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

#34451

Williamson Murray

#34463

Overall Influence

1941 - 2023 (82 years)

Williamson "Wick" Murray was an American historian and author. He authored numerous works on history and strategic studies, and served as an editor on other projects extensively. He was professor emeritus of history at Ohio State University from 2012 until his death.

#34452

Jean Floud

#34464

Overall Influence

1915 - 2013 (98 years)

Jean Esther Floud was a prominent educational sociologist and later an academic. She was the Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, from 1972 to 1983. Early life She was born Jean Esther McDonald to working-class parents and went to primary and secondary schools in her home town of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. In 1927, the family moved to Stoke Newington, north London where she won a free place at North Hackney Central School for Girls, a grammar school.

#34453

Karl Otto Götz

#34465

Overall Influence

1914 - 2017 (103 years)

Karl Otto Götz often simply called K.O. Götz, was a German artist, filmmaker, draughtsman, printmaker, writer and professor of art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He was one of the oldest living and active artists older than 100 years of age and is best remembered for his explosive and complex abstract forms. His powerful, surrealist-inspired works earned him international recognition in exhibitions like documenta II in 1959. Götz never confined himself to one specific style or artistic field. He also explored generated abstract forms through television art. Götz is one of the most important members of the German Art Informel movement.

#34454

Nico Rosberg

#34466

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (41 years)

Nico Erik Rosberg is a German and Finnish entrepreneur and former professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 2006 to 2016, winning the World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. The only child of Finnish Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg and his German wife Sina Rosberg, he was raised primarily in the Principality of Monaco.

#34455

Toshifumi Yokota

#34467

Overall Influence

Toshifumi Yokota is a medical scientist and professor of medical genetics at the University of Alberta, where he also holds the titles of the Friends of Garrett Cumming Research & Muscular Dystrophy Canada Endowed Research Chair and the Henri M. Toupin Chair in Neurological Science. He is best known for his studies of antisense oligonucleotide-based therapeutics for muscular dystrophy that led to the development of an FDA-approved drug viltolarsen. His research interests include precision medicine for muscular dystrophy and genetic diseases. He has co-edited two books both published in the M...

#34456

Philip Stieg

#34468

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Philip E. Stieg is an American academic physician and neurosurgeon. He has been the Neurosurgeon-in-Chief of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center since 2000. Early life Stieg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

#34457

Akira Kuryu

#34469

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

is a Japanese architect known for designing many museums in Japan. Compared with his contemporaries, Kuryu started his career later than other famous Japanese architects. Kuryu graduated from Waseda University and once worked with Maki, a very famous architect, at Maki & Associates and then became an associate lecturer in Maki Research Department at the University of Tokyo. In 1987, he set up Akira Kuryu Architect & Associates. Since then, in such a short period, he has constantly worked out excellent projects, including a series of museum buildings, which are widely noticed by the public such...

#34458

Bernie Devlin

#34470

Overall Influence

Bernard J. Devlin is an American psychiatrist who is Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh. An expert on statistical and psychiatric genetics, he is a fellow of the statistics section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, the Genetics Society of America, and the International Society for Autism Research. Before joining the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, he worked at the Yale School of Medicine, where he conducted research with Neil Risch on the utility of DNA tests.

#34459

David F. Bacon

#34471

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

David Bacon is an American computer programmer. Career Bacon began working as a programmer at age 16 and worked for a startup during his senior year of high school. At Columbia College, Columbia University, he worked first with David E. Shaw on the NON-VON supercomputer, and then on network algorithms and simulation with Yechiam Yemini, creating the NEST Network Simulator, which served as the basis for a number of other network simulators including Cornell's REAL and thence LBL's ns simulator.

#34460

Nigella Lawson

#34472

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Nigella Lucy Lawson is an English food writer and television cook. After graduating from Oxford, Lawson worked as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986. She then wrote for a number of newspapers and magazines as a freelance journalist. In 1998, her first cookery book, How to Eat, was published and sold 300,000 copies, becoming a best-seller. Her second book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, was published in 2000, winning the British Book Award for Author of the Year.

#34461

Larry A. Wasserman

#34473

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Larry Alan Wasserman is a Canadian-American statistician and a professor in the Department of Statistics & Data Science and the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Biography Wasserman received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1988 under the supervision of Robert Tibshirani.

#34462

Seán Dineen

#34474

Overall Influence

Seán Dineen is an Irish mathematician specialising in complex analysis. His academic career was spent, in the main, at University College Dublin where he was Professor of Mathematics, serving as Head of Department and as Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences before retiring in 2009.

#34463

Henk Volberda

#34475

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (62 years)

Henk W. Volberda is a Dutch organizational theorist, management consultant, and Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation at Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam. He is known for his contributions in the field of strategic renewal, coevolution and new organizational forms.

#34464

Alan Tam

#34476

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Alan Tam Wing-lun MH is a Hong Kong singer and actor. He played a major role in developing the Cantopop scene in the 1980s as he was known for singing romantic ballads with modern arrangements. From 1983 to 1987, Alan Tam received numerous music awards and won Most Popular Male Artist and IFPI Award for successive four years, which made him the most famous superstar singer of Hong Kong in 1980s. In early 1988, he publicly quit all pop music award ceremonies and put most efforts in searching new direction for Cantopop music.

#34465

Monta Ellis

#34477

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (41 years)

Monta Ellis is an American former professional basketball player. Ellis attended Lanier High School in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was a McDonald's All-American and first-team Parade All-American. He entered the NBA directly out of high school, being drafted with the 40th overall pick by the Golden State Warriors in the 2005 NBA draft. In 2007, he was named the NBA Most Improved Player. During his time with the Warriors, Ellis was one of the best scorers in the league, averaging close to 25 points per game on two occasions. After six and a half seasons with Golden State, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in March 2012.

#34466

Dominique Schnapper

Dominique Schnapper

#34478

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Dominique Schnapper was a member of the Constitutional Council of France from 2001 to 2010. She is also a scholar and professor of sociology. Her sociological studies have been largely historical and have ranged from inquiries into minorities and labour to others on citizenship and nations. She has been named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

#34467

İbrahim Adnan Saraçoğlu

#34479

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

İbrahim Adnan Saraçoğlu is a Turkish chemistry professor, biochemist, microbiologist and researcher. After his chemistry studies, he completed his PhD studies at the Karl-Franzens University and became an assistant at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences. Between 1985 and 1986, he worked at the Çukurova University and made his doctorate in 1987. In 1994, he became a professor.

#34468

Paola Loreti

#34480

Overall Influence

Paola Loreti is an Italian mathematician, and a professor of mathematical analysis at Sapienza University of Rome. She is known for her research on Fourier analysis, control theory, and non-integer representations. The Komornik–Loreti constant, the smallest non-integer base for which the representation of 1 is unique, is named after her and Vilmos Komornik.

#34469

Wally Smith

#34481

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (100 years)

Walter Laws Smith was a British-born American mathematician, known for his contributions to applied probability theory. Biography Smith was born in London on November 12, 1926. Smith received a B.A. in mathematics from Cambridge University, having gained First Class in the Mathematical Tripos Part 1 and Part 2. He then received an M.A. and Ph.D from Cambridge. His dissertation was entitled Stochastic Sequences of Events advised by Henry Daniels and D. R. Cox, with whom he published the book Queues and also published with in his early years. He became a professor of statistics at The Univ...

#34470

Mike Lee

#34482

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Michael Shumway Lee is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Utah, a seat he has held since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. Lee began his career as a clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah before clerking for Samuel Alito, who was then a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. From 2002 to 2005, Lee was an assistant United States attorney for the District of Utah. He joined the administration of Utah governor Jon M. Huntsman Jr., serving as the general counsel in the governor's office from 2005 to 2006. Lee again clerked for Alito after he was appointed to the U.S.

#34471

John McGarry

#34483

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

John McGarry, OC is a political scientist from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast and grew up in Ballymena, County Antrim. He is currently Professor of Political Studies and Canada Research Chair in Nationalism and Democracy at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of numerous influential books about ethnic conflict and particularly The Troubles. Many of the books were co-authored with Brendan O'Leary, whom McGarry met when they both attended Saint MacNissi's College.

#34472

Paul Bearer

#34484

Overall Influence

1954 - 2013 (59 years)

William Alvin Moody was an American professional wrestling manager and licensed funeral director. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation where he performed under the ring name and gimmick of Paul Bearer, manager and guiding light of The Undertaker. As Paul Bearer, he hosted his own talk show segment entitled The Funeral Parlor.

#34473

Marie Mendras

#34485

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Dr. Marie Mendras is a political scientist in the field of Russian and post-Soviet studies. She is a research fellow with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and a professor at Sciences Po University’s School of International Affairs in Paris.

#34474

Don Saliers

#34486

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Don E. Saliers is an American theologian specializing in homiletics and liturgics. He was the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship at the Candler School of Theology of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Although he retired from Candler in 2007, Professor Saliers returned to Candler as Theologian-in-Residence in 2015.

#34475

Robert Bruner

#34487

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Robert F. Bruner is University Professor at the University of Virginia, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, and Dean Emeritus of the Darden School of Business. He was the eighth dean of Darden and has been a faculty member there since 1982. He teaches and conducts research in finance and management at the University of Virginia and has won numerous teaching awards.

#34476

Josh Brunty

#34488

Overall Influence

Josh Brunty is a professor of digital forensics at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. He is a member of the Digital Evidence Subcommittee of the NIST Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science.

#34477

Bruce Bochy

#34489

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Bruce Douglas Bochy is an American professional baseball manager and former player who is the manager of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball . During his playing career, Bochy was a catcher for the Houston Astros, New York Mets, and San Diego Padres. After retiring as a player, Bochy managed the Padres for 12 seasons, from 1995 to 2006, and the San Francisco Giants for 13 seasons, from 2007 to 2019. As manager, Bochy led the Giants to three World Series championships, the Padres to one World Series appearance, and the Rangers to the franchise's first World Series championship in his first season with the club.

#34478

Anya Schiffrin

#34490

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Anya Schiffrin is the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs , and a lecturer at the School of International and Public Affairs.

#34479

Adán Nigaglioni Loyola

#34491

Overall Influence

1930 - 2016 (86 years)

Adán Nigaglioni Loyola was a Puerto Rican doctor and educator. He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in 1954 where he was top of his class. He did his internship at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a member of Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity. He was the first Puerto Rican and first alumni to be dean of the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine from 1963 to 1967. In 1967, he became the first rector of the newly formed University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus.

#34480

Miguel Hernán

#34492

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Miguel Hernán is a Spanish–American epidemiologist. He is the Director of the CAUSALab, Kolokotrones Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Member of the Faculty at the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.

#34481

Zena Werb

#34493

Overall Influence

1945 - 2020 (75 years)

Zena Werb was a professor and the Vice Chair of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco. She was also the co-leader of the Cancer, Immunity, and Microenvironment Program at the Hellen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of the Executive Committee of the Sabre-Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center at UCSF. Her research focused on features of the microenvironment surrounding cells, with particular interest in the extracellular matrix and the role of its protease enzymes in cell signaling.

#34482

Jeff Barry

#34494

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (88 years)

Jeff Barry is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Then He Kissed Me", "Be My Baby", "Chapel of Love", and "River Deep - Mountain High" ; "Leader of the Pack" ; "Sugar, Sugar" ; "Without Us" .

#34483

Edward Relph

#34495

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Edward "Ted" Relph is a Canadian geographer, best known for the book Place and Placelessness. Career Relph grew up in Wales in the Wye Valley and studied at the Joint School of Geography at the University of London and at the University of Toronto. He is an emeritus professor of the University of Toronto, where he served from 1991 to 1999 as Chair of the Division of Social Sciences at the Scarborough campus. From 1999 to 2005 Relph was Associate Principal responsible for the expansion and redevelopment of that campus, and served again as Chair of Social Sciences from 2008 to 2010.

#34484

Michael Thompson

#34496

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Michael Thompson is an American guitarist and songwriter. Thompson is known for his work as a session guitarist during the last 4 decades. He founded the rock group TRW in 2007. Early years Michael Thompson grew up in Port Washington, New York and attended Berklee College of Music for two years, studying with Pat Metheny before leaving to tour and record with a local R&B/funk group called The Ellis Hall Group. After four years with the group, Thompson moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of starting a career as a studio musician, almost immediately getting a touring gig with Joe Cocker. Money w...

#34485

Tsou Tang

#34497

Overall Influence

1918 - 1999 (81 years)

Tsou Tang was a China-born American political scientist, best known for his book America's Failure in China and studies of contemporary Chinese politics. He was on the faculty of University of Chicago from 1959 until his retirement in 1988.

#34486

Cosmas Zachos

#34498

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Cosmas K. Zachos is a theoretical physicist. He was educated in physics at Princeton University, and did graduate work in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology under the supervision of John Henry Schwarz.

#34487

David K. Ferry

#34499

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

David Keane Ferry is the Regents' Professor of Electrical Engineering at Arizona State University , notable for his research in semiconductor devices. Education He received his BSEE, 1962, and MSEE, 1963, both from Texas Technical College. Ferry obtained his PhD under Arwin A. Dougal, 1966, from the University of Texas at Austin with a thesis entitled Anomalous Microwave Emission from Bulk Semiconductors.

#34488

Peter Dutton

#34500

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Peter Craig Dutton is an Australian politician who is the current leader of the Opposition, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia since May 2022. He previously served as the minister for Defence from 2021 to 2022 and the minister for Home Affairs from 2017 to 2021. He has been a member of Parliament for the Queensland seat of Dickson since 2001 and has held ministerial portfolios in the federal governments of Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison.

#34489

Norman J. Kansfield

#34501

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Norman J. Kansfield is an American minister who is a senior scholar in residence at Drew University. He was suspended from being a minister in the Reformed Church in America and president of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 2005 after officiating at his daughter's same-sex marriage.

#34490

Elena Aprile

#34502

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Elena Aprile is an Italian-American experimental particle physicist. She has been a professor of physics at Columbia University since 1986. She is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment. Aprile is well known for her work with noble liquid detectors and for her contributions to particle astrophysics in the search for dark matter.

#34491

Ronnie Milsap

#34503

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Ronnie Lee Milsap is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, he became one of the most successful and versatile country "crossover" singers of his time, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "It Was Almost Like a Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain", " No Gettin' Over Me", "I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World", "Any Day Now", and "Stranger in My House".

#34492

Marian Ewurama Addy

#34504

Overall Influence

1942 - 2014 (72 years)

Marian Ewurama Addy was a Ghanaian biochemist and the first Host of the National Science and Maths Quiz. The first Ghanaian woman to attain the rank of full professor of natural science, Addy became a role model for school girls and budding female scientists on the limitless opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Marian Addy was also a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected in 1999. In the same year, she was awarded the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science.

#34493

Jean-Yves Duclos

#34505

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Jean-Yves Duclos is a Canadian economist and politician who has served as Minister of Public Services and Procurement since July 26, 2023. He previously served as minister of Health from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, he has been the Member of Parliament for Québec since 2015.

#34494

Vladimir Ashkenazy

#34506

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He is originally from Russia and has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972, and Swiss citizenship later. He has lived in Switzerland since 1978. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him five Grammy awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.

#34495

Trevor Morrison

#34507

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Trevor W. Morrison is the Eric M. and Laurie B. Roth Professor of Law and dean emeritus at New York University School of Law. He was previously a professor at Columbia Law School and Cornell Law School, and an associate counsel to U.S. President Barack Obama.

#34496

Simon Chesterman

Simon Chesterman

#34508

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (53 years)

Simon Chesterman is an Australian legal academic and writer who is currently vice-provost at the National University of Singapore and dean of the NUS's faculty of law and NUS College. He is also a senior director for AI governance at AI Singapore, editor of the Asian Journal of International Law and co-president of the Law Schools Global League.

#34497

Brad Gilbert

#34509

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (65 years)

Brad Gilbert is an American former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1990, and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 18 four years prior. He won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics, and both a gold medal and a silver medal at the 1981 Maccabiah Games.

#34498

Takeyoshi Tanuma

#34510

Overall Influence

1929 - 2022 (93 years)

Takeyoshi Tanuma was a Japanese photographer. In 2019, the Japanese government honoured him with the Order of Culture, making him the first photographer to receive the order.

#34499

Per Jonas Nordhagen

Per Jonas Nordhagen

#34511

Overall Influence

1929 - Present (97 years)

Per Jonas Nordhagen is a Norwegian art historian. He was born in Bergen as a son of professor Rolf Nordhagen and Elisabeth Marie Myhre . He was a grandson of Johan Nordhagen and nephew of Olaf Nordhagen. He has been married twice; first to art historian Signe Horn Fuglesang, a daughter of Rolf Jørgen Fuglesang.

#34500

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall

#34512

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall is an American historian and Julia Cherry Spruill Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her scholarship and teaching forwarded the emergence of U.S. women's history in the 1960s and 1970s, helped to inspire new research on Southern labor history and the long civil rights movement, and encouraged the use of oral history sources in historical research. She is the author of Revolt Against Chivalry: Jessie Daniel Ames and the Women’s Campaign Against Lynching; Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World and Sisters and Rebels: The...

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