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,
#4251
Robert Chang
#112019
Overall Influence
Robert P. H. Chang is an American materials scientist who served as the president of the Materials Research Society and as a general secretary and president of the International Union of Materials Research Societies . Currently Chang heads the Materials Research Institute at Northwestern University. He is a member of advisory boards of the National Institute for Materials Science and of the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.
Go to Profile#4252
Dhiraj K. Pradhan
#127653
Overall Influence
#4253
Jian-sheng Dai
#127654
Overall Influence
#4254
Baba C. Vemuri
#99774
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Baba C. Vemuri is the Wilson and Marie Collins Professor of Engineering and a Distinguished Professor at the Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering Department of the University of Florida. He is also the Director of Laboratory for Vision Graphics and Medical Imaging at University of Florida.
Go to Profile#4255
Christopher J. Hernandez
#114812
Overall Influence
Christopher J. Hernandez is an American engineer and scientist who currently serves as professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences.
Go to Profile#4256
Harold G. Nelson
#79919
Overall Influence
1949 - Present (77 years)
Harold Glea Nelson is an American architect, consultant and former Nierenberg Distinguished Professor of Design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2001, he served as president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences . He is known as the co-author of The Design Way, a book considered by some to be the Rosetta Stone of Design.
Go to Profile#4257
Radu Marculescu
#109087
Overall Influence
Radu Marculescu is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Laura Jennings Turner Chair in Engineering. He moved to the University of Texas from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a professor from 2000 to 2019.
Go to Profile#4258
Parameswaran Hariharan
#127692
Overall Influence
#4259
Roland N. Horne
#127712
Overall Influence
#4260
Francis Charles Moon
#127723
Overall Influence
#4261
Kei May Lau
#116048
Overall Influence
Kei May Lau is a semiconductor engineer whose research topics have included high-electron-mobility transistors, light-emitting diodes, and laser diodes. She is Fang Professor of Engineering and Director of the Photonics Technology Center in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering.
Go to Profile#4262
Merton C. Flemings
#127750
Overall Influence
#4263
Eric Lauga
#127753
Overall Influence
#4264
Timothy J. Broderick
#58009
Overall Influence
1964 - Present (62 years)
Timothy J. Broderick, F.A.C.S., is Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he has served on the faculty since 2003. He also serves as Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Surgery and is Director of the Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation . He has flown on the NASA KC-135 parabolic laboratory and dived in the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations program to develop advanced surgical technologies for long duration space flight.
Go to Profile#4265
Katharine K. Merritt
#127778
Overall Influence
#4266
Peter Stackpole
#47703
Overall Influence
1913 - 1997 (84 years)
Peter Stackpole was an American photographer. Along with Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, and Thomas McAvoy, he was one of Life Magazines first staff photographers and remained with the publication until 1960. He won a George Polk Award in 1954 for a photograph taken 100 feet underwater, and taught photography at the Academy of Art University. He also wrote a column in U.S. Camera for fifteen years. He was the son of sculptor Ralph Stackpole.
Go to Profile#4267
Jianhui Wang
#127793
Overall Influence
#4268
William A. Wallace
#88343
Overall Influence
1935 - Present (91 years)
William A. Wallace is an American systems and infrastructure engineering expert. He is professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the department of decision sciences and engineering systems, and holds joint appointments in cognitive sciences and civil and environmental engineering. He is research director of Rensselaer's Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies.
Go to Profile#4269
Graham Galbraith
#56663
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Graham Harold Galbraith is a British academic and administrator who has served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth since September 2013. He previously served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Glasgow Caledonian University.
Go to Profile#4270
Yozo Fujino
#127798
Overall Influence
#4271
Michael Demetriou
#86713
Overall Influence
1950 - Present (76 years)
Michael A. Demetriou is a professor of aerospace engineering at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2015 for his contributions to estimation and optimization of distributed parameter systems.
Go to Profile#4272
Gavin Mudd
#39183
Overall Influence
Gavin M. Mudd is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at RMIT University, Australia. He was awarded a Ph.D. in environmental engineering in 2001, from the Victoria University of Technology. Mudd's research interests include environmental impacts, management of mine wastes, acid mine drainage, sustainability frameworks, life-cycle assessment modelling and mine rehabilitation.
Go to Profile#4273
Hing Cheung So
#127826
Overall Influence
#4274
Craig Henriquez
#98388
Overall Influence
1959 - Present (67 years)
Craig Shelby Henriquez was an American biomedical engineer, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science at the Duke University, and was the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Neuroengineering. His research interests were in the areas of large-scale computer modeling of the cardiac bidomain and neuroengineering.
Go to Profile#4275
John Weyant
#66925
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
John P. Weyant is a research professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. He obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley in management science in 1976 and has been at Stanford since 1977. His research is focused on climate change, energy security, corporate strategy analysis, and energy policy in Japan.
Go to Profile#4276
Huseyin Sehitoglu
#127836
Overall Influence
#4277
David R. Kaeli
#102878
Overall Influence
David R. Kaeli is an American computer scientist and Northeastern University College of Engineering Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been cited over 16,000 times. His research involves the design and performance of high-performance computer systems and software.
Go to Profile#4278
Hongyi Li
#127847
Overall Influence
#4279
George Stanley Rushbrooke
#24866
Overall Influence
1915 - 1995 (80 years)
Prof George Stanley Rushbrooke FRS FRSE was a 20th century British theoretical physicist. Biography Rushbrooke was born in Willenhall, one of twin sons of George Henry Rushbrooke, baker and confectioner, and Frances Isabel . After attending a small private school he moved, at age 10, to Wolverhampton Grammar School, from where he gained a State Scholarship and passed the entrance scholarship exam to St John's College, Cambridge. He entered the college in October 1933, where he read mathematics and gained Firsts throughout his examinations. He and Fred Hoyle were jointly awarded the Mayhew P...
Go to Profile#4280
Mark D. Plumbley
#127853
Overall Influence
#4281
Makoto Tominaga
#127859
Overall Influence
#4282
Mostafa Kaveh
#127887
Overall Influence
#4283
Hiroyuki Tadokoro
#127904
Overall Influence
#4284
Alberto Benchimol
#127907
Overall Influence
#4285
Carlo Vandecasteele
#127915
Overall Influence
#4286
Gary Lynn Harris
#113225
Overall Influence
1953 - 2020 (67 years)
Gary Lynn Harris was a professor of electrical engineering at Howard University and director of that school's National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network facility. His research involved semiconductor fabrication of electronic and optical materials. He was one of the first two African Americans to receive a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University, along with Michael Spencer.
Go to Profile#4287
Janusz Bujnicki
#77774
Overall Influence
1975 - Present (51 years)
Janusz Marek Bujnicki is a Polish biologist specializing in molecular biology and bioinformatics, professor of biological sciences, head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw and a research group at the Laboratory of Bioinformatics at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
Go to Profile#4288
Tamotsu Takahashi
#127955
Overall Influence
#4289
Jianquan Lu
#128017
Overall Influence
#4290
Emanuel Kaldis
#128052
Overall Influence
#4291
Barry Wayne Williams
#128059
Overall Influence
#4292
Darren M. Dawson
#128072
Overall Influence
#4293
Sergei Konstantinovich Godunov
#128106
Overall Influence
#4294
Laura Wilson
#43692
Overall Influence
1939 - Present (87 years)
Laura Cunningham Wilson is an American photographer. She has completed five books of photography and text: Watt Matthews of Lambshead , Hutterites of Montana , Avedon at Work: In the American West , Grit and Glory: Six-Man Football , and That Day: Pictures in the American West . She is the mother of actors Owen Wilson, Andrew Wilson, and Luke Wilson.
Go to Profile#4295
Stuart Rowan
#116100
Overall Influence
1969 - Present (57 years)
Stuart J. Rowan is a Scottish chemist. Early life and education Rowan was born in Edinburgh in 1969, and raised in Troon, South Ayrshire. He completed a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at the University of Glasgow.
Go to Profile#4296
William E. Glenn
#58930
Overall Influence
1926 - 2013 (87 years)
William Ellis Glenn was an American inventor and Professor at Florida Atlantic University best known for his contributions to imaging technology. Glenn was awarded 136 U.S. patents, has worked as head of NASA Imaging Technology Commercial Space Center, as well as head of FAU's Imaging Technology Center and is among the most prolific commercially viable inventors in America. In 1978, the digital noise reducer invented by him, earned NYIT its first television Emmy award. Glenn directed NYIT's former Science and Technology Research Center in Florida, where he also developed his invention. The di...
Go to Profile#4297
Vera Silva
#108987
Overall Influence
Vera Lucia Fernandes de Paiva da Silva is a Portuguese engineer and the chief technology officer at General Electric grid solutions part of GE Renewable Energy business. She is one of the few women to hold a chief technology officer position at General Electric. She works on electricity grids technology and renewable energy integration.
Go to Profile#4298
Bijan Samali
#128256
Overall Influence
#4299
Thomas F. Quatieri
#128271
Overall Influence
#4300
Franco Blanchini
#128273
Overall Influence
