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 female people in Psychology,

#1051

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy

#111786

Overall Influence

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy is Dean and Distinguished Professor of Education in the School of Education at American University in Washington, DC. Previously, she was Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Johns Hopkins University , and a professor of Counseling and Human Development at the JHU School of Education. She was an affiliate faculty member in the Center for Africana Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Holcomb-McCoy is a graduate of Hampton High School.

#1052

Gail Dinter-Gottlieb

#50808

Overall Influence

Gail Dinter-Gottlieb is an American university administrator who served as the 14th president and vice-chancellor of Acadia University until February 2008. A native of Port Chester, New York, Dinter-Gottlieb was educated at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Northeastern University, Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

#1053

Nicole Prause

#119943

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Nicole Prause is an American neuroscientist researching human sexual behavior, addiction, and the physiology of sexual response. She is also the founder of Liberos LLC, an independent research institute.

#1054

Michelle Luciano

#117151

Overall Influence

Michelle Luciano is a Professor at the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the use of twin studies to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to human behavior.She has conducted research on the relationship between Mediterranean diet and brain volume. She was awarded the Visiting Professor Award to visit Trinity College Dublin in June 2019. She was a lead researcher in a study which identified 42 genetic variants associated with dyslexia and that the genetic risk was similar between sexes, this project was in ...

#1055

Virginia E. Johnson

#61340

Overall Influence

1925 - 2013 (88 years)

Virginia E. Johnson was an American sexologist and a member of the Masters and Johnson sexuality research team. Along with her partner, William H. Masters, she pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunctions and disorders from 1957 until the 1990s.

#1056

Gayla Margolin

#138202

Overall Influence

Gayla Margolin is an American psychologist doing research on adolescence and the effect of domestic violence on children. She has also done research on coparenting and marital therapy. She is a professor of psychology and pediatrics at the University of Southern California where she leads the Family Studies Project.

#1057

Fiona Fidler

#169118

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Fiona Fidler is an Australian professor and lecturer with interests in meta-research, reproducibility, open science, reasoning and decision making and statistical practice. She has held research positions at several universities and across disciplines in conjunction with Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence.

#1058

Helen Cowie

#137866

Overall Influence

Helen Cowie FBPS, PGCE, is Emeritus Professor in the Health and Social Care division of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey. Career She is concerned with the promotion of emotional health and well-being in children and young people and is a world authority on bullying in schools, the home and the workplace. Professor Cowie is currently Director of the UK Observatory for the Promotion of Non-Violence at the University of Surrey.

#1059

Robin Masheb

#172060

Overall Influence

Robin Meryl Masheb is an American psychologist. She is a Full Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and Director of the Veterans Initiative for Eating and Weight . The program is dedicated to addressing eating and weight problems in veterans through research, training and advocacy.

#1060

Carolyn A. McCarty

#127912

Overall Influence

Carolyn Askren McCarty is an American psychologist. She is a research professor of pediatrics and adjunct research associate professor of psychology in the department of pediatrics at University of Washington . McCarty is the director of research and development in adolescent medicine at UW. She was the lead author on a study about health care resources available for suicidal teenagers. In 2000, McCarty completed a Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles. Her doctoral advisor was John R. Weisz.

#1061

Lauren Y. Atlas

#172456

Overall Influence

Lauren Y. Atlas is an American psychologist researching how expectations and learning influence pain and emotion, and how these factors influence clinical outcomes. She is a clinical investigator at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and serves as the chief of the section on affective neuroscience and pain.

#1062

Leila Takayama

#132950

Overall Influence

Leila A. Takayama is an associate professor of Human–computer interaction at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has previously held positions at Google X and Willow Garage. She was elected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2013.

#1063

Reva Potashin

#94421

Overall Influence

1921 - 2013 (92 years)

Reva Potashin was a Canadian psychologist known for her contributions to the field of sociometry . She was a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

#1064

Jessica Taylor

#82426

Overall Influence

Jessica Taylor is a British feminist author and campaigner. Taylor is the author of the 2020 book Why Women Are Blamed For Everything. She has made appearances on British television, including BBC Two documentary Womanhood, and in the true crime documentary My Lover, My Killer, which aired on Channel Five.

#1065

LeShawndra Price

#170331

Overall Influence

LeShawndra N. Price is an American psychologist specialized in mental health and health disparities research. She is the director of the office of research training and special programs at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

#1066

Katherine A. Rawson

#168752

Overall Influence

Katherine A. Rawson is an American cognitive psychologist known for her educational research on how to optimize learning, promote effective study strategies, and enhance metacognition. She is Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University. She is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Cognition and Education, which surveys research on teaching and study strategies that increase learning.

#1067

Helen Stallman

#174837

Overall Influence

Helen Margaret Stallman is an Australian scientist, clinical psychologist and author. She is director of the International Association of University Health and Wellbeing. Early life and education Stallman earned a bachelor's degree in science at the University of Southern Queensland, a Bachelor of Psychology degree at James Cook University, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology degree at theUniversity of Queensland, a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Queensland and a Certificate in Medical Education at the University of Queensland. She graduated with her daughter, Monique, in 2012.

#1068

Brendesha Tynes

#171490

Overall Influence

Brendesha Marie Tynes is an American psychologist who is a professor of Psychology and Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. Her research considers how young people engage with social media, and how this influences their socioeconomic and academic outcomes. Tynes is principal investigator on the Teen Life Online and in Schools Project, which studies race-related cyberbullying.

#1069

Sandra L. Murray

#176917

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Sandra L. Murray is Professor of Psychology at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She is a social psychologist known for her work on close relationships and their trajectories over time. Murray received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology in 2003 for "distinguished and original contributions to an understanding of motivated social cognition in relationships." Other awards include the New Contribution Award from the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships in 1998 and 2000...

#1070

Beatrix Tugendhut Gardner

#93902

Overall Influence

1933 - 1995 (62 years)

Beatrix Tugendhut Gardner was an Austrian zoologist who became well known for the research that she conducted in the United States. She is most well known for her sign language studies with Washoe the chimpanzee, who was the first ape to learn sign language.

#1071

Brenda A. Allen

#92327

Overall Influence

Brenda A. Allen is an American psychologist, educator, and academic administrator who has served as the 14th president of Lincoln University, a historically black university in Oxford, Pennsylvania, since July 2017. She is the second woman to serve as Lincoln University's president after Nyara Sudarkasa. Allen has prioritized strengthening Lincoln's academic quality and campus infrastructure.

#1072

Velma McBride Murry

#171454

Overall Influence

Velma McBride Murry is an American psychologist and sociologist, currently the Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development and Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University. Her research has largely focused on resilience and protective factors for African-American families, and she has several publications in this area. In addition to her empirical research, she has contributed to several published books and used her experience to create two family-based preventative intervention programs.

#1073

Janis Paterson

#48298

Overall Influence

Janis Paterson is a New Zealand academic. She is currently a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology. After a 1993 PhD titled 'Adolescent perceptions of attachment: parents, friends, and impact on self esteem' at the University of Auckland, Paterson moved to Auckland University of Technology, where she has worked for more than twenty years.

#1074

Catherine Hartley

#170917

Overall Influence

Catherine Hartley is an American psychologist and an Associate Professor of Psychology within the Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science at New York University in New York City. Hartley's research explores how brain development impacts the evaluation of negative experiences, decision-making, and motivated behavior. Her work has helped to elucidate how uncontrollable aversive events affect fear learning and how learning to control aversive stimuli can improve emotional resilience.

#1075

Emily M. Douglas

#160472

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Emily M. Douglas is a political scientist conducting research on child and family well-being, the child welfare system, fatal child maltreatment, domestic violence and divorced families, and corporal punishment. She is a full professor and the chair of the Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy at Montclair State University.

#1076

Joan Freeman

#176755

Overall Influence

1935 - Present (89 years)

Joan Freeman was a child psychologist who is known for her work in the lifetime development of gifts and talents. Education and academia Freeman earned her BSc in psychology at Manchester University, followed by an advanced diploma in school counselling, an MEd in education and a PhD in educational psychology.

