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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List of the most influential people in Business,

#1351

Judy Dlamini

#192101

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Judy Dlamini is a South African businesswoman and author who is the Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand and the founding chairman of Mbekani Group. She served as chairperson of the board of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings from November 2007 until December 2015 while concurrently serving as non-executive director from July 2005 until December 2015. In 2020 the magazine Forbes called her one of Africas 50 most powerful women. In 2022, she was mentioned by Forbes as one of the 50 over 50 women leading the way throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

#1352

William Russell

#191998

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Sir William Anthony Bowater Russell is a British financier who served as the 692nd Lord Mayor of the City of London from 2019 to 2021. Biography Educated at Eton and Durham University, graduating B.A., Russell started his career in financial services at First Boston in 1987, and joined Merrill Lynch in 1992, working in Hong Kong, New York and London, before leaving in 2006 for public service.

#1353

Françoise Soussaline

#191817

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Françoise Soussaline is a French biophysicist and businesswoman, a specialist in cell imaging. She studied physics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University and completed a PhD in molecular spectroscopy in 1973. She began her career as a researcher at Inserm, where she was involved in the development of the first digital scanner in nuclear medicine. She then joined the Frédéric-Joliot hospital department of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission where she developed Positron emission tomography locally as part of a second thesis in biophysics completed in 1984 at the University of Paris-Sud under the direction of Nobel Prize winner Georges Charpak.

#1354

James Webster

#191828

Overall Influence

1925 - 2022 (97 years)

James Joseph Webster was an Australian politician. He was a Senator for Victoria from 1964 to 1980, representing the National Country Party . He served as Minister for Science and Science and the Environment in the Fraser government. He left politics to become High Commissioner to New Zealand, serving from 1980 to 1983.

#1355

Justin Picard

#191687

Overall Influence

Justin Picard is a Swiss-Canadian engineer and entrepreneur who currently serves as the chief technology officer of Scantrust, a company he co-founded in 2013. He is the inventor of the copy detection pattern , a digital authentication technology for detecting product and document counterfeiting.

#1356

O. Richard Bundy

O. Richard Bundy

#89592

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Orrin Richard Bundy is an American music academic. Bundy was the director of the Penn State Athletic Bands, most notably the Penn State Blue Band. He originally joined the University Park faculty of The Pennsylvania State University in 1982 as a graduate assistant, then became Assistant Director of the Blue Band in 1988 before becoming Director in 1996. In addition to his role as director, he teaches courses in conducting, marching band techniques, instrumental music education, and band literature. He retired as director in 2015.

#1357

Helene Maimann

#174560

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Helene Maimann is an Austrian historian, writer, filmmaker and exhibition organizer. She won an Axel Corti Prize, and Käthe Leichter Prize. Life After studying history, German studies and philosophy in Vienna she did her doctorate in 1973 about the Austrian Exile. Between 1980 and 1994 she worked as a lecturer at the universities of Vienna and Salzburg. In the 1980s Maimann managed various exhibitions about Austria’s contemporary history. From 1995 on – after many years of work for the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft - she started working as an editor for the ORF. In addition she published numerous articles and books.

#1358

Michael Azzopardi

Michael Azzopardi

#191654

Overall Influence

1987 - Present (39 years)

Michael Azzopardi is a Maltese songwriter and designer. He released his first 4-song EP "Pistola" on February 12, 2021, with Ultralow Records. Biography Michael Azzopardi is a singer-songwriter from Malta. Having debuted his first EP, PISTOLA in February 2021, Michael's songs present an intimate and varied song arrangement with emotionally rich and often vulnerable lyrics.

#1359

Leo Fraser

#192102

Overall Influence

1926 - 2013 (87 years)

Leo W. Fraser, Jr. was an American lawyer, businessman, and politician. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Fraser served in the United States Marine Corps 1944–1946. He then received his degree from Northeastern University and his law degree from the New England School of Law. He was a claim adjuster in Boston. In 1970 he moved to Pittsfield, New Hampshire, serving as the New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner. In 1976 he established Fraser Financial Services in Pittsfield. A Republican, he served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1985 to 1991 and then in the New Hampshire State Senate from 1991 to 2002.

