Search People Result | Academic Influence

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.

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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).

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List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#3901

Constance Ahrons

#111872

Overall Influence

1937 - 2021 (84 years)

Constance Ruth Ahrons was an American psychotherapist. She was an early advocate of collaborative divorce. Biography Constance Ruth Ahrons was born on April 16, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York to immigrants Jacob and Estelle Ahrons. She attended Upsala College but dropped out when she married lawyer Jac Weiseman and had a baby. After reading The Feminine Mystique, she returned to Upsala and graduated in 1964. In 1967, she received her master's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin. In 1967, she married therapist Morton Perlmutter.

#3902

Laurence D. Smith

#136438

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Laurence D. Smith is an American psychologist, historian of psychology, philosopher of science, and emeritus professor at the University of Maine. He was trained in history and philosophy of science at Indiana University and history of psychology at the University of New Hampshire .

#3903

Colin Espie

#60201

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Colin Espie PhD, DSc, FRSM, FBPsS FAASM is a Scottish Professor of Sleep Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Somerville College. He is closely involved with the development of the Sir Jules Thorn Sleep & Circadian Neuroscience Institute where he is Founding Director of the Experimental & Clinical Sleep Medicine Research programme, and Clinical Director of the Oxford Online Programme in Sleep Medicine. His particular areas of research expertise are in the assessment and treatment of sleep disorders, most particularly the manag...

#3904

Sam Wineburg

#21373

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (68 years)

Samuel S. Wineburg is an American educational and cognitive psychologist. He is the Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and, by courtesy, of History & American Studies emeritus at Stanford University.

#3905

Teresa M. Amabile

#171326

Overall Influence

#3906

Nadya A. Fouad

#162214

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Nadya A. Fouad is an American vocational psychologist. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Vocational Behavior and distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

#3907

Rainer M. Holm-Hadulla

#160457

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla is a German professor of psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Life Holm-Hadulla studied medicine and philosophy at the Universities of Marburg, Rome, and Heidelberg. During the period from 1976 until 1978, he worked as an assistant doctor. Since 1979 until 1986, he became a specialist in psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy and an assistant professor at Heidelberg University.

#3908

Ken Richardson

#145344

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (84 years)

Kenneth Richardson is a British psychologist, author, and former lecturer at the Open University, where he began working in 1971. He has written several books highly critical of IQ testing and related concepts in the field of psychometrics, such as Spearman's g. He contends that the definitions of intelligence, and the assumptions of its causes, "lie at the core of political ideologies", and has called for IQ tests to be banned. He has supported this position by arguing that IQ tests do not measure cognitive ability, but rather conformity with the culture of the tests' designers. Richardson d...

#3909

Frank Ritter

#159681

Overall Influence

Frank Ritter is a professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, professor in the Department of Psychology, and professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State University. Before coming to Penn State, he was a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nottingham, and a visiting distinguished professor in the Psychology Department at Chemnitz University of Technology .

#3910

Rivka Yahav

#114132

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Rivka Yahav is an academic psychotherapist, an academic faculty member of the School of Social Work, Head of the Psychotherapy Training Programme at Haifa University, and Head of the Interdisciplinary Clinical Center of the Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences at Haifa University. She was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Initiatives and Innovation in 2012.

#3911

Teena Willoughby

#170227

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (71 years)

Teena Willoughby is a Canadian developmental psychologist. Early life and education Willoughby earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Western Ontario before enrolling at the University of Waterloo for her Master's degree and PhD.

#3912

Philip H. Mirvis

#109536

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Philip H. Mirvis is an organizational psychologist and faculty member at Boston College, in the Center for Corporate Citizenship. He has written ten books on topics in large-scale organizational change, corporate governance, and the characteristics of the workforce and workplace. He has served as an adviser on corporate social responsibility and sustainability to companies including Ben & Jerry's, Mitsubishi, PepsiCo, Royal Dutch Shell, SK Group, Unilever, and Wipro.

#3913

Eugene Burnstein

#84574

Overall Influence

Eugene Burnstein is an American social psychologist and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is also a senior research scientist emeritus at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. He is known for his research on the cognitive bases of social influence and group decision-making.

#3914

Don Kuiken

#138334

Overall Influence

Don Kuiken is professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. He received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1970 from the University of Texas at Austin. His research program is a phenomenologically guided blend of two areas: dreaming and literary reading. He has served as the editor of the journal Dreaming and is member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Currently he is Associate Editor of the journal Scientific Study of Literature. He is president of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature, and has published ex...

#3915

Leickness Simbayi

#159444

Overall Influence

Leickness Chisamu Simbayi is a South African research psychologist and professor. He is the current Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Research of the Human Sciences Research Council where he studies the social aspects of STIs and HIV/AIDS. In 2002, Simbayi was a part of the research team that conducted the first South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence, Behaviour and Communication Survey and has been involved in the implementation of all subsequent surveys.

#3916

Paul Hersey

#136315

Overall Influence

1931 - 2012 (81 years)

Paul Hersey was a behavioral scientist and entrepreneur. He was best known for conceiving Situational Leadership. Hersey published Management of Organization Behavior, which is now in its ninth edition.

#3917

Ilkka Pyysiäinen

#137064

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Ilkka Eljas Pyysiäinen is a Finnish docent and doctor of theology, whose research has focused on cognitive science of religion. He has also studied religious thinking, religious language, and religious experience. Pyysiäinen is also known as an atheist and a critic of religion.

#3918

Thomas J. Palmeri

#139934

Overall Influence

Thomas Palmeri is a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University. He serves as Chair of the Psychology department. He is co-director of the Data Science Institute at the university’s Department of Psychology. He heads the Category Laboratory there.

#3919

Laura Berman

#80848

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (57 years)

Laura Berman is an American relationship therapist and television host. She is the host of In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman on the Oprah Winfrey Network . She is also a regular guest on The Dr. Oz Show, and hosts her own nationally syndicated radio program, Uncovered with Dr. Laura Berman. She previously starred in Showtime's reality television series Sexual Healing.

#3920

Amy Orben

#127722

Overall Influence

Amy Orben is a British experimental psychologist who is a group leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Her research considers how digital technologies impact adolescent mental health. Orben was awarded the British Neuroscience Association Researcher Credibility Prize in 2021 and the inaugural Medical Research Council Impact Prize in 2023.

#3921

Christiane Linster

#83656

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Christiane Linster is a Luxembourg-born behavioral neuroscientist and a professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University. Her work focuses on neuromodulation along with learning and memory, using the olfactory system of rodents as a model. Her lab integrates behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational work. Linster was the founding President of the Organization for Computational Neurosciences , which was created to coordinate and lead the annual meeting of aspiring and senior computational neuroscientists. Linster served as president of the OCNS from 2003 ...

#3922

Richard Coss

#75311

Overall Influence

Richard Gerrit Coss is an American evolutionary psychologist, and academic. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Coss' research interest spans the field of behavioral evolution, with a particular focus on analyzing adaptive variation in antipredator behavior in different populations, and the impact of developmental, physiological, and neurobiological constraints on behavior. He is most known for his work on dendritic spine plasticity, and early contributions to the field of evolutionary aesthetic preferences. He has also authored and co-authored more...

#3923

Paula Caligiuri

#32301

Overall Influence

Paula Caligiuri is an American academic, talent management specialist, psychologist, book author, and entrepreneur. As a Distinguished Professor of international business and strategy, she is on the faculty at D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University. Her published contributions in the field of international human resource management have won academic distinctions, and been endorsed in scholarly literature and in wider professional circles. Among her books, Get a Life, Not a Job, Managing the Global Workforce, Cultural Agility: Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Profes...

#3924

Claire Haworth

#113726

Overall Influence

Claire Haworth is a reader in behavioural genetics and co-director of the Dynamic Genetics Lab at the University of Bristol. Education Haworth graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in experimental psychology. She completed her MSc and PhD at King's College London.

#3925

Michael Kubovy

#148231

Overall Influence

Michael Kubovy is an Israeli American psychologist known for his work on the psychology of perception and psychology of art. His writings and research of visual and auditory perceptual organization helped to rekindle interest in the Gestalt School of Psychology in the late 20th century: a "rebirth" of Gestalt Psychology. This is reflected in publication of the edited collection Perceptual Organization .

#3926

Antonio Lieto

#72643

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (43 years)

Antonio Lieto is an Italian cognitive scientist and computer scientist at the University of Turin and a Research Associate at the Institute of High Performance Computing of the Italian National Research Council focusing on cognitive architectures and computational models of cognition, commonsense reasoning and models of mental representation, and persuasive technologies. He teaches Artificial Intelligence and "Design and Evaluation of Cognitive Artificial Systems" at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Turin.

