Within a year, Volvo began equipping their cars with seat belts as standard, and — as a result of its importance to safety — opened up the patent so that other manufacturers could do the same. Volvo claims that Bohlin’s invention has saved over a million lives. That would make Bohlin one of the highest-impact people in history, alongside David Nalin, the inventor of oral rehydration therapy for diarrhoea.We’d guess Bohlin’s impact wasn’t quite that large. For one thing, seat belts already existed: in 1951, a Y-shaped three-point seat belt was patented that avoided the risks of internal injuries from simple lap belts. Bohlin’s innovation was doing this with just one strap, making it simple and convenient to use. For another thing, it seems likely that someone else would have come up with Bohlin’s design eventually.Nevertheless, a simple estimate suggests that Bohlin saved hundreds of lives at the very least2 — incredible for such a simple piece of engineering.
- No location available
-
- [note::This points to the importance of counterfactual impact in your altruistic actions.]

But we think it’s most valuable when:You can really speed up development. This might be because you’re working on something that’s relatively neglected by others, or because you’re working in an area where you have high personal fit, so you can make particularly helpful contributions (or, ideally, both).You’re producing something which will practically be used to help people. One reason Bohlin had such a large impact — and Griswold, the inventor of the Y-shaped three-point seat belt didn’t — is that Volvo opened up the patent for use by other manufacturers.You’re working on a particularly pressing problem. For example, vaccines for common and deadly diseases — like malaria — are much more useful for the world than vaccines for rare diseases.
- No location available
-

Work in academia tends to focus on more speculative, early-stage technology (e.g. using ultraviolet light to sterilise rooms). This work is much more similar to research, so if you’re interested we’d suggest looking at our articles on research skills and working in academia. This route almost always involves getting a PhD in a subfield of engineering.
- No location available
-

Academic research can be difficult for many people. It often involves long deadlines, self-driven work, and very little structure. Beyond engineering, academic work is also likely to include grant applications, teaching courses, publishing papers, mentoring students, and other responsibilities.
- No location available
-

When working on engineering in industry, you can choose to become a subject matter expert (more similar to research) or instead become a manager, increasing the scope of your responsibilities. Either way, you can try learning faster by getting temporary placements in other parts of a company, taking part in engineering competitions, or working towards professional registration (which can be a helpful credential for engineering careers).
- No location available
- engineering, career development,

Another way to determine what kind of engineering you might be good at is to figure out where you lie on the spectrum from scientist to engineer. If you enjoy the more theoretical, abstract, or precise side of physics or mathematics, then something like materials science or electrical engineering could be a better fit. If you lean more towards optimisation, application of knowledge, or practicalities, then civil or chemical engineering might be more interesting. If you are somewhere in the middle, then mechanical engineering could be for you.
- No location available
-

If you’re already an engineer, you can read through to see if any of these issues appeal to you — and then aim to speak to some people in each area about how your skills could be applied and what the current opportunities are.You could also apply to speak to our team or get in touch with High Impact Engineers.
- No location available
-

There’s a key role for bioengineers and chemical engineers to play in mitigating these risks, including:Developing vaccine platform technologies to help us rapidly produce new vaccines in response to novel threatsDeveloping and implementing metagenomic sequencing to improve our ability to detect new pandemics
- No location available
-

Other engineering disciplines are also needed. For example, engineers could:Help design better pathogen containment systems for labs and systems to reduce pathogen spread in buildings or vehicles. (There are roles here for materials, civil, industrial, aerospace, and HVAC engineers, among others.)Help improve stockpiling and management of PPE (personal protective equipment), such as gloves and masks. (There are possibly roles here for industrial engineers.)Help improve technologies for monitoring pathogens, like systems for sampling environments and processes for managing and examining samples. (There are roles here for industrial, mechanical, and automation engineers, among others.)
- No location available
-

One very neglected potential way to reduce existential threats is through generally increasing the resilience of our society to catastrophes.All kinds of engineers can play a big role in this issue — for example by developing alternative foods, refuges, and knowledge stores that will be able to survive a near-apocalypse.
- No location available
- disaster resilience,

For instance, David Denkenberger is an engineer developing alternative foods that could be rapidly scaled up in the event of a global famine, perhaps caused by nuclear winter or a major volcanic eruption. We have two podcasts with him:Using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastropheWe could feed all eight billion people through a nuclear winter
- No location available
-

To learn more about refuges, see this review by Open Philanthropy. Or learn about how to increase the chance of recovery from a catastrophic event in two of our podcast episodes:Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us allPaul Christiano on whether we should leave messages for future civilisations
- No location available
-

This includes not just generating more green electricity, but also things like ensuring that there is enough electricity to meet seasonal changes in electricity demand and trying to find ways to make other forms of energy greener (like replacing fossil fuel use in blast furnaces or transportation).You can further increase your impact by focusing on technology that’s either not widely known (e.g. hot rock geothermal) or unsexy (e.g. decarbonising cement rather than developing electric cars).
- No location available
-

In addition to the top problems mentioned above, there are many other pressing areas where engineers are needed. For example, you could:Create alternative proteins through chemical engineering to help reduce meat consumption and prevent the suffering of animals in factory farms.Work on tech and logistics for global health, like producing and rolling out vaccines for polio and malaria.Try to develop products for people living in poverty — see more about why that can be impactful in our interview with SendWave.
- No location available
-

Engineers often have a systems mindset that can make them a particularly good fit for operations management or entrepreneurship. If that work interests you, it’s worth considering whether to spend some time building the skills you’d need to make the transition.
- No location available
-

Engineers may be able to easily develop skills in translating technically complex topics to less technical audiences, such as policymakers, which means you could also consider building a policy skill set. For example, TechCongress aims to get engineers, and other technologists, involved as technical advisors for policymakers.
- No location available
-

Career paths we’ve reviewed that use engineering skills
- No location available
-

Within a year, Volvo began equipping their cars with seat belts as standard, and — as a result of its importance to safety — opened up the patent so that other manufacturers could do the same. Volvo claims that Bohlin’s invention has saved over a million lives. That would make Bohlin one of the highest-impact people in history, alongside David Nalin, the inventor of oral rehydration therapy for diarrhoea.We’d guess Bohlin’s impact wasn’t quite that large. For one thing, seat belts already existed: in 1951, a Y-shaped three-point seat belt was patented that avoided the risks of internal injuries from simple lap belts. Bohlin’s innovation was doing this with just one strap, making it simple and convenient to use. For another thing, it seems likely that someone else would have come up with Bohlin’s design eventually.Nevertheless, a simple estimate suggests that Bohlin saved hundreds of lives at the very least2 — incredible for such a simple piece of engineering.
- No location available
-
- [note::This points to the importance of counterfactual impact in your altruistic actions.]

But we think it’s most valuable when:You can really speed up development. This might be because you’re working on something that’s relatively neglected by others, or because you’re working in an area where you have high personal fit, so you can make particularly helpful contributions (or, ideally, both).You’re producing something which will practically be used to help people. One reason Bohlin had such a large impact — and Griswold, the inventor of the Y-shaped three-point seat belt didn’t — is that Volvo opened up the patent for use by other manufacturers.You’re working on a particularly pressing problem. For example, vaccines for common and deadly diseases — like malaria — are much more useful for the world than vaccines for rare diseases.
- No location available
-

Work in academia tends to focus on more speculative, early-stage technology (e.g. using ultraviolet light to sterilise rooms). This work is much more similar to research, so if you’re interested we’d suggest looking at our articles on research skills and working in academia. This route almost always involves getting a PhD in a subfield of engineering.
- No location available
-

Academic research can be difficult for many people. It often involves long deadlines, self-driven work, and very little structure. Beyond engineering, academic work is also likely to include grant applications, teaching courses, publishing papers, mentoring students, and other responsibilities.
- No location available
-

