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 …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Business,

#1251

Jon Huntsman Jr.

#183678

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Jon Meade Huntsman Jr. is an American businessman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 16th governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the ambassador of the United States to Russia from 2017 to 2019, ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011, and ambassador to Singapore from 1992 to 1993.

#1252

Ben Sherwood

#172594

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Benjamin Berkley "Ben" Sherwood is an American writer, journalist, and producer who was formerly the President of Disney-ABC Television Group and ABC News. Early life and education Sherwood was born to a wealthy Jewish family in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Dorothy Lipsey Romonek, was a trustee of the California Institute of the Arts. His father, Richard E. Sherwood, was a partner in a Los Angeles law firm, and long time leader of the American Jewish Committee.

#1253

Susan Wu

#85606

Overall Influence

Ying Chu Lin Wu was a Chinese-born American businesswoman and engineer in magnetohydrodynamics, aeronautics, and aerospace engineering. Education and career Wu was born in Peking, China studied mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University, and earned a B.S. in 1955. She moved to the United States in 1957 and earned an M.S. from Ohio State University in 1959 before moving to the California Institute of Technology , where she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in aeronautics in 1963. Wu worked at Electro-Optics Corporation for two years. In 1965 she joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee Space Institute where she was promoted to professor in 1973.

#1254

Jack Carter

#173875

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

John William Carter is an American businessman and politician who ran for the United States Senate in Nevada in 2006, losing to John Ensign in the general election. He is the eldest child of former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

#1255

Edgar Perez

#181417

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Edgar Perez is an American-Peruvian business author, keynote speaker and corporate trainer who has spoken at a number of academic and professional institutions. He is the author of The Speed Traders and Knightmare on Wall Street, and has been interviewed internationally on the topics of artificial intelligence and deep learning, quantum computing, cybersecurity and high-frequency trading. He currently lives in New York City.

#1256

Christine Jones

Christine Jones

#187352

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Christine N. Jones is an American business executive, civic leader, author, and politician from Phoenix, Arizona. Jones unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona in the 2014 election; she lost to Arizona State Treasurer Doug Ducey. In 2016, Jones ran for the United States Congress, narrowly losing the Republican primary to State Senate President Andy Biggs.

#1257

Yogen K Dalal

#180779

Overall Influence

#1258

Yu Songlie

#143420

Overall Influence

1921 - 2016 (95 years)

Yu Songlie was a Chinese agricultural scientist, educator and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering . He is known as one of the founders of wheat cultivation science in China. Biography Yu was born in Cixi County, Zhejiang. He obtained a bachelor's degree of agronomy from Fukien Christian University in 1942. He became a teaching assistant in Fukien Provincial Agriculture College, Fukien Christian University and Shanghai Nantong College after his graduation. He was enrolled in Shandong Agriculture College in 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China. O...

#1259

Viktor Medvedchuk

#182254

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

#1260

María Ángeles Martín Prats

#188502

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

María Ángeles Martín Prats is a Spanish engineer and entrepreneur. She is the director of aeronautical research within the University of Seville's ICT-109 Electronic Technology Group, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , and founder of the spin-off Skylife Engineering. She is a board member of the Partnership of a European Group of Aeronautics and Space Universities , and is the European university coordinator of the European Defence Agency . She is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Commission's Clean Sky Joint Undertaking. In 2015...

#1261

Michèle Akoorie

#189265

Overall Influence

Michele E. M. Akoorie is a New Zealand business academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Waikato. Academic career After a 1995 PhD titled 'The impact of foreign direct investment and government policy on the internationalisation process of the New Zealand firm' at the University of Waikato, she joined the University of Waikato staff, rising to full professor.

#1262

Ron Johnson

#181712

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Ronald Harold Johnson is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, defeating Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold. He was reelected in 2016, defeating Feingold in a rematch, and in 2022, narrowly defeating Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes.

#1263

Corinna E. Lathan

#184734

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Corinna E. Lathan is an American entrepreneur, engineer, and social activist. She is the Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Board Chair of AnthroTronix, Inc., a biomedical research and development company headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. Lathan is recognized for her work on digital health software and assistive technology.

