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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School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Biology,

#14951

Cardy Raper

#133114

Overall Influence

1925 - 2019 (94 years)

Carlene Allen "Cardy" Raper was an American mycologist and science writer. She identified that the fungus Schizophyllum commune has over 23,000 mating types. She is regarded as one of the first women taxonomists in mycology. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

#14952

Cécile Charrier

#170708

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (43 years)

Cécile Charrier is a French neuroscientist research fellow at Inserm, the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale , at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Institute of Biology. She received the Irène Joliot-Curie "Young Female Scientist of the Year" award in 2021 for her work.

#14953

John Mallette

#174739

Overall Influence

1932 - 1995 (63 years)

John Michael Mallette was an American biologist, academic administrator and civic leader. He was a professor of biology at Tennessee State University and an administrator at the University of Tennessee at Nashville. He researched cholesterol, oral contraceptives and cyclamates. He is the namesake of John Mallette Drive in Nashville, Tennessee.

#14954

A. Keith Dunker

#179477

Overall Influence

#14955

Joyce E. Longcore

#177688

Overall Influence

Joyce E. Longcore is a mycologist and an associate research professor at the University of Maine. She is most well known for first culturing and describing Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis which is a species of Chytridiomycota fungi that was the first to be known to attack vertebrates. She continues to collect and isolate Chytridiomycota cultures for other researches to use for their own studies.

#14956

Takashi Shirozu

#175997

Overall Influence

1917 - 2004 (87 years)

Takashi Shirozu was a Japanese entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He wrote Butterflies of Formosa in Colour Osaka, Hoikusha , Early Stages of Japanese Butterflies in Colour Hoikusha and Butterflies of Japan Illustrated in Colour Tokyo, Hokuryu-kan all of which took advantage of Japanese advanced and colour printing technologies. He also published many scientific papers describing new species of butterflies.

#14957

Leena Hämet-Ahti

#173679

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Leena Hämet-Ahti is a Finnish botanist, plant taxonomist, and plant collector noted for being Associate Professor of Botany at the University of Helsinki, and later the Director of the university's Botanical Garden. She primarily studies alpine plants of Finland and similar northern hemisphere climates. Her PhD thesis, defended in 1963, was on mountain birch forests. She participated in the production of the seminal Finnish floras Retkeilykasvio and Suomen puu- ja pensaskasvio .

#14958

Sergey Kondratyuk

#176685

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Sergey Yakovlevich Kondratyuk is a Ukrainian botanist specialising in lichenology. His research deals with the taxonomy, floristics, ecology and geography of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. He has worked at the for more than 40 years. In 2014 Kondratyuk was awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology.

#14959

Joan B. Broderick

#174415

Overall Influence

Joan Blanchette Broderick is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Montana State University known for her work on bioinorganic chemistry, especially the chemistry of iron-sulfur interactions. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

#14960

Adeyinka Gladys Falusi

#135374

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Adeyinka Gladys Falusi, NPOM, is a Nigerian Professor of haematology and former Director of the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. She specializes in human genetics, bioethics and molecular genetics related to hereditary blood diseases such as sickle-cell disease and alpha-thalassemia.

#14961

Sarah Bekessy

#176536

Overall Influence

Sarah Bekessy is an Australian interdisciplinary conservation scientist with a background in conservation biology and experience in social sciences, planning, and design. Her research interests focus on the intersection between science, policy, and the design of environmental management. She is currently a professor and ARC Future Fellow at RMIT University in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. She leads the Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group .

#14962

Stephen E. Harris

#179553

Overall Influence

#14963

Sivasankaran Bijoy Nandan

#177854

Overall Influence

Sivasankaran Bijoy Nandan is a professor at the Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science & Technology . He currently holds the office of the Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology. He was served as Head of the department, Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, CUSAT during 2019-2021 period. He has expertise in teaching, research, and development activities in the broad area of Aquatic Ecosystem Characterisation, Conservation, Restoration and Management, Carbon ...

#14964

T. Jane Zelikova

#173787

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Tamara Jane Zelikova is a climate change scientist, advocate and communicator interested in the impacts of environmental change on natural and managed ecosystems. Her interests are broad and include tropical biogeochemistry, as well as the effects of climate change on organisms big and small. She combines a strong emphasis on research with an interest in science communication and outreach, thinking about ways to expand the role of science in tackling global issues.

#14965

Beverly M. Emerson

#131444

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Beverly M. Emerson is an Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies who uncovered details about how cancer becomes drug resistant. She is currently at the Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

#14966

David W. Russell

#179582

Overall Influence

#14967

Andreas Holzinger

#179602

Overall Influence

#14968

Tanja Schuster

#140646

Overall Influence

Tanja Magdalena Schuster is a taxonomist from Austria, and the first Pauline Ladiges Plant Systematics Fellow, holding a joint position with the School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Schuster also worked as curator of the Norton-Brown Herbarium at the University of Maryland, College Park.

