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,

#7301

Leon Speroff

#120747

Overall Influence

#7302

Marvalee Wake

#84830

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Marvalee Hendricks Wake is an American zoologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, known for her research in the biology of caecilians and vertebrate development and evolution. A 1988 Guggenheim Fellow, she has served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, International Union of Biological Sciences, and the International Society of Vertebrate Morphology. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Cal...

#7303

Carolyn J. Brown

#113616

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Carolyn J. Brown is a Canadian geneticist and Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. Brown is known for her studies on X-chromosome inactivation, having discovered the human XIST gene in 1990.

#7304

Ole Kiehn

#111876

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Ole Kiehn is a Danish-Swedish neuroscientist. He is Professor of Integrative Neuroscience at the Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and professor of neurophysiology at Karolinska Institute, Sweden.

#7305

Jean‐henri Bourhis

#120758

Overall Influence

#7306

Samuel C. Silverstein

#120763

Overall Influence

#7307

Harvey J. Weiss

#120769

Overall Influence

#7308

Marc Lewis

#36671

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Marc Lewis is a Canadian clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, academic, and author from Toronto, Ontario. He was a professor at the University of Toronto from 1989 to 2010 and Radboud University Nijmegen in Nijmegen, the Netherlands from 2010 to 2016. He is particularly focused on the study of addiction. His work is informed by his own experience of drug addiction, and is notable for its focus on neuroscience and the changes addiction causes in the brain. His books include Memoirs of an Addicted Brain and The Biology of Desire, which Damian Thompson of The Spectator called "the most import...

#7309

Nancy Yuk-yu Chu Ip

#120773

Overall Influence

#7310

Stuart Linn

#120778

Overall Influence

#7311

Sarah Coupland

#80265

Overall Influence

Sarah Coupland is an Australian-born pathologist and professor who is the George Holt Chair in Pathology at the University of Liverpool. Coupland is an active clinical scientist whose research focuses on the molecular genetics of cancers, with particular interests in uveal melanoma, conjunctival melanoma, intraocular and ocular adnexal lymphomas and CNS lymphoma. Coupland is also an NHS Honorary Consultant Histopathologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Since 2006, Coupland has been head of the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group; from which she runs a multidisciplinary on...

#7312

Keld Danø

#120782

Overall Influence

#7313

J. Michael Bedford

#120783

Overall Influence

#7314

Helen Saibil

#93539

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Helen Ruth Saibil FRS FMedSci is a Canadian-British molecular biologist and Professor of Structural Biology at the Department of Crystallography of Birkbeck, University of London. Her research is largely focuses on molecular chaperones and protein misfolding.

#7315

Jeremy C. Smith

#82219

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Jeremy Christopher Smith is a British-born computational molecular biophysicist. Early life and education Smith was educated at Earlham High School, the City of Norwich School and Leeds University then obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of London. Smith has a daughter, Serena, who was born in 1994.

#7316

James Alfred Hoch

#120801

Overall Influence

#7317

Caroline Harwood

#111618

Overall Influence

Caroline S. Harwood is an American microbiologist who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. She is the Professor Gerald and Lyn Grinstein Professor of Microbiology and Associate Vice-Provost for Research at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

#7318

Denise Manahan-Vaughan

#118353

Overall Influence

Denise Manahan-Vaughan is an Irish neuroscientist and neurophysiologist. She is head of the Department of Neurophysiology, dean of studies and director of the International Graduate School of Neuroscience and co-founder of the Research Department of Neuroscience of the Ruhr University Bochum. Her research focuses on elucidation of the cellular and synaptic mechanisms underlying the acquisition and long-term maintenance of associative memories. She uses a multidisciplinary approach to study how spatial experiences, sensory input, neuromodulation, or brain disease impacts on, and provide insig...

#7319

Sónia Rocha

#70914

Overall Influence

Sónia Maria Campos Soares da Rocha, usually referred to as Professor Sónia Rocha, is a Portuguese cell biologist who holds a personal chair in biochemistry at the University of Liverpool, where she is the head of the Department of Biochemistry. Rocha runs an active multidisciplinary cell signaling research group studying hypoxia, and focused around transcription factors such as Hypoxia-inducible factors and NF-κB. Her laboratory is currently based in the Institute of Integrative Biology.

#7320

Carmela Abraham

#25622

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Carmela R. Abraham is an American neuroscientist who focuses on the study of Alzheimer’s disease. Early life and education Abraham earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Tel Aviv University and her PhD in Neuroscience from Harvard University. In 1990, Abraham was the recipient of The Neuroscience Education and Research Foundation Award for an Outstanding Promise as a Young Alzheimer Investigator. She was also the first Rappaport Scholar at the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the recipient of the Zenith and Temple awards from the Alzheimer’s As...

#7321

Osvaldo Sala

#113588

Overall Influence

Osvaldo Sala is an ecologist known for his research on how climate change affects biodiversity and arid ecosystems. Early life and education After completing an undergraduate program at The University of Buenos Aires, Sala continued his education at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where he earned both his MS and Ph.D. in Ecology.

#7322

Robert Glaeser

#113644

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Robert Martin Glaeser is an American biochemist. He is a professor emeritus of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in Berkeley, California, US. His main research area is electron diffraction and membrane models.

