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,

#801

Betül Kaçar

#57960

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (41 years)

Betül Kacar is a Turkish-American astrobiologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin. She directs a NASA Astrobiology Research Center exploring the essential attributes of life, its origins and how they should shape our notions of habitability and the search for life on other worlds.

#802

Judy Davis

#33288

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Judith Davis is an Australian actress in film, television, and on stage. With a career spanning over 40 years, she has been commended for her versatility and regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Frequent collaborator Woody Allen described her as "one of the most exciting actresses in the world". She is the most awarded recipient for the AACTA Award with nine accolades and has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awardss, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, and two nominations for Academy Awards.

#803

Deidre Brown

#128055

Overall Influence

1970 - Present (54 years)

Deidre Sharon Brown is a New Zealand art historian and architectural lecturer. Brown currently teaches at the University of Auckland and is the head of the School of Architecture and Planning. Additionally, she is a governor of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, a member of the Māori Trademarks Advisory Committee of the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand, and a member of the Humanities Panel of the Marsden Fund. In 2021 Brown was made a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

#804

Monica Cox

#74012

Overall Influence

Monica Farmer Cox is a professor of engineering education at Ohio State University. Cox was the first African-American woman to earn tenure in engineering at Purdue University. She won the 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

#805

Lillian Chrystall

#123276

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (98 years)

Lillian Jessie Chrystall was a New Zealand architect. She was the first woman to receive a national New Zealand Institute of Architects award. Biography Chrystall was born in the Auckland suburb of Herne Bay on 1 March 1926, one of three children of businessman Robert Laidlaw and American-born Lillian Viola Irene Laidlaw . One of her brothers was Lincoln Laidlaw, who founded the New Zealand toy manufacturing company, Lincoln Industries. She was raised in Herne Bay, and was educated at Bayfield School and Auckland Girls' Grammar School. Chrystall studied architecture at the University of Auck...

#806

Mai Kitazawa Arbegast

Mai Kitazawa Arbegast

#116594

Overall Influence

1922 - 2012 (90 years)

Mai Haru Kitazawa Arbegast was an American landscape architect, and professor based in Berkeley, California. She was a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Berkeley. She was the first acting director Blake Garden after its gift to the UC Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture . As a professional landscape architect who specialized in planting design and her work included estates, wineries, and large scale residential gardens, as well as public, commercial, and educational projects. Projects of note include the Hearst Castle planting restoration, California Palace o...

#807

Sarah Lynn Rees

#155677

Overall Influence

Sarah Lynn Rees is a Palawa woman descending from the Plangermaireener and Trawlwoolway people of North East Tasmania, Based in Birrarung-ga , Rees is an architectural practitioner, academic and writer. She is a prominent advocate and advisor with a firm commitment to Indigenising the built environment.

#808

Sandra Pascoe Ortiz

#62694

Overall Influence

Sandra Pascoe Ortiz is a Mexican researcher and chemical engineer. She is a faculty member at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac in Zapopan. Ortiz is known for developing a non-toxic, renewable, and biodegradable plastic alternative made from cactus juice.

#809

Natalia M. Litchinitser

#167752

Overall Influence

Natalia M. Litchinitser is an Electrical Engineer and Professor at Duke University. She works on optical metamaterials and their application in photonic devices. Litchinitser is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, The Optical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

#810

Jadranka Skorin-Kapov

Jadranka Skorin-Kapov

#5799

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Jadranka Skorin-Kapov is a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in the College of Business, and with affiliated positions in the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Her background includes PhD degrees in Operations Research, in Philosophy, and in Art History. She serves as the Head of Management Area in the College of Business. She founded and currently directs the Center for Integration of Business Education & Humanities . Skorin-Kapov received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2016.

#811

Susan Gourvenec

#167908

Overall Influence

Susan Gourvenec is a British geoscientist who is Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering and deputy director of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute at the University of Southampton. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022.

#812

Janet Perlman

#67903

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Janet Laurie Perlman is a Canadian animator and children's book author and illustrator whose work includes the short film The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 54th Academy Awards and received a Parents' Choice Award. Her 13 short films have received 60 awards to date. She was married to the late animation producer Derek Lamb. After working with Lamb at the National Film Board of Canada in the 1980s, they formed their own production company, Lamb-Perlman Productions. She is currently a partner in Hulascope Studio, based in Montreal.

#813

Pat Fothergill

#111355

Overall Influence

1936 - 2017 (81 years)

Ann Patricia "Pat" Fothergill was a pioneer in robotics and robot control languages in the AI department of the University of Edinburgh. She moved to the University of Aberdeen in 1986 to join the Department of Computing as a senior lecturer, where she remained until her death.

#814

Alessandra Costanzo

#169170

Overall Influence

Alessandra Costanzo is an Italian electrical engineer specializing in microwave engineering, microwave circuits, and wireless power transfer. She is a professor at the University of Bologna. Education and career Costanzo earned a laurea in electrical engineering, through a 5-year course of study, in 1987 at the University of Bologna. In 1989, through a national competition, she won a permanent research position at the University of Bologna, bypassing the need to earn a doctorate. She became an associate professor in the faculty of engineering there in 2001 and full professor in the Department...

#815

Margaret Brandeau

#120145

Overall Influence

Margaret Louise Brandeau is an American management scientist and engineer whose research applies operations research to decision-making in public health. The main focus of her work is on the development of applied mathematical and economic models to support health policy decisions. She is the Coleman F. Fung Professor in the Stanford University School of Engineering, and also holds a courtesy affiliation with the Stanford University School of Medicine.

#816

Stacey Finley

#96399

Overall Influence

Stacey Finley is the Nichole A. and Thuan Q. Pham Professor and associate professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and quantitative and computational biology at the University of Southern California. Finley has a joint appointment in the department of chemical engineering and materials science, and she is a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Finley is also a standing member of the MABS Study Section at NIH. Her research has been supported by grants from the NSF, NIH, and American Cancer Society.

#817

Dilanthi Amaratunga

#170238

Overall Influence

Dilanthi Amaratunga, FRGS is a Sri Lankan scientist. She is a quantity surveyor who leads research and international projects into disaster mitigation, reconstruction and resilience. Early life and education Amaratunga was born in Sri Lanka, spending her early life in Panadura. She went to Visakha Vidyalaya a girls school, for secondary education. In 1993 she graduated with a B.Sc. in Quantity Surveying from the Department of Building Economics, University of Moratuwa. She was awarded a PhD for a study of ‘Theory Building in Facilities Management Performance Measurement: Application o...

#818

Helen L. Reed

#147574

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Helen Louise Reed is an American aerospace engineer. Her research interests include hypersonics, energy efficient aircraft, laminar–turbulent transition, and small satellite design. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Physical Society, and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

#819

Park Sukyung

#169243

Overall Influence

1973 - Present (51 years)

Park Sukyung is a South Korean professor of mechanical engineering at KAIST with expertise in Biomechanics served as Science and Technology Advisor to President Moon Jae-in from 2020 to 2022. Park is the youngest person appointed by Moon to a vice-ministerial post as well as the youngest senior member of the Office of the President.

#820

Lara Thompson

#168716

Overall Influence

Lara A. Thompson is a biomedical engineer at the University of the District of Columbia. She is known for her work in human mobility and was a 2022 recipient of the National Science Foundations Alan T. Waterman Award.

#821

Jennifer Whyte

#57604

Overall Influence

Jennifer Whyte is Director of the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership and Head of School of Project Management at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her focus is on working with industry, policy and government to improve the way projects are conceived, set-up, delivered and add value. She had led research on systems integration, construction transformation, and project analytics.

#822

Marilyn Smith

#171260

Overall Influence

Marilyn J. Smith is an American aerospace engineer. Smith earned her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech. Her studies were funded by Lockheed Martin. She also worked for McDonnell Douglas. Smith later joined the Georgia Tech faculty as professor and director of the Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence. In 2016, she was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Smith was the 2022 recipient of the AIAA Aerodynamics Award.

#823

Maria Watkins

#126486

Overall Influence

1918 - 2010 (92 years)

Marja "Maria" Ludwika Watkins was a defence electronics engineer, lecturer and President of the Women's Engineering Society. Early life Ziff was born on 2December 1918 in Vienna, Austria, and grew up in the Polish city of Lvov. Her parents were of Ukrainian descent; her father was director of a bank, and her mother was a research chemist at Lvov University.

#824

Sandhya Samarasinghe

#124162

Overall Influence

Sandhya Samarasinghe is a New Zealand engineering academic and currently a full professor at the Lincoln University. Academic career Samarasinghe earned a Master's of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Patrice Lumumba University, Moscow, and a Master's and PhD in Engineering at Virginia Tech. After her 1991 PhD thesis, titled 'Long-term creep modeling of wood using time temperature superposition principle' , she moved to Lincoln University, rising to full professor.

#825

Chekesha Liddell

#90272

Overall Influence

Chekesha M. Liddell Watson is an Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Cornell University. She researches colloidal materials, and the relationship between micron and submicron length scales.

#826

Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb

#86164

Overall Influence

Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb is a mechanical engineer in the field of micro and nano engineering and mechanics of materials. She is the Harris Saunders, Jr. Chair and Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Bassiri-Gharb leads the Smart Materials, Advanced Research and Technology Laboratory at Georgia Tech. Her research seeks to characterize and optimize the optical and electric response of interferometric modulator displays. She also investigates novel materials to improve reliability and processing of IMOD.

#827

Vanessa Wood

#169055

Overall Influence

1983 - Present (41 years)

Vanessa Claire Wood is an American engineer who is a professor at the ETH Zurich. She holds a chair in Materials and Device Engineering and serves as Vice President of Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations.

#828

R. Iris Bahar

#116444

Overall Influence

R. Iris Bahar is Department Head of Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines. Previously, she was professor at the School of Engineering at Brown University. Her interests include computer architecture; computer-aided design for synthesis, verification and low-power applications; and design, test, and reliability issues for nanoscale systems.

#829

Mary Anne White

#130166

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Mary Anne White is a Canadian materials scientist who is the Harry Shirreff Professor of Chemical Research at Dalhousie University. Her research considers novel solar thermal materials and their application in renewable energy devices. She is the author of a textbook titled Physical Properties of Materials. She was appointed an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2016.

#830

Maria Domenica Di Benedetto

#168608

Overall Influence

1953 - Present (71 years)

Maria Domenica Di Benedetto is an Italian electrical engineer and control theorist whose interests include the control of hybrid systems, embedded control systems, automotive engine control, and aerospace flight control. She is Professor of Automatic Control at the University of L'Aquila, president of the European Embedded Control Institute, and the former president of the Italian Society of researchers in Automatic Control.

#831

Anne Simmons

#168973

Overall Influence

Anne Simmons is an Australian biomedical engineer. She served as Provost at the University of New South Wales from 2019 to 2023. Her research focused on analysis of blood flow in diseased vessels and the development of biomaterials for implantable devices.

#832

Kimberly L. Foster

#169539

Overall Influence

Kimberly L. Foster is an American mechanical engineer specializing in microelectromechanical systems including stick-slip phenomena, biomimetic adhesives, parametric oscillators, and microsensors. She is dean of science and engineering at Tulane University, where she is also a professor of physics and engineering physics and of biomedical engineering.

#833

Hana El-Samad

#125429

Overall Influence

Hana El-Samad is a Lebanese-American scientist who is a founding Principal Investigator at Altos Labs and a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Her work considers control theory and the function of complex biological systems. Her group has made contributions to systems biology, synthetic biology, and cell engineering.

#834

Judith Liebman

#124564

Overall Influence

1936 - 2023 (87 years)

Judith S. Liebman was an American operations researcher, civil engineer, and mechanical engineer. She was a professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and the only female president of the Operations Research Society of America .

#835

Laura Pauley

#169410

Overall Influence

Laura Lynn Pauley is an American mechanical engineer specializing in computational fluid dynamics, including the simulation of cavitation, flow separation, and large eddy simulation, with applications including the design of airfoils, boat propellors, and centrifugal pumps. She is a professor of mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, the former Arthur L. Glenn Professor of Engineering Education at Penn State, and the interim executive director of the Penn State faculty senate.

#836

Greta Ferušić

#124929

Overall Influence

1924 - 2022 (98 years)

Greta Ferušić Weinfeld was a Bosnian professor & dean of architecture at the University of Sarajevo. Greta was the only Bosnian woman to survive Auschwitz and the only person in the world to survive both Auschwitz and the Siege of Sarajevo.

#837

Mimi Lobell

#148084

Overall Influence

1942 - 2001 (59 years)

Mimi Lobell was an American architect, professor, cultural historian, and second wave feminist. Early life Lobell was born in the Midwest, the youngest of three children. She grew up in farm country in Illinois and Indiana. Her father was a professor of chemical engineering and later a department chair and then a dean. Her mother was a college-educated stay-at-home housewife.

