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,
#3501
Kenneth Kwong
#35058
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Kenneth Kin Man Kwong is a Hong Kong-born American nuclear physicist. He is a pioneer in human brain imaging. He received his bachelor's degree in Political Science in 1972 from the University of California, Berkeley. He went on to receive his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Riverside studying photon-photon collision interactions.
Go to Profile#3502
Bob Fox
#70744
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Bob F. Fox, Jr. is an American architect. Education Fox received his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University in 1965. It was there that he met Associate Professor Werner Seligmann, who would have a lasting impact on his architectural career. Fox later received his Master of Architecture from Harvard University in 1972.
Go to Profile#3503
Kim Dovey
#58368
Overall Influence
1951 - Present (75 years)
Kim Dovey is an Australian architectural and urban critic and Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Melbourne, Australia, teaching and researching urban design. Born in Western Australia he received degrees from Curtin University and the University of Melbourne, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He has lectured and broadcast widely on social issues in architecture and urban design. His book Framing Places explores theories of place as mediators of power, incorporating case studies of politics of public space, housing, shopping malls and corporate towers.
Go to Profile#3504
Bane Vasic
#85720
Overall Influence
Bane Vasic is an engineer at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 for his contributions to coding theory and its applications in data storage systems and optical communications.
Go to Profile#3505
Akhil Datta-Gupta
#105874
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Akhil Datta-Gupta is Regents Professor and holder of L. F. Peterson ‘36 Endowed Chair in Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX . Dr. Datta-Gupta is well known for his contributions to the theory and practice of Streamline Simulation in petroleum reservoir characterization, management and calibration of high resolution geologic models. 3-D streamline simulation is considered to be one of the major developments in petroleum reservoir simulation and performance forecasting. Dr. Datta-Gupta is a co-author of the Society of Petroleum Engineers textbook Streamline S...
Go to Profile#3506
John F. Elliott
#78040
Overall Influence
1920 - 1991 (71 years)
John Frank Elliott was an American professor of metallurgy who made significant contributions to the science of pyrometallurgy during his long career at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Early life and education Elliott was born July 31, 1920, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and studied metallurgical engineering at the University of Minnesota where he graduated with distinction in 1942. After serving as a Lieutenant commander in the US Navy during World War II, he completed his Doctorate of Science at MIT in 1949.
Go to Profile#3507
Bernard Zimmerman
#94299
Overall Influence
1930 - 2009 (79 years)
Bernard Zimmerman was an influential Mid-Century modern architect and an educator at the College of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona for more than thirty years.
Go to Profile#3508
Kari Christine Nadeau
#115888
Overall Influence
#3509
Timothy W. Tong
#78100
Overall Influence
1953 - Present (73 years)
Timothy W. Tong is a former president of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He became President on 1 January 2009, succeeding Poon Chung Kwong. After stepping down, his post was taken over by Philip C. H. Chan as interim President. Prior to obtaining the presidency, Tong was Dean of School of Engineering and Applied Science at George Washington University in the United States.
Go to Profile#3510
David K. C. Cooper
#115904
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
#3511
Alan Voorhees
#44554
Overall Influence
1922 - 2005 (83 years)
Alan Manners Voorhees was an American transportation engineer and urban planner who designed many large public works in the United States. Voorhees was born in Highland Park, New Jersey. Early life During World War II, he left his studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to join the United States Navy as an officer in what was called the "Underwater Demolition Team 11" , a precursor to the U.S. Navy SEALs. He spent much of the war mapping shoreline defenses in the Pacific. After the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Voorhees' unit was sent in to inspect the city, making him one of the first Americans to see the bomb's aftermath.
Go to Profile#3512
Shuguang Cui
#83584
Overall Influence
Shuguang "Robert" Cui is a vice director at Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data, and the X.Q. Deng Presidential Chair Professor for the School of Science and Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and an adjunct professor at the University of California, Davis.
