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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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Medical,

#651

Walter Rosenthal

Walter Rosenthal

#53560

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (71 years)

Walter Rosenthal is a German physician, pharmacologist & science manager, and President of the German Rectors' Conference since May 2023. Prior to that, he was the President of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena . From 2009 to 2014, he was the foundation board member and scientific director of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin-Buch. From 1996 to 2008 he headed what is today the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology .

#652

José Biller

#76880

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (77 years)

José Biller is an Uruguayan born, American neurologist specialized in stroke and cerebrovascular disorders, currently professor and chairperson of the department of neurology at Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine, the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases, a Foreign Academic Correspondent of the National Academy of Medicine in Uruguay, a Fellow of the Mexican Academy of Neurology and an Honorary Member of the Chilean Society of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery.

#653

Shunichi Yamashita

Shunichi Yamashita

#38819

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (73 years)

is a Japanese medical scientist serving as dean and professor at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Nagasaki University. Personal background Shin'ichi Yamashita was born in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, in 1952. His mother was a hibakusha who survived the atomic bomb dropped in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. He is a descendant of Kakure Kirishitans in Urakami who kept their faith clandestinely more than 200 years under severe persecution from the Tokugawa Shogunate. Yamashita himself is Catholic and belongs to Shiroyama Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Nagasaki. He is a me...

#654

Linda Birnbaum

#57115

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (79 years)

Linda Silber Birnbaum is an American toxicologist, microbiologist and the former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, as well as the National Toxicology Program, positions she held from January 18, 2009 until October 3, 2019. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health and as a member of the editorial board of Environment International.

#655

Rifat Atun

#64144

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (25 years)

Rifat Atun is a British Physician and academic who currently serves as the Harvard University Professor of Global Health Systems and Director of the Health System Innovation Lab at Harvard University. He is one of the most important figures in the contemporary study of comparative health systems and healthcare innovation and has made substantial contributions to health systems theory, health systems reform, and innovation in health systems.

#656

Giovanni Gasbarrini

Giovanni Gasbarrini

#60453

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (89 years)

Giovanni Gasbarrini is an Italian physician whose work in the field of internal medicine, hepatology and gastroenterology earned him the 2013 lifetime achievement award of the United European Gastroenterology association.

#657

Christopher Dye

Christopher Dye

#59110

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (69 years)

Christopher Dye FRS, FMedSci is a biologist, epidemiologist and public health specialist. He is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and formerly Director of Strategy at the World Health Organization.

#658

Steven D. Wexner

#74875

Overall Influence

Steven D. Wexner is an American surgeon and physician. He is Director of the Ellen Leifer Shulman and Steven Shulman Digestive Disease Center at Cleveland Clinic Florida. Wexner has received numerous regional, national, and international research awards. Through his multiple academic appointments, Wexner personally trains 15-20 surgeons each year, and he educates thousands more around the world through conferences and lectures. He is a resource for his colleagues from around the world for referral of patients with challenging or complex problems. In 2020, he was elected vice-chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons for a one-year term.

#659

Victor Warren Fazio

#68640

Overall Influence

1940 - 2015 (75 years)

Victor Warren Fazio AO, , an Australian, was a colorectal surgeon, a leader at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio for over 35 years. He pioneered surgical techniques and improved the quality of life for cancer patients around the world. He wrote or co-authored 13 books, contributed scientific papers to standard texts, lectured and taught younger surgeons in the United States and Australia.

#660

Irving London

#18601

Overall Influence

1918 - 2018 (100 years)

Irving M. London was a hematologist and geneticist. He was an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons when he was selected to be the founding chair of the department of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1955. He was recruited to become the founding director of the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology in 1970. Dr. London was the first professor to hold dual roles at both Harvard and MIT.

#661

Heiko Braak

#77218

Overall Influence

#662

Howard Koh

#44824

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (73 years)

Howard Kyongju Koh is the former United States Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009.

#663

Michael Glick

#68557

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (71 years)

Michael Glick is an American dentist, professor and researcher. He served as editor of the Journal of the American Dental Association from 2005 until 2020 and as dean of the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine until August 14, 2015.

#664

David Forman

#77277

Overall Influence

#665

Muin J. Khoury

#61144

Overall Influence

Muin Joseph Khoury is an American geneticist and epidemiologist who conducts research in the field of public health genomics. He is the founding director of the Office of Public Health Genomics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1997. He has also been a senior advisor in public health genomics at the National Cancer Institute since 2007.

#666

David Webb

#64688

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (72 years)

David John Webb, is a British physician, scientist and clinical pharmacologist, who currently holds the Christison Chair of Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed to the Christison Chair of Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh in 1995, and from 1998 to 2001 he was Head of the University's Department of Medical Sciences there. He established its Centre for Cardiovascular Science in 2000.

#667

David Michaels

#23849

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (71 years)

David Michaels is an American epidemiologist and professor in the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health and Epidemiology at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of the George Washington University. He held high-level, senate-confirmed public health positions in the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, including a stint from 2009 to 2017 as the administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

#668

Peter Calabresi

#57565

Overall Influence

Peter Arthur Calabresi is an American neuroscientist and neurologist who studies multiple sclerosis. He is Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he directs the Division of Neuroimmunology and Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center.

#669

Colin Butler

#56916

Overall Influence

Colin David Butler is a co-founder of the non-governmental organization BODHI , which has autonomous branches in the United States and Australia. Butler was a professor of public health at the University of Canberra from November 2012 until July 2016. In 2018 he was appointed as an honorary professor at the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health at Australian National University,. He is a former senior research fellow in global health at the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University.

#670

E. Sander Connolly

#64088

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (60 years)

Edward Sander Connolly Jr. is an American neurosurgeon. Connolly is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and one of six children born to Edward Sander Connolly Sr. and his wife Elise Lapeyre Connolly. Connolly Sr. chaired the neurosurgery department of the Ochsner Medical Center. After graduating from the Louisiana State University Medical School, Connolly Jr. completed his surgical residency at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, specializing in neurosurgery. Connolly formally joined the faculty in 1997, as an assistant professor. In 2008, he was appointed Bennett M.

#671

Andreas-michael Zeiher

#77553

Overall Influence

#672

Merceline Dahl-Regis

#36862

Overall Influence

Merceline Dahl-Regis, CMG OD, is a Bahamian physician and public health expert. She is the former Chief Medical Officer of the Bahamas and has been recognized for her role in advancing public health in the Caribbean and internationally.

#673

Aubrey Sheiham

#71639

Overall Influence

1936 - 2015 (79 years)

Aubrey Sheiham was born in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa and became a British academic, a dental epidemiologist and emeritus professor of Dental Public Health, School of Life and Medical Sciences at University College London. He was an inspiring lecturer and opened out and developed the field of public oral health and dentistry. He graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1957.

#674

Raymond Delacy Adams

#77598

Overall Influence

#675

John Nwangwu

#62494

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (73 years)

John Tochukwu Nwangwu is a Nigerian-American public health doctor with expertise in infectious diseases and epidemiology, a consultant at the World Health Organization and a professor at both Yale University and Southern Connecticut State University . At Yale University, he holds the position of Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology. While at SCSU he holds the position of Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health.

#676

Eleanor Josephine Macdonald

Eleanor Josephine Macdonald

#56452

Overall Influence

1906 - 2007 (101 years)

Eleanor Josephine Macdonald was a pioneer American cancer epidemiologist and cancer researcher influenced and mentored by Edwin Bidwell Wilson and Shields Warren. One of the earliest proponents of the idea that cancer was a preventable disease. She established the first cancer registry in the United States in Connecticut.

#677

Michele Barry

#49225

Overall Influence

Michele Barry is a professor of medicine. She became Stanford's inaugural Senior Associate Dean of global health in 2009 and started the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health in 2010. Prior to this, she was a professor at Yale, where she started the first refugee health clinic and homeless health mobile van project, for which she was awarded the Elm Ivy Mayor’s Award. She specializes in tropical medicine, emerging infectious diseases, women’s leadership in global health, and human and planetary health.

#678

Nita Ahuja

#18609

Overall Influence

Nita Ahuja is a surgeon and the Chair of the Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief of Surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital. She is the first woman ever to serve as Chair of Surgery in Yale in its >200 year history. Before taking this position she was the first woman ever to be the Chief of Surgical Oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA. Ahuja researches in the field of epigenetics and is a passionate advocate of clinician scientist. She also served as the director of Sarcoma and peritoneal surface malignancy program. She is a surgeon-scientist and her...

#679

Murray Jarvik

#41521

Overall Influence

1923 - 2008 (85 years)

Murray Elias Jarvik was an American psychopharmacologist and academic who was among the first scientists to study d-lysergic acid, the precursor to LSD, and later became the co-inventor of the nicotine patch. He was a longtime professor emeritus at University of California-Los Angeles, where he taught as a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology for many years.

#680

William H. Harris

William H. Harris

#67434

Overall Influence

1927 - Present (98 years)

William H. Harris, is an American orthopaedic surgeon, Founder and Director Emeritus of the Massachusetts General Hospital Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory, and creator of the Advances in Arthroplasty course held annually since 1970.

#681

Antonio Bernardo

#67083

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (25 years)

Antonio Bernardo is an Italian-American neurosurgeon and academic physician. He is a professor of Neurological Surgery and the Director of the Neurosurgical Innovations and Training Center for Skull Base and Microneurosurgery in the Department of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has gained significant notoriety for his expertise in skull base and cerebrovascular surgery, and has published extensively on minimally invasive neurosurgery. He is a pioneer in the use of 3D technology in neurosurgery and a strong advocate for competency-based training in surgery.

#682

Csaba P. Kovesdy

#78007

Overall Influence

Csaba P. Kovesdy is an American nephrologist and a professor of medicine–nephrology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center as well as Chief of Nephrology at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is also affiliated with Methodist Hospitals of Memphis and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, also in Memphis.

#683

Karen E. Knudsen

#57443

Overall Influence

Karen E. Knudsen is Chief Executive Officer of American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She is the first woman to hold that position in either organization.

#684

Bruce Mark Psaty

#78021

Overall Influence

#685

Paolo Vineis

#71858

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (74 years)

Paolo Vineis is an Italian professor of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College London. Career Vineis main work is on the impact of environmental changes on human health and molecules. This includes the use of omics technologies in epidemiological studies, that is the quantitative measurement of global sets of molecules in biological samples using high-throughput techniques, in combination with advanced biostatistics and bioinformatics tools. In particular, the study of epigenomic changes in DNA is currently one of the most promising fields for the identification of long-term environmental fingerprints.

#686

Martha Somerman

Martha Somerman

#54596

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Martha J. Somerman is an internationally known researcher and educator in medicine, focusing on defining the key regulators controlling development, maintenance, and regeneration of dental, oral, and craniofacial tissues. She was 'Chief Lab of Laboratory of Oral Connective Tissue Biology at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research , a part of the National Institutes of Health located in Bethesda, Maryland.

#687

John Goligher

#75380

Overall Influence

1922 - 1998 (76 years)

John Cedric Goligher was a British surgeon who specialised in diseases of the rectum and colon and in coloproctology. He was "renowned worldwide" and had "a national and international reputation" He is considered to have been "one of the preeminent clinical investigative surgeons" of his time.

#688

Nancy Baxter

#65028

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (25 years)

Nancy Baxter is a Canadian surgeon who is a professor and the Head of Melbourne University's School of Population and Global Health, while continuing to maintain her appointment as Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is a scientist with the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and is a senior scientist in the Cancer Theme Group with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences . Baxter has board certifications through the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery .

#689

David Clyde Dahlin

#78282

Overall Influence

#690

Michelle C. Williams

#77416

Overall Influence

Michelle Claire Williams is a Scottish physician and professor at the University of Edinburgh. She is president elect of the British Society of Cardiovascular Imaging. Her research makes use of medical imaging and machine learning to understand cardiovascular disease.

#691

Marc C. Hochberg

#78436

Overall Influence

#692

Harald Stein

#78528

Overall Influence

#693

W. P. Andrew Lee

#67777

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (70 years)

Wei-Ping Andrew Lee is a Taiwanese-American hand surgeon and medical researcher. He is presently the Dean of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of UT Southwestern Medical Center. Lee focuses on translational research on immune modulation for vascularized composite allotransplantation and the implementation of protocols to minimize immunosuppression in hand transplant and other VCA programs.

#694

Roberto Bergamaschi

#78301

Overall Influence

Dr. Roberto Bergamaschi is a colorectal surgery specialist, Chief of Colorectal Surgery Department at Westchester Medical Center, previously Professor of Division of Colorectal Surgery at State University of New York in Stony Brook, NY

#695

Paul Kelly

#64145

Overall Influence

Paul M. Kelly is an Australian public health physician, epidemiologist and public servant who is the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, having served since 29 June 2020. He succeeded Brendan Murphy, who became the Secretary of the Department of Health.

#696

Fred Rivara

#76175

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (76 years)

Fred Rivara is a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Washington at Seattle Children's Hospital known for his research into the relationship between gun ownership and gun violence in the 1990s. Rivara has also researched bicycle helmets, intimate partner violence, and alcohol abuse, among other topics.

#697

Nubia Muñoz

#64365

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (85 years)

Nubia Muñoz is a Colombian medical scientist and epidemiologist, whose research has been instrumental in establishing that human papillomavirus infection is the primary cause of cervical cancer which has led to the development of a vaccine that is capable of preventing 70% of all cervical cancers.

#698

Duane M. Ilstrup

#78660

Overall Influence

#699

Ronald K. Siegel

#30725

Overall Influence

1943 - 2019 (76 years)

Ronald Keith Siegel was an American psychopharmacologist who was an associate research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. Siegel was the author of several noted studies and books on psychopharmacology, hallucination, and paranoia. A native of Herkimer, New York, he received his B.A. in sociology from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. in psychology from Dalhousie University. He was affiliated with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University before joining the research faculty of UCLA in 1972, where he remained until his retirement in 2008.

#700

Nathanael Gray

#46739

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (25 years)

Nathanael S. Gray is a Krishnan-Shah Family Professor of chemical and systems biology at Stanford University and director of cancer therapeutics programme at Stanford University School of Medicine. Previously he was a Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and professor of cancer biology at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. Gray is also co-founder, science advisory board member and equity holder in C4 Therapeutics, Gatekeeper, Syros, Petra, B2S, Aduro, Jengu, Allorion, Inception Therapeutics, and Soltego . C4 Therapeutics, which of...

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