The Most Influential People Across History
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
#35551
Timothy White
#35563
Overall Influence
1952 - 2002 (50 years)
Timothy White was an American rock music journalist and editor. White began his journalism career as a writer for the Associated Press, but soon gravitated towards music writing. He was an editor for the rock magazine Crawdaddy in the late 1970s and a senior editor for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1980s, where he wrote an article detailing the destruction of Bob Hope's face in a logging accident when Hope was in his teens, accounting for Hope's unusual nose and jaw.
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Lionel Ni
#35564
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Lionel Ming-shuan Ni , is serving as the provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and concurrently the Chair Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Prior that, he was the vice rector at the University of Macau from January 2015 to 2019. Before joining UM, he was also the Chair Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , where he now returns to.
Go to Profile#35553
John Breuilly
#35565
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
John Breuilly is professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the London School of Economics. Breuilly is the author of the pioneering Nationalism and the State . Career Breuilly taught at the universities of Manchester and Birmingham . He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Hamburg and Bielefeld . He is currently professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the London School of Economics.
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Aurelio González Ovies
#35566
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Aurelio González Ovies is a Spanish writer and poet from Asturias. He has a Ph.D in Classical Philology and he is a Professor of Latin Philology at the University of Oviedo. In words of the writer Victor Alperi:
Go to Profile#35555
Lilie Chouliaraki
#35567
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Lilie Chouliaraki is a professor in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences . Chouliaraki’s main area of research is the mediation of human vulnerability and suffering. She empirically explores how the media affects our moral and political relationships with distant others in the sense that it affects how we see the vulnerability of other people and how we are asked to feel, think and act toward them.
Go to Profile#35556
Robert Ricklefs
#35568
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Robert Eric Ricklefs is an American ornithologist and ecologist. He was the Curators' Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri, St. Louis from 1996 until August 2019. Education Born in 1943, he grew up near Monterey, California, where his interest in biology was fostered by a teacher. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University in 1963 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. His doctoral advisor was originally Robert H. MacArthur , but he finished his dissertation under W. John Smith. During his PhD, he studied avian growth and development, which he continued for much of his career.
Go to Profile#35557
Jim Marshall
#35569
Overall Influence
1936 - 2010 (74 years)
James Joseph Marshall was an American photographer and photojournalist who photographed musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. Earning the trust of his subjects, he had extended access to his subjects both on and off-stage. Marshall was the official photographer for the Beatles' final concert in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, and he was head photographer at Woodstock.
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François Pachet
#35570
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
François Pachet is a French scientist, composer and director of the Spotify Creator Technology Research Lab. Before joining Spotify he led Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. He is one of the pioneers of computer music closely linked to artificial intelligence, especially in the field of machine improvisation and style modelling. He has been elected ECCAI Fellow in 2014.
Go to Profile#35559
Ajay Agrawal
#35571
Overall Influence
Ajay K. Agrawal works at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management as the Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation as well as the Professor of Strategic Management. Agrawal co-founded NEXT Canada, previously The Next 36 in 2010. He founded the Creative Destruction Lab in 2012 at the University of Toronto. Agrawal is co-founder of an annual conference, held at the University of Toronto, "Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence." Agrawal is a co-author of the books Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence , and Prediction Ma...
Go to Profile#35560
Susan Cutter
#35572
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Susan Lynn Cutter is an American geographer and disaster researcher who is a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography and director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. She is the author or editor of many books on disasters and disaster recovery. Her areas of expertise include the factors that make people and places susceptible to disasters, how people recover from disasters, and how to map disasters and disaster hazards. She chaired a committee of the National Research Council that in 2012 recommended more open data in disaster-monitori...
Go to Profile#35561
Pa. Vijay
#35573
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Pa. Vijay is an Indian lyricist, poet, writer, director, producer and film actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics in India for his song Ovvoru Pookalume in Cheran's Autograph .
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Stuart D. B. Picken
#35574
Overall Influence
1942 - 2016 (74 years)
Stuart Donald Blair Picken was a Scottish philosopher, academic and cleric. He was a noted expert on comparative ethics and Japanese thought. In 2007 he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the government of Japan in recognition of his work.
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Johannes Heisig
#35575
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Johannes Heisig is a German painter and graphic artist. His work combines the tradition of German socialist realism with a subjective expressionism. He portrayed several famous German politicians such as Willy Brandt, Johannes Rau and former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. The artist is represented by galerie son, Berlin.
Go to Profile#35564
Olivier Assayas
#35576
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. Assayas is known for his eclectic filmography, consisting of slow-burning period pieces, psychological thrillers, neo-noirs, and comedies. He has directed French, Spanish, and English-language films with international casts. The son of filmmaker Jacques Rémy, Assayas began his career as a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma. There he wrote about world cinema and its film auteurs, who later influenced his work. Assayas made several short films, and made his feature debut with Disorder in 1986.
Go to Profile#35565
Kiran Seth
#35577
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Kiran Seth is an Indian academician, professor emeritus in the department of mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is most known as the founder of SPIC MACAY , a non-profit organisation which promotes Indian classical music, Indian classical dance, and other aspects Indian culture, amongst youth the world over; through its about 500 chapters and through conventions, baithaks, lectures and musical fests.
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Loretta Lynch
#35578
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Loretta Elizabeth Lynch is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under Presidents Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Obama . As a U.S. attorney, Lynch oversaw federal prosecutions in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.
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Félix de Azúa
#35579
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Félix de Azúa Comella is a Spanish professor of aesthetics and philosophy, poet, novelist, essayist and translator, member of Real Academia Española. He taught Spanish literature at the University of Oxford from 1979 to 1981. He was director of the Institut Cervantes in Paris. With Eduardo Mendoza Garriga, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, José Angel Valente, Antonio Gamoneda, Pere Gimferrer, Julián Ríos and others, he is part of the generation of writers who revived democratic Spain.
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Laurel Schafer
#35580
Overall Influence
Laurel Schafer is a Canadian Organic chemist. She is a full professor at the University of British Columbia and Canada Research Chair in Catalyst Development. Schafer's research is at the intersection of organometallic and organic chemistry.
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Peter Handke
#35581
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Peter Handke is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience." Handke is considered to be one of the most influential and original German-language writers in the second half of the 20th century.
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Malcolm Todd
#35582
Overall Influence
1939 - 2013 (74 years)
Malcolm Todd was an English archaeologist. Born in Durham, England, the son of a miner, Todd was educated in classics and classical archaeology at St David's College, Lampeter and Brasenose College, Oxford. He subsequently served as a reader and professor at the University of Nottingham and the University of Exeter respectively. During this time, Todd conducted notable excavations at sites of Roman Britain. He was later principal at Trevelyan College, Durham. Todd retired from Durham in 2000, and subsequently dedicated himself to research and writing. He was the author and editor of several ...
Go to Profile#35571
Chi Van Dang
#35583
Overall Influence
Chi Van Dang is a hematological oncologist and researcher, currently serving as the Scientific Director of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is known for his research on genetics, the MYC gene and the cellular energy metabolism of cancer.
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Alain Vigneault
#35584
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Alain Vigneault is a Canadian former professional ice hockey coach. Vigneault has previously coached the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers for 19 seasons in the NHL, as well as in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League . During his career with the Canucks, he won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach of the year in 2006–07 and became the team's record holder for wins as a coach. Under Vigneault, Vancouver won back-to-back Presidents' Trophies and made one Stanley Cup Finals appearance . In his first season with New York, he led the Range...
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J. Laurence Kulp
#35585
Overall Influence
1921 - 2006 (85 years)
John Laurence Kulp was a 20th-century geochemist. He led major studies on the effects of nuclear fallout and acid rain. He was a prominent advocate in American Scientific Affiliation circles in favor of an Old Earth and against the pseudoscience of flood geology. Kulp died on September 25, 2006, at the age of 85.
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Karl-Theodor Sturm
#35586
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Karl-Theodor "Theo" Sturm is a German mathematician working in stochastic analysis. Life and work After obtaining his Abitur from the Platen-Gymnasium Ansbach in 1980, Sturm began to study Mathematics and Physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg where he graduated in 1986 with the Diploma in Mathematics and the State Examination in Mathematics and Physics. In 1989, he obtained his PhD under the supervision of Heinz Bauer and in 1993 he received his habilitation. Visiting and research positions led him to the universities of Stanford, Zurich, and Bonn as well as to the MPI Leipzig. In 1994, he was awarded a Heisenberg fellowship of the DFG.
Go to Profile#35575
Michael Collins
#35587
Overall Influence
1924 - 2005 (81 years)
Michael Collins is the best-known pseudonym of Dennis Lynds , an American author who primarily wrote mystery fiction. Over four decades Lynds published some 80 novels and 200 short stories, in both mystery and literary themes. He was a recipient of the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America , the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Private Eye Writers of America and the Marlowe Lifetime Achievement Award from MWA, Southern California Chapter.
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Janet Gyatso
#35588
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Janet Gyatso is a Religious Studies scholar currently employed as the Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies and the Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Harvard Divinity School. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Gyatso's research interests are in Buddhism and its relationship to Tibetan and South Asian civilizations.
Go to Profile#35577
Alexander Gorban
#35589
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Alexander Nikolaevich Gorban is a scientist of Russian origin, working in the United Kingdom. He is a professor at the University of Leicester, and director of its Mathematical Modeling Centre. Gorban has contributed to many areas of fundamental and applied science, including statistical physics, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, machine learning and mathematical biology.
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David R. Knechtges
#35590
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
David Richard Knechtges is an American sinologist and professor emeritus of Chinese literature at the University of Washington. An expert on Han dynasty and Six dynasties period literature, Knechtges' studies of Chinese fu poetry are largely responsible for the revival of Western academic interest in the subject, a major genre which had become largely neglected until the mid-20th century.
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Khudiram Das
#35591
Overall Influence
1916 - 2002 (86 years)
Khudiram Das was an Indian scholar, educationist, critic, litterateur, an authority on Rabindra literature and linguistic expert. Early life and family Khudiram Das was born in Beliatore situated in Bankura District, West Bengal to Satish Chandra Das and Kaminibala Devi. He studied in Middle English School in Bankura till Sixth standard and passed the Matric Examination in 1933 with Letter marks in Bengali and Sanskrit and I.A. Examination in 1935 from Bankura Zilla School, achieving 1st Division in both examinations. He graduated in Sanskrit with Honours from Bankura Christian College attaining 1st Class Third position in the year 1937.
Go to Profile#35580
Ian Norman
#35592
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Ian James Norman is a British nursing researcher and author, based in Surrey, UK. His research and writing is focused primarily in the fields of psychiatric and mental health nursing, and psychological treatments for people with mental health difficulties. Norman is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King's College London. He is a former Executive Dean of Faculty and Assistant Principal at King's. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Nursing Studies and a practising cognitive behavioural psychotherapist.
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Ihor Ševčenko
#35593
Overall Influence
1922 - 2009 (87 years)
Ihor Ševčenko was a Polish-born philologist and historian of Ukrainian origin. Byzantinist and paleo-Slavic professor of classical philology at Harvard University. He died 26 December 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Geoffrey S. Dawes
#35594
Overall Influence
1918 - 1996 (78 years)
Geoffrey Sharman Dawes, CBE, FRS, FRCOG, FRCP, FACOG, FAAP was an English physiologist and was considered to be the foremost international authority on fetal and neonatal physiology. Biography Dawes was born in 1918 in Mackworth which is within Derbyshire, but he was brought up in Elvaston where his father was the vicar of Elvaston and Thulston. He had four siblings who were all older than he was. Dawes lived at Thurleston Hall, the vicarage for Elvaston. This hall had previously been the home of William Darwin Fox. His prep school was in the next village of Shardlow, where he studied until he started at Repton School which was still within south Derbyshire.
Go to Profile#35583
John Dunmore
#35595
Overall Influence
1923 - 2023 (100 years)
John Dunmore was a French-born New Zealand academic, historian, author, playwright, and publisher. Biography Dunmore was born in Trouville-sur-Mer, France, on 6 August 1923. He lived in Jersey under German occupation during World War II, and then in England, where he received a BA from the University of London. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1950. He completed a PhD under historian J. C. Beaglehole at Victoria University of Wellington in 1962, studying the French contribution to the exploration of the Pacific Ocean in the 18th century. He was professor of French, head of the Department of Mo...
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Owen Coyle
#35596
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
Owen Columba Coyle is a professional football manager and former player who currently the head coach of Indian Super League club Chennaiyin. He played as a striker for several clubs in England and Scotland, and made one appearance for the Republic of Ireland national team.
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Sheen T. Kassouf
#35597
Overall Influence
1928 - 2005 (77 years)
Sheen T. Kassouf was an American economist from New York known for research in financial mathematics. In 1957 he married Gloria Daher in Brooklyn, New York. Kassouf received a PhD in economics from Columbia University and was later professor of economics at University of California Irvine. Together with Edward O. Thorp he co-authored the book Beat the Market in 1967.
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Rod Temperton
#35598
Overall Influence
1949 - 2016 (67 years)
Rodney Lynn Temperton was an English songwriter, producer and musician. Temperton was the keyboardist and main songwriter for the 1970s pop music, disco and funk band Heatwave, writing songs including "Star of a Story", "Always and Forever", "Boogie Nights", and "The Groove Line". After he was recruited by record producer Quincy Jones, he wrote several successful singles for Michael Jackson, including "Thriller", "Off the Wall", and "Rock with You". He also wrote songs for George Benson, including "Give Me the Night" and "Love X Love", along with Patti Austin and James Ingram's United States ...
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Juan Luis Guerra
#35599
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Juan Luis Guerra Seijas is a Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. He has sold 15 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards including 24 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and one Latin Billboard Music Award. He won 3 Latin Grammy Awards in 2010, including Album of the Year. In 2012, he won the Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year.
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Mohammed Aboul-Fotouh Hassab
#35600
Overall Influence
1913 - 2000 (87 years)
Mohammed Aboul-Fotouh Hassab was an Egyptian gastro-intestinal surgeon. He is known for the description of his operation Hassab's decongestion operation for the treatment of oesophageal varices as a result of portal hypertension. Hassab was one of the surgery professors in medical school at Alexandria University in Egypt.
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Raphael Tsu
#35601
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (101 years)
Raphael Tsu is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and is Professor Emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC. Early life and education Tsu was born to a Catholic family in Shanghai, China, in 1931. As a child he was inspired by his great uncle who in 1926 was amongst the first six Chinese bishops ever to be consecrated at the Vatican in Rome and as a teenager by his US-educated father, Adrian, and French-educated uncle, Louis. His paternal grandfather and great uncle were pioneers in power plant and modern shipyard in Shanghai. W...
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Jason Wingard
#35602
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Jason Wingard is an American academic and executive. He served as the twelfth president of Temple University. Before that, he served in executive leadership roles at Columbia University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University, as well as corporate workforce development at Goldman Sachs.
Go to Profile#35591
Miranda Richardson
#35603
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Miranda Jane Richardson is an English actress who has worked in TV, Films, and Theatre. After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End debut in the 1981 play Moving, before being nominated for the 1987 Olivier Award for Best Actress for A Lie of the Mind.
Go to Profile#35592
Garth Hudson
#35604
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Eric "Garth" Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a principal architect of the group's sound, described as "the most brilliant organist in the rock world" by Keyboard magazine. With the deaths of Richard Manuel in 1986, Rick Danko in 1999, Levon Helm in 2012, and Robbie Robertson in 2023, Hudson is the last living original member of the band.
Go to Profile#35593
John Gall
#35605
Overall Influence
1925 - 2014 (89 years)
John Gall was an American author, scholar, and pediatrician. Gall is known for his 1975 book General systemantics: an essay on how systems work, and especially how they fail..., a critique of systems theory. One of the statements from this book has become known as Gall's law.
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André Spicer
#35606
Overall Influence
André Spicer is a New Zealand academic, Dean, and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. He is an expert in the fields of Organisational Behaviour, Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility, and is the founding director of ETHOS: The Centre for Responsible Enterprise at Bayes.
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Volker Mehrmann
#35607
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Volker Ludwig Mehrmann is a German mathematician. Education and career At Bielefeld University he completed his PhD in 1982 under Ludwig Elsner and his Habilitation in 1987 with a dissertation on control theory. Mehrmann was from 1990 to 1992 a Vertretungsprofessor at the RWTH Aachen University. From 1993 to 2000 he was a professor at the Chemnitz University of Technology. Since 2000 he has been a professor at the Institute for Mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin. From June 2008 to May 2016 he was the spokesperson for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft's mathematical center called Matheon.
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Marisa Chappell
#35608
Overall Influence
Marisa Chappell is an American historian and associate professor at Oregon State University. She is known for her works on economic history of the United States. Her book The War on Welfare was selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2010.
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Douglas Staiger
#35609
Overall Influence
Douglas O. Staiger is the John French Professor in Economics at Dartmouth College. His research focuses on the economics of education and of healthcare, and on statistical methods in economics. Staiger is also a co-founder of ArborMetrix, a healthcare analytics company.
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Söhnke M. Bartram
#35610
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
Söhnke Matthias Bartram is a professor in the Department of Finance at Warwick Business School . He is also a research fellow in the Financial Economics programme and the International Macroeconomics and Finance programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research , a charter member of Risk Who's Who, and a member of an international think tank for policy advice to the German government. Prior to joining the University of Warwick, he held faculty positions at Lancaster University and Maastricht University and worked for several years in quantitative investment management at State Street Global...
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Dirk Schulze-Makuch
#35611
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Dirk Schulze-Makuch is a professor at the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Technical University Berlin, Germany and Adjunct Professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Washington State University, Pullman, WA. He is best known for his publications on extraterrestrial life, being coauthor of five books on the topic: The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds , A One Way Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet , We Are Not Alone: Why We Have Already Found Extraterrestrial Life , Cosmic Biology: How Life could Evolve on Other Worlds , and Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints .
Go to Profile#35600
Rajnish Mehra
#35612
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Rajnish Mehra is an Indian American financial economist. He currently holds the E.N. Basha Arizona Heritage Endowed Chair at the Arizona State University and is a Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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