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 Communications,

#6001

Robben Ford

#67658

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Robben Lee Ford is an American blues, jazz, and rock guitarist. He was a member of the L.A. Express and Yellowjackets and has collaborated with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Larry Carlton, Rick Springfield, Little Feat, and Kiss. He was named one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician magazine.

#6002

Steven Isserlis

#88431

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Steven Isserlis is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his diverse repertoire and distinctive sound which is deployed with his use of gut strings.

#6003

Tom Snow

#73244

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Thomas Righter Snow is an American songwriter. Biography Snow has written songs for Gayle McCormick ". "Love Not War" , Olivia Newton-John , and Melissa Manchester , Cher, The Pointer Sisters' million-selling 1980 hit "He's So Shy" , Barbra Streisand, Rita Coolidge , Barry Manilow , Randy Crawford, Diana Ross , Bonnie Raitt , Leo Sayer, Bette Midler, Michael Johnson , Dolly Parton, Captain and Tennille, Kim Carnes , Dionne Warwick , Linda Ronstadt , Trisha Yearwood, Amy Grant , and Christina Aguilera . He also co-wrote "Dreaming of You" for the crossover Mexican-American star Selena, which wa...

#6004

Michael Kelly

#90487

Overall Influence

1957 - 2003 (46 years)

Michael Thomas Kelly was an American journalist for The New York Times, a columnist for The Washington Post and The New Yorker, and a magazine editor for The New Republic, National Journal, and The Atlantic. He came to prominence through his reporting on the 1990–1991 Gulf War, and was well known for his political profiles and commentary. He suffered professional embarrassment for his role as senior editor in the Stephen Glass scandal at The New Republic. Kelly was killed in 2003 while covering the invasion of Iraq; he was the first US journalist to die during this war.

#6005

J. Stewart Scott

#140683

Overall Influence

#6006

Ed Greene

#81814

Overall Influence

Ed Greene is an American drummer and session musician. In 1971 he recorded with Donald Byrd , together with Thurman Green, Harold Land, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Sample, Bobbye Porter Hall, David T. Walker, and Wilton Felder, among others.

#6007

Bethany McLean

#32839

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Bethany Lee McLean is an American journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for Fortune, and a contributor to Slate.

#6008

David "Honeyboy" Edwards

David "Honeyboy" Edwards

#84387

Overall Influence

1915 - 2011 (96 years)

David "Honeyboy" Edwards was a Delta blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi. Biography Edwards was born in Shaw, Mississippi. He learned to play music from his father, a guitarist and violinist. At the age of 14, he left home to travel with the bluesman Big Joe Williams, beginning life as an itinerant musician, which he maintained through the 1930s and 1940s. He performed with the famed blues musician Robert Johnson, with whom he developed a close friendship. Edwards was present on the night Johnson drank the poisoned whiskey that killed him, and his story has become the definitive version of Johnson's demise.

#6009

Milko Kelemen

#108937

Overall Influence

1924 - 2018 (94 years)

Milko Kelemen was a Croatian composer. Life Milko Kelemen was born in Slatina, Croatia . He studied under Stjepan Šulek in Zagreb, under Olivier Messiaen in Paris and Wolfgang Fortner in Freiburg amongst others.

#6010

Joe Bob Briggs

#60210

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

John Irving Bloom , known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is an American syndicated film critic, writer, actor, comic performer, and horror host. He is known for having hosted Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, the TNT television series MonsterVision from 1996 to 2000, and The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder beginning in 2018. In 2019, he was named the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid of the Year, and in 2023 was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

#6011

Evanildo Bechara

#46789

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Evanildo Cavalcante Bechara is a Brazilian grammarian and philologist. Born in Recife, Bechara is a corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and the Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Coimbra. He is a full and emeritus professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and the Fluminense Federal University , and also a full professor and the 50th general director of the Instituto Superior de Educação do Rio de Janeiro , in addition to holder of chair number 16 of the Brazilian Academy of Philology and chair 33 of the B...

#6012

Katsumi Asaba

#125108

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Katsumi Asaba is a Japanese art director known for producing several acclaimed commercials and posters. External links

#6013

Kabir Khan

#64956

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Kabir Khan is an Indian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer who works in Hindi cinema. He started his career working in documentary films, and then made his feature film directorial debut in 2006 with the adventure thriller Kabul Express. He is best known for directing Ek Tha Tiger and Bajrangi Bhaijaan . His latest film 83 was released in 2021.

#6014

Cindy Walker

#94738

Overall Influence

1918 - 2006 (88 years)

Cindy Walker was an American songwriter, as well as a country music singer and dancer. She wrote many popular and enduring songs recorded by many artists. She adopted a craftsman-like approach to her songwriting, often tailoring particular songs to specific artists. She produced a large body of songs that have been described as “direct, honest and unpretentious”. She had Top 10 hits spread over five decades.

#6015

Jia Zhangke

#68395

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Jia Zhangke is a Chinese-language film and television director, screenwriter, producer, actor and writer. He is the dean of the Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Media College and the dean of the Vancouver Film School of Shanghai University. He graduated from the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy. He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the "Sixth Generation" movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Wang Quan'an and Zhang Yuan.

#6016

Horst Stein

#96833

Overall Influence

1928 - 2008 (80 years)

Horst Walter Stein was a German conductor. Biography Stein's father was a mechanic. At school in Frankfurt, he studied piano, oboe, and singing. Later, he continued studies at the university in Cologne, including lessons in composition with Busoni's disciple Philipp Jarnach. From 1947 to 1951, he was a repetiteur in Wuppertal.

#6017

Kazuki Ōmori

#102313

Overall Influence

1952 - 2022 (70 years)

Kazuki Ōmori was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Career Born in Osaka, Ōmori studied at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and held a license to practice medicine. While in school, he began making films independently, with Kuraku naru made matenai! , which featured Seijun Suzuki, receiving particularly high praise. His script "Orenji rōdo kyūkō" won the 3rd Kido Award for screenplays in 1977, and the next year he was able to film that in his professional debut. Several of his films, such as the 1980 Hipokuratesu-tachi, feature doctors or rely on his knowledge of medicine. He ...

#6018

Samuel Pilafian

#86804

Overall Influence

1949 - 2019 (70 years)

James Samuel Pilafian was an American tuba player and educator. Biography Pilafian participated in the National Music Camp in Interlochen, MI and was the second tuba player to win the concerto competition. Via his performance at Interlochen, he was awarded scholarships to study at both Dartmouth College and the Tanglewood Music Center. Leonard Bernstein chose Pilafian to perform in the world premier of Bernstein's Mass at the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He earned his bachelor's degree in music at the University of Miami in 1972.

#6019

Carter Burwell

#69466

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Carter Benedict Burwell is an American film composer. He has consistently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. Burwell has also scored other films by other directors such as Bill Condon, Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Martin McDonagh, James Foley, Brian Helgeland, and John Lee Hancock. He has received Academy Awards nominations for Best Original Score for Haynes's Carol and McDonagh's films Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees Of Inisherin .

#6020

Gary N. Powell

#140932

Overall Influence

#6021

Pekka Sammallahti

Pekka Sammallahti

#104826

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Pekka Lars Kalervo Sammallahti is a professor of Sámi languages at the Giellagas Institute at the University of Oulu. A prolific writer, he has published more than 100 books and articles related to Sápmi and the various Sámi languages. Sammallahti has also been a driving force in the work done to create official written languages for a number of Sámi languages.

#6022

Amaal Mallik

#81935

Overall Influence

1991 - Present (35 years)

Amaal Mallik is an Indian music director, composer, singer, music producer, arranger, background scorer, performer and lyricist. He is the elder son of Daboo Malik and Jyothi Malik, and grandson of Sardar Malik. He debuted as a composer in 2014 by composing three songs for Salman Khan's Jai Ho, following it up with the song "Naina" from Khoobsurat. He got widely recognition by composing songs for M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. He is signed on by Sony Music India

#6023

Amitabh Bhattacharya

#73000

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Amitabh Bhattacharya is an Indian lyricist and playback singer who works in Bollywood films. He shot to fame with the film Dev.D with the song "Emotional Atyachar" turning an instant hit. He sang this song under the name "Band Master Rangeela And Rasila". He also lent his voice to this song with Amit Trivedi. He has been continuously writing lyrics for a variety of Bollywood movies since then and has also sung a few of them. Bhattacharya has also maintained a close association with Amit Trivedi since their first film Aamir. He has written the lyrics or sang for most of the film albums composed by the latter.

#6024

Gunnar von Proschwitz

#133110

Overall Influence

1922 - 2005 (83 years)

Gunnar von Proschwitz was a Swedish Romance philologist. von Proschwitz was born in Tölö in Halland. He was a son of Adolf von Proschwitz, a school principal, and Märta Löndén. He grew up in Göteborg, where he graduated from high school in 1941. He began his studies at the Göteborg University College in the same year, earning his bachelor's degree in 1944, his master's degree in 1946, his licentiate degree in 1946 and finally his PhD in 1958. He then worked as lecturer of French at the university college until 1968, when he was appointed professor of Romance languages, especially French, at Uppsala University, a post he held until 1971.

#6025

Franco Donatoni

#98589

Overall Influence

1927 - 2000 (73 years)

Franco Donatoni was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory and, from 1948, at the Bologna Conservatory.

