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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Person Name

School

Gender

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Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#12751

Alonso Duralde

#91024

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Alonso Duralde is an American film critic, author, and podcaster. He has been a writer and editor for The Film Verdict, The Wrap, The Advocate and MSNBC.com. Personal life Duralde was born in East Point, Georgia, the youngest of seven children born to Spanish immigrants. He attended Vanderbilt University and currently lives in West Hollywood, California with his husband, fellow writer and film critic Dave White. They co-host the podcast Linoleum Knife, which began in late 2010. He was raised Catholic, but now identifies as an atheist.

#12752

Merlin Swartz

#94561

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (93 years)

Merlin Swartz was an American scholar of religion. Swartz attended Eastern Mennonite University , Goshen College , and Harvard University . He was Professor Emeritus of Religion at Boston University, having taught previously at the American University in Beirut and Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His research and teaching focused primarily on the religious and intellectual history of medieval Islam.

#12753

Michael Foucault

#190112

Overall Influence

#12754

Glen Dudbridge

#117007

Overall Influence

1938 - 2017 (79 years)

Glen Dudbridge FBA was a British Sinologist, specialising in the literature and religious culture of China, ranging between the eighth and seventeenth centuries AD, with particular attention to narrative traditions and to vernacular culture.

#12755

Mario Toral

#79358

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Mario Toral Muñoz is a Chilean painter and photographer. Career At the age of 16, Toral moved to Buenos Aires, where he saved money to enroll in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Montevideo, Uruguay. He later went to Brazil, where at 21 the first exhibition of his work was shown at the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art. In 1957, Toral moved to France, where he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris.

#12756

Misty Jenkins

#103108

Overall Influence

Misty Rayna Jenkins is an Australian scientist known for her research into lymphocytes and cancer treatment. Jenkins leads an Immunology Laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research where she researches brain cancer and aims to establish a world-leading immunotherapy lab specialising in researching the possibilities of new treatments for both adult and paediatric brain cancer.

#12757

Dean Winslow

#175152

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Dean Winslow is an American physician, academic, and retired United States Air Force colonel. He had been nominated by President Donald Trump to become the next Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, but he withdrew his nomination in December 2017 after it was put on indefinite hold. He is Professor and former Vice Chair of Medicine at Stanford University. He previously served as Chair of the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Division of AIDS Medicine at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. In the Air Force, he deployed twice to Afghanistan and four times to Iraq as a fli...

#12758

Michael Kenny

#116794

Overall Influence

1941 - 1999 (58 years)

Michael Kenny was a British artist. Best known as a sculptor, he also made important reliefs and drawings as well as sculptural constructions in wood and metal. Brief Biography Having studied at Liverpool College of Art and then Slade School of Fine Art, Kenny taught at Slade 1970-1982 and at Goldsmiths School of Art 1983–88. He was made a Royal Academician in 1986 and completed many public commissions and exhibitions including retrospectives at Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg , Hansard Gallery in Southampton , and Dulwich Picture Gallery following a residency there from 1992 to 1993. He died on 28 December 1999.

#12759

Jack Ohman

#46548

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Jack Ohman is an American editorial cartoonist and educator. He is currently a contributing opinion columnist and cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He formerly worked for The Sacramento Bee and the The Oregonian. His work is syndicated nationwide to over 300 newspapers by Tribune Media Services. In 2016, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

#12760

Tarjei Rygnestad

#122313

Overall Influence

1954 - 2013 (59 years)

Tarjei Rygnestad was a Norwegian physician. He was a professor of medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a physician at St. Olav Hospital. He had specialization in anesthesiology and clinical pharmacology. He chaired the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine from 2009 to his death from heart failure in February 2013.

#12761

David Suter

#189268

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

David Suter is a Swiss physician and molecular and cell biologist. His research focuses on quantitative approaches to study gene expression and developmental cell fate decisions. He is currently a professor at EPFL , where he heads the Suter Lab at the Institute of Bioengineering of the School of Life Sciences.

#12762

Jan G. Waldenström

#10825

Overall Influence

1906 - 1996 (90 years)

Jan Gösta Waldenström was a Swedish doctor of internal medicine, who first described the disease that bears his name, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. He was born in Stockholm into a medical family: his father, Johann Henning Waldenström , was a professor of orthopedic surgery in Stockholm, and his grandfather Johan Anton Waldenström was professor of internal medicine in Uppsala.

#12763

Dhayendre Moodley

#190145

Overall Influence

Dhayendre Moodley is a South African scientist and Associate Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Career She received an Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation fellowship to work with John Sullivan at his laboratory. She is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. Over 100 journal papers have been co-authored by Moodley.

