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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Person Name

School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Business,

#1301

Frederick Larson

Frederick Larson

#184697

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Frederick Anthony Heep "Rick" Larson is an American lawyer and law professor who became a filmmaker after he investigated the Star of Bethlehem and became a traveling speaker on the topic, then made his first documentary film The Star of Bethlehem about his findings in 2007. In March 2019 Larson released his second film, the documentary The Christ Quake, which had been in production since 2013.

#1302

André Bisson

#191078

Overall Influence

1929 - 2019 (90 years)

André Bisson, OC was a Canadian professor and businessman. Biography Bisson received an MBA from Harvard University. He became the Director of Business Administration at Université Laval after serving as a professor. He was also the Director of the Canadian Bankers Institute, and Managing Director of Scotiabank.

#1303

Peter Stillman

#175226

Overall Influence

Peter Stillman is Professor of Political Science at Vassar College. He has taught there since 1970. He has an extensive range of publications and his interests cover modern political philosophy, especially that related to ecological thought, utopian political theory, and Hegel and Marx's political philosophy.

#1304

Marc Routh

#190793

Overall Influence

Marc Routh is a theatrical producer, entrepreneur and professor. Background Routh was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and raised in nearby Liberty Township. He graduated from Liberty High School in 1980. As a child he performed in musicals in summer stock, community theatre, and children's theatre productions, including roles in Mame, Gypsy, Bye, Bye, Birdie, Oliver, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and A Christmas Carol. He won a scholarship to a musical theatre program at Kent State University. With acting partner Judith Sewickley, he placed 7th in an Ohio State duet acting competition.

#1305

David C. Hardesty Jr.

#175634

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

David Carter Hardesty Jr. is an American lawyer and educator who was the 21st president of West Virginia University from 1995 to 2007. As an undergraduate student at West Virginia University, Hardesty was student body president, a member of Phi Kappa Psi, and a Rhodes Scholar. Hardesty earned a B.A. from Oxford University in 1969 which was redesignated an M.A. in 1983. He received a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1973. and He was a partner with Bowles, Rice, McDavid, Graff & Love from 1973 to 1995, and served as the Tax Commissioner of West Virginia from 1977 to 1980. Hardesty then began his twelve-year tenure as president of WVU.

#1306

Xia Changliang

#182649

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Xia Changliang is a Chinese engineer and administrator currently serving as president of Tiangong University. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering . Biography Xia was born in Tianjin, on 1 April 1968. He earned a B.S. degree from Tianjin University in 1990 and an M.S. and a Ph.D degree from Zhejiang University in 1993 and 1995, respectively. After graduating in 1996, he stayed at the university, becoming a professor at the School of Electrical and Automation Engineering in 2002. In April 2010, he became vice president of Tiangong University, rising to president in October 2018.

#1307

Blessing Mudavanhu

#189851

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Blessing Mudavanhu is a Zimbabwean mathematician, corporate executive, academic, businessman and entrepreneur, who is the founder and president of Dura Capital Limited, a company that he founded in 2006, at the age of 35 years. Effective 1 June 2018, he serves as the Group CEO of CBZ Holdings, a financial services conglomerate in Zimbabwe.

#1308

John Phillips

#173234

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (39 years)

John Phillips is a Welsh Middleweight mixed martial artist. A professional since 2005, he has also competed for BAMMA, Cage Rage, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Cage Warriors. He is the former BAMMA Middleweight Champion.

#1309

John Andrews

#190046

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (88 years)

John Malcolm Andrews is an English author on antiques, journalist and crime writer, engineering businessman and author – as John Malcolm – of the Tim Simpson series of art crime novels, author as John Andrews of the first Price Guide to Antique Furniture and Managing Editor of Antique Collecting magazine.

#1310

Keller Rinaudo Cliffton

#189484

Overall Influence

1987 - Present (37 years)

Keller Rinaudo Cliffton is an American robotics and autonomous airplane entrepreneur and the CEO and a co-founder of Zipline. Zipline began drone deliveries in Rwanda in late 2016, and primarily delivers blood to urgent medical situations.

#1311

Milomir Kovac

#78170

Overall Influence

1962 - 2022 (60 years)

Milomir Kovac was a Serbian-German veterinary surgeon, equine specialist, columnist, and author of university textbooks. Biography From 2007, Kovac worked as the Lecturer for "Equine Biology and Pathology" of the Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology and as a columnist for the Russian magazine "Horse World”.

#1312

Ahn Cheol-soo

#187528

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Ahn Cheol-soo is a South Korean politician, medical doctor, businessperson, and software entrepreneur. He currently serves as a member of the National Assembly as part of the conservative People Power Party.