Go to Profile#3513
Jong Chul Ye
#115927
Overall Influence
#3514
Yi‐mei Zhu
#115937
Overall Influence
#3515
Margaret Henderson Floyd
#73226
Overall Influence
1932 - 1997 (65 years)
Margaret Henderson Floyd was Professor of Architectural History at Tufts University. She was an expert on Boston architecture. Her writing includes several titles on the work of late 19th-century American architects including Henry Hobson Richardson, and Longfellow, Alden and Harlow.
Go to Profile#3516
Ronald F. Probstein
#99538
Overall Influence
1928 - 2021 (93 years)
Ronald F. Probstein was the Ford Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He played a principal role in spacecraft and ballistic missile reentry physics and design, hypersonic flight theory, comet behavior, desalination and synthetic fuels.
Go to Profile#3517
Gerald E. Hanks
#116002
Overall Influence
#3518
Baowen Li
#116026
Overall Influence
#3519
Young Jean Lee
#20453
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Young Jean Lee is an American playwright, director, and filmmaker. She was the Artistic Director of Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to producing her work. She has written and directed ten shows for Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Lee was called "the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation" by Charles Isherwood in The New York Times and "one of the best experimental playwrights in America" by David Cote in Time Out New York. With the 2018 production of Straight White Men at ...
Go to Profile#3520
Heidi Nepf
#112892
Overall Influence
Heidi Nepf is an American engineer known for her research on fluid flows around aquatic vegetation. Education and career Nepf has a B.S. from Bucknell University and an M.S. from Stanford University . Nepf earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University in 1992 with a dissertation titled "The production and mixing effects of Langmuir circulations". Following her Ph.D., Nepf was a postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and then joined the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. As of 2021, she is the Donald and Martha Harleman Professor at ...
Go to Profile#3521
Amir AghaKouchak
#108054
Overall Influence
Amir AghaKouchak is an Iranian American civil engineer, academic and researcher. He is a Professor of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Earth System Science at University of California, Irvine.
Go to Profile#3522
Charles Gibson
#86675
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Charles Gibson is an American visual effects supervisor. Personal life Gibson is a son of character actor Henry Gibson. Filmography Flight of the Intruder Babe The Green Mile Cats & Dogs The Ring Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl The Terminal Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Terminator Salvation Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Aquaman
Go to Profile#3523
Hanafi Bin Ismail
#116110
Overall Influence
#3524
Bharat B. Biswal
#116113
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
#3525
Gianluca Mazzini
#97007
Overall Influence
Gianluca Mazzini from the University of Ferrara, Italy was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for contributions to chaos-based electronic and telecommunication systems design.
Go to Profile#3526
Ramarathnam Narasimhan
#61336
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Ramarathnam Narasimhan is an Indian materials engineer and a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his pioneering researches on fracture mechanics and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his co...
Go to Profile#3527
William Zev Rymer
#116141
Overall Influence
#3528
Jerald L. Schnoor
#116153
Overall Influence
#3529
Elizabeth Tanner
#111188
Overall Influence
1957 - Present (69 years)
Kathleen Elizabeth Tanner is the Bonfield Professor of Biomedical Materials at Queen Mary University of London. Her research focusses on developing materials with particular biological and mechanical properties for use medicine, particularly those used for bone replacement. Tanner developed HAPEX, a bone mineral composite biomaterial, which was used in over half a million middle ear transplants in the 1990s.
Go to Profile#3530
Paul R. Gray
#116175
Overall Influence
#3531
Guillermo Capati
#61386
Overall Influence
Guillermo "Bill" Capati, is an adjunct professor and chartered professional engineer in Australia in the field of civil and environmental engineering. Currently, Capati is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland since December 2008.
Go to Profile#3532
Donald Cox
#90614
Overall Influence
1937 - Present (89 years)
Donald C. Cox is an electrical engineer researching wireless communication, currently a professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he heads the Wireless Communications Research Group. His work on multipath and other propagation problems has been fundamental to the development of mobile phone technology.
Go to Profile#3533
Harry Ward Richardson
#116217
Overall Influence
#3534
Jong-sen Lee
#116222
Overall Influence
#3535
Stephen A. Mahin
#113885
Overall Influence
1946 - 2018 (72 years)
Stephen A. Mahin was an American structural engineer. Mahin was a graduate of the Pacific Grove High School. Following his high school graduation, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in civil engineering there. Upon earning his Ph.D, Mahin became an assistant research engineer at Berkeley before joining the faculty in 1974.
Go to Profile#3536
Constantinos Sioutas
#116240
Overall Influence
#3537
Gregory J Riely
#116244
Overall Influence
#3538
Raúl Anguiano
#40161
Overall Influence
1923 - 2006 (83 years)
José Raúl Anguiano Valadez was a notable Mexican painter of the 20th century, part of the “second generation” of Mexican muralists which continued the tradition of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros but experimented with it as well. Anguiano was born during the height of the Mexican Revolution, which would inspire a majority of his mural painting. He studied painting in his hometown of Guadalajara before moving to Mexico City to begin his career. His first major exhibition was held at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, at age 20. His works include over 100 individual and collective exhibitions with 50 murals, mostly in Mexico and the United States.
Go to Profile#3539
Joe Zhu
#116307
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
#3540
Anatoly Vasiliev
#19729
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Anatoly Alexandrovitch Vasiliev is a Russian theatre director. He is artistic director of the Moscow Theatre "School of Dramatic Arts", Théâtre de l'Europe, and professor of drama in Lyon, France.
Go to Profile#3541
Poh Chiang Loh
#116329
Overall Influence
#3542
Mary Bouxsein
#116211
Overall Influence
Mary Larsen Bouxsein is an American biomechanical engineer and an orthopedic researcher. She is the president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, director of the Centre of Advanced Orthopaedic Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, professor at the department of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. She is known for her work on bone density and the use of imaging to define the factors leading to bone fractures.
Go to Profile#3543
Bill Robinson
#83301
Overall Influence
1938 - 2011 (73 years)
William Henry Robinson was a New Zealand scientist and seismic engineer who invented the lead rubber bearing seismic isolation device. He grew up in West Auckland, New Zealand. He earned a master's degree at the Ardmore School of Engineering, then a PhD in physical metallurgy at the University of Illinois. Robinson was director of the DSIR's Physics and Engineering Laboratory between 1985 and 1991. He continued to invent and develop seismic isolation devices, travel and lecture until his early 70s.
Go to Profile#3544
Richard Johnson
#72847
Overall Influence
1946 - Present (80 years)
Richard Anthony Johnson is an Australian architect best known as the creator of some of the Australian most important and iconic cultural buildings and spaces of the twentieth century. Academic career Johnson graduated in 1969 with first class honours in Architecture from the University of New South Wales and a Master of Philosophy in Town Planning from the University College London in 1977. He has held several academic positions including Adjunct Professor of Architecture, at the University of NSW between 1999 and 2008; and a professor of practice/architectural studies, at the University o...
Go to Profile#3545
Kamal Henri Khayat
#116417
Overall Influence
#3546
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
#77198
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Dr. Pierre-Yves Oudeyer is Research Director at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation and head of the Inria and Ensta-ParisTech FLOWERS team. Before, he has been a permanent researcher in Sony Computer Science Laboratory for 8 years . He studied theoretical computer science at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon, and received his Ph.D. degree in artificial intelligence from the University Paris VI, France. After working on computational models of language evolution, he is now working on developmental and social robotics, focusing on sensorimotor development, language acquisition and lifelong learning in robots.
Go to Profile#3547
Jacob Masliyah
#93324
Overall Influence
1942 - Present (84 years)
Jacob H. Masliyah, is a University of Alberta professor emeritus and expert in oil sands engineering. He is an officer of the Order of Canada, has been named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He was also elected an international member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2011 for advancing the science and technology for recovery of bitumen from oil sands.
Go to Profile#3548
Stephen W. Tsai
#116484
Overall Influence
#3549
John M Maris
#116508
Overall Influence
#3550
George Gloeckler George Gloeckler
#116518
Overall Influence
