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).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

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Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Biology,

#5151

Michio Tsukamura

#101927

Overall Influence

#5152

Kevin M. Esvelt

#53845

Overall Influence

Kevin Michael Esvelt is an American biologist. He is currently an assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab and leads the Sculpting Evolution group. After receiving a B.A. in chemistry and biology from Harvey Mudd College, he completed his PhD work at Harvard University as a Hertz Fellow. Esvelt developed phage assisted continuous evolution during his PhD as a graduate student in David R. Liu's laboratory. As a Wyss Technology Fellow, Esvelt was involved with the development of gene drive technology. He focuses on the bioethics and biosafety of gene drives. In 2016, Esvelt was named an Innovat...

#5153

Lennart Heimer

#69263

Overall Influence

1930 - 2007 (77 years)

Lennart Heimer , was a Swedish-American neuroscientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Virginia. He was most noted for mapping circuits of the brain in the limbic lobe and basal ganglia, structures that play central roles in emotion processing and movement.

#5154

Samuel J. McNaughton

#97820

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Samuel Joseph McNaughton is an American ecologist and professor at Syracuse University. He received his Ph.D. at University of Texas-Austin in 1964, and was tenured to Syracuse University in 1966. Research Sam McNaughton is mainly known for his studies of plant–herbivore interactions and consequences of herbivory to ecosystems. His focus is on ecosystem metabolism. His team’s research concentrates on these processes and, particularly, the coupling between trophic levels in ecosystems.

#5155

Corrado Baglioni

#101994

Overall Influence

#5156

Gideon A. Rodan

#102012

Overall Influence

#5157

Melita Švob

#84088

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Melita Švob is a Croatian Jewish biologist, scientist, and historian. Early life Švob was born in Zagreb to a middle class Jewish family. As a child she survived the horror of the Holocaust and the NDH regime under a false identity. After the war, she attended a Gymnasium in Zagreb. Having completed her secondary education, she studied biology at the University of Zagreb from where she graduated successfully.

#5158

Alan G. Barbour

#102019

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

#5159

Brian J. Nickoloff

#102020

Overall Influence

#5160

Mogens Schou

#102034

Overall Influence

#5161

Paul Bach-y-Rita

#45846

Overall Influence

1934 - 2006 (72 years)

Paul Bach-y-Rita was an American neuroscientist whose most notable work was in the field of neuroplasticity. Bach-y-Rita was one of the first to seriously study the idea of neuroplasticity , and to introduce sensory substitution as a tool to treat patients with neurological disorders.

#5162

Merlin Crossley

#73763

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Merlin Crossley, is an Australian molecular biologist, university teacher and administrator. In 2016, he was appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of New South Wales. Early life and career Crossley attended Mount View Primary School, Glen Waverley, Victoria, then was awarded an entrance scholarship to Melbourne Grammar School, where he was dux. He undertook a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, as a resident of Queen's College , then a doctorate at the University of Oxford supported by a Rhodes Scholarship at Magdalen College, Oxford. He worked at Oxford, Harvard and the University of Sydney, before moving to UNSW as Dean of Science.

#5163

Simon Lovestone

#97890

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Sir Simon Lovestone is professor of translational neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He is a specialist in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. He was made a knight bachelor in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to neuroscience research.

#5164

Michael T. Clegg

#80951

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Michael Tran Clegg is an American plant geneticist. He is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine . Early life and education Clegg was born on August 1, 1941, in Pasadena, California. His father and grandfather were biologists, and his great-grandfather was a doctor. Despite his family's scientific background, Clegg originally worked for a crop duster, served in the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army from 1960 to 63 and later worked in the sugar industry, before entering college. He obtained his Ph.D.

#5165

Thomas Perlmann

#96077

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Rolf Thomas Perlmann is a professor of molecular developmental biology at Karolinska Institute. In 2006, he became a member of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute. He became an adjunct member of Karolinska Institutet's Nobel Committee in 2008 and was then elected in 2012. He has been Secretary for the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine since 2016.

