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 Philosophy,

#10951

Marcus Conant

#15590

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

Marcus Augustine Conant is an American dermatologist and one of the first physicians to diagnose and treat Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in 1981. He helped create one of the largest private AIDS clinics, was a founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and his work contributed to development of some of today's top HIV medications. He has written over 70 publications on the treatment of AIDS.

#10952

Randolph Chitwood

#29689

Overall Influence

Walter Randolph "Ranny" Chitwood Jr. is known for his work as a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University located in Greenville, North Carolina. Chitwood is recognized as the first heart surgeon to perform robot-assisted heart valve surgery in the US.

#10953

Guy G. De Backer

#177470

Overall Influence

#10954

Michael M. Watkins

Michael M. Watkins

#20982

Overall Influence

Michael M. Watkins is an American engineer, scientist, and a Professor of Aerospace and Geophysics at the California Institute of Technology . He previously served as the 9th director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and as a vice president of Caltech, which staffs and manages JPL for NASA. His directorial position was effective from July 1, 2016 to August 20, 2021.

#10955

Ahmad Reza Djalali

#50318

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Ahmad Reza Djalali is an Iranian-Swedish disaster medicine doctor, lecturer, and researcher. He was accused of espionage and collaboration with Israel and sentenced to death. He has worked in several universities in Europe, among which Karolinska University of Sweden, where he had also attended his PhD program, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale , Vrije Universiteit Brussel . He also cooperated with universities in Iran and is in contact with universities worldwide.

#10956

Patrick Soon-Shiong

Patrick Soon-Shiong

#137230

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African-American transplant surgeon, billionaire businessman, bioscientist, and media proprietor. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer. Soon-Shiong is the founder of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups; an adjunct professor of surgery and executive director of the Wireless Health Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; and a visiting professor at Imperial College London and Dartmouth College. Soon-Shiong has published ...

#10957

E. Richard Stiehm

#177513

Overall Influence

#10958

Günter Rimkus

#143713

Overall Influence

1928 - 2015 (87 years)

Günter Rimkus was a German dramaturge and, from 1984 to 1991, manager of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Life Born in Stallupönen, East Prussia, Rimkus studied vocal music at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar from 1947 to 1953. After graduating, he obtained the position of dramaturge at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. In 1970, he was appointed deputy artistic director there and succeeded Hans Pischner as director of the house from 1984 to 1991. Throughout his tenure at both the Admiralspalast and Unter den Linden, he had a significant influence on its high artistic reputation. For...

#10959

James Ferguson

#177543

Overall Influence

#10960

Kathleen Bell

#129967

Overall Influence

Kathleen Bell is an American physician, currently the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Chair in Mobility Research. A fictionalized version of Bell was featured on Saturday Night Live, where she was portrayed by Aidy Bryant.

#10961

Kamel Ajlouni

#20025

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Kamel Mohammed Saleh Ajlouni, M.D. is a physician in the field of endocrinology. He earned a doctor of medicine degree from the Heidelberg University School of Medicine in 1967. Ajlouni became professor of endocrinology in the Department of Internal medicine at the University of Jordan in 1985. Professor Ajlouni has written more than 120 professional papers in the field of endocrinology. In recognition of his contributions, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists presented him with the International Clinician Award in 2008. He received Hamdan Award for honoring distinguished per...

#10962

Véronique Munoz-Dardé

#175879

Overall Influence

Véronique Munoz-Dardé is Professor of Philosophy in the University College London Department of Philosophy and Mills Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at University of California at Berkeley. She is known for her works on ethics and political philosophy.

#10963

Keith Simmons

#175878

Overall Influence

Keith Eric George Simmons is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at University of Connecticut. He is known for his works on logic and philosophy of mind. Books Semantic Singularities: Paradoxes of Reference, Predication, and Truth, Oxford University Press 2018Truth , edited with Simon Blackburn, Oxford University Press 1999Universality and the Liar: An Essay on Truth and the Diagonal Argument, Cambridge University Press 1993

#10964

Gemma Galdón-Clavell

Gemma Galdón-Clavell

#128233

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (50 years)

Gemma Galdón-Clavell is a Spanish technology policy analyst who specializes in ethics and algorithmic accountability. She is a senior adviser to the European Commission and she has also provided advice to other international organisations. Forbes Magazine described her as “a leading voice on tech ethics and algorithmic accountability”.

