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,
#3751
Harry Hurt
#69630
Overall Influence
1927 - 2009 (82 years)
Hugh Harrison Hurt, Jr., was an American researcher on motorcycle safety. He was the author of the 1981 Hurt Report, described as "the most comprehensive motorcycle safety study of the 20th century."
Go to Profile#3752
Gregory Levitin
#120115
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
#3753
Thomas Aaron Gulliver
#120148
Overall Influence
#3754
James Sayers
#40637
Overall Influence
1912 - 1993 (81 years)
James Sayers was a Northern Irish physicist who played a crucial role in developing centimetric radar, which is now used in microwave ovens. Early life He was born on a farm in Corkey, County Antrim, Ireland. He built a water wheel to provide the farm with electricity.
Go to Profile#3755
Michael Stuart Howe
#120162
Overall Influence
#3756
Susan Meiselas
#23338
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
Susan Meiselas is an American documentary photographer. She has been associated with Magnum Photos since 1976 and been a full member since 1980. Currently she is the President of the Magnum Foundation. She is best known for her 1970s photographs of war-torn Nicaragua and American carnival strippers.
Go to Profile#3757
Alfred Pugsley
#97519
Overall Influence
1903 - 1998 (95 years)
Sir Alfred Grenville Pugsley, FRS was a British structural engineer. He was born in Wimbledon and studied engineering at Battersea Polytechnic, followed by working as a civil engineering student at Woolwich Arsenal.
Go to Profile#3758
Gui-hai Chen
#120280
Overall Influence
#3759
Robert N. Luben
#120284
Overall Influence
#3760
Markus Rupp
#120325
Overall Influence
Markus Rupp from the Technical University Vienna, Wien, Austria was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for contributions to adaptive filters and communication technologies.
Go to Profile#3761
Wei Yu
#99270
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
Wei Yu is a Canadian electrical engineer. He is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Information Theory and Wireless Communication at the University of Toronto. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2014 "for contributions to optimization techniques for multiple-input-multiple-output communications". He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Waterloo in 1997, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2002. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#3762
Stephen Y. Chou
#120353
Overall Influence
#3763
Karina W. Davidson
#105858
Overall Influence
Karina W. Davidson is senior vice president of research at Northwell Health and director of the Institute of Health System Science at the Feinstein Institutes of Medical Research.She was previously vice-dean of organizational effectiveness and executive director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center. She was also Chief Academic Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
Go to Profile#3764
Jack A. Taylor
#120381
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
#3765
Emil Björnson
#120386
Overall Influence
#3766
Vedran Mimica
#101500
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Vedran Mimica is a Croatian architect and educator who teaches at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is known for being the last director of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from 2002–2012.
Go to Profile#3767
Vicki Sauter
#59258
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Vicki Lynn Sauter is an American management scientist and systems engineer known for her books on decision support systems. She is a professor in the Information Systems and Technology Department at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Go to Profile#3768
Melissa Skala
#84175
Overall Influence
Melissa Caroline Skala is an American biomedical engineer who is a professor at the Morgridge Institute for Research. Her research considers photonics-based technologies for personalised medical therapies. She is a Fellow of The Optical Society, SPIE and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Go to Profile#3769
Aaron Fenster
#120446
Overall Influence
#3770
Mugeng Peng
#120460
Overall Influence
#3771
Joseph Adam Izatt
#120538
Overall Influence
#3772
Isaac M. Daniel
#120551
Overall Influence
#3773
Ebrahim H. Mamdani
#120552
Overall Influence
#3774
Rainald Löhner
#120553
Overall Influence
#3775
Harriet Nembhard
#52219
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Harriet Black Nembhard is the President of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. From July 2020 through June 2023, she served as the Dean of the University of Iowa College of Engineering and the Roy J. Carver Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at that institution.
Go to Profile#3776
Björn Ottersten
#80900
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
Björn Ottersten is a Swedish educator, researcher, and electrical engineer who is the co-inventor of Space/Spatial Division Multiple Access technology. He has made contributions in array signal processing and wireless communications and has received many notable awards in these areas. Currently, he is a Professor of Signal Processing at Royal Institute of Technology , Stockholm, Sweden, and the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, at University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Go to Profile#3777
George I. N. Rozvany
#120577
Overall Influence
#3778
Michael M. Khonsari
#120595
Overall Influence
Michael Khonsari is Dow Chemical Endowed Chair, and Professor and Director of the Center for Rotating Machinery at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Fellow of the ASME.
Go to Profile#3779
Terry Edward Mitchell
#120596
Overall Influence
#3780
Enders A. Robinson
#120611
Overall Influence
#3781
David Davies
#79082
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
Sir David Evan Naunton Davies DSc FLSW is a British electrical engineer and educator, knighted for services to science and technology in the 1994 New Year Honours. Career 1985–1988: Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London , and holder of the Pender Chair, having already been lecturing there, in Communications Systems, for many years prior to that.1986–1988: Vice-Provost of University College London1988–1993: Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University1993–1999: Chief Scientific Adviser for the Ministry of DefenceHe has subsequently been Cha...
Go to Profile#3782
Ivan Selesnick
#108436
Overall Influence
Ivan Selesnick is an electrical engineer from the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering in Brooklyn, New York. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2016 for his contributions to wavelet and sparsity based signal processing.
Go to Profile#3783
Jan Stephanus Jakob Van Deventer
#120683
Overall Influence
#3784
Andrea Massa
#120699
Overall Influence
Andrea Massa is an Italian electronics engineer, researcher and a full professor at University of Trento. He was named an IEEE Fellow by the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Society in 2018. He is an editorial board member for the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications and a past editorial board member for the International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies. He is a past associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.
Go to Profile#3785
Louis W. Roberts
#66874
Overall Influence
1913 - 1995 (82 years)
Louis Wright Roberts was an American microwave physicist. In the 1960s, he was the chief of the Microwave Laboratory at NASA's Electronics Research Center. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked at the United States Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, beginning in senior research positions and ultimately becoming the director of the center. His research focused on optics and microwave engineering.
Go to Profile#3786
Ephraim Suhir
#120738
Overall Influence
#3787
Norman Fleck
#104446
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Norman Andrew Fleck FREng, FRS is a British engineer, Professor, and Director of the Cambridge Centre for Micromechanics. He is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Go to Profile#3788
Clement Kleinstreuer
#120752
Overall Influence
1948 - Present (78 years)
#3789
Ronald Gilgenbach
#113040
Overall Influence
Ronald M. Gilgenbach is the Chair of the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department at the University of Michigan. His career is in the field of Plasma Physics, including some of the earliest tokamak plasma research in the United States. Gilgenbach has been at the University of Michigan since 1980 and has held his Chair position since 2010. He is also the lead faculty of the Plasma, Pulsed Power, and Microwave Laboratory at the University of Michigan.
Go to Profile#3790
Jeffrey M. Liebmann
#120779
Overall Influence
#3791
Peter D. Welch
#120787
Overall Influence
#3792
Mary Amanda Dew
#120813
Overall Influence
#3793
Keiichi Fukuda
#120815
Overall Influence
#3794
Andrew B. Williams
#85304
Overall Influence
Andrew B. Williams is an American academic in the field of engineering. He is currently the Dean of Engineering and the Louis S. LeTellier Chair for The Citadel School of Engineering in Charleston. It comes with a rank of Colonel in the SCM. He was the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Kansas, and the Charles E. and Mary Jane Spahr Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Go to Profile#3795
Ken Anderson
#73711
Overall Influence
1909 - 1993 (84 years)
Kenneth B. Anderson was an American art director and a writer at Walt Disney Animation Studios for 44 years. Anderson studied architecture at the University of Washington, graduating with a B.Arch. in 1934. He was particularly influenced by faculty member Lionel Pries.
Go to Profile#3796
Merrill Elam
#98059
Overall Influence
1943 - Present (83 years)
Merrill Elam is an American architect and educator based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a principal with Mack Scogin in Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects where their work spans between buildings, interiors, planning, graphics and exhibition design, and research.
Go to Profile#3797
Daniele Ielmini
#120850
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
#3798
Sigurd Wagner
#120860
Overall Influence
#3799
Lene Dammand Lund
#88934
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Lene Dammand Lund is a Danish architect and educator. Since April 2012, she has been rector of the schools of architecture, design and conservation at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Dammand Lund studied architecture at the Aarhus School of Architecture where she graduated in 1991. In 2004, she earned an MBA from the Copenhagen Business School. After working with Danish and international design studios, Dammand Lund was editor of the Danish architecture journal Arkitekten . She has also served as managing director of the SLA urban development consultancy . She has been a member of the ...
Go to Profile#3800
Aris T. Papageorghiou
#120899
Overall Influence
