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 …

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Person Name

School

Gender

Country

Discipline

Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential female people in Engineering,

#651

Madeleine Akrich

#16134

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Madeleine Akrich is a French sociologist of technology. She served as the director of the Center for the Sociology of Innovation at Mines ParisTech from 2003 to 2013. She is known for developing actor–network theory with Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John Law and others.

#652

Manohla Dargis

#20899

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Manohla June Dargis is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for The New York Times. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for The New York Times, Dargis was a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice, where she had two columns on avant-garde cinema . Her work has been included in a number of books, including Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader and American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents Until Now, published by the Library of America.

#653

Elizabeth Wayne

Elizabeth Wayne

#103122

Overall Influence

Elizabeth Wayne is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and former Postdoc at the Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wayne was a 2017 TED fellow and is a member of a number of professional societies, including the National Society of Black Physicists.

#654

Heli Jantunen

#146308

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Heli Maarit Jantunen is a Finnish Professor of Technology at the University of Oulu and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Defense. She works on microelectronics and is a member of the 6G Flagship.

#655

Cecilia Laschi

#150732

Overall Influence

#656

Jadranka Travaš-Sejdić

#110967

Overall Influence

Jadranka Travaš-Sejdić is a New Zealand academic, and as of 2018 is a professor at the University of Auckland. Academic career After an undergraduate at the University of Zagreb in Croatia and a PhD titled 'Study of the interactions and structure in polyelectrolyte copolymer gel systems based on acrylamide monomers' at the University of Auckland, Travaš-Sejdić joined the staff, rising to full professor.

#657

Megan Valentine

#68603

Overall Influence

Megan T. Valentine is an American engineer. She is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara and associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Valentine's research focuses on understanding how forces are generated and transmitted in living materials and how they control cellular outcomes. Valentine is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

#658

Michelle Oyen

#112804

Overall Influence

Michelle Lynn Oyen is an American materials scientist who is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research considers nano indentation and biomimetic materials.

#659

Janice M. Reichert

#151287

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

#660

Hanne Kjærholm

#111529

Overall Influence

1930 - 2009 (79 years)

Hanne Kjærholm was a Danish architect who also taught at the Danish Academy, where she became a professor in 1989. Kjærholm did much to overcome the barriers to women's architecture. She was one of the few women to have her own architecture studio. Her works, though few, are noteworthy, designed in a modern style which draws on tradition. During her career, her buildings became ever more textural.

#661

Gina O'Connor

#92773

Overall Influence

Gina Colarelli O'Connor is Professor of Innovation Management at Institut Universitaire de France, where she has worked since January 2019. She leads Babson's executive education programs in corporate innovation.

#662

Zakya Kafafi

#108043

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Zakya H. Ismail is an Egyptian scientist who is professor of Electrical Engineering at Lehigh University. Her research considers printed electronics and photonics. She was the first woman to be appointed to the National Science Foundation Director of the Division of Materials Research.

#663

Merryn Tawhai

#128298

Overall Influence

1901 - Present (123 years)

Merryn Tawhai is a New Zealand engineering scientist. She is a professor at the University of Auckland, director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, where she was a fellow from 2002, and a former director of MedTech CoRE. She is known for the development of mathematical models of the lungs that will help scientists understand differences between physiologically normal lungs and the pathological changes that might occur in a disease. She was inducted into the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering in June 2018. In November 2018, Tawhai was elected a Fellow of the Roy...

#664

Sherine Obare

#112564

Overall Influence

Sherine O. Obare is the dean of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She works on nanomaterials for sensing and drug delivery.

#665

Suzanne Jane Wilkinson

#109118

Overall Influence

Suzanne Jane Wilkinson is a New Zealand engineering academic. She is currently a full professor at Massey University. Academic career Suzanne is a full Professor in the School of Built Environment at Massey University in Auckland. Suzanne has PhD in Construction Management, and a BEng in Civil Engineering, both from Oxford Brookes University, UK. She also has a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies from Massey University. Her current research focuses on disaster management, construction innovation, resilience and smart cities. She is interested in how cities, communities and organisations, in...

#666

Angela Schoellig

#109722

Overall Influence

Angela P. Schoellig is a German computer scientist whose research involves the application of machine learning to the control theory of robot motion, especially for quadcopters and other flying devices. She is an Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich, and an associate professor in the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies .

#667

Diana Boraschi

#152616

Overall Influence

#668

Nancy J. Brown

#152686

Overall Influence

#669

Maria Elena Valcher

#153119

Overall Influence

Maria Elena Valcher is an Italian control theorist, and a professor at the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Padova. Valcher was the president for IEEE Control Systems Society in 2015. She was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012, "for contributions to positive systems theory and the behavioral approach to system analysis and control". She is also a Fellow of the International Federation of Automatic Control.

#670

Radha Poovendran

#153288

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Radha Poovendran is a Professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is Chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and founding director of the Network Security Lab. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for his contributions to security in cyber-physical systems.

#671

Anu Sabhlok

#67246

Overall Influence

Anu Sabhlok is an Indian architect, geographer and feminist scholar. Her main focus of work is on issues of identity and space in the context of a ‘developing world’. She earned a double Ph.D. in ‘Feminist Geography’ from Pennsylvania State University in 2007. Her doctoral work at Penn State focused on the role of women of the informal sector in construction of identity amidst heightened nationalism and liberalisation of the economy in Gujarat, India.

#672

Mary Ryan

#138824

Overall Influence

Mary Patricia Ryan is a Professor of Materials Science at Imperial College London and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Education Ryan completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Manchester. Her PhD was on using "in-situ ECSTM to study the formation of ultra-thin surface oxides on base metals", and she managed to show for the first time that these surface oxides have crystalline phases. She spent three years at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, where she developed in situ electrochemical systems using synchrotron radiation-based techniques.

#673

Nicole Hashemi

#131958

Overall Influence

Nicole Nastaran Hashemi is an American engineer. As an associate professor at Iowa State University, Hashemi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

#674

Sabine Hauert

#114040

Overall Influence

Sabine Hauert is Professor of Swarm Engineering in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of Bristol where her research investigates swarm robotics. Previously she worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Carnegie Mellon University and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

#675

Jennifer Harden

#136965

Overall Influence

Jennifer Harden is geologist known for her research on soils, particularly tracking changes in soil profiles over time and the role of soil systems in carbon and nitrogen cycling. Education and career Harden earned her B.S. , M.S. , and Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley. Following her Ph.D. she joined the United States Geological Survey where she became a scientist emeritus in 2013.

#676

Jill Tietjen

#118165

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Jill S. Tietjen is an American electrical engineer, consultant, women's advocate, author, and speaker. She is the president and CEO of Technically Speaking, Inc., an electric utilities consulting firm which she founded in Greenwood Village, Colorado, in 2000. She has written or co-authored fourteen books and more than 100 technical papers. A strong advocate for the participation of women and girls in the STEM fields, she establishes scholarships for women in engineering and technology, and nominates women for awards and halls of fame. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in...

#677

Alice C. Parker

#129201

Overall Influence

Alice Cline Parker is an American electrical engineer. Her early research studied electronic design automation; later in her career, her interests shifted to neuromorphic engineering, biomimetic architecture for computer vision, analog circuits, carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, and nanotechnology. She is Dean's Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering of the University of Southern California.

#678

Karen L. Margolis

#154266

Overall Influence

#679

Sonya T. Smith

#104177

Overall Influence

Sonya Teresa Smith is an American mechanical engineer whose research involves computational fluid dynamics and thermal management of electronics for air and space vehicles. She is a professor at Howard University, the director of the atmospheric sciences program at Howard University, and the 2020–2021 president of Sigma Xi.

#680

Ellen Dunham-Jones

#85889

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Ellen Dunham-Jones is an architectural educator and urbanist best known for her work on re-educating the public how to interact with their environment. She is also an authority on suburban redevelopment.

#681

Jill Slay

#105624

Overall Influence

Jill Slay is a British-Australian engineer and computer scientist. Her work has attracted international attention and she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for "service to the information technology industry through contributions in the areas of forensic computer science, security, critical infrastructure protection, and cyberterrorism."

#682

Iwona Jasiuk

#153091

Overall Influence

Iwona M. Jasiuk is a Polish-American materials scientist and bioengineer, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the former president of the Society of Engineering Science. Her research includes work on the mechanical properties of bone, of nanocomposites, and of 3D-printed cellular structures.

#683

Dijana Alić

#108040

Overall Influence

Dijana Alić is a Bosnian-Australian architect and academic. She was born in Sarajevo and received degree in architecture from the University of Sarajevo and a M.Arch. and a PhD from the University of New South Wales. Alić is a lecturer and program coordinator for the School of Architecture and Design at the University of New South Wales. Previous to her academic career, she worked as an architect and consulted on a number of large projects.

#684

Adeola Olubamiji

#106859

Overall Influence

1985 - Present (39 years)

Adeola Deborah Olubamiji is a Canadian technologist who specializes in metal and plastic additive manufacturing . In 2017, she became the first Black person to obtain a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the 112-year-old University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She went on to give a TEDx Talk on how she utilized 3D printing for recovery of damaged articular cartilage in Canada.

