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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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Communications,

#11951

Oh Yeon-ho

#188349

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Oh Yeon-ho is the founder of "citizen journalism" in South Korea, and CEO of OhmyNews a new approach to cyber-journalism in which ordinary citizens can contribute to a major news organization through being at news events, filing reports, and having their work verified and edited by trained news staff. He is seen as one of the pivotal figures in the contemporary culture of South Korea.

#11952

Michael Kraus

#187620

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Michael Kraus is an Austrian operatic baritone. Life Early years Born in Vienna, Kraus first studied acting, historiography and Romance studies and worked for several years as an actor at "Die Komödianten" theatre in Vienna, where he was also responsible as director for the Austrian premiere of Herbert Achternbusch's Ella . He also studied singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Kammersänger Otto Edelmann and KS Josef Greindl and the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Hanno Blaschke. He won several prizes at singing competitions . Afterwards he finally decided to become a singer.

#11953

Sveinung Bjelland

#178923

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Sveinung Bjelland is a Norwegian classical pianist who made an international career as a soloist and Lieder accompanist. He is also an academic teacher. Career Born in Stavanger, Bjelland studied piano with Hans Leygraf at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, where he completed his studies with distinction. In 1999, he was called "Young Soloist of the Year" by the Concerts Norway.

#11954

Ed Bennett

#185163

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Ed Bennett is a composer of contemporary art music. Biography Bennett was born in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Having studied with Brian Irvine at North Down College and with Michael Finnissy at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, Bennett states that "Striving for perfection leads me to boredom. I like to be surprised by music, staying on the outside of things and occasionally dipping in and taking what I need to try to create something new." He has also worked with Heiner Goebbels during his residency in Birmingham Conservatoire.

#11955

Charlie Ryan

#144616

Overall Influence

1915 - 2008 (93 years)

Charles Ryan was an American country music and rockabilly singer and songwriter, best known for co-writing and first recording the rockabilly hit single "Hot Rod Lincoln". Biography Ryan grew up in Polson, Montana and moved to Spokane in 1943. He served in the United States Army during The Korean War. After the war, he worked as a musician and songwriter, touring with artists such as Jim Reeves and Johnny Horton. In 1955, he wrote "Hot Rod Lincoln", and Ryan recorded the first version of the song . Ryan released a remake in 1959 as "Charlie Ryan and The Timberline Riders"; the song was late...

#11956

Ursula Holden-Gill

#185577

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Ursula Holden-Gill is an English actress and dramatherapist, best known for her roles as school secretary Carol on Channel 4's comedy drama Teachers , Alice Dingle on ITV's soap opera Emmerdale and Miss Fitzgerald on CBBC's Wolfblood .

#11957

John Mosher

#177208

Overall Influence

1928 - 1998 (70 years)

John Mosher was an American jazz bassist, classical bassist and composer who worked, recorded and toured with a wide range of primarily West Coast artists from the 1950s through the mid-1990s. Early years A native of Sioux City, Iowa, John Mosher was raised on the city's west side, the son of a vaudeville-era bandleader. He studied piano and violin as a child. While attending Central High School he was befriended by veteran big band sideman Johnny Kopecky, under whom he studied both the double bass and violin. After military service in an Army band near the close of World War II, Mosher retur...

#11958

Yuri Slesarev

#186910

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Yuri Slesarev is a Russian pianist. A graduate of Moscow Conservatory's Central Music School, he studied piano under Victor Merzhanov. After winning the All-Union Piano Competition in Tallinn in 1969, he took part in several international contests, winning the 1972 Montevideo Competition. He was active as a concert pianist through Europe and South America in subsequent years.

#11959

Wilbur Simpson

#185691

Overall Influence

1917 - 1997 (80 years)

Wilbur H. Simpson was an American classical bassoonist and pedagogue. At Northwestern University, he studied with Hugo Fox, principal bassoonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During World War II, he served in the navy aboard the battleship . He was in the Navy Band that played aboard the during the Japanese Surrender.