#14969

Tomio Asai

#179619

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

#14970

Erika Marín-Spiotta

Erika Marín-Spiotta

#143419

Overall Influence

Erika Marín-Spiotta is a biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist. She is currently Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is best-known for her research of the terrestrial carbon cycle and is an advocate for underrepresented groups in the sciences, specifically women.

#14971

Mary Freeman

#176767

Overall Influence

1924 - 2018 (94 years)

Mary Freeman , known professionally by her maiden name of Mary Whitear, was an English marine biologist and lecturer at University College London from 1947 to 1989. She was known for her attempts to determine the skin colour of extinct animals such as the ichthyosaur and her meticulous drawings of fossils. Her husband was the zoologist Richard Broke Freeman. In retirement she took up the local history of Tavistock, Devon.

#14972

Alfonso Nieto-Castanon

#173539

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Alfonso Nieto-Castanon is a Spanish computational neuroscientist and developer of computational neuroimaging analysis methods and tools. He is a visiting researcher at the Boston University College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and research affiliate at MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research. His research focuses on the understanding and characterization of human brain dynamics underlying mental function.

#14973

William M. Furnish

#174198

Overall Influence

1912 - 2007 (95 years)

William Madison Furnish was an American paleontologist. He taught at the University of Iowa. In 1938, he described the conodont genus Acanthodus from the Prairie du Chien beds of the upper Mississippi valley.

#14974

Tuajuanda C. Jordan

Tuajuanda C. Jordan

#74799

Overall Influence

Tuajuanda C. Jordan has served as the seventh president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland since July 1, 2014. From 2006 to 2011, Jordan served as director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance program, where she launched the SEA-PHAGES program. This program has been implemented at more than 100 institutions and resulted in numerous scientific and pedagogical publications. Prior to joining St. Mary’s College, Jordan also held a number of leadership positions in higher education, including dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of chemistry at Lewi...

#14975

Alberto Cobos

#179461

Overall Influence

Alberto Cobos Periañez is a Spanish paleontologist. He works in Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis, in Teruel, Spain. He is one of the discoverers of Turiasaurus riodevensis, together with Rafael Royo-Torres and Luis Alcalá.

#14976

Mary Edmonds

#171270

Overall Influence

1922 - 2005 (83 years)

Mary P. Edmonds was an American biochemist who made key discoveries regarding the processing of messenger RNA . She spent most of her career at the University of Pittsburgh. Education and career Edmonds was born May 7, 1922, in Racine, Wisconsin. She received a bachelor's degree from Milwaukee-Downer College in 1943, a master's degree from Wellesley College in 1945, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. Following her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral researcher at University of Illinois and University of Wisconsin , and then joined Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburg as a research associate from 1955 until 1965.

#14977

Naoki Yamamoto

#179648

Overall Influence

#14978

Patricia DeLeon

#98086

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Patricia Anastastia Martin DeLeon is a Jamaican reproductive geneticist who is specialists in the male reproductive system. She is the Trustees Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. In 2010 she was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring by Barack Obama.

#14979

Betty Collette

#132230

Overall Influence

1930 - 2017 (87 years)

Betty Elaine Collette was a veterinary pathologist from Asheville, North Carolina. She attended Stephens-Lee High School, earned her bachelor's degree in biology from Morgan State University, and her Ph.D. in bacteriology from Catholic University of America.

#14980

Michelle Hampson

#126548

Overall Influence

Michelle Hampson is an American neuroscientist who is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at Yale University. She serves as director of real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging.

#14981

Jean Schwarzbauer

#95370

Overall Influence

Jean E. Schwarzbauer is an American molecular biologist currently the Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. A cited expert in her field, Schwarzbauer's interests are kidney fibrosis, tissue regeneration and repair, cartilage development and tumor formations.

#14982

Jacob Plange-Rhule

#132721

Overall Influence

1957 - 2020 (63 years)

Jacob Plange-Rhule, was a Ghanaian physician, academic, and Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons from October 2015 until his death in 2020. At the time of his death, Plange-Rhule was a professor and Head of the Department of Physiology of the School of Medical Sciences in Kumasi, Ghana. He was also a consulting physician at the Department of Medicine of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, where he founded the Hypertension and Renal Clinic and headed it for more than two decades.

#14983

Péter Török

#173405

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (47 years)

Péter Török is a Hungarian biologist. He completed his Ph.D. degree in botany from the University of Debrecen, where he is the principal investigator of the MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group., supported jointly by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Debrecen . He is a founder and the co-president of the Young Academy of Hungary. In 2016 he was awarded by the title ‘Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’. He is a member of the Young Academy of Europe , the council of the International Association for Vegetation Science , and one of the chairs of its European Dry Grassland working group .

