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,
#2501
Alan Balfour
#75814
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (73 years)
Alan Balfour is the former dean of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture. He has also held research and/or faculty positions at MIT, Rice University, Architectural Association School of Architecture, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and was instrumental in establishing the master's degree program in architecture at Georgia Tech.
Go to Profile#2502
John Bandler
#66592
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (83 years)
John William Bandler was a Canadian professor, engineer, entrepreneur, artist, speaker, playwright, and author of fiction and nonfiction. Bandler is known for his invention of space mapping technology and his contributions to device modeling, computer-aided design, microwave engineering, mathematical optimization, and yield-driven design.
Go to Profile#2503
Vinayak P. Dravid
#98298
Overall Influence
#2504
Carl Graffunder
#59013
Overall Influence
1919 - 2013 (94 years)
Carl Graffunder was a mid-century modernist architect whose influence from European modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright and Antonin Raymond manifested in many residential and commercial structures mostly in Minnesota. He was born in Rock Island, Illinois and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Minnesota in 1942 and Master of Architecture from Harvard University in 1948. Graffunder was the chief draftsman for Antonin Raymond in New York City from 1946 to 1947. Graffunder taught for the University of Minnesota School of Architecture from 194...
Go to Profile#2505
George Bugliarello
#58555
Overall Influence
1927 - 2011 (84 years)
George Bugliarello, was an Italian President Emeritus, Institute Professor and former chancellor of the Polytechnic Institute of NYU . Early life George Bugliarello was born as Georgio Bugliarello-Wondrich to Spera Bugliarello-Wondrich and Colonel Federico Bugliarello Magnano di San Lio in Trieste, Italy. He studied engineering at the University of Padua from which he graduated in 1951 with summa cum laude. He then completed his Master's degree at the University of Minnesota in civil engineering in 1954 and five years later he obtained Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in both hydrodynamics and civil engineering.
Go to Profile#2506
Hilde Heynen
#71913
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (65 years)
Hilde Heynen is professor of architectural theory at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. She researches modernism, modernity, and gender in architecture. Heynen is the author of several books and publishes regularly in architectural journals such as the Harvard Design Magazine, The Journal of Architecture, and The Architectural Review of which she is a member of the editorial board. She is also a board member of the European Association of Architectural Education and the Society of Architectural Historians .
Go to Profile#2507
William B. Bridges
#75874
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
William B. Bridges is the Carl F Braun Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics in the Engineering and Applied Science division at the California Institute of Technology. Born in Inglewood, California, he is the discover/inventor of the Argon Ion laser, and holds the patent for the Ionized Noble Gas Laser.
Go to Profile#2508
Jan Švankmajer
#5871
Overall Influence
1934 - Present (90 years)
Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his stop-motion animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.
Go to Profile#2509
Thierry Poinsot
#96830
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (66 years)
Thierry Poinsot, born 22 March 1958, is a French researcher, research director at the CNRS, researcher at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics in Toulouse, scientific advisor at CERFACS and senior research fellow at Stanford University. He has been a member of the French Academy of sciences since 2019.
Go to Profile#2510
Davide Scaramuzza
#96869
Overall Influence
1980 - Present (44 years)
Davide Scaramuzza is an Italian professor of robotics at the University of Zurich, specialising on micro air vehicles. Education Scaramuzza earned his master's degree from the University of Perugia in 2004 and a Ph.D. in robotic perception from ETH Zurich in 2008, where he worked with Roland Siegwart. He completed further postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania under roboticists, Vijay Kumar, and Kostas Daniilidis.
Go to Profile#2511
Eytan Modiano
#45801
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Eytan H. Modiano is a professor and associate head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and associate director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Go to Profile#2512
Sun-yuan Kung
#98523
Overall Influence
#2513
W. David Kingery
#98528
Overall Influence
#2514
Michel Barsoum
#74660
Overall Influence
Michel Barsoum born January 1, 1955, Cairo, Egypt Education Barsoum was educated at The American University in Cairo, Egypt and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in ceramics engineering in 1977. He continued his education at University of Missouri, Rolla and graduated with a Master of Science in June 1980. He also has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his ceramics degree earned in June 1985 from their Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Go to Profile#2515
Zaiping Guo
#94584
Overall Influence
Zaiping Guo is an Australian engineer and academic. She specializes in nanomaterials for lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and portable equipment. She headed the Institute of Superconducting and Electronic Materials at the University of Wollongong before winning an Australian Research Council grant for a five-year project in the same field at the University of Adelaide, where she is currently a professor. In 2023 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering .
Go to Profile#2516
Mari Ostendorf
#39061
Overall Influence
Mari Ostendorf is a professor of electrical engineering in the area of speech and language technology and the vice provost for research at the University of Washington. Biography She received her doctorate degree from Stanford University in 1984 under Robert Gray and afterwards worked at BBN and as a professor at Boston University before coming to University of Washington in 1999.
Go to Profile#2517
Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-aty
#98715
Overall Influence
#2518
Gaurav S. Sukhatme
#98717
Overall Influence
#2519
Carolina Cruz-Neira
#28105
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Carolina Cruz-Neira is a Spanish-Venezuelan-American computer engineer, researcher, designer, educator, and a pioneer of virtual reality . She is known for inventing the cave automatic virtual environment . She previously worked at Iowa State University , University of Louisiana at Lafayette , University of Arkansas at Little Rock , and she is currently an Agere Chair Professor at University of Central Florida .
Go to Profile#2520
Daniel F Hayes
#98759
Overall Influence
#2521
Farhad Ravandi
#98778
Overall Influence
#2522
Michael Dean
#98780
Overall Influence
#2523
Alexandra Boltasseva
#66682
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (46 years)
Alexandra Boltasseva is Ron And Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, and editor-in-chief for The Optical Society's Optical Materials Express journal. Her research focuses on plasmonic metamaterials, manmade composites of metals that use surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature.
Go to Profile#2524
Krzysztof Wilde
#95012
Overall Influence
1966 - Present (58 years)
Krzysztof Wilde – Polish engineer, full professor of civil engineering, Rector of Gdańsk University of Technology since 3 June 2019 Professional career Expert in bridge structures, structural mechanics and diagnostics of civil structures. Head of the Department of Mechanics of Materials and Structures , dean of Faculty of Civil Engineering of Gdańsk University of Technology in cadences 2004-2008 and 2016–2020. Member of the Committee on Civil Engineering and Hydroengineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Committee on Mechanics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author or co-author of over 200 publications and 4 patents.
Go to Profile#2525
Katsumi Yoshino
#98866
Overall Influence
#2526
Douglas L. Jones
#58953
Overall Influence
Douglas L. Jones is the William L. Everitt Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Biography Jones received the BSEE, MSEE, and Ph.D. degrees from Rice University in 1983, 1986, and 1987, respectively. During the 1987–1988 academic year, he was at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany on a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship. Since 1988, he has been with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is currently a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and th...
Go to Profile#2527
Alexander L. Yarin
#98878
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (71 years)
#2528
Ruth Conroy Dalton
#78644
Overall Influence
Ruth Conroy Dalton is a British architect, author and Professor of Architecture at Northumbria University. She has authored or contributed to more than 200 publications. She is an expert in space syntax analysis, pedestrian movement and wayfinding and a world-leading authority on the overlap between architecture and spatial cognition .
Go to Profile#2529
Douglas R. Tocher
#98937
Overall Influence
#2530
Peter X Ma
#98948
Overall Influence
#2531
James J. K. Liao
#98966
Overall Influence
#2532
Fred McBagonluri
#49745
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (54 years)
Fred McBagonluri is a Ghanaian engineer, inventor, novelist, educator and thought leader, who is currently Provost and President at Academic City College. He was previously the founding Dean at the Faculty of Engineering at Ashesi University College. He was also the founding executive director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Center, a new cleantech incubator backed by the World Bank. Prior to his role at Ashesi University College, Prof. McBagonluri lived and worked in the United States. He was the Vice President of the New Product Development Joerns Healthcare in Arlington, Texas. He has held...
Go to Profile#2533
Stanley C. Solomon
#99003
Overall Influence
#2534
Vijay Bhargava
#50049
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Vijay K. Bhargava is a researcher and Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia . He served the department as its Head for 5 years . Before moving to UBC, Bhargava was a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Victoria.
Go to Profile#2535
Jorge Angeles
#99043
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (81 years)
#2536
Davood Toghraie
#99106
Overall Influence
#2537
Aron Walsh
#99153
Overall Influence
#2538
Ramakant Nevatia
#99179
Overall Influence
#2539
Ingrid Verbauwhede
#88376
Overall Influence
Ingrid Verbauwhede is a professor at the COSIC Research Group of the Electrical Engineering Department, KU Leuven, where she leads the embedded systems team. She is a pioneer in the field of secure embedded circuits and systems, with several awards recognising her contributions to the field. She is member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts since 2011. She is a fellow of IEEE.
Go to Profile#2540
Terje Aven
#99212
Overall Influence
1956 - Present (68 years)
#2541
Venkat Selvamanickam
#66220
Overall Influence
Venkat Selvamanickam is the M.D Anderson Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a Professor of Physics at the University of Houston. He is also the Director of the Applied Research Hub of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston.
Go to Profile#2542
Zheng Shusen
#86010
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (74 years)
Zheng Shusen is a Chinese engineer and surgeon. He is a liver transplant expert who is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Zhejiang University. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and foreign academician of the Académie Nationale de Médecine. He is internationally known for his studies on organ transplantation and hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery.
Go to Profile#2543
Alec Broers, Baron Broers
#60719
Overall Influence
1938 - Present (86 years)
Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, is a British electrical engineer. In 1994 Broers was elected an international member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to electronic beam lithography and microscopy and for leadership in microfabrication.
Go to Profile#2544
Guillermo Oliver
#42318
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (69 years)
Guillermo Oliver is a Uruguayan-American research scientist. He is currently the Thomas D. Spies Professor of Lymphatic Metabolism at Northwestern University, and director of the Center for Vascular and Developmental Biology at the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute. Oliver is an elected member of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academia de Ciencias de América Latina.
Go to Profile#2545
A. Louis London
#83745
Overall Influence
1913 - 2008 (95 years)
Alexander Louis London was an American mechanical engineer and professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University. London was elected to the National Academy of Engineering "for contributions to the theory and applications of compact heat exchangers, especially in the gas turbine field". The National Academy of Engineering called London "one of the world's best known experts in heat transfer equipment design, performance and analysis." The Stanford University called him "engineering expert on heat transfer". London received the R. Tom Sawyer Award by the Gas Turbine Division of th...
Go to Profile#2546
Choon Ki Ahn
#99375
Overall Influence
#2547
Victor Skumin
#10037
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (76 years)
Victor Andreevich Skumin is a Russian and Soviet scientist, psychiatrist, philosopher and writer. After graduating from the Kharkiv National Medical University in 1973, he became a psychotherapist in Kiev Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. In 1978, he described a new disease, the Skumin syndrome. He introduced a method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion for psychological rehabilitation of cardiosurgical patients .
Go to Profile#2548
Uğur Ersoy
#78671
Overall Influence
1932 - Present (92 years)
Uğur Ersoy is a Turkish civil engineer and academic. Life He was born in Mersin. His father Yakup Ersoy was the local chairman of the Republican People's Party . After graduating from Tarsus American College, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the Robert College Department of Civil Engineering in 1955 with a high honour. He played soccer and volleyball in the Istanbul league in the same years. Then he travelled to the United States for further studies. He began his post-graduate education at the University of Texas at Austin. Ersoy also supervised and mentored by Phil M. Ferguson, ...
Go to Profile#2549
Azita Emami
#71324
Overall Influence
Azita Emami-Neyestanak is the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering at Caltech. Emami works on low-power mixed-mode circuits in scalable technologies. She is Executive Officer of the Department of Electrical Engineering and an investigator in the Heritage Medical Research Institute.
Go to Profile#2550
Alan Kin-Tak Lau
#84930
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (24 years)
Alan Kin-tak Lau is an engineer and academic based in Hong Kong SAR. He is the President and Chair Professor of Product Innovation at Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong. Prior to this appointment, he was Pro Vice-Chancellor at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also the Independent Non-Executive Director of King’s Flair International Limited, the International Vice President and Trustee Board member of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers and an Academic Advisor at Asia University. He was also appointed the Chair of professional accreditation panel for APEC/IPEA for Korea.
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