Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in

"celebrities" in engineering? 6

Status
Not open for further replies.
MechanicalAnimal

MechanicalAnimal

Mechanical
Apr 3, 2007
28
0
0
HR
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...
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
Personally, I think engineers are boring. I am a member of the general public, and an engineer. I wouldn't be interested in engineers on a TV show. Not sure what that says.

On a different note:

Tesla!!!!!


Does this make Tesla famous and well known to car enthusists? Oh, and GREEN to boot.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was number 2 in a list of 100 greatest Britons.

Frankly, in my opinion, it was due more to the sales pitch made by the relevant presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, than to his inherant superiority over many other contenders.


None the less, gives us some hope!


Chapter 2 Seems to confirm that IKB did not have an Engineering Degree and did not even take a formal engineering apprenticeship so I suspect many will disqualify him from being an engineer on this basis. He did become a member of the Royal Society

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ah! but what is a celebrity?
As would appear from modern TV, a celebrity is anyone who has appeared on TV or in the movies recently.

So unless there has been a TV soap or a recent popular movie with Leonardo Di Caprio playing some engineer, that engineer isn't likely to be a "celebrity".
In other words, they will be a celebrity not for anything they did engineering wise but simply because they've been played on TV or in a film.
But anyway, on that basis I'd include Cathy as a celebrity engineer (played by Jaqueline Bisset) from the film Bullitt.
Loved the film but did anyone else find it painful watching Cathy coach Steve to help her with a pipe flow calculation?


JMW
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MechanicalAnimal - your original post on this thread is, I think, a bit flawed in the original assumption.

You make the question: why aren't their celebrated, famous engineers out there?

I think the answer lies in the fact that [red]"celebrity"[/red] is by itself a construct of those in the media/arts.

And those in media celebrate [blue]THEMSELVES[/blue].

i.e. The Oscars, The Emmy's, etc. and all those entertainment shows that focus on....those that entertain.

The general public has very limited exposure to we engineers. Thus, there is very little interest.

And that is a good thing in my opinion.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Bzzz: Celebrity

noun: a widely known person (Example: "He was a baseball celebrity")
noun: the state or quality of being widely honored and acclaimed


Chuck Yeager is a celebrity, as are Apollo astronauts. What's his name, the screwball ski jumper WAS a celebrity.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A list of some famous engineers is toward the bottom, divided out by sector.


I looked at several of the engineers I listed originally and Barnes Wallace was the only one that appeared to have a university education.

(I meant to post this yesterday but it ended up on where is engineering going somehow thread730-198841)

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jmw,

I just don't want to be celebrated by the kind of people who tend to celebrate pondscum - which most actors and media personalities are.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
In this context, I guess I have to concede the point to JAE though it would be nice if engineering could enjoy some celebrity status with Management, the shareholders, HR, the government, the education system, etc. ad nauseum.

JMW
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You know, the only well publicized Structural Engineer I know of is in prison right now.

This is the public's image of us as peresented by Hollywood.
Then you have the Architect as played in "The Towering Inferno".



Mike McCann
McCann Engineering
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well, I'm sure that I'd personally wouldn't count Jessica Alba as "pondscum." But, I thought the whole point of the OP was whether engineers could attain celebrity status, which is not necessarily the same type of celebrity as Jessica Simpson's.

I just don't think that engineers' accomplishments, particularly contemporary ones, are sufficiently accreditable to a single individual amd can rise about the noise to make it into the spotlight. There's been much todo about "status" of doctors, but very few doctors rise to celebrity status, and it usually for doing something outrageously out of the box, like the Jarvik heart or Bailey, who performed a baboon heart transplant to a human.

In fact, those are good examples of the prerequisites for attaining celebrity; there needs to be a circumstance where the stakes are high and someone is willing to take on the risks. This points out two strikes against engineers for getting there, stakes are generally low and engineers are generally risk-averse. Thus, scientists and the like can attain celebrity when high risks are taken, such as in the case of Neil Armstrong, aeronautical engineer and professor of same:

TTFN

FAQ731-376
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ooops, I should give up parentheses for Lent. Rayleigh and Kelvin are different people.

Still, my point was that Rayleigh's original work is still definitive, and his papers are still referenced in modern day work.

"John William Strutt (Baron Rayleigh), The Theory of Sound, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged, 2 vol. (1894–96, reissued 1945), remains a most important historical authority on nearly all aspects of theoretical acoustics. "

says the almost-as-innaccurate-as-wiki encyclopaedia.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I just saw a brochure entitled "Is Engineering for Me" from American Council of Engineering Companies of New York, they list the following celebrities:

Neil Armstrong
Jimmy Carter
Alfred Hitchcock
Grace Hooper (who coined the computer term "bug")
George Ferris
Ryan Newman - NASCAR driver
Sue Ginter-Brooker - professional golfer
Montel Williams
Rowan Atkinson
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

JAE
  • Locked
  • Question
I love the smell of rivets in the morning
Replies
11
Views
25
zeusfaber
zeusfaber
MartinLe
  • Locked
  • Question
Shift from craftsmanshift towards engineering in manufacturing? 5
2
Replies
21
Views
22
GregLocock
GregLocock
csk62
  • Locked
  • Question
Evolution of Engineering Paper Pushers
Replies
10
Views
20
csk62
csk62
RRiver
  • Locked
  • Question
Glossaries of Engineering Terms
Replies
2
Views
4
Sparweb
Sparweb
drawoh
  • Locked
  • Question
The greatest CHEATS in racing history 3
Replies
8
Views
26
SnTMan
SnTMan
Back
Top