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,
#5501
John Speer Schroeder
#143556
Overall Influence
#5502
Bertrand Çhapron
#143563
Overall Influence
#5503
Steve Wright
#8352
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Stephen Richard Wright is an English radio personality, occasional television presenter and disc jockey, credited with introducing the zoo format on British radio, known for its zany, multi-personality approach. He presented Steve Wright in the Afternoon for 12 years on BBC Radio 1 and 23 years on BBC Radio 2, two of the BBC's national radio stations, the latter being the most popular station in the United Kingdom, ending on 30 September 2022. He continues to present his Sunday Love Songs weekend mid-morning show on Radio 2, and in October 2023, he took over as the host of Pick of the Pops from Paul Gambaccini.
Go to Profile#5504
Jeom Kee Paik
#143601
Overall Influence
#5505
Geoffrey. D. Parfitt
#143602
Overall Influence
#5506
Yossi Sheffi
#65326
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Yossi Sheffi is the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He founded or co-founded five companies, has authored numerous scientific publications and nine books.
Go to Profile#5507
Claudio A. Cañizares
#143612
Overall Influence
#5508
Joel Singer
#143618
Overall Influence
#5509
Orla Feely
#70302
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Orla Feely is an Irish academic and professor of electronic engineering. She is currently President of University College Dublin , having previously served as Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact. She is also the first Irish woman elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Go to Profile#5510
Sanjay Shakkottai
#115315
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Sanjay Shakkottai is the Temple Foundation Endowed Professor No. 3 at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, Shakkottai obtained his Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2014 for contributions to the modeling, design, and analysis of wireless networks.
Go to Profile#5511
Qiang Cheng
#143667
Overall Influence
#5512
Ashok K. Vijh
#143674
Overall Influence
#5513
David Glasser
#102512
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
David Glasser is a South African engineer best known for his co-development of attainable region theory and research into improving the efficiency of chemical processes. In 2001 he was the inaugural recipient of the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award. He has also been awarded the Bill-Neale May Gold Medal by the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers, as well as the Science for Society Gold Medal from the Academy of Science of South Africa.
Go to Profile#5514
Anja Boisen
#143685
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
#5515
Michael Alexander Florian
#143690
Overall Influence
#5516
Franco Dr Maloberti
#143695
Overall Influence
#5517
Tayfun Babadagli
#143698
Overall Influence
#5518
Matthew O’donnell
#143719
Overall Influence
#5519
Abram R. Recht
#143756
Overall Influence
#5520
Gabriel Chodick
#143769
Overall Influence
#5521
Cheong-ki Chan
#143786
Overall Influence
#5522
Todd Scheuer
#143791
Overall Influence
#5523
Eugenio Cantatore
#103042
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Eugenio Cantatore is an Italian electrical engineer at the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands. Cantatore was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2016 for his contributions to the design of circuits with organic thin film transistors.
Go to Profile#5524
Andrea Leers
#109401
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Andrea Leers is an American architect and educator. Together with Jane Weinzapfel, Leers created the Boston-based architecture firm Leers Weinzapfel Associates which was the first woman-owned firm to win the American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award in 2007. In 1991, she was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows.
Go to Profile#5525
Giovanni Spagnuolo
#139181
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Giovanni Spagnuolo is an Italian engineer. Since May 2016 he is Full Professor of Electrical Engineering at DIEM department of the University of Salerno, Italy. He received the M.Sc. degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Salerno on April 5, 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University "Federico II" of Naples in 1998.
Go to Profile#5526
Donna Riley
#81448
Overall Influence
Donna Riley is currently the Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing at University of New Mexico. Riley is known for her work in challenging traditional notions of engineering education. Riley has worked to incorporate a intersectional approach to engineering and uses STS as a framework for understanding how engineering affects society in a social and political way.
Go to Profile#5527
Wai -kai Chen
#143848
Overall Influence
#5528
Steven J. Durning
#143865
Overall Influence
#5529
Marco Viceconti
#143873
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
#5530
Lynn Gelhar
#127079
Overall Influence
Lynn Walter Gelhar is an American civil engineer focusing in hydrology and is currently Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is recognized for pioneering research in stochastic subsurface hydrology, has leading research in the area of field-scale contaminant transport experiments, and has extensive experience on the hydrologic aspects of nuclear waste disposal.
Go to Profile#5531
Ashley Schafer
#110423
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 years)
Ashley Schafer is a professor of architecture at the Ohio State University, where she was head of architecture from 2005 to 2009. Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio State, she was an associate professor of architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Go to Profile#5532
Werner A. Baum
#34025
Overall Influence
Werner A. Baum was the 2nd chancellor of University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the 7th president of University of Rhode Island . Baum was a meteorologist by training and served as the president of the American Meteorological Society from 1977 to 1978.
Go to Profile#5533
Kartik Chandran
#143913
Overall Influence
#5534
William Evans Mcilroy
#143921
Overall Influence
#5535
Subhash Rakheja
#143924
Overall Influence
#5536
Salvatore Dierna
#95788
Overall Influence
1934 - 2016 (82 years)
Salvatore Dierna was an Italian architect, professor in Environmental Design since 1977 at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” dean of the Architecture School at its university , and president of the Human Sciences, Arts and Environment Federated Athenaeum from 2004 to 2007.
Go to Profile#5537
Jenq‐gong Duh
#143995
Overall Influence
#5538
Ming Cao
#143996
Overall Influence
#5539
Fernando Porté‐agel
#144038
Overall Influence
#5540
Matthew Barth
#98819
Overall Influence
Matthew Barth is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and associate dean for research and graduate education in the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2014 for his research in intelligent transportation systems.
Go to Profile#5541
Nobuyuki Hamajima
#144065
Overall Influence
#5542
James H. Shelhamer
#144084
Overall Influence
#5543
Jan Evans-Freeman
#87249
Overall Influence
Jan H. Evans-Freeman was the pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Canterbury College of Engineering between 2009 until 2021, and is an English-New Zealand professor of engineering. She is now the pro-vice-chancellor of sustainability at the University of Canterbury After obtaining a Ph.D. at the University of Manchester she moved to Sheffield Hallam University and then University of Canterbury in 2009. As well as her academic roles, she holds a number of industry roles.
Go to Profile#5544
Anthony Rollett
#119920
Overall Influence
Anthony Rollett is a British materials scientist and engineer currently at Carnegie Mellon University and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. His research interests are within computational materials science, specifically mesoscale methods and microstructure evolution.
Go to Profile#5545
Stewart Andrew Silling
#144174
Overall Influence
#5546
Frederick J. Swanson
#144204
Overall Influence
#5547
Donald Ray Scifres
#144233
Overall Influence
#5548
Yoshinobu Aoyagi
#144247
Overall Influence
#5549
Tipu Zahed Aziz
#144271
Overall Influence
#5550
Rüdiger L. Urbanke
#144280
Overall Influence
