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

#37151

Jonathan Young

#37163

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Jonathan Young is a psychologist who became the founding curator of the Joseph Campbell Archives. Background Young developed an interest in the teaching functions of stories through early exposure to folklore. He was one of six children in a much-traveled family. His parents read and discussed the lore of each place they visited, such as the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, the Pied Piper in Hamelin, the Arabian Nights in Baghdad, and the Buddha in India and Japan.

#37152

William Dunham

#37164

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

William Wade Dunham is an American writer who was originally trained in topology but became interested in the history of mathematics and specializes in Leonhard Euler. He has received several awards for writing and teaching on this subject.

#37153

Hugh Macdonald

#37165

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (86 years)

Hugh John Macdonald is an English musicologist chiefly known for his work within the music of the 19th century, especially in France. He has been general editor of the Hector Berlioz: New Edition of the Complete Works since its inception in 1967 and has been particularly active in the revival of interest in Berlioz's music. He is also the author of several entries within The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

#37154

Lawrence W. Levine

#37166

Overall Influence

1933 - 2006 (73 years)

Lawrence William Levine was an American historian. He was born in Manhattan and died in Berkeley, California. He was noted for promoting multiculturalism and the perspectives of ordinary people in the study of history.

#37155

Cynthia Nicoletti

#37167

Overall Influence

Cynthia Lisa Nicoletti is an American legal historian. She is an associate professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law. Early life and education Nicoletti earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, Master's degree, and PhD from the University of Virginia. Her dissertation, which examined the issue of whether secession could have been legally valid, earned the 2011 American Society for Legal History's William Nelson Cromwell Prize.

#37156

Igor Volgin

#37168

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Igor Leonidovich Volgin is a Soviet and Russian writer and historian, poet, specialist in literature. Biography Igor Volgin was born in March 1942 in Molotov, where his parents were in the evacuation. Father Leonid Samuilovich Volgin a journalist. His mother, Rakhil Lvovna Volgina corrector.

#37157

Christian Wiman

#37169

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Christian Wiman is an American poet, translator and editor. Biography Raised in the small West Texas town of Snyder, he graduated from Washington and Lee University and has taught at Northwestern University, Stanford University, Lynchburg College, and the Prague School of Economics. In 2003, he became editor of the oldest American magazine of verse, Poetry, a role he stepped down from in June 2013. Wiman is now on the faculty of Yale University, where he teaches courses on Religion and Literature at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

#37158

John Eldredge

#37170

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

John Eldredge is an American author, counselor, and lecturer on Christianity. He is known for his best-selling book Wild at Heart. Life and work Eldredge received his undergraduate degree in theater from California Polytechnic University and his MA in biblical counseling from Colorado Christian University under the direction of Larry Crabb and Dan Allender. Prior to joining Focus on the Family in 1988, Eldredge served for five years on the staff of Sierra Madre Congregational Church in Southern California.

#37159

Ted Drake

#37171

Overall Influence

1912 - 1995 (83 years)

Edward Joseph Drake was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as well as five caps for England. Drake is Arsenal's joint fifth highest goalscorer of all time. He also holds the record for the most goals scored in a top flight game in English football, with seven against Aston Villa in December 1935. A former centre forward, Drake has been described as a "classic number 9" and as a "strong, powerful, brave and almost entirely unthinking" player who "typifi...

#37160

Keith Kahn-Harris

#37172

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and music critic. He is an honorary research fellow and senior lecturer at Birkbeck College and an associate fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and a lecturer at Leo Baeck College.

#37161

David Sorkin

#37173

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

David Sorkin is the Lucy G. Moses professor of Jewish history at Yale University. Sorkin specializes in the intersection of Jewish and European history, and has published several prominent books including Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries.

#37162

Moteane Melamu

#37174

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Moteane John Melamu is a writer and academic from Botswana. He is a professor at the University of Botswana. Works Children of the Twilight, short stories Living and Partly Living, short stories External links Brief mention from AEAABookfinderNon-English site

#37163

Stephen Jones

#37175

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Stephen Jones OBE is a British milliner based in London, who is considered one of the most radical and important milliners of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He is also one of the most prolific, having created hats for the catwalk shows of many leading couturiers and fashion designers, such as John Galliano at Dior and Vivienne Westwood. His work is known for its inventiveness and high level of technical expertise. Jones co-curated the 2009 exhibition Hats: An Anthology for the Victoria and Albert Museum.

#37164

Gerda de Vries

#37176

Overall Influence

Gerda de Vries is a Canadian mathematician whose research interests include dynamical systems and mathematical physiology. She is a professor of mathematical and statistical sciences at the University of Alberta, and the former president of the Society for Mathematical Biology.

#37165

Tayari Jones

#37177

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Tayari Jones is an American author and academic known for An American Marriage, which was a 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection, and won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is currently a member of the English faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University, and recently returned to her hometown of Atlanta after a decade in New York City. Jones was Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-large at Cornell University before becoming Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emo...

#37166

George Pitcher

#37178

Overall Influence

1925 - 2018 (93 years)

George Willard Pitcher was an American philosopher. He was a professor of philosophy at Princeton University from 1956 to 1982. He was an expert on the work of George Berkeley and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

#37167

Harald V of Norway

#37179

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (89 years)

#37168

J. J. Watt

#37180

Overall Influence

1989 - Present (37 years)

Justin James Watt is an American former football defensive end who played in the National Football League for 12 seasons, primarily with the Houston Texans. He played college football at Central Michigan and Wisconsin and was selected by the Texans in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft.

#37169

Jay Gordon

#37181

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Jay N. Gordon is an American pediatrician, lecturer, and author. He is well-known within the anti-vaccine movement for his promotion of vaccine hesitancy. He does encourage vaccinating but at the discretion of the parent. He is also a long-time advocate of breastfeeding; he became a member of the International Health Advisory Council of the La Leche League in 2005.

#37170

Paul Sturrock

#37182

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Paul Whitehead Sturrock is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He won the Scottish Football League title with United in 1982–83 and the Scottish League Cup twice, in 1979 and 1980. He was named the SFWA Footballer of the Year in 1982. At international level, Sturrock played twenty times for Scotland and appeared at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

#37171

Michael Fulford

#37183

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Michael Gordon Fulford, is a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in the British Iron Age, Roman Britain and landscape archaeology. He has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading since 1993.

#37172

Bobby McFerrin

#37184

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. is an American jazz singer and songwriter. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion. He is widely known for performing and recording regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has frequently collaborated with other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes.

#37173

Ron Washington

#37185

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Ronald Louis Washington is an American professional baseball manager, coach, and former player. Since November 2023, Washington has been the manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball .

#37174

Peter-André Alt

#37186

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Peter-André Alt is a German literary scholar, former president of the Freie Universitaet of Berlin and, since August 2018, president of the German Rectors' Conference . Alt is married to the writer Sabine Alt and has two adult sons.

#37175

Modris Eksteins

#37187

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Modris Eksteins is a Latvian Canadian historian with a special interest in German history and modern culture. Born in Riga, Latvia, his works include Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age , which won the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize and the Trillium Book Award. Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of Our Century , which juxtaposes the history of World War II and Latvia with personal memoir, and won the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, and Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Eclipse of Certainty , which seeks to interpre...

#37176

Dejan Medaković

Dejan Medaković

#37188

Overall Influence

1922 - 2008 (86 years)

Dejan Medaković was a Serbian art historian, writer and academician. Medaković had served as President of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1998 to 2003, as Dean of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy , and was a member of the Matica srpska as well as other scholarly associations.

#37177

Jason Isaacs

#37189

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Jason Isaacs is an English actor. His film roles include Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot , Michael D. Steele in Black Hawk Down , Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter film series , Captain Hook in Peter Pan , Marshal Georgy Zhukov in The Death of Stalin , and Vasili in Hotel Mumbai . His other films include Event Horizon , Divorcing Jack , The End of the Affair , Sweet November , The Tuxedo , Battle of the Brave , Nine Lives , Friends with Money , Good , Green Zone , Abduction , Cars 2 , A Single Shot , Fury , A Cure for Wellness , London Fields , Occupation: Rainfall , Scoob! , and Mas...

#37178

Jules Schwartz

#37190

Overall Influence

1927 - 2013 (86 years)

Jules I. Schwartz was an American computer scientist chiefly known for his creation of the JOVIAL programming language. He served in the United States Army in both World War II and the Korean War. He attended graduate school at Columbia University, where he received a Master of Arts in Mathematics in 1961. At Columbia Schwartz became acquainted with some early computers at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. In 1954 he joined RAND Corporation where he developed utility software for the JOHNNIAC computer and worked on PACT compiler for the IBM 704. In 1955 he joined the MI...

#37179

Richard Samworth

Richard Samworth

#37191

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (48 years)

Richard John Samworth is the Professor of Statistical Science and the Director of the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and a Teaching Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. His main research interests are in nonparametric and high-dimensional statistics. Particular topics include shape-constrained density estimation and other nonparametric function estimation problems, nonparametric classification, clustering and regression, the bootstrap and high-dimensional variable selection problems.

#37180

Stanley J. Shapiro

#37192

Overall Influence

1934 - Present (92 years)

Stanley Jack Shapiro is professor emeritus of Marketing at Simon Fraser University. He has served as dean of McGill University's School of Management and dean of Business Administration for Simon Fraser University.

#37181

Bong Rin Ro

#37193

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (91 years)

Bong Rin Ro is an American theologian and missiologist. He is a founding leader and former executive secretary of the Asia Theological Association as well as former dean of the Asia Graduate School of Theology.

#37182

Kenenisa Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele

#37194

Overall Influence

1982 - Present (44 years)

Kenenisa Bekele Beyecha is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He was the world record holder in both the 5000-metre and 10000-metre from 2004 until 2020. He won the gold medal in both the 5000 m and 10,000 m events at the 2008 Summer Olympics. At the 2004 Olympics, he won the gold medal in the 10,000 m and the silver medal in the 5000 m.

#37183

Larry P. Arnn

#37195

Overall Influence

Larry Paul Arnn is an American educator and writer. He has served as the twelfth president of private college Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, since May 2000. He is a political conservative who has been influenced by the thought of Leo Strauss and Strauss's student and Arnn's teacher Harry V. Jaffa.

#37184

Andrew Lees

#37196

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Andrew John Lees FRCP FRCP FMedSci is Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and University College London. In 2011 he was named as the world's most highly cited Parkinson's disease researcher.

#37185

Miren Etxezarreta

Miren Etxezarreta

#37197

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (90 years)

Miren Etxezarreta Zubizarreta is a Spanish Basque economist and intellectual of the left who is linked to social movements. Since 2007 she has been Professor Emeritus in Applied Economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

#37186

Ana Paula Höfling

#37198

Overall Influence

Ana Paula Höfling is an American dancer, dance scholar, academic, and capoeirista. Education and training Höfling began dancing as a child and trained in classical ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance. She has a bachelor of arts in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, a master of fine arts in dance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a master of arts in dance and a PhD in Culture and Performance Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.

#37187

Gisela Anton

#37199

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Gisela Anton is a German experimental particle and astroparticle physicist. She was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 1994. Since 1995, she is a professor and Chair of Experimental Physics at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg.

#37188

Robert Tavernor

#37200

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Robert Tavernor is an English Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the London School of Economics and Political Science , and founding director of the Tavernor Consultancy in London. He is an architecture historian and urbanist, who has published widely on architecture and urban design, including the impact of tall buildings on historic cities. His long academic career includes being appointed to the Forbes Chair in Architecture at the University of Edinburgh at age 36.

#37189

Hassan Farhangi

#37201

Overall Influence

Hassan Farhangi is Professor Emeritus at BCIT School of Energy and Retired Director of Smart Microgrid Applied Research Team at the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Burnaby, Canada, and an adjunct professor at the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. He is known for his pioneering work in the design and development of Canada's first Smart Microgrid on Burnaby Campus of British Columbia Institute of Technology from 2007 onwards, as well as for establishing and leading an NSERC Pan-Canadian Strategic Research Network in Smart Microgrids, consisting of a large...

#37190

Helen Guillette Vassallo

#37202

Overall Influence

Helen Guillette Vassallo is an American scientific researcher, educator, author, lecturer, and business leader noted for her contributions to the fields of physiology, pharmacology, and anesthesia. Education In 1949, Vassallo graduated as the valedictorian from Attleboro High School in Massachusetts. While in high school, she won Honorable Mention in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. She went on to Tufts University to earn a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Master of Science in pharmacology. In 1967, Vassallo earned her doctorate in physiology from Clark University. A few years late...

#37191

G. K. Surya Prakash

#37203

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

G. K. Surya Prakash is a professor of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and holder of the George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Southern California. He serves as the Director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, where he maintains his prominent research lab. He also served as the Chairman of the Chemistry Department for four years between 2017 and 2021. He received a B.Sc. from Bangalore University in 1972, a M.Sc. from IIT Madras in 1974 and a Ph.D. from University of Souther...

#37192

Richard Polenberg

#37204

Overall Influence

1937 - 2020 (83 years)

Richard Polenberg was an American historian. Background Richard Polenberg was born on July 21, 1937. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University, the latter supervised by William E. Leuchtenburg.

#37193

Brian C. Kalt

#37205

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (54 years)

Brian C. Kalt is an American legal scholar at the Michigan State University College of Law, particularly known for his research of the constitution of the United States. Career Kalt has taught at Michigan State University College of Law since July 2000. He received tenure in 2006, and has been a full professor and the Harold Norris Faculty Scholar since 2010. He teaches Torts and Administrative Law. His research focuses on structural constitutional law, the presidency, and juries.

#37194

Jena Osman

#37206

Overall Influence

Jena Osman is an American poet and editor, who graduated from Brown University, and the State University of New York at Buffalo, with a Ph.D. She teaches at Temple University. Biography Osman's work has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Conjunctions, Hambone, Verse, and XCP: Cross-Cultural Poetics.

#37195

Sooranad Kunjan Pillai

Sooranad Kunjan Pillai

#37207

Overall Influence

1911 - 1995 (84 years)

Sooranad P. N. Kunjan Pillai was an Indian researcher, lexicographer, poet, essayist, literary critic, orator, grammarian, educationist, and scholar of the Malayalam language, best remembered for his contributions in compiling Malayala Maha Nighantu, a lexicon. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padmashri in 1984 for his contribution to Malayalam literature and education. He was also a recipient of the Vallathol Award in 1992 and when the Government of Kerala instituted the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, their highest literary honour in 1993, he received th...

#37196

J. Lamar Worzel

#37208

Overall Influence

1919 - 2008 (89 years)

J. Lamar Worzel was an American geophysicist known for his important contributions to underwater acoustics, underwater photography, and gravity measurements at sea. Life Worzel was born on February 21, 1919, in Staten Island, New York. His father was a real-estate lawyer.

#37197

Anil Kumar Bhattacharyya

#37209

Overall Influence

1915 - 1996 (81 years)

Anil Kumar Bhattacharyya was an Indian statistician who worked at the Indian Statistical Institute in the 1930s and early 40s. He made fundamental contributions to multivariate statistics, particularly for his measure of similarity between two multinomial distributions, known as the Bhattacharyya coefficient, based on which he defined a metric, the Bhattacharyya distance. This measure is widely used in comparing statistical samples in biology, physics, computer science, etc.

#37198

Michael Wyschogrod

Michael Wyschogrod

#37210

Overall Influence

1928 - 2015 (87 years)

Michael Wyschogrod was a Jewish German-American philosopher of religion, Jewish theologian, and activist for Jewish–Christian interfaith dialogue. During his academic career he taught in philosophy and religion departments of several universities in the United States, Europe and Israel.

#37199

Gunther Hartmann

Gunther Hartmann

#37211

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (60 years)

Gunther Hartmann is a German immunologist and clinical pharmacologist. Since 2007 he has been the Director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital of the University of Bonn.

#37200

Raymond W. Gibbs Jr.

#37212

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Raymond W. Gibbs Jr. is a former psychology professor and researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research interests are in the fields of experimental psycholinguistics and cognitive science. His work concerns a range of theoretical issues, ranging from questions about the role of embodied experience in thought and language, to looking at people's use and understanding of figurative language . Raymond Gibbs's research is especially focused on bodily experience and linguistic meaning. Much of his research is motivated by theories of meaning in philosophy, linguistics, and co...

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