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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Person Name

School

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Communications,

#12401

Bruce Hart

#187174

Overall Influence

1938 - 2006 (68 years)

Bruce Hart was an American songwriter and screenwriter perhaps best known for composing the lyrics to the theme song to the children's TV series Sesame Street. Biography Hart was born in New York City, grew up in Watertown, New York, and completed an arts degree at Syracuse University. After graduation, he wrote material for Carl Ballantine, Larry Hankin, and the Charles Playhouse in Boston.

#12402

Paul Manz

#172444

Overall Influence

1919 - 2009 (90 years)

Paul Otto Manz , was an American composer for choir and organ. His most famous choral work is the Advent motet "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come", which has been performed at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, though its broadcast by the neighbouring Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, in its Advent Carol Service precipitated its popularity.

#12403

Joseph Baber

#190943

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Joseph Wilson Baber Jr. was an American composer, violist, and composition teacher living in Lexington, Kentucky. Life Baber was born in 1937 in Richmond, Virginia, and died in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Kentucky from 1971 to 2021, and the longtime principal violist of Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra.

#12404

Dino Rešidbegović

#188517

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Dino Rešidbegović is a Bosnian contemporary classical music and electronic/electroacoustic music composer. Education Dr. Dino Rešidbegović was born in Sarajevo, SFR Yugoslavia on 14 December 1975 and received his musical training on piano at the elementary and secondary music school there. After moving to Vienna in 1994, he studied music composition , at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Wien and at the Konservatorium Wien - Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, with professors Heinz Karl Gruber, Wolfgang Liebhart and Rainer Bischof. He graduated . He studied piano with professor Kim Oak Hyun at Konservatorium Wien and also graduated in 2003.

#12405

William McAlpine

#186401

Overall Influence

1922 - 2004 (82 years)

William McAlpine was a leading British tenor during the 1950s and 1960s. He created roles in two operas by Benjamin Britten— A Novice in Billy Budd and The Spirit of the Masque in Gloriana. He also sang Andres in the UK premiere of Berg's Wozzeck.

#12406

Raúl Ramírez

#190191

Overall Influence

1927 - 2014 (87 years)

Raúl Ramírez was a veteran Mexican actor. Jooj Natu Selected filmography Film La Hora Desnuda Todo el Horizonte Para Morir Secreto de Confesion La Satanica Blue Demon and Zovek in the Invasion of the Dead

#12407

Silvia Roederer

#150042

Overall Influence

Silvia Roederer DMA is a native of Argentina. Her focus on piano began after emigrating to the U.S. and includes study with John Perry at USC, David Burge at Eastman, and Menahem Pressler at festivals in Banff, Long Beach, and Ravinia.

#12408

Antonia Soulez

#186849

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Antonia Soulez is a French philosopher, musician, poet, and emerita professor of philosophy of Paris 8 St-Denis. Life She started teaching philosophy in Lille before relocating to Amiens. She then taught at Tunis University, Créteil, and Nancy before finally settling at the university of Paris 8 St-Denis. She co-directed the Collège international de philosophie between 2001 and 2004.

#12409

Robert Uchida

#179009

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (47 years)

Robert Uchida is a Canadian violinist hailed for his “ravishing sound, eloquence and hypnotic intensity” . In 2013 he was appointed Concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra., having previously held the same position with Symphony Nova Scotia for seven years.

#12410

Cevdet Erek

#175038

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Cevdet Erek is a Turkish artist and musician. Cevdet Erek was the recipient of the Nam Jun Paik Award in 2012. Education Erek studied architecture at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, while working at various architectural practices as well as in the music band Nekropsi. He left the master's program he had started at MSU for Istanbul Technical University's Center for Advanced Studies in Music , where he studied Sound Engineering and Design and worked as a research assistant from 2002 to 2011. Erek was an artist in residence at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam between 2005 and 2006.

#12411

Edna Garabedian

#186837

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Edna Garabedian is an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director. Biography Born to Armenian immigrants to the United States in Fresno, California, Garabedian studied singing with William Vennard at the University of Southern California, Lotte Lehmann at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Anna Hamlin in New York City, and Rosa Ponselle in Baltimore. In 1961 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She made her professional opera debut in 1965 as Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana with the New York City Opera. She went on to si...

#12412

Erin Gee

#188569

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Erin Elizabeth Gee is an American composer and vocalist. Among the fellowships she has held are the Guggenheim and the Radcliffe Institute Fellowships, and among the awards she has won for her compositions are the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the Rome Prize and the first prize of the International Rostrum of Composers. She was on the faculty of the University of Illinois in Urbana as Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory and is currently Associate Professor of Composition at Brandeis University.

#12413

Nathaniel Rosen

#150829

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Nathaniel "Nick" Rosen is an American cellist, the gold medalist of the 1978 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and former faculty member at the USC Thornton School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

#12414

Daryush Shokof

#183641

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Daryush Shokof is an Iranian writer, film director, artist and film producer based in Germany. His first feature film was Seven Servants which featured Anthony Quinn in one of his last roles. Biography Shokof was born as Ali Reza Shokoufandeh on 25 June 1954 in Tehran, Imperial State of Iran. He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with a degree in Physics and Mathematics and later received an MBA from University of Dallas in Texas. In 1985, he moved to Germany and became a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic.

#12415

Eva Fleischer

#189431

Overall Influence

1922 - 2016 (94 years)

Eva Fleischer, also Eva Fleischer-Fischer was a German opera contralto and professor at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. Life Born in Breslau, Fleischer studied at the Musikhochschule Leipzig, where she became a lecturer in 1951. From 1959 to 1966 she belonged to the ensemble of the Leipzig Opera. In the 1960s she was the subject of several oil paintings by Bernhard Heisig. From 1966 to 1982 she was professor at the Musikhochschule Leipzig.

#12416

Tanja Becker-Bender

Tanja Becker-Bender

#186787

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Tanja Becker-Bender is a German violinist. She lives in Berlin and Hamburg. Musical career Born in Stuttgart, Becker-Bender has performed since age of eleven as a soloist on international stages under the baton of Kurt Masur, Gerd Albrecht, Hubert Soudant and Fabio Luisi with renowned orchestras, such as the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musician she appeared in festivals together with Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Boris Pergamenschiko...

#12417

Lars Woldt

#189639

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Lars Woldt is a German operatic bass and voice teacher. Life Born in Herford, Woldt studied composition with Giselher Klebe as well as singing with Martin Christian Vogel and Thomas Quasthoff at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. Further studies led him to Kammersänger Walter Berry, Franz Crass and to Edith Lienbacher.

#12418

Arie Shapira

#173979

Overall Influence

1943 - 2015 (72 years)

Arie Shapira was an Israeli composer and music researcher. He won the Israel Prize for musical composition in 1994. Biography Arie Shapira was born on Kibbutz Afikim. As a child, he moved with his family to Petah Tikva where he began to study piano. Shapira earned a degree in philosophy from Tel Aviv University and studied composition at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. His teachers included Abel Erlich and Andre Haidu.

#12419

Peter Gilbert

#189342

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Peter Gilbert is an American composer and teacher of music composition. Biography Gilbert did his doctorate in composition at Harvard University with Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky as well as Joshua Fineberg and Hans Tutschku and worked with Chaya Czernowin, Helmut Lachenmann and Magnus Lindberg. He also studied at Illinois Wesleyan University with David Vayo and at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Margaret Brouwer.

#12420

Ralina Joseph

#190134

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Ralina Joseph is an American academic. She is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, examining representations of race, gender, and sexuality in popular media.

#12421

Viviana Gorbato

#93013

Overall Influence

1950 - 2005 (55 years)

Viviana Gorbato was an Argentine journalist, writer, and university professor. Biography Viviana Gorbato was born in Buenos Aires to an upper middle class Jewish family. When she was a teenager she created a magazine with her friends from high school, formed a theater group, and won a literary contest for a book of unpublished stories. She graduated as a professor of Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires .

#12422

Patrick O'Byrne

#191229

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Patrick O'Byrne is an Irish-born New Zealand pianist. Life O'Byrne was born in Dublin and raised in New Zealand. He studied piano at the University of Auckland with Janetta McStay, then in Europe as a scholar of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand and the DAAD. His teachers included Kendall Taylor and Vlado Perlemuter. He completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg with Rosa Sabater, won first prize in the José Iturbi International Piano Competition in 1983 and settled in Germany. In 1985 was appointed Professor at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart where he was later Vice Chancellor.

#12423

Vadim Neselovskyi

#190163

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Vadim Neselovskyi is a Ukrainian pianist and composer based in New York City. He currently serves as a professor of jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Neselovskyi joined 6-Time Grammy Winner Gary Burton’s Generations Quintet of future all-stars including Julian Lage, Luques Curtis, and James Williams in 2004 and has been working as Gary Burton’s pianist and arranger for more than a decade, touring the US, Europe, and Japan. His recent appearances with Burton include Newport Jazz Festival , Chicago Jazz Festival and Detroit Jazz Festival. His work can be heard...

#12424

Ma Zhencheng

#189841

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Ma Zhencheng is a Chinese translator. He is the first person in China to translate The Little Prince, and was also praised as the best translator of The Little Prince. He also translated some of the works of the French novelists Michel de Montaigne, Milan Kundera, André Gide, and Marguerite Duras into Chinese.

#12425

Thomas Kakuska

#190835

Overall Influence

1940 - 2005 (65 years)

Thomas Kakuska was an Austrian viola player, best known as the violist of the Alban Berg Quartett from 1981 until his death in Vienna in 2005. Kakuska was a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna from 1971, and a visiting professor at the University of Cologne in Germany from 1993.

#12426

Jessica Zhu

#180457

Overall Influence

1986 - Present (40 years)

Jessica Zhu is a Chinese-American pianist who is currently undertaking a doctorate in musical arts under the supervision of Paul Roberts and Caroline Rae at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London. She previously received a Master in Performance and an Artist Diploma with distinction from the Guildhall, where she studied with full scholarship as a 2009 Marshall Scholar.

#12427

Mercedes Matias-Santiago

#187043

Overall Influence

1910 - 2003 (93 years)

Mercedes Matias Santiago was a Filipino soprano and music educator. Early life Born Mercedes Matias on March 4, 1910 in Cavite City, Cavite, Philippines, she was one of three children of Juan Matias of Ligao, Albay and Rosario Regalado of Cavite City. Her father worked as a division head at the U.S. Navy yards in Cavite.

#12428

John Tarnoff

#159658

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

John Tarnoff is a reinvention career coach who provides career counseling for baby boomer and late career professionals looking to defy ageism, work beyond retirement, and pivot to a new job or new business as a second act or encore career.

#12429

Brett Leighton

#188963

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Brett Leighton is an Australian freelance organist and harpsichordist who has lived in Europe for more than 40 years and was Professor of Organ at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria from 1994 until retirement in November 2020. He is featured on four CD releases including Orgel Landschaft Ober-Österreich II , Brett Leighton an der West-Orgel in Taufkirchen/Pram Music for Organ and Zink , The World's Oldest Organ and The Organ of the Stadtkirche St.Marien, Celle. He has three times served on the jury of the competition for Paul Hofhaimer Prize of the City of Innsbruck and w...

#12430

Ilya Frez

#181674

Overall Influence

1909 - 1994 (85 years)

Ilya Abramovich Frez , PAU, was a Soviet film director primarily known for his films for younger viewers. Among his films was the internationally popular I Loved You of 1967. Selected filmography First-Year Student Vasyok Trubachyov and His Comrades Trubachyov's Detachment Is Fighting I Loved You Adventures of the Yellow Suitcase Crank from 5th B We Didn't Learn This Could One Imagine? Quarantine Personal file of Judge Ivanova

#12431

Benjamin Harkarvy

Benjamin Harkarvy

#117966

Overall Influence

1930 - 2002 (72 years)

Benjamin Harkarvy was an American dance teacher, choreographer, and artistic director. He earned an international reputation for his eclectic approach to dance education , as well as through his leadership of a number of prominent dance companies.

#12432

Dickie Moore

#190155

Overall Influence

1925 - 2015 (90 years)

John Richard Moore Jr. was an American actor known professionally as Dickie Moore, he was one of the last surviving actors to have appeared in silent film. A busy and popular actor during his childhood and youth, he appeared in over 100 films until the early 1950s. Among his most notable appearances were the Our Gang series and films such as Oliver Twist, Blonde Venus, Sergeant York, Out of the Past, and Eight Iron Men.

#12433

Endia Beal

#179201

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (41 years)

Endia Beal is an African-American visual artist, curator, and educator. She is known for her work in creating visual narratives through photography and video testimonies focused on women of color working in corporate environments.

#12434

Huey Long

#176789

Overall Influence

1904 - 2009 (105 years)

Huey Long was an American jazz and R&B guitarist and singer and band leader who was a member of the quartet The Ink Spots. Long's career began in the 1919 as a banjoist before moving to guitar. He became a member of the Ink Spots in 1945 and participated in spinoff bands in the 1960s.

#12435

Ernest McChesney

#186702

Overall Influence

1912 - 1991 (79 years)

Ernest McChesney was an American tenor who had an active singing career in operas, musicalss, and concerts during the late 1920s through the early 1960s. He was notably a principal tenor with the New York City Opera from 1954 to 1960.

#12436

Lynn Morris

#188693

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Lynn Morris is an American bluegrass musician. Morris was raised in Lamesa, Texas, where she learned to play piano at the age of 6 and guitar at the age of 11. She went to Colorado College and graduated with a degree in art. The following year she began to play the banjo. She played with bluegrass groups City Limits which she joined in 1972 and Whetstone Run. She toured full-time through various regions including the United States, Canada, and Europe. She also was nominated and joined the IBMA board of directors. After retiring from her tours in 2003 due to a stroke, she became an audio engineer, producing albums like Ron Stewart's album Time Stands Still in 2001.

#12437

Ralph Votapek

#184965

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Ralph Votapek is an American pianist notable for winning the First Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 1962; the inaugural competition's First Place prize was $10,000. He is the Jury Chairman of the 2022 CliburnInternational Amateur Piano Competition

#12438

George Lee

#187441

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

George Lee is an Irish economist, journalist, television and radio presenter, and former Fine Gael politician. He has worked for RTÉ since 1992. Since 2019, he has been Environment Correspondent for RTÉ News. He previously was Economics Editor in 1996.

#12439

Patrick Meighan

#179068

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Patrick Meighan is an American saxophonist and educator who specializes in classical music, while also performing in jazz, rock, and pop styles. Meighan has been described in Musical America as "...most exceptional, with an otherworldly tone and fluid technique…"

#12440

Johana Harris

#183637

Overall Influence

1912 - 1995 (83 years)

Johana Harris was a Canadian pianist, composer, and music educator. She had highly successful career as a concert pianist, making numerous recordings and appearing as a soloist with almost every major American symphony orchestra. She made over 100 solo recordings, working with such labels as Columbia, RCA, Capitol, MGM and Contemporary Records. She also performed on the soundtracks of several Hollywood films and television productions. She was married to composers Roy Harris and Jake Heggie . She performed widely with both men in duo piano concerts and was considered to have had a particular...

#12441

Sara Kathryn Arledge

Sara Kathryn Arledge

#179280

Overall Influence

1911 - 1998 (87 years)

Sara Kathryn Arledge was an American artist and filmmaker acknowledged as "one of the foremothers of the American experimental cinema." Early life and education Born in Mojave, California, Arledge received a Bachelor of Education in Art from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1936. She also attended Columbia University and studied painting at The Barnes Foundation. She taught at the Department of Art at the University of Oklahoma from 1943 to 1944, and at the University of Arizona, Tucson from 1945 to 1946.

#12442

Kenneth Kafui

#186073

Overall Influence

1951 - 2020 (69 years)

Kenneth Kwaku Avotri Kafui was a Ghanaian composer. He was a lecturer in music theory and composition at the music department of the University of Ghana, Legon. He was also the Director of Abibigromma Theatre Group of the University of Ghana. Born into a musical family, he was considered one of the leading composers of his generation in Ghana, in African art music. He composed choral works, works for choir and orchestra, symphonic works, piano and organ works, and works for traditional African instruments. He created new concepts and genres in African art music such as the Pentanata, the HD-3...

#12443

Luis García Renart

#191028

Overall Influence

1936 - 2020 (84 years)

Luis García Renart was a Spanish-born Mexican cellist. He often performed with his sister, the pianist Marta García Renart. Biography Born in Barcelona, Garcia first studied at the National Conservatory of Music and then at the conservatories of Bern and Basel in Switzerland with Sándor Veress and Sándor Végh. Between 1956 and 1960 he studied directly under Pablo Casals in France and Puerto Rico. In 1959 he won the Harriet Cohen International Music Award. In 1960 he won a scholarship to study at the Moscow Conservatory with Mstislav Rostropovich and Aram Khachaturian. In 1963 he won the You...

#12444

Kazuko Hara

#189729

Overall Influence

1935 - 2014 (79 years)

Kazuko Hara was a prolific Japanese opera composer. Life and career Born in Tokyo, she studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music with Tomojiro Ikenouchi, graduating in 1957. She subsequently went to France where she studied with Henri Dutilleux and Alexander Tcherepnin. After that she returned to Japan to teach at the Osaka University of Music.

#12445

Roger Ailes

#188825

Overall Influence

1940 - 2017 (77 years)

Roger Eugene Ailes was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for US Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's 1989 New York City mayoral election. In July 2016, he was forced out of Fox News after sexually harassing many female Fox employees, including on-air hosts Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Andrea Tantaros.

#12446

Vilen Galstyan

#190055

Overall Influence

1941 - 2021 (80 years)

Vilen Galstyan was an Armenian ballet dancer and actor who was popular in the former U.S.S.R. and especially in Armenia. He was awarded by the People's Artist of Armenia honorary title. Biography Galstyan was born on 12 February 1941 in Yerevan. He trained at Yerevan Choreographic School, before he began performing with Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet Theater. He also performed internationally, including at the Bolshoi Theatre. He took part in a Canadian tour with Mikhail Baryshnikov, during which Baryshnikov defected. Galstyan stated that he was questioned by the KGB as a result. He won gold me...

#12447

Yoshinao Nakada

#184676

Overall Influence

1923 - 2000 (77 years)

Nakada Yoshinao was a Japanese composer. Works, editions and recordings Japanese Festival - Seventeen Piano Pieces for StudentsSongs - Songs of Japanese Toys; 6 Children's Songs; 8 Children'sTanpopo to a poem of Miyoshi Tatsuji

#12448

Raoul Pleskow

#188776

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Raoul Pleskow was an Austrian-born American composer. Pleskow was born in Vienna, Austria on October 12, 1930. He moved to the United States in 1939 and became an American citizen in 1945. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York City , and at Queens College , where he studied composition with Karol Rathaus. He then studied with Otto Luening at Columbia University, earning a Master's degree in Music in 1958. In 1959 he was appointed to the music faculty at C. W. Post College, Long Island University, and in 1970 he became a full professor.

#12449

John O'Hara

#191216

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

#12450

Melanie Rodriga

#187298

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Melanie Rodriga is a New Zealand-Australian film maker, lecturer, and author. Early life Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Rodriga was the third child of Daphne Mary and Albert Thomas Read. She is of Eurasian ancestry on her mother's side and British ancestry on her father's side. Her father was a pianist arranger of the British Dance Band Era, playing with Bert Ambrose and Henry Hall , among others. The family moved from Malaysia to Sydney in 1961, and lived in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse. Rodriga graduated from Kambala CofE Foundation School for Girls in 1972. She then traveled to Eng...

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