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,
#3551
Laird S. Cermak
#158734
Overall Influence
#3552
Mark F. Lenzenweger
#158780
Overall Influence
#3553
Merel Kindt
#158795
Overall Influence
#3554
Klaus Boehnke
#150993
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Klaus Boehnke is a German psychologist and social scientist. He has been teaching and researching at Jacobs University Bremen since 2002. In 2017, he was appointed deputy director of the Center for Sociocultural Research at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He suspended this collaboration on February 24, 2022.
Go to Profile#3555
Michael Kelly Mount
#158871
Overall Influence
#3556
Aimable Robert Jonckheere
#78258
Overall Influence
1920 - 2005 (85 years)
Aimable Robert Jonckheere , commonly known by friends and colleagues as "Jonck", was a psychologist and statistician at University College London . He is probably best known for his work in nonparametric statistics, where he has a test named after him: Jonckheere's trend test.
Go to Profile#3557
Edward F. De Bono
#158987
Overall Influence
#3558
Seppo Ensio Iso-ahola
#159013
Overall Influence
#3559
Georgene Hoffman Seward
#125795
Overall Influence
1902 - 1992 (90 years)
Georgene Hoffman Seward , an early feminist psychologist, was best known for her research on sex roles and sex behavior. Having experienced much sex discrimination in academia herself, she dedicated her life to researching sex differences and minority experiences, and encouraging women to pursue leadership in science.
Go to Profile#3560
Tracy Packiam Alloway
#85959
Overall Influence
Tracy Packiam Alloway is a psychologist known for her research on working memory. She is a professor of psychology at the University of North Florida, where she was also the director of the graduate program in psychology. She is the developer of the world's first working memory test designed for use by educators. She authored children's books highlighting the superpowers of children with learning disabilities. Previously, she was the director of the Center for Memory and Learning in the Lifespan at the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom.
Go to Profile#3561
Anthony N. Nicholson
#159273
Overall Influence
#3562
Michael X. Cohen
#159301
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3563
Sheldon Zedeck
#159304
Overall Influence
#3564
Kwang‐kuo Hwang
#159342
Overall Influence
#3565
Maurice J. Elias
#159347
Overall Influence
#3566
Ray Meddis
#152278
Overall Influence
1944 - 2018 (74 years)
Raymond Meddis was a British auditory psychologist. He was a professor of psychology at University of Essex since 1996, emeritus since 2011. Since 1997, Meddis was one of the principals of the multi-site Center for the Neural Basis of Hearing, along with co-chairs Roy D. Patterson and Ian Winter of Cambridge University and others.
Go to Profile#3567
Steven Schwartz
#27649
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Steven Schwartz is an American and Australian academic and, until late 2012, the Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He was previously Vice Chancellor of Brunel University in the UK and of Murdoch University in Western Australia. He is a trained psychologist and served both as senior academic and researcher, then as a university corporate manager. His style of management was controversial and attracted considerable opposition. He defended his record by saying that he wished universities to be more market-oriented, research-focused, accountable, transparent and held...
Go to Profile#3568
Walter G. Stephan
#159459
Overall Influence
#3569
Mary Howell
#64109
Overall Influence
1932 - 1998 (66 years)
Mary Catherine Raugust Howell was a physician, psychologist, lawyer, mentor, musician and mother. She was the first woman dean at Harvard Medical School and led the fight to end quotas and open medical schools to women.
Go to Profile#3570
Elizabeth E. Cauffman
#159513
Overall Influence
#3571
Ira Hyman
#154508
Overall Influence
Ira Hyman is an American psychologist who is a professor of psychology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. His research is focused on human memory including traumatic memories, false childhood memories, autobiographical memory, memory in social context, and memory for phobia onset. Some of his most influential studies are: "Did you see the unicycling clown? Inattentional blindness while walking and talking on a cell phone", "Errors in autobiographical memories", "Individual differences and the creation of false childhood memories", "The role of mental imagery in the cre...
Go to Profile#3572
Grover Jay Whitehurst
#159546
Overall Influence
#3573
Antonia Abbey
#159586
Overall Influence
#3574
Sheng He
#117555
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Sheng He is a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota. He is broadly interested in the neural basis of human vision, visual attention, and visual awareness. His most influential works include the demonstration of adaptation to invisible visual patterns , and the depth of invisible processing during binocular suppression.
Go to Profile#3575
D. Stephen Lindsay
#159652
Overall Influence
#3576
Byron Patrick Rourke
#159661
Overall Influence
#3577
Susan R. Goldman
#159678
Overall Influence
#3578
David Wade Chambers
#159762
Overall Influence
#3579
Susan L. Whitfield-gabrieli
#159810
Overall Influence
#3580
Richard L. Hauger
#159856
Overall Influence
#3581
C. Richard Chapman
#159859
Overall Influence
#3582
Kurt Danziger
#159899
Overall Influence
#3583
C. Neil Macrae
#159939
Overall Influence
#3584
Carl G. Leukefeld
#159948
Overall Influence
#3585
Tanya L. Chartrand
#159967
Overall Influence
#3586
Serge Brand
#159970
Overall Influence
#3587
Nancy Boyd-Franklin
#114978
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Nancy Boyd-Franklin is an American psychologist and writer. She is the author of five books and numerous articles on ethnicity and family therapy, and was invited by President Bill Clinton to speak at the first White House Conference on AIDS.
Go to Profile#3588
Robert L. Moss
#160100
Overall Influence
#3589
Peter G. Cordeiro
#160182
Overall Influence
#3590
Randy A. Sansone
#160194
Overall Influence
#3591
Martin Hautzinger
#160289
Overall Influence
#3592
David L. Collinson
#160346
Overall Influence
#3593
Helen Skouteris
#160476
Overall Influence
#3594
Lina A. Ricciardelli
#160551
Overall Influence
#3595
Hal R. Arkes
#160572
Overall Influence
#3596
Jeanne Marecek
#160671
Overall Influence
#3597
Carol Tomlinson-Keasey
#86903
Overall Influence
1940 - 2009 (69 years)
Carol Tomlinson-Keasey was the former chancellor of the University of California, Merced. She held a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a professor at the university's School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts. Her research interests included developmental psychology and development of cognitive potential. She announced her resignation in March 2006, and continued her duties until August 31, 2006.
Go to Profile#3598
Hamidreza Pouretemad
#130399
Overall Influence
Hamidreza Pouretemad is an Iranian neuropsychologist who is the founder and the Dean of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences at Shahid Beheshti University. Education Pouretemad earned his B.A. in Clinical Psychology in 1987, and M.A. in Abnormal Child Psychology in 1991 from University of Tehran. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London University in 1998.
Go to Profile#3599
Louise Foster Fitzgerald
#160738
Overall Influence
#3600
Karl F. Aquino
#160819
Overall Influence
