Talk:List of electrical engineers

When is a list redundant?

Since we have the category electrical engineers, do we still need this list? --Wtshymanski 03:18, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

The category doesn't list their contributions in its listing. This list does.

Categories "mark" each article individually. Lists do not.

Categories and lists are not interchangeable. Cburnett 06:26, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

Proposed deletions

Deane Blazie

This entry in the list appears to be borderline vanity (incidentally, he also appears in list of programmers). The linked article has never been created, and most "Deane Blazie" hits on an Internet search link to his company website or press releases. I'd vote for removal. Engineer Bob 07:27, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Unless or until someone starts an article, I agree. --hydnjo talk 01:37, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Note: Blazie was deleted from the list on 4 November 2005 by Wtshymanski.

John Wolfe-Barry

This individual was actually a civil engineer, and despite the note on this list he had only incidental (if any) connection to the British IEE. Although late in his career he did serve as chairman of Cable & Wireless, that alone would not appear to justify inclusion on this list. I vote for removal. Engineer Bob 07:59, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

No objection being noted, Wolfe-Barry has been deleted from the list. Engineer Bob 17:54, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Degreed engineers not noted for contributions to the field

Suggested by hydnjo in the discussion on Rowan Atkinson below: ... another questionable entry would be Michael Bloomberg. The second column on the list, Contribution(s), to me suggests notability related to EE. Lets discuss (notability) further.'

I concur with this suggestion. The same line of reasoning would eliminate Chinese political figures Huang Ju, Li Changchun, and Zhu Rongji from this list. Engineer Bob 21:49, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

More recent discussion on this topic can be found below under the heading "A proposal".

Red-linked electrical engineers

Again from hydnjo in the discussion on Rowan Atkinson: ... can we agree that the list should not include red linked people? If a user wants to add someone they should at least start a stub which should weed out a vanity entry ...

This is consistent with my rationale above for deleting Deane Blazie. Engineer Bob 21:49, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Alexander Graham Bell

I propose to REMOVE Alexander Bell from this notable list. Alexander Bell was not an Electrical Engineer. He was a professor of linguistics and had no science or technology knowledge. His "invention" was stolen from Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone. Meucci was able to prove in Court that he knew how the telephone worked, something Bell could not do. However, Meucci died before the Court decided and the case was closed. Please DELETE Bell and add MEUCCI. Thank you. Pablo Gomez, Ph.D. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.229.2.60 (talk) 20:40, 6 January 2007 (UTC).

Keep - Although the debate continues as to who actually invented the telephone, this list does not claim that Bell invented it -- it only list him as the man who founded Bell Telephone company, and fair or not, it is an undisputed fact that the Bell company holds the patents. Also, it has previously been established that an EE degree is not required to put a name on this list; the entry just needs to be someone who has contributed to the field.

However, the request to add Meucci to this list may have merit, even though the Meucci article has been flagged as lacking sources. -- Engineer Bob 03:55, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Ramsi Yousef

He did not make contributions to electrical engineering or computer engineering so I deleted him. Please propose an electrical engineer on this page before the article. Thanks.Germ 14:05, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Paul Dirac

Studied EE, ok, but that's not what he's noted for. Theoretical physics is not electrical engineering. I'd like to delete him from this list. --Wtshymanski 21:40, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

That's right... His work as important (even critical) implications in Electrical engineering but Dirac himself was not an engineer. I agree with you. The scope of this list is restricted to Electrical engineers. Germ 13:49, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

The Dirac Delta function is of great importance in Electrical Engineering, it is used in the analysis of circuits and stochastic processes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.106.222.191 (talk) 14:08, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Deleted but deserving discussion

Faraday & Volta

Wtshymanski deleted the entries for Michael Faraday and Alessandro Volta earlier today on the basis that they predate electrical engineering as a discipline. I thought about this issue at length before adding them to the list recently. They certainly are not EEs as we define the term today, and thus are usually thought of as scientists -- but I'd argue that they were laying important groundwork for our profession. I'm not convinced that they don't belong on this list. Engineer Bob 06:11, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

