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).

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List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#2701

Perry London

#107368
Overall Influence
1931 - 1992 (61 years)
Perry London was an American–Israeli psychologist, theorist, and academic administrator best known for his writings on clinical psychology and his studies about altruism and hypnosis. In his last position, he was a professor of psychology and dean of the graduate school of applied and professional psychology at Rutgers University.
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#2702

Frank Honywill George

#25358
Overall Influence
1921 - 1997 (76 years)
Frank Honywill George was a British psychologist, cyberneticist and former Professor of Cybernetics and Director of the Institute of Cybernetics at the Brunel University, best known for his 1962 book The Brain as a Computer.
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#2703

Donata Francescato

#107590
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (80 years)
Donata Francescato is an Italian community psychologist and academic, trained in the United States, and known in academia and the media for her work on sex roles, communes, and personal and organizational empowerment. Her work in community psychology led to the discipline being recognized in 1985 as a compulsory subject in Italian universities where psychology is taught as a major subject.
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#2704

Uri Simonsohn

#95125
Overall Influence
Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral scientist at ESADE business school in Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, Spain, and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His substantive interest is in Judgment and Decision Making, and he is also a methodologist.
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#2705

Timothy Teo

#129087
Overall Influence
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#2706

Afzal Upal

#93747
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Muhammad Afzal Upal is a writer and a cognitive scientist with contributions to cognitive science of religion, machine learning for planning, and agent-based social simulation. Early life and education He was born in Pakistan with 2 sisters and 3 brothers. His family emigrated to Canada because Ahmadiyya, the form of Islam they practiced, was discriminated against in Pakistan. For his PhD research, he worked under the supervision of Professor Renee Elio at the University of Alberta. In December 1999, he successfully defended his thesis on "Learning to Improve the Quality of Plans Produced by ...
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#2707

Amasa B. Ford

#129134
Overall Influence
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#2708

Michael W. O’hara

#129135
Overall Influence
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#2709

Min Basadur

#95185
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (85 years)
Marino Sidney Basadur is a teacher, consultant and researcher best known for his work in applied creativity and as the developer Simplexity Thinking System for improving workplace innovation & creativity. He is president of Basadur Applied Creativity and professor emeritus of organizational behavior and innovation at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Business.
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#2710

Gillian Ruth Brown

#94050
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Gillian Ruth Brown is a British psychologist and reader in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. She is known for her research on the evolutionary approaches to the study of human behavior. Brown held a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship from 2006 to 2010.
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#2711

Peter T. Coleman

#62960
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Peter Thomas Coleman is a social psychologist and researcher in the field of conflict resolution and sustainable peace. Coleman is best known for his work on intractable conflicts and applying complexity science.
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#2712

Dale Berger

#82620
Overall Influence
Dale Berger is a professor of Psychology, Emeritus, and former Dean of the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences , Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Berger is a cognitive psychologist and research methodologist with a focus on the use of technology in support of teaching and learning statistics.
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#2713

Cynthia Hardy

#129250
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
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#2714

Jane M. Simoni

#62169
Overall Influence
Jane M. Simoni is an American clinical psychologist serving as the National Institutes of Health associate director for behavioral and social sciences research and director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research since July 2023. She was previously a professor at the University of Washington from 2001 to 2023.
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#2715

Maurice Barry Sterman

#129268
Overall Influence
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#2716

Joel Brockner

#129285
Overall Influence
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#2717

Giulio E. Lancioni

#129342
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
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#2718

Susan R. Fussell

#103240
Overall Influence
Susan Runyon Fussell is an American psychologist, communications researcher, and information scientist known for her contributions to human–computer interaction. She is Liberty Hyde Baily Professor of Communication and Information Science at Cornell University, and a member of the CHI Academy.
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#2719

Julia Rucklidge

#87856
Overall Influence
Julia Rucklidge is a Canadian-born clinical psychologist who is the director of the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her research has centered on mental health and nutrition.
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#2720

Janus J. Kulikowski

#129604
Overall Influence
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#2721

Ramin Mojtabai

#129647
Overall Influence
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#2722

Terje Lømo

#129656
Overall Influence
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#2723

Karl Hutcheson Roberts

#129684
Overall Influence
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#2724

Alan I. Leshner

#129701
Overall Influence
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#2725

Lazar Stankov

#101325
Overall Influence
Lazar Stankov is an Australian psychologist and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Sydney, where he taught for over thirty years. Currently, he is a professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology & Education at Australian Catholic University. He received his BA from the University of Belgrade and his PhD from the University of Denver. He is known for his research on intelligence, including studies on the link between political ideology and intelligence, the existence of emotional intelligence, and the psychology of terrorism.
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#2726

Christopher Ferguson

#56882
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Christopher J. Ferguson is an American psychologist who serves as a professor and co-chair of psychology at Stetson University in Florida. He previously served as an associate professor of psychology and criminal justice at Texas A&M International University. In 2014, he was named a fellow of the American Psychological Association. Ferguson is also a published author who has written both fiction and nonfiction.
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#2727

Frederick Rhodewalt

#126728
Overall Influence
1949 - 2011 (62 years)
Frederick Rhodewalt was an American social psychologist at the University of Utah. Background Rhodewalt completed his BA at Lincoln University and a PhD in Social Psychology at Princeton University . He spent his entire 31 year academic career at the University of Utah in the Department of Psychology where he published extensively on issues related to personality and the self.
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#2728

Eliot R. Smith

#129782
Overall Influence
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#2729

Frederick P. Morgeson

#87890
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Frederick Phillip Morgeson is an industrial and organizational psychologist at Michigan State University, where he is the Eli Broad Professor of Management in the Broad College of Business. He is the editor of the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior and an elected fellow of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
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#2730

Noah Daniel Goodman

#129802
Overall Influence
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#2731

Gisela Trommsdorff

#129877
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
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#2732

Michelle Fine

#71917
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (72 years)
Michelle Melody Fine is a distinguished professor at the City University of New York and has her training in Social and Personality Psychology, Environmental Psychology, American Studies, and Urban Education. Her research includes the topics of social injustice and resistance and urban education. Fine is also an author and has written several works, one of her most known being Muslim American Youth .
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#2733

Kerry Kawakami

#129949
Overall Influence
Kerry Kawakami is a Canadian social psychologist. She is a professor of social psychology at York University in Toronto. She is the current editor of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology : Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes. Kawakami's research focuses on developing strategies to reduce intergroup bias.
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#2734

Rebecca Bigler

Rebecca Bigler
#51345
Overall Influence
Rebecca Bigler is a developmental psychologist known for research on social stereotyping , prejudice, and children's perceptions of discrimination. Bigler is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
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#2735

I. N. Jerry Sandler

#130052
Overall Influence
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#2736

Suzanne Chambers

#99925
Overall Influence
Suzanne Kathleen Chambers , is a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Health at Sydney's University of Technology. She specialises in psycho-oncology, and has received Queen's Birthday honours. Chambers has worked on psycho-oncology, prostate cancer, health economics and psychological interventions including the distress and adjustments after cancer.
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#2737

Daisy Fancourt

#56318
Overall Influence
1990 - Present (34 years)
Daisy Fancourt is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London. Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social isolation, community assets, arts and cultural engagement, and social prescribing. During the COVID-19 pandemic Fancourt led a team running the UK's largest study into the psychological and social impact of COVID-19 and established the international network COVID Minds, aiming to better understand the impact of coronavirus disease on mental health and well-being.
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#2738

Steven R. Asher

#130190
Overall Influence
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#2739

Gerard Saucier

#130204
Overall Influence
Gerard Saucier is an American psychologist. He is a professor in the department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. He has co-authored many academic articles on personality. He won the 1999 Cattell Early Career Research Award from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology.
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#2740

Michael S. Briley

#130273
Overall Influence
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#2741

James T. Enns

#130322
Overall Influence
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#2742

Michael B. Treisman

#130369
Overall Influence
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#2743

Karen Hollis

#96421
Overall Influence
Karen Hollis is an American professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley Massachusetts. Hollis's research focusses on an evolutionary approach to learning and cognition in non human animals. She served as the head of the American Psychological Association's sixth division from 2006 to 2007 and the third division
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#2744

Alan T. Welford

#130549
Overall Influence
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#2745

Russell L. De Valois

Russell L. De Valois
#109487
Overall Influence
1926 - 2003 (77 years)
Russell L. De Valois was an American scientist recognized for his pioneering research on spatial and color vision. Biographical Russell De Valois was born in Ames, Iowa, on December 15, 1926. He spent most of his early life in Tamil Nadu, India, where his parents supervised an agricultural missionary station. He attended Highclerc School , a boarding school in Kodaikanal, in the mountains of South India.
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#2746

Steven C. Greer

#130571
Overall Influence
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#2747

William T. Greenough

#65517
Overall Influence
1944 - 2013 (69 years)
William Tallant Greenough was a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Greenough was a pioneer in studies of neural development and brain plasticity. He studied learning and memory and the brain's responses to environmental enrichment, exercise, injury, and aging. He demonstrated that the brain continues to form new synaptic connections between nerve cells throughout life in response to environmental enrichment and learning. This mechanism is fundamental to learning and memory storage in the brain. Greenough is regarded as the predominant researcher in ...
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#2748

Norman M. Weinberger

#130653
Overall Influence
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#2749

Meredith Chivers

#78788
Overall Influence
Meredith L. Chivers is a Canadian sexologist and clinical psychologist noted for her research on female sexuality, sexual orientation, paraphilias, sex differences, gender identity, and the physiology of sexual arousal. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
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#2750

Barbara Franke

#130691
Overall Influence
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