#WOW: Ten engineers to celebrate the birthday of the US's first engineer: George Washington

I am all for celebrating the great things that engineers have done and continue to do for our quality of life (recognizing, of course, that engineers also contribute to some of the most heinous acts in the history of the world). Although some might consider it a stretch to latch onto arguably the greatest of our founders to make this happen (Washington was a surveyor in addition to the other important jobs he held), all the same, engineering deserves the attention.

This link will show you profiles of famous engineers from throughout history the world over. As a personal exercise, and because we Americans love our lists, I present my top 10 engineers of all time (sorry, George):

10. Archimedes/Imhotep/Al-Jazari/Ge Hong: Because little is known other than historical record, I wanted to give a general acknowledgement to scientists and engineers throughout the known ancient world for laying the foundation. They gave us the arch, aqueducts, printing, gun powder, machines, and a fabulous foundation on which to build our recorded past, present, and future.

9. Jules Verne/George Lucas/Gene Roddenberry: I will leave this as the last of my "not quite one per line", but all three of them (as well as others I am sure I have left off) directly and indirectly inspired generations of engineers. Who would have thought that today we would hold devices in our hands that can communicate, scan, and analyze (Roddenberry)? And what more self-fulfilling scientific prophecy exists than Verne's From the Earth to the Moon?

8. Stephanie Kwolek: Anyone can make strong, protective materials out of heavy, cumbersome but effective materials like stone and metal. Kwolek showed us how to achieve the same level of strength with significantly lighter materials.

7. George and Robert Stephenson/Isambard Brunel: This trio made the expansive railway system work at scale and ushered in a new era of expansion that ultimately provided the key infrastructure to modern globalization.

6. James Watt: The Industrial Revolution is not a revolution without the steam engine.

5. Hedy Lamarr: Look at the updated Maslo's hierarchy of needs, and at the base you will now find WiFi. Without Hedy, WiFi and Bluetooth as we know it might never have existed.

4. Walt Braithwaite: My college advisor made me draw an entire machine apparatus by hand to make sure that all of the components would fit appropriately and we could get them machined correctly. He also did this because as a sadist, he wanted me to fully appreciate computer-aided design and manufacturing. The increase in industrial quality and production the world enjoyed in the last century owes a debt to the Boeing engineer who made it happen at scale.

3. Steve Wozniak: I expect grief from this pick, but since I did not say "best", "favorite", or "most accomplished", I am fine putting Wozniak in for his work developing the Apple operating systems. We have yet to feel the total impact of this approach to man/machine interface.

2. Leonardo da Vinci: He would sit at the peak of any list of favorite or most accomplished engineers of all time in a heartbeat. Everything about being a cool engineer he had in spades, and dabbled in art on the side (to some pretty astounding results).

1. Nikola Tesla: This wunderkind tops the list because there is no way to imagine our current world without AC power, the radio (and its technological descendants), or X-ray technology. Some may have contributions to match his in impact, but none surpass them.

From The American Surveyor