#6026

Gigi Proietti

#96991

Overall Influence

1940 - 2020 (80 years)

Luigi "Gigi" Proietti was an Italian actor, voice actor, comedian, musician, singer and television presenter. Early life He was born in Rome to Romano Proietti, originally from Umbria, and Giovanna Ceci, a housewife. During his youth he was keen on singing and on playing guitar, piano, accordion and double bass in several Roman nightclubs. He enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the La Sapienza University, where he attended the mimicry courses of the University Theatre Centre held by Giancarlo Cobelli, who immediately noticed his talent as a musician and booked him for an avantgarde play.

#6027

Barbara Funkhouser

#93679

Overall Influence

1930 - 2014 (84 years)

Barbara Funkhouser was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. Funkhouser was the first woman to serve as editor of the El Paso Times, a position she held from 1980 until 1986. Early life She was born on March 1, 1930, at the Hotel Dieu hospital in El Paso, Texas. She was raised on her family's farm in Fairacres, New Mexico, which her parents had purchased in 1924. Her father died when she was just six-years old, leaving her mother to run the family farm with hired farm workers. She graduated from Las Cruces Union High School in nearby Las Cruces, New Mexico, and received her bachelor's degree in 1952 from New Mexico State University.

#6028

Patricia Bosworth

Patricia Bosworth

#96243

Overall Influence

1933 - 2020 (87 years)

Patricia Bosworth was an American journalist, biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University’s school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winner of the Front Page Award for her journalistic achievement in writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.

#6029

Tim Smith

#102264

Overall Influence

1961 - 2020 (59 years)

Timothy Charles Smith was an English musician, record producer and music video director. A singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Smith rose to prominence as the frontman of the rock band Cardiacs, which he co-founded with his brother Jim. In addition to Cardiacs, Smith led, co-led or contributed to The Sea Nymphs, Tim Smith's Extra Special OceanLandWorld and Spratleys Japs. Recognised for the particular complexity, skill and idiosyncrasies of his songs and music, Smith was honoured with the Doctor of Music degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2018, two years before his d...

#6030

Federico Agostini

#103478

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Federico Agostini is an Italian violinist renowned as a soloistist, chamber musician and teacher. Early life Agostini was born in Trieste, Italy. After early training with his grandfather, he studied violin at his hometown's conservatory of music, in Trieste, then in Venice, and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. Salvatore Accardo and Franco Gulli were among his teachers. Agostini made his debut as a soloist at the age of 16, playing Mozart under the baton of the late Carlo Zecchi. Ever since he has performed throughout the world as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra and as concert...

#6031

Natalia Gutman

#113692

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Natalia Grigoryevna Gutman , PAU, is a Russian cellist. She began to study cello at the Moscow Music School with R. Sapozhnikov. She was later admitted to the Moscow Conservatory. She later studied with Mstislav Rostropovich.

#6032

Shirley Temple

#86693

Overall Influence

1928 - 2014 (86 years)

Shirley Temple Black was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat, who was Hollywood's number-one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was named United States Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

#6033

Bill Watrous

#122170

Overall Influence

1939 - 2018 (79 years)

William Russell Watrous III was an American jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his rendition of Sammy Nestico's arrangement of the Johnny Mandel ballad "A Time for Love", which he recorded on a 1993 album of the same name. A self-described "bop-oriented" player, he was well known among trombonists as a master technician and for his mellifluous sound.

#6034

Lisa Cheng

#106771

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Lisa Cheng is a linguist with specialisation in theoretical syntax. She is a Chair Professor of Linguistics and Language at the Department of Linguistics, Leiden University, and one of the founding members of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition.

#6035

Joseph Williams

Joseph Williams

#74528

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Joseph Stanley Williams is an American singer, songwriter and film score composer, best known for his work in the rock band Toto, which he fronted as lead vocalist from 1986 to 1988, 2010 to 2019 and again since 2020. He is a son of film composer John Williams and actress Barbara Ruick and a grandson of jazz drummer Johnny Williams and actors Melville Ruick and Lurene Tuttle.

#6036

Jim W. Corder

#103090

Overall Influence

1929 - 1998 (69 years)

Jimmie Wayne Corder was a scholar of rhetoric. Professor of English at Texas Christian University, Jim W. Corder was a prolific scholar and teacher, producing dozens of books and articles on the history and theory of rhetoric studies and the teaching of writing. He had a cult-like following among those who laud the figurative, creative style that embody his philosophy of rhetoric. Yet, his unique theoretical perspective—often called "Corderian rhetoric"—has not been given extensive attention, consideration, or legitimacy as a theoretical framework among others in English studies. A festschrift was composed in his honor in 2003 edited by Theresa Enos and Keith D.

