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

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Biology,

#8051

Sue Jinks-Robertson

#65874

Overall Influence

Sue Jinks-Robertson is an American professor of genetics and microbiology. She is currently a professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the Duke University School of Medicine. In May 2019, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She has published over 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.

#8052

Agnar Helgason

#41867

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Agnar Helgason is an Icelandic scientist working with genetic anthropology. PhD in Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford, 2001. He is best known for his research on the origin of Icelandic population. He is a brother of Ásgeir Helgason, the son of Helgi Valdimarsson and a brother-in-law of Tim Moore .

#8053

Lionel Vivian Crawford

#126564

Overall Influence

#8054

Emma Guttman-Yassky

#126580

Overall Influence

Emma Guttman-Yassky is the System Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Waldman professor of dermatology and immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She is also director of its center for excellence in eczema, its occupational dermatitis clinic, and its inflammatory skin disease laboratory.

#8055

Ghulam J. Mufti

#126583

Overall Influence

#8056

Amy Arnsten

#98045

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Amy F.T. Arnsten is an American neuroscientist. She is the Albert E. Kent Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology as well as a member of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience at Yale University.

#8057

David M. Stern

#126607

Overall Influence

#8058

Carole Baldwin

#89724

Overall Influence

Carole C. Baldwin is a research zoologist, curator of fishes, and the vertebrate zoology department chair at the National Museum of Natural History. She researches the diversity and evolution of coral reef and deep sea fishes through integrative taxonomy. She is on the board of directors of the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. She is a senior author on the educational seafood cookbook One Fish, Two Fish, Crawfish, Bluefish - The Smithsonian Sustainable Seafood Cookbook, and the principal investigator on the Deep Reef Observation Project which researches reefs to 300 meter depths. She...

#8059

Gail A. Bishop

#117694

Overall Influence

Gail A. Bishop is an American professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa and director of the Center for Immunology & Immune-Based Diseases at the Carver College of Medicine. Early life and education Bishop was born in Wisconsin, United States. She became interested in science as a teenager after first studying biology in the 9th grade. She completed a summer job in a leukemia research laboratory in Milwaukee. Bishop studied biology at St. Olaf College. She earned a master's degree in oncology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Bishop moved to University of Michigan as a graduate student, working in cellular biology with Joseph Glorioso.

#8060

Rana Fine

#77470

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Rana Arnold Fine is Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Her research primarily addresses understanding ocean circulation processes over time through the use of chemical tracers and the connection to climate.

#8061

Lynn Jorde

#98345

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Lynn B. Jorde is an American human geneticist. He is a professor in, and chair of, the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he holds a H.A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowed Chair.

#8062

Kai Wucherpfennig

#101779

Overall Influence

Kai Wucherpfennig is a German-American biologist currently at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

#8063

Helmut Wachter

#126661

Overall Influence

#8064

Andrew Parker

#65117

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Andrew Parker is a zoologist who has worked on Biomimetics. He worked at the Natural History Museum in London, and from 1990 to 1999 he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow and is a Research Associate of the Australian Museum and University of Sydney and from 1999 until 2005 he worked at the University of Oxford. Parker is a Visiting Research Fellow at Green Templeton College where he is head of a Research Team into photonic structures and eyes.

#8065

Gunnar Husby

#126666

Overall Influence

#8066

Lubbert Dijkhuizen

#126675

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

#8067

Hans Bos

#83679

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Johannes Lukas "Hans" Bos is a Dutch biochemist and cancer researcher. He has been a professor of physiological chemistry at Utrecht University since 1991. He is also employed by the University Medical Center Utrecht.

#8068

Yves De Koninck

#101631

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Yves De Koninck, FCAHS, FRSC, is a neuroscientist and Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Université Laval and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University. Biography Yves De Koninck comes from a large family of intellectuals and scholars. He is the son of the philosopher Thomas De Koninck, and nephew of Joseph De Koninck, Professor Emeritus at the Brain and Mind Research Institute of the University of Ottawa. He has two brothers: Paul De Koninck is Professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bio-Informatics at Université Laval and a neuroscientist, and Marc...

#8069

Machiko Ikegami

#126692

Overall Influence

#8070

Alberto Oliverio

#70869

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Alberto Oliverio is a biologist and psycho-biologist. He is currently professor of Psychobiology at the Sapienza University of Rome. He has been one of the main assistants of Nobel prize winner Daniel Bovet.

#8071

Yamni Nigam

#45159

Overall Influence

Yamni Nigam FRES is a professor and scientist at Swansea University. Her scientific research focuses on the immune system of insects and invertebrates. She has a particular interest in wound healing and maggot therapy. Nigam additionally lectures on anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology within the School of Health & Social Care in the Faculty of Medicine, Health & Life - science at Swansea University.