#12764

Ian Crozier

#85229

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Ian Crozier is an American physician who contracted Ebola virus disease in September 2014, while working in West Africa. Early life Crozier was born in in the Rhodesian city of Fort Victoria. His family moved to the United States when he was ten years old. He attended Vanderbilt University, earning his M.D. in 1997, and also completed his training in internal medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt.

#12765

Günther Massenkeil

#179042

Overall Influence

1926 - 2014 (88 years)

Günther Massenkeil was a German musicologist, academic teacher, writer and concert singer . His main field of research was sacred music of the 16th to 20th century. He served as director of the musicology department at the University of Bonn from 1966 to 1991. He became known beyond academia for his editing and supplementing of the eight-volume encyclopaedia, Das Große Lexikon der Musik.

#12766

Traci C. West

#187650

Overall Influence

Traci C. West is a scholar and activist. She is the James W. Pearsall Professor of Christian Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School and Professor Extraorinarius in the Institute for Gender Studies in the College of Human Sciences at the University of South Africa. She is the author of numerous articles on gender, racial, and sexuality justice. Her notable books include Solidarity and Defiant Spirituality: Africana Lessons on Religion, Racism, and Ending Gender Violence , Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter , Our Family Values: Sa...

#12767

Ramsey Faragher

#167761

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 years)

Ramsey Faragher is the Founder, President, and CTO of Focal Point Positioning Ltd, and the Chairman and President of Focal Point Positioning Inc. He is also a Bye-Fellow of Queens' College and lives in Cambridge with his wife and three children. Previously he was a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in England, working in the Digital Technology Group on infrastructure-free smartphone positioning.

#12768

Lisa Campo-Engelstein

#189943

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Lisa Campo-Engelstein is an American bioethicist and fertility/contraceptive researcher. She currently works at the University of Texas Medical Branch as the Harris L. Kempner Chair in the Humanities in Medicine Professor, the Director of the Institute for Bioethics & Health Humanities, and an Associate Professor in Preventive Medicine and Population Health. She is also a feminist bioethicist specializing in reproductive ethics and sexual ethics. She has been recognized in the BBC's list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019.

#12769

Ruth Dayhoff

#85999

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Ruth Dayhoff is an American physician and medical bioinformatician. Early life Dayhoff is the daughter of Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, an early bioinformatician, and Edward S Dayhoff, a distinguished Physicist in the area of Electro-optics. From a young age, Dayhoff was encouraged by her mother to pursue scientific interests. In Dayhoff's words:

#12770

Paul Frederick White

#57587

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Paul Frederick White, FANZCA is a researcher in anesthesiology, research consultant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at Los Angeles, retired professor and former holder of the Margaret Milam McDermott Distinguished Chair of Anesthesiology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and the author and editor of several journals and textbooks on the subject. With over 450 peer-reviewed publications and authorship in 9 anesthesiology textbooks, White has helped shape and revolutionize the field of ambulatory anesthesia and intravenous anesthesia.

#12771

Dawn Elder

#175998

Overall Influence

Dawn Elizabeth Elder is a New Zealand academic and paediatrician. As of 2018, she is a full professor and head of department at the University of Otago, Wellington. Early life and family Elder is the daughter of Ivan Elder, who served as mayor of Gore in the 1970s. She was educated at Gore High School.

#12772

Wolfgang Mattheuer

#92786

Overall Influence

1927 - 2004 (77 years)

Wolfgang Mattheuer was a German painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Together with Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig he was a leading representative of the Leipzig School, a figurative art current in East Germany. He came to prominence with allegorical, pessimistic and sometimes heroic paintings which were accused of expressing political dissidence. He was later an open critic of both socialism and capitalism. He taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig for many years. In 1974 he resigned from his position as professor at the HGB to work as a freelance painter. In 1988 he le...

#12773

Alison Park

#109537

Overall Influence

Alison Macdonald Park is a British social scientist who is a professor and previous executive chair of the Economic and Social Research Council . Her research has focused on longitudinal data collection and social attitudes. She was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to the Social Sciences.

#12774

Barrie R. Jones

#93341

Overall Influence

1921 - 2009 (88 years)

Barrie Russell Jones was a British-New Zealand ophthalmologist, ophthalmic surgeon, and pioneer of preventive ophthalmology. Biography Jones studied physics and chemistry with B.Sc. from Victoria College in Wellington and then medicine with M.B., B.Chir. from the University of Otago in Dunedin, where he specialized in ophthalmology under Rowland Wilson. From 1951 Jones worked in London at the ophthalmology department of Moorfields Eye Hospital and at Moorfields' Institute of Ophthalmology under Stewart Duke-Elder. In 1963 he became a professor of clinical ophthalmology of the University of Lo...

#12775

Manuel Martínez Maldonado

#59170

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Dr. Manuel Martínez Maldonado , MD; MACP, an internist and nephrologist, administrator, educator, poet and author, has authored numerous scientific publications and edited several books. His research interests are the regulation of body fluids and the pathophysiology of blood pressure and its effects on the kidneys. He also focuses on the renin angiotensin system, a hormone system that helps regulate long-term blood pressure and blood volume in the body and which is controlled primarily by the kidneys. His clinical research has included polycycstic kidney disease, renal stones and hypercalcemia.

#12776

Carlos Llano Cifuentes

Carlos Llano Cifuentes

#183218

Overall Influence

1932 - 2010 (78 years)

Carlos Llano Cifuentes was a Mexican philosopher and university professor, as well as one of the founding members of IPADE Business School and founder of Universidad Panamericana. Early life and education He received his BA and PhD in Philosophy from the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Saint Thomas in Rome , and the National Autonomous University of Mexico , while also studying Economics in the Complutense University.

#12777

Alex Gil

#176088

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Alex Gil is a scholar of digital humanities and Caribbean studies. He is a Senior Lecturer II and Associate Research Faculty at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University. He is a leading scholar in the field of digital humanities. Gil is a founder of the Group for Experimental Methods in the Humanities at Columbia University, which focuses on rapid prototyping of new forms of digital scholarship.

#12778

Toomas Asser

#35959

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Toomas Asser is an Estonian medical scientist. He has been a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences since 2011 and the Rector of the University of Tartu since 1 August 2018. His research focuses on clinical and molecular-biological aspects of brain tumors, pituitary surgery, surgical treatment of intracranial aneurysms, functional surgery and spinal cord injuries.

#12779

Trevor Owens

#168757

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (41 years)

Trevor J. Owens is an American librarian and archivist. He currently serves as the first Head of Digital Content Management at the Library of Congress. He previously served as the Senior Program Officer responsible for the development of the National Digital Platform portfolio at the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Before that, he worked as a Digital Archivist with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. In 2014 the Society of American Archivists granted him the Archival Innovator Award, presented annually to recognize the archivist, repository, or ...

#12780

Arnold Aberman

#169742

Overall Influence

Arnold Aberman is a Canadian physician who is a pioneer in critical care medicine and a medical administrator. Early life Aberman was born in Montreal Quebec and received his BSc from McGill University.

#12781

Giorgio Sirilli

#67644

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Giorgio Sirilli is an Italian scholar in the field of science and technology policy. Biography After graduation in economics from the University of Rome "La Sapienza", he did research at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University in England with Christopher Freeman and Keith Pavitt, and at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development .

#12782

Marian Ewurama Addy

#34504

Overall Influence

1942 - 2014 (72 years)

Marian Ewurama Addy was a Ghanaian biochemist and the first Host of the National Science and Maths Quiz. The first Ghanaian woman to attain the rank of full professor of natural science, Addy became a role model for school girls and budding female scientists on the limitless opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Marian Addy was also a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected in 1999. In the same year, she was awarded the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science.

#12783

Bosede Afolabi

#189929

Overall Influence

Bosede Bukola Afolabi is a UK-born Nigerian Gynaecologist, Professor, and Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the College of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. She is the founder and chairperson of the Maternal and Reproductive Health Research Collective , a research and training NGO. She is also the Director at the Centre for Clinical Trials, Research and Implementation Science .

#12784

David Benjamin Levy

#61902

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

David Benjamin Levy is a musicologist. He is a music professor at Wake Forest University. He is a visiting professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music. He is especially distinguished as a Beethoven scholar, but he also deals generally with the classical and romantic periods.

#12785

Gordian Fulde

#15450

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Gordian Ward Fulde is an Australian emergency medicine specialist, the founder of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, and was the director of the emergency department of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney for 35 years, retiring in 2018. He was named Senior Australian of the Year in 2016.

#12786

Roman Vlad

#99870

Overall Influence

1919 - 2013 (94 years)

Roman Vlad was a Romanian-born Italian composer, pianist, and musicologist. Biography Born in Cernăuți, Kingdom of Romania , he studied with Titus Tarnawski and Liviu Russu in Romania earning a piano diploma. He moved to Rome in 1938 to study at the University of Rome and later the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He eventually became an Italian citizen in 1951.

#12787

Tomas Albrektsson

Tomas Albrektsson

#41643

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Tomas Albrektsson is a Swedish physician who trained under Per-Ingvar Brånemark and is noteworthy for having contributed significantly to the field of implant dentistry. Education Albrektsson received his medical degree in 1973 and his doctorate in 1979, publishing his thesis on the healing of bone graft, having worked under Brånemark.

#12788

Bronwyn Parry

#152522

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Professor Bronwyn Parry is an Australian Professor who is currently the Dean of The Australian National University's College of Arts and Social Sciences; Parry took her position in early November 2022. Parry specializes in social impact work undertaken at academic institutions. Parry was previously the Vice President & Vice Principal for Service at King's College London from 2020 to 2022. She was a Professor of Global Health & Social Medicine at King's College London from 2016 to 2022.

#12789

Sheela Basrur

#63838

Overall Influence

1956 - 2008 (52 years)

Sheela Basrur, was a Canadian physician and Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health and Assistant Deputy Minister of Public Health. She resigned from these positions late in 2006 to undergo treatment for cancer.

#12790

Dinesh Sharma

#25486

Overall Influence

Dinesh J. Sharma is an American social scientist, psychologist, academic and entrepreneur in the fields of human development and rights, leadership and globalization; his recent publications include, “The Global Obama: Crossroads of Leadership in the 21st Century” and most recently “The Global Hillary: Women's Political Leadership in Cultural Context."

#12791

Edward J. Valauskas

#100955

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Edward J. Valauskas is an American librarian, educator, and editor-in-chief of the academic journal First Monday. Career Valauskas has taught at the School of Library and Information Management, Emporia State University; International Centre for Information Management Systems and Services, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland; Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; UC Berkeley Extension; University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies; and, Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden. In 2016, he was el...

#12792

Amy K. LeBlanc

#100698

Overall Influence

Amy K. LeBlanc is an American veterinary oncologist and biologist researching animal modeling for development of new cancer drugs and imaging agents, and identification of imaging biomarkers, development and optimization of PET imaging hardware and imaging protocols. She is a senior scientist in the molecular imaging program and director of the Comparative Oncology Program at the National Cancer Institute. LeBlanc was previously an associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and College of Veterinary Medicine.

#12793

Amanda Holden

#96772

Overall Influence

1948 - 2021 (73 years)

Amanda Juliet Holden was a British pianist, librettist, translator, editor and academic teacher. She is known for translating opera librettos to more contemporary English for the English National Opera, and for writing new librettos, especially in collaboration with Brett Dean. She contributed to encyclopedias such as the New Penguin Opera Guide.

#12794

Luc Calliauw

#95982

Overall Influence

1928 - 2021 (93 years)

Luc Calliauw was a Belgian physician and university professor. Early life Calliauw was a son of Elza Bruynooghe and Raphael Calliauw, manager at the administrative services of the city of Bruges. After grammar school at the Royal Atheneum in Bruges, Calliauw studied at the University of Ghent, where in 1953 he received the degree of doctor in medical sciences. In 1960 he received homologation as a specialist in neurosurgery. He was married to Dr. Dora Hoeksema and they had three children.

#12795

Rüdiger Döhler

#56557

Overall Influence

1948 - 2022 (74 years)

Rüdiger Döhler FRCSEd was a German professor of orthopedic surgery. Life Döhler grew up in Rochlitz and East Berlin. In 1958, his family fled from the GDR to Bremerhaven . After graduating from a classic-languages school he joined the German Navy and from 1968 through 1974 studied medicine in Kiel with a break in Hamburg and Heidelberg.

#12796

Lucy Fischer

#186477

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Lucy Fischer is an American film studies scholar currently Distinguished Professor at University of Pittsburgh. In 2001–03 Fisher was a President of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Selected works

#12797

Ruth Schönthal

#179984

Overall Influence

1924 - 2006 (82 years)

Ruth Esther Hadassah Schonthal was an acclaimed classical composer, pianist, and teacher. Born in Germany, she lived in the U.S. for most of her life. After she moved to the U.S. she dropped the umlaut from the name Schönthal. She came to study composition at Yale University in 1946. After her marriage in 1950 she lived first in New York City and then in New Rochelle.

#12798

Eli Alon

#92603

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Eli Alon is an anesthesiologist who specialises in pain therapy. Biography Eli Alon holds a Medical degree from the University of Milan since 1972. He completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Milan and the University Hospital Zurich and a clinical research fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.

#12799

Carey Pietsch

#98256

Overall Influence

1988 - Present (38 years)

Caroline Elizabeth Pietsch , known professionally as Carey Pietsch, is an American cartoonist, illustrator and artist. She is best known for her work on several webcomics and on The Adventure Zone series of graphic novels. Her father, Michael Pietsch, is the CEO of Hachette Book Group.

#12800

Kwesi Yankah

#40087

Overall Influence

Kwesi Yankah is a Ghanaian academic, author, and university administrator. He is a professor of linguistics and oral literature specializing in the ethnography of communications. He has served as the Pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana and the president of the Central University. The author of several books, he was inducted as a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. He is currently the Ghanaian Minister of State in charge of tertiary education.

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