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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List of the most influential people in Philosophy,

#18251

Martha May Eliot

Martha May Eliot

1891 - 1978 (87 years)

Martha May Eliot , was a foremost pediatrician and specialist in public health, an assistant director for WHO, and an architect of New Deal and postwar programs for maternal and child health. Her first important research, community studies of rickets in New Haven, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico, explored issues at the heart of social medicine. Together with Edwards A. Park, her research established that public health measures could prevent and reverse the early onset of rickets.

#18252

Ilan Mitchell-Smith

Ilan Mitchell-Smith

#122709

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Ilan Mitchell-Smith is an American academic and former actor, best known as a co-star of the film Weird Science and Andy McCalister in Superboy. Acting career Mitchell-Smith's very first passion was ballet. He studied as a child and even won a scholarship to dance with the School of American Ballet. While there on his scholarship, he was discovered by a casting director and his film career began in 1982 at age 12 when he played a younger version of the title character in Sidney Lumet's Daniel. After a starring role in the 1984 film The Wild Life, he was cast as Wyatt Donnelly in the 1985 teen film Weird Science by writer/director John Hughes.

#18253

Wilfrid Zogbaum

1915 - 1965 (50 years)

Wilfrid "Zog" Zogbaum was an American painter, sculptor, and educator. He was also a commercial photographer in the late 1940s, and started a sculpture studio in Montauk. Life Wilfrid Zogbaum was born in 1915 in Newport, Rhode Island. Zogbaum's father was Admiral Rufus F. Zogbaum, Jr., and his grandfather was painter Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum.

#18254

Ginni Rometty

#108353

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 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.

#18255

Robert DuPont

#28377

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

Robert L. DuPont is an American psychiatrist, known for his advocacy in the field of substance abuse. He is president of the Institute for Behavior and Health, whose mission is "to reduce the use of illegal drugs". He has written books including Chemical Slavery: Understanding Addiction and Stopping the Drug Epidemic, The Selfish Brain: Learning from Addiction, as well as Drug Testing in Treatment Settings, Drug Testing in Schools, and Drug Testing in Correctional Settings, published by the Hazelden Foundation. DuPont is a fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and a life fellow...

#18256

Katie Allen

#164642

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 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.

#18257

Daniel Blain

1898 - 1981 (83 years)

Daniel Blain, M.D. was an American physician and was the first medical director of the American Psychiatric Association , the first professional medical society, founded in the United States in 1844. He may be credited with the leadership which brought changes in the practice of psychiatry after World War II and in advocating the treatment for people with mental disorders.

#18258

Jørgen Løvset

1896 - 1981 (85 years)

Jørgen Løvset was a Norwegian professor of medicine, gynecology and obstetrics. He was the son of a farmer Arnt Løvset and Helle Hove , married Selma Margaret Nilsen in 1924, divorced 1950, and married again in 1951 with the nurse Aslaug Tordis Gil .

#18259

Phaedrus the Epicurean

138 BC - 70 BC (68 years)

Phaedrus was an Epicurean philosopher. He was the head of the Epicurean school in Athens after the death of Zeno of Sidon around 75 BC, until his own death in 70 or 69 BC. He was a contemporary of Cicero, who became acquainted with him in his youth at Rome. During his residence in Athens Cicero renewed his acquaintance with him. Phaedrus was at that time an old man, and was already a leading figure of the Epicurean school. He was also on terms of friendship with Velleius, whom Cicero introduces as the defender of the Epicurean tenets in the De Natura Deorum, and especially with Atticus. Cicero especially praises his agreeable manners.

#18260

Oni Blackstock

#173960

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 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...

#18261

Charles LeMaistre

#61783

Overall Influence

1924 - 2017 (93 years)

Charles Aubrey "Mickey" LeMaistre was an American physician, medical educator, and academic administrator who served as chancellor of the University of Texas System from 1971 to 1978 and as president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from 1978 to 1996. He also has the dubious distinction of serving on the board of directors of the Enron Corporation.

