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,
#4701
Robert Magnusson
#133641
Overall Influence
#4702
François Pierrot
#106489
Overall Influence
1961 - Present (65 years)
François Pierrot is director of research in The Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics . Biography Former student at the Mechanical Engineering Department of École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, holding a PhD in Automatic Control from the Montpellier 2 University, Dr. François Pierrot now serves as a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the LIRMM. For more than 15 years, he has been working to create new robots considering simultaneously mechanical design and control strategies, on theoretical aspects as well as in close cooperation with industrial partners in the fields of industry, health and education.
Go to Profile#4703
Joachim Hagenauer
#133648
Overall Influence
#4704
Ruggero Lenci
#101097
Overall Influence
1955 - Present (71 years)
Ruggero Lenci is an Italian architect and Professor of Architectural Design at the Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome. Author and director of the Editorial Series "Sustainable Architecture" Gangemi, has collaborated in the writing of entries for the Italian Enciclopedia Treccani: John M. Johansen, I.M. Pei, Paolo Soleri, Bruno Zevi. His theoretical contribution on "Evolution and architecture between science and design" makes a parallel of scientific disciplines and design ones, from which is derived the following: "The morphogenesis of the project s...
Go to Profile#4705
Junqiao Wu
#124827
Overall Influence
Junqiao Wu is a Chancellor's professor and Department Chair of materials science at the University of California, Berkeley. Wu's materials science research focuses on semiconductors, electronic materials and thermal energy transport. Wu's research in semiconductors has led to major discoveries in the field, such as indium gallium nitride alloys have bandgaps spanning the entire near infrared to ultraviolet spectrum, electrons in vanadium dioxide conduct energy without conducting heat, a temperature adaptive radiative coating that automatically switches thermal emissivity, as well as a range of applications in solar cells, infrared imaging, photonics, and thermoelectrics.
Go to Profile#4706
Alexander Puzrin
#130474
Overall Influence
1965 - Present (61 years)
Alexander M. Puzrin is professor of geotechnical engineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, working in the field of geomechanics. Biography Alexander Puzrin completed his undergraduate studies in Structural Engineering in 1987 at the Department of Civil Engineering, Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering, USSR, and received his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering in 1997 from the Department of Civil Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. From 1997 to 2001 he was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then tenured associate professor at the same institution, and from 2002 to 200...
Go to Profile#4707
T. Neil Stevenson
#133671
Overall Influence
#4708
Karl Prof. Dr. Schügerl
#133680
Overall Influence
#4709
Karl Ulrich Prof. Dr.-ing. Kainer
#133711
Overall Influence
#4710
Patrick Segers
#133745
Overall Influence
#4711
Asen Asenov
#133265
Overall Influence
1954 - Present (72 years)
Asen Asenov is a Bulgarian scientist and entrepreneur in the field of microelectronics and device modelling and has focused on Technology Computer Aided design . Currently he is the James Watt Chair in Electrical Engineering at the University of Glasgow and the Leader of the Glasgow Device Modeling Group.
Go to Profile#4712
Herbert J. Shaw
#133756
Overall Influence
#4713
Dao Wen Wang
#133770
Overall Influence
#4714
Jia Deng
#133786
Overall Influence
#4715
William Clarke Little
#133816
Overall Influence
#4716
Robert James Cerfolio
#133837
Overall Influence
#4717
Judith Chafee
#116970
Overall Influence
1932 - 1998 (66 years)
Judith Chafee nee Davidson Bloom was an American architect known for her work on residential buildings in Arizona and for being a professor of architecture at the University of Arizona. She was a recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship to the American Academy in Rome during the middle of her career and was the first woman from Arizona to be named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Go to Profile#4718
Belur V. Dasarathy
#133863
Overall Influence
Belur V. Dasarathy is an internationally recognized expert in information fusion and related technologies. Dr. Dasarathy is Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a consultant in design and development of automated intelligent decision systems arising in a variety of applications.
Go to Profile#4719
Michael Gunder
#95886
Overall Influence
1954 - 2021 (67 years)
Michael Gunder was an associate professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland, and was a past president of the New Zealand Planning Institute. He had a BA , MA , both from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and a PhD in Planning from the University of Auckland. In 2011 he was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Planning Institute. He was the managing editor of the academic journal Planning Theory.
Go to Profile#4720
Molly Wright Steenson
#104399
Overall Influence
1971 - Present (55 years)
Molly Wright Steenson is an American professor of design and a historian of architecture and technology. Currently, Molly is the president and CEO of the American Swedish Institute. Previously, she was the Carnegie Mellon University Vice Provost for Faculty, K&L Gates Associate Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies, and Senior Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.
Go to Profile#4721
Ramesh Chander Bansal
#133924
Overall Influence
#4722
Richard T. Jr Lahey
#133926
Overall Influence
#4723
Guy J.f. Marchal
#133928
Overall Influence
#4724
Kurt S. Pregitzer
#133950
Overall Influence
#4725
James Quintiere
#127605
Overall Influence
1940 - Present (86 years)
James G. Quintiere is an American mechanical engineer known for his work on fire protection engineering and fire safety. He is professor emeritus in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering. A noted expert on arson, he has testified in criminal trials regarding the causes of certain fires, such as the one that occurred in the Waco siege and killed over 80 people. He has also studied the causes of the collapse of the World Trade Center, concluding that it was probably caused by faulty fireproofing.
Go to Profile#4726
Jenna Jambeck
#75308
Overall Influence
1974 - Present (52 years)
Jenna Jambeck an American environmental engineer who is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Georgia. Her research considers plastic pollution and efforts to address plastic waste. In 2022, she was appointed a MacArthur Fellow.
Go to Profile#4727
Marvin A. Sackner
#134009
Overall Influence
#4728
Ajay Kohli
#88105
Overall Influence
Ajay K. Kohli is the Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair at Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology. He is known for his work on market orientation, marketing theory and marketing strategy. He is a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Marketing. He is a fellow of the American Marketing Association. He is among the 100 most cited authors in the fields of Business and Economics combined in a decade, and two of his articles are among the 10 most cited Journal of Marketing articles in a quarter century. He is represented in ISIHighlyCited.com, an ISI web site from the In...
Go to Profile#4729
Dmitry Bertman
#78514
Overall Influence
1967 - Present (59 years)
Dmitry Alexandrovitch Bertman is a Russian theatre and opera director and the founder and artistic director of Helikon Opera in Moscow. Early years Bertman was born in Moscow, the son of Alexander Bertman and Ludmila Zhumaeva. He graduated from Russian Academy of Theatre Arts where he studied under Georgy Ansimov. Back in his student years he staged a number of opera, musical and dramatic performances at first in his Studio Theater together with Jacob Rosenberg and later in professional theaters in Moscow, Tver, Odessa and Syktyvkar. In 1990 Bertman founded Helikon Opera and remains its artis...
Go to Profile#4730
John Tarbell
#132895
Overall Influence
Not to be confused American military officer and Mississippi Supreme Court judge Jonathan Tarbell John M. Tarbell is an American engineer, currently a CUNY and Wallace Coulter Distinguished Professor at City College of New York.
Go to Profile#4731
Timothy D. Stark
#127655
Overall Influence
1963 - Present (63 years)
Timothy D. Stark is a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign since 1991. Dr. Stark teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Foundation Engineering and Earth Structures, respectively, in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UIUC and numerous short courses for various entities. Dr. Stark has served as a consultant and expert on a range of domestic and international projects including levees and dams, buildings, bridges, slopes, geosynthetics, seismic issues, waste containment facilities, and highways.
Go to Profile#4732
David Cebon
#134083
Overall Influence
#4733
Dirk. T. M. Slock
#134085
Overall Influence
#4734
Walter Nance
#63608
Overall Influence
1933 - Present (93 years)
Walter Elmore Nance is Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Genetics of the Virginia Commonwealth University. He is an internationally known expert in hereditary deafness, twin studies and genetic linkage analysis of both continuous and qualitative traits.
Go to Profile#4735
Francesco Borrelli
#134112
Overall Influence
#4736
M. Katherine Banks
#52222
Overall Influence
Margaret Katherine "Kathy" Banks is an American academic, engineer, and was the 26th president of Texas A&M University from 2021 to 2023, only the second woman to hold that position out of 41 total presidents at the time, including her interim successor.
Go to Profile#4737
Sang-hyuk Son
#134211
Overall Influence
#4738
Somnath Chatterji
#134212
Overall Influence
#4739
Paul Karoly
#134238
Overall Influence
#4740
Jianwei Huang
#112100
Overall Influence
1978 - Present (48 years)
Jianwei Huang is a Chinese computer scientist and electrical engineer. He is a Presidential Chair Professor and Associate Vice President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Information Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a guest professor of Southeast University.
Go to Profile#4741
Hong‐nan Li
#134291
Overall Influence
#4742
Jens Lothe John Price Hirth
#134292
Overall Influence
#4743
Joseph C. Dunn
#134320
Overall Influence
#4744
Preben Elgaard Mogensen
#134336
Overall Influence
#4745
Kiyohiro Shikano
#134380
Overall Influence
1947 - Present (79 years)
#4746
Jennifer Sinclair Curtis
#97871
Overall Influence
1960 - Present (66 years)
Jennifer Lynn Sinclair Curtis is an American engineer. She was the Dean of the University of California, Davis' College of Engineering from 2015 until 2020 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Society for Engineering Education, and American Physical Society.
Go to Profile#4747
Douglas C. Noll
#134419
Overall Influence
#4748
Fatih Seli̇mefendi̇gi̇l
#134433
Overall Influence
#4749
Marta Molinas
#123855
Overall Influence
1968 - Present (58 years)
María Marta Molinas Cabrera is a Paraguayan electrical engineer, educated in Japan, who works in Norway as a professor of engineering cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology .
Go to Profile#4750
Andrew P. Bradley
#134441
Overall Influence
2000 - Present (26 years)
