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 Communications,

#7051

Peter Daland

#78222

Overall Influence

1921 - 2014 (93 years)

Peter Daland was an International Swimming Hall of Fame coach from the United States, best-known for coaching the University of Southern California Trojans team to nine NCAA championships from 1957-1992.

#7052

Anton Fier

#82855

Overall Influence

1956 - 2022 (66 years)

John Anton Fier III was an American drummer, producer, composer, and bandleader. He led The Golden Palominos, an experimental rock group active from the 1980s to 2010. Family Fier, known as Tony, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Ruthe Marie Fier and Anton J. Fier Jr., a former Marine and electrician. His parents separated when he was young and he lived with his stepfather, a polka musician.

#7053

Bob McDill

#95642

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Robert Lee McDill is a retired American songwriter, active from the 1960s until 2000. During his career he wrote or co-wrote 31 number one country hits. His songs were also recorded by popular artists of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including The Grateful Dead, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Anne Murray, and B. J. Thomas. His music credits in film include Primary Colors, The Thing Called Love, Texasville, and the documentary Grizzly Man. In addition to four Grammy nominations McDill received Songwriter of the Year awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

#7054

Heinz Hennig

#76358

Overall Influence

1927 - 2002 (75 years)

Heinz Hennig was a German choral conductor and an academic teacher, known for founding the Knabenchor Hannover in 1950 and leading it until 2001. Career Born in Burg bei Magdeburg, Heinz Hennig was educated at the boarding school Musisches Gymnasium Frankfurt, namely by Kurt Thomas. He studied in Hannover.

#7055

Wolfgang Holzmair

#126091

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Wolfgang Holzmair is an Austrian baritone. Holzmair studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He won 2nd prize in the baritone class of the 's-Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition in 1981, and a year later 1st prize in the Musikverein International Lieder Competition, Vienna.

#7056

Christoph Hammer

#128735

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Christoph Hammer is a German conductor, forte piano player, musicologist and specialist of historically informed performance. Life Youth Born in Ensdorf, Hammer passed the Abitur at the in 1985. He then studied Germanistic and musicology at the University of Munich and the University of California in Los Angeles as a scholarship holder of the and the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.

#7057

Sneaky Pete Kleinow

Sneaky Pete Kleinow

#75053

Overall Influence

1934 - 2007 (73 years)

Peter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow was an American country-rock musician and animator. He is best known as a member of the band The Flying Burrito Brothers and as a session musician playing pedal steel guitar for such artists as Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, The Byrds, Leonard Cohen, Joe Cocker, Rita Coolidge, Eagles, The Everly Brothers, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, The Steve Miller Band, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Spencer Davis, Little Richard, Linda Ronstadt, Jimmie Spheeris and many others. He is a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.

#7058

Martha Crago

#66623

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Martha Crago is the Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation at McGill University. She is an internationally known expert on language acquisition, specializing in studying language acquisition across languages and learner groups. Crago received a B.A. in sociology and anthropology from McGill University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders from McGill in 1988. She was employed at McGill from 1971 to 2005 and the University of Montreal from 2005 to 2007. She was the Vice-president of Research at Dalhousie University from 2007 until accepting her current position. She ...

#7059

Joseph Yahalom

#34268

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Joseph Yahalom is a professor of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 1983, he has been a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. Biography Joseph Yahalom was born in Haifa. In 1960, he graduated from Lifshitz College of Education in Jerusalem. In 1962, he completed his B.A. in Hebrew Language and Literature at the Hebrew University. In 1967, he was awarded an M.A. in Hebrew Language from the Hebrew University. In 1973, he completed his Ph.D. at the Hebrew University.

#7060

Stephanie Waring

Stephanie Waring

#119291

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Stephanie Louise Waring is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Cindy Cunningham in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. In addition to her work on Hollyoaks, she has also had roles on Coronation Street, Doctors, Holby City, Crash Palace and Merseybeat, as well as competing in the tenth series of Dancing on Ice.

#7061

Bobby Smith

#111692

Overall Influence

1936 - 2013 (77 years)

Robert Steel Smith , professionally known as Bobby Smith, also spelled Bobbie, was an American R&B singer notable as the principal lead singer of the classic Motown/Philly group, The Spinners , throughout its history. He was principal lead singer from its formation in 1954 when he was eighteen, until his death in 2013.

