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.

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 …

See additional learning tools, study tips, features on campus life and much more at our Student Resources Headquarters.

Search Influential People

Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Psychology,

#4451

Adriana Galván

#176720

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (47 years)

Adriana Galván is an American psychologist and expert on adolescent brain development. She is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles where she directs the Developmental Neuroscience laboratory. She was appointed the Jeffrey Wenzel Term Chair in Behavioral Neuroscience and the Dean of Undergraduate Education at UCLA.

#4452

Nicola Brasch

#182469

Overall Influence

Nicola Elizabeth Brasch is a New Zealand chemistry academic. She is currently a full professor at the Auckland University of Technology. Academic career After a 1993 PhD titled '17O-Nuclear magnetic resonance studies of chromium oxyanions and some cobalt tren complexes' at the University of Otago, she moved to Kent State University before returning to Auckland University of Technology, rising to full professor.

#4453

Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir

Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir

#63017

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (77 years)

Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir is a professor emeritus at the University of Iceland, School of Education . Most of her theoretical work is within educational science and developmental psychology with a focus on the welfare of young people. Her primary interest is the social development, risk behaviour, academic engagement, and well-being of children and young people, as well as their civic awareness and engagement. A related focus is on how parents and teachers can foster the development and welfare of children and adolescents.

#4454

Irwin Waldman

#187366

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (26 years)

Irwin Douglas Waldman is an American psychologist and geneticist who is professor of psychology at Emory University. He is known for his research in behavior genetics, such as the role of genetic factors in population and race differences in intelligence. This has included work on the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study. He served as president of the Behavior Genetics Association from 2010 to 2011, and is now an associate editor for its official journal, Behavior Genetics.

#4455

Nigel Guenole

#184810

Overall Influence

Dr Nigel Guenole is a Senior Lecturer and director of research for the Institute of Management at Goldsmiths, University of London. Background Guenole specializes in Talent Management and Applied Statistics and has work that has appeared in leading scientific journals including Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice and Frontiers in Quantitative Psychology & Measurement, as well as in the public press including the Sunday Times. He is the current external examiner for organizational behaviour programs at the London School of Economics and University College London.

#4456

James MacKillop

#128707

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

James MacKillop is an American professor and scholar of Celtic and Irish studies and an arts journalist A child of Gaelic-speaking Highland emigrants, he is also a near relative of St Mary MacKillop of Australia .

#4457

Joel Birman

#136478

Overall Influence

Joel Birman is a Brazilian psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He was born in Vitória, State of Espírito Santo of Romanian Jewish immigrant parents. He graduated in Medicine in the 1970s and pursued his post graduate studies in São Paulo and Paris. Birman is one of the most prolific Brazilian authors in the field of psychoanalysis and has written several books in Brazil and France. He is currently professor of Psychology in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and of Social Medicine in the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro .

#4458

Tomer Shechner

#190025

Overall Influence

Tomer Shechner is an Israeli clinical psychologist, researcher and associate professor currently heading the Developmental Psychopathology Lab at the University of Haifa. His major line of research focuses on understanding the interaction between biological, cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors in the development of anxiety disorders.

#4459

John de Castro

#188296

Overall Influence

John M. de Castro is an American psychologist who served as founding Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Sam Houston State University from 2006 to 2013. Previously, he had served as professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he had begun teaching in August 2003. Prior to that, from 1974 to August 2003, he taught at Georgia State University. Much of his research is focused on eating behavior in humans. He received the 11th John M. Kinney Award for Nutrition and Metabolism in recognition of his research.

#4460

Carola Suárez-Orozco

#189365

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (69 years)

Carola Suárez-Orozco is a cultural developmental psychologist, academic, and author. She is a Professor in Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Director of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard. She is also the co-founder of Re-Imagining Migration, a nonprofit organization.

#4461

Janet S Gaffney

#181824

Overall Influence

Janet S Gaffney is an American-New Zealand special education academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career After an undergraduate at Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri Gaffney did a 1984 PhD at Arizona State University titled LD children's prose recall as a function of prior knowledge, instruction, and context relatedness. After working in the US at the University of Mississippi and the University of Illinois she moved to the University of Auckland in 2012 as full professor, drawn in part by the legacy of Marie Clay, whose celebr...