When working on engineering in industry, you can choose to become a subject matter expert (more similar to research) or instead become a manager, increasing the scope of your responsibilities. Either way, you can try learning faster by getting temporary placements in other parts of a company, taking part in engineering competitions, or working towards professional registration (which can be a helpful credential for engineering careers).
- No location available
- engineering, career development,

Another way to determine what kind of engineering you might be good at is to figure out where you lie on the spectrum from scientist to engineer. If you enjoy the more theoretical, abstract, or precise side of physics or mathematics, then something like materials science or electrical engineering could be a better fit. If you lean more towards optimisation, application of knowledge, or practicalities, then civil or chemical engineering might be more interesting. If you are somewhere in the middle, then mechanical engineering could be for you.
- No location available
-

If you’re already an engineer, you can read through to see if any of these issues appeal to you — and then aim to speak to some people in each area about how your skills could be applied and what the current opportunities are.You could also apply to speak to our team or get in touch with High Impact Engineers.
- No location available
-

There’s a key role for bioengineers and chemical engineers to play in mitigating these risks, including:Developing vaccine platform technologies to help us rapidly produce new vaccines in response to novel threatsDeveloping and implementing metagenomic sequencing to improve our ability to detect new pandemics
- No location available
-

Other engineering disciplines are also needed. For example, engineers could:Help design better pathogen containment systems for labs and systems to reduce pathogen spread in buildings or vehicles. (There are roles here for materials, civil, industrial, aerospace, and HVAC engineers, among others.)Help improve stockpiling and management of PPE (personal protective equipment), such as gloves and masks. (There are possibly roles here for industrial engineers.)Help improve technologies for monitoring pathogens, like systems for sampling environments and processes for managing and examining samples. (There are roles here for industrial, mechanical, and automation engineers, among others.)
- No location available
-

One very neglected potential way to reduce existential threats is through generally increasing the resilience of our society to catastrophes.All kinds of engineers can play a big role in this issue — for example by developing alternative foods, refuges, and knowledge stores that will be able to survive a near-apocalypse.
- No location available
- disaster resilience,

For instance, David Denkenberger is an engineer developing alternative foods that could be rapidly scaled up in the event of a global famine, perhaps caused by nuclear winter or a major volcanic eruption. We have two podcasts with him:Using paper mills and seaweed to feed everyone in a catastropheWe could feed all eight billion people through a nuclear winter
- No location available
-

To learn more about refuges, see this review by Open Philanthropy. Or learn about how to increase the chance of recovery from a catastrophic event in two of our podcast episodes:Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us allPaul Christiano on whether we should leave messages for future civilisations
- No location available
-

This includes not just generating more green electricity, but also things like ensuring that there is enough electricity to meet seasonal changes in electricity demand and trying to find ways to make other forms of energy greener (like replacing fossil fuel use in blast furnaces or transportation).You can further increase your impact by focusing on technology that’s either not widely known (e.g. hot rock geothermal) or unsexy (e.g. decarbonising cement rather than developing electric cars).
- No location available
-

In addition to the top problems mentioned above, there are many other pressing areas where engineers are needed. For example, you could:Create alternative proteins through chemical engineering to help reduce meat consumption and prevent the suffering of animals in factory farms.Work on tech and logistics for global health, like producing and rolling out vaccines for polio and malaria.Try to develop products for people living in poverty — see more about why that can be impactful in our interview with SendWave.
- No location available
-

Engineers often have a systems mindset that can make them a particularly good fit for operations management or entrepreneurship. If that work interests you, it’s worth considering whether to spend some time building the skills you’d need to make the transition.
- No location available
-

Engineers may be able to easily develop skills in translating technically complex topics to less technical audiences, such as policymakers, which means you could also consider building a policy skill set. For example, TechCongress aims to get engineers, and other technologists, involved as technical advisors for policymakers.
- No location available
-

Career paths we’ve reviewed that use engineering skills
- No location available
-