Capricorn Engineers

John DeLorean was an American inventor and engineer. Highly regarded for his work at General Motors, John DeLorean was an influential figure in the US automobile industry. He is credited with founding the popular American automobile manufacturer, The DeLorean Motor Company. DeLorean’s life inspired a couple of documentary films, including Framing John DeLorean where he was played by Alec Baldwin.

Computer programmer and entrepreneur Kevin Systrom is one of the co-founders of the photo-sharing app Instagram. He resigned as the Instagram CEO in 2018. He was named to Forbes’s 30 under 30 list in 2014 and was one of the U.S’s richest entrepreneurs below 40 in 2016.

Best known for designing the Golden Gate Bridge, engineer Joseph Strauss specialized in movable bridges and developed the concepts of the bascule bridge and the vertical-lift bridge. Born to a pianist mother and a painter-writer father, he later also penned poems such as The Mighty Task is Done.

Sergei Korolev was a Soviet spacecraft designer and rocket engineer who played an important role during the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America in the 1950s and 1960s. He was largely responsible for developing the R-7 Rocket and launching Yuri Gagarin into space. Sergei Korolev also launched Belka, Strelka, and Laika into space.

George Meade was a civil engineer and United States Army officer best remembered for decisively defeating Robert E. Lee in the American Civil War. After the war, he played an important role during the Reconstruction era. As a civil engineer, George Meade was involved in the construction of many lighthouses. 

The founder and CEO of the multi-national technology company Amazon, Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest man in the world. Jeff, who left his lucrative job at an investment firm to fulfil his entrepreneurial ambition, also owns the newspaper, The Washington Post, and its affiliate publications along with a spaceflight company, Blue Origin.

Bjarne Stroustrup is a Danish computer scientist best known for his invention and development of the popular C++ general-purpose programming language. He is currently working as a managing director at Morgan Stanley in New York, apart from serving as a visiting professor at the prestigious Columbia University. 

Tony Hoare is a British computer scientist who is credited with developing the sorting algorithm quicksort. He is also credited with developing Hoare logic, a formal system for verifying program correctness. Over the years, Tony Hoare has received several prestigious awards for his contribution to computer science.

A Stanford engineer and a Cambridge PhD, Ray Dolby had first experimented with electronic gadgets while working part-time for Ampex in his teenage years. The Dolby Laboratories founder later pioneered the surround sound technology in movies and the noise-reduction system in tapes. His honors include an Emmy and two Academy Awards.

Owsley Stanley was an American clandestine chemist and audio engineer. During the 1960s Stanley played an important role in the Bay Area hippie movement and the counterculture of the decade. As the sound engineer of the Grateful Dead, Stanley developed the band's famous Wall of Sound, one of the largest transportable public address systems ever built.

John Bradfield was an Australian engineer remembered for envisioning the Sydney Harbour Bridge; he oversaw the design and the construction of the bridge, which is now considered a major landmark in Sydney. He was also associated with many other notable projects, such as the Cataract Dam, Brisbane's Story Bridge, and Burrinjuck Dam. He received many prestigious awards during his lifetime.

British engineer and inventor George Cayley was a pioneer of aeronautics and aviation. He designed the world’s first glider that could successfully carry a human being. He was also a prominent Whig and had contributed to the formation of what is now known as the University of Westminster.

Known as the Big Daddy of drag racing, Don Garlits was not just a race-car driver but also a qualified automotive engineer. After his right foot was severed in a major car explosion, he perfected the safety standards of racing, creating the first fire-resistant bodysuit and the Top Fuel dragster rear engine.

Born to a bricklayer in London’s East End, Tommy Flowers completed his studies in electrical engineering attending night classes while working as an apprentice during the day. He developed Max Newman’s model of a machine that had the potential to decipher German codes and turned it into his Colossus computer.

British-Australian novelist Nevil Shute was also an aeronautical engineer and had fought in World War I. Of the 25 books he had penned throughout his lifetime, On the Beach remains one of the most notable. Most of his works reflected his cynicism regarding humanity in a war-ravaged society.

Phil Ramone was a South African-born American record producer, recording engineer, violinist, and composer. He is credited with co-founding A & R Recording Inc., which went on to become a major independent studio recording company in the United States of America. He is also credited with introducing optical surround sound for films. Ramone won 14 Grammy Awards during his career.

Initially an audio engineer, Martin Birch, known as a master of hard rock, later produced 10 Iron Maiden albums. He also worked with artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Deep Purple. Interestingly, the cause of his death, at age 71, was not disclosed to the public.

Étienne Lenoir was a Belgian-French engineer. He is credited with developing the internal combustion engine which was commercialized in sufficient quantities. Lenoir is also credited with inventing such electrical devices as an improved electric telegraph which played a key role during the Franco-Prussian War. 

Part of the Scottish band Cocteau Twins, Robin Guthrie and his guitar made serious waves in the alternate music scene of the 1980s. He also performed as part of Violet Indiana and has often collaborated with American pianist Harold Budd. He later also stepped into music production.

Wael Ghonim is an Egyptian computer engineer and Internet activist best known for his work in the field of social entrepreneurship. In 2011, Ghonim achieved international fame when his emotional interview led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The same year, Ghonim was named in Time magazine's 100 most influential people list. He also received the JFK Profile in Courage Award.   

Andrew Coyne is a Canadian columnist who has worked with popular publications like Maclean's and National Post. He is currently working for The Globe and Mail. In 1994, Andrew Coyne was honored by the Public Policy Forum with the prestigious Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism.

Born to a physicist, David Braben was naturally fond of math and science in childhood. He later turned his childhood love for video games into the video-game company Frontier Developments, best known for its Elite series of games. He has also earned honors such as the OBE.

One of the three men who founded the iconic automobile company BMW, Franz Josef Popp was an Austrian engineer. He spearheaded innovative projects such as the production of air-cooled radial engines. Though he later joined the Nazi Party, he was warned for allowing a Jewish doctor treat his family.

Camille Jordan was a French mathematician best remembered for his influential Cours d'analyse and his foundational work in group theory. He also served as an educator, teaching at prestigious institutions like the Collège de France and École Polytechnique. The asteroid 25593 Camillejordan is named in his honor.

Abraham-Louis Breguet was a French horologist who made several innovations in watchmaking in the course of his illustrious career. Widely regarded as the leading watchmaker of his generation, Breguet's clients included members of the European nobility and leading public figures in France. Counted among the greatest horologists of all time, Abraham-Louis Breguet is credited with founding the popular Breguet company.