#11960

James Lentini

#172385

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

James Lentini is an American composer, guitarist, and academic administrator. After completing undergraduate studies at Wayne State University in guitar performance and composition, he pursued a master‘s degree in composition at Michigan State University and a doctorate from the University of Southern California, where he studied composition with Robert Linn and Morten Lauridsen. In addition to composing, Lentini is a guitarist who has studied with William Kanengiser, Joe Fava, and Charles Postlewate.

#11961

V. Balaji

#188996

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

V. Balaji is an Indian violinist who performs both Hindustani classical music and Carnatic music. Presently he is a Professor of Violin at Banaras Hindu University, eventually became the Head and the Dean of the Instrumental department.

#11962

John Trudeau

#179898

Overall Influence

1927 - 2008 (81 years)

S. John Trudeau was an American musician who expanded the music department at Portland State University and helped co-found the outdoor Britt Festival of performing arts in Jacksonville, Oregon, the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

#11963

Henry Paul

#133198

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Henry Paul is an American musician, singer, and songwriter who was an original recording member of the Southern rock band Outlaws. Paul left to form the Henry Paul Band but then returned to the Outlaws. He also is a founding member of the country band Blackhawk.

#11964

Tim Scott

#168824

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Timothy Scott is an instrumental recording artist primarily known for his solo instrumental guitar compositions. Early life Scott was born and brought up in Hazel Grove, a suburb of Stockport, England. He attended Hazel Grove High School and Salford College of Music, but "dropped out before he got kicked out", finding that he could not cope with the written work due to his dyslexia. He later studied for a diploma at The Guitar Institute, London .

#11965

Dušan Bogdanović

#177825

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Dušan Bogdanović is a Serbian-born American composer and classical guitarist. He has explored musical languages which are reflected in his style today: a synthesis of classical, jazz, and ethnic music. As a soloist and in collaboration with other artists, he has toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and the U.S. He has taught at the University of Southern California, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Geneva University of Music.

#11966

Lee Jang-ho

#177762

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Lee Jang-ho is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Filmography Heavenly Homecoming to Stars - directorIt Rained Yesterday - directorYou Become a Star, Too - directorYes, Goodbye for Today - director, screenwriterA Fine, Windy Day - director, screenwriterChildren of Darkness Part 1, Young-ae the Songstress - director, screenwriterThey Shot the Sun - director, screenwriterCome Unto Down - director, screenwriterThe Green Pine Tree - directorWidow Dance - director, screenwriterDeclaration of Fools - directorBetween the Knees - director, screenwriterEoudong - directorLee J...

#11967

Jan Gunnar Hoff

Jan Gunnar Hoff

#177909

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Jan Gunnar Hoff is a Norwegian jazz pianist, composer, arranger and professor, living in Bodø, known from cooperations with jazz musicians like Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Alex Acuña, Audun Kleive, Mathias Eick, John Surman, Karin Krog, Maria João, Marilyn Mazur, Anders Jormin, Arve Henriksen, Per Jørgensen, Tore Brunborg, Bjørn Kjellemyr, Ernst-Wiggo Sandbakk, Per Mathisen, Gary Novak, Arild Andersen, Tore Johansen, Nils Petter Molvær, Ståle Storløkken, Gary Husband a.o.

#11968

Kevin Field

#190287

Overall Influence

Kevin Field is a New Zealand jazz pianist and composer. Biography Field has a PhD from the University of Auckland. Kevin Field's early career included collaborations with saxophonist Nathan Haines on Haines' albums Shift Left, Soundkilla Sessions Vol 1, and Sound Travels. In 2003 he released his debut album Dangerous Curves documenting his compositional style within a piano trio context. This was followed by a collaborative album Irony with Canadian drummer Ron Samsom and German bassist Olivier Holland on the Rattle record label . In between, Field was active as a pianist for other artists ...

