The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Communications,
#7951
Clarence Myerscough
#162807
Overall Influence
1930 - 2000 (70 years)
Clarence Myerscough was a British violinist. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Paris Conservatoire under Frederick Grinke and Rene Benedetti. He won the All England Violin Competition in the Festival of Britain and came second in the Carl Flesch Competition .
Go to Profile#7952
Gardner Read
#144693
Overall Influence
1913 - 2005 (92 years)
Gardner Read was an American composer and musical scholar. His first musical studies were in piano and organ, and he also took lessons in counterpoint and composition at the School of Music at Northwestern University. In 1932 he was awarded a four-year scholarship to the Eastman School of Music , where he studied with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. In the late 1930s he also studied briefly with Ildebrando Pizzetti, and Aaron Copland.
Go to Profile#7953
Olu Dara
#91569
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Olu Dara Jones is an American cornetist, guitarist, and singer. He is the father of rapper Nas. Early life Olu Dara was born Charles Jones III on January 12, 1941, in Natchez, Mississippi. His mother, Ella Mae Jones, was born in Canton, Mississippi. His father, Charlie R Jones, born in Natchez, was a traveling musician, and sang with The Melodiers, a vocal quartet with a guitarist.
Go to Profile#7954
Sakari Oramo
#113547
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Sakari Markus Oramo, is a Finnish conductor. He is chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Biography and career Oramo was born in Helsinki and started his career as a violinist and concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1989, he enrolled in Jorma Panula's conducting class at the Sibelius Academy. In 1993, just one year after completing the course, he stood in for a sick conductor with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. This led to his appointment as co-principal conductor. Oramo has also worked with Finland's Avanti! ensemble. Oramo became principal guest conductor of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in 1995, and one of its principal conductors in 2009.
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William Ross
#82785
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
William Ross is an American composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor and music director. Ross is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards , one Daytime Emmy Award , and has been nominated for one Annie Award . He has been nominated twice for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist.
Go to Profile#7956
Xavier de Maistre
#167777
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Xavier de Maistre is a French harpist. Early life Maistre began studying the harp in his hometown conservatory in Toulon at the age of nine. Later he travelled to Paris to perfect his technique with Jacqueline Borot and Catherine Michel parallel to studying Political Sciences and Economics at the London School of Economics.
Go to Profile#7957
Alexey Parygin
#78366
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Alexey Borisovich Parygin is a Soviet and Russian artist, philosopher, art historian, art theorist and curator. He is the author of several philosophical art projects, including Contemplation of Money , Art is a Business , Art in the Forest , City as an Artist's Subjectivity , Posturbanism Art Project .
Go to Profile#7958
Phyllis Sellick
#155011
Overall Influence
1911 - 2007 (96 years)
Phyllis Sellick, OBE was a British pianist and teacher, best known for her partnership with her pianist husband Cyril Smith. Biography Born at Ilford, Essex, Phyllis Sellick started to play the piano by ear at the age of three and had her first music lesson on her fifth birthday. Four years later she won the Daily Mirrors "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" contest for young musicians and was awarded two years' private tuition with Cuthbert Whitemore, subsequently winning an open scholarship to continue her study with him at the Royal Academy of Music. She later studied with Isidor Philipp in Paris. Sh...
Go to Profile#7959
Jack Douglas
#54501
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Jack Douglas is an American record producer. He is known for his work with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, and the New York Dolls, among other rock artists in the 1970s and 1980s; notably he produced three successful albums for Aerosmith.
Go to Profile#7960
Michael Otterman
#135668
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Michael Otterman is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker based in New York City and Sydney. He graduated from Boston University, with a BSc in Journalism, and from the University of Sydney with a MLitt where he is a visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies .
Go to Profile#7961
Savion Glover
#91722
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. Early life The youngest of three sons, Glover was born to a white father, who left the family before he was born, and a black mother. Glover's great grandfather on his mother's side, Dick Lundy, was a shortstop in the Negro leagues. He managed eleven Negro league baseball teams, including the Newark Eagles. His grandfather, Bill Lewis, was a big band pianist and vocalist. His grandmother, Anna Lundy Lewis, was the minister of music at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. She played for Whitney Houston when she was singing in the gospel choir, and was the one who first noticed Savion's musical talent.
Go to Profile#7962
Andrew Lloyd Webber
#123319
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.
Go to Profile#7963
Silvio Ceccato
#17801
Overall Influence
1914 - 1997 (83 years)
Silvio Ceccato was an Italian philosopher and linguist. Born in Montecchio Maggiore, he studied law and music. In 1949 he founded the international magazine Methodos, which was published until 1964.
Go to Profile#7964
Nils Petter Molvær
#104663
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Nils Petter Molvær also known as NPM is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter, composer, and record producer. He is considered a pioneer of future jazz, a genre that fuses jazz and electronic music, best showcased on his most commercially successful album, Khmer.
Go to Profile#7965
Dorothy Sucher
#92105
Overall Influence
1933 - 2010 (77 years)
Dorothy Sucher was an American author and psychotherapist who worked as a reporter at the Greenbelt News Review, where an article that she wrote that quoted critics of a developers calling his plans "blackmail" initially resulted in a $17,500 judgement against the paper. The U.S. Supreme Court would later overturn the lower court verdict, ruling in Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Assn. v. Bresler that the use of "rhetorical hyperbole" in such cases is covered by the First Amendment, a major victory that supported Freedom of the press in the United States.
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Noah Baerman
#142724
Overall Influence
Noah Baerman is an American jazz pianist and educator best known in Connecticut's jazz circles. Early life and education Baerman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in jazz studies from Rutgers University. During college, Baerman was mentored by Kenny Barron.
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Michael Davis
#116258
Overall Influence
1943 - 2012 (69 years)
Michael Davis was an American bass guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer, best known as a member of the MC5. MC5 After dropping out of the fine arts program at Wayne State University, Davis became the bassist for the MC5 in 1964, replacing original bassist Pat Burrows when singer Rob Tyner and guitarist Wayne Kramer decided that they liked Davis's style and wanted him in the band. He played on the band's three original albums, including their debut Kick Out the Jams, and remained in the group until 1972. In 1975–6, Davis spent time in Kentucky's Lexington Federal Prison on a drug c...
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Thomas G:son
#119109
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Thomas Gustafsson , known professionally as Thomas G:son, is a Swedish composer and musician born in Skövde, Västergötland. He is best known for the 99 songs he has written for the national selections of 12 countries for the Eurovision Song Contest: 61 for Sweden, 11 for Spain, six for Norway, five for Denmark and Finland, three for Georgia, two each for Poland and Malta, and one each for Cyprus, Latvia, Romania and Belgium. He reached the milestone of 60 entries at Melodifestivalen at the 2020 edition. His songs have also reached the Eurovision Song Contest 15 times, four times for Sweden, three times each for Spain and Georgia, twice for Cyprus and once each for Norway, Denmark and Malta.
Go to Profile#7969
Christoph Schlingensief
#96980
Overall Influence
1960 - 2010 (50 years)
Christoph Maria Schlingensief was a German theatre director, performance artist, and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festivals, often accompanied by public controversies. In the final years before his death, he staged Wagner's Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival and worked at several opera houses, establishing himself as a Regietheater artist.
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Dave Douglas
#101609
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator. His career includes more than fifty recordings as a leader and more than 500 published compositions. His ensembles include the Dave Douglas Quintet; Sound Prints, a quintet co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano; Uplift, a sextet with bassist Bill Laswell; Present Joys with pianist Uri Caine and Andrew Cyrille; High Risk, an electronic ensemble with Shigeto, Jonathan Aaron, and Ian Chang; and Engage, a sextet with Jeff Parker, Tomeka Reid, Anna Webber, Nick Dunston, and Kate Gentile.
Go to Profile#7971
Antoine Tamestit
#154946
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Antoine Tamestit is a French violist. Tamestit studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Jean Sulem, and further with Jesse Levine at Yale University, and with Tabea Zimmermann. He was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2004 to 2006.
Go to Profile#7972
Rick Prelinger
#114898
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Rick Prelinger is an American archivist, writer, and filmmaker. A professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Prelinger is best known as the founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur films acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 after 20 years' operation.
Go to Profile#7973
Sven Helbig
#115965
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Sven Helbig is a German composer, director and music producer. He composes orchestral, chamber and choral music. Beside this, he is active in the field of electronic music . Helbig's versatility has made him a much sought-after producer for crossover projects; he has worked as a producer, composer and arranger with Rammstein, Pet Shop Boys, Snoop Dogg, the Fauré Quartet, cellist Jan Vogler, opera singer René Pape, pianist Olga Scheps and more. Helbig's work builds on the tradition of the Gesamtkunstwerk and he often takes responsibility for concept, music and production at the same time.
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Al Freeman Jr.
#93208
Overall Influence
1934 - 2012 (78 years)
Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr. was an American actor, director, and educator. A life member of The Actors Studio, Freeman appeared in a wide variety of plays, ranging from Leroi Jones' Slave/Toilet to Joe Papp's revivals of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Troilus and Cressida, and films, including My Sweet Charlie, Finian's Rainbow, and Malcolm X, as well as television series and soap operas, such as One Life to Live, The Cosby Show, Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street and The Edge of Night.
Go to Profile#7975
Nicola LeFanu
#123222
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Nicola Frances LeFanu is a British composer, academic, lecturer and director. Life Nicola LeFanu was born in Wickham Bishops, Essex, England, to William LeFanu and Elizabeth Maconchy . She studied at St Hilda's College, Oxford, before taking up a Harkness Fellowship at Harvard. In 1972 she won the Mendelssohn Scholarship. She later became Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School , taught at King's College London , and was then a Professor of Music at the University of York, where she was Head of Department from 1994 to 2001. She retired from teaching in 2008.
Go to Profile#7976
Al Grey
#126571
Overall Influence
1925 - 2000 (75 years)
Al Grey was an American jazz trombonist who was a member of the Count Basie orchestra. He was known for his plunger mute technique and wrote an instructional book in 1987 called Plunger Techniques. Career Al Grey was born in Aldie, Virginia, United States, and grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He was introduced to the trombone at the age of four, playing in a band called the Goodwill Boys, which was led by his father. During World War II he served in the U.S. Navy, where he continued to play the trombone. Soon after his discharge, he joined Benny Carter's band, then the bands of Jimmie Lunceford, Lucky Millinder, and Lionel Hampton.
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Mac Wiseman
#93589
Overall Influence
1925 - 2019 (94 years)
Malcolm Bell Wiseman was an American bluegrass and country singer. Early life He was born on May 23, 1925, in Crimora, Virginia. He attended school in New Hope, Virginia, and graduated from high school there in 1943. He had polio from the age of six months; due to his disabilities, he could not do field work and spent his time in childhood listening to old records. He studied at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Dayton, Virginia, before it moved to Winchester, Virginia, in 1960 and started his career as a disc jockey at WSVA-AM in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
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Heshimu Jaramogi
#160648
Overall Influence
1952 - 2020 (68 years)
Heshimu Jaramogi was a journalist known for his experience as a pioneer in multimedia journalism. One of his most popular outlets was his own newspaper, "The Neighborhood Leader." He also wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer and tried his hand at Philadelphia radio. His career spanned forty years, peaking as the president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists.
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Wayne Smith
#138085
Overall Influence
1965 - 2014 (49 years)
Wayne Smith was a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician best known for his 1985 hit "Under Me Sleng Teng", which is regarded as the track which initiated the digital era of reggae. Biography Smith grew up in the Waterhouse area of Kingston, Jamaica. He performed with sound systems and began recording in 1980 at age 14, initially working with producer Prince Jammy, his next door neighbour, who produced his debut album Youthman Skanking and the 1985 follow-up Smoker Super.
Go to Profile#7980
Sonny Bono
#103872
Overall Influence
1935 - 1998 (63 years)
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife, Cher, as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republican Party, Bono served as the 16th mayor of Palm Springs, California, from 1988 to 1992, and served as the U.S. representative for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.
Go to Profile#7981
Hildegard Knef
#140652
Overall Influence
1925 - 2002 (77 years)
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was a German actress, singer, and writer. She was billed in some English-language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff. Early years Hildegard Knef was born in Ulm in 1925. Her parents were Hans Theodor and Friede Augustine Knef. Her father, a decorated First World War veteran, died when she was only six months old, and her mother moved to Berlin and worked in a factory. Knef began studying acting at age 14 in 1940. She left school at 15 to become an apprentice animator with Universum Film AG. After she had a successful screen test, she went to the State Film School at Babelsberg, Berlin, where she studied acting, ballet, and elocution.
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Cynthia Clawson
#112648
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Cynthia Clawson is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel singer. She has been called "The most awesome voice in gospel music" by Billboard Magazine, and has received five Dove Awards, 15 Dove Award nominations, and a Grammy for her work.
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Yogaraj Bhat
#97693
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Yogaraj Bhat is an Indian film-maker, director, screenwriter, lyricist and producer who primarily works in Kannada cinema. He is most known for the 2006 film Mungaru Male. The film recorded the highest box-office collections in the history of Kannada cinema at the time of its release and the longest running film at a multiplex.
Go to Profile#7984
Andrew White
#156225
Overall Influence
1942 - 2020 (78 years)
Andrew White was an American jazz and R&B multi-instrumentalist , musicologist and publisher. Biography White was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, completing his public school education there. He returned to Washington, D.C., in September 1960 to attend Howard University. He graduated in June 1964, cum laude, with a Bachelor of Music degree, majoring in music theory, and with a minor in oboe. After his four years at Howard University, he attended the Paris Conservatory of Music, in Paris, France, on a John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship for continued study of t...
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Nathan Laube
#143675
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Nathan J. Laube is an American organist. He is currently Associate Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music having previously taught there from 2013 to 2020. He was previously on the organ faculty at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart, Germany. Laube is also the International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the United Kingdom. He is regarded as "one of the best organists of his generation in the United States".
Go to Profile#7986
Ryan Ross
#61111
Overall Influence
1986 - Present (40 years)
George Ryan Ross III is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his work as the former lead guitarist, backing and lead vocalist, and primary songwriter of the American rock band Panic! at the Disco before his departure in 2009. He alongside former Panic! bassist Jon Walker formed the Young Veins later that same year, in which Ross was the lead vocalist and guitarist. They broke up in 2010.
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Joel Torre
#99861
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
José Rizalino de León Torre , professionally known as Joel Torre, is a Filipino actor and producer who is best known for his numerous films such as the biographical film José Rizal , crime thriller film On the Job and the historical drama Amigo , with the latter winning him the Best Actor Award at the 17th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.
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Zdzisław Wąsik
#136654
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Zdzisław Wąsik is a Polish linguist and semiotician, Rector Senior and Professor Ordinarius at the Philological School of Higher Education in Wrocław and Professor Senior at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
Go to Profile#7989
John Longhurst
#88236
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
John Longhurst is an organist for the Tabernacle Choir from 1977 through 2007. He is also noted for writing the music to the Latter-day Saint hymn "I Believe in Christ" and being one of the few main forces behind the design of the Conference Center organ. He is the author of Magnum Opus: The Building of the Schoenstein Organ at the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a child, Longhurst lived on a ranch near Placerville, California. In 1949, his father died and the family subsequently moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. As a young man, Longhurst served as a mi...
Go to Profile#7990
Michael Davis
#114405
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Michael Davis is an American jazz trombonist from San Jose, California. External links Hip-bone music
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Valerie Coleman
#133449
Overall Influence
Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as the creator of the wind quintet Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Coleman's Umoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed.
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David Adams
#122731
Overall Influence
1928 - 2007 (79 years)
David Adams, was a Canadian ballet dancer and a founding member of the National Ballet of Canada. Early career After his training under Gweneth Lloyd at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, David began his performing career with England's Metropolitan Ballet. Here he met Celia Franca, who would become the founding Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada. He also shared the stage with Eric Bruhn, Sonia Arova and John Taras, performing Design With Strings, Dances from Galanta and other works in a tour of Scandinavia.
Go to Profile#7993
Tom Oliver
#107411
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Tom Oliver is a British-born Australian retired actor who started his career in theatre in his native country, before emigrating to Australia. Oliver, a staple of the small screen since the early 1960s, is best known for his TV soap opera roles, most especially Neighbours as Lou Carpenter, a role he played for 25 years. The character was known for his constant sparring with Harold Bishop, and his trademark dirty laugh, which he previously utilised in an earlier role on TV soapNumber 96 as Jack Sellers. Oliver has stated that it was inspired by the comic actor Sid James.
Go to Profile#7994
Terry Taylor
#157710
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Terence Martin "Terry" Taylor is an English guitarist, arranger and songwriter, who started to become known in the latter half of the 1960s as a band member of the group The End, who had a few singles and also a 1969 album release called Introspection. They were produced by Bill Wyman and the album included Charlie Watts playing tabla on the song Shades of Orange. Taylor was one of the members that then played in the follow-up band Tucky Buzzard, who were produced by Bill Wyman.
Go to Profile#7995
Paul Mealor
#129743
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Paul Mealor CStJ CLJ OSS FRSA is a Welsh composer. A large proportion of his output is for chorus, both a cappella and accompanied. He came to wider notice when his motet Ubi Caritas et Amor was performed at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. He later composed the song "Wherever You Are", which became the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart. He has also composed two operas, four symphonies, concerti and chamber music.
Go to Profile#7996
Ronald Smith
#146393
Overall Influence
1922 - 2004 (82 years)
Ronald Bertram Smith was a British classical pianist and teacher. Birth and education Smith was born in London, and grew up in Sussex. He was educated at Lewes County Grammar School and the Brighton College of Music. He entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16 with the Sir Michael Costa Scholarship for composition. After leaving the academy he studied privately in Paris with Marguerite Long, while also taking an external BMus degree from Durham University.
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Tony Martin
#152321
Overall Influence
Tony Martin is a country music songwriter who has had fifteen number-one hits as a songwriter. Among his compositions are "Third Rock from the Sun" by Joe Diffie, "Just to See You Smile" by Tim McGraw, "You Look Good in My Shirt" by Keith Urban, and "No Place That Far" by Sara Evans.
Go to Profile#7998
Dominique Brossard
#95332
Overall Influence
Dominique Brossard is a professor and chair of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a member of the steering committee for the university's Robert & Jean Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies and is affiliated with other institutes at the university, including the Energy Institute, the Global Health Institute, and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Brossard also holds a position as a principal investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research.
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Jonas C. Greenfield
#67874
Overall Influence
1926 - 1995 (69 years)
Jonas Carl Greenfield was an American scholar of Semitic languages, who published in the fields of Semitic Epigraphy, Aramaic Studies and Qumran Studies, and a distinguished member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
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Jean Terrell
#79422
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Velma Jean Terrell is an American R&B and jazz singer. She replaced Diana Ross as the lead singer of The Supremes in January 1970. Biography Early life and career She is the sister of the former WBA heavyweight boxing champion Ernie Terrell, who fought Muhammad Ali.
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