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.

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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 Political Science,

#2701

Kamal Kharazi

#55225

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Sayyid Kamal Kharazi is an Iranian reformist politician and diplomat who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 20 August 1997 to 24 August 2005 as appointed by President Mohammad Khatami serving for eight years. He was replaced by Manouchehr Mottaki who was appointed by the next President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council.

#2702

W. Robert Godfrey

#15033

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

W. Robert Godfrey is a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America and formerly served as the third president of Westminster Seminary California. As of 2017 he is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history. He currently is chairman of Ligonier Ministries, located in Sanford, Florida, a position he took over from the late Dr. R. C. Sproul.

#2703

Jeanne Morefield

#135321

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Jeanne Morefield is associate professor of Political Theory and Fellow at New College, Oxford. She is also a Non-Residential Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Washington DC.

#2704

Charles Horner

#97844

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Charles Horner is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Associate Director of the U.S. Information Agency during the administrations of President Ronald Reagan, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.

#2705

Hoda Mahmoudi

#100067

Overall Influence

Hoda Mahmoudi is an American academic and scholar, specializing in religion and peace studies. Since July 2012, she has held the Baha'i Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland. Biography According to Mahmoudi, she was born in Iran, and moved to Utah in the United States when she was ten years old. She attended the University of Utah, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Masters in Educational Psychology. She then completed a PhD in sociology, also at the University of Utah.

#2706

Amory Lovins

#98405

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Amory Bloch Lovins is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US National Petroleum Council, an oil industry lobbying group, from 2011 to 2018.

#2707

Rodney Bruce Hall

#82207

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Rodney Bruce Hall is an American Professor of International Relations and among those scholars known as Second Generation Constructivists. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics and subsequently a master's degree in international relations and a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Friedrich Kratochwil, one of the founding scholars of constructivism in international relations.

#2708

Bradley Smith

#51674

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Bradley A. Smith is the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Professor at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as commissioner, vice chairman, and chairman of the Federal Election Commission between 2000 and 2005. He has held prior visiting appointments at Princeton University and West Virginia University.

#2709

Jack Dyer Crouch II

#87651

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Jack Dyer Crouch II is an American diplomat and national security adviser. Since 2014, he has been president and chief executive officer of the United Service Organizations . Education Crouch earned a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and PhD in international relations from the University of Southern California.

#2710

Matthew Morgenstern

Matthew Morgenstern

#57576

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Matthew Morgenstern, also known as Moshe Morgenstern , is an Israeli linguist and religious studies scholar known for his work on Eastern Aramaic languages, especially Mandaic. He is currently Full Professor in the Department of Hebrew Language and Semitic Linguistics at Tel Aviv University.

#2711

Richard Wyn Jones

Richard Wyn Jones

#59488

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Richard Wyn Jones FAcSS FLSW is a Welsh academic at Cardiff University, where he is Director of Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre and Dean of Public Affairs. Jones was a former Professor of Welsh Politics at Cardiff as well as the founding Director of the Institute of Welsh Politics and Critical Security Studies at Aberystwyth University.

#2712

Aloysius-Michaels Nnabugwu Okolie

#120862

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Aloysius-Michaels Nnabugwu Okolie, often known as A. M. N. Okolie, is a Nigerian political scientist. He is a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Okolie has been both the President of the Nigerian Political Science Association and a member of that organisation's Board of Trustees. He studies political institutions and the development in Nigeria, Nigeria's international relations, and political economy.

#2713

Philip Schrodt

#94708

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Philip Andrew "Phil" Schrodt is a political scientist known for his work in automated data and event coding for political news. On August 1, 2013, he announced that he was leaving his job as professor at Pennsylvania State University to become a full-time consultant. Schrodt is currently a senior research scientist at the statistical consulting firm Parus Analytical Systems.

#2714

Al-Hassan Conteh

#67455

Overall Influence

Dr. Al-Hassan Conteh is a Liberian academic and was the President of the University of Liberia. Conteh earned his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. Faculty experience Prof. Conteh has previously been a member of the African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the Geography and Urban Studies Department at Temple University. Conteh was also a Research Fellow at the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethno-political Conflict at Pennsylvania from 2001 to 2005. He served as the University of Liberia's 12th president from 1 December 2004, until 2008 and was succeeded by Dr.

#2715

Strom C. Thacker

#72138

Overall Influence

Strom Cronan Thacker is an American political scientist and academic administrator. He is expected to take office as the seventh president of Pitzer College in July 2023. As a scholar, his work focuses on the political economy of development in Latin America and other regions of the world.

#2716

Olena Parkhomchuk

#107248

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Olena Parkhomchuk is a Ukrainian political scientist. She is a professor in the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy within the Institute of International Relations at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Olena Parkhomchuk studies foreign policy and the historical development of international systems, process of disarmament and conversion. She is a laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology.

#2717

Samuel Martin

#16870

Overall Influence

1924 - 2009 (85 years)

Samuel Elmo Martin was a linguist known for seminal work on the languages of East Asia, a professor at Yale University, and the author of many works on the Korean and Japanese languages. Biography Martin was born in Pittsburg, Kansas on 29 January 1924, and grew up in Emporia, Kansas. During World War II he was trained as a Japanese Language Officer, and was stationed in Japan at the end of the war.

#2718

Homeira Moshirzadeh

#105312

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Homeira Moshirzadeh is an Iranian political scientist and associate professor in the Department of International Relations and an associate faculty at the Center for Women's Studies, at University of Tehran.

#2719

J. Kevin McMahon

#34849

Overall Influence

J. Kevin McMahon is president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a $50 million private, nonprofit agency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The trust, established in 1984, promotes the cultural and economic growth of downtown Pittsburgh through the development of a fourteen-block arts and entertainment center in downtown Pittsburgh—the Cultural District.

#2720

Stan Heptinstall

Stan Heptinstall

#98654

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Stanley Heptinstall is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Nottingham, Director of Platelet Solutions Ltd , and local government councillor on Nottinghamshire County Council. Previously he was professor of Thrombosis and Haemostasis at the University of Nottingham, retiring in 2011. Professor Heptinstall served as Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

#2721

Peter Nailor

#108969

Overall Influence

1928 - 1996 (68 years)

Professor Peter Nailor was a British civil servant and academic, who served as Professor of Politics at the University of Lancaster, Professor of History at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and Provost of Gresham College.

#2722

Mark Kelly

#46839

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Mark Edward Kelly is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected in the special election held following the death of Senator John McCain, defeating incumbent Republican Martha McSally.

#2723

Thomas J. Trebat

#94722

Overall Influence

Thomas J. Trebat is an American economist, political scientist, and professor. He teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs , at Columbia University. He is also the director of the Columbia Global Centers | Rio de Janeiro, Columbia University's representation in Brazil. He has served as executive director at Columbia University's Institute of Latin American Studies and Center for Brazilian Studies. He became head of ILAS when his colleague Albert Fishlow, who had brought him to the Institute, stepped down.

#2724

Andrew Cray

#87939

Overall Influence

1986 - 2014 (28 years)

Andrew Cray was born on June 11, 1986, and was an activist for LGBTQ rights. Cray attended Chippewa Falls High School where he played multiple instruments and received the John Philip Sousa award for outstanding performance in concert band. He attended Northwestern Universityy for his undergraduate studies and received his law degree from the University of Michigan. Although Cray’s life was cut tragically short by cancer in 2014, he accomplished a great deal for the LGBTQ community. Cray came out as a transgender man during his time in college. Cray worked as a fellow or a member of the follow...

#2725

George William Jones

#89629

Overall Influence

1938 - 2017 (79 years)

George William Jones was emeritus professor of government at the London School of Economics and the biographer, with Bernard Donoughue, of Herbert Morrison. Jones was a longtime member of the Greater London Group at LSE and in time became co-chair of it.

#2726

Ahsan I. Butt

#96166

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (41 years)

Ahsan I. Butt is a Pakistani political scientist. He is an associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He has published research on ethnicity and nationalism, security, international order, and South Asia. He is a frequent commentator on Pakistani politics.

#2727

Jonathan Aronson

#80277

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Jonathan Aronson is professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California as well as professor of international relations at USC. Aronson writes on issues related to international communication policy, globalization and international trade and trade negotiations. His current research focuses on ways in which communication and network developments related to privacy, equity, standard setting, competition policy, and international intellectual property shape the path of globalization. His most recent writings consider the impli...

#2728

Rosemary O'Leary

#114112

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Rosemary O'Leary is Emeritus Distinguished Professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and Emeritus Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on public management, collaboration, conflict resolution, environmental and natural resources management, and public law.

#2729

David Axelrod

#49217

Overall Influence

1935 - 1994 (59 years)

David Axelrod was a New York physician and bureaucrat. Career After obtaining his medical degree from Harvard in 1960, he served a two-year residency in Rochester. He then worked for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland as a virus research scientist until joining the New York State Department of Health in 1968.

#2730

Valeria Sinclair-Chapman

#126191

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Valeria Sinclair-Chapman is an American political scientist, currently a professor of political science and African-American studies at Purdue University. Sinclair-Chapman studies American political institutions, the representation of minority groups in the United States Congress, and minority political participation, particularly how excluded groups come to be included in American politics.

#2731

Mark Stephen Jendrysik

#119822

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Mark Jendrysik is a professor in the Political Science and Public Administration Department of the University of North Dakota. He is primarily interested in contemporary American political thought, but he has also published and presented papers on the seventeenth-century English political thought, utopian political theory, and ethnic politics in the United States. He is the author of Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries and Modern Jeremiahs: Contemporary Visions of American Decline

#2732

Claire Duncanson

#83256

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Claire Duncanson is a lecturer at the department of Social and Political Science; at the University of Edinburgh. Her research fields include Intersectional Security, International Relations theory and gender politics.

#2733

Marco Martiniello

#131814

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Marco Martiniello is an Italian-Belgian sociologist and political scientist. He teaches sociology of migration and ethnic relations at the University of Liège. He is currently research director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research , and the director of the Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies ., as well as Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Liège.

#2734

Neal Blewett

#111554

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Neal Blewett, AC is an Australian Labor Party politician, diplomat and historian. He was the Member of the House of Representatives for Bonython from 1977 to 1994. He served in both the Hawke and Keating governments, notably in the former as Minister for Health from 1983 to 1991, during which time he oversaw the Government's reaction to HIV/AIDS. After retiring from Parliament in 1994, he was appointed High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, a role he held until 1998.

#2735

Mohammed Dajani Daoudi

#71479

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Mohammed Shihad Dajani Daoudi is a Palestinian professor and peace activist. Dajani gained international recognition for his work in helping to raise awareness concerning the Holocaust through a variety of media. Dajani has also been active in forming relationships with Jewish and Christian religious leaders and peace activists to spread the Wasatia message of understanding, tolerance, coexistence and brotherhood. Dajani is tackling the ideological roots of extremism. In 2014, he became the center of a controversy when he led a group of students from Al-Quds University to Auschwitz.

#2736

W. Randolph Thompson

#142725

Overall Influence

#2737

Thomas Kalil

#29850

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Thomas Amadeus Kalil is an expert on technology and innovation policy, and is currently the Chief Innovation Officer at Schmidt Futures. He was previously Deputy Director for Policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama, and was also the Senior Advisor for Science, Technology and Innovation for the United States National Economic Council.

#2738

Eileen Hunt Botting

#44872

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Eileen Margaret Hunt is an American political theorist and professor of political science. She works on political thought from the 17th century to the present. She is a professor at the University of Notre Dame and has published four solo-authored books and edited another five books. In 2021, she returned to publishing with the author name, Eileen M. Hunt, with the essay "Dracula's Daughter: the rediscovery of a love poem for George Orwell" in The TLS.

#2739

Kasper Møller Hansen

#130713

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Kasper Møller Hansen is a Danish political scientist and professor with the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. He specialises in attitude formation, voter behaviour and voter turnout.

#2740

José Antonio Alonso

#119597

Overall Influence

1960 - 2017 (57 years)

José Antonio Alonso Suárez was a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politician, cabinet minister and judge. He was born in León. A jurist and academic at the law faculty of the University of Leon before his political career, Alonso was elected to the Spanish Congress as a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in 2004, representing León Province and was re-elected in 2008. He later served as spokesman for the PSOE Parliamentary Group.

#2741

Claire Jean Kim

#126024

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Claire Jean Kim is an American political scientist at the University of California, Irvine. She received her A.B. from Harvard College and an M. Phil and Ph.D. from Yale University. Her research interests are comparative race studies, human-animal studies, race and politics, and social movements.

#2742

Margaret Ferguson

#106019

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Margaret Robertson Ferguson is an American political scientist specializing in state politics, governors, and Southern politics at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. Early life and education Ferguson was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the daughter of Jim Robertson, a one-time member of the Mississippi Legislature and political science professor from Liberty, Mississippi. She graduated with a BA in political science from the University of Southern Mississippi. She earned an MA and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

#2743

Richard Hu

#63393

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (98 years)

Richard Hu Tsu Tau was a Singaporean politician who served as Minister for Finance between 1985 and 2001. A member of the governing People's Action Party , he was Member of Parliament for Kreta Ayer SMC between 1984 and 1997, and Kreta Ayer–Tanglin GRC between 1997 and 2001. Hu was Singapore's longest-serving finance minister and gave a record number of 16 Budget speeches. He served as chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore between 1985 and 1997.

#2744

Robert Y. Shapiro

#143279

Overall Influence

#2745

Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff

Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff

#43941

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff , is the Austrian ambassador in Prague. Background He belongs to the aristocratic Austrian-Moravian mediatised noble family Trauttmansdorff. He is also referred to by the courtesy style and title, "His Illustrious Highness Count Ferdinand von und zu Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg" .

#2746

Roel Sterckx

#49467

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Roel Sterckx FBA is a Flemish-British sinologist and anthropologist. He is the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at Cambridge University, and a fellow of Clare College.

#2747

Steve Smith

#64319

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Sir Steven Murray Smith, FAcSS, FRSA, FLSW is an English international relations theorist and long serving university leader. He is the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Exeter and Professor of International Studies.

#2748

Meinhard Miegel

Meinhard Miegel

#72648

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Meinhard Miegel is a German political scientist. He is known for his work on the conditions of the economy and society. He co-founded the Institut für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft with Kurt Biedenkopf in 1977, and served as a Professor at the University of Leipzig from 1992. He became a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1994, received the Corine Literature Prize in 2002, the Hanns Martin Schleyer Prize in 2004 and the Theodor Heuss Prize in 2005.

#2749

Ghanim Al-Jumaily

Ghanim Al-Jumaily

#71231

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Ghanim Alwan Al-Jumaily is the ambassador of Iraq to Saudi Arabia, appointed by the interim government of Iraq in 2008. He first served as Iraq's ambassador to Japan in 2004. He has four children, Anas, Youssra, Mariam and Omar.

#2750

Ángel Viñas

#59421

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Ángel Viñas Martín is a Spanish economist and historian. He has published many works dealing with the Spanish Civil War focusing on the war finance as well as the international relations aspects of the conflict.

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