#5166

Harold M. Weintraub

#102120

Overall Influence

#5167

John Buchanan

#79785

Overall Influence

1917 - 2007 (90 years)

John Machlin Buchanan was an American professor of biochemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He arrived at MIT in 1953 and retired in 1988 after a distinguished career in which he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He played a key role in the development of MIT's Department of Biology as a major force in biochemistry research and was himself a prominent researcher of purine biosynthesis. He died in 2007 at age 89.

#5168

Torsten Zuberbier

#75362

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Torsten Zuberbier is a German dermatologist and allergologist. Scientific career After completing his Abitur in 1981, Torsten Zuberbier studied medicine at Free University of Berlin from 1983 to 1990. From 1990 to 1994, he completed his specialist training in the Department of Dermatology at the Virchow Clinic in Berlin, where he also became a senior physician in 1995 and qualified as a professor in 1996 with his work on the topic of differentiation and functional relations in human mast cells.

#5169

Harmit Malik

#95277

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Harmit Singh Malik is an Indian American evolutionary biologist who is a professor and associate director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He was awarded the 2022 Genetics Society of America Edward Novitski Prize.

#5170

Steven Mark Albelda

#102167

Overall Influence

#5171

Ramon Folch i Guillèn

Ramon Folch i Guillèn

#74028

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Ramon Folch i Guillèn is a Catalan socio-ecologist. Publications L'energia en l'horitzó del 2030 , 2005;El territorio como sistema , 2003;La dèria de mirar , 2000;Diccionario de Socioecología , 1999;A four-volume series devoted to socio-ecology:Sobre ecologismo y ecología aplicada , 1977;Sobre ecología, educación y desarrollo , 1990;Sobre educación ambiental y socioecología , 1993;Ambiente, emoción y ética , 1998.

#5172

Jean-Claude Ameisen

#80717

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Jean Claude Ameisen is a French doctor, immunologist and researcher in biology. He is Director of the Center for Life Studies of the Paris Institute of Humanities, Paris Diderot University and President of the National Consultative Ethics Committee .

#5173

Michael Stryker

#81304

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Michael Paul Stryker is an American neuroscientist specializing in studies of how spontaneous neural activity organizes connections in the developing mammalian brain, and for research on the organization, development, and plasticity of the visual system in the ferret and the mouse.

#5174

Leslie Dutton

#65434

Overall Influence

Peter Leslie Dutton FRS is a British biochemist, and Eldridge Reeves Johnson Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a 2013 recipient of the John Scott Award for his work on electron transfer, studying the organization of electrons in cells and the mechanisms by which they convert light or oxygen into energy for the cell.

#5175

Craig James Mcclain

#102183

Overall Influence

#5176

Hugh R. Wilson

#102207

Overall Influence

#5177

Benjamin M. Neale

#102225

Overall Influence

#5178

John I. Pitt

#101133

Overall Influence

1937 - 2022 (85 years)

John Ingram Pitt was an Australian mycologist, known as a leading expert on the role of fungi in food spoilage. He gained an international reputation as a pioneering researcher on the ecology of spoilage moulds in extreme environments and of dried fruits and other dried foodstuffs.

#5179

Robert B. Gennis

#102229

Overall Influence

#5180

Karen Bush

#74083

Overall Influence

Karen Bush is an American biochemist. She is a professor of Practice in Biology at Indiana University and the interim director of the Biotechnology program. Bush conducts research focusing on bacterial resistance mechanisms to beta-lactam antibiotics.

#5181

Jerry F. Franklin

#102270

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

#5182

David Ginty

#93742

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Dr. David D. Ginty is an American neuroscientist and developmental biologist. David graduated from Mount Saint Mary's College and received his Ph.D. degree in physiology from East Carolina University for graduate work with Edward Seidel, on the regulation of polyamine compounds and their metabolism during cell growth and proliferation. Moving to Boston, David completed his postdoctoral research, first, with John Wagner at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, and then with Michael Greenberg at Harvard Medical School, where he made several seminal contributions to signal ...