#11969

Judith Malafronte

#173345

Overall Influence

Judith Malafronte is an American mezzo-soprano currently on the faculty at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. For 15 years she taught courses at Yale University in literature and opera. She is the winner of several top awards in Italy, Spain, Belgium and the US, including the Grand Prize at the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland in 1983.

#11970

Nathan Leigh Jones

Nathan Leigh Jones

#182122

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

Nathan Leigh Jones is an Australian musician, public speaker and voice over artist. He has an honours degree in psychology and researches the effects of music and words on emotion. He also teaches in the area of communication.

#11971

Michael Stribling

#179600

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Michael Stribling is an American musician, best known for his series of New age albums. His debut New age album, Songs of Hope and Healing, was named Best Electronic Album of 2006 by New Age Reporter.

#11972

Matt Aitken

#158956

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Matt Aitken is a special effects artist. He was nominated at the 82nd Academy Awards for his work on the film District 9. His nomination was shared with Robert Habros, Dan Kaufman and Peter Muyzers. In 2020, he received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects on 2019 film, Avengers: Endgame, at the 92nd Academy Awards. His nomination was shared with Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick.

#11973

Scott Perkins

#176798

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (46 years)

Scott Perkins is an international prize-winning composer, a tenor, an award-winning scholar, and a music educator. His music includes art songs, musical theatre, solo instrumental works, choral music, electroacoustic installations, and music for film and church, and has been performed throughout North America and Europe.

#11974

Christopher Hyde-Smith

Christopher Hyde-Smith

#189442

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Christopher Hyde-Smith is a flautist. Christopher Hyde-Smith's flute playing has been compared in The Guardian to Sir Laurence Olivier's acting in variety of expression, characterization and style. He has played all over the British Isles and at many festivals including Aldeburgh, the Three Choirs Festival, North Wales and York. He has made many trips abroad appearing as soloist in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia, Spain and Switzerland as well as North and South America. He has also visited Russia in an ensemble directed by Benjamin Britten. He has performed wit...

#11975

James Murdoch

#186164

Overall Influence

1930 - 2010 (80 years)

James Murdoch , also known by the stage name Jaime Sebastian, was an Australian arts administrator, musicologist, composer, journalist, and broadcaster. He founded and served as the inaugural director of the Australian Music Centre and played an important role in promoting the works of Peggy Glanville-Hicks.

#11976

Lynn Chang

#182537

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Lynn Chang is a Chinese American violinist known for his work as both a soloist and a chamber musician. Chang is a founding member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and is currently a faculty member at MIT, Boston University, the Boston Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory of Music.

#11977

Donald Keats

#184975

Overall Influence

1929 - 2018 (89 years)

Donald H. Keats was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. Biography Keats attended Yale University as an undergraduate, where he studied with Quincy Porter and Paul Hindemith. He completed his MA at Columbia University, where he studied with Otto Luening and Henry Cowell. He attended the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg as a Fulbright Scholar before returning to America. Keats received his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler. He also won two Guggenheim Fellowships , an NEA grant, and was a Fulbright scholar . He also st...

#11978

Harry Hurwitz

#176247

Overall Influence

1938 - 1995 (57 years)

Harry Hurwitz was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Biography Hurwitz attended The High School of Music & Art and New York University, where he received a B.S. in 1960 and an M.A. in 1962. Before becoming a director, Hurwitz worked intermittently as a drawing, painting and filmmaking instructor at various institutions, including New York University, the State University of New York at New Paltz, Cooper Union, Parsons School of Design, Queens College, Purchase College, the New York Institute of Technology and the Pratt Institute. His directorial debut film The Projectionist included the first acting role for actor/comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

#11979

Benita Raphan

#189951

Overall Influence

1962 - 2021 (59 years)

Benita Raphan was an American filmmaker and designer. She was known for directing short documentary films about "eccentric and unusual minds", including John Nash, Buckminster Fuller, Edwin Land and Emily Dickinson.

