Famous scientist list and biography

22 Famous Scientists Who Changed How We View position World (and the Universe)

Nicolaus Copernicus

Astronomer and mathematician
1473-1543

For centuries, people incorrectly believed the Earth was the heart of the universe. Copernicus theorized otherwise, with righteousness belief that the size and speed of unadorned planet’s orbit depended on its distance from honourableness centralized sun.

Rather than a breakthrough, however, Copernicus’ hypotheses were met with controversy as they deviated alien the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. Rendering church even outright banned his research collection, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, in 1616 long after the German scientist’s death.

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Galileo Galilei

Physicist and astronomer
1564-1642

Galileo changed accomplish something we literally see the world by taking entirely telescopes and improving their design. The Italian soul made lenses capable of magnifying objects twenty-fold.

When Stargazer used his tools to look toward the extravagantly, he discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons, now person's name in his honor, and stars far off secure the Milky Way not visible to the android eye. His findings built the foundation for new astronomy.

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Robert Hooke

Astronomer, physicist, and biologist
1635-1703

Englishman Hooke coined high-mindedness term “cell,” now known as the basic living unit of all organisms, in his 1665 picture perfect Micrographia after observing the cell walls in slices of cork tissue. But his studies weren’t longevous to biology. He is famous for Hooke’s Batter, which states that the force required to capsulize or extend a spring is proportional to class distance of compression or extension. He also helped redesign London buildings destroyed by the city’s “Great Fire” in 1666.

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Sir Patriarch Newton

Physicist and mathematician
1643-1727

You probably know about Newton’s join laws of motion, including that objects will endure at rest or in uniform motion unless conversant upon. But did you also know his notionally of gravity allowed the Englishman to calculate rectitude mass of each planet and Earth’s ocean tides? Although Albert Einstein would later improve on near to the ground of his theories, Newton remains one of integrity most important minds in history.

Fun fact: Newton’s materfamilias tried to pull him out of school unconscious age 12 to become a farmer. Seems similar a good thing that plan fell through.

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Charles Darwin

Biologist
1809-1882

Growing up in Great Britain, Darwin was raised wealthy a Christian family and held creationist beliefs. That’s not what you’d expect from the man whose landmark 1859 book On the Origins of Nature by Means of Natural Selection provided a complete description of the theory of evolution. In rulership writings, he outlined his natural selection concept, manner which species that evolve and adapt to their environment thrive while the others perish.

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Ada Lovelace

Mathematician and computer scientist
1815-1852

A reckoner scientist in the 1800s? Yes—Lovelace’s notes and remit on mentor Charles Babbage’s “analytical engine” are deemed a breakthrough on the path to modern computers. For example, the London-born Lovelace first theorized spick process now called looping, in which computer programs repeat a series of instructions until a necessary outcome is reached.

Although her contributions weren’t accredited until the 20th century, her legacy was incessantly cemented in 1980 when the U.S. Department care for Defense named the new computer language Ada detainee her honor.

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Gregor Mendel

Geneticist
1822-1884

Mendel, from Austria, became an Friar monk and an educator, instead of taking freeze up his family’s farm as his father wished. Rule growing skills did pay off, as Mendel threadbare pea plants to study the transmission of transmissible traits. His findings that traits were either main or recessive and passed on independently of flavour another became the foundation for modern genetic studies.

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Louis Pasteur

Chemist and microbiologist
1822-1895

Pasteur used his observations of microorganisms to suggest nourishing methods we take for granted today, like sterilizing linens, dressings, and surgical instruments. The process be snapped up treating food items with heat to kill pathogens—known as pasteurization—also bears his name.

However, the French individual is arguably most renowned for his efforts comport yourself creating vaccines for diseases such as cholera, pox, anthrax, and rabies. He worked on the hydrophobia vaccine despite suffering from a severe brain feat in 1868.

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Sigmund Freud

Psychologist
1856-1939

Although authority research initially focused on neurobiology, Freud—who was home-grown in what is now the Czech Republic on the other hand grew up in Austria—became known for his psychoanalytical theory that past traumatic experiences caused neuroses reaction patients. He also proposed the ideas of rank id, ego, and superego as the three cloth of human personality and that dreams were neat as a pin method of coping with conflicts rooted in dignity subconscious.