#685

Mary R. Lynn

#155641

Overall Influence

#686

Joann Elmore

#105956

Overall Influence

Dr. Joann G. Elmore is a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, professor of Health Policy and Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Director of the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program, the endowed chair in Health Care Delivery for The Rosalind and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and a practicing physician . She publishes studies on diagnostic accuracy of cancer screening and medical tests in addition to AI/machine learning, using computer-aided tools to aid in the early detection process of high-risk cancers Previously, she held faculty and leadership ...

#687

Alison Davenport

#128303

Overall Influence

Alison Jean Davenport is the Professor of Corrosion Science at the School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham. Education Davenport studied the Natural Sciences Tripos at the University of Cambridge where she was a member of King's College, Cambridge. She remained there for her graduate studies, earning her PhD in 1987. Her PhD was in metallurgy, investigating the oxide layers that form on top of metals.

#688

Kristyn Masters

#113032

Overall Influence

Kristyn Simcha Masters is an American bioengineer who is professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Colorado Denver. She works as Director of the Anschutz Medical Campus Center. Her research looks to create tissue-engineered models of disease, with a focus on cancer and cardiac disease.

#689

Dawn Elliott

#77024

Overall Influence

Dawn M. Elliott is an American biomedical engineer whose research concerns the biomechanics of connective tissue including the tendons, menisci, and intervertebral discs. She is Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware, adjunct professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the former president of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

#690

Nicole Steinmetz

#154221

Overall Influence

Nicole F. Steinmetz is a German–American biomedical engineer. She is a Full Professor in Biomaterials at the University of California, San Diego and Founding Director of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering . Her research earned her Fellowship nominatioons from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Society, and National Academy of Inventors. Steinmetz uses various plant viruses to assist with drug delivery, molecular imaging, and vaccines.

#691

Sophie LaRochelle

#133672

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Sophie LaRochelle is a Canada Research Chair and professor of engineering at Université Laval. She specializes in developing fiber optic components for signal-processing and data transmission in telecommunication networks.

#692

Wang Chiu-Hwa

#93923

Overall Influence

1925 - 2021 (96 years)

Wang Chiu-Hwa was a Taiwanese architect noted for her work with libraries in Taiwan. Due to the many libraries she designed and the fact she pioneered the earliest modern university library in Taiwan, Wang was given the unofficial title of "Taiwan’s 'Mother of Libraries'".

#693

Dawn Bonfield

#114499

Overall Influence

#694

Laura P. Spinadel

Laura P. Spinadel

#55718

Overall Influence

1958 - Present (66 years)

Laura Patricia Spinadel is an Austrian Argentine architect, urban planner, writer, educator and principal of the firm BUSarchitektur and of the company BOA büro für offensive aleatorik in Vienna. Laura P. Spinadel has made an international name based on her Compact City and works, both considered pioneers of the holistic architecture ideology. She is Doctor Honoris Causa at the Civic Parliament of the Humanity, Transacademy Universal Institute of Nations.

#695

Benita Mehra

#124788

Overall Influence

Areas of Specialization: Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Construction Management Benita Mehra was born near London into a family of Indian immigrants. She is based in London, where she works as an engineer in the public and private sectors. Mehra obtained her bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from City University London. After graduating, she worked for the British Airports Authority (BAA), eventually assuming responsibility for several multi-million-pound construction projects, including new terminal buildings at Heathrow and the redevelopment of Stansted airport.

#696

Debbie Senesky

#99968

Overall Influence

Debbie Senesky is an associate professor of Aeronautics at Stanford University. She is the principal investigator of the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory, and studies nanomaterials in extreme environments.

#697

Cynthia Sung

#152265

Overall Influence

Cynthia R. Sung is an American roboticist known for her research on foldable robots. She is Gabel Family Term Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science, at the University of Pennsylvania.

#698

Teresa Meng

#146858

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Teresa Huai-Ying Meng is a Taiwanese-American academician and entrepreneur. She is the Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emerita, at Stanford University, and founder of Atheros Communications, a wireless semiconductor company acquired by Qualcomm, Inc.

#699

Hui Wu

#128950

Overall Influence

Hui Wu is a Chinese materials chemist and engineer. She is a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research. Wu researches the synthesis, structure, solid state chemistry, and properties of complex oxides and hydrides. She received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for producing an entirely new route to synthesizing hydrogen-storage materials for fuel cells based on the complex chemistry of amines and boranes.

#700

Aimee Morgans

#150234

Overall Influence

Aimee Sian Morgans is a British engineer who is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. Her research considers thermoacoustic instabilities. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2021.

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