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.

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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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#2751

Evelina Fedorenko

#104277

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Evelina G. Fedorenko is a Russian-born American cognitive neuroscientist. Early life and education Born in 1980 in Volgograd in the Soviet Union, Fedorenko moved to the United States in 1998. In 2002, she graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in psychology and linguistics. She then went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her graduate degree in cognitive science and neuroscience, receiving her Ph.D in 2007.

#2752

William E. Sedlacek

#130757

Overall Influence

#2753

David Ostry

#101258

Overall Influence

David J. Ostry is an engineer and neuroscientist whose research focuses on human motor control. Ostry is a professor of psychology at McGill University and a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut. His research focuses on understanding the biological mechanisms of voluntary movement and deals equally with speech production and human arm motion. He uses mathematical models, robots and behavioral and physiological techniques to assess motor function and the characteristics of motor learning. The overall goals of his work have been to understand the interplay of sensor...

#2754

Michael James Mccloskey

#130780

Overall Influence

#2755

Linda M. Collins

#130801

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

#2756

Ofer Grosbard

#64315

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Ofer Grosbard is a clinical psychologist, cultural researcher, Israeli writer and lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Biography After his military service he was enrolled to the Technion and graduated in Computer Engineering . He studied then obtained a bachelor's in psychology at Haifa University and a master's in developmental clinical psychology at Tel Aviv University . In 2001, he earned his Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.

#2757

Jonathan Z. Simon

#130877

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

#2758

Faye Crosby

#97908

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Faye J. Crosby is an American social psychologist and professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research has focused on topics related to social justice, particularly affirmative action, as well as gender equality and relative deprivation. Before joining the University of California, Santa Cruz, she taught at Yale University and at Smith College. In 2005, she received the Kurt Lewin Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

#2759

Charan Ranganath

#130943

Overall Influence

#2760

Paul Bach‐y‐rita

#130947

Overall Influence

#2761

Jan A. J. Stolwijk

#130956

Overall Influence

#2762

Joseph F. Rychlak

#95105

Overall Influence

1928 - 2013 (85 years)

Joseph Frank Rychlak was a psychologist well known for his work with theoretical and philosophical psychology. He developed a theoretical stance known as "Rigorous Humanism." This term refers to Rychlak's argument that psychology with ecological validity should be directed toward issues that are relevant to our lives.

#2763

Graeme J. Taylor

#131099

Overall Influence

#2764

Richard Ebstein

#104668

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Richard Paul Ebstein is an American behavioral geneticist. He is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the National University of Singapore, as well as Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Hebrew University. He is known for his research on the genetics of human social behaviors, such as political ideology, novelty seeking, and dancing.

#2765

Dennis Patrick Cantwell

#131109

Overall Influence

#2766

Han Collewijn

#131114

Overall Influence

#2767

Kate Tchanturia

#121368

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Kate Tchanturia is a British psychologist who is a professor of psychology in eating disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. She is also Consultant Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for the National Eating Disorder Service, and president of the Eating Disorders Research Society. Her main research interests include cultural differences in illness presentations, cognitive profiles in eating disorders, and experimental work in emotion processing and translational research from experimental findings to real clinical practice.

#2768

Anna Christine Petersen

#131139

Overall Influence

#2769

Sandra Leiblum

#43113

Overall Influence

1943 - 2010 (67 years)

Sandra Risa Leiblum was an American author, lecturer, and researcher in sexology. Biography Leiblum was born in Brooklyn, NY, earned her B.A. from Brooklyn College and graduated with a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, Colorado. In 1972 she joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry of UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. During her career she studied sexual issues in many circumstances addressing among others transgender situations, infertility, and menopause.

#2770

Catherine P. Bradshaw

#114025

Overall Influence

1975 - Present (49 years)

Catherine Pilcher Bradshaw is an American developmental psychologist and academic. Bradshaw's research focuses on the development of aggressive behavior as well as the prevention of mental health problems in school-based settings.

#2771

Brent Alan Vogt

#131190

Overall Influence

#2772

David Navon

#131303

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

#2773

Jonathan E. Greenleaf

#131508

Overall Influence

#2774

Fritz Geiser

#131533

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

#2775

Alison Darcy

#45423

Overall Influence

Alison Darcy is a research psychologist and technologist. She is the Founder and President of Woebot Health, a company which provides digital therapeutics and behavioural health products. Early life and education Darcy was an undergraduate student in Ireland at the University College Dublin, where she specialised in psychology. After completing her studies, Darcy became interested in computer science, so moved to London to work in an investment bank as a software developer. The investment bank was acquired by a larger bank during the dot com crash, leaving Darcy looking for new options. In par...

#2776

Don M. Tucker

#131559

Overall Influence

#2777

Osvaldo P. Almeida

#131596

Overall Influence

#2778

Gail Gillon

#74563

Overall Influence

Gail Therese Gillon is a New Zealand child development academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Canterbury and is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. Academic career After a 1995 PhD at titled 'The phonological, semantic and syntactic skills of children with specific reading disability' at the University of Queensland, she moved to the University of Canterbury, rising to full professor.

