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,
#6351
Hensin Tsao
#154019
Overall Influence
#6352
John F Potter
#154032
Overall Influence
#6353
Sahjendra N. Singh
#154059
Overall Influence
#6354
O. H. Korotkova
#154063
Overall Influence
#6355
Sung-mo (steve) Kang
#154075
Overall Influence
#6356
A. Geoffrey Lockett
#154076
Overall Influence
#6357
Peter Travers
#9846
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Peter Joseph Travers is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts the film interview program Popcorn with Peter Travers for ABC News.
Go to Profile#6358
Christoforos N. Hadjicostis
#154139
Overall Influence
#6359
Mark Bower
#154145
Overall Influence
#6360
Keith A. Emery
#154147
Overall Influence
#6361
David Miller
#91270
Overall Influence
David W. Miller is an American aerospace engineer who is the current Jerome Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 2015. He is currently on a leave of absence from MIT to be a VP and the Chief Technology Officer to The Aerospace Corporation. He has worked on multiple NASA projects and served as NASA Chief Technologist.
Go to Profile#6362
Michael Sayer
#154166
Overall Influence
#6363
Todd Matthew Manini
#154224
Overall Influence
#6364
Robert M. Rose
#154262
Overall Influence
#6365
Karen L. Margolis
#154266
Overall Influence
#6366
Amit K. Roy-chowdhury
#154277
Overall Influence
#6367
David P. Pope
#154278
Overall Influence
#6368
Emanuele Viterbo
#154289
Overall Influence
#6369
Paul W. Fieguth
#154297
Overall Influence
#6370
Shimon Y. Nof
#154317
Overall Influence
#6371
Guang-hong Yang
#154322
Overall Influence
#6372
Richard E. DeVor
#151679
Overall Influence
1944 - 2011 (67 years)
Richard Earl DeVor was a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Manufacturing and research professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests consist of mathematical modeling/simulation of material removal processes and mathematical modeling of the end milling/face milling processes. He attained his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He died in July 2011.
Go to Profile#6373
Bruce R. Davis
#82463
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Bruce Raymond Davis is an electronic engineer, notable for his research in mobile communication systems, satellite communications, and high frequency data communication systems. Education He attended Adelaide Technical High School, Adelaide, Australia. He received a B.E. degree in electronic engineering, 1960, a B.Sc. in mathematics, 1963, and the PhD degree in electronic engineering, 1969, all from the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Go to Profile#6374
Mogens Henze
#154355
Overall Influence
#6375
John M. Warman
#154357
Overall Influence
#6376
David Breashears
#16997
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
David Finlay Breashears is an American mountaineer, filmmaker, author, and motivational speaker. In 1985, he reached the summit of Mount Everest a second time, becoming the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest more than once. He is perhaps best known as the director and cinematographer of Everest —which became the highest-grossing IMAX documentary—and for his assistance in the rescue efforts during the 1996 Everest disaster, which occurred during the film's production.
Go to Profile#6377
Michael Horne
#89371
Overall Influence
1921 - 2000 (79 years)
Michael Rex Horne OBE FREng, FRS was an English structural engineer, scientist and academic who pioneered the theory of the Plastic Design of Structures. Early life and education Horne was born in Leicester, England on 29 December 1921. He was educated at Boston Grammar School, Leeds Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Mechanical Sciences with first class honours in 1941
Go to Profile#6378
Oded Cats
#154390
Overall Influence
#6379
Takashige Ishikawa
#154396
Overall Influence
#6380
David A. I. Goring
#154399
Overall Influence
#6381
Peter B. Rhines
#154400
Overall Influence
#6382
George V. Vinogradov
#154426
Overall Influence
#6383
David. B. Neale
#154440
Overall Influence
#6384
Ling Guan
#154451
Overall Influence
#6385
David A. Hutchins
#154454
Overall Influence
#6386
Wolfgang K. H. Kinzelbach
#154459
Overall Influence
#6387
Oscar Brockett
#48736
Overall Influence
1923 - 2010 (87 years)
Oscar Gross Brockett was president of the American Theatre Association. An American Theater historian, he was Dean of the College of Fine Art at the University of Texas in Austin . Background and education He grew up in Hartsville, Tennessee; his parents were tobacco farmers. Brockett received his bachelor's degree from Peabody College and went on to do graduate studies at Stanford University, receiving both his masters and doctorate from the Drama Department. His masters thesis was about the production history of Of Mice and Men; his dissertation was about satire in English Restoration comedies.
Go to Profile#6388
Costas J. Spanos
#154475
Overall Influence
#6389
Joseph M. Juran
#92257
Overall Influence
1904 - 2008 (104 years)
Joseph Moses Juran was a Romanian-born American engineer, management consultant and author. He was an advocate for quality and quality management and wrote several books on the topics. He was the brother of Academy Award winner Nathan Juran.
Go to Profile#6390
Dmitri. B. Strukov
#154487
Overall Influence
#6391
Chihiro Minato
#65978
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Chihiro Minato is a Japanese photographer, filmmaker, arts curator and art theorist. He is also Professor at the Tama Art University since 1995. In 2000, Minato served as curator of the arts exhibition Serendipity: Photography, Video, Experimental Film and Multimedia Installation from Asia. Among his other major curatorial works is the Japanese Pavilion at the Venezia Biennale in 2007.
Go to Profile#6392
Guido Germano
#154497
Overall Influence
#6393
Clive A. J. Fletcher
#154506
Overall Influence
#6394
Braham Murray
#7002
Overall Influence
1943 - 2018 (75 years)
Braham Sydney Murray, OBE was an English theatre director. In 1976, he was one of five founding Artistic Directors of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, and the longest-serving . Early years Braham Goldstein was born in north London, the son of Samuel Goldstein. His name became Murray when his mother remarried and Philip Murray became his stepfather. He attended Clifton College, Bristol, at the age of 13 where he acted in The Bespoke Overcoat by Wolf Mankowitz and directed Ibsen's Brand in school productions. He read English at University College, Oxford, from 1961.
Go to Profile#6395
Subhasish G. Mitra
#154510
Overall Influence
#6396
Jia-hornog Lin
#154511
Overall Influence
#6397
Ryan M. Eustice
#154535
Overall Influence
1976 - Present (50 years)
Ryan M. Eustice is an American roboticist, and the Senior Vice President of Human-centric AI and Technology Adoption at the Toyota Research Institute . He is also a Professor of Robotics and Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#6398
Joost Jacques Kalker
#107012
Overall Influence
1933 - 2006 (73 years)
Joost Jacques Kalker was a Dutch professor at Delft University of Technology, recognized for his contributions to the field of Contact mechanics. Particularly, in the case of railway systems, his results are used for solving wheel-rail contact problems and railway dynamics. The linear elastic coefficients defined in his theory are known as the Kalker Coefficients.
Go to Profile#6399
Sonya T. Smith
#104177
Overall Influence
Sonya Teresa Smith is an American mechanical engineer whose research involves computational fluid dynamics and thermal management of electronics for air and space vehicles. She is a professor at Howard University, the director of the atmospheric sciences program at Howard University, and the 2020–2021 president of Sigma Xi.
Go to Profile#6400
Kazuo Tanie
#154585
Overall Influence
