Famous, and mostly not so famous, Engineers
National Academy of Engineering Draper Prize winners
Jack
Kilby - inventor of the integrated circuit and handheld calculator, Nobel, Draper,
and Kyoto Prize winner, electrical engineer
Tim Cook - CEO, Apple, industrial engineer
Arthur Fry - invented the Post-it note, chemical engineer
Cecil Green,
John Jonsson, Patrick Haggerty - co-founders of Texas Instruments, electrical engineers
Kristine Svinicki - member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, nuclear engineer
Wilson Greatbatch - invented the cardiac pacemaker, electrical engineer
Vice Admiral Kendall Card - Director of Naval Intelligence, mechanical engineer
Werner Dahm, PHD - Director of the Security & Defense Systems
Initiative, Arizona State Univ., mechanical engineer
Jeff Bezos - Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, electrical engineer
Maurice Koechlin - structural designer of the Eiffel Tower, structural engineer
Virginia Rometty - new IBM CEO, electrical engineer
Michael
Duke - President and CEO, Wal-Mart, industrial engineer
T. J. Rodgers, PhD - invented VMOS technology, CEO Cypress Semiconductor, electrical engineer
Robert Zubrin, PhD - aerospace/nuclear engineer, Mars exploration proponent
Mark Donohue - legendary road course racer, mechanical engineer
Hubert Schlafly - invented the teleprompter, electrical engineer
Aron Ralston - mountain climber on whom the movie 127 Hours was based - mechanical engineer
Homer Hickam - author of Rocket Boys, the book on which the movie October Sky was
based, industrial engineer, author
Clarence
"Kelly" Johnson - founder of Lockheed's legendary "Skunk
Works", SR-71 designer, aeronautical engineer
Ben Rich - 2nd Director
of the Skunk Works; led development of the F-117 stealth bomber, mechanical
engineer
Charles Kaman -
rotary-winged flight pioneer and founder of the Ovation guitar company,
aeronautical engineer
Rex
Tillerson - CEO, ExxonMobil, civil engineer
Mark
Albers - Senior VP, ExxonMobil, petroleum engineer
John
W. Morris, Lt. General (Ret.), former Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army,
civil engineer
Ford Brett, PE - one
of the reviewers of the off shore drilling report later "doctored"
by the White House, mechanical engineer
Leslie E. Robertson - structural designer of the World Trade Center, structural engineer
Herbert
Hoover - 31st President of
the United States, humanitarian,
founder of the Hoover
Institute, mining engineer
Frank Crowe -
chief engineer of the Hoover Dam, civil engineer
General
Raymond Odierno - BS in engineering USMA, MS in nuclear engineering,
NCSU
Wayne Clough,
PhD - Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, former President of Gergia Tech, civil engineer
Nikola Tesla - inventor of the induction motor and arguably the father of our modern
electric power system, electrical engineer
Scott
Fancher - VP and GM of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program, electrical
engineer
Colonel
John Boyd - co-developer of the Energy Maneuverability theory of
air combat, industrial engineer
Harry Hillaker - chief designer of the General Dynamics F-16 jet, aeronautical engineer
George
Buckley - CEO, 3M Corporation, electrical engineer
Richard
Whitcomb - aerodynamics pioneer, mechanical engineer
Larry
Page - co-founder of Google, computer engineer
John H. Sununu (R) - former White House Chief of Staff, PhD in mechanical engineering,
MIT
John
E. Sununu (R) - former senator, New Hampshire, MS mechanical engineering,
MIT
Robert
Dennard - invented the DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip, Draper prize recipient, electrical engineer
Roberts Kearns - inventor of the intermittant windshield wiper, subject of the movie Flash of Genius, electrical engineer
John Cornwell - beer tossing refrigerator inventor, electrical and computer engineer
Nolan
Bushnell - founder of Atari video games company, electrical engineer
Ralph Baer - credited
with inventing the video game console, the mother of all video games,
TV engineer
James Truchard, PhD - founder and CEO, National Instruments, electrical engineer
Kenneth
Swartzel, PhD - Director of the Food
System Leadership Institute, food engineer
Mike Massimino,
PhD - one of the astronauts who fixed the Hubble telescope, mechanical
engineer
Michael
Good - one of the astronauts who fixed the Hubble telescope, aerospace
engineer
Jack
Welch - former Chairman & CEO, General Electric Company, chemical
engineer
Elmer
Gaden, PhD - "father of biochemical engineering", chemical engineer
Nathanael
Herreshoff - legendary America's Cup yacht designer, mechanical
engineer/naval architect
Tommy Thompson - mastermind of the team that found the SS Central America, aka "Ship
of Gold", mechanical engineer
William Gramley,
MD - gastroenterologist, chemical engineering degree
Erik Rotheim - invented the aerosol spray can, chemical engineer
Maurizio Seracini - art
imaging and diagnostics specialist, electrical and bioengineer
Leo Beranek, PhD - co-founder of Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, acoustics engineer
Bill
Nye - worked for Boeing before he became the "science guy", mechanical
engineer
David
M. Crocker - retired Rear Admiral, former Commanding Officer of
the USS Carl Vinson, aerospace engineer
Marcian Hoff,
PhD - invented the microprocessor while at Intel, electrical engineer
John Bardeen,
