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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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential female people in Psychology,

#651

Alejandrina Cristia

#57680

Overall Influence

Alejandrina Cristia is an Argentinian linguist known for research on infant-directed speech, daylong audio recordings of children's diverse linguistic environments, and language acquisition across cultures. Cristia is interested in how phonetic and phonological representations are formed during infancy and their interactions with other linguistic formats and cognitive mechanisms. She holds the position of Research Director of the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique at the Paris Sciences et Lettres University .

#652

Ruth Striegel Weissman

#114931

Overall Influence

Ruth Helene Striegel Weissman is a German-American psychologist who specializes in eating disorders. She is the Walter A. Crowell University Professor of the Social Sciences, Emerita, at Wesleyan University.

#653

Jeannine Guindon

#88181

Overall Influence

1919 - 2002 (83 years)

Jeannine Guindon was a professor of psychology in Quebec, Canada. Biography Jeannine Guindon completed Bachelor of Arts degree and a diploma in pedagogy from the University of Ottawa in 1939, then taught in Cornwall and Mountain, Ontario. She received a Master of Arts degree in psychology from the Université de Montréal in 1945. Guidon helped found the Montreal Counselling and Rehabilitation Centre and was its director from 1947 to 1977. She also founded the Quebec Psycho-Education Centre which she directed from 1953 to 1969 while teaching psychology at the Université de Montréal.

#654

Laura Kubzansky

#69191

Overall Influence

Laura Kubzansky is Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Co-Director of the Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. One of her research topics is the potential link between happiness and physical health.

#655

Dorothy Miell

#83380

Overall Influence

Dorothy Evelyn Miell is a professor of Social Psychology. Since March 2010, she has been Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Vice-Principal, at the University of Edinburgh. Before moving to Edinburgh, she was Dean of Social Sciences at the Open University. Her research focuses on collaboration and communication patterns, recently in the context of creative endeavors.

#656

Lynne Murray

#107525

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Lynne Murray, FBA is a British psychopathologist and academic, specialising in child development. She is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Reading. She has authored The Social Baby and The Psychology of Babies , in addition to more than 200 academic papers.

#657

Gisela Pankow

#51097

Overall Influence

1914 - 1998 (84 years)

Gisela Pankow was a French psychoanalyst.

#658

Anna Borghi

#32521

Overall Influence

Anna M. Borghi is a cognitive psychologist known for her work on embodied cognition and embodied language comprehension. She is Associate Professor of Psychology at the Sapienza University of Rome and an associate researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technology, Italian Research Council. Borghi serves as Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Psychology .

#659

Laurie A. Rudman

#115116

Overall Influence

Laurie A. Rudman is a social psychology feminist professor as well as the Director of the Rutgers University Social Cognition Laboratory who has contributed a great deal of research to studies on implicit and explicit attitudes and stereotypes, stereotype maintenance processes, and the media's effects on attitudes, stereotypes, and behavior on the Feminism movement. She was awarded the 1994 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize for her research examining the effects of sexist advertising on men's behavior toward female job applicants.

#660

Jeannette Ickovics

#53382

Overall Influence

Jeannette R. Ickovics is an American health and social psychologist. She is the inaugural Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Psychology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale University. She was the Founding Chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Yale School of Public Health and the Founding Director of Community Alliance for Research and Engagement . She served as the Dean of Faculty at Yale-NUS College in Singapore from 2018 to 2021.

#661

Seana Coulson

#86262

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Seana Coulson is a cognitive scientist known for her research on the neurobiology of language and studies of how meaning is constructed in human language, including experimental pragmatics, concepts, semantics, and metaphors. She is a professor in the Cognitive Science department at University of California, San Diego, where her Brain and Cognition Laboratory focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of language and reasoning.

#662

Margaret Burchinal

#117180

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Margaret R. Burchinal is a quantitative psychologist and statistician known for her research on child care. She is senior research scientist and director of the Data Management and Analysis Center of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

#663

Lee C. Lee

#92489

Overall Influence

1935 - 2006 (71 years)

Lee Charlotte Lee was a Chinese American psychologist. She was a Professor Emerita of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Lee was the first woman of Asian ancestry to become a tenured professor at Cornell.

#664

Alia Crum

#96304

Overall Influence

Alia Joy Crum is an American psychologist who is the principal investigator of the Stanford Mind and Body Lab. Crum researches how mindsets affect human behaviour as well as physical and mental health outcomes. She has received widespread media coverage for her work.

#665

Viorica Marian

#103972

Overall Influence

Viorica Marian is a Moldovan-born American psycholinguist, cognitive scientist, and psychologist known for her research on bilingualism and multilingualism. She is the Ralph and Jean Sundin Endowed Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and professor of psychology at Northwestern University. Marian is the principal investigator of the Bilingualism and Psycholinguistics Research Group. She received her PhD in psychology from Cornell University, and master's degrees from Emory University and from Cornell University. Marian studies language, cognition, the brain, and the consequences...

#666

Marvalene Hughes

#109959

Overall Influence

Dr. Marvalene Hughes served as the president of Dillard University from 2005 to 2011. From 1994 to 2005, she was the president of California State University, Stanislaus. Ms. Hughes received a PhD in Counseling and Administration from Florida State University. Her MS, in Counseling, and her BS in English and History, are both from Tuskegee University. She also received an Honorary Doctorate from Brown University.

#667

Daphna Joel

#79275

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Daphna Joel is an Israeli neuroscientist and advocate for "neurofeminism". She is best known for her research which claims that there is no such thing as a "male brain" or a "female brain". Joel's research has been criticized by other neuroscientists who argue that male and female brains, on average, show distinct differences and can be classified with a high level of accuracy. Joel is a member of The NeuroGenderings Network, an international group of researchers in gender studies and neuroscience. They are critical of what they call neurosexism in the scientific community. Joel has given lec...

#668

Lorraine Tyler

#124676

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Lorraine Komisarjevsky Tyler , is a British neuroscientist. She is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Biography Tyler graduated with a BA in Psychology at the University of Leicester in 1966 and completed her PhD in Cognition and Communication at the University of Chicago in 1977. From 1980 to 1985 she was the senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics before, in 1990, joining Birkbeck College as Professor of Psychology. In 1998 Tyler joined the University of Cambridge as a MRC Research Professor before becoming taking up her current Professorship at the university in 2011.

#669

Lorraine Whitmarsh

#93017

Overall Influence

Lorraine Elisabeth Whitmarsh is a British psychologist and environmental scientist at the University of Bath. She serves as Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. Her research considers how the public engage with climate change, energy and transport.

#670

Kathleen Rastle

#95686

Overall Influence

Kathleen Rastle is a cognitive psychologist and Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London where she was previously the Head of Department of Psychology . Her research has made fundamental contributions to understanding of reading and learning to read.

#671

Margot Prior

#79409

Overall Influence

1937 - 2020 (83 years)

Margot Ruth Prior was an Australian psychologist, educator, and musician. She was professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne where her research focussed on autism and literacy development. She was also director of psychology at the Royal Children's Hospital and was adjunct professor at La Trobe University.

#672

Margaret Clark

#107882

Overall Influence

Margaret Sydnor Clark is an American psychologist. Clark received her B.A. in Government and Psychology from Franklin and Marshall College in 1973, and obtained a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Maryland in 1977. She joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University as Assistant Professor upon completing her studies, and taught there until moving to Yale University in 2005. At Carnegie Mellon she served as chair of the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for a year. At Yale, Clark has served first as master, a position subsequently renamed as head, of Trumbull College since 2013, was named John M.

#673

Jutta Joormann

#128499

Overall Influence

#674

Helen A. Neville

#110932

Overall Influence

Helen A. Neville is a professor of educational psychology and African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where she has taught since 2001. She previously served on the faculty of the University of Missouri, where she was the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Multicultural Research, Training, and Consultation. She received the Association of Black Psychologists' Distinguished Psychologist of the Year Award in 2011 and was a Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania in 2015–2016. She served as president of Division 45 of the American Psychological Association, the ...

#675

Susan Pick

#86148

Overall Influence

Susan Pick is a Mexican social psychologist and the founder and board president of the Mexican Institute for Family and Population Research , a Mexican organization that has promoted and facilitated wellbeing for over 21 million people in Mexico and 17 other countries through over 60 education, health and poverty reduction programs. She has her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of London.

#676

Ellen P. Reese

#95744

Overall Influence

1926 - 1997 (71 years)

Ellen P. Reese was the Norma Cutts Dafoe professor of psychology at Mount Holyoke College until 1994. She received her B.A. in psychology from Mount Holyoke in 1948 and her M.A. in 1954. The Ellen P. Reese Grants for Faculty/Student Research has been established in her name. In 1997 Mount Holyoke held a conference dedicated entirely to her memory.

#677

Marjan Jahanshahi

#128927

Overall Influence

#678

MaryAnn Baenninger

MaryAnn Baenninger

#66790

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

MaryAnn Baenninger is a psychology professor and the former president of Drew University, a Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college in Madison, New Jersey. Life Baenninger received a Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving as a psychology professor on the faculty of The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey, and as an executive associate director with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in Philadelphia, Baenninger was appointed as president of the College of Saint Benedict in Saint Joseph, Minnesota in 2004.

#679

Donata Francescato

#107590

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Donata Francescato is an Italian community psychologist and academic, trained in the United States, and known in academia and the media for her work on sex roles, communes, and personal and organizational empowerment. Her work in community psychology led to the discipline being recognized in 1985 as a compulsory subject in Italian universities where psychology is taught as a major subject.

#680

Gillian Ruth Brown

#94050

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Gillian Ruth Brown is a British psychologist and reader in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. She is known for her research on the evolutionary approaches to the study of human behavior. Brown held a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship from 2006 to 2010.

#681

Cynthia Hardy

#129250

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

#682

Jane M. Simoni

#62169

Overall Influence

Jane M. Simoni is an American clinical psychologist serving as the National Institutes of Health associate director for behavioral and social sciences research and director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research since July 2023. She was previously a professor at the University of Washington from 2001 to 2023.

#683

Susan R. Fussell

#103240

Overall Influence

Susan Runyon Fussell is an American psychologist, communications researcher, and information scientist known for her contributions to human–computer interaction. She is Liberty Hyde Baily Professor of Communication and Information Science at Cornell University, and a member of the CHI Academy.

#684

Julia Rucklidge

#87856

Overall Influence

Julia Rucklidge is a Canadian-born clinical psychologist who is the director of the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her research has centered on mental health and nutrition.

#685

Gisela Trommsdorff

#129877

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

#686

Michelle Fine

#71917

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Michelle Melody Fine is a distinguished professor at the City University of New York and has her training in Social and Personality Psychology, Environmental Psychology, American Studies, and Urban Education. Her research includes the topics of social injustice and resistance and urban education. Fine is also an author and has written several works, one of her most known being Muslim American Youth .

#687

Kerry Kawakami

#129949

Overall Influence

Kerry Kawakami is a Canadian social psychologist. She is a professor of social psychology at York University in Toronto. She is the current editor of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology : Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes. Kawakami's research focuses on developing strategies to reduce intergroup bias.

#688

Rebecca Bigler

#51345

Overall Influence

Rebecca Bigler is a developmental psychologist known for research on social stereotyping , prejudice, and children's perceptions of discrimination. Bigler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

#689

Suzanne Chambers

#99925

Overall Influence

Suzanne Kathleen Chambers , is a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Health at Sydney's University of Technology. She specialises in psycho-oncology, and has received Queen's Birthday honours. Chambers has worked on psycho-oncology, prostate cancer, health economics and psychological interventions including the distress and adjustments after cancer.

#690

Daisy Fancourt

#56318

Overall Influence

1990 - Present (34 years)

Daisy Fancourt is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London. Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing. During the COVID-19 pandemic Fancourt led a team running the UK's largest study into the psychological and social impact of COVID-19 and established the international network COVID Minds, aiming to better understand the impact of coronavirus disease on mental health and well-being.

#691

Karen Hollis

#96421

Overall Influence

Karen Hollis is an American professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley Massachusetts. Hollis's research focusses on an evolutionary approach to learning and cognition in non human animals. She served as the head of the American Psychological Association's sixth division from 2006 to 2007 and the third division

#692

Meredith Chivers

#78788

Overall Influence

Meredith L. Chivers is a Canadian sexologist and clinical psychologist noted for her research on female sexuality, sexual orientation, paraphilias, sex differences, gender identity, and the physiology of sexual arousal. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

#693

Barbara Franke

#130691

Overall Influence

#694

Evelina Fedorenko

#104277

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Evelina G. Fedorenko is a Russian-born American cognitive neuroscientist. Early life and education Born in 1980 in Volgograd in the Soviet Union, Fedorenko moved to the United States in 1998. In 2002, she graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in psychology and linguistics. She then went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her graduate degree in cognitive science and neuroscience, receiving her Ph.D in 2007.

#695

Linda M. Collins

#130801

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

#696

Faye Crosby

#97908

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Faye J. Crosby is an American social psychologist and professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research has focused on topics related to social justice, particularly affirmative action, as well as gender equality and relative deprivation. Before joining the University of California, Santa Cruz, she taught at Yale University and at Smith College. In 2005, she received the Kurt Lewin Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

#697

Kate Tchanturia

#121368

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Kate Tchanturia is a British psychologist who is a professor of psychology in eating disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. She is also Consultant Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for the National Eating Disorder Service, and president of the Eating Disorders Research Society. Her main research interests include cultural differences in illness presentations, cognitive profiles in eating disorders, and experimental work in emotion processing and translational research from experimental findings to real clinical practice.

#698

Sandra Leiblum

#43113

Overall Influence

1943 - 2010 (67 years)

Sandra Risa Leiblum was an American author, lecturer, and researcher in sexology. Biography Leiblum was born in Brooklyn, NY, earned her B.A. from Brooklyn College and graduated with a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, Colorado. In 1972 she joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry of UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. During her career she studied sexual issues in many circumstances addressing among others transgender situations, infertility, and menopause.

#699

Catherine P. Bradshaw

#114025

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Catherine Pilcher Bradshaw is an American developmental psychologist and academic. Bradshaw's research focuses on the development of aggressive behavior as well as the prevention of mental health problems in school-based settings.

#700

Alison Darcy

#45423

Overall Influence

Alison Darcy is a research psychologist and technologist. She is the Founder and President of Woebot Health, a company which provides digital therapeutics and behavioural health products. Early life and education Darcy was an undergraduate student in Ireland at the University College Dublin, where she specialised in psychology. After completing her studies, Darcy became interested in computer science, so moved to London to work in an investment bank as a software developer. The investment bank was acquired by a larger bank during the dot com crash, leaving Darcy looking for new options. In par...

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