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,
#3501
Arthur B. VanGundy
#98707
Overall Influence
1946 - 2009 (63 years)
Arthur Boice "Andy" VanGundy Jr. was a US communication professor, conference speaker, author and internationally noted expert on idea-generation techniques. Biography Arthur B. VanGundy Jr. was born May 24, 1946, in Lancaster, Ohio, to Dr. Arthur Boice and Sarajane Miesse VanGundy as the eldest of four boys. He graduated from high school in Lancaster in 1964 and earned a B.A. in Psychology from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1968, a M.S. in Personnel Counseling from Miami University in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Ohio State University in 1975; during this time he worked as an Organizational development consultant for the US Air Force.
Go to Profile#3502
Jon Billsberry
#112246
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Jon Billsberry is a British academic organisational psychologist at the University of Wollongong. He has held management roles in the Academy of Management, the Journal of Management Education, the Organisational Behaviour Teaching Society, and the British Academy of Management.
Go to Profile#3503
Elizabeth L. Paul
#122642
Overall Influence
Elizabeth L. Paul is an American academic administrator and psychologist. She is the president-elect of Nazareth College. Paul was the 16th president of Capital University. She previously served as executive vice president of Stetson University where she was a tenured professor of psychology. Paul was a longtime faculty member at The College of New Jersey.
Go to Profile#3504
Craig J. Bryan
#157009
Overall Influence
#3505
Helmut Beckmann
#157019
Overall Influence
#3506
Seiji Nishino
#42869
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Seiji Nishino is a Japanese neuroscientist and writer. He is a professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University. He is also the director of Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine.
Go to Profile#3507
Edward J. Lawler
#157055
Overall Influence
#3508
Stephen T. Wegener
#74531
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Stephen Thomas Wegener is an American rehabilitation psychologist specializing in the psychology of pain management. His work seeks to improve function and reduce disability for persons with chronic illness and impairments, including occupational injuries, rheumatic disease, spinal cord injury or limb loss. He also develops cognitive-behavioral therapy and self-management to prevent or mitigate pain associated with disability, and examines psychological variables that can affect positive outcomes.
Go to Profile#3509
Lewis Hardy
#157146
Overall Influence
#3510
Howard B. Lee
#157221
Overall Influence
#3511
Salvatore Chirumbolo
#157269
Overall Influence
#3512
Anthony Jack. Gow
#157314
Overall Influence
#3513
Jack Shonkoff
#67435
Overall Influence
Jack P. Shonkoff is an American pediatrician, currently the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. He is a member of the research staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves as Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. He currently chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and the JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress.
Go to Profile#3514
Peter Banister
#140307
Overall Influence
1947 - 2019 (72 years)
Peter Banister was a British psychologist. Academic career Banister completed a BSc followed by a PhD in Psychology at the University of Durham. His thesis was entitled Cognitive effects of long term imprisonment. He was supervised by Frederick Viggers Smith.
Go to Profile#3515
Carolyn Halpern
#88662
Overall Influence
Carolyn Tucker Halpern is an American developmental psychologist and Professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, where she is Chair of the Department of Maternal and Child Health. She is also the deputy director of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
Go to Profile#3516
Nicolas Cherbuin
#157406
Overall Influence
#3517
Steven James Bartlett
#48454
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Steven James Bartlett is an American philosopher and psychologist notable for his studies in epistemology and the theory of reflexivity, and for his work on the psychology of human aggression and destructiveness, and the shortcomings of psychological normality. His findings challenge the assumption that psychological normality should serve as a standard for good mental health. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books and research monographs as well as many papers published in professional journals in the fields of epistemology, psychology, mathematical logic, and philosophy of science...
Go to Profile#3518
Geoffrey F. Woodman
#152393
Overall Influence
Geoffrey F. Woodman is a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University and the E. Bronson Ingram Chair of Neuroscience. In 2016, Woodman received the Troland Research award from the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#3519
Clifton Edward Jr. Watkins
#157532
Overall Influence
#3520
Torkel Klingberg
#92872
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Torkel Klingberg is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the author of two books in Swedish, translated into English by Neil Betteridge, namely The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory and The Learning Brain: Memory and Brain Development in Children. His research testing the hypothesis that playing memory games such as N-back also improves broader skills is controversial. He was one of the founders of Cogmed, but has currently no financial relationships with the company. He is executive director of Co...
Go to Profile#3521
Theodore Beauchaine
#156602
Overall Influence
Theodore P. Beauchaine is an American psychologist and William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on neural bases of behavioral impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and self-injurious behavior, and how these neural vulnerabilities interact with environmental risk factors across development for both boys and girls . He is among the first psychologists to specify how impulsivity, expressed early in life as ADHD, follows different developmental trajectories across the lifespan for boys vs. girls who are exposed to adversity. In conte...
