Inventors & Engineers
Builders of the tools that changed everything.
records written
Contemporary era
Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf
b. December 12, 1957
Mauritanian Prime Minister
Modern era
Vicente Fox
b. July 2, 1942
62th president of Mexico
Contemporary era
Vlad Filat
b. May 6, 1969
Moldovan politician
Contemporary era
Khaltmaagiin Battulga
b. March 3, 1963
Mongolian President, member of Democratic party
Modern era
Hassan II
July 9, 1929 – July 23, 1999
King of Morocco from 1961 to 1999
Modern era
King Bhumibol Adulyadej
December 5, 1927 – October 13, 2016
Former King of Thailand (1927–2016)
Ancient era
Archimedes
287 BCE – 212 BCE
Greatest mathematician of antiquity, pioneer of mechanics and hydrostatics
Ancient era
Zhuge Liang
181 CE – August 23, 234 CE
Chinese statesman and military strategist (181–234)
Modern era
Harry S. Truman
May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972
President of the United States from 1945 to 1953; politician (1884–1972)
Modern era
Boris Yeltsin
February 1, 1931 – April 23, 2007
Soviet and Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (1931–2007)
Early Modern era
Leonardo da Vinci
April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519
Renaissance polymath — painter of the Mona Lisa, engineer, and anatomist
Modern era
Thomas Edison
February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931
Prolific American inventor of the phonograph and practical electric light
Modern era
Nikola Tesla
July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943
Inventor and electrical engineer who pioneered alternating current
Modern era
Albert Einstein
March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955
Theoretical physicist who reshaped our understanding of space, time, and energy
Modern era
Ada Lovelace
December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852
Mathematician who wrote the first computer program a century early
Medieval era
Al-Razi
866 CE – 925 CE
Persian polymath, physician, chemist and philosopher (854-925)
Modern era
Claude Shannon
April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001
American mathematician and information theorist (1916–2001)
Early Modern era
Michael Faraday
September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867
British scientist (1791–1867)
Modern era
James Clerk Maxwell
June 13, 1831 – November 5, 1879
Scottish physicist (1831–1879)
Modern era
Heinrich Hertz
February 22, 1857 – January 1, 1894
German physicist (1857–1894)
Early Modern era
Alessandro Volta
February 18, 1745 – March 5, 1827
Italian chemist and physicist (1745–1827)
Early Modern era
Andre-Marie Ampere
January 20, 1775 – June 10, 1836
French physicist and mathematician (1775–1836)
Modern era
Wilhelm Rontgen
March 27, 1845 – February 10, 1923
German physicist (1845–1923)
Modern era
Henri Becquerel
December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908
French physicist (1852–1908)
Modern era
Richard Feynman
May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988
American theoretical physicist (1918–1988)
Modern era
J. Robert Oppenheimer
April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967
American theoretical physicist (1904–1967)
Early Modern era
Humphry Davy
December 17, 1778 – May 29, 1829
British chemist
Modern era
Alfred Nobel
October 21, 1833 – December 10, 1896
Swedish chemist and inventor (1833–1896)
Modern era
Fritz Haber
December 9, 1868 – January 29, 1934
German chemist and receiver of the Nobel prize (1868–1934)
Modern era
George Washington Carver
January 1, 1864 – January 5, 1943
African American botanist and inventor (1864-1943)
Early Modern era
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
May 24, 1686 – September 16, 1736
German-Polish physicist and engineer (1686-1736)
Modern era
Robert Koch
December 11, 1843 – May 27, 1910
German physician, bacteriologist (1843–1910)
Modern era
Jonas Salk
October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995
Jewish-American inventor of polio vaccine (1914–1995)
Contemporary era
Katalin Kariko
b. January 17, 1955
Hungarian biochemist
Medieval era
Johannes Gutenberg
1400 – February 3, 1468
Inventor of movable-type printing, the engine of the modern mind
Early Modern era
James Watt
January 19, 1736 – August 25, 1819
British engineer (1736–1819)
Early Modern era
George Stephenson
June 9, 1781 – August 12, 1848
English civil and mechanical engineer and the "Father of Railways" (1781-1848)
Modern era
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
April 9, 1806 – September 15, 1859
British mechanical and civil engineer (1806-1859)
Early Modern era
Eli Whitney
December 8, 1765 – January 8, 1825
American inventor (1765-1825)
Early Modern era
Samuel Morse
April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872
American inventor and painter (1791–1872)
Modern era
Alexander Graham Bell
March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922
Canadian-American scientist inventor of telephone (1847–1922)
Modern era
Guglielmo Marconi
April 25, 1874 – July 20, 1937
Italian inventor and radio pioneer (1874-1937)
Modern era
Orville Wright
Co-inventor of powered flight with his brother Wilbur
Modern era
Wilbur Wright
April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912
American aviation pioneer (1867-1912)
Modern era
Karl Benz
November 25, 1844 – April 4, 1929
German automotive and engine designer and manufacturer (1844–1929)
Modern era
Rudolf Diesel
March 18, 1858 – September 30, 1913
German inventor and mechanical engineer (1858–1913)
Modern era
George Westinghouse
October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914
American inventor and businessman (1846–1914)
Early Modern era
Charles Babbage
December 26, 1791 – October 18, 1871
English mathematician, philosopher, and engineer (1791–1871)
Modern era
Hedy Lamarr
November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000
Austrian-American actress and co-inventor of an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping (1914-2000)
Modern era
Philo Farnsworth
August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971
American inventor (1906–1971)
Modern era
John Logie Baird
August 13, 1888 – June 14, 1946
Scottish inventor, demonstrating the world's first working television (1888–1946)
Modern era
Louis Braille
January 4, 1809 – January 6, 1852
French organist and teacher (1809-1852), inventor of braille, a system for reading and writing text and music, used by people who are blind or visually impaired
Modern era
Garrett Morgan
March 4, 1877 – July 27, 1963
American inventor (1877–1963)
Modern era
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
September 5, 1857 – September 19, 1935
Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory (1857-1935)
Modern era
Sergei Korolev
December 30, 1906 – January 14, 1966
Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer (1907-1966)
Modern era
Wernher von Braun
March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977
German and later American aerospace engineer and space architect (1912–1977)
Contemporary era
Tim Berners-Lee
b. June 8, 1955
English computer scientist (born 1955)
Early Modern era
Thomas Paine
February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809
American Founding Father, philosopher, and political activist (1737–1809)
Modern era
Ludwig Wittgenstein
July 26, 1845 – March 23, 1925
Viennese murchant (1845-1925)
Modern era
Arthur C. Clarke
December 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008
British science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist (1917–2008)