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.

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List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#1601

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

#24907

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Emily Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a psychologist and primatologist most known for her work with two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, investigating their linguistic and cognitive abilities using lexigrams and computer-based keyboards. Originally based at Georgia State University's Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, she worked at the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa from 2006 until her departure in November 2013. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of Bonobo Hope.

#1602

Michael Meaney

#19558

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Michael J. Meaney, CM, CQ, FRSC, is a professor at McGill University specializing in biological psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery, who is primarily known for his research on stress, maternal care, and gene expression. His research team has "discovered the importance of maternal care in modifying the expression of genes that regulate behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress, as well as hippocampal synaptic development" in animal studies. The research has implications for domestic and public policy for maternal support and its role in human disease prevention and economic health.

#1603

Katherine Klein

#74560

Overall Influence

Katherine Klein is an American organizational psychologist. Her research covers issues related to employee stock ownership, innovation and technology implementation, leadership, diversity, teams, and social networks, as well as methodological considerations related to multilevel organizational theory and research.

#1604

Raymond C. Rosen

#89860

Overall Influence

#1605

John K. Kruschke

#31609

Overall Influence

John Kendall Kruschke is an American psychologist and statistician known for his work in connectionist models of human learning, and in Bayesian statistical analysis. He is Provost Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington. He won the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.

#1606

Sidney S. Culbert

#24902

Overall Influence

1913 - 2003 (90 years)

Sidney Spence Culbert was a linguist, psychologist and Esperantist. Biography Born in Miles City, Montana, Culbert moved to Tacoma, Washington with his family in 1923 and lived in Tacoma and Seattle for most of his life.

#1607

Thomas A. Wynn

#82809

Overall Influence

Thomas A Wynn is an immunologist specializing in macrophage-mediated fibrosis in helminth infections. He received a PhD in the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School He then did post-doctoral work with Dr. Alan Sher in the laboratory of parasitic diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He is now a senior investigator in NIAID.

#1608

Robert B. Mccall

#90015

Overall Influence

#1609

Joseph Renzulli

#13182

Overall Influence

1936 - Present (88 years)

Joseph Renzulli is an American educational psychologist. He is the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. Early life Renzulli graduated with a bachelor's degree from Rowan University. He earned a master in education degree from Rutgers University, and a doctorate from the University of Virginia.

#1610

J. Anthony Movshon

#53343

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Joseph Anthony Movshon is an American neuroscientist. He has made contributions to the understanding of the brain mechanisms that represent the form and motion of objects, and the way these mechanisms contribute to perceptual judgments and visually guided movement. He is a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Vision Science.

#1611

Hjalmar Sundén

#72387

Overall Influence

1908 - 1993 (85 years)

Hjalmar Sundén was a Swedish psychologist, known for his contributions to the psychology of religion and for his development of "role theory". Biography Sundén studied in Paris, where he interviewed the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson's philosophy of religion was to become the subject of Sunden's doctorate, after he had studied theology at the University of Uppsala . After receiving his doctorate, Sundén, unable to obtain a university post for some time, taught psychology and religion at various schools in the Stockholm region.

#1612

Herschel Leibowitz

Herschel Leibowitz

#62699

Overall Influence

1925 - 2011 (86 years)

Scholar, educator, and philanthropist Herschel Leibowitz is widely recognized for his research in visual perception and for his symbiotic approach to conducting research that both advanced theory and helped in the understanding and relief of societal problems. His research on transportation safety included studies of nearsightedness during night driving, vision during civil twilight, an illusion that underlies the behavior of motorists involved in auto-train collisions, susceptibility of pilots to illusions caused by visual-vestibular interactions, and the design of aircraft instrument panels...

#1613

Jennifer Eberhardt

#14850

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt is an American social psychologist who is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. Eberhardt has been responsible for major contributions on investigating the consequences of the psychological association between race and crime through methods such as field studies and laboratory studies. She has also contributed to research on unconscious bias, including demonstrating how racial imagery and judgment affect culture and society within the domain of social justice. The results from her work have contributed to training law enforcement officers and state agencies to better their judgments through implicit bias training.