#1313

Ambika Bumb

#188171

Overall Influence

Ambika Bumb an American biomedical scientist and businessperson. Bumb is a nanomedicine specialist who uses nanotechnology for the detection and treatment of disease. Her discoveries using nanodiamonds while working as postdoctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute led to the launch of the biotech Bikanta.

#1314

Ernst Volgenau

#185861

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (90 years)

Ernst Volgenau is a retired United States Air Force officer and founder and former CEO of SRA International. He later served as chairman of the board for the company, and rector of the George Mason University board of visitors.

#1315

Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet

#143256

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet is an American academic administrator. She was the president of Antioch University Seattle from 2007 to 2013—the first Native American woman to serve as president of an accredited university outside of the Tribal College and University System. She was formerly the president of Diné College from 2000 to 2003.

#1316

Tetyana Pertseva

#77301

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Tetyana Oleksiivna Pertseva is a Ukrainian pulmonologist, physician-scientist, and academic administrator. She is the rector of the Dnipro State Medical University and editor-in-chief of Medičnì Perspektivi. Pertseva is an elected academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

#1317

Adeem Younis

#186117

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Adeem Younis is an English-Pakistani entrepreneur, philanthropist, and humanitarian. He is best known as founder of digital matrimony platform SingleMuslim.com and international humanitarian charity Penny Appeal.

#1318

Kevin Wilhelm

#189652

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Kevin Wilhelm is an American business consultant and author in the field of sustainability and climate change. He is the CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, a Seattle-based consulting firm focused on demonstrating the bottom-line business benefits of sustainability and leading companies through successful implementation.

#1319

Mary Sue Coleman

Mary Sue Coleman

#188481

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Mary Sue Wilson Coleman is an American chemist and academic administrator who served as the 13th president of the University of Michigan from 2002 to 2014, interim president of the University of Michigan in 2022, and the 18th president of the University of Iowa from 1995 to 2002.

#1320

Erich Kukk

#119009

Overall Influence

1928 - 2017 (89 years)

Erich Kukk was an Estonian phycologist and conservationist. Kukk is referred to as the Grand Old Man of Estonian Phycology. Early life Kukk was born in Misso Parish, and graduated from the University of Tartu in 1953.

#1321

Peter Byrne

#150609

Overall Influence

1928 - 2018 (90 years)

Peter James Byrne was an English actor and director. He was born in West Ham, Essex; his father was a musician. He was educated at grammar school and trained as an actor at the Italia Conti Stage School. He made his name by playing George Dixon's son-in-law Andy Crawford in the long-running BBC Television serial Dixon of Dock Green for twenty years from 1955. He was Director of Productions for the Bournemouth Theatre Company .

#1322

Catherine Ball

#185543

Overall Influence

Dr Catherine Ball is a businesswoman and futurist with a focus on environmental science and technology. She is an Associate Professor at The Australian National University in the College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics.

#1323

Eric M. Verdin

#181227

Overall Influence

#1324

Alexander Wissner-Gross

#183938

Overall Influence

Alexander D. Wissner-Gross is an American research scientist and entrepreneur. He is a fellow at the Institute for Applied Computational Science at Harvard University. Education At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he researched nanotechnology, Wissner-Gross triple-majored in physics, electrical engineering and mathematics. He was awarded the Marshall Scholarship, and was the last student to triple-major at MIT before the option was discontinued. Wissner-Gross also has a Ph.D in physics from Harvard University.

#1325

Knut Hove

#170906

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Knut Hove is a Norwegian veterinarian. He was born in Oslo. He took the dr.scient. degree in 1974, and the dr.med.vet. degree in 1978. In 1987 he was appointed as professor the Norwegian College of Agriculture. He became rector there in 2000; the institution changed its name to the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 2005.

#1326

Wheelock Whitney Jr.

#190342

Overall Influence

1926 - 2016 (90 years)

Wheelock "Whee" Whitney Jr. was an American businessman, educator, sports team executive and owner, philanthropist, and politician. Early life and education Whitney attended Phillips Andover and Yale University with George H. W. Bush. He and Bush were both members of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale. Whitney was a successful investment banker from 1957 until 1972, when he left the industry to teach at the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota.

#1327

David E. Garland

#141915

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

David E. Garland served as the interim president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. His term began in June 2016 amid the Baylor sexual assault scandal and resignation of former president Ken Starr. Garland's term concluded on May 31, 2017.

#1328

David Dickinson

David Dickinson

#190337

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

David Dickinson is an English antiques dealer and television presenter. Between 2000 and 2004, Dickinson hosted the BBC One antiques show Bargain Hunt, where he was succeeded by Tim Wonnacott. Dickinson left the BBC in 2005, and since 2006 he has been hosting the ITV daytime show Dickinson's Real Deal. The show sees members of the public bringing antiques and collectables to sell to a dealer or take to the auction.

