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).
Methodology: How and Why We Rank by Influence …
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List of the most influential people in Psychology,
#2101
Sarah Boysen
#74298
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Sarah Till "Sally" Boysen is a professor of psychology at Ohio State University. Boysen is a primate researcher and former Director of the Chimp Center at the university. She was selected as the one of the top 50 women scientists by Discover magazine in 2002.
Go to Profile#2102
Bruce James Rounsaville
#107818
Overall Influence
#2103
Robert Maclaughlin Farr
#96263
Overall Influence
1936 - 2013 (77 years)
Robert Maclaughlin Farr was a social psychologist from Northern Ireland who played an important role in promoting and developing social representation theory. Career Rob Farr was born in Northern Ireland in 1936 where he gained a BSc followed by a MSc in Psychology from Queen's University Belfast. After this he studied for the Church of Ireland ministry at Trinity College Dublin but gave up after a short period. In 1962 returned to Queen's University as an assistant lecturer for two years and then worked as researcher with the Royal Air Force for another two years. He took up a post as a l...
Go to Profile#2104
Friedemann Pulvermüller
#107958
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
#2105
R. L. Schafer
#107969
Overall Influence
#2106
Marjolein Visser
#108000
Overall Influence
#2107
Dawn Freshwater
#19496
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Dawn Freshwater is a British academic, university professor, mental health researcher, and the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland. Early life and education Freshwater was born in a mining family in Nottingham, with two younger brothers. She left school at the age of 15 because her parents became unwell. Freshwater trained as a nurse and was the first member of her family to attend university. Her doctoral research investigated the impact of transformative learning on nursing students for which she awarded a PhD by the University of Nottingham in 1998.
Go to Profile#2108
Jelena Obradovic
#101185
Overall Influence
Jelena Obradovic is a developmental psychologist who currently works as associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she is a member of the Steering Committee of the Center for Education Policy Analysis . She also directs the Stanford Project on Adaptation and Resilience in Kids .
Go to Profile#2109
D. Randy Garrison
#76189
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Donn Randy Garrison is a Canadian professor emeritus at the University of Calgary who has published extensively on distance education. Garrison is a holder of a B. Ed in Mathematics with a minor in Psychology. In 1972, he did his Master of Education in Computer Application in Education at the University of Calgary. He received an award for most outstanding achievement from the Sloan Consortium in 2009.
Go to Profile#2110
Jeff Greenberg
#108096
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (70 years)
Jeff Greenberg may refer to:Jeff Greenberg , American social psychology professorJeff Greenberg , American sports executive
Go to Profile#2111
Norman Bradburn
#101860
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (91 years)
Norman M. Bradburn is an American social scientist and the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at University of Chicago and former University Provost, and an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, American Statistical Association, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Go to Profile#2112
Raymond P. Kesner
#108180
Overall Influence
#2113
Lindsay Oades
#84567
Overall Influence
Lindsay G. Oades is an Australian wellbeing public policy strategist, author, researcher and academic. He is the Director of the Centre for Wellbeing Science and a professor at the University of Melbourne. He is also a non-executive Director of Action for Happiness Australia, and the Positive Education Schools Association. He is a former co-editor of the International Journal of Wellbeing.
Go to Profile#2114
Chris Sibley
#91809
Overall Influence
Chris G. Sibley is a Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland and the lead investigator for the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. Sibley's research focuses on understanding how people's connections with others around them interact with environmental and economic factors to cause change in personality, political attitudes, social values and psychological health over time. In 2014 he was the recipient of the Erik Erikson Award for Early Career Achievement, awarded by the International Society of Political Psychology. Sibley is also the editor of the Cambridge Han...
Go to Profile#2115
Joshua Miller
#95663
Overall Influence
Joshua D. Miller is an American psychologist and personality researcher. He is a professor of psychology in the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the director for the Department of Psychology's Clinical Training Program there. He is known for researching narcissism.
Go to Profile#2116
Martin Kilduff
#66478
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Martin Kilduff is a British academic. He is the Professor of Management at the UCL School of Management. Early life Martin Kilduff grew up in the Camden Town area of London, England. He attended Primrose Hill primary school followed by Quintin grammar school. His higher education was pursued in the U.S. He received his BA and MBA from Washington State University and his MS and PhD from Cornell University.
Go to Profile#2117
Farley Norman
#85700
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Farley Norman is a professor of psychological sciences at Western Kentucky University. He is a co-director of the Gustav Fechner Perception Laboratory at Western Kentucky University, along with his wife, Hideko Norman.
Go to Profile#2118
Jonathan Grainger
#108414
Overall Influence
#2119
Richard Louis Miller
#94546
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Richard Louis Miller is an American clinical psychologist, author, founder of Wilbur Hot Springs Health Sanctuary,Founder of the Cokenders Alcohol and Drug Program and broadcaster who hosts the Mind Body Health & Politics internet broadcast. The program feature national figures from the world of medicine, psychology and politics. It aired on NPR affiliate KZYX&Z FM & www.KZYX.org until 2018, and continues to stream online.
Go to Profile#2120
Jeffrey H. Greenhaus
#108438
Overall Influence
#2121
Kathleen McDermott
#85265
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Kathleen McDermott is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. She is known for her research on how human memory is encoded and retrieved, with a specific interest in how false memories develop. In collaboration with Henry L. Roediger III, she developed the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm used to study the phenomenon of memory illusions. McDermott received the 2004-2005 F.J. McGuigan Young Investigator Prize for research on memory from the American Psychological Foundation and the American Psychological Association's Science Directorate. She was recognized by the Association for Psychological Science as a Rising Star in 2007.