I think "electrical engineer" is nicely focussed and letting anyone who studied physics in the last two millenia on the list would dilute it- otherwise soon you'll have Thales from 600 BC on the list. I'd like to drop Edison from the list on the grounds he was an inventor, not an electrical engineer - but having been badly burned by the whole Tesla controversy I know when I'm licked. I suppose we could drop Heaviside because he was more of a mathematical physicist than a practicing electrical engineer, but since he confined his studies almost entirely to electrical matters I suppose he's sort of an honorary EE. --Wtshymanski 17:40, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

My case for Volta is the weaker of the two; but the British IEE appears to recognize Faraday as a sort of proto-EE and has a long biography on their website (linked in his article). As for Edison, most of his inventions were not new, and he is best known for making the ideas of others practical -- which is what engineering is all about. Engineer Bob 15:18, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Still not happy about Faraday, but Lord Kelvin belongs on this list because of his telegraphic cable work. --Wtshymanski 18:58, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't see why the fact that these people did not have formal degrees in electrical engineering ought to stop us. They made contributions to electrical engineering as a discipline, which I think gives them a place on this list. The same would not be true of everyone who worked on electricity related topics - this does not mean we'd have to put Thales on there. --Pierremenard 16:01, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, note that List of aerospace engineers includes Leonardo de Vinci, even though he was around quite a bit before AE materialized as a discipline. --Pierremenard 16:03, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Valuing consistency above accuracy is entirely within the Wikipedia tradition. --Wtshymanski 18:46, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Based on support from Pierremenard, I have restored the entry for Michael Faraday. Engineer Bob 06:54, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Rowan Atkinson

hydnjo deleted Rowan Atkinson from the list earlier this week, and while I personally don't have strong feelings one way or the other, I'd like to see some discussion here. Although Atkinson (aka "Mr. Bean") is best known as a comedian, he is "trained as an electrical engineer" per the list's introductory description. If we're proposing a more restrictive criteria for inclusion, there are a few others (Chinese politicians, for example) that should be deleted as well. Engineer Bob 06:19, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Hmmmm, he's back ... An anonymous user (80.58.6.235) has restored Atkinson's entry, although his name is spelled wrong and he's not in the correct sort position. If we're going to put him back in the list, let's at least do it right. Engineer Bob 15:10, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, may I include myself and some of my friends because we're not only "trained as electrical engineers" but were also awarded a BSEE? And for that matter how about you? ;-)

Anyway, another questionable entry would be Michael Bloomberg. The second column on the list, Contribution(s), to me suggests notability related to EE. Lets discuss (notability) further. Also, can we agree that the list should not include red linked people? If a user wants to add someone they should at least start a stub which should weed out a vanity entry like well, me. I'll go ahead and put Mr. Bean in the right place for now. --hydnjo talk 18:36, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Atkinson's entry was deleted yesterday by Pierremenard; see discussion below under the heading "A proposal". Engineer Bob 15:50, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Proposed additions

Anyos Jedlik

Inventor of dynamo

Oppose under that description, anyway; inventors are those who make their invention known to the world, not secret experiments. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:43, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Paul Boucherot

Reactive power

Meh. Wouldn't oppose. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:43, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Constantin Budeanu

Deformed power — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.232.141.36 (talk) 18:23, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Charles Frederick Burgess

Battery developments

Meh. Wouldn't oppose but he was primarily a chemist, not an EE. Burgess batteries are in a lot of things, though.--Wtshymanski (talk) 15:43, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Vannevar Bush and Harry Nyquist

Seems like these two need to be on the list. Nyquist for information theory, sampling theorem, stability criterion; Bush for the analog computer and role in EE during WWII. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.151.173.7 (talk) 03:47, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

James Clerk Maxwell

Take away the contributions of Maxwell and what is left of the discipline of Electrical Engineering? Splitting hairs over who was a degreed electrical engineer that founded a software company and who was merely a great scientist that made incalculable fundamental contributions to mankind's understanding of the phenomena known as electricity seems a pompously petty exercise. (Bwnichols (talk) 18:27, 4 May 2009 (UTC))

