Scientists
The minds that decoded nature's laws.
records written
Modern era
Salvador Allende
June 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973
28th president of Chile (1908–1973
Modern era
Kofi Annan
April 8, 1938 – August 18, 2018
7th Secretary-General of the United Nations (1938-2018)
Early Modern era
Leonardo da Vinci
April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519
Renaissance polymath — painter of the Mona Lisa, engineer, and anatomist
Early Modern era
Galileo Galilei
February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642
Astronomer and physicist, father of observational science
Early Modern era
Isaac Newton
December 25, 1642 – March 31, 1727
Physicist and mathematician who formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation
Modern era
Charles Darwin
February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882
Naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed biology
Modern era
Louis Pasteur
December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895
Chemist whose germ theory and vaccines saved uncounted lives
Modern era
Thomas Edison
February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931
Prolific American inventor of the phonograph and practical electric light
Modern era
Nikola Tesla
July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943
Inventor and electrical engineer who pioneered alternating current
Modern era
Marie Curie
November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934
Physicist and chemist, first person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences
Modern era
Albert Einstein
March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955
Theoretical physicist who reshaped our understanding of space, time, and energy
Modern era
Alexander Fleming
August 6, 1881 – March 11, 1955
Discoverer of penicillin, the first true antibiotic
Modern era
Alan Turing
June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954
Mathematician who founded computer science and broke Enigma
Modern era
Ada Lovelace
December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852
Mathematician who wrote the first computer program a century early
Contemporary era
Rosalind Franklin
July 25, 1920 – April 16, 1958
Chemist whose X-ray images revealed the structure of DNA
Contemporary era
Katherine Johnson
August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020
NASA mathematician whose orbital calculations carried astronauts home
Contemporary era
Stephen Hawking
January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018
Cosmologist who mapped black holes from a wheelchair
Medieval era
Nicolaus Copernicus
February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543
Polish mathematician and astronomer (1473-1543)
Early Modern era
Johannes Kepler
December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630
German mathematician and astronomer (1571–1630)
Early Modern era
Tycho Brahe
December 14, 1546 – October 24, 1601
Danish astronomer and alchemist, 1546–1601
Early Modern era
Edmond Halley
November 8, 1656 – January 14, 1742
English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist and physicist (1656–1742)
Early Modern era
William Herschel
November 15, 1738 – August 15, 1822
German-born British astronomer and composer (1738–1822)
Early Modern era
Caroline Herschel
March 16, 1750 – January 9, 1848
German-British astronomer (1750-1848)
Modern era
Edwin Hubble
November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953
American astronomer (1889–1953)
Modern era
Georges Lemaitre
July 17, 1894 – June 20, 1966
Belgian astrophysicist and Catholic priest (1894–1966)
Modern era
Carl Sagan
November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996
American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author (1934–1996)
Modern era
Vera Rubin
July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016
American astronomer and physicist (1928-2016)
Contemporary era
Neil deGrasse Tyson
b. October 5, 1958
American astrophysicist and science communicator
Early Modern era
Leonhard Euler
April 15, 1707 – September 18, 1783
Swiss mathematician, physicist, and engineer (1707–1783)
Early Modern era
Carl Friedrich Gauss
April 30, 1777 – February 23, 1855
German mathematician and physicist (1777–1855)
Modern era
Bernhard Riemann
September 17, 1826 – July 20, 1866
German mathematician (1826–1866)
Early Modern era
Pierre de Fermat
August 17, 1601 – January 12, 1665
French mathematician and lawyer
Early Modern era
Blaise Pascal
June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher (1623-1662)
Early Modern era
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
June 21, 1646 – November 14, 1716
Co-inventor of calculus and pioneer of computation
Medieval era
Fibonacci
1170 – c. 1240
Italian mathematician (c.1170–c.1240/50)
Medieval era
Al-Khwarizmi
c. 750 CE – 846 CE
Mathematician of Baghdad who gave the world algebra and algorithms
Medieval era
Ibn al-Haytham
965 CE – 1038
Arab physicist, mathematician and astronomer (c. 965 – c. 1040)
Medieval era
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
980 CE – June 18, 1037
Persian polymath whose Canon of Medicine taught Europe for 600 years
Medieval era
Al-Razi
866 CE – 925 CE
Persian polymath, physician, chemist and philosopher (854-925)
Medieval era
Al-Biruni
September 4, 973 CE – December 9, 1048
11th-century Persian scholar and polymath (973–1048)
Modern era
Srinivasa Ramanujan
December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920
Indian mathematician (1887–1920)
Modern era
David Hilbert
January 23, 1862 – February 14, 1943
German mathematician (1862–1943)
Modern era
Kurt Godel
April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978
Austrian-American logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (1906–1978)
Modern era
Emmy Noether
March 23, 1882 – April 14, 1935
German Jewish mathematician (1882–1935)
Modern era
John von Neumann
December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957
Hungarian and American mathematician and physicist (1903–1957)
Modern era
Claude Shannon
April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001
American mathematician and information theorist (1916–2001)
Early Modern era
Michael Faraday
September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867
British scientist (1791–1867)
Modern era
James Clerk Maxwell
June 13, 1831 – November 5, 1879
Scottish physicist (1831–1879)
Modern era
Heinrich Hertz
February 22, 1857 – January 1, 1894
German physicist (1857–1894)
Modern era
Ludwig Boltzmann
February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906
Austrian physicist and philosopher (1844–1906)
Modern era
Lord Kelvin
June 26, 1824 – December 17, 1907
British physicist and engineer (1824–1907)
Early Modern era
Christiaan Huygens
April 14, 1629 – July 8, 1695
Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer (1629–1695)
Early Modern era
Robert Hooke
July 18, 1635 – March 3, 1703
English natural philosopher, architect and polymath (1635 — 1703)
Early Modern era
Robert Boyle
January 25, 1627 – December 31, 1691
Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor
Early Modern era
Alessandro Volta
February 18, 1745 – March 5, 1827
Italian chemist and physicist (1745–1827)
Early Modern era
Andre-Marie Ampere
January 20, 1775 – June 10, 1836
French physicist and mathematician (1775–1836)
Early Modern era
Georg Ohm
March 16, 1789 – July 6, 1854
German physicist and mathematician
Modern era
Wilhelm Rontgen
March 27, 1845 – February 10, 1923
German physicist (1845–1923)
Modern era
Henri Becquerel
December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908
French physicist (1852–1908)
Modern era
Pierre Curie
May 15, 1859 – April 19, 1906
French physicist (1859–1906)