Go to Profile#2122
Lara Aknin
#19877
Overall Influence
Lara Beth Aknin is a Canadian social psychologist. She is an assistant professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University and a distinguished university professor. Career After earning her PhD from the University of British Columbia, Aknin joined the faculty of psychology at Simon Fraser University in 2012. That year, she published "Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children" with J. Kiley Hamlin and Elizabeth Dunn, which supported the idea that humans may have evolved to find giving rewarding.
Go to Profile#2123
Abraham Palmer
#78838
Overall Influence
Abraham A. Palmer is an American behavior geneticist and Professor & Vice Chair for Basic Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. In 2020, he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a fellow of the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and received the IBANGS Distinguished Investigator Award in 2020.
Go to Profile#2124
Stephen Manuck
#103630
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Stephen Bennett Manuck is an American psychologist who is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. External links Faculty page
Go to Profile#2125
Stacey Sinclair
#97187
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Stacey Sinclair is an American psychologist and professor of psychology and public affairs, and associate professor of African American studies at Princeton University. Her research focuses on how interpersonal interactions translate culturally held prejudices into individual thoughts and actions.
Go to Profile#2126
Eugene Scott Huebner
#108705
Overall Influence
#2127
Howard R. Moskowitz
#108728
Overall Influence
#2128
Gary Bennett
#68627
Overall Influence
Gary G. Bennett Jr. is the Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Global Health and Medicine at Duke University. In November 2022, he was appointed Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, effective February 2023.
Go to Profile#2129
Harold Goodglass
#108738
Overall Influence
#2130
Paul van Lange
#108773
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Paul van Lange is a Dutch professor of psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, distinguished scholar at the University of Oxford, and holds a global professorship at the University of Cologne.
Go to Profile#2131
Anne-Françoise Rutkowski
#75597
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Anne-Françoise Rutkowski is a French psychologist and Professor Management of Information: Impact on Organization, Business and Society at the Tilburg University School of Economics and Management. known for her work on virtual collaboration.
Go to Profile#2132
Elizabeth Dunn
#99827
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (47 years)
Elizabeth Warren Dunn is a Canadian social psychologist and a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia . In 2015, Dunn was elected a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists within the Royal Society of Canada.
Go to Profile#2133
Ravenna Helson
#62388
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (99 years)
Ravenna Mathews Helson was an American psychologist known for her research on the psychology of women and creativity. Dacher Keltner has described her as "a pioneer in the study of women's lives". Career Helson completed her PhD in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1952. She joined the faculty of psychology at Smith College, but moved with her husband, mathematician Henry Helson, back to California in 1955 when he was offered a faculty position at UC Berkeley. Helson began working at the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research in 1957, when she accepted an invitation from director Donald W.
Go to Profile#2134
Randy J. Larsen
#108881
Overall Influence
#2135
Judy Garber
#98438
Overall Influence
Judy Garber is a clinical psychologist known for her research on emotional dysregulation and mood disorders, with a focus on cognitive-behavioral interventions for adolescents who have depression. Garber is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.
Go to Profile#2136
Gerald L. Clore
#108900
Overall Influence
#2137
Peter Elwood Bryant
#108912
Overall Influence
#2138
Stephen Petrill
#78447
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Stephen Petrill is an American psychologist. Biography Petrill obtained his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame in 1990 and got his Ph.D. in the same field five years later at the Case Western Reserve University. Two years later he started working at the Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre in London and then worked at Wesleyan University until 2001. Since that year he worked at the Penn State University until 2006 and then had a job at the Ohio State University where he still works. Currently he is also an editor of Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry ...
Go to Profile#2139
Michael A. Campion
#82494
Overall Influence
Michael A. Campion is the Herman C. Krannert Distinguished Professor of Management at Purdue University . Previous industrial experience includes 4 years each at IBM and Weyerhaeuser Company. He has a MS and PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He has over 145 articles in scientific and professional journals, and has given nearly 250 presentations at professional meetings, on such topics as employment testing, interviewing, mitigating employment discrimination, job analysis, work and team design, training, turnover, promotion, motivation, and computerized text analysis and artificial intelligence for employment decision making.
Go to Profile#2140
Richard M. Warren
#108953
Overall Influence
#2141
Ray Blanchard
#27436
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Ray Milton Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on pedophilia, sexual orientation and gender identity. He has found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia.
Go to Profile#2142
Susan J. Kelley
#74691
Overall Influence
Susan J. Kelley is the former Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at Georgia State University. She is also currently a professor of Nursing and the Director of the National Center on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, and founder and director of Project Healthy Grandparents, at Georgia State University.
Go to Profile#2143
A. Wade Boykin
#77798
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (77 years)
Alfred Wade Boykin is an American psychology professor known for his work in the field of education. He is a member of the faculty of Howard University. He has made contributions to the study of academic discrepancies between African American children and Caucasian children. Through his work at the Capstone Institute at Howard University he has created plans for implementations of educational reform.
Go to Profile#2144
Adam D. Galinsky
#109169
Overall Influence
#2145
Joel E. Dimsdale
#109199
Overall Influence
#2146
J. D. Trout
#62854
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
J. D. Trout is an American philosopher of science, cognitive scientist, lecturer and nonfiction author who holds the Calamos Endowed Chair in Philosophy at Illinois Institute of Technology. His research centers on the nature of scientific progress, and its influence on human understanding and well-being.
Go to Profile#2147
Robert Allen Peterson
#109213
Overall Influence
#2148
Jean–marc Dewaele
#109239
Overall Influence
#2149
Timothy H. Monk
#109249
Overall Influence
#2150
Theodore L. Sourkes
#109257
Overall Influence