#10965

Ajip Rosidi

#14019

Overall Influence

1938 - 2020 (82 years)

Ajip Rosidi was an Indonesian poet and short story writer. As of 1983 he had published 326 works in 22 different magazines. Biography Rosidi was born on 31 January 1938, in Jatiwangi, Majalengka, West Java. He attended the School of the People, Jatiwangi, in 1950; District VIII Junior High School Jakarta in 1953; and Taman Madya High School, Taman.Siswa Jakarta in 1956. He began his literary career at the age of fourteen years. Since 1952, his works began to appear in magazines such as "Indonesia", "Indonesia Pulpit", "Arena/Ploy", "Confrontation" and "Zenith Platform".

#10966

Mário Vieira de Carvalho

#66107

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Mário Vieira de Carvalho is a Portuguese musicologist and author. His main research fields are sociology of music, philosophy and aesthetics of music, opera, contemporary music, music and literature, 18th-century studies, Wagner, Luigi Nono and Portuguese music from 18th to 21st centuries.

#10967

Elizabeth Vallance

#37967

Overall Influence

1945 - 2020 (75 years)

Elizabeth Vallance, Baroness Vallance of Tummel, was a British philosopher, magistrate and policy maker. She held non-executive roles on various boards, and was High Sheriff of Greater London in 2009.

#10968

Barbara Zecchi

#83439

Overall Influence

Barbara Zecchi is a feminist film scholar, film critic, videoessayist, and film festival curator. She is professor of Film Studies and director of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

#10969

Donald Edward White

#177654

Overall Influence

#10970

Julian Johnson

#169803

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Julian Michael Johnson FBA is a musicologist, specialising in music history and the aesthetics of modern music. Since 2013, he has been Regius Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. After completing his undergraduate degree at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Johnson studied for his master's degree at the University of Sussex, which also awarded him his doctorate in 1994. He then lectured at Sussex until 2001, when he became a reader in the University of Oxford's Faculty of Music, and a fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. In 2007, he joined Royal Holloway as Professor of Mus...

#10971

John Leonard Dawson

John Leonard Dawson

#64567

Overall Influence

1932 - 1999 (67 years)

John Leonard Dawson was an English surgeon particularly known for his work in the field of liver disease. He pioneered several surgical techniques, including radical tumour resection, injection sclerotherapy and portosystemic shunt surgery. He served as the Serjeant Surgeon to the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, and was described by a peer as "the best general surgeon in London in the 1970s and 1980s".

#10972

Peter Rheinstein

Peter Rheinstein

#50874

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Peter Howard Rheinstein is an American physician, lawyer, author, and administrator . He was an official of the Food and Drug Administration 1974-1999. Education Rheinstein, a General Motors Scholar, received a B.A. with high honors from Michigan State University in 1963, an M.S. in mathematics from Michigan State University in 1964, an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1967, and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1973. At Michigan State University Rheinstein was noted for his facility in mathematics.

#10973

Tom Shires

#48784

Overall Influence

1925 - 2007 (82 years)

George Thomas Shires was an American trauma surgeon. He is known for his research on shock, which initiated the current practice of giving saline to trauma and surgical patients. He operated on John Connally and Lee Harvey Oswald after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

#10974

L. Ebony Boulware

#154080

Overall Influence

Leigh Ebony Boulware is an American general internist, physician-scientist, and clinical epidemiologist. She is the Dean of Wake Forest School of Medicine and chief science officer and vice chief academic officer of Advocate Health. Boulware formerly served as the Nanaline Duke Distinguished Professor of Medicine and director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the Duke University School of Medicine.

#10975

Donald Brook

#57671

Overall Influence

1927 - 2018 (91 years)

Donald Brook was an Australian artist, art critic, philosopher, and theorist, whose research and publications centre on the philosophy of art, non-verbal representation and cultural evolution. He initiated the Experimental Art Foundation in the 1970s in Adelaide, and was later Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at Flinders University in Adelaide.

#10976

Daniel S. Milo

#154996

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Daniel Shabetai Milo is an Israeli-French philosopher and writer. Milo is a professor of natural philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales , Paris. He is the author of nine books, eight published by Les Belles Lettres in Paris and one at Harvard University Press, and has written thirty-five articles and book chapters; his work was translated into nine languages. He directed three short films and several theatrical productions. The leitmotiv of his scientific and artistic work is excess. His ambition is to revive natural philosophy, the precursor of modern science during t...

