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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Person Name

School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Communications,

#7851

Ola Balogun

#119084

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Ola Balogun is a Nigerian filmmaker and scriptwriter. He also ventured into the Nigerian music industry in 2001. Balogun, who has been making films for more than three decades, is part of the first generation of Nigerian filmmakers.

#7852

Carl Melles

#141342

Overall Influence

1926 - 2004 (78 years)

Carl Melles was an Austrian orchestral conductor of Hungarian descent. Personal life He married Hungarian noblewoman Judith von Rohonczy , daughter of an actress, Ila Lóth. They are parents of actress Sunnyi Melles, who is married to Prince Peter zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.

#7853

David Attwood

#160047

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

David Attwood is an English filmmaker. Filmography 1987–1988 Rockliffe 5 eps1989 Killing Time1989–1994 The Bill, 18 eps1995 Saigon Baby1996 The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders1998 Shot Through the Heart2000 Summer in the Suburbs2002 Fidel2002 The Hound of the Baskervilles2004 May 332005 To the Ends of the Earth2007 Stuart: A Life Backwards2009 Blood Will Flow

#7854

Betteke van Ruler

Betteke van Ruler

#121890

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Alberta Arnolda "Betteke" van Ruler is emeritus Professor of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. Biography Born in Hilversum, Betteke van Ruler is a scholar in academic theory and practice in public relations and communication science.

#7855

Rudolf Firkušný

Rudolf Firkušný

#131597

Overall Influence

1912 - 1994 (82 years)

Rudolf Firkušný was a Moravian-born, Moravian-American classical pianist. Life Born in the Moravian town of Napajedla, Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and the pianist Vilém Kurz. Later he studied with the legendary pianists Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. He began performing on the continent of Europe in the 1920s, and made his debuts in London in 1933 and New York in 1938. He escaped the Nazis in 1939, fled to Paris, later settled in New York and eventually became a U.S. citizen.

#7856

Sebastian Currier

#130090

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Sebastian Currier is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007. Life Currier was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, in a family of talented musicians, including his brother Nathan Currier, also a noted composer. Sebastian Currier received degrees from the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. His compositions include Crossfade, written for two harps, and Microsymph, described as a "30-minute symphony compressed into 10 minutes."

#7857

Carol Welsman

#152893

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Carol Welsman is a Canadian jazzy pianist who accompanies her own easy listening, conversational style ‘singing’.She is the granddaughter of the founder and first conductor of the first Toronto Symphony Orchestra Frank Welsman and the sister of composer John Welsman. She has been nominated six times for the Juno Award, Canada's equivalent to the Grammy.

#7858

Jerry Goldsmith

#112171

Overall Influence

1929 - 2004 (75 years)

Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise and three in the Rambo franchise, as well as for films including Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, The Omen, Alien, Poltergeist, The Secret of NIMH, Medicine Man, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan, and The Mummy. He also composed the fanfares accompanying the production logos used by multiple major film studios, and music for the Disney...

#7859

Jorge Reina Schement

#115356

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Jorge Reina Schement was dean of what is now the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Schement is a Professor II of Communication, Professor II of Latino-Hispanic Caribbean Studies, and Professor II of Public Policy at Rutgers.

#7860

Russ Freeman

#111287

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Russ Freeman is a smooth jazz guitarist who is the founder and leader of The Rippingtons. Life and career Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Freeman started on guitar when he was ten years old. His first teacher was a session musician in Nashville who knew his father. He followed his teacher around Nashville studios and after six years worked in a variety of sessions as a professional guitarist. Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he found work playing for commercials and with vocalists Engelbert Humperdinck and Anne Murray. He cites George Benson and Larry Carlton as influences.