#1360

John Henry MacCracken

John Henry MacCracken

1875 - 1948 (73 years)

John Henry MacCracken was an American academic administrator who served as president of Westminster College and Lafayette College. When he was chosen as president of Westminster College in 1899, MacCracken was the youngest college president in the United States. MacCracken was the son of Henry MacCracken, a chancellor of New York University, and the brother of Henry Noble MacCracken, a president of Vassar College.

#1361

John Wilkes

1750 - 1810 (60 years)

John Wilkes was an English printer, bookseller and stationer. Life Wilkes was a Freeman of Winchester and proprietor of the Hampshire Chronicle. With Peter Barfoot he ran the British Directory Office in London, which published the Universal British Directory from 1790 to 1798 after obtaining a royal patent.

#1362

Robert von Ostertag

1864 - 1940 (76 years)

Robert von Ostertag was a German veterinarian who was a native of Schwäbisch Gmünd. He studied medicine in Berlin and veterinary medicine in Stuttgart, afterwards becoming a professor of hygiene at Tierärztliche Hochschule Stuttgart and at the College of Veterinary Medicine in Berlin . In 1907 he became head of the veterinary department in the Reich Health Office in Berlin. In 1910 he traveled to German Southwest Africa in order to study diseases of sheep, and in 1913 he investigated rinderpest in German East Africa. In 1920 he became head of veterinary services in Germany.

#1363

Toshiwo Doko

1896 - 1988 (92 years)

Toshiwo Doko was a Japanese engineer born in Mitsu District, Okayama, Manager, President and Chairman of Ishikawajima Heavy Industry and Toshiba. Background Dokō was a key manager in the Japanese economic miracle after World War II, in particular, from 1974 to 1980 when he helmed the Toshiba Corporation and was appointed chairman of the Japan Business Federation .

#1364

Hubert Marischka

Hubert Marischka

1882 - 1959 (77 years)

Hubert Marischka , brother of Ernst Marischka, was an Austrian operetta tenor, actor, film director and screenwriter. Career Marischka was born in Brunn am Gebirge, the son of Jiří Marischka, a supplier to the court of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and his wife Bertha. Hubert began work as a joiner but trained as a singer and in 1904 began a new career in operetta in the town theatre of St. Pölten in Der arme Jonathan by Karl Millöcker. He had his first success as a singer in Brno in 1906, as Danilo in Die lustige Witwe. On 27 July 1907 he sang at the premiere of the Der fidele Bauer by Leo ...

#1365

Joseph Welles Henderson

1890 - 1957 (67 years)

Joseph Welles Henderson , born in Montgomery, Pennsylvania, was acting president of Bucknell University from 1953 to 1954. Education Henderson received his A.B. and master's degrees from Bucknell, and his law degree from Harvard Law School .

#1366

Henry Minor Faser

1882 - 1960 (78 years)

Henry Minor Faser was an American academic administrator, life insurance business executive and political activist. He was the founding dean of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, the vice president of the Lamar Life Insurance Company, and a supporter of the States' Rights Democratic Party's 1948 presidential campaign.

#1367

LeRoy D. Brown

1848 - 1898 (50 years)

LeRoy D. Brown was the first president of University of Nevada. History Nevada became a state in 1864. Its constitution mandated the establishment of a state university with departments in agriculture, the mechanic arts, and mining, along with a state normal school for teacher training. The constitution specified that the state university would be controlled by an elected Board of Regents. The Nevada Legislature established the first State University campus in Elko, Nevada. Its Preparatory Department opened for enrollment in October 1874 with the goal of enhancing Nevada's young people to be ready for college-level study.

#1368

John Holt

1841 - 1915 (74 years)

John Holt was an English merchant, who founded a shipping line operating between Liverpool and West Africa, and a number of businesses in Nigeria, which are now incorporated in John Holt plc. Life Holt was born in Garthorpe, Lincolnshire in 1841 to the family of Thomas Godfrey Holt. In 1857, he began an apprenticeship with the firm of William and Hamilton Laird, a family business that was engaged in trade with West Africa through their agency with the African Steam Ship Company, founded by Macgregor Laird. During his time with the firm, Alfred Jones who later managed a shipping business with trade routes to West Africa was also working there.

