The Most Influential People Across History

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 female people in Psychology,

#1001

Nadia Chaudhri

#124817
Overall Influence
1978 - 2021 (43 years)
Nadia Chaudhri was a Pakistani-Canadian psychologist. She was a professor of psychology at Concordia University where she researched drug and alcohol abuse. Early life and education Nadia Chaudhri was born on January 25, 1978, in Karachi, to Abdul Shakoor and Susan Mary Chaudhri. She was raised in Karachi. Since her mother was raised in England, she grew up around Western influence and her father who allowed her to pursue higher education overseas. She moved to the United States at the age of 17 and attended Franklin & Marshall College for her bachelor's degree in biological foundations of behavior with a concentration in neuroscience studies.
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#1002

Karen Franklin

Karen Franklin
#85783
Overall Influence
Karen Franklin is an American forensic psychologist. For her doctoral dissertation, she conducted research on anti-gay violence. She has also published commentaries about sex crimes, primarily expressing her opposition to the use of the hebephilia and other diagnoses in sexually violent predator regulations. She received the 2012 Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in Psychology and the Monette-Horwitz Trust Award in 2001.
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#1003

Mary Fristad

#174595
Overall Influence
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#1004

Alison Ritter

#171726
Overall Influence
Alison Joan Ritter is an Australian academic whose research focuses on illicit drug use and policy. As of 2021 she is a full professor and director of the Drug Policy Modelling Program at the University of New South Wales.
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#1005

Marguerita Lightfoot

#37834
Overall Influence
Marguerita Lightfoot is a counseling psychologist known for her research in the field of preventive medicine, especially in regard to HIV prevention and advocacy for homeless youth. She is Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Prevention Science. She serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development among Children and Youth.
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#1006

Paula R. Pietromonaco

#170607
Overall Influence
Paula R. Pietromonaco is an American psychologist and principal investigator of the Growth in Early Marriage Project at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion, as well as the associate editor of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes section.
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#1007

Danielle Knafo

#170368
Overall Influence
Danielle Knafo is an American clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and author. Born in French Morocco and raised in Pennsylvania she is now a professor of psychology and psychoanalysis. She is a prolific author, and a popular speaker. She is also a professor at Long Island University-Post in its clinical psychology doctoral program. She writes and lectures on many subjects, including creativity, trauma, psychosis, sexuality and gender, and technology.
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#1008

Victoria Leong

#165863
Overall Influence
Victoria Leong is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist whose research into the neural synchrony between mothers and infants has been widely reported. Leong's PhD thesis won the Robert J. Glushko Prize of the Cognitive Science Society in 2014 "in recognition of outstanding cross-disciplinary work integrating neuroscience, psychology, linguistics and computational modelling." She has a dual appointment at Nanyang Technological University and the University of Cambridge and is head of the Baby-LINC Lab at the Department of Psychology at Cambridge. She is a recipient of the 2020 Social Science...
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#1009

Barbara M. Byrne

#168348
Overall Influence
1935 - 2020 (85 years)
Barbara M. Byrne was a Canadian quantitative psychologist known for her work in psychometrics, specifically regarding construct validity, structural equation modeling , and statistics. She held the position of Professor Emerita in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa and was a fellow of the International Testing Committee , International Association for Applied Psychology , and American Psychological Association throughout her research career.
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#1010

Diane S. Littler

#102606
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Diane Scullion Littler is an American phycologist who has conducted research on marine algae for over 30 years, often in partnership with her husband Mark M. Littler. Her work has included taxonomic characterization of assemblages of tropical marine algae at sites across the globe, as well as her research on the physiological and ecological dynamics of algae. She has published over 120 scientific papers, as well as co-authored field guides for identifying coral reef algae.
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#1011

Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill

#97176
Overall Influence
Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill is an American academic. She is a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University . From 1994 to 2010, she was the director of the BYU Women's Research Institute. Early life and education The daughter of Ariel S. Ballif and Artemesia Romney, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill attended Brigham Young High School in Provo, Utah and has a bachelor's degree and a Ph.D. both from Brigham Young University.
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#1012

Iris Berent

#167572
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Iris Berent is an Israeli-American cognitive psychologist. She is a Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University and the director of the Language and Mind Lab. She is among the founders of experimental phonology—a field that uses the methods of experimental psychology and neuroscience to study phonological competence. She has also explored the role of phonological competence in reading ability and dyslexia. Her recent work has examined how laypeople reason about innate knowledge, such as universal grammar.
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#1013

Christine Hunter

#82438
Overall Influence
Christine M. Hunter is an American clinical psychologist and a uniformed service officer. She is the acting National Institutes of Health associate director for behavioral and social sciences research and acting director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Hunter was an active duty officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1996 to 2006. She is a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
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#1014

Kelly-Ann Allen

#173297
Overall Influence
Kelly-Ann Allen is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Clayton campus, Melbourne, Australia, and an Educational and Developmental Psychologist. Allen gained her PhD in 2014 from the University of Melbourne on the subject of School Belonging which continues to be her main academic focus. Allen is a qualified school psychologist as well as an established academic. Allen has made significant contributions to the field of belonging and school psychology and has published over 170 outputs in these fields. She ha...
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#1015

Heather Berlin

#149251
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Heather A. Berlin is an American neuroscientist and licensed clinical psychologist noted for her work in science communication and science outreach. Her research focuses on brain-behavior relationships affecting the prevention and treatment of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric disorders. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Berlin is host of the PBS Nova series Your Brain, the PBS series Science Goes to the Movies, the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown, and StarTalk All-Stars with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
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#1016

Angelica Ronald

#175489
Overall Influence
Angelica Ronald is a Professor of Psychology and Genetics at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development within the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London, where she is the director of the Genes Environment Lifespan laboratory. Angelica Ronald is also a visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. She has been awarded the Spearman Medal from the British Psychological Society and the Thompson award from the Behavior Genetics Association for her research.
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#1017

Alison Calear

#174462
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Alison Calear is an Australian academic who is a Professor at the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. She studies youth mental health and the prevention of anxiety, depression and suicide.
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#1018

Pamela Y. Collins

#135040
Overall Influence
Pamela Y. Collins is an American psychiatrist. She is the Director of the International Training and Education Center for Health and the Global Mental Health Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine and School of Public Health. Collins is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of global health. She previously worked as the director of the Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health at the National Institute of Mental Health .
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#1019

Marie Crowe

#71086
Overall Influence
Marie T. Crowe is a New Zealand psychotherapy academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Otago. Academic career After a 1998 PhD titled 'Doing what no normal woman would do' at the Griffith University, Crowe moved to the University of Otago, rising to full professor in 2012.
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#1020

Harriette Pipes McAdoo

#152117
Overall Influence
1940 - 2009 (69 years)
Harriette Pipes McAdoo was an American sociologist and a distinguished professor at Michigan State University. She and her husband, John Lewis McAdoo, engaged in research concerning African-American families. She was the author of a well-regarded anthology, Black Families.
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#1021

Louise Nadeau

#104552
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Louise Nadeau is a Canadian clinical psychologist. She is a professor in the department of psychology at the Université de Montréal in Quebec, Canada, recognized for her contributions to the field of addictions.
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#1022

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

#41642
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (87 years)
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first and to date only woman to hold the post. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for the second term in 2003.
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#1023

Sharon Lamb

#136830
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Sharon Lamb , is an American professor in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston's, College of Education and Human Development, and a fellow of the American Psychological Association . She also sits on the editorial board of the academic journals Feminism & Psychology, and Sexualization, Media, and Society.
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#1024

Belinda Probert

#52069
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Belinda Probert is an educator and social scientist who has advised non-government organisations and state and national governments in Australia. Her academic research and writing has been in the areas of employment policy, gender equity, and work and welfare reform, including households and the domestic division of labour. She has held senior leadership roles in several universities as well as with the Australian Research Council, where she was a member and Deputy Chair of the Research Training and Careers Committee , and member of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences Expert Adviso...
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#1025

Charlotte Patterson

#119789
Overall Influence
Charlotte J. Patterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. Patterson is also a member of the United States Census Bureau's National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations, established in 2012, as well as a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and American Psychological Association . She is known for her research into the psychological effects of LGBT parenting, for which she was awarded the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy in 2009 by the APA.
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#1026

Sara Jaffee

#139165
Overall Influence
Sara Rachel Jaffee is an American developmental psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is also director of graduate studies. She previously held a faculty position at the Institute of Psychiatry. She specializes in the field of developmental psychopathology, with a particular focus on antisocial behavior in children.
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#1027

Gretchen Chapman

#169517
Overall Influence
Gretchen Chapman is a cognitive psychologist known for her work on judgment and decision making in health-related contexts, such as clinical decision making and patient preferences, preventive health behavior, and vaccination. She is Professor of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Chapman served as an Editor of the journal Psychological Science and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.
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#1028

Margaret Rioch

#116952
Overall Influence
1907 - 1996 (89 years)
Margaret Jeffrey Rioch was an American psychotherapist, internationally known for her critical work in the field of psychology. She is best known for her role in establishing a new method of training for mental health counselors. Rioch's publications and projects have directly led to the current systems of mental health care treatment. Notable methods that have stemmed from her work include crisis hotlines and the use of support groups. She died in 1996 at the age of 89.
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#1029

Frances Champagne

Frances Champagne
#77425
Overall Influence
Frances A. Champagne is a Canadian psychologist and University Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin known for her research in the fields of molecular neuroscience, maternal behavior, and epigenetics. Research in the Champagne lab explores the developmental plasticity that occurs in response to environmental experiences. She is known for her work on the epigenetic transmission of maternal behavior. Frances Champagne's research has revealed how natural variations in maternal behavior can shape the behavioral development of offspring through epigenetic changes in gene expression in a brain region specific manner.
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#1030

Nora Ahlberg

#110998
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Nora Louise Ahlberg is a Norwegian psychologist. She was Professor of Psychology at the University of Oslo and Director of the Psychosocial Centre for Refugees and later Director of the Norwegian Centre for Migration and Minority Health, a government agency that is now part of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
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#1031

Hillary Anger Elfenbein

#173524
Overall Influence
Hillary Anger Elfenbein is the John and Ellen Wallace Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior at Washington University in St. Louis, known for her research on emotion in the workplace and cross-cultural differences in emotion.
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#1032

Faye Z. Belgrave

#160329
Overall Influence
Faye Z. Belgrave is a psychologist known for her research conducted for the benefit of the African American youth, specifically in the areas of substance abuse and HIV. She is currently a professor of Psychology and the founding director of the Center for Cultural Experiences in Prevention at Virginia Commonwealth University .
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#1033

Fiona A. White

#96025
Overall Influence
Fiona A. White is an Australian academic. She is a professor of social psychology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and director of the Sydney University Psychology of Intergroup Relations Lab., and degree coordinator of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science . She has been a lead author on four editions of Developmental Psychology: From Infancy to Adulthood. White is known as the developer of the E-contact intervention, a synchronous online tool that has been found to reduce anxiety, prejudice, and stigma.
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#1034

Éliane Amado Levy-Valensi

#70204
Overall Influence
1919 - 2006 (87 years)
Éliane Amado Levy-Valensi was a French-Israeli psychologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher. Biography Éliane Levy-Valensi was born in Marseille to a Jewish family. In 1930 she moved with her parents to Saint-Mandé near Paris.
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#1035

Martha Banks

#148144
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Martha E. Banks is a clinical psychologist known her expertise on issues involving women, race, trauma, disability, religion, and their intersectionality. She is a research neuropsychologist and computer programmer at ABackans DCP Inc.
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#1036

Marney A. White

#89167
Overall Influence
Marney Ann White is an American psychologist and epidemiologist. Early life and education White completed her Bachelor of Science degree in 1991 from the University of Virginia and her Master's degree at James Madison University. She obtained her doctoral degree at Louisiana State University and published Development and validation of the food-craving inventory. Following her clinical internship, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. She then completed a second master's degree at Yale School of Public Health in Chronic Disease E...
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#1037

Katrina Roen

#130471
Overall Influence
Katrina Roen is a New Zealand psychology / sociology academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Waikato. She was formerly a visiting researcher at the University of Oslo. Academic career After a 1998 PhD titled 'Constructing transsexuality: Discursive manoeuvres through psycho-medical, transgender, and queer texts' at the University of Canterbury, Roen took up a series of academic posts in Wellington, Lancaster, and then Oslo where she became a visiting researcher.
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#1038

Gabrielle Clerk

#165515
Overall Influence
1923 - 2012 (89 years)
Gabrielle "Gaby" Clerk was a Canadian psychologist and professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal. She was one of the first psychoanalysts in Canada. Biography In 1940, Gabrielle Brunet enrolled at the Université de Montréal's Institute of Psychology, which had just been founded by Father Noël Mailloux. She was part of the first class of six students along with André Lussier and Thérèse Gouin-Décarie.
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#1039

