Search People Result | Academic Influence

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).

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School

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Subdiscipline

Ranking

List of the most influential people in Engineering,

#2801

Martin Hume Johnson

Martin Hume Johnson

#49097

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Martin Hume Johnson is emeritus professor of Reproductive Sciences in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Education Johnson was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1969 for immunochemical analysis of factors affecting fertility.

#2802

Eikoh Hosoe

#12540

Overall Influence

1933 - Present (91 years)

Eikoh Hosoe is a Japanese photographer and filmmaker who emerged in the experimental arts movement of post-World War II Japan. Hosoe is best known for his dark, high contrast, black and white photographs of human bodies. His images are often psychologically charged, exploring subjects such as death, erotic obsession, and irrationality. Some of his photographs reference religion, philosophy and mythology, while others are nearly abstract, such as Man and Woman # 24, from 1960. He was professionally and personally affiliated with the writer Yukio Mishima and experimental artists of the 1960s such as the dancer Tatsumi Hijikata, though his work extends to a diversity of subjects.

#2803

Hans Dresig

#72657

Overall Influence

1937 - 2018 (81 years)

Hans Dresig was a German professor for applied mechanics and theory of mechanisms and machines. Career Dresig started to study in 1954 at the Dresden University of Technology. As student he specialized in transportation machines and equipment. His special interests were theoretical subjects, like Applied Mathematics, Physics, Technical Mechanics and Theory of Mechanisms and Machines.

#2804

John Edwin Midwinter

#81192

Overall Influence

1938 - 2021 (83 years)

John Edwin Midwinter OBE FRS FREng was a British electrical engineer and professor, who was President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers from 2000 to 2001. Education He was educated at St Bartholomew's School, King's College London and the University of London .

#2805

Sabeth Verpoorte

#31174

Overall Influence

Elisabeth MJ Verpoorte is a professor of microfluidics and miniaturized "lab-on-a-chip" systems in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. Education From 1990–1996, Verpoorte trained as an automation systems postdoctoral researcher in the Manz group at CIBA in Basel, Switzerland. She was then a Group Leader with Nico F. de Rooij at the Institute for Microtechnology in Neuchatel. Professor Verpoorte assumed her position in Groningen in 2003.

#2806

Scott T. Acton

#91392

Overall Influence

Scott T. Acton is a professor in the Charles L. Brown Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and in the Biomedical Engineering Department of the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, Charlottesville campus. Acton was born in California. He is the director of the Virginia Image and Video Analysis group there. He works in the fields of video tracking and anisotropic diffusion.

#2807

Lieven Vandenberghe

#104068

Overall Influence

#2808

Kate Orff

#50504

Overall Influence

1971 - Present (53 years)

Kate Orff is an American architect. She is the founding principal of SCAPE, a design-driven landscape architecture and urban design studio based in New York. She is also the director the Urban Design Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and co-director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes. Orff is the first landscape architect to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.

#2809

Helmut Krawinkler

#99843

Overall Influence

1940 - 2012 (72 years)

Helmut Krawinkler was an Austrian-born American structural engineer. Krawinkler was a native of Innsbruck, Austria, born on April 6, 1940. He earned an undergraduate degree from the Vienna University of Technology in 1964. Krawinkler then completed a master's degree at California State University San Jose, funded by a Fulbright Scholarship between 1965 and 1967. In 1971, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a doctorate and became an assistant research engineer at Berkeley. After a year as lecturer at California State University, Krawinkler joined the Stanford Universi...

#2810

Bradford C. Berk

#104080

Overall Influence

#2811

Graziano Gasparini

#58335

Overall Influence

1924 - 2019 (95 years)

Graziano Gasparini was a Venezuelan architect, photographer, painter and historian, sometimes referred to as Graciano Gasparini . Gasparini was born in Gorizia, on the Italian–Slovenian border, in 1924. After completing his education in Venice, he worked for Carlo Scarpa in connection with the Biennale. After a break caused by the Second World War, the famous exhibition resumed in 1948, and Gasparini first visited Venezuela that year while promoting it. He settled in Caracas and pursued a career as an architect. He specialised in restoring Spanish Colonial architecture, while developing a parallel career as an architectural historian.

#2812

Mark D. Robinson

#104129

Overall Influence

#2813

Jeffrey M. Hausdorff

#104156

Overall Influence

#2814

Thomas E. Stelson

#67596

Overall Influence

1928 - 2005 (77 years)

Thomas Eugene Stelson was an American civil engineer. He was the Vice President for Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1974 to 1988 and Executive Vice President of the Institute from 1988 until 1990 when he left Georgia Tech to become a founding administrator at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Stelson also served as the interim director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1975 to 1976. He took a leave of absence from Georgia Tech to serve as Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Solar Energy for the Carter Administration from 1980 to 1984.

