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,

#9801

Kenny Malone

#118428

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

Kenny Malone was an American drummer and percussionist. Life and career Malone was born in Denver, Colorado. From the 1970s onwards, he was a prominent session musician in folk, country and many other acoustic-based genres. He was known for inventing his own style of hand drumming.

#9802

John Ralston

#149982

Overall Influence

John Ralston is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is originally from Lake Worth, Florida, United States, and is a member of the band Legends of Rodeo , which is currently on an indefinite hiatus. He has released two full-length albums, two EPs, and released his third solo record, Shadows of the Summertime in 2011. A 7"single of "Jesus Christ" b/w "A Marigny Christmas" was released in early 2011.

#9803

David S. Kaufer

#179392

Overall Influence

David S. Kaufer is an American rhetoric scholar, currently the Mellon Distinguished Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University. With Suguru Ishizaki, he has built large-scale digital dictionaries under the name DocuScope to analyze and assess writing that have been used by ETS, RAND, The Folger Library, and the Stanford Literary Lab. DocuScope was also a foundational technology to Classroom Salon, an annotation platform for classrooms that he co-founded with Ananda Gunawardena and Alexander Cheek. Dr. Kaufer also pioneered a relationship with the Carnegie Mellon School of Design where ...

#9804

Ruth Hohmann

#182445

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Ruth Hohmann is a German jazz singer and university lecturer. She was known as the "First Lady of East German Jazz" and was for a long time the GDR's only jazz singer of note, playing a major role in the dissemination of the music in the country.

#9805

Serhii Bukovskyi

Serhii Bukovskyi

#159321

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Serhii Bukovskyi is a Soviet Ukrainian documentary film director and actor. Bukovskyi is a member of the Board of the Ukrainian Association of Cinematographers and laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize. He was awarded the honorary title of Merited Artist of Ukraine in 1996 and the title People's Artist of Ukraine in 2008. Representing the critical school of Ukrainian documentary filmmaking.

#9806

Myles Martel

#123033

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Myles Martel is an American communication adviser specializing in leadership. He has had a mainly political and corporate client base since 1969, after founding the firm Martel and Associates, where he remains president and CEO.

#9807

Philip Brophy

#151221

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Philip Brophy, born in Reservoir, Melbourne 1959 is an Australian musician, composer, sound designer, filmmaker, writer, graphic designer, educator and academic. Music In 1977, Brophy formed the experimental group → ↑ → more often written as Tsk Tsk Tsk or Tch Tch Tch, with Ralph Traviato, Alan Gaunt and Leigh Parkhill. Sometimes compared to Andy Warhol's Factory, the group produced experimental music , films, videos, and live theatrical performances exploring Brophy's aesthetic and cultural interests, often on a minimal budget. Over the ten years of the group's operation it involved over si...

#9808

Tasha Hubbard

#169662

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Tasha Hubbard is a Canadian First Nations/Cree filmmaker and educator based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Hubbard's credits include three National Film Board of Canada documentaries exploring Indigenous rights in Canada: Two Worlds Colliding, a 2004 Canada Award-winning short film about the Saskatoon freezing deaths, Birth of a Family, a 2017 feature-length documentary about four siblings separated during Canada's Sixties Scoop, and nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, a 2019 Hot Docs and DOXA Documentary award-winning documentary which examines the death of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man, and ...

#9809

Karl Leister

#176297

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Karl Leister is a classical clarinet player from Wilhelmshaven, Germany. At a very young age, he learned to play the clarinet from his father, also a clarinetist, and later studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. As a teenager, he was accepted into the Komische Oper Berlin under Václav Neumann and Walter Felsenstein as clarinet soloist.

#9810

David Starobin

#169061

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

David Starobin is a highly honored figure in the world of classical guitar. Called "arguably the most influential American classical guitarist of the 20th century" , Starobin was born in New York City. and he records for Bridge Records.