#4462

Amy Bloom

#122095

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (73 years)

Amy Beth Bloom is an American writer and psychotherapist. She is professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University, and has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

#4463

Jan Bruell

#187641

Overall Influence

1920 - 1997 (77 years)

Jan Herbert Bruell was a Polish-born American psychologist and geneticist known for his work in behavioral and medical genetics. He was a professor in the psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin from 1968 until his death in 1997. He was a founding member of the Behavior Genetics Association, and served as editor-in-chief of its flagship journal, Behavior Genetics, from 1978 to 1986.

#4464

Neal J. Cohen

#190228

Overall Influence

#4465

Scott Bryant

#190298

Overall Influence

#4466

Jan Broekman

#99081

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (95 years)

Jan Maurits Broekman is a Dutch-born philosopher, legal scientist, and social scientist. He worked three decades at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and continues to reside in Belgium. In 1971 he published a work on structuralism and in 1979 law and anthropology, asserting that the foundations of law are concealed in a specific image of a person.

#4467

Diane Waller

#148564

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Diane Waller , President of the British Association of Art Therapists, the emeritus professor of Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, University of London, Vice-President of the International Society for Expression and Art Therapy, a council member of the World Psychiatric Association's Section on Art and Psychiatry, a council member of the Health Professions Council, Professor Diane Waller was appointed an OBE in the June 2007 Birthday Honours list for services to healthcare.

#4468

John T. E. Richardson

#190335

Overall Influence

#4469

Robert Spitzer

#25831

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (74 years)

Robert J. Spitzer is a Jesuit priest, philosopher, educator, author, speaker, and retired President of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. Spitzer is founder and currently active as president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing educational materials on the complementarity of science, philosophy, and faith. He is also president of the Spitzer Center of Ethical Leadership, dedicated to helping Catholic and for-profit organizations develop leadership, constructive cultures, and virtue ethics.

#4470

Roseanna Bourke

#190389

Overall Influence

Roseanna Bourke is a New Zealand academic and registered educational psychologist. As of 2019 she is a full professor at Massey University. Academic career Bourke has a BEd from Massey University and a MEd from the University of Otago. She received a PhD from Massey University for her thesis titled Students' conceptions of learning and self-assessment in context. Bourke joined Massey University in 2006 and moved to Victoria University of Wellington in 2009. She returned to Massey in 2016, where she was appointed full professor with effect from 1 January 2019.

#4471

Hande Eslen-Ziya

#115569

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (50 years)

Hande Eslen-Ziya is a Turkish-born, Norway-based sociologist and psychologist. She is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Populism, Anti-Gender and Democracy Research Group at the University of Stavanger in Norway. She has an established interest in gender and social inequalities, transnational organizations and social activism, and has a substantial portfolio of research in this field. Her research has been published in Gender, Work and Organisation, Emotion, Space and Society, Social Movement Studies, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Culture, Health and Sexuality, Leadership, Men and Masculinities, and Social Politics, as well as in other internationally recognized journals.

#4472

Timothy Buie

#140258

Overall Influence

Timothy M. Buie is a pediatric gastroenterologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. Buie joined Harvard Medical School in 1998 after previously practicing at Pediatric Gastroenterology Associates for eight years. He was also the director of Gastrointestinal and Nutritional Services at MGH's Lurie Center for Autism. He is well known for his research pertaining to the possible connection between autism and gastrointestinal disorders, and has told the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee that over half of autistic children experience gastrointestinal symptoms, whereas he stated that this was the case for "between 50 and 70%" of children with autism in an interview with ABC News.

#4473

Elisa New

#20883

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (67 years)

Elisa New is an American academic who is the Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University. Early life and education She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Maryland. New's father was an engineer and computer scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and her mother worked as a party planner. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University , as well as a Master of Arts and PhD from Columbia University .

#4474

Jim Stevenson

#185522

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (79 years)

James Eric Stevenson is a British child psychologist who is Emeritus Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Southampton. He is known for his research on behavior problems in children, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and reading disability. He was the founding editor of the Annual Research Review issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and subsequently served as the editor of this journal.

#4475

Katherine D. Seelman

#78927

Overall Influence

Katherine Dolores Seelman is an American academic, focused on science, technology and public policy, especially telecommunications and accessibility. An Associate Dean and Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, she is co-scientific director of the Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center, supported by the National Science Foundation, and was formerly the director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Seelman has been part of a number of advisory and editorial committees, including helping the World He...