#1614

Laura-Ann Petitto

Laura-Ann Petitto

#30437

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Laura-Ann Petitto is a cognitive neuroscientist and a developmental cognitive neuroscientist known for her research and scientific discoveries involving the language capacity of chimpanzees, the biological bases of language in humans, especially early language acquisition , early reading, and bilingualism, bilingual reading, and the bilingual brain. Significant scientific discoveries include the existence of linguistic babbling on the hands of deaf babies and the equivalent neural processing of signed and spoken languages in the human brain. She is recognized for her contributions to the creation of the new scientific discipline, called educational neuroscience.

#1615

John Geier

#70513

Overall Influence

1934 - 2009 (75 years)

John George Geier, III was an American psychologist who worked extensively on the DISC assessment systems, which improve work/life performance. Dr. Geier had a 40-year career in the assessment process and was known as a pioneer and founder of personnel selection, training and research, and a leader of human assessment. During his career, he developed numerous assessment tools, including the DiSC Personal Profile System, and the Personality Factor Profile, used for more than 50 million people around the world and translated to more than 30 different languages.

#1616

Michelene Chi

#69965

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Michelene T. H. Chi is a cognitive and learning scientist known for her work on the development of expertise, benefits of self-explanations, and active learning in the classroom. Chi is the Regents Professor, Dorothy Bray Endowed Professor of Science and Teaching at Arizona State University, where she directs the Learning and Cognition Lab.

#1617

Charles Negy

#75218

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Charles Negy is an American psychologist. He is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Central Florida. Beginning in June 2020, Negy was placed under investigation for misconduct. His position at the university has been at the center of controversy over tweets about a supposed and subsequent hostile learning environment in his classes reported by students. In May 2022, an arbitrator ordered his re-instatement.

#1618

Daphne Maurer

#56978

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Daphne Maurer is a Canadian developmental psychologist and professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. She is known for her work on the development of visual perception in humans, starting in infancy.

#1619

K・ワーナー・シャイエk. Warner Schaie

#90531

Overall Influence

#1620

Patrick McGrath

#84252

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Patrick J. McGrath, OC, FRSC FCAHS is a Canadian psychologist noted for his contribution to research on childhood pain. Biography Patrick McGrath was born in Ottawa and initially attended the University of Ottawa but transferred to the University of Saskatchewan where he completed his BSc Psychology. He subsequently obtained his PhD in psychology from Queen's University at Kingston. His first post was a clinical post in the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa. It was there that he became interested in childhood pain. He then transferred to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia to establish a graduate training programme in clinical psychology.

#1621

Pamela Stephenson

Pamela Stephenson

#44850

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Pamela Stephenson, Lady Connolly is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, actress and comedian. She moved with her family to Australia in 1953 and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art . After playing several stage and television roles, she emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1976.

#1622

Mark A. McDaniel

#72514

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Mark A. McDaniel is an American psychology researcher in the area of human learning and memory. He is one of the most influential researchers in prospective memory, but also well known for other basic research in memory and learning, cognitive aging, as well as applying cognitive psychology to education. McDaniel has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and edited books. His research in memory and cognition has received over two million dollars in grant support from NIH and NASA.

#1623

Geoffrey Beattie

#50441

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Geoffrey Beattie is a British psychologist, author and broadcaster. He is Professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University and in 2023 was appointed Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing and Wolfson College, University of Oxford. He has also been visiting professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara. He graduated with a First Class Honours degree from the University of Birmingham and a PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medi...

#1624

Dianne Berry

#38237

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Dianne Claire Berry, is British psychologist and academic. She is Professor of Psychology and Dean of Postgraduate Research Studies at the University of Reading, having previously served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Dean of Social Sciences. She joined the University in 1990 as a lecturer, receiving a chair in 1997.