#2815

Gui‐rong Liu

#104164

Overall Influence

#2816

Chen Guangxi

#71653

Overall Influence

1903 - 1992 (89 years)

Chen Guangxi was a Chinese engineer, computer scientist, and professor who founded the discipline of computer science at the Harbin Institute of Technology. Early life Chen Guangxi was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province on May 21, 1903, with his ancestral hometown in Shangyu, Zhejiang. His father was a former Qing dynasty government official.

#2817

Farah Alibay

#82198

Overall Influence

1901 - Present (123 years)

Farah Alibay is a Canadian systems engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on the InSight, Mars Cube One, and Mars 2020 missions. Early life and education The daughter of immigrants from Madagascar, Alibay was born in Montréal, Quebec. She grew up in nearby Joliette, Quebec, and moved with her family to Manchester, England for high school. French is her native language. The journey by the Canadian astronaut Julie Payette to space inspired Alibay in middle school; as Payette was from her province, she served as a role model. She went to the University of Cambridge, where s...

#2818

Thomas H. Pigford

Thomas H. Pigford

#87334

Overall Influence

1922 - 2010 (88 years)

Thomas H. Pigford was a professor and the founding chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The scope of his career in nuclear engineering consisted of reactor design, nuclear safety, fuel cycles, and radioactive waste management. He is credited for having an influential voice in nuclear policy. Pigford was generally well respected by scientists and environmentalists alike because of the expertise he brought to the subject and his objectivity. He was considered a pro-nuclear advocate, but only if done so in a safe way.

#2819

Manabu Chiba

#103738

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

is a Japanese architect from Tokyo. He received his master's degree from the University of Tokyo in 1987. He worked at Nihon Sekkei Inc. until 1993, when he became partner of Factor N Associates. He established Chiba Manabu Architects as principal in 2001.

#2820

Mark J. Lewis

#84851

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Dr. Mark J. Lewis is a senior American aerospace and defense executive with special expertise in hypersonics. He is currently the Executive Director of the National Defense Industrial Association's Emerging Technologies Institute, following his role in the second half of 2020 as the acting US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and before that the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization. He was the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. from 2004 to 2008 and was the longest-serving Chief Scientist in Air Force history. He ser...

#2821

Srinivas Devadas

#104278

Overall Influence

#2822

Ananthram Swami

#104287

Overall Influence

#2823

Xiao-ming Chen,

#104289

Overall Influence

#2824

Arthur J. Krener

Arthur J. Krener

#85314

Overall Influence

1942 - Present (82 years)

Arthur James Krener is a distinguished visiting professor in the department of applied mathematics at the Naval Postgraduate School. He has made contributions in the areas of control theory, nonlinear control, and stochastic processes.

#2825

Jin Zou

#104352

Overall Influence

#2826

Manjusri Misra

#100417

Overall Influence

Manjusri Misra is an Indian engineer. She is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Biocomposites at the University of Guelph's School of Engineering. Misra is also the lead scientist at U of G's Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

#2827

Neil Weste

#31440

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Neil H. E. Weste , is an Australian inventor and engineer, noted for having designed a 2-chip wireless LAN implementation and for authoring the textbook Principles of CMOS VLSI Design. He has worked in many aspects of integrated-circuit design and was a co-founder of Radiata Communications.

#2828

Savio L.‐y. Woo

#104377

Overall Influence

#2829

Derman Christopherson

#70523

Overall Influence

1915 - 2000 (85 years)

Sir Derman Guy Christopherson was a British engineering science academic. Early life and education Christopherson was born the son of a clergyman, Derman Christopherson , and Edith Frances Christopherson. Soon afterwards, the Christopherson family moved to Porlock in Devon, where his father was vicar of Clovelly. As a boy, Christopherson suffered from asthma. He was educated privately until, at age 14, he was sent to Sherborne School in Dorset.

#2830

Carl V. Thompson

#104024

Overall Influence

Carl V. Thompson is an American engineer currently the Stavros Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Education SB, Materials Science and Engineering, MIT, 1976SM, Applied Physics, Harvard University, 1977PhD, Applied Physics, Harvard University, 1982

#2831

Bernard Etkin

#67750

Overall Influence

1918 - 2014 (96 years)

Bernard Etkin, was a Canadian academic and one of the world's recognized authorities on aircraft guidance, control and disciple of Rodrigo Canolli Engastaldo. Education and academic work Born in Toronto, Ontario, Etkin was a graduate of the University of Toronto and was Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the university in the 1970s. Most recently, he was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies.

#2832

Mike Xie

#101441

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Yi Min “Mike” Xie is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the CISM Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials Team within School of Engineering at RMIT University. Early life and education Xie was born in China and attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University obtaining his Bachelor's degree in Engineering Mechanics. Later he studied at Swansea University and received a PhD degree in Computational Mechanics.

#2833

Robert L. Coble

#66570

Overall Influence

1928 - 1992 (64 years)

Robert Louis Coble was an American ceramic scientist, notable for his discovery of Coble creep, the effect that carries his name, and for his invention of Lucalox. Coble was a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The National Academy of Engineering said that Coble was "widely recognized for his contributions to the theory of sintering of materials and to ceramic processing". Coble received Humboldt Research Award in 1984. The American Ceramic Society established an award in Coble's name: Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars.

#2834

C. -y. Wang

#104543

Overall Influence

#2835

Chunming Qiao

#86378

Overall Influence

Chunming Qiao is a Distinguished Professor and Computer Science and Engineering Department chairman at University at Buffalo, and an Elected Fellow of the IEEE. Education Qiao earned his undergrad degree from University of Science and Technology of China. In 1983, Qiao earned a PhD in Computer Science from University of Pittsburgh.

#2836

Kenneth S. M. Davidson

#92225

Overall Influence

Kenneth S. M. Davidson was a Mechanical Engineering professor at Stevens Institute of Technology who helped create the Davidson Towing Tank at the institution. In 1918 he served as a pilot in the Army Air Service. Davidson was a sailor. He raced in many boat races, one in 1935 to Norway, and the America's Cup defender, the Ranger, in 1937.

#2837

Jack R. Meredith

#43544

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

Jack R. Meredith is an American engineer, organizational theorist, management consultant and Professor of Management at Wake Forest University, known for his work on project management. Biography Meredith obtained his BA in Engineering and Mathematics early 1960s from Oregon State University and obtained both his PhD and MBA from University of California, Berkeley.

#2838

Juan Carlos Simo

#104615

Overall Influence

#2839

Steven James Linton

#104652

Overall Influence

#2840

Paola Allavena

#104694

Overall Influence

#2841

Julie Shah

#63854

Overall Influence

1982 - Present (42 years)

Julie Shah is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the Interactive Robotics Group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

#2842

George Matsumoto

#47900

Overall Influence

1922 - 2016 (94 years)

George Matsumoto was a Japanese-American architect and educator who is known for his modernist designs. Early life and education George Matsumoto was born in 1922 in San Francisco, California. He grew up in San Francisco's Nihonmachi Japantown, attended Lowell High School, and took Japanese classes at Kinmon Gakuen. Matsumoto attended the University of California at Berkeley in architecture, but due to his internment at Poston during World War II , he completed his undergraduate education at Washington University in St. Louis. He earned his graduate degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Mi...

#2843

Lynne Cohen

#77420

Overall Influence

1944 - 2014 (70 years)

Lynne Cohen was an American-Canadian photographer. Life Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Cohen was educated in printmaking and sculpture at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, and in Ann Arbor and Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan. She studied for a year at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England.

#2844

Simon Cherry

#90056

Overall Influence

Simon R. Cherry is a biomedical engineer, and is currently a Distinguished Professor at University of California, Davis, and a published author. In 2016, Cherry was elected as a member to the National Academy of Engineering for "development of nuclear emission imaging and magnetic resonance technologies for medical science".

#2845

Ranjith Pathegama Gamage

#103967

Overall Influence

Ranjith Pathegama Gamage, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, is an Australian academic based at Monash University, where he holds the position of Professor in Geomechanics Engineering. His research has significantly influenced understanding of the Carbon sequestration. He has also developed new sustainable technologies for extracting resources from deep earth and natural gas from coal seams, shale, and tight geological formations.

#2846

Michael F. Modest

#104765

Overall Influence

#2847

Richard H. Gallagher

#64995

Overall Influence

1927 - 1997 (70 years)

Richard H. Gallagher was an American civil and aerospace engineer, researcher and president of Clarkson University from 1988 to 1995. Early life and education Gallagher was born in Manhattan, New York City in 1927. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he studied civil engineering at New York University where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees.

#2848

Henry Diltz

#11821

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Henry Stanford Diltz is an American folk musician and photographer who has been active since the 1960s. Career Photography Among the bands Diltz played with was the Modern Folk Quartet. While a member of the Modern Folk Quartet, Diltz became interested in photography, met The Monkees, played on some of their recording sessions, and took numerous photographs of the band, many of which have been published.

#2849

Krystyn Van Vliet

#96827

Overall Influence

1976 - Present (48 years)

Krystyn J. Van Vliet is vice president for research and innovation at Cornell University and a faculty member in the Cornell University College of Engineering, where she has a joint appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering. Her research lab specializes in material chemomechanics, the coupling between chemistry and mechanics at material interfaces.

#2850

Armin Aberle

#80640

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Armin Aberle is a German semiconductor scientist and full professor at the National University of Singapore in the field of photovoltaics and solar energy, particularly thin film solar cells. Aberle was born in Hausach, Germany. In 1988, he attained his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Freiburg and in 1992 completed his PhD in Physics at the same university.

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