Lloyd Espenschied

Innovations in radio and coaxial cable technology. (A. Carty (talk) 22:45, 24 November 2007 (UTC))

Harry Ward Leonard

Inventor of the Ward Leonard control system (A. Carty (talk) 22:31, 24 November 2007 (UTC))

Mir Imran

Medical Device Entrepreneur, Owner of InCube Labs, a medical device Incubator in Menlo Park, featured in EE Times - Nov 2005, graduate of Rutgers University, Masters in Electrical Engineering, (1976), Awarded the Rutgers University [Distinguished Engineer Award]http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/List_of_electrical_engineers - 2005, holder of over 151 issued and published patents - searchable at www.uspto.gov, under inventor name "imran; mir a" Mir has Formed 20 companies since the early 80s (Data Trak, Vidamed, Physiometrix, Cardiac Pathways, Reflow, Surface Genesis, NFocus, Intrapace, Spinal Modulation, Entrack, Python, Neurolink, Cor, to name some) Mir was part of the team that developed the first Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator in the early 80's, and then through Data Trak, Mir developed the first electronic real estate lock box. Vidamed is a company that Mir formed with Hugh Sharkey that created a new standard of care for enlarged prostates, they created a device that uses RF ablation rather than the unpleasant alternatives. Mir also invented EEG for depth of anesthesia with Physiometrix, and is developing electrical stimulators for obesity and to block pain at Intrapace and Spinal Modulation.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by SI (talk) 18:03, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Oppose - but then I wanted to keep Faraday out, too. See below. If we list everyone who has patents, we'd have tens of thousands of engineers listed. --Wtshymanski 21:26, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Strong Oppose for reason stated by Wtshymanski, but also because Imran would be a redlink. -- Engineer Bob 06:35, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Add Mir is no longer a redlink and should be added based on his history of innovations in medical device innovation. His innovations have been heavily EE, and involved developing protocols, not just using EE knowledge. e.g. using analogue tape player to figure out Atrial Fibrillation, then develop algorithm and circuitry capable of powering Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Mir also develops semiconductor chips for a number of public co's.

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld

Inventor of the electrolytic capacitor.(A. Carty 16:45, 30 October 2007 (UTC))

Inventor of an electrolytic capacitor, anyway. Looking at the patent he claims improvements over existing electrolytic capacitors. I'd say "No" - not everyone who gets a patent is a notable electrical engineer. --Wtshymanski 17:54, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair comment Wtshymanski, although Lilienfeld was a noted electrical engineer of that time. He also patented some interesting theoretical ideas for semiconductor devices, which pre-dated the invention of the transistor.(A. Carty 12:23, 1 November 2007 (UTC))

Trevor Wadley

Inventor of the ingenious Wadley Loop circuit for radios.(A. Carty 09:45, 28 August 2007 (UTC))

Philo T. Farnsworth

American television pioneer.(A. Carty 19:07, 14 June 2007 (UTC))

Add - I would support this addition. -- Engineer Bob 06:35, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Walter Bruch

German Television pioneer, inventor of the PAL colour television system.(A. Carty 19:07, 14 June 2007 (UTC))

Add - I would support this addition. -- Engineer Bob 06:35, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Alec Reeves

Inventor of pulse code modulation, and the condenser microphone. A. Carty 20:07, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Add - I would support this addition. -- Engineer Bob 20:22, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Godfrey Hounsfield

Inventor of the worlds first computed tomography (CT) scanner. A. Carty 20:07, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Add - I would support this addition. -- Engineer Bob 20:22, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz

Hertz was another scientist who did significant enabling work for electrical engineering. If we agree to restore Faraday and Volta to this list (see above), Hertz should also be added. Engineer Bob 07:16, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

ADD-I agree that Hertz should be added to the list based on his contributions to the field. IEEE has also awarded a medal in his name which underlines the importance to the EE community.--Joshuadaley 20:33, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yasser Arafat

He said on TV that he originally studied electronics at university--Light current 19:48, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Arafat's degree was in civil engineering; I've removed him from this list. Engineer Bob 23:37, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Are you sure? He definitely said he studied electronics on TV. I heard him. Was he lying?--Light current 12:34, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Although Arafat (like most engineers) may have been exposed to electrical engineering during his studies, electronics as a field did not emerge until after he graduated -- in 1956 as a civil engineer, according to his bio here on Wikipedia. Engineer Bob 18:05, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes that does make sense. He must have been joking with the interviewer!--Light current 18:14, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

M.M.idrees ul haq beigh

This one appeared non-controversial, so I added him to the list. Besides holding a EE degree, he founded self charging of cell phone & SMS based Non conventional water pump and is credited with numerous presentations on piezzoelectric effects including the first practical self charging mobile beighidi 08:48, 7/2/2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beighidi (talk • contribs)

Charles Kettering

This one appeared non-controversial, so I added him to the list. Besides holding a EE degree, he founded Delco and is credited with numerous patents including the first practical electric starter and the first reliable battery operated ignition. Engineer Bob 08:45, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Add Robert Noyce

Hi, I'm new the wikipedia, but I hope that my suggestion will be taken seriously. I propose for Robert Noyce be added to the list of engineers. He is one of the co-founders of Intel, and dubbed the "Mayor of Silicon Valley." I don't think I need to say much more about him, his accomplishments and contributions to the Electrical Engineering industry speak for itself. Thank you for hearing my case. Please add Robert Noyce to the list of Electrical Engineers! Thank you. - hsuyangchang June 4th, 2006.

• I agree; also note that he is a recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor. Unless someone objects by the end of the week, I will add him to the list. -- Engineer Bob 06:08, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Valdemar Poulsen

Shouldn't Valdemar Poulsen, the inventor of magnetic recording be on the list of electrical engineers? His 1898 idea and patent matured into the magnetic wire recorder of 1947. A major feat, forming the later basis of tape recorders, and hard disk drives —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kim Garsdal (talk • contribs) 25 July 2006

Add -- This entry appears notable to me. If there are no objections in the next five days I will add him to the list. -- Engineer Bob 04:06, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Terrell Croft

I'm indecisive...he has got a (very stubby) article, and I've certainly run across his books (and own a copy of "American Electrician's Handbook" which is useful, sometimes) - but is he notable enough? --Wtshymanski (talk) 19:22, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Silence. Won't add unless I find a good biography. --Wtshymanski (talk) 16:20, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Palmer Cosslett Putnam

I'd like to claim Putnam for the list, because of the Smith-Putnam wind turbine but he was primarily a geologist and I don't think there was much electrical designing going on. Comments? --Wtshymanski (talk) 16:20, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Not added. --Wtshymanski (talk) 13:37, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Thomas Commerford Martin

T. C. Martin wrote a lot about the history of early electrical engineering and a biographjy of Tesla, worked (very briefly!) for Edison, and was president of the AIEE. His "Story of Electricity" is on the Internet Archive and is fascinating. --Wtshymanski (talk) 15:01, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Not added. --Wtshymanski (talk) 13:37, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Leo Young

The linked article is actually about an Australian football player. Being president of IEEE and writing a book isn't sufficient notability, in my opinion. If he didn't get his own Wikipedia article, he probably should not be on this list. --Wtshymanski (talk) 13:37, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Consistency with other engineering lists

My suggestions above regarding eligibility for this list (EE notability and no red-link) were made in haste. For sake of consistency I went up to Category:Lists of people by occupation to check the other disciplines: MEs, ChEs, IEs etc. There seems to be no common format but more importantly the editors in those and other lists of engineers seem to be far less selective than what I have suggested here. While we debate Faraday, Volta and Hertz the ME list includes Leonardo Da Vinci, Alfred Hitchcock and John Sununu. Oh, and the chemical engineering list is adorned with Cindy Crawford! I'm thinking that we should review these and other occupational lists before we set any EE standards that are out-of-line with the rest of the community. I'm sorry that I didn't check before spouting-off.  :-( --hydnjo talk 03:10, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I disagree, I believe there should be a high standard set in order to be listed. If we allow anyone with a degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering to be added to the list, it will become too long. Although, I do believe that people that predate electrical engineering degrees are eligible for the list if they did make a major contribution to the field. Their consideration for inclusion should be determined by the value of their contribution. If anything, the other lists should be brought up to the standards of this list. Jtconroy88 05:12, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

A proposal

A list of people with electrical engineering degrees is not notable. See Wikipedia:What wikipedia is not under Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information.

On the other hand, a list of people who have made contributions to electrical engineering would be tremendously useful. To that end, I think Michael Bloomberg and Zhu Rongji need to be deleted from the list. --Pierremenard 06:59, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

• I agree completely -- see some of my earlier comments above. Using this same rationale, I've now deleted Li Changchun & Huang Ju. Engineer Bob 08:29, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

• Informational note: Pierremenard has now deleted Rowan Atkinson, Bernhard Goetz, and Julius Rosenberg using this rationale. Engineer Bob 15:50, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

• Sugest deleting Simon Sunatori as no-one aside from Wikipedia has ever heard of him, according to Google. The article looks like self-promotion and the pen article is near pure advertising copy. --Wtshymanski 00:00, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I concur, and the pen article was recently deleted anyway. I'm deleting him from the list. Engineer Bob 06:57, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

• I also agree with this proposal. --hydnjo talk 22:22, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Another Proposal

I suggest maybe making a new list for famous people with electrical engineering degrees, but have not contributed to the field (i.e. Michael Bloomberg, Yasser Arafat, Rowan Atkinson). Just a suggestion.Jtconroy88 05:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

• Your proposal would address some of the problems with the current list, but might open a whole new debate about which of the two lists gets used for any given individual. Also see note above about Arafat, whose degree is in CIVIL engineering. Engineer Bob 07:45, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Recent additions

I've added (without any discussion!) a bunch of electrical engineers who are a) represented by Wikipedia articles b) notable for some reason in electrical engineering. Oh, I wanted to include people like R. A. Lafferty or Edith Clarke, too, but aside from their personal attributes these two, for example, weren't exceptional in their contributions to the electrical engineering field. I also left out some good grey academics who've mostly received awards from inside the profession.

Anybody who got something named after him got on the list - Smith chart, Leclanche cells, Bode diagram, etc. ( If I can still remember these names three decades after graduation, they must be significant.) I put a couple of founders of companies which are well-known names to electrical engineers - where would the world be without Burndy and AMP and 3Com?

UFOolgists, suicides, fringe scientists, actors, and situs inversus cases I didn't think the list needed.

I was surprised at how many significant names weren't already on this list, at the sketchy biographies some of them have ( there's got to be more to say about Pope), and as always at the erratic brilliance of Wikischolarship ( so that's where Burndy came from). --Wtshymanski (talk) 16:47, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

And now I've added Rene Thury. Any one who was doing 100 kV HVDC transmission with 1890's technology has the Right Stuff. --Wtshymanski (talk) 22:03, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Only three four women on this list, and one of them had to convert. --Wtshymanski (talk) 19:34, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Ambiguous list

And the reason we don't have Alan Turing is ? Or John von Neumann? If it was called "List of electrical engineers and pastry chefs", we might be better able to see the problem. Damn universities cluttering up the world with combination computer/electrical programs - just like the great 'aerospace' engineering craze of a generation ago. --Wtshymanski (talk) 16:31, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

They are definitely notable, but in Computer Science. This article should be for notable individuals who consider themselves electrical engineers (not necessarily EE majors). Thanks for keeping active in this article, btw - your work's appreciated. Mamyles (talk) 01:49, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

I've grumbled before about not being able to tell who gets on this list and who doesn't. I was thrilled to find the Clapp obituary on an IEEE site a while back, but sadly, there's no other biographical information that Google can find for me. Disappointment is having this list on your watch list and seeing a change, only to realize it's another anonnymous IP vandal instead of a substantive contribution. It's amazing Wikipedia works as well as it does. --Wtshymanski (talk) 13:47, 4 November 2011 (UTC)