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,
#7451
Justine Shults
#167326
Overall Influence
#7452
Karol Miller
#167329
Overall Influence
#7453
Atsushi Kawakami
#167354
Overall Influence
#7454
Masayoshi Nakashima
#167361
Overall Influence
#7455
Zhen Cheng
#167373
Overall Influence
#7456
C. Scott Jacobs
#14156
Overall Influence
Curtis Scott Jacobs, , is an American argumentation, communication, and rhetorical scholar. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a PhD. He taught for many years at the University of Arizona. He is now professor of Communication at the University of Illinois. He has lectured in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. He has contributed to the field of argumentation theory.
Go to Profile#7457
H. Steven Colburn
#167388
Overall Influence
#7458
Arturo Dell'Acqua Bellavitis
#116187
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
Arturo Dell'Acqua Bellavitis is the current director of the Milan Triennale Foundation and Exposition. Professional career Apart from being the director of the Triennale, Bellavitis has his own architectural and design practice in Milan. Among other customers, he has worked for Twinings, Nestlé, Renault and HGV. He is currently President of Milano Fashion Institute.
Go to Profile#7459
Clarence E. Davis
#167410
Overall Influence
#7460
Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis
#167418
Overall Influence
#7461
Helge Nornes
#167419
Overall Influence
#7462
Oscar C. Au
#167441
Overall Influence
Oscar C. Au is an engineer who worked as a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, from 1992 to 2014. He was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 for his contributions to multimedia coding and security. He received the B.A.Sc. degree from the University of Toronto in 1986, and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, in 1988 and 1991, respectively, under the supervision of John B. Thomas. Currently, he is the Vice President of Origin Wireless, Inc., which was founded by Prof. K. J. Ray Liu to pio...
Go to Profile#7463
Yuji Wada
#167453
Overall Influence
#7464
Amine Bermak
#167454
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Amine Bermak from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for contributions to sensing and processing of vision and olfactory circuits and systems.
Go to Profile#7465
Lau Wai Shing
#132050
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Lau Wai Shing , also known as Wai Shing Lau or Michael Lau, is a Hong Kong electrical engineer and materials scientist. He worked on both Si-based and III-V based microelectronics. Biography Lau was born in Hong Kong in 1955.
Go to Profile#7466
Gadi Marom
#167471
Overall Influence
#7467
Yasuhiro Koike
#167474
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
#7468
Michael J. Droller
#167475
Overall Influence
#7469
Otto Meitinger
#109755
Overall Influence
1927 - 2017 (90 years)
Otto Meitinger was a German architect and preservationist. From 1987 to 1995 he was president of the Technical University Munich. Life Meitinger was born as son of the first municipal architect of Munich Karl Meitinger. He studied architecture at the Department of Architecture of the Technical University Munich, finished his Staatsexamen and got his doctorate on the building history of the Munich Residenz.
Go to Profile#7470
Alfonso Iorio
#167481
Overall Influence
#7471
Martin J. C. Van Gemert
#167485
Overall Influence
#7472
Jan Steyaert
#70514
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Jan Steyaert is a Belgian bioengineer and molecular biologist. He started his career as an enzymologist but the Steyaertlab is best known for pioneering work on nanobodies for applications in structural biology, omics and drug design. He is full professor and teaches biochemistry at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Director of the VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology, one of the Research Centers of the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie . He was involved in the foundation of three spin-off companies: Ablynx, Biotalys, and Confo Therapeutics.
Go to Profile#7473
Jeremy Silverman
#167496
Overall Influence
#7474
Linda Doyle
#62539
Overall Influence
Linda E. Doyle is an Irish academic and educator who is the 45th provost and president of Trinity College Dublin , the university's chief officer. An electrical engineer, she has had a long academic career at Trinity, from the 1990s, most recently as Professor of Engineering and the Arts, in addition to holding other management roles such as Dean of Research. She has also led one telecommunications research centre at the university, and was the founding director of another, the multi-institution organisation known as CONNECT. Doyle has worked as a member of regulatory and advisory bodies in both Ireland, on broadband network strategy, and the UK, on mobile spectrum allocation.
Go to Profile#7475
Boaz Golany
#167514
Overall Influence
#7476
Lope G. Tabil
#167534
Overall Influence
#7477
Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck Groll
#167581
Overall Influence
1925 - 2015 (90 years)
Coenraad Liebrecht Temminck Groll was a Dutch architect, architectural historian, professor, and conservator. Temminck Groll earned his doctorate in 1963 with a thesis on medieval stone houses in Utrecht. From 1973 to 1986 he was Professor of Architecture and Restoration at the Delft University of Technology. He photographed and wrote about the architectural heritage of the Netherlands and of Dutch overseas territories in Asia, the Americas and Africa. He helped restore several churches in Utrecht.
Go to Profile#7478
Thomas Diery Patten
#130859
Overall Influence
1926 - 1999 (73 years)
Thomas Diery Patten CBE FRSE was a Scottish mechanical engineer and educator. He was involved in the development of the Scottish North Sea Oil Industry in the 1960s, heading the Institute of Offshore Engineering. He was President of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers 1991/92. He was known as Tom Patten.
Go to Profile#7479
Dennis Eugene Rolston
#167609
Overall Influence
#7480
Jun Miki
#69305
Overall Influence
1919 - 1992 (73 years)
Jun Miki was a Japanese photographer and one of Japan's pioneers in photojournalism. The Selection Committee of Nikon Salon established the Miki Jun Award in 1999 to remember his legacy. Books showing Miki's works Dokyumentarī no jidai: Natori Yōnosuke, Kimura Ihee, Domon Ken, Miki Jun no shashin kara / The Documentary Age: Photographs by Natori Younosuke, Kimura Ihee, Domon Ken, and Miki Jun. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2001. An exhibition catalogue. Captions in both Japanese and English, other text in Japanese only.
Go to Profile#7481
Elmar Hellwig
#167619
Overall Influence
#7482
Hans Dieter Schotten
#167625
Overall Influence
#7483
Wen‐yan Yin
#167629
Overall Influence
#7484
Abubakr S. Bahaj
#167636
Overall Influence
#7485
Thomas Arthur Zang
#167662
Overall Influence
#7486
Shan Cang Li
#167663
Overall Influence
#7487
Victor Krylov
#76240
Overall Influence
1952 - Present (74 years)
Victor Krylov is a Russian-born British academic. He is emeritus professor of acoustics and vibration at Loughborough University. Biography Krylov was born in Tambov, Russia. He received his PhD in physics and mathematics from the Moscow State University in 1981. In 1989 he received his DSc in the same disciplines from the Moscow State University and the Higher Attestation Commission of the former USSR. He then pursued an academic career in various universities leading to his present position at Loughborough University.
Go to Profile#7488
Ricardo G. Sanfelice
#167678
Overall Influence
#7489
John A. Klobuchar
#167686
Overall Influence
#7490
Pierre Deymier
#148024
Overall Influence
Pierre A. Deymier is a researcher in phononics, acoustic metamaterial, and materials science. He is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and previously department head at the University of Arizona. He holds appointments with the applied mathematics graduate interdisciplinary program, BIO5 institute, and School of Sustainable Engineered Systems at the University of Arizona. More recently, he has proposed a novel approach akin to quantum computing using the properties of phonons rather than qubits, which he has dubbed "phi-bits" or "phase-bits".
Go to Profile#7491
Peter Bienstman
#167695
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
#7492
Periannan Kuppusamy
#167711
Overall Influence
#7493
Peter Fraser
#102656
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Peter Fraser is a British fine art photographer. He was shortlisted for the Citigroup Photography Prize in 2004. Life and career Early life Fraser bought his first camera at the age of 7. In 1968, at school, Fraser saw Powers of Ten, a film by Charles and Ray Eames which over nine minutes takes the viewer on a journey from a couple picnicking in Chicago, out to the imagined edge of the Universe and back, continuing on down through the skin to an atomic level. Fraser went to school in Wales until 1971, then studied Civil Engineering for three months at Hatfield Polytechnic, England, before deciding to study photography.
Go to Profile#7494
Subbu S. Venkatraman
#167738
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#7495
Nicholas Graves
#167743
Overall Influence
#7496
Peter Hall
#22799
Overall Influence
1930 - 2017 (87 years)
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
Go to Profile#7497
Joseph Lechleider
#151748
Overall Influence
1933 - 2015 (82 years)
Joseph W. Lechleider was the inventor at the Bell Telephone Company of the DSL technology. In 1992, Joseph Lechleider was elevated to the grade of IEEE fellow for contribution to the theory and practices of high-speed digital subscriber lines.
Go to Profile#7498
Zoran S. Kapelan
#167755
Overall Influence
#7499
Kohji Tokimatsu
#167758
Overall Influence
#7500
Emilio Bajetta
#167760
Overall Influence
