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,
#2401
Kelly Slater
#6297
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship Tour victories. Slater is also the oldest surfer still active on the World Surf League, winning his 8th Billabong Pipeline Masters title at age 49.
Go to Profile#2402
Mulalo Doyoyo
#48123
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Mulalo Doyoyo is a South African engineer, inventor, and professor. Doyoyo is a researcher in applied mechanics, ultralight materials, green building, renewable energy, and other fields of engineering. He has lectured in different engineering disciplines including ocean engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and mechanical engineering.
Go to Profile#2403
Pierluigi Siano
#96361
Overall Influence
#2404
Mark T Gladwin
#96377
Overall Influence
#2405
Frank Arneil Walker
#57820
Overall Influence
Frank Arneil Walker OBE is a Scottish architectural academic and writer. He is emeritus professor of architecture of the University of Strathclyde. He writes regularly on architectural and urban history, is author of The South Clyde Estuary, and co-author of The North Clyde Estuary and Central Glasgow in the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland series of handbooks on Scottish architecture.
Go to Profile#2406
Samuel J. Bame
#96435
Overall Influence
#2407
Avraham Yaski
#74525
Overall Influence
1927 - 2014 (87 years)
Avraham Yasky was an Israeli architect. Biography Yasky was born in Chişinău, Romania on 14 April 1927. He immigrated to the Mandatory Palestine with his family in 1935. Yasky studied at the Technion. Early in his career he worked in the office of Arieh Sharon. At the age of 25 he made the plans for Rabin Square with Shimon Povsner, and later the Tel Aviv City Hall on the square. Early works by Yasky, such as the "quarter-kilometer apartments" of 1960 with Amnon Alexandroni, were primarily of concrete.
Go to Profile#2408
Robert E. Machol
#62040
Overall Influence
1917 - 1998 (81 years)
Robert Engel Machol was an American systems engineer and professor of systems at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University. Machol wrote the earliest significant books directly related to systems engineering. He was also Chief Scientist for the Federal Aviation Administration, President of the Operations Research Society of America, and an encyclopedia editor.
Go to Profile#2409
Leif Hertz
#96505
Overall Influence
1930 - Present (94 years)
#2410
Nikil Jayant
#24842
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (79 years)
Nikil S. Jayant is an Indian-American communications engineer. He was a researcher at Bell Laboratories and subsequently a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 1970.
Go to Profile#2411
Mario A. T. Figueiredo
#72060
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Mário A. T. Figueiredo is a Portuguese engineer, academic, and researcher. He is an IST Distinguished Professor and holds the Feedzai chair of machine learning at IST, University of Lisbon. Figueiredo's research interests include signal and image processing, focusing on image inverse problems, along with machine learning, with a focus on statistical approaches. Additionally, he has worked on applications to medical imaging and remote sensing, and mathematical optimization applied to imaging inverse problems and machine learning.
Go to Profile#2412
Yoshio Waseda,
#96546
Overall Influence
#2413
Ceng Z. Kahraman
#96582
Overall Influence
#2414
Seth J. Teller
#39014
Overall Influence
1964 - 2014 (50 years)
Seth Jared Teller was an American computer scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose research interests included computer vision, sensor networks, and robotics. In his Argus and Rover projects of the late 1990s, Teller was an early pioneer in the use of mobile cameras and geolocation to build three-dimensional models of cities.
Go to Profile#2415
Jocelyn Chanussot
#96633
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Jocelyn Chanussot is a Professor of signal and image processing at the Grenoble Institute of Technology in Grenoble, France. Chanussot was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 for his contributions to data fusion and image processing for remote sensing. Since January 2011, he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing and is a former member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Go to Profile#2416
William Ditto
#35335
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
William L. Ditto is an American biomedical engineer. Ditto was raised in Anchorage, Alaska. He studied physics at the University of California, Los Angeles and completed a doctorate in the subject at Clemson University. Ditto then worked for the United States Department of the Navy before teaching at the College of Wooster for two years. During his subsequent six-year tenure at Georgia Tech, Ditto was a founding member of the department of biomedical engineering, jointly established in 1999 by Georgia Tech and Emory University. Between 2002 and 2009, Ditto served as chair of the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida.
Go to Profile#2417
Mark L. Latash
#96636
Overall Influence
#2418
Louis Becker
#52709
Overall Influence
1962 - Present (62 years)
Louis Becker is a Danish architect and professor , and the global design principal at Henning Larsen Architects. In 2008 Becker was appointed adjunct professor at the Department of Architecture and Design at Aalborg University. In 2011 he received the Eckersberg Medal by the Academic Council, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts as a recognition of his achievements of putting Danish architecture on the world map.
