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,
#3101
Michael E. Newcomb
#68377
Overall Influence
Michael E. Newcomb is an American clinical psychologist. His researched focuses on health disparities in LGBT youth, HIV/AIDS, and mental health problems. He is an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in the Department of Medical Social Sciences.
Go to Profile#3102
Linda Nielsen
#52732
Overall Influence
Linda Nielsen is a professor of adolescent and educational psychology in the Department of Education at Wake Forest University. She has conducted research on the effects of shared parenting and on father–daughter relationships.
Go to Profile#3103
Siri Leknes
#105897
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Siri Graff Leknes is a Norwegian neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oslo, where she directs the Leknes Affective Brain Lab, which is funded by a European Research Council grant.
Go to Profile#3104
Elizabeth Miller
#37895
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Elizabeth Russell Miller was a Professor Emerita at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She resided in Toronto. In her early academic career, she focused on Newfoundland literature, primarily the life and work of her father, well-known Newfoundland author and humorist Ted Russell. Beginning in 1990, her major field of research was Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, its author, sources and influence. She published several books on the subject, including Reflections on Dracula, Dracula: Sense & Nonsense, a volume on Dracula for the Dictionary of Literary Biography and, most recently, Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula: A Facsimile Edition with Robert Eighteen-Bisang.
Go to Profile#3105
Nigel Nicholson
#135175
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Nigel Nicholson is a British business psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. He is known for his work advocating the application of evolutionary psychology to business management.
Go to Profile#3106
Daphne Bugental
#103509
Overall Influence
1928 - 2018 (90 years)
Daphne Blunt Bugental was a psychologist known for her research on parent-child relationships, infant and child maltreatment, and family violence. At the time of her death, she was Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Go to Profile#3107
Madeline E. Heilman
#143739
Overall Influence
#3108
Tricia Striano
#98426
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Tricia Striano Skoler is the Head of the Independent Research Group on Cultural Ontogeny at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Career Striano was born in Weymouth Massachusetts. She obtained her BA in psychology from The College of the Holy Cross. She obtained her Ph.D. in psychology from Emory University in 2000, after which she became Head of the Independent Research Group on Cultural Ontogeny at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. In 2004,
Go to Profile#3109
Carl Erik Grenness
#128338
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Carl-Erik Grenness is a Norwegian professor of psychology. Grenness has spent most of his career as a Professor at the University of Oslo, and has been active in many aspects of psychology, including philosophical psychology, behavioural analysis, organisational psychology and organisational studies. He was also a scientist at the Forsvarets institutt for ledelse, and has worked as head psychologist at Forsvaret.
Go to Profile#3110
Larry Lee Cummings
#143781
Overall Influence
#3111
Daniela Schiller
#85840
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (54 years)
Daniela Schiller is a neuroscientist who leads the Affective Neuroscience Lab at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is best known for her work on memory reconsolidation, and on modification of emotional learning and memory.
Go to Profile#3112
Douglas Hooper
#95996
Overall Influence
1927 - 2010 (83 years)
Douglas Frederick Hooper FBPsS was an English psychologist. He was the president of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy from 1986 to 1993. Early life and education Hooper was born in Kingston upon Thames, the youngest of William and Edith Hooper's four children. His father died when Douglas was two, and his mother sent his siblings to an orphanage, choosing to raise Douglas as an only child. He attended Sutton Grammar School for Boys until the age of 16, when he found work as a librarian.
Go to Profile#3113
Alan Kamil
#141205
Overall Influence
Alan C. Kamil is an American experimental psychologist. He is the Director, School of Biological Sciences and George Holmes Professor of Biological Sciences and Psychology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Kamil's work focusses on the evolution of memory and adaptive specializations of learning in many animal species, especially the Clark's nutcracker and other birds. Kamil has published peer reviewed articles on both theoretical aspects of comparative psychology and animal cognition, and on empirical studies of animal learning and memory. In 2013 Kamil was honoured by the Comparati...
Go to Profile#3114
Alan S. Waterman
#143946
Overall Influence
#3115
Géry van Outryve d'Ydewalle
#92515
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Géry van Outryve d'Ydewalle is a Belgian scientist. He was professor in psychology with memory and cognition as main topics. He was head of the Laboratory of experimental psychology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven until 2012. He worked for some time with Professor William Kaye Estes at Rockefeller University and lectured at the London School of Economics. In 1992, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Human Sciences and was elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. From 1980 till 2004 he was successively member, Deputy Secretary-General , Secretary-General and President of the International Union of Psychological Science.
Go to Profile#3116
Esra Mungan
#116724
Overall Influence
Esra Mungan is a Turkish academic and associate professor of psychology at Boğaziçi University who was arrested in 2016 for signing the Academics for Peace petition "We won’t be a party to this crime!" demanding a peaceful solution to the conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdistan Workers Party in South-East Turkey. Mungan was among the 1128 signatories of a January 2016 petition calling for an end to violence in the region. In March 2016 she was arrested for a month. Her university was supportive of her during the period of her arrest.
Go to Profile#3117
Paul Bertelson
#144011
Overall Influence
#3118
John C. Yuille
#129121
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
John C. Yuille was a Canadian psychologist whose research interests include forensic psychology, victim and witness memory, suspect memory, trauma and memory, stress and memory, child sexual abuse, interview techniques, serial crimes, and credibility assessment.
