Edible Apple

While hardly a scientific survey, Fortune this past week released the results from a recent survey it took to ascertain which 50 people are the smartest folks in tech today. In compiling the list, Fortune asked “nearly 100 trusted advisers and experts” to make nominations, and subsequently relied on feedback from analysts to help separate the men from the boys.

The end result is extensive list of the smartest CEO’s, engineers, academics, and scientists currently involved in technology. And not surprisingly, two notable figures from Apple make the cut.

Given Apple’s meteoric rise over the past decade, it’s no surprise that Steve Jobs sits perched atop the list of smartest CEOs.

iTunes reinvented music. Pixar, now part of Disney, elevated animated films. The iPhone changed telecom. And the new iPad has other computer makers scrambling to respond. Rocking one industry could be luck, but upending four? That’s smart.

He is a visionary, a micromanager, and a showman who creates such anticipation around new products that their releases are veritable holidays.

And also taking up a top spot on another list, Apple designer Jonny Ive was voted as the smartest designer in tech today. With numerous iPod, iPhone, and iMac designs to his credit, Ive’s handiwork has played an integral role in Apple’s resurgence as one of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world.

Ive arrived at Apple in 1992 from a small design firm in his native Britain, but his real break came five years later when Jobs returned in 1997. Jobs conducted a high-profile search for an international design director, then chose the soft-spoken Ive from within his own ranks. With the launch of his first product, the iMac G3, Ive turned the utilitarian gray desktop computer into a translucent, gumdrop-shaped fashion statement.