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,

#15601

Krishna R. Reddy

#185560

Overall Influence

#15602

Jenny Taylor

#169741

Overall Influence

Jenny Carmeron Taylor is a British geneticist who is Professor of Genomic Medicine at the University of Oxford. Taylor is the Director of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre Genetics Theme. Her research considers whole genome sequencing and ways to integrate genetic research into the National Health Service.

#15603

Alan Williams

#169915

Overall Influence

1945 - 1992 (47 years)

Alan Williams FRS was an Australian immunologist noted for his work on the identification and characterization of cell surface receptors that defined different classes of lymphocytes. Education Williams studied agricultural science at Melbourne University in Australia. From there, he went on to perform his graduate work with William Elliott on the topic of avian erythropoiesis.

#15604

Jostein Goksøyr

#182975

Overall Influence

1922 - 2000 (78 years)

Jostein Goksøyr was a Norwegian microbiologist. He was born in Kopervik, and took the dr.philos. degree in 1955. He was hired as a lecturer at the University of Bergen in 1956, and was later professor from 1966 to 1989. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1970 and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala from 1987.

#15605

Shahina A. Ghazanfar

#185232

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Shahina Agha Ghazanfar is a Pakistani botanist and author best known for her work on plants from the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan and East Africa. Education Ghazanfar studied at the University of the Punjab and the University of Cambridge.

#15606

Lynn L. Silver

#185165

Overall Influence

Lynn L. Silver is an American born scientist best known for her contributions to the field of antibacterial discovery and development. With over 30 years of experience in the antibacterial discovery field and over 70 peer reviewed publications, Silver provides insight and advice to the research community on global advisory panels, international collaborations for addressing antibiotic resistance issues. Silver has published several highly cited reviews in the field of antibacterial discovery.

#15607

Viktor Masing

#97031

Overall Influence

1925 - 2001 (76 years)

Viktor Masing was an Estonian botanist and ecologist. He was born in Tartu. He became a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in 1993. He was a specialist in telmatology, and an organizer of wetland protection.

#15608

Claudia Cenedese

#176886

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Claudia Cenedese is an Italian physical oceanographer and applied mathematician whose research focuses on the circulation and flow of water in the ocean, and on the theoretical fluid dynamics needed to model these flows, including phenomena such as mesoscale vortices, buoyancy-driven flow, coastal currents, dense overflows, and the melting patterns of icebergs. She is a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

#15609

Colin Berry

#180103

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Sir Colin Leonard Berry is a British academic, medical professor and pathologist. Career Berry was educated as a physician at London University, obtaining an MB BS degree in 1961 and winning the Governor of Charing Cross Hospital's Clinical Gold Medal. In 1964, he joined the Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street becoming a British Heart Foundation Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer where he worked till 1970. He was awarded an MD degree in 1968 and a PhD degree in Pathology in 1970, both from the London University. Berry was subsequently appointed Reader in Pathology at Guy's Hospita...

#15610

István Andrássy

#177858

Overall Influence

1927 - 2012 (85 years)

István Andrássy was a Hungarian nematologist. Starting with his first publication in 1952 on the nematode fauna of Mount Bükk, over his dissertation in 1973 on the evolution of nematodes to his last days he was a very prolific scientist, publishing more than 200 manuscripts, chapters and books on the class of Nematoda. He described 530 taxa of nematodes and at least 60 nematode taxa are named after him, which shows the huge respect he had in the nematologists world.

#15611

David W. Turner

#185612

Overall Influence

#15612

Frederic Flach

#103114

Overall Influence

1927 - 2006 (79 years)

Frederic Francis Flach was an American psychiatrist and author. He graduated from Cornell University Medical College where he served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry. He was an attending psychiatrist at the Payne Whitney Clinic and at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center. Frederic died in 2006.

#15613

Ralph Norgren

#185635

Overall Influence

#15614

Ville Friman

#180089

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (46 years)

#15615

F.G.A.M. Smit

#181175

Overall Influence

1920 - 2000 (80 years)

Franciscus Gerardus Albertus Maria Smit was a Dutch-born entomologist and specialist on the fleas who worked at the Natural History Museum at Tring where he was in charge of the Rothschild collection of fleas and lice.

#15616

Almut Gitter Jones

#135715

Overall Influence

1923 - 2013 (90 years)

Almut Gitter Jones was a German-American botanist, mycologist, and plant taxonomist known for her work researching the genus Aster, as well as for her work as curator of the herbarium at the University of Illinois.

#15617

Joanna Putterill

#185672

Overall Influence

Joanna Jean Putterill is a New Zealand molecular botanist. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career After a Master of Science thesis titled 'Par homology and incompatibility in the IncFI plasmid group' and a 1985 PhD titled 'Molecular strategies for developing aluminium tolerance in plants' both at the University of Auckland, Putterill joined the staff, rising to full professor in 2016.