Go to Profile#3522
Jonathon Robert Becker. Halbesleben
#157649
Overall Influence
#3523
Cornelia Betsch
#157684
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
#3524
Stacy C. Marsella
#157706
Overall Influence
#3525
Jeanne Tsai
#110303
Overall Influence
Dr. Jeanne Tsai is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Culture and Emotion Lab. Her research examines how culture shapes affective processes and the implications that cultural and individual differences in these processes have for what decisions people make, how they think about health and illness, how they express themselves, and how they perceive and respond to others in an increasingly multicultural world.
Go to Profile#3526
Todd Heatherton
#126290
Overall Influence
Todd F. Heatherton is a former professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College who retired following sexual harassment allegations against him. He was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. His recent research uses a social brain science approach, which combines theories and methods of evolutionary psychology, social cognition, and cognitive neuroscience to examine social behavior.
Go to Profile#3527
Walter Armin Brown
#157873
Overall Influence
#3528
Dieter Lutz
#157950
Overall Influence
#3529
Slava Kalyuga
#158026
Overall Influence
#3530
Wendy Slutske
#88785
Overall Influence
Wendy Sue Slutske is an American psychologist and behavior geneticist known for her research on alcohol use disorder, gambling disorder, and other addictive disorderss. She is a professor and director of the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research at the University of Missouri, where she has taught since 1997. In 2011, she received the National Center for Responsible Gaming's Scientific Achievement Award in recognition of her gambling research.
Go to Profile#3531
Heikki Summala
#158200
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
#3532
Stephen Worchel
#158211
Overall Influence
#3533
Adam Robert Aron
#158258
Overall Influence
#3534
Irenâus Eibl-eibesfeldt
#158296
Overall Influence
#3535
Kristian Tambs
#146840
Overall Influence
1951 - 2017 (66 years)
Kristian Tambs was a Norwegian psychologist. He took the doctorate at the University of Oslo in 1989, was then a postdoc fellow at the Virginia Commonwealth University until 1991, when he was hired at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Go to Profile#3536
Jean C. Beckham
#158342
Overall Influence
#3537
Dawn Stacey
#158353
Overall Influence
#3538
Brian A. Wharton
#158375
Overall Influence
#3539
Belle Rose Ragins
#158393
Overall Influence
#3540
Peter Ulric Tse
#96012
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (64 years)
Peter Ulric Tse is an American cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College. He directs the NSF EPSCoR Attention Consortium. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014.
Go to Profile#3541
Jan te Nijenhuis
#76425
Overall Influence
Jan te Nijenhuis is a Dutch psychologist. He is a lecturer of psychology at the University of Amsterdam, known for his research on human intelligence. He studied at Groningen University and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Go to Profile#3542
Suzanne Higgs
#138057
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Suzanne Higgs is an English psychologist. She is a Professor in the Psychobiology of Appetite at the University of Birmingham and was editor-in-chief of the journal Appetite from 2012-2022. Early life and education Higgs earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master's degree from the Somerville College, Oxford in 1989 before receiving her PhD in psychology from Durham University. She completed her post-doctoral research at Oxford before earning an academic position at the University of Birmingham in 1999.
Go to Profile#3543
Yulia Kovas
#115423
Overall Influence
1973 - Present (53 years)
Yulia Kovas is a geneticist and psychologist - currently a professor of genetics and psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London , and a visiting professor at UCL, King's College, Sussex and New York universities - in the United Kingdom. Kovas received the British Academy Wiley Prize in Psychology in 2012. Kovas is the director of the International Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Investigations into Individual Differences in Learning at Goldsmiths, and leads the genetically-informative research into individual differences in mathematical ability and achievement as part of the Twins Early ...
Go to Profile#3544
Richard Milich
#158541
Overall Influence
#3545
Tihomir Zlatev Asparouhov
#158587
Overall Influence
#3546
Kelly Klump
#158600
Overall Influence
Kelly Lynn Klump is an American clinical psychologist and MSU Foundation Endowed Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University, known for her research on the genetics of eating disorders. She is also the co-director of the Michigan State University Twin Registry.
Go to Profile#3547
Margot Bengtsson
#138802
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Margot Bengtsson is a Swedish psychologist and Reader in Psychology at Lund University. She is known for her research in developmental, social, feminist and critical psychology, especially her research on gender, power, identity and social class.
Go to Profile#3548
Jed. E. Rose
#158683
Overall Influence
#3549
Hiram E. Fitzgerald
#158697
Overall Influence
#3550
Ford F. Ebner
#158699
Overall Influence