#9811

Donald Sinta

#109307

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Donald J. Sinta is an American classical saxophonist, educator, and administrator. Mr. Sinta earned a Master of Music degree in saxophone performance from the University of Michigan in 1962. In 1969, he was the first elected chair of the World Saxophone Congress.

#9812

David J. Burke

#133258

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

David J. Burke is an American executive producer, screenwriter and film and television director. Burke has produced Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, seaQuest DSV, TriBeCa, and other shows. Filmography

#9813

Hans-Jürgen Reznicek

Hans-Jürgen Reznicek

#163153

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Hans-Jürgen "Jäcki" Reznicek is a German bassist. Biography Reznicek was born in Dresden and started playing bass in the 1970s. His role model was Paul McCartney. His first band was not allowed to play in East Germany, so he took music lessons. His teacher recommended him to study music and he was accepted at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. During his studies, he played in various jazz and pop bands until he joined the Klaus Lenz Big Band. In 1979 he met the musicians with whom he founded the band Pankow in 1981. Reznicek was also often booked as a studio musician. B...

#9814

John Beal

#151028

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

John Everett Beal is an American composer and conductor known for his work in the American film industry. He has conducted for major recording artists ranging from Olivia Newton-John to Deadmau5, movies in concert such as Star Wars, Toy Story, Home Alone, Rocketman and the Harry Potter series, is the principal conductor of the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra®, is considered by the New York Times as the pioneer of original scores for film trailer music, and has composed the music for numerous television series and films.

#9815

Fisher Tull

#170192

Overall Influence

1934 - 1994 (60 years)

Fisher Aubrey Tull, Jr. , known professionally as Fisher A. Tull, aka Mickey Tull, was an American composer, arranger, educator, administrator, and trumpeter. Life and career Tull was born in Waco, Texas, where he attended public schools. He eventually earned three degrees from the University of North Texas: a B.M. in music education , a M.M. in music theory , and a Ph.D. in music composition . He studied trumpet with John Haynie and composition with Samuel Adler. While an undergraduate, he played trumpet in and arranged for various jazz and dance bands, including the University of North T...

#9816

Alexei Haieff

#172335

Overall Influence

1914 - 1994 (80 years)

Alexei Vasilievich Haieff was an American composer of orchestral and choral works. He is known for following Stravinsky's neoclassicism, observing an austere economy of means, and achieving modernistic effects by a display of rhythmic agitation, often with jazzy undertones.

#9817

Martin Cole

#94577

Overall Influence

1931 - 2015 (84 years)

Martin John Cole was a British sexologist, sex education advocate and campaigner for abortion law reform, dubbed "Sex King Cole" by The Sun newspaper for his work in this field. Life Cole was born in London in 1931. He read Botany at Southampton University for a BSc and gained a PhD in Plant Genetics. After a period in Africa, in 1964 he took up the post of lecturer in Genetics at the College of Advanced Technology which became Aston University. In 1984 he left the university, to work full-time at the Institute for Sex Education and Research which he had established. He was married and divor...

#9818

Steve Williams

#182009

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Stephen Edward Williams is an American jazz drummer. External links Official website

#9819

Mario Brunello

#169772

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Mario Brunello is an Italian cellist and musician, who is currently Artistic Director of the International String Quartet Competition Premio Paolo Borciani and of the Reggio Emilia String Quartet Festival. Brunello plays a 17th century Maggini cello which, in the 20th century, belonged to Benedetto Mazzacurati and then to Franco Rossi, cellist of the "Quartetto Italiano". He has played with many orchestras internationally and has performed with various artists.

#9820

Abdul Majid Arfaei

Abdul Majid Arfaei

#97517

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Abdul Majid Arfaee is an Iranian researcher and elamitologist. He has finished translating 647 tablets, related to the era of Darius the Great, which were read by Richard Hallock. The works are included in the first volume of the series.

