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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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Nursing,

#101

Bengt G. A. Fridlund

#141189

Overall Influence

#102

Rosemarie Rizzo Parse

#144210

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

#103

David Charles Benton

David Charles Benton

#121081

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

David Charles Benton is a British nurse and regulatory and health policy expert who is the 5th Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Benton was previously Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses in Geneva, Switzerland. Benton publishes on nursing and health policy, leadership, occupational licensure and nurse regulatory models, workforce and migration, and research methods, including the use of social network analysis, and bibliometric analysis.

#104

Elfrida O. Adebo

#112800

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (96 years)

Elfrida O. Adebo is a Nigerian nurse and academic. In 1984, she became the first professor of nursing in Nigeria. Life Adebo was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on 3 March 1928. She started her nursing career in London, training as a staff nurse and midwife at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1957-58. In 1959 she returned to Nigeria to work as a Public Health Nurse in Ibadan. She gained a D.P.H. in Nursing in 1961, and a Bachelor of Nursing in 1962. After briefly working as an instructor at the School of Hygiene in Ibadan, she became a lecturer at the University of Ibadan. Joining the Department of Nursing in October 1967, she became acting Head of Department by 1970.

#105

Ramona O. Hopkins

#148173

Overall Influence

#106

Sheryl Itkin Zimmerman

#151223

Overall Influence

#107

Jacqueline Fawcett

#152310

Overall Influence

#108

Laura Serrant

#112283

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Laura Serrant, is a British nurse and academic. She is currently Regional Head of Nursing for North East and Yorkshire at Health Education England and Professor of at Manchester Metropolitan University where she was previously Head of Department.

#109

Diane M. Becker

#121841

Overall Influence

1943 - 2021 (78 years)

Diane M. Becker was an American nurse and public health scientist who researched cardiovascular disease prevention. She was a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Career and education Becker graduated from Monroe-Woodbury High School in 1961. Becker graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 1964 with a R.N. Diploma in Nursing.

#110

Peter Raymond Draper

#136048

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Peter Raymond Draper is Professor of Nursing Education and Scholarship and former Director of the Teaching Excellence Academy at the University of Hull. He is also a Self-Supporting Minister in the Church of England.

#111

Heimar de Fátima Marin

#78954

Overall Influence

Heimar de Fátima Marin is a nurse and a full professor at the Federal University of São Paulo . Career In 2004 she was elected international member at the American College of Medical Informatics. Heimar Marin was also the president of Brazilian Society of Health Informatics ; vice-chair and elected chair of the International Medical Informatics Association Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group .

#112

Fiona Ross

#34130

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Fiona Mary Ross, is a British nurse and academic. She is Emerita Professor in Health and Social Care at Kingston University and an independent governor on the Westminster University Court. Formerly she was Dean at Kingston University and St George's, University of London, and also the director of research at the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

#113

Joanne Disch

#126431

Overall Influence

Joanne Disch is an American professor ad honorem of nursing at University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She is best known for her contributions improving patient safety, health administration, and nurse-physician relationships.

#114

Susan Orsega

#116219

Overall Influence

Susan M. Orsega is an American nurse and rear admiral who currently serves as the senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Surgeon General of the United States. She previously served as the acting surgeon general from January 20 to March 4, 2021. Orsega is one of the first nurses to serve in the position. She also previously served as the director of Commissioned Corps Headquarters, tasked with the administration of the members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps , from March 2019 to October 2021. Prior to becoming acting surgeon general, Orsega was the chi...

#115

Ann Minnick

#159604

Overall Influence

Ann Minnick is an American nursing scholar focusing in safety and quality in hospitals and workforce and academic quality. Minnick is currently the Julia Eleanor Chenault Professor at Vanderbilt University.

#116

Margaret Callahan

#61469

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Margaret Faut-Callahan is the Health Sciences provost at Loyola University Chicago. Biography Callahan earned her undergraduate degree at Loyola University Chicago and both her master's and Ph.D. degrees at Rush University in Chicago, where she served as an administrator at the university or at Rush University Medical Center for more than 25 years prior to coming to Marquette.