#6037

Madeleine Peyroux

Madeleine Peyroux

#81392

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Madeleine Peyroux is an American jazz singer and songwriter who began her career as a teenager on the streets of Paris. She sang vintage jazz and blues songs before finding mainstream success in 2004 when her album Careless Love sold half a million copies.

#6038

Benny Green

#101989

Overall Influence

1927 - 1998 (71 years)

Bernard "Benny" Green was a British jazz saxophonist who was also known for his radio shows and books. Early life His parents were David and Fanny Green. David was a tailor and saxophonist. They met while David was playing with a band in Leeds. They married in London in 1926 and initially lived with David's father, an immigrant Russian-Jewish tailor, at 1 Greenwell Street, London. Benny Green was born in Leeds because his mother wanted to be near her own family for the birth, but they soon returned to London, to a basement flat in Cleveland Street. Here he became a musician, writer and broad...

#6039

Marion Brown

#91001

Overall Influence

1931 - 2010 (79 years)

Marion Brown was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist, and ethnomusicologist. He was a member of the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City during the 1960s, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. He performed on Coltrane's landmark 1965 album Ascension. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow described him as "one of the brightest and most lyrical voices of the 1960s avant-garde."

#6040

Ronald Crutcher

#34196

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Ronald Andrew Crutcher is an American classical musician and academic administrator who served as a professor of music and 10th president of the University of Richmond from 2015 to 2021. Early life Crutcher is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Miami University, where he graduated cum laude. He pursued graduate studies at Yale University as a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation Fellow. In 1979, he was the first cellist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale. The recipient of a Fulbright Award, he is fluent in German and studied music at the University of Bonn.

#6041

Koko Taylor

#87662

Overall Influence

1928 - 2009 (81 years)

Koko Taylor was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for her rough, powerful vocals. Over the course of her career, she was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, winning 1985's Best Traditional Blues Album for her appearance on Blues Explosion.

#6042

Paul Rudolph

#93756

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Paul Fraser Rudolph is a Canadian guitarist, bassist, singer, and cyclist. He made his mark in the UK underground music scene, and then as a session musician, before returning to Canada to indulge his passion for cycling. He resided in Gibsons, British Columbia, where he owned and operated a bicycle business, Spin Cycle. He has since retired to Victoria, British Columbia.

#6043

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

#80403

Overall Influence

1924 - 2005 (81 years)

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!. Early life Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, and raised near Orange, Texas. His father was a railroad worker and local musician who taught him several musical instruments, including fiddle by age 5; as well as piano and guitar. He had at least one brother.

#6044

Nancy Wilson

#56336

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Nancy L. Wilson is an American cleric who served as the moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Under Wilson's leadership, the denomination became known as "The Human Rights Church" in many parts of the world for its commitment to same-sex marriage, employment and housing non-discrimination laws.

#6045

Don Grierson

#61281

Overall Influence

1941 - 2019 (78 years)

#6046

Andrei Bantaș

#100258

Overall Influence

1930 - 1997 (67 years)

Andrei Bantaş was a Romanian lexicographer, translator and teacher. He was professor of English language and literature at the University of Bucharest, Romania. Together with Leon Levițchi he is one of the best known authors of English/Romanian dictionaries.

#6047

Mithoon

#86014

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (41 years)

Mithun Sharma , also known as Mithoon, is an Indian Hindi film music director, lyricist-composer and singer. Mithoon composed the Hindi song "Tum Hi Ho" from the 2013 Bollywood romantic film Aashiqui 2. Mithoon received the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, and in 2014 received a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist in the 59th Filmfare Awards. He wrote and composed one of the most streamed Hindi songs on YouTube, "Sanam Re". The song was honoured with the award of "Most Streamed Song of 2016" at the Global Indian Music Academy Awards. Mithoon launched the singer Arijit Singh ...

#6048

Barkley L. Hendricks

Barkley L. Hendricks

#30226

Overall Influence

1945 - 2017 (72 years)

Barkley L. Hendricks was a contemporary American painter who made pioneering contributions to Black portraiture and conceptualism. While he worked in a variety of media and genres throughout his career , Hendricks' best known work took the form of life-sized painted oil portraits of Black Americans.

#6049

Lloyd Kaufman

#63240

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their feature films, such as The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet. Many of the strategies employed by him at Troma have been credited with making the film industry significantly more accessible and decentralized.

#6050

John Mathieson Anderson

#118035

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

John Mathieson Anderson, FBA is a British linguist and academic. He is Emeritus Professor of English Language at the University of Edinburgh. In the 1970s, Anderson revived the idea of localism, which is the linguistic theory that all grammatical cases, including syntactic cases, are based on a local meaning; however Anderson used a generative approach to the idea. Collaborating with Colin J. Ewen, he wrote the first detailed overview of the theory of dependency phonology in their 1987 work Principles of Dependency Phonology.

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