#9821

John Bitter

#88881

Overall Influence

1909 - 2001 (92 years)

John F. Bitter was an American musician, composer, and orchestra conductor who served as the second dean of the School of Music at the University of Miami from 1950 to 1963. He was also music director and conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra. Guest artists who appeared with the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra under his baton included pianist Artur Rubinstein, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, and violinist Mischa Elman.

#9822

Martin Roscoe

#173342

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Martin Roscoe is an English classical pianist. He performs as a concerto soloist, as a recitalist and as a chamber musician. Early life Martin Roscoe was born in Halton, Runcorn, Cheshire. He first became serious about music at the age of 7 after being ‘bowled over’ by a performance at The Proms of the Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz on 19 August 1959. He later went on to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music with Gordon Green and Marjorie Clementi. Awards early in his career included the Davas Gold Medal in 1973, the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 1974, th...

#9823

Yekaterina Chemberdzhi

#172590

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Yekaterina Chemberdzhi , also Katia Tchemberdji or Jekaterina Wladimirowna Tschemberdschi , is a Russian pianist and composer. Life and career The daughter of Vladimir Posner and Valentina Chemberdzhi and granddaughter of the composers Zara Levina and Nikolai Chemberdzhi, Katia Chemberdzhi was born in Moscow and began her study of music at age 7. In 1978 she studied composition and piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Korndorf and Yuri Kholopov.

#9824

Anthony Glise

#155016

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Anthony Glise is an American guitarist, composer and author. He is the only American guitarist who has won first prize in the International Toscanini Competition held in Italy. He is also the only guitarist to be chosen as "Individual Artist of the Year" by the Missouri State Arts Council.

#9825

Huzir Sulaiman

#135906

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Huzir Sulaiman is a Malaysian director and actor. He is the co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre. A critically acclaimed and award-winning playwright, his Collected Plays 1998-2012 was published in 2013. His plays have been translated into German, Japanese, Polish, Indonesian and Mandarin. His essays and commentary pieces have appeared in The Star, The Straits Times and The Huffington Post.

#9826

Ernest Pintoff

#128770

Overall Influence

1931 - 2002 (71 years)

Ernest Pintoff was an American film and television director, screenwriter and film producer. He won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for The Critic , a satire on modern art written and narrated by Mel Brooks.

#9827

Julio Estrada

#173617

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Julio Estrada Velasco is a composer, theoretician, historian, pedagogue, and interpreter. Life Estrada was born in Mexico City, where his family had been exiled from Spain since 1941. He began his musical studies in Mexico from 1953–65, where he studied composition with Julián Orbón. In Paris from 1965-69 he studied with Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen and attended courses and lectures of Iannis Xenakis. In Germany he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1968 and with György Ligeti in 1972. He completed a Ph.D. in musicology at Strasbourg University from 1990–1994.

#9828

Fyokla Tolstaya

#163403

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Fyokla Nikitichna Tolstaya , also known as Fekla Tolstoy, is a Russian journalist, cultural figure, and TV and radio presenter. She is the great-great-granddaughter of the author Leo Tolstoy. Biography Fyokla Tolstaya was born Anna Nikitichna Tolstaya on 27 February 1971 in Moscow. She holds a degree in Slavic philology from the Moscow State University and trained as a director at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts .

#9829

Dave Moody

#166133

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

David B. Moody is an artist, producer, songwriter and filmmaker from North Carolina. His instrumental proficiency has earned him two Grammy Award Nominations and three International CMA Awards as a member of The Moody Brothers. After becoming regular performers on the Grand Ole Opry and touring extensively throughout Europe in the 80s, the trio of Carolina brothers signed a contract with the Walt Disney Company in 1992 to open and perform their own nightly concerts at Disneyland Paris' Disney Village, where they performed for over 50 million guests during their time in France.

#9830

Jackson Sun

#180379

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Jackson T.-S. Sun, also known as Jackson Tianshin Sun , is a Taiwanese linguist working on languages of the Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic families. He is best known for his pioneering documentation and historical-comparative work in Tani, Rgyalrongic, and Tibetic languages. Sun is a research fellow at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.

