Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

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List of the most influential people in Communications,

#10051

Christopher Elton

#175391

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Christopher Elton is a British piano teacher, former Head of the Keyboard department of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a professor emeritus of the University of London. Biography Christopher Elton was born in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he achieved the unusual distinction of gaining the Academy's Dip.RAM, both on piano and cello. After his formal studies he continued his studies with Maria Curcio and was a prizewinner in several British and international piano competitions, and performed both as a soloist and chamber musician. He also freelanc...

#10052

Dick Johnson

#170290

Overall Influence

1925 - 2010 (85 years)

Richard Brown Johnson was an American big band clarinetist, best known for his work with the Artie Shaw Band. From 1983 until his death he was the leader of the Artie Shaw Orchestra. Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, he also played the alto saxophone and flute. Johnson worked with Frank Sinatra, the Swing Shift Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie and Tony Bennett.

#10053

Isabel Aretz

#133545

Overall Influence

1909 - 2005 (96 years)

Isabel Aretz was an Argentine–Venezuelan researcher, writer, ethnomusicologist and composer. Early years Isabel Aretz-Thiele was born in Buenos Aires. She was educated at the National Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts, studying pedagogy, piano with Rafael González and harmony, counterpoint and composition with Althos Palma. She earned a doctorate in music from Catholic University of Argentina in 1968.

#10054

Milton Katims

#123792

Overall Influence

1909 - 2006 (97 years)

Milton Katims was an American violist and conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 22 years . In that time he added more than 75 works, made recordings, premiered new pieces and led the orchestra on several tours. He expanded the orchestra's series of family and suburban outreach concerts. He is also known for his numerous transcriptions and arrangements for viola.

#10055

Jeffrey Lewis

#159543

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Jeffrey Lewis is a Welsh composer. Biography and work Lewis was born in Neath, where he joined the church choir and began learning the organ, and now lives in Llanfairfechan. He studied at the University of Wales, Cardiff, under Alun Hoddinott; with György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen at Darmstadt; with Bogusław Schaeffer in Kraków and with Don Banks in London. He taught at Leeds College of Music and the University of Wales, Bangor , under William Mathias.

#10056

Eteri Andjaparidze

#182632

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Eteri Andjaparidze is a Georgian / American pianist and music professor. Early life Born on September 15, 1956, to a family of musicians in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, Andjaparidze received her first piano lessons from her mother. Born to a family of musicians in Tbilisi, Georgia – her father, Zurab Andjaparidze , the leading tenor with the Bolshoi Opera and mother, pianist Yvetta Bachtadze, a student of Alexander Iokheles from Konstantin Igumnov’s piano lineage – Andjaparidze studied at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire with Vera Gornostaeva, a student of Heinrich Neuhaus. Her stepfather Leonid Oakley was a Georgian scientist.

#10057

Rudolf Komorous

#172528

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Rudolf Komorous is a Czech-born Canadian composer. His works include Twenty-Three Poems about Horses , based on the poetry of Li Ho, the opera No no miya which uses elements of Noh theatre and the Li Ch’ing Chao Madrigals .

#10058

Lena

#138044

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

Lena Mohan Kumar , who has performed mononymously as Lenaa and Lena, is an Indian actress and scriptwriter who appears predominantly in Malayalam cinema. Career She made her debut in Jayaraj's Sneham, which was followed by critically acclaimed Karunam. She had also established as a lead actress in the Malayalam television industry with serials like Omanathinkalpakshi, Ohari, Malayogam and Thadankalpalayam before focusing on her film career. She is also a television host and manages the YouTube Vlogging channel - Lena's Magazine. She has over 100 films to her credit in Malayalam cinema along wi...

#10059

Oliver Whitehead

Oliver Whitehead

#177640

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Oliver Whitehead is a guitarist and composer, originally from England, who has worked mostly in Canada. He is an Associate Composer at the Canadian Music Centre. His orchestral works include the oratorio We Shall be Changed , Concerto For Oboe and Pissarro Landscapes . His jazz album Free For Now was nominated for a Juno Award as Best Jazz Album of 1985. He has composed for, and played with, many individual musicians and groups over the years, most recently world music/jazz group The Antler River Project, the singer Linda Hoyle and the music producer and songwriter/composer Mo Foster. The Fetch, an album of original songs by Linda Hoyle, Mo Foster and Whitehead, was released in August 2015.