#117

DaiWai Olson

#139908

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

DaiWai M. Olson is an American nurse. Olson completed an associate degree in nursing at Scott Community College in 1986, and finished a bachelor's degree in 1997, graduating from Teikyo Marycrest University. He obtained his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Olson was a researcher at Duke University from 1994 to 2013, when he started working at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He became editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing in 2016, succeeding V. Susan Carroll. In 2018, he became the first nurse promoted to the rank of professor.

#118

Pam Smith

#114260

Overall Influence

Pam Smith is a Professor of Nursing in the School of Health in Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. Her research relates to emotions and care within the nursing profession. Early life and education Smith graduated from the Bachelor of Nursing programme at the University of Manchester. She gained a postgraduate certificate in adult education from Garnett College in 1973 and a MSc in Medical Sociology from Bedford College in 1982. Smith was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from King's College London in 1988 for a thesis entitled "The Quality of Nursing and the Ward as a Learning Enviro...

#119

Patsy Yates

#92020

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Patsy Yates is an Australian registered nurse, university professor, and institutional leader who works at the Queensland University of Technology , where she is a Distinguished Professor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health, Research Director of the Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education, and Co-Director of the Centre for Healthcare Transformation. She is a specialist in the field of palliative, cancer and aged care.

#120

Sheldon D. Fields

#79027

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Sheldon D. Fields , is a Registered Professional Nurse, Family Nurse Practitioner, educator, researcher, health policy analyst, and nurse entrepreneur who is known for his work in the field of behavioral health research specializing in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention.

#121

Tonda L. Hughes

#143805

Overall Influence

Tonda Hughes is an American professor of nursing and associate dean for global health research at the School of Nursing at Columbia University. She is best known for her research of factors influencing the health of sexual minority women , particularly in the area of substance use. Hughes is the principal investigator of the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women Study, the longest-running longitudinal study of sexual minority women's health, with a focus on alcohol use and mental health.

#122

Christine Moffatt

#38876

Overall Influence

Christine Joy Moffatt, CBE, FRCN is a British nurse and educator. Biography Following training at Charing Cross Hospital, Moffatt trained as a district nurse. Following a diploma in leg ulcer care she became involved in research, became a lecturer at Imperial College London. She ran the Centre for Research and Implementation of Clinical Practice independently before entering into an association with Thames Valley University.

#123

Roberta Woodgate

#90930

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Roberta Lynn Woodgate is a Canadian nurse. She is a Distinguished Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Child and Family Engagement in Health Research and Healthcare at the University of Manitoba.

#124

Elizabeth Sharp

#73693

Overall Influence

1933 - 2016 (83 years)

Elizabeth Sager Sharp CNM, DrPH, FAAN, FACNM, was an American nurse and midwife who specialized in maternal and newborn health. In 1999, she received the American College of Nurse-Midwives' Hattie Hemschemeyer Award.

#125

Kathi Mooney

#76361

Overall Influence

Kathleen B. Mooney PhD, RN, FAAN is an American scientist, currently the Louis S. Peery and Janet B. Peery Presidential Endowed Chair in Nursing and Distinguished Professor of Nursing at the University of Utah. She is one of two co-leaders of the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on palliative care symptom management for cancer patients and their family caregivers, clinical cancer outcomes, and technology aided interventions and telehealth.

#126

Jeanne Novotny

#158661

Overall Influence

Jeanne Novotny is Dean and Professor at the Fairfield University School of Nursing located in Fairfield, Connecticut. Novotny was named a 2002 Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in recognition of her outstanding contributions to nursing. She received two Book of the Year Awards from the American Journal of Nursing for Distance Education in Nursing and The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Nursing .

#127

Margaret P. Moss

#111943

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Margaret P. Moss, PhD, JD, RN, FAAN, an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes is Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion/Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo, School of Nursing. She is the first and only American Indian to hold both nursing and juris doctorates. As a RWJF Health Policy Fellow she staffed the US Senate Special Committee on Aging and was lead staff on the now enacted National Alzheimer's Project Act. Moss recently published the first nursing textbook on American Indian health , which won AJN Book of the Year in 2016.

