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).

Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …

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List of the most influential people

#2501

Alan Daugherty

#119223

Overall Influence

#2502

Michelle S. Hoo Fatt

#119226

Overall Influence

Michelle S. Hoo Fatt is an American mechanical engineer whose research concerns the mechanics of blasts, impacts, buckling, and the ability of sandwich-structured composite materials to resist blasts and ballistic impacts. She is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Akron.

#2503

Samuel G. Wildman

#119237

Overall Influence

1912 - 2004 (92 years)

Samuel Goodnow Wildman was an American biologist. Wildman joined the University of California, Los Angeles, as a professor of biology in 1950 and retired in 1979. Professor Wildman is best known for his leading work over several decades on "Fraction I protein" although his record of publications spanned more than 60 years in total. In 1979, the American Society of Plant Physiologists awarded him with the Charles Barnes Life Membership Award, placing him in company with notables such as Erwin Bünning.

#2504

Ying E. Zhang

#119266

Overall Influence

Ying E. Zhang is a Chinese-American biochemist specialized in TGF-beta signaling and functions of ubiquitin E3 ligase Smurfs to better understand cancer cells and metastasis. She is a senior investigator in the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the National Cancer Institute.

#2505

Anil Kumar Gupta

#119428

Overall Influence

#2506

Lawrence Grossman

#119507

Overall Influence

#2507

Parker MacCready

#119544

Overall Influence

Parker MacCready is an American oceanographer. He is a professor at the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. Early life and education MacCready was born and raised in Southern California to father Paul MacCready, an atmospheric scientist. Growing up in Pasadena, MacCready helped his father design the Bionic Bat and used it to break the world speed record for human-powered flight in 1984. MacCready completed his Bachelor of Science degre in architecture at Yale University and his Master of Science degree in engineering science at the California Institute of Technology. He finished his formal education with his PhD in physical oceanography from the University of Washington .

#2508

Len A. Pennacchio

#119557

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (25 years)

Len A. Pennacchio is an American molecular biologist, the head of the Genetic Analysis Program and the Genomic Technologies Program at the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California. Pennacchio did his undergraduate studies at Sonoma State University and then went on to graduate studies at Stanford University, receiving a Ph.D. in genetics in 1998. He became a research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1999, and joined the Joint Genome Institute in 2003. He retains his Lawrence Berkeley affiliation as well.

#2509

Jerome R. Vinograd

#119575

Overall Influence

#2510

Zhou Yaohe

#119587

Overall Influence

1927 - 2018 (91 years)

Zhou Yaohe was a Chinese materials scientist. He was elected as academician of the Chinese Academy of Science in 1991. Born in May 1927, Zhou attended Tsinghua University. He went to the Soviet Union in 1953, and returned to China with a Candidate of Sciences degree from the Moscow Institute of Steel, in 1957. He specialized in solidification theory and technology for metal casting, and developed a new method of metal casting, which is used to produce aluminium alloy for aerospace engineering. He received the highest award of Chinese aviation industry in 1991.

#2511

Andrew F. Nagy

#119607

Overall Influence

#2512

Ronald D. Schrimpf

Ronald D. Schrimpf

#119658

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (66 years)

Ronald D Schrimpf is an American electrical engineer and scientist. He is the Orrin H. Ingram Chair in Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. where his research activities focus on microelectronics and semiconductor devices. He is affiliated with the Radiation Effects and Reliability Group at Vanderbilt University where he works on the effects of radiation on semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. He also serves as the Director of the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics at Vanderbilt. He is best known for his work in the field of ioniz...

#2513

Peter Nellist

#119666

Overall Influence

Peter David Nellist, is a British physicist and materials scientist, currently a professor in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He is noted for pioneering new techniques in high-resolution electron microscopy.

#2514

Annabella Selloni

#119707

Overall Influence

#2515

Stanislav I. Braginsky

#119885

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (99 years)

Stanislav I. Braginsky was a Research Geophysicist at UCLA. In 1964 he contributed to models of the geodynamo with his theory of the "nearly symmetric dynamo", published 1964. He emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1988.