#7861

Aldo Clementi

#123357

Overall Influence

1925 - 2011 (86 years)

Aldo Clementi was an Italian classical composer. Life Aldo Clementi was born in Catania, Italy. He studied the piano, graduating in 1946 at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. His studies in composition began in 1941, and his teachers included Alfredo Sangiorgi and Goffredo Petrassi. After receiving his diploma in 1954 again at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, he attended the Darmstadt summer courses from 1955 to 1962. Important influences during this period included meeting Bruno Maderna in 1956, and working at the electronic music studio of the Italian radio broadcaster RAI in Milan.

#7862

Tim Berne

#110653

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Tim Berne is an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and record label owner. His primary instruments are the alto and baritone saxophones. Biography Berne was born in Syracuse, New York, United States. He has said that he had no interest in playing an instrument until he attended Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. Hearing the album Dogon A.D. by Julius Hemphill turned his attention toward jazz. He was a fan of rhythm and blues, and it seemed to him that Hemphill was playing jazz with the soulfulness of R&B. In 1974, he went to New York to find Hemphill, who gave him saxophone lessons and advice on how to manage his career.

#7863

Mary Jane Saunders

#32919

Overall Influence

Mary Jane Saunders is an American academic who served as president of Florida Atlantic University from 2010 to 2013. She has a background in scientific research and administration, specializing in biology.

#7864

Brian Johnson

#106289

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Brian Johnson is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. Johnson was one of the founding members of the rock band Geordie formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1971. After a few hit singles, including UK Top 10 "All Because of You" , the band split up in 1978. Following the death of Bon Scott on 19 February 1980, Johnson was asked to audition for AC/DC. AC/DC guitarists and founders Angus and Malcolm Young initially reached out to Brian remembering when Bon had been impressed with him after seeing him perform with Geordie.

#7865

Thomas Hayward

#148362

Overall Influence

1917 - 1995 (78 years)

Thomas T. Hayward was an American operatic tenor. He was a cousin of opera singer Lawrence Tibbett. Career The lyric tenor made his debut with the New York City Opera in November 1944, as Edmondo in Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut, opposite Dorothy Kirsten in the title role.

#7866

Nicholas Payton

#97403

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Nicholas Payton is an American trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist. A Grammy Award winner, he is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a prolific and provocative writer who comments on a multitude of subjects, including music, race, politics, and life in America.

#7867

Peter Martin

#146035

Overall Influence

1934 - 2023 (89 years)

Peter Martin was an English actor. He played Joe Carroll in The Royle Family and Len Reynolds in Emmerdale . As well as this, he appeared in many other productions on both screen and stage. Early life Peter Martin was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, in December 1941. His family were originally from Hull, but were in Gainsborough at the time due to the heavy bombing of Hull by Nazi Germany during the Hull Blitz.

#7868

Ray Collins

#105413

Overall Influence

1936 - 2012 (76 years)

Ray Collins was an American musician. Early life Collins grew up in Pomona, California singing in his school choir, the son of a local police officer. He quit high school to get married. Career Collins started his musical career singing falsetto backup vocals for various doo-wop groups in the Los Angeles area in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Little Julian Herrera and the Tigers. In 1963 Collins co-wrote Memories of El Monte with Frank Zappa. In 1964, Collins, drummer Jimmy Carl Black, bassist Roy Estrada, saxophonist Dave Coronado, and guitarist Ray Hunt formed The Soul Giants.

#7869

Sun-Ah Jun

#157502

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Sun-Ah Jun is a Korean-American professor of linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Education Jun received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Ohio State University in 1993, with a dissertation entitled, The Phonetics and Phonology of Korean Prosody.

#7870

Joel Grey

#109941

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

Joel Grey is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical Cabaret on Broadway as well as in the Bob Fosse directed 1972 film adaptation. He has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award. He earned the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2023.

