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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Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Biology,

#5001

Leo Buss

#45819

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Leo W. Buss is a retired Professor at Yale University's departments of geology, geophysics, and ecology and evolutionary biology. Life He graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D in 1979.

#5002

Austin L. Hughes

#100476

Overall Influence

#5003

Lothar Seegers

#93293

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Lothar Seegers was a German ichthyologist. Seegers authored 9 species within the family of Rivulidae. Publications The Fishes of the Lake Rukwa Drainage. Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, 1996. Killifishes of the world: Old World Killis II. A.C.S. GmbH, 1997. Killifishes of the World: New World Killis. A.C.S., 2000. The catfishes of Africa: A Handbook for Identification and Maintenance. Aqualog Verlag, 2008.

#5004

Bernardo L. Sabatini

#72796

Overall Influence

Bernardo L. Sabatini is an American neuroscientist who is the Alice and Rodman W. Moorhead III Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Education and academic career Sabatini received his S.B. in biomedical engineering from Harvard College. He received his PhD in neurobiology and his MD from Harvard Medical School, having attended the joint MD–PhD program co-administered by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation he began as a postdoctoral fellow with Karel Svoboda, then at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

#5005

Mario Roederer

#100511

Overall Influence

#5006

Jason McLellan

#85473

Overall Influence

Jason S. McLellan is a structural biologist, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin who specializes in understanding the structure and function of viral proteins, including those of coronaviruses. His research focuses on applying structural information to the rational design of vaccines and other therapies for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus . McLellan and his team collaborated with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy ...

#5007

Margaret Billingham

Margaret Billingham

#64176

Overall Influence

1930 - 2009 (79 years)

Margaret E. Billingham was a pathologist at Stanford University Medical Center, who made significant achievements in the early recognition and grading of transplant rejection following cardiac transplantation, known as 'Billingham's Criteria'. She also described chronic rejection and techniques in heart endomyocardial biopsy.

#5008

Richard J. Simpson

#78837

Overall Influence

Richard Simpson is a professor in the department of biochemistry at La Trobe University . He is the inaugural and current president of the Australasian Proteomics Society and a past treasurer of the Human Proteome Organization. Simpson was elected Honorary Member of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1996, awarded the AMRAD Pharmacia Medal from the Australian Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and was an elected councillor of the Protein Society . In 1995, Simpson was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and in...

#5009

Stephen Kowalczykowski

#77325

Overall Influence

Stephen Charles Kowalczykowski is a Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California at Davis. His research focuses on the biochemistry and molecular biology of DNA repair and homologous recombination. His lab combines fluorescence microscopy, optical trapping and microfluidics to manipulate and visualize single molecules of DNA and the enzymes involved in processing and repairing DNA. He calls this scientific approach, "visual biochemistry". Stephen Kowalczykowski was elected to the American Society for Arts and Science in 2005, the National Acad...

#5010

John A. Long

#75346

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

John Albert Long is an Australian paleontologist who is currently Strategic Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He was previously the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He is also an author of popular science books. His main area of research is on the fossil fish of the Late Devonian Gogo Formation from northern Western Australia. It has yielded many important insights into fish evolution, such as Gogonasus and Materpiscis, the later specimen being crucial to our understanding of the origi...

#5011

Robert Lue

#82230

Overall Influence

1964 - 2020 (56 years)

Robert A. Lue was a researcher and an academic. On 1 March 2013, he became the inaugural Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University. He was formerly professor of the practice of molecular and cellular biology, and the director of life sciences education at Harvard University. Since 2008, he was the Faculty Director of the Harvard-Allston Education Portal. He was recognized for his contributions to molecular animation.

#5012

Yves Bergeron

#100564

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

#5013

Hergen Spits

#100583

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

#5014

Yiqi. Luo

#100605

Overall Influence

#5015

Victor Darley-Usmar

#93160

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Victor Darley-Usmar is a free-radical biologist and biochemist, the UAB Endowed Professor in Mitochondrial Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Darley-Usmar also contributed to a book titled Microbes, Bugs & Wonder Drugs , a science book written for young readers and their families.

