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,
#5751
William Keeler Burns
#146758
Overall Influence
#5752
Sachio Takashima
#146765
Overall Influence
#5753
Martin J. Corless
#146772
Overall Influence
#5754
Derrick Gosselin
#47768
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (70 years)
Derrick-Philippe B. J., Baron Gosselin is a Belgian engineer and economist. He is chairman of the Belgian Nuclear Sciences Research Center SCK CEN, vice-chairman of Belgonucleaire and vice-chairman of the Royal Higher Institute for Defence . He is on the board of the Von Karman Institute.
Go to Profile#5755
Francesco Dell’isola
#146781
Overall Influence
#5756
Johannes B. Huber
#146787
Overall Influence
#5757
Ruth Cameron
#122363
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Ruth Cameron FInstP FIOM3 is a British materials scientist and professor at the University of Cambridge. She is co-director of the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials. She studies materials that interact therapeutically with the body.
Go to Profile#5758
Gary Purdy
#114815
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Gary Rush Purdy is a Canadian materials scientist and engineer. He is a Distinguished University Professor at McMaster University. Early life and education Purdy was born on October 8, 1936, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was born to father Kent Purdy and graduated from McKay Avenue and Victoria Composite High schools. Following high school, he earned his bachelor's degree in mining engineering and his master's degree in metallurgy from the University of Alberta . During his time at the U of A, he won the Robert Tegler Scholarship from 1957 to 1958 and a National Research Council studentship from 1958 to 1959.
Go to Profile#5759
Robert B. Olshansky
#146826
Overall Influence
#5760
William Shieh
#146829
Overall Influence
#5761
Alice E. Smith
#109970
Overall Influence
Alice E. Smith is an American industrial engineer whose research concerns mathematical optimization for complex applications in manufacturing, business planning, advanced materials, and communication networks, based on problems including facility location and network design. She is Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Auburn University, where she also holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Go to Profile#5762
Raed A. A. Abd-alhameed
#146845
Overall Influence
#5763
Benjamin Van Roy
#146847
Overall Influence
#5764
Hong Bin Sun
#146851
Overall Influence
#5765
Robert Godfrey Meyer
#146861
Overall Influence
#5766
Alma Carlisle
#93121
Overall Influence
1927 - Present (99 years)
Alma Fairfax Carlisle , is an American architect and architectural historian who worked in Los Angeles. Her work led to the preservation of many historic districts and sites in the city of Los Angeles.
Go to Profile#5767
Anil Mital
#146872
Overall Influence
#5768
Uttandaraman Sundararaj
#146887
Overall Influence
#5769
Thomas Andrew Black
#146889
Overall Influence
#5770
Richard Lawrence Nelson
#146902
Overall Influence
#5771
Fumio Miyazaki
#146904
Overall Influence
#5772
Mónica Bertolino
#130880
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Mónica Bertolino is an Argentinean architect and professor of architecture. She also owns and operates Estudio Bertolino-Barrado, an architecture studio with several locations in Argentina and Spain. The studio obtained the Diploma to the Merit - Architecture 2002-2006 for Visual Arts at the Konex Awards in 2012.
Go to Profile#5773
Hélder A. Santos
#146927
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#5774
Michele Brignole
#146953
Overall Influence
#5775
Faruk Civan
#146958
Overall Influence
#5776
Pawel Wargocki
#146971
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (60 years)
#5777
Hajime Asama
#146972
Overall Influence
#5778
Deb Niemeier
#92838
Overall Influence
Deb A. Niemeier is an American transportation engineer known for her work on measuring vehicle emissions and its impact on the air quality in nearby neighborhoods, on the effects of carbon dioxide on climate change, on gender differences in commuting behavior, and on the quantification of transport accessibility. She is James & Alice B. Clark Distinguished Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Go to Profile#5779
Paul J Martin
#146998
Overall Influence
#5780
David Frederick Fletcher
#147017
Overall Influence
#5781
Zhe-ming Xu
#147033
Overall Influence
#5782
Barbara Klemm
#80328
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Barbara Klemm is a German press photographer. She worked for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for 45 years. She photographed many of the most important events in recent German history and has received honors, including Fellowship of the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Pour le Mérite. She was inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame in recognition of her status as "a driving force in reportage photography" and as "an exemplary photographer".
Go to Profile#5783
Wout Joseph
#147047
Overall Influence
#5784
Zhong Denghua
#109665
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Zhong Denghua is a Chinese Hydraulic engineer and the current vice minister of Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. He is an alternate member of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Go to Profile#5785
Kevin O’malley
#147072
Overall Influence
#5786
David Anthony Hills
#147087
Overall Influence
#5787
Charles W. Tu
#147113
Overall Influence
#5788
Zhenan Sun
#147115
Overall Influence
#5789
Li Min Zhang
#147124
Overall Influence
#5790
Polina Golland
#112649
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Polina Golland is an Israeli-American computer scientist specializing in medical image computing and biomedical image analysis. She is Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and heads the medical vision group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Go to Profile#5791
Zhang Jinqiu
#111813
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (90 years)
Zhang Jinqiu is a Chinese architect and professor at Tsinghua University. She was titled “Construction Master’ and “Academician of China” by the Chinese government. She has been appointed as the Chief Architect for China’s Capital Construction Design Group since 1987 and remained in this position until the present day. Zhang was also amongst the first round of winners of the Xi'an Science and Technology Award for Outstanding Contributions in 2005. By 2011, she was elected as a member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#5792
T. William Clyne
#147152
Overall Influence
#5793
Xiaoxiong (jack) Xiong
#147156
Overall Influence
#5794
Alfred P. Hallstrom
#147182
Overall Influence
#5795
Merrill I. Skolnik
#147216
Overall Influence
#5796
Liang Jiang
#147231
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#5797
Kalina Hristova
#127635
Overall Influence
Kalina A. Hristova is a Bulgarian–American engineer. She is a professor of materials science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering. Early life and education Hristova received her Bachelor of Science degree and Master's degree in physics from Sofia University in 1987 and 1988, respectively, before moving to the United States. She subsequently earned her PhD in mechanical engineering and materials science from Duke University in 1994 and worked as a post-doctoral associate and research scientist at the University of California, Irvine. During college, she b...
Go to Profile#5798
William W. Cooley
#105221
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (96 years)
William W. Cooley is a retired educational researcher, author, and professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh. He was born in West Bend, Wisconsin on March 20, 1930. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Lawrence University in 1952, a master's degree in science education and statistics at the University of Minnesota in 1955, and a doctorate in science education, statistics, and measurement at Harvard University in 1958. He is married to artist Cynthia Cooley.
Go to Profile#5799
Kuzhikalail. M. Abraham
#147274
Overall Influence
#5800
Benoît M. Dawant
#147283
Overall Influence
