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,
#4051
Klaus Riedle
#87904
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Klaus Riedle is a German power engineering scientist who has contributed to the development of more efficient gas turbines for power generation. Career Riedle graduated from the Technical University of Munich in 1964. Following two years as visiting assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he joined Siemens in 1971, specializing in nuclear reactor security. In the mid 1980s, Riedle changed his focus to fossil fuel power plants and eventually became president of the Siemens gas turbines division. He retired from that position in 2006. As of 2010, he headed the Siemens scientific developments department for high-temperature turbines.
Go to Profile#4052
Tadashi Matsunaga
#124722
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
#4053
Guang Ning
#124735
Overall Influence
#4054
Alan Pilkington
#39052
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Alan Pilkington is a British engineer and researcher known for his work in technology management, operations management, Manufacturing strategy and enterprise engineering. He has been a professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Hult International Business School and S P Jain School of Global Management. He is currently Professor of Technology Management at Westminster Business School in London. He is past chair of the IEEE Technology Management Council for the UK and Republic of Ireland joint chapter on engineering management.
Go to Profile#4055
Issa Batarseh
#105260
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Issa E. Batarseh is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida. Education and career Batarseh got his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1990 and prior to it, got his B.S. in computer engineering and M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1983 and 1985, respectively. Following graduation, from 1989 to 1990, Batarseh served as a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University in Calumet City, Illinois. He was appointed to the University of Central Fl...
Go to Profile#4056
Cai‐cun Zhou
#124825
Overall Influence
#4057
Soo‐chang Pei
#124829
Overall Influence
#4058
Méléze Hocini
#124836
Overall Influence
#4059
Rama Ranganathan
#97219
Overall Influence
Rama Ranganathan is an American bioengineer. Ranganathan studied bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a master's degree and doctorate at the University of California, San Diego. During his tenure at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he headed the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Systems Biology, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator from 1997 to 2007. Ranganathan joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2017, as founding leader of the Center for Physics of Evolving Systems, a joint project of UChicago's Division of the Biological Sciences and the Institute for Molecular Engineering.
Go to Profile#4060
Sharon Gerecht
#91205
Overall Influence
Sharon Gerecht is an Israeli American bioengineer. She is a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering. Gerecht is the Kent Gordon Croft Investment Management Faculty scholar and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute of NanoBioTechnology . She holds a joint appointment in Oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and in Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. She will be moving to Duke University in 2022. In 2011, she won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. She was elected a fellow of the American Institute for...
Go to Profile#4061
Lieven De Lathauwer
#124851
Overall Influence
#4062
James Harold Mcclellan
#124853
Overall Influence
#4063
Elsie Sunderland
#40153
Overall Influence
Elsie M. Sunderland is a Canadian toxicologist and environmental scientist and the Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Chemistry at Harvard University. She studies processes through which human activities increase and modify pollutants in natural ecosystems and living systems.
Go to Profile#4064
Olfa Kanoun
#115826
Overall Influence
1970 - Present (56 years)
Olfa Kanoun is professor for measurement and sensor technology at the TU Chemnitz. Career development Kanoun completed her studies in electrical engineering and information technology at the Technical University of Munich in 1995. She received her doctorate from the University of the Bundeswehr University Munich in 2001. Her thesis "Kalibrationsfreie Temperaturmessung" was awarded the research prize of the Arbeitskreis der Hochschullehrer für Messtechnik . She then founded the Impedance Specroscopy a working group at the Bundeswehr University Munich. Her habilitation took place abroad. From 2006 to 2007 she was substitute professor for measurement technology at the University of Kassel.
Go to Profile#4065
Michael A. Wulder
#124955
Overall Influence
#4066
David Lee Cochran
#124956
Overall Influence
#4067
Peter C. Searson
#124963
Overall Influence
#4068
Salman Azhar
#124994
Overall Influence
#4069
Robert X. Gao
#125004
Overall Influence
#4070
M. Necati Özışık
#125009
Overall Influence
#4071
Vi Balachander Krishnamurthy
#125032
Overall Influence
#4072
Bahaa E. A. Saleh
#125048
Overall Influence
#4073
Raymond Leonard
#117011
Overall Influence
1941 - Present (85 years)
Raymond Leonard is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Technology at Manchester University, known for both his scientific and literary work. Early life Raymond Leonard was born in 1941 when the Manchester Blitz was at its height. His father, William was a railway worker and his mother, Florence, was a hospital cleaner. Having attended Saint Phillip's Junior School he moved to the Cavendish School in the heart of Manchester, where he finished top of the class. While at school, to supplement the family income, he delivered newspapers both night and morning around central Manchester including Sundays.
Go to Profile#4074
Shao-peng Wu
#125054
Overall Influence
#4075
Ren‐geng Xiong
#125080
Overall Influence
#4076
Fahrettin Yakuphanoğlu
#125096
Overall Influence
#4077
Arie Levant
#125104
Overall Influence
#4078
Bill Hammack
#83180
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
William S. Hammack is an American chemical engineer, and professor in the department of chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Hammack earned his BS in chemical engineering in 1984 from Michigan Technological University.
Go to Profile#4079
Derya Toprak Gündüz
#125154
Overall Influence
#4080
Tomasz Wierzbicki
#125161
Overall Influence
#4081
Ollie Johnston
#12497
Overall Influence
1912 - 2008 (96 years)
Oliver Martin Johnston Jr. was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death from natural causes. He was recognized by The Walt Disney Company with its Disney Legend Award in 1989. His work was recognized with the National Medal of Arts in 2005.
Go to Profile#4082
Ji-ming Chen
#125205
Overall Influence
#4083
Lars Per-eric Ericsson
#125207
Overall Influence
#4084
Balu Mahendra
#46862
Overall Influence
1939 - 2014 (75 years)
Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran , commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a cinematographer, director, screenwriter and film editor who worked in various Indian film industries, primarily in Tamil and Malayalam cinema. Born in Sri Lanka, Mahendran developed a passion for photography and literature at a young age, after witnessing the shoot of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai during a school trip in Sri Lanka, he was drawn towards filmmaking. He graduated from London University and started his career as a draughtsman with the Sri Lankan Government. In 1966, he moved to India and gained adm...
Go to Profile#4085
Deepak Srivastava
#125220
Overall Influence
#4086
R Paul Singh
#125222
Overall Influence
#4087
Dov Jaron
#66460
Overall Influence
Dov Jaron is an American engineer, currently the Calhoun Distinguished Professor of Engineering in Medicine at Drexel University and is a Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Academy of Surgical Research, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and World Academy for Biomedical Technology.
Go to Profile#4088
Philip C. Woodland
#125306
Overall Influence
#4089
Giorgio Rizzoni
#125337
Overall Influence
#4090
Shao Xianghua
#77806
Overall Influence
1913 - 2012 (99 years)
Shao Xianghua, was a Chinese materials engineer and metallurgist. He was considered as a pioneer of modern Chinese metallurgical engineering. Career Shao was born on February 22, 1913, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Shao graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University in 1932. He studied in the Britain and received bachelor and M.Sc degrees from the University of London in 1938.
Go to Profile#4091
Nandita Basu
#77008
Overall Influence
Nandita Basu is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology at the University of Waterloo. Her research is centered on anthropogenic effects on water availability and quality via changes in land use and climate. Basu is recognized for her work on discovering the impact of nutrient legacies and proposed solutions to improving water quality of lakes and coastal zones. She is a member of Robert E. Horton Medal Committee.
Go to Profile#4092
Gaetano Assanto
#125386
Overall Influence
1958 - Present (68 years)
Gaetano Assanto from Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for contributions to nonlinear optical guides and spatial solitons.
Go to Profile#4093
Otto Glatter
#125391
Overall Influence
#4094
Francis H. Froes
#125392
Overall Influence
#4095
Tadatsugu Minami
#125402
Overall Influence
#4096
Frederik H. Kreuger
#51113
Overall Influence
1928 - 2015 (87 years)
Frederik Hendrik Kreuger , was a Dutch high voltage scientist and inventor, lived in Delft, the Netherlands, and was professor emeritus of the Delft University of Technology. He was also a professional author of technical literature, nonfiction books, thrillers and a decisive biography of the master forger Han van Meegeren.
Go to Profile#4097
Sandra Hirche
#115439
Overall Influence
Sandra Hirche is a German control theorist and engineer. She is Liesel Beckmann Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Technical University of Munich, where she holds the chair of information-oriented control. Her research focuses on human–robot interaction, haptic technology, telepresence, and the control engineering and systems theory needed to make those technologies work.
Go to Profile#4098
Jan Lunze
#125423
Overall Influence
#4099
Hans‐joachim Bunge
#125439
Overall Influence
#4100
Sorin Cristoloveanu
#125442
Overall Influence