#10977

Frederick Kayanja

#101203

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Frederick Ian Bantubano Kayanja is a Ugandan veterinarian, academic, and academic administrator. He has been the chancellor of Gulu University, a public institution of higher education, since October 2014, replacing Martin Aliker. He is a former vice chancellor of the Mbarara University of Science and Technology. He assumed that position in 1989 and stepped down in October 2014. Before that, he served as the deputy vice chancellor of Makerere University, the oldest and largest public university in Uganda.

#10978

Neil Piller

#177759

Overall Influence

Neil "George" Piller is an Australian professor of lymphology at the Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Flinders University Piller is also the Director of the Lymphoedema Assessment Unit, Flinders Surgical Oncology as well as member of the Flinders University microcirculatory and lymphological research group. Piller's major interest is in the accurate diagnosis of, targeted treatment for and management of all forms of primary and secondary lymphoedema.

#10979

Michael Murphy

#71436

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Michael B. Murphy is an Irish doctor and academic. He was the President of University College Cork from 2007 to 2017. Since April 2019, Murphy is president of the European University Association . Early life and education Murphy earned his undergraduate degree in medicine at University College Cork , graduating in 1973. He undertook further studies at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London, England. He then studied for a doctorate at the National University of Ireland, which he completed in 1984.

#10980

David A. Newsome

#177796

Overall Influence

#10981

Richard T. Neer

#121592

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Richard Theodore Neer is William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor in Art History, Cinema & Media Studies and the College, and an affiliate of the Department of Classics, at the University of Chicago. Neer is also Executive Editor of Critical Inquiry.

#10982

Robert Cade

#8941

Overall Influence

1927 - 2007 (80 years)

James Robert Cade was an American physician, university professor, research scientist and inventor. Cade, a native of Texas, earned his bachelor and medical degrees at the University of Texas, and became a professor of medicine and nephrology at the University of Florida. Although Cade engaged in many areas of medical research, he is most widely remembered as the leader of the research team that created the sports drink Gatorade. Gatorade would have significant medical applications for treating dehydration in patients, and has generated over $150 million in royalties for the university.

#10983

Kelly Metcalfe

#75596

Overall Influence

Kelly A. Metcalfe is a Canadian scientist and a professor at the University of Toronto and at Women's College Hospital. Her work's focus is on understanding the clinical and psychosocial implications of genetic testing for BRCA gene mutations in women, men and their families.

#10984

Widukind Lenz

#9909

Overall Influence

1919 - 1995 (76 years)

Widukind Lenz was a distinguished German pediatrician, medical geneticist and dysmorphologist who was among the first to recognize the thalidomide syndrome in 1961 and alert the world to the dangers of limb and other malformations due to the mother's exposure to this drug during pregnancy.

#10985

Deborah Doniach

#39817

Overall Influence

1912 - 2004 (92 years)

Deborah Doniach MD FRCP was a British clinical immunologist and pioneer in the field of autoimmune diseases. Early and personal life Deborah Abileah was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on 6 April 1912 to Russian parents. Her father, Arieh Abileah , of Jewish descent, was a concert pianist and music teacher; her mother, Fée Héllès, of Russian-German descent , ran a novel dance school in Paris. The family moved frequently during Deborah's childhood, living at various times in Paris, Vienna and Italy.

#10986

Jeannie Callum

#116392

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Jeannie Callum is a transfusion medicine specialist and hematologist in Ontario, Canada. She is also a professor at the University of Toronto and Queen's University. She was the co-principal investigator of the CONCOR trial, an international randomized controlled trial evaluating the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19 infection. She was lead editor for Bloody Easy 4: Blood Transfusions, Blood Alternatives and Transfusion Reactions, fourth edition a handbook in transfusion medicine for the province of Ontario.

#10987

Neal A. Maxwell

Neal A. Maxwell

#11532

Overall Influence

1926 - 2004 (78 years)

Neal Ash Maxwell was an American scholar, educator, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1981 until his death.

#10988

Ingrid Miethe

#118962

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Ingrid Miethe is a German professor of education at the University of Giessen. Her areas of focus include biographical research, the history of education, and connections between education and social inequality. Her book is Biografiearbeit: Lehr- und Handbuch für Studium und Praxis and she coauthored Globalisation of an Educational Idea: Workers’ Faculties in Eastern Germany, Vietnam, Cuba and Mozambique . She instigated the founding of an ethics committee within the German Educational Research Association and has been the chair of this committee since.

#10989

James McEvoy

#90761

Overall Influence

1943 - 2010 (67 years)

James J. McEvoy was an Irish philosopher and priest. His principal academic interests were related to medieval philosophy, particularly the work of John Scotus Eriugena and Robert Grosseteste. He also wrote about the philosophy of friendship.

#10990

Miriam Galston

#137146

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Miriam Galston is an American philosopher and associate professor at The George Washington University Law School. She is known for her research on Farabi and won the Farabi International Award for her book Politics and Excellence.

#10991

Giorgi Khuroshvili

#171498

Overall Influence

1988 - Present (38 years)

Giorgi Khuroshvili is a Georgian philosopher. Biography Giorgi Khuroshvili was born in 1988, Tbilisi, Georgia. He studied Law and Political sciences at Grgiol Robakidze University . In 2014–2016 he was a doctoral student of Political Sciences at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań . In 2017 he received his PhD in Philosophy from Grgiol Robakidze University for doctoral thesis "Jerusalem and Athens as a Paradigm on Intercultural Philosophy" supervised by Tengiz Iremadze and Helmut Schneider. Since 2012 he is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences . Since 2015 ...

#10992

Michael Palmer

#141939

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Michael Palmer is an English philosopher, whose work has been translated into many languages. His primary field of interest is The Philosophy of Religion. More recently, however, his work has concentrated on the philosophy of atheism, culminating in his authorship of The Atheist's Creed , The Atheist's Primer and the projected Atheism for Beginners .

#10993

Bruce C. Kone

#75976

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Bruce C. Kone is an American professor, nephrologist and molecular biologist. He is also a World Aquatics Masters Swimming world record holder, United States Masters Swimming national record holder, twenty-three-time USMS national champion, and eight-time FINA Masters world's top-ranked age group swimmer. He is currently a tenured professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston .

#10994

Jane Kister

#102469

Overall Influence

1942 - 2019 (77 years)

Jane Elizabeth Kister was a British and American mathematical logician and mathematics editor who served for many years as an editor of Mathematical Reviews. Early life and education Jane Bridge was originally from Weybridge, England, where she was born on 18 October 1944; her father was a lawyer and later a judge. Her family moved to London when she was four, and she studied at St Paul's Girls' School in London. She matriculated at Somerville College, Oxford in 1963, but her studies were interrupted by a diagnosis of lupus; she resumed reading mathematics there in 1964, tutored by Anne Cobbe.

#10995

Michael Geschwind

#48235

Overall Influence

Michael D. Geschwind is a professor of neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center , specializing in neurodegenerative disorders. Geschwind has published highly-cited papers on rapidly progressive dementias, prion diseases , Alzheimer disease, and limbic and autoimmune encephalitis. He has served as the principal investigator on studies on human prion disease and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. He was guest editor for the American Academy of Neurology Continuum Dementia edition, and was on the AAN committee for dementia criteria. He has also published highly-cited papers on cognitive dysfunction...

#10996

Milt Holland

#77652

Overall Influence

1917 - 2005 (88 years)

Milton Holland was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percussion styles in jazz, pop and film music, traveling extensively in those regions to collect instruments and learn styles of playing them.

#10997

André C. Van Steirteghem

#177927

Overall Influence

#10998

Rafael Campo

#95184

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Rafael Campo is an American poet, doctor, and author. Life Rafael Campo is the poetry editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. He graduated from Amherst College and Harvard Medical School. He formally practiced medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts and was Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His writing focuses on themes that promote equality and justice for gay people, people of color, and working-class people.

#10999

Richard Larkins

#41865

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Richard Graeme Larkins is the former Chancellor of La Trobe University. He was the Vice-Chancellor and President of Monash University from 2003 to June 2009. Prior to this, he had a distinguished career in medicine, scientific research and academic management.

#11000

Lorcan Dempsey

#66148

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Lorcan Dempsey is a librarian who was a vice president and Chief Strategist of OCLC, where he worked for 21 years between 2001 and 2022. He is a native of Dublin, Ireland, where he worked for some years in public libraries. He writes and talks about libraries and networked information. He is interested in the impact of changing patterns of research and learning on libraries, in libraries as public institutions, and in the architecture of digital information environments.

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions