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,
#3601
Regina Sullivan
#135494
Overall Influence
Regina Sullivan is an American developmental behavioral neuroscientist, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine and senior research scientist in the Emotional Brain Institute at The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research.
Go to Profile#3602
Cesare Cornoldi
#160831
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#3603
Michael Ronald Buckley
#160842
Overall Influence
#3604
Brian H. Ross
#160958
Overall Influence
#3605
Peter Blanck
#75469
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Peter David Blanck is an American academic, psychologist, and lawyer who is the University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. Early life and education Blanck was born in Elmont, New York in 1957. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from University of Rochester in 1979, and a Ph.D. degree in social psychology from Harvard University in 1982 under the supervision of Robert Rosenthal. In 1981, Blanck was awarded the American Psychological Association’s Psi Chi/APA Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award.
Go to Profile#3606
Naomi Anne Fineberg
#160987
Overall Influence
#3607
Sabine Landau
#116655
Overall Influence
Sabine Landau is Professor of Biostatistics at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Landau was acting and then head of the Biostatistics Department in 2005–2009 and during 2008–2009 was the head of the Mental Health and Neurosciences Clinical Trials Unit.
Go to Profile#3608
William R. Penuel
#161195
Overall Influence
#3609
Michael Falkenstein
#161206
Overall Influence
#3610
Michael Lloyd. Perlis
#161208
Overall Influence
#3611
William T. Maddox
#161372
Overall Influence
#3612
Anita Barbee
#114904
Overall Influence
Anita P. Barbee is an American psychologist and social worker. She is a Professor & Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville's Kent School of Social Work. Education Barbee received her B.A. in English and psychology from Agnes Scott College in 1982. She then enrolled at the University of Georgia, where she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in 1985 and 1988, respectively. Her Ph.D. thesis, entitled The Effects of Positive and Negative Moods on the Cheering Up Process in Close Relationships, received the Dissertation Award from the International Association for Relationship Research .
Go to Profile#3613
Mark G. Frank
#71760
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Mark G. Frank is a communication professor and department chair, and an internationally recognized expert on human nonverbal communication, emotion, and deception. Dr. Frank conducts research and does training on micro expressions of emotion and of the face. His research studies include other nonverbal indicators of deception throughout the rest of the body. He is the Director of the Communication Science Center research laboratory that is located on the North Campus of the University at Buffalo. Under his guidance, a team of graduate researchers conduct experiments and studies for private and government entities.
Go to Profile#3614
Sigmund Freud
#161448
Overall Influence
#3615
Thomas N. Tombaugh
#161459
Overall Influence
#3616
Raymond Paul Perry
#161520
Overall Influence
#3617
Yossef S. Ben-porath
#161534
Overall Influence
#3618
Bernd Weissmuller
#161539
Overall Influence
#3619
P. Wesley Schultz
#161548
Overall Influence
#3620
Ronald J. Prinz
#161551
Overall Influence
#3621
Gunhild Moltesen Agger
#44555
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Gunhild Moltesen Agger is a professor in Danish media history at Aalborg University. She conducts research in media science, focusing on Danish television drama and film, crime fiction and national identity in a globalized world.
Go to Profile#3622
Christopher E. Orpen
#161631
Overall Influence
#3623
Achim Langenbucher
#161661
Overall Influence
#3624
Pascal Belin
#161675
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3625
Hugh Lytton
#147078
Overall Influence
1921 - 2002 (81 years)
Hugh Lytton was a Canadian psychologist who specialized in developmental and educational psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of London in 1966. In 1969, he became an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Calgary. He became a full professor at the University of Calgary in 1973, and continued to hold this position until his retirement in 1988. He was officially named Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at the University of Calgary in 1991. He was a fellow of the British Psychological Society and the Canadian P...
Go to Profile#3626
Gerald W. Bracey
#161712
Overall Influence
#3627
Donald Wilson Zimmerman
#161732
Overall Influence
#3628
Annamaria Di Fabio
#161740
Overall Influence
#3629
David J. Francis
#161743
Overall Influence
#3630
Leonore Tiefer
#105077
Overall Influence
1944 - Present (82 years)
Leonore Tiefer is an American educator, researcher, therapist, and activist specializing in sexuality, and is a public critic of disease mongering as it applies to sexual life and problems. Education and career Beginning with an Experimental Psychology Ph.D. on hormones and hamsters at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, Tiefer went on to hold an academic position in physiological psychology at Colorado State University from 1969 to 1977. Responding to the challenge of the feminist movement, she left Colorado and returned to her home state of New York, where her career in New York...
Go to Profile#3631
David J. Sanger
#161802
Overall Influence
#3632
Kathy E. Kram
#161834
Overall Influence
#3633
William A. Kahn
#161856
Overall Influence
#3634
Maurice B. Mittelmark
#161914
Overall Influence
#3635
Louis Tay
#161922
Overall Influence
#3636
Ronald S. Lipman
#162006
Overall Influence
#3637
Gary W Small
#162016
Overall Influence
#3638
Geir Selbæk
#162035
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#3639
Friday Okonofua
#44498
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Friday Okonofua is a Nigerian professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics. He is the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Ondo State University of Medical Sciences and founder of Women Health and Action Research Centre, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Benin City, that focuses on promoting female reproductive research.
Go to Profile#3640
Miriam Erez
#162072
Overall Influence
#3641
Deborah A. Kashy
#162093
Overall Influence
#3642
Ann Syrdal
#65240
Overall Influence
1947 - 2020 (73 years)
Ann Kristen Syrdal was an American psychologist and computer science researcher who worked with speech synthesis technology. She developed the first female-sounding voice synthesizer. Early life Syrdal was born on December 13, 1945, in Minneapolis. Her father, Richard, was a physicist and engineer; her mother, Marjorie was a sales clerk. She was raised by her mother after her father died when she was two years old.
Go to Profile#3643
Gary L. Wenk
#162132
Overall Influence
#3644
Michael John Rieder
#162133
Overall Influence
#3645
Jeff Zacks
#162257
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Jeffrey Zacks is an American psychologist, currently at Washington University in St. Louis and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He specializes in research on event segmentation, media processing, and cognition in natural settings. His laboratory at Washington University focuses on the development neurological disorders through the use of various psychological testing methods.
Go to Profile#3646
Randall S. Peterson
#133595
Overall Influence
Randall Scott Peterson is a professor of Organisational Behaviour and Academic Director of the Leadership Institute at London Business School. Biography He received a B.S. in agricultural education, animal science, and agricultural economics in 1986 and then an MA in educational psychology from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and then received a Ph.D. in psychology in 1995 from University of California, Berkeley, with a thesis "A directive leadership style can be both virtue and vice : evidence from elite and experimental groups" He then took a position as assistant professor, North...
Go to Profile#3647
Filip Raes
#162286
Overall Influence
#3648
Arild Hestvik
#132727
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Arild Hestvik is a researcher in theoretical linguistics and experimental psychology. Holding a Ph.D, obtained from Brandeis University in 1990, he is a professor at the University of Delaware, United States.
Go to Profile#3649
Alfred Baumeister
#143323
Overall Influence
1934 - 2011 (77 years)
Alfred A. Baumeister was an American psychologist and professor at Vanderbilt University, known for his research on intellectual disabilities and his advocacy for such research. Biography Baumeister was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 25, 1934. He received his master's degree in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1961, both from the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. He joined the faculty at Peabody College in 1961 as an assistant professor of psychology. He taught at Central Michigan University from 1961 to 1965 and at the University of Alabama from 1967 to 1973. In 1973, he rejoined Peabody Co...
Go to Profile#3650
Nerilee Hing
#162415
Overall Influence
