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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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,

#2251

Irene Hanson Frieze

#100979

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Irene Hanson Frieze is a personality psychologist and pioneering figure in the field of women's studies. She is known for her research on intimate partner violence in marriage and dating relationships, and for cross-cultural studies of attitudes about work and gender roles. Frieze is Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women's Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

#2252

Wendy Craig

#82960

Overall Influence

Wendy Marion Craig is a Canadian clinical-developmental psychologist known for her research and advocacy in the field of childhood bullying. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University at Kingston in Ontario, Canada.

#2253

Keith Humphreys

#88308

Overall Influence

1966 - Present (58 years)

Keith Humphreys is an American psychologist currently the Esther Ting Memorial Professor at Stanford University, a Senior Research Career Scientist in the Veterans Health Administration, and an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London.

#2254

Frank Vitaro

#113332

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

#2255

Peter H. Venables

#113373

Overall Influence

#2256

Israel Chanarin

#113385

Overall Influence

#2257

Eric Youngstrom

Eric Youngstrom

#100719

Overall Influence

1968 - Present (56 years)

Eric Arden Youngstrom is an American clinical child and adolescent psychologist, professor of psychology and neuroscience, and psychiatry, at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. His research focuses on evidence-based assessment, and assessment of bipolar disorder across the life span.

#2258

Sandra Waxman

#102574

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Sandra Robin Waxman is an American cognitive and developmental psychologist. She is a Louis W. Menk Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and director of the university's Infant and Child Development Center . She is known for her work on the development of language and concepts in infants and children.

#2259

Jonathan Smallwood

#100120

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Jonathan Smallwood is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University at Kingston in Ontario, Canada. His research uses the tools of cognitive neuroscience to investigate the process by which the brain self generates thoughts not arising from perception, such as during the experience of mind-wandering and daydreaming. For the last two years he has been recognised as one of the world's most highly cited scientists.

#2260

Bunmi Olatunji

#104114

Overall Influence

1977 - Present (47 years)

Bunmi O. Olatunji is an American psychologist who is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Social Sciences at Vanderbilt University. He is Director of the Emotion and Anxiety Research Laboratory and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the Vanderbilt University Graduate School. Olatunji studies the psychopathology of obsessive–compulsive disorder.

#2261

Harriet Lange Rheingold

#83314

Overall Influence

1908 - 2000 (92 years)

Harriet Lange Rheingold was a child development psychologist who taught at the University of North Carolina, and the author of many publications, some still cited today. The New York Times labeled her “one of the nation’s most prominent developmental psychologists.”

#2262

Andrew Blanchard Watson

#113535

Overall Influence

#2263

Joanne Davila

#104497

Overall Influence

Joanne Davila is a clinical psychologist known for her research on the romantic relationships and mental health of adolescents and adults, including the impact of social media use on relationships and well being. She is a Professor and Associate Director of Clinical Training int the Department of Psychology, at Stony Brook University.

#2264

Jonathan D. Cohen

#42613

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Jonathan David Cohen is an American psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. He is the Robert Bendheim and Lynn Bendheim Thoman Professor in Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, where he is also the founding co-director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. He originally joined the faculty of Princeton in 1998, and became the founding director of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior in 2000. A noted expert on neuroimaging, he played a major role in increasing the use of fMRI scanners in scientific research. He has been a fellow of the Associa...

#2265

Ray Niaura

#113566

Overall Influence

#2266

Aaron Sloman

#113608

Overall Influence

#2267

Fitzhugh Dodson

#68911

Overall Influence

1923 - 1993 (70 years)

Fitzhugh J. Dodson was an American clinical psychologist, lecturer and educator. He wrote several popular books including the best-selling How to Parent. Biography Dodson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States in 1923. His father also bore the name Fitzhugh J. Dodson and his mother was Lillian M. Dodson, née Northam . He attended high school in Baltimore, living at 704 Wyndhurst Avenue with his parents, younger sister and maternal grandparents. He went on to graduate cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1944, then gained his Bachelor of Divinity degre...

#2268

Russell Cropanzano

#112058

Overall Influence

Russell Cropanzano is an American management scholar. As of 2022, he is a professor of organizational behavior at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. Education and career Cropanzano gained a BA in psychology from Louisiana State University and an MA from Southern Methodist University . His doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology is from Purdue University ; his dissertation is titled "A Conceptual Analysis of Organizational Plans".

#2269

Robert J. Naylor

#113696

Overall Influence

#2270

M. Philip Bryden

#113727

Overall Influence

#2271

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

#81645

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an organizational psychologist who works mostly in the areas of personality profiling, people analytics, talent identification, the interface between human and artificial intelligence, and leadership development. He is currently a professor of business psychology at University College London and an adjunct professor at Columbia University, as well as the Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup, and was previously the CEO at Hogan Assessment Systems.

#2272

Jürgen Margraf

#113782

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

#2273

Jenae Neiderhiser

#49766

Overall Influence

Jenae M. Neiderhiser is an American behavior geneticist who is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she is also co-director of the Gene Environment Research Initiative.

#2274

Kenneth D. Craig

#86907

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (87 years)

Kenneth D. Craig is a Canadian psychologist, educator and scientist whose research primarily concerns pain assessment, understanding pain in children and populations with communication limitations, and the social dimensions of pain.

#2275

Philip C. Kendall

#101745

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Philip C. Kendall is Distinguished University Professor and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology, Director of the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Temple University, and clinical child and adolescent psychologist. Alongside contemporaries at Temple University, Kendall produced the Coping Cat program. Coping Cat is an evidence-based and empirically supported treatment for anxiety in youth.

#2276

Andrew J. Martin

#113895

Overall Influence

#2277

Daniel Hutto

#78242

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Daniel D. Hutto is an American philosopher and professor of philosophical psychology jointly at the University of Wollongong and University of Hertfordshire. He is known for his research on enactivism, affect, folk psychology and Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy. He is also known for designing and heading the degree of western civilisation at the University of Wollongong. This degree has led to controversy due to being funded by the Ramsay Centre, of which former prime ministers Toby Abbott and John Howard are board members.

#2278

Martin Deutsch

#103576

Overall Influence

1926 - 2002 (76 years)

Martin Deutsch was an American developmental psychologist known for his research on the education of disadvantaged children. His efforts to develop a compensatory education program in New York City served as a predecessor to the national Head Start program. He developed early intervention programs with what he called a "therapeutic curriculum", which aimed to specifically address the deficient experiences of children living in deprived environments. He believed that such environments put children at a disadvantage with respect to beginning school and acquiring basic literacy skills.

#2279

Allyssa McCabe

#90411

Overall Influence

Allyssa K. McCabe is a psychological scientist known for her work on narrative development. She is Professor Emerita of Psychology in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and affiliated with the Center for Autism Research & Education .

#2280

William O'Donohue

#72880

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

William T. "Bill" O'Donohue is an American psychologist who focuses on human sexuality, especially child sexual abuse. In 2009 O'Donohue was appointed as advisor to the DSM-V Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association.

#2281

Noshir Contractor

#41046

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Noshir S. Contractor is an Indian-American network scientist who is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management and the director of the Science of Networks in Communities Research Group at Northwestern University. He is also the former President of the International Communication Association and a Trustee of the Web Science Trust.

#2282

Rolf van Dick

#99982

Overall Influence

1967 - Present (57 years)

Rolf van Dick is a German social psychologist. Life Van Dick graduated in psychology at the Philipps-University Marburg. He earned his Ph.D. in 1999 from Philipps-University Marburg, supervised by Ulrich Wagner. From 1995 to 2002, he was working as a lecturer and assistant professor at the Philipps-University Marburg. From 2003 to 2006, he worked at Aston University, Birmingham, England, first as a senior lecturer, and from 2005 to 2007 as a full professor and chair of Social Psychology and Organizational Behavior.

#2283

Robert C. Calfee

#89536

Overall Influence

1933 - 2014 (81 years)

Robert Chilton Calfee was an American educational psychologist specializing in the study of reading and writing processes and instruction. He is known for his work on Project Read and the LeapFrog learning system.

#2284

Laurent Mottron

#51430

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Laurent Mottron, born June 13, 1952, in France, is a psychiatrist, researcher, and a professor at Montreal University. He is a specialist in cognitive neuroscience research in autism at the University of Montreal.

#2285

Daniel Bar-Tal

#88128

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

Daniel Bar-Tal is an Israeli academic, author and Branco Weiss Professor of Research in Child Development and Education at School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Biography Bar-Tal was born in Stalinabad, Tajikistan, USSR in 1946, but lived his childhood in Szczecin, Poland until his immigration to Israel in 1957. In Israel he completed his undergraduate studies at Tel Aviv University.

#2286

Margaret A. Chesney

#114440

Overall Influence

#2287

Justin A. Frank

Justin A. Frank

#45125

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Justin A. Frank is an American author who practices and teaches psychoanalysis in Washington, DC. Frank is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post on topics as diverse as politics, film, and theater. He is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center.

#2288

Michelle Drouin

Michelle Drouin

#55112

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Michelle Drouin is an American researcher who focuses on psychological issues dealing with social media and communications technology. Drouin is associate professor of psychology at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne.

#2289

Fred W. Mast

#83061

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Fred W. Mast is a full professor of Psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland, specialized in mental imagery, sensorimotor processing, and visual perception. He directs the Cognitive Psychology, Perception, and Research Methods Section at the Department of Psychology of the University of Bern.

#2290

Kathleen Brady

#114529

Overall Influence

#2291

Rainer Goebel

#114545

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

#2292

David Komito

#98373

Overall Influence

1946 - Present (78 years)

David Ross Komito is a professor of Asian Philosophy and author on the subjects of Mādhyamaka Buddhist philosophy, meditation and the psychology of religion. Komito received his B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, his M.A. in Religious Studies, M.S. in Counseling and Ph.D. in Tibetan Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. From 1986 through 1990 he was Dean of John F. Kennedy University's Graduate School for the Study of Human Consciousness. Since 1987 has lectured at San Francisco Zen Center, Finding the Path to Liberation Buddhist Center and other Buddhist centers in the Western USA.

#2293

Ross Thompson

#65794

Overall Influence

Ross A. Thompson is an American author and research psychologist. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and is director of the Social & Emotional Development Lab. Thompson is known for his work on the psychological development of young children. His influences on developmental research and public policy were recognized in the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society in 2018 by the American Psychological Association, the Ann L. Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research in 2007.

#2294

Amir Hussain

#105679

Overall Influence

Amir Hussain is a cognitive scientist, the director of Cognitive Big Data and Cybersecurity Research Lab at Edinburgh Napier University He is a professor of computing science. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of Springer Nature's internationally leading Cognitive Computation journal and the new Big Data Analytics journal. He is founding Editor-in-Chief for two Springer Book Series: Socio-Affective Computing and Cognitive Computation Trends, and also serves on the Editorial Board of a number of other world-leading journals including, as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Neural Netw...

#2295

Edgar Erdfelder

#114671

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

#2296

Frederick Gibbons

#112078

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Frederick X. "Rick" Gibbons is an American psychologist who has been a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut since August 2012. His research focuses on social psychology and health psychology.

#2297

Laurence T. Maloney

#79054

Overall Influence

Laurence T. Maloney is an American psychology professor at New York University’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science. He is known for applying mathematical models to human behavior.

#2298

Forrest Scogin

#93978

Overall Influence

Forrest Scogin is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Alabama. His primary interests have been in geropsychology and he has conducted extensive research in this area. In 2008, Scogin was awarded the M. Powell Lawton Distinguished Contribution Award for Applied Gerontology by the American Psychological Association.

#2299

Gregory F. Ball

#102684

Overall Influence

Gregory Francis Ball is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is best known for his research into how seasonal hormonal shifts change the brain and reproductive behavior of different bird species.

#2300

Leonard Abbeduto

#87917

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Leonard Abbeduto is a psychologist known for his research on individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including Fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and Down syndrome, and factors that influence their linguistic development over the lifespan. He is the Tsakopoulos-Vismara Endowed Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of California, Davis. He serves as Director of Research at the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopment Disorders Institute, which was launched in 2001. Prior to his affiliation with the University of California, Davis, Abbeduto was the associ...

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