#14984

Rudy Jocqué

#179270

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

#14985

David Rhodes

#179745

Overall Influence

#14986

Margrét Guðnadóttir

Margrét Guðnadóttir

#173968

Overall Influence

1929 - 2018 (89 years)

Margrét Guðmunda Guðnadóttir was an Icelandic doctor and virologist and the first woman to become a professor at the University of Iceland. Career Margrét completed her matriculation examination from the mathematics department at Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in the spring of 1949. In the autumn, she enrolled as a medical student at the University of Iceland and graduated in the spring of 1956. During the summers of 1954 and 1955, she worked at the Keldur Institute for Experimental Pathology, researching pneumonia and the spread of the influenza epidemic. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine in the spring of 1956, she worked for one year at Keldur.

#14987

Christine Drea

#161952

Overall Influence

Christine M. Drea is a researcher and professor of biology and ecology with a specialty in animal social behavior and sexual differentiation at Duke University, both primarily on hyenas and primates. Drea's work is focused on female dominant species and the hormonal activity, reproductive development, and social interactions of these animals. She is currently the Earl D. McLean Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology within the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the director of graduate studies for the Duke University Ecology program.

#14988

Moshe Szyf

#53776

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Moshe Szyf is a geneticist and James McGill professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the McGill University, where he also holds a GlaxoSmithKline-CIHR chair in pharmacology. Szyf's main research interests lie with epigenetics, including behavioral epigenetics as well as cancer research.

#14989

Elham Emami

#118832

Overall Influence

Elham Emami is an Iranian-Canadian clinician scientist. She is the dean of McGill University Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences. Born and raised in Iran, Emami moved to Canada in 2002 to pursue her PhD and MSc at the Université de Montréal.

#14990

Paul C. Paquet

#168833

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Paul C. Paquet is an American and Canadian biologist who is best known for his ecological and behavioral research on large carnivores, especially regarding wolves and bears. He has graduate degrees in philosophy, wildlife behavior and conservation, biology, and a PhD in zoology from University of Alberta. His research focuses on the interface between ecological theory and conservation. He is an internationally recognized authority on mammalian carnivores; including their ecology, behaviour, and management. He has spent more than 40 years covering subjects ranging from the worldwide decline o...

#14991

Dario S. Zamboni

#179804

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Dario Simões Zamboni is a Brazilian biologist whose research concerns microbial pathogenesis, innate immunity, and infectious diseases. Currently, he is a professor at the University of São Paulo.

#14992

Peter J. A. Davies

#179816

Overall Influence

#14993

Sean Mackey

#133142

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Sean C. Mackey is an American scientist, anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist. Since 2012, he has served as the Redlich Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Neurosciences and Neurology at Stanford University. He has been the Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine since 2007 and the Director and Founder of the Systems Neuroscience and Pain Laboratory since 2002. Previously, he practiced anesthesiology and co-founded Stanford's regional anesthesia program in 2000.

#14994

Harriet MacMillan

#100843

Overall Influence

Harriet Louise MacMillan is a Canadian pediatrician, psychiatrist, and scientist. As a Distinguished University Professor at McMaster University, she was also elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

#14995

Irina Levshakova

#101555

Overall Influence

1959 - 2016 (57 years)

Irina Yuryevna Levshakova was a Russian paleontologist, geologist, artist and musician. She is most famous for her deep involvement in the underground rock music scene in Leningrad during the 1980s and 1990s.

#14996

Stephen Shuster

#177436

Overall Influence

Stephen M. Shuster is an American biologist currently Professor of Invertebrate Zoology at Northern Arizona University and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

#14997

Cynthia Sharma

#162899

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Cynthia Mira Sharma is a biologist, who is Chair of Molecular Infection Biology II at the University of Würzburg. Her research focuses on how bacterial pathogens regulate their gene expression to adapt to changing environments or stress conditions. She was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2022.

#14998

Hunter Fraser

#179863

Overall Influence

Hunter B. Fraser is a Professor of Biology at Stanford University and the chief PI of the Fraser lab at Stanford. He is also a member of Bio-X, Stanford's interdisciplinary biosciences institute, the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute , the Stanford Cancer Institute, and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. His research is in quantitative genomics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology and has focused on developing new experimental and computational methods to study the evolution of gene expression in defining complex traits.

#14999

John Harada

#179868

Overall Influence

John J. Harada is an American biologist, focusing in genomic, molecular, genetic, and biochemical, dissection of embryogenesis and seed development in plants, currently at University of California, Davis and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Society of Plant Biology.

#15000

Dante R. Chialvo

#67482

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Dante R. Chialvo is a professor at Universidad Nacional de San Martin. Together with Per Bak, they put forward concrete models considering the brain as a critical system. Initial contributions focussed on mathematical ideas of how learning could benefit from criticality. Further work provided experimental evidence for this conjecture both at large and small scale. He was named Fulbright Scholar in 2005 and elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2007 and as Member of the Academia de Ciencias de America Latina in 2022.

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