#2516

John M. Eiler

#119975

Overall Influence

#2517

Gabriel M. Rebeiz

#119985

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (61 years)

Gabriel M. Rebeiz is a Lebanese-American electrical and computer engineer, currently the Wireless Communications Industry Chair Chair and Professor at University of California, San Diego. He is the first to introduce MEMS and micromachining to the RF/microwave field by developing several novel components with this technology. He is also the pioneer of the integrated phased arrays for communication and defense systems. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2016 for contributions to radio frequency microelectromechanical systems and phased array technologies. He is ...

#2518

Ronald Paul Lepping

#120014

Overall Influence

#2519

Bengt Fornberg

#120119

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (79 years)

#2520

John J. Stegeman

#120120

Overall Influence

#2521

Jane Grimson

#120238

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (76 years)

Jane Grimson , is an Irish computer engineer. She is Fellow Emerita and Pro-Chancellor at Trinity College Dublin. Education Grimson attended Alexandra College Dublin. She was the first woman to graduate in engineering from Trinity College Dublin obtaining a first class honors degree and gold medal in 1970. She received a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1971, and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1981.

#2522

Amie K. Boal

#120271

Overall Influence

Amie Kathleen Boal is an American chemist. She is an associate professor of chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University. In 2020, Boal was the recipient of the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.

#2523

Randall V Martin

#120293

Overall Influence

#2524

Roger Thomas James Phillips

#120455

Overall Influence

#2525

Peter W. Bates

#120522

Overall Influence

Peter W. Bates is a professor of mathematics at Michigan State University. Bates received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1976. In 2012, Bates became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

#2526

Walter J. D. Annand

#120589

Overall Influence

1920 - 2002 (82 years)

Walter "Gus" John Dinnie Annand was a Scottish aeronautical research engineer, academic and author. Biography Annand was born 21 August 1920 in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the younger brother of the painter and film-maker Louise Gibson Annand and like his sister was educated at the Hamilton Academy school, where their father was English principal. Graduating in 1940 from the University of Glasgow, with first class honours in mechanical engineering.

#2527

Kimford J. Meador

#120619

Overall Influence

#2528

Tyler B. Coplen

#120653

Overall Influence

#2529

Xie Chen

#120669

Overall Influence

1984 - Present (41 years)

Xie Chen is a Chinese physicist and a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Her work covers both the field of condensed matter physics and quantum information, with a focus on many-body quantum mechanical systems with unconventional emergent phenomena. She won the 2020 New Horizons in Physics Prize for "incisive contributions to the understanding of topological states of matter and the relationships between them"

#2530

Peter Hislop

#120673

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (70 years)

Peter D. Hislop is an American mathematician, formerly the Ralph E. and Norma L. Edwards Research Professor and University Research Professor , at the University of Kentucky, and also a published author.

#2531

Nancy Yuk-yu Chu Ip

#120773

Overall Influence

#2532

Stuart Linn

#120778

Overall Influence

#2533

Lizy John

#120901

Overall Influence

Lizy Kurian John is an Indian American electrical engineer, who is currently the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. in computer engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 1993. She joined The University of Texas Austin faculty in 1996. Her research is in the areas of computer architecture, multicore processors, memory systems, performance evaluation and benchmarking, workload characterization, and reconfigurable computing.

#2534

David M. Brienza

David M. Brienza

#120918

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (61 years)

David M. Brienza is a professor of rehabilitation science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. He holds additional professorial appointments in bioengineering and electrical engineering.

#2535

Alasdair C. Steven

#120993

Overall Influence

#2536

Judith Hall

#121037

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (74 years)

Judith Hall is an American poet. Biography Judith Hall is the author of five poetry collections, including To Put The Mouth To , selected for the National Poetry Series by Richard Howard; Three Trios , her translations of the imaginary poet JII ; and, most recently, Prospects . She also collaborated with David Lehman on Poetry Forum which she illustrated.

