WASHINGTON -- The world knows him as the first man to walk on the moon, but Neil Armstrong takes a somewhat different view of himself.

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"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector nerdy engineer," he told an overflow luncheon crowd Tuesday at the National Press Club. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."

In a light-hearted speech on behalf of the National Academy of Engineering, Armstrong announced what engineers voted as the 20 top engineering achievements with the greatest impact on quality of life in the 20^th century. Heading the list: electrification, followed by the automobile, the airplane and clean water.

Space exploration came in twelfth.

But Armstrong said, "I do not disagree" with space exploration's ranking when held up to the yardstick of quality of life. "Others [on the list] were judged to have a greater impact in that regard."

Clean water, for example, is largely credited with holding back the spread of disease and boosting the average life span from 46 years of age in 1900 to 76 today, while agricultural mechanization, ranked seventh, made possible the growth of the world's population to 6 billion people today.

Armstrong, 69, schooled as an engineer and trained as a test pilot, went on to teach college-level engineering after he left the astronaut program. He is chairman of AIL Technologies, an aerospace electronics manufacturer in Long Island, New York and serves on several corporate boards, including that of SPACE.com.

"Science is about what is; engineering is about what can be," he said, noting that this was National Engineers Week.

Years from now, he said, the year 2000 "may be viewed as a primitive period in human history. It's something to hope for."

As for what he thought the greatest engineering achievement of this century might be, Armstrong deadpanned: "Getting rid of the credit card."

Most of the audience, though, wanted to hear about space and Armstrong -- one of the most private of the astronauts -- who charmed listeners with self-effacing humor.

What did he think about sending humans to Mars? "Well, uh, I'd volunteer," he said to laughter and applause.

Did he suffer any lingering physical problems from spaceflight? "You mean like this?" he said, holding up a wobbling hand. No, he assured the crowd, people can safely go into space for extended periods of time and return to Earth with no problem.

And does he ever dream about that famous stroll on the moon? "I can honestly say, and it's a big surprise to me, that I have never had a dream about being on the moon. And that has been a great disappointment to me."