#1625

Gregory M. Herek

#49845

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Gregory M. Herek is a researcher, author, and professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis . He has conducted extensive research on prejudice against sexual minorities, and coined the term sexual prejudice as a replacement for homophobia to describe this phenomenon. Herek argued that using the term homophobia incorrectly assumes that negative responses to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are founded in pathological, irrational fear , whereas psychological research indicates they are more accurately regarded as a form of prejudice. Herek is an openly and prominent gay psychologist.

#1626

Ricardo Ainslie

#41713

Overall Influence

Ricardo Ainslie is a Mexican-American documentary filmmaker. A native of Mexico City, his work is highly interdisciplinary in character, which explains his formal affiliations with the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, and the American Studies programs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor in the department of Educational Psychology. He holds dual US and Mexican citizenship. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California at Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan.

#1627

Jon Krosnick

#49172

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Jon Alexander Krosnick is a professor of Political Science, Communication, and Psychology, and director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University. Additionally, he is the Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences and an affiliate of the Woods Institute for the Environment. Krosnick has served as a consultant for government agencies, universities, and businesses, has testified as an expert in court proceedings, and has been an on-air television commentator on election night.

#1628

Martha McClintock

#22035

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Martha Kent McClintock is an American psychologist best known for her research on human pheromones and her theory of menstrual synchrony. Her research focuses on the relationship that the environment and biology have upon sexual behaviour. She is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago and is the Founder and past Director of the Institute for Mind and Biology.

#1629

Gordon Pennycook

#24538

Overall Influence

Gordon Robert Pennycook is a Canadian psychologist who is an associate professor at Cornell University. He is also an adjunct professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Regina's Hill and Levene Schools of Business. In 2020, he was elected to be a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.

#1630

Nancy M. Petry

#75314

Overall Influence

1968 - 2018 (50 years)

Nancy M. Petry was a psychologist known for her research on behavioral treatments for addictive disorders, behavioral pharmacology, impulsivity and compulsive gambling. She was Professor of Medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Petry served as a member of the American Psychiatric Association Workgroup on Substance Use Disorders for the DSM-5 and chaired the Subcommittee on Non-Substance Behavioral Addictions. The latter category includes Internet addiction disorder and problem gambling. She also served as a member of the Board of Advisors of Children and Screens: Institute...

#1631

Dennis Chapman

#66774

Overall Influence

1911 - 2003 (92 years)

Dennis Chapman was a social psychologist best known for his book The Home and Social Status, published in 1955, which investigated the British working class domesticity in the mid-twentieth century. His research focuses mainly on two primary aspects of society: domestic housing and provision, and the sociology of crime.

#1632

David Kantor

#42957

Overall Influence

1927 - Present (97 years)

David Kantor was an American systems psychologist, organizational consultant, and clinical researcher. He is the founder of three research and training institutes, the author of numerous books and articles, and the inventor of a series of psychometric instruments that provide insight into individual and group behaviors. His groundbreaking empirical research revealed a fundamental structure to all communication, known as Structural Dynamics, which provides the solution to the most common communication challenges experienced in any human system. Kantor's Four Player Model has been referenced by...

#1633

Rex Bryan Kline

#91040

Overall Influence

#1634

Paul Frick

#40180

Overall Influence

Paul Joseph Frick is an American psychologist and the Roy Crumpler Memorial Chair in psychology at Louisiana State University , as well as a professor at the Learning Sciences Institute of Australia at Australian Catholic University. He is known for his research on psychopathy and antisocial behavior in children, which he has been studying for over twenty years.

#1635

R. Philip Snaith

#91153

Overall Influence

#1636

Joop Hox

#89568

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Josephus Johannes Cornelis Maria Hox is a Dutch psychologist and Professor of Social Science Methodology at the Utrecht University, known for his work in the field of social research method such as survey research and multilevel modeling.

#1637

Karl Maxim Newell

#91214

Overall Influence

#1638

Michiel van Lambalgen

#29157

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Michiel van Lambalgen is a professor of Logic and Cognitive Science at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation and the Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

#1639

Robert Seyfarth

#35489

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Robert M. Seyfarth is an American primatologist and author. With his wife and collaborator Dorothy L. Cheney, he spent years studying the social behavior, communication, and cognition of wild primates in their natural habitat, including more than a decade of field work with baboons in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Seyfarth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania until his retirement, is a member of both the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

#1640

Warren Meck

#71736

Overall Influence

1956 - 2020 (64 years)

Professor Warren Meck was a professor in psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. His main field of interest was Interval-Timing mechanisms and subjective time perception. He was editor in chief in the journal of Timing & Time Perception. He introduced an interesting time perception model in 1984 and 2005. He explained that time is created in a dedicated module in the certain internal clock. Meck has over 19,000 citations in google scholar.

#1641

David Rubin

#67905

Overall Influence

David C. Rubin is Professor of Psychology at Duke University. He is known for his work on the reminiscence bump as well as other topics related to autobiographical memory. He is most recognized for his research and publications regarding memory, specifically, the reminiscence bump and long-term memory. Through extensive education and academic background his career and research started to flourish in the 1970s. Rubin remains active in the field of memory today.

#1642

David H. Brainard

#90364

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

David Hoyt Brainard is an American psychologist who researches visual perception. He is the RRL Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, fellow of The Optical Society, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the Association for Psychological Science, and co-editor of the Annual Review of Vision Science.

#1643

Frank Farrelly

#26618

Overall Influence

1931 - 2013 (82 years)

Frank Farrelly was a therapist best known for the 1974 book Provocative Therapy, which advocated radical therapeutic moves intended to jolt the client out of his current mindset. Biography Farrelly holds a master's degree in Social Work from The Catholic University Of America and is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. For many years he was a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Social Work and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. As a social worker in the 1960s he developed his ...

#1644

Marisa Carrasco

#68466

Overall Influence

Marisa Carrasco is a Mexican psychologist, who is a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University. She uses human psychophysics, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to investigate the relation between the psychological and neural mechanisms involved in visual perception and attention.

#1645

Linnea Ehri

#85767

Overall Influence

Linnea Carlson Ehri is an American educational psychologist and expert on the development of reading. She is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Educational Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Ehri is known for her theory of orthographic mapping, which describes the process of forming "letter-sound connections to bond the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of specific words in memory" that underlies fluent reading. As a consequence of orthographic mapping, written words are tightly linked with their pronunciations and meanings in memory and can be recog...

#1646

William G. Perry

#39288

Overall Influence

1913 - 1998 (85 years)

William G. Perry Jr. was an educational psychologist who studied the cognitive development of students during their college years. Life and career William Graves Perry Jr. was born in Paris and graduated from Harvard University. He was the son of architect William G. Perry and Eleanor Gray Perry.

#1647

Jolanda Jetten

#70653

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Petronella Antonia Gerarda "Jolanda" Jetten is a Dutch social psychologist and a professor at the University of Queensland. She won the Spearman Medal in 2004 and was inducted into the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2015. Her research concerns social identity, social groups, and group dynamics.

#1648

Elena Lieven

#42966

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Elena Lieven is a British psychology and linguistics researcher and educator. She was a senior research scientist in the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology in Leipzig, Germany. She is also a professor in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester where she is director of its Child Study Centre and leads the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development .

#1649

Robby Christopher Gardner

#91516

Overall Influence

#1650

Mary Florentine

#35803

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Mary Florentine is a Matthews Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University specialising in psychoacoustics with interests in models of hearing , non-native speech comprehension in background noise, cross-cultural attitudes towards noise, and hearing loss prevention. Her primary collaborator is Søren Buus.

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