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

#27201

David Sive

#27212

Overall Influence

1922 - 2014 (92 years)

David Sive was an American attorney, environmentalist, and professor of environmental law, who has been recognized as a pioneer in the field of United States environmental law. Early life and education Sive was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 22, 1922, the son of Abraham Sive and Rebecca Sive. As a teenager, his growing love for the outdoors and fascination with the American wilderness, as well as his interest in the writings of Thoreau, Emerson, and Wordsworth, led him to a lifelong passion for the natural environment, to wilderness preservation and environmental protection. Hiking...

#27202

Jacobo Grinberg

#27213

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (80 years)

Jacobo Grinberg Zylberbaum , known as Jacobo Grinberg was a Mexican pseudoscientist, neurophysiologist and psychologist. He studied Mexican shamanism, Eastern disciplines, meditation, astrology and telepathy, using his own interpretation of a scientific method. He wrote more than 50 books about these subjects. Grinberg disappeared in December 1994.

#27203

Giulia Zanderighi

#27214

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (52 years)

Giulia Zanderighi is an Italian-born theoretical physicist born in 1974. She is the first woman director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics. Education Giulia Zanderighi received her undergraduate degree from the University of Milan in 1998 and her PhD in physics from the University of Pavia in 2001.

#27204

Qin Hui

#27215

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Qin Hui is a Chinese historian and public intellectual. He previously held the position of Professor of History, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is now an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Government and Public Administration, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

#27205

Fiodar Fiodaraŭ

#27216

Overall Influence

1911 - 1994 (83 years)

Fiodar Fiodaraŭ, , was a Soviet and Belarusian physicist, whose scientific interests ranged from optics and spectroscopy to the theory of elementary particles. Biography He was born in the village Turets in Karelichy Raion, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus. He was a son of village school teachers, but his father, Ivan Michaiłavič Fiodaraŭ, later became a famous Belarusian writer.

#27206

Stephen Thomas Knight

#27217

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Stephen Thomas Knight MA , PhD , F.A.H.A., F.E.A. was, until September 2011, a distinguished research professor in English literature at Cardiff University; and is a professorial fellow of Literature at the University of Melbourne. His areas of expertise include medieval English and European literature, Robin Hood, Merlin, cultural studies, crime fiction, and Australian matters. He has authored over thirty books, and is well known in the public sphere for his contribution to a range of fields. His most recent books have been The Politics of Myth , Towards Sherlock Holmes: A Thematic History o...

#27207

Arthur Lander

#27218

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Arthur D. Lander an American biologist who is Director of the Center for Complex Biological Systems at the University of California, Irvine. Education He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and is an alumnus of John Dewey High School there. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a combined M.D., Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, under the direction of Louis Reichardt. His first faculty position was jointly in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Department of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He moved as Professor to Irvine...

#27208

Dave Davies

#27219

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

David Russell Gordon Davies is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the English rock band the Kinks, which also featured his elder brother Ray. Davies also sometimes undertook writing and/or lead vocals duties within the band on songs such as "Death of a Clown", "Party Line", "Strangers" and "Rats". He has also embarked on a solo career, releasing several singles during the late 1960s and has since released eight solo albums.

#27209

Ian H. White

#27220

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Ian Hugh White DL is a British businessman, academic, and engineer who currently serves as vice-chancellor for the University of Bath. His previous roles include Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, deputy vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge, van Eck Professor of Engineering, and head of the Photonic Research Group, comprising CMMPE, Centre for Photonic Systems, and Photonics and Sensors, in the Cambridge University Engineering Department.

#27210

Epeli Hauʻofa

#27221

Overall Influence

1939 - 2009 (70 years)

Epeli Hauʻofa was a Tongan and Fijian writer and anthropologist born of Tongan missionary parents in the Territory of Papua. He lived in Fiji and taught at the University of the South Pacific . He was the founder of the Oceania Centre for Arts at the USP.

#27211

Mayfair Yang

#27222

Overall Influence

Mayfair Yang or Yang Meihui is a Taiwanese-American cultural anthropologist of China. Her research focuses on modernity, religion and secularism, state formation, religious environmentalism, China Studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, and media studies.

#27212

Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini

#27223

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress and model. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme model and an established career in American cinema.

#27213

Naoko Takeuchi

#27224

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Naoko Takeuchi is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known as the author of Sailor Moon, one of the most popular manga series of all time. She has won several awards, including the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award for Sailor Moon.

#27214

Glenn Hook

#27225

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Glenn Dawson Hook is a British academic, author and Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield. Early life Hook earned a 1997 Ph.D. in Political Science at Chuo University in Tokyo.

#27215

Ann Swidler

#27226

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Ann Swidler is an American sociologist and professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Swidler is most commonly known as a cultural sociologist and authored one of the most-cited articles in sociology, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies".

#27216

Azyumardi Azra

#27227

Overall Influence

1955 - 2022 (67 years)

Azyumardi Azra was an Indonesian public intellectual, Muslim scholar and Rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta. He graduated from Department of History, Columbia University in 1992. He was known as a prolific books writer; member of advisory board of a number of international organizations such as UN Democracy Fund , International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance . After serving as Rector at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, he was the Director of Graduate School.

#27217

Hasan Abdullayev

Hasan Abdullayev

#27228

Overall Influence

1918 - 1993 (75 years)

Hasan Abdullayev was a leading Soviet and Azerbaijani physicist, scientist and public official, who served as President of the National Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR. He was a Doctor of Sciences in physics and mathematics, Professor of physics and mathematics, Director of the Institute of Mathematics and Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR, full Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR, corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1970-1983 was the longest-serving President of the National Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR.

#27218

Curt Rice

#27229

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Curtis Calvin Rice is an American-born Norwegian linguist. He was the rector of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences from 2021 to 2023. Until 2021, he was the rector of Oslo Metropolitan University and formerly of its predecessor institution, Oslo and Akershus University College. Rice was the first rector of Oslo Metropolitan University who was not elected. He began his rectorship at Oslo Metropolitan University on 1 August 2015. A major issue of his tenure as rector has been the question of whether HiOA should apply for the status of a university to become one of Norway's new universities; it received this status on 12 January 2018.

#27219

Christopher Gutteridge

#27230

Overall Influence

Christopher Gutteridge is a Systems, Information and Web programmer, part of the IT Innovation team in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He is known for being the lead developer for GNU EPrints and for being an advocate for Open Data, Linked Data and the Open Web.

#27220

Mark Leier

#27231

Overall Influence

Mark Leier is a Canadian historian and, since 1994, a professor of working class and left-wing history at Simon Fraser University . From 2000 to 2010, he was the director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser.

#27221

Allen Grossman

#27232

Overall Influence

1932 - 2014 (82 years)

Allen R. Grossman was a noted American poet, critic and professor. Biography Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1932, Grossman was educated at Harvard University, graduating with an MA in 1956 after several interruptions. He went on to receive a PhD from Brandeis University in 1960, where he remained a professor until 1991. In 1991, he became the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University where until 2005 he taught in the English Department, primarily focusing on poetry and poetics. He continued to write after his retirement from teaching.

#27222

André Tosel

#27233

Overall Influence

1941 - 2017 (76 years)

André Tosel was a French Marxist philosopher and academic administrator. He taught Philosophy at the University of Franche-Comté and Pantheon-Sorbonne University until he became a full professor of philosophy at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. He served as its vice president from 1992 to 1998, and as the director of its Center for the History of Ideas from 1998 to 2003. He was the author of several books about Marxism and Marxist theorists.

#27223

Scotty Moore

#27234

Overall Influence

1931 - 2016 (85 years)

Winfield Scott Moore III was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968. Rock critic Dave Marsh credits Moore with inventing power chords, on the 1957 Elvis hit "Jailhouse Rock", the intro of which Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana, according to the latter, "copped from a '40s swing version of 'The Anvil Chorus"." Moore was ranked 29th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

#27224

Joel Myerson

#27235

Overall Influence

1945 - 2021 (76 years)

Joel Myerson was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina. He edited many books about the works of such American literary figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman.

#27225

Hamid Mowlana

#27236

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Hamid Mowlana is an Iranian-American author and academic. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations in the School of International Services at American University in Washington, D.C. He was an advisor to the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

#27226

Alex Zanardi

#27237

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again in 1999; his best result was a sixth-place finish in the 1993 Brazilian GP. He returned to CART in 2001, but a major crash in the 2001 American Memorial resulted in the amputation of his legs. He returned to racing less than two years after the accident; competing in the European Touring Car Championship in 2003–2004 and then in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005 ...

#27227

Harris Hartz

#27238

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Harris L Hartz is an American jurist and lawyer who serves as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Early life and education Hartz was born in 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Farmington, New Mexico, and graduated from Farmington High School in 1963 as valedictorian. He then studied physics at Harvard University, graduating in 1967 with an A.B. summa cum laude.

#27228

Pythagoras

#27239

Overall Influence

Pythagoras was a freedman of the Roman emperor Nero, whom he married in a public ceremony in which the emperor took the role of bride. Life Little is known about Pythagoras' background except that he was a freedman who accompanied Nero.

#27229

Julian Thomas

#27240

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Julian Stewart Thomas is a British archaeologist, publishing on the Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistory of Britain and north-west Europe. Thomas has been vice president of the Royal Anthropological Institute since 2007. He has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Manchester since 2000, and is former secretary of the World Archaeological Congress. Thomas is perhaps best known as the author of the academic publication Understanding the Neolithic in particular, and for his work with the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

#27230

Steven Kleiman

#27241

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Steven Lawrence Kleiman is an American mathematician. Professional career Kleiman is a professor emeritus of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Born in Boston, he did his undergraduate studies at MIT. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1965, after studying there with Oscar Zariski and David Mumford, and joined the MIT faculty in 1969. Kleiman held the prestigious NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship , Sloan Fellowship , and Guggenheim Fellowship .

#27231

Werner Buchholz

#27242

Overall Influence

1922 - 2019 (97 years)

Werner Buchholz was a German-American computer scientist. After growing up in Europe, Buchholz moved to Canada and then to the United States. He worked for International Business Machines in New York. In June 1956, he coined the term "byte" for a unit of digital information. In 1990, he was recognized as a computer pioneer by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

#27232

Hershel Jick

#27243

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Hershel M. Jick is an American medical researcher and associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, where he was formerly the director of the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program.

#27233

Sally Mason

#27244

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Sally Kay Mason is an American academic administrator. She became the 20th president of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, on August 1, 2007. She retired on August 1, 2015. Early life and education Mason was born Sally Viparina in New York and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology, and as such was the first member of her family to graduate from college. She then earned a Master of Science from Purdue University in 1974, followed by a Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Arizona in cellular, molecular, a...

#27234

Paul Justin Compton

#27245

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Paul Compton is an Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales . He was also the former Head of the UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering. He is known for proposing "ripple-down rules".

#27235

Paul Hiebert

#27246

Overall Influence

1932 - 2007 (75 years)

Paul Gordon Hiebert was an American missiologist. He was "arguably the world's leading missiological anthropologist." Biography Hiebert was born in India to missionary parents, and studied at Tabor College, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, and the University of Minnesota.

#27236

Alisyn Camerota

Alisyn Camerota

#27247

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Alisyn Camerota is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator for CNN. She formerly was an anchor of CNN's morning show New Day, a co-host of the afternoon edition of CNN Newsroom, she also served as host of CNN Tonight from 2022 to 2023 as well as a presenter at Fox News. Camerota has covered stories nationally and internationally and has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award for news reporting.

#27237

Kenji Tokitsu

#27248

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

is a Japanese author and practitioner of Japanese martial arts. Tokitsu has also written a scholarly work about the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. He holds doctorates in sociology and in Japanese language and civilization.

#27238

Blu

#27249

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (46 years)

Blu is the pseudonym of an Italian artist who conceals his real identity. He was born in Senigallia. He lives in Bologna and has been active in street art since 1999. Places Central and South America Blu's nomadic spirit peaked in 2005. From the end of that year, Blu spent most of his time jumping from place to place in self-guided travels, linking his itineraries to the festivals to which he was invited. During that time, he collaborated with Ericailcane and several artists from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras in a festival in Managua called "Murales de Octubre." During the f...

#27239

Henk J. M. Bos

#27250

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Hendrik Jan Maarten "Henk" Bos is a Dutch historian of mathematics. Career Hendrik was a student of Hans Freudenthal and Jerome Ravetz at Utrecht University and in 1973 wrote a thesis "Differentials, higher order differentials, and the derivative in the Leibnizian calculus" for his doctorate.

#27240

Larry J. Sechrest

Larry J. Sechrest

#27251

Overall Influence

1946 - 2008 (62 years)

Larry James Sechrest was an American economist who advocated the ideas of the Austrian School. He was a professor of economics at Sul Ross State University and was director of the university's Free Enterprise Institute.

#27241

Nalini Nadkarni

Nalini Nadkarni

#27252

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Nalini Nadkarni is an American forest ecologist who pioneered the study of Costa Rican rain forest canopies. Using mountain climbing equipment to make her ascent, Nadkarni first took an inventory of the canopy in 1981, followed by two more inventories in 1984. She is also known with a characteristic nickname, «the queen of the forest canopy».

#27242

Hinemoa Elder

#27253

Overall Influence

Hinemoa Elder is a New Zealand youth forensic psychiatrist and former television presenter. She is a professor in indigenous research at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and sits on the Māori Advisory Committee of the Centre for Brain Research.

#27243

Scott Walker

#27254

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Scott Kevin Walker is an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Milwaukee County executive from 2002 to 2010.

#27244

Kenneth L. Johnson

#27255

Overall Influence

1925 - 2015 (90 years)

Kenneth Langstreth Johnson FRS FREng was a British engineer, Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge from 1977 to 1992 and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Most of his research was in the areas of tribology and contact mechanics.

#27245

José Barluenga

#27256

Overall Influence

1940 - 2016 (76 years)

José Joaquín Barluenga Mur was a Spanish chemist known for his research in organometallic chemistry. He was a professor of chemistry at Oviedo University until his retirement in 2014. Early life and education Barluenga was born in Tardienta , Spain, where he spent his childhood and attended primary school. He studied chemistry at the University of Zaragoza with Professor V. Gómez Aranda. In 1967, he moved to Germany and, after a postdoctoral appointment at the Max-Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr , he returned to Spain to hold research positions at the Spanish Cou...

#27246

Fereydoun Davatchi

#27257

Overall Influence

Fereydoun Davatchi is the director of Rheumatology Research Center in Tehran University of Medical sciences. Davatchi studied medicine in France and received d'Etat Diploma in Rheumatology from Paris University. He is currently full professor of medicine in Tehran University of Medical Sciences. He established modern Rheumatology in Iran and trained most of the Iranian Rheumatologists who are working and researching Rheumatology in medical universities of Iran.

#27247

Shawn Marion

#27258

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Shawn Dwayne Marion is an American former professional basketball player who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association . Marion finished his career as a four-time NBA All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Team and a one-time NBA champion, helping the Dallas Mavericks win their maiden title in 2011. Nicknamed "The Matrix" by former NBA player Kenny Smith during the preseason of his rookie year, he was widely regarded as one of the most versatile players in the league because of his athleticism and ability to play and defend many positions. He was also known for his unorthod...

#27248

Elliott Leyton

#27259

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Elliott Leyton was a Canadian social-anthropologist, educator and author who, according to the CTV television news network, was amongst the most widely consulted experts on serial homicide worldwide.

#27249

Cui Zhiyuan

#27260

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Cui Zhiyuan , born in Beijing in 1963, is a professor at the School of Public Policy and Management in Tsinghua University, Beijing and a leading member of the Chinese New Left through his work on alternatives to neo-liberal capitalism.

#27250

Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem

#27261

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem is a German legal scholar and a former justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Career Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem was born into a family of teachers. He had four siblings, one of whom died at a very young age. After passing the general qualification for university entrance at the Walddörfer-Gymnasium in Hamburg, he studied law while minoring in economics at the Universities of Hamburg, Freiburg i.Br., Munich, and Berkeley. He was awarded an LL.M. at Berkeley. In 1964 he passed the first state examination and in 1968 obtained a doctorate in law. After passing the second state examination in 1970, he spent four years working as a lawyer.

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