#7323

Martha Bridge Denckla

#120833

Overall Influence

#7324

Yasuo Kagawa

#120836

Overall Influence

#7325

Thomas Daniel

#54434

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Thomas Louis Daniel is an American biologist, Joan and Richard Komen Endowed Chair of Biology at University of Washington, and leads the Daniel Lab. He was the interim director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering. Since 2006, he has served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

#7326

Christopher Cleon Rowe

#120855

Overall Influence

#7327

Pat Levitt

#120856

Overall Influence

#7328

R. Ichard J. Miller

#120863

Overall Influence

#7329

Mordechai Kislev

#111511

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Mordechai E. Kislev is an Israeli emeritus professor in the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, specializing in archaeological botany. Some of his prominent research focuses on prehistoric early agriculture and archaeological entomology. Other works explore the ancient landscape of the Land of Israel, as well as Torah and Science issues.

#7330

Roderick A. Capaldi

#120866

Overall Influence

#7331

Andreas von Deimling

#120875

Overall Influence

#7332

James Mcculloch

#120876

Overall Influence

#7333

Bernardo Nadal‐ginard

#120882

Overall Influence

#7334

Anne M. Andrews

#73628

Overall Influence

Anne M. Andrews is an American academic, the Richard Metzner Endowed Chair in Clinical Neuropharmacology, Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. Andrews is known for her work on the study of the serotonin system with a special focus on how the serotonin transporter modulates complex behaviors including anxiety, mood, stress responsiveness, and learning and memory.

#7335

Leszek Kaczmarek

#120887

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

#7336

Zabta Khan Shinwari

#100329

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Zabta Khan Shinwari is a Pakistani botanist and researcher. Early life and education Zabta Khan Shinwari was born on 3 March 1959 in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Shinwari got his B.Sc degree in 1980 and M.Sc in 1983 from University of Peshawar, M. Phil. in 1986 from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Ph.D. in 1994 Kyoto University and Post Doc Fellow in 1996-98 from International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences Japan.

#7337

Lothar Prof Dr Kanz

#120891

Overall Influence

#7338

Gary Rosenberg

#93308

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Gary Rosenberg is an American malacologist. Biography He graduated from Princeton University in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in geology and obtained a Ph.D. in 1989 at Harvard University in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. He is currently the Pilsbry Chair and Curator of Malacology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and a professor at Drexel University in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science. He is a member of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

#7339

Richard Pillard

#42405

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (93 years)

Richard Colestock Pillard is a professor of psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine. He was the first openly gay psychiatrist in the United States. Early life and family Pillard was born in Springfield, Ohio. He briefly attended Swarthmore College before transferring to Antioch College, where his father Basil H. Pillard was an English Professor. Pillard received his B.A. from Antioch. He then earned his M.D. from University of Rochester, with his internship at Boston City Hospital.

#7340

Daniel Fisher

#53873

Overall Influence

Daniel Fisher is a paleontologist who studies paleobiology and the extinction of mastodons. He received his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Harvard University in 1975 and is the Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology and the Director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. His research on mammoth tusks has helped to shape the common understanding of mammoth life.

#7341

Richard W. Dutton

#120979

Overall Influence

#7342

Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz

#108915

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz is a Polish-British developmental biologist. She is Professor of Mammalian Development and Stem Cell Biology in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. She also serves as Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering at California Institute of Technology .

#7343

Martin Hrabě de Angelis

#117478

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Martin Hrabĕ de Angelis is a German geneticist and director of the Institute of Experimental Genetics at Helmholtz Zentrum München and director of the European Mouse Mutant Archive in Monterotondo, Italy. Since 2003 he has held the Chair of Experimental Genetics at Technische Universität München. He is co-founder, speaker and board member of the German Center for Diabetes Research . His research focuses on metabolism and diabetes, large-scale functional genomics/genetics and epigenetics.

#7344

Thibaut Jombart

#120991

Overall Influence

#7345

Ivor Rex Harris

#120999

Overall Influence

#7346

E. Dale Abel

#78002

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Evan Dale Abel is an American endocrinologist who serves as Chair of the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His works on the molecular mechanisms that underpin cardiac failure in diabetes. He is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American College of Physicians. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

#7347

Hugh Auchincloss

#51825

Overall Influence

Hugh Auchincloss, Jr. is an American immunologist and physician serving as the acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 2023. He previously served as the principal deputy director between 2006 and 2022. He was previously a transplant surgeon and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and researched at Massachusetts General Hospital for 17 years.

#7348

J. Evan Sadler

#81715

Overall Influence

1951 - 2018 (67 years)

Jasper Evan Sadler III was an American hematologist. Sadler was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on 9 November 1951 to pathologist Jasper Evan Sadler Jr. and his wife Clara Rose Thompson Sadler. The younger Sadler studied chemistry at Princeton University and completed a medical degree at Duke University School of Medicine. Sadler completed his residency at Duke and a fellowship at the University of Washington and subsequently joined Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1984. Between 1982 and 2008, Sadler was a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. In 2014, Sadler was appointed Ira M.

#7349

Ola Landgren

#121029

Overall Influence

#7350

Bernice Shanet

#100264

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (97 years)

Bernice Grafstein Shanet is a Canadian neurophysiologist, a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and a noted specialist in neuroregeneration research. Shanet is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medical College, the holder of the Vincent and Brooke Astor Distinguished Professorship in Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College, the Professor of Neuroscience for the Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College and the first woman ever to serve as president of the American Society for Neuroscience. Shanet is famous for her stud...

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