#1077

Raffaella Rumiati

#170045

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Raffaella Ida Rumiati is professor of cognitive neuroscience at the International School for Advanced Studies [Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati], , Italy. She sits on the editorial board of the journal Cognitive Neuropsychology, and is an action editor for the journal Brain and Cognition. Rumiati is also a member of the steering committee of the European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology. and a member of The NeuroGenderings Network.

#1078

Monika Schwarz-Friesel

#119329

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Monika Schwarz-Friesel is a German cognitive scientist, professor at the Technical University of Berlin and one of Europe's most distinguished antisemitism researchers according to Marc Neugröschel from the newspaper The Times of Israel. She is often interviewed by media outlets like Haaretz, Der Standard or Der Tagesspiegel on her research on current forms of antisemitism, which often take place on the internet.

#1079

Helinä Häkkänen-Nyholm

#168101

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Helinä Häkkänen is a Finnish psychologist who has studied narcissism and psychopathy and wrote the first Finnish textbook on the subject, Psykopatia. Working as both a criminal psychologist and an associate professor, at the University of Helsinki, Häkkänen-Nyholm studies criminal behavior and the risk factors associated with it. She is considered one of Finland's chief experts in forensic psychiatry and legal psychology and has a prolific publishing record. She started her career in legal and criminal psychology at the National Bureau of Investigation after which she ran a legal company. Si...

#1080

Peggy J. Kleinplatz

#150751

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Peggy Joy Kleinplatz is a Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist whose work often concerns optimal sexuality, opposition to the medicalization of human sexuality, and outreach to marginalized groups. She is a full professor of medicine and clinical professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa.

#1081

Reva Gerstein

#67637

Overall Influence

1917 - 2020 (103 years)

Reva Appleby Gerstein was a Canadian psychologist, educator, and mental health advocate. She was the first woman Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario, serving from 1992 to 1996. Biography Gerstein was the daughter of Diana and David Appleby. After attending Fern Avenue Public School and Parkdale Collegiate Institute, Gerstein earned a Bachelor of Arts degree , a Master of Arts degree , and a PhD from the University of Toronto.

#1082

Mary E. Larimer

#177669

Overall Influence

Mary E. Larimer is an American psychologist and academic. Larimer is a professor of psychiatry and Behavioral sciences, Professor or Psychology, and the Director of the Center for the Study of Health & Risk Behaviors at University of Washington . Additionally, she serves as a psychologist at the Psychiatry Clinic at UW Medical Center-Roosevelt.

#1083

Bethany Albertson

#75028

Overall Influence

Bethany Lee Albertson is an American Political psychologist. She is an Associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at Austin. Her co-authored book Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World received the Robert E. Lane Award for being the best book in political psychology published in 2015.

#1084

Catherine Tamis-LeMonda

#139838

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Catherine Tamis-LeMonda is a developmental psychologist and professor of applied psychology at New York University . She is an expert on parenting practices and the influence of parent-child social interaction on language, cognitive, and social development. She has co-edited numerous volumes on parenting and early child development including the Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives and Child Psychology: A Handbook of Contemporary Issues and Gender Roles in Immigrant Families .

#1085

Marie Hartwig

#98582

Overall Influence

1906 - 2001 (95 years)

Marie Dorothy Hartwig , known by the nickname "Pete", was an American professor of physical education at the University of Michigan, the university's first associate director of athletics for women, and a lifelong advocate for education, women's sports, and intercollegiate athletics. She was the second woman inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.

#1086

Jane Ritchie

#148289

Overall Influence

1936 - 2023 (87 years)

Jane Ritchie was a New Zealand psychology academic and expert of child-raising. She was an emeritus professor at the University of Waikato. She was the first woman to graduate with a PhD in psychology from a New Zealand university.

#1087

Suzanne Purdy

#177913

Overall Influence

Suzanne Carolyn Purdy is a New Zealand psychology academic specialising in auditory processing and hearing loss. She is currently a full professor and head of the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland.

#1088

Barbara Curbow

#176436

Overall Influence

Barbara Anne Curbow is an American social/health psychologist. She is a former Professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on health disparities in treatment decision-making for adjuvant chemotherapy among colorectal cancer patients, use of alternative tobacco products, tobacco control, and cancer caregiving.

#1089

Diane Follingstad

#179545

Overall Influence

Diane R. Follingstad is an American psychologist and author, currently the Women's Circle Endowment professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Research on Violence Against Women at the University of Kentucky She was previously a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of South Carolina.

#1090

Julie Williams

#100334

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Julie Williams CBE FLSW FMedSci is Professor of Neuropsychological Genetics at Cardiff University and was Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales from 2013 to 2017. She is one of the world's leading contributors to Alzheimer's research.

#1091

Candice Feiring

#177107

Overall Influence

Dr. Candice Feiring is a Senior Research Scholar at the College of New Jersey and has been a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She is the Director of the Center for Youth Relationship and Development. Her research focuses on processes related to adjustment in sexually abused youth and adolescent romantic relationships. Dr. Feiring has been honored with a William T. Grant Faculty Scholars award and has been the recipient of federally funded grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Justice, and Department of Education.

#1092

Judy Margaret Parr

#129705

Overall Influence

Judith Margaret Parr is a New Zealand educational psychology academic. She is a full professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career After a secondary education at Matamata College and an undergraduate at the University of Auckland, Parr did a 1989 PhD at Australian National University titled "Revision in writing: cognitive and linguistic aspects". She then returned to Auckland and became a full professor in 2011.

#1093

Catherine Chesla

#118525

Overall Influence

Catherine "Kit" Ann Chesla is an American nurse who is Professor Emeritus and former Thelma Shobe Endowed Chair at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. Her research has considered families and chronic illness.

#1094

Ellen Hamaker

#173777

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Ellen Louise "E.L." Hamaker is a Dutch-American psychologist, and statistician. Since 2018 she has been a full professor at Utrecht University, holding the chair Longitudinal Data Analysis at the Department of Methodology and Statistics. Her work focuses on the development of statistical models for the analysis of intensive longitudinal data in psychology, mainly within the frameworks of structural equation modeling and time series analysis.

#1095

Jehannine Austin

#167981

Overall Influence

Jehannine Claire Austin is a Canadian neuropsychiatric geneticist and a genetic counselor. They are a professor at the University of British Columbia and Executive Director of the Provincial Health Services Authority's BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute. In 2012, Austin founded the world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counselling service.

#1096

Barbara Gillam

#137075

Overall Influence

Barbara Jean Gillam is an Australian psychologist. She is Emeritus and Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales. Gillam received a PhD from the Australian National University in 1964 for her thesis "Space perception with aniseikonic lenses: A study of stereoscopic vision".

#1097

Leslie DeChurch

#178978

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Leslie A. DeChurch is an American academic and expert on leadership and team dynamics. She is Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences. She directs the ATLAS lab at Northwestern University, and is former President of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research .

#1098

Alice Theadom

#177336

Overall Influence

Alice Theadom is an English-born New Zealand psychologist and academic. As of 2020 she is a full professor and Rutherford Discovery Fellow at Auckland University of Technology . Academic career Theadom completed a BSc at the University of Essex, followed by an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey. She moved to New Zealand to take up a position as associate professor at Auckland University of Technology from May 2009 and completed a PhD at the same university in 2011.

#1099

Sherry Wu

#172327

Overall Influence

Sherry Jueyu Wu is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management. in Westwood, California and the 2020 recipient of the Cialdini Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for her field research in group dynamics and authority. She conducts large-scale field experiments concerning group influence over long-lasting behavioral changes and decision processes under resource disparity and social inequality.

#1100

Anat Brunstein Klomek

#129063

Overall Influence

Anat Brunstein-Klomek is an Israeli psychologist who is an associate professor at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. She holds an adjunct position at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Her research considers depression, suicide and bullying.

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