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,
#3651
Krishna Narayanan
#111924
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Krishna Narayanan is a computer engineer and Eric D. Rubin '06 Professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing of the University of California, Berkeley.
Go to Profile#3652
Kostas Daniilidis
#117749
Overall Influence
Kostas Daniilidis, Ruth Yalom Stone Professor of Computer Vision at the Computer and Information Systems Department at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States, PA was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2012 for contributions to visual motion analysis, omni-directional vision, and three-dimensional robot vision.
Go to Profile#3653
Aaron Dollar
#106209
Overall Influence
Aaron Dollar is a professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and Computer Science at Yale University, where he serves as the lead investigator of the GRAB Lab. His research focuses on analysis, design, and control of compliant mechanisms. In 2010, he was recognized as an innovator by being included in the MIT Technology Review's TR35 list.
Go to Profile#3654
Peter Harold Cole
#99119
Overall Influence
1936 - 2020 (84 years)
Peter Harold Cole was an Australian electronic engineer, notable for pioneering research in the area of RFID technology, having held over 30 patents. Education Peter Cole obtained his BSc , BE and PhD degrees at the University of Sydney, and then was a postdoc for three years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Fulbright scholarship. He obtained his PhD, under Ronald Ernest Aitchison, at the University of Sydney in 1964 with a thesis entitled Energy Exchange and Loss Properties of Ferrites for Parametric Amplifiers. For his BE he won the university medal.
Go to Profile#3655
Alexander N. Guz
#118504
Overall Influence
#3656
Ratnam V. Raja Kumar
#88323
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Ratnam V. Raja Kumar is an Indian academic who served as the director of the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar. He has served as the first vice-chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies.
Go to Profile#3657
David Alan Dornfeld
#118541
Overall Influence
#3658
Karl A. Jr. Gschneidner
#118552
Overall Influence
#3659
Aurelie Thiele
#58314
Overall Influence
Aurelie or Aurélie Thiele is a French engineering and decision-making professor. She is an associate professor in the engineering management and information and systems department at the Lyle School of Engineering of Southern Methodist University.
Go to Profile#3660
Dinh Thuy Phan Huy
#74212
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
Dinh Thuy Phan Huy , is a research engineer specializing in wireless networks. Her specific research interests include wireless communications and beamforming, spatial modulation, predictor antenna, backscattering and intelligent reflecting surfaces.
Go to Profile#3661
Mark L. Entman
#118597
Overall Influence
#3662
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss
#93951
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss was a Harvard educated research architect from Serbia, artist and theorist living and working from New York and Berlin. He was an Ex-Head of Research of & de Meuron Architects, co-founder of School of Missing Studies for spatial research and founder of NAO.NYC for spatial design at all scales needed, based in New York.
Go to Profile#3663
Charles Belfoure
#61723
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Charles Belfoure is an American writer, architect and historian specializing in historic preservation, author of several histories and fiction works, including The New York Times best-selling novel The Paris Architect.
Go to Profile#3664
Kasisomayajula Viswanath
#96779
Overall Influence
Kasisomayajula Viswanath, nicknamed “Vish,” is an American scientist, currently the Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Viswanath received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1990.
Go to Profile#3665
Louis Allamandola
#118626
Overall Influence
Louis Allamandola is an American space scientist. He is the founder and director of NASA's Astrophysics & Astrochemistry Laboratory, and an Elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Go to Profile#3666
Kamy Sepehrnoori
#118697
Overall Influence
#3667
Y. Lawrence Yao
#97800
Overall Influence
Y. Lawrence Yao is a mechanical engineer, who has done groundbreaking research in the field of laser assisted manufacturing. He is well known for developing process synthesis methodology for laser forming process, for developing micro-scale laser shock peening process, and for innovative applications in renewable energy, biomedical, and art restoration areas.
Go to Profile#3668
Chris Lowe
#91738
Overall Influence
1945 - Present (81 years)
Christopher Robin Lowe OBE FREng is Emeritus Professor of Biotechnology and Director of the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Trinity College. He has carried out research in the area of biosensors, biopharmaceuticals, and enzyme, protein and microbial technology. His research has been recognized by over 20 major national and international awards.
Go to Profile#3669
Peter Dr Boesiger
#118722
Overall Influence
#3670
Guillermo Bazan
#80864
Overall Influence
Guillermo Carlos Bazan is an American chemist, material scientist, and academic. Bazan earned a B.Sc with Honors in chemistry from the University of Ottawa in 1986, and a Ph.D in Inorganic Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991. From 1992 to 1998 he was on the faculty of the University of Rochester. In 1998 he was appointed as a professor in the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department and the Materials Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In January 2020, he took a position at the National University of Singapore.
Go to Profile#3671
Israel J. Wygnanski
#118747
Overall Influence
#3672
Ru-qiang Yan
#118763
Overall Influence
#3673
David Artis
#118802
Overall Influence
#3674
Beth Winkelstein
#91138
Overall Influence
Beth Ann Winkelstein is the Deputy Provost and the Eduardo D. Glandt President’s Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Winkelstein has established an active research program that is recognized for elucidating the mechanisms of subfailure cervical spine injuries and the cellular events surrounding the etiology of chronic pain. She is further recognized for longstanding contributions to the discipline of biomechanics and for mentoring many students that have followed into research active careers.
Go to Profile#3675
Khalid Aziz
#118817
Overall Influence
#3676
Yuanwei Liu
#118850
Overall Influence
#3677
Jorge O. Galante
#118854
Overall Influence
#3678
Arye Rosen
#75760
Overall Influence
Arye Rosen is academy professor of biomedical and electrical engineering in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and associate vice president at Rowan University and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#3679
Graham B. Wallis
#118866
Overall Influence
#3680
Travis Price
#98627
Overall Influence
Travis Price is an American architect, author, teacher, philosopher, and advocate of green architecture based in Washington, DC. Early life and education Price was raised in southern Georgia. He earned a bachelor's degree in western philosophy at St. John's College. During the 1970s in New Mexico, Price completed a master's degree in architecture. He studied the ancient passive solar design in Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Go to Profile#3681
David R. Walt
#118890
Overall Influence
#3682
Dick Hoekstra
#118928
Overall Influence
#3683
Quentin Hughes
#84900
Overall Influence
1920 - 2004 (84 years)
James Quentin Hughes, was an architect and academic. He was a British SAS officer during the Second World War, and was influential in the preservation of Liverpool's Victorian and Edwardian architectural heritage.
Go to Profile#3684
Derek Binns Ingham
#118964
Overall Influence
#3685
Bernhard E. Boser
#118975
Overall Influence
#3686
Tarik Taleb
#118979
Overall Influence
1977 - Present (49 years)
#3687
Slavko Brezoski
#95299
Overall Influence
1922 - 2017 (95 years)
Slavko Brezoski was a Macedonian architect, urban planner, painter, writer and educator known for his works in the genre of modern architecture realised during the middle of the 20th Century in North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Brazil and Libya. He was professor and Dean at the Faculty of Architecture at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje.
Go to Profile#3688
Eric Pop
#119032
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
#3689
Catherine Mulligan
#110224
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Catherine Mulligan is a professor of Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering and the Research Chair in Geo-environmental Sustainability at Concordia University. She is also the founding director of the Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems. Mulligan's work focused on the decontamination of water and sediments.
Go to Profile#3690
Ralf Hotchkiss
#41351
Overall Influence
Ralf Hotchkiss is an inventor and designer whose company, Whirlwind Wheelchair International, designs wheelchairs for use and manufacture in developing countries, involving wheelchair riders in all of its projects and activities. The organization's mission is "To make it possible for every person in the developing world who needs a wheelchair to obtain one that will lead to maximum personal independence and integration into society."
Go to Profile#3691
Aldo Di Carlo
#119073
Overall Influence
#3692
Teuku Meurah Indra Mahlia
#119079
Overall Influence
#3693
F. John Humphreys
#119106
Overall Influence
#3694
Mohammad Karim Pirnia
#105889
Overall Influence
1920 - 1997 (77 years)
Mohammad Karim Pirnia was an Iranian architectural historian and architect. Early life Born in Yazd, Iran, he studied at what came to be Tehran University School of Fine Arts. Works Pirnia, a student of traditional Iranian architect, was one of the early architectural historians that developed a modern language to describe Iranian traditional architecture. His most prominent thoughts were later compiled as books and articles; among them “The Principles of Iranian Architecture” and “The Stylistics of Iranian Architecture” were more widely acclaimed. In the first one, he proposes five principle...
Go to Profile#3695
Andrea L. Thomaz
#111810
Overall Influence
Andrea L. Thomaz is a senior research scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and Director of Socially Intelligent Machines Lab. She specializes in Human-Robot Interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Machine Learning.
Go to Profile#3696
Hartmut Fuess,
#119193
Overall Influence
#3697
Harvey Cragon
#84275
Overall Influence
1929 - 2018 (89 years)
Harvey G. Cragon was an American engineer, who was the Ernest Cockrell, Jr. Centennial Chair Emeritus at the Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. Early career In 1950, Cragon graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. After graduating, he worked for Southern Bell Telephone Company in New Orleans for a year and then spent two years in the U.S. Army in a unit that tested infrared night vision devices in the Mojave Desert. In 1953, he joined the Hughes Aircraft Company in Los Angeles, where he worked on automated air defense systems.
Go to Profile#3698
Hari Singh Nalwa
#119209
Overall Influence
#3699
Mitra Hartmann
#82670
Overall Influence
Mitra J.Z. Hartmann is a professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. She specializes in robotics, sensory acquisition behaviors, sensorimotor integration, and neuroethology. Her lab focuses on translating sensory signals felt by whiskers to robotics.
Go to Profile#3700
W. J. Seeley
#100745
Overall Influence
Walter J. Seeley served as the Dean of Duke University's Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering from 1953 until 1963. He also served as chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department at Duke University. He was formerly an engineering professor at University of Pennsylvania. During World War II, he served as Director of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn . The Walter J. Seeley Scholastic Award is awarded annually at Duke University to the member of the graduating class of the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering who has achieved th...
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