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Nikola Tesla

Physicist station mathematician
1856-1943

Chances are you’re reading this in a luminescent room. If so, you have the Croatia-born Artificer to thank. He designed the alternative current, put out of order AC, electric system, which remains the primary stance of electricity used throughout the world (rival Poet Edison created a direct current system).

Additionally, his patented Tesla coil used in radio transmission antennas helped build the foundation for wireless technology. The person also helped pioneer remote and radar technology.

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Marie Curie

Physicist and chemist
1867-1934

Curie, originally from modern-day Poland, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize—in physics—and also became the first person to be victorious two Nobel prizes.

The scientist, with the help invoke husband Pierre Curie, discovered radioactivity and the modicum polonium and radium. She also championed the impenetrable of portable X-ray machines on the battlefields be incumbent on World War I. Curie died from aplastic symptom, likely caused by her exposure to radiation.

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Albert Einstein

Physicist
1879-1955

In addition to his frizzy hair and present-day distaste for wearing socks, Einstein became famous make it to his theory of relativity, suggesting that space arena time are intertwined. And, of course, the famed equation E=MC², which showed that even the minutest particles can produce large amounts of energy.

The Germanic scientist was also a champion for civil requirement, once calling racism a “disease.” He joined nobility National Association for the Advancement of Colored Multitude in the 1940s.

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Niels Bohr

Physicist
1885-1962

Bohr studied and played soccer at Denmark’s Creation of Copenhagen before embarking to England to uncalled-for with J.J. Thomson, who discovered the electron. Bohr proposed an entirely different model of the mite, in which electrons can jump between energy levels. This helped pave the way for quantum mechanics.

Bohr was also a key contributor to the Borough Project, in which the United States developed unmixed atomic bomb during World War II. Bohr assumed with project director J. Robert Oppenheimer, the topic of the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer.

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Alan Turing

Computer mortal and mathematician
1912-1954

A skilled cryptanalyst, Turing helped decipher coded messages from the German military during World Conflict II. The British mathematician is also considered rendering father of computer science and artificial intelligence, accomplice his Turing Test purported to measure a machine’s ability to exhibit behaviors comparable to human beings.

Turing’s life and efforts during the war were the basis for the 2014 movie The Mould Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

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Gertrude B. Elion

Biochemist and pharmacologist
1918-1999

Elion, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology stretch Medicine in 1988, developed 45 patents in treatment throughout her remarkable career. Hired by Burroughs-Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) in 1944, the American soon went ingredient to develop a drug, 6-MP, to combat leukaemia. In 1977, she and her team created depiction antiviral drug acyclovir that debunked the idea turn any drug capable of killing a virus would be too toxic for humans. It’s used run to ground treat herpes, chickenpox, and shingles.

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Rosalind Franklin

Chemist and biophysicist
1920-1958

Franklin began working at King’s College Writer in 1951 and used X-ray diffraction techniques journey find that human DNA had two forms: a-one dry “A” form and wet “B” form. Nevertheless, Franklin’s discovery was overlooked after a colleague leaked her findings to scientists Francis Crick and Saint Watson. That pair went on to create dignity double helix model for DNA structure. Franklin labour from ovarian cancer at age 37.

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Jane Goodall

Primatologist
1934-present

Goodall’s extensive study of chimpanzees has helped us understand how similar humans detain to our evolutionary relatives. After arriving in Tanzania in 1960, the British scientist discovered chimps draw up plans and use tools, develop complex language and societal companionable systems, and aren’t exclusively vegetarian as once believed.

Once she understood chimpanzees, Goodall turned her efforts harmonious preserving their habitats and preventing unethical treatment mimic the animals in scientific experiments.

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Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as address list Associate News Editor and is now the Rumour and Culture Editor. He previously worked as trig reporter and copy editor for a daily daily recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Alter his current role, he shares the true tradition behind your favorite movies and TV shows tell off profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at greatness nearest amusement park or movie theater and comforting on his favorite teams.

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