#2537

Olof Ljungström

#121067

Overall Influence

1918 - 2013 (95 years)

Gustaf Olof "Olle" Ljungström was a Swedish engineer. He was a visiting professor in aircraft design at Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology in the United States. Biography Olof Ljungström was born in 1918 as the son of Fredrik Ljungström and Signe . He studied at Whitlockska samskolan, and studied aeronautics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He undertook military service as an automotive engineer in the Swedish Air Force in 1939 and 1940. He acquired a Ph.D. in transportation and aviation technology at the Royal Institute of Technology in 1973.

#2538

James Caruthers

#121124

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (75 years)

James M. Caruthers is an American chemical engineer, currently Gerald and Sarah Skidmore Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University and an Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. Caruthers got his S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975, 1976 and 1977, respectively.

#2539

Szymon Suckewer

#121235

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (87 years)

Szymon Suckewer is a Polish-born American physicist, and professor emeritus at Princeton University. His primary fields of interest include X-ray lasers, and X-ray microscopy, particularly the generation of ultrashort laser pulses which are applied in plasma diagnostics.

#2540

Andrew M. Stuart

#121264

Overall Influence

#2541

Kikuo Okuyama

#121357

Overall Influence

#2542

James L. Kinsey

#121367

Overall Influence

1934 - 2014 (80 years)

James L. Kinsey was an American chemist, and D. R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor at Rice University. He won the 1995 Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy. He was a 1969 Guggenheim Fellow. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

#2543

Kodi Ravichandran

#121433

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (61 years)

Kodimangalam S. Ravichandran is a U.S. immunologist and a leading researcher in the area of how we remove billions of dying cells in the body on a daily basis, and how such dead cell removal impacts many human inflammatory diseases . Dr. Kodi Ravichandran obtained his degree in Veterinary Medicine from Madras Veterinary College in 1987. During the last two years of Veterinary School, he became interested in the molecular biology of cellular processes, and how specific drugs function at a molecular level. This led to his pursuing a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the United States.

#2544

Mary Galvin

#121436

Overall Influence

Mary E. Galvin is an American scientist and the former Dean of the University of Notre Dame College of Science. She earned her BA in chemistry at Manhattanville College and her MSc and PhD degrees in polymers and materials science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Galvin worked at Bell Laboratories following the completion of her doctorate work until 1998, when she joined the faculty at the University of Delaware. In 2005, Galvin entered the private sector as a technical lead in new technology development at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. In 2013, she became the director of the M...

#2545

Sidney Ochs

#121460

Overall Influence

#2546

Tom Tombrello

#121577

Overall Influence

1936 - 2014 (78 years)

Tom Tombrello was a Caltech H. Goddard Professor of Physics. He earned B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in physics, all at Rice University. He studied nuclear reactions in the 1960s, which helped show how chemical elements are created.

#2547

Loren Williams

#121700

Overall Influence

Loren Dean Williams is a biophysicist, biochemist, astrobiologist, and professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. His research seeks to understand the structural basis for macromolecular reactions, from the role of nucleic acids as targets of chemotherapeutics to the ancestral biochemistry of the ribosome during the origin of life.

#2548

Jeroen Tromp

#121750

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (59 years)

#2549

Tehshik Yoon

#121797

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (50 years)

Tehshik Peter Yoon is a Canadian-born chemist who studies the new reaction methods for organic synthesis with the use of catalysis. Yoon currently is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the chemistry department. For his contributions to science, he has received numerous awards including the Beckman Young Investigator Award and National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

#2550

Josette Bellan

#121819

Overall Influence

Josette Bellan is a Romanian-French-American aerospace engineer and fluid dynamicist known for her research on turbulence in high-pressure reactions, and on the interactions between fluid dynamics and thermodynamics in these reactions. She is a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and visiting associate in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering of the California Institute of Technology .

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