Go to Profile#2419
Sri Sarma
#68776
Overall Influence
1972 - Present (52 years)
Sridevi Sarma is an American biomedical and electrical engineer known for her work in applying control theory to improve therapies for neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. She is vice dean for graduate education of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Go to Profile#2420
Yang Shao-Horn
#92053
Overall Influence
Yang Shao-Horn is a Chinese American scholar, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering and a member of Research Laboratory of Electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is known for research on understanding and controlling of processes for storing electrons in chemical bonds towards zero-carbon energy and chemicals.
Go to Profile#2421
William L. Maxwell
#56812
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
William Laughlin Maxwell is an American engineer. William L. Maxwell was born in Philadelphia on 1 July 1934, and attended Central High School. He subsequently attended Cornell University. During his studies, Maxwell met Andrew Schultz Jr. and Richard W. Conway. After Maxwell completed his bachelor's in mechanical engineering in 1957, Schultz convinced him to stay for a Ph.D., with which he graduated in 1961. Maxwell remained at Cornell as a faculty member, where he was later appointed to a named professorship in industrial engineering named after Schultz. In 1998, Maxwell was elected a membe...
Go to Profile#2422
Dörte Gatermann
#81805
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
Dörte Gatermann is a German architect who is best known for designing the Triangle Tower in Cologne. Early life Dörte Gatermann's was born in 1956 in Hamburg, Germany. Gatermann's mother died when she was a little girl, and she was raised by her architect father. She went on to study at the Braunschweig University of Technology and at RWTH Aachen where she studied under Pritzker prize-winning architect Gottfried Böhm. After working successfully as leader for Böhm's Züblin House project in Stuttgart while still a student, she spent the next five years working for him as project leader after h...
Go to Profile#2423
Leroy S. Fletcher
#87562
Overall Influence
1936 - Present (88 years)
Leroy Stevenson Fletcher is an American mechanical and aerospace engineer, and college dean, who served as the 104th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1985–86, and was recipient of the 2002 ASME Medal.
Go to Profile#2424
Elazer R. Edelman
#50677
Overall Influence
Elazer R. Edelman is an American engineer, scientist and cardiologist. He is the Edward J. Poitras Professor in Medical Engineering and Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and at Brigham and Women's Hospital , and a practicing cardiologist at BWH. He is the director of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science , the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center, and the MIT Clinical Research Center. He is also the Program Director of the MIT Graduate Education in Medical Sciences program within the Harvard-MIT Division o...
Go to Profile#2425
Albert Folch Folch
#62629
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Albert Folch Folch is a Spanish/Catalan scientist, writer, and artist. He is currently a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington who is known for his research into Microfluidics and BioMEMS as well as his works of scientific art.
Go to Profile#2426
Daniel J. Scheeres
#96255
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (61 years)
Daniel Jay Scheeres is an American aerospace engineer. He is the A. Richard Seebass Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In honor of his "pioneering work into the investigation of the dynamics of orbits close to small, irregularly shaped minor planets," Asteroid 1994LK1 was renamed Scheeres in 1999.
Go to Profile#2427
Nick Birbilis
#79129
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Nick Birbilis is an Australian engineer and academic. He is presently the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Built Environment, at Deakin University. Birbilis was previously the Dean, and Deputy Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University. He is of Greek-Australian background. Birbilis works in the field of materials science and engineering, having made contributions in the area of materials design, materials durability and materials characterisation. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society , a Fellow of NACE , a f...
Go to Profile#2428
Nitin Hemant Vaidya
#96853
Overall Influence
#2429
Mary C Boyce
#96868
Overall Influence
#2430
Henry Bond
#13821
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Henry Bond, FHEA is an English writer, photographer, and visual artist. In his Lacan at the Scene , Bond made contributions to theoretical psychoanalysis and forensics. In 1990, with Sarah Lucas, Bond organised the art exhibition East Country Yard Show, which was influential in the formation and development of the Young British Artists movement; together with Damien Hirst, Angela Bulloch, and Liam Gillick, the two were "the earliest of the YBAs."
Go to Profile#2431
Olufemi Majekodunmi
#50795
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (84 years)
Olufemi Adetokunbo Majekodunmi is a British-Nigerian architect. Early life and education Olufemi was born on 1 May 1940 in London, England to Moses Majekodunmi and Tomi Agbebi. However, he grew up in Nigeria and attended St Gregory's College, Lagos He later returned to the United Kingdom to study architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, Kingston College of Art and graduated in 1966.
Go to Profile#2432
William A. Sirignano
#96930
Overall Influence
#2433
Patcha Ramachandra Rao
#43508
Overall Influence
1942 - 2010 (68 years)
Patcha Ramachandra Rao was a metallurgist and administrator. He has the unique distinction of being the only Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University who was also a student and faculty at that institution. From 1992 to 2002, Rao was the Director of the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur. After his tenure as Vice-Chancellor of B.H.U., in 2005, he took the reins of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology as its first Vice-Chancellor. He was to serve DIAT until his superannuation in 2007. From 2007 till the end, Rao was a Raja Ramanna Fellow at the International Advan...
Go to Profile#2434
Rodolfo Barragán Schwarz
#52613
Overall Influence
1931 - 2017 (86 years)
Rodolfo Barragán Schwarz was a Mexican architect. Barragán studied at the ITESM, and later under Paul Rudolph at Yale School of Architecture. Afterwards he worked in Italy with Giovanni Michelucci.
Go to Profile#2435
Keith Bullock
#86301
Overall Influence
1931 - 2015 (84 years)
Keith Joseph Bullock FTSE was an engineer and academic at the University of Queensland. Early life Bullock was born in Brisbane, Queensland in 1931. He attended Moorooka State School and the Church of England Grammar School. Bullock enrolled in the engineering program at the University of Queensland in 1948, gaining his B.E. with first class honours in 1952. He won a number of prizes and the Alfred Henry Darker scholarship.
Go to Profile#2436
Daniel Palomar
#68235
Overall Influence
Daniel Palomar is an electrical engineer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for his contributions to convex optimization-based signal processing for communications.
Go to Profile#2437
Gareth H. McKinley
#93268
Overall Influence
Gareth Huw McKinley is Professor of Teaching Innovation in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Education McKinley was educated at the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree followed by a Master of Engineering degree as a student of Downing College, Cambridge. He moved to America to complete his PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology supervised by Robert C. Armstrong.
Go to Profile#2438
Astra Zarina
#84888
Overall Influence
1929 - 2008 (79 years)
Astra Zarina was an architect and professor in the University of Washington Department of Architecture. She is best known for her creation of the University of Washington Italian Studies programs and her founding of the UW Rome Center.
Go to Profile#2439
Philip M'Pherson
#79906
Overall Influence
1927 - 2016 (89 years)
Philip Keith M'Pherson was a British systems engineer, consultant, Emeritus Professor of Systems Engineering & Management at the City University London, and founder of the Department of Systems Science at City University, also known as developer of the Inclusive Valuation Methodology.
Go to Profile#2440
Alexander Gaeta
#92509
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (63 years)
Alexander Luis Gaeta is an American physicist and the David M. Rickey Professor of Applied Physics at Columbia University. He is known for his work on quantum and nonlinear photonics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Optica , and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Go to Profile#2441
Nikos D. Hatziargyriou Hatziargyriou
#97016
Overall Influence
#2442
Serkan Golge
#50445
Overall Influence
1901 - Present (123 years)
Serkan Golge is a Turkish-American scientist who was held in prison and house arrest in Turkey for nearly four years, as part of a crackdown by Turkish authorities after the country's failed coup d'état attempt of 2016. His imprisonment stemmed in part from his possession of a single American $1 bill.
Go to Profile#2443
Fred Bassetti
#51222
Overall Influence
1917 - 2013 (96 years)
Fred Bassetti was a Pacific Northwest architect and teacher. His architectural legacy includes some of the Seattle area's more recognizable buildings and spaces. The American Institute of Architects described his role as a regional architect and activist as having made significant contributions to "the shape of Seattle and the Northwest, and on the profession of architecture."
Go to Profile#2444
Balaraman Kalyanaraman
#97036
Overall Influence
#2445
Suguru Arimoto
#97039
Overall Influence
#2446
Murat Günel
#36036
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (57 years)
Murat Günel is a Turkish medical scientist. Dr. Murat Günel, Professor of Neurosurgery, assumed the position of chief of Neurovascular Surgery Program in January 2001. Dr. Günel is a board certified neurosurgeon and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He has special interest in treating brain aneurysms and vascular malformations with special emphasis on arterio-venous malformations and cavernous malformations.
Go to Profile#2447
Charles Wesley Bert
#97059
Overall Influence
#2448
Gary Pope
#91739
Overall Influence
Gary A. Pope currently holds the Texaco Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a B.Sc. from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. from Rice University, both in chemical engineering. He has previously worked at Shell for more than 7 years and has graduated more than 110 graduate students. He is noted for research in reservoir engineering, reservoir simulation, enhanced oil recovery, phase behaviour and fluid properties. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1999 for contributions to understanding multiphase flow and ...
Go to Profile#2449
Anne Aaron
#61154
Overall Influence
Anne Aaron is a Filipina engineer and the director of video algorithms at Netflix. Her responsibilities include "hiring and managing software engineers and research scientists, strategic decision-making on software architecture and research, project management, and cross-team coordination"
Go to Profile#2450
Jiju Antony
#97161
Overall Influence