#1264

Mel Stewart

#185986

Overall Influence

1929 - 2002 (73 years)

Milton "Mel" Stewart was an American character actor, television director, and musician who appeared in numerous films and television shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for playing Henry Jefferson on All in the Family and for playing section chief Billy Melrose on the television series Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Stewart is sometimes credited as Melvin Stewart or Mel Stuart.

#1265

Melih Abdulhayoğlu

Melih Abdulhayoğlu

#174371

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Melih Abdulhayoğlu is the CEO of MAVeCap, an incubator Venture Capital firm funded by his family office. MAVeCap focusses on building tomorrow's technology platform companies. His first company was Comodo. The firm is now branded as Sectigo.

#1266

Miguel Cordero del Campillo

#121270

Overall Influence

1925 - 2020 (95 years)

Miguel Cordero del Campillo was a Spanish veterinarian and politician who served as an independent Senator from 1977 to 1979, and as rector of the University of León between 1984 and 1986. He pioneered research into parasitology in Spain, and was recognised as an expert in parasitology.

#1267

Sarah Treem

#41404

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Sarah Treem is an American TV writer-producer and playwright. She is the co-creator and showrunner of the Showtime drama The Affair, which won the Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Drama Series, and was a writer and co-executive producer on the inaugural season of House of Cards, which was nominated for nine Golden Globes, including Outstanding Drama Series. She also wrote on all three seasons of the HBO series In Treatment.

#1268

V. Kumar

#189861

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Dr. V Kumar currently serves as the Salvatore Zizza Professor of Marketing, Tobin College of Business, St. John's University, NY, USA. Earlier he served as the Distinguished Term Professor and Senior Fellow at the Indian School of Business and prior to that he served as the faculty at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, where he held the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair in Marketing.

#1269

Arman Sedghi

#122214

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Arman Sedghi is an Iranian engineer and assistant professor at Imam Khomeini International University. He is best known for his scientific achievement in production of low cost carbon fibers, and being highly experienced in fabrication and characterization of ceramic fibers and their composites.

#1270

Jack M. Wilson

#179236

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Jack M. Wilson is an American educator, entrepreneur and the President-Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Higher Education, Emerging Technologies, and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. During his career, he has served various institutions as professor of physics, department chair, research center director, dean, provost, vice president, and president, and has served with multiple professional societies and government committees.

#1271

John Crowley

#180732

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

John Francis Crowley is an American biotechnology executive and entrepreneur and the chairman and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics. He co-founded Novazyme Pharmaceuticals with William Canfield, which was later acquired by Genzyme Corporation, and founded Orexigen Therapeutics. In 2006, he was profiled in the book The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million – And Bucked the Medical Establishment – In a Quest to Save His Children by Geeta Anand. In 2010, Crowley released his memoir, Chasing Miracles: The Crowley Family Journey of Strength, Hope, and Joy. Crowley and his family were the inspiration for...

#1272

Jacob Glanville

#184545

Overall Influence

Jacob Eli Gunn Glanville is an American computational immunoengineer and businessperson. He is co-founder and chief executive officer of the start-up company Distributed Bio and its spin-out, Centivax. Glanville was featured in the documentary series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak. Glanville was born in The Dalles, Oregon and raised in Guatemala to American expatriate parents. His mother is an artist and his father an inn keeper. In 2007, Glanville graduated from University of California, Berkeley where he studied Genetics, Genomics, and Development in the Molecular and Cellular Biology ...

#1273

Francis Grosvenor, 8th Earl of Wilton

#82536

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Francis Egerton Grosvenor, 8th Earl of Wilton , is an Anglo-Australian aristocrat, and academic. Early life Lord Wilton is the eldest son of Robert Egerton Grosvenor, 5th Baron Ebury, DSO, and his first wife, Anne Acland-Troyte. He succeeded his father as 6th Baron Ebury in 1957 and his fourth cousin, Seymour Egerton, as 8th Earl of Wilton in 1999.

#1274

Ann Van Gysel

#186544

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Ann Van Gysel is a Belgian scientist and businesswoman. In 2011 she started Turnstone Communications, offering communications and business development services to biotech and pharma industry. She teaches science communications at the University of Antwerp and University of Ghent and is a director to the board of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp.