#11980

Mariano Etkin

#187403

Overall Influence

1943 - 2016 (73 years)

Mariano Etkin was an Argentine composer. Life Etkin was born in Buenos Aires. He studied with , Maurice Le Roux and Gerardo Gandini. And, at the Utrecht University, with Gottfried Michael Koenig, and also at the Juilliard School with Luciano Berio .

#11981

Robert Epp

#68375

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (100 years)

Robert Charles Epp is a translator of Japanese literature into English. Among others, he has translated the poetry of Hagiwara Sakutarō, Maruyama Kaoru, Tachihara Michizō, and Daisaku Ikeda. A.M., Ph.D. Harvard University, Professor Emeritus, UCLA

#11982

Tom Wiggall

#183489

Overall Influence

Tom Wiggall is a British composer who writes music for film and for the stage. He has taught composition in the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Conservatoire and Birkbeck, University of London, the Royal College of Music, North London Collegiate School, Surbiton High School and Highgate School. Tom was also the Director of Music at Brighton College. He is currently Director of Music at Harrow International School Hong Kong.

#11983

Robert Levin

#163022

Overall Influence

1912 - 1996 (84 years)

Robert Levin was a Norwegian classical pianist and composer. Although he was an accomplished solo pianist and composer, Levin received international acclaim for his work as an accompanist with several of the world's most celebrated vocal and instrumental performers.

#11984

Paul S. N. Russell-Gebbett

#187945

Overall Influence

1926 - 1992 (66 years)

Paul Stanley Nigel Russell-Gebbett was an English linguist. He read Romance languages at Cambridge University. After graduating, he studied Catalan in Barcelona. He lectured at the universities of Nottingham , Essex, Trinidad, Manchester and Belfast, where, from 1973, he was Professor and Head of the Spanish department.

#11985

Ranjith

#168124

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Ranjith K. Govind , also known as K.G. Ranjith, is an Indian playback singer, working in the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada film industries and has sung more than 2500 songs. Early life Ranjith was born in Chennai, India into a Malayali family, hailing from Kalluvazhi, Kerala. He grew up listening to various kinds of music. He used to stay in a locality where there were many Keralites, and had a chance to participate in the local programs there. Later, a family friend suggested that he be trained in classical music. He learned Hindustani music and Carnatic music. He was trained by Vidwan Cuddalore Subramanian, K.

#11986

Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson

#190209

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson is an Icelandic linguist and professor of Icelandic at the University of Iceland. He is the author of several prominent works on the Icelandic language, including Íslensk hljóðkerfisfræði , Íslensk rímorðabók , and several textbooks for university and high school students. He is also a prominent Icelandic scholar in the field of natural language processing, having among other things co-authored the Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus.

#11987

Batu Siharulidze

Batu Siharulidze

#173696

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Batu Siharulidze , is a Georgian artist naturalised in the United States, most widely known for his abstract figurative sculptures. He now lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where he is an associate professor of art at Boston University.

#11988

Monty Adkins

#184808

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Monty Adkins is a composer, performer and lecturer in electroacoustic music. History Adkins was born in Leamington, UK, and is currently living in Huddersfield, UK. He read music at Pembroke College and then, in 1993, became a member of the BEAST . He studied electronic music with Jonty Harrison and then Simon Waters. It was at the age of 22 that he first came to international attention with the electroacoustic works Melt and Clothed in the Soft Horizon. Between them these works were awarded the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award , the Résidence Prize and the Grand Prix of Musica Nova . He h...

#11989

Walter Booker

#150320

Overall Influence

1933 - 2006 (73 years)

Walter Booker was an American jazz musician. A native of Prairie View, Texas, Booker was a reliable bass player and an underrated stylist. His playing was marked by voice-like inflections, glissandos and tremolo techniques.

#11990

Annette Schlünz

#185078

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Annette Schlünz is a German musician and composer. Biography Schlünz was born in Dessau, East Germany. She studied music at the Dresden Music School from 1983 to 1987 with Udo Zimmermann and at the Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1988 to 1991 with Paul-Heinz Dittrich. She also studied with Iannis Xenakis at Darmstadt and Helmut Lachenmann in Stuttgart.

