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
#36151
Alexander Its
#36163
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Alexander R. Its is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He completed his doctorate from Saint Petersburg State University, then known as Leningrad University, in 1977. Afterwards, he continued his career as a lecturer at the Steklov Institute in Saint Petersburg before becoming a professor at his alma mater. He remained there until 1993, when he assumed his current role at Indiana University. His research focuses on integrable systems, examining asymptotic analysis of matrix models using Riemann–Hilbert and isomonodromy metho...
Go to Profile#36152
Swapan Chattopadhyay
#36164
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Swapan Chattopadhyay CorrFRSE is an Indian American physicist. Chattopadhyay completed his PhD from the University of California in 1982. Currently, Chattopadhyay is part-time Faculty at University of California at Berkeley, adjunct professor of photon science at SLAC, Stanford University, and emeritus president's professor at Northern Illinois University and distinguished scientist emeritus at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , where he was a member of the director's senior leadership team and was director of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Fermilab and NIU...
Go to Profile#36153
Shawn Kemp
#36165
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Shawn Travis Kemp Sr. is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers, and Orlando Magic in the National Basketball Association . Nicknamed "Reign Man", he was a six-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA Second Team member.
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Mark Woodforde
#36166
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Mark Raymond Woodforde, OAM is a former professional tennis player from Australia. He is best known as one half of "The Woodies", a doubles partnership with Todd Woodbridge. Woodforde was born in Adelaide, and joined the men's professional tennis ATP Tour in 1984. Woodforde won four singles titles, including his hometown Adelaide tournament twice. His best singles result in a Grand Slam was reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open in 1996, his 38th Grand Slam singles tournament, which remains a record for the longest time taken to reach a maiden semi-final. Woodforde is best known for h...
Go to Profile#36155
Gilbert Ling
#36167
Overall Influence
1919 - 2019 (100 years)
Gilbert Ning Ling was a Chinese-born American cell physiologist, biochemist and scientific investigator. In 1944, Ling won the biology slot of the sixth Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, a nationwide competitive examination that allowed Chinese science and engineering students full scholarship to study in a United States university. In 1947 he co-developed the Gerard-Graham-Ling microelectrode, a device that allows scientists to more accurately measure the electrical potentials of living cells. In 1962 he proposed the Association induction hypothesis, which claims to be unifying, general theory of...
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Yuan-Pern Lee
#36168
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Yuan-Pern Lee is a Taiwanese chemist. Lee was born on 25 January 1952 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, the youngest of painter Lee Tze-fan's three sons. Lee studied chemistry at National Taiwan University and pursued a doctorate in the subject from the University of California, Berkeley. He began a research career in 1979 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before accepting a teaching position at National Tsing Hua University in 1981. Lee was named a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1999, and subsequently considered multiple times for membership in the Academia Sinica. Eventua...
Go to Profile#36157
Christl Verduyn
#36169
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Christl Verduyn is Professor of English Literature and Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University. She is the 2006 recipient of the Governor General's International Award for Canadian Studies, awarded by the International Council for Canadian Studies. She is cited in particular for the integration of her scholarship with the larger community and for exceptional contributions to the study of Canadian women's writing, in both English and French.
Go to Profile#36158
Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway
#36170
Overall Influence
1929 - Present (97 years)
Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway is an Italian archaeologist and specialist in ancient Greek sculpture. Life The daughter of an Italian officer, she spent her childhood in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where her father was stationed. After World War II, she studied classics at the University of Messina, where she obtained her degree in classics in 1953. An archaeology scholarship and Fulbright Travel Grant allowed her to continue her studies at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she came under the tutelage of Rhys Carpenter. At the end of her MA, she wrote her thesis on Archaic sculpture at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Go to Profile#36159
Arie Reich
#36171
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Arie Reich is an Israeli legal scholar specializing in international trade law and European Union Law. He is a full professor at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law, and serves as the Vice Rector of the university. He previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Dean of students.
Go to Profile#36160
Jean-Louis Vincent
#36172
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Baron Jean-Louis Vincent is a Belgian physician and Professor of intensive care medicine at the Université libre de Bruxelles and intensivist in the Department of Intensive Care at Erasme University Hospital in Brussels.
Go to Profile#36161
H. Hugh Fudenberg
#36173
Overall Influence
1928 - 2014 (86 years)
Herman Hugh Fudenberg was an American clinical immunologist and the sole identified member of the Neuro Immuno Therapeutics Research Foundation . Fudenberg was a proponent of the discredited hypothesis that there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. In 1995 Fudenberg's medical license was suspended for improperly obtaining controlled substances.
Go to Profile#36162
Denise Trauth
#36174
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Denise M. Trauth is the ninth president of Texas State University. On June 11, 2002, Texas State Board of Regents voted unanimously in favor of Trauth beginning her term as President. Early and personal life Trauth was born on May 20, 1947, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was born second of seven daughters. Trauth is married to John Huffman. Trauth and Huffman have two children together. Trauth currently resides in San Marcos, Texas.
Go to Profile#36163
Peter Thomson
#36175
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Peter Thomson is a Fijian diplomat and the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, and President of the United Nations General Assembly from September 2016 until September 2017. He served as Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations February 2010 to August 2017, with concurrent duties as Fiji's Ambassador to Cuba.
Go to Profile#36164
Hilmi Volkan Demir
#36176
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Hilmi Volkan Demir is a Turkish scientist, best known for his works on white light generation. Biography Hilmi Volkan Demir was born on July 4, 1976, in Kars, Turkey. He received his B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1998, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, California, in 2000 and 2004, respectively. He received his Docent title in Optics and Photonics from the Turkish Council of Higher Education in 2007. Since September 2004, he has been working as a faculty member at Bilkent Univ...
Go to Profile#36165
Susan Goldstine
#36177
Overall Influence
Susan Goldstine is an American mathematician active in mathematics and fiber arts. She is a professor of mathematics at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and the Steven Muller Distinguished Professor in the Sciences at St. Mary's College.
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Nancy Meyers
#36178
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Nancy Jane Meyers is an American filmmaker. She has written, produced, and directed many critically and commercially successful films. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Private Benjamin . Her film Baby Boom was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. She co-wrote Father of the Bride , Father of the Bride Part II , and directed The Parent Trap , What Women Want , Something's Gotta Give , The Holiday , It's Complicated , and The Intern .
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Jerome Liebling
#36179
Overall Influence
1924 - 2011 (87 years)
Jerome Liebling was an American photographer, filmmaker, and teacher. The documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who studied with him at Hampshire College, called Liebling his mentor, and used one of Liebling's photographs on the cover of his 2022 book Our America: A Photographic History.
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Andrew S. C. Ehrenberg
#36180
Overall Influence
1926 - 2010 (84 years)
Andrew Ehrenberg was a statistician and marketing scientist. For over half a century, he made contributions to data reduction/analysis and presentation, and to understanding buyer behaviour and how advertising works.
Go to Profile#36169
Bert Trautmann
#36181
Overall Influence
1923 - 2013 (90 years)
Bernhard Carl "Bert" Trautmann EK OBE BVO was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Manchester City from 1949 to 1964. In August 1933, , he joined the Jungvolk, the junior section of the Hitler Youth. Trautmann joined the Luftwaffe early in the Second World War, and then served as a paratrooper. He was initially sent to Occupied Poland, and subsequently fought on the Eastern Front for three years, earning five medals, including an Iron Cross. Later in the war, he was transferred to the Western Front, where he was captured by the British as the war drew to a close. As...
Go to Profile#36170
Joseph Sadan
#36182
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Joseph Sadan is emeritus professor of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Tel-Aviv University. He has also taught and research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and research institutions in Europe, as well as at Haifa University and Menashe College. Sadan studied at the Hebrew University where he received his BA and MA degrees . Between 1965 and 1969/70 he worked on his Ph.D. thesis at the Sorbonne in Paris . The subject of the dissertation was furniture in the Middle East in medieval times. In 1989 he was promoted to Full Professor and retired in 2007. He held the Irene ...
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Albert Razin
#36183
Overall Influence
1940 - 2019 (79 years)
Albert Alexeyevich Razin was an Udmurt language rights activist and Neopaganist who committed traditional self-immolation in the centre of Izhevsk as an act of protest against the language policy of the Russian federal government and the Russification of the Udmurt people.
Go to Profile#36172
Mark I. Wallace
#36184
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Mark Irvy Wallace is an American Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College, where he teaches courses on religion, environmental studies, and Interpretation theory. A self-described "Christian Animist", his teaching and research interests focus on the intersections between Christian theology, critical theory, environmental studies, and postmodernism as a part of the field of ecological theology. Through his work he seeks to "bring together biblical faith and the liberal arts."
Go to Profile#36173
Sandra M. Swain
#36185
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Sandra M. Swain is an American oncologist, breast cancer specialist and clinical translational researcher. She is currently a professor of Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and the Associate Dean for Research Development at Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Health as well as an adjunct professor of Medicine at the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. She is also a past President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology , serving from 2012 through 2013.
Go to Profile#36174
Nam Le
#36186
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Nam Le is a Vietnamese-born Australian writer, who won the Dylan Thomas Prize for his book The Boat, a collection of short stories. His stories have been published in many places including Best Australian Stories 2007, Best New American Voices, Zoetrope: All-Story, A Public Space and One Story. In 2008 he was named a 5 under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation.
Go to Profile#36175
Bertram Myron Gross
#36187
Overall Influence
1912 - 1997 (85 years)
Bertram Myron Gross was an American social scientist, federal bureaucrat and Professor of Political Science at Hunter College . He is known from his book Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America from 1980, and as primary author of the [[HumphreyHawkins Full Employment Act]].
Go to Profile#36176
David B. Allison
#36188
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
David Bradley Allison is an American obesity researcher, biostatistician, and psychologist. He is the dean of the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington and one of the top 10 scientists in the world awarded the most NIH grants. Allison was previously Distinguished Professor, Quetelet Endowed Professor, and Director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham .
Go to Profile#36177
Irena Swanson
#36189
Overall Influence
Irena Swanson is an American mathematician specializing in commutative algebra. She is head of the Purdue University Department of Mathematics since 2020. She was a professor of mathematics at Reed College from 2005 to 2020.
Go to Profile#36178
Mario Batali
#36190
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Mario Francesco Batali is an American chef, writer, and former restaurateur. Batali co-owned restaurants in New York City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Newport Beach, California; Boston; Singapore; Westport, Connecticut; and New Haven, Connecticut including Babbo in New York City which received a Michelin star for several years. Batali has appeared on the Food Network, on shows such as Molto Mario and Iron Chef America, on which he was one of the featured "Iron Chefs". In 2017, the restaurant review site Eater revealed multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against Batali and, in March 2019, h...
Go to Profile#36179
Moshe Brawer
#36191
Overall Influence
1919 - 2020 (101 years)
Moshe Brawer was an Israeli geographer. In 2002, he won the Israel Prize in geography. Brawer was the author of The Atlas of the World, an Israeli textbook published in 67 editions. He also compiled 20 other atlases in different languages.
Go to Profile#36180
Eliahu I. Jury
#36192
Overall Influence
1923 - 2020 (97 years)
Eliahu Ibrahim Jury was an Iraqi-born American engineer. He received his the E.E. degree from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Mandatory Palestine , in 1947, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, in 1949, and the Sc.D. degree degree from Columbia University of New York City in 1953. He was professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Miami.
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Motoi Sakuraba
#36193
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Motoi Sakuraba is a Japanese composer and keyboardist. He is known for his numerous contributions in video games, including the Tales, Star Ocean, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Golden Sun, and Dark Souls series, as well as several other anime series, television dramas, and progressive rock albums.
Go to Profile#36182
Tony Ballantyne
#36194
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Anthony John Ballantyne is a New Zealand historian at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. After completing his schooling at King's High School, Dunedin, he graduated BA at the University of Otago, Dunedin and obtained a PhD at the University of Cambridge. After brief stints abroad, he returned to the University of Otago, Dunedin, where his career advanced.
Go to Profile#36183
Eddy Grant
#36195
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Edmond Montague Grant is a Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for his genre-blending sound; his music has blended elements of pop, British rock, soul, funk, reggae, electronic music, African polyrhythms, and Latin music genres such as samba, among many others. In addition to this, he also helped to pioneer the genre of "Ringbang". He was a founding member of the Equals, one of the United Kingdom's first racially mixed pop groups who are best remembered for their million-selling UK chart-topper, the Grant-penned "Baby, Come Back".
Go to Profile#36184
Nina Smith
#36196
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Nina Smith née Gotfred-Rasmussen is a prominent Danish economist. Since 2005, she has been Professor of Economics and Business at Aarhus University. Smith has held a number of major educational and advisory positions, including research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research and head of the board of the Independent Research Fund Denmark. As of July 2021, she serves on the boards of several leading financial companies in Denmark such as Nykredit.
Go to Profile#36185
Safinaz Kazem
#36197
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Safinaz Kazem, also written Safynaz Kazem , is an Egyptian author and literary critic. After obtaining her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Cairo University in 1959, she wrote many articles.
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Kacey Musgraves
#36198
Overall Influence
1988 - Present (38 years)
Kacey Lee Musgraves is an American country singer. She began her music career in the early 2000s, when she self-released three solo albums, and recorded another album as a member of the duo Texas Two Bits. In 2007, she appeared on the fifth season of the USA Network singing competition Nashville Star, where she finished in seventh place. In 2012, she signed with Mercury Nashville and released the hit single "Merry Go 'Round". Her major-label debut album Same Trailer Different Park , won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
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Mario Ageno
#36199
Overall Influence
1915 - 1992 (77 years)
Mario Ageno is considered one of Italy's most important biophysicists. Early life and education Born in Livorno from a Genoese family, he studied Physics for two years in Genoa, when one of his professors noticed his talent as a scientist, and suggested that he should move to Rome. He did, and from 1934 started collaborating with the "Via Panisperna boys" on nuclear physics and cosmic rays; the former became the subject of his graduation thesis under the supervision of Enrico Fermi, in 1936. He was one of the last Italian students to study under Fermi before Fermi emigrated to the United States.
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Melanie Sanford
#36200
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Melanie Sarah Sanford is an American chemist, currently the Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She is a Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. She has served as an executive editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society since 2021, having been an associate editor of the since 2014.
Go to Profile#36189
Casey Dellacqua
#36201
Overall Influence
1985 - Present (41 years)
Casey Dellacqua is an Australian former professional tennis player and current commentator. Her best singles results on the WTA Tour have been semifinal appearances at the 2012 Texas Tennis Open and 2014 Birmingham Classic, a quarterfinal finish at the 2014 Indian Wells Open and fourth round appearances at the 2008 Australian Open, the 2014 Australian Open and the 2014 US Open; she also won 22 ITF singles titles.
Go to Profile#36190
Zofia Zdybicka
#36202
Overall Influence
1928 - Present (98 years)
Zofia Józefa Zdybicka is a nun and philosopher. She has been a professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin since 1978. Her order name is Maria Józefa in the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus in Poland. She is a specialist in ontology and the philosophy of religion.
Go to Profile#36191
Erich Sackmann
#36203
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (92 years)
Erich Sackmann is a German experimental physicist and a pioneer of biophysics in Europe. Career Sackmann obtained his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Stuttgart in the group of Theodor Förster. He then spent two years at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and six years at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. Between 1974 and 1980 he was professor of physics and head of the biophysics department at Universität Ulm, and from 1980 until retirement in 2003 he held the same positions at the Physics Department of the Technical Univer...
Go to Profile#36192
Dale Martin
#36204
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Dale Basil Martin is an American New Testament scholar and historian of Christianity. Career Martin joined the faculty of Yale University in 1999 and retired as the Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies in 2018. Before Yale, he was a faculty member at Rhodes College and Duke University.
Go to Profile#36193
Buddy Ratner
#36205
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Buddy Ratner is an American professor of chemical engineering and bioengineering. He is the director of the Research Center for Biomaterials at the University of Washington . He is also the faculty member for the Program for Technology Commercialization at the University of Washington.
Go to Profile#36194
Kathryn Paige Harden
#36206
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (37 years)
Kathryn Paige Harden is an American psychologist and behavior geneticist. She is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is also the leader of the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and the co-director of the Texas Twin Project. She is also a Faculty Research Associate at the University of Texas at Austin's Population Research Center and a Jacobs Foundation research fellow.
Go to Profile#36195
Stefan Savage
#36207
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Stefan Savage is an American computer science researcher, currently a Professor in the Systems and Networking Group at the University of California, San Diego. There, he holds the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Chair in Information and Computer Science. Savage is widely cited in computer security, particularly in the areas of email spam, network worms and malware propagation, distributed denial of service mitigation and traceback, automotive hacking and wireless security. He received his undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington .
Go to Profile#36196
Lynda Nead
#36208
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Lynda Nead is a British curator and art historian. She is currently the Pevsner Chair of the History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London. Nead's work studies British art, media, culture and often focuses on gender. Nead is a fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society and of the Academia Europaea.
Go to Profile#36197
Bharat Bhushan
#36209
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Bharat Bhushan is an American engineer. He is an Ohio Eminent Scholar and the Howard D. Winbigler Professor at Ohio State University. Education Bhushan graduated with a BE in mechanical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 1970, an MS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971, and an MS in mechanics from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1973. He received his PhD from CU in 1979. He also has an MBA in management from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute .
Go to Profile#36198
Haitao Zheng
#36210
Overall Influence
Haitao "Heather" Zheng is Chinese-American computer scientist and electrical engineer. She is the Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago. She was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for "contributions to dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio networks". She was named to the 2022 class of ACM Fellows, "for contributions to wireless networking and mobile computing".
Go to Profile#36199
John Agresto
#36211
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
John Agresto is an American author, lecturer, and university administrator. Life Agresto was born on January 7, 1946, at the Navy Yard Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, to John and Theresa Agresto. He was raised in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. After graduating from Brooklyn Prep, a Jesuit high school, Agresto went to college in Boston.
Go to Profile#36200
Travis Kelce
#36212
Overall Influence
1989 - Present (37 years)
Travis Michael Kelce is an American football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League . He was drafted by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft and later won Super Bowls LIV and LVII with the team, catching a touchdown in both wins. He played college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats.
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