#5016

Adam Godzik

#100641

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

#5017

Thomas A. Misteli

#100673

Overall Influence

#5018

Hans Joseef Ben Michael Bloemendal

#100678

Overall Influence

#5019

Stanley E. Trauth

Stanley E. Trauth

#91951

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Stanley E. Trauth is an American herpetologist and professor of zoology and environmental studies at Arkansas State University. He is also the curator of the herpetological collection of the Arkansas State University Museum of Zoology.

#5020

Rafael Md Yuste

#100697

Overall Influence

#5021

John Markley

#100501

Overall Influence

1964 - 2011 (47 years)

John L. Markley is an American biochemist. Markley focuses on NMR spectroscopy and its biological applications, structure function relationships in proteins, stable-isotope-assisted multinuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, processing and analysis of multi-dimensional NMR data; structural genomics and metabolomics.

#5022

A. Oveta Fuller

#81326

Overall Influence

1955 - 2022 (67 years)

Almyra Oveta Fuller was an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at University of Michigan Medical School. She served as the director of the African Studies Center , faculty in the ASC STEM Initiative at the University of Michigan and an adjunct professor at Payne Theological Seminary. Fuller was a virologist and specialized in research of Herpes simplex virus, as well as HIV/AIDS. Fuller and her research team discovered a B5 receptor, advancing the understanding of Herpes simplex virus and the cells it attacks.

#5023

M. D. Robert J. Ginsberg

#100749

Overall Influence

#5024

Ellen Sidransky

#65825

Overall Influence

Ellen Sidransky is an American pediatrician and clinical geneticist in the Medical Genetics Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute. She is chief of the Molecular Neurogenetics Section.

#5025

David J. Gower

#79781

Overall Influence

David J. Gower is a palaeontologist. Before making his debut for the Strongroom CC in 2000, he was a herpetology researcher at the Museum of Natural History in London. See also :Category:Taxa named by David J. Gower

#5026

Maria de Fátima Agra

#91590

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Maria de Fátima Agra is a Brazilian botanist and associate professor at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba , in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. Agra specializes in ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, and plant morphology, particularly pertaining to plants of the family Solanaceae in northeastern Brazil.

#5027

Craig Packer

#85219

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Craig Packer is an American biologist, zoologist, and ecologist chiefly known for his research on lions in Serengeti National Park. He is the founder and director of both the Lion Research Center and Whole Village Project, as well as the co-founder of Savannahs Forever Tanzania. In addition, Packer has been a professor in the University of Minnesota's department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior since 1983. Since his graduation from Stanford University in 1972, Packer has become an active researcher and scientist, having published over 100 scientific articles and authored two books. For one of these books - Into Africa - Packer was awarded the John Burroughs Medal in 1995.

#5028

Rudi Busse

#100814

Overall Influence

#5029

Roald Bahr

#100862

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

#5030

Claire Wyart

#52810

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Claire Julie Liliane Wyart is a French neuroscientist and biophysicist, studying the circuits underlying the control of locomotion. She is a chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite. Early life Wyart was born into a family of scientists. Her mother, Françoise Brochard-Wyart, is a prominent French physicist and a professor at the Curie Institute. Her father, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, was a Nobel-prize winning physicist. As their father was mostly absent, Wyart and her siblings were raised by their mother, though Claire thought of him as "the pillar who held our family together".

#5031

Takashi Yonetani

#100881

Overall Influence

#5032

Thelma Finlayson

Thelma Finlayson

#45589

Overall Influence

1914 - 2016 (102 years)

Thelma Finlayson was a Canadian entomologist. She was one of the first female scientists to work at a federal government's research branch and was Simon Fraser University's first professor emerita upon her retirement in 1979.

#5033

Fred C. Tenover

#100903

Overall Influence

#5034

Joseph L. Price

#100912

Overall Influence

#5035

Jerome Gross

#100924

Overall Influence

#5036

Michael R. Dietrich

Michael R. Dietrich

#60418

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Michael R. Dietrich is a professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Pittsburgh. His research concerns developments in twentieth century genetics, evolutionary biology, and developmental biology, with a special emphasis on scientific controversies.

#5037

Ueli Schibler

#84147

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Ueli Schibler is a Swiss biologist, chronobiologist and a professor at the University of Geneva. His research has contributed significantly to the field of chronobiology and the understanding of circadian clocks in the body. Several of his studies have demonstrated strong evidence for the existence of robust, self-sustaining circadian clocks in the peripheral tissues.

