Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most important people in 24 academic disciplines from 4000 BCE to today

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 proprietary AI program, we have ranked everyone in Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef based on the number of citations, publications, and academically relevant web presence.

Students and researchers now have the easiest and fastest way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you ever wanted to find famous medieval biologists, or influential engineers during the industrial revolution, now you can!

We’ve also put together our own custom rankings of people by discipline. And speaking of influential people, don’t forget to check out the interviews we do with the influential people of today!

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List of the most influential people in Nursing,

#1

Cicely Saunders

Cicely Saunders

#1080

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

#3535

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

#7185

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (84 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

#6118

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

#4554

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (83 years)

Jean Watson 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

Faye Glenn Abdellah

Faye Glenn Abdellah

#6792

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 .

#7

Florence Wald

#8993

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.

#8

Carl O. Helvie

#16737

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.

#9

Patricia Benner

#14004

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (81 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.

#10

Imogene King

#10791

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

#19195

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

#25325

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (79 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

Martha E. Rogers

#11968

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.

#14

Ann Burgess

#16195

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (87 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.

#15

Patricia Flatley Brennan

Patricia Flatley Brennan

#13278

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (70 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.

#16

Christine Grady

#9642

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (71 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 Yale University graduate and United States Navy veteran who served as the mayor of Livingston. Her mother, Barbara, was an assistant dean at Seton Hall University School of Law.

#17

Loretta Ford

#17123

Overall Influence

1920 - Present (103 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.

#18

Nola Pender

#26263

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (82 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.

#19

Luther Christman

Luther Christman

#23675

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.

#20

Kari Martinsen

#22999

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (80 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.

#21

Afaf Meleis

#25750

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (81 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 .

#22

Anne Marie Rafferty

Anne Marie Rafferty

#26201

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (65 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.

#23

Kristine Gebbie

Kristine Gebbie

#26061

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.

#24

George Castledine

#38587

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.

#25

Roger Watson

#40167

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (68 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...

#26

Judith Lapierre

#58390

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (56 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.

#27

Sally Thorne

#47255

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (72 years)

Sally Elizabeth Thorne 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.

#28

Emily Lyons

#32953

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (67 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

Margo McCaffery

#32884

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.

#30

Judith Shamian

#48719

Overall Influence

Judith Shamian is an Irish nurse. She served as president of the International Council of Nurses from 2013-2017. Career She was elected to the position at ICN's May 2013 Quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, Australia. She was also the president of the Victorian Order of Nurses and the Canadian Nurses Association respectively. She was succeeded as president by Annette Kennedy in 2017.

#31

Annette Huntington

#51347

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.

#32

Justus A. Akinsanya

#46588

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.

#33

Linda Aiken

#47750

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (80 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.

#34

Marguerite Littleton Kearney

Marguerite Littleton Kearney

#23613

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.

#35

Ruth McCorkle

#55672

Overall Influence

1941 - 2019 (78 years)

Margaret Ruth McCorkle FAAN, FAPOS was an international leader and award-winning pioneer in oncology nursing. 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.

#36

Marlene Kramer

#57335

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (92 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.

#37

Annie Altschul

#52290

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.

#38

Rhetaugh Graves Dumas

#58025

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.

#39

Moyra Allen

#65407

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.

#40

Margretta Styles

#39381

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.

#41

Elaine L. Larson

#76685

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (80 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.

#42

Nancy Fugate Woods

#63938

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.

#43

Lucile Petry Leone

Lucile Petry Leone

#47871

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.

#44

Astrid Norberg

#24729

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (84 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.

#45

Hiroko Minami

#60157

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (81 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.

#46

Debra Jackson

#73685

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...

#47

Jacquelyn Campbell

#41442

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (77 years)

Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, MSN, RN, is an American academic nurse known for her research on domestic violence and violence against women, especially cases of such violence that end in homicide. She is professor and the Anna D. Wolf Chair at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is also the national program director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Nurse Faculty Scholars program.

#48

Alison Kitson

#43247

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (67 years)

Alison Kitson FRCN is inaugural Vice President and Executive Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University South Australia. She is also an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, United Kingdom.

#49

Viola Davis Brown

Viola Davis Brown

#47349

Overall Influence

1936 - 2017 (81 years)

Viola Davis Brown born in Lexington, Kentucky, was a participant in the civil rights movement with contributions to public health and medical education in Kentucky. Personal life and education Viola Davis is the daughter of Donnie and Mable Davis. Davis married Percy H. Brown on June 29, 1957. Percy and Viola have five children together: Clarence, Michael, Bonnie, Donna, and Linda. In 1959, Mrs. Brown became the first to attend the Nazareth School of Nursing affiliated with St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Viola Brown graduated in 1959 and was soon appointed to the position of Supervisor of Nursing.

#50

Salaria Kea

#64474

Overall Influence

1913 - 1991 (78 years)

Salaria Kea O'Reilly was an American nurse and desegregation activist who volunteered in both the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. During the Spanish Civil War she was the only African American nurse working in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion.

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