#4476

Albert Yee

#189889

Overall Influence

Albert H. Yee is a Korean-American educational psychologist. He taught at universities in the United States and East Asia for forty-three years before retiring in 1995. A 1965 graduate of Stanford University, he is the founding president of the Western Montana Stanford Alumni Club. He was also the president of the Chinese-American Faculty Association of Southern California from 1975 to 1977 and of the Asian American Psychological Association from 1979 to 1982. He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and Stanford University. He has taught at th...

#4477

Annegret Hannawa

#82087

Overall Influence

1979 - Present (47 years)

Annegret Friederike Hannawa is a German communication scientist and founding director of the Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Quality and Safety at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano.

#4478

Elizabeth Dowdeswell

#19316

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (82 years)

Violet Elizabeth Dowdeswell is a Canadian public servant who served as the 29th lieutenant governor of Ontario from 2014 to 2023. As lieutenant governor, Dowdeswell was the viceregal representative of the Crown in Right of Ontario and the first in over seven decades to serve under two different Canadian sovereigns. A champion of democracy and civil society, she is also the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Ontario's history.

#4479

Carol Prescott

#134624

Overall Influence

Carol Arlene Prescott is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Southern California , where she also holds a joint appointment in the Davis School of Gerontology. Before joining the faculty of USC in 2005, she was an assistant, and later associate, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on the genetic and environmental contributions to variation in cognition, as well as on identifying causes of substance use disorders.

#4480

Danielle Ripich

#128479

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Danielle Newberry Ripich is a retired American academic who served as president of the University of New England, Maine, from 2006 to 2017. She has a background in speech pathology and communication studies.

#4481

Rafia Ghubash

#128146

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Rafia Obaid Ghubash is a Dubai psychiatrist and epidemiologist who serves as president of the Arab Network for Women in Science and Technology, and is a former president of the Arabian Gulf University. She is known as a role model of women's empowerment.

#4482

John Wesley Powell

#190774

Overall Influence

#4483

George Holden

#168043

Overall Influence

George Walker Holden is a professor and developmental psychologist working at the Southern Methodist University, where he was the former Chair of the Psychology Department. Holden is the co-founder of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children and the author of several books on the subject of child development.

#4484

Philippe Rochat

#119189

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (76 years)

Philippe Rochat is a developmental psychologist known for his research on social cognition, development of a sense of self, and moral development in infancy and early childhood. He holds the position of Professor of Psychology and Director of the Infant and Child Lab at Emory University.

#4485

Fethi Benslama

#59604

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (75 years)

Fethi Benslama is a French psychoanalyst of Tunisian origin. He is a Professor of Psychopathology at Paris Diderot University, and the author of several books about political Islam. Early life Fethi Benslama was born on July 31, 1951 in Salakta, Tunisia.

#4486

Alan Lipman

#59904

Overall Influence

Alan J. Lipman is an American clinical psychologist and musician, who is currently a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the George Washington University Medical Center and the director of the Center for the Study of Violence.

#4487

Rex Forehand

#120511

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (81 years)

Rex Lloyd Forehand is an American psychologist. He is the Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher Endowed Professor and University Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Vermont, where he is also the director of the Vermont Genetics Network. He previously taught at the University of Georgia for over thirty years, where he served as Distinguished Research Professor and, subsequently, as Regents Professor. He was also the director of the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research for nine years. In 2008, he received the Award for Distinguished Career Contributio...

#4488

Yanghee Lee

#16396

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Yanghee Lee is a South Korean developmental psychologist and professor at Sungkyunkwan University. She is most noted for her work in international human rights organisations. Lee is highly recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally for her expertise in human rights. She has published numerous articles and books on human rights and children’s rights.

#4489

William J. Hudspeth

#190892

Overall Influence

#4490

Denise Bradley

#115920

Overall Influence

1942 - 2020 (78 years)

Denise Irene Bradley was an Australian higher education administrator with specialist interests in educational equity and excellence and equity. She was known for the Bradley Review of Higher Education .

#4491

June Gary Hopps

#190904

Overall Influence

June Gary Hopps was presented The Significant Lifetime Achievement in Social Work Education Award in 2017 and is presently the Thomas J. Parham Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Georgia. She was the first African American and the youngest person to serve as dean of the Boston College School of Social Work. Dr Hopps has won NASW’s award for Outstanding Leadership in the Social Work Profession; the establishment of the June Gary Hopps Graduate Fellowship at Boston College; and the proclamation of June Gary Hopps Day by the state of Massachusetts. Alma Maters: Ph.D.

#4492

Li Tao

#186403

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (64 years)

Li Tao is a Chinese academic psychiatrist. She is the dean of the Mental Health Center affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine. She is a clinician, professor, and researcher, specialising in topics relating to molecular genetics and mental illness.

#4493

Ruth Fitzgerald

#180765

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (70 years)

Ruth P. Fitzgerald is a New Zealand anthropology academic, and as of 2019 is a full professor at the University of Otago. Academic career After a 1999 PhD titled Who cares? : an ethnographic investigation of the meaning of care at the University of Otago, Fitzgerald joined the staff, rising to full professor in 2018. In 2015 Fitzgerald was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand's Te Rangi Hiroa Medal. Her work covers the social and political context of many health issues, such as the ethics of reversing heritable deafness or terminating pregnancy.

#4494

Tony Gibson

#176646

Overall Influence

1914 - 2001 (87 years)

Hamilton Bertie Gibson , generally known as Tony Gibson, was a British psychologist, anarchist, and model. He became known for his objection to Great Britain's involvement in World War II and his subsequent imprisonment for being an unregistered conscientious objector.

#4495

Margaret Horsburgh

Margaret Horsburgh

#178137

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (83 years)

Margaret Phyllis Elsie Horsburgh is a New Zealand academic who established the school of nursing at the University of Auckland and worked as a nurse educator for over 30 years. Biography Horsburgh was born in Auckland in 1943, and was educated at Diocesan School for Girls. She began training as a nurse in 1961. From a career as an intensive-care nurse, Horsburgh joined Auckland University of Technology in 1976. She completed a Doctor of Education degree through Charles Sturt University in 1998, with a thesis titled Quality monitoring in higher education: a case study of the impact on student learning.

#4496

Helen Muchnic

#122878

Overall Influence

Helen Muchnic was an American scholar and writer, specializing in Russian language and literature. She taught for many years at Smith College, where she was appointed Helen and Laura Shedd Professor of Russian Language and Literature. Her friends included the writers Edmund Wilson and Elizabeth Bishop. She wrote a number of scholarly works, including:An Introduction to Russian LiteratureFrom Gorky to Pasternak: six modern Russian writersDostoevsky's English reputation, 1881-1936The unhappy consciousness: Gogol, Poe, BaudelaireShe also contributed regularly to scholarly and popular journals suc...

#4497

Tony Atwater

#52849

Overall Influence

Tony K. Atwater, is the former president of Norfolk State University. Education Atwater holds a 1972 A.S.S. in television and radio production from Virginia Western Community College. He graduated from Hampton University with a BA, magna cum laude in 1973. Entering graduate school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University he was awarded an MA in education in 1979. He then earned a Ph.D. in communication research from Michigan State University in 1983. His dissertation was titled: A Market Analysis of Content Diversity in Local Television News. He completed his postdoctoral stud...

#4498

Margret Schleidt

Margret Schleidt

#177853

Overall Influence

1928 - 2012 (84 years)

Margret Else Schleidt was a German human ethologist. She worked at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, which has now become the Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology. Margret Else Schleidt studied Biology at the Universities of Bonn, Zurich and Freiburg. She did her dissertation research in animal ethology at Konrad Lorenz’s research station in Buldern Westfalen. She then completed her PhD in animal ethology in 1955 under the supervision of Professor Otto Koehler in Freiburg i Br., before working as part of Konrad Lorenz’ research group at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie in Seewiesen.

#4499

Rosemary Waring

#66895

Overall Influence

Rosemary Waring, an honorary Reader in human toxicology at the School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, was the first researcher to produce scientific evidence suggestive of abnormal sulfur metabolism affecting people with autism spectrum disorders. Her findings suggest that people with autism present with consistently lower levels of circulating plasma sulfate and higher than normal levels of urinary sulfate than non-symptomatic controls . Follow-up work has suggested that people with autism also present with higher than normal levels of other sulfur-related compounds, including sulfi...

#4500

Roscoe C. Brown Jr.

Roscoe C. Brown Jr.

#169968

Overall Influence

1922 - 2016 (94 years)

Dr. Roscoe Conkling Brown Jr. was one of the Tuskegee Airmen and a squadron commander of the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group. Career He was appointed to this position in June 1945, which was after VE Day . During combat, he served as a flight leader and operations officer only. He graduated from the Tuskegee Flight School on March 12, 1944, as member of class 44-C-SE and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II. During this period, on March 24, 1945, mission to Berlin Captain Brown shot down a German Me 262 jet fighter and several days later, on March 31, a Fw 190 fighter .

« Previous Next »

Image Attributions