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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Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Sociology,

#1751

Glenn Flores

#154427

Overall Influence

#1752

Sharon M. Donovan

#130470

Overall Influence

Sharon Marie Donovan is an American dietitian. She holds the Melissa M. Noel Endowed Chair in Nutrition and Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and heads the Donovan Lab. In 2017, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

#1753

Ray Pawson

#154954

Overall Influence

#1754

Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir

Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir

#68786

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir is a professor of sociology and the pro-rector of science at the University of Iceland. Career Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir completed a BA in sociology and teaching certification from the University of Iceland in 1984, an MA in sociology from Lund University in Sweden in 1990 and a PhD from the same university in 1995. From 1994–2007, she was head of the Education Department and later programme director at the Research and Health Department of the Administration of Occupational Health and Safety where she conducted research into the working conditions and wellbeing of...

#1755

T. N. Madan

#78800

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Triloki Nath Madan is an anthropologist, with a Ph.D from the Australian National University . He is currently Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, and Distinguished Senior Fellow , Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. Of the teaching positions he held earlier, those at Lucknow and Dharwar lasted longest. He taught for short periods at several universities in India and abroad.

#1756

Anne Hendershott

#104422

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Anne Hendershott is an American sociologist and author known for her conservative Christian writings on Catholic issues in US politics. She is the author of several books, including The Politics of Deviance, The Politics of Abortion, and Status Envy: The Politics of Catholic Higher Education. She has taught at the University of San Diego and at The King's College in New York City. She is currently a professor of Psychology, Sociology, and Social Work at Franciscan University .

#1757

Ronald R. Rindfuss

#155522

Overall Influence

#1758

Douglas W. Maynard

#155539

Overall Influence

#1759

Ernest J. Briskey

#66586

Overall Influence

1930 - 2006 (76 years)

Ernest Joseph Briskey was an American food scientist who was involved in the biological studies on meat tissue during the slaughtering process. He also developed the use of meat science as a career, including the charter of the American Meat Science Association, both at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and at Oregon State University.

#1760

Richard G. Parker

#62874

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Richard Guy Parker is a professor of sociomedical sciences and of anthropology, arts and sciences, at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, where he received an award for teaching excellence in 2004. He serves as director of the university's Center for the Study of Culture, Politics, and Health.

#1761

Linda M. Chatters

#155790

Overall Influence

#1762

Alexandra Killewald

#79247

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (41 years)

Alexandra Killewald is an American educator, demographer, and professor of sociology at Harvard University since 2012. Biography Killewald holds a BS in mathematics, MA in sociology, MA in statistics, and PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan. After earning her doctorate in 2011, Killewald worked as a researcher for Mathematica Policy Research before becoming an assistant professor at Harvard University in 2012. In 2016 she became full professor at Harvard University. She is currently the director of graduate studies for the PhD program in social policy at the John F. Kennedy Sch...

#1763

Carter T. Butts

#156125

Overall Influence

#1764

Nicole Hahn Rafter

#62585

Overall Influence

1939 - 2016 (77 years)

Nicole Hahn Rafter was a feminist criminology professor at Northeastern University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, achieved her Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University, and obtained a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from State University of New York in Albany. She began her career as a high school and college English professor and switched to criminal justice in her mid-thirties.

#1765

Frank D. Bean

#142288

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Frank Dawson Bean Jr. is Chancellor's Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. Bean came to Irvine in 1999, after holding positions at the University of Texas and Indiana University. He has a PhD in sociology from Duke University.

#1766

Masahiro Yamada

#41381

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Masahiro Yamada is a Japanese sociologist known for coining popular sociological terms like parasite singles and gap-widening society. A graduate of University of Tokyo, he now teaches at Tokyo Gakugei University as professor.

