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 …

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Person Name

School

Gender

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential female people in Philosophy,

#2001

Matshidiso Moeti

Matshidiso Moeti

#56063

Overall Influence

Matshidiso Rebecca Natalie Moeti is a physician, public health specialist and medical administrator from Botswana who has been serving as Regional Director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa , headquartered in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo, since 2015.

#2002

Miriam Adhikari

#163568

Overall Influence

Miriam Adhikari is a physician and scientist specializing in paediatrics with a focus on neonatology. She is Emeritus Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a neonatologist at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine. She also has a focus on paediatric nephrology and is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

#2003

Samira Farouk

#135121

Overall Influence

Samira Farouk, MD, MS, FASN is a board-certified transplant nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai . She teaches medical students, residents, and fellows, and also develops and studies innovations in medical education. Her clinical research interests include the pathogenesis of kidney fibrosis in regards to transplant survival and chronic kidney diseases. Farouk is also cofounder of the free mobile-friendly nephrology teaching tool NephSIM, Associate Program Director of the Nephrology Fellowship at ISMMS, and Director o...

#2004

Irina Lozovaya

#186173

Overall Influence

1950 - 2017 (67 years)

Irina Yevgenyevna Lozovaya Soviet and Russian musicologist, teacher, Professor at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Her main sphere of academic research was Early Russian and Byzantine chant.

#2005

Kara Keeling

#133096

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (54 years)

Kara Keeling is an American humanities academic. As of 2016 she is Associate Professor at the University of Southern California in the Critical Studies of Cinematic Arts and in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity.

#2006

Shitaye Alemu

#190821

Overall Influence

Shitaye Alemu Balcha is an Ethiopian physician and academic, "a venerated local internist who pioneered diabetes care in northern Ethiopia". An expert in non-communicable diseases, she has published on diabetes, epilepsy and HIV/AIDS in rural Ethiopia. She is Professor of Internal Medicine in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Gondar.

#2007

Susan Youens

#175937

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Susan Youens is the author of many books on German lieder. A musicologist, her work on Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf is considered some of the most scholarly and useful material on these composers. Both musicologists and performers have often cited her work.

#2008

Jan Thomas

#44852

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (63 years)

Jan Thomas is a veterinary scientist and career academic. Thomas is currently the sixth vice-chancellor of Massey University, New Zealand and the second woman to hold the position. Thomas is the first female veterinarian and only the second veterinarian to become a Vice-Chancellor in either Australia or New Zealand.

#2009

Heather MacNeil

#178716

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (68 years)

Heather MacNeil is a professor at the Faculty of Information of the University of Toronto, Canada. She teaches archives and record keeping related topics. She is a former General Editor of Archivaria and helped develop the concept of the Archival bond.

#2010

Danielle Peers

#186834

Overall Influence

Danielle Peers is a Canadian former wheelchair basketball player. They are an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures.

#2011

Renee Jenkins

#117949

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Renee Rosalind Jenkins is an American pediatrician known for her work in adolescent medicine. She is the first African-American president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society of Adolescent Medicine.

#2012

Barbara Ross-Lee

#29192

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (83 years)

Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O. is an American physician, academic, and the first African-American woman to serve as dean of a U.S. medical school; she is also known as the sister of Diana Ross along with being the aunt of actress Tracee Ellis Ross, and singer-songwriters Rhonda Ross Kendrick and Evan Ross. She majored in biology and chemistry at Wayne State University, graduating in 1965. Then, in 1969, she entered Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. Ross-Lee then went on to open her own private family practice, teach as a professor, and hold other positions within the medical community.

#2013

Paula Johnson

#9975

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (66 years)

Paula Adina Johnson is a cardiologist and the current president of Wellesley College. She is the first Black woman to serve in this role. The first Black graduate of Wellesley College came in the year 1887, and 129 years later President Johnson became the first Black leader. Prior to her role as president of Wellesley, Johnson founded and served as the inaugural executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women's Health & Gender Biology, as well as Chief of the Division of Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Johnson's background in working for the betterment of ...

#2014

Patricia Bath

#7859

Overall Influence

1942 - 2019 (77 years)

Patricia Era Bath was an American ophthalmologist and humanitarian. She became the first female member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, the first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and the first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American to serve as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University. She was also the first African-American woman to serve on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. A holder of ...

