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

#1

Audre Lorde

#522

Overall Influence

1934 - 1992 (58 years)

Audre Lorde was an American writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet," who dedicated her life and talents to confronting all forms of injustice, as she believed there could be "no hierarchy of oppressions".

#2

Delores S. Williams

#14107

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (88 years)

Delores Seneva Williams was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor notable for her formative role in the development of womanist theology and best known for her book Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Her writings use black women's experiences as epistemological sources, and she is known for her womanist critique of atonement theories. As opposed to feminist theology, predominantly practiced by white women, and black theology, predominantly practiced by black men, Williams argued that black women's experiences generate critical theological insights and q...

#3

Anne Moody

#17191

Overall Influence

1940 - 2015 (75 years)

Anne Moody was an American author who wrote about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi, and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP, CORE and SNCC. Moody began fighting racism and segregation as a young girl growing up in Centreville, Mississippi.

#4

Karen Weaver

#22681

Overall Influence

Karen Weaver is an American psychologist and politician who was the mayor of Flint, Michigan, from 2015 to 2019. She was the first female mayor of the city and the 5th African-American to hold the office.

#5

Deborah Gray White

#27910

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (76 years)

Deborah Gray White is the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. In addition to teaching at Rutgers, she also directed, "The Black Atlantic: Race, Nation and Gender", a project at The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis from 1997 to 1999. Throughout 2000-2003 she was the chair of the history department at Rutgers. White has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellowship, the Carter G. Woodson Medallion for excellence in African American histo...

#6

Aaron Shirley

#35267

Overall Influence

1933 - 2014 (81 years)

Aaron Shirley was an American physician and civil rights activist. Shirley was born in Gluckstadt, Mississippi. He was Chairman of the Board for the Jackson Medical Mall Foundation, and an associate professor in pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

#7

Derrick Johnson

Derrick Johnson

#38404

Overall Influence

Derrick Johnson is an American lawyer and humanitarian. He serves as the 19th President and CEO of the NAACP. He had previously served as president of its Mississippi state chapter, and vice chairman of its board of directors. Johnson is the founder of the Mississippi nonprofit group One Voice Inc., which aims to improve quality of life for African Americans through public engagement.

#8

Joyce Ladner

#40336

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (82 years)

Joyce Ann Ladner is an American civil rights activist, author, civil servant, and sociologist. Early life and education Ladner was born in Battles, Wayne County, Mississippi, on October 12, 1943, and grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was raised with four brothers and four sisters. Ladner graduated high school in 1960 with her older sister, Dorie Ladner. She earned her B.A. in sociology in 1964 from Tougaloo College, before earning her Ph.D at Washington University in St. Louis in 1968. During college, Ladner and her sister Dorie organized civil rights protests alongside Medgar Evers and other students from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

#9

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

#41316

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (84 years)

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland is an American civil rights activist who was active in the 1960s. She was one of the Freedom Riders who was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961, and was confined for two months in the Maximum Security Unit of the Mississippi State Penitentiary . The following year she was the first white student to enroll at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi and served as the local secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee .

#10

Bennie Thompson

#56450

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (77 years)

Bennie Gordon Thompson is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Thompson served as the chair of the Committee on Homeland Security from 2019 to 2023 and from 2007 to 2011. He was both the first Democrat and the first African American to chair the committee. He is the dean of Mississippi's congressional delegation.

#11

Hakeem Oluseyi

#73880

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (58 years)

Hakeem Muata Oluseyi is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, inventor, educator, science communicator, author, actor, veteran, and humanitarian. Early life and education Oluseyi was born James Edward Plummer, Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana. After his parents divorced when he was four years old, he and his mother moved to a different state along the southern border of the US every year. He lived in some of the country's toughest neighborhoods including the 9th Ward of New Orleans; Watts, Los Angeles, California; Inglewood, California; South Park, Houston, Texas; and Third Ward, Houston, Texas before settling in rural Mississippi a month before Oluseyi turned 13 years old.

#12

Dorie Ladner

#83662

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (83 years)

Dorie Ann Ladner is an American civil rights activist. Early life Dorie Ladner was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on June 28, 1942. In high school, Ladner joined the NAACP Youth Council in Hattiesburg. In this organization, she met NAACP state president Medgar Evers.

#13

Aunjanue Ellis

#83948

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (56 years)

Aunjanue L. Ellis is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, including Men of Honor , Undercover Brother , Ray , Freedomland , The Express: The Ernie Davis Story , The Taking of Pelham 123 , The Help , The Birth of a Nation , and If Beale Street Could Talk . For her portrayal of Oracene Price in the sports drama King Richard , she was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Critics' Choice Award.

#14

Trudier Harris

#86855

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (77 years)

Trudier Harris is an American literary scholar, author, consultor and language educator. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of Alabama. She was also the J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

#15

Reuben V. Anderson

#87674

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (82 years)

Reuben V. Anderson is an American attorney who served as a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court from 1985 to 1990. Early life Anderson was born in 1943, in Jackson, Mississippi. His father was a bricklayer, and his great-great-grandparents were slaves. He graduated from Tougaloo College in 1965. He received his law degree in 1967, from the University of Mississippi, a mere five years after it admitted its first black student, James Meredith, and four years after it admitted its first black law student.

#16

Walter Washington

#102177

Overall Influence

1923 - 1999 (76 years)

Dr. Walter Washington was an American educator. He was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. In 1949, Washington married his college sweetheart, the former Carolyn Carter, who is a retired college professor. A daughter, Wendy Carol, was born in 1963 but died shortly after birth.

#17

Beverly Wright

#107306

Overall Influence

Beverly Wright is an American environmental justice scholar and the founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University. Her research considers the environmental and health inequalities along the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor. Her awards and honours include the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Achievement Award.

#18

Geraldine Hines

#127019

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (78 years)

Geraldine S. Hines is an American retired judge who formerly served served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 2014 to 2017. She was nominated in July 2014 by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and confirmed by an 8–0 vote of the Governor's Council. She succeeded Ralph D. Gants, who was promoted to chief justice.

#19

Slayton A. Evans Jr.

#141575

Overall Influence

1943 - 2001 (58 years)

Slayton A. Evans Jr. was an American chemist and professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was a leading researcher into organophosphorus chemistry. His research led to a greater understanding of the functions of organophosphate compounds and innovations in methods to produce chemical compounds for pharmaceutical drugs.

#20

Mamie Locke

#143505

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (71 years)

Mamie Evelyn Locke is an American politician and educator. A Democrat, she was a member of the Hampton, Virginia city council 1996–2004, and mayor 2000–2004. Education Locke received a B.A. degree in history and political science from Tougaloo College in 1976. She then attended Atlanta University for advanced political science studies, receiving an M.A. in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1984. She also completed a program in Middle Eastern studies at the American University in Cairo in 1986.

#21

Jane F. Reckelhoff

#163053

Overall Influence

#22

Virgia Brocks-Shedd

#185128

Overall Influence

1943 - 1992 (49 years)

Virgia Brocks-Shedd was an American librarian and poet. She was the head librarian at the Tougaloo College library and was a founding member of multiple library associations, working to ensure African-Americans were represented in libraries. Brocks-Shedd published poetry in multiple venues and inspired an appreciation for literature in generations of students.

#23

Robert Honeysucker

#191351

Overall Influence

1943 - 2017 (74 years)

Robert E. Honeysucker, Jr. was an American baritone. Biography Robert E. Honeysucker, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father, Robert E. Honeysucker, was a preacher. He was one of four children of Robert Sr. and Willa Ann Honeysucker.

#24

Helen Griffith

1882 - 1976 (94 years)

Helen Griffith was a professor at Mount Holyoke College, a teacher at colleges for African Americans in the American South, and an author. Griffith graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1905. During her graduate studies, she attended Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, and she studied in Cambridge, England. She graduated with a master's degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

#25

Inez Beverly Prosser

1895 - 1934 (39 years)

Inez Beverly Prosser was a psychologist, teacher and school administrator. She is often regarded as the first African-American female to receive a Ph.D in psychology. Her work was very influential in the hallmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling. After growing up in Texas, Prosser was educated at Prairie View Normal College, the University of Colorado and the University of Cincinnati. She was killed in a car accident a short time after earning her doctorate.

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