PhD - co-inventor of the transistor, electrical engineer and physicist,
double Nobel Prize winner
Willis
Carrier - invented first air conditioning system, mechanical engineer
Paul MacCready - human-powered flight pioneer, aeronautical engineer
Nick
Holonyak, Jr., PhD - invented the first light emitting diode (LED),
electrical engineer
Seymour Cray - founder of Cray Research, supercomputer manufacturer, electrical engineer
Martin
Cooper - inventor of the cell phone, electrical engineer
Marshall Brain, founder of How
Stuff Works, electrical engineer
Santiago Calatrava - world
famous architect and structural engineer, graduate degree in civil engineering
Harold
Froehlich - designed the Alvin deep ocean submersible, aeronautical
engineer
Mae
Jamison, MD - first black, female astronaut, chemical engineer,
medical doctor
Stephen Wozniak - founded Apple and then later returned to finish school, electrical
engineer
Karlheinz
Brandenberg, PhD - co-developer of the MP3 compression scheme, electrical
engineer
Amar Bose, PhD - founder of the Bose Corp., former MIT electrical engineering professor,
electrical engineer
Frank Capra -
film director, degree in chemical engineering
Isambard Kingdom
Brunel - the great British transportation engineer
Sir Barnes Wallis - invented the bouncing and deep-penetration earth quake bombs used
in WWII, marine engineer
Kermin
Fleming - 2004 Jeopardy college champion, electrical and computer
engineering student
Ray
Dolby, PhD - founder of Dolby Laboratories, electrical engineer
Robert Moog -
inventor of the Moog synthesizer, MS in electrical engineering
Alan
Boeckmann - CEO of the Fluor Corporation, electrical engineer
Mark
Dean, PhD - IBM Fellow, part of the original IBM PC development
team, electrical engineer
Dave
Bradley, PhD - wrote the BIOS for the original IBM PC, inventor
of the control-alt-del key combo, electrical engineer
Douglas Engelbart - inventor of the mouse, electrical engineer
William
Hewlett - co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company, electrical
engineer
David
Packard - co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company, electrical
engineer
Albert Carnesale,
PhD - Chancellor Emeritus, UCLA, former Provost, Harvard, nuclear
engineer
Bonnie Dunbar - astronuat, mechanical/biomedical engineer
Judith Resnik - Challenger astronuat, electrical engineer
Ilan Ramon - Israeli Columbia astronaut, electrical engineer
Rich
Husband - Columbia astronaut, mechanical engineer
Kalpana
Chawla - Columbia astronaut, first Indian in space, aerospace engineer
Burt
Rutan - aircraft innovator, SpaceShipOne designer, aeronautical
engineer
Katherine
Stinson - first woman graduate of NCSU College of Engineering, aeronautical
engineer
Neil
Armstrong - astronaut, aeronautical engineer
John
Glenn - astronaut, US Senator, USMC aviator, WWII & Korea veteran,
BS degree in engineering
Theodore
von Karman - aerodynamics pioneer, aeronautical engineer, first
Director of the Jet Propulsion Lab
Ashton
Lewis - NASCAR driver, mechanical engineer
Ryan
Newman - NASCAR driver, mechanical engineer
Sue Ginter,
professional golfer, degree in mechanical engineer
Jason
Szuminski - major league pictcher, aerospace engineering degree,
MIT
Norbert Rillieux - inventor of the process of vacuum evaporation, chemical engineer
Kenneth Olsen - inventor of magnetic core memory, co-founder, Digital Equipment Corporation,
electrical engineer
Bill Koch, PhD -
1992 America's Cup winner, chemical engineer
Todd
Akin (R) - congressman, Missouri second district, management engineering
degree
Joe Barton PE (R) - congressman, Texas 6th district, industrial engineer
John
Shimkus (R) - congressman, Illinois, 19th district, general engineering
degree, West Point
Cliff Stearns (R) - congressman, Florida 6thdistrict, electrical engineer
Daniel
Lipinski (D) - congressman, Illinois 3rd district, mechanical engineering
degree
Andrew
Grove, PhD - co-founder, Intel, chemical engineer
George Westinghouse - founder of Westinghouse, inventor, pioneer of AC power, engineer
Bill Joy -
co-founder of Sun Microsystems, electrical engineer
Alexander Calder - scupltor, college degree in engineering
John
Roebling - designed the Brooklyn Bridge, civil engineer
Washington
Roebling - completed oversight of construction of Brooklyn Bridge,
civil engineer
Hyman
G. Rickover - led development of the navy nuclear submarine fleet,
electrical engineer
John
Simpson - US nuclear pioneer, electrical engineer
Stephen Timoshenko - arguably, the father of engineering
mechanics, engineering scientist
Ludwig
Prandtl - arguably, the father of fluid mechanics, mechanical engineer
William
LeMessurier - structural designer of the Citicorp building, structural
engineer
Joesph Strauss
et al. - designers and builders of the Golden Gate Bridge
According to the September 16-17, 2006 edition of the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition, about 20% of the CEO's of the top US companies have engineering degrees - the most common degree - followed by business administration, liberal arts, economics, and accounting. Only about 10% have degrees from Ivy League schools. You don't have to waste a fortune at one of those schools to have a really good career.
No, Bill Gates is not an engineer, and Al Gore did not invent the Internet but he did "invent" global warmism. THESE guys (see 2001 Draper Prize winners) invented the internet!




Donate Today