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,

#12051

Renate Behle

#184375

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Renate Behle is an Austrian operatic mezzo-soprano and soprano who made an international career, based in Germany. She was professor of voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg from 2000 to 2010.

#12052

Hugh Aitken

#183784

Overall Influence

1924 - 2012 (88 years)

Hugh Aitken was a 20th-century American composer. Biography Aitken was born in New York City to Hugh Aitken Sr. and Florence Aitken. He grew up in the Bronx and attended Evander Child High School. There were artists of all kinds in his family; his father was a musician, playing the violin and also composing, his mother danced in vaudeville in her youth, one cousin was a radio, stage, and television actress and another danced in the Balanchine company. He studied chemistry for two years at New York University, but quit to join the Army. He served as a navigator in the Air Force in the Second...

#12053

Lučka Kajfež Bogataj

Lučka Kajfež Bogataj

#71445

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Lučka Kajfež Bogataj is a Slovenian climatologist, specialist in agricultural meteorology. Early life and education She graduated in 1980 from the Ljubljana Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology and received her doctorate from the Faculty of Biotechnology. She then pursued post-doctoral training in the U.S. and Sweden.

#12054

Milica Pap

#189334

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Milica Pap is a classical pianist of Bosnian-Herzegovinian, Serbian and Croatian descent. Biography Pap is a Balkan pianist and music teacher. Her father Ljudevit Pap was a violinist and professor of music at the University of Belgrade. He was a founding member of the Association of Serbian Musicians and the first violinist and leader of the Belgrade Symphony Orchestra and the Sarajevo Radio Orchestra. He is also credited with forming the first professional string quartet in Sarajevo. He died when Pap was 14.

#12055

Marko Savić

#186552

Overall Influence

1941 - 2013 (72 years)

Marko Savić was a Serbian pianist and university professor. Education Marko Savić graduated from the Belgrade Music Academy in 1965 and 1969 . He completed his postgraduate studies in Piano Performance at the Faculty of Music in Skopje . His major teachers were Marko Tajčević , Jelica Popović and Branko Cvetković .

#12056

Silvina Milstein

#174645

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Silvina Milstein is an Argentine composer and scholar of twentieth-century music, living in the United Kingdom and teaching at King's College London. Her music has been described as "turbulent and hesitantly ecstatic", as well as "highly poetic", "rich and dense". In 2018 her piece shan shui was nominated for the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber-Scale Composition.

#12057

Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab

#186998

Overall Influence

1924 - 2016 (92 years)

Mostafa Kamal Pourtorab was an Iranian musician, composer, music teacher, and music theorist. He was a member of the founding board and vice-president of the Supreme Council of the Iranian House of Music.

#12058

Patrick Barron

#190517

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

#12059

Vanessa Tomlinson

#184150

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Vanessa Tomlinson is an Australian percussionist, composer, artistic director and educator. She is Director of Creative Arts Research Institute and Head of Percussion at Griffith University and has produced 150 publications. She is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Clocked Out, along with Erik Griswold.

#12060

Miles Okazaki

#186923

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Miles Okazaki is an American jazz guitarist and composer. Okazaki is a lecturer of jazz guitar at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Early life Okazaki grew up in Port Townsend, Washington. When he was six, he began lessons on classical guitar. From a young age he was exposed to music and art, primarily because his mother was a painter and his father was a photography professor at Washington State University.

#12061

Konstantin Scherbakov

#173085

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Konstantin Scherbakov is a Russian pianist. He was the winner of the first Rachmaninoff international piano competition in 1983. In 1990, he played solo in four recitals at the Chamber Music Festival of Asolo; this launched his international career.

#12062

Bill Stevenson

#176522

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Bill Stevenson is a Canadian blues and jazz pianist, vocalist and songwriter, originally associated with the band Earth Opera, whose career in music has spanned over forty years. Biography Stevenson commenced his music career in Ottawa, Ontario, where he spent his childhood and adolescence. While still in his teens, he joined the band Earth Opera, originally based in Boston. Stevenson left the band in 1968, after the release of their first album. During Stevenson's time with Earth Opera, the band frequently opened for The Doors, being fellow recording artists on Elektra Records, as well as...