#2779

Sydney Absell Gregory

#131673

Overall Influence

#2780

Oron Shagrir

#60959

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Professor Oron Shagrir is an Israeli philosopher and cognitive scientist. Oron Shagrir is Schulman Chair of Philosophy and professor of Philosophy and of Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jerusalem, Israel.

#2781

Fei Xu

#103590

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Fei Xu is an American developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist who is currently a professor of psychology and the director of the Berkeley Early Learning Lab at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on cognitive and language development, from infancy to middle childhood.

#2782

Angela R. Laird

#131726

Overall Influence

#2783

Mark W. Woolrich

#131738

Overall Influence

#2784

Marc Lewis

#36671

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Marc Lewis is a Canadian clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, academic, and author from Toronto, Ontario. He was a professor at the University of Toronto from 1989 to 2010 and Radboud University Nijmegen in Nijmegen, the Netherlands from 2010 to 2016. He is particularly focused on the study of addiction. His work is informed by his own experience of drug addiction, and is notable for its focus on neuroscience and the changes addiction causes in the brain. His books include Memoirs of an Addicted Brain and The Biology of Desire, which Damian Thompson of The Spectator called "the most import...

#2785

Roy D. Patterson

#131780

Overall Influence

#2786

Nick Sevdalis

#131790

Overall Influence

#2787

Lea Waters

#105870

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Lea Waters is an Australian psychologist, speaker, author and researcher. She is a psychology professor at the University of Melbourne and was the founding director of the Centre for Positive Psychology in the University of Melbourne. In addition, she has affiliate positions at University of Michigan and sits on the Science Board of The University of California and Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Her main areas of research are positive psychology, organisational psychology, education, leadership and parenting.

#2788

Tonya M. Palermo

#113191

Overall Influence

Tonya M. Palermo is an American pediatric psychologist. She is a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington. She holds the Hughes M. and Katherine Blake Endowed Professorship in Health Psychology, at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

#2789

Stanley A. Klein

#131838

Overall Influence

#2790

Pip Pattison

#114209

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Philippa Eleanor "Pip" Pattison is a quantitative psychologist who retired in December 2021 as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education at the University of Sydney. She is now an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne.

#2791

Mortimer Jerome Adler

#131906

Overall Influence

#2792

Holger Ursin

#124246

Overall Influence

1934 - 2016 (82 years)

Holger Thorvald Ursin was a Norwegian physician and psychologist. He was born in Oslo. He lectured at the University of Bergen from 1967, and was appointed professor from 1974. His research interests focused on neurophysiological mechanisms related to behavior and coping with stress.

#2793

Sabine Kastner

#79748

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Sabine Kastner is a German-born American cognitive neuroscientist. She is professor of psychology at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University. She also holds a visiting scientist appointment at the University of California at Berkeley.

#2794

Justin Rhodes

#62734

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Justin S. Rhodes is an American neuroscientist and a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is affiliated with the Neuroscience Program, Program of Ecology, Evolution, & Conservation Biology, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and the Neurotech group at Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. After receiving a Bachelor of Science in biology at Stanford University, Rhodes obtained a PhD in zoology in 2002 from University of Wisconsin–Madison, under the supervision of Theodore Garland, Jr. After completing a po...

#2795

Patrick Onghena

#131976

Overall Influence

#2796

Lars Penke

#125889

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Lars Penke is a professor of biological personality psychology at the Georg August University of Göttingen in Germany. He is also an associate member of the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. His research focuses on evolutionary and personality psychology, including the evolutionary importance of psychological traits such as human intelligence. He is a member of the International Society for Intelligence Research and the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

#2797

Henk Spekreijse

#132008

Overall Influence

#2798

Roger Tarpy

#99465

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Roger M. Tarpy is an American psychologist. Tarpy is a specialist in the study of learning and memory in both humans and animals. He is best known as the author and editor of text books at the undergraduate and graduate levels in these fields, publishing five distinctive texts between 1975 and 1997. He has also published numerous research papers on topics relating to associative learning in rats, and on learning and motivation in other species including humans. In 1987, he collaborated with Stephen Lea and Paul Webley on a major textbook in economic psychology, The individual in the economy ,...

#2799

Nancy J. Minshew

#132075

Overall Influence

#2800

Peter K. Smith

#105753

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Professor Peter K Smith is a developmental psychologist with a particular interest in children’s social development. Career Smith received his B.Sc at the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield. Following his doctorate he continued at the University of Sheffield, obtaining a Personal Chair in 1991, before moving to Goldsmiths, University of London in 1995. There, he was Head of the Unit for School and Family Studies in the Department of Psychology from 1998 to 2011. He retired as Emeritus Professor of Psychology in 2011.

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