Franz Josef Gall (for foundational ideas in psychology)

Franz Josef Gall was a pioneering 18th-century scholar who believed that different parts of the brain have specific functions and that these areas could be identified by examining bumps or contours on the skull—a theory called phrenology. While his ideas about localized brain function were influential and contributed to the development of neuroscience, his method of reading personality traits from skull shape is now discredited. Nonetheless, Gall’s work helped establish the idea that the brain has specialized regions responsible for different mental faculties, laying foundational concepts for modern psychology and neuroscience research.