#3927

Ernest T. Pascarella

#171859

Overall Influence

#3928

Eli Coleman

#120035

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Eli Coleman is an American sexologist. He is professor emeritus and former director of the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. In 2007, he was appointed the first endowed Chair in Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He has published research on sexual orientation, sexual dysfunction and compulsivity, gender dysphoria, and sex offenders.

#3929

Donald H. Owings

Donald H. Owings

#166273

Overall Influence

1943 - 2011 (68 years)

Donald H. Owings was a professor of psychology and faculty member of the Animal Behavior Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis. His research focused on ground squirrels, in particular, their interactions with predators such as rattlesnakes; and, more generally, on concepts of communication within and between species. In 1994, he was elected as a fellow of the animal behavior society and in 2010 he received the Exemplar Award for mentoring graduate students.

#3930

George S. Everly Jr.

#140592

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

George S. Everly Jr., PhD, ABPP is an American psychologist whose writings greatly shaped the fields of psychological crisis intervention and human resilience. He currently holds, or has held, academic posts as Professor in Psychology, Professor in Public Health, and associate professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Loyola University Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

#3931

Sharon Horne

#171226

Overall Influence

Sharon Horne is a scientist known for conducting research on LGBTQ issues, mental health and college student development, and international psychology concerns. Horne is Professor of Counseling Psychology and the Director of Training for the American Psychological Association Accredited Counseling Psychology Ph.D. Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a representative to the APA International Psychology Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Issues , and chaired the policy committee that drafted the IpsyNet Statement and Commitment on LGBTI Concerns.

#3932

Carmen Lawrence

#62881

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Carmen Mary Lawrence is an Australian academic and former politician who was the Premier of Western Australia from 1990 to 1993, the first woman to become the premier of an Australian state. To date she is the only woman premier of Western Australia. A member of the Labor Party, she later entered federal politics as a member of the House of Representatives from 1994 to 2007, and served as a minister in the Keating government.

#3933

Kyle Cave

#118499

Overall Influence

Kyle R. Cave is a professor of psychology at UMass Amherst. His primary research interest is visual selective attention, and he teaches courses in cognitive psychology and consciousness. His most important contribution is the FeatureGate model of attentional selection.

#3934

Robert B. Pinter

Robert B. Pinter

#70421

Overall Influence

1937 - 2001 (64 years)

Robert Bartholomew Pinter was an American biomedical engineer and authority on signal processing in the insect visual system. Education He received a BS in electrical engineering from Marquette University in 1957 and an MS from Northwestern University in 1960. He received his PhD in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering from Northwestern University in 1964, with a thesis entitled A Study of the Dynamic Properties of the Generator Potential of the Limulus Photoreceptor. His MS and PhD were both under Richard W. Jones.

#3935

Susanne Kappeler

#72083

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Susanne Kappeler was a lecturer in English at the University of East Anglia and an associate professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Al Akhawayn University, and now works as a freelance writer and teacher in England and Germany. Kappeler also taught 'The literary representation of women' in the Faculty of English at Cambridge while a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge and was a part-time tutor for the Open University Course, 'The Changing Experience of Women', and is part of a collective setting up the Cambridge Women's Resources Centre.

#3936

Laura Schulz

#68321

Overall Influence

Laura E. Schulz is a professor of cognitive science at the brain and cognitive sciences department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the principal investigator of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT. Schulz is known for her work on the early childhood development of cognition, causal inference, discovery, and learning.

#3937

Omri Gillath

#165554

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Omri Gillath is an Israeli-American social psychologist. As a professor of social psychology at the University of Kansas, Gillath has spent over 20 years doing research, teaching psychology, and mentoring students. He is a leading figure in the field of close relationships and has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed psychology journals. His research interests include: close relationships, attachment theory, brain mechanisms and genetic polymorphisms underlying attachment style, social networks, and recently, humans connections with AI.

#3938

Chris Stout

#32811

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Dr. Chris E. Stout is a licensed clinical psychologist who has a varied background in multiple domains. He is the founding director of the Center for Global Initiatives which was ranked as a Top Healthcare Nonprofit by GreatNonprofits. His entrepreneurial experience is demonstrated in multiple ventures that include the areas of financial management, healthcare start-ups, engineering, two dot-coms, real estate, and executive coaching. He currently is Vice President of the Department of Research at ATI Physical Therapy, a national Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation organization.

#3939

Rochelle Newman

#165698

Overall Influence

Rochelle Newman is an American psychologist. She is chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences , as well as associate director of the Maryland Language Science Center. She previously served as the director of graduate studies for both HESP and the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and is also a member of the Center for the Comparative & Evolutionary Biology of Hearing. Newman helped found the University of Maryland Infant & Child Studies Consortium and the University of Maryland Autism Research Consortium.

#3940

Ursula Șchiopu

#172305

Overall Influence

1918 - 2015 (97 years)

Ursula Mariana Șchiopu was a Romanian psychologist, academic, and poet. She contributed to the development of the psychology of peace, war, and terrorism. Selected works PsychologicalPsihologia copilului, vol. I și II, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică;Psihologia copilului, E.D.P., 1963;Psihologia copilului, E.D.P., 1976, ediția a II-a;Introducere în psihodiagnostic, T.U.B.;Orientare școlară și profesională, T.U.B., 1971;Psihologia vârstelor, E.D.P., ;Dezvoltarea operativității gândirii, Editura Științifică, 1966, preface by acad. Gh. Mihoc;Criza de originalitate la adolescenți, E.D.P., 1970;Pr...

#3941

Gordon Hodson

#166417

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (56 years)

Gordon Hodson is a psychology professor at Brock University, where he directs the Brock Lab of Intergroup Processes. He is known for his research on political ideology and its relationship to prejudice, intelligence, and climate change denial.

#3942

Margaret Brenman-Gibson

#86102

Overall Influence

1918 - 2004 (86 years)

Margaret Brenman-Gibson was an American psychologist, among the first to use of hypnosis in the treatment of neurosis resulting from war and related areas. She was the first non-physician to receive full clinical and research psychoanalytic training in America. In 1982 she was one of the first women to receive a Harvard professorship as Clinical Professor of Psychology. She earned a Masters in Anthropology from Columbia University and a doctorate in Psychology from the University of Kansas. She was the only female psychotherapist on the staff at the Austen Riggs Center and was recognized as a...

#3943

Marita Inglehart

#90401

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Marita Rohr Inglehart is a psychologist, academic, and author. She is a Professor at the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine at the School of Dentistry, an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Psychology at the College of Literature, Arts and Sciences at the University of Michigan. Additionally, she also holds the position of Inaugural University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan.

#3944

Susan Schenk

#130060

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (72 years)

Susan Schenk, sometimes Lovell-Schenk, is a New Zealand psychology academic. She is currently a full professor at the Victoria University of Wellington. Academic career After a 1982 PhD titled The substrate for prefrontal cortical self-stimulation: a psychophysical investigation at Concordia University, Schenk completed an NSERC funded post/doctoral position with Peter Milner at McGill University. She then moved to Texas A&M University where she moved through the ranks from assistant professor to professor. In 2001 she moved to the Victoria University of Wellington, as a full professor.

#3945

Nadine Kaslow

#137264

Overall Influence

Nadine J. Kaslow is an American psychologist, the 2014 president of the American Psychological Association and the editor of the Journal of Family Psychology. Before her current affiliation with Emory University, Kaslow worked at Yale University. She was recipient of the 2004 American Psychological Association award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology.

#3946

Ennio De Renzi

#172437

Overall Influence

#3947

Larry M. Starr

#117929

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (78 years)

Larry M. Starr is a consultant, academic administrator, university professor, and research scientist. His primary academic affiliation has been at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia where he is Director of the Doctor of Management in Strategic Leadership program and Director of the Doctor of Philosophy program in Complex Systems Leadership program. He is also Managing Director of Systems Wisdom a global consultancy which provides translational consulting, executive education, and research specializing in complex and seemingly intractable problems; and he is Executive Director of the Institute of Systems Wisdom an innovative social-academic-practice community.

#3948

Shelly Flagel

#115868

Overall Influence

Shelly B. Flagel is an American behavioral neuroscientist whose research focuses on the underlying brain mechanisms of reward and addiction. She is an associate professor of psychiatry in the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan.

#3949

Kjell Raaheim

#161878

Overall Influence

1930 - 2017 (87 years)

Kjell Raaheim was a Norwegian psychologist. He hailed from Bergen and took his degree at the University of Oslo. He was hired as the first psychologist at the University of Bergen, originally working at the Institute of Philosophy. He was a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Bergen from 1969 to 1994, and became known for both lectures, academic writing, popular writing, textbooks as well as founding the small publishing house Sigma in 1980. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

#3950

Carol McDonald Connor

#85171

Overall Influence

Carol McDonald Connor was an educational psychologist known for her research contributions to the field of early literacy development in diverse learners, in particular for work on individualized student instruction interventions and the lattice model of reading development. She held the position of Chancellor's Faculty and Equity Advisor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine.

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