#1275

Arne Krumsvik

#189444

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Arne Håskjold Krumsvik is a Norwegian scholar, media entrepreneur, and aviator, and considered to be one of the founders of media innovations studies. He is currently the principal of Kristiania University College, previous to that he was the head of department at Department of Media and Communications, University of Oslo, Norway.

#1276

John Yovich

#126123

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Dr John Vincent Yovich is an Australian educator and veterinary doctor, and former Vice-Chancellor of Murdoch University, located in the suburb of Murdoch, Western Australia. History Professor Yovich earned a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery from Murdoch University in 1981. He also received a Diploma in Large Animal Medicine and Surgery from the University of Guelph from 1982 to 1983.

#1277

Alireza Afzalipour

Alireza Afzalipour

#174378

Overall Influence

1909 - 1993 (84 years)

Alireza Afzalipour was an Iranian engineer, businessman and philanthropist who is known as the founder of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman because of his financial support and outstanding donation to Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman as well as Kerman Medical University. He died aged 84 in 1993.

#1278

Stanley Hartt

#186174

Overall Influence

1937 - 2018 (81 years)

Stanley Herbert Hartt, was a Canadian lawyer, lecturer, businessman, and civil servant. He was Chief of Staff to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1989 to 1990. Early life and education Hartt was born in Montreal, Quebec to Maurice Hartt, a Quebec MNA and MP, and brother of the late Joel Hartt . He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958, a Master of Arts degree in 1961, and a Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1963 from McGill University. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1965 and created a Queen's Counsel in 1984. Hart was married to Linda Hartt from 1961 to 1978 and had four children: Heather Hartt-Sussman , Michael Hartt , and twins James Hartt and Douglas Hartt .

#1279

Jeffrey E. Barlough

#164755

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Jeffrey E. Barlough is an American biologist, veterinarian, and novelist. In 1986, Barlough was a lecturer at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. He is also the author of several dark fantasy novels that comprise his Western Lights series, set in an alternate world in which the last ice age never ended.

#1280

Scott Bryant

#190298

Overall Influence

#1281

George H. Emert

#169995

Overall Influence

1938 - 2018 (80 years)

George H. Emert was an American academic administrator who served as president of Utah State University from 1992 to 2000. He was born in Sevier County, Tennessee, on December 15, 1938, to Victor and Hazel Emert Ridley. Emert graduated from Morristown High School, then attended Lincoln Memorial University. Emert completed his undergraduate degree in 1962 at the University of Colorado, then served in the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1966 with the U.S. Army Special Forces. He received the Air Medal and Bronze Star. Emert later earned his master's and doctoral degrees from Colorado State University and Virginia Tech, respectively.

#1282

Soumaya Khalifa

Soumaya Khalifa

#188551

Overall Influence

Soumaya Khalifa is the founder and executive director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta. She is an American Muslim of Egyptian origin, with a career in Human Resources and a consulting practice specializing in intercultural communications, leadership development and corporate diversity.

#1283

Clifford Alexander Jr.

#186859

Overall Influence

1933 - 2022 (89 years)

Clifford Leopold Alexander Jr. was an American lawyer, businessman and public servant from New York City. He first served on the National Security Council during the Kennedy administration, before becoming chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1967. He was appointed Secretary of the Army a decade later, becoming the first African American to hold the position. He served in that role until 1981.

#1284

Robert A. Oden

#106083

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Robert Allen Oden Jr. was the president of Kenyon College from 1995 to 2002, and president of Carleton College from 2002 to 2010. He was also a significant professor in the early years of The Teaching Company, contributing several courses—God and Mankind: Comparative Religions, The Christian Religions and Religious Fundamentalism, and The Old Testament: An Introduction —as well as recruiting professors for the series Great World Religions .

#1285

Antonio García Martínez

#190021

Overall Influence

Antonio García Martínez, also known by his initials AGM, is a New York Times best-selling author and tech entrepreneur. He is a former product manager for Facebook, the CEO-founder of AdGrok, and a former quantitative analyst for Goldman Sachs.

#1286

Larry S. Miller

#190119

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Larry S. Miller is an American-born serial entrepreneur, educator, music producer, consultant, and public policy advisor based in New York City. He is currently clinical associate professor of music business at New York University and the leader of Miller and Co., a media and tech consultancy he founded in 2009. He is a frequent commentator on music, copyright, and licensing issues whose views have been featured on CNBC, CNN, FOX News, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, and Billboard.

