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,
#3401
Thaddeus E. Weckowicz
#109132
Overall Influence
1919 - 2000 (81 years)
Thaddeus Eugene Weckowicz was a Polish-Canadian social scientist, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Theoretical Psychology at the University of Alberta, and Research Associate, Center for Systems Research, University of Alberta, known for his research in chronic schizophrenics since the 1950s.
Go to Profile#3402
Zane Lee Berge
#153065
Overall Influence
#3403
Katherine Isbister
#73266
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Katherine Isbister is a game and human computer interaction researcher and designer, currently a professor in computational media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Until June 2015, she was an associate professor at New York University, with a joint appointment in computer science and in the Game Center at the Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, she was founding research director of the Game Innovation Lab. Isbister's research and design contributions center on how to create more compelling emotional and social qualities in games and other digital experiences. She has innovated in the areas of character/avatar/agent design and in researching and evaluating the user experience.
Go to Profile#3404
Gregory M. Brown
#153196
Overall Influence
#3405
Henri Korn
#153281
Overall Influence
#3406
Oliver Lüdtke
#153302
Overall Influence
#3407
Vivette Glover
#108408
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Vivette Glover is a British Professor of Perinatal Psychobiology at Imperial College London. She studies the effects of stress in pregnancy on the development of the fetus and child. Education Her first degree was in biochemistry at Oxford University, and she undertook her PhD in neurochemistry at University College London.
Go to Profile#3408
Crick Lund
#153528
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3409
Ernest Robert House
#153538
Overall Influence
#3410
Liu Dalin
#44545
Overall Influence
1932 - 2022 (90 years)
Liu Dalin, also sometimes Dalin Liu or Ta-lin Liu, was a Chinese professor of sociology at Shanghai University, who pioneered the field of sexology. Liu was born on 2 June 1932. In 1989–90, he helped conduct a nationwide survey on sexual behavior and attitudes in China, not unlike the Kinsey Report in the United States. A report on the survey's outcomes was first published in 1992 in Shanghai; in 1997 Liu published the English edition Sexual Behavior in Modern China . Also in 1997, he opened China's first sex museum in Shanghai; it has since moved to Tongli.
Go to Profile#3411
Stellan Ohlsson
#153669
Overall Influence
#3412
Murray R. Barrick
#153712
Overall Influence
#3413
Charmine Emma Jean Härtel
#153727
Overall Influence
#3414
Rangaswamy Narasimhan
#35631
Overall Influence
1926 - 2007 (81 years)
Rangaswamy Narasimhan was an Indian computer and cognitive scientist, regarded by many as the father of computer science research in India. He led the team which developed the TIFRAC, the first Indian indigenous computer and was instrumental in the establishment of CMC Limited in 1975, a Government of India company, later bought by Tata Consultancy Services. He was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1977.
Go to Profile#3415
M. Audrey Burnam
#153782
Overall Influence
#3416
Barak A. Pearlmutter
#153817
Overall Influence
#3417
Wolfgang Herzog
#153909
Overall Influence
#3418
Geoffrey Potts
#128128
Overall Influence
Geoffrey Franklin Potts is an American cognitive psychologist who a professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Potts earned his Ph.D. in 1994 from the Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the University of Oregon . His thesis was titled, "Neural systems of visual target detection: Human event-related potential studies." He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where he later became an instructor.
Go to Profile#3419
Christine M. Heim
#153926
Overall Influence
#3420
Daniel Mandler
#153958
Overall Influence
#3421
Bosco Tjan
#106455
Overall Influence
1966 - 2016 (50 years)
Siaufung "Bosco" Tjan was a Chinese-American psychologist and neuroscientist. He was a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.
Go to Profile#3422
Herbert J. Schriefers
#154015
Overall Influence
#3423
Anthony H. Mann
#154056
Overall Influence
#3424
Peter Kuppens
#154103
Overall Influence
#3425
Alina von Davier
#118437
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Alina Anca von Davier is a psychometrician and researcher in computational psychometrics, machine learning, and education. Von Davier is a researcher, innovator, and an executive leader with over 20 years of experience in EdTech and in the assessment industry. She is the Chief of Assessment at Duolingo, where she leads the Duolingo English Test research and development area. She is also the Founder and CEO of EdAstra Tech, a service-oriented EdTech company. In 2022, she joined the University of Oxford as an Honorary Research Fellow, and Carnegie Mellon University as a Senior Research Fellow.
Go to Profile#3426
Roland Kanaar
#154160
Overall Influence
#3427
Gary D. Tollefson
#154167
Overall Influence
#3428
Ronald P. Rohner
#119689
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Ronald P. Rohner is an international psychologist, and a Professor Emeritus of Human Development and Family Sciences and Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. There he is also Director of the Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection, and executive director of the International Society for Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection. He is best known for the work on interpersonal acceptance-rejection that he initiated in 1960. His extensive and seminal research led to the development of a full-blown evidence-based theory known as the interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory .
Go to Profile#3429
Christopher K. Hsee
#154187
Overall Influence
#3430
Peter Caputi
#154226
Overall Influence
#3431
Jill M. Hooley
#149749
Overall Influence
Jill M. Hooley is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. She is currently the head of the experimental psychopathology and clinical psychology program at Harvard. In 2009, she was the president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology.
Go to Profile#3432
Harry Kempen
#101730
Overall Influence
1937 - 2000 (63 years)
Harry J.G. Kempen was a Dutch cultural psychologist, and associate professor at the Nijmegen Cultural Psychology Group of the Radboud University Nijmegen, known for his work with Hubert Hermans on the Dialogical self theory.
Go to Profile#3433
John Nicholas P. Rawlins
#154300
Overall Influence
#3434
Gary J. Badger
#154378
Overall Influence
#3435
Samuel Greiff
#154419
Overall Influence
#3436
Doreen Rosenthal
#144273
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (88 years)
Doreen Anne Rosenthal is an Australian academic and adolescent sexual health and women's health researcher. As of 2020 she is Professor Emerita in the School of Population Health at La Trobe University and Honorary Professor in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.
Go to Profile#3437
Claudio Barbaranelli
#154473
Overall Influence
#3438
Loraine Obler
#119290
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Loraine Katherine Obler is an American linguist and neuroscientist, internationally recognized as a leading scholar in the field of neurolinguistics and multilingualism. Obler is known for her contributions to understanding how language-related behavior is controlled within the brain. Her research spans diverse sub-disciplines such as the neurolinguistics of bilingualism, language processing in aging and Alzheimer's disease, and the cross-language study of aphasia.
Go to Profile#3439
Gregory John Boyle
#154509
Overall Influence
#3440
Leonard Jeffries
#24957
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Leonard Jeffries Jr. is an American political scientist and academic. He was the departmental chair of Black Studies at the City College of New York, part of the City University of New York . He was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He is the uncle of U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Ohio State University historian Hasan Kwame Jeffries.
Go to Profile#3441
David G. Winter
#154558
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
#3442
David Charles Zuroff
#154615
Overall Influence
#3443
Clive Wynne
#133322
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Clive D. L. Wynne is a British-Australian ethologist specializing in the behavior of dogs and their wild relatives. He has worked in the United States, Australia, and Europe, and is currently based at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. He was born and raised on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, studied at University College London, and got his Ph.D. at Edinburgh University. He has studied the behavior of many species - ranging from pigeons to dunnarts, but starting around 2006 melded his childhood love of dogs with his professional training and now studies and teaches abo...
Go to Profile#3444
Gerald Turkewitz
#153167
Overall Influence
1933 - 2015 (82 years)
Gerald Turkewitz was an American psychologist who helped to pioneer the field of developmental psychobiology. He is also recognized for his contributions to child development and the study of human infancy. His influences included Daniel S. Lehrman and T. C. Schneirla, the latter of whom was his Ph.D. advisor at New York University.
Go to Profile#3445
Francisco J. Varela
#154675
Overall Influence
#3446
Richard B. Darlington
#154676
Overall Influence
#3447
A. David Redish
#154727
Overall Influence
#3448
Rodger W. Remington
#154747
Overall Influence
#3449
Peter I. Jatlow
#154836
Overall Influence
#3450
Keith E. Davis
#154854
Overall Influence