#11991

Stephen Jones

#178910

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Stephen Raoul Jones is an Australian video artist, writer and curator. Born in Sydney, Australia, Jones, together with Tom Ellard, was a principal member of Severed Heads from 1982 to 1992. He developed analog video synthesizers for the production of video art and for use in Severed Heads' live performances and music videos.

#11992

Stephen Custer

#176519

Overall Influence

Stephen Custer is a cellist who performs as a soloist and as a regular member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the premier orchestra of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California. "He has performed solos with numerous orchestras and chamber music ensembles, including the Westlake Chamber Ensemble, Amici Musicae and Philharmonic ensembles and has given many recitals in California and in the eastern US. As a member of the Philharmonic, Stephen has played over 4000 concerts under four Music Directors at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl," and on...

#11993

Dagne Groven Myhren

#106993

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Dagne Groven Myhren is a Norwegian literature researcher, folk musician and educator. Her literary studies have included significant works on Henrik Wergeland and on Norwegian folk poetry. As a singer, she has focused on the traditional songs of Telemark, frequently contributing to radio programmes. Until her retirement in 2003, she was professor of Nordic Studies at the University of Oslo.

#11994

Tami Gold

#169102

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Tami Kashia Gold is a documentary filmmaker, visual artist and educator. She is also a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York in the Department of Film and Media Studies. Biography As a teenager, Gold studied in Mexico and Cuba where she was first introduced to the documentary filmmaking of Santiago Álvarez who had a major influence on her work.

#11995

Peter

#184337

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Shinnosuke Ikehata is a Japanese singer, dancer and actor known for his roles in the 1969 film Funeral Parade of Roses, directed by Toshio Matsumoto, and the 1985 film Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Ikehata uses the stage name Peter when he appears on TV variety shows and musical revues. Always seen dancing in tight clothes at dancing clubs, he adopted the stage name at sixteen years old after his style of dress and dance which was said to resemble Peter Pan. One of Japan's most famous gay entertainers, Peter's androgynous appearance has enabled him to often play transgender characters and ...

#11996

David Worrall

#184232

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

David Worrall is an Australian composer and sound artist working a range of genres, including data sonification, sound sculpture and immersive polymedia as well as traditional instrumental music composition.

#11997

Yoron Israel

#184062

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Yoron Dael Israel is an American jazz drummer. Israel learned to play organ and trumpet as a child, then switched to drums. As a high school student, he played in an R&B group led by his uncle. He took his bachelor's degree at Roosevelt University and his master's degree at Rutgers, then became the drummer in a house band for a Chicago jazz club and worked with Hank Crawford, David Friedman, Von Freeman, and Ira Sullivan. He relocated to New York City in 1989 and played that year with Henry Threadgill, Kenny Burrell, and Jay Hoggard. In the 1990s he worked with Charles Fambrough, Art Farmer, ...

#11998

Maria Friesenhausen

#188226

Overall Influence

1922 - 2020 (98 years)

Maria Friesenhausen was a German classical soprano who appeared in Europe. She is known for recordings of Baroque music on record and with broadcasters. She was also a professor of voice at the University of Dortmund.

#11999

Gyula Babos

#188340

Overall Influence

1949 - 2018 (69 years)

Gyula Babos was a Hungarian jazz guitarist. Biography Babos was a part of the bands Kex, Rákfogó and Saturnus, and won the Jazz Competition of the Hungarian Radio in 1966. Since 1977 he taught guitar at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he became teacher of several generations of Hungarian guitarists. In the 1990s he gave some great concerts. He appeared in the Petofi Hall in Budapest with Victor Bailey, Terri Lyne Carrington, György Jinda and Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, and gave a concert with Frank Zappa in front of 50,000 spectators.

#12000

Michelle Lopez

#130783

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Michelle Lopez is an American sculptor and installation artist, whose work incorporates divergent industrial materials to critique present day cultural phenomena. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

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