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Science & Medicine

Researchers, physicians and mathematicians who worked out how the world and the body behave.

98 people

Albert Einstein 1879–1955Science & MathematicsGerman-American theoretical physicist whose theory of relativity revolutionized modern physics.J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904–1967Science & MathematicsTheoretical physicist who led the Manhattan Project and became known as the father of the atomic bomb.Carl Sagan 1934–1996Science & MathematicsAstronomer and science communicator who brought cosmology to millions through Cosmos and popular books.Jonas Salk 1914–1995Medicine & Public HealthMedical researcher who developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine.Anthony Fauci b. 1940Medicine & Public HealthPhysician-scientist who shaped federal responses to HIV/AIDS, emerging infections, and the COVID-19 pandemic.Richard Feynman 1918–1988Science & MathematicsTheoretical physicist known for his work in quantum mechanics and his accessible teaching style.John von Neumann 1903–1957Science & MathematicsHungarian-American mathematician and engineer whose computer architecture remains the basis of modern computing.James Watson 1928–2025Science & MathematicsCo-discoverer of the DNA double helix structure, earning a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Enrico Fermi 1901–1954Science & MathematicsItalian-American physicist who built the first nuclear reactor and won the Nobel Prize in Physics.Edwin Hubble 1889–1953Science & MathematicsAstronomer whose discovery of expanding galaxies provided the foundation for the Big Bang theory.Neil deGrasse Tyson b. 1958Science & MathematicsAstrophysicist and science communicator who has made cosmology accessible to millions through television.Henrietta Lacks 1920–1951Medicine & Public HealthHer cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and became the most used human cell line in science.Linus Pauling 1901–1994Science & MathematicsChemist and peace activist who won two unshared Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Peace.Edward Teller 1908–2003Science & MathematicsPhysicist and advocate of the hydrogen bomb whose work and policy influence shaped Cold War science and defense.Elizabeth Blackwell 1821–1910Medicine & Public HealthFirst woman to receive a medical degree in the United States and a pioneer of women’s medical education.CDCharles Drew 1904–1950Medicine & Public HealthPhysician-scientist whose work on blood plasma and blood banking saved countless lives.John Forbes Nash Jr. 1928–2015Science & MathematicsFormulated the Nash equilibrium and proved major results in differential geometry.Vera Rubin 1928–2016Science & MathematicsMeasured galaxy rotation curves that provided the main observational evidence for dark matter.E. O. Wilson 1929–2021Science & MathematicsBiologist whose studies of ants, biodiversity, and sociobiology reshaped ecology, evolution, and conservation debate.Francis Collins b. 1950Medicine & Public HealthLed the public Human Genome Project and directed the National Institutes of HealthJennifer Doudna b. 1964Science & MathematicsBiochemist who co-developed CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, revolutionizing genetics and medicine.James Hansen b. 1941Science & MathematicsThe NASA climate scientist who told the Senate in 1988 that global warming had begunBenjamin Banneker 1731–1806Science & MathematicsFree Black astronomer and almanac author who helped survey the federal district and challenged Jefferson on race.Albert Sabin 1906–1993Medicine & Public HealthMedical researcher who developed the oral polio vaccine used in worldwide eradication campaigns.Leo Szilard 1898–1964Science & MathematicsConceived the nuclear chain reaction, started the American bomb program, then petitioned against using itDaniel Hale Williams 1856–1931Medicine & Public HealthFounder of Provident Hospital and early cardiac surgeonAlbert A. Michelson 1852–1931Science & MathematicsThe Michelson-Morley experiment and the measurement of the speed of lightWalter Reed 1851–1902Medicine & Public HealthArmy physician whose commission confirmed mosquito transmission of yellow fever and transformed disease control.Glenn T. Seaborg 1912–1999Science & MathematicsCo-discovered plutonium and nine other transuranium elements and chaired the Atomic Energy Commission.Michael DeBakey 1908–2008Medicine & Public HealthCardiovascular surgeon who invented the roller pump and the Dacron arterial graftCharles Richter 1900–1985Science & MathematicsCreator of the earthquake magnitude scaleJohn Bardeen 1908–1991Science & MathematicsOnly person to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics, for the transistor and superconductivity theory.Katalin Karikó b. 1955Medicine & Public HealthBiochemist whose work on modified messenger RNA enabled highly effective mRNA vaccines and new therapeutic platforms.C. Everett Koop 1916–2013Medicine & Public HealthSurgeon general whose public communication on AIDS, smoking, and child health reshaped national health policy.Kurt Gödel 1906–1978Science & MathematicsProved the incompleteness theorems and spent his later career at the Institute for Advanced Study.Robert Millikan 1868–1953Science & MathematicsMeasuring the charge of the electronAaron T. Beck 1921–2021Medicine & Public HealthFounder of cognitive behavioral therapy and the Beck Depression InventoryCharles David Keeling 1928–2005Science & MathematicsMeasured atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa from 1958 until his death, producing the Keeling Curve.VTVivien Thomas 1910–1985Medicine & Public HealthDevised the blue-baby heart operation without a medical degree, and went unnamed on the paper.EKElisabeth Kübler-Ross 1926–2004Medicine & Public HealthIntroduced the stages-of-grief model and advanced hospice and end-of-life care in America.Stephen Jay Gould 1941–2002Science & MathematicsPaleontologist and essayist who advanced punctuated equilibrium and became a leading public interpreter of evolution.Virginia Apgar 1909–1974Medicine & Public HealthPhysician who created the Apgar score, transforming rapid assessment and survival of newborns.George Ellery Hale 1868–1938Science & MathematicsBuilt four telescopes that were each the largest in the world, and found that sunspots are magneticBarbara McClintock 1902–1992Science & MathematicsCytogeneticist who discovered transposable elements and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Denton Cooley 1920–2016Medicine & Public HealthHeart surgeon who performed the first successful American heart transplant and implanted the first total artificial heartSidney Farber 1903–1973Medicine & Public HealthThe first remissions in childhood leukemia, and the Jimmy FundMary Lasker 1900–1994Medicine & Public HealthTurned advertising method into a lobbying machine and built federal funding for medical research.Marie Tharp 1920–2006Science & MathematicsMapped the ocean floor by hand and found the Mid-Atlantic rift valleyHarold Urey 1893–1981Science & MathematicsDiscovered deuterium and founded cosmochemistryWilliam Osler 1849–1919Medicine & Public HealthBuilt bedside clinical teaching into American medical education as a founding Johns Hopkins professor.Benoit Mandelbrot 1924–2010Science & MathematicsDeveloped fractal geometry during a long research career at IBM and Yale.Chien-Shiung Wu 1912–1997Science & MathematicsExperimental physicist whose decisive work on parity violation transformed particle physics and challenged assumptions about natural symmetry.Steven Weinberg 1933–2021Science & MathematicsTheoretical physicist who unified electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, earning a Nobel Prize.Mildred Dresselhaus 1930–2017Science & MathematicsCarbon nanoscience, nanotubes and low