#5038

John Mollon

#67761

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Professor John Dixon Mollon DSc FRS. is a British scientist. He is a leading researcher in visual neuroscience. His work has been cited over 15,000 times. Early life Education Having graduated in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Oxford, Mollon remained at the university for his DPhil. He later received a DSc, also from Oxford.

#5039

Stefano Mancuso

#77658

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Stefano Mancuso is an Italian botanist, professor of the Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry department at his alma mater, the University of Florence. He is the director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, steering committee member of the Society of Plant Signaling and Behavior, editor-in-chief of the Plant Signaling & Behavior journal and a member of the Accademia dei Georgofili.

#5040

Caetano Reis e Sousa

#96805

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Caetano Maria Pacheco Pais dos Reis e Sousa is a senior group leader at the Francis Crick Institute and a professor of Immunology at Imperial College London. Education Reis e Sousa was educated at Atlantic College in Wales, Imperial College London and the University of Oxford where he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1992 for research on dendritic cells, and the phagocytosis of antigens by Langerhans cells supervised by Jonathan Austyn.

#5041

Susan Golden

#57492

Overall Influence

Susan Golden is a Professor of molecular biology known for her research in circadian rhythms. She is currently a faculty member at UC San Diego. Golden was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1957. She attended the local public high school, where she was involved with the marching band and school newspaper. She was accepted to the Mississippi University for Women in 1976 as a journalism major, but soon switched her studies to major in biology and minor in chemistry.

#5042

Ulrich Sommer

#100966

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

#5043

Tamas Bartfai

#81277

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Tamas Bartfai , is a Hungarian neuroscientist with interests in neurotransmission, neuropeptides, prostaglandins, fever, and drug discovery. As of 2015, he is a professor in The Scripps Research Institute, and an adjunct professor at Stockholm University, the University of Oxford, and the University of Pennsylvania. As an author, he is widely held in libraries worldwide.

#5044

Rudolph J. Castellani Jr.

#85066

Overall Influence

Rudy J. Castellani Jr is professor of pathology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland where he also serves as Director of Neuropathology. External links Rudy J. Castellani, Jr., MD Google Scholar Profile

#5045

Gregor Hagedorn

Gregor Hagedorn

#69752

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Gregor Hagedorn is a German botanist and academic director at the Natural History Museum, Berlin. Life Gregor Hagedorn studied biology at the University of Tübingen and at Duke University . Afterwards, he worked in the Department of Mycology at the University of Bayreuth until 2007. In 2007 his dissertation on "Structuring Descriptive Data of Organisms – Requirement Analysis and Information Models" was completed at the University of Bayreuth.

#5046

Hiroshi Shibasaki

#100996

Overall Influence

#5047

Cyril Höschl

#32422

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Cyril Höschl is a Czech psychiatrist and university lecturer. After the Velvet Revolution he was the first freely elected Dean of the third Medical Faculty of Charles University and from 1997-2003 he served as Vice-Dean for Reform Studies and International Relations at the same faculty. He was the director of the Prague Psychiatric Center and head of the Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology of the Third Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University in Prague. On 1 January 2015 the Prague Psychiatric Center was transformed into the National Institute of Mental Health in Klecany, T...

#5048

Philip W. Gold

#101018

Overall Influence

#5049

Ellen R.M. Druffel

#80435

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Ellen Druffel is an American oceanographer and isotope geochemist known for her research using radiocarbon to track marine processes. Career Druffel is a professor who holds the Fred Kavli Endowed Chair in Earth System Science at U.C. Irvine, where she was one of the department's founding faculty members. She received a B.S. in chemistry from Loyola Marymount University in 1975 and a PhD in chemistry in 1980 from the Department of Chemistry at U.C. San Diego, where her Ph.D. advisor was Hans Suess.

#5050

Judith Frydman

#98697

Overall Influence

Judith Frydman is a biochemist and the Donald Kennedy Chair in the School of Humanities & Sciences and Professor of Genetics at Stanford University. Her research focuses on protein folding. Career Frydman attended the University of Buenos Aires, earning a PhD in biochemistry. After graduating, she did a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Ulrich Hartl at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She is currently the Donald Kennedy Chair in the School of Humanities & Sciences and Professor of Genetics at Stanford University.

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