The Most Influential People Across History
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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List of the most influential people in Engineering,
#5001
Kobie Boykins
#98001
Overall Influence
Kobie Boykins is a senior mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. In 2013, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. He designed the solar array systems for the Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and designed the actuators on the Mars rover Curiosity. He is currently the supervisor of the mobility and remote sensing teams for Curiosity. In 2003, he was part of NASA's M-Team, which lectured nationally to students regarding careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. He lectures internationally for National ...
Go to Profile#5002
K. Dane Wittrup
#99557
Overall Influence
K. Dane Wittrup is an American engineer who is the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor in Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012. His research has made advancements in protein engineering and biopharmaceutical engineering.
Go to Profile#5003
Margaret R. Fox
#40475
Overall Influence
1916 - 2006 (90 years)
Margaret R. Fox was an American electronics engineer and computer scientist. She was the Chief of the Office of Computer Information, part of the Institute for Computer Science and Technology of the National Bureau of Standards from 1966 to 1975 and was the first secretary of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies.
Go to Profile#5004
Fred H. Kulhawy
#137484
Overall Influence
#5005
Laura Waller
#90359
Overall Influence
1979 - Present (47 years)
Laura Ann Waller is a computer scientist and Ted Van Duzer Endowed Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She was awarded a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Fellowship to develop microscopes to image deep structures within the brain in 2017 and won the 2018 SPIE Early Career Award.
Go to Profile#5006
Antonio De Maio
#137519
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Antonio De Maio from the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for contributions to radar signal processing.
Go to Profile#5007
Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy
#137528
Overall Influence
#5008
Linh Dinh
#29187
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow. He writes a column for The Unz Review. Biography Dinh came to the US in 1975, lived in Philadelphia and in 2018 is moving back to Vietnam.
Go to Profile#5009
Hieu Trinh
#137540
Overall Influence
Hieu Minh Trinh is a professor in control systems engineering at Deakin University, Australia. Hieu Trinh was born in Vietnam. In the early 1980s, he came to Australia as a refugee. He attended University of Melbourne from which he obtained his BEng , MEngSc, PhD degrees in electrical and electronic engineering in 1990, 1992 and 1996 respectively. Following his postdoctoral fellowship, he served as a lecturer at James Cook University until 2000. In January 2001, he joined Deakin University, where he currently serves as a full professor.
Go to Profile#5010
Otto-martin Hess
#137548
Overall Influence
#5011
Stanley B. Gershwin
#137558
Overall Influence
#5012
Peter Uggowitzer
#137574
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Peter J. Uggowitzer is an Austrian-Swiss metallurgist and materials scientist. Academic life Uggowitzer studied materials science at the Montanuniversität Leoben until 1976, and earned his doctorate there in 1981 in the field of dual-phase steels. Subsequently, he transferred to ETH Zurich, where he earned his habilitation in 1993 and became a professor in 1996.
Go to Profile#5013
Freda Stevenson
#126836
Overall Influence
Freda Kathryn Stevenson is a British immunologist and Professor at the University of Southampton. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000, and was the first British researcher to be awarded the American Society of Hematology Henry M. Stratton Medal.
Go to Profile#5014
Sophie Papst
#137609
Overall Influence
#5015
Feng Lin
#137632
Overall Influence
#5016
David Huang
#137651
Overall Influence
#5017
Marcos Rubinstein
#87595
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Marcos Rubinstein is a professor and chair at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. Education Rubinstein obtained his bachelor's degree in electronics from Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela in 1982. Following it, he immigrated to the United States where he attended the University of Florida, graduating from it with Master's and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering in 1986 and 1991 respectively.
Go to Profile#5018
Sabine Szunerits
#137674
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
#5019
Leslie Myatt
#137701
Overall Influence
#5020
Seth Bonder
#111333
Overall Influence
1932 - 2011 (79 years)
Seth Bonder was an American engineer who made substantial contributions in Operations Research for the US military, first as a pilot during the Korean War in the US Air Force and later as a consultant through Vector Research, Inc., a company he founded and later served as its CEO. Amongst his numerous honors includes being named a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#5021
Yong-chun Fang
#137719
Overall Influence
#5022
Audrey Ellerbee Bowden
#69701
Overall Influence
Audrey K. Ellerbee Bowden is an American engineer and Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips Chancellor's Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University, as well as an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. She is a Fellow of Optica, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Society for Optics and Photonics .
Go to Profile#5023
Edward Knightly
#118303
Overall Influence
Edward W. Knightly is an American professor and the department chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He joined the Rice University faculty in 1996. He heads the Rice Networks Group.
Go to Profile#5024
Thomas Pardoen
#137721
Overall Influence
#5025
Ardeshir Mahdavi
#99582
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Ardeshir Mahdavi is an expert in building physics, architectural science, and human ecology. Education Ardeshir Mahdavi has a Diplom-Ingenieur degree, a Ph.D., and a Post-Doc degree from TU Wien, Austria.
Go to Profile#5026
Hector R. Wong
#137743
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
#5027
Hamish Lachlan Fraser
#137744
Overall Influence
#5028
Kiyonori Harii
#137779
Overall Influence
#5029
R. Barclay Mcghee
#137809
Overall Influence
#5030
Robert F Miller
#137820
Overall Influence
#5031
O. James Vogl
#137825
Overall Influence
#5032
Debasish Dutta
#61534
Overall Influence
Debasish "Deba" Dutta is an American mechanical engineer and higher education administrator. He is currently a senior advisor to the president of the University of Illinois system. Dutta has held various leadership positions, both at large public research universities and smaller regional institutions. He is the former Chancellor of the University of Michigan-Flint, Chancellor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Provost of Purdue University, and Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at...
Go to Profile#5033
Jianbin Qiu
#137882
Overall Influence
#5034
Earnest F. Gloyna
#123408
Overall Influence
1921 - 2019 (98 years)
Earnest Frederick Gloyna was an American environmental engineer. Gloyna was born in Vernon, Texas. He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. After his military service Gloyna studied civil engineering at Texas Technological College, completing his bachelor's degree in 1946. He further his study in the subject with a master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and joined the faculty upon graduation in 1949. In 1953, Gloyna received a doctorate in environmental and water resources engineering from Johns Hopkins University. At UT, Gloyna held the Joe L.
Go to Profile#5035
Vernon Cooray
#137909
Overall Influence
#5036
Xiao-yan Zeng
#137912
Overall Influence
#5037
John Warner Duckett
#137924
Overall Influence
#5038
Arthur K. Smith
#45628
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Arthur K. Smith is an American academic. He served as the president of the University of Utah from 1991 to 1997. At the time of his appointment, he was the first non-member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to hold the position. He was previously the vice president for academic affairs, provost and acting president of the University of South Carolina, and vice president of administration of the Binghamton University. Smith is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy . He later attended the University of New Hampshire and Cornell University and earned a master's degree in comparative and international politics, as well as a Doctor of Philosophy.
Go to Profile#5039
J. A. H. Duffie
#137940
Overall Influence
#5040
Joseph Bordogna
#112884
Overall Influence
1933 - 2019 (86 years)
Joseph Bordogna was an American scientist and engineer. Biography He was born on March 22, 1933, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Raymond and Rose Bordogna. He died on November 25, 2019, at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife Frances, son Ray and granddaughter Avery.
Go to Profile#5041
Steven R. Hanna
#137957
Overall Influence
#5042
Maurizio Biasini
#138031
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#5043
Paul Goodman
#90916
Overall Influence
Paul Goodman is a Grammy award-winning sound engineer, with awards in 1983 for Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E Minor , in 1985 for Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B Flat, Op. 100, and in 1987 for Horowitz - The Studio Recordings, New York 1985. In addition to classical music, he has also worked on notable jazz albums, including the avant-garde jazz album Communications, performed by Jazz Composer's Orchestra and 1974's Musique du Bois, by Phil Woods.
Go to Profile#5044
Bijjanal Jayanna Gireesha
#138098
Overall Influence
#5045
Dominique Gauzin-Müller
#101785
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Dominique Gauzin-Müller is a French architect and architectural critic, focusing on wood and sustainability in architecture and urbanism. She is the author of several books on these subjects, which have been translated into several languages. She wrote Construire avec le Bois , L'architecture écologique , 25 maisons en bois and 25 maisons écologique .
Go to Profile#5046
Peter Gerstoft
#138124
Overall Influence
#5047
Hoda A. Elmaraghy
#138134
Overall Influence
#5048
Elizabeth Hillman
#75206
Overall Influence
Elizabeth M. C. Hillman is a British-born academic who is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University. She was awarded the 2011 Adolph Lomb Medal from The Optical Society and the 2018 SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award.
Go to Profile#5049
William H. K. Lam
#138192
Overall Influence
#5050
Federico Prefumo
#138198
Overall Influence
