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 …
See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.
List of the most influential people in Psychology,
#2551
Edwin P. Hollander
#123961
Overall Influence
#2552
Kenneth Keniston
#88754
Overall Influence
1930 - 2020 (90 years)
Kenneth Keniston was an American social psychologist. Keniston was born in Chicago, and attended secondary school abroad, at the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires. He enrolled in Harvard College, and later earned a Rhodes Scholarship to complete his D. Phil in social studies from Balliol College, Oxford. Keniston taught at Harvard University and Yale University before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty in 1977, where he served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Human Development. Keniston and his wife Suzanne Berger both received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979. Kenist...
Go to Profile#2553
Loretta Bradley
#78162
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
Loretta Bradley born in 1943 is a professor and coordinator of education advisers to Texas Tech University. She was previously an associate professor at Vanderbilt University and vice-dean of Temple University. She earned her doctorate at Purdue University. Bradley is the former president of the American Counseling Association and the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision .
Go to Profile#2554
Ståle Pallesen
#123990
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
#2555
Michael Bang Petersen
#106622
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Michael Bang Petersen is a Danish political scientist. He is a professor at Aarhus University, with research focusing on human evolutionary psychology and its role in politics. Starting in 2020, he led HOPE, a project examining responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in democratic countries and contributing to the Danish government's response to the pandemic.
Go to Profile#2556
Jill Becker
#89735
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Jill B. Becker is an American psychological researcher, studying sex differences in addiction using preclinical models. Becker is the Biopsychology Area Chair and the Patricia Y. Gurin Professor of Psychology at University of Michigan..She has advocated for greater research into sex/gender differences, particularly in the area of Substance Use Disorder.
Go to Profile#2557
Susan H. Spence
#118316
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
Susan Hilary Spence AO is an Australian scientist whose work in clinical psychology is focussed on the causes, assessment, prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety in young people. Throughout the course of her career she has remained consistently at the forefront of this research area, has published widely and has been a regular recipient of national competitive grant funding.
Go to Profile#2558
George Butterworth
#85015
Overall Influence
1946 - 2000 (54 years)
George Butterworth was a British professor of psychology, who studied infant development. Life and work After completing his D.Phil. at Oxford, Butterworth took a post at Southampton University, moving to a chair in psychology at Stirling in 1985, before coming to Sussex in 1991. He was appointed honorary professor, University of East London, in 1996.
Go to Profile#2559
James D. A. Parker
#124094
Overall Influence
#2560
William W. Beatty
#124107
Overall Influence
#2561
J. Kathryn Bock
#100136
Overall Influence
J. Kathryn Bock is currently professor of psychology and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, where she conducts research in the Language Production Laboratory at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Urbana, Illinois.
Go to Profile#2562
Margie E. Lachman
#120537
Overall Influence
Margie E. Lachman is an American psychologist. She is the Minnie and Harold Fierman Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, director of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Lab and the director of the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions. She was editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences , and has edited two volumes on midlife development. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 20 and the Gerontological Society of America. Lachman's research is in the area of lifespan development with a focus on midlife and later life.
Go to Profile#2563
Albert I. Rabin
#106505
Overall Influence
1912 - 2010 (98 years)
Albert I. Rabin was an American-Lithuanian psychologist. Rabin was born in Merkinė, Lithuania, and moved to the United States in 1930. He graduated from Boston University and Harvard University, receiving his Ph.D. in psychology in 1938. He was hired by the New Hampshire State Hospital in 1939 as its chief psychologist. While there, he met Beatrice Marceau, who became his wife in 1949, the year he became a psychology professor at Michigan State University. He won the Bruno Klopfer Award in 1977
Go to Profile#2564
Andrea Smorti
#118342
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (75 years)
Andrea Smorti is an Italian psychologist and professor of developmental psychology who studies cognitive and narrative processes at the University of Florence. He founded the laboratory of methods and analysis techniques of illness experiences. He is the director of the laboratory of developmental process evaluation, Laboratory in the Department of Education, Languages, Inter-culture, Literature, and psychology at the University of Florence.
Go to Profile#2565
Arthur Paul Brief
#124311
Overall Influence
#2566
Dolores Albarracín
#96450
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (59 years)
Dolores Albarracín is a psychologist, author and professor of psychology and business based in Pennsylvania. She is Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She is known for her work in the fields of behavior, communication and persuasion. Her contributions have had implications for the scientific understanding of basic social psychological processes and communication policy, especially in the area of health.
Go to Profile#2567
Maria Cristina Richaud
#124365
Overall Influence
Maria Cristina Richaud is an Argentinian psychologist. She was born and raised up in Buenos Aires, and in 1970 received her bachelor's degree in psychology from University of Buenos Aires, and her doctorate in cognitive psychology from the same university 4 years later. Then she became a researcher at National Council of Scientific and Technological Research. Her work are mainly about parenting, stress, coping, attachment, and social cognitive variables in children and adolescents. Later she devoted herself to the study of children at risk from poverty.
Go to Profile#2568
Marilyn Charles
#98347
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Marilyn Charles is a psychoanalyst, writer, lecturer and 2014–2015 President of the American Psychological Association's Division 39 . Marilyn Charles has published articles and books on numerous topics, including trauma, Jacques Lacan, Wilfred Bion, creativity, and madness. She is on the staff at Austen Riggs Center, a co-chair of the Division 39 Early Career Committee, and a co-chair of the Association for Psychoanalysis, Society and Culture. She is a contributing editor of APCS's journal, Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, which is published quarterly by Palgrave Macmillan. Marilyn is aff...
Go to Profile#2569
Laura Justice
#101791
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (56 years)
Laura M. Justice is a language scientist and expert on interventions to promote children's literacy. She is the EHE Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at Ohio State University, where she also serves as the Executive Director of the A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning.
Go to Profile#2570
Mary Dozier
#103307
Overall Influence
Mary Dozier, an American psychologist, holds the Amy E. du Pont Chair of Child Development at the University of Delaware. Dozier studied at Duke University where she received her degree in psychology in 1976, and her PhD in clinical psychology in 1983. She joined the faculty at Delaware in 1994.
Go to Profile#2571
Alejandrina Cristia
#57680
Overall Influence
Alejandrina Cristia is an Argentinian linguist known for research on infant-directed speech, daylong audio recordings of children's diverse linguistic environments, and language acquisition across cultures. Cristia is interested in how phonetic and phonological representations are formed during infancy and their interactions with other linguistic formats and cognitive mechanisms. She holds the position of Research Director of the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique at the Paris Sciences et Lettres University .
Go to Profile#2572
Maurice Anthony Gale
#113331
Overall Influence
1937 - 2006 (69 years)
Maurice Anthony Gale was a British psychologist. Career Gale studied psychology at the University of Exeter, and subsequently held lectureships at the Universities of Exeter and of Swansea as well as at UWIST . He was appointed to a chair in Psychology at the University of Southampton where he also held the post of Dean of Social Sciences. He then moved to the University of Portsmouth as Director of Research and Development in the Department of Psychology.
Go to Profile#2573
Frank Neuner
#109618
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (53 years)
Frank Neuner was born 1971. He is professor of Clinical Psychology at Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Bielefeld University. Academia Frank Neuner heads the Chair of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, including the affiliated treatment facilities and the Institute for Postgraduate Therapy Training. The research includes fundamental neuroscientific studies on the effects of violence on the brain and extends to epidemiological studies and experimental therapy studies with traumatized survivors of war, torture, and natural disasters in current and former war zones, e.g., in Uganda, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka.
Go to Profile#2574
J. H. M. Dekker
#124609
Overall Influence
#2575
Yang Kuo-shu
#59171
Overall Influence
1932 - 2018 (86 years)
Yang Kuo-shu was a Chinese psychologist and political activist in Taiwan, considered the founder of indigenized Chinese psychology. He served as professor and Chair of the Psychology Department of National Taiwan University. He became Vice-President of Academic Sinica in 1996, and was elected as an academician in 1998. He was an advocate for political freedom and democracy during the Martial Law era, and was the founding president of the Taipei Society.
Go to Profile#2576
Anthony D. Pellegrini
#124684
Overall Influence
#2577
Viren Swami
#124712
Overall Influence
#2578
John J. L. Morton
#124731
Overall Influence
#2579
Darrin Hodgetts
#51378
Overall Influence
Darrin James Hodgetts is a New Zealand psychology academic. He is a professor of societal psychology at Massey University and is a principal investigator with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Of Māori descent, Hodgetts affiliates to the Ngāi Tahu iwi.
Go to Profile#2580
David Orme-Johnson
#70130
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
David W. Orme-Johnson is a former professor of psychology at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. He is the author of over 100 papers investigating the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique.
Go to Profile#2581
Marcella D. C. Rietschel
#124781
Overall Influence
#2582
Ruth Striegel Weissman
#114931
Overall Influence
Ruth Helene Striegel Weissman is a German-American psychologist who specializes in eating disorders. She is the Walter A. Crowell University Professor of the Social Sciences, Emerita, at Wesleyan University.
Go to Profile#2583
R. Chris Miall
#124959
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
#2584
Philip Asherson
#119732
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (64 years)
Philip J. Asherson is Professor of Molecular Psychiatry at the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He is known for his work on the genetics of ADHD in both adults and children.
Go to Profile#2585
Jeffrey L. Geller
#124977
Overall Influence
#2586
Alan Kennedy
#54570
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Robert Alan Kennedy FRSE is emeritus professor of Psychology at the University of Dundee, and formerly research associate at the Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurosciences Cognitives of Paris Descartes University, Boulogne-Billancourt, France. He carries out research into eye movement control in reading and the viewing of static and moving images and is the author of over 100 journal articles.
Go to Profile#2587
George A. Miller
#124991
Overall Influence
#2588
Allan. F. Mirsky
#124995
Overall Influence
#2589
Suzanne N. Haber
#125010
Overall Influence
#2590
Jeannine Guindon
#88181
Overall Influence
1919 - 2002 (83 years)
Jeannine Guindon was a professor of psychology in Quebec, Canada. Biography Jeannine Guindon completed Bachelor of Arts degree and a diploma in pedagogy from the University of Ottawa in 1939, then taught in Cornwall and Mountain, Ontario. She received a Master of Arts degree in psychology from the Université de Montréal in 1945. Guidon helped found the Montreal Counselling and Rehabilitation Centre and was its director from 1947 to 1977. She also founded the Quebec Psycho-Education Centre which she directed from 1953 to 1969 while teaching psychology at the Université de Montréal.
Go to Profile#2591
Richard William Price
#125030
Overall Influence
#2592
Carollee Howes
#125034
Overall Influence
#2593
Laura Kubzansky
#69191
Overall Influence
Laura Kubzansky is Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Co-Director of the Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. One of her research topics is the potential link between happiness and physical health.
Go to Profile#2594
Douglas Prescott Crowne
#125102
Overall Influence
#2595
Hans Toch
#101304
Overall Influence
1930 - 2021 (91 years)
Hans Herbert Toch was a Vienna, Austrian-born social psychologist and criminologist. He was Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Criminal Justice at the University at Albany, SUNY. He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Society of Criminology, and served as president of the American Association for Forensic Psychology in 1996. He was the co-recipient of the 2001 August Vollmer Award from the American Society of Criminology, and received the 2005 "Prix DeGreff" Award from the International Society of Criminology.
Go to Profile#2596
Dorothy Miell
#83380
Overall Influence
Dorothy Evelyn Miell is a professor of Social Psychology. Since March 2010, she has been Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Vice-Principal, at the University of Edinburgh. Before moving to Edinburgh, she was Dean of Social Sciences at the Open University. Her research focuses on collaboration and communication patterns, recently in the context of creative endeavors.
Go to Profile#2597
J. Don Read
#93451
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
John Donald Read is a Canadian psychologist and is currently employed as professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department at Simon Fraser University in Canada. He works primarily in the field of Law and Forensics and has conducted research in the fields of human memory, eyewitness memory and the legal system.
Go to Profile#2598
Lynne Murray
#107525
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Lynne Murray, FBA is a British psychopathologist and academic, specialising in child development. She is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Reading. She has authored The Social Baby and The Psychology of Babies , in addition to more than 200 academic papers.
Go to Profile#2599
John T. Monahan
#125382
Overall Influence
#2600
Robert Craig Liden
#125411
Overall Influence