#15618

Ismar de Souza Carvalho

#164333

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

#15619

Frank Udovicic

#181699

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Frank Udovicic is an Australian botanist who specialises in molecular systematics and phytogeography. Career Udovicic completed his Bachelor of Science at The University of Melbourne in 1990. In 1995 he completed his PhD at The University of Melbourne. Both his Honours and PhD focused on the molecular phylogeny of the Eucalypts under the supervision of Prof. Pauline Ladiges. Udovicic held a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra from 1995 to 1997, working on Rhamnaceae. At the conclusion of this post he moved back to Melbourne and took up a Postdoctoral Fellow position at The University of Melbourne until 1999.

#15620

Nicholas Theodore

#112924

Overall Influence

Nicholas Theodore is an American neurosurgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is known for his work in spinal trauma, minimally invasive surgery, robotics, and personalized medicine. He is Director of the Neurosurgical Spine Program at Johns Hopkins and Co-Director of the Carnegie Center for Surgical Innovation at Johns Hopkins.

#15621

Raymond R. Townsend

#185706

Overall Influence

#15622

Marlene Cohen

#181564

Overall Influence

Marlene R. Cohen is a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh and an Associate Director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint venture between the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Her team investigates how visual information is encoded in groups of neurons and used to guide behavior. She is recognized for pioneering use of multielectrode array recording to determine that the improved behavioral performance associated with redirecting spatial attention has a neural correlate in the brain that is reflected by reduced correlated activity between neurons.

#15623

Lennart Persson

#185728

Overall Influence

#15624

Rachel Fewster

#177590

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Rachel M. Fewster is a British and New Zealand environmental statistician and statistical ecologist known for her work on wildlife population size, population genetics, and Benford's law, and for the development of the CatchIT citizen science project for monitoring invasive species. She is a professor of statistics in New Zealand at the University of Auckland.

#15625

Richard J. O’connell

#185745

Overall Influence

#15626

Dieter Ebert

#185786

Overall Influence

#15627

Anna Sher

#183431

Overall Influence

Anna Amelia Sher is an American plant ecologist who is a professor at the University of Denver. She works on conservation and the restoration of areas invaded by Tamarix. She is the author of two textbooks, Ecology:Concepts and Applications and Introduction to conservation biology.

#15628

Christopher E. Mason

#185838

Overall Influence

#15629

Jan Trąbka

#156799

Overall Influence

1931 - 2012 (81 years)

Jan J. Trąbka was a full professor of neurological and computer sciences at the Jagiellonian University Medical College. He went to the Faculty of Medicine of the Kraków Academy of Medicine and received his MD from the Academy of Medicine, Kraków in 1955 and defended his PhD in 1961, thesis entitled "Bioelectric activity of brain within the band 200-500 Hz", in 1964 he defended habilitation dissertation about electrophysiological image of asymmetry of brain hemispheres. Associate professor in 1977, in 1988 designed the full professor. Professor Trąbka has published over 500 publications with...

#15630

Malegapuru William Makgoba

#185928

Overall Influence

#15631

Monica Baskin

#73429

Overall Influence

Monica Baskin is an American psychologist who is a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research considers health disparities in the Deep South. She serves as Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.

#15632

Guilherme Muricy

#184742

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Guilherme Muricy is a Brazilian invertebrate zoologist, and Professor of Invertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Brazil. He is a specialist in sponges and has written over 100 papers on the chemistry, the taxonomy of sponges, and the descriptions of many new sponge species.

#15633

Michael A. Schwartz

Michael A. Schwartz

#122237

Overall Influence

Michael Alan Schwartz is an American academic and psychiatrist based in Weston, Connecticut. In 2018 Schwartz retired as clinical professor of psychiatry and joint professor of humanities in medicine at the Texas A&M School of Medicine. He continues practicing psychiatry as well as writing and editing psychiatric books and articles. His work focuses on advancing pluralistic, person and people-centered approaches to psychiatric assessment, care and treatment.

#15634

Helmut Berger

#185991

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

#15635

Gordon Whitby

#139277

Overall Influence

1926 - 2000 (74 years)

Lionel Gordon Whitby FRSE FRCP FRCPE FRCPath was a 20th-century British physician and biochemist. To distinguish himself from his father he was usually called Gordon Whitby. Life He was born in London on 18 July 1926 the son of the physicians Ethel Murgatroyd and Lionel Whitby. He was educated at Eton College then studied science at the University of Cambridge specialising in biochemistry under Dr Malcolm Dixon. Initially graduating with an MA it was only after obtaining his doctorate that he then studied medicine. He graduated in the latter in 1956 after practical training at Middlesex Hos...

#15636

June Jackson Christmas

#48514

Overall Influence

1924 - Present (102 years)

June Jackson Christmas is a psychiatrist, a former New York City Commissioner of Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services, member of President Jimmy Carter transition team, the beneficiary of Human-Services Award, the founder of a community psychiatric program in Harlem - Harlem Rehabilitation Center. Christmas served as a member of Governor Mario Cuomo's Advisory Committee on Black Affairs.

