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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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Earth Sciences,

#1551

Bill Evans

#65295

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

William Howard Evans is an American meteorologist and the former weatherman for WABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in New York City. Early career Evans's broadcasting career began at the age of 13 in his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi on WDAL Radio and WTOK-TV. He attended Mississippi State University, where he studied business administration, and Jackson State University, where he studied meteorology.

#1552

Jeff Kimpel

#96829

Overall Influence

1942 - 2020 (78 years)

James F. "Jeff" Kimpel was an American atmospheric scientist with expertise on severe storms who was a provost of the University of Oklahoma and director of the National Severe Storms Laboratory . Kimpel was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Denison University in 1964. He served in the Air Force in the Vietnam War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal. Kimpel went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for graduate studies and was awarded a Ph.D. in meteorology in 1973. He joined the faculty of OU in 1973, was named director of the School of Meteo...

#1553

Cornelia Lüdecke

Cornelia Lüdecke

#113976

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Cornelia Lüdecke is a German polar researcher and author. A leading figure in the history of German polar research and the history of meteorology and oceanography, she founded the Expert Group on History of Antarctic Research within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research , institutionalising historical study and reflection for the Antarctic scientific community. Her books, among others, about the Schwabenland Expedition to Antarctica during the Third Reich and Deutsche in der Antarktis are milestones in the history of polar research publications.

#1554

Carol Kendall

#141087

Overall Influence

Carol Kendall is a hydrologist known for her research tracking nutrients and contaminants in aquatic ecosystems using isotopic tracers. Education and career From the University of California, Riverside, Kendall earned a B.S. in geology and a masters in geology . Following her masters she took a position as a geochemist at California Institute of Technology where she remained until 1979. From 1980 until 1990, Kendall was a research hydrologist at the United States Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. While working full-time, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. S...

#1555

Shuhai Xiao

#110508

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Shuhai Xiao is a Chinese-American paleontologist and professor of geobiology at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. Early life Xiao attended Taihe Middle School in Jiangxi Province, China. He received a B.Sc. degree and an M.Sc. degree from Peking University in 1988 and 1991, both in geology. He then worked as an assistant researcher in the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for two years. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 1998.

#1556

Gopalan Srinivasan

#141228

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

#1557

Bruno Messerli

#82545

Overall Influence

1931 - 2019 (88 years)

Bruno Messerli was a Swiss geographer and university professor who focused on high mountains and highland-lowland linkages. He was appointed Full Professor of Geomorphology in 1968 by the University of Bern, where he taught and carried out research until his retirement in 1996. He contributed significantly to the inclusion of a mountain agenda, Chapter 13 — Managing Fragile Ecosystems — Sustainable Mountain Development in Agenda 21, the official action plan of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , also known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the Rio Summit, the R...

#1558

Lee Kump

#59320

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Lee R. Kump is a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He is currently the Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include biogeochemical cycles, environmental biogeochemistry, and atmosphere/ocean evolution. With James Kasting, he is the co-author of the popular textbook The Earth System.

#1559

Eric Higgs

#129057

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Eric Stowe Higgs is professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. Trained in ecology, philosophy, and environmental planning, his work concerns ecological restoration, historical ecology, intervention ecology, and the changing character of life in technological society. He also works with the Mountain Legacy Project as the Principal Instigator.

#1560

Jennifer Pett-Ridge

#115310

Overall Influence

Jennifer Pett-Ridge is an American biologist who is a senior staff scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of California, Merced. Her research makes use of systems biology and geochemistry to uncover function in microbial communities. She was awarded a 2021 United States Department of Energy Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award.

#1561

Terry Engelder

#141553

Overall Influence

#1562

Clarence Allen

#78174

Overall Influence

1925 - 2021 (96 years)

Clarence Roderic Allen was an American geologist who studied seismology. Career He was a graduate of Reed College and the California Institute of Technology . Allen was President of the Seismological Society of America in 1975 and the Geological Society of America. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of America. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975. Allen was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering since 1976.

#1563

Joseph Holden

#126309

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Joseph Holden is a British physical geographer who specialises in hydrological research, geomorphology and land management. He is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Leeds. Early life and education Holden was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. He read Geography at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, receiving a BA in 1997 and he subsequently completed his PhD at Durham University in 2000.

#1564

Richard Aster

#127292

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Richard C. Aster is an American seismologist and is Professor of Geophysics and Department Head of Geosciences at Colorado State University. Aster's research includes seismic imaging, volcano seismology, microseismicity, seismic noise, seismic instrumentation, crustal and mantle seismology, fluvial seismology and cryoseismology. Dr. Aster served as president of the Seismological Society of America from 2009-2010. and as an elected board member of the society from 2008-2014. In 1997 Aster founded the New Mexico Tech IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center , which supports seismological studies around t...

#1565

Charles Albert Nittrouer

#141765

Overall Influence

#1566

Dork Sahagian

#99891

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Dork Sahagian is an Armenian American climate scientist. He is the Director of the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He invented a technique for calculating the Earth's air pressure in the past, based on the difference in the size of the bubbles in cooled volcanic lava.

#1567

Victoria Orphan

#41881

Overall Influence

Victoria J. Orphan is a geobiologist at the California Institute of Technology who studies the interactions between marine microorganisms and their environment. As of 2020, she is the Chair for the Center of Environmental Microbial Interactions.

#1568

John Gosse

#73405

Overall Influence

John C. Gosse of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia is a Canadian geomorphologist and leader in investigating the rate of landscape evolution via cosmogenic isotopes. In 1989, Gosse received his bachelor's degree in geology from Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 1994, he earned his Ph.D. from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. From 1996-2001, Gosse served as an Assistant Professor of Geology and Director of the Cosmogenic Nuclide Extraction Laboratory at the University of Kansas. In 2001, he joined the faculty of Dalhousie University as a research associate. He also worked as a scientific contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S.A.

#1569

Sturges W. Bailey

#141933

Overall Influence

#1570

Carlo Doglioni

#141951

Overall Influence

#1571

Nikolaos Mihalopoulos

#141969

Overall Influence

#1572

Dan Blumberg

#75982

Overall Influence

Dan G. Blumberg is a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the Department of Geography and Environmental Development. He currently serves as vice president for Regional and Industrial Development after serving as vice president and dean for Research and Development from 2014 to 2019. Blumberg also serves as director of the Homeland Security Institute. He is the head of the Earth and Planetary Image Facility, a remote sensing research laboratory.

#1573

John J. Veevers

#141990

Overall Influence

#1574

Edward Epstein

#67987

Overall Influence

1931 - 2008 (77 years)

Edward Epstein was an American meteorologist who pioneered the use of statistical methods in weather forecasting and the development of ensemble forecasting techniques. Education and early career According to his obituary in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society , Epstein's years in middle school and high school were marked by “illustrious academic achievements.” Graduating from the Bronx High School of Science in 1947, he applied at the age of 15 to Harvard, the University of Chicago, and the University of California, and was accepted to all three. He entered Harvard on a full ...

#1575

John Mason

#82345

Overall Influence

1923 - 2015 (92 years)

Sir Basil John Mason was an expert on cloud physics and former Director-General of the Meteorological Office from 1965 to 1983 and Chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology from 1994 to 1996.

#1576

Mika McKinnon

#73263

Overall Influence

Mika McKinnon is a Canadian field geophysicist, disaster researcher, and science communicator. She is a co-investigator of the Southwest Research Institute's Project ESPRESSO and was a science adviser to the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe.

#1577

Jan Esper

#130998

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Jan Esper studied geography at the University of Bonn, where he later earned his doctorate. After a postdoc position at Columbia University in New York City, he continued his work on dendrochronology at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research , and qualified as a professor at the University of Bern. In 2018, Esper became a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature. Since 2010, he has been a professor at the Department of Geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

#1578

Gerald M. Friedman

Gerald M. Friedman

#102803

Overall Influence

1921 - 2011 (90 years)

Gerald M. Friedman was a distinguished professor in Geology and was one of the founders of modern rock sedimentation. Friedman was a professor in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Brooklyn College.

#1579

George H. Denton

#69964

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

George H. Denton is a Professor of Geological Sciences and Quaternary Studies at the University of Maine. Biography Denton earned his Ph.D. at the Yale University in 1965, and was the first scientist from the University of Maine elected to the National Academy of Sciences. His primary interest is the geological history of large ice sheets and smaller mountain glaciers, and in particular the role of these ice sheets in Quaternary and late-Tertiary ice ages. He also focuses on the abrupt ocean-atmosphere reorganizations in glacial cycles. One current project deals with the Quaternary and late Tertiary history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

#1580

Emiliano Mutti

#113802

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (93 years)

Emiliano Mutti is a geologist who has made significant contributions to petroleum geosciences, especially to sedimentary dynamics of turbidites and their reservoir characterization. Emiliano Mutti was born in 1933 near the small lake Orta in northern Italy. During World War II his father Ido moved the family to the small mountain village of Nociveglia in the Northern Apennines. Surrounded by rocks and forests, Emiliano developed a love for the mountains that he has never lost. Later, when he realized that the rocks in this valley were turbidites, he returned to study them and produce classic p...

#1581

Wolfgang Elisabeth Krumbein

#142309

Overall Influence

#1582

Richard J. Reed

#142396

Overall Influence

#1583

André Mariotti

#142401

Overall Influence

#1584

Brian J. Soden

#142409

Overall Influence

#1585

Robert T. Downs

#142414

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

#1586

Pao K. Wang

#142417

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Pao-Kuan Wang is a Taiwanese atmospheric scientist. Wang studied meteorology at National Taiwan University, then pursued advanced degrees in atmospheric science at University of California, Los Angeles, culminating in a doctorate completed in 1978. He taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison starting in 1980, and was granted emeritus status in 2016. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Meteorological Society of the Republic of China, which he was elected to in 2005 and 2008 respectively. He was president of the latter organization from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, Wang was elected an academician of Academia Sinica.

#1587

Elisabeth Isaksson

Elisabeth Isaksson

#107611

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Elisabeth Isaksson is a Swedish glaciologist and geologist who has researched polar climate history on the basis of ice cores. She has also studied snow and ice pollution on the Norwegian island of Svalbard and has participated in award-winning European projects on Antarctic climate change.

#1588

Frederik P. Agterberg

#142535

Overall Influence

#1589

Julian Wolpert

#90860

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

Julian Wolpert is Bryant Professor Emeritus of Geography, Public Affairs, and Urban Planning at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, where he taught from 1973 to 2005 and chaired the Program in Urban and Regional Planning. He was previously a member of the Regional Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania .

#1590

Peirce F. Lewis

#120405

Overall Influence

1927 - 2018 (91 years)

Peirce Fee Lewis was an American geographer and professor at Pennsylvania State University who has extensively written on the subjects of the American landscape and the cultural geography of America. He served as president of the Association of American Geographers in 1983–1984.

#1591

George W. Platzman

#121726

Overall Influence

1920 - 2008 (88 years)

George William Platzman was an American meteorologist, known for his contributions to the study of geophysical fluid dynamics. He is recognized as a pioneer in the field of storm-surge forecasting. Biography Platzman was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 19, 1920. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Chicago, and graduated in 1940. In 1941, he received his master's degree from the University of Arizona and then returned to the University of Chicago, where he taught meteorology to Air Corps cadets during World War II while simultaneously working on his Ph.D. He completed his Ph.D.

#1592

Hsiao-lan Kuo

#142648

Overall Influence

#1593

Tara Shine

#123126

Overall Influence

Tara Shine is an Irish environmental scientist, policy advisor and science communicator. Her work considers climate change negotiations and capacity building. She is a former member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Group of Experts. In 2020 Shine was announced as one of the speakers for the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

#1594

Ragnar Löfstedt

Ragnar Löfstedt

#71955

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Ragnar E. Löfstedt is the Professor of Risk Management at King's College London and the Director of King's Centre for Risk Management and is the President-Elect of Society for Risk Analysis. Background Löfstedt grew up in Los Angeles to parents who were professors of medieval languages. With Swedish and American nationality, he is also fluent in German. He worked as a lumberjack on the family farm in Sweden before attending UCLA. He has a doctorate from the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, studying with Roger Kasperson .

#1595

Thelma Glass

#109305

Overall Influence

1916 - 2012 (96 years)

Thelma Glass was an American civil rights activist, noted for helping to organize the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, and a professor of geography. Biography Glass was born Thelma McWilliams in Mobile, Alabama, to a hotel cook and homemaker. She graduated from Dunbar High School and attended Alabama State University and Columbia University.

#1596

Janine Krippner

Janine Krippner

#117071

Overall Influence

Janine Krippner is a physical volcanologist from New Zealand who uses remote sensing to study pyroclastic flows and is a popular science communicator. Early life and education Krippner was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. She completed her Bachelors and Masters at the University of Waikato under the supervision of Roger Briggs. For this work she studied Mount Ngauruhoe, an active basaltic andesite-to-andesite composite cone volcano. She worked for Shell Australia between 2010 and 2012 as a graduate geoscientist. She completed her PhD on "Large dome collapse driven block-and-ash flows on Shiveluch volcano, Kamchatka, and pyroclastic flows on Mount St.

#1597

Nicola Casagli

#142848

Overall Influence

#1598

Michael Steven Denison

#142983

Overall Influence

#1599

Ben B. Balsley

#143001

Overall Influence

#1600

Roger Lee Larson

#143010

Overall Influence

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