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,
#3051
Albena Stambolova
#108827
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Albena Stambolova is a Bulgarian psychoanalyst and Freudian psychologist, literature columnist and novelist. She become known with her lectures on psychoanalysis that she gave to Bulgarian philology program and Slavic and Western philologies in Sofia University after her return from France where she studied to Bulgarian literary critic, semiotician and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva.
Go to Profile#3052
Hallgrim Kløve
#141599
Overall Influence
1927 - 2010 (83 years)
Hallgrim Kløve was a Norwegian psychologist. Kløve was born in Moss. He was assigned as researcher at the Indiana University, and was appointed professor at the University of Wisconsin in 1970. He worked at the University of Bergen from 1971. His research fields were neuropsychology and epilepsy.
Go to Profile#3053
Andries Kalsbeek
#141888
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#3054
Stephanie J. Rowley
#124161
Overall Influence
Stephanie Johnson Rowley is a developmental psychologist and academic administrator known for her work on racial identity and parental socialization of race and ethnicity. She is the dean of University of Virginia's School of Education and Human Development.
Go to Profile#3055
Wade Horn
#92353
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Wade F. Horn is an American psychologist who received his PhD from Southern Illinois University in 1981. He served as President George W. Bush's Assistant Secretary for Children and Families from 2001 to 2007, overseeing the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, before resigning on April 1, 2007. He also served under President George H.W. Bush as Commissioner of Children, Youth, and Families within the Administration for Children and Families.
Go to Profile#3056
David Allen Hovda
#142093
Overall Influence
#3057
Simone A French
#142096
Overall Influence
#3058
Richard L. Berkowitz
#142144
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3059
Richard Rogers
#84416
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Richard Rogers is an American psychologist who is a professor at the University of North Texas, and who writes of books on forensic psychology, including Clinical Assessment of Malingering and Deception and Conducting Insanity Evaluations. He has received many national awards, including the 2004-2005 Toulouse Scholars Award, UNT's Eminent Faculty Award, and the Manfred S. Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association.
Go to Profile#3060
Tom Cornsweet
#113615
Overall Influence
1929 - 2017 (88 years)
Tom Norman Cornsweet was an American experimental psychologist known for his pioneering work in visual perception, especially the effect that bears his name, and in the development of ophthalmic instrumentation.
Go to Profile#3061
Haldor E. Rosvold
#142191
Overall Influence
#3062
Maree Teesson
#115321
Overall Influence
Maree Rose Teesson , FAAHMS, FASSA, is an Australian expert on mental health. She is the Director of The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use and NHMRC Principal Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. She is also professorial fellow at the Black Dog Institute, UNSW.
Go to Profile#3063
Elham Kazemi
#58130
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Elham Kazemi is a mathematics educator and educational psychologist, the Geda and Phil Condit Professor in Math and Science Education in the College of Education of the University of Washington. Education and career Kazemi is originally from Iran, and moved to the US at age 11. She graduated from Duke University in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in psychology, and became an elementary school teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. Returning to graduate study in educational psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, she earned a master's degree in 1997 and completed her Ph.D. in 1999. Her di...
Go to Profile#3064
Koen Luyckx
#142355
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
#3065
Thomas P. Moran
#142383
Overall Influence
#3066
Shlomo Bentin
#142384
Overall Influence
#3067
Marco Baroni
#142402
Overall Influence
#3068
Diana Zuckerman
#11389
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Diana M. Zuckerman is an American health policy analyst who focuses on the implications of policies for public health and patients' health. She specializes in national health policy, particularly in women's health and the safety and effectiveness of medical products. She is the President of the National Center for Health Research and the Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund.
Go to Profile#3069
Christine Chambers
#128801
Overall Influence
Christine Therese Chambers is a Canadian clinical psychologist at Dalhousie University. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Children's Pain. Education Chambers became interested in psychology as a child. She completed her undergraduate degree at Dalhousie University. She spent her summers at the IWK Health Centre. She joined the University of British Columbia for her graduate studies , working with Kenneth D. Craig on pain.
Go to Profile#3070
Sarah Lynette Stewart-brown
#142574
Overall Influence
#3071
Michael Joshua Frank
#142592
Overall Influence
#3072
Karin Mogg
#142604
Overall Influence
#3073
Ádám Miklósi
#117802
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Ádám Miklósi is a Hungarian ethologist, expert on dog cognition and behavior. He holds the position of professor and the head of the Ethology Department at the Faculty of Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. In 2016 he was elected as a corresponding member, in 2022 as a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is the co-founder and leader of the Family Dog Project, which aims to study human-dog interaction from an ethological perspective. In 2014 he published the 2nd edition of an academic volume entitled Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition by Oxford ...
Go to Profile#3074
Wayne A. Wickelgren
#142645
Overall Influence
#3075
Jeffrey S. Tanaka
#125197
Overall Influence
1958 - 1992 (34 years)
Jeffrey Scott Tanaka was an American psychologist and statistician, known for his work in educational psychology, social psychology and various fields of statistics including structural equation modeling.
Go to Profile#3076
Roger Millsap
#115773
Overall Influence
1954 - 2014 (60 years)
Roger Ellis Millsap was an American psychometrician known for his research on measurement invariance. Millsap was born on November 18, 1954, in Olympia, Washington. He was the only child of Max Ellis Millsap, who was a general manager for the Olympia Oil and Wood company, and Lillian Rogers Millsap , an executive director of two chapters of the Red Cross. He received his BS degree from the University of Washington in 1977, followed by an MA in statistics and a PhD in quantitative psychology. He received both of his advanced degrees in 1983 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he...
Go to Profile#3077
James Thomas Mccracken
#142709
Overall Influence
#3078
Matthias Brand
#142719
Overall Influence
#3079
Dirk Jacob Ruiter
#142744
Overall Influence
#3080
Michael Allan Shepherd
#142761
Overall Influence
#3081
Samuel M. Turner
#142790
Overall Influence
#3082
Rae Silver
#117559
Overall Influence
Rae Silver is a Canadian behavioral neuroendocrinologist and neuroscientist best known for her research on the role of the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus in generating circadian rhythms, the role of mast cells in the brain, the physiological mechanisms of parental behavior in ring doves. She is currently the Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor of Natural & Physical Sciences and is currently the Chair of the Neuroscience Program and Professor of Psychology at Barnard College. In addition, she is jointly appointed as a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Columbia Univer...
Go to Profile#3083
Gayla Margolin
#142931
Overall Influence
#3084
Pieter R. Roelfsema
#142952
Overall Influence
#3085
Thomas R. Shultz
#142960
Overall Influence
#3086
Juliana Schroeder
#90917
Overall Influence
Juliana Schroeder is an American behavioral scientist and academic. She is a professor at University of California, Berkeley. Education Schroeder's educational background includes a B.A. in psychology and economics from the University of Virginia, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology and Business from the University of Chicago.
Go to Profile#3087
Steve Duck
#75917
Overall Influence
Steven W. Duck is a British social psychologist turned communication scholar, working as the Daniel & Amy Starch Distinguished Research Professor and Chair up to 2021, Department of Rhetoric, at the University of Iowa. He has made contributions to the scientific field of social and personal relationships.
Go to Profile#3088
Karin Lasthuizen
#40791
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Karin Marjolein Lasthuizen is a Dutch-New Zealand academic. As of 2022, she holds the Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership at the Victoria University of Wellington. Academic career After an undergraduate at Radboud University Nijmegen, Lasthuizen did a 2008 PhD at VU University Amsterdam titled 'Leading to integrity : empirical research into the effects of leadership on ethics and integrity.' She then lectured at VU University Amsterdam and was a city councilor for the Labour Party before moving to Wellington, New Zealand in 2016 to take up the Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership a...
Go to Profile#3089
Shmuel Erlich
#131581
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
H. Shmuel Erlich is an Israeli psychoanalyst, organizational consultant and psychologist of clinical psychology. Since 1990 he has been professor of the Sigmund Freud Chair at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2005 he became emeritus. Erlich is one of the spiritual fathers of the Nazareth-Conferences.
Go to Profile#3090
Sheldon Solomon
#143235
Overall Influence
#3091
Ian Spence
#88124
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Ian Spence is a Scottish-Canadian psychologist, and Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, known for his work on graphical perception, psychometric methods and the history of statistical graphics, specifically on the life and work of William Playfair.
Go to Profile#3092
Arthur Wingfield
#143302
Overall Influence
#3093
Justine Cassell
#143318
Overall Influence
#3094
Renée Baillargeon
#143329
Overall Influence
#3095
Ritch C. Savin-williams
#143332
Overall Influence
#3096
Heinz Wimmer
#143360
Overall Influence
#3097
Julian Elliott
#79468
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Julian George Charles "Joe" Elliott, FAcSS is a British academic and educational psychologist. He has been Principal of Collingwood College, Durham since 2011, and a Professor of Education at Durham University since 2004. He has caused controversy by describing dyslexia as a 'useless term' and a 'meaningless label'.
Go to Profile#3098
Anna Weinberg
#122144
Overall Influence
Anna Weinberg is a psychologist, currently a Canada Research Chair in Clinical Neuroscience at McGill University. Weinberg obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Wesleyan University in 2000; she completed graduate studies in clinical psychology at Stony Brook University, earning a Master of Arts degree in 2009 and a Ph.D. in 2014. She joined McGill as an Assistant Professor in 2015. Her research focuses on identifying biological pathways that are involved in emotional functioning and dysfunction.
Go to Profile#3099
Samuel Kirk
#92568
Overall Influence
1904 - 1996 (92 years)
Samuel Alexander Kirk was an American psychologist and educator, who is best known for coining the term learning disability. Early life Kirk was born in Rugby, North Dakota on 1 September 1904, to the farmers Richard and Nellie Kirk. He grew up on in a farm town and taught farmhands how to read at night. Kirk served in the military where he created a program for recruits who struggled with reading and writing.
Go to Profile#3100
Sheilagh Hodgins
#143472
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
