Scientists
The minds that decoded nature's laws.
records written
Patanjali
Ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises
Ancient era
Charaka
b. c. 50 CE
Indian physician and academic
Ancient era
Sushruta
600 BCE – 500 BCE
Ancient Indian physician, father of surgery
Ancient era
Zhang Heng
78 CE – 139 CE
Chinese scientist and statesman (78–139)
Ancient era
Hua Tuo
c. 200 CE – 208 CE
Chinese physician (c. 140–208)
Modern era
Henry Kissinger
May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023
American diplomat and geopolitical advisor, served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977 (1923–2023)
Modern era
T. E. Lawrence
August 16, 1888 – May 19, 1935
British archaeologist, army officer and diplomat (1888–1935)
Modern era
Georges Clemenceau
September 28, 1841 – November 24, 1929
Prime Minister of France, 1906–1909 and 1917–1920 (1841–1929)
Early Modern era
Jean-Paul Marat
May 24, 1743 – July 13, 1793
Politician and journalist during the French Revolution (1743-1793)
Modern era
Helmut Kohl
April 3, 1930 – June 16, 2017
Chancellor of West Germany and reunified Germany (1982–1998)
Modern era
Dag Hammarskjold
July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961
Swedish diplomat, economist, and author (1905–1961)
Modern era
Eamon de Valera
October 14, 1882 – August 29, 1975
Irish statesman (1882–1975)
Modern era
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
b. October 29, 1938
24th president of Liberia
Early Modern era
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
October 24, 1632 – August 26, 1723
Dutch scientist known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists (1632–1723)
Early Modern era
Evangelista Torricelli
October 15, 1608 – October 25, 1647
Italian physicist and mathematician (1608-1647)
Early Modern era
Daniel Bernoulli
February 8, 1700 – March 17, 1782
Swiss mathematician and physicist (1700-1782)
Early Modern era
John Napier
February 1, 1550 – April 4, 1617
Scottish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (1550–1617)
Early Modern era
John Harrison
March 24, 1693 – March 24, 1776
British clockworker
Early Modern era
Luigi Galvani
September 9, 1737 – December 4, 1798
Italian physician, physicist, and philosopher
Early Modern era
Pierre-Simon Laplace
March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827
French mathematician and astronomer (1749–1827)
Early Modern era
Joseph-Louis Lagrange
January 25, 1736 – April 10, 1813
Mathematician and astronomer (1736–1813)
Early Modern era
Joseph Fourier
March 21, 1768 – May 16, 1830
French mathematician and physicist (1768 – 1830)
Early Modern era
Sophie Germain
April 1, 1776 – June 27, 1831
French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (1776-1831)
Modern era
Evariste Galois
October 25, 1811 – May 31, 1832
French mathematician (1811-1832)
Modern era
Niels Henrik Abel
August 5, 1802 – April 6, 1829
Norwegian mathematician (1802–1829)
Modern era
George Boole
November 2, 1815 – December 8, 1864
English mathematician, philosopher and logician (1815–1864)
Modern era
Georg Cantor
February 19, 1845 – January 6, 1918
German mathematician, inventor of set theory (1845–1918)
Modern era
Henri Poincare
April 29, 1854 – July 17, 1912
French mathematician, physicist and engineer (1854–1912)
Modern era
Paul Erdos
March 26, 1913 – September 20, 1996
Hungarian mathematician (1913–1996)
Modern era
Benoit Mandelbrot
November 20, 1924 – October 14, 2010
Polish-born, French and American mathematician (1924–2010)
Contemporary era
Andrew Wiles
b. April 11, 1953
English mathematician (1953–)
Modern era
Donald Knuth
b. January 10, 1938
American computer scientist and mathematician (born 1938)
Modern era
Dennis Ritchie
September 9, 1941 – October 12, 2011
American computer scientist, co-inventor of the Unix operating system and the C programming language (1941–2011)
Modern era
John McCarthy
September 4, 1927 – October 24, 2011
American computer scientist and cognitive scientist (1927-2011)
Modern era
Marvin Minsky
August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016
American cognitive scientist (1927-2016)
Contemporary era
Geoffrey Hinton
b. December 6, 1947
British-Canadian computer scientist and psychologist
Modern era
Hendrik Lorentz
July 18, 1853 – February 4, 1928
Dutch physicist (1853–1928)
Modern era
Albert A. Michelson
December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931
American physicist (1852–1931)
Modern era
Robert Millikan
March 22, 1868 – December 19, 1953
American physicist (1868–1953)
Modern era
Arthur Eddington
December 28, 1882 – November 22, 1944
British astrophysicist (1882-1944)
Modern era
Ernst Mach
February 18, 1838 – February 19, 1916
Austrian physicist (1838–1916)
Modern era
Gustav Kirchhoff
March 12, 1824 – October 17, 1887
German physicist (1824–1887)
Modern era
Leon Foucault
September 18, 1819 – February 11, 1868
French physicist (1819–1868)
Early Modern era
Thomas Young
June 13, 1773 – May 10, 1829
English polymath (1773-1829)
Modern era
Hans Bethe
July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005
German-American nuclear physicist
Modern era
Edward Teller
January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003
Hungarian-American Jewish nuclear physicist (1908–2003)
Modern era
Leo Szilard
February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964
Hungarian-American Jewish physicist and inventor (1898–1964)
Modern era
Freeman Dyson
December 15, 1923 – February 28, 2020
Theoretical physicist and mathematician (1923–2020)
Modern era
Murray Gell-Mann
September 15, 1929 – May 24, 2019
American physicist (1929–2019)
Modern era
Steven Weinberg
May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021
American theoretical physicist (1933-2021)
Modern era
John Archibald Wheeler
July 9, 1911 – April 13, 2008
American physicist (1911-2008)
Modern era
John Bardeen
May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991
American physicist and engineer (1908–1991)
Modern era
Jack Kilby
November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005
American electrical engineer (1923–2005)
Modern era
Kip Thorne
b. June 1, 1940
American physicist (born 1940)
Modern era
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
b. July 15, 1943
British astrophysicist (born 1943)
Contemporary era
Andrea Ghez
b. June 16, 1965
American astronomer
Contemporary era
Michio Kaku
b. January 24, 1947
U.S.-American theoretical physicist, futurist and author (1947-)
Modern era
Fred Hoyle
June 24, 1915 – August 20, 2001
British astronomer (1915–2001)
Modern era
Frank Drake
May 28, 1930 – September 2, 2022
American astronomer and astrophysicist (1930–2022)
Modern era
Clyde Tombaugh
February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997
American astronomer (1906–1997)