The Most Influential People Across History

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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List of the most influential people in Engineering,

#9051

Bruce Jackson

Bruce Jackson
#182224
Overall Influence
1949 - 2011 (62 years)
Bruce Robert Jackson was an Australian audio engineer who co-founded JANDS, an Australian audio, lighting and staging company. He joined American touring audio engineer Roy Clair and mixed concert stage monitors for Elvis Presley in the 1970s. With Clair Brothers, a concert sound company, Jackson designed audio electronics including a custom mixing console. Beginning in 1978, Jackson toured as Bruce Springsteen's band engineer for a decade, using Clair Brothers sound systems. A business interest in Fairlight CMI in Sydney introduced Jackson to digital audio, and he subsequently founded the digital audio company Apogee Electronics in Santa Monica, California, where he lived at the time.
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#9052

Bill Weick

#158421
Overall Influence
1932 - 2017 (85 years)
William "Bill" Weick was an American wrestler and coach. Wrestling career After winning the 1949 Illinois state title at Tilden Tech High School, Weick won two NCAA wrestling titles competing for Iowa State Teachers College in 1952 and 1955. During 1953–1954, he served in the U.S. Army.
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#9053

Mark Klett

#111408
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Mark Klett is an American photographer. His work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Life Klett was born in Albany, New York. After graduating from St. Lawrence University with a B.S. in Geology in 1974, he worked as a photographer with the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1977, he completed the MFA program at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York studying with Nathan Lyons.
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#9054

Allan Pollok-Morris

#188787
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Allan Pollok-Morris MSC FRSA is a documentary photographer, bookbinder and publisher. Background Allan Robert Pollok-Morris , born Rottenrow Maternity Hospital Glasgow, grew up first in Manchester and then Helensburgh on the River Clyde. Schooled Lomond School and Strathallan School. Studied at The Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, Strathclyde University Glasgow and Central Saint Martins School of Art London. More recently, he has been an associate lecturer in photography at Central Saint Martins with the University of the Arts London.
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#9055

E. J. Westlake

E. J. Westlake
#128850
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
E.J. Westlake is a playwright and performance studies scholar. She won an Oregon Book Award in 1991. Biography Early life E.J. Westlake was born Jane Elizabeth Westlake in Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of Curtis Edison Westlake, a factory worker at Delco Products, and Joy Louise Hauser, a political activist and printer. After graduating from Colonel White Performing Arts School in Dayton, Ohio in 1982, Westlake attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she majored in Theatre Arts and Business .
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#9056

Hulya Kirkici

#186562
Overall Influence
Hulya Kirkici is a Turkish-American electrical engineer whose research interests span a wide range of topics including insulatorss for aerospace applications, pulsed power, the use of advanced materials in plasma switches and vacuum electronics, pulsed plasma, and beam shaping for lasers and lidar. She is professor and chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of South Alabama.
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#9057

Khanh D. Pham

#179832
Overall Influence
Khanh Dai Pham is a Vietnamese-born American aerospace engineer. He is noted for his work in statistical optimal control theory, game-theoretic operations research of military satellite communications, space control autonomy, and space domain awareness and the government leadership in innovation ecosystem and coalition of government agencies, small business and industry. He is a Fellow of the Air Force Research Laboratory , the National Academy of Inventors , the Institution of Engineering and Technology , the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers , the Royal Aeronautical Society ...
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#9058

Anthony Hollander

#95470
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Anthony Hollander has worked at the University of Liverpool since June 2014, starting out as the Head of the Institute of Integrative Biology, he was then appointed as the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Impact in August 2017. A post he still occupies as well as being the Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the university and the Chair of the N8 Research Partnership Strategic Executive Group.
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#9059

Thaddeus Holownia

Thaddeus Holownia
#111012
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Thaddeus Holownia is a British-born Canadian artist and professor. He taught photography at Mount Allison University and served as the head of the Fine Arts Department, retiring in 2018. Career Born in England, the family of Thaddeus Holownia immigrated to Canada when he was five. He attended the University of Windsor, studying printmaking and communications and graduated in 1972. Initially, part of Toronto’s art scene, he began working at the National Film Board of Canada, and joined the faculty of the Mount Allison University Fine Arts Department in 1977.
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#9060

Matt Aitken

#158956
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Matt Aitken is a special effects artist. He was nominated at the 82nd Academy Awards for his work on the film District 9. His nomination was shared with Robert Habros, Dan Kaufman and Peter Muyzers. In 2020, he received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects on 2019 film, Avengers: Endgame, at the 92nd Academy Awards. His nomination was shared with Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick.
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#9061

Eyal Weizman

#188859
Overall Influence
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#9062

Ke Wu

#188874
Overall Influence
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#9063

Komal Nahta

Komal Nahta
#78634
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Komal Nahta is an Indian film trade analyst. Nahta is the publisher of "Film Information" and also a television show host. He is an anchor of the trade show ETC Bollywood Business on the Bollywood TV channels ETC and Zee Cinema. He is in the advisory board of Cinema Capital and other top companies. He is the son of film producer Ramraj Nahta.
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#9064

Randy Katz

#188893
Overall Influence
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#9065

Elle Pérez

#172313
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (37 years)
Elle Pérez is an American photographer whose work explores gender identity, intimacy, vulnerability, and the relationship between seeing and love. Pérez is a gender non-conforming trans artist. In 2019, Pérez was featured in Cultured Magazine's 30 Under 35 and in Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University. They were formerly a visiting professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Williams College and Cooper Union, a critic at the Yale School of Art, and a dean at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
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#9066

Kelly Korreck

#175983
Overall Influence
Kelly Korreck is an American space scientist. She is currently an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian and Program Scientist at NASA as head of operations for the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons instrument aboard the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft.
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#9067

Ken Grant

Ken Grant
#108682
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Ken Grant is a photographer who since the 1980s has concentrated on working class life in the Liverpool area. He is a lecturer in the MFA photography course at the University of Ulster. Life and career Born in Liverpool in 1967, Grant worked as a carpenter in Liverpool after finishing school, even then taking photographs. He later studied at the West Surrey College of Art and Design, studying under Martin Parr and Paul Graham.
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#9068

Michael Murray

#74895
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Michael Murray is an American stage director, producer and educator. He is one of the early leaders of the Regional Theatre Movement. Murray was co-founder of the Charles Playhouse in Boston, MA. and served as its Artistic Director for eleven years . Murray was the Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park . In addition, he directed productions Off-Broadway in New York and at many regional theaters, including the Hartford Stage Company, Center Stage Baltimore, the Philadelphia Drama Guild, and the Huntington Theatre Company. He held the position of Chair of the Theatre Arts De...
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#9069

Henry Wells

#100865
Overall Influence
1914 - 2007 (93 years)
Henry Wells was an American author, professor and leading expert on Latin America politics. Wells helped to draft the Constitution of Puerto Rico and advised the Dominican Republic on proper election procedures for the Organization of American States. Additionally, Wells worked as international election observer in Honduras, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
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#9070

Jonathan Holmes

#109219
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Jonathan Holmes is a UK theatre director and writer. Jonathan lives in North London. He is a cousin of army officer William Thomas Forshaw and film director Cy Endfield. Education He attended Wath Comprehensive School, The University of Birmingham , and completed a Ph.D. at The Shakespeare Institute.
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#9071

Aaron Brooks

#108372
Overall Influence
Aaron Brooks is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler who competes internationally at 86 kilograms and collegiately at 184 pounds. In freestyle, he is a Cadet World Champion and Junior World Championship silver medalist. As a collegiate wrestler, Brooks is a three-time NCAA champion and a three-time B1G Conference champion out of the Pennsylvania State University. As of May 25, 2022, Brooks is the top-ranked 184-pound NCAA wrestler in the country as per Intermat.
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#9072

T. F. Tierney

#94277
Overall Influence
Thérèse Frances Tierney is an American urbanist, network theorist, and educator. She is the director of the Urban Research Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Biography Born in Palo Alto, California, Tierney grew up in a post-war Eichler house designed by Ashen & Allen Architects, fostering an early interest in architecture and urban design. Tierney graduated from Palo Alto High School.
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#9073

C. Emre Koksal

#179836
Overall Influence
Can Emre Koksal is an electrical engineer, computer scientist, academic, and entrepreneur. He is the Founder and CEO of Datanchor, and a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ohio State University.
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#9074

Christopher Rawson

#70636
Overall Influence
Christopher Rawson , is an American writer, university teacher and theater critic. Formative years Rawson was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His biological father was noted stage and film actor Richard Hart. His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and he was adopted by his stepfather, Jonathan Rawson.
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#9075

Judy Vance

#188750
Overall Influence
Judy M. Vance is an American mechanical engineer known for her research on the use of virtual reality and haptic technology in design and manufacturing. She is a professor emerita of mechanical engineering and the former Joseph C. and Elizabeth A. Anderlik Professor of Engineering at Iowa State University.
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#9076

C. Brooklyn Derr

#112267
Overall Influence
C. Brooklyn Derr was the Staheli Professor of International Business and the director of the Global Business Management Center at the Marriott School of Management of Brigham Young University . Derr is a Latter-day Saint. He served a mission for the LDS Church in France. He is married to LDS women's historian Jill Mulvay Derr. They are the parents of four children.
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#9077

Jennifer Glass

#146467
Overall Influence
Jennifer L. Glass is Centennial Commission Professor of Liberal Arts in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She was previously Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, University of Iowa and the University of Notre Dame.
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#9078

John Gutmann

#101213
Overall Influence
1905 - 1998 (93 years)
John Gutmann was a German-born American photographer and painter. Early life and education Gutmann was born in 1905 in Breslau, Germany to an upper-middle-class Jewish family. He earned a degree in art from and moved to Berlin in 1927, earning a post-graduate degree at Preussisches Shulkollegium for Hohere Erziehung.
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#9079

Ross Robinson

#189045
Overall Influence
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#9080

Ken Nakajima

#78922
Overall Influence
1914 - 2000 (86 years)
Takeshi "Ken" Nakajima was an important landscape architect and designer of Japanese gardens. Outside Japan, he designed the Montreal Botanical Garden, the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre in Australia, the Japanese Garden in Hermann Park, the Japanese Garden at the Moscow Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences and the Setagaya Parc in Vienna.
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#9081

Gōzō Yoshimasu

Gōzō Yoshimasu
#63284
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Gōzō Yoshimasu is a prolific Japanese poet, photographer, artist and filmmaker active since the 1960s. He has received a number of literary and cultural awards, including the Takami Jun Prize , the Rekitei Prize, the Purple Ribbon Medal in 2003 , the 50th Mainichi Art Award for Poetry , and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays in 2013.
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#9082

Rose Marasco

Rose Marasco
#181511
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Rose Marasco , is an American photographer. She is considered to be "perhaps Maine’s most prolific photographer,” living and working there since 1979. Early life and education Rose Marasco grew up in Utica, New York. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography at Syracuse University in 1971, an M.A. from Goddard College in 1981, and her Master of Fine Arts at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester. where she studied under Nathan Lyons and Joan Lyons.
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#9083

Patrick Godfrey

#188409
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Patrick Godfrey FREng, FICE, FCGI, Hon FIA, F.Energy Inst. is a British civil engineer, professor of systems engineering at the University of Bristol, and director of the Systems Centre and the EPSRC Industrial Doctorate Centre in Systems at the University of Bristol and the University of Bath.
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#9084

Gerald Gutierrez

#85249
Overall Influence
1950 - 2003 (53 years)
Gerald Gutierrez was an American Tony Award-winning stage director. He was born and died in Brooklyn, New York. Career Gutierrez was a graduate of Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York, and then the Juilliard School and initially worked as a performer. He then started directing Off-Broadway, often at Playwrights Horizons. He directed, among others, the following plays at Lincoln Center: The Most Happy Fella , The Heiress , A Delicate Balance , and Dinner at Eight . His work with The Heiress and A Delicate Balance was said to be as "near perfect representations of those plays".
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#9085

Wai-Kai Chen

#182757
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Wai-Kai Chen is a Chinese-American professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science. Biography Wai-Kai Chen's youth was troubled by the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945 followed by the civil war between the Nationalist and Communist forces. Born into an intellectual family, he had a twin brother Wai-Fah, an older brother Hollis, an older sister Eileen, a younger sister Helena, and a younger brother Wai-Sun. The family was on the Nationalist side. In 1949 Wai-Kai Chen's maiden aunt went with Wai-Sun and Helena went to Taiwan. Some time later, Wai-Kai, Wai-Fah, and Hollis made a harrowing and adventurous escape to Tawain.
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#9086

Pierre Rabischong

#111602
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (94 years)
Pierre Rabischong is a neuroanatomist and an emeritus professor at the University of Montpellier in France. He is known for his work in rehabilitation medicine and physiotherapy, as well as powered orthoses. He was the leader of the AMOLL project in 1975.
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#9087

Robert Morris-Nunn

Robert Morris-Nunn
#138422
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Robert William Morris-Nunn is an Australian architect. He has practised in Tasmania for over 30 years, during which time he has won over 50 state and national awards. Early life and practice Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Morris-Nunn studied architecture at the University of Sydney. His name until at least his twenties was Robert Arthur Nunn. The importation of "William Morris" and the dropping of his father's given name, Arthur must have occurred after he reached his twenties.
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#9088

Theda Daniels-Race

#187368
Overall Influence
Theda M. Daniels-Race is an American engineer and Michael B. Voorhies Distinguished Professor in the Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Louisiana State University. Her research is in nanoelectronics, specialising in the growth and characterization of nanomaterials and hybrid electronic devices based on compound semiconductors.
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#9089

Chen Zhongyi

#178868
Overall Influence
1923 - 2019 (96 years)
Chen Zhongyi was a Chinese civil engineer, engineering academic, and politician. He was a professor of Tsinghua University, and served as Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League and Vice Chairman of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
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#9090

Abbas El Gamal

#189122
Overall Influence
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#9091

Yomaira Pagán Torres

#184629
Overall Influence
Yomaira Jeannette Pagán Torres is a Puerto Rican chemical engineer. She is a professor in the department of chemical engineer at University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Pagán was formerly a senior engineer at the Dow Chemical Company.
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#9092

Barry Dean Karl

#67054
Overall Influence
1927 - 2010 (83 years)
Barry Dean Karl was an American educator. Education He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville in 1949, a master's from the University of Chicago in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1961.
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#9093

Denis Podalydès

Denis Podalydès
#89864
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Denis Podalydès is a French actor and scriptwriter of Greek descent. Podalydès has appeared in more than 140 films and television shows since 1989. He starred in The Officers' Ward, which was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
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#9094

Warren MacKenzie

Warren MacKenzie
#68100
Overall Influence
1924 - 2018 (94 years)
Warren MacKenzie was an American craft potter. He grew up in Wilmette, Illinois the second oldest of five children including his brothers, Fred and Gordon and sisters, Marge and Marilyn. His high school days were spent at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.
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#9095

Robert Safranek

#189166
Overall Influence
Robert Safranek from the Benevue, Inc., Warren, New Jersey, was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for contributions to perceptual image and video compression and quality.
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#9096

Ahmad Nourbakhsh

Ahmad Nourbakhsh
#124736
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Seyyed Ahmad Nourbakhsh is an Iranian engineer and professor of turbomachinery at the University of Tehran. He was elected to the 73-seats Assembly of Experts for Constitution in 1979. Nourbakhsh was "one of the more cosmopolitan members of the Assembly who saw the need to formulate a constitution that was congruent with international law". He was reportedly against inclusion of Velayat Faqih in the constitution of Iran.
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#9097

Ray Patterson

#54785
Overall Influence
1911 - 2001 (90 years)
Raymond Patterson was an American animator, producer, and director. He was born in Hollywood, California, and was the younger brother of animator Don Patterson. Career Patterson's earliest works in animation were for Charles B. Mintz's Krazy Kat/Screen Gems studio, where he started as an inker in 1929. He remained at Mintz for eleven years. In 1940, he moved to the Walt Disney Studio, where he animated on Fantasia and Dumbo, as well as several Pluto shorts . By 1942, he mostly worked on Donald Duck shorts such as Donald Gets Drafted.
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#9098

Jill Enfield

#129979
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Jill Enfield is a photographer and hand coloring artist best known for her work in alternative photographic processes such as Cyanotype and Collodion process. She has taught at The New School , ICP, and New York University.
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#9099

Frank B. Wilderson III

#92255
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Frank B. Wilderson III is an American writer, dramatist, filmmaker and critic. He is Chancellor's Professor of African American studies at the University of California, Irvine. He received his BA in government and philosophy from Dartmouth College, his Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University and his PhD in rhetoric and film studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
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#9100

Frank J. Popper

#75824
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Frank J. Popper is a professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy of Rutgers University and the Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University, known for proposing the Buffalo Commons concept for the Great Plains region of the United States and coining the term locally unwanted land use .
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