J. B. Rhine

American botanist-turned-parapsychologist who founded the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory — inventing the Zener cards for ESP testing, coining the term 'extrasensory perception' (ESP), and establishing parapsychology as a laboratory science rather than a mere spiritualist practice.

Created the quantitative experimental paradigm for parapsychology — Zener card testing with statistical analysis — establishing that psi research could produce results testable by the same methods as mainstream psychology, forcing the scientific community to engage with the data rather than dismiss the method.