#8072

James Versalovic

#126721

Overall Influence

#8073

Makoto Nagoya-shi Matsuoka

#126729

Overall Influence

#8074

Max D. Summers

#126759

Overall Influence

#8075

John Harrison Burnett

#86040

Overall Influence

1922 - 2007 (85 years)

Sir John Harrison Burnett was a British botanist and mycologist, who served as the principal and vice chancellor of Edinburgh University from 1979 to 1987. Early life and education Burnett was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, the son of Rev. T. Harrison Burnett of Paisley Abbey. He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath before going up to Merton College, Oxford to read botany in 1940.

#8076

Coleen T. Murphy

#113412

Overall Influence

Coleen T. Murphy is a geneticist and Richard B. Fisher Preceptor in Integrative Genomics Professor of Molecular Biology at the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. She is director of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories For Aging Research at Princeton.

#8077

Jonathan A. Coddington

#101122

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Jonathan A. Coddington is an American museum scientist and biologist. From 2009 to 2014 he was the Associate Director for Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History , located in Washington, D.C., United States. , he is the Director of the Global Genome Initiative and Senior Scientist and Curator of Arachnids and Myriapods at the NMNH.

#8078

N. Louise Glass

#100776

Overall Influence

N. Louise Glass is the Fred E. Dickinson Chair of Wood Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. She specialises in plant and microbial biology, particularly fungal cell biology and genetics

#8079

Herman S. Cheung

#126801

Overall Influence

#8080

Jyh-fa Kuo

#126816

Overall Influence

#8081

Michele Tansella

#47995

Overall Influence

1942 - 2015 (73 years)

Michele Tansella was an Italian psychiatrist known for his work in epidemiological psychiatry. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the academic journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, which he founded in 1992 under the name Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale.

#8082

Danuta Wasserman

#57933

Overall Influence

Danuta Elizabeth Wasserman is a professor of psychiatry and suicidology at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. She is a public mental health and medical educator. She is currently the President of the World Psychiatric Association .

#8083

Chris Q. Doe

#126835

Overall Influence

#8084

Randy L. Jirtle

#126845

Overall Influence

#8085

Marco Iacoboni

#126848

Overall Influence

#8086

Marilyn Kilgen

#58922

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Marilyn Gayle Barrios Kilgen is an American microbiologist and seafood safety scientist. She is the Alcee Fortier Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at Nicholls State University. Personal life and education Growing up, Kilgen thought about becoming a doctor but changed her plans after her mother died of breast cancer. She chose to attend her father's alma mater for post-secondary education, Nicholls State University.

#8087

Charles John Sih

#126872

Overall Influence

#8088

Alan Fairlamb

#118801

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Alan Hutchinson Fairlamb, CBE, FRSE, FLS, FMedSci, FRSB is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Biochemistry in the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery at the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Scotland. From 2006-2011 he was a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases -- an independent global programme of scientific collaboration co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO. Currently he is a member of the governing board of the Tres Cantos Open ...

#8089

Helge Thorsten Lumbsch

#122381

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Helge Thorsten Lumbsch is a German-born lichenologist living in the United States. His research interests include the phylogeny, taxonomy, and phylogeography of lichen-forming fungi; lichen diversity; lichen chemistry and chemotaxonomy. He is the Associate Curator and Head of Cryptogams and Chair of the Department of Botany at the Field Museum of Natural History.

#8090

Mahito Watabe

#103963

Overall Influence

#8091

Steven Alan Goldstein

#126893

Overall Influence

#8092

Kenneth S. Polonsky

#126900

Overall Influence

#8093

David N. Orth

#126902

Overall Influence

#8094

William Wei L. Chin

#126905

Overall Influence

#8095

Jimmie C. B. Holland

#126913

Overall Influence

#8096

Yves Ruckebusch

#126922

Overall Influence

#8097

Camellia Okpodu

#119251

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Camellia Moses Okpodu , is a college professor and dean. Education and early life Camellia Okpodu graduated in 1982 from West Brunswick High School, Shallotte, North Carolina. She received both her undergraduate and postgraduate education from North Carolina State University , earning a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry .

#8098

Robert Coles

#8286

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (97 years)

Robert Coles is an American author, child psychiatrist, and professor emeritus at Harvard University. Early life, education, and military service Born Martin Robert Coles in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 12, 1929, to Philip Coles, an immigrant from Leeds, England, United Kingdom, and Sandra Young Coles, originally from Sioux City, Iowa. Robert Coles attended Boston Latin School where he played tennis, ran track, and edited the school literary magazine. He entered Harvard College in 1946, where he studied English literature and helped to edit the undergraduate literary magazine, The Harvard Advocate.

#8099

Thomas Hans Newton

#126927

Overall Influence

#8100

Duncan Irschick

#122479

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Duncan Irschick is an evolutionary ecologist and functional morphologist in the field of animal athletics, more specifically known as animal performance. He has worked on many kinds of animal species, including reptiles and amphibians, rodents, ungulates, spiders, and humans. He was a faculty member at Tulane University for five years before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006.

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