The Best Engineers in the World
What does it take to be one of the best engineers in the world? From designing bridges that last for centuries to launching rockets to the Moon, engineers use stunning creativity and ironclad logic to shape our future.
If you’re aiming to become an engineer, this article about history’s greatest engineers – both past and present – will inspire you to dream big. These innovators come from different countries and disciplines, proving that engineering excellence knows no boundaries. Each story shows how passion and perseverance can solve problems and change the world.
Read on to discover ten of the best engineers in the world, and see how you could follow in their footsteps.
Leonardo da Vinci – The Renaissance Visionary
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) is often celebrated as a painter, but he was also an extraordinary engineer and inventor. He truly defined the idea of a “Renaissance man” with knowledge spanning art, science, architecture and engineering.
In his notebooks, Leonardo drew designs for flying machines, tanks, bridges, and submarines long before the technology existed to build them. For example, his famous “Aerial Screw” sketch is seen as a precursor to the modern helicopter, 400 years before the first helicopter was produced.
Known as one of the most prolific inventors in history, Leonardo was never afraid to dream big and imagine the impossibled. His visionary engineering ideas – from war machines to underwater diving suits – were centuries ahead of their time, making him a timeless inspiration for young engineers with big imaginations.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel – Mastermind of Modern Infrastructure
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) was a British civil and mechanical engineer who revolutionised public transport and construction. Brunel’s achievements ranged from railways and bridges to giant steamships. He built the Great Western Railway, designed record-breaking iron steamships, and constructed numerous bridges and the first tunnel under the River Thames.
His designs were so innovative that they changed the face of the English landscape with groundbreaking techniques. Brunel is widely regarded as one of the greatest engineers in history – in fact, a BBC poll in 2002 voted him the second-greatest Briton of all time (after Winston Churchill). Despite some projects not always succeeding, his bold approach solved long-standing engineering problems in new ways. Brunel’s legacy – from the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge to modern rail standards – shows how one ingenious engineer can reshape the world’s infrastructure.
Nikola Tesla – Wizard of Electricity
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was a Serbian-American engineer and inventor whose innovations power our modern world. He pioneered the use of alternating current (AC) electricity, which is the system that lights our homes and cities. Tesla discovered and patented the rotating magnetic field—the core principle of AC motors He developed the first AC induction motor and transformers, making long-distance electric power transmission possible.
Tesla was also an early visionary in wireless technology: in 1898 he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat, one of the first remote-controlled devices ever. Often working alone in his laboratory amid spectacular electrical arcs from his Tesla coils, he earned a reputation as a bit of a wizard. Many of Tesla’s ideas were ahead of his time (he imagined wireless communication and worldwide power distribution long before they existed) and he faced financial struggles in later years. Today, however, he is celebrated as one of the greatest electrical engineers in history, and the unit of magnetic flux density – the tesla – is named in his honour.
Wilbur & Orville Wright – Pioneers of Flight
The Wright brothers, Wilbur (1867–1912) and Orville (1871–1948), were American engineers who achieved what many thought impossible – the first controlled, powered airplane flight. On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted their wood-and-fabric biplane for 12 seconds over the dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, covering 120 feet in distance. In that moment, the Wrights inaugurated the age of human flight.
The brothers were bicycle makers by trade, which gave them practical engineering skills and a hands-on approach to problem-solving. They taught themselves aerodynamics through years of experiments with kites and gliders. Crucially, they invented three-axis control (using wing-warping, rudder, and elevator) to allow a pilot to steer an aircraft effectively. After many trials and errors, their Flyer finally stayed airborne in 1903.
Ada Lovelace – The First Computer Programmer
In the 1840s – long before electronic computers existed – Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) envisioned how machines could calculate beyond mere arithmetic. Ada was a British mathematician who worked with inventor Charles Babbage on his proposed Analytical Engine (a mechanical general-purpose computer design). In 1843, while translating an article on Babbage’s machine, Lovelace added her own extensive notes that ended up far longer than the original paper. In these notes, she wrote out an algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers on the Analytical Engine – essentially the world’s first computer program. This is why Ada Lovelace is often called the first computer programmer.
In an era when women had little public role in science, Ada’s visionary insights went largely unacknowledged in her lifetime. Today, however, she is celebrated as a pioneer of computing science. The programming language “Ada” is named in her honour.
Lovelace features in our list of the most famous female engineers.
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Grace Hopper – The Queen of Code
Grace Hopper (1906–1992) was an American computer engineer and Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy who fundamentally shaped modern programming. Often nicknamed “Amazing Grace,” she was a pioneer of computer programming languages. In the 1940s, computers had to be fed instructions in raw machine code (zeros and ones). Hopper envisioned that we could “talk” to computers using more human-friendly words. She developed the first compiler in 1952 (a program that translates written code into machine code), which led to the creation of COBOL – one of the earliest high-level programming languages.
COBOL allowed businesses and governments to write programs in English-like syntax, vastly expanding who could code and what computers could do. Hopper was also responsible for popularising the term “debugging” when she literally removed a moth stuck in a computer in 1947 (documenting the world’s first actual computer bug!).
Like Ada Lovelace, Hopper appears in our guide to the greatest women engineers in history.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee – Inventor of the World Wide Web
In 1989, British software engineer Tim Berners-Lee changed the world by inventing the World Wide Web. At the time, he was working at CERN in Switzerland and noticed the difficulty scientists had in sharing information across different computers. Berners-Lee successfully communicated between a web client and a server using HTTP – effectively creating the first working web connection.
He designed and built the first web browser and editor, aptly named WorldWideWeb, and the world’s first web server. In August 1991, he made the web publicly available. Importantly, Tim gave the web away for free – an open invention for everyone to use, which allowed it to spread rapidly across the globe. Today, thanks to this invention, billions of people connect to websites and information instantly – an achievement that deservedly ranks him among the best engineers in the world.
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – India’s “Missile Man”
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (1931–2015), known as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, was an Indian aerospace engineer who rose from modest beginnings to become a national hero. Kalam was the chief architect of India’s missile program in the 1980s, leading the development of the Agni and Prithvi missiles that gave India a self-reliant defense capability. His work on launch vehicles and guided missiles earned him the nickname “Missile Man of India” and means he deserves a place on our list of the best engineers in the world.
Earlier in his career, he was a key figure in India’s space research, helping develop the SLV-3, India’s first satellite launch vehicle, which successfully deployed a satellite in 1980. Despite his technical brilliance, Dr. Kalam was equally revered for his humility, inspirational speeches, and dedication to education – especially encouraging young people to pursue science and engineering. In 2002, Dr. Kalam became the 11th President of India, bringing his engineer’s mindset to the highest office of the country.
Elon Musk – Engineering Entrepreneur of the 21st Century
Elon Musk (born 1971) is a South African-born engineer and entrepreneur known for tackling some of today’s biggest technological challenges. As the co-founder and CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and other cutting-edge companies, Musk has pushed the boundaries of aerospace, automotive engineering, and clean energy.
In 2002, he founded SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) with the bold goal of making space travel cheaper and enabling the colonisation of Mars. In 2020, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carried astronauts to the International Space Station, the first private craft ever to do so. Meanwhile, Musk’s electric car company Tesla Motors has revolutionised the auto industry by proving that electric vehicles can be high-performing and desirable, spurring legacy carmakers worldwide to shift to electric cars.
While sometimes controversial in style, Elon Musk has undeniably demonstrated how an engineer’s vision, when paired with entrepreneurial drive, can bring transformative ideas into reality. Musk also featured on our list of the greatest entrepreneurs in history.
NASA’s Apollo 11 Team – Reaching the Moon Together
Not all engineering feats are the work of a single person – sometimes it takes a team of the best engineers in the world to achieve something truly historic. One shining example is the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, when humans first landed on the Moon. More than 400,000 engineers, scientists, and support staff collaborated on the Apollo program, solving countless technical challenges to make the Moon landing possible.
This team designed and built the gigantic Saturn V rocket (still the most powerful rocket ever flown), the Apollo command and service modules that carried the astronauts, and the Lunar Module Eagle that landed on the Moon’s surface. They had to invent new materials, write novel software (the Apollo guidance computer had only 2KB of memory!), and calculate trajectories with incredible precision – all with 1960s technology. Their work culminated on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind.”
Becoming the Next Great Engineer: Your Journey Starts Now
These stories – from Leonardo da Vinci to the Apollo 11 team – show that the title of the best engineers in the world isn’t limited by time, place, or background. The common threads are curiosity, creativity, and a determination to solve problems
The best way to start is to learn by doing. Join us on one of our Engineering Summer Schools where you can get hands-on experience, learn from experts, and collaborate with other budding engineers.