#10060

Anthony Hedges

#176677

Overall Influence

1931 - 2019 (88 years)

Anthony J. Hedges was an English composer, the son of children's writer Sidney Hedges. Life Hedges was born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, and studied music at Keble College Oxford, where his tutors included Thomas Armstrong. While on National Service for two years at Catterick he was a member of the Band of the Royal Signals Regiment. From 1957 he was a music lecturer at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow, and from 1962 a lecturer at The University of Hull where he was awarded an Hon.DMus. During his time in Glasgow he also contributed regular reviews and articles on music to The Glasgow Herald, The Scotsman, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

#10061

The Rev

#99137

Overall Influence

1981 - 2009 (28 years)

James Owen Sullivan , also known by his stage name The Rev , was an American musician, best known as a founding member of the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, where he played drums, piano and provided backing and co-lead vocals. He was also the lead vocalist/pianist in the avant-garde metal band Pinkly Smooth and drummer for the ska punk band Suburban Legends from 1998 to 1999.

#10062

James Williams

#170873

Overall Influence

1951 - 2004 (53 years)

James Williams was an American jazz pianist. Early life James Williams was born March 8, 1951, in Memphis, Tennessee. He began his formal piano studies at age 13, and was subsequently an organist at Eastern Star Baptist Church in Memphis, a position he held for six years. He earned a B.S. in Music Education at Memphis State University, where he also formed solid friendships with fellow Memphis pianists Mulgrew Miller and Donald Brown. A devotee of the late Memphis pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr., Williams took time to delve into his hometown's jazz heritage, associating with pianist Harold M...

#10063

Mikhail Voskresensky

#168157

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Mikhail Voskresensky is a Russian pianist and music pedagogue who left Russia for the United States in 2022 protesting against Russian invasion of Ukraine. Training Mikhail Voskresensky is known internationally as a pianist in the great Romantic tradition. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1958, where he studied under Ilya Klyachko, Boris Zemliansky, Yakov Milstein, Lev Oborin and Leonid Roizman . As student of the famous Lev Oborin, the winner of the First International Chopin Piano Competition in 1927, Voskresensky was influenced by his teacher's refined taste and romanticism in his deployment of pianistic sonorities.

#10064

Gundaris Pone

#138290

Overall Influence

1932 - 1994 (62 years)

Gundaris Pone was a Latvian-Americann composer of contemporary classical music, conductor, and professor. Born in Riga, Latvia, he emigrated to the United States in 1950 after his fleeing the advancing Soviet troops, where he earned a doctorate in music from the University of Minnesota in 1962.

#10065

Valery Polekh

#141602

Overall Influence

1918 - 2006 (88 years)

Valery Vladimirovich Polekh was a Soviet horn player. The horn concerto Op.91 by Reinhold Glière was dedicated to him. External links IHS article written by Polekh himself describing his experience with the Glière concertoArticle about Polekh's careerIHS bioWindSong Press Bio

#10066

Jerry Bergonzi

#128268

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Jerry Bergonzi is an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator. Early life and education Bergonzi received a B.A. in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1971 and is the founder of Not Fat Records.

#10067

Caitlin Cherry

#165210

Overall Influence

1987 - Present (39 years)

Caitlin Cherry is an African-American painter, sculptor, and educator. Early life and education Caitlin Cherry was born in 1987 in Chicago, Illinois. Cherry received her MFA degree from Columbia University in 2012; and her BFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010. She also participated in the Yale University Summer School of Art in Norfolk, Connecticut in 2009.

#10068

Yahya Modarresi

#184443

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Yahya Modarresi Tehrani is an Iranian linguist and Professor of Linguistics at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies . He is best known for his works on sociolinguistics. He won the Iranian Book of the Year Award for his book An Introduction to Sociolinguistics.

