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,

#7501

Roberto Docampo

#122486

Overall Influence

#7502

Pamela Taylor

#37637

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Pamela Jane Taylor, is a British psychiatrist and academic, who specialises in the links between psychosis and violence, and mental and physical health in the criminal justice system. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in the Department Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences of Cardiff University.

#7503

Richard H. Goodwin

#98553

Overall Influence

1910 - 2007 (97 years)

Richard Hale Goodwin was an American botanist and conservationist. He taught at the University of Rochester before joining the faculty at Connecticut College, where he was professor and director of the arboretum. He was a founding member of The Nature Conservancy and served twice as its president.

#7504

Takayuki Ozawa

#122512

Overall Influence

#7505

John William Mcgarvey Major

#122521

Overall Influence

#7506

Hartwig Huland

#122526

Overall Influence

#7507

Gerta Vrbóva

#122535

Overall Influence

#7508

G. Prof. Dr. Gottschalk

#122538

Overall Influence

#7509

Hans Dieter Lux

#122557

Overall Influence

#7510

Sophie G. Martin

#121274

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Sophie Geneviève Elisabeth Martin Benton is a Swiss biologist who is Professor and Director of the Department of Fundamental Microbiology at the University of Lausanne. Her research investigates the molecular processes that underpin cellular fusion. She was awarded the EMBO Gold Medal in 2014.

#7511

Jaan Eilart

#87227

Overall Influence

1933 - 2006 (73 years)

Jaan Eilart was an Estonian phytogeographer, landscape ecologist, cultural historian and conservationist. Eilart was born in Pala, Kirna Parish, Järva County. In 1957 he started teaching conservation as a subject in the Tartu State University. In 1958 he established the Tartu Students' Nature Protection Circle , which is allegedly the oldest student's community dedicated to conservation, and in 1966 he established the Estonian Nature Conservation Society . In 1969 Eilart led the establishment of Lahemaa National Park which was the first national park in the Soviet Union. Later he also instructed the establishment of national parks in Komi, Armenia and Tajikistan.

#7512

Jonathan H. Borden

#122562

Overall Influence

#7513

Eckhard Wolf

#122580

Overall Influence

#7514

George E. Seidel

#122589

Overall Influence

#7515

Olivier Michielin

#122598

Overall Influence

#7516

Eckhard R. Podack

#122605

Overall Influence

#7517

Norma Andrews

#110068

Overall Influence

Norma W. Andrews is a cell biologist and professor at the University of Maryland Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. She chaired the department from 2009 to 2014. Education and career Norma Andrews received her B.S. in 1977 and Ph.D. in 1983, both from the University of São Paulo. She then went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Victor Nussenzweig at New York University, which she completed in 1990. She then began her own laboratory at Yale University, where she joined the Department of Cell Biology and the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis becoming a Full Professor in 1999.

#7518

Winifred Hallwachs

Winifred Hallwachs

#115266

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Winifred Hallwachs is an American tropical ecologist who helped to establish and expand northwestern Costa Rica's Área de Conservación Guanacaste . The work of Hallwachs and her husband Daniel Janzen at ACG is considered an exemplar of inclusive conservation.

#7519

Allen C. Enders

#122613

Overall Influence

#7520

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick

#26027

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick is an American forensic scientist, genealogist and entrepreneur. She helped identify remains found in the crash site of Northwest Flight 4422, that crashed in Alaska in 1948, and co-founded the DNA Doe Project which identifies previously unidentified bodies and runs Identifinders International, an investigative genetic genealogy consulting firm which helps identify victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.

#7521

Hudson H. Freeze

#122640

Overall Influence

#7522

Yasufumi Kaneda

#122657

Overall Influence

#7523

Lars Oreland

#122685

Overall Influence

#7524

Jacques Morcos

#64267

Overall Influence

Jacques Morcos is a professor of neurosurgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology at the University of Miami and serves as the director of skull base and endoscopic surgery and cerebrovascular surgery. Morcos' training began in London at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen's Square and Maida Vale in London, England. He completed his residency at the University of Minnesota and his fellowships at the University of Florida and the premiere Barrow Neurological Institute.

#7525

Y. J. Li

#122696

Overall Influence

#7526

Richard Rifkind

#86076

Overall Influence

1930 - 2019 (89 years)

Richard Rifkind was an American cancer researcher. Rifkind was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of Simon H. Rifkind and his wife Adele . He graduated from the Loomis School in 1948. He graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. The same year he commenced medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating in 1955. He served as an intern then as a resident at Presbyterian Hospital. During 1957–59 he also served in the United States Air Force.

#7527

Hailan Hu

#50370

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Hu Hailan is a Chinese neuroscientist, professor, and executive director of the Center for Neuroscience at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China. Hu explores neural mechanisms underlying social behaviors and psychiatric diseases. She specifically explores the neural substrates of social rank and the role of neuron-glia interactions in driving depressive behaviors. Hu discovered the anatomical and molecular targets of ketamine's fast-acting antidepressant effects to be localized to the lateral habenular circuits in rodents. Hu was also the first scientist outside of Europe and America to be awarded the IBRO-Kemali Prize in over 20 years.