#5183

Patrick M. Schlievert

#102279

Overall Influence

#5184

Sondra Schlesinger

#97225

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Sondra Schlesinger is an American virologist and professor emeritus at the Washington University School of Medicine. Early life and education Schlesinger was born in New Jersey in 1934. She was an undergraduate at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, graduating in 1956 with a degree in chemistry; she remained at the same institution for doctoral work and received her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1960. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

#5185

Dlawer Ala'Aldeen

Dlawer Ala'Aldeen

#44592

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Dlawer Ala'Aldeen , is the Founding President of the Middle East Research Institute, a policy-research institute, based in Arbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He is a former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Kurdistan Regional Government and former professor of Medicine at the University of Nottingham in the UK. His current focus is on policy research in the fields of good governance, rule of law, national security, governance reform and promotion of human rights.

#5186

Fabien Zoulim

#102319

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

#5187

Mary V. Seeman

#95488

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Mary V. Seeman, OC, FRCPC, is a Canadian psychiatrist who is Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She served as the Tapscott Chair in Schizophrenia from 1997 to 2000.

#5188

Adelaide Carpenter

#57131

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Adelaide T. C. Carpenter is an American fruit fly geneticist at the University of Cambridge. Biography Carpenter was born 24 June 1944, in Georgia, United States and grew up in North Carolina. In the 1970s, whilst at the University of Washington, she was one of the numerous graduate students mentored by Larry Sandler. In 1976, she obtained a faculty position at the University of California, San Diego. In 1989, after becoming full professor, she took a second sabbatical in the United Kingdom.

#5189

Chi Van Dang

#35583

Overall Influence

Chi Van Dang is a hematological oncologist and researcher, currently serving as the Scientific Director of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is known for his research on genetics, the MYC gene and the cellular energy metabolism of cancer.

#5190

Nicholas J. Gotelli

#102353

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

#5191

Yaniv Erlich

#51435

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (47 years)

Yaniv Erlich is an Israeli-American scientist. He formerly served as an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and was the Chief Science Officer of MyHeritage. Erlich's work combines computer science and genomics.

#5192

Harlan Parker Banks

#88301

Overall Influence

1913 - 1998 (85 years)

Harlan Parker Banks was an American paleobotanist and Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor Emeritus in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, known for his studies of Devonian plants. A Fulbright Research Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, he was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and president of the Botanical Society of America.

#5193

Eleanor Dodson

#39725

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

Eleanor Joy Dodson FRS is an Australian-born biologist who specialises in the computational modelling of protein crystallography. She holds a chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York. She is the widow of the scientist Guy Dodson.

#5194

Lee Sweeney

#74041

Overall Influence

H. Lee Sweeney is an American scientist who studies muscle. Education and career He received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and his PhD from Harvard in physiology and biophysics in 1984. He then spent a year as research instructor in physiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and then obtained an appointment as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

#5195

Alan R. Nelson

#55864

Overall Influence

Alan R. Nelson, MD was president of the American Medical Association from 1989 to 1990, and led the development of several initiatives including the Health Access America Program. He was president of the World Medical Association from 1991 to 1992. Nelson earned his MD from Northwestern University Medical School in 1958. When the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Internal Medicine merged in 1998, Nelson headed its Washington office until January 2000. A member of the Institute of Medicine, he serves on its Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences Research and Medici...

#5196

Henri‐géry Hers

#102415

Overall Influence

#5197

Jon Seger

#49135

Overall Influence

Jon Allen Seger is an American evolutionary ecologist, and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Utah. He helped develop the theory of bet-hedging in biology. His work has appeared in leading scientific journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, as well as popular magazines such as Scientific American.

#5198

Emil Kakkis

#56078

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Emil Kakkis is an American medical geneticist known for his work to develop treatments for ultra rare disorders. He is the Founder of the Everylife Foundation for Rare Disease and Founder, CEO and President of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.

#5199

Myron P. Zalucki

#91868

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Myron P. Zalucki is an Australian professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Queensland . Zalucki is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a member and secretary of the Council of the International Congresses of Entomology, and a co-editor of the Annual Review of Entomology.

#5200

John A. Talbott

#102441

Overall Influence

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