#10069

Moon Kyungwon

#127447

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Moon Kyungwon is a Seoul-based artist who received her Masters of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and Ph.D in Visual Communication from Yonsei University, South Korea. Moon held her solo exhibition at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in 2004. Her recent exhibitions include Poiesis of Collective Intelligence at Yamaguchi Center Arts and Media in 2013 and A Different Similarity at BOCUM Museum, Germany in 2010. In 2012, Moon and a fellow artist, Jeon Joonho, participated in Documenta in Kassel, Germany and collectively received the 2012 Noon Award Grand Prize and 2012 Korea Artist Prize at Gwangju Biennale.

#10070

John Rubinstein

John Rubinstein

#169890

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

John Rubinstein is an American actor, composer and director. Early life Rubinstein is the son of Polish parents. His mother, Aniela , a dancer and writer, was a Roman Catholic native of Warsaw, the daughter of conductor Emil Młynarski. His father was Polish-Jewish concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein. He attended El Rodeo Public School in Beverly Hills , Cours La Cascade in Paris, France , and St. Bernard's School and Collegiate School in New York City. He studied theater and music at the University of California, Los Angeles , and later composition at the Juilliard School in New York.

#10071

Raymond Luedeke

Raymond Luedeke

#169370

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Raymond Luedeke is an American / Canadian composer of contemporary classical music. Praised for his idiosyncratic instrumental writing and for his orchestration, Luedeke has more recently concentrated on works for music theatre. Although born in New York City, he spent 29 years as Associate Principal Clarinet with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a position he left in 2010. A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Ray Luedeke is artistic director of Voice Afire Opera-Cabaret in New York City.

#10072

John Connelly

#166145

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

John Connelly is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of New York City thrash metal band Nuclear Assault. Biography Connelly started as a roadie for thrash metal band Anthrax where he became a close friend of Anthrax bassist Danny Lilker. He formed the band Nuclear Assault in 1983, and Lilker, having left Anthrax, joined him soon after.

#10073

Tatsuya Mori

#122591

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

is a Japanese documentary filmmaker, TV director and author. Career Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Mori graduated from Rikkyo University, where he appeared in the student films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. After graduating, he tried acting and even appeared in Kurosawa's feature debut, the pink film Kandagawa Pervert Wars. He worked at other odd jobs before finally finding employment at a TV production company in 1989, where he began working on documentaries. While working freelance or under contract, he made a number of television documentaries before making A and A2 , two documentary movies about the everyday life of Aum Shinrikyo followers.

#10074

Lamar Crowson

#170187

Overall Influence

1926 - 1998 (72 years)

John Lamar Crowson was an American concert pianist and a chamber musician. Crowson was born in Tampa, Florida. His early education was in Portland, Oregon, with noted pedagogue Nellie Tholen, where he attended Reed College , majoring in art, history and literature. He later studied piano under Arthur Benjamin, who invited him to study at the Royal College of Music in 1948 and was appointed to the staff in 1957. During the 1950s he won many major prizes, including the Chappell Gold Medal, the Dannreuther Prize and the Harriet Cohen International Medal. In 1952 he was laureate in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.

#10075

Gerhard Wimberger

#171365

Overall Influence

1923 - 2016 (93 years)

Gerhard Wimberger was an Austrian composer and conductor. Career Wimberger studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His teachers were Cesar Bresgen and Johann Nepomuk David for composition, and Clemens Krauss and Bernhard Paumgartner for conducting.

#10076

Carola Zwick

#149056

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

#10077

Utah Phillips

#162652

Overall Influence

1935 - 2008 (73 years)

Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was an American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet. He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.

#10078

Mike Johnson

#109905

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Mike Johnson is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and bass guitarist. He was born in Grants Pass, Oregon and fronted Eugene, Oregon punk band Snakepit from 1984 until their break up in 1989. He joined Dinosaur Jr. as bass player in 1991 and played with the band live and on its recordings from 1991 to 1998. He was briefly married to Juned's Leslie Hardy in 1994, and contributed to both the band's studio albums. He collaborated with Mark Lanegan on his first five solo albums, playing guitar, co-producing, and writing music. In 1994, he released his first solo album, Where Am I,...