#18262

William R. Maples

#34248

Overall Influence

1937 - 1997 (60 years)

William Ross Maples, Ph.D. was an American forensic anthropologist working at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His specialty was the study of bones. He worked on several high-profile criminal investigations, including those concerning historical figures such as Francisco Pizarro, the Romanov family, Joseph Merrick , President Zachary Taylor and Medgar Evers. His insights often proved beneficial in closing cases that otherwise may have remained unsolved.

#18263

Miriam Zach

#141277

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 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.

#18264

Ida E. Jones

#146763

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 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.

#18265

H. L. D. Kirkham

1887 - 1949 (62 years)

Harold Laurens Dundas Kirkham was an Anglo-American plastic surgeon. He was the first Professor of Plastic Surgery at Baylor University, Texas and also served with the US Navy Medical Corps, becoming head of plastic surgery at the United States Naval Medical Center San Diego during the Second World War.

#18266

Ernest Désiré Glasson

1839 - 1907 (68 years)

Ernest Désiré Glasson was a French academic, jurist, professor of civil procedure and specialist in the history of French, Roman, and comparative law.

#18267

Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert

Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert

1768 - 1837 (69 years)

Jean-Louis-Marc Alibert was a French dermatologist born in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, Aveyron. He was a pioneer of dermatology. Life and work Originally planning to enter the priesthood, Alibert did not begin studying medicine until he was 26 years old. As a medical student in Paris, he studied with renowned physicians that included Pierre-Joseph Desault , Jean-Nicolas Corvisart , Xavier Bichat and Philippe Pinel . In 1801 he was appointed to the Hôpital Saint-Louis , where he administered to patients with skin disorders, syphilis and leprosy. Following the Restoration of the French monarchy, Alibert became a personal physician to Louis XVIII.

#18268

Ludwig Thienemann

Ludwig Thienemann

1793 - 1858 (65 years)

Friedrich August Ludwig Thienemann was a German physician and naturalist. Ludwig Thienemann was the son of Johann August Thienemann and Johanne Eleonora Friederike née Schreiber . He graduated as a doctor in 1819 and then travelled in Europe for two years, spending thirteen months in Iceland. He published a report on his travel in 1824–1827.

#18269

Steve White

#176848

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Steve White is an American actor and comedian, best known for his roles in Spike Lee films. Career White has worked with Spike Lee five times . From 1992 to 1997, White performed stand-up comedy on Russell Simmons's Def Comedy Jam on HBO and he also had a recurring role on the ABC comedy series Hangin' With Mr. Cooper. Steve was most recently one of the guest announcers on The Price Is Right. He also had guest appearances on 1990s black sitcom Living Single & Martin, which both aired on the Fox Network respectively.

#18270

Isaac Pennington

Isaac Pennington

1745 - 1817 (72 years)

See Isaac Penington for other people with a similar name.Sir Isaac Pennington was an English physician, of whom there are two portraits in the National Portrait Gallery. Isaac Pennington was educated at Sedbergh School and St John's College, Cambridge. From 1773 to 1817 he was physician to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and from 1793 to 1817 Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge University.

#18271

Han Young-sil

#185516

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 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 .

#18272

Kathie-Ann Joseph

#113667

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 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...

#18273

Josephine Halvorson

#175277

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (45 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.

#18274

Edmund Rose

1836 - 1914 (78 years)

Edmund Rose was a German surgeon who was a native of Berlin. He studied medicine in Berlin and Würzburg, and subsequently was an assistant to surgeon Robert Ferdinand Wilms in Berlin from 1860 until 1864. From 1867 to 1881, he was a professor of surgery at the University Hospital of Zurich, and afterwards a professor at the Bethanien Hospital in Berlin . Among his assistants at Zurich was surgeon Rudolf Ulrich Krönlein.

#18275

Ercole Sassonia

Ercole Sassonia

1551 - 1607 (56 years)

Ercole Sassonia, also known as Hercules de Saxonia, Hercules Saxonia Patavinus, or Hercules of Saxony , was an Italian physician. Sassoonia was born and died in Padua, and was one of the great Italian clinicians of the Renaissance. He was educated in his hometown, and graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Padua. In 1575 he became the professor of medical practice at the university. Becoming famous as a teacher, he was invited to Vienna by Emperor Maximilian II, where he remained until 1600. His chief scientific works were in the fields of diagnostics, skin diseases, a...

#18276

Wojciech Maksymowicz

#180469

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Wojciech Stefan Maksymowicz is a Polish neurosurgeon, from 1997 to 1999 minister of health, since 2019 member of the IX Sejm. Associated with the Agreement political party. In 2021, Maksymowicz left the PiS Parliamentary Club being the second to do so. He left the Agreement on 19 May 2021. He joined Poland 2050 the next day.He left the party on 30 November 2022.

#18277

Peter M. Boenisch

#189367

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Peter Michael Boenisch is a German theatre researcher. Since 2019, he had been Professor for Dramaturgy at Aarhus University . In 2019, he was elected into the Academia Europaea. Biography He read Theatre Studies, English Literature and Theoretical Linguistics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, where he worked, following his PhD, as an Assistant Professor for Dance and Performance from 2000. Between 2004 and 2018, he worked in the United Kingdom, initially at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and since then as Professor of European Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London .

#18278

Thomas Sewall

1786 - 1845 (59 years)

Thomas Sewall was an American physician, writer and academic. He gained notoriety for being convicted of body snatching, and later went on to become a professor. Early life Thomas Sewall was on April 16, 1786, in Hallowell, Maine. In August 1812, he graduated from Harvard Medical School and began practicing medicine.

#18279

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.

#18280

James Herbert

#168887

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

James Herbert is an American painter and filmmaker known for directing a series of music videos for the band R.E.M. He has also made over forty short films, including John Five and Jumbo Aqua , and directed four independent features: Scars , Speedy Boys , Rabbit Pix and Abandoned House . Some of his short films have been collected on the video compilation Figures .

#18281

Matthew Uttley

#97442

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Matthew R. H. Uttley , born in 1965, is a British academic best known for his published work on the historical and contemporary dimensions of defence economics, weapons acquisition, and United Kingdom defence policy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Historical Society.

#18282

J. Eugene Gallery

1898 - 1960 (62 years)

Joseph Eugene Gallery was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit. He studied sociology at Georgetown University, before serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. Upon his return, he graduated, and entered business in Washington, D.C. He then entered the Society of Jesus in 1931, and was later ordained a priest. He became a professor of sociology at the University of Scranton, and also worked in child welfare and in arbitrating industrial disputes. In 1947, Gallery became the president of the University of Scranton. During his presidency, the university's graduate school was established. Hi...

#18283

William A. Pusey

1865 - 1940 (75 years)

William A. Pusey was an American physician and past president of the American Medical Association. He advocated for the use of radiation in the treatment of skin diseases and he was an expert in the study of syphilis. Pusey authored several books, including the first history of dermatology written in English.

#18284

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.

#18285

Rudolf Maria Holzapfel

Rudolf Maria Holzapfel

1874 - 1930 (56 years)

Rudolf Maria Holzapfel was a Poland-born Austrian psychologist, philosopher. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times. Literary works Panidealische Psychologie der sozialen Gefühle, 1901Panideal. Das Seelenleben und seine soziale Neugestaltung, 2 vols., new ed., 1923Welterlebnis, 2 vols., 1928Nachgelassene Schriften, 1932

#18286

John Grant

#72667

Overall Influence

1922 - 2013 (91 years)

John MacDonald Falconar Grant, AO, OBE was an Australian neurosurgeon and disability sport administrator. He was president of the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games Organising Committee. He played a leading role in the development of disability sport in Australia.

#18287

Michael Moore

1640 - 1726 (86 years)

Michael Moore was an Irish priest, philosopher and educationalist. Early life Moore – generally referred to as Moore or Moor in contemporary documents – was born in Dublin about 1639. He left Ireland at a young age to be educated in Nantes and Paris, where he taught philosophy and rhetoric at the Collège des Grassins. He was proposed for the position of rector at the University of Paris in June 1677 by a faction who wished to replace the then rector, Nicholas Pieres, but felt compelled to decline the offer.

#18288

Chester Conklin

Chester Conklin

1886 - 1971 (85 years)

Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.

#18289

Kenneth C. Edelin

#49748

Overall Influence

1939 - 2013 (74 years)

Kenneth Carlton Edelin was an American physician known for his support for abortion rights and his advocacy for indigent patients' rights to healthcare. He was born in Washington, D.C., and died in Sarasota, Florida.

#18290

Samson Gemmell

1848 - 1913 (65 years)

Samson Gemmell FRFPS was a Scottish paediatrician who became Regius Professor of Practice of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. Life Gemmell was born in Catrine in 1848 and was educated at Glasgow High School. He applied to the University of Glasgow to study art, with a goal of joining the Civil Service, but a childhood deformity precluded this career move, and forced Gemmell to switch career to Medicine, graduating in 1872 with a Medicine and Surgery qualification with Honours.

#18291

Patrick Meenan

#163780

Overall Influence

1917 - 2008 (91 years)

Patrick Meenan was the president of the Medical Council of Ireland and dean of the faculty of medicine in University College Dublin . In his research work, he was involved with Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk in the development of the polio vaccine. He was educated in the Catholic University School, Clongowes Wood, and UCD, where he became auditor of the Literary and Historical Society. He died in June 2008

#18292

John Garrett Underhill

1876 - 1946 (70 years)

John Garrett Underhill was an American author and stage producer who translated the works of Jacinto Benavente, a Spanish dramatist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and a number of other Spanish authors.

#18293

Harry Smith

#78600

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Henry Sidney "Harry" Smith, is a British Egyptologist and academic, specialising in epigraphy and Egyptian archaeology. He held the Edwards Chair of Egyptology at University College London from 1970 to 1986. He had previously been a lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, where he was also Budge Fellow in Egyptology at Christ's College, Cambridge.

#18294

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.

#18295

Matthea Harvey

#60911

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 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.

#18296

Samuel Goldflam

Samuel Goldflam

1852 - 1932 (80 years)

Samuel Wulfowicz Goldflam was a Polish-Jewish neurologist best known for his brilliant 1893 analysis of myasthenia gravis . Biography Goldflam received his education in his native city of Warsaw. He graduated from secondary school in 1869, then studied medicine at Warsaw University. He qualified as a physician in 1875, then worked in internal medicine at Holy Ghost Hospital under Professor Wilhelm Dusan Lambl , known for the giardia parasite, Lamblia intestinalis. Lambl was not much of a mentor, so Goldflam worked largely by himself. His position at the internal-medicine clinic supplied him with ample research material.

#18297

Frank De Vol

#170193

Overall Influence

1911 - 1999 (88 years)

Frank Denny De Vol was an American actor, and using the name De Vol was an arranger and composer. As a composer he was nominated for four Academy Awards. Early life and career De Vol was born in Moundsville in Marshall County in northern West Virginia, and was reared in Canton, Ohio. His father, Herman Frank De Vol, was band-leader of the Grand Opera House in Canton, Ohio, and his mother, Minnie Emma Humphreys De Vol, had worked in a sewing shop. He attended Miami University.

#18298

D. E. C. Mekie

1902 - 1989 (87 years)

David Eric Cameron Mekie FRSE OBE was a Scottish surgeon and Keeper of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1955 to 1974. Life He was born in Edinburgh the son of David Mekie FRSE, a local builder and amateur geographer, living at Waverley Park on Spring Gardens just east of Holyrood Palace.

#18299

Alastair Bellingham

#59440

Overall Influence

1938 - 2017 (79 years)

Alastair John Bellingham was a British haematologist. Early life and education Bellingham was born to Stanley Herbert Bellingham and Sybil Mary Milne. He was a graduate of Tiffin Boys' School and University College London Hospital Medical School.

#18300

Peter Tregear

#141285

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Peter John Tregear OAM is an Australian musicologist, author and performer. Career Tregear's first academic appointment was as a lecturer in music at the University of Queensland in 1999. In 2000 he took up a Lectureship in music at Fitzwilliam and Churchill Colleges, Cambridge, as well as serving as a fellow and Director of Music at Fitzwilliam College, an appointment that "brought new energy" to the musical life of the college. He returned to Australia in 2006 to serve as Dean of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, where he successfully mounted a case for the construction of the Colleg...

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