Luis Alvarez 1911 – 1988.
The iridium layer, dinosaur death by meteorite
impact, and subatomic particle discoveries.
Anaximander c. 610 BC – c 546 BC.
An ancient scientific revolution: the first person in
history to recognize that our planet is free in space
and does not need to sit on something.
Aristarchus c. 310 BC – c. 230 BC.
Promoted the idea that the earth follows a circular
orbit around the sun eighteen centuries before
Nicolaus Copernicus resurrected the idea.
Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601.
Produced the best star catalog that had ever been
compiled and measured the orbit of Mars with
unprecedented accuracy, paving the way for
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Newton’s law
of gravity.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar 1910
– 1995.
Discovered that massive stars can collapse under
their own gravity to reach infinite densities. Today
we call these collapsed stars black holes.
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473 to 1543.
Started the scientific revolution with his book The
Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, explaining his
belief that the solar system is centered on the sun,
not the earth.
Democritus c. 460 — c. 370 BC
Devised an atomic theory featuring tiny particles
always in motion interacting through collisions;
advocated a universe containing an infinity of
diverse inhabited worlds governed by natural,
mechanistic laws rather than gods; deduced that
the light of stars explains the Milky Way’s
appearance; discovered that a cone’s volume is
one-third that of the cylinder with the same base
and height.
Frank Drake Born 1930.
A founder of the search for extraterrestrial
intelligence; devised the Drake equation to estimate
the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy;
first person to map the center of the Milky Way
galaxy.
Eudoxus c. 400 — c. 347 BC.
Founded mathematical astronomy by creating the
first mathematical model of the universe, turning
physical reality into something more abstract
offering a new vantage point from which we could
study the universe.
Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642.
The father of modern science, Galileo discovered
the first moons ever known to orbit another planet
and that the Milky Way is made of stars. He
rationalized how objects are affected by gravity,
stated the principle of inertia, and proposed the first
theory of relativity.
Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 – 1855.
The last master of all mathematics, Gauss
revolutionized number theory; he invented the
method of least squares and the fast Fourier
transform to recover the position of the lost dwarf
planet Ceres.
Thomas Harriot c. 1560 – 1621
The first person in history to map a heavenly body
after observing it with a telescope – the moon.
Probably first to observe sunspots with a telescope,
allowing him to determine the sun’s rotation rate.
Caroline Herschel 1750 – 1848
Discovered five comets; produced an award-
winning catalogue of nebulae; the brother-sister
team of William & Caroline Herschel increased the
number of known nebulae from about 100 to 2,500.
John Herschel 1792 – 1871
Produced the first global survey of the night skies,
discovered hundreds of nebulae and thousands of
double stars; took the first ever photograph on
glass plate; invented the actinometer to measure
the heating power of radiation.
Hipparchus c. 190 BC – c. 120 BC.
One of antiquity’s greatest scientists: founded the
mathematical discipline of trigonometry; measured
the earth-moon distance accurately; discovered the
precession of the equinoxes; and documented the
positions and magnitudes of over 850 stars. His
combinatorics work was unequalled until 1870.
Fred Hoyle 1915 – 2001.
Proved that most of the naturally occurring
elements in the periodic table were made inside
stars and distributed through space by supernova
explosions; coined the phrase ‘Big Bang’ while
strenuously denying that there had ever been one;
argued for an expanding Steady State universe
with no beginning or end.
Edwin Hubble 1889 – 1953.
Discovered there are galaxies beyond our own.
Showed we live in a universe of many galaxies,
each an isolated ‘island universe,’ separated by
immense distances. Independently discovered and
popularized Hubble’s law, believed by most
cosmologists to indicate we live in an expanding
universe.
Omar Khayyam 1048 – 1131.
A poet, philosopher and scientist, Khayyam
calculated the length of a year to the most accurate
value ever, and showed how the intersections of
conic sections can be utilized to yield geometric
solutions of cubic equations.
Johannes Kepler 1571 to 1630.
Discovered the solar system’s planets follow
elliptical paths; identified that the tides are caused
mainly by the moon; proved how logarithms work;
discovered the inverse square law of light intensity;
his laws of planetary motion led Newton to his law
of gravitation.
Henrietta Leavitt 1868 – 1921.
Discovered that Cepheid variable stars act as a
‘standard candle,’ opening the door to measuring
the distances to far-distant stars and the discovery
of galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
Percival Lowell 1855 – 1916.
‘Discovered’ an enormous network of canals and
oases on Mars, from which he deduced the
existence of an advanced Martian civilization; his
search for Planet X led to the discovery of Pluto.
Georges Lemaître 1894 – 1966.
Discovered that space and the universe are
expanding; discovered Hubble’s law; proposed the
universe began with the explosion of a ‘primeval
atom’ whose matter spread and evolved to form the
galaxies and stars we observe today.
John Michell 1724 – 1793.
The first person in history to suggest black holes
could exist; invented the torsion balance to weigh
our planet; used probability theory to establish that
some star groupings are non-random and therefore
perhaps held together by gravity.
Isaac Newton 1643 to 1727.
Profoundly changed our understanding of nature
with his law of universal gravitation and his laws of
motion; invented calculus, the field of mathematics
that dominates the physical sciences; generalized
the binomial theorem; built the first ever reflecting
telescope; showed sunlight is made of all the colors
of the rainbow.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin 1900 –
1979.
Discovered that the most abundant chemical
elements in stars and hence in the universe are
hydrogen and helium.
Claudius Ptolemy AD c. 100 – c. 170.
Author of the Almagest, which contained a
catalogue of over a thousand stars with positions,
relative brightnesses, and constellations; and a
mathematical model predicting the movements of
the planets that was unsurpassed for almost 1,500
years.
Gene Shoemaker 1928 to 1997.
The first astrogeologist and a founder of planetary
impact science; proved large craters on Earth were
caused by collisions with asteroids and comets
rather than volcanic activity; proposed microscopic
life could travel between planets on rocks blasted
into space by asteroid impacts.
Harold Urey 1893 – 1981.
Discovered deuterium; showed how isotope ratios
in rocks reveal past Earth climates; founded
modern planetary science; the Miller-Urey
experiment demonstrated that electrically sparking
simple gases produces amino acids – the building
blocks of life.
rname.
Oswald Avery 1877 – 1955.
Discovered that DNA passes heredity instructions
through successive generations of organisms – it
carries the chemical code of life, as revealed by the
Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment.
James Black 1924 – 2010.
Revolutionized drug design with beta-blockers for
heart disease and histamine antagonists for stomach
ulcers.
Elizabeth Blackwell 1821 – 1910.
The first woman to qualify as a physician in America;
founder of America’s first medical school for women.
Linda Buck Born 1947.
Co-discovered how our sense of smell works: humans
have about 350 different types of odor receptor cell
which send signals directly into the brain’s olfactory
bulb.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1852 –
1934.
Founder of modern neuroscience: proved the neuron
doctrine, which says that neurons behave as
biochemically distinct cells rather than a network of
interlinked cells.
Rachel Carson 1907 – 1964.
A founder of 20th century environmentalism, her
book Silent Spring led to a reappraisal of the effect of
chemicals such as DDT on the environment, leading
to bans and heavy restrictions.
George Washington Carver c.1860 –
1943.
Improved the agricultural economy of the United
States by promoting nitrogen-providing peanuts as an
alternative crop to cotton to prevent soil depletion.
Erwin Chargaff 1905 – 2002.
Chargaff’s rules paved the way to the discovery of
DNA’s structure.
Jacques Cousteau 1910 – 1997.
Oscar winning marine pioneer; coinvented the
breathe-on-demand valve for SCUBA diving;
popularized marine biology with several dramatic
television series.
Francis Crick 1916 – 2004.
Codiscovered DNA’s structure and replication
mechanism; established the Sequence Hypothesis
and the Central Dogma; discovered that DNA uses a
triplet code to control the formation of proteins from
amino acids.
Marie Curie 1867 – 1934.
Codiscovered the chemical elements radium and
polonium; made numerous pioneering contributions to
the study of radioactive elements; carried out the first
research into the treatment of tumors with radiation.
Charles Darwin 1809 – 1882.
Authored one of the most famous books in history, On
the Origin of Species, in which he described and
provided evidence for the theory of evolution by
natural selection.
 John Eccles 1903 – 1997.
Discovered how messages pass between nerve cells
in mammals, establishing that both excitatory and
inhibitory processes are chemical in nature, rather
than electrical.
Empedocles c. 490 BC – c 430 BC.
An ancient theory of natural selection; mass
conservation; and the four elements which are now
often misattributed to Aristotle.
Ronald Fisher 1890 – 1962.
Invented experimental design; devised the statistical
concept of variance; unified evolution by natural
selection with Mendel’s rules of inheritance, so
defining the new field of population genetics.
Alexander Fleming 1881 – 1955.
Discovered that treating wounds and infections with
antiseptic agents caused more deaths than if no
action were taken. Discovered penicillin and predicted
the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Howard Florey 1898 – 1968.
Howard Florey and his scientific team transformed
penicillin from a scientific curiosity into a potent
antibiotic – a magic bullet that has saved countless
millions of lives.
Rosalind Franklin 1920 – 1958.
Provided much of the experimental data used to
establish the structure of DNA; discovered that DNA
can exist in two forms.
Galen 129 – c. 216
Began his practice as a physician to gladiators and
established a link between diet and health. Galen
created a flawed doctrine that dominated Western
and Arab medicine for 1,500 years.
Jane Goodall Born 1934.
Ground breaking discoveries in chimpanzee behavior;
established that chimpanzees have similar social
behavior to humans and also that they make tools
and hunt for meat.
Stephen Jay Gould 1941 – 2002.
Devised the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which
proposes that evolution consists of long periods of
stability broken by shorter periods of rapid change. An
award-winning author and popularizer of science.
Alister Hardy 1896 – 1985.
Created the aquatic ape theory, which claims that our
species evolved in water.
William Harvey 1578 to 1657.
Explained blood circulation for the first time, showing
there is a complete circuit beginning and ending in the
heart.
George de Hevesy 1885 – 1966.
Pioneered isotopes as tracers to study chemical and
biological processes; discovered how plants and
animals utilize particular chemical elements after they
are taken in as nutrients. Discovered element 72,
hafnium.
Maurice Hilleman 1919 – 2005.
The most prolific inventor of vaccines in history;
developed over forty vaccines; invented eight of the
fourteen vaccines used in routine vaccination
schedules today; his vaccines may account for as
many as eight million lives saved every year.
Hippocrates 460 BC – c. 370 BC.
The father of Western medicine: systematized
medical treatments, disentangling them from religion
and superstitions; trained physicians; produced a
large body of medical textbooks. The famous
Hippocratic Oath binds physicians to good ethical
practices.
 Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703.
Discovered cells and wrote one of the most significant
books in scientific history, Micrographia, revealing the
microscopic world for the first time.
Jack Horner Born 1946.
Popularizer of science: discovered that dinosaurs
cared for their young and some nested in colonies.
Working on reactivating dormant dinosaur DNA to
hatch a modern-day dinosaur.
Irene Joliot-Curie 1897 – 1956.
Codiscovered how to convert stable chemical
elements into ‘designer’ radioactive elements; these
have saved millions of lives and are used in tens of
millions of medical procedures every year.
Frances Kelsey 1914 – 2015.
In the early 1960s, thousands of children died or were
born malformed because their mothers took the drug
thalidomide during pregnancy. Few ‘thalidomide
babies’ were born in the USA, largely because
Frances Kelsey blocked American sales.
Karl Landsteiner 1868 – 1943.
Discovered the human blood group system, paving
the way for safe blood transfusions; discovered the
Rh factor in blood; proved polio is an infectious
disease spread by a virus; discovered haptens.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 –
1723.
The father of microbiology, he used remarkable self-
made lenses to discover single-celled animals and
plants, bacteria, and spermatozoa.
Carolus Linnaeus 1707 – 1778.
Organized our view of the natural world with the two-
part naming system we use to classify all lifeforms;
named and classified about 13,000 lifeforms; broke
with tradition by classifying humans in the same way
as other lifeforms.
Barbara McClintock 1902 – 1992.
Groundbreaking genetics: showed that genes switch
the physical traits of an organism on or off; discovered
chromosomal crossover, which increases genetic
variation in species; discovered transposition – that
genes can move about within chromosomes.
Gregor Mendel 1822 – 1884.
Founded the science of genetics; identified many of
the rules of heredity; identified recessive and
dominant traits, and that traits are passed from
parents to offspring in a mathematically predictable
way.
Franz Mesmer 1734 – 1815.
Mesmer wrongly believed he had discovered a
remarkable new phenomenon, which he called animal
magnetism. He used this to treat people with
psychosomatic illnesses. The treatment actually
worked through the power of suggestion, later
recognized as the genuine phenomenon of hypnosis
(or mesmerism).
Charles Nicolle 1866 – 1936.
Discovered that typhus is carried by lice; showed how
epidemics could be prevented. Discovered inapparent
infections.
Florence Nightingale 1820 – 1910.
A health pioneer who transformed nursing into a
respected, highly trained profession; used statistics to
analyze wider health outcomes; advocated sanitary
reforms largely credited with adding 20 years to life
expectancy between 1871 and 1935.
Louis Pasteur 1822 – 1895.
The father of modern microbiology; transformed
chemistry and biology with his discovery of mirror-
image molecules; discovered anaerobic bacteria;
established the germ theory of disease; invented food
preservation by pasteurization.

Linus Pauling 1901 – 1994.
Maverick giant of chemistry; formulated valence bond
theory and electronegativity; founded the fields of
quantum chemistry, molecular biology, and molecular
genetics. Discovered the alpha-helix structure of
proteins; proved that sickle-cell anemia is a molecular
disease.
Wilder Penfield 1891 – 1976.
Pioneer of brain surgery who mapped the human
brain, showing which parts of it are most strongly
associated with functions such as the different
senses, different body movements, and speech.
Philippe Pinel 1745 – 1826.
Founded scientific psychiatry; made humane changes
to the conditions under which mentally ill people were
held; promoted the idea that mentally ill people should
be understood as individuals.
Francesco Redi 1626 – 1697.
Devised and performed the first controlled
experiments in scientific history; showed that flies
breed and lay eggs and do not spontaneously
generate; founded modern parasitology.
Theodor Schwann 1810 – 1882.
Established that the cell is the basic unit of all living
things; his classification of cells is the foundation of
modern histology; discovered the enzyme pepsin;
identified the role microorganisms play in alcohol
fermentation.
Gene Shoemaker 1928 to 1997.
The first astrogeologist and a founder of planetary
impact science; proposed microscopic life could travel
between planets on rocks blasted into space by
asteroid impacts.
B. F. Skinner 1904 – 1990.
The 20th century’s most influential psychologist;
pioneered the science of behaviorism; discovered the
power of positive reinforcement in learning; designed
the first psychological experiments producing
quantitatively repeatable results.
Nettie Stevens 1861 – 1912.
Discovered that an organism’s sex is determined by
its chromosomes, now known as the XY sex-
determination system – the discovery was the first
time a link was demonstrated between a physical
characteristic and chromosome differences.
Susumu Tonegawa Born 1939.
Discovered how the immune system produces
millions of different antibodies to combat almost any
micro-organism. In doing so, he solved the tantalizing
long-term puzzle of antibody diversity.
Youyou Tu Born 1930.
Discovered the drug artemisinin, a treatment for
malaria, extracting it from sweet wormwood, an herb
utilized in Chinese fever treatments for more than
2,000 years. Artemisinin and its derivatives have
saved or improved the lives of millions of people.
Harold Urey 1893 – 1981.
Discovered deuterium; showed how isotope ratios in
rocks reveal past Earth climates; founded modern
planetary science; the Miller-Urey experiment
demonstrated that electrically sparking simple gases
produces amino acids – the building blocks of life.
Craig Venter Born 1946.
First to read the entire genome of a free-living
organism; played a major role in mapping the human
genome; discovered more genes than had ever been
previously documented; created synthetic DNA and
new bacteria species.
Andreas Vesalius 1514 – 1564.
Founded modern anatomy, overthrowing
misconceptions about the body that had persisted for
over a thousand years.
 , on the Famous Scientists website, ordered by
surname.

Rudolf Virchow 1821 – 1902.

A founder of both pathology and social medicine,
Virchow correctly identified that diseases are caused
by malfunctioning cells. He named leukemia and was
the first to catalog and name conditions such
embolism, thrombosis, chordoma, and ochronosis.
Amedeo Avogadro 1776 – 1856.
The first scientist to realize that elements could exist
in the form of molecules rather than as individual
atoms; originator of Avogadro’s law.

George Wald 1906 – 1997.

Explained the chemistry of the eye after discovering
the vitamin A chemical cycle that allows our eyes to
record light. Established the chemistry of color vision
and color blindness.
Jacob Berzelius 1779 – 1848.
A founder of modern chemistry: the first person to
measure accurate atomic weights for the chemical
elements; discovered three elements: cerium,
thorium, and selenium; devised the modern symbols
for elements; described how chemical bonds form by
electrostatic attraction.

Selman Waksman 1888 – 1973.

Discovered antibiotics made by soil-dwelling bacteria
including streptomycin, the first effective treatment for
tuberculosis; coined the word antibiotic. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962.
Founded quantum mechanics when he remodeled the
atom so electrons occupied ‘allowed’ orbits around
the nucleus while all other orbits were forbidden;
architect of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum
mechanics.
Alfred R. Wallace 1823 – 1913.
Independently formulated the theory of evolution by
natural selection; was one of the first biologists to
express concern about the effects human activities
were having on the natural world.
Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691.
Transformed chemistry from a field bogged down in
alchemy and mysticism into one based on
measurement. He defined elements, compounds, and
mixtures; and he discovered the first gas law –
Maurice Wilkins 1916 – 2004. Boyle’s Law.
Initiated the experimental research into DNA that
culminated in Watson and Crick’s discovery of its
structure in 1953; crystallized DNA and obtained the
best quality X-ray images of DNA seen at that time,
indicating DNA molecules were helix shaped.
Lawrence Bragg 1890 – 1971.
Discovered how to locate the positions of atoms in
solids using X-ray diffraction, enabling scientists to
build 3D models of the atomic arrangements in solids.
The discovery was arguably the most significant
Sergei Winogradsky 1856 – 1953. experimental breakthrough of twentieth century
Founded microbial ecology; discovered science.
chemosynthetic life forms which obtain energy from
chemical reactions rather than from sunlight;
discovered nitrogen-fixing bacteria in soil that make
nitrates available to green plants.

Hennig Brand 1630 – 1710.

Discovered phosphorus, becoming the first named
person in history to discover a chemical element.

Carl Woese 1916 – 2004.

Discovered a third basic form of life, the Archaea;
redrew the tree of life; revolutionized biology using
genetic analysis, allowing all forms of life to be
included in the study of evolution.
 Georg Brandt 1694 – 1768.
The first named person in history to discover a new
metal – cobalt; was one of the first scientists to
condemn alchemy, publicly demonstrating tricks used
by alchemists to make people think they could make
gold.
Robert Bunsen 1811 – 1899.
Discovered cesium and rubidium; discovered the
antidote to arsenic poisoning; invented the zinc-
carbon battery and flash photography; discovered
how geysers operate.
Erwin Chargaff 1905 – 2002.
Chargaff’s rules paved the way to the discovery of
DNA’s structure.
Marie Curie 1867 – 1934.
Codiscovered the chemical elements radium and
polonium; made numerous pioneering contributions to
the study of radioactive elements; carried out the first
research into the treatment of tumors with radiation.
John Dalton 1766 – 1844.
Dalton’s Atomic Theory is the basis of chemistry;
discovered Gay-Lussac’s Law relating gases’
temperature, volume, and pressure; discovered the
law of partial gas pressures.
Democritus c. 460 — c. 370 BC
Devised an atomic theory featuring tiny particles
always in motion interacting through collisions;
advocated a universe containing an infinity of diverse
inhabited worlds governed by natural, mechanistic
laws rather than gods; deduced that the light of stars
explains the Milky Way’s appearance; discovered that
a cone’s volume is one-third that of the cylinder with
the same base and height.
Empedocles c. 490 BC – c 430 BC.
An ancient theory of natural selection; mass
conservation; and the four elements which are now
often misattributed to Aristotle.
Michael Faraday 1791 – 1867.
Discovered electromagnetic induction; devised
Faraday’s laws of electrolysis; discovered the first
experimental link between light and magnetism;
carried out the first room-temperature liquefaction of a
gas; discovered benzene.
Rosalind Franklin 1920 – 1958.
Provided much of the experimental data used to
establish the structure of DNA; discovered that DNA
can exist in two forms; established that coal acts as a
molecular sieve.
Willard Gibbs 1839 – 1903.
Gibbs invented vector analysis and founded the
sciences of modern statistical mechanics and
chemical thermodynamics.
George de Hevesy 1885 – 1966.
Discovered element 72, hafnium. Pioneered isotopes
as tracers to study chemical and biological processes;
discovered how plants and animals utilize particular
chemical elements after they are taken in as nutrients.
Fred Hoyle 1915 – 2001.
Established that most of the naturally occurring
elements in the periodic table were made inside stars
and distributed through space by supernova
explosions.
Irene Joliot-Curie 1897 – 1956.
Co-discovered how to convert stable chemical
elements into ‘designer’ radioactive elements; these
have saved millions of lives and are used in tens of
millions of medical procedures every year.
Martin Klaproth 1743 – 1817.
Discovered the chemical elements uranium,
zirconium, and cerium – naming the first two of these
elements; verified the discoveries of titanium,
tellurium, and strontium, again naming the first two.
 Stephanie Kwolek 1923 – 2014.
Invented kevlar, the incredibly strong plastic used in
applications ranging from body armor to tennis
racquet strings.
Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794.
A founder of modern chemistry; discovered oxygen’s
role in combustion and respiration; discovered that
water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen; proved
that diamond and charcoal are different forms of the
same element, which he named carbon.
Ernest Lawrence 1901 – 1958.
Invented the cyclotron, used by scientific teams in his
laboratories to discover large numbers of new
chemical elements and isotopes. Founded big
science.
Jane Marcet 1769 – 1858.
Author of Conversations on Chemistry, a unique
textbook for its time written for people with little formal
education, such as girls and the poor. The book
inspired Michael Faraday to overcome his poor
origins to become a great scientist.
Dmitri Mendeleev 1834 – 1907.
Discovered the periodic table in a dream. Utilized the
organizing principles of the periodic table to correctly
predict the existence and properties of six new
chemical elements.
Henry Moseley 1887 – 1915.
Proved that every element’s identity is uniquely
determined by its number of protons, establishing this
is the true organizing principle of the periodic table;
correctly predicted the existence of four new chemical
elements; invented the atomic battery.
Giulio Natta 1903 – 1979.
Discovered how to produce polymer chains with
orderly spatial arrangements – i.e. stereoregular
polymers.
Alfred Nobel 1833 – 1896.
Invented dynamite, the blasting cap, gelignite, and
ballistite; grew enormously wealthy manufacturing
explosives; used his wealth to bequeath annual prizes
in science, literature, and peace.
Hans Christian Oersted 1777 – 1851.
Discovered electromagnetism when he found that
electric current caused a nearby magnetic needle to
move; discovered piperine and achieved the first
isolation of the element aluminum.
Louis Pasteur 1822 – 1895.
The father of modern microbiology; transformed
chemistry and biology with his discovery of mirror-
image molecules; discovered anaerobic bacteria;
established the germ theory of disease; invented food
preservation by pasteurization.
Linus Pauling 1901 – 1994.
Maverick giant of chemistry; formulated valence bond
theory and electronegativity; founded the fields of
quantum chemistry, molecular biology, and molecular
genetics. Discovered the alpha-helix structure of
proteins; proved that sickle-cell anemia is a molecular
disease.
Marguerite Perey 1909 – 1975.
Discovered francium, the last of the naturally
occurring chemical elements to be discovered – all
elements since have been produced artificially.
William Perkin 1838 – 1907.
At age 18 started the synthetic dye revolution when
his discovery of mauveine brought the once
formidably expensive color purple to everyone.
Perkins’ revolution took the world by storm,
transforming textiles, foods, and medicine.
C. V. Raman 1888 – 1970.
Discovered that light can donate a small amount of
energy to a molecule, changing the light’s color and
causing the molecule to vibrate. The color change
acts as a ‘fingerprint’ for the molecule that can be
used to identify molecules and detect diseases such
as cancer.
William Ramsay 1852 – 1916.
Predicted the existence of the noble gases and
discovered or was first to isolate every member of the
group; created the world’s first neon light.
Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937.
The father of nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics;
discovered and named the atomic nucleus, the
proton, the alpha particle, and the beta particle;
discovered the concept of nuclear half-lives; achieved
the first laboratory transformation of one element into
another.
Glenn Seaborg 1912 to 1999.
Took part in the discovery of ten of the periodic table’s
chemical elements. His work on the electronic
structure of elements led to the periodic table being
rewritten.
Hermann Staudinger 1881 – 1965.
Founded macromolecular chemistry when he
established that molecules made of hundreds of
thousands of atoms exist; demonstrated that synthetic
polymers can make fibers similar to natural fibers;
discovered polyoxymethylene; discovered pyrethroid
natural insecticides.
J. J. Thomson 1856 – 1940.
Discovered the electron; invented one of the most
powerful tools in analytical chemistry – the mass
spectrometer; obtained the first evidence for isotopes
of stable elements.
Harold Urey 1893 – 1981.
Discovered deuterium; showed how isotope ratios in
rocks reveal past Earth climates; founded modern
planetary science; the Miller-Urey experiment
demonstrated that electrically sparking simple gases
produces amino acids – the building blocks of life.
Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827.
Pioneer of electrical science; invented the electric
battery; wrote the first electromotive series; isolated
methane for the first time; discovered a methane-air
mixture could be exploded using an electric spark –
the basis of the internal combustion engine.
Sergei Winogradsky 1856 – 1953.
Founded microbial ecology; discovered
chemosynthetic life forms which obtain energy from
chemical reactions rather than from sunlight;
discovered nitrogen-fixing bacteria in soil that make
nitrates available to green plants.
website.
Luis Alvarez 1911 – 1988.
The iridium layer, dinosaur death by meteorite impact,
and subatomic particle discoveries.
Anaximander c. 610 BC – c 546 BC.
An ancient scientific revolution: the first person in
history to recognize that our planet is free in space
and does not need to sit on something; produced one
of the first ever maps of the world.
Mary Anning 1799 – 1847.
Ancient animals, fossils, and paleontology: discovered
the first complete specimen of a plesiosaur; deduced
the diets of dinosaurs.
J Harlen Bretz 1882 – 1981.
After decades of ridicule from uniformitarian
geologists established that immense, cataclysmic
floods created extraordinary landscapes in America’s
Pacific Northwest.
James Croll 1821 – 1890.
Provided the first mechanism accounting for ice ages;
said climate change is caused by periodic changes in
Earth’s orbit affecting the amount of energy received
from the sun; devised the concept of ice-albedo
feedback.
Georges Cuvier 1769 – 1832.
Father of paleontology; species extinction; master of
comparative anatomy – established that a fossil he
named pterodactyl was a flying reptile; promoted the
theory of catastrophism; argued species were fixed
and did not evolve.
Eratosthenes c. 276 BC – c. 194 BC.
Accurately calculated Earth’s size 2,500 years ago;
founded the science of geography; and devised the
famous prime number sieve.
Stephen Jay Gould 1941 – 2002.
Paleontologist who devised the theory of punctuated
equilibrium, which proposes that evolution consists of
long periods of stability broken by shorter periods of
rapid change. An award-winning author and
popularizer of science.
Jack Horner Born 1946.
Popularizer of science: discovered that dinosaurs
cared for their young and some nested in colonies.
Working on reactivating dormant dinosaur DNA to
hatch a modern-day dinosaur.
James Hutton 1726 – 1797.
Founded modern geology. Found our planet is very
much older than previously believed; devised the
principle of uniformitarianism, which says our world
was shaped by natural processes such as erosion
and deposition; stated the theory of evolution by
natural selection before Darwin was born.
Inge Lehmann 1888 – 1993.
Analyzed earthquake waves to discover that within
our planet’s liquid core, at the earth’s center, there is
a solid core whose diameter is greater than 1,000 km.
Matthew Maury 1806 – 1873.
A founder of modern oceanography; mapped the
North Atlantic Ocean floor, discovering a submarine
mountain range – part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge;
invented the ‘electric torpedo,’ the most devastating
naval weapon of the American Civil War.
John Michell 1724 – 1793.
First to suggest earthquakes are caused by
movements of rocks miles below Earth’s surface and
travel long distances as waves; invented the torsion
balance to weigh our planet.
Milutin Milanković 1879 – 1958.
The first science-based climate predictions for the
other rocky planets; Milankovitch cycles offer a robust
mathematical explanation of recurring ice ages and
climate change based on Earth’s orbital changes.
Gene Shoemaker 1928 to 1997.
The first astrogeologist and a founder of planetary
impact science; proved large craters on Earth were
caused by collisions with asteroids and comets rather
than volcanic activity; proposed microscopic life could
travel between planets on rocks blasted into space by
asteroid impacts.
Nicolas Steno 1638 – 1686.
A founder of modern geology; established some of its
fundamental principles, including the law that the
oldest layers of rock are found below younger layers.
Harold Urey 1893 – 1981.
Discovered deuterium; showed how isotope ratios in
rocks reveal past Earth climates; founded modern
planetary science; the Miller-Urey experiment
demonstrated that electrically sparking simple gases
produces amino acids – the building blocks of life.
Alfred Wegener 1880 – 1930.
Discovered continental drift, proposing that our planet
once consisted of ocean surrounding a single great
continent he called Pangea that split apart over many
millions of years to form the continents we see today.
urname.
Alhazen c. 965 – c. 1040.
Explained why camera images are upside down;
solved ‘Alhazen’s problem’ concerning reflection of
light from curved surfaces.
Luis Alvarez 1911 – 1988.
The iridium layer, dinosaur death by meteorite impact,
and subatomic particle discoveries.
André-Marie Ampère 1775 – 1836.
Discovered that wires carrying electric current can
attract and repel magnetically; founded
electromagnetic theory.
Carl Anderson 1905 – 1991.
Proved the existence of antimatter with his discovery
of the positron; discovered the muon.
Archimedes c. 287 BC – 212 BC.
Founded the sciences of mechanics and hydrostatics,
calculated pi precisely, devised the law of exponents,
created new geometrical proofs, invented numerous
ingenious mechanical devices and more.
Aristotle 384 – 322 BC.
A genius whose philosophical ideas are still taught,
but his contributions to physics retarded progress for
almost two millennia.
Amedeo Avogadro 1776 – 1856.
The first scientist to realize that elements could exist
in the form of molecules rather than as individual
atoms; originator of Avogadro’s law.
Charles Barkla 1877 – 1944.
Showed that X-rays emitted by a substance are
related solely to the chemical elements present in the
substance, hence these X-rays act as a form of
fingerprinting to identify the elements present in any
material.
Daniel Bernoulli 1700 – 1782.
Discovered the Bernoulli Effect explaining how aircraft
wings generate lift; formulated a kinetic theory relating
particle speeds in gases to temperature; made major
discoveries in the theory of risk.
Aage Bohr 1922 – 2009.
Explained the structure of the atomic nucleus, unifying
the liquid-drop and shell models to produce the
collective model.
Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962.
Founded quantum mechanics when he remodeled the
atom so electrons occupied ‘allowed’ orbits around
the nucleus while all other orbits were forbidden;
architect of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum
mechanics.
S. N. Bose 1894 – 1974.
Founded quantum statistics with an alternative
derivation of Planck’s radiation law based on the idea
that light photons of the same color are
indistinguishable from one another – particles such as
this are known as bosons.
Lawrence Bragg 1890 – 1971.
Discovered how to locate the positions of atoms in
solids using X-ray diffraction, enabling scientists to
build 3D models of the atomic arrangements in solids.
The discovery was arguably the most significant
experimental breakthrough of twentieth century
science.
James Chadwick 1891 – 1974.
Discovered the neutron and led the British scientists
who worked on the Manhattan Project.
Subrahmanyan
Chandrasekhar 1910 – 1995.
Discovered that massive stars can collapse under
their own gravity to reach infinite densities. Today we
call these collapsed stars black holes.

Michael Faraday 1791 – 1867.

Discovered electromagnetic induction; devised
Faraday’s laws of electrolysis; discovered the first
experimental link between light and magnetism;
John Cockcroft 1897 – 1967. carried out the first room-temperature liquefaction of a
Co-designed and built the first ‘high energy’ particle gas; discovered benzene.
accelerator; produced the first artificial nuclear
disintegration in history; provided experimental proof
that Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence equation E =
mc2 is correct.

Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790.

A founding father of the USA, Franklin shaped our
understanding of electricity, coined the electrical
terms positive and negative, and invented the
Arthur Compton 1892 – 1962. lightning rod and bifocal spectacles.
Discovered that light can behave as a particle as well
as a wave, and coined the word photon to describe a
particle of light; discovered that cosmic rays contain
positively charged particles.

Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642.

Marie Curie 1867 – 1934.
Co-discovered the chemical elements radium and
polonium; made numerous pioneering contributions to
the study of radioactive elements; carried out the first
research into the treatment of tumors with radiation.
The father of modern science, Galileo discovered the
first moons ever known to orbit another planet and
that the Milky Way is made of stars. He rationalized
how objects are affected by gravity, stated the
principle of inertia, and proposed the first theory of
relativity.

Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 – 1855.

Democritus c. 460 — c. 370 BC
Devised an atomic theory featuring tiny particles
always in motion interacting through collisions;
advocated a universe containing an infinity of diverse
inhabited worlds governed by natural, mechanistic
laws rather than gods; deduced that the light of stars
explains the Milky Way’s appearance; discovered that
a cone’s volume is one-third that of the cylinder with
the same base and height.
The last master of all mathematics, Gauss
revolutionized number theory and invented the
method of least squares and the fast Fourier
transform. His profound contributions to the physical
sciences include Gauss’s Law & Gauss’s Law for
Magnetism.

Willard Gibbs 1839 – 1903.

Invented vector analysis and founded the sciences of
modern statistical mechanics and chemical
thermodynamics.
Paul Dirac 1902 – 1984.
Unified quantum mechanics and special relativity
explaining the origin of particle spin; discovered the
concept of antimatter in an equation; founded
quantum electrodynamics.
William Gilbert 1544 – 1603.
Founded the scientific study of magnetism and is
regarded, together with Galileo, as a founding father
of experimental science. Discovered our planet has
two magnetic poles and behaves like a giant magnet.
Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955. Created the world’s first electroscope to detect
Einstein’s theories of special & general relativity electric charge.
delivered a remarkable transformation in our
understanding of light, gravity, and time, while special
relativity yielded the most famous equation in history,
E = mc2. Einstein explained the photoelectric effect,
and provided powerful evidence that atoms and
molecules actually exist.
 Joseph Henry 1797 – 1878.
Built the world’s most powerful electromagnets;
discovered electromagnetic induction independently
of Faraday; made scientific breakthroughs that
allowed Samuel Morse to invent the telegraph. The
unit of electrical inductance is named in his honor.
Pyotr Kapitsa 1894 – 1984.
Discovered superfluidity when he observed liquid
helium flowing without friction – in other words with no
loss of kinetic energy.

Michio Kaku Born 1947.

Popularizer of science, futurist, and a founder of string
Heinrich Hertz 1857 – 1894. field theory.
Discovered radio waves, proving James Clerk
Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism; discovered the
photoelectric effect, providing a clue to the existence
of the quantum world. The unit of frequency is named
in his honor.
Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813.
Reformulated mechanics in general coordinates using
the calculus of variations, which he himself invented;
discovered the Lagrangian function; created the
concept of potential; discovered the Lagrangian points
David Hilbert 1862 – 1943. in celestial mechanics.
Famed for his 23 problems, Hilbert propelled
mathematics to new heights. He replaced Euclid’s
axioms dating from 2,000 years earlier, allowing the
unification of 2D and 3D geometry; and he created
Hilbert Space, now essential in advanced physical
science. John Michell 1724 – 1793.
Invented the torsion balance to weigh our planet, later
used in the famous Cavendish experiment; the first
person in history to suggest black holes could exist;
the first to suggest the force between two magnets is
governed by an inverse square law.
Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703.
Discovered cells and wrote one of the most significant
books in scientific history, Micrographia, revealing the
microscopic world for the first time; discovered
Hooke’s Law in physics; invented the balance spring,
enabling pocket watches to be made. Johannes Kepler 1571 to 1630.
Discovered the solar system’s planets follow elliptical
paths; identified that ocean tides are caused mainly
by the moon; proved how logarithms work; discovered
the inverse square law of light intensity; his laws of
planetary motion led Newton to his law of gravitation.
Fred Hoyle 1915 – 2001.
Proved that most of the naturally occuring elements in
the periodic table were made inside stars and
distributed through space by supernova explosions;
coined the phrase ‘Big Bang’ while strenuously
denying that there had ever been one; argued for an Ernest Lawrence 1901 – 1958.
expanding Steady State universe with no beginning or Invented the cyclotron used by scientific teams in his
end. laboratories to discover large numbers of new
chemical elements and isotopes. Founded big
science.

Irene Joliot-Curie 1897 – 1956.

Co-discovered how to convert stable chemical
elements into ‘designer’ radioactive elements; these
have saved millions of lives and are used in tens of
millions of medical procedures every year.
Inge Lehmann 1888 – 1993.
Analyzed earthquake waves to discover that within
our planet’s liquid core, at the very center of the earth,
there is a solid core whose diameter is greater than
1,000 km.

James Clerk Maxwell 1831 – 1879.
Transformed our understanding of nature: his famous
equations unified the forces of electricity and
magnetism, indicating that light is an electromagnetic
wave. His kinetic theory established that temperature
is entirely dependent on the speeds of particles.
Lise Meitner 1878 – 1968.
Discovered that nuclear fission can produce
enormous amounts of energy; codiscovered the
phenomenon of radioactive recoil.
Henry Moseley 1887 – 1915.
Proved that every chemical element’s identity is
uniquely determined by its number of protons,
establishing this as the true organizing principle of the
periodic table; correctly predicted the existence of four
new chemical elements; invented the atomic battery.
Isaac Newton 1643 to 1727.
Profoundly changed our understanding of nature with
his law of universal gravitation and his laws of motion;
invented calculus, the field of mathematics that
dominates the physical sciences; generalized the
binomial theorem; built the first ever reflecting
telescope; showed sunlight is made of all the colors of
the rainbow.
Emmy Noether 1882 – 1935.
Probably the greatest female mathematician in
history, Noether’s theorem revealed a fundamental
property of our universe, that for every conservation
law there is an invariant. Her founding work in
abstract algebra revolutionized mathematics.
Hans Christian Oersted 1777 – 1851.
Discovered electromagnetism when he found that
electric current caused a nearby magnetic needle to
move; discovered piperine and achieved the first
isolation of the element aluminum.
John Philoponus c. 490 – c. 570 AD.
Began paradigm shifts: said projectiles keep moving
after they are thrown because a force is impressed
into them by the thrower; stated planets do not move
because they are divine, but because, like on Earth, a
force of motion had been impressed upon them;
contradicted Aristotle’s claim that objects dropped
from the same height fall at a rate proportional to their
weights.
Max Planck 1858 – 1947.
Founded quantum theory with his proposal that hot
objects radiate only certain allowed values of energy,
all of which are multiples of a number now called the
Planck constant – all other values of energy are
forbidden.
C. V. Raman 1888 – 1970.
Discovered that light can donate a small amount of
energy to a molecule, changing the light’s color and
causing the molecule to vibrate. The color change
acts as a ‘fingerprint’ for the molecule that can be
used to identify molecules and detect diseases such
as cancer.
Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937.
The father of nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics;
discovered and named the atomic nucleus, the
proton, the alpha particle, and the beta particle;
discovered the concept of nuclear half-lives; achieved
the first laboratory transformation of one element into
another.
Abdus Salam 1926 – 1996. An architect
of the second great unification in physics, uniting the
electromagnetic force with the weak nuclear force to
produce the electroweak force.
Niccolo Tartaglia 1500 – 1557.
Founded the modern science of ballistics; refuted
Aristotle’s claim that air sustains motion; provided
general solutions for cubic equations.
J. J. Thomson 1856 – 1940.
Discovered the electron; invented one of the most
powerful tools in analytical chemistry – the mass
spectrometer; obtained the first evidence for isotopes
of stable elements.

Evangelista Torricelli 1608 – 1647.
Invented the barometer and deduced that we live at
the bottom of a heavy sea of air; first to explain why
the wind blows; discovered Gabriel’s horn, a
controversial mathematical object of finite volume but
infinite surface area.
Charles Townes 1915 – 2015.
Invented the laser and maser. Established that the
Milky Way has a supermassive black hole at its
center.
Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827.
Pioneer of electrical science; invented the electric
battery; wrote the first electromotive series; isolated
methane for the first time; discovered a methane-air
mixture could be exploded using an electric spark –
the basis of the internal combustion engine.
John Wallis 1616 – 1703.
Discovered the concept of conservation of
momentum; a founder of infinitesimal calculus;
introduced the ∞ symbol for infinity.
Ernest Walton 1903 – 1995.
Co-designed and built the first ‘high energy’ particle
accelerator; accelerated protons to split lithium nuclei
into alpha particles – the first transmutation of an
element induced by generated particles; provided
experimental proof that Einstein’s mass-energy
equivalence equation E = mc2 is correct.
Chen-Ning Yang Born 1922.
Thought the unthinkable, discovering that parity is not
conserved; Yang-Mills theory is at the heart of the
Standard Model in physics.
Father of Modern Physics – Galileo Galilei
Father of the Green Revolution – Norman Ernest
Borlaug
Father of Microbiology – Antonie Philips Van
Leeuwenhoek
Father of Modern Astronomy- Nicolaus Copernicus
Father of Nuclear Physics- Ernest Rutherford
Father of Nuclear Science- Marie Curie and Pierre
Curie
Father of Computer Science- George Boole and Alan
Turing
Father of Biology- Aristotle
Father of the Green Revolution in India- M. S.
Swaminathan
Father of the Indian Constitution - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Father of American Football- Walter Chauncey Camp
Father of Evolution- Charles Darwin
Father of modern Olympic- Pierre De Coubertin
Father of Numbers- Pythagoras
Father of Genetics- Gregor Mendel
Father of Internet - Vint Cerf
Father of Botany- Theophrastus
Father of Scientific Management- Frederick Winslow
Taylor
Father of Electricity- Benjamin Franklin
Father of Electronics- Michael Faraday
Father of Television- Philo Farnsworth
Father of Nuclear Chemistry- Otto Hahn
Father of Periodic Table- Dmitri Mendeleev
Father of Humanism - Francesco Petrarca
Father of Telephone- Alexander Graham Bell
Father of Mobile Phone- Martin Cooper
Father of Geometry- Euclid
Father of Microscopy - Antonie Philips Van
Leeuwenhoek
Father of Laptop- Bill Moggridge
Father of Psychology- Sigmund Freud
Father of Surgery- Sushruta
Father of New France- Samuel de Champlain
Father of the American Constitution - James
Madison
Father of Plastic Surgery- Sir Harold Gillies
Father of Ayurveda- Dhanwantari
Father of Western Medicine - Hippocrates
Father of modern Medicine- Hippocrates