#10079

Mat Maneri

#151904

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Mat Maneri is an American composer, violin, and viola player. He is the son of the saxophonist Joe Maneri and Sonja Maneri. Career Maneri has recorded with Cecil Taylor, Guerino Mazzola, Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris, Gerald Cleaver, Tim Berne, Borah Bergman, Mark Dresser, William Parker, Michael Formanek, John Lockwood, as well as with his own trio, quartet, and quintet. He also played on various band releases such as: Club d'Elf, Decoupage, Brewed by Noon, Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band, and Buffalo Collision.

#10080

Geoffrey Sauer

#151264

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

#10081

Robert D. Macredie

#132601

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Robert Duncan Macredie is a British computer scientist. He served as Professor, Head of department, and Head of the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics at Brunel University, Uxbridge, west London and was, until February 2010, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience at Brunel University. Macredie was founder and is editor-in-chief, of the Springer research journal Virtual Reality. He has held a number of UK Research Council and EU Framework grants in the areas of computer science and information systems. He is Governor of the Crest Girls' Academy in Brent, West London.

#10082

Michelle Parkerson

Michelle Parkerson

#145706

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Michelle Parkerson is an American filmmaker and academic. She is an assistant professor in Film and Media Arts at Temple University and has been an independent film/video maker since the 1980s, focusing particularly on feminist, LGBT, and political activism and issues.

#10083

Peter Martin

#155877

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Peter Martin is an American jazz pianist. Life and career Martin was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 17, 1970. He won Second Place at the 1993 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition.

#10084

Lisa Popeil

#107308

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Lisa Stephanie Popeil is an American voice coach, singer, and musician. She is the creator of the trademarked Voiceworks Method and, as a voice coach, specializes in the pedagogy of vocal styles. Early life and education Popeil is the eldest daughter of inventor S. J. Popeil and Eloise Popeil . Popeil's half-brother, Ron Popeil, was an inventor and marketer.

#10085

Bruce Arnott

#176083

Overall Influence

1938 - 2018 (80 years)

Bruce Arnott was a South African sculptor, curator, educator and academic. He was a professor of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art. Early life Arnott was born on 15 September 1938 in KwaZulu-Natal. He graduated from the University of Cape Town, where he earned a bachelor's degree followed by a master's degree in Fine Arts.

#10086

Fyodor Druzhinin

Fyodor Druzhinin

#142623

Overall Influence

1932 - 2007 (75 years)

Fyodor Serafimovich Druzhinin, also Fedor, was a Soviet violist, composer and music teacher. Druzhinin studied viola at the Moscow Central Music School with Nikolai Sokolov and at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky . In 1957, he won first place at the All-Union Competition of Musicians in Moscow. He replaced Borisovsky as violist of the Beethoven Quartet in 1964.

#10087

Sarah Chan

#101120

Overall Influence

Sarah Chan is Chancellor's Fellow in Ethics and Science Communicator in The Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland in 2018.

#10088

Richard Rudolf Klein

#170815

Overall Influence

1921 - 2011 (90 years)

Richard Rudolf Klein was a German composer, musician, and teacher. His compositional output is diverse, including nursery rhymes and music for children, choral music and hymns, incidental music, and orchestral music, as well as chamber music.

#10089

Steven Blier

#179591

Overall Influence

Steven Blier is an American pianist, recital accompanist, musicologist, and, since 1992, a faculty member in the Department of Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School. in New York City. He is the artistic director and co-founder of the New York Festival of Song with former Chief Executive and General Director of Caramoor, Michael Barrett. Blier was also a casting adviser at the New York City Opera and a regular performer at Wolf Trap and Caramoor. He has been active in encouraging young recitalists at summer programs, including the Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Steans Music Institute at Ravinia, the Santa Fe Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Center.

#10090

Mariana Sîrbu

#175954

Overall Influence

1940 - 2023 (83 years)

Mariana Sîrbu , also credited as Sârbu, was a Romanian classical violinist and academic teacher, who made an international career performing and recording. She was focused on chamber music, founding the Academica String Quartet in 1968, joining the Trio di Milano in 1985, and founding the Quartetto Stradivari in 1994. She was concertmaster of I Musici from 1993 to 2003. She became professor of violin at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig in Leipzig in 2002, gave international master classes and was juror for competitions of violin and chamber music.

#10091

Gregory Porter

#162507

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Gregory Porter is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He has twice won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album: first in 2014 for Liquid Spirit and then again in 2017 for Take Me to the Alley.

#10092

Zara Nelsova

#173103

Overall Influence

1918 - 2002 (84 years)

Zara Nelsova was a prominent cellist. Biography Nelsova was born as Sara Katznelson in Winnipeg, Canada, to parents of Jewish-Russian descent. Nelsova first performed at the age of five in Winnipeg. She eventually moved with her family to London, England, where she studied at the London Cello School with its principal, Herbert Walenn. She was heard by Sir John Barbirolli and introduced by him to Pablo Casals from whom she received additional lessons. In 1932, aged only 13, she gave a London debut recital and appeared as soloist with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra. Durin...

#10093

Roland Hermann

#172431

Overall Influence

1936 - 2020 (84 years)

Roland Hermann was a German operatic baritone and former professor at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. A member of the Opernhaus Zürich, he performed leading roles internationally, not only in standard repertoire but also in world premieres and rarely performed works, such as Schoenberg's Moses und Aron.

#10094

Phillip Bush

#173419

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Phillip Bush is an American classical pianist, with a career focusing primarily on chamber music and contemporary classical music. Early life Phillip Bush was born to an American father and German mother and lived in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his father taught French at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Bush studied at the Peabody Conservatory with Leon Fleisher, and has said that he still considers Fleisher his major musical influence. Bush spent two years at Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada from 1981–83; there he met Steve Reich and several other musicians who were formative influences for the direction of his career.

#10095

Everett M. Gilmore

#166233

Overall Influence

1935 - 2005 (70 years)

Everett Millard "Ev" Gilmore, Jr. was an American tubist best known for his association with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, in which he served as principal tubist from 1965 until his retirement in 1995. He was also closely associated with the University of North Texas College of Music and Southern Methodist University.

#10096

David Van Vactor

#178717

Overall Influence

1906 - 1994 (88 years)

David Van Vactor was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was born in Plymouth, Indiana, and received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Northwestern University. He studied with Arne Oldberg, Mark Wessel, Ernst Nolte , Leo Sowerby, Paul Dukas, Franz Schmidt, and Arnold Schoenberg.

#10097

Karin Giusti

#176407

Overall Influence

Karin Giusti is an Italian American sculptor and installation artist. She splits her time between the United States and Italy. Her parents were Italian from Tuscany, she fell in love with Italy and she has established her italian studio in Abruzzo.

#10098

André Bon

#148587

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

André Bon is a French composer. A student of Olivier Messiaen, he has composed over fifty works including several chamber operas. He is Professor of Composition at the Argenteuil Conservatory. Biography André Bon was born in Lille and studied music and composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Following his graduation from the Conservatoire, he won the Prix de Rome, and spent two years of further study at the French Academy in Rome.

#10099

Peter Sandrini

#172917

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Peter Sandrini is an Italian-born translation theorist and terminologist. He is currently researcher at the University of Innsbruck at the department of translation studies. Early life and career Peter Sandrini was born on 20 February 1961 in Bozen, Italy. In 1988 Sandrini graduated from the University of Innsbruck in Translation studies. He completed his PhD with a dissertation on legal terminology Terminologiearbeit im Recht: Deskriptiver begriffsorientierter Ansatz vom Standpunkt des Übersetzers in 1996.

#10100

Phil Wickham

#113033

Overall Influence

1984 - Present (42 years)

Philip David Wickham is an American contemporary Christian musician, singer and songwriter from San Diego, California. Wickham has released ten worship albums: Give You My World in 2003, a self-titled album in 2006, Cannons in 2007, Singalong in 2008, Heaven & Earth in 2009, Response in 2011, Singalong 2 in 2012, The Ascension in 2013, Sing-A-Long 3 in 2015, Children of God in 2016, Living Hope in 2018, Hymn Of Heaven in 2021, and I Believe in 2023 He has also led worship at Soul Survivor. His critically acclaimed single "This is Amazing Grace" became RIAA certified Platinum and topped the 2...

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