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 people in Psychology,

#1451

Deborah Britzman

#16314

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Deborah P. Britzman is a professor and a practicing psychoanalyst at York University. Britzman's research connects psychoanalysis with contemporary pedagogy, teacher education, social inequality, problems of intolerance and historical crisis.

#1452

Robert Stickgold

#27702

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Robert Stickgold is a full professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A sleep researcher, his work focuses on the relationship between sleep and learning. His articles in the popular press are intended to illustrate the dangers of sleep deprivation.

#1453

Christopher G Fairburn

#83507

Overall Influence

#1454

Deborah Terry

#51945

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Professor Deborah Jane "Debbie" Terry is an Australian university executive, and psychology scholar. She is currently the Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Queensland. Professor Terry is also currently the Chair of Universities Australia, the peak body representing Australia's higher education sector.

#1455

Lynn Fuchs

#50369

Overall Influence

Lynn Fuchs is an educational psychologist known for research on instructional practice and assessment, reading disabilities, and mathematics disabilities. She is the Dunn Family Chair in Psychoeducational Assessment in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University.

#1456

Timothy Mulholland

Timothy Mulholland

#83579

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Timothy Martin Mulholland is a Brazilian-American professor. He is a Psychology graduate from Westmont College and obtained Master's and Doctoral degrees in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.

#1457

Alex Bavelas

#47824

Overall Influence

1920 - 1993 (73 years)

Alexander Bavelas was an American psychosociologist credited as the first to define closeness centrality. His work was influential in using mathematics in developing the concept of centralization and in formalizing fundamental concepts of network structure.

#1458

Bernhard Hommel

#83621

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

#1459

Alfred Bloom

#24404

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Alfred H. Bloom is an American psychologist and linguist. He was the executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University from 2020 to 2021. Before that, he was the vice chancellor of New York University Abu Dhabi from 2008 to 2019 and the president of Swarthmore College from 1991 to 2009.

#1460

Amanda Woodward

#61824

Overall Influence

Amanda Woodward is Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences and the William S. Gray Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Her research investigates infant social cognition and early language development including the understanding of goal-directed actions, agency, theory of mind, and learning from social partners. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

#1461

William Revelle

#64628

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

William Roger Revelle is a psychology professor at Northwestern University working in personality psychology. Revelle studies the biological basis of personality and motivation, psychometric theory, the structure of daily mood, and models of attention and memory.

#1462

Christian Gostečnik

#61866

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Christian Gostečnik, OFM is a Slovenian Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, theologian, clinical psychologist and marriage-and-family therapist. He was dean of Faculty of Theology , while currently he is a director of Franciscan Family Institute in Ljubljana .

#1463

Jaqueline Jesus

#53214

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Jaqueline Gomes de Jesus is a Brazilian psychologist, writer, and LGBT activist. Biography Jesus is the daughter of a computer operator and a mining science teacher. She has a sibling, a younger brother. Jesus lived most of her life in Ceilândia. A good student, she studied chemistry, for a year before switching majors. She holds an M.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Brasília, and a PhD in Social Psychology, Work and Organisations from the same institution. She worked at the University of Brasília from 2003-2008 as a diversity adviser and also coordinated a center for black students. ...

#1464

John Seeley Brown

#84035

Overall Influence

#1465

David Amodio

#64108

Overall Influence

David Amodio is an American scientist who examines the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying social behavior, with a focus on self-regulation and intergroup relations. Amodio is known for his role in developing the field of social neuroscience and for his neuroscientific approach to social psychology.

#1466

William Marslen-Wilson

#79283

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Professor William D. Marslen-Wilson FBA, FAE is a neuroscientist. Marslen-Wilson obtained his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973. He subsequently worked as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

#1467

Gabriel Horenczyk

#40571

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Gabriel Horenczyk is a social psychologist who has conducted various studies on acculturation and cultural identity. He is currently employed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Main publications Horenczyk . Immigrants' perceptions of host attitudes and their reconstruction of cultural groups. Applied Psychology, 46, 34–38.Phinney, Horenczyk, Liebkind & Vedder . Ethnic identity, immigration, and well-being: An interactional perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 493–510.Roccas, Horenczyk & Schwartz . Acculturation discrepancies and well-being: the moderating role of conformity.

#1468

Andrzej Nowak

#33371

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Andrzej Nowak is a Polish psychologist, one of the founders of dynamical social psychology. He is a pioneer in applying computer simulations in social sciences. Nowak received his M.A. and his Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw. His scientific interests include complex systems in psychology and social sciences.

#1469

Paul Nussbaum

#70364

Overall Influence

Paul David Nussbaum is an American clinical neuropsychologist and an adjunct associate professor in Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He obtained his B.A. in Psychology in 1985 and his Master's degree in Clinical Psychology in 1987 at the University of Arizona. After completing his M.A., Nussbaum continued to the doctorate program and received his Ph.D in 1991. On the 45th Anniversary of University of Arizona, the university made Nussbaum an honorary alumnus of the class of 1991.

#1470

Jean Mercer

#29550

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Jean Mercer is an American developmental psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at Stockton University. Founder of the advocacy group Advocates for Children in Therapy, she is known as an advocate for adopted children and those who come from the foster care system, and as an outspoken critic of attachment therapy.

#1471

Rowell Huesmann

#84192

Overall Influence

Rowell Huesmann is the Amos N. Tversky Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology and research professor in the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan. He is currently Director of the Aggression Research Program in the Research Center for Group Dynamics of the Institute for Social Research. He is best known for his emphasis on imitation and observational learning as primary psychological mechanisms promoting the development of aggressive and violent behavior and promoting the contagion of violence. His several longitudinal studies conducted with Leonard E...

#1472

Marc Breedlove

#44990

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Stephen Marc Breedlove is the Barnett Rosenberg professor of Neuroscience at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He was born and raised in the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri. After graduating from Central High School in 1972, he earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Yale University in 1976, and a Ph.D. in psychology from UCLA in 1982. He was a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley from 1982 to 2003, moving to Michigan State in 2001. He works in the fields of Behavioral Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology. He is a member of the Society f...

#1473

Dale Larson

#63275

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Dale G. Larson is an American psychologist who is a professor of Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University, where he directs graduate studies in health psychology. He is best known for his contributions to the end-of-life field and for his research on self-concealment.

#1474

Mary Carskadon

#25156

Overall Influence

Mary A. Carskadon is one of the most prominent American researchers in sleep. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is also the Director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Research Lab at E.P. Bradley Hospital. She is considered to be an expert on sleep and circadian rhythms during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. She researches issues related to daytime sleepiness. She has also contributed important research on school start times as it relates to sleep patterns and sleepiness in adolescence. Every summer, Dr.

#1475

Ken Nakayama

#57613

Overall Influence

Ken Nakayama is an American psychologist and prior to retirement was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is known for his work on prosopagnosia, an inability to recognize faces, and super recognisers, people with significantly better-than-average face recognition ability. A notable contribution is from his work on surface processing by the human visual system.

#1476

Melanie Killen

#50580

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Melanie Killen is a developmental psychologist and Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, and Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. She is supported by funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , and the National Science Foundation for her research. In 2008, she was awarded Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by the Provost's office at the University of Maryland. She is the Director of the Social and Moral Development Lab at the University of Maryla...

#1477

Evelin Lindner

#56470

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Evelin Gerda Lindner is a German-Norwegian medical doctor, psychologist, transdisciplinary scholar and author who is known for her theory of humiliation. Lindner is originally a physician and a clinical psychologist, and holds doctorates in both psychological medicine and social psychology. Her research focuses on human dignity, and she believes that the humiliation of honor and dignity may be among the strongest obstacles on the way to a decent world community. She founded the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network. Born in Germany, she is now mainly based in Norway, where she has partially lived since 1977.

#1478

Daniel Freeman

#55536

Overall Influence

Daniel Freeman is a British psychologist and paranoia expert at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London and professor of clinical psychology and National Institute for Health Research research professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Oxford. His research indicates that paranoia affects a much wider population, not just those who have schizophrenia, as previously thought. One of his studies has also suggested that virtual reality can help treat paranoia. He has written several books on paranoia and anxiety disorders.

#1479

David Swinney

#67524

Overall Influence

1946 - 2006 (60 years)

David Swinney was a prominent psycholinguist. His research on language comprehension contributed to methodological advances in his field. Biography Swinney received his BA in Psychology at Indiana University in 1968, his MA in Language Disorders, Speech Pathology and Audiology , and his PhD in Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin .

#1480

Philippa Garety

Philippa Garety

#75706

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Philippa Garety is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Clinical Director of the Psychosis Clinical Academic Group , South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Garety specializes in the psychological understanding and treatment of psychosis and, in particular, delusions.

#1481

Christina Salmivalli

#69522

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Christina Salmivalli is a Finnish professor of psychology and the deputy head of the INVEST research flagship at the University of Turku in Finland. Salmivalli is recognized as an expert on peer relations and school bullying.

#1482

David Paul Ausubel

#84916

Overall Influence

#1483

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett

#84938

Overall Influence

#1484

Robert Francis Goodman

#84954

Overall Influence

#1485

Jill H. Larkin

#55065

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Jill Huston Larkin is an American cognitive scientist, science educator and Professor at the Carnegie Mellon University known for her work on information representations. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Larkin obtained her BA in Mathematics from Harvard University in 1965, her MA in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, and her PhD in Science and Mathematics education from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975.

