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

#41901

Mike Rann

#41914

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Michael David Rann, , is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and Australian ambassador to Italy, Albania, Libya and San Marino from 2014 to 2016.

#41902

Denis Feeney

#41915

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Denis C. Feeney, FBA is Professor of Classics and Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University. He was born in New Zealand and educated at St Peter's College, Auckland and Auckland Grammar School. He received his B.A. , MA in Latin and MA in Greek from the University of Auckland and a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1982. He has also been a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge and New College, Oxford.

#41903

Linda Smircich

#41916

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Linda Smircich is a Professor of Management in the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst where she teaches Organizational Alternative Paradigms. She is part of the critical management studies approach field and a critical researcher in organizational culture and gender.

#41904

Jerry Butler

#41917

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Jerry Butler Jr. is an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and retired politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. After leaving the group in 1960, Butler achieved over 55 Billboard Pop and R&B Chart hits as a solo artist including "He Will Break Your Heart", "Let It Be Me" and "Only the Strong Survive". He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.

#41905

David L. Rose

#41918

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

David L. Rose is a product designer and entrepreneur, and the CEO of Clearwater AR. Early life Rose was born on February 19, 1967, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina when his father, James Rose, was in medical school.

#41906

Aylin Yener

#41919

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Aylin Yener holds the Roy and Lois Chope Chair in engineering at Ohio State University, and she is currently the President of the IEEE Information Theory Society. Dr. Yener is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Integrated Systems Engineering, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Affiliated Faculty at the Sustainability Institute, and Affiliated Faculty at the Translational Data Analytics Institute, all at Ohio State University.

#41907

Rick Monday

#41920

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Robert James "Rick" Monday Jr. is an American former professional baseball player who now serves as a broadcaster. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from 1966 to 1984, most notably as a member of the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers with whom he won a World Series championship in .

#41908

Marie Osmond

#41921

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, television host and a member of the show business family the Osmonds. Although she was never an official member of her family's singing group, she gained success as a country and pop music artist and television variety show cohost in the 1970s and 1980s. Her best-known song is a remake of the country pop ballad "Paper Roses". From 1976 to 1979, she and her singer brother Donny Osmond hosted the television variety show Donny & Marie.

#41909

Archie Roy

#41922

Overall Influence

1924 - 2012 (88 years)

Archie Edmiston Roy FRSE, FRAS was Professor Emeritus of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow. Career Professor Archie Edmiston Roy, was educated at Hillhead High School and the University of Glasgow. He was married to Frances with three sons; Dr. Archie W N Roy, Ian Roy and Dr. David Roy; and two grandchildren David and Fraser.

#41910

Thomas R. Odhiambo

#41923

Overall Influence

1931 - 2003 (72 years)

Professor Thomas Risley Odhiambo was a Kenyan entomologist and environmental activist who directed research and scientific development in Africa. Life and education Odhiambo was educated at Maseno School in Kenya, Makerere University in Uganda and Queens' College, Cambridge in United Kingdom.

#41911

Robert Folger Thorne

Robert Folger Thorne

#41924

Overall Influence

1920 - 2015 (95 years)

Robert F. Thorne was an American botanist. He was taxonomist and curator emeritus at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and professor emeritus at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. His research has contributed to the understanding of the evolution of flowering plants.

#41912

Dick Davis

#41925

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Dick Davis is an English–American Persophile and Iranologist, poet, university professor, and translator of verse, who is affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry.

#41913

Helen Codere

#41926

Overall Influence

1917 - 2009 (92 years)

Helen Frances Codere was an American cultural anthropologist who received her BA from the University of Minnesota in 1939 and her PhD in anthropology from Columbia University where she studied with Ruth Benedict. She is best known for her work with the Kwakwaka'wakw people of coastal British Columbia, Canada, known formerly as the "Kwakiutl."

#41914

Stephanie Pace Marshall

#41927

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Stephanie Anne Pace Marshall , is an American educator and the founding president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Education Stephanie Anne Pace was born to Dominick Martin and Anne Pace in the Bronx, New York on July 19, 1945, and grew up in the New York city area. She graduated from East Meadow High School in 1963. Pace attended Muhlenberg College from 1963 to 1965 before transferring to Queens College, City University of New York where she completed a B.A. in education and sociology in 1967. In 1971, she earned an M.A. in curriculum philosophy from the University of Chicago.

#41915

Mike Campbell

#41928

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Michael Wayne Campbell is an American guitarist and vocalist. He was a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and co-wrote many of the band's hits with Petty, including "Refugee", "Here Comes My Girl", "You Got Lucky", and "Runnin' Down a Dream". Outside of The Heartbreakers, he has worked as a session guitarist and songwriter with a number of other acts, including composing and playing on the Don Henley hits "The Boys of Summer" & "The Heart of the Matter" as well as working on most of Stevie Nicks's solo albums. Campbell, along with Neil Finn, joined Fleetwood Mac to replace lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham on their world tour in 2018–2019.

#41916

Paul Holmgren

#41929

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Paul Howard Holmgren is an American former professional ice hockey player and executive. He previously served as the general manager and president of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League . As a player, he featured in the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals with the Flyers.

#41917

Davey Johnstone

Davey Johnstone

#41930

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

David William Logan Johnstone is a Scottish rock guitarist and vocalist, best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band. Career Johnstone was born in Edinburgh. At the age of seven, at primary school, he volunteered to learn the violin. But by the time he was 10 he was playing it "sideways like a guitar". One of his sisters then bought him a guitar for Christmas and by the age of 12 he was organising bands at his secondary school, Forrester High School. He had already decided he wanted to be a musician when he grew up.

#41918

Marion Ross

#41931

Overall Influence

1928 - Present (98 years)

Marion Ross is a retired American actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom Happy Days, on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on Happy Days, Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story , Sabrina , Lust for Life , Teacher's Pet , Some Came Running , Operation Petticoat , and Honky , as well as several minor television roles, one of which was on television's The Lone Ranger . She was also twice nominated successively in 1992 and 1993...

#41919

Yona Reiss

#41932

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (61 years)

Yona Reiss is an American rabbi, Torah scholar, attorney, lecturer, and jurist, and the current Av Beth Din of the Chicago Rabbinical Council . From 2008 to 2013 Reiss was the Max and Marion Grill Dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary . From 1998 to 2008 he was Director of the Beth Din of America .

#41920

Colin Cowdrey

#41933

Overall Influence

1932 - 2000 (68 years)

Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, was an English cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club from 1950 to 1976, and in 114 Test matches for England from 1954 to 1975. He was born in Ootacamund, Madras Presidency, British India and died in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

#41921

Hubert Davis

#41934

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Hubert Ira Davis Jr. is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 1988–1992 and in the National Basketball Association for the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and New Jersey Nets from 1992 to 2004. He holds the franchise single-season and career three-point field goal shooting percentage records for both the Knicks and the Mavericks. He is the nephew of Walter Davis, another former...

#41922

Kai-Uwe Hinrichs

#41935

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Kai-Uwe Hinrichs is a German biogeochemist and organic geochemist known for his research of microbial life below the ocean bed – the deep biosphere. He earned his PhD in organic geochemistry from University of Oldenburg in Germany in 1997. He teaches and conducts research at University of Bremen as head, Organic Chemistry Group at the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences. Hinrichs was co-chief scientist of Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology Expedition 337 on board the drilling vessel Chikyū, which set a world record for scientific drilling, reaching 2,111 meters below the seafloor off Shimokita Peninsula of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

#41923

John Bamborough

John Bamborough

#41936

Overall Influence

1921 - 2009 (88 years)

John Bernard Bamborough was a British scholar of English literature and founding Principal of Linacre College, Oxford. Bamborough was educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire and at New College, Oxford. After serving five years in the Royal Navy during World War II he returned to Oxford as a Fellow of first New College and then Wadham College, where between 1947 and 1961 he was in succession Dean, Domestic Bursar and Senior Tutor.

#41924

Keith Ellison

#41937

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (63 years)

Keith Maurice Ellison is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 30th attorney general of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party , Ellison was the U.S. representative for from 2007 to 2019. He also served as the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2018 and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007. In Congress, Ellison built a reputation as a progressive leader.

#41925

Jingyu Lin

#41938

Overall Influence

Jingyu Lin is a Chinese-American physicist and engineer working in the field of wide bandgap semiconductors and photonic devices. She is a co-inventor of MicroLED. In 2000, the husband-wife research team led by Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin proposed and realized the operation of the first MicroLED and passive driving MicroLEDmicrodisplay. In 2009, their team and colleagues at III-N Technology, Inc. and Texas Tech University realized and patented the first active driving MicroLED microdisplay in VGA format by heterogeneously integrating MicroLED array with Si CMOS active-matrix driver. MicroLE...

#41926

Fredrik Engelstad

#41939

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Fredrik Engelstad is a Norwegian sociologist. He has written several books. He is the son of writer Carl Fredrik Engelstad and physician Vibeke Engelstad, and a nephew of archivist Sigurd Engelstad. He is married to professor Irene Johnson.

#41927

Larry Carlton

#41940

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Larry Eugene Carlton is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. One of the most sought after guitarists of his era, Carlton has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, including more than 100 gold records, as well as for television and movies. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders and the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career.

#41928

Phillip Atiba Goff

#41941

Overall Influence

Phillip Atiba Goff is an American psychologist known for researching the relationship between race and policing in the United States. He was appointed the inaugural Franklin A. Thomas Professor in Policing Equity at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2016, the college's first endowed professorship. In 2020, he became a Professor of African-American Studies and Psychology at Yale University.

#41929

John Philipps Kenyon

#41942

Overall Influence

1927 - 1996 (69 years)

John Philipps Kenyon, FBA was an English historian and Fellow of the British Academy. His area of expertise was 17th-century England. Life Kenyon was born in Sheffield where he attended King Edward VII School, Sheffield and then University of Sheffield where he obtained a first class degree in History in 1948 before going to Cambridge to take a doctorate as a pupil of John H. Plumb. He obtained his doctorate in 1954 and was appointed a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, before going on to become Hull's history professor for 19 years, followed by six years at St Andrews. From 1987 to 1994 he was Distinguished Professor of early modern British history at the University of Kansas.

#41930

Mary Jane West-Eberhard

#41943

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (85 years)

Mary Jane West-Eberhard is an American theoretical biologist noted for arguing that phenotypic and developmental plasticity played a key role in shaping animal evolution and speciation. She is also an entomologist notable for her work on the behavior and evolution of social waspss.

#41931

Steven Gwon Sheng Louie

#41944

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Steven Gwon Sheng Louie is a computational condensed-matter physicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley and senior faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where his research focuses on nanoscience. He is also scientific director of the Theory of Nanostructured Materials Facility at the Molecular Foundry.

#41932

Léon Dion

#41945

Overall Influence

1922 - 1997 (75 years)

Léon Dion was a Canadian political scientist. Dion was born in Saint-Arsène, Rivière-du-Loup Regional County Municipality. He founded the department of political science at Université Laval with Gérard Bergeron and Maurice Tremblay in 1954.

#41933

Lloyd Hustvedt

#41946

Overall Influence

1922 - 2004 (82 years)

Lloyd Hustvedt was an American professor, author, and scholar of Norwegian-American history. Background Lloyd Merlin Hustvedt was born and raised in the Sogn Valley in Goodhue County, Minnesota. His parents, Lars Iversen Hustvedt and Mathilde Anette Hustvedt , were children of Norwegian immigrants. Hustvedt finished his BA degree at St. Olaf College with a major in Norwegian. He received his MA degree from the University of Minnesota and his PhD in Scandinavian studies from the University of Wisconsin.

#41934

Casey Affleck

#41947

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (51 years)

Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award. The younger brother of actor Ben Affleck, he began his career as a child actor, appearing in the PBS television film Lemon Sky . He later appeared in three Gus Van Sant films: To Die For , Good Will Hunting , Gerry , and in Steven Soderbergh's Oceans film series . His first leading role was in Steve Buscemi's independent comedy-drama Lonesome Jim .

#41935

Brent Barry

#41948

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Brent Robert Barry , also known by the nickname "Bones", is an American basketball executive, broadcaster and former player. He is the current vice president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs. The shooting guard played professionally in the National Basketball Association , winning two league championships with the Spurs in 2005 and 2007, and also won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1996. He is the son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry.

#41936

Henk Buck

#41949

Overall Influence

1930 - Present (96 years)

Henk Buck is an organic chemist. He studied at the University of Leiden where he received his PhD in 1959. He got a lectorship at the university in Theoretical Organic Chemistry in 1964. For his research he received the Golden Medal of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society in 1967. In 1970 he was appointed as professor of Physical Organic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry at the University of Technology in Eindhoven. Because there was no chair for Theoretical Chemistry and Biochemistry he gave lectures in organic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, theoretical organic chemistry, biochemistry and biotechnology.

#41937

Pawan Kalyan

#41950

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (55 years)

Pawan Kalyan is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, martial artist, and philanthropist who primarily works in Telugu cinema. Known for his unique acting style and mannerisms, he has a large fan base and a cult following. One of the highest-paid actors of Indian cinema, he has featured in Forbes Indias Celebrity 100 list since 2013 and is the recipient of a Filmfare Award, a SIIMA Award, a CineMAA Award, and a Santosham Film Award. He is also the founder of the Jana Sena Party.

#41938

Margot Mifflin

#41951

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Margot Mifflin is an author who has written for The New York Times, ARTnews, The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, Elle Magazine,The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications.

#41939

Albert Wesley Johnson

Albert Wesley Johnson

#41952

Overall Influence

1923 - 2010 (87 years)

Albert Wesley "Al" Johnson was a Canadian civil servant, a former president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and an author.

#41940

Cemal Yıldırım

#41953

Overall Influence

1925 - 2009 (84 years)

Cemal Yıldırım was a Turkish philosopher, author, educator, and researcher. He wrote 15 books and numerous academic papers. He wrote extensively on the philosophy of science and the history of science. His popular books Bilimin Öncüleri and Evrim Kuramı ve Bagnazlık were widely read and discussed in Turkey. His book Matematiksel Düşünme was also very influential.

#41941

Heinz A. Richter

#41954

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (87 years)

Heinz A. Richter is a German historian, known for his work on the history of World War II in the Balkans, the history of modern Greece and the modern history of Cyprus. Biography Heinz A. Richter was born on 18 March 1939, in Heilbronn, in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He started reading Greek mythology at a very young age and, in high school, his professor of History "excited his interest for classical Greek antiquity." Richter studied History, Political Science and English Literature at the Heidelberg University. He was professor of Greek and Cypriot modern history at the Universit...

#41942

Freddy Buache

#41955

Overall Influence

1924 - 2019 (95 years)

Freddy Buache was a Swiss journalist, cinema critic and film historian. He was the director of the Swiss Film Archive from 1951 to 1996. He was a privatdozent at the University of Lausanne. Biography He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, spending his early childhood in Villars-Mendraz, Vaud, where his parents ran the Café de la Poste. The family moved to Lausanne in 1933, where Buache later attended the Collège Scientifique. A meeting with Henri Langlois in 1945 at an international cinema conference in Basle led to the start-up with other film enthusiasts of Lausanne's first film club in 19...

#41943

Brian Keene

#41956

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (59 years)

Brian Keene is an American author and podcaster, primarily known for his work in horror, dark fantasy, crime fiction, and comic books. He has won the 2014 World Horror Grandmaster Award and two Bram Stoker Awards. In addition to his own original work, Keene has written for media properties such as Doctor Who, Thor, Hellboy, Alien, Masters of the Universe, and The X-Files.

#41944

Jenny Offill

#41957

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (58 years)

Jenny Offill is an American novelist and editor. Her novel Dept. of Speculation was named one of "The 10 Best Books of 2014" by The New York Times Book Review. Early life Jenny Offill is the only child of two private-school English teachers. She spent her childhood years in various American states, including Massachusetts, California, Indiana, and North Carolina, where she attended high school and received a BA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and later, at Stanford University, was a Stegner Fellow in Fiction. After graduating, she worked a number of odd jobs: wai...

#41945

Bob Hayes

#41958

Overall Influence

1942 - 2002 (60 years)

Robert Lee Hayes , nicknamed "Bullet Bob", was an American sprinter and professional football player. After winning gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics, he played as a split end in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys . Hayes is the only athlete to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. He was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and field and football at Florida A&M University. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. Hayes is the second Olympic gold medalist to be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after Jim Thorpe.

#41946

Stephen E. Ambrose

Stephen E. Ambrose

#41959

Overall Influence

1936 - 2002 (66 years)

Stephen Edward Ambrose was an American historian, most noted for his biographies of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many bestselling volumes of American popular history.

#41947

Arnaud Desplechin

Arnaud Desplechin

#41960

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (66 years)

Arnaud Desplechin is a French film director and screenwriter. In 2016, he won the César Award for Best Director for My Golden Days . Life and career Desplechin was born in Roubaix. He is the son of Robert and Mado Desplechin, and grew up in the Nord department. He has a brother named Fabrice who has acted in several of his films, and two sisters: novelist Marie Desplechin and screenwriter Raphaëlle Desplechin.

#41948

Yuko Miyazaki

#41961

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Yuko Miyazaki is a lawyer and former justice of the Supreme Court of Japan, serving from 2018 to 2021. She was born on 9 July 1951. Miyazaki earned her legal education respectively from the University of Tokyo and Harvard Law School . In 1979, after having worked as a legal apprentice, Miyazaki registered with the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association and began practicing as a taxation attorney. In 1979, she was hired as a permanent attorney at the law firm Nagashima & Ohno. She became legal counsel for the World Bank in 1984. Miyazaki also taught as a visiting professor at Tokyo University and Kyoto University.

#41949

Teresa Lago

#41962

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

Maria Teresa Vaz Torrão Lago is a Portuguese astronomer who founded the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto and created the first astronomy degree program in Portugal. Lago is currently the General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union. Her research focuses on the evolution of young stars and she is active in the promotion of astronomy and scientific culture to the public.

#41950

Teena Marie

#41963

Overall Influence

1956 - 2010 (54 years)

Mary Christine Brockert , known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie and later acquired the nickname Lady T, given to her by her collaborator and friend Rick James.

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