#1329

Robert Brooks

#190514

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Robert Brooks is an American businessman and Republican politician from Saukville, Wisconsin. He is state representative for the 60th district of the Wisconsin State Assembly, since January 2015. Biography Born in Rockford, Illinois, Brooks moved with his parents to Wisconsin and graduated from Parkview High School in Orfordville, Wisconsin. He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, but did not graduate. He went to work in the real estate business, and owned a number of restaurants, taverns, and rental properties. Since 1996, he has managed his real estate through Brooks ...

#1330

Ingrid Antonijevic

#187125

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Ingrid Antonijevic Hahn is a Chilean economist, entrepreneur, academic and former Minister of Economy, Development and Reconstruction for only two months, in the first cabinet of socialist president Michelle Bachelet. In her youth, she was a militant in the MAPU organisation, and after the end of the Pinochet regime she was one of the founders of the Party for Democracy that has led the transition towards democracy in Chile. She is a progressive entrepreneur who promotes corporate social responsibility and the involvement of the private sector in projects initiated by the government that aim to benefit the whole country.

#1331

Michael Huttner

#188817

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Michael Huttner is an American attorney, author, crisis communications expert and political entrepreneur. Huttner is a partner with Culture of Giving Back to advise donors on progressive causes and he also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Next Titan Capital, a boutique investment bank focused on cannabis and psychedelics. Huttner was formerly the CEO of Powerplant Global Strategies, a public affairs firm focused on investments in the cannabis industry. In January 2010, he convened a small group of drug reform and policy leaders in Colorado, which laid the groundwork for Colorado to become the first state to decriminalize cannabis in the country.

#1332

Jacqueline Rowarth

#114867

Overall Influence

Jacqueline Sara Rowarth is a New Zealand agronomist, dairy farmer and science administrator. Career Rowarth has an Agricultural Science degree with first class honours in Environmental Agriculture, and obtained a PhD in Soil science from Massey University, with a 1987 thesis titled 'Phosphate cycling in grazed hill-country pasture. Rowarth taught Plant Science at Lincoln University. She returned to New Zealand to Massey University as full professor.

#1333

Jean-Guy Paquet

#190330

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Jean-Guy Paquet, is a Canadian scientist, businessman, and former rector of Université Laval. Born in Montmagny, Quebec, he received a Doctor of Electrical Engineering from Université Laval in 1963. From 1967 to 1969, he was the head of the electrical engineering department at Université Laval. From 1969 to 1972, he was a vice-rector of Université Laval and he was rector from 1977 to 1987. He was the youngest-ever president of a Canadian university and the second engineer to become rector at Laval.

#1334

Bill George

#191309

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

William W. George is an American businessman and academic. He is a professor of management practice, and a Henry B. Arthur Fellow of Ethics at Harvard Business School. He previously served as chairman and chief executive officer of Medtronic.

#1335

Rafael Filippelli

#185800

Overall Influence

1938 - 2023 (85 years)

Rafael Filippelli was an Argentine film director, producer and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Buenos Aires, Filippelli started working as assistant director in the mid-1950s, and in 1961 he directed his first short film, Porque hoy es sábado. A member of the group "Underground", together with, among others, Edgardo Cozarinsky, Néstor Lescovich, and , following the 1976 Argentine coup d'état he moved to exile in Mexico and later in Los Angeles. Returned to Argentina, in 1985 he made his feature film debut with Hay unos tipos abajo, which was followed by The Absentee, which entered the Moscow International Film Festival.

#1336

Charles Wood

#189934

Overall Influence

1914 - 2004 (90 years)

Charles R. Wood was an American amusement park developer and philanthropist in Upstate New York. Biography Wood was born in Lockport, New York, in 1914. After seeing the amusement park Knott's Berry Farm in southern California he was inspired in 1954 to open his own park in Queensbury, New York, which he named Storytown USA. In order to do this, he needed some loans from local banks. With $500 in his pocket at the time, he walked into a bank, applied for the necessary loans, and was denied. To this, he replied to the bank manager "One day sir, I will be able to buy and sell you." Success fol...

#1337

Peter Paul Fuchs

#178265

Overall Influence

1916 - 2007 (91 years)

Peter Paul Fuchs was an Austrian-born conductor and composer, best known for his conducting appointments with American orchestras and for his teaching. He was also a prolific composer although little of his music survives in performance. His writings include two influential music text books.

#1338

Mandy Haberman

#184554

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Mandy Nicola Haberman is an English inventor and entrepreneur. She is founding member and Freeman of the Guild of Entrepreneurs, Director of the Intellectual Property Awareness Network and a visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University, from where she has an honorary doctorate. She is best known for her successfully upheld patent enforcement battles and inventing the Haberman Feeder, the Anywayup Cup and the Suckle Feeder.

#1339

Ian Jones

#178538

Overall Influence

1931 - 2018 (87 years)

Ian Edward Swainson Jones was an Australian television writer and director and an author specialising in the history of notorious outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang. Career Jones had a long career in Australian television, and is best remembered for his writing and directing work at Crawford Productions on shows such as Homicide, Matlock Police, The Bluestone Boys and The Sullivans, and for Against the Wind, a highly successful mini-series, created in collaboration with Bronwyn Binns, which explored Australia's convict past.

#1340

Aleksander Spivakovsky

#180069

Overall Influence

Oleksandr Spivakovskiy is a Ukrainian academic administrator and mathematician. He is the rector of Kherson State University and a professor and chair of informatics, software engineering, and economic cybernetics. On October 21, 2016, Spivakovsky was elected an academician and corresponding member of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine.

#1341

Robert R. Bruno Jr.

Robert R. Bruno Jr.

#190353

Overall Influence

1945 - 2008 (63 years)

Robert R. Bruno Jr. was an American artist, inventor, and businessman. In 1982, he designed and created one of the first solar-powered surge irrigation systems for row crops and founded P&R Surge Systems with his wife Patricia Mills. As an artist, he designed jewelry, furniture, and numerous sculptures both large and small. He is perhaps most widely recognized for the artistic steel house that sits on the edge of the jagged caprock escarpment that overlooks Yellow House Canyon in the residential community of Ransom Canyon a few miles east of Lubbock, Texas.

#1342

Teresa de Dios Unanue

Teresa de Dios Unanue

#190905

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Dr. Teresa de Dios Unanue is an educator, civic leader, the author of several essays published in Puerto Rico and the United States, the co-author of the book Educación Personalizada , and the co-founder and Executive President of Atlantic University College, a university institution specializing in digital arts in Puerto Rico and Caribbean.

#1343

Chris Swain

#189415

Overall Influence

Chris Swain is an American game designer, entrepreneur, and professor. He is the founder of two venture-backed game companies. He worked full-time as a professor at The University of Southern California from 2004-2011.

#1344

Isabelle Dussauge

#147297

Overall Influence

Isabelle Dussauge is a science, technology and society researcher at the Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University, Sweden and former assistant professor at the Department of Thematic Studies , Linköping University, Sweden. She is also the co-founder, with Anelis Kaiser, of The NeuroGenderings Network, and acted as guest editor, again with Kaiser on the journal Neuroethics.

#1345

Paul Green

#191745

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Paul Richard Green is an American record producer, film producer, director, screenwriter, singer-songwriter, music teacher, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who founded School of Rock , a performance-based music program for kids. This for-profit educational company operates and sponsors franchises for after-school music instructional programs in the United States.

#1346

Kim Byung-chul

#191793

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Kim Byung-chul is a South Korean businessman and professor. He is best known for donating many relics of Gaya confederacy and Silla to the museum of Yonsei University. Biography He was born in Suncheon in North Korea which was very famous for Christianity, He graduated from the Department of Political Science at Yonsei University in 1963. After completing his MBA and PDC at the Drexel University, he was a professor at Seokyeong University. He served as CEO of Korea Optical Industry Co., Ltd. and CEO of Century Optics, and is the Chairman of Sunil Co. Ltd., Wooil Co.Ltd., Darim Co. Ltd., and Smarttech Co.Ltd.

#1347

Robin Jeffrey

#191464

Overall Influence

1939 - 2018 (79 years)

Robin Campbell Jeffrey was a Scottish engineer and businessman, who became executive chairman of British Energy. Early life He was the son of Robert Jeffrey and Catherine Campbell McSporran. He attended Lenzie Academy and Kelvinside Academy, and studied for a BSc in Mechanical Engineering at the Royal College of Science and Technology , where he was later a visiting professor, and a PhD at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

#1348

Jo Bradwell

#189058

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

A. R. Bradwell is a British philanthropist, physician and businessman. Bradwell donated £15 million to Birmingham University to establish new forestry research centre. The Birmingham Institute of Forest Research is currently being established. BIFoR will focus on the impact of climate and environmental change on woodlands, and the resilience of trees to pests and diseases.

#1349

Johnnie Moore Jr.

#190208

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (41 years)

Johnnie Moore is an American evangelical leader and businessman who founded the Kairos Company, a public relations firm. Moore is a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and president of Congress of Christian Leaders.

#1350

Nico Naldini

#150288

Overall Influence

1929 - 2020 (91 years)

Domenico Naldini was an Italian novelist, poet and film director. Some of his work has been translated into English. Naldini was born in Casarsa della Delizia, Pordenone to Antonio Naldini and Enrichetta Colussi. His mother was the sister of Susanna Colussi, the mother of Pier Paolo Pasolini, making him his first cousin. He was his cousin's biographer. He was a lecturer and professor at the University of Trento and professor of Italian literature at the University of Tunis. His work includes popularizing Italian literature and culture throughout the world.

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