#838

Jennifer Cochran

#153008

Overall Influence

Jennifer R. Cochran is an American bioegineer. Cochran completed a bachelor's degree in biochemistry at the University of Delaware in 1995, and pursued doctoral study in biological chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating in 2001, she remained at MIT as a postdoctoral fellow. Cochran later joined the Stanford University faculty, where she was named Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering. She was elected a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2018.

#839

Katja Schenke-Layland

#75790

Overall Influence

2000 - Present (24 years)

Katja Schenke-Layland is the Professor of Medical Technologies and Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department for Medical Technologies and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Tübingen. She is the Director of the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University Tübingen in Reutlingen, Study Dean of Medical Technologies at the University of Tübingen, and Founding Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the Medical Faculty of the University Tübingen. She is also the Founding Director of the 3R Center for In Vitro Models and Alternativ...

#840

Santosh Kurinec

#146768

Overall Influence

Santosh Kurinec is an IEEE fellow and a professor of Electrical & Microelectronic Engineering at Kate Gleason College of Engineering in Rochester Institute of Technology . She is an Indian American electronic engineer specializing in electronic materials and devices. She is a former IEEE Electron Devices Society distinguished lecturer. In 2018, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

#841

Emily Mower Provost

#115980

Overall Influence

Emily Mower Provost is a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan. She directs the Computational Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Professional history Provost received her B.S. in electrical engineering from Tufts University in 2004, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA in 2007 and 2010, respectively. After postdoctoral research in the Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab at the University of Southern California, Provost joined the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the ...

#842

Phyllida Lloyd

#10131

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

Phyllida Christian Lloyd, is an English film and theatre director and producer. Her theatre work includes directing productions at the Royal Court Theatre and Royal National Theatre, and opera director for Opera North and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Her adaptation of three Shakespeare plays received acclaim from critics, with The Guardian calling it "one of the most important theatrical events of the past 20 years".

#843

Leyla Soleymani

#81034

Overall Influence

Leyla Soleymani is a scientist and Canada Research Chair at McMaster University's faculty of engineering. Her research includes the development of advanced materials for biosensing and repellent surfaces.

#844

Carolyn Hansson

#97394

Overall Influence

1941 - Present (83 years)

Carolyn M. Hansson is a Canadian materials engineer. She was the first female student to attend the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College, London, and the first woman to graduate with a PhD in metallurgy from there. Hansson was honoured for pioneering a monitoring system for evaluating the integrity of concrete structures.

#845

Marcia O'Malley

#168855

Overall Influence

Marcia Kilchenman O'Malley is an American mechanical engineer, the Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Mechanical Engineering and associate dean for research and innovation for the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University. Her research concerns "systems for enhancing the human sensorimotor control system", including work on exoskeletons, neuroprosthetics, haptic technology, and brain–computer interfaces.

#846

Lina Jamil Karam

#78988

Overall Influence

Lina J. Karam is a Lebanese-American electrical and computer engineer and inventor. She is an IEEE Fellow. Her areas of work span digital signal processing, image/video processing, compression/coding and transmission, computer vision, machine learning/deep learning, perceptual-based visual processing, and automated mobility. She served as an expert delegate of the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 Committee and participated in JPEG/MPEG standardization activities. She served as expert consultant in matters related to Intellectual Property /Patent Litigation, Image/Video Compression and Streaming, Image/Video...

#847

Irina Viner

#11102

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Irina Alexandrovna Viner , formerly Irina Alexandrovna Viner-Usmanova , is an Uzbek-born Russian rhythmic gymnastics coach who is head coach of the Russian national team, president of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, and former vice president of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation.

#848

Alexandra Duel-Hallen

#45637

Overall Influence

Alexandra Duel-Hallen is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University known for her research in wireless networks. Education Duel-Hallen is a 1982 graduate of Case Western Reserve University, with a double major in mathematics and computer science. She earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan in 1983, and completed her Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1987. Her dissertation, Detection Algorithms for Intersymbol Interference Channels, was supervised by Chris Heegard.

#849

Lynette Jones

#171551

Overall Influence

Lynette Anne Jones is a New Zealand mechanical engineer whose research concerns haptic technology, haptic perception, thermal output devices, microsurgery, and the function and mechanics of the human hand and skin. She is a senior research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editor-in-chief of the journal IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

#850

Megan Konar

#83370

Overall Influence

Megan Konar is a scientist and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Konar’s research focuses on the intersection of food, water, and trade. She studies the connection between hydrology, environmental science, and economics.

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