#12063

Byron Fulcher

#187425

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Byron Fulcher is a British musician who is the principal trombone with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. In addition, he is professor of trombone at the Royal College of Music. Early life and education Byron was born and raised in Cornwall, started playing trombone at the age of nine and studied with Denis Wick. From 1988 and 1992, he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Eric Crees.

#12064

Zhang Guanyao

#190524

Overall Influence

1933 - 2002 (69 years)

Zhang Guanyao was a Chinese translator and professor at Peking University. He was most notable for being one of the main translators into Chinese of the works of the French novelists Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac.

#12065

Carol Rodland

#184684

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Carol Rodland is an American viola player who studied with Karen Tuttle at the Juilliard School. She was Tuttle's teaching assistant for several years before taking a position as a viola teacher at the New England Conservatory. In February 2008, it was announced that Rodland would join the faculty at the Eastman School of Music for the Fall 2008 semester, replacing the retiring John Graham. She is a recipient of a Fulbright grant.

#12066

Andile Khumalo

#175057

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Andile Khumalo is a South African composer and a music lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand. In 2013, he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at Columbia University under the supervision of George Lewis. There he also studied with Fabien Levy and Tristan Murail. Prior to his DMA, Khumalo studied under Marco Stroppa at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart and with Jürgen Bräuninger at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Khumalo's compositions are predominantly in a spectral style.

#12067

Nina Svetlanova

#184969

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

Nina Svetlanova is a Russian-American concert pianist and educator. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1983. She has been a professor of piano at New York's Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music since the late 1970s. Before her teaching career, she was known as a concert pianist and collaborative artist, being the main pianist to work with Armenian mezzo-soprano Zara Dolukhanova.

#12068

Alessio Bax

#179176

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Alessio Bax is an Italian classical pianist. He graduated from the Bari conservatory at the record age of 14. He won the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan at age 19 and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 2000 after first participating in 1993. Bax was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two for three seasons, beginning in 2009. He also received the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009. He studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas with Basque pianist Joaquín Achúcarro. Bax is a Steinway Artist. He also serves on the facult...

#12069

Bill Chott

#170473

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Bill Chott is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Mr. Laritate on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place. Early life During his school years, Chott appeared in numerous plays and musicals. He graduated from Ritenour High School, and in 2010 was inducted into their Alumni Hall of Fame. He continued pursuing theater in college at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri, acting in a wide variety of plays. He was also in Chi Delta fraternity while at Central Methodist as well as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's Beta Mu chapter. He left Missouri in 1992, a...

#12070

Eileen Strempel

#147544

Overall Influence

Eileen Strempel is an operatic soprano, author, higher education policy expert, and academic from Syracuse, New York, who is currently inaugural dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Strempel’s scholarly work advocates for college transfer students—and both access to and support for higher education—and the works of historically underrepresented composers.

#12071

Diedrick Brackens

#158370

Overall Influence

1989 - Present (37 years)

Diedrick Brackens is an American artist and weaver. Brackens is well known for his woven tapestries that explore African American and queer identity. Biography Brackens spent his early years moving between Army bases whilst his father served in the military. He received his BFA from the University of North Texas in 2011. It was here that he was first introduced to the discipline of weaving. He then pursued an MFA degree at the California College of the Arts in 2014. Under the teachings of textile artist Josh Faught, his work on the exploration of queer identity inspired Brackens to explore h...

#12072

Dietmar Hallmann

#186034

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Dietmar Hallmann is a German musician who was professor for viola and chamber music at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. Life Hallmann was born in Breslau.After the Second World War Hallmann moved to Burkhardtsdorf. From 1954 to 1957 he studied music with violin as his main subject with Gerhard Bosse in Leipzig. First he was first violinist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. From 1960 to 1996 he was solo violist there. At the same time he was active in the Gewandhaus Quartet from 1958 to 1993. He was co-founder of the Bach Orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

#12073

Ashley Hans Scheirl

#145580

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Hans Scheirl, also known as A. Hans Scheirl, Angela Scheirl, Hans Angela Scheirl or Ashley Hans Sheirl, is a transgender artist and filmmaker from Salzburg, Austria. Scheirl first began his transition at the age of 40 with testosterone shots. He currently identifies as "boy, drag-king, transvestite, transgender...[and] insect." He has also performed in some experimental groups including the music group "8 oder 9" in Vienna in 1978. Scheirl's films use "the cinematic apparatus as a technology for perverting representation". He outlines his work as "cyber-cinema for the trans-X patriarchal fin-...

#12074

Jonathan Cohler

Jonathan Cohler

#185426

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Jonathan Cohler is an American classical clarinetist, conductor, music educator and record producer. Early career Jonathan Cohler graduated from Harvard University in 1980 with a degree in physics. He studied clarinet with Pasquale Cardillo, Harold Wright, Karl Leister, Charles Neidich and Frank Martin. In 1978, he won the U.S. Components, Inc. Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center . He also played clarinet for the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra in 1979 under conductor Carl Topilow.

#12075

Ken Itō

#190470

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Ken ITO is a Japanese composer, conductor, and writer born in Tokyo on January 27, 1965. Ito has been assistant professor at University of Tokyo since 2000.

#12076

Matthias Marschik

#148600

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

. Matthias Marschik is an Austrian cultural studies scholar, media expert and sport historian. Life Marschik was born in Vienna. After his Abitur at the Jesuit secondary school Albertus-Magnus-Schule in 1975, Marschik studied law, psychology and art history at the University of Vienna until 1983. After his civil service at the psycho-biological research station of the Psychiatric University Hospital Vienna General Hospital he became a staff member of the Verein für Konsumenteninformation in 1986 while continuing to study psychology. From 1987 on, he worked as a freelancer for newspapers and m...

#12077

Steve Wiest

#185075

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Steve Wiest is an American trombonist, composer, arranger, big band director, music educator at the collegiate level, jazz clinician, author, and illustrator/cartoonist. From 1981 to 1985, he was a featured trombonist and arranger with the Maynard Ferguson Band. Wiest is in his year as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Commercial Music at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music. He is the Coordinator of the 21st Century Music Initiative at the school. Wiest has been a professor for of the years that he has been a professional trombonist, composer, and arranger. From 2007 ...

#12078

John Kitchen

#189421

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

John Philip Kitchen MBE is a Scottish organist, conductor, early music scholar, and music educator based in Edinburgh. He serves as the Edinburgh City Organist. Kitchen is known for his extensive recording portfolio of organ music, and his research and demonstration of historical keyboard instruments, He made major contributions to the discography and scholarship on the organ works of William Russell, and Johann Ludwig Krebs.

#12079

Gary Brunotte

#189243

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Gary Brunotte is an American post-bop jazz musician. In 1992 Brunotte recorded the album Yesterday's Dream, which included saxophonist Eric Marienthal. Select discography Yesterdays Dream – 1993Conversations – 2005Smile – 2006Manic Moments 2007About Time – 2008

#12080

Joyce Mekeel

#184353

Overall Influence

1931 - 1997 (66 years)

Joyce Haviland Mekeel was a composer, harpsichordist, teacher, anthropologist, and sculptor. Education Joyce Mekeel studied at the Longy School of Music , Paris Conservatory and Yale University . In Paris her teachers included Nadia Boulanger; in the 1960s she studied with Earl Kim. At Yale she studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt and theory with David Kraehenbuehl. Mekeel received a fellowship to MacDowell Colony and grants in composition from Ingram-Merrill in 1964 and Radcliffe Institute from 1969-1970. She was a member of Sigma Alpha Iota. Mekeel took up studying anthropology which brought her to West Africa twice, where she created many sculptures.

#12081

Juan Allende-Blin

#179924

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Juan Allende-Blin is a Chilean composer and academic teacher who lives in Germany. Career Born in Santiago de Chile, Allende-Blin studied first with his uncle, Pedro Humberto Allende, and with , a pupil of Anton Webern. He then studied at the University of Santiago, and with Olivier Messiaen at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He was professor of musical analysis at the University of Santiago from 1954 to 1957. In 1957 he moved to Germany and worked from 1962 for the broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg. He has lived as a free-lance composer in Essen, together with the composer and organ...

#12082

Malvika Iyer

#45548

Overall Influence

1989 - Present (37 years)

Malvika Iyer is an Indian national, a bilateral amputee from an accidental blast while picking up a diffused grenade, a social worker, and a National Awardee. She is an international motivational speaker and a disability rights activist, advocating for building an inclusive society. She is also a model for accessible fashion. Iyer obtained her Doctorate in Social Work from Madras School of Social Work in 2017. Her doctoral thesis is on the stigmatization of people with disabilities.

#12083

Eve de Castro-Robinson

#182449

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Eve de Castro-Robinson is a New Zealand composer, professor and graphic designer. Her compositions include orchestral, vocal, chamber and electroacoustic works. She studied at the University of Auckland, where in 1991 she became the first person to receive a DMus from the University. She is Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Auckland.

#12084

Wendell J. Westcott

#189702

Overall Influence

1911 - 2010 (99 years)

Wendell J. Westcott was the University Carillonneur at Michigan State University from 1941 to 1987, and the creator and director of the Spartan Bell Ringers, a musical group composed of MSU students. Westcott was the author of Bells and Their Music, published in 1970. He served in the United States Army during World War II, stationed for much of that time in Egypt.

#12085

Jen Hofer

#169299

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Jen Hofer is an American poet, translator, and interpreter. Awards Hofer won the 2012 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, for the poem Negro Marfil/Ivory Black. The PEN Award judges refer to Hofer's translation of Negro Marfil/Ivory Black as a work that "articulates writing as a gesture hovering between binaries, bodies, languages, modes of perception, cultures...[and is] reflexively about translation.

#12086

Chan Ka Nin

#184391

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Chan Ka Nin is a Canadian composer and music educator of Chinese descent. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1971. He has been commissioned to write works for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, New Music Concerts, the Quebec Contemporary Music Society, and Symphony Nova Scotia among many others. He has also been awarded funds to compose works by the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario's Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, and the Toronto Arts Council. He ...

#12087

Rena Matsui

#173483

Overall Influence

1991 - Present (35 years)

is a Japanese actress, singer, and novelist. Matsui is a former member of the Japanese idol girl groups SKE48 and Nogizaka46. As a member of the former, she also participated in the main lineup of AKB48's singles. As an actress, she has played roles in numerous films and television series, including Kamen Rider Build the Movie: Be the One and the 99th NHK asadora Manpuku.

#12088

Sayumi Michishige

Sayumi Michishige

#168353

Overall Influence

1989 - Present (37 years)

Sayumi Michishige is a Japanese singer, actress and model. She is a former sixth-generation member and former leader of the J-pop group Morning Musume. Following the departure of fifth-generation member Risa Niigaki on October 12, 2013, Michishige held the longest tenure of any member in the group's history even after her graduation. She went on to hold this record until surpassed by ninth-generation members Mizuki Fukumura and Erina Ikuta in December 2022.

#12089

Carita Holmström

#186698

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Carita Elisabeth Holmström is a Finnish pianist, singer and songwriter. She has written and played jazz and classical music during her career. She also had a duo, Carita & Marianne, with Marianne "Maru" Nyman. She represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 with the song "Keep Me Warm", finishing 13th.

#12090

Thomas Buchholz

#183071

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Thomas Walter Buchholz is a German composer and music educator. Life Buchholz was born in 1961 in Eisenach as the son of the oratorio singer and vocal pedagogue Kurt Wichmann and the concert pianist and music teacher Jutta Buchholz née Gensty. His father was editor of the vocal school of Pier Francesco Tosi. Buchholz went to school in Eisenach and from the age of six years he received lessons in singing, piano, organ and music theory at the Eisenacher Musikschule. Afterwards he trained as a piano maker at the Pianofortefabrik in Leipzig. Afterwards he worked as piano tuner in Eisenach and as ...

#12091

Mark Hetzler

#171942

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Mark Hetzler is an American trombonist and former member of the Empire Brass Quintet. Hetzler has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the Empire Brass Quintet from 1996–2012, he performed in recital and as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Australia, Taiwan, Korea, China, Venezuela, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Austria, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, Bermuda, St. Bartholomew and across the United States. He appeared with the Empire Brass Quintet on live television and radio broadcasts in Asia and the United States.

#12092

György Ligeti

#187300

Overall Influence

1972 - 2006 (34 years)

György Ligeti is a Hungarian indie musician, record producer, best known as the lead singer, songwriter, lyricist and guitarist of the indie rock band We Are Rockstars, and the disbanded The Puzzle. He is also the singer and guitarist of the Hungarian electro band, Žagar. He is not related to the avant-garde classical composer of the same name, György Ligeti .

#12093

Janez Drozg

#180803

Overall Influence

1933 - 2005 (72 years)

Janez Drozg was a Slovene television and film director from Celje. Alongside his work with TV Ljubljana which dominated much of his career, he also directed features films such as Boj na požiralniku in 1982 and even made an appearance as an actor in the 1980 film Prestop playing the character of guard leader.

#12094

Andrei Diev

#189695

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Andrei Borisovich Diev , born on 7 July 1958 in Minsk, BSSR , is a Russian pianist, Meritorious Artist and professor of the Moscow Conservatory. Biography Diev's mother was a pianist and his father a conductor, both having graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. Diev began his piano studies with his grandmother and formally studied music at Gnessin State Musical College in 1965. He later transferred to the Moscow Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory in 1973 to study with Lev Naumov and continued his studies with Naumov when he entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1975, graduating in...

#12095

Willard Warch

#178445

Overall Influence

1909 - 2002 (93 years)

Willard Franklin Warch was an American classical cellist and music theorist from Chicago. He was schoolmaster at Punahou School in Honolulu, first cello with the Honolulu Symphony and a Professor of Music and Theory at Oberlin College for 30 years.

#12096

Gillian Brown

#177935

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Gillian D. Brown is a British linguist. She is known for her expertise on discourse analysis. She obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1971, presenting the thesis "Aspects of a phonology of Lumasaaba".

#12097

Clayton Hare

#188148

Overall Influence

1909 - 2001 (92 years)

Clayton Hare was a Canadian music teacher, conductor, and violinist. He was the third principal conductor of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra and taught at a number of universities including Mount Allison University, the University of Portland, and Mount Royal College.

#12098

Scott Wheeler

#183433

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Scott Wheeler is an American concert-music composer, born February 24, 1952, in Washington, D.C., now based in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 1989, he has been on the faculty of Emerson College in Boston, where he has co-directed the music theater program. Wheeler co-founded and for many years was artistic director of the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, of which he remains artistic adviser. As an active conductor and an advocate for the music of his colleagues, he has led numerous world and local premieres and recorded several compact discs. Wheeler is on the board of directors of the Virgil Thomson Foundation, a composer advocacy group.

#12099

Daniel Kellogg

#179875

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (50 years)

Daniel Kellogg is an American composer. Kellogg is Assistant Professor of Music at the College of Music of the University of Colorado at Boulder, teaching music composition, counterpoint and orchestration.

#12100

Ashley Putnam

#176339

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Ashley Putnam is an American soprano from New York City. Her professional singing career began in 1976 and has spanned over 30 years. Early life and career Ashley Putnam began her music career playing the flute. Her mother was an amateur singer and was a regular soloist at the church where she also sang in the choir. The young Ashley began playing the flute and attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the summers during high school. Upon graduation from high school, Ashley enrolled at the University of Michigan School of Music as a flute major. There she sang in the university choirs and realized she had vocal potential when she was given solos in choir.

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