#15637

J. B. Furness

#186010

Overall Influence

#15638

Elyn Saks

#5250

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Elyn R. Saks is associate dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School, an expert in mental health law, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner. Saks lives with schizophrenia and has written about her experience with the illness in her award-winning best-selling autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold, published by Hyperion Books in 2007. She is also a cancer survivor.

#15639

Karen Visick

#186032

Overall Influence

Karen Visick is an American microbiologist and expert in bacterial genetics known for her work on the role of bacteria to form biofilm communities during animal colonization. She conducted doctoral research with geneticist Kelly Hughes at the University of Washington, where she identified a key regulatory checkpoint during construction of the bacterial flagellum. She conducted postdoctoral research on development of the Vibrio fischeri-Euprymna scolopes symbiosis with Ned Ruby at University of Southern California and University of Hawaiʻi. The bacteria are bioluminescent and provide light to the host.

#15640

Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco

#171589

Overall Influence

1925 - 1998 (73 years)

Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an American psychiatrist. He was the Blakemore Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Florence, Italy, the son of composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. His family, which was Jewish, came to California in 1939. He earned undergraduate degrees from the University of California and his medical degree from Boston University. During the Second World War, he served as a captain with the Air Force Medical Corps.

#15641

Nerea Irigoyen

#185201

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

Nerea Irigoyen Vergara is a virologist specialized in Zika virus. She leads a research group at the Department of Pathology of Cambridge University, in the UK. Career and research Nerea Irigoyen studied Pharmacy at the University of Navarra, Spain, and carried out her PhD at CNB-CSIC in Madrid, Spain, under the supervision of José Francisco Rodríguez and José Ruiz Castón. During her predoctoral studies, she spent several months abroad in Trieste, Italy, and Cambridge, UK. After graduating, she moved to the University of Cambridge to work as a Sir Henry Wellcome postdoctoral researcher in Prof...

#15642

Norio Hayashi

#186064

Overall Influence

#15643

Neiva Maria Robaldo Guedes

#184923

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Neiva Maria Robaldo Guedes, or Neiva Guedes, is a Brazilian biologist and a specialist on environment and species conservation. In November 1989, Neiva came across a flock of hyacinth macaws in the Pantanal and, knowing that they were in danger of extinction, she began to work on cataloguing and conserving the species with her own means. Illegal capture for the pet bird trade, habitat destruction and feather collection for handicrafts were the main reasons for the drastic reduction in hyacinth macaw numbers.

#15644

Giorgio Coricelli

#112289

Overall Influence

Giorgio Coricelli is professor of economics and psychology at the University of Southern California, specializing in neuroeconomics. Having done his undergraduate studies at La Sapienza in Rome, he then completed his Ph.D. at the Economic Science Laboratory of the University of Arizona studying with Vernon Smith, shortly before Smith received his Nobel Prize in economics in 2002.

#15645

Terry R. McGuire

#170850

Overall Influence

Terry Russell McGuire was professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Genetics at Rutgers University. His research has been in the fields of Mendelian, behavioral, and ecological genetics. He has also been involved in science education through the National Center for Science & Civic Engagement , of which he has been a senior fellow since 2008. He has also been a senior associate and core faculty member of Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities , the NCSCE's primary initiative, since 2004. In 2007, Rutgers appointed him a Presidential Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Fellow.

#15646

Charles Suckling

#62927

Overall Influence

1920 - 2013 (93 years)

Charles Walter Suckling was a British chemist who first synthesised halothane, a volatile inhalational anaesthetic in 1951, while working at the Imperial Chemical Industries Central Laboratory in Widnes.

#15647

Teresa Wang

#185187

Overall Influence

Teresa Shu-Fong Wang is an American biochemist. Teresa Shu-Fong Wang is an American biochemist. She is an emeritus Stanford University professor, and the K. Bensch Endowed Chair Professor in Experimental Pathology of Department of Pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her scientific pursuit focuses on the biochemical mechanisms of chromosome replication proteins, and molecular mechanisms of their involvement in maintaining genome integrity during chromosome replication.

#15648

Lynn Raulerson

#178321

Overall Influence

1937 - 2012 (75 years)

Claire Lynn Raulerson was an American plant biologist who worked in Guam and specialised in the study of Micronesian plants, especially those of Guam and the other Mariana Islands. She held her position in biology at the University of Guam for over forty years.

#15649

Karen Miga

#123751

Overall Influence

Karen Elizabeth Hayden Miga is an American geneticist who co-leads the Telomere-to-Telomore consortium that released fully complete assembly of the human genome in March 2022. She is an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Associate Director of Human Pangenomics at the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute. She was named as "One to Watch" in the 2020 Nature's 10 and one of Time 100’s most influential people of 2022.

#15650

Suzanne M. De La Monte

#186085

Overall Influence

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