"celebrities" in engineering? 6

[MechanicalAnimal]

I wasn't sure where to post this question, this section ended up as the logical choice...

I'm sure we often encounter TV shows, interviews in the newspapers etc where "famous people" and "celebrities" are asked for their opinions on such and such, general things...
Very often, subjects of this media attention are musicians, writers, all kinds of artists, some just very rich people, sometimes famous scientists, physicians, psychologists, CEOs of big companies, other (famous) reporters... but very, very rarely - engineers? Even when doing a report on offshore pipe laying or automotive, they'll typically "expose" the management and the "common worker", not the engineers...

Also, in general public, nearly everyone will be familiar with names of various artists, scientists, etc. but mention an engineer's name? Maybe Diesel and Tesla will ring a Bell, ( ), but mention "Otto" (or even "Otto's engine")and very rare people will know who he was and what kind of an engine it really is.

I'd like your opinion on this? Are people generally not interested in engineers, is there simply not enough engineers to "go around" as "famous"? Were there any "famous" engineers, and what are their names? I'd love to read up on their biographies etc, and learn something about them...

 

[KENAT]

Brunel, Camm, Mitchel, Heineman, Kelly Johnson, de Haviland, Whittle, Hooker, Barnes Wallace, Curtis... without even thinking about it. (not sure about the spellings)

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[TheTick]

Dilbert!

If my next child is a girl, I may name her after Katherine Stinson. Forget Amelia Earhart, all she did was fly. Stinson designed her own planes!

 

[sbozy25]

Unfortunately most people find us boring. That and we do all the grunt work, but management takes the credit.

 

[EddyC]

There are folks in all types of professions out there. I generally find most of their job descriptions boring. I'm more interested in their sociability when I meet them in public, rather than the details of their jobs. We engineers are judged in the same way by others outside of our profession.

 

[IRstuff]

I would argue that while people probably know the word "diesel" but that most, if they think about it at all, assume that it's some sort of concocted word like "gasoline," as opposed to a proper noun. I doubt if they associate Diesel with a real person.

Tesla, for the most part, is not really well-known for his engineering accomplishments, but for his more paranormal and supernatural activities, ala his cameo in "The Prestige." Note that Tesla is labeled as the "acclaimed physicist" in the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_prestige#Synopsis

One "engineer" of relatively great fame is Lemuelson, since his alleged manipulation of the patent system afforded him millions in royalties that are tightly managed and doled out to unsuspecting students as a great benefaction.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[eliebl]

One to note that is related to Governance is Roberts. If you have heard of Roberts rules of order few would know that he was an engineer. He was tired of sitting in meetings which did not have consistent rules to follow.

 

[geekEE]

How about Thomas Edison or Dean Kamen or Steve Wozniak?

 

[cculp]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many engineers created companies and named them after themselves. Of course, probably the most important engineer of the 20th century was Willis Carrier, who's name still lives on with his company.

Charles Culp
Design Engineer - Solidworks User

 

[msquared48]

Dilbert as a child in "The Knack". (theknack.mpg)

Got this as an attachment last year and it is so true.

Mike McCann
McCann Engineering

 

[jmw]

Well, it could be worse; anyone visited an accountants forum?

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[msquared48]

What's an accountant? Is that anything like a wo.., I mean a bookie?

Mike McCann
McCann Engineering

 

[bridgebuster]

Edison wasn't an Engineer.

Here are some notables (for good or bad):

Herbert Hoover - mining engineer.

Douglas MacArthur was a civil engineer, although early in his military career. His first assignment was constructing docks in the Philipines.

Robert E. Lee was also a civil engineer.

Boris Yeltsin - civil engineer.

Da Vinci

Let's not forget (although I wish we could) Yasser Arafat, Osama Bin Laden, and Mahmoud Ahmaninejad (PhD no less); all civil engineers.

 

[vc66]

Edison wasn't an Engineer? He may not have had an Engineering Degree, but he was MOST CERTAINLY an Engineer. Engineers use scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. Edison and his team have 1,093 patents to their names. He worked on some of the most important projects of the 20th century. There was a time when you called yourself an Engineer simply because you wanted to and you had practical experience - no degree required.

Sorry a little off topic, but I get frustrated when people infer that people without engineering degrees aren't engineers - especially someone as brilliant as Edison.

Mechanical Engineer/Consultant
Medical Devices
"When I am working on a problem, I do not think of beauty, but when I've finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."

- R. Buckminster Fuller

 

[bridgebuster]

vcastro66 - I didn't mean any disrepect to Edison. He had no degree in engineering; similar to DaVinci.

 

[UcfSE]

Let's not try to lump engineers and inventors in the same boat. Just start another thread and go ahead and red flag it right after to save us some time.

I would name Karl Terzhagi and Stephen Timoshenko as some big names, and T Y Lin and Charles Thornton for well known practicing structural engineers. Leslie Robertson may end up being somewhat famous though not as he would want to be known.

 

[IRstuff]

I don't think we're talking about engineers that are famous to other engineers, though. Timoshenko and Lin are barely known outside of mechanical/structural engineering.

Edison, regardless of what you call him, engineer, inventor, or moocher, is well known to the man, or woman, or even child on the street. The typical 6th grade will have at least heard of Edison, and possibly even Tesla, but not Timoshenko.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[geekEE]

bridgebuster, if you say Edison wasn't an engineer because he had no degree, then why did you list DaVinci?

This of course is another huge thread in its own right. What makes for a "real engineer"? The work done? The degree? A professional engineer license?

 

[ewh]

That subject has been beated to death...

 

[drawoh]

bridgebuster,

Douglas MacArthur and Robert E. Lee were not civil engineers. They were military engineers. Apparently, almost all the West Point graduate officers of the American Civil War were trained as engineers. Very few of them were rigorously trained in the "art of war", which is why they had problems with people like Nathan Bedford Forrest. For George MacLellan was very compentent at everything he did with the one exception of commanding the Army of the Potomac in battle.

Civil engineers are engineers not trained by the military.

JHG