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

#9551

Thomas S. Popkewitz

#9561

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Thomas S. Popkewitz is an professor in the department of curriculum and instruction, University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, US. His studies explore historically and contemporary education as practices of making different kinds of people that distribute differences . He has written or edited approximately 40 books and 300 articles in journals and book chapters translated into 17 languages. Recent studies focus on the comparative reason of educational research as cartographies and architectures that produce phantasmagrams of societies, population and differences. The studies e...

#9552

Arnold Mindell

#9562

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Arnold Mindell is an American author, therapist, and teacher in the fields of transpersonal psychology, body psychotherapy, social change, and spirituality. He is known for extending Jungian dream analysis to body symptoms, promoting ideas of 'deep democracy,' and interpreting concepts from physics and mathematics in psychological terms. Mindell is the founder of process oriented psychology, or process work, a development of Jungian psychology influenced by Taoism, shamanism, and physics.

#9553

Regina Peruggi

#9563

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Regina Peruggi was born in 1947, and is a renowned educator, fundraiser, and activist. Peruggi is originally from The Bronx and earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the College of New Rochelle. She then obtained a Master of Business Administration from New York University and a Doctor of Education from Columbia University. Peruggi has been responsible for growth and expansion at several universities including (where she was able to double enrollment in 11 years) and Kingsborough Community College (which was named one of the top four community colleges in the US during her tenure). Per...

#9554

Vladimir Boltyansky

#9564

Overall Influence

1925 - 2019 (94 years)

Vladimir Grigorevich Boltyansky , also transliterated as Boltyanski, Boltyanskii, or Boltjansky, was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, educator and author of popular mathematical books and articles. He was best known for his books on topology, combinatorial geometry and Hilbert's third problem.

#9555

Gordon G. Gallup

#9565

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Gordon G. Gallup Jr. is an American psychologist in the University at Albany's psychology department, researching biopsychology. Early life and education Gallup received his Ph.D. from Washington State University in 1968, after which he joined the faculty of the psychology department at Tulane University.

#9556

William DeVries

William DeVries

#9566

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

William Castle DeVries is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, mainly known for the first transplant of a TAH using the Jarvik-7 model. Early years and Medical School William DeVries was born December 19, 1943, in Brooklyn Navy Yard. His father, Henry DeVries, was a Dutch immigrant who died in combat on the destroyer in 1944 during the Battle of Hollandia, where he had enrolled as a naval surgeon. When his father died William was only six months old. He was raised by his grandmother and his mother who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until he was five. After hi...

#9557

Guido Tabellini

#9567

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Guido Enrico Tabellini is an Italian economist, rector of Bocconi University from November 2008 until July 2012. Tabellini received his Laurea in 1980 from the University of Turin, and his Ph.D. in 1984 from UCLA. He first taught at Stanford, then at UCLA, and later in Italy. He is past president of the European Economic Association. He was consultant to the World Bank and Italian government.

#9558

Niyi Osundare

#9568

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Niyi Osundare is a leading African poet, dramatist, linguist, and literary critic. Born on March 12, 1947, in Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria, his poetry is influenced by the oral poetry of his Yoruba culture, which he capaciously hybridizes with other poetic traditions of the world, including African-American, Latin American, Asian, and European.

#9559

John N. Warfield

#9569

Overall Influence

1925 - 2009 (84 years)

John Nelson Warfield was an American systems scientist, who was professor and director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Integrative Sciences at George Mason University, and president of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.

#9560

Ben Barres

#9570

Overall Influence

1954 - 2017 (63 years)

Ben A. Barres was an American neurobiologist at Stanford University. His research focused on the interaction between neurons and glial cells in the nervous system. Beginning in 2008, he was chair of the Neurobiology Department at Stanford University School of Medicine. He transitioned to male in 1997, and became the first openly transgender scientist in the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.

#9561

Richard Middleton

#9571

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Richard Middleton FBA is Emeritus Professor of Music at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is also the founder and co-ordinating editor of the journal Popular Music. Education Middleton studied at Clare College, Cambridge and at the University of York, where his PhD was supervised by Wilfrid Mellers.

#9562

Dileep George

#9572

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (49 years)

Dileep George is an artificial intelligence and neuroscience researcher. Career George received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2006 and was a visiting fellow at the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley.

#9563

Oliver Penrose

#9573

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (97 years)

Oliver Penrose is a British theoretical physicist. He is the son of the scientist Lionel Penrose and brother of the mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, chess Grandmaster Jonathan Penrose, and geneticist Shirley Hodgson. He was associated with the Open University for seventeen years and was a Professor of Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh from 1986 until his retirement in 1994. He has the title of Professor Emeritus at Heriot-Watt, and remains active in research there. His topics of interest include statistical mechanics, phase transitions in metals and the physical chemistry of surfactants.

#9564

Eddie Mabo

#9574

Overall Influence

1936 - 1992 (56 years)

Edward Koiki Mabo was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights in Australia, in particular the landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that recognised that indigenous rights to land had continued after the British Crown acquired sovereignty and that the international law doctrine of terra nullius was not applicable to Australian domestic law. High court judges considering the case Mabo v Queensland found in favour of Mabo, which led to the Native Title Act 1993 and established native title in Australia, ...

#9565

Wilbert Awdry

#9575

Overall Influence

1911 - 1997 (86 years)

Wilbert Vere Awdry , often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He is best remembered as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several other characters who appeared in his Railway Series.

#9566

Sally Haslanger

Sally Haslanger

#9576

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

#9567

Fumiko Yonezawa

#9577

Overall Influence

1938 - 2019 (81 years)

Fumiko Yonezawa was a Japanese theoretical physicist. She was the first woman to be appointed as the President of the Physical Society of Japan and the first Japanese to have studied at Keele University, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. She was one of the founding members of the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, Japan. Her research covered semi-conductors and liquid metals. She led a group of scientists and pioneered in visualising computer simulation.

#9568

Valerius Geist

#9578

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

Valerius Geist was a Canadian biologist and a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. He was a specialist on the biology, behavior, and social dynamics of North American large mammals , and well respected on his views of Neanderthal people and behavior.

#9569

Pierre Michel

#9579

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Pierre Michel , is a professor of literature and a scholar specializing in the French writer Octave Mirbeau. Michel was born in Toulon, the son of the historian Henri Michel. After defending his doctoral dissertation on the works of Octave Mirbeau at the University of Angers in 1992, Michel founded a year later, the "Société Octave Mirbeau", a literary society he is currently presiding. He is also the founder and editor in chief of Cahiers Octave Mirbeau .

#9570

Philip Reeve

#9580

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Philip Reeve is a British author and illustrator of children's books, primarily known for the 2001 book Mortal Engines and its sequels . His 2007 novel, Here Lies Arthur, based on the legendary King Arthur, won the Carnegie Medal.

#9571

Étienne Ghys

#9581

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Étienne Ghys is a French mathematician. His research focuses mainly on geometry and dynamical systems, though his mathematical interests are broad. He also expresses much interest in the historical development of mathematical ideas, especially the contributions of Henri Poincaré.

#9572

Brian Boyd

#9582

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Brian David Boyd is a professor of literature known primarily as an expert on the life and works of author Vladimir Nabokov and on literature and evolution. He is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

#9573

David A. Hounshell

#9583

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

David Allen Hounshell is an American academic. He is the David M. Roderick Professor of Technology and Social Change in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Department of History, and the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He is known for his work of the history of research and development and industrial research in the United States, particularly at DuPont.

#9574

Ed Boon

#9584

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Ed Boon is a video game programmer, voice actor, and director. Boon was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games. Since 2011, he has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its daughter company NetherRealm Studios.

#9575

Carol T. Christ

#9585

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Carol Tecla Christ is an American academic administrator. In March 2017, she was named the 11th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, the first woman to hold that position. She succeeded outgoing Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks on July 1, 2017.

#9576

Richard Zeckhauser

Richard Zeckhauser

#9586

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Richard Jay Zeckhauser is an American economist and the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. He holds a BA and a PhD in economics from Harvard University. Early in his career, he was one of the "whiz kids" assembled by Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara to apply cutting-edge analysis to Cold War military strategy. He is married to Sally H. Zeckhauser.

#9577

James F. Conant

#9587

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

James Ferguson Conant is an American philosopher at the University of Chicago who has written extensively on topics in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaphilosophy. He is perhaps best known for his writings on Wittgenstein, and his association with the New Wittgenstein school of Wittgenstein interpretation initiated by Cora Diamond.

#9578

Phillip D. Cagan

#9588

Overall Influence

1927 - 2012 (85 years)

Phillip David Cagan was an American scholar and author. He was Professor of Economics Emeritus at Columbia University. Biography Born in Seattle, Washington, Cagan and his family moved to Southern California shortly thereafter. Cagan joined the U.S. Navy at age 17 and fought in World War II. After the war, Cagan decided to go to college, and earned his B.A. from UCLA in 1948. Cagan received his M.A. in 1951, and his Ph.D. in Economics in 1954 from the University of Chicago.

#9579

Roger Bannister

Roger Bannister

#9589

Overall Influence

1929 - 2018 (89 years)

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres and finished in fourth place. This achievement strengthened his resolve to become the first athlete to finish the mile run in under four minutes. He accomplished this feat on 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. When the announcer, Norris McWhirter, declared "The time was three...", the cheers of the crowd drowned out Bannister's exact time, which was 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds.

#9580

Robert Harper

#9590

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Robert William "Bob" Harper, Jr. is a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University who works in programming language research. Prior to his position at Carnegie Mellon, Harper was a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.

#9581

Moshe David Tendler

Moshe David Tendler

#9591

Overall Influence

1926 - 2021 (95 years)

Moshe David Tendler was an American rabbi, professor of biology and expert in medical ethics. He served as chairman of the biology department at Yeshiva University. Biography Moshe David Tendler was born in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City on August 7, 1926. He received his B.A. degree from New York University in 1947 and a master's degree in 1950. He was ordained at the Yeshiva University-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1949, and earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from Columbia University in 1957.

#9582

Tony Hoffer

#9592

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Tony Hoffer is an American record producer, songwriter, and music mixer. Career Hoffer is credited for his work on multiple platinum-selling albums including The Kooks, The Thrills, Beck, Supergrass, Turin Brakes and Air. His records have been nominated for 7 Grammys and British Mercury Prize Awards for his work with Beck, M83, Chromeo, Silversun Pickups, Depeche Mode and The Thrills.

#9583

Jeanne Gang

#9593

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Jeanne Gang is an American architect and the founder and leader of Studio Gang , an architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. Gang was first widely recognized for the Aqua Tower, the tallest woman-designed building in the world at the time of its completion. Aqua has since been surpassed by the nearby St. Regis Chicago, also of her design. Surface has called Gang one of Chicago's most prominent architects of her generation, and her projects have been widely awarded.

#9584

Richard Baldwin

Richard Baldwin

#9594

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Richard E. Baldwin is a professor of international economics at the IMD Business School and emeritus professor of international economics at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He was the former President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research . He is Editor-in-Chief of VoxEU, which he founded in June 2007. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and was twice elected as a Member of the Council of the European Economic Association. Baldwin has been called "one of the most important thinkers in this era of global disruption"...

#9585

Aydın Sayılı

#9595

Overall Influence

1913 - 1993 (80 years)

Aydın Sayılı was a prominent Turkish historian of science. Sayılı's portrait is depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 5 lira banknote issued in 2009. Early life and education Sayılı was born in Istanbul on 2 May 1913. His parents were Abdurrahman Sayılı and Suat Sayılı . He had two sisters. Sayılı graduated from Atatürk High School in Ankara in 1933. His career was aided by a chance meeting with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whom he impressed enough to receive a state-supported scholarship to attend Harvard University, where he studied the history of science.

#9586

Benjamin Ladner

#9596

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Benjamin Mance Ladner is an academic expert in the fields of philosophy and religion. He was president of American University from 1994 to 2005, when he was ousted. His areas of professional interest and research are international relations and the role of higher education; education administration; religion and contemporary culture; and NCAA collegiate athletics.

#9587

Lauchlin Currie

Lauchlin Currie

#9597

Overall Influence

1902 - 1993 (91 years)

Lauchlin Bernard Currie was an economist who worked as White House economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II . From 1949 to 1953, he directed a major World Bank mission to Colombia and related studies.

#9588

H. Patrick Glenn

#9598

Overall Influence

1940 - 2014 (74 years)

H. Patrick Glenn was the Peter M. Laing Professor at the Faculty of Law at McGill University. He specialized in comparative law, private international law, and civil procedure. Biography Glenn was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1940. He studied law at Queen's University and Harvard Law School and earned his doctorate in law at Strasbourg.

#9589

Rohini Kesavan Srihari

#9599

Overall Influence

Rohini Kesavan Srihari is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Content Savvy Inc., a high-technology company in Western New York. Prior to this she founded Cymfony Inc., which specializes in brand analytics. She also founded Cymfony Net Private Limited in Bangalore, India. She also holds a position as Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA.

#9590

Ralph L. Brinster

Ralph L. Brinster

#9600

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (94 years)

Ralph Lawrence Brinster is an American geneticist, National Medal of Science laureate, and Richard King Mellon Professor of Reproductive Physiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

#9591

Ivor Crewe

#9601

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Sir Ivor Martin Crewe DL FAcSS was until 2020 the Master of University College, Oxford, and President of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex and also a Professor in the Department of Government at Essex.

#9592

Michael Longley

Michael Longley

#9602

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Michael Longley, , is an Irish poet. Life and career One of twin boys, Michael Longley was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to English parents, Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus. He was the Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2007 to 2010, a cross-border academic post set up in 1998, previously held by John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Paul Durcan. He was succeeded in 2010 by Harry Clifton. North American editions of Longley's work are published by Wake Forest University Pres...

#9593

Jesse Shapiro

#9603

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Jesse M. Shapiro is an American economist and academic. He is the George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard University, having previously held the George S. and Nancy B. Parker Professorship at Brown University. In 2021, Shapiro was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

#9594

Rupert Goold

#9604

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Rupert Goold is an English director who works primarily in theatre. He is the artistic director of the Almeida Theatre, and was the artistic director of Headlong Theatre Company . Early years Goold was born in Highgate, England, a suburb of north London. His father was a management consultant, and his mother was an author of children's books. He attended the independent University College School, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1994 with a First in English literature and studied performance studies at New York University on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was trainee director at Don...

#9595

Robin Wilson

#9605

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Robin James Wilson is an emeritus professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Open University, having previously been Head of the Pure Mathematics Department and Dean of the Faculty. He was a stipendiary lecturer at Pembroke College, Oxford and, , Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, where he has also been a visiting professor. On occasion, he teaches at Colorado College in the United States. He is also a long standing fellow of Keble College, Oxford.

#9596

Dave Bayer

#9606

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

David Allen Bayer is an American mathematician known for his contributions in algebra and symbolic computation and for his consulting work in the movie industry. He is a professor of mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University.

#9597

Kenneth L. Hale

Kenneth L. Hale

#9607

Overall Influence

1934 - 2001 (67 years)

Kenneth Locke Hale , also known as Ken Hale, was an American linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studied a huge variety of previously unstudied and often endangered languages—especially indigenous languages of North America and Australia. Languages investigated by Hale include Navajo, O'odham, Warlpiri, and Ulwa.

#9598

Noriaki Kano

#9608

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Noriaki Kano is a Japanese educator, lecturer, writer, and consultant in the field of quality management. He is the developer of a customer satisfaction model whose simple ranking scheme distinguishes between essential and differentiating attributes related to concepts of customer quality. He is a professor emeritus of the Tokyo University of Science. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Rome III during the academic year 2010-2011.

#9599

Lila Abu-Lughod

Lila Abu-Lughod

#9609

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Lila Abu-Lughod is a Palestinian-American anthropologist. She is the Joseph L. Buttenweiser Professor of Social Science in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York City. She specializes in ethnographic research in the Arab world, and her seven books cover topics including sentiment and poetry, nationalism and media, gender politics and the politics of memory.

#9600

Robert Sommer

#9610

Overall Influence

1929 - 2021 (92 years)

Robert Sommer is an internationally known Environmental Psychologist and held the position of Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. Sommer wrote 14 books and over 600 articles, he was best known for his book Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design , which discusses the influence of the environment on human activities.

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