#7062

Eliso Virsaladze

Eliso Virsaladze

#126052

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Eliso Virsaladze is a Georgian pianist. Biography She was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. Her father Constantine Virsaladze was a prominent doctor and scientist, so was her grandfather Spiridon Virsaladze. She received her first piano lessons at the age of 9 from her grandmother, Anastasia Virsaladze, a well-known pianist and professor in Georgia. From the age of 9, she also started receiving lessons from Heinrich Neuhaus up until his last days. She graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatory , and continued her education as a postgraduate student at the Moscow Conservatory with Yakov Zak. She has also played for A.

#7063

Joshua Fineberg

#122942

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Joshua Fineberg is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Joshua Fineberg was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He began his musical studies at the age of five. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory with Morris Cotel where he won first prize in the bi-annual Virginia Carty de Lillo Composition Competition.

#7064

Maryam Alavi

#162869

Overall Influence

#7065

Carl Weinrich

#90950

Overall Influence

1904 - 1991 (87 years)

Carl Weinrich was an American organist, choral conductor, and teacher. He was particularly known for his recitals and recordings of Bach's organ music and as a leader in the revival of Baroque organ music in the United States during the 1930s.

#7066

Colin Brumby

#125027

Overall Influence

1933 - 2018 (85 years)

Colin James Brumby was an Australian composer and conductor. Biography Brumby was born in Melbourne and educated at the Glen Iris State School, Spring Road Central School, and Melbourne Boys' High School. He studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, from which he graduated in 1957 with a diploma in education. In 1953 he was a finalist in the Australian Youth Aria competition, eventually winning the Lieder Award. He was organist at St. Oswald's Glen Iris from 1950 to 1953. Before travelling to Europe in 1962 he taught in Queensland schools and was for a time the head of music at Kelvin Grove Teacher's College.

#7067

Laila Storch

#133741

Overall Influence

1921 - 2022 (101 years)

Laila Storch was an American oboist. Biography She was the first woman oboist to graduate from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she studied with Marcel Tabuteau. Career Storch was the principal oboist for the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Carmel Bach Festival, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, and the Casals Festivals. Additionally, she played with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Philharmonic, and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. She was professor of oboe at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, for many years at the University of Washingto...

#7068

Hamid Choi

#103962

Overall Influence

Hamid Choi Yong Kil is a South Korean translator and professor of Islamic and Arabic studies at Myongji University. Currently serving as chairperson of Korea Muslim Federation , in 2021 he reportedly became the first Korean Muslim to translate the Quran and Sahih al-Bukhari into Korean language. Choi has also written about ninety articles concerning Islamic studies.

#7069

Elizabeth Wolef Morrison

#163050

Overall Influence

#7070

Seasick Steve

#89449

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Steven Gene Wold , commonly known as Seasick Steve, is an American blues musician. He plays mostly personalized guitars and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work. From the late 1960s, he worked as a musician and recording engineer in the US and Europe; he played bass in Shanti and was in a disco band called Crystal Grass as well as other bands. He also pursued other works, including producing an album for Modest Mouse. He achieved his breakthrough, initially in the UK, at the end of 2006 when he appeared on Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny as Seasick Steve. He has since re...

#7071

Gil Goldstein

#109818

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Gil Goldstein is an American jazz pianist and accordionist. He has won 5 Grammy Awards and he was nominated 8 times . Biography He began studying accordion at age 5 after noticing it in The Lawrence Welk Show and stating he instantly connected with it personally, but later moved on to cello and piano at age 10. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and by 1973 was working with Pat Martino and Lee Konitz. He started with the Gil Evans Orchestra in the early 1980s and also worked with Wayne Shorter, Billy Cobham, and Jim Hall. He returned to accordion for an album by Michel Petrucciani and occasionally uses it on his solo albums.

#7072

Mesías Maiguashca

#117018

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Mesías Maiguashca is an Ecuadorian composer and an advocate of Neue Musik , especially electroacoustic music. Biography Born in Quito, Maiguashca studied music at the Conservatorio Nacional de Quito, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York , with Alberto Ginastera at the Instituto di Tella in Buenos Aires, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1965–66 he returned to Quito to teach at the National Conservatory, but then moved back to Germany to attend the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, and the Fourth Cologne Courses for New Music in 1966–67 where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen.

#7073

Mundell Lowe

#95197

Overall Influence

1922 - 2017 (95 years)

James Mundell Lowe was an American jazz guitarist who worked often in radio, television, and film, and as a session musician. He produced film and TV scores in the 1970s, such as the Billy Jack soundtrack and music for Starsky and Hutch, and worked with André Previn's Trio in the 1990s.

#7074

Joan Braderman

#51654

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Joan Braderman is an American video artist, director, performer, and writer. Braderman's video works are considered to have created her signature style known as "stand up theory." Via this "performative embodiment," she deconstructs and analyzes popular media by inserting chroma-keyed cut-outs of her own body into appropriated mass media images, where she interrogates the representation of ideology and the transparency of photographic space in U.S. popular culture.

#7075

Michael Lee

#110157

Overall Influence

1969 - 2008 (39 years)

Michael Lee was an English drummer best known for touring and recording in the 1990s with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Biography Born in Darlington, Lee started his professional career as drummer with Little Angels, a band from Scarborough who became one of the primary British rock acts of the early 1990s. Lee was replaced in Little Angels during their Young Gods tour by Mark Richardson, after it was discovered he had auditioned for the Cult behind their backs. He went on to play the full Ceremony world tour with the Cult in 1991 and 1992.

#7076

James Mitchell

#99648

Overall Influence

1920 - 2010 (90 years)

James Mitchell was an American actor and dancer. Although he is best known to television audiences as Palmer Cortlandt on the soap opera All My Children , theatre and dance historians remember him as one of Agnes de Mille's leading dancers. Mitchell's skill at combining dance and acting was considered something of a novelty; in 1959, the critic Olga Maynard singled him out as "an important example of the new dancer-actor-singer in American ballet", pointing to his interpretive abilities and "masculine" technique.

#7077

Paul O'Neill

#107957

Overall Influence

1956 - 2017 (61 years)

Paul O'Neill was an American composer, lyricist, record producer, and guitarist. He was the producer of the progressive metal band Savatage, and the founder of the rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

#7078

Jasone Cenoz

#163387

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

#7079

Otomo Yoshihide

#105958

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. He mainly plays guitar, turntables, and electronics. He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical. He is also a pioneering figure in the EAI-scene, and is featured on important records on labels like Erstwhile Records. He has composed music for many films, television dramas, and commercials. In 2017, Otomo became the 2nd Guest Ar...

#7080

Steve Pedersen

#47641

Overall Influence

Steve Pederson is an American guitarist from Omaha, Nebraska. He left Cursive in 1998 to attend law school at Duke University in North Carolina, after graduating from Creighton University with a degree in political science. At Duke, he started the band The White Octave, which released two albums and appeared on a few samplers. When Pedersen graduated, he returned to Omaha, Nebraska, started Criteria, and began working at Kutak Rock LLP.

#7081

Hugues Goosse

#163438

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

#7082

Siegfried Palm

#86704

Overall Influence

1927 - 2005 (78 years)

Siegfried Palm was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki and Zimmermann wrote music for him. He was also Rektor of the Hochschule für Musik Köln and Intendant of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

#7083

Pamela Lynn Perrewe

#163475

Overall Influence

#7084

Beat Furrer

#124336

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Beat Furrer is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018.

#7085

Ben Smith

#95649

Overall Influence

1905 - Present (121 years)

Benjamin J. Smith was an American jazz alto saxophonist, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He was born in Memphis. Early career In the early 1920s, Smith played with local Memphis jazz bands before going on the road with territory bands such as the Connor and McWilliams Boston Serenaders, William Holloway and the Merrymakers, and Eli Rice's Plantation Cotton Pickers.

#7086

Jeff Hanneman

#40332

Overall Influence

1964 - 2013 (49 years)

Jeffrey John Hanneman was an American musician, best known as a founding member and guitarist of the thrash metal band Slayer. Hanneman composed both music and lyrics for every Slayer album until his death in 2013. He had his own signature guitar, the ESP Jeff Hanneman Signature model.

#7087

Robert Starer

#129031

Overall Influence

1924 - 2001 (77 years)

Robert Starer was an Austrian-born American composer, pianist and educator. Robert Starer began studying the piano at age 4 and continued his studies at the Vienna State Academy. After the 1938 plebiscite in which Austria voted for annexation by Nazi Germany, Starer left for Palestine and studied at the Jerusalem Conservatory with Josef Tal. In World War II he served in the British Royal Air Force, and in 1947 he settled in the United States. He studied composition at the Juilliard School in New York with Frederick Jacobi, then with Aaron Copland in 1948 and received a postgraduate degree from Juilliard in 1949.

#7088

Mike White

#83271

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Michael Christopher White is an American writer, actor, and producer for television and film. He has won numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for the 2000 film Chuck & Buck, which he wrote and starred in. He has written the screenplays for films such as School of Rock and has directed several films that he has written, such as Brad's Status . He was a co-creator, executive producer, writer, director, and actor on the HBO series Enlightened. White is also known for his appearances on reality television, competing on two seasons of The Amazing Race and later becoming a contestant and runner-up on Survivor: David vs.

#7089

Dmitri Bashkirov

#120303

Overall Influence

1931 - 2021 (90 years)

Dmitri Aleksandrovich Bashkirov was a Russian pianist and academic teacher. Trained in his hometown Tbilisi and Moscow, he began an international career as a soloist when he won the Marguerite Long Piano Competition in Paris in 1955. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1957 to 1991, and at the Queen Sofia College of Music in Madrid from 1991 to 2021. He taught also as a guest at other international conservatories and he is regarded as a representative of the Russian piano school.

#7090

Steve Phillips

#120176

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Nicholas Stephen Phillips is an English blues and country musician, as well as guitar maker and painter. He is mainly renowned for being part of the supergroup The Notting Hillbillies along with the Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and Brendan Croker.

#7091

Archie Boston Jr.

#155847

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Archie Boston Jr. is an American graphic artist and retired professor. Born to an impoverished family in a small town in southern Florida, Boston received an education in graphic design at Chouinard Art Institute located in Los Angeles. During school and after graduation, he worked in numerous ad agencies based in Los Angeles before forming Boston & Boston Design with his brother Bradford in 1967—one of the first Black-owned agencies in the United States. In 1972, at age 29, he became the president of the Art Director Club of Los Angeles, the second-largest in the nation. He was the first Bla...

#7092

Tatiana Nikolayeva

Tatiana Nikolayeva

#108205

Overall Influence

1924 - 1993 (69 years)

Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva was a pianist, composer, and teacher from the Soviet Union. Life Nikolayeva was born in Bezhitsa, in the Bryansk district, on May 4, 1924. Her mother was a professional pianist and studied at the Moscow Conservatory under the renowned pedagogue Alexander Goldenweiser, and her father was an amateur violinist and cellist. Nikolayeva won first prize in the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, which was founded to mark the bicentenary of Bach's death in 1750. Dmitri Shostakovich, who was a member of the jury, composed and dedicated the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op.

#7093

Ken Freeman

#122402

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Ken Freeman is a British composer and session musician, primarily playing piano and synthesiserss. He is most prominently known for his work playing most of the synthesisers on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, and also as the composer of the theme music for BBC television's Casualty and Holby City. His session career has included work with artists including Justin Hayward, David Essex and Elkie Brooks.

#7094

Stephen Mcadams

#163813

Overall Influence

#7095

Aniruddh Dhiren Patel

#163833

Overall Influence

#7096

Marijn van Dijk

Marijn van Dijk

#45899

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (47 years)

Marijn van Dijk is a Dutch linguist. She is currently an associate professor of developmental psychology at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences of the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

#7097

John Scott

#119758

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (96 years)

John Scott , also known as Johnny Scott and Patrick John Scott, is an English film composer and music conductor. Scott has collaborated with well-known directors and producers, including Mark Damon, Richard Donner, Charlton Heston, Mike Hodges, Hugh Hudson, Norman Jewison, Irvin Kershner, Ilaiyaraaja, Daniel Petrie, Roger Spottiswoode, and Norman J. Warren.

#7098

Susan Hanson

#130267

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Susan Hanson is an English actress who played the part of Diane Lawton in the long-running British soap opera Crossroads from 1965–87, when her character was controversially killed off. She also had a brief role in the film Catch Us If You Can starring The Dave Clark Five.

#7099

David Blake

#110640

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

David Blake is an English composer and founder member of the Department of Music at the University of York. Early life and education Blake was born in London. Following national service, he learnt Mandarin Chinese and spent one year in Hong Kong. He went on to read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where his teachers were Patrick Hadley, Peter Tranchell and Raymond Leppard. He was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship for Composition in 1960, and, uniquely for a British composer of his generation, he went to East Berlin to study with Arnold Schoenberg's pupil, the Marxist composer Hanns Eisler, as a Meisterschüler of the GDR Akademie der Künste .

#7100

Jim Dickinson

#86242

Overall Influence

1941 - 2009 (68 years)

James Luther Dickinson was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and raised in Chicago and Memphis. He initially attended Baylor University as a drama major before graduating from Memphis State University, where he became acquainted with the pioneering music journalist Stanley Booth. After receiving his degree, he played on recording sessions for Bill Justis and recorded at Chips Moman's American Studios. Dickinson recorded what has been ...

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions