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 Nursing,

#1

Cicely Saunders

Cicely Saunders

#1132

Overall Influence

1918 - 2005 (87 years)

Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasising the importance of palliative care in modern medicine, and opposing the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.

#2

Hildegard Peplau

#4023

Overall Influence

1909 - 1999 (90 years)

Hildegard E. Peplau was an American nurse and the first published nursing theorist since Florence Nightingale. She created the middle-range nursing theory of interpersonal relations, which helped to revolutionize the scholarly work of nurses. As a primary contributor to mental health law reform, she led the way towards humane treatment of patients with behavior and personality disorders.

#3

Callista Roy

#8611

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Sister Callista Roy, CSJ is an American nun, nursing theorist, professor and author. She is known for creating the adaptation model of nursing. She was a nursing professor at Boston College before retiring in 2017. Roy was designated as a 2007 Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing.

#4

Madeleine Leininger

Madeleine Leininger

#7217

Overall Influence

1925 - 2012 (87 years)

Madeleine Leininger was a nursing theorist, nursing professor and developer of the concept of transcultural nursing. First published in 1961, her contributions to nursing theory involve the discussion of what it is to care.

#5

Jean Watson

#6280

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL is an American nurse theorist and nursing professor who is best known for her theory of human caring. She is the author of numerous texts, including Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring. Watson's research on caring has been incorporated into education and patient care at hundreds of nursing schools and healthcare facilities across the world.

#6

Florence Wald

#9805

Overall Influence

1917 - 2008 (91 years)

Florence Wald was an American nurse, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing, and largely credited as "the mother of the American hospice movement". She led the founding of Connecticut Hospice, the first hospice program in the United States. Late in life, Wald became interested in the provision of hospice care within prisons. In 1998, Wald was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

#7

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 .

#8

Patricia Benner

#14394

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Patricia Sawyer Benner is a nursing theorist, academic and author. She is known for one of her books, From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice . Benner described the stages of learning and skill acquisition across the careers of nurses, applying the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition to nursing practice. Benner is a professor emerita at the University of California, San Francisco UCSF School of Nursing.

#9

Carl O. Helvie

#19587

Overall Influence

1932 - 2019 (87 years)

Carl O. Helvie was an American registered nurse and Professor Emeritus of Nursing at Old Dominion University. Helvie is known for his development and implementation of the Helvie Energy Theory of Nursing and Health.

#10

Imogene King

#12076

Overall Influence

1923 - 2007 (84 years)

Imogene King was a pioneer of nursing theory development. Her interacting systems theory of nursing and her theory of goal attainment have been included in every major nursing theory text. These theories are taught to thousands of nursing students, form the basis of nursing education programs, and are implemented in a variety of service settings.

#11

Marjory Gordon

#21705

Overall Influence

1931 - 2015 (84 years)

Marjory Gordon was a nursing theorist and professor who created a nursing assessment theory known as Gordon's functional health patterns. Gordon served in 1973 as the first president of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association until 1988. She was a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing beginning in 1977 and was designated a Living Legend by the same organization in 2009.

#12

Katharine Kolcaba

#28337

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Katharine Kolcaba is an American nursing theorist and nursing professor. Dr. Kolcaba is responsible for the Theory of Comfort, a broad-scope mid-range nursing theory commonly implemented throughout the nursing field up to the institutional level.

#13

Alison J. Tierney

Alison J. Tierney

#19030

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Alison Joan Tierney FRCN is a British nursing theorist, nurse researcher and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Tierney was one of the first graduates of the Integrated Degree/Nursing programme at The University of Edinburgh. In 2018 she was named as one of 70 of the most influential nurses in the 70 years of the NHS .

#14

Martha E. Rogers

#13622

Overall Influence

1914 - 1994 (80 years)

Martha Elizabeth Rogers was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and author. While professor of nursing at New York University, Rogers developed the "Science of Unitary Human Beings", a body of ideas that she described in her book An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing.

#15

Ann Burgess

#13195

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (88 years)

Ann C. Wolbert Burgess is a researcher whose work has focused on developing ways to assess and treat trauma in rape victims. She is a professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College.

#16

Patricia Flatley Brennan

Patricia Flatley Brennan

#14646

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Patricia Flatley Brennan is the director of the National Library of Medicine. Prior to that, she was the Lillian L. Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Brennan received a Master of Science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She served as chair of University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering's Department of Industrial Engineering from 2007 to 2010.

#17

Christine Grady

#12389

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Christine Grady is an American nurse and bioethicist who serves as the head of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Early life and education Grady was born and raised in Livingston, New Jersey. Her father, John H. Grady Jr., was a graduate of Yale University and a U.S. Navy veteran who served as the mayor of Livingston. Her mother, Barbara, was an assistant dean at Seton Hall University School of Law.

#18

Loretta Ford

#19866

Overall Influence

1920 - Present (104 years)

Loretta C. Ford is an American nurse and the co-founder of the first nurse practitioner program. Along with pediatrician Henry Silver, Ford started the pediatric nurse practitioner program at the University of Colorado in 1965. In 1972, Ford joined the University of Rochester as founding dean of the nursing school.

#19

Nola Pender

#26828

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Nola J. Pender is a nursing theorist, author, and academic. She is a professor emerita of nursing at the University of Michigan. She created the Health Promotion Model. She has been designated a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing.

#20

Luther Christman

Luther Christman

#26542

Overall Influence

1915 - 2011 (96 years)

Luther Parmalee Christman was an American nurse, professor of nursing, university administrator and advocate for gender and racial diversity in nursing. His career included service with the Michigan Department of Mental Health and academic posts at the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University and Rush University. In 1967, Christman became the first man to hold the position of dean at a nursing school.

#21

Kari Martinsen

#23830

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Kari Martinsen is a Norwegian nurse and academic, whose work focuses on nursing theory. After competing nursing training and working as a psychiatric nurse, she returned to school to earn a bachelor's, master's and PhD degree. Developing ideas about the philosophy involved in taking care of other people, she moved away from practicing nursing and turned toward academia. She taught at various universities in Norway and Denmark and was recognized as a Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav for nursing by the Norwegian crown in 2011.

#22

Afaf Meleis

#28796

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Afaf Ibrahim Meleis is an Egyptian-American nurse-scientist, researcher, and medical sociologist. She is a Professor of Nursing and Sociology and Dean Emerita at the University of Pennsylvania, where she served from 2002 through 2014. This followed her 34-year tenure as a nursing faculty professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Francisco .

#23

Anne Marie Rafferty

Anne Marie Rafferty

#27158

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Dame Anne Marie Rafferty FRCN is a British nurse, academic and researcher. She is professor of nursing policy and former dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King's College London. She served as President of the Royal College of Nursing from 2019 to 2021.

#24

Kristine Gebbie

Kristine Gebbie

#26343

Overall Influence

1943 - 2022 (79 years)

Kristine Elizabeth Moore Gebbie was an American academic and public health official working as a professor at the Flinders University School of Nursing & Midwifery in Adelaide, Australia. Gebbie previously served as the AIDS Policy Coordinator from 1993 to 1994.

#25

Judith Shamian

#41049

Overall Influence

Judith Shamian is an Irish nurse. She served as president of the International Council of Nurses from 2013-2017 before being succeeded by Annette Kennedy. She was elected to the position at the ICN Quadrennial Congress at Melbourne, Australia in May 2013. Shamian has published and spoken on nursing-related topics internationally.

#26

Roger Watson

#42214

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Roger Watson is a British academic. He is Academic Dean in the School of Nursing, Southwest Medical University, China and Professor of Nursing, Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong. Until 2022 was the Professor of Nursing at the University of Hull. He is the editor-in-chief of Nurse Education in Practice and an Editorial Board Member of the WikiJournal of Medicine. Watson was the Founding Chair of the Lancet Commission on Nursing, and a founding member of the Global Advisory Group for the Future of Nursing. Watson was elected Vice President of the National Conference of Universit...

#27

George Castledine

#44458

Overall Influence

1940 - 2018 (78 years)

George Castledine, FRCN was a British nursing educator and nursing consultant. George Castledine won a scholarship to Oxford University, later attending Liverpool University. He worked as a staff nurse before relocating to the Manchester Royal Infirmary to be charge nurse in a trauma unit as well as lecturer. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing from 1980.

#28

Emily Lyons

#39890

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Emily Lyons is an American nurse who was gravely injured when Eric Robert Rudolph bombed an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, where she worked. She was a prominent figure during Rudolph's trial and sentencing, and has also become an activist for abortion rights.

#29

Merry Elisabeth Scheel

#71703

Overall Influence

1929 - 2007 (78 years)

Merry Elisabeth Scheel was one of Denmark's most prominent nursing theorists. She received several degrees in her life, including a nursing degree in 1960, and a PhD in 2003. For many years, she was an active writer, especially around the ethical and philosophical aspects of the nursing profession.

#30

Annette Huntington

#57057

Overall Influence

Annette Diana Huntington is a New Zealand nursing academic. She is a professor of nursing and head of school at Massey University and previously served as chair of the Nursing Council of New Zealand.

#31

Sally Thorne

#58272

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Sally Elizabeth Thorne CM, PhD, FAAN, FCAHS, RN is a Canadian academic nursing teacher, researcher and author. She researched the human experience of chronic illness and cancer, and qualitative research methodologies including metasynthesis and interpretive description.

#32

Margo McCaffery

#37051

Overall Influence

Margo McCaffery was an American registered nurse and pioneer of the field of pain management nursing. McCaffery's oft-quoted definition of pain as "whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever and wherever the person says it does", stated as early as 1968, has become the prevailing conceptualization of pain for clinicians over the past few decades.

#33

Justus A. Akinsanya

#52080

Overall Influence

1936 - 2005 (69 years)

Justus Akinbayo Akinsanya, FRCN was a nurse, human biologist, nurse educator and researcher. Early life and career Born in Okun-Owa, Ijebu, Nigeria , Akinsanya qualified in 1960 in general nursing, with a specialty in tuberculosis cases. In 1967 he did post-registration courses in orthopaedic, dermatological and psychiatric nursing. He entered the University of London where he obtained a BSc degree in Human Biology followed by a PhD degree.

#34

Tom Quinn

#49915

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Tom J. Quinn was the UK's first Professor of cardiac nursing, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing for his outstanding contribution to research and practice of cardiac nursing. He currently works at the Kingston University covering research, development and consultancy in cardiovascular care issues, particularly emergency and critical cardiac care and policy. He was previously Professor of Cardiac Nursing at Coventry University. His NHS experience over almost three decades included periods at St Bartholomew's Hospital, the National Heart Hospital and York Hospital and at regional o...

#35

Linda Aiken

#53360

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Linda H. Aiken, is an American nurse and researcher who is currently the Director for the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics. She also is the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing Science and a professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

#36

Judith Lapierre

#73838

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Judith Lapierre is a professor in Nursing at the Université Laval. She studied at the International Space University in France. In 1999, Lapierre accused two Russian cosmonauts of sexual harassment after a 110-day simulation of space station living. Among the claims were an unwarranted kiss during a New Year's Celebration; project coordinator Valery Gushin later claimed that her "refusing to be kissed" had been a leading cause for the experiment's failure.

#37

Marguerite Littleton Kearney

Marguerite Littleton Kearney

#27902

Overall Influence

Marguerite T. Littleton Kearney is an American nurse scientist. She is the director of the National Institute of Nursing Research's Division of Extramural Science Programs. Littleton Kearney was the associate dean for research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Graduate School of Nursing.

#38

Ruth McCorkle

#62532

Overall Influence

1941 - 2019 (78 years)

Margaret Ruth McCorkle FAAN, FAPOS was an American nurse, oncology researcher, and educator. She was the Florence Schorske Wald Professor of Nursing at the Yale School of Nursing. McCorkle's professional biography included research and working as a professor of nursing at the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle, Washington, and as a professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and an associate director of cancer control at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Comprehensive Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

#39

Marlene Kramer

#65351

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Marlene F. Kramer was an American nurse, educator and author. She wrote a 1974 book, Reality Shock: Why Nurses Leave Nursing, which examined burnout in the nursing profession. Her book has been widely cited in subsequent studies on retention and satisfaction within nursing.

#40

David Vlahov

#79465

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

David Vlahov is an American epidemiologist and professor emeritus at the UCSF School of Nursing, of which he previously served as dean from April 2011 to August 2016. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Urban Health, and has been a member of the National Academy of Medicine since 2011. He is known for researching issues related to social determinants of health, such as the effectiveness of needle exchange programs. With Sandro Galea, he has also researched psychological responses to the September 11 attacks among residents of New York City.

#41

Rhetaugh Graves Dumas

#64542

Overall Influence

1928 - 2007 (79 years)

Rhetaugh Etheldra Graves Dumas was an American nurse, professor, and health administrator. Dumas was the first Black woman to serve as a dean at the University of Michigan. She served as the dean of the University of Michigan Nursing School. She also served as deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health, becoming the first nurse, female, or African-American to hold that position. She is said to have been the first nurse to use the scientific method to conduct experiments that evaluated nursing practices.

#42

Margretta Styles

#41137

Overall Influence

1930 - 2005 (75 years)

Margretta Madden Styles, EdD, RN, FAAN was an American nurse, author, educator and nursing school dean who conceived and helped establish national standards for certifying nurses in pediatrics, cardiology and other medical specialties. Dr. Styles was the president of the American Nurses Association from 1986 to 1988, and wrote five books and many articles published in medical journals.

#43

Annie Altschul

#59317

Overall Influence

1919 - 2001 (82 years)

Annie Therese Altschul, CBE, BA, MSc, RGN, RMN, RNT, FRCN was Britain's first mental health nurse pioneer; a midwife, researcher, educator, author and a patient advocate, emeritus professor of nursing.

#44

Elaine L. Larson

#84376

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Elaine Lucille Larson is an American infectious disease specialist. As a Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, she has published four books and more than four hundred articles on the subjects of infection prevention and control, disease epidemiology, and related issues. In 2017, Larson was named a "Living Legend" by the American Academy of Nursing, the Academy's highest honor.

#45

Nancy Fugate Woods

#61474

Overall Influence

Nancy Fugate Woods is emerita professor in Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics at the University of Washington. She previously served as the dean of the University of Washington's nursing program and as the president of the American Academy of Nursing.

#46

Lucile Petry Leone

Lucile Petry Leone

#52771

Overall Influence

1902 - 1999 (97 years)

Lucile Petry Leone was an American nurse who was the founding director of the Cadet Nurse Corps in 1943. Because the Nurse Corps met its recruiting quotas, it was not necessary for the US to draft nurses in World War II. She was the first woman and the first nurse to be appointed as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service.

#47

Moyra Allen

#73357

Overall Influence

1921 - 1996 (75 years)

F. Moyra Allen, was a Canadian nurse and professor. She helped develop the McGill Model of Nursing. She received her nursing education at the Montreal General Hospital School of Nursing. She also received a Bachelor of Nursing from McGill University, a Master's degree from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 1967. In 1954, she became an assistant professor at the McGill University School of Nursing. She became acting director of the School of Nursing in 1983, shortly before she retired in 1984.

#48

Hiroko Minami

#66760

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

, is a Japanese Nurse leader and educator. She has been working to advance nursing in Japan, including education, service, and research for more than 30 years. Early life Minami was born in Kobe in 1942 and grew up in Kōchi Prefecture.

#49

Debra Jackson

#81441

Overall Influence

Debra Elizabeth Jackson is an Australian academic nurse and professor of nursing at the Susan Wakil School of Nursing at the University of Sydney, Australia. In 2021 she was awarded professor emerita in the faculty of health in the University of Technology Sydney. She holds a number of adjunct roles including honorary professor of nursing, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, visiting professor at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery in King's College London, Bournemouth University, and Auckland University of Technology. She was previously the editor-in-chief of the Journa...

#50

Astrid Norberg

#27148

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Astrid Norberg, born 1939 is a registered nurse and professor emerita in nursing at Umeå University, Sweden. Norberg has a PhD in pedagogy from Lund University and started as a Sweden's first professor in nursing research in 1987. Her research has mainly been about dementia and ethics.

Image Attributions