Alette Coble-Temple

#175357
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Alette Coble-Temple is a professor of clinical psychology at John F. Kennedy University. She is a member of the disabled community as an advocate for equal rights for individuals with disabilities. She is also a leader among women in the field of psychology. She sits as both a member of the American Psychological Association Committee on Women in Psychology, and as a member of the APA's Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology.
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#1040

Francine Deutsch

#138626
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Francine M. Deutsch is an American writer and professor emeritus at the Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts since 1981. She is a professor of Psychology and Education. She is specialized in the social psychology of gender in everyday life, gender inequality at home and in labour market, and the educational trajectories of pre-school teachers. She worked on the link between unequal earning, young children at home and domestic inequality in household duties.
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#1041

Natasha J. Cabrera

#157944
Overall Influence
Natasha J. Cabrera is a Canadian developmental psychologist known for her research on children's cognitive and social development, focusing primarily on fathers' involvement and influence on child development, ethnic and cultural variations in parenting behaviors, and factors associated with developmental risk. She holds the position of Professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methods at the University of Maryland, College of Education, where she is Director of the Family Involvement Laboratory and affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center. Cabrera also h...
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#1042

Anke Grotlüschen

#106657
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (55 years)
Anke Grotlüschen is an educational researcher and professor at the University of Hamburg. Life Anke Grotlüschen studied at the Wirtschaftsakademie Hamburg from 1988 – 1991 and finished as Betriebswirtin . She continued studying educational sciences from 1991 – 1997 with the main topics being Adult Education as well as psychology, sociology and politics as minors at the University of Hamburg. She finished this study program with a thesis about political education in the perspective of critical psychology.
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#1043

Crystal L. Hoyt

#176938
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (49 years)
Crystal L. Hoyt is an American social psychologist. Hoyt attended Claremont McKenna College, where she studied psychology and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1997. She pursued further study in the subject at University of California, Santa Barbara, completing her doctorate in 2003. Hoyt began teaching at the University of Richmond Jepson School of Leadership Studies in 2003 as an assistant professor. She became an associate professor in 2009, and later succeeded Donelson R. Forsyth as Colonel Leo K. & Gaylee Thorsness Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership.
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#1044

Dawn Brooker

#170209
Overall Influence
Dawn June Ratcliffe Brooker is a British psychologist who is a professor at the University of Worcester and Director of the Association for Dementia Studies. In 2020 she was awarded an MBE for her services to dementia care.
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#1045

Margaret Rosario

#169853
Overall Influence
Margaret Rosario is a health psychologist who studies the development of sexual identity and health disparities associated with sexual orientation. Rosario was President of the American Psychological Association Division 44, the Society for Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, from 2017-2018. Rosario received the APA Division 44 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Ethnic Minority Issues in 2008 and the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 2012, as well as the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in 2021.
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#1046

Ellen Frank

#173904
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Ellen Frank is a psychologist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is known in the field of Psychotherapy as one of the developers of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, which aims to treat bipolar disorder by correcting disruptions in the circadian rhythm while promoting increased regularity of daily social routines. Frank is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HealthRhythms, a company that uses mobile technology to monitor the health and mental health of clients, facilitate the detec...
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#1047

Angela Neal-Barnett

#99417
Overall Influence
Angela M. Neal-Barnett is an American professor and child psychologist working at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, US. Neal-Barnett's research and work focuses on supporting Black women and girls with anxiety.
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#1048

Larissa Samuelson

#172575
Overall Influence
Larissa Samuelson is an American psychologist known for her exploration in the fields of word learning, cognitive development, and the use of dynamic systems as a framework for understanding the developmental process. She is Professor at the School of Psychology of the University of East Anglia.
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#1049

Marlene Dobkin de Rios

#83357
Overall Influence
1939 - 2012 (73 years)
Marlene Dobkin de Rios was an American cultural anthropologist, medical anthropologist, and psychotherapist. She conducted fieldwork in the Amazon for almost 30 years. Her research included the use of entheogenic plants by the indigenous peoples of Peru.
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#1050

Jessica Schleider

#172522
Overall Influence
Jessica Schleider is an American psychologist, author, and an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Stony Brook University. She is a faculty affiliate at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and the lab director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health.
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