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 Sociology,

#2451

Niklas Luhmann

#188033

Overall Influence

#2452

Michael Shapcott

#86471

Overall Influence

Michael Shapcott is Executive Director of the Sorrento Centre, a retreat and conference centre in the Shuswap region of British Columbia, Canada, that offers in-person and on-line events and activities. Previously, he served as Director of National Business and Community Strategy for Prince's Charities Canada.

#2453

Anna Halafoff

#180157

Overall Influence

Anna Halafoff is an Australian sociologist who is Associate Professor in Sociology at Deakin University and the current president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion. Education Halafoff completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, a Master of Letters at the University of New England in 2001, a Graduate Diploma of Education at the University of New England in 2006, and a Doctor of Philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria in 2010.

#2454

Arie Rimmerman

#139106

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Arie Rimmerman is an Israeli academic in disability policy research. As of 2018, he is the Richard Crossman Professor of Social Welfare and Social Planning at the University of Haifa, Israel and was the founder Dean of the Social Welfare and Health Sciences faculty. He has been a distinguished Professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communication, Syracuse University, and has also lectured at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Charles University, Prague.

#2455

Kerstin Jacobsson

#178866

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Kerstin Jacobsson is a Swedish political sociologist conducting research on democracy issues, the European Union, active labour market policies and social movements. She is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg.

#2456

Alice Cook

#106807

Overall Influence

1903 - 1998 (95 years)

Alice Hanson Cook was an activist and professor of labor history at Cornell University in the United States. At Cornell, the Alice Cook House residential college was named in her honor. Her varied life experiences included social worker, YWCA secretary, labor educator, post World War II advisor in Germany on reconstituting German labor unions, professor, university ombudsman, world acclaimed researcher, and to the very end, an activist. Cook was appointed Cornell University's first ombudsman and worked to establish the credibility and acceptance of that office.

#2457

Joseph E. Potter

#127343

Overall Influence

Joseph E. "Joe" Potter is an American sociologist, demographer, and professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 2011, he has also been the leader of the Texas Policy Evaluation Project , which has aimed to investigate the effect of restrictive abortion and family planning laws passed in Texas. Previously, he was the director of the Border Contraceptive Access Study. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.

#2458

Phil Zuckerman

#188165

Overall Influence

#2459

Philip Cohen

#188216

Overall Influence

#2460

Stephen T. Russell

#183305

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Stephen Thomas Russell is an American sociologist. He is the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor in Child Development at University of Texas at Austin. Russell was a distinguished professor and Fitch Nesbitt Endowed Chair in Family and Consumer Sciences at University of Arizona from 2007 to 2015. He researches adolescent development, sexuality, LGBT youth, and parent-adolescent relationships.

#2461

Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley

#165829

Overall Influence

Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley is Professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously she was an Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is trained in literary critique, and does work in Caribbean Studies, Black Diaspora Studies, Gender and Women's Studies, and Pop Culture Studies. She is the author of Thiefing Sugar: Eroticism between Women in Caribbean Literature , and Ezili′s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders . She received the F.O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality at Harvard for the 2018–2019 school year.

#2462

Sun Baoguo

#173947

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Sun Baoguo is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering , professor of food science and chemical engineering in Beijing Technology and Business University. In China, Professor Sun is an expert in the research of spices and the only CAS/CAE academician for food science.

#2463

Mohammed Hafez

#166626

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Mohammed M. Hafez is a specialist in Islamist movements, political militancy, and violent radicalization. He is the author of Why Muslims Rebel and Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom.

#2464

David R. Heise

#188289

Overall Influence

#2465

Faye Wattleton

#17505

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Faye Wattleton is an American reproductive rights activist who was the first African American and the youngest president ever elected of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the first woman since Margaret Sanger to hold the position. She is currently Co-founder & Director at EeroQ, a quantum computing company. She is best known for her contributions to family planning and reproductive health, and the reproductive rights movement.