#1369

Margery Knight

1889 - 1973 (84 years)

Margery Knight was an algologist, artist and lecturer at the Port Erin Marine Biological Station, University of Liverpool. Career Knight was a lecturer in botany at University of Liverpool from 1912 until she retired in 1954. She was based at the University’s Port Erin Marine Biological Station on the Isle of Man.

#1370

William V. Mong

1875 - 1940 (65 years)

William V. Mong was an American film actor, screenwriter and director. He appeared in almost 200 films between 1910 and 1939. His directing and screenwriting were mostly for short films. He was born June 25, 1875, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and married Esme Warde. He started out as a vaudeville and stage actor, appearing in plays in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. He made his film debut in the 1910 film A Connecticut Yankee.

#1371

Kim Chong-hee

1922 - 1981 (59 years)

Kim Chong-hee was the founder of Hanwha Group and a leading figure of the South Korean explosives industry. Korea Explosives Corporation Kim established the Korea Explosives Corporation, a forerunner of the Hanwha Corporation, in 1952. He succeeded in domestically producing dynamite in 1957, and began its commercial production from 1958, contributing to South Korea's industrial growth by enabling the construction of the national infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels and highways.

#1372

Paul Smith

1906 - 1985 (79 years)

Paul J. Smith was an American music composer and violinist best known for his work at Disney. Life and career Smith was born in Calumet, Michigan on October 30, 1906. Upon graduating high school, he studied music at The College of Idaho from 1923 to 1925 before he was accepted into the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois. His abilities in theory and composition earned him a scholarship to study music theory at Juilliard, however, it is unclear if he ever pursued this invitation.

#1373

Niels Johannes Fjord

Niels Johannes Fjord

1825 - 1891 (66 years)

Niels Johannes Fjord , often referred to as N. J. Fjord, was a Danish Professor at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University. He was a pioneer in dairy and milk research in the mid-1800s. He was a driving force and the first leader of the Landøkonomisk Forsøgslaboratorium on Rolighedsvej in 1883.

#1374

Cornelius L. Keedy

1834 - 1911 (77 years)

Cornelius Luther Keedy was an American pastor, physician, and academic administrator. He served as owner and president of Kee Mar College for 25 years. Life Keedy was born March 28, 1834, in Rohrersville, Maryland to Daniel and Sophia Miller Keedy. He was admitted to Pennsylvania College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Keedy was ordained to preach by the East Pennsylvania Lutheran Synod. He was licensed in 1859. He was pastor of Lutheran churches at various times at Johnstown, Riegelsville, Barren Hill, and Waynesboro. In 1860, Keedy married Elizabeth Wyatt Marbourg, the daughter of a Alexander Marbourg, a Johnstown merchant.

#1375

George S. Patton

George S. Patton

1856 - 1927 (71 years)

George Smith Patton was an American attorney, businessman and politician who served as Los Angeles County District Attorney and the first mayor of San Marino, California. Patton was the son of Susan Thornton Glassell and George S. Patton Sr., a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War. His mother moved to California after his father was killed during the war, and Patton was educated in Los Angeles. He returned to Virginia to attend Virginia Military Institute, from which he graduated in 1877. After studying law at his uncle's firm, he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Los Angeles.

#1376

Daniel Massey

1798 - 1856 (58 years)

Daniel Massey was an American-born blacksmith and businessman in what is now Newcastle, Ontario, who began production of agricultural implements in 1847. Life and career Massey was born in Windsor, Vermont, to Daniel Massey Sr. and Rebecca Kelley. The Massey family originated in Cheshire, England, and arrived in America around 1630, first in Essex, Massachusetts, and later in New Hampshire and Watertown, New York.

#1377

James White

1877 - 1927 (50 years)

James White was an English financier, property developer and speculator. From a working-class family in Lancashire, he worked at a number of jobs before becoming well known in the years before the First World War as a boxing promoter. From that, he moved into property and other transactions, making large sums of money in major deals. He became a racehorse owner and theatre proprietor.

#1378

Harry Williams

1879 - 1922 (43 years)

Harry Hiram Williams was an American composer, lyricist, and publisher of popular music from 1903 until his death in 1922. One of his early hits, written in 1905 with Egbert Van Alstyne, is "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree". He also produced story ideas and directed silent movies with Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios, according to Sennett's biography The King of Comedy. Williams joined The Lambs Club in 1908.

#1379

Horace B. Carpenter

1875 - 1945 (70 years)

Horace B. Carpenter was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 330 films between 1914 and 1946. He also directed 15 films between 1925 and 1934. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Carpenter died in Hollywood, California, from a heart attack.

#1380

John Lynch

1825 - 1892 (67 years)

John Lynch was a nineteenth-century politician, merchant, manufacturer and newspaper publisher from Maine. Born in Portland, Maine, Lynch attended public schools as a child and graduated from Portland High School in 1842. He engaged in mercantile pursuits, was manager of the Portland Daily Press in 1862 and was a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1862 to 1864. He was elected a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1864, serving from 1865 to 1873. There, Lynch served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy from 1869 to 1871 and of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury from 1871 to 1873.

#1381

John Franklin Witter

1906 - 1982 (76 years)

John Franklin Witter was a veterinarian specialist in avian medicine as well as a researcher and professor at the University of Maine, Orono. Early life Frank Witter was born on June 11, 1906, in Frederick, Maryland, the eighth of nine children. His parents were Harry and “Jennie” Miller Witter. He was raised on a farm, and his father was a professional livestock showman. In his early life, Witter learned about different breeds of farm animals and later said that he saw farming as "a way of life".

#1382

Rufus Carrollton Harris

Rufus Carrollton Harris

1896 - 1988 (92 years)

Rufus Carrollton Harris was the president of Tulane University from 1937 to 1959 and the 12th dean of the Tulane University Law School, from 1927 to 1937. Education He completed his undergraduate studies at Mercer University and earned two law degrees at Yale University, where he completed his Juris Doctor degree in 1924.

#1383

James H. Dolan

1885 - 1977 (92 years)

James H. Dolan, S.J. was one of the founders and the 2nd President of Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, from 1944 to 1951. He was born to James B. and Ellen T. Dolan in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and entered the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1905, at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Hyde Park, New York.

#1384

Henry Adams Bellows

Henry Adams Bellows

1885 - 1939 (54 years)

Henry Adams Bellows was a newspaper editor and radio executive who was an early member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. He is also known for his translation of the Poetic Edda for The American-Scandinavian Foundation.

#1385

James Butler

1855 - 1934 (79 years)

James Butler was an American businessman from New York and prominent owner of racehorses and racetracks. With his cousin, Mother Marie Joseph Butler, he founded Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York in memory of his late wife.

#1386

John Skelton

1831 - 1897 (66 years)

Sir John Skelton was a Scottish lawyer, author and administrator. He is best known for his contributions to The Guardian and Blackwood's Magazine. Life Born in Edinburgh, he was the son of James Skelton of Sandford Newton, writer to the signet, sheriff-substitute at Peterhead and original owner of Sandford Lodge, where he was brought up. His mother was Margaret Marjory Kinnear and his sister was Janet Georgina. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. In 1854 he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates; but concentrated on writing.

#1387

William Paterson

William Paterson

1847 - 1920 (73 years)

William Paterson was an Australian politician and businessman in Western Australia. He was a member of the unicameral Legislative Council from 1889 until its dissolution the following year, and then a member of the newly created Legislative Assembly from 1890 to 1895.

#1388

Lucille Elizabeth Bishop Smith

Lucille Elizabeth Bishop Smith

1892 - 1985 (93 years)

Lucille Elizabeth Bishop Smith was an African American entrepreneur, chef, and inventor. She invented the first hot biscuit mix, and has been called "the first African American businesswoman in Texas".

#1389

Montague Chamberlain

Montague Chamberlain

1844 - 1924 (80 years)

Montague Chamberlain was a Canadian-American businessman, naturalist, and ethnographer. Biography Chamberlain was born in St. John, New Brunswick, British North America. He spent the first few decades of his life as a bookkeeper and later manager of a grocery company in St. John. In his mid-twenties, he also became a dedicated amateur ornithologist. In 1883 he co-founded the American Ornithologists' Union, which today stakes its claim as "the oldest and largest organization in the New World devoted to the scientific study of birds." In 1888 Chamberlain became a resident member and editor for the Nuttall Ornithological Club, and a founding member of the American Ornithologists' Union.

#1390

Louis L. Madsen

1907 - 1986 (79 years)

Louis Linden Madsen was an American agricultural scientist who served as president of Utah State University from 1950 to 1953 and later as a member of the Washington State University faculty. Biography Madsen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received his bachelor's degree at Utah State Agricultural College . He then received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1934.

#1391

Calvin B. T. Lee

1934 - 1983 (49 years)

Calvin Bow Tong Lee was an American educator and businessman who served as acting President of Boston University from 1970 to 1971 and Chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from 1971 to 1976.

#1392

George Smith

Sir George Smith of Madworthy-juxta-Exeter and Madford House, Exeter, Devon, was a merchant who served as MP for Exeter in 1604, was three times Mayor of Exeter and was Exeter's richest citizen, possessing 25 manorss. He was the grandfather of George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle KG and of John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath .

#1393

Thomas Brattle

1657 - 1713 (56 years)

Thomas Brattle was an American merchant who served as treasurer of Harvard College and member of the Royal Society. He is known for his involvement in the Salem Witch Trials and the formation of the Brattle Street Church.

#1394

William Williams

1832 - 1900 (68 years)

William Williams FRSE PRCVS was a Welsh veterinary surgeon who served as principal of the Dick Veterinary College in Edinburgh and as president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons . He was the founder and principal of the rival New Veterinary College , originally housed in Gayfield House, Edinburgh.

#1395

Frank L. McVey

1869 - 1953 (84 years)

Frank LeRond McVey was an American economist, educator and academic administrator. He served as the fourth president of the University of North Dakota from 1909 to 1917 and the third president of the University of Kentucky from 1917 to 1940.

#1396

John Ross

1818 - 1871 (53 years)

John Ross was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and businessman. Born in County Antrim, Ireland, he was brought to Canada as an infant. Ross married twice, first to Margaret Crawford who died in 1847, secondly to Augusta Elizabeth Baldwin February 4, 1851, the daughter of Robert Baldwin. Ross was president of the Grand Trunk Railway from 1853 to 1862 when he was succeeded by Sir Edward William Watkin. In 1867, he was appointed to the Senate representing the senatorial division of Ontario. A Conservative, the Honourable John Ross served until his death in 1871 in Toronto, Ontario.

#1397

Dudley Hooper

1911 - 1968 (57 years)

Dudley W. Hooper MA FCA was a British businessman in the UK National Coal Board and an early President of the British Computer Society . He was an accountant and an early promoter of electronic data processing .

#1398

George Smith

1800 - 1868 (68 years)

George Smith was an English businessman, historian and theologian. He is now best known for historical work relating to the Methodist conference. Life Born at Condurrow, near Camborne, Cornwall, on 31 August 1800, he was the son of William Smith, a carpenter and small farmer at Condurrow , by his wife, Philippa Moneypenny . He was educated at the British and Foreign schools in Falmouth, and in Plymouth where his father retired in 1808, when the lease of his farm expired. In 1812 he returned with his parents to Cornwall, and was employed for several years in farm work and carpentering. Having ...

#1399

William Oliver

1885 - 1962 (77 years)

Sir William Oliver FRSE was a 20th-century Scottish business advisor and the first Professor of Organisation of Industry and Commerce. Life Oliver was born in Edinburgh in 1885. He was educated at George Watson's College. He then studied engineering at the University of Edinburgh before joining Parsons Peebles Ltd. working on power plant design and creation.

#1400

Jesse E. Moorland

1863 - 1940 (77 years)

Jesse Edward Moorland was an American minister, community executive, civic leader and book collector. Born in Coldwater, Ohio, he was the only child of a farming family. Moorland attended Northwestern Normal University in Ada, Ohio. Then he moved to Washington D. C., where he attended the Theological department of Howard University and earned his master's degree in 1891. He was ordained a Congressional minister. That same year he was hired as secretary of the Washington D.C. branch of the YMCA.

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