#7528

Isabelle Rapin

#28025

Overall Influence

1927 - 2017 (90 years)

Isabelle Juliette Martha Rapin, M.D. , was a Professor of both Neurology and Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. She was a leading authority on autism for decades, and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

#7529

Neil J. Douglas

#122726

Overall Influence

#7530

Niels Peter Revsbech

#122729

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

#7531

Maureen Goodenow

#97734

Overall Influence

Maureen Goodenow is an American scientist and Professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine. She is best known for her work on HIV/AIDS research and advocacy. Biography Goodenow received her B.A. in biology from Fordham University, and her Ph.D. in 1983 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. From 1983 to 1987, she completed postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. From 1998 to 2016, she was a member of the faculty of the University of Florida where she held the Stephany W. Holloway University Chair in AIDS Research. In 2016, Goodenow was appoint...

#7532

Kiyoshi Nagai

#105507

Overall Influence

1949 - 2019 (70 years)

Kiyoshi Nagai was a Japanese structural biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Cambridge, UK. He was known for his work on the mechanism of RNA splicing and structures of the spliceosome.

#7533

Jacques Schotte

#38275

Overall Influence

1928 - 2007 (79 years)

Jacques Schotte was a Belgian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, co-founder, in 1969, with Antoine Vergote and Alphonse De Waelhens of the Belgian School of Psychoanalysis. Biography Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven since 1964, Jacques Schotte was an atypical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. In addition to his classes, he gave many conferences throughout Europe, the United States and Latin America .

#7534

Juli G. Pausas

#122754

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

#7535

Judith S. Eisen

#112290

Overall Influence

Judith S. Eisen is an American neuroscientist and professor of biology at the University of Oregon. Eisen conducts fundamental research in the specification and patterning of the vertebrate nervous system with a focus on developmental interactions between the nervous system, immune system, and host-associated microbiota. Eisen is a member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon.

#7536

J. Bennett Clark

#122776

Overall Influence

#7537

Patricia Berjak

#115635

Overall Influence

1939 - 2015 (76 years)

Patricia Berjak was a South African botanist known for her work on the biology of plant seeds, especially seed recalcitrance. She was professor for 48 years at the University of Kwazulu-Natal . She earned a B.Sc. degree in biochemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand , then went on to the University of Natal , earning a M.Sc. in mammalian physiology and biochemistry and PhD in seed biology . She was a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and a Fellow of the University of Natal, the Royal Society of South Africa and the Third World Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the...

#7538

John Burn

#86281

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Professor Sir John Burn is a British professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University and senior leader in England's National Health Service. Education Burn was born and raised in the North East of England. He was educated at Barnard Castle Grammar School, and Newcastle University Medical School from 1976 to 1980 where he was awarded a Bachelor of Medical Sciences degree in 1973, a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1976 and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1991.

#7539

Saverio Cinti

#122782

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

#7540

Betsy Rivers Jackes

#46007

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Betsy Rivers Jackes is an Australian botanist, researcher, taxonomist and author. Her research interests are the plants in the families Myrsinaceae and Vitaceae. Education Jackes completed her BSc in 1957, followed by her MSc in 1959, at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. She won a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States and took up a position as a research scholar at the University of Chicago , where she earned her PhD in 1961.

#7541

Kenneth C. Catania

#74830

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Kenneth C. Catania is a biologist and neuroscientist teaching and conducting research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. As an undergraduate, Catania worked as a research assistant at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1989, he received a BS in zoology from the University of Maryland. He received a master's degree and Ph.D. in neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego, working with Glenn Northcutt. He did his post-doctoral work with Jon Kaas at Vanderbilt University before joining the Vanderbilt ...

#7542

Paul A. Price

#122815

Overall Influence

#7543

Jonathan A. Foley

#122821

Overall Influence

#7544

Keith R. Jerome

#114538

Overall Influence

Keith R. Jerome is an American virologist whose research focuses on viruses such as herpes simplex, HIV and hepatitis B that persist in their hosts. He published on the first known case of COVID-19 in the United States detecting SARS-CoV-2 in Washington State and helped forge the nation's COVID-19 testing. In 2021, Jerome and Alexander Greninger shared the Washington Innovator of the Year award for developing the laboratory based assay for detecting COVID-19. He was senior author on a research article published in Science describing the cryptic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 alongside Trevor Bedford, Alexander Greninger, Jay Shendure, and Helen Chu.

#7545

Hiroshi Takagi

#122833

Overall Influence

#7546

Per‐ollof Berggren

#122837

Overall Influence

#7547

John Nicholas Wood

#49493

Overall Influence

John Nicholas Wood FRS is a British neurobiologist, and Head of the Molecular Nociception Group, at University College London. Life He earned a Ph.D. in virology at the University of Warwick in 1975. He studied with Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute from 1976 to 1979. He worked at St George's, University of London, with Brian Anderton and Tom Jessell.

#7548

Jonathan James Gilbert

#122853

Overall Influence

#7549

Mel Rosenberg

#75023

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Mel Rosenberg is a microbiologist best known for his research on the diagnosis and treatment of bad breath . Early life and education Mel Rosenberg was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1951. He grew up in Ottawa and immigrated to Israel in 1969. He received his Bachelor of Science from Hebrew University and went on to pursue both his Masters of Science and Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University.

#7550

Sérgio Pena

#104786

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Sérgio Danilo Junho Pena is a Brazilian human geneticist and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He began researching the population genetics of the Brazilian population in the late 1980s. His research on this subject has highlighted the ways that physical characteristics of Brazilians are often discordant with their genetic ancestry. On the basis of his research showing extensive genetic diversity in the Brazilian population, he has vocally advocated for the view that race is a social construct rather than a biological reality.

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