#9831

Alison McIntosh

#182398

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Alison J. McIntosh is a New Zealand tourism and hospitality academic. Previously a professor at the University of Waikato, she is now a professor at Auckland University of Technology. Her research areas include Critical Tourism and Hospitality, Tourist Behaviour and Heritage and Cultural Tourism.

#9832

Werner Buschnakowski

#181529

Overall Influence

1910 - 1995 (85 years)

Werner Buschnakowski was a German cantor, organist, harpsichordist and music educator. Life and career Born in Rehsau in East Prussia, Buschnakowski was the son of the teacher Walter Buschnakowski. He attended the Realgymnasium in Insterburg and the Deutsch-Orden-Oberrealschule in Wehlau, obtaining the Abitur.

#9833

David James Baker

#120359

Overall Influence

1901 - Present (125 years)

David James Baker is an American filmmaker. Education Baker holds a B.A. from the University of Denver, an M.A. from New Mexico Highlands University, and an M.F.A from New Mexico State University. Career Baker is the writer-director of Portraits of the Southwest, a documentary series produced by Public Television for Southern New Mexico and West Texas. Portraits of the Southwest profiles people and their environments in the American Southwest. The most recent episode, "Portraits of the Southwest - Road Closed," tells the story of a gay couple who tried for 10 years to open a hotel in Radium Sp...

#9834

Arbo Valdma

#170178

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Arbo Valdma is an Estonian pianist and music pedagogue. He is a professor of piano at the University of Music in Cologne . He received his musical education at the Music Academy in Tallinn under Bruno Lukk and later with Nina Emelyanova at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow .

#9835

Jeanne Jordan

#179431

Overall Influence

Jeanne Jordan is an American independent director, producer and editor. She was nominated for an Academy Award and has received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival among many other awards.

#9836

Phil Jones

#137337

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Phil Jones is an American drummer, percussionist, and record producer. Jones played percussion with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the early 80's both live and in the studio, while also playing drums and percussion on Tom Petty's solo album Full Moon Fever, which included the hit songs "Free Fallin'", "I Won't Back Down", and "Runnin' Down a Dream". His work outside the group includes playing on the Del Shannon albums Drop Down and Get Me and Rock On!. He currently runs his own recording studio in Los Angeles called 'Robust Recordings'.

#9837

Roberto Szidon

#169099

Overall Influence

1941 - 2011 (70 years)

Roberto Szidon was a Brazilian classical pianist who had an international performing and recording career, and settled in Germany. Life and career Szidon was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1941. He gave his first concert at age 9 in his home town. He then studied composition with Karl Faust, and continued his pianistic studies in the United States with Ilona Kabos and Claudio Arrau.

#9838

Edith Peinemann

Edith Peinemann

#140878

Overall Influence

1937 - 2023 (86 years)

Edith Peinemann was an internationally recognized German violinist and professor of violin. At age nineteen she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, and made her U.S. debut as soloist in 1962 with Max Rudolf, after which she became a protégé of George Szell. In 2005 she became president of the European String Teachers Association.

#9839

Jacqueline Fontyn

#173865

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (96 years)

Jacqueline, Baroness Fontyn is a contemporary Belgian composer, pianist and music educator. She was born in Antwerp, and has received the title of baroness from the King of Belgium in recognition of her many artistic contributions.

#9840

John Hughey

#117575

Overall Influence

1933 - 2007 (74 years)

John Hughey was an American musician. He was known for his work as a session pedal steel guitar player for various country music acts, most notably Vince Gill and Conway Twitty. A member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, Hughey was known for a distinctive playing style called "crying steel", which focused primarily on the higher range of the guitar.

