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 …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Education,

#1001

Elizabeth Prettejohn

#50543

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Elizabeth Francesca Prettejohn is an art historian and author of several books about art history. Her books have included Rossetti and his Circle , The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites and Art for Art's Sake . She has also co-edited and co-authored several publications. She has written exhibition catalogues and papers for journals such as The Burlington Magazine, Journal of Victorian Culture and Art Bulletin.

#1002

Jahana Hayes

#110482

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Jahana Hayes is an American educator and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2019. The district, once represented by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, comprises much of the state's northwestern portion, including New Britain, Danbury, and Waterbury. A member of the Democratic Party, Hayes is the first Black woman and Black Democrat to represent Connecticut in Congress. She was recognized as the National Teacher of the Year in 2016.

#1003

Susan Nalugwa Kiguli

#74376

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Susan Nalugwa Kiguli is a Ugandan poet and literary scholar. She is an associate professor of literature at Makerere University. Kiguli has been an advocate for creative writing in Africa, including service as a founding member of FEMRITE, a judge for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize , and an advisory board member for the African Writers Trust. As a poet, Kiguli is best known for her 1998 collection The African Saga, as a scholar, and for her work on oral poetry and performance.

#1004

Shai Piron

#100547

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Shai Moshe Piron is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, educator, and politician. A religious Zionist, he served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid between 2013 and 2015, and as Minister of Education between 2013 and 2014.

#1005

Paul Hayes Tucker

Paul Hayes Tucker

#67131

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Paul Hayes Tucker is an American art historian, professor, curator, and author. His specialties include Claude Monet and impressionism. He spent over 40 years teaching at the University of California Santa Barbara, Williams College, the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, Yale University, and the Toledo Museum of Art, including 36 years teaching art history at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has curated 16 art exhibitions and authored 11 books.

#1006

Jean-François Chevrier

Jean-François Chevrier

#35376

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Jean-François Chevrier is an art theorist and historian, art critic and exhibition curator. He lives and works in Paris. He is Professor in the History of Contemporary Art at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, after having thought at the Université Paris-Nanterre and Paris VIII.

#1007

James W. Crawford

#160700

Overall Influence

#1008

Ernst van de Wetering

#24415

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

Ernst van de Wetering was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work. Background Ernst van de Wetering was born in Hengelo. He was first trained as an artist at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. He received his doctorate in art history from the University of Amsterdam in 1986. Between 1964 and 1968, he worked as a scientific illustrator of microscopic preparations at the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam. From 1968, he was a member and later became chairman of the Rembrandt Research Project. He was art historian on the staff of Amsterdam's Central Research Laborator...

#1009

Suresh Chandra Satapathy

#160930

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

#1010

William R. Penuel

#161195

Overall Influence

#1011

Daniel Arasse

#47110

Overall Influence

1944 - 2003 (59 years)

Daniel Dominique Arasse was a French art historian who specialised in the Renaissance and Italian art. His publication, Le Détail, Pour une histoire rapprochée de la peinture won the Charles-Blanc Prize in 1993.

#1012

Ngawang Samten

#116492

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Ngawang Samten is a Tibetan educationist, Tibetologist and the vice chancellor of the Central University for Tibetan Studies. Besides editing publications such as Abhidhammathasamgaho, Pindikrita, Pancakrama and Manjusri, he is the co-translator of Je Tsongkhapa's commentary on Nagarjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2009, for his contributions to Education.

#1013

Elaine Unterhalter

#136346

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Elaine Unterhalter is a South African educational researcher. She is Professor of Education and International Development at University College London. Unterhalter was elected as Fellow of the British Academy in 2020. She is a Fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association.

#1014

Philip C. Abrami

#161454

Overall Influence

#1015

Raymond Paul Perry

#161520

Overall Influence

#1016

Eduardo M. Ochoa

Eduardo M. Ochoa

#53570

Overall Influence

Eduardo M. Ochoa is an Argentinean-American economist and academic administrator who served as the president of California State University, Monterey Bay, from 2012 to 2022. Ochoa was the assistant secretary of education for postsecondary education during the Obama administration from 2010 to 2012.

#1017

Gerald W. Bracey

#161712

Overall Influence

#1018

Michael Vavrus

#115544

Overall Influence

Michael Vavrus is a faculty member at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in the areas of teacher education and political economy. He is the past president of the Washington Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education. He is also the past director of the Masters in Teaching Program at The Evergreen State College, and the founding past president of CommonAction.

#1019

Martin Jan Mulder

#161918

Overall Influence

#1020

Natalia Kucirkova

#121170

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (39 years)

Natalia Kucirkova is an academic in the field of children's literacies. She is a professor of reading and children's development at The Open University, UK and professor of early childhood and development at the University of Stavanger, Norway.

#1021

Gideon Berke

#161983

Overall Influence

#1022

Tamsyn Imison

#104072

Overall Influence

1937 - 2017 (80 years)

Dame Tamsyn Imison, DBE was a prominent British educator and "educational strategist" whose first career was as a scientific illustrator. Imison was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. After having a family of three, she went into teaching science in 1972 and taught for nearly 30 years. Between 1984 and 2000, she was Headteacher of the Hampstead School in north London. Imison wrote, researched and lectured on numerous topics related to academia, including Leadership, ICT, Comprehensive Schooling, Creativity, Learning, Schools of the Future, Post 16 and Women Leaders.

#1023

Noeline Alcorn

#86004

Overall Influence

Noeline Elizabeth Alcorn is a New Zealand education-research academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Waikato. Academic career After attending Samuel Marsden Collegiate School in Wellington, New Zealand and a 1971 PhD titled Vision and nightmare : a study of Doris Lessing's novels at the University of California, Irvine, Alcorn moved to the University of Waikato, rising to full professor.

#1024

Ruth Dial Woods

#146764

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Ruth Dial Woods is an American educator and activist. A member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, she was the first woman to serve as the associate superintendent of the Robeson County Public Schools and to receive an at-large appointment to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. After teaching in the public school system of Robeson County for 27 years, she joined the faculty at Fayetteville State University. In addition to her work as an educator, Woods was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's liberation movement, and the American Indian Movement. She has serv...

#1025

T. J. Clark

#18705

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Timothy James "T. J." Clark is a British art historian and writer. He taught art history in a number of universities in England and the United States, including Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley.

#1026

Ellen Junn

#104518

Overall Influence

Ellen Nan Junn is an American academic administrator. In July 2016, she became the 11th president of California State University, Stanislaus. She is the first Korean-American woman president appointed in the U.S. to a four-year public institution.

#1027

Margaret Walshaw

#128173

Overall Influence

Margaret Anne Walshaw is a New Zealand education academic. She is currently a full professor at the Massey University. Academic career Walshaw completed a 1999 PhD titled Paradox, partiality and promise : a politics for girls in school mathematics at Massey University and is on the editorial board of Springer journal, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education.

#1028

Hinematau McNeill

#65700

Overall Influence

Hinematau Naomi McNeill is a New Zealand academic and treaty negotiator. She is of Tapuika Māori descent. As of 2019, she is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology. Early life and education McNeill was born in Rotorua. She studied her B.A. and M.A. in social anthropology at Auckland University and Waikato University. She is currently principal lecturer in Māori Studies at Auckland Institute of Technology.

#1029

Karen R. Lawrence

#69555

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Karen R. Lawrence is an American academic administrator serving as the ninth president of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. She previously served as the 10th president of Sarah Lawrence College.

#1030

Mark Johnson

#88395

Overall Influence

Mark Johnson is an American attorney and politician who served as North Carolina's Superintendent of Public Instruction for one term. A Republican, he was first elected in 2016, narrowly defeating incumbent June Atkinson. Prior to his election as state superintendent, Johnson served for two years on the Forsyth County School Board while working as a lawyer in Winston-Salem. Prior to attending law school, Johnson taught at West Charlotte High School for two years with Teach for America. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for North Carolina lieutenant governor in 2020.

#1031

James Cahill

#56362

Overall Influence

1926 - 2014 (88 years)

James Francis Cahill was an American art collector and historian who taught at the University of California, Berkeley. He was considered one of the world's top authorities on Chinese art. Early life and education James Cahill was born on August 13, 1926, in Fort Bragg, California. His parents were divorced when he was two, and he lived with a number of relatives and friends. He became interested in literature and music at Berkeley High School.

#1032

Daniel L. Schwartz

#162753

Overall Influence

#1033

Elwood Robinson

Elwood Robinson

#76528

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Elwood L. Robinson is an American academic, university administrator and clinical psychologist currently serving as the 13th Chancellor of Winston-Salem State University. He previously served as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

#1034

Kenneth A. Frank

#163137

Overall Influence

#1035

Anand Sivasubramaniam

#116524

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Anand Sivasubramaniam is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He is well known for his work in computer architecture, computer systems, data centers and computer systems power management.

#1036

Shuchi Grover

#67056

Overall Influence

Shuchi Grover is an American learning scientist and computer science education researcher. Her research investigates computational thinking and how to design effective educational courses for children.

#1037

Katy Deepwell

#41575

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Katy Deepwell is a feminist art critic and academic, based in London. She is the founder and editor of n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, published 1998-2017, in 40 volumes by KT press. She founded KT press as a feminist not-for-profit publishing company to publish the journal and books on feminist art. KT press has published 8 e-books, supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. In Feb 2017, Katy Deepwell wrote and published a MOOC on feminism and contemporary art at. In May 2020, a second advanced course on feminist art manifestos was added to the site. The mod...

#1038

Trevor Cairney

#111353

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Trevor H. Cairney is an adjunct professor of education at the University of New South Wales Australia and president of the NSW Business Chamber. As an author, he has written widely on early learning, training, language acquisition and development. His work includes nine books and over 200 reports, articles, and book chapters collected by libraries. Cairney was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2012.

#1039

Margherita Marchione

#34776

Overall Influence

1922 - 2021 (99 years)

Sister Margherita Marchione was an American Roman Catholic sister, writer, teacher and apologeticist, who dedicated herself in her later years to the defense of Pope Pius XII. Early life Marchione was born in February 1922 in Little Ferry, New Jersey, one of eight children of Crescenzo and Felicia Marchione, immigrants from Campania, Italy. She attended St. Mary's School in nearby Hackensack, and in 1935 she joined the Religious Teachers Filippini. She became a nun in 1938 at the age of 16.

#1040

Paolo Fabbri

#35252

Overall Influence

1939 - 2020 (81 years)

Paolo Fabbri was an Italian semiotician and professor. Biography Fabbri taught at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris from 1992 to 1996. He also taught at the University of Florence, the University of Urbino, the University of Palermo, the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and the Collège international de philosophie.

#1041

Thomas J. Healey

#36136

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Thomas J. Healey is an American businessman and educator. He was a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., and is Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He served in the 1980s as Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury and in the 1990s on the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration Advisory Council Working Group on the Impact of Alternative Tax Proposals on ERISA Employer-Sponsored Plans.

#1042

Judy K. Sakaki

#76095

Overall Influence

Judy K. Sakaki is a former American academic administrator, who previously served as the seventh president of Sonoma State University . She spent most of her previous academic career as a student affairs administrator in the University of California system. She is the first Japanese-American woman to head a four-year college or university in the United States, as well as the first Asian American woman hired as a university president in California and the second woman to serve as president of SSU.

#1043

Leonard Fein

#22335

Overall Influence

1934 - 2014 (80 years)

Leonard J. Fein , also known as Leibel Fein, was an American activist, writer, and teacher specializing in Jewish social themes. Academic career After studying at the University of Chicago, Fein later received his PhD from Michigan State University.

#1044

R. Burke Johnson

#164032

Overall Influence

#1045

William E. Cooper

#78218

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

William E. Cooper was President of the University of Richmond from July 1, 1998, through June 30, 2007. He subsequently served as Distinguished University Professor and President Emeritus. Immediately prior to coming to the University of Richmond, Cooper served as Executive Vice President for the Main Campus at Georgetown University. He has also held faculty positions at Harvard University, the University of Iowa, and Tulane University, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

#1046

Marta Weinstock-Rosin

#36517

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (89 years)

Marta Weinstock-Rosin is an Austrian-born Israeli neuropharmacologist, best known as the developer of rivastigmine . Early life and education Weinstock-Rosin was born in Vienna. After her father was arrested for being Jewish, the family fled Austria for England in 1939, shortly before the war. Her early days in England were difficult. Her father was arrested as a citizen of an enemy state, and her mother had no skills and didn't speak English. Food was a challenge to find and much of her time was spent in air raid shelters. At age 12 she looked up the word "pharmacologist" in an encyclopedia and decided that research, drug development and chemistry would be her career.

#1047

D. A. Pennebaker

D. A. Pennebaker

#30121

Overall Influence

1925 - 2019 (94 years)

Donn Alan Pennebaker was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award. Pennebaker was called by The Independent as "arguably the pre-eminent chronicler of Sixties counterculture".

#1048

Morgan Spurlock

Morgan Spurlock

#37105

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker and television producer. Spurlock's films include Super Size Me , Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? , POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold , Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope , One Direction: This Is Us and Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! . He was the executive producer and star of the reality television series 30 Days . In June 2013, Spurlock became host and producer of the CNN show Morgan Spurlock Inside Man . He is also the co-founder of short-film content marketing company Cinelan, which produced the Focu...

#1049

Pamela L. Grossman

#164443

Overall Influence

#1050

Hanne Bergius

#32526

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Hanne Bergius is a German art historian and Professor for Art History with emphases on art, photography, modern design and architecture. Life Bergius studied art history, classical archaeology, and psychology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her doctoral dissertation on the history and concept of Berlin Dadaism at the FU Berlin was accepted in 1984. In 1990, she received a German Research Foundation grant to investigate the relationship between tradition and modernism in the example of the New Objectivity movement. Then, in 1992, she presented her habilitation project on the concept of montag...

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions