Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

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List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#1201

Matthew Nock

#41738

Overall Influence

Matthew K. Nock is an American clinical psychologist, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, and the Director of the Laboratory for Clinical and Developmental Research at Harvard University . He was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.

#1202

László Mérő

#39051

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

László Mérő is a Hungarian research psychologist and popular science author. He has Jewish ancestry. He is a lecturer at the Experimental Psychology Department of Eötvös Loránd University and at the business school Kürt Academy. He is also a founder and leader of a software company producing computer games. One of his projects is a computer game he is developing with Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube. He is also the leader of the Hungarian team at the World Puzzle Championship. His son is Csaba Mérő, an 8-time Hungarian go champion. His daughter, Vera Mérő, is a human rights activi...

#1203

Douglas Vakoch

#12908

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Douglas A. Vakoch is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations. Vakoch led METI's participation in Sónar Calling GJ 273b, which transmitted a series of interstellar messages to Luyten's Star, located 12.4 light years from Earth. Vakoch advocates ongoing transmission projects, arguing that this does not increase risks of an alien invasion as suggested by British cosmologist Stephen Hawking.

#1204

Virginia Braun

#52951

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Virginia Braun is a New Zealand psychology academic specialising in thematic analysis and gender studies. She is particularly known for her scholarship on the social construction of the vagina and designer vagina cosmetic surgery, body hair and heterosexuality. She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with British psychologist Victoria Clarke around thematic analysis and qualitative research methods. Together they have published numerous papers, chapters, commentaries and editorials on thematic analysis and qualitative research, and an award-winning and best selling qualitative textbook entitled Successful qualitative research.

#1205

Paul Webley

#35964

Overall Influence

1953 - 2016 (63 years)

Paul Webley CBE was director and principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London from 2006 to 2015. From 2010 until his death in 2016, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Economic Psychology and a former president of the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology.

#1206

Isabel Gauthier

#48555

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Isabel Gauthier is a cognitive neuroscientist currently holding the position of David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology and head of the Object Perception Lab at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Psychology. In 2000, with the support of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, she founded the Perceptual Expertise Network , which now comprises over ten labs based across North America. In 2006 PEN became part of the NSF-funded Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center .

#1207

Jack A. Apsche

#35379

Overall Influence

1947 - 2014 (67 years)

Jack A. Apsche was an American psychologist who has focused his work on adolescents with behavior problems. Apsche was also an author, artist, presenter, consultant and lecturer. Background and education Apsche was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1967 through 1968 Apsche served as a Helicopter Door Gunner with the First Cavalry Division Airmobile in the Vietnam War and he was highly decorated for his service. After returning from his service in Vietnam, Apsche attended the University of Pittsburgh where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Speech, English, Political Science and a minor in Psychology in 1973.

#1208

J. Kevin O'Regan

#37382

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

John Kevin O'Regan is an English psychologist. He is ex-director of the "Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception" at the Université René Descartes, Paris 5 . He was the last director of the "Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale" before its dissolution in 2006.

#1209

Stephan Lewandowsky

#34371

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Stephan Lewandowsky is an Australian psychologist. He has worked in both the United States and Australia, and is currently based at the University of Bristol, UK, where he is the chair of cognitive psychology at the School of Psychological Science. His research, which originally pertained to computer simulations of people's decision-making processes, recently has focused on the public's understanding of science and why people often embrace beliefs that are sharply at odds with scientific evidence.

#1210

Zoltán Dörnyei

#40077

Overall Influence

1960 - 2022 (62 years)

Zoltán Dörnyei was a Hungarian-born British linguist. He was a professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. He was known for his work on second language acquisition and the psychology of the language learner, in particular on motivation in second language learning, having published numerous books and papers on these topics.

#1211

Benton J. Underwood

#71835

Overall Influence

#1212

Andrew Tatarsky

#57412

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Andrew Tatarsky is an American psychologist and the founder and director of the Center for Optimal Living. He teaches in New York City as the Professor of Professional Practice for the Harm Reduction Psychotherapy Certificate Program at the New School for Social Research. Tatarsky is known for developing Integrative Harm Reduction Therapy , a treatment for the spectrum of substance use disorders and other high-risk behaviors.

#1213

Rolf Loeber

#70303

Overall Influence

1942 - 2017 (75 years)

Rolf Loeber was a Dutch-born American psychologist and criminologist who specialized in the study of juvenile delinquency. At the time of his death in 2017, he was Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he had taught since 1984. He was also a Professor of Juvenile Delinquency and Social Development at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Along with his wife and collaborator, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, he was the co-founder and co-director of the University of Pittsburgh's Life History Studies Program. He was ele...

#1214

Andrew F. Hayes

#71973

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

#1215

Linda E. Carlson

#60763

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Linda E. Carlson is a Canadian clinical psychologist. She is a professor at the University of Calgary, where she holds the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology. Education and career Carlson earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Calgary in 1991, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from McGill University in 1998.

#1216

Marcus Munafo

#61427

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Marcus Robert Munafo, surname also written Munafò, is a British psychologist who has been a professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol's School of Experimental Psychology since 2010. He became the editor-in-chief of Nicotine & Tobacco Research in 2015.

#1217

Chris Brand

#31371

Overall Influence

1943 - 2017 (74 years)

Christopher Richard Brand was a British psychological and psychometric researcher who gained media attention for his statements on race and intelligence and paedophilia. Brand was a proponent of IQ testing and the general intelligence factor, and was "a major influence in the spread of influence of inspection time as a theoretically interesting correlate of psychometric intelligence," according to Ian Deary and Pauline Smith.

#1218

Alfonso Caramazza

#72077

Overall Influence

#1219

Raymond W. Gibbs Jr.

#37212

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Raymond W. Gibbs Jr. is a former psychology professor and researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research interests are in the fields of experimental psycholinguistics and cognitive science. His work concerns a range of theoretical issues, ranging from questions about the role of embodied experience in thought and language, to looking at people's use and understanding of figurative language . Raymond Gibbs's research is especially focused on bodily experience and linguistic meaning. Much of his research is motivated by theories of meaning in philosophy, linguistics, and co...

#1220

Dennis C. Turk

#72188

Overall Influence

#1221

Diana Fosha

#28103

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Diana Foșha is a Romanian-American psychologist, known for developing accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy , and for her work on the psychotherapy of adults suffering the effects of childhood attachment trauma and abuse.

#1222

Robert Desimone

#26663

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Robert Desimone is an American neuroscientist who currently serves as the director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

#1223

Virginia Douglas

#38994

Overall Influence

1927 - 2017 (90 years)

Virginia I. Douglas was a Canadian psychologist. She was a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, noted for her contributions to the study of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder . Biography Douglas was born in London, Ontario to a Scottish family. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Queen's University in 1948. Douglas then attended the University of Michigan, where she completed two master's degrees: one in social work and the other in psychology . She earned her PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1958.

#1224

Mahzarin Banaji

Mahzarin Banaji

#52835

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

#1225

Frank C. J. McGurk

#60757

Overall Influence

1910 - 1995 (85 years)

Frank C. J. McGurk was an American psychologist who was noted for his claims about race and intelligence. McGurk taught at Lehigh University, Villanova University, West Point, and Alabama College. McGurk's unpublished 1951 doctoral dissertation was cited by Arthur Jensen in Bias in Mental Testing. McGurk matched 213 black high-school students very closely to 213 white students and administered intelligence tests. Jensen claimed the test showed "blacks perform better on tests involving rote learning and memory than on tests involving relation education or reasoning and problem solving, especi...

#1226

Dermot Barnes-Holmes

#33420

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Dermot Barnes-Holmes is a Professor of the School of Psychology at Ulster University and was Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He is known for an analysis of human language and cognition through the development of Relational Frame Theory with Steven C. Hayes, and its application in various psychological settings. He was the world's most prolific author in the experimental analysis of human behaviour between the years 1980 and 1999. He was awarded the Don Hake Basic/Applied Research Award at the 2012 American Psychological Association Conference in Orlando, Florida.

#1227

James Deese

#46552

Overall Influence

1921 - 1999 (78 years)

James Earle Deese was an American psychologist. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1970 after having taught for many years at Johns Hopkins University. During his tenure at Johns Hopkins, Deese became Chairman of the Psychology Department and also served a term as Chairman of the American Psychological Association. Deese later became the Chairman of the Psychology Department at University of Virginia until his partial retirement, later remaining as professor emeritus. He received the Hugh Scott Hamilton award for his distinguished service.

#1228

Keith Hawton

#72406

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

#1229

Jarrod Haar

#57125

Overall Influence

Jarrod McKenzie Haar is a New Zealand organisational psychology academic, are Māori, of Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Mahuta descent and as of 2019 is a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

#1230

Mark Blagrove

#51519

Overall Influence

Mark Blagrove is a British research psychologist who specializes in the study of sleep and dreams. He is a professor of psychology at Swansea University in Wales, and is Director of the Swansea University Sleep Laboratory.

#1231

Matt McGue

#43865

Overall Influence

Matt McGue is an American behavior geneticist and Regents Professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, where he co-directs the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. Career McGue received his B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975 and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1981. After completing his Ph.D. he was an instructor and later assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine until 1985. He returned to the University of Minnesota and eventually became full professor there in 1992.

#1232

Naomi Ellemers

#51637

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Naomi Ellemers is a distinguished professor of social psychology at Utrecht University since September 2015. In 2023, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society. Career Ellemers studied social psychology at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen from 1981 to1987 and graduated in 1991 in Groningen with her thesis Identity management strategies, followed by a position as assistant professor and later as associate professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Between 1999 and 2015 she was a professor at Universiteit Leiden with the assignment sociale psychologie van de organisatie . Since September 2015 she is distinguished professor at Universiteit Utrecht.