#1486

E. Mark Stern

#79066

Overall Influence

1929 - 2014 (85 years)

Erwin Mark Stern was a humanistic/existential psychologist. Biography He was born on December 5, 1929, in New York City. He holds a Master of Science degree from the Pennsylvania State University and a Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Certificate in Psychoanalysis from the Training Institute of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis . Stern served for many years from Associate Professor to Full Professor and finally Professor Emeritus of Pastoral and Family Counseling in the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Iona College, New Rochelle.

#1487

Sumiko Iwao

#45270

Overall Influence

1935 - 2018 (83 years)

was a Japanese psychologist, educator, editor and professor emeritus at Keio University in Tokyo. She served as the editor-in-chief of Japan Echo, an English-language magazine and predecessor of Nippon.com, from 1997 until 2007, as well as a member of the Echo's editorial board from 1985 until 2007.

#1488

Angeline Stoll Lillard

Angeline Stoll Lillard

#32510

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Dr. Angeline Stoll Lillard is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, where she directs the Early Development Laboratory, one of four child development laboratories in the psychology department at the university. Lillard is an internationally recognized expert in Montessori education and the author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, which is in its third edition, has been translated into several languages, and was awarded the Cognitive Development Society Book Award in 2006.

#1489

June Gruber

#40448

Overall Influence

June Gruber is an American psychologist. She is associate professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is known for her research on positive affectivity and mental health. She is a licensed clinical psychologist.

#1490

James Fraser Mustard

James Fraser Mustard

#29418

Overall Influence

1927 - 2011 (84 years)

James Fraser Mustard was a Canadian doctor and renowned researcher in early childhood development. Born, raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario, Mustard began his career as a research fellow at the University of Toronto where he studied the effects of blood lipids, their relation to heart disease and how Aspirin could mitigate those effects. He published the first clinical trial showing that aspirin could prevent heart attacks and strokes. In 1966, he was one of the founding faculty members at McMaster University's newly established medical school. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the medical school at McMaster University from 1972 to 1982.

#1491

Sigal G. Barsade

#37899

Overall Influence

1965 - 2022 (57 years)

Sigal G. Barsade was an Israeli-American business theorist and researcher, and was the Joseph Frank Bernstein Professor of Management at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to research, she worked as a speaker and consultant to large corporations across a variety of industries, such as Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Google, IBM, KPMG and Merrill Lynch, healthcare organizations such as GlaxoSmithKline and Penn Medicine, and public and nonprofit corporations such as the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barsade co-chaired a task f...

#1492

Richard Schulz

#85287

Overall Influence

#1493

Gary P. Latham

#85353

Overall Influence

#1494

Sharon Brehm

#68308

Overall Influence

1945 - 2018 (73 years)

Sharon Stephens Brehm was an American psychologist who served as president of the American Psychological Association . She was a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas. She held administrative roles at Binghamton University and Ohio University, before becoming chancellor of Indiana University Bloomington.

#1495

John Gabrieli

#71855

Overall Influence

John Gabrieli is a neuroscientist at MIT, and an Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He is the Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, a faculty member in the department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center, part of the McGovern Institute. Gabrieli is an expert on the brain mechanisms of human cognition, including memory, thought and emotion. His work includes neuroimaging studies on healthy adults and children as well as clinical patients with many different brain disorders, including schizophre...

#1496

Todd D. Little

#61311

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Todd D. Little is a professor of Educational Psychology in the Research, Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics concentration in Educational Psychology at Texas Tech University. Education In 1983, Little received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from University of California, Riverside. He went on to pursue his doctorate degree in developmental psychology at University of California, Riverside. His doctoral thesis was titled Individual differences in the development of numerical facility : a production task paradigm.

#1497

E. Glen Wever

#82820

Overall Influence

1902 - 1991 (89 years)

Ernest Glen Wever was an American experimental psychologist known for his elucidation of hearing in vertebrates, ranging from the biomechanical functioning of the cochlea to the neural coding of sound and the evolutionary biology of hearing.

#1498

Bonnie Strickland

#65610

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (88 years)

Bonnie Ruth Strickland is known for her contributions to the psychology community. From her decades long career at Emory University and University of Massachusetts Amherst to her time as the president of the American Psychological Association she has contributed a great deal to clinical psychology, social psychology, and feminism.

#1499

Jorge Vala

#55996

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Jorge Vala , PhD in social psychology, University of Louvain, was a full professor at ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute, and is currently a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences /University of Lisbon.

#1500

Susan H. McDaniel

#50752

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Susan H. McDaniel is an American psychologist and the Dr. Laurie Sands Distinguished Professor of Families & Health at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She was the 2016 president of the American Psychological Association .

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