Go to Profile#3119
Christopher J. Lonigan
#144066
Overall Influence
#3120
Barbara Maughan
#144076
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
#3121
William H. Gruber
#42977
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
William H. Gruber is an American organizational theorist, former professor at MIT, Boston College and Northeastern University, consultant and author, known for his work in the field of computer technology in business in the 1980s.
Go to Profile#3122
Mark Daniel Reckase
#144366
Overall Influence
#3123
Roger Weissberg
#116475
Overall Influence
1951 - 2021 (70 years)
Roger P. Weissberg was a researcher in the field of psychology. He was the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning and LAS/UIC Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Education at University of Illinois at Chicago. He was the chief knowledge officer and board vice chair of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning . He held a PhD in psychology from the University of Rochester and graduated summa cum laude with a BA in psychology from Brandeis University.
Go to Profile#3124
Everett Dyler Waters
#144388
Overall Influence
#3125
Anjan Chatterjee
#144405
Overall Influence
#3126
George S. Howard
#144413
Overall Influence
#3127
Jack M. Loomis
#144499
Overall Influence
#3128
R. Meredith Belbin
#144514
Overall Influence
#3129
Ernest Noble
#132782
Overall Influence
1901 - 2017 (116 years)
Ernest Pascal Noble was Pike Professor of Alcohol Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He also served as the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism from 1976 to 1978.
Go to Profile#3130
Norman Jacob Miller
#144602
Overall Influence
#3131
Mark L. Hatzenbuehler
#144703
Overall Influence
#3132
Gerald Goldstein
#144709
Overall Influence
#3133
Jeffrey Sherman
#141741
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Jeffrey Sherman is a Social Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. He is known for his research on social cognition, stereotyping, and implicit bias. Biography Sherman was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. He earned his BA in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989 and his PhD in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994, where he worked with David Hamilton , Diane Mackie, and Stanley Klein. In 1994, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2000.
Go to Profile#3134
Brenda Kay Wiederhold
#144778
Overall Influence
#3135
Andrea Kübler
#144799
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#3136
Modupe Akinola
#68543
Overall Influence
Modupe Nyikoale Akinola is an American organizational scholar and social psychologist who examines the science of stress, creativity, and how to maximize human potential in diverse organizations. She is currently the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, where she is the Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics.
Go to Profile#3137
Victoria Luine
#134199
Overall Influence
Victoria Luine is an American psychologist and neurochemist, currently a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, and also a published author.
Go to Profile#3138
Bertram Gawronski
#144874
Overall Influence
#3139
Kimmo Alho
#144880
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
#3140
John B. Nezlek
#145034
Overall Influence
#3141
Richard A. Gardner
#145105
Overall Influence
#3142
Roger Russell
#132213
Overall Influence
1914 - 1998 (84 years)
Roger Wolcott Russell was a biological psychologist who worked in both the UK and the USA. Russell was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1914. He obtained a BSc followed by an MSc at Clark University where he worked with Walter Samuel Hunter.
Go to Profile#3143
Janice Tsoh
#117106
Overall Influence
Janice Y. Tsoh is a Chinese-American clinical psychologist and a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences. Early life and education Tsoh is from Hong Kong, completed a B.A. in psychology from Binghamton University in 1990. In 1993, Tsoh earned an M.A. in clinical psychology from University of Rhode Island . She conducted a residency in clinical psychology from 1994 to 1995 at University of Mississippi Medical Center. She earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from URI in 1995. She conducted postdoctoral studies in cancer prevention at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from 1995 to 1997.
Go to Profile#3144
David Dan R. Offord
#145206
Overall Influence
#3145
Carrie Bearden
#97802
Overall Influence
Carrie Elyse Bearden is an American psychologist and academic. She is a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the UCLA Center for the Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States, a clinical research program for youth at high risk for psychotic disorders. She is most known for her research taking a ‘genetics first’ approach to study brain mechanisms underlying the development of serious mental illness. Her work has identified biological convergence between genetically and clinically defined high-risk populations.
Go to Profile#3146
Paul Fraisse
#145307
Overall Influence
#3147
Herbert J. North Gail Freudenberger
#145315
Overall Influence
#3148
Judith M. LeBlanc
#64681
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Judith M. LeBlanc is an American psychologist, teacher and special education researcher. Biography Judith M. LeBlanc is head consultant of the Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú. She is the main architect of the center's Functional natural curriculum methodology and along with Liliana Mayo developed the center's distance education program. LeBlanc is Professor Emeritus of the University of Kansas Departments of Applied Behavioral Science and Special Education. She is the Coordinator of International Programs at the Schiefelbusch Institute for Research in Life Span Studies.
Go to Profile#3149
Lauren Adamson
#90048
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Lauren Bernstein Adamson was a developmental psychologist known for her research on communicative development, parent-child interaction, and joint attention in infants with typical and atypical developmental trajectories. She was a Regents' Professor Emerita of Psychology at Georgia State University.
Go to Profile#3150
Anne E. Fernald
#145378
Overall Influence
