diana Hargreaves

Diana Hargreaves
#177425
Overall Influence
Diana Hargreaves is an American biologist and assistant professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and member of The Salk Cancer Center. Her laboratory focuses on epigenetic regulation by the BAF chromatin remodeling complexes in diverse physiological processes including development, immunity, and diseases such as cancer.
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#3184

Paula V. Welander

#170114
Overall Influence
Paula Veronica Welander is a microbiologist and professor at Stanford University who is known for her research using lipid biomarkers to investigate how life evolved on Earth. Early life and career Welander was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. Her mother and father immigrated from Mexico to Los Angeles in the early 1970’s. She received her undergraduate degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1998. She has a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She went on to do postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Departments of Biology and of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
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#3185

Christina Lochman-Balk

#181771
Overall Influence
1907 - 2006 (99 years)
Christina Lochman-Balk was an American geologist who specialized in the study of Paleozoic era fossils, formerly known as Cambrian Paleontology. Lochman specifically dealt with Cambrian trilobites and invertebrates. During her career, it was not very common for women to pursue degrees or careers in geology, which was studied mostly by men. Along with her research, she also served as a lecturer and professor at the universities Mount Holyoke, University of Chicago and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. She received two degrees from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in Geology, and her doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1933.
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#3186

Susan Bailey

#20038
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Dame Susan Mary Bailey, is a British psychiatrist and academic who specialises in children's mental health. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Child Mental Health at the University of Central Lancashire. From 2011 to 2014, she was President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Since January 2015, she has been Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
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#3187

Lois Brako

#184178
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Lois Brako is an American botanist, mycologist and explorer. She has conducted botanical expeditions in Peru. Publications Articles -----------; AW Meerow; L. Brako. 1993. New combinations in Hippeastrum, Ismene, and Leptochiton for the flora of Peru. Novon 3: 28–30-----------. Inga , Plantaginaceae, Rosaceae, Sapindaceae. In: L. Brako & J. L. Zarucchi , Catalogue of the Flowering Plants & Gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45: 481–486, 923–925, 1003–1010, 1059–1068. 1993
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#3188

Moriel Zelikowsky

#173387
Overall Influence
Moriel Zelikowsky is a neuroscientist at University of Utah School of Medicine. Her laboratory studies the brain circuits and neural mechanisms underlying stress, fear, and social behavior. Her previous work includes fear and the hippocampus, and the role of neuropeptide Tac2 in social isolation.
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#3189

Yaa Ntiamoah Badu

#116836
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu is a Ghanaian zoologist, environmental specialist, academic and management expert. In March 2017, she was appointed the Chair of the Board of Millennium Development Authority of Ghana. She served as a Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana until her retirement in 2011. She is a member of the New Patriotic Party of Ghana.
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#3190

Anne-Maria Laukkanen

#181188
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Anne-Maria Laukkanen is a Finnish researcher and a permanent full professor of speech technique and vocology at the University of Tampere. She has supervised 12 doctoral dissertations and 23 master theses and is now supervising 7 doctoral dissertations. She is a peer reviewer in 23 international scientific journals.
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#3191

Amy Rowat

#124538
Overall Influence
Amy Rowat is an Associate Professor of biophysics at the University of California in Los Angeles and the first Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Chair in Food Studies. Her scientific research focuses on understanding the physical and mechanical properties of cells in diseases such as cancer. She also organizes public events on the science of cooking.
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#3192

Yara Haridy

#181959
Overall Influence
Yara Haridy is an Egyptian-Canadian paleontologist and scientific communicator who specializes in the use of advanced analytical methods to study the evolution of bone and related skeletal tissues. Biography Haridy was born in Morocco and lived in Egypt until her family moved to Canada when she was 12 years old. She obtained her B.Sc. in biology from the University of Toronto in 2016, where she originally intended to pursue the pre-medicine track en route to a medical career, followed by her M.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto in 2018, where she studied the evolution of acrodonty in reptiles.
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#3193

Lauren O'Connell

#184174
Overall Influence
Lauren O'Connell is an American chemist who is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. Her research considers how animals handle challenges in their environment. She received a L'Oréal-USA For Women in Science fellowship in 2015.
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#3194

Li Yang

#166323
Overall Influence
Li Yang is an American biologist researching how inflammation in the premetastatic environment modifies cancer cell colonization. She is a senior investigator and head of the tumor microenvironment section at the National Cancer Institute.
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#3195

Petra Klinge

#179664
Overall Influence
Petra Klinge is a neurosurgeon and academic. She is professor of neurosurgery at Brown University. Education and training Klinge earned her medical degree from the University of Kiel in 1993. She conducted her neurosurgical residency at Hannover Medical School in Germany, completing it in 2002. The same year, she earned her habilitation and postdoctoral qualification "venia legendi".
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#3196

Heather Berlin

#149251
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Heather A. Berlin is an American neuroscientist and licensed clinical psychologist noted for her work in science communication and science outreach. Her research focuses on brain-behavior relationships affecting the prevention and treatment of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric disorders. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Berlin is host of the PBS Nova series Your Brain, the PBS series Science Goes to the Movies, the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown, and StarTalk All-Stars with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
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#3197

Marelyn Wintour-Coghlan

#183714
Overall Influence
Elvie Marelyn Wintour-Coghlan is an Australian physiologist who has focused her career on the endocrinology of the pregnant mother and foetus. She has developed techniques enabling her to follow development of foetal organs, showing that concentration of foetal urine can be used as an indicator of stress in the foetus. The important focus of her work was the discovery that foetal stressful conditions can be translated into adult health.
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#3198

Susanne Menden-Deuer

#182448
Overall Influence
Susanne Menden-Deuer is an oceanographer and marine scientist known for her work on marine food webs, including their structure and function. As of 2022, she is president-elect of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.
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#3199

Jue Chen

#178510
Overall Influence
Jue Chen is a Chinese-born American structural biologist and biochemist. She is the William E. Ford professor of biochemistry and head of the Laboratory of Membrane Biology and Biophysics at the Rockefeller University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Her research focuses on elucidating the structure and function of ATP-binding cassette transporters.
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#3200

Charlotte M. Taylor

Charlotte M. Taylor
#168084
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Dr. Charlotte M. Taylor is a botanist and professor specialising in taxonomy and conservation. She works with the large plant family Rubiaceae, particularly found in the American tropics and in the tribes Palicoureeae and Psychotrieae. This plant family is an economically important group, as it includes plant species used to make coffee and quinine. Taylor also conducts work related to the floristics of Rubiaceae and morphological radiations of the group. Taylor has collected plant samples from many countries across the globe, including Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and the United States of America, and has named many new species known to science from these regions.
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