#1287

Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska

#135019

Overall Influence

1918 - 2001 (83 years)

Janina Oyrzanowska-Poplewska was a Polish academic and veterinarian. A professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, she specialized in epizootiology but her main area of research concerned viral diseases of canines, which led to the development of the first vaccine for canine distemper in Poland.

#1288

Jesse Vincent

#186460

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Jesse Vincent is a computer programmer and entrepreneur, best known for his work with the Perl programming language. He created the ticket-tracking system Request Tracker and founded the company Best Practical Solutions.

#1289

Graeme Wood

#186375

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Graeme Thomas Wood is an Australian digital entrepreneur, philanthropist and environmentalist. He founded the websites Wotif.com and The Global Mail. Wood has also invested in The Guardian Australia.

#1290

Richard Lester

#190581

Overall Influence

#1291

Elizabeth Xu

#187460

Overall Influence

Elizabeth Xu is a Chinese businesswoman, author, and professor specializing in the developing advanced technology and digital business including software-as-a-service, big data, and mobile enterprise software.

#1292

Ali Hossaini

#186148

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Ali Hossaini is an American artist, philosopher, theatrical producer, television producer, and businessperson. In 2010, The New York Times described him as a "biochemist turned philosopher turned television producer turned visual poet". In 2017 Hossaini published the Manual of Digital Museum Planning and subsequently became co-director of National Gallery X, a King's College London partnership that explores the future of art and cultural institutions. Prior to National Gallery X Hossaini worked with King's College to develop Connected Culture, an action research programme that tested cultural applications for 5G supported by Ericsson.

#1293

Daniel Robison

#174400

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Daniel Julian Robison is an American academic administrator. Education Robison obtained a bachelor's degree in forestry and a master's degree in silviculture and forest influences at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry before completing a doctorate in entomology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1993.

#1294

S. P. Kothari

#190755

Overall Influence

#1295

Alan Frei

#190781

Overall Influence

1982 - Present (42 years)

Alan Frei is a Filipino-Swiss entrepreneur, economist and curler. Life Alan Frei studied Finance and Sinology at the University of Zurich and at the University in Nanjing, China. He founded several companies, including Nachilfeportal.de. In 2014, he co-founded Amorana, of which he sold a majority stake to the Lovehoney Group in 2020. He founded the start-up Center at the University of Zurich.

#1296

Daniel L. Ritchie

#187319

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Daniel L. Ritchie is the Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Denver, a former CEO of major communication corporations, and a Harvard alumnus. He hails from China Grove, North Carolina and has moved around the country from coast to coast before eventually settling in Denver, Colorado.

#1297

Morris McInnes

#190305

Overall Influence

1939 - 2020 (81 years)

James Morrison McInnes was professor emeritus of accounting and formerly dean for academic affairs at the Sawyer Business School of Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts. He taught for almost forty years at the MIT Sloan School of Management, ten years as the head of the accounting area and then as a visiting professor and lecturer on the Greater Boston Executive Programme. McInnes held several senior financial executive posts.

#1298

Wendi Roe

#185984

Overall Influence

Wendi Dianne Roe is a New Zealand veterinary pathologist who specialises in researching marine mammals. She is Professor of Veterinary and Marine Mammal Pathology and Deputy Head of the School of Veterinary Science at Massey University.

#1299

Chris Elliott

#184977

Overall Influence

Christopher Elliott is a professor of food safety and microbiology at Queen's University Belfast and founder of the university's Institute for Global Food Security. He led the independent review of the UK food system after the 2013 horse meat scandal.

#1300

Robert D. Clark

#85914

Overall Influence

1910 - 2005 (95 years)

Robert Donald Clark was an educator and university administrator. Early life Robert Donald Clark was born in Frontier County, Nebraska, on March 10, 1910. The family moved frequently. Education Clark graduated from high school in Colorado, then received a B.A. in English from Pasadena College in 1931 and a M.A. in Speech from the University of Southern California in 1935. While at USC Clark also taught freshman composition at various colleges. Clark received his Ph.D. in 1946, also from USC with a dissertation titled "The Platform and Pulpit Career and Rhetorical Theory of Bishop Matthew...

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions