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,

#801

Diana Fleischman

#109286

Overall Influence

1981 - Present (43 years)

Diana Santos Fleischman is an American evolutionary psychologist. Her field of research includes the study of disgust, human sexuality, and hormones and behaviour. She is also involved in the effective altruism, animal welfare, and feminism movements.

#802

Wendy Watson Nelson

#57084

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Wendy L. Watson Nelson is a Canadian-American marriage and family therapist, and professor. She worked with the Family Nursing Unit at the University of Calgary from 1983 to 1992, training graduate students to use family systems therapy with families of patients. Her academic work in articles and in the book Beliefs: The Heart of Healing in Families and Illness helped develop a practical and theoretical framework for family systems nursing. She is the wife of Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .

#803

Ann-Sophie Barwich

#53298

Overall Influence

Ann-Sophie Barwich is a cognitive scientist, an empirical philosopher, and a historian of science. She is an assistant professor with joint positions in the cognitive science program and the department of history and philosophy of science at Indiana University Bloomington. Barwich is best known for her interdisciplinary work on the history, philosophy, and neuroscience of olfaction. Her book, Smellosophy: What the Nose tells the Mind, highlights the importance of thinking about the sense of smell as a model for neuroscience and the senses. She is also noted for her analyses on methodological i...

#804

Julie Ancis

#43153

Overall Influence

Julie Ancis currently is a Distinguished Professor of Informatics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She served as the interim chair of the Department of Informatics and was also a Professor of Psychology and the inaugural Director of Cyberpsychology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She was previously a professor at Georgia State University for 15 years and Associate Vice President of Diversity at Georgia Institute of Technology. Ancis is an expert in the areas of cyberpsychology, multicultural competence and diversity. She has authored 4 books and over 80 scholarly publicat...

#805

E. Sandra Byers

#76013

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Elaine Sandra Byers is a Canadian psychologist, sex researcher, educator and therapist. As a faculty member of psychology at the University of New Brunswick, she established the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence.

#806

Carla Sharp

#143835

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Carla Sharp is an American clinical psychologist. She is a professor in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program and Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the University of Houston, where she is also Director of the Adolescent Diagnosis Assessment Prevention and Treatment Center and the Developmental Psychopathology Lab.

#807

Lori Brotto

#125608

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Lori Anne Brotto is a Canadian psychologist best known for her work on female sexual arousal disorder . Career In 1993, Brotto graduated Johnston Heights High School in Surrey, British Columbia. Brotto attended the University of British Columbia, earning a biopsychology B.Sc. in 1997, a M.A. in 1999, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2003. In 2003, she completed a one-year internship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington, followed by a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Reproductive and Sexual Medicine. Brotto was licensed as a Psychologist in the Province of Br...

#808

Sharon Thompson-Schill

#115881

Overall Influence

Sharon Thompson-Schill is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her research covers the field of biological basis of human cognitive systems, including language, memory, perception, and cognitive control, and the relationships between these systems. As of 2023, she has produced more than 190 scientific publications, which collectively have been cited over 18,000 times.

#809

Lisa Feigenson

#138218

Overall Influence

Lisa Feigenson is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Child Development. Feigenson is known for her research on the development of numerical abilities, working memory, and early learning. She has served on the editorial board of Cognition and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

#810

Mary Aiken

#94652

Overall Influence

Cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken is a Professor of cyberpsychology. Her book The Cyber Effect investigates the relationship between technology and human behaviour. Education She received a Masters in Science in cyberpsychology and a Doctor of Philosophy in Forensic Cyberpsychology.

#811

Veena Kumari

#148159

Overall Influence

Veena Kumari is Professor of Experimental Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Selected publications

#812

Thelma Hunt

#134025

Overall Influence

1903 - 1992 (89 years)

Thelma Hunt was an American expert in psychological testing. Chair of the George Washington University Psychology Department for twenty-five years, she was an innovator in test construction and measurement for what is now known as industrial and organizational psychology. Hunt and her frequent collaborator Fred A. Moss developed several tests still in use, including the first version of the Medical College Admission Test .

#813

Victoria Clarke

#93601

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Victoria Clarke is a UK-based chartered psychologist and an Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology at the University of the West England, Bristol. Her work focuses on qualitative psychology and critical psychology, and her background and training is in the fields of women studies, feminist psychology, LGBTQ psychology, and qualitative methods. She is particularly known for her ongoing collaboration with Professor Virginia Braun around qualitative methods. Braun and Clarke developed a widely cited approach to thematic analysis in 2006 and have published extensively around thematic analysis since then.

#814

Sarah Garfinkel

Sarah Garfinkel

#121936

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Sarah Garfinkel is a British neuroscientist and Professor of neuroscience and psychiatry based at the University of Sussex and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Her research is focused on the link between interoception and emotion and memory. In 2018, she was selected as one of 11 researchers on the Nature Index 2018 Rising Stars.

#815

Patricia M. Bricklin

#133316

Overall Influence

1932 - 2010 (78 years)

Patricia Bricklin was a professor of Psychology in the Institute of Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University. She was President of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association. She was awarded the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions and the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology. The Pennsylvania Psychological Foundation annually awards the Patricia M. Bricklin Student Ethics Award to a student who lives in Pennsylvania or attends school in Pennsylvania for contributions to ethics or law in psychology.

#816

Leola Neal

#102816

Overall Influence

1911 - 1995 (84 years)

Leola Neal was a Canadian psychologist born in Merlin, Ontario. Neal taught at the University of Western Ontario where she was appointed the Dean of Women, and was the first female president of the Ontario Psychological Association and the second woman to serve on the board of the Canadian Psychological Association. Neal's work helped promote undergraduate psychology curriculums and define standards for psychological counselling.

#817

Monica Webb Hooper

Monica Webb Hooper

#71602

Overall Influence

Monica S. Webb Hooper is an American behavioral scientist and clinical psychologist serving as deputy director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She was a professor at Case Western Reserve University and associate director for cancer disparities research and director of the Office of Cancer Disparities Research in the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

#818

Marisa Salanova

#149780

Overall Influence

#819

Olivia Hooker

#93934

Overall Influence

1915 - 2018 (103 years)

Olivia Juliette Hooker was an American psychologist and professor. She was a survivor of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, and the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard. During World War II, she became a member of the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, earning the rank of Yeoman Second Class during her service. She served in the Coast Guard until her unit was disbanded in mid-1946. Hooker then used her G.I. Bill to obtain her master's degree in psychological services and went on earn her PhD in clinical psychology. In 1973, she helped form the American Psychologica...

#820

Mara Mather

#69854

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Mara Mather is a professor of gerontology and psychology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Her research deals with aging and affective neuroscience, focusing on how emotion and stress affect memory and decisions. She is the daughter of mathematician John N. Mather.

#821

Margreet Kloppenburg

#150714

Overall Influence

#822

Marian Fischman

#110794

Overall Influence

1939 - 2001 (62 years)

Marian Rita Weinbaum Fischman was an American psychologist. She researched narcotics and addiction. Life Born Marian Rita Weinbaum in Queens, New York, Fischman lived her early years in an apartment above her father's drugstore. She attended Barnard College before completing a master's in psychology at Columbia University and a doctorate from University of Chicago. Her thesis addressed the effects of methamphetamine on Rhesus monkeys and "found persisting effects on decreased dopamine and serotonin in the Rhesus monkey brain, suggesting long-term damage."

#823

Helen Cassaday

#117497

Overall Influence

Helen Cassaday is Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham. Education Cassaday did her BA, MA in Experimental Psychology, at University College, University of Oxford ; her PhD was in Psychopharmacology, at Institute of Psychiatry, University of London

#824

Donna Rose Addis

#119552

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (47 years)

Donna Rose Addis is a New Zealand psychology academic. Of Samoan descent, she is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland, but is set to move to the University of Toronto. Academic career Addis went to Aorere College in Auckland, and her bursary marks made her New Zealand's top all-round scholar of Pacific Island descent.

#825

Fernanda Ferreira

#151568

Overall Influence

#826

Laurel Mellin

#63754

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Laurel Mellin is an American author of nine books focusing on brain-based health, stress overload, and stress eating, including The New York Times Best Seller, The Pathway. She developed emotional brain training, a method of emotional regulation that rapidly reduces stress and promotes rewiring stress-induced problems.

#827

Mirta González Suárez

#38238

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Mirta González Suárez is a Costa Rican social psychologist and novelist. She is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Costa Rica, where she has conducted research in women's studies and political psychology. Her first novel, Crimen con sonrisa , won a national literary award, the in 2013. In 2016 she won the award "UNA palabra" by the National University of Costa Rica for her novel "La gobernadora" and in 2021 the "Juegos Florales Hispanoamericanos de Quetzaltenango 2021" for the novel "La Independencia".

#828

Rosemary Gordon

#140819

Overall Influence

1918 - 2012 (94 years)

Rosemary Gordon was a naturalised British academic, clinical psychologist and leading analytical psychologist and writer. She was a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Psychological Society and an honorary fellow of the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Kent.

#829

Sandra L. Calvert

Sandra L. Calvert

#103024

Overall Influence

Sandra L. Calvert is a developmental and child psychologist, whose scholarship illuminates the children's media area, including policy implications. Calvert is currently professor of psychology, and an affiliated faculty member at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Calvert is also the co-founder and Director of the Children's Digital Media Center, a multi-university research initiative funded primarily by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, as well as by private foundations. Calvert served as chair of the department of psychology at Georgetown Unive...

#830

Leslie Zebrowitz

#103214

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Dr. Leslie A. Zebrowitz is a social psychologist who studies the effects of the way people look on others' attitudes towards them. Her research has shown conclusively that babyfaced and angularly faced individuals are viewed differently. Among the effects, babyfaced individuals are seen as physically weaker, more submissive and less competent and, as Zebrowitz argued in a 2005 paper in Science, this may explain why politicians with more mature faces are more likely to win elections. She is the author of Reading Faces as well as many scholarly articles.

#831

Antonia Lyons

#141638

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Antonia Catherine Lyons is a New Zealand health psychology academic. Career Lyons completed her PhD at Massey University in 1996. Her first academic post was as lecturer in health psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK, from 1996 to 2002. She returned to Massey University and rose to professor at this institution. Lyons took up the role of Professor of Health Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington in 2018, where she is also Head of School, School of Health.

#832

Abigail J. Stewart

#152793

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

#833

Sílvia Helena Koller

#152808

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

#834

Simone Pettigrew

#153054

Overall Influence

#835

Katherine Isbister

#73266

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Katherine Isbister is a game and human computer interaction researcher and designer, currently a professor in computational media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Until June 2015, she was an associate professor at New York University, with a joint appointment in computer science and in the Game Center at the Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, she was founding research director of the Game Innovation Lab. Isbister's research and design contributions center on how to create more compelling emotional and social qualities in games and other digital experiences. She has innovated in the areas of character/avatar/agent design and in researching and evaluating the user experience.

#836

Vivette Glover

#108408

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Vivette Glover is a British Professor of Perinatal Psychobiology at Imperial College London. She studies the effects of stress in pregnancy on the development of the fetus and child. Education Her first degree was in biochemistry at Oxford University, and she undertook her PhD in neurochemistry at University College London.

#837

Alina von Davier

Alina von Davier

#118437

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Alina Anca von Davier is a psychometrician and researcher in computational psychometrics, machine learning, and education. Von Davier is a researcher, innovator, and an executive leader with over 20 years of experience in EdTech and in the assessment industry. She is the Chief of Assessment at Duolingo, where she leads the Duolingo English Test research and development area. She is also the Founder and CEO of EdAstra Tech, a service-oriented EdTech company. In 2022, she joined the University of Oxford as an Honorary Research Fellow, and Carnegie Mellon University as a Senior Research Fellow.

#838

Jill M. Hooley

#149749

Overall Influence

Jill M. Hooley is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. She is currently the head of the experimental psychopathology and clinical psychology program at Harvard. In 2009, she was the president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology.

#839

Doreen Rosenthal

#144273

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Doreen Anne Rosenthal is an Australian academic and adolescent sexual health and women's health researcher. As of 2020 she is Professor Emerita in the School of Population Health at La Trobe University and Honorary Professor in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.

#840

Loraine Obler

#119290

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Loraine Katherine Obler is an American linguist and neuroscientist, internationally recognized as a leading scholar in the field of neurolinguistics and multilingualism. Obler is known for her contributions to understanding how language-related behavior is controlled within the brain. Her research spans diverse sub-disciplines such as the neurolinguistics of bilingualism, language processing in aging and Alzheimer's disease, and the cross-language study of aphasia.

#841

Penelope Peterson

#102623

Overall Influence

Penelope L. Peterson is an American educational psychologist and academic administrator. Peterson was named Dean of Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy in September 1997 and previously served as University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University and Sears-Bascom Professor of Education at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She also served as president of the American Education Research Association .

#842

Kathy Sylva

#145276

Overall Influence

Kathy Sylva is an educational psychologist. She is Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at the University of Oxford. Biography Sylva has a BA in Psychology and Social relations, and a master's degree and PHD in Developmental Psychology, all from Harvard University.

#843

Vickie Mays

#38977

Overall Influence

Vickie M. Mays is an American psychologist known for her research on racial disparities in health. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Letters and Sciences and a professor in the Department of Health Services, both at the University of California, Los Angeles . She is also the director of the BRITE Center for Science, Research and Policy at UCLA. In 2007, she received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy from the American Psychological Association, and in 2020, she received the Carl Taube Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Mental Health from the American Public Health Association's Mental Health Section.

#844

Mary Boyle

#99048

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Mary Boyle is a clinical psychologist. She is a Professor Emeritus at University of East London. Books Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?, 2nd ed., Routledge, 2002, -explores the concept of schizophrenia through the lens of the philosophy of science using concepts from Rudolf Carnap and Lewis White Beck considering the validity of the biological basis for schizophrenia including genetic research. It considers the validity of the DSM's definition of schizophrenia, and considers aspects of the sociology behind its diagnosis and the concept itself following Michel Foucault. It explores alterna...

#845

Emily Falk

#50697

Overall Influence

Emily B. Falk is an American psychologist, neuroscientist, and professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, holding secondary appointments in psychology and marketing.

#846

Madonna Constantine

#133803

Overall Influence

Madonna G. Constantine was an American psychology and education professor who formerly taught at Teachers College, Columbia University. She was fired in 2008 on grounds of plagiarism. Education and early career Constantine earned a B.S. in psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1984, an M.S. from the same institution in counseling, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Memphis. She worked at the University of Texas at Austin for five years at the Counseling and Mental Health Center before becoming the director of the Temple University vocational counseling cent...

#847

Deborah Tolman

#85942

Overall Influence

Deborah L. Tolman is a developmental psychologist and the co-founder of SPARK: Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge. She is the author of Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality, which was awarded the 2003 Distinguished Book Award from the Association for Women in Psychology.

#848

K. Alison Clarke-Stewart

#133288

Overall Influence

1943 - 2014 (71 years)

K. Alison Clarke-Stewart was a developmental psychologist and expert on children's social development. She is well known for her work on the effects of child care on children's development, and for her research on children's suggestibility. She has written over 100 articles for scholarly journals and co-authored several leading textbooks in the field.

#849

Ann Weatherall

#104868

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Ann Weatherall is a New Zealand psychology academic, currently professor of psychology at Victoria University of Wellington. Her research methodologies include discursive psychology and conversation analysis and interests include 'the relationships between gendered patterns of social disadvantage, language and discourse.' In 2014 she received a Marsden Grant to investigate rape culture. She has been an editor of the 'Women's Studies Journal'.

#850

Holly Branigan

#143912

Overall Influence

Holly Branigan FRSE is a Professor of Psychology of Language and Cognition and Head of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Education Branigan has attended the University of York, the Université de Lille III and the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh in 1995.

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