#2466

Nalla Tan

#124433

Overall Influence

1923 - 2012 (89 years)

Nallammah "Nalla" Ruth Tan was a Singaporean physician, women's rights advocate and writer. She is known for her early advocacy of sex education and public health education in Singapore. She was also known for her poetry and short story writing.

#2467

Grant Farred

#109517

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Grant Farred, a native of South Africa, is a professor of Africana Studies and English at Cornell University. He has previously taught at Williams College, the University of Michigan, and Duke University. He has written several books and served for eight years as editor of South Atlantic Quarterly, and is a leading figure in contemporary African-American Studies, Cultural Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.

#2468

Jennifer Lee

#177012

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Jennifer Lee is an American sociologist and the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University. She was president of the Eastern Sociological Society from 2020–21. Lee was previously on the faculty of the University of California, Irvine. Lee is the author, co-author, or co-editor of four books: Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America; Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity ; The Diversity Paradox: Immigration and the Color Line in 21st Century America ; and The Asian American Achievement Paradox .

#2469

Angela Coco

#171194

Overall Influence

Angela Coco is an Australian sociologist and academic whose primary research interests have been in the area of the sociology of religion, new religious movements, Catholicism, and Paganism. Education Coco completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in 1991 at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia. Her honours thesis, Women and the Australian Church: Project or Proclamation? provides the only record of the early history of the Christian feminist group, Women and the Australian Church .

#2470

Elsa Murano

#53991

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Elsa Alina Murano has been the Director of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture & Development at Texas A&M University's Agriculture & Life Sciences program since 2012. She was the 23rd president of Texas A&M University from January 3, 2008, until her effective resignation on June 15, 2009.

#2471

Sue Wise

#82575

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Sue Wise is a feminist author, Professor of Social Justice and Director of Study for BA Social Work at Lancaster University, UK. After having received a social science degree at Manchester Polytechnic, Sue Wise worked as a political activist for several years. In the 1970s and 1980s she was deeply involved in the Women's Movement and the Lesbian and Gay Movement, mainly in Manchester. She is also a social worker having experience in the voluntary and statutory sectors in both residential and field work, mainly working with children and families.

#2472

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons

#79891

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, formerly Gwendolyn Robinson, is senior lecturer emerita following her retirement from the University of Florida in 2019. Her research has explored Islamic feminism and the impact of Sharia law on Muslim women. She is a civil rights activist, serving as a member of both the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Nation of Islam . Simmons has received a number of prestigious fellowships, including a Fulbright Fellowship, USAID Fellowships, and an American Center of Oriental Research Fellowship.

#2473

Donald Kalish

#38885

Overall Influence

1919 - 2000 (81 years)

Donald Kalish was an American logician, educator, and anti-war activist. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kalish earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology and his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. After teaching at Swarthmore College and at UC Berkeley, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles in 1949.

#2474

Bernard J. Liska

#70316

Overall Influence

1931 - 2002 (71 years)

Bernard J. Liska was an American food scientist who was involved in the creation of the Food Science Department at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He also served as president of the Institute of Food Technologists in 1984–85 and was scientific editor of the Journal of Food Science from 1970 to 1981.

#2475

Charles Zastrow

#33655

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Charles Harold Zastrow is an American social scientist and Professor of Social Work at the George Williams College of the Aurora University, known for his work on the theory and practice of social work.

#2476

John P. Walsh

#95072

Overall Influence

John P. Walsh is a sociologist and a Professor of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests include the study of innovation, sociology of science and the sociology of work and organizations.

#2477

Hervé This

#4765

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Hervé This is a French physical chemist who works for the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique at AgroParisTech, in Paris, France. His main area of scientific research is molecular gastronomy, that is the science of culinary phenomena .

#2478

Transnational Reproduction

Transnational Reproduction

#141440

Overall Influence

Transnational Reproduction: Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India is a 2016 book by anthropologist Daisy Deomampo. The book analyzes transnational commercial surrogacy, focusing on the practices of doctors, surrogates, parents, and agents in India. The book proposes that the practice of transnational surrogacy reinforces social status distinctions through a shared "racial reproductive imaginary". Transnational Reproduction was reviewed in Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Social Anthropology, Anthropological Quarterly, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, and Signs.

#2479

Jennifer Reich

#111654

Overall Influence

Jennifer Anne Reich is an American sociologist, researcher and author at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research interests include healthcare, adolescence, welfare, and policy. Her work on vaccine hesitancy gained widespread attention during the 2019 measles outbreaks. She is the author of three books and numerous journal articles.

#2480

Ann London Scott

Ann London Scott

#65528

Overall Influence

1929 - 2009 (80 years)

Ann London Scott was an American feminist. She founded the Buffalo chapter of the National Organization for Women . As legislative vice president of the national organization in the early 1970s, she led the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She was also a poet, translator, and English professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo .

#2481

Alana Mann

#94631

Overall Influence

Professor Alana Mann is a food activist and interdisciplinary scholar researching the power relations between media, governments, institutions and citizens, in the field of food politics. She is co-founder of FoodLab Sydney, a business incubator to address issues around local food insecurity, based on the model pioneered by FoodLab Detroit. Mann is Professor and Head of Discipline at the University of Tasmania. She led the Department of Media and Communications at University of Sydney and was a key researcher in the Sydney Environment Institute; the Charles Perkins Centre and Sydney Democrac...

#2482

Edward Kruk

#127171

Overall Influence

Edward Kruk is a Canadian sociologist and social worker. He has conducted internationally recognized research on child custody, shared parenting, family mediation, divorced fathers, parental alienation, parental addiction, child protection, and grandparent access to their grandchildren. Kruk is an associate professor of social work at the University of British Columbia. He is the founding president of the International Council on Shared Parenting.

#2483

Sofiane Bouhdiba

Sofiane Bouhdiba

#128473

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Sofiane Bouhdiba is a Tunisian demographer, born on 12 April 1968. He is Professor of Demography in the department of Sociology in the University of Tunis. He has taught in many universities in Europe, Africa and the United States, and has participated in a great number of international conferences, with a focus on mortality and morbidity. As an international consultant to the United Nations, he had the opportunity to observe closely the history of the fight against major diseases in the world. He has also participated in numerous scientific and humanitarian missions in sub-Saharan Africa. Pr...

#2484

Anna Middleton

#152266

Overall Influence

Anna Middleton is a social scientist and genetic counsellor. She is Head of the Society and Ethics Research group, part of Wellcome Connecting Science, based on the Wellcome Genome Campus. She is also a Professor/Affiliate Lecturer at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge.

#2485

Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws

#62385

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, KC, FRSA, HonFRSE , is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018.

#2486

Harvey J. Kaye

#60565

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Harvey J. Kaye is an American historian and sociologist. Kaye is an author of several political books including “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America”, and “The Fight for the Four Freedoms”. He has appeared as an expert on several political news shows and podcasts including “Bill Moyers Journal” and “That’s Jacqueline”. He is a regular guest on The David Feldman Show.

#2487

Koen Vandenbempt

#64825

Overall Influence

Koen Vandenbempt is a Belgian organizational theorist, business executive, and Professor of Strategy at the University of Antwerp and Antwerp Management School, particularly known for his work on business-to-business marketing and service strategies.

#2488

Eva Sorensen

#118115

Overall Influence

Eva Sorensen is a British chemical engineer. She was appointed in 2020 as the 11th Ramsay Memorial Professor of Chemical Engineering at UCL, where she was the first woman to head the Department of Chemical Engineering. She was an interim appointment while Marc-Olivier Coppens was on a year sabbatical.

#2489

Domhnall MacAuley

#121977

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Professor Domhnall MacAuley MD, FRCGP, FFPHMI, FFSEM, FISM is a former physician, a professor of primary health care and a medical journal editor. After graduating from University College Dublin, MacAuley underwent medical training at the University of Exeter.

#2490

Han Sang-jin

#183833

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Han Sang-jin is a South Korean sociologist in the tradition of critical theory, known for his Joongmin theory. He is professor emeritus at the department of sociology, Seoul National University, Korea, and a distinguished visiting professor at Peking University, China. He has lectured as visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, United States, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, France, the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Kyoto University in Japan. His major areas of interest are: social theory, political sociology, human rights and transition...

#2491

David Cunningham

#184859

Overall Influence

David Cunningham is a Professor and Chair of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarship includes social conflict, race-based hate groups, and social movements. Education Cunningham attended University of Connecticut for his undergraduate academic career, studying civil engineering and English. In 1993, he graduated magna cum laude and as a university scholar from UConn and began pursuing a master's degree in sociology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his M.A. in sociology in 1996 and his Ph.D in sociology in 2000. His dissertation was on FBI C...

#2492

Peter Herrmann

#177331

Overall Influence

Peter Herrmann is a social philosopher, sociologist and academic of German origin. Between 1995 and 2013 he worked in Ireland where he occupied at the end the position of a senior research fellow at University College Cork, School of Applied Social Studies. 2013 he moved to Rome, Italy, where he worked independently, but in close connection with the Italian research institute EURISPES. From 2015 to 2017 he worked as Professor for Economics at Bangor College of Central South University of Forestry & Technology, Changsha, PRC, and as Senior Foreign Expert. School of Public Affairs, Dept. of Social Security and Risk Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R.China.

#2493

Dóra S. Bjarnason

#176902

Overall Influence

1947 - 2020 (73 years)

Dóra Sigríður Bjarnason was Professor Emerita in Sociology and Disability Studies/Inclusive Education in the School of Education at the University of Iceland. Professional career Dóra completed a BA degree in sociology from the University of Manchester, MA degree from Keele University and Dr. Phil. in Disability Studies-Special Education from the University of Oslo in 2003. In the fall of 1971, she began work at the Iceland University of Education as a part-time lecturer and she was tenured in 1981. She became professor at the Iceland University of Education in 2004, which in fall of 2008 bec...

#2494

Kathleen McPhillips

#185688

Overall Influence

Kathleen McPhillips is an Australian sociologist of religion and gender in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia and the current vice-president of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion.

#2495

Pearl Dykstra

#180661

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Pearl A. Dykstra is a Dutch social scientist with a background in sociology, psychology, gerontology and demography. She is a specialist on intergenerational solidarity, aging societies, family change, aging and the life course, and loneliness.

#2496

Cynthia Harrison

Cynthia Harrison

#117203

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Cynthia Ellen Harrison is a historian who taught at George Washington University. Harrison participated in activism that led to the Equal Credit Act of 1974 and is an advocate for gender equality. Early life Cynthia Ellen Harrison was born in October 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up and attended public schools in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents names were Herbert Harrison and Jean Hacken Harrison. Harrison was married 1970 and divorced in 1984. After, she had a long-term relationship with another man. Harrison has no children. She became an activist feminist in 1970, when she moved to Canada.

#2497

Ruby Blondell

#162424

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Ruby Blondell is Professor Emerita of Classics and Adjunct Professor Emerita of Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington; prior to retirement, they were the Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of Humanities also at the University of Washington. Their research centres on Greek intellectual history, gender studies, and the reception of ancient myth in contemporary culture.

#2498

Ray Oldenburg

#189381

Overall Influence

#2499

Stéphane Dion

#26822

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Stéphane Maurice Dion is a Canadian diplomat, academic and former politician who has been the Canadian ambassador to France and Monaco since 2022 and special envoy to the European Union since 2017. Dion was Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the Liberal Party from 2006 to 2008. He served in cabinets as intergovernmental affairs minister , environment minister , and foreign affairs minister .

#2500

Rupa Huq

#98069

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Rupa Asha Huq is a British Labour MP, columnist and academic. Elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Ealing Central and Acton at the 2015 general election, she was formerly a senior lecturer in sociology at Kingston University.

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