Archimedes

Ancient Greek engineer and mathematician; invented the Archimedean screw and laid groundwork for fluid mechanics.

287 BC - 212 BC

Known for Archimedes' principle, Archimedes' screw, Center of gravity, Statics, Hydrostatics, Law of the lever, Indivisibles

Fields: Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Mechanics, Engineering

Leonardo da Vinci

Renaissance visionary who sketched early designs for helicopters, tanks, and mechanical knights.

1452 - 1519

Known for Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1483–1493), Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1491), The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490), The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498), Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1516)

Fields: Painting, drawing, engineering, anatomical studies, hydrology, botany, optics, geology

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

British civil engineer; designed revolutionary railways, bridges, and the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship.

1806 - 1859

Known for Great Western Railway, Clifton Suspension Bridge, SS Great Britain

Fields: Civil engineering, Structural engineering, Marine engineering

James Watt

Perfected the steam engine and powered the Industrial Revolution (literally).

1736 - 1819

Known for Watt steam engine, Watt's linkage, Watt's curve, Separate condenser, Centrifugal governor, Horsepower, Indicator diagram, Letter copying press, Sun and planet gear

Fields: Mechanical Engineering

Nikola Tesla

Invented AC current, Tesla coil, and basically lived 200 years ahead of everyone else.

1856 - 1943

Known as an Engineer, Futurist, Inventor

Fields: Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Awards: Order of St. Sava (1892), Elliott Cresson Medal (1894), Order of Prince Danilo I (1895), AIEE Edison Medal (1916), Order of the Yugoslav Crown (1931), John Scott Medal (1934), Order of the White Eagle (1937), Order of the White Lion (1937)

Thomas Edison

Inventor of the phonograph, practical electric light bulb, and the power grid. Also patented just about everything else.

1847 - 1931

Known for Phonograph, Electric light, Electric power distribution, early motion pictures

Fields: Electrical Engineering & Electromechanics, Telecommunications, Sound Recording & Reproduction, Motion Pictures, Battery Technology, Chemistry & Materials Science

Awards: Matteucci Medal (1887), John Scott Medal (1889), Edward Longstreth Medal (1899), John Fritz Medal (1908), Franklin Medal (1915), Navy Distinguished Service Medal (1920), Congressional Gold Medal (1928)

Michael Faraday

Discovered electromagnetic induction; basically the spark plug of modern electricity.

1791 - 1867

Known for Inventing the homopolar motor (1821), Discovering benzene (1825), Discovering electromagnetic induction (1831), Faraday's laws of electrolysis (1833), Faraday's ice pail experiment (1843), Faraday effect (1845)

Fields: Chemistry, Physics

Awards: FRS (1824), Bakerian Medal (1829, 1832, 1849, 1851, 1857), Copley Medal (1832, 1838), Royal Medal (1835, 1846), Rumford Medal (1846), Albert Medal (1866)

Heinrich Hertz

Proved the existence of electromagnetic waves; you might’ve heard of him… on your radio.

1857 - 1894

Known for Founding contact mechanics (1881), Work on cathode rays (1883, 1892), Discovering radio waves (1886), Discovering the photoelectric effect (1887), Inventing the parabolic antenna (1888)

Fields: Electromagnetism, Mechanics

Hedy Lamarr

Inventor of frequency-hopping technology that led to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (also a Golden Age movie star).

1914 - 2000

Known as the mother of Wi-Fi

Fields: Electronics

Awards: 1997, Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award; Invention Convention's BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award; 1998, Viktor Kaplan Medal of the Austrian Association of Patent Holders and Inventors.

Wernher von Braun

Rocket engineer; instrumental in NASA’s Apollo missions after developing Germany’s V-2 rocket.

1912 - 1977

Known for NASA engineering program manager; chief architect of the Apollo Saturn V rocket; development of the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany

Fields: Rocket propulsion

Awards: President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service (1959), Elliott Cresson Medal (1962), Wilhelm Exner Medal (1969), National Medal of Science (1975)

Robert Noyce

Co-invented the integrated circuit (microchip), paving the way for the personal computer.

1927 - 1990

Known for Co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel

Fields: Physics

Awards: Faraday Medal (1979), Harold Pender Award (1980), John Fritz Medal (1989)

Steve Wozniak

Engineering brains behind the original Apple computer (while Jobs handled the stage presence).

b. August 11, 1950

Known for Pioneer of the personal computer revolution with Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple Inc., Apple I creator, Apple II co-creator and lead developer, Macintosh co-creator and co-developer

Fields: Electronics

Awards: ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award; National Medal of Technology; American Computer & Robotics Museum's George R. Stibitz Computing and Communications Innovator Award; 7th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment; Isaac Asimov Science Award in 2011; 5th Annual Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology; Global Award of the President of Armenia; 66th Hoover Medal; Legacy for Children Award; IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award

Marc Andreessen

Co-author of Mosaic, the first web browser; helped kick off the dot-com revolution.

b. July 9, 1971

Known for Mosaic, Netscape, Opsware, Andreessen Horowitz

Fields: Software Engineering

Awards: Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year (1997); MIT Technology Review TR100 (1999)

The Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur)

Invented and flew the first successful airplane. Started aviation with a bike shop.

Wilbur 1867 - 1912 / Orville 1871 - 1948

Known for Inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane with the Wright Flyer, which pioneered the use of an effective flight control system

Fields: Aviation

Awards: Langley Medal (1910); Congressional Gold Medal (1909); Legion of Honour (France, 1909); Collier Trophy (awarded to the Wright Company in 1911)

Amelia Earhart

Aviation pioneer and record-breaker; a technical innovator and barrier-buster.

1897 - 1939

Known for Many early aviation records, including first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

Fields: Aviation

Awards: Distinguished Flying Cross; Légion d'honneur; National Aviation Hall of Fame; National Women's Hall of Fame

Burt Rutan

Aerospace designer behind SpaceShipOne, pioneering private space travel.

b. June 17, 1943

Known for Rutan Voyager, SpaceShipOne, Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, Rutan VariEze and Long-EZ, Scaled Composites founder, The Spaceship Company co-founder, pioneer of composite material for homebuilt aircraft

Fields: Aeronautical Engineering

Awards: Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award (1976); Presidential Citizens Medal (1986); National Aeronautic Association (NAA)'s Collier Trophy; Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP)'s James H. Doolittle Award ; EAA's Freedom of Flight Award (1996); SETP's Ray E. Tenhoff Award (2003); The Explorers Club Medal (2005); National Space Society (NSS)'s Von Braun Award (2005)

Mary Jackson

NASA’s first Black female engineer; helped put humans in space with serious math skills and quiet genius.

1921 - 2005

Known for Aerospace engineer at NASA and advocacy for women in STEM fields

Fields: Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics

Awards: Apollo Group Achievement Award, 1969; Daniels Alumni Award; 1972, Distinguished Service Award for her work with the Combined Federal Campaign representing Humanitarian Agencies; Langley Research Center Outstanding Volunteer Award, 1975; Iota Lambda Sorority Award for the Peninsula Outstanding Woman Scientist, 1976; King Street Community Center Outstanding Award; National Technical Association's Tribute Award, 1976

Ginni Rometty

Former CEO of IBM; led major advances in AI and quantum computing.

b. July 29, 1957

Known for CEO of IBM

Fields: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering

Awards: 2019, Edison Achievement Award

Boyan Slat

Dutch inventor who, at 18, designed a system to clean up ocean plastic. Now leading The Ocean Cleanup project.

b. 27 July 1994

Known for The Ocean Cleanup

Fields: Aerospace Engineering

Awards: Thiel Fellowship

Limor Fried (Lady Ada)

Founder of Adafruit; champion of open-source electronics and maker culture.

b. 1979

Known for Adafruit Industries, Open source movement, Open-source hardware movement

Fields: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science

Awards: 2009 Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation; 2011 Most Influential Women in Technology award by Fast Company magazine; 2012 Entrepreneur "Entrepreneur of the Year". Of the 15 finalists, she was the only female; 2015 White House Champion of Change (Making); 2018 Forbes' America's Top 50 Women In Tech; 2019 STEP Ahead Honoree, Women in Manufacturing by The Manufacturing Institute; 2019 Women in Open Source Award (Community) by Red Hat; 2023 GitHub Awards - Hardware Hacker

Mark Rober

Former NASA engineer turned YouTube science whiz; makes engineering cool, fun, and occasionally explosive.

b. March 11, 1980

Known for Social media videos, CrunchLabs, Curiosity

Fields: Mechanical Engineering

Awards: 2019 9th Streamy Awards; 2020 10th Streamy Awards; 2021 11th Streamy Awards; 26th Webby Awards; 12th Streamy Awards;