#2015

Angela Christine Bridgland

#168902

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (73 years)

Angela Christine Bridgland is an Australian teacher-librarian, library educator, academic, consultant and former board member and Fellow of Australian Library and Information Association. She is recognised for her contributions to higher education course development and staff development.

#2016

Dolors Lamarca

#172850

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (82 years)

Dolors Lamarca y Morell is a Catalan librarian and philologist. She has led the Service of Libraries and Bibliographic Heritage of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and has directed the National Library of Catalonia. Widow of Antoni Comas i Pujol, with whom she had three daughters.

#2017

Betty Comden

#130787

Overall Influence

1917 - 2006 (89 years)

Betty Comden was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned six decades: "the longest running creative partnership in theatre history." The musical-comedy duo of Comden and Green collaborated most notably with composers Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, as well enjoyed success with Singin' in the Rain, as part of the famed "Freed unit" at MGM.

#2018

Naomi C. Broering

#170407

Overall Influence

Naomi C. Broering was a medical librarian, elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, past president of the Medical Library Association, and past Dean of Libraries at the Pacific College of Health and Science.

#2019

Abbylynn Helgevold

#191045

Overall Influence

Abbylynn Helgevold is an American philosopher and Board of Regents Distinguished Professor in Ethics at Wartburg College. Previously she was a professor at the University of Northern Iowa .

#2020

Angie Farrow

#178800

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (74 years)

Angela Rosina Farrow is a New Zealand academic and writer for theatre and radio. Born in the United Kingdom, Farrow was appointed professor emerita at Massey University in November 2022. She was promoted to full professor in 2011 and in the same year was awarded Massey University lecturer of the Year. Farrow has published books on the production of physical theatre as well as her own numerous plays for theatre and radio. In April 2015, her series of 10-minute-long sketches Together All Alone was performed at Bats Theatre in Wellington. In the 2021 New Year Honours, Farrow was appointed an Of...

#2021

Beverly Grigsby

#173165

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (97 years)

Beverly Grigsby née Pinsky is an American composer, musicologist and electronic/computer music pioneer. Early life Beverly Pinsky was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied music as a child. She moved to California with her family at the age of 13 and graduated from Fairfax High School.

#2022

Carys Bannister

#77810

Overall Influence

1935 - 2010 (75 years)

Carys Margaret Bannister was the first female British neurosurgeon. Born in Brazil to Welsh parents, she moved to England as a teenager and trained in surgery after qualifying as a doctor. She spent most of her career as a consultant neurosurgeon at North Manchester General Hospital and as a researcher at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. She specialised in treating disorders of the cerebral circulation, spina bifida, and hydrocephalus.

#2023

Kelly J. Manahan

#116591

Overall Influence

Kelly J. Manahan is an American gynecologist who is the current Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences in Toledo, Ohio. She is the fifth Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology for The University of Toledo which is the former Medical College of Ohio. She is the first female to hold this position. She was appointed to this position after a nationwide search in 2011.

#2024

Senait Fisseha

#59247

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (54 years)

Professor Senait Fisseha is an Ethio-American physician, lawyer and obstetrician-gynecologist, with a specialization in endocrinology from the University of Michigan. She is currently Vice-President of International Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation. Fisseha also received her Juris Doctor from Southern Illinois University and is recognized for her advocacy in global reproductive health, rights and gender equality. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she became an advocate for global equity, collaborating closely with African leaders and institutions in her capacity as an advisor and thought leader.

#2025

Olaitan Soyannwo

#191109

Overall Influence

Olaitan Soyannwo is a Nigerian Professor of Anaesthesia and consultant at the University of Ibadan and foreign secretary of the Nigerian Academy of Science. She was formerly the President of International Association for the Study of Pain.

#2026

Ginni Rometty

#108353

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (68 years)

Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty is an American business executive who was executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1, 2020. She was previously chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to head the company. She retired from IBM on December 31, 2020, after a near-40 year career there. Before becoming president and CEO in January 2012, she first joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1981 and subsequently headed global sales, marketing, and strategy. While general manager of IBM's global services division, in 2002 she helped negotiate IBM's purchase of PricewaterhouseCoopers' IT consulting business, becoming known for her work integrating the two companies.

#2027

Katie Allen

#164642

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (59 years)

Katrina Jane Allen is an Australian politician and former medical researcher who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2019 until 2022. She is a member of the Liberal Party and represented the Division of Higgins in Victoria.

#2028

Oni Blackstock

#173960

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (48 years)

Oni Blackstock is a primary care and HIV physician, researcher, and founder of Health Justice, a racial and health equity consulting practice. She previously served as assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV for the New York City Department of Health, where she led the city's response to the HIV epidemic. Her research considers the experiences of women and people of color in healthcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic Blackstock shared advice on how people in New York City could maintain sexual health and slow the spread of COVID-19 as well as guidance for people with HIV and HIV care provid...

#2029

Miriam Zach

#141277

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (71 years)

Miriam Susan Zach is an Iowa State University professor and musicologist residing in Gainesville, Florida known for her work in the study of women composers. Zach's published works in the area of female composers include a CD titled Hidden Treasures: 300 Years of Organ Music by Women Composers which was released in 1998 and the textbook For the Birds: Women Composers Music History Speller, and her collections of music and documentation about women composers formed the base of the International Women Composers' Library, a music history library of which Dr. Zach is the current director.

#2030

Ida E. Jones

#146763

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (55 years)

Ida E. Jones is an American historian and author who is the University Archivist at Morgan State University, the first archivist in the university's history. Previously she worked as Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University where as part of her work she created a Guide to Resources on Africa. Jones was the National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians from 2011 through 2013.

#2031

Han Young-sil

#185516

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (68 years)

Han Young-sil , is a professor and nutritionist in South Korea. She was president of Sookmyung Women's University. Biography Han Young-sil was born on November 14, 1957, in Incheon, South Korea. In 1980, she was a graduate of Sookmyung Women's University. In 1992, University of Bonn Department of Food Science training courses were completed. From 2005, she became a cast member in KBS 2TV reality show Vitamin .

#2032

Kathie-Ann Joseph

#113667

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (55 years)

Kathie-Ann Joseph is a surgeon and researcher at New York University Langone Health where she specializes in breast surgery and oncology surgery. Joseph is also the chief of breast surgery at Bellevue Medical Center, where she was recognized in 2015 as Bellevue's Physician of the Year. Joseph works to reduce disparities in cancer care in order to improve health care for individuals in need. Specifically, Joseph focuses on developing programs that will help African-American women to address their needs in breast cancer prevention and care. She is also studying the effects of a cell surface r...

#2033

Josephine Halvorson

#175277

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (44 years)

Josephine Halvorson is an American contemporary painter, sculptor, and print maker based in Massachusetts. She is best known for her on-site paintings, drawing from scenes of the natural world and everyday life. Her work bends material fact and immaterial illusion. Halvorson is a Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting at Boston University.

#2034

Arti Agrawal

#115383

Overall Influence

Arti Agrawal is a scientist and engineer known for her work on computational photonics as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM; she has been recognized in both of these areas by a number of awards. Her research is focused on numerical modeling and simulation of photonic devices and optical components. Agrawal is currently serving as Associate Professor and the Director of Women in Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney and Associate Vice President of Diversity for the IEEE Photonics Society.

#2035

Meredith Broussard

#54564

Overall Influence

Meredith Broussard is a data journalism professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Her research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence in journalism. Career Broussard was previously a features editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a software developer at the AT&T Bell Labs and MIT Media Lab. Broussard has published features and essays in many outlets including The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and Slate Magazine. She is the author of the nonfiction book Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.

#2036

Barbara Natterson-Horowitz

#94066

Overall Influence

Barbara N. Horowitz, M.D., is a cardiologist, academic and author. She is a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at University of California, Los Angeles and a visiting professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School since 2020. Horowitz is a New York Times bestselling author of the book Zoobiquity on the subject of a cross-species approach to medicine which includes veterinary and evolutionary perspectives. In 2019, Horowitz and Bowers co-authored their second book, Wildhood.

#2037

Matthea Harvey

#60911

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (52 years)

Matthea Harvey is a contemporary American poet, writer and professor. She has published four collections of poetry. The most recent of these, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?, a collection of poetry and images, was published in 2014. Prior to this, the collection Modern Life earned her the 2009 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award, and a New York Times Notable Book.

#2038

Catarina Resende de Oliveira

#122296

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (79 years)

Catarina Resende de Oliveira is a Portuguese neurologist, researcher, university professor, and doctor. A full professor of biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, she studies the processes that cause neurological degeneration responsible for illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

#2039

Rosemary Haughton

#65740

Overall Influence

1927 - Present (98 years)

Rosemary Elena Konradin Haughton is a British-born Catholic lay theologian, who also resided in the United States over a period of 30 years. The daughter of Peter Luling and Sylvia Thompson Luling, she had two sisters, Dr. Virginia Luling , and Elizabeth Dooley . She attended the Farnham Girls' Grammar School, Queen's College, London, and the Slade School of Art. She married Algernon Haughton in 1948; the couple had 12 children including 2 foster children.[2] Algy Haughton died in Edinburgh in 2008.

#2040

Karen Redrobe

#169747

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (54 years)

Karen Redrobe is Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Endowed Professor in Film Studies and chair of the department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has dealt with film theory, animation, and feminism, among other topics.

#2041

Wendy Baltzer

#128241

Overall Influence

Wendy Irene Baltzer is an American veterinarian, small animal surgeon and academic. Academic career Baltzer was educated at the University of California, Davis where she completed a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1994. Following a PhD at Texas A&M University in 2003, she was employed as associate professor at Oregon State University where she specialised in small animal surgery from 2005 to 2016. She then moved to New Zealand to take up a position at Massey University where she was appointed full professor in November 2019, with effect from 1 January 2020. She practised at Massey's Working D...

#2042

Joyce Ackroyd

#79445

Overall Influence

1918 - 1991 (73 years)

Joyce Irene Ackroyd, was an Australian academic, translator, author and editor. She was a scholar of Japanese language and literature. Early life Ackroyd apparently acquired an interest Japan during her childhood, but she was not permitted to study Japanese at the University of Sydney on a teacher’s scholarship in 1936 because there was insufficient demand for Japanese in secondary schools. She graduated with honours in English and history and a major in mathematics . Ackroyd studied Japanese part-time at the University of Sydney while teaching mathematics at a Sydney boys’ school. In 1944 she began teaching Japanese at the Royal Australian Air Force language school in Sydney.

#2043

Isabelle Rapin

#28025

Overall Influence

1927 - 2017 (90 years)

Isabelle Juliette Martha Rapin, M.D. , was a Professor of both Neurology and Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. She was a leading authority on autism for decades, and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

#2044

Josephine Myers-Wapp

Josephine Myers-Wapp

#121230

Overall Influence

1912 - 2014 (102 years)

Josephine Myers-Wapp was a Comanche weaver and educator. After completing her education at the Haskell Institute, she attended Santa Fe Indian School, studying weaving, dancing, and cultural arts. After her training, she taught arts and crafts at Chilocco Indian School before joining the faculty of the newly opened Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She taught weaving, design, and dance at the institute, and in 1968 was one of the coordinators for a dance exhibit at the Mexican Summer Olympic Games. In 1973, she retired from teaching to focus on her own work, exhibiting throughout the Americas and in Europe and the Middle East.

#2045

Joy H. Calico

#169509

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (60 years)

Joy Haslam Calico is an American musicologist, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Musicology, at Vanderbilt University. Life She graduated from Baylor University, University of Illinois, and Duke University. She was a Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

#2046

Rebecca Herissone

#176490

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (54 years)

Rebecca Louise Herissone is Professor of Musicology at the University of Manchester. Biography Herissone has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Music degree from the University of London and a PhD from Cambridge. She held a research fellowship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1995 until 1999 and a lectureship at Lancaster University before joining the University of Manchester as a Senior Lecturer in 2006. She was appointed as a fellow of the British Academy in 2019.

#2047

Irene Neverla

#126694

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (73 years)

Irene Neverla is an Austrian professor of communication. Neverla chairs the Austrian state broadcaster's advisory board. Life Neverla was born in Graz in 1952. She first studied journalism at the Vienna International Press Centre, before she studied Irene Neverla studied communication science, sociology and psychology at the Universities of Vienna and Salzburg.

#2048

Cheryl Metoyer-Duran

#118201

Overall Influence

Cheryl Metoyer is an Eastern Band Cherokee researcher and professor of library and information science. Her research is focused on Indigenous systems of knowledge, especially in relation to American Indian and Alaskan tribal nations, as well as ethics and leadership in cultural communities. She holds the position of Associate Professor Emeritus and the Director of the Indigenous Information Research Group at the iSchool at the University of Washington.

#2049

Ralina Joseph

#190134

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (51 years)

Ralina Joseph is an American academic. She is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, examining representations of race, gender, and sexuality in popular media.

#2050

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.

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