#128

Nicole Letourneau

Nicole Letourneau

#41201

Overall Influence

Nicole Lyn Letourneau is a Canadian professor and researcher. She is a Research Chair in Parent and Child Mental Health at the University of Calgary. Formerly she held the Alberta Children's Hospital Chair and Norlien Foundation Chair in Parent-Infant Mental Health and Canada Research Chair in Healthy Child Development . She currently serves as the director of the RESOLVE Alberta and principal investigator for the CHILD Studies Program at Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute. She has written over 210 peer-reviewed publications; authored the books, Parenting and Child Development: ...

#129

Nicolette Fay Sheridan

Nicolette Fay Sheridan

#56375

Overall Influence

Nicolette Fay Sheridan is a New Zealand nursing academic of Ngāpuhi descent, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the Massey University. Academic career After a 2005 PhD titled 'Mapping a new future: Primary Health Care Nursing in New Zealand' at the University of Auckland, Sheridan moved to the Massey University, rising to full professor.

#130

Megan-Jane Johnstone

#97172

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Megan-Jane Johnstone is a nursing scholar and contemporary artist. She is the author of Bioethics: a nursing perspective, first published in 1989 and released as an 8th revised edition in 2023, and invited curating editor of Nursing Ethics, a three volume Sage major reference publication. Other books by Johnstone include: Nursing and the injustices of the law; Ethics in nursing practice: a guide to ethical decision making ; Alzheimers disease, media representations and the politics of euthanaisa: constructing risk and selling death in an ageing society; Effective writing for health profession...

#131

Sarah Szanton

#167801

Overall Influence

Sarah Loeb Szanton is an American nurse practitioner who focuses on geriatric nursing research. , she is the Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Early life and education Szanton completed her Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University in 1988 and her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She left JHU to attend the University of Maryland for her Masters of Science in Nursing in 1998 before returning to JHU for her PhD.

#132

Carol Fowler Durham

#71675

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Carol Fowler Durham is an American Clinical Professor of Nursing and Doctor of Education who is known as a leader in the fields of Healthcare Quality and Safety, nursing education, interprofessional education, and medical simulation.

#133

Elizabeth Ngugi

Elizabeth Ngugi

#81877

Overall Influence

Elizabeth Ngugi was a Kenyan Professor of Community Health at the University of Nairobi, and a nurse by trade. Her major contributions to her university's program was her research and work with local prostitutes to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission. Ngugi is described as the first Kenyan nurse to become a professor.

#134

Kevin Gournay

#150688

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Kevin Joseph Michael Gournay CBE FMedSci FRCN FRSM FRCPsych PhD RN CSci Cert CBT is a registered psychologist, chartered scientist and a registered nurse by background. He is an emeritus professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. He was a consultant psychologist at the Priory Hospital North London; retiring in December 2018. He has now returned to clinical work as part of the response to COVID19. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Matilda Centre; University of Sydney., where his work focusses on the impact of COVID19 on mental health and the combination of mental health problems and substance use.

#135

Elizabeth J. Corwin

#155320

Overall Influence

Elizabeth J. Corwin is an American nurse scientist and family nurse practitioner. She is the Anna C. Maxwell Professor of Nursing Research and Vice Dean of Strategic and Innovative Research at Columbia University School of Nursing. Corwin previously held the Edith F. Honeycutt Chair in Nursing at Emory University.

#136

Elizabeth Anionwu

#115674

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu is a British nurse, health care administrator, lecturer, and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. In 1979, Anionwu became the United Kingdom's first sickle-cell and thalassemia nurse specialist, helping establish the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Counselling centre with consultant haematologist Milica Brozovic. In 1998, by then a Professor of Nursing, Anionwu created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University of West London. She holds the Order of Merit, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing .

#137

Linda McCauley

#124356

Overall Influence

Linda A. McCauley is an American scientist and academic administrator. She is dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. She was a professor of nursing and associate dean of research at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

#138

Mary Woody

#157109

Overall Influence

1926 - 2010 (84 years)

Mary Florence Woody was an American nurse, hospital administrator and university professor. She worked as a director of nursing at two large hospitals and was a nursing school dean or associate dean at Auburn University and Emory University. She was designated a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing.

#139

Myrtle Aydelotte

#104175

Overall Influence

1917 - 2010 (93 years)

Myrtle Elizabeth Kitchell "Kitch" Aydelotte was an American nurse, professor and hospital administrator. She served as CEO of the American Nurses Association, director of nursing for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the first dean of the school's nursing program. She was the first female academic dean at Iowa. Aydelotte was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 1976 and was designated a Living Legend by the same organization in 1994.

#140

Gina Higginbottom

#146919

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Gina Marie Higginbottom is a British academic, nurse, midwife, health visitor and a specialist in international migration and maternity. She is the first nurse of black and minority ethnic origin to hold a professorial role in a Russell Group university in England.

#141

Sarah Hewlett

#153343

Overall Influence

Sarah Elizabeth Hewlett is an emeritus Professor of Rheumatology Nursing at the University of the West of England and expert on rheumatoid arthritis . She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

#142

Ann Kurth

#170155

Overall Influence

Ann Elizabeth Kurth, PhD, CNM, MPH, FAAN, FACNM is President of The New York Academy of Medicine , a leading nonprofit organization focused on health equity; she is the first epidemiologist to lead NYAM in its 176-year history. Previously she was the dean and Linda Koch Lorimer Professor at Yale School of Nursing . She is a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and was a member of the United States Preventive Services Task Force. She is an expert in global health and HIV with work funded by the National Institutes of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC, and others, for studies in the US and internationally.

#143

Jill Maben

#170571

Overall Influence

Jill Elizabeth Maben OBE is a British nurse and academic. She is currently professor of health services research and nursing at the University of Surrey and visiting professor of nursing at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.

#144

Eleanor Holroyd

#175114

Overall Influence

Eleanor Anne Holroyd is a New Zealand nursing academic. She is currently a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology. Academic career After a 1998 PhD at titled 'Chinese family caregivers : dilemmas at the extremity of public and private obligations' at the University of Hong Kong, she returned to New Zealand and the Auckland University of Technology , as full professor.

#145

Jennifer Loud

#45547

Overall Influence

Jennifer T. Loud is an American nurse practitioner who served as the assistant chief of the National Cancer Institute's clinical genetics branch until August 2020. Life Loud received a B.S. in Nursing from Old Dominion University in 1981, an M.S. in Nursing from George Mason University in 1992, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2008.

#146

Richard Ricciardi

#140198

Overall Influence

Richard Ricciardi is an American professor of nursing. He is best known for his contributions to the United States Army and for improving healthcare practices including team-based care, quality and safety, and the management of patients with complex needs.

#147

Rosmarie Frick

#124595

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Rosmarie Frick is a Swiss nurse and lecturer of a microsurgery course at the University Hospital of Zürich. Early life and education Frick was born in Bazenheid. She was the daughter of peasants in Oberbüren, and decided to become a nurse when her parents were forced to sell their farm. She studied nursing at the Viktoria-Hospital in Bern, completing her placement at the Hospital at Flawil. This was a time of rising interest in neurosurgery in Zürich and, notably, Gazi Yaşargil performed such surgery to treat the cerebral vessels of a stroke sufferer.

#148

Monica McLemore

#128450

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Monica Rose McLemore is an American nurse who is an associate professor of Family Health Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Her work considers reproductive justice and medical care for marginalised communities, with an overarching aim to eliminate healthcare inequalities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McLemore studied the impact of coronavirus disease during pregnancy.

#149

Linda Bullock

#163027

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Linda Faye Clark Bullock is an American professor of nursing. Education Bullock received a bachelor's and master's degree in nursing from Texas Woman's University. She completed a doctor of philosophy in public health at University of Otago.

#150

Alma S. Woolley

Alma S. Woolley

#76855

Overall Influence

1931 - 2005 (74 years)

Alma S. Woolley was an American nurse, nurse educator, nursing historian, and author. She led several schools of nursing, and authored a number of books and articles on nursing education, the history of nursing education, and nurses.

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