wing of the archive
The Modern Era
The industrial and imperial centuries: inventors, statesmen, artists, and the makers of the modern world.
Modern era
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
b. July 15, 1943
British astrophysicist (born 1943)
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)
Modern era
Friedrich Wohler
July 31, 1800 – September 23, 1882
German chemist (1800-1882)
Modern era
August Kekule
September 7, 1829 – July 13, 1896
German organic chemist (1829–1896)
Modern era
Svante Arrhenius
February 19, 1859 – October 2, 1927
Swedish astronomer, chemist and physicist (1859–1927)
Modern era
Robert Bunsen
March 30, 1811 – August 16, 1899
German chemist (1811-1899)
Modern era
Otto Hahn
March 8, 1879 – July 28, 1968
German chemist and physicist (1879-1968)
Modern era
Irene Joliot-Curie
September 12, 1897 – March 17, 1956
French chemist and physicist (1897–1956)
Modern era
Glenn Seaborg
April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999
American chemist (1912–1999)
Modern era
Mario Molina
March 19, 1943 – October 7, 2020
Mexican chemical engineer (1943–2020)
Modern era
Percy Julian
April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975
African-American chemist (1899-1975)
Modern era
Alice Ball
August 16, 1927 – c. 1940
Holocaust victim (born 1927)
Modern era
Stephanie Kwolek
July 31, 1923 – June 18, 2014
American chemist, inventor of Kevlar (1923–2014)
Modern era
Charles Goodyear
December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860
American inventor (1800-1860)
Modern era
Leo Baekeland
November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944
Belgium American inventor (1863-1944)
Modern era
Har Gobind Khorana
January 9, 1922 – November 9, 2011
Indian-American molecular biologist (1922-2011)
Modern era
Jagadish Chandra Bose
November 30, 1858 – November 23, 1937
Bengali polymath, physicist, and biologist (1858–1937)
Modern era
Homi Bhabha
October 30, 1909 – January 24, 1966
Indian nuclear physicist (1909–1966)
Modern era
Vikram Sarabhai
August 12, 1919 – December 30, 1971
Father of Indian space programme (1919–1971)
Modern era
Tu Youyou
b. December 30, 1930
Chinese medical scientist
Modern era
Qian Xuesen
December 11, 1911 – October 31, 2009
Chinese rocket scientist (1911-2009)
Modern era
Yuan Longping
August 13, 1929 – May 22, 2021
Chinese biologist (1930-2021)
Modern era
Hideki Yukawa
January 23, 1907 – September 8, 1981
Japanese theoretical physicist (1907-1981)
Modern era
William Osler
July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919
Canadian physician and co-founder of Johns Hopkins Hospital (1849–1919)
Modern era
Christiaan Barnard
November 8, 1922 – September 2, 2001
South African cardiac surgeon
Modern era
Karl Landsteiner
June 14, 1868 – June 26, 1943
Jewish-Austrian biologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate
Modern era
Paul Ehrlich
March 14, 1854 – August 20, 1915
Jewish-German physician and scientist (1854-1915)
Modern era
Albert Sabin
August 26, 1906 – March 3, 1993
Jewish-Polish-American physician and epidemiologist who developed oral polio vaccines (1906-1993)
Modern era
Frederick Sanger
August 13, 1918 – November 19, 2013
British biochemist (1918–2013)
Modern era
Gerty Cori
August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957
Austro-Hungarian-American biochemist (1896–1957)
Modern era
Rita Levi-Montalcini
April 22, 1909 – December 30, 2012
Italian neurologist (1909–2012)
Modern era
Norman Borlaug
March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009
American biologist (1914–2009)
Modern era
Thomas Hunt Morgan
September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945
American biologist and professor from Kentucky (1866–1945)
Modern era
Nettie Stevens
July 7, 1861 – May 4, 1912
American geneticist (1861–1912)
Modern era
Lynn Margulis
March 5, 1938 – November 22, 2011
American evolutionary biologist (1938–2011)
Modern era
E. O. Wilson
June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021
American biologist, naturalist, and writer (1929–2021)
Modern era
Stephen Jay Gould
September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002
American biologist and historian of science (1941–2002)
Modern era
Richard Dawkins
b. March 26, 1941
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author (born 1941)
Modern era
Konrad Lorenz
November 7, 1903 – February 27, 1989
Austrian zoologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973 (1903–1989)
Modern era
James Lovelock
July 26, 1919 – July 26, 2022
English scientist (1919–2022)
Modern era
Jean Piaget
August 9, 1896 – September 16, 1980
Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher and academic (1896–1980)
Modern era
William James
January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910
Researcher, ORCID id # 0000-0002-2506-1198
Modern era
B. F. Skinner
March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990
American behaviorist (1904–1990)
Modern era
Abraham Maslow
April 1, 1909 – June 8, 1970
American psychologist (1908–1970)
Modern era
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004
Swiss-American psychiatrist and pioneer in near-death studies (1926-2004)
Modern era
Oliver Sacks
July 9, 1933 – August 30, 2015
British neurologist and writer (1933–2015)
Modern era
Margaret Hamilton
December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985
American film character actress (1902–1985)
Modern era
Dorothy Vaughan
September 20, 1910 – November 10, 2008
African-American mathematician
Modern era
Mary Jackson
April 9, 1921 – February 11, 2005
American mathematician and aerospace engineer
Modern era
Gladys West
October 27, 1930 – January 17, 2026
American mathematician (1930–2026)
Modern era
Francis Bacon (philosopher)
October 28, 1909 – April 28, 1992
Irish-born British figurative painter (1909–1992)
Modern era
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882
American poet and educator (1807–1882)
Modern era
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
August 6, 1809 – October 6, 1892
British Poet Laureate (1809–1892)
Modern era
Robert Browning
May 7, 1812 – December 12, 1889
English poet and playwright (1812–1889)
Modern era
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
March 6, 1806 – June 29, 1861
English poet (1806–1861)
Modern era
Anne Bronte
January 17, 1820 – May 28, 1849
British novelist and poet (1820-1849)
Modern era
William Makepeace Thackeray
July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863
British novelist (1811–1863)
Modern era
Joseph Conrad
December 3, 1857 – August 3, 1924
Polish-British writer (1857–1924)