Search People Result | Academic Influence

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

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

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

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

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

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Computer Science,

#13351

George Earl Ortman

#49186

Overall Influence

1926 - 2015 (89 years)

George Earl Ortman was an American painter, printmaker, constructionist and sculptor. His work has been referred to as Neo-Dada, pop art, minimalism and hard-edge painting. His constructions, built with a variety of materials and objects, deal with the exploration off visual language derived from geometry—geometry as symbol and sign.

#13352

Sara Osuna

#157224

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Sara Osuna Acedo has a PhD in Philosophy and Education Sciences by Spain's Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia . Career At UNED, she is a Professor of Communication and Education, teaching on Pedagogics and Social Education undergraduate programs. Her expertise mainly focuses on digital technologies, Communication Models and eLearning.

#13353

John Kay

#177294

Overall Influence

John Kay was an English inventor best known for the development of the spinning frame in 1767, which marked an important stage in the development of textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution. Born in Warrington in Lancashire, England, Kay was at least the co-constructor of the first spinning frame, and was a claimant to having been its inventor. He is sometimes confused with the unrelated John Kay from Bury, Lancashire, who had invented the flying shuttle, a weaving machine, some thirty years earlier.

#13354

Louise Gagnon-Arguin

#188056

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Louise Gagnon-Arguin is a Canadian archivist. Early life Gagnon-Arguin was born in 1941 in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec. Education Between 1958 and 1960, she audited librarianship courses at the Université de Montreal. She graduated with her B.A. in history in 1973, and her M.A. in history in 1978, and her PhD in history in 1990, all from Université de Laval.

#13355

Hans Smit

#51281

Overall Influence

1927 - 2012 (85 years)

Hans Smit was the Stanley H. Fuld Professor Emeritus of Law at Columbia Law School. Biography Smit was born in Amsterdam and earned his LL.B. in 1946 and his J.D. in 1949 from the University of Amsterdam. He worked in private practice in The Hague before moving to New York City on a Fulbright scholarship, where he earned a master's degree at Columbia in 1953 and graduated first in his class with an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1958.

#13356

Nathalie Obadia

#42890

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Nathalie Obadia is a French art gallery owner. She specialises in contemporary art. Early life She was born in Toulouse, France. As a teenager, Nathalie Obadia completed an internship at Daniel Varenne, in Genova, and Adrien Maeght, in Paris. She studied a master's degree in Law at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, then worked at the Galerie Daniel Templon from 1988 to 1992.

#13357

Morgan Thompson

#191752

Overall Influence

#13358

Jack Katz

#172894

Overall Influence

1927 - Present (99 years)

Jack Katz is an American comic book artist and writer, painter and art teacher known for his graphic novel The First Kingdom, a 24-issue epic he began during the era of underground comix. Influenced by such illustrative comic-strip artists as Hal Foster and Alex Raymond, Katz attended the School of Industrial Art in New York City. He began working for comic-book publishers in the 1940s, during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Though continuing to work in comics through the 1950s, his slow pace and highly detailed, idiosyncratic art style prompted him to leave that field for 14 years.

#13359

Azartash Azarnoosh

Azartash Azarnoosh

#104486

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

Azartash Azarnoush was a linguist and scholar of Iran. Born in Qom, he held two Ph.D. degrees from France. He specialized in Arabic literature. Azarnoush was part of Imam Sadeq University and Tarbiat Modarres University faculty, and was the director of the Arabic department of The Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia in Tehran since 1986, and published over 200 articles in the field of Arabic literature, as well as a few dozen books.

#13360

James Coe

#124184

Overall Influence

1917 - 2003 (86 years)

Herbert James Bowkett Coe was a New Zealand artist, art teacher, industrial designer and early champion of ergonomic design. Biography Coe was born in Timaru in 1917. He attended the Canterbury College of Fine Art until his art studies were interrupted by World War II and war service in the Pacific.

#13361

Zoltán Szabadka

#191754

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (46 years)

#13362

Pearl Stewart

#191758

Overall Influence

Pearl Stewart is an Associate Professor of Family Science and Human Development at Montclair State University. She specializes in family diversity, African-American extended families and cultural connections between African American and West African families. Alma Maters: PhD and BS from University of Delaware, and an MSSA from Case Western Reserve University Academic Website

#13363

Kacey Wong

#134236

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Kacey Wong is a Hong Kong visual artist and educator – formerly Assistant Professor at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Wong has received the Hong Kong Contemporary Arts Award by the Hong Kong Art Museum , Best Artist Award ; and Rising Artist Award and Outstanding Arts Education Award . Wong is politically engaged through his art, and is founding member of art-activist groups Art Citizens and the Umbrella Movement Art Preservation.

#13364

Richard Wentworth

#62703

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Richard Wentworth is a British artist, curator and teacher. Life and career Wentworth was born in Samoa—then a province of New Zealand—in 1947. He studied art at Hornsey College of Art in North London from 1965, and then at the Royal College of Art where he was a contemporary of Zoë Wanamaker and Tony Scott.

#13365

Archie Dykes

#172605

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Archie Reece Dykes is an American academic. He served as the chancellor of the University of Kansas from 1973 to 1981. From 1967 to 1971, he was chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Martin. Dykes is an alumnus of East Tennessee State University and University of Tennessee at Knoxville and holds bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees in education.

#13366

Jared Mezzocchi

#179011

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (41 years)

Jared Mezzocchi is an American theatre director and projection designer. In 2020, Jared was named in a Top 5 List in the New York Times as a Theatre Artist spotlit for their innovative work during the pandemic, alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paula Vogel. His work as a co-director and multimedia designer for Sarah Gancher's RUSSIAN TROLL FARM gained him particular notoriety in the New York Times as Critics Pick and noted as one of the first digitally-native successes for virtual theater. In 2023, Mezzocchi was awarded his second Obie Award for this digital production, alongside his creative team.

#13367

Evelyn Gitau

#60545

Overall Influence

Evelyn Nungari Gitau is a Kenyan cellular immunologist at the African Academy of Sciences, and was named a Next Einstein Fellow. Early life and education Gitau grew up in the Dagoretti area of Nairobi, Kenya. She attended The Kenya High School, where she developed a passion for chemistry, and would spend her free time at the chemistry lab at the University of Nairobi where her best friend's father was the head of the Chemistry department. After graduating high school, she was selected for the inaugural medicine class at Moi University but chose to study chemistry instead.

#13368

Elizabeth Kjellstrand Hartwig

#191761

Overall Influence

#13369

Maria X

#178049

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Maria Chatzichristodoulou , also known as Maria X, is a Greek cultural practitioner who has served as a curator, producer, painter, performer, writer, and community organizer. Education She received her undergraduate degree in Theater Studies from the University of Patras, Greece, graduating with first class honors.

#13370

Rogerio Miguel Puga

#181471

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Rogério Miguel Puga holds a PhD in Anglo-Portuguese Studies , was a lecturer at Institute of Education and Sciences, , assistant professor at the University of Macau and a senior researcher at the Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies . He is associate professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of NOVA University Lisbon. He taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon in 2011-2012, 2013-2014, and at . He is a research collaborator at Centre for the Humanities and the Centre for Comparative Studies . He is a subject editor for the journal Romance Studies ...

#13371

Arminda Schutte

Arminda Schutte

#168567

Overall Influence

1909 - 1995 (86 years)

Arminda Schutte was a Cuban classical pianist and pedagogue. Life Early life and training Schutte was born in the farm of La Merced located near Matanzas City, Cuba, to a well-educated high middle-class family. Her father, Julio Schutte, was of French origin and insisted that when at home the family would speak only French; this would prove to be invaluable later. Her Cuban mother, Ondina Visiedo, had a teaching degree. Schutte's mother was strongly determined to see her three children excel in life. Schutte's two brothers grew to become physicians prominent both in Cuba and in Pan-American medical societies.

#13372

Annis May Timpson

#115339

Overall Influence

Annis May Timpson is the former director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is a graduate of the Universities of Bristol , Oxford and Toronto . Her current research interests include Aboriginality and governance, territorial politics and intergovernmental relations, gender and public policy, social movements and human rights.

#13373

Patrick M. Goldstrand

#191768

Overall Influence

#13374

Qiming Zhang

#107924

Overall Influence

Qiming Zhang is a distinguished professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He is also the vice President & CTO at Strategic Polymer Sciences, Inc.

#13375

James Wines

#23996

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

James Wines is an American artist and architect associated with environmental design. Wines is founder and president of SITE, a New York City -based architecture and environmental arts organization chartered in 1970. This multi-disciplinary practice focuses on the design of buildings, public spaces, environmental art works, landscape designs, master plans, interiors and product design. The main focus of his design work is on green issues and the integration of buildings with their surrounding contexts.

#13376

Daniel W. Cook

#191777

Overall Influence

#13377

Norman Zide

#25191

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Norman H. Zide is an American linguist and specialist in the Munda languages. Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. He taught Hindi and Urdu at the Department of South Asian Languages & Civilization at the Department of Linguistics for four decades and published several books and articles on the subject. However, his greater fame lies in his contributions to the Munda languages and to Austroasiatic linguistics in general. He has also done considerable work as a translator, especially of poetry. In The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry, he did or assisted in translations of poetry from both North Indian and Austroasiatic languages.

#13378

Maud Eduards

#69036

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Maud Elisabeth Landby Eduards is a Swedish political scientist and gender studies scholar. She is professor emerita of political science at Stockholm University. Eduards earned her PhD in 1985 with a dissertation on regional cooperation between Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya in the period 1962–1984. In 1996 she was appointed as professor of political science at Stockholm University. She was also professor of gender studies at the University of Oslo's Centre for Women's Studies/Centre for Women's and Gender Studies from 1999 to 2004. She is known for her research on women, peace and security policy.

#13379

Yefim Kats

#191782

Overall Influence

#13380

Kevin Petrie

#148007

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Kevin Petrie is a practicing artist, author, and Professor of Glass and Ceramics at The National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland. Education Petrie studied BA Illustration at the University of Westminster and MA Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art. He holds a Ph.D. ‘Water-based ceramic transfer printing’ from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol .

#13381

Raymond M. Kirk

#76148

Overall Influence

1923 - 2019 (96 years)

Raymond Maurice Kirk , better known as Jerry Kirk, was a British surgeon and academic. He was Professor of Surgery at University College London and Honorary Consulting Surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead NW3.

#13382

Roger B. Corbett

#173809

Overall Influence

Roger B. Corbett was an American academic and college administrator who served as President of New Mexico State University from 1955–1970. He was born in Morgantown, W.Va. and was educated at Cornell University, receiving his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the same institution.

#13383

Jesse Russell

#191787

Overall Influence

#13384

Robert Mistrík

#68129

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Robert Mistrík is a Slovak chemist, scientist, businessman and politician. Early life Robert Mistrík was born on 13 August 1966 in Banská Bystrica, where he spent his childhood. He attended the Gymnázium Jozefa Gregora Tajovského in Banská Bystrica and in 1991 graduated with a degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. He completed a PhD at the University of Vienna in 1994. He continued his scientific career as a visiting scholar at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

#13385

Hélène Velasco-Graciet

#98754

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Hélène Velasco-Graciet is a French professor of geography and was the president of the Bordeaux Montaigne University from 2016 to 2020. Velascho-Graciet's work has touched on geography, borders, and culture.

#13386

Ivar Langen

#96939

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Ivar Langen was the rector at the University of Stavanger from 2003 to 2007. He was a central figure in the campaign to gain university status for Stavanger University College, which was awarded in 2005.

#13387

Junior Lloyd Allen

#191802

Overall Influence

Dr. Allen is an assistant professor in Wayne State University’s School of Social Work. Allen’s research interests include the exploration of issues associated with gender and sexuality, HIV policy and advocacy, mental health and Black/African American gay men, community mobilization, program evaluation, masculinity, mental health, depression, substance abuse, and gender inequality. HIs qualitative research has helped improve policies that may help reduce HIV infection rates and may help mental health efforts aimed at gay males. Alma maters: Bachelor’s degree from Hampden–Sydney College, MSW from Florida International University, and PhD in Social Work from University of Georgia.

#13388

Jonathan M. Weiss

#75778

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Jonathan Mark Weiss is an American scholar of French literature and social science whose extensive publications include literary and theatre criticism, essays on Franco-American relations, a short story, and most recently the biography of Irène Némirovsky.

#13389

Michael Ponce de Leon

Michael Ponce de Leon

#174875

Overall Influence

1922 - 2006 (84 years)

Michael Ponce de Leon was an American printmaker and painter. Biography Ponce de Leon was born on July 4, 1922, in Miami, Florida. His early life and education was in Mexico City. There he studied at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the University of Mexico City. During World War II he served in the United States Army Air Forces. After the war he located in New York City where he studied at the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy of Design, and the School of the Brooklyn Museum.

#13390

Charles A. Wanamaker

#183278

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Charles A. Wanamaker is the Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Cape Town. He specializes in New Testament and Early Christianity studies, with a special interest in the application of socio-rhetorical analysis to the study of the writings of Paul. Wanamaker was educated at the University of Durham. Currently working on a socio-rhetorical commentary on 1 Corinthians.

#13391

John White

#180492

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

John Michael White is a Canadian film, television and commercial actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Erik Stifler in American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile and its sequel American Pie Presents: Beta House .

#13392

Sherwood Berg

#124808

Overall Influence

1919 - 2014 (95 years)

Sherwood O. Berg was an American educator and college administrator. He was born at Hendrum, Minnesota, to Joseph O. and Ida T. Berg. He graduated from South Dakota State University where he received his bachelor's degree with a major in agricultural economics in 1947. He attended Cornell University and earned his master's degree in 1948. In 1951, he obtained his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Minnesota.

#13393

Claudio J. Schonholz

#62815

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Claudio J. Schonholz is an interventional radiologist, the first in the United States to perform minimally invasive aortic aneurysm surgery together with Drs. Frank Veith, Juan C. Parodi and Michael L. Marin.

#13394

John Beatty

#171500

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

John R. Beatty is an American illustrator who has worked for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, primarily as an inker. Biography Beatty was born in Letcher County, Kentucky; he lived there for less than a year when his family moved to Holly Hill, Florida, a small city located between Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach.

#13395

Peter A. D. Steel

#191810

Overall Influence

#13396

Allyson Clay

#169008

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Allyson Clay is a Canadian visual artist, curator, and educator based in Vancouver, B.C. Life Clay was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1953, and spent much of her childhood and adolescence in Italy. She obtained a BFA in Painting from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1980, and an MFA from the University of British Columbia in 1985. She was a professor at the School of the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.

#13397

Tian Yuan Tan

#119646

Overall Influence

Tian Yuan Tan is a Singaporean scholar of Chinese literature. Since 2019, he has served as Shaw Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of University College. Prior to his appointment at Oxford, he was Professor of Chinese Studies at SOAS, University of London.

#13398

Habtamu Wondimu

#110623

Overall Influence

Habtamu Wondimu is professor of social psychology in the College of Education of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. In 2007-2008 he was part of the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program.

#13399

Jake Kaner

#172378

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Professor Jake Kaner is Associate Dean of Research at the School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University. He was previously Head of Research and Professor of Furniture at Buckinghamshire New University, and an editorial board member of the Institute of Conservation.

#13400

Helena Groot

#73119

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Helena Groot de Restrepo is a Colombian microbiologist and geneticist. She is a full professor in the Biological Sciences Department and the Medicine School at Universidad de los Andes. Since 1984 she has been the Human Genetics Laboratory director and her research has focused on cancer molecular epidemiology, genetic toxicology and environmental mutagenesis. She is one of the eight women members of the Colombian Academy of Sciences .

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