#1767

Daniele Del Rio

#156547

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

#1768

Alan C. Acock

#156661

Overall Influence

#1769

Richard Taub

#78110

Overall Influence

1937 - 2020 (83 years)

Richard Paul Taub was an American sociologist noted for his research on urban, rural, and community economic development. He was a faculty member of the University of Chicago's Department of Sociology and Department of Comparative Human Development and was also the Paul Klapper Professor in the Social Sciences.

#1770

Robert Pinker

#83473

Overall Influence

1931 - 2021 (90 years)

Robert Arthur Pinker was a British sociologist and press regulator. Early life and family Robert Arthur Pinker was born on 27 May 1931, the son of Dora Elizabeth Pinker and Joseph Pinker. In 1955, he married Jennifer Farrington Boulton, who died in 1994; they had two daughters.

#1771

David J. Hess

#157040

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

#1772

Filip Smit

#157064

Overall Influence

#1773

Michael Neocosmos

#53535

Overall Influence

Michael Neocosmos is a South African Marxist philosopher. He is an emeritus professor in humanities at Rhodes University, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute and a fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape.

#1774

Ivan Hubert Light

#157154

Overall Influence

#1775

Steve Redhead

#23862

Overall Influence

1952 - 2018 (66 years)

Steve Redhead was the Professor of Jurisprudence and Head of Law in the Faculty of Arts at Charles Sturt University. He was also an adjunct professor at York University and was visiting Professor of Accelerated Culture at the University of Bolton.

#1776

Andreas Diekmann

#157248

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

#1777

Jürgen Gerhards

Jürgen Gerhards

#157404

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

#1778

James Turner Johnson

#157634

Overall Influence

#1779

Hans‐peter Kohler

#157654

Overall Influence

#1780

Rula Quawas

#118757

Overall Influence

1960 - 2017 (57 years)

Dr. Rula Butros Audeh Quawas was a Jordanian academic known for her advocacy for women's advancement in Jordan and as the first academic to introduce courses on feminism at the University of Jordan.

#1781

Mark D. Naison

#38620

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Mark Naison is a professor of history at Fordham University, the Jesuit University of New York. Naison, a former political activist, was a member of Congress of Racial Equality and Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s. He is a graduate of Columbia University and holds a Ph.D. in American history.

#1782

Onigu Otite

#72326

Overall Influence

1939 - 2019 (80 years)

Onigu Otite was a Nigerian sociologist. He was among the first set of students to attend the first indigenous Nigerian university - University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He wrote several books including The Urhobo People, On the Path of Progress, Ethnic Pluralism and Ethnic Conflicts in Nigeria, and Introduction to Sociology which he co-authored with William Ogionwo. The Urhobo Studies Association USA Chapter regard him as one of the earliest Urhobo scholars to focus attention on the culture and history of the Urhobo People of the Niger Delta.

#1783

Dean Hoge

#81736

Overall Influence

1937 - 2008 (71 years)

Dean R. Hoge was an American sociologist, who spent decades studying American Catholics, especially empirical surveys on the priesthood. Biography Hoge spend his childhood at New Knoxville, Ohio and later graduated from the Ohio State University School of Architecture . After studies in 1961 at the University of Bonn, Germany he received his bachelor's degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1964 and a master's degree in 1967 and a doctorate in 1970, both in sociology from Harvard University.

#1784

Karen Chapple

#52392

Overall Influence

Karen Chapple is an American city planning academic and currently holds the Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Urban Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Education Chapple received an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies at Columbia University, a Masters of Science in Community and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from University of California, Berkeley.

#1785

Rafael Ninyoles i Monllor

#81944

Overall Influence

1943 - 2019 (76 years)

Rafael Lluís Ninyoles i Monllor was a Spanish sociolinguist, considered one of the parents of Catalan sociolinguistics along with Lluís Vicent Aracil i Boned. He was born in Valencia. He took secondary studies in a Jesuit school, where he met Alfons Cucó, Eliseu Climent and Lluís Vicent Aracil. Afterwards, he graduated in sociolinguistics at Universitat de València and then he travelled to the United States of America in 1967.

#1786

Philip J. Leaf

#158078

Overall Influence

#1787

Marilyn A. Winkleby

#158185

Overall Influence

#1788

Judith Rollins

#124015

Overall Influence

Judith Rollins is a Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies and Sociology at Wellesley College. Rollins earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Howard University, and her PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University.

#1789

José María Gómez Manuel

#158245

Overall Influence

#1790

Zagorka Golubović

Zagorka Golubović

#57639

Overall Influence

1930 - 2019 (89 years)

Zagorka Golubović was a Serbian philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist. Golubović was among the group of eight university professors, members of the Praxis school , who were in January 1975 expelled from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy on the basis of a decision of the SR Serbia People's Assembly.

#1791

Sergio Bagú

#46414

Overall Influence

1911 - 2002 (91 years)

Sergio Bagú was an Argentinian Marxist historian, sociologist and political philosopher. Bagú, who was born in Buenos Aires, was a lecturer at the University of Illinois, Middlebury College and the University of Buenos Aires. As a university professor, he was exiled by the military junta in Argentina following the 1966 Argentine Revolution. He died in Mexico City.

#1792

Rekha Pande

#55575

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Rekha Pande is a Professor Emeritus of history and women's studies at the Henry Martin Institute, an International Centre for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation, Hyderabad. She is also currently the Director of the Society for Empowerment through Environment Development . She is the former Head of the Centre for Women's Studies and the former Head of the Department of History at the University of Hyderabad, India. She has also served as a Director Centre for Women's Studies at Maulana Azad National Urdu University , Hyderabad. As a feminist historian, Pande researches the theore...

#1793

Stuart A. Altmann

#158819

Overall Influence

#1794

John Hoberman

#63836

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Dr. John Milton Hoberman is a Professor of Germanic languages within the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of numerous books and articles on sports, specifically on their cultural impact, their relationship with race, and the issue of doping.

#1795

Christopher Uggen

Christopher Uggen

#133040

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

#1796

William F. Tate IV

#38639

Overall Influence

William F. Tate IV is an African-American social scientist and higher education administrator. In May 2021, he was selected as president of the Louisiana State University system, and chancellor of the flagship school in Baton Rouge. He is the first Black person to hold the position, and the first to head any school in the Southeastern athletics conference.

#1797

Charis Galanakis

#105980

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (43 years)

Charis M. Galanakis is a Greek researcher, and food, agricultural and environmental scientist. Early life and education Galanakis was born on April 3, 1981, in Chania, Greece to a family of chemists. He earned his degree in chemistry in 2002 and his certificate for Oenology in 2004, both at the Patras University. He also finished his master's degree in Food Technology in 2004 from Patras University-University of Ioannina-Ulster University. In 2010, he finished his doctoral degree at the Technical University of Crete.

#1798

Tamara Martsenyuk

Tamara Martsenyuk

#127032

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (43 years)

Tamara Olehivna Martsenyuk is a Ukrainian sociologist and academic who specializes in gender studies. She is known for her writing, her analysis of the role of women in the Euromaidan protests and for her critique of president Viktor Yanukovych's comments on women in Ukraine.

#1799

Snell Putney

#101256

Overall Influence

1929 - 2009 (80 years)

Snell "Mick" Putney was an American sociologist, environmentalist, and author. His books include The Adjusted American and The Conquest of Society. He was associated with many different environmental groups including the Last Stand, and the Key Deer Protection Alliance of which he was president at the time of his death.

#1800

Nikolai Genov

#114329

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Nikolai Genov is an internationally respected sociologist of Bulgarian origin. He received his doctorate of Philosophy in sociology from the University of Leipzig in 1975 and his doctorate of Science from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1986. In 1990 he became a professor at BAS. Between 2002 and 2011 he was a professor of sociology at the Institute of Sociology and Institute of Eastern European Studies of the Free University of Berlin. From 2011 until 2016 he was the head of the Institute of Global and Regional Development at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Slovenia. He has con...

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