#9841

Sandeep Bhagwati

Sandeep Bhagwati

#173686

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Sandeep Bhagwati is a German composer of western classical music and an academic teacher. Career Sandeep Bhagwati was born in Bombay, Maharashtra, India to a German mother and an Indian father. Living in Germany since the age of five, Bhagwati went to school at the Athenaeum Stade in Stade, Lower Saxony, Northern Germany and studied from 1984 to 1987 at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with teachers such as Boguslaw Schaeffer, Kurt Prestel, , Kurt Maedel, Josef Maria Horváth and Rupert Huber. Bhagwati studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München in Munich with Wilhe...

#9842

Shane McAnally

#69171

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Shane Lamar McAnally is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Originally a solo artist for Curb Records in 1999, McAnally charted three singles on Hot Country Songs, including the No. 31 "Are Your Eyes Still Blue". McAnally left the country music business in 2000 and returned in 2006 as a songwriter, having initial success on that front with "Last Call" by Lee Ann Womack. He began working as a producer in 2013 with Kacey Musgraves' debut album Same Trailer Different Park.

#9843

Liang Wang

#184685

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (46 years)

Liang Wang is an American oboist. In 2006, he joined the New York Philharmonic as the principal oboe, The Alice Tully Chair. About Wang was born in Qingdao, China, and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. He received his bachelor's degree from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Richard Woodhams. He was a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West.

#9844

Vytautas Barkauskas

#139319

Overall Influence

1931 - 2020 (89 years)

Vytautas Barkauskas was a Lithuanian composer and Professor of Composition of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Life and career Barkauskas was born in Kaunas. He studied music at the Vilnius Conservatory with Antanas Račiūnas, a pupil of Nadia Boulanger. He also studied mathematics at the university's pedagogical institution. He achieved a degree in mathematics in 1953 and in composition in 1959. He taught at the conservatory from 1961 to 1974, again as a professor of composition from 1989.

#9845

Bengt Hambraeus

#169813

Overall Influence

1928 - 2000 (72 years)

Bengt Hambraeus was a Swedish-Canadian organist, composer and musicologist. Biography Hambreaus studied organ with Alf Linder and musicology with Carl-Allan Moberg, earning his doctorate in 1956 on a thesis about medieval musical notation. From 1957 to 1972 he worked at the music department of the Swedish Radio, eventually holding executive and producer posts, and during this time became a very high-profile emissary of new music in Sweden, encouraging discussion of new musical forms, a renewal of organ music with new tonal/technical concepts and the integration of performance art, improvisation, live electronics and stereo/spatial effects into traditional concert performing.

#9846

Miyavi

#161624

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

, better known by his stage name Miyavi , is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar. He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times. In 2022, he became a member of the rock supergroup The Last Rockstars.

#9847

Paul Jacobs

#174762

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Paul Jacobs is an American organist. He is the first organist to receive a Grammy Award. Jacobs is currently the chair of the Juilliard School's organ department and is considered "America's leading organ performer."

#9848

Misbach Yusa Biran

Misbach Yusa Biran

#84685

Overall Influence

1933 - 2012 (79 years)

Misbach Yusa Biran was an Indonesian writer, director and columnist who pioneered the Indonesian film archives. Personal life Biran was born in Rangkasbitung, in the Lebak Regency, to a Minangkabau father and a Bantenese mother. In 1969, he married actress Nani Widjaja. They had six children, two of whom also went into the film industry.

#9849

Akil Mark Koci

#169623

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

Akil Mark Koci is a Kosovar Albanian composer and music writer. Education Koci was born in 1936 in Prizren, Kingdom of Yugoslavia . There he graduated from the Josip Slavenski music school. He went on to study at the Sarajevo Music Academy, graduating in 1962 and specialising in music theory. He furthered his studies at one of the oldest conservatories in Germany, the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, specialising in composition under the noted professor and composer, Milko Kelemen.

#9850

Katherine W. Phillips

#128724

Overall Influence

1972 - 2020 (48 years)

Katherine Williams Phillips was an American business theorist and the Reuben Mark Professor of Organizational Character at Columbia University's Business School. She headed the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics at Columbia, and was Senior Vice Dean.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions