Greene, an MIT-trained engineer and computer scientist, founded VMware in 1998 with her husband, Mendel Rosenblum, a computer science professor at Stanford University, and three engineers.

FORBES: Why VMware Dumped Diane Greene

Da Vinci was a whiz as a painter (hint: "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper"), a scientist and engineer, and a futurist dead-set on fighting the gravitational pull of his own times.

NPR: Leonardo Da Vinci Gets 'Batman' Treatment On Starz

Its 25 people include a PhD in Electrical Engineering who is an expert on fiber optics, an aerospace engineer, and a computer scientist with a string of entrepreneurial successes in his wake.

FORBES: Embrace Warms Up Premature Babies At the Bottom of the Pyramid

Mr Hu is a power engineer and Mr Zeng a rocket scientist.

ECONOMIST: Colour me grey

The scientist, engineer and entrepreneur, on the other hand, are now able to promise what cybercowboy John Perry Barlow terms the Great Work: to eliminate scarcity, to feed and clothe and heal the world.

FORBES: The Moral Limits of Wealth

Taking an engineer or scientist involved in product design and development is always advantageous.

FORBES: Are You Making Something Usable? Part 6 -- How to do it.

In the 1960s, the two coolest places in America to work if you were a top scientist or engineer were NASA and Bell Labs.

FORBES: The New Space Race: Follow The Talent

The Oculus team just got bigger by two, with software engineer Tom Forsyth, formerly of Valve, and robotic scientist Dr. Steve LaValle of the University of Illinois both jumping on board.

ENGADGET

Each scientist or engineer is employed or funded by the Federal government and includes members of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Science Foundation.

WHITEHOUSE: Browse White House visitor logs