#1233

Wiesław Łukaszewski

#66130

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Wiesław Łukaszeski is one of Poland's leading psychologists, specializing in personality psychology, social psychology, psychology of motivation. Professor at Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej in Wrocław and Sopot, assistant professor.

#1234

Richard Lester Oliver

#72765

Overall Influence

#1235

Steven A. Hillyard

#72770

Overall Influence

#1236

Richard D. Arvey

#59093

Overall Influence

Richard D. Arvey is an American psychology professor. Biography Arvey received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology in 1966 from Occidental College. He then attended University of Minnesota to study industrial psychology, earning a master's degree in 1968 and a doctorate in 1970.

#1237

Raymond Dean

#67964

Overall Influence

1946 - 2015 (69 years)

Raymond S. Dean was an American psychologist and George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Neuropsychology and Professor of Psychology at Ball State University. Early history Dean received a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. in Psychological Research and Psychometrics from State University of New York at Albany. As a Paracheck-Frazier Research Fellow, Dean was awarded a Ph.D. in school/child clinical psychology in 1978 by Arizona State University. His neuropsychological internship was at the Arizona Neuropsychiatric Hospital and postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

#1238

Barry Beyerstein

Barry Beyerstein

#26062

Overall Influence

1947 - 2007 (60 years)

Barry L Beyerstein was a scientific skeptic and professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Beyerstein's research explored brain mechanisms of perception and consciousness, the effects of drugs on the brain and mind, sense of smell and its lesser-known contributions to human cognition and emotion. He was founder and chair of the BC Skeptics Society, a Fellow and member of the Executive Council of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal , now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Associate editor of the Scientific...

#1239

Renée Baillargeon

#55892

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Renée Baillargeon is a Canadian American research psychologist. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Baillargeon specializes in the development of cognition in infancy.

#1240

Richard Jed Wyatt

#72879

Overall Influence

#1241

Anne Castles

#60211

Overall Influence

Anne Castles is a cognitive scientist of reading and language, with a particular focus on reading development and developmental dyslexia. Early life Castles was born in Canberra, Australia and attended St Clare's College, Canberra finishing in 1982. She later moved to Sydney.

#1242

Kathleen Merikangas

#56443

Overall Influence

Kathleen Ries Merikangas is the Chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health and an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has published more than 300 papers, and is best known for her work in adolescent mental disorders.

#1243

Bernd Weidenmann

#73082

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Bernd Weidenmann is an Emeritus Professor of educational psychology Bundeswehr University Munich and author. Works Erfolgreiche Kurse und Seminare - 2011Handbuch Active Training - 2008Workshops, Seminare und Besprechungen - 2008Die ï¿½berzeugende Prï¿½sentation - 2008Pädagogische Psychologie - 2006Gesprächs- und Vortragstechnik. Für alle Trainer, Lehrer, Kursleiter und Dozenten - 2002100 Tipps & Tricks für Pinnwand und Flipchart - 2000

#1244

Josep Call

#43189

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Josep Call is a Spanish comparative psychologist specializing in primate cognition. Early life and education He was born in Catalonia, Spain and received a BA from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona , and a master's degree and PhD from Emory University , under the supervision of Prof. Michael Tomasello.

#1245

Erich Kirchler

#45531

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Erich Kirchler is an Italian-Austrian psychologist and Professor of Economic Psychology at the University of Vienna. His research covers the areas of work, organizational, consumer and economic psychology, in particular tax psychology and money management in private households. He is best known for his research on tax behavior and tax morale and his "slippery slope framework", which has been adopted by a number of tax administrations.

#1246

Maryellen MacDonald

#63435

Overall Influence

Maryellen MacDonald is Donald P. Hayes Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She specializes in psycholinguistics, focusing specifically on the relationship between language comprehension and production and the role of working memory. MacDonald received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1986. She is a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society. She is married to fellow psychologist Mark Seidenberg and has two children.

#1247

Frank Smith

#23253

Overall Influence

Frank Smith was a Canadian psycholinguist recognized for his contributions in linguistics and cognitive psychology. He was an essential contributor to research on the nature of the reading process together with researchers such as George Armitage Miller, Kenneth S. Goodman, Paul A. Kolers, Jane W. Torrey, Jane Mackworth, Richard Venezky, Robert Calfee, and Julian Hochberg. Smith and Goodman are founders of whole language approach for reading instruction. He was the author of numerous books.

#1248

John Sweller

#73608

Overall Influence

#1249

Mark H. Johnson

#57560

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Mark Henry Johnson is a British cognitive neuroscientist who, since October 2017, has been Professor of Experimental Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

#1250

David A. Nadler

#10826

Overall Influence

1948 - 2015 (67 years)

David A. Nadler was an American organizational theorist, consultant and business executive, known for his work with Michael L. Tushman on organizational design and organizational architecture. Biography Nadler obtained his BA in International Affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, his MBA from Harvard Business School and his MA and his PhD in Psychology at the University of Michigan.

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