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,
#6151
Natesa G. Pandian
#151835
Overall Influence
#6152
Bernard Weiss
#151844
Overall Influence
1925 - Present (101 years)
#6153
Jan Ekstrand
#151866
Overall Influence
#6154
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.
Go to Profile#6155
Michael M. Todd
#151872
Overall Influence
#6156
St Steven R. Bergmann
#151880
Overall Influence
#6157
Zakya Kafafi
#108043
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 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.
Go to Profile#6158
Kemal Akkaya
#151892
Overall Influence
#6159
Zhi-xing Wang
#151893
Overall Influence
#6160
James Chodosh
#151898
Overall Influence
#6161
Per-lennart A. Westesson
#151899
Overall Influence
#6162
Ian McDougall
#140597
Overall Influence
Ian Lachlan McDougall is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Adelaide and a founding director of the Australian architecture firm Ashton Raggatt McDougall or ARM Architecture. His most significant projects include Melbourne Recital Centre and Melbourne Theatre Company's Southbank Theatre, Hamer Hall at Arts Centre Melbourne, masterplanning of Melbourne Docklands, Albury Library Museum and the Shrine of Remembrance Visitors Centre in Melbourne.
Go to Profile#6163
S. Mark Akselrod
#151903
Overall Influence
#6164
Seong‐gi Kim
#151912
Overall Influence
#6165
Toshiyuki Sueyoshi
#151917
Overall Influence
#6166
Mark Fort Harris
#151925
Overall Influence
#6167
Merryn Tawhai
#128298
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (125 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...
Go to Profile#6168
Huadong Guo
#151964
Overall Influence
#6169
Robert Wellesley Mann
#144907
Overall Influence
1924 - 2006 (82 years)
Robert Wellesley Mann was a pioneer in the field of medical prosthetics. Mann was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where professor of mechanical engineering for almost 40 years and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Go to Profile#6170
Sutanu Sarkar
#151982
Overall Influence
#6171
Kamal Youcef‐toumi
#151993
Overall Influence
#6172
Daniel Ira Rosenthal
#152016
Overall Influence
#6173
Ryszard Romaniuk
#152019
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
#6174
Andrzej Korneliusz Bledzki
#152026
Overall Influence
#6175
Peter Richard Wilcock
#152039
Overall Influence
#6176
Wally J. Minkowycz
#152046
Overall Influence
#6177
R. D. Iii Brown
#152068
Overall Influence
#6178
William M. Abbott
#152075
Overall Influence
#6179
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.
Go to Profile#6180
John Stuart Nelson
#152096
Overall Influence
#6181
Sàndor Suhai
#152097
Overall Influence
#6182
Myeong‐ki Hong
#152105
Overall Influence
#6183
Pi de Bruijn
#51074
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Pi de Bruijn is a Dutch architect from Losser, Overijssel, the Netherlands . He is a design principal at the Office de Architecten Cie., located in Amsterdam. History Bruijn graduated from the Delft University of Technology.
Go to Profile#6184
Charles Feldman
#152116
Overall Influence
#6185
Man-hyong Yoo
#152119
Overall Influence
#6186
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...
Go to Profile#6187
Frank Brian Mercer
#104635
Overall Influence
1927 - 1998 (71 years)
Frank Brian Mercer OBE FRS was an English engineer, inventor and businessman. He was born into a Blackburn family, which for generations had been involved in the textile industry and which owned and controlled companies engaged in spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, and educated at the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn.
Go to Profile#6188
Qiang Fu
#152167
Overall Influence
#6189
Filippo Capolino
#152168
Overall Influence
#6190
Jongyoon Han
#152170
Overall Influence
#6191
Richard Paul Cambria
#152186
Overall Influence
#6192
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 .
Go to Profile#6193
Keyue Ma Smedley
#152213
Overall Influence
#6194
Achille Messac
#149614
Overall Influence
Achille Messac is the Dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences at Howard University. He has previously served as Professor of Aerospace Engineering Mississippi State University. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019.
Go to Profile#6195
Mario Gerla
#101787
Overall Influence
1943 - 2019 (76 years)
Mario Gerla was an Italian computer scientist and engineer, Distinguished Professor, Jonathan B. Postel Chair and Chair of the Department of Computer Science of University of California, Los Angeles . He co-authored 11 books. He died in 2019.
Go to Profile#6196
Michael Kahn
#22762
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Michael Kahn is an American theater director and drama educator. He was the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. from 1986 until his retirement in 2019. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006.
Go to Profile#6197
Joseph Cavallaro
#121269
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Joseph R. Cavallaro is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University and director of the Center for Multimedia Communication in Houston, Texas. He joined the faculty of Rice University in August 1988. He was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for contributions to VLSI architectures and algorithms for signal processing and wireless communications.
Go to Profile#6198
Cheng‐chun Tang
#152292
Overall Influence
#6199
Michael Devetsikiotis
#127525
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Michael Devetsikiotis is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of New Mexico who was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 for contributions to rare-event modeling of communication networks.
Go to Profile#6200
Hitoshi Kiya
#152306
Overall Influence
Hitoshi Kiya from the Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2016 for contributions to filter structure, data hiding, and multimedia security.
Go to Profile