#7871

Jun Maeda

#112176

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

is a Japanese writer and co-founder of the visual novel brand Key under Visual Arts. He is considered a pioneer of nakige visual novels, and has mainly contributed as a scenario writer, lyricist, and musical composer for the games the company produces. His style was originally inspired by James Herbert Brennan, and is influenced by Haruki Murakami's novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

#7872

Rockwell Blake

#147522

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Rockwell Blake is an American operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. He was the first winner of the Richard Tucker Award. Biography Born and raised in Plattsburgh, NY, Blake was the son of a mink farmer. After graduating from high school in Peru, he studied music first at the State University of New York at Fredonia and then at The Catholic University of America. On leaving Catholic University, he served for three years in the United States Navy as a member of the Sea Chanters male chorus and later as a soloist with the US Navy Band. During that time, he continued...

#7873

Yu Hyun-mok

#124383

Overall Influence

1925 - 2009 (84 years)

Yu Hyun-mok was a South Korean film director. Born in Sariwon, Hwanghae, Korea , he made his film debut in 1956 with Gyocharo . According to the website koreanfilm.org, his 1961 film Obaltan "has repeatedly been voted the best Korean film of all time in local critics' polls." Yu attended the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1963, where Variety called Obaltan a "remarkable film", and praised Yu's "[b]rilliantly detailed camera" and the film's "probing sympathy and rich characterizations."

#7874

Valentina Igoshina

Valentina Igoshina

#152956

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Valentina Igoshina is a Russian classical pianist. She has won several international piano competitions. Biography Valentina Igoshina began studying piano with her mother, and first took lessons at home at the age of four. At the age of twelve she began attending the Moscow Central School of Music for gifted students and became a pupil of Sergei Dorensky and Larissa Dedova at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

#7875

Dwight Gustafson

Dwight Gustafson

#153558

Overall Influence

1930 - 2014 (84 years)

Dwight Leonard Gustafson was an American composer, conductor, and dean of the School of Fine Arts at Bob Jones University. Biography Gustafson was born in Seattle, Washington to Leonard Gustafson, a meat dealer and lay preacher, and Rachel Gustafson, a pianist, harpist, and artist. His childhood home was on Lake Sammamish, and he graduated in 1948 from Queen Anne High School.

#7876

Luther Allison

#120715

Overall Influence

1939 - 1997 (58 years)

Luther Allison was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was Mayflower, Arkansas. Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he toured in a family gospel group called The Southern Travellers. He moved with his family to Chicago in 1951 and attended Farragut High School where he was classmates with Muddy Waters' son. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he dropped out of school and began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform.

#7877

Philippe Monneret

Philippe Monneret

#171311

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Philippe Monneret is a French linguist. He is Professor of Linguistics at University of Burgundy since 2004 and at Paris-Sorbonne University since 2015. In 2003, he founded Les Cahiers de Linguistique Analogique and created the field of analogical linguistics . He is a member of the editorial board of «Romanica Olomucensia».

#7878

Dmitri Kitayenko

#129492

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Dmitri Georgievich Kitayenko is a Soviet and Russian conductor. He was bestowed the title People's Artist of the USSR . He was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union and studied at the Glinka Conservatory and those of Leningrad and Moscow. He was a prizewinner in the first Herbert von Karajan competition in 1969. Kitayenko was music director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra for 14 years. He has also held principal conductorships with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra , the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra , the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra , and the Bern Symphony Orchestra .

#7879

Sarah Jones

#128108

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Sarah Jones is an American playwright, actress, and poet. Called "a master of the genre" by The New York Times, Jones has written and performed four multi-character solo shows, including Bridge & Tunnel, which was produced Off-Broadway in 2004 by Oscar-winner Meryl Streep, and then on to Broadway in 2006 where it received a Special Tony Award.

#7880

Ara Gevorgyan

#115698

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Ara Gevorgyan is an Armenian musician, composer and musical producer. In 2004 he was awarded the Honorary Artist of the Republic of Armenia title by the President Robert Kocharyan. Biography Gevorgyan is the son of Armenian folk-singer Valya Samvelyan. He studied at School #31 of Yerevan and at the A. Tigranyan Musical School at the same time. During the two years he studied at Yerevan #8 college of Fine Arts. From 1983 to 1987 he studied at Armenian State Pedagogical University at the faculty of woodwind instruments and pop music department. In 1987-1989 Gevorgyan taught conducting at the s...

#7881

Petar Atanasov

#141679

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Petar Atanasov is a Megleno-Romanian linguist from North Macedonia. His scientific interests include lexicography and Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Romance linguistics. He was a professor in the Faculty of Philology at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.

#7882

Roy Brown

#121854

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Roy Brown Ramírez is a Puerto Rican musician and singer. Early years Brown's father was an American naval officer and his mother a native of Puerto Rico. Brown was raised during turbulent times in the United States. Among the important issues of those days were racism, the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Most of these events went on to form an important part in his ideals and his way of thinking.

#7883

Marja Leinonen

#143037

Overall Influence

1946 - 2019 (73 years)

Marja-Leena Leinonen was a Finnish linguist. Biography Leinonen graduated from the Varkaus High School in 1967 and completed studies for a correspondent in the Helsinki School of Economics, after which she studied the Russian language and general linguistics at Helsinki University, graduating in 1975. After that she taught linguistics at the university for three years. She completed her Ph.D. in 1983.

#7884

Aya Hirano

#127875

Overall Influence

1987 - Present (39 years)

is a Japanese actress and singer. Beginning in the entertainment industry as a child actor in television commercials, she appeared in her first voice acting role in the anime television series Angel Tales .

#7885

Remo D'Souza

#99189

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Remo D'Souza , is an Indian choreographer, film director, and producer based in Mumbai. He is best known for his work in films such as Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Bajirao Mastani . Over the course of his career spanning more than 25 years, D'Souza has choreographed more than 100 films. He is considered one of the most successful and renowned choreographers in the Bollywood industry and has served as a role model for many Indian choreographers. Additionally, he has been a judge on the dance reality show Dance Plus for seven consecutive seasons.

#7886

Kjell Aartun

#46327

Overall Influence

1925 - 2023 (98 years)

Kjell Aartun was a Norwegian theologian and linguist. He was considered a leading expert on Semitic languages, particularly the Ugaritic language. He was also known for several controversial theories on runic interpretation and the origin of Minoan civilization. Aartun received a government scholarship in 1983 and received HM The King's Medal of Merit in Gold for his scientific work in 2001. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1986.

#7887

François Duchêne

#91278

Overall Influence

1927 - 2005 (78 years)

Louis-François Duchêne was a journalist and political analyst of European integration who wrote for The Economist and was professor emeritus at the University of Sussex. He was influenced by his work with Jean Monnet, from 1953 to 1955 at the European Coal and Steel Community in Luxembourg and later from 1958 to 1962 at Monnet's Action Committee for the United States of Europe in Paris. He was director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies from 1969 to 1974. He wrote an authoritative biography of Monnet titled Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence .

#7888

Hashem Khan

#100638

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Hashem Khan is a Bangladeshi painter. His paintings mostly focus rural life of Bangladesh. He has important contribution to enrich Bangladeshi art and culture. Hashem Khan participated in Bangladesh liberation war and his many artworks on the war. He is the Chairman of Bangladesh National Museum.

#7889

Danny Clinch

#68095

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Danny Clinch is an American photographer and film director. Biography Born in Toms River, New Jersey, Clinch graduated from Toms River High School East in 1982. After attending Ocean County College, he attended the New England School of Photography, a two-year institution located in Boston.

#7890

T. J. Anderson

#145079

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson, Jr. is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator. Early life Born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Anderson has written over 80 works ranging from operas and symphonies to choral pieces, chamber music, and band music. He has composed commissioned works for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and cellist Yo Yo Ma.

#7891

Margaret Eliot

#120333

Overall Influence

1914 - 2011 (97 years)

Margaret Augusta Eliot was an English music teacher and musician. She was a professor of oboe at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and her best-known student was George Martin; in 2011, just before her death at age 97, she appeared in the documentary film Produced by George Martin. In the early 1960s she also taught Paul McCartney to successfully play the recorder, which he later used to effect, for the recording of, "The Fool on the Hill".

#7892

Matthew West

#81901

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Matthew Joseph West is an American contemporary Christian musician and singer-songwriter. He has released five studio albums and is known for his songs "More", "You Are Everything", and "The Motions". He was nominated for five Dove Awards in 2005, two of which were for his major-label debut album, Happy. West won the 2013 American Music Award for Best Contemporary Inspirational Artist.

#7893

Carleton Mabee

#121322

Overall Influence

1914 - 2014 (100 years)

Carleton Mabee was an American writer who won the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for The American Leonardo: The Life of Samuel F B. Morse. Life Mabee was born in Shanghai. He graduated from Bates College, and Columbia University. In 1945, he married Norma Dicking. He was professor emeritus at State University of New York at New Paltz.

#7894

Jack Greene

#115557

Overall Influence

1930 - 2013 (83 years)

Jack Henry Greene was an American country musician. Nicknamed the "Jolly Greene Giant" due to his height and deep voice, Greene was a long time member of the Grand Ole Opry. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Greene is best known for his 1966 hit, "There Goes My Everything". The song dominated the country music charts for nearly two months in 1967 and earned Greene "Male Vocalist of the Year", "Single of the Year", "Album of the Year" and "Song of the Year" honors from the Country Music Association. Greene had a total of five 1 country hits and three others that reached the top ten. Billboar...

#7895

Johan Redström

#41132

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Johan Gunnar Redström is a professor at the Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden since 2012. Previously, he has been Studio Director of the Design Research Unit, Interactive Institute, adjunct professor at the School of Textiles, University of Borås, Associate Research Professor at the Center for Design Research at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a lecturer and program manager of the Masters Program in Interaction Design at the IT University in Gothenburg. His background is in philosophy, music and interaction design. He receive...

#7896

Beyoncé

#93802

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter Beyoncé started performing in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of her debut album Dangerously in Love . She then released the commercially successful solo albums B'Day , I Am... Sasha Fierce , and 4 . After creating her own management company Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé achieved acclaim for releasing the sonically experimental visual albums Beyoncé and Lemonade , which explored multiple societal themes such as feminism, relationships and womanism.

#7897

Mark Helias

#129980

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Mark Helias is an American double bass player and composer born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He started playing the double bass at the age of 20, and studied with Homer Mensch at Rutgers University from 1971 to 1974, then at Yale School of Music from 1974 to 1976. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, The New School, and SIM .

#7898

Benita Valente

#146089

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Benita Valente is an American soprano whose career has encompassed the operatic stage as well as performance of lieder, chamber music and oratorio. She is especially lauded for her interpretations of Mozart and Handel, but she also excelled in certain Verdi roles. The New York Times once referred to her as "as gifted a singer as we have today, worldwide."

#7899

Jim Gordon

#108235

Overall Influence

1945 - 2023 (78 years)

James Beck Gordon was an American musician, songwriter, and convicted murderer. Gordon was a session drummer in the late 1960s and 1970s and was the drummer in the blues rock supergroup Derek and the Dominos.

#7900

M. G. Sreekumar

#81172

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Malabar Gopalan Sreekumar , better known as M.G. Sreekumar is an Indian playback singer, composer, music producer, television presenter and film producer, who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. He has sung more than 25000 songs in various Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Sanskrit. He owns a music company named KMG Musics and the Saregama School of Music in Thiruvananthapuram. Sreekumar has won several awards, including two National Film Awards, three Kerala State Film Awards and 5 Filmfare Awards South. He was also honoured with the Harivarasanam Award by the Government of Kerala in 2016.

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