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 Medical,

#101

Gideon Koren

#16587

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Gideon Koren, FACMT, FRCP is an Israeli-Canadian pediatrician, clinical pharmacologist, toxicologist, and a composer of Israeli folk music. He was a doctor at the Hospital for Sick Children and a professor at the University of Toronto. In 1985, Koren founded the Motherisk Program in Toronto, which was later shut down amid controversy. Furthermore, multiple scientific papers authored by Koren have been subject to concerns regarding academic and research misconduct, leading to the retraction of six research articles and editorial expression of concerns on multiple others. Koren currently has re...

#102

Leana Wen

#11422

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (42 years)

Leana Sheryle Wen is an American physician, author, professor, speaker, consultant, newspaper columnist and television commentator. She is former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore and former president of Planned Parenthood. She has written two books based on her experiences as a medical professional.

#103

David G. Nathan

#25342

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (96 years)

David Gordon Nathan is a pediatrician and hematologist. He is known for his authorship of Nathan and Oski's Hematology of Infancy and Childhood, a standard reference in pediatrics, currently in its seventh edition. Nathan remains an author on the current edition. Now retired, he was Robert A. Stranahan professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and served as president of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He was born in Boston.

#104

David Barker

#16755

Overall Influence

1938 - 2013 (75 years)

David James Purslove Barker was an English physician and epidemiologist and originator of the Barker Hypothesis that foetal and early infant conditions have a permanent conditioning effect on the body's metabolism and chronic conditions later in life.

#105

Alfred Cuschieri

#20682

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (87 years)

Sir Alfred Cuschieri is a Maltese-British surgeon and academic. He is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the development and clinical implementation of minimal access surgery, also known as key-hole surgery. He has been Professor of Surgery at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, since 2003 as well as Chief Scientific Advisor to the Institute of Medical Science and Technology at the University of Dundee since 2008.

#106

Albert Kligman

#23314

Overall Influence

1916 - 2010 (94 years)

Albert Montgomery Kligman was an American dermatologist who co-invented Retin-A, the acne medication, with James Fulton in 1969. Kligman performed human experiments on inmates at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. Scandal followed years later. The experiments intentionally exposed humans to pathogens and dioxin, and later became a textbook example of unethical experimenting on humans. He and others involved were sued for alleged injuries, but the lawsuit was dismissed due to the statute of limitations expiring.

#107

Bernadine Healy

Bernadine Healy

#7818

Overall Influence

1944 - 2011 (67 years)

Bernadine Patricia Healy was an American cardiologist and the first female director of the National Institutes of Health . During her career, Healy held leadership positions at the Johns Hopkins University, the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio State University, and Harvard University. She was also president of both the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association. She was health editor and columnist for U.S. News & World Report and a well-known commentator in the news media on health issues.

#108

Russel J. Reiter

#28818

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (89 years)

Russel J. Reiter is an American researcher and Professor of Cell Systems and Anatomy at the University of Texas Health Science Center. He is one of the top highly cited researchers according to webometrics.

#109

Stanley Malamed

Stanley Malamed

#24520

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (81 years)

Stanley F. Malamed is an American dentist and dental anesthesiologist. Early life Malamed was born in the Bronx, New York. He was adopted and raised Jewish. Education Graduating from New York University College of Dentistry in 1969, Malamed completed a 2-year residency in anesthesiology at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York. Following this, he served for 2 years in the United States Army Dental Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

#110

Tim Noakes

#12400

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (76 years)

Timothy David Noakes is a South African scientist, and an emeritus professor in the Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He has run more than 70 marathons and ultramarathons, and is the author of several books on exercise and diet. He is known for his work in sports science and for his support of a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, as set out in his books The Real Meal Revolution and Lore of Nutrition: Challenging Conventional Dietary Beliefs.

#111

Faye Glenn Abdellah

Faye Glenn Abdellah

#7805

Overall Influence

1919 - 2017 (98 years)

Faye Glenn Abdellah was an American pioneer in nursing research. Abdellah was the first nurse and woman to serve as the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States. Preceding her appointment, she served in active duty during the Korean War, where she earned a distinguished ranking equivalent to a Navy Rear Admiral, making her the highest-ranked woman and nurse in the Federal Nursing Services at the time. In addition to these achievements, Abdellah led the formation of the National Institute of Nursing Research at the NIH, and was the founder and first dean of the Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences .

#112

F. John Lewis

#23164

Overall Influence

1916 - 1993 (77 years)

Floyd John Lewis was an American surgeon who performed the first successful open heart operation, closing an atrial septal defect in a 5-year-old girl, on 2 September 1952. For the next 3 years, Lewis and colleagues operated on 60 patients with atrial septal defects using hypothermia and inflow occlusion. He was best friends with C. Walton Lillehei and they worked together at the University of Minnesota.

#113

Carlo M. Croce

#17905

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (81 years)

Carlo Maria Croce is an Italian–American professor of medicine at Ohio State University, specializing in oncology and the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer. Croce and his research have attracted public attention because of multiple allegations of scientific misconduct.

#114

Carl E. Misch

#22707

Overall Influence

1947 - 2017 (70 years)

Carl E. Misch was an American prosthodontist recognized internationally for his clinical and academic contributions to the field of implant dentistry. Biography Misch graduated magna cum laude in 1973 from the University of Detroit Dental School. He received his prosthodontic certificate, implantology certificate and Master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. The University of Yeditepe in Istanbul, Turkey and Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania each awarded Dr. Misch a Ph.D. . He holds several other post-graduate honors incl...

#115

Gustav Victor Rudolf Born

Gustav Victor Rudolf Born

#10320

Overall Influence

1921 - 2018 (97 years)

Gustav Victor Rudolf Born FRCP, HonFRCS, FRS was a German-British professor of Pharmacology at King's College London and Research Professor at the William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

#116

Patrick C. Walsh

#23761

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (87 years)

Patrick C. Walsh is an American urologist, researcher and writer, best known for developing "the anatomic approach to radical prostatectomy", involving nerve-sparing techniques which reduced the likelihood of impotence and urinary incontinence. He authored The Prostate: A Guide for Men and the Women Who Love Them and Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer.

#117

Sally Davies

#8176

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (76 years)

Dame Sally Claire Davies is a British physician. She was the Chief Medical Officer from 2010 to 2019 and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health from 2004 to 2016. She worked as a clinician specialising in the treatment of diseases of the blood and bone marrow. She is now Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, appointed on 8 February 2019, with effect from 8 October 2019. She is one of the founders of the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

#118

Hom-Lay Wang

#25646

Overall Influence

Hom-Lay Wang is a Taiwanese-born periodontist and director of the graduate periodontal program at University of Michigan School of Dentistry. Education and career Wang graduated from Taipei Medical College in Taiwan in 1983. He moved on to Case School of Dental Medicine, where he graduated in 1987 with a Master's degree in periodontics. He remained at Case until 1989 to complete an American dental degree. He received his PhD from Hiroshima University in Hiroshima, Japan in 2008.

#119

George Q. Daley

George Q. Daley

#13291

Overall Influence

George Quentin Daley is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He was formerly the Robert A. Stranahan Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Boston Children's Hospital, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Associate Director of Children's Stem Cell Program, a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He is a past president of the International...

#120

Ramakant Yadav

#22554

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (57 years)

Ramakant Yadav is a professor of Neurology and Yash Bharti Award winner who is working at Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai. Education and career He completed his M.B.B.S. in 1992 and M.D. in 1998 from Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra of Agra University , Agra. Later he joined Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow and got D.M. degree in 2006. He became a fellow of Indian Association of Clinical Medicine in 2008. He joined U.P. Rural Institute of Medical Sciences, now known as Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai as an assistant professor in 2006 and now working as a professor there.

#121

Donald Ross

#24580

Overall Influence

1922 - 2014 (92 years)

Donald Nixon Ross, FRCS was a South African-born British thoracic surgeon who was a pioneer of cardiac surgery and led the team that carried out the first heart transplantation in the United Kingdom in 1968. He developed the pulmonary autograft, known as the Ross procedure, for treatment of aortic valve disease.

#122

Dennis P. Tarnow

Dennis P. Tarnow

#20230

Overall Influence

Dennis Perry Tarnow is an Americann dentist specializing in periodontics, prosthodontics and implant dentistry and is renown for his mark on dental implant research and education. He is currently director of implant dentistry at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and former chairman of the department of periodontics and implant dentistry at New York University College of Dentistry. He is a sought after speaker on the subject of implant dentistry.

#123

John R. Adler

#16716

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (71 years)

John R. Adler is an American neurosurgeon. He was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1954. He graduated at Harvard College in 1976 and at Harvard Medical School in 1980. From 1980 to 1987 he did a neurosurgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital and a radiosurgery fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, where he worked with Lars Leksell. He joined the faculty of Stanford University School of Medicine in 1987 as an assistant professor in the department of neurosurgery in 1987, was also, made an assistant professor in radiation oncology in 1992, wa...

#124

Orrin Devinsky

#28385

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (68 years)

Orrin Devinsky is an American neurologist who is the Director of the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and the Saint Barnabas Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery . He is also a professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry at NYU Langone School of Medicine. Devinsky specializes in epilepsy and behavioral neurology.

#125

Carlo La Vecchia

#29723

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (70 years)

Carlo La Vecchia is an Italian epidemiologist. He is doing research on chronic diseases, where he contributed to the understanding of the risks related to diet, tobacco, oral contraceptive use and occupational or environmental exposure to toxic substances in cancer and other chronic diseases development.

#126

Richard G. Wilkinson

Richard G. Wilkinson

#5850

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (82 years)

Richard Gerald Wilkinson is a British social epidemiologist, author, advocate, and left-wing political activist. He is Professor Emeritus of social epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, having retired in 2008. He is also Honorary Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London and Visiting Professor at University of York. In 2009, Richard co-founded The Equality Trust. Richard was awarded a 2013 Silver Rose Award from Solidar for championing equality and the 2014 Charles Cully Memorial Medal by the Irish Cancer Society.

#127

Ashutosh Tewari

Ashutosh Tewari

#18623

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (65 years)

Ashutosh K. Tewari is the chairman of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is a board certified American urologist, oncologist, and principal investigator. Before moving to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2013, he was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at Weill Cornell Medical College and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Tewari was the Ronald P. Lynch endowed Chair of Urologic Oncology and the hospital's Director of Robotic Prostatectomy, treating patients with prostate, urinary bladder and other urological cancers.

#128

Stuart Orkin

#21621

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (79 years)

Stuart Holland Orkin is an American physician, stem cell biologist and researcher in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is the David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Orkin's research has focused on the genetic basis of blood disorders. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

#129

Ichiro Kawachi

#24324

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (64 years)

Ichiro Kawachi is a social epidemiologist of Japanese origin who was trained in New Zealand. He is currently the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where he is also the chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

#130

Ashish Jha

#12280

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (55 years)

Ashish Kumar Jha is an Indian-American general internist physician and academic who served as the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator from 2022-2023. He has been Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health since 2020. Prior to Brown, he was the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, and a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group. Jha is recognized as one of the leading health policy scholars in the nation. Jha's role at Brown University focuses on improving the quality and cos...

#131

Sunetra Gupta

#12969

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (60 years)

Sunetra Gupta is an Indian-born British infectious disease epidemiologist and a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. She has performed research on the transmission dynamics of various infectious diseases, including malaria, influenza and COVID-19, and has received the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the Rosalind Franklin Award of the Royal Society. She is a member of the scientific advisory board of Collateral Global, an organisation which examines the global impact of COVID-19 restrictions.

#132

Juhn Atsushi Wada

#15786

Overall Influence

1924 - Present (101 years)

Juhn Atsushi Wada was a Japanese–Canadian neurologist known for research into epilepsy and human brain asymmetry, including his description of the Wada test for cerebral hemispheric dominance of language function. The Wada Test remains the gold standard for establishing cerebral dominance and is conducted worldwide prior to epilepsy surgery.

#133

Béla Merkely

#25854

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (59 years)

Dr. Béla Merkely is a Hungarian interventional cardiologist and sports cardiologist, a university professor, director of Semmelweis University's Heart and Vascular Centre and the current rector of Semmelweis University since 1 July 2018.

#134

David H. Adams

#18448

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (68 years)

David H. Adams is an American cardiac surgeon and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Dr. Adams is a recognized leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve reconstruction. As director of Mount Sinai Mitral Valve Repair Center, he has set national benchmarks with >99% degenerative mitral valve repair rates, while running one of the largest valve repair programs in the United States. Dr. Adams is the co-inventor of 2 mitral valve annuloplasty repa...

#135

Bhupathiraju Somaraju

#17229

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (77 years)

Bhupathiraju Somaraju , shortly B. Somaraju, is an Indian cardiologist and was the chairman of CARE Hospitals, Hyderabad. Author of many medical articles in peer reviewed journals and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, he was honoured by the Government of India, in 2001, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.

#136

Richard Lower

#23971

Overall Influence

1929 - 2008 (79 years)

Richard Rowland Lower was an American pioneer of cardiac surgery, particularly in the field of heart transplantation. Lower was born in Detroit, attended Amherst College, and received his medical degree from Cornell University in 1955. Lower and Norman Shumway developed many of the techniques required to conduct successful heart transplantation, including the use of hypothermia and the orthotopic technique, which became the standard technique for cardiac transplantation.

#137

Martin McKee

#24818

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (69 years)

Clifford Martin McKee, CBE , is professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Biography He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and trained as a doctor at The Queen’s University of Belfast, qualifying in 1979 and specialized initially in internal medicine at the Belfast City Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital between 1979 and 1985, before moving into public health. McKee currently lives in London with his wife Dorothy and two daughters.

#138

Haile Debas

#12263

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (88 years)

Haile Debas is an Eritrean physician and academic administrator at the University of California, San Francisco. Life Haile T. Debas was born in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1937. Following undergraduate training at University College of Addis Ababa, he received his M.D. from McGill University in 1963, and completed his surgical training at the University of British Columbia. His postgraduate training included a year as a research fellow at the University of Glasgow/Western Infirmary in Scotland, and two years at UCLA as a Medical Research Council Scholar in gastrointestinal physiology.

#139

Thomas B. Fitzpatrick

#26131

Overall Influence

1919 - 2003 (84 years)

Thomas B. Fitzpatrick was an American dermatologist. He was Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Dermatology Service from 1959 to 1987. He has been described as "the father of modern academic dermatology" and as "the most influential dermatologist of the last 100 years", in part because he trained so many of the leaders in the field.

#140

Joseph Jankovic

Joseph Jankovic

#29534

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (77 years)

Joseph Jankovic is an American neurologist and professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is the Distinguished Chair in Movement Disorders and founder and director of the Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic.

#141

V. Craig Jordan

V. Craig Jordan

#14503

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Virgil Craig Jordan, , is a scientist with American and British citizenship specializing in drugs for breast cancer treatment and prevention. Currently, he is Professor of Breast Medical Oncology, and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Previously, he was Scientific Director and Vice Chairman of Oncology at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center of Georgetown University. Jordan was the first to discover the breast cancer prevention properties of tamoxifen and the scientific principles for adjuvant therapy with antihormones.

#142

Tim Spector

#27772

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (67 years)

Timothy David Spector is a British epidemiologist, medical doctor, and science writer. Biography Spector was born in North London in July 1958. He trained in medicine and rose to the position of consultant rheumatologist, before turning to genetic epidemiology, the study of genetic factors in health and disease, in 1992.

#143

Dimitrios Trichopoulos

Dimitrios Trichopoulos

#20257

Overall Influence

1938 - 2014 (76 years)

Dimitrios Trichopoulos , was a Mediterranean Diet expert and tobacco harms researcher. He was Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention and Professor of Epidemiology, and a past chair of the Department of Epidemiology, in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

#144

Jim van Os

#25650

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (65 years)

Jim van Os is a Dutch academic and psychiatrist. He is Professor of Psychiatry and medical manager of the Brain Center at Utrecht University Medical Center, the Netherlands. Career Van Os studied medicine in Amsterdam, psychiatry in Jakarta, Casablanca, Bordeaux, and London, and subsequently epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

#145

Azeem Majeed

#14805

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (25 years)

Azeem Majeed is a Professor and Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College, London, as well as a general practitioner in South London and a consultant in public health. In the most recent UK University Research Excellence Framework results , Imperial College London was the highest ranked university in the UK for the quality of research in the “Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care” unit of assessment.

#146

Martin Kulldorff

#11976

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (63 years)

Martin Kulldorff is a Swedish biostatistician. He has been a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School since 2003, though on leave as of 2023. He is a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and a former member of the Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

#147

Michael Osterholm

Michael Osterholm

#14356

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (72 years)

Michael Thomas Osterholm is an American epidemiologist, Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

#148

Markus Büchler

#20917

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (70 years)

Markus Wolfgang Büchler is a German surgeon and university full professor. He specialises in gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary and transplant surgery, and is especially known for pioneering operations on the pancreas.

#149

Kurt Amplatz

#31915

Overall Influence

1924 - 2019 (95 years)

Kurt Anton Amplatz was an Austrian radiologist and medical device inventor. He is best known for the invention of the Amplatzer Septal Occluder as well as the Amplatzer Cribriform Occluder, which is used for closing atrial septal defect, a common congenital heart defects found in infants. These devices are inserted by percutaneous catheter placement, thus avoiding open heart surgery. In 1958, he performed one of the first percutaneous catheterizations of the heart. Amplatz spent most of his 40-year career in Radiology as the Chairman of Interventional Radiology at the University of Minnesota.

#150

Joel Schwartz

#27549

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Joel Schwartz is an American epidemiologist, and Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, at Harvard University, School of Public Health. He graduated from Brandeis University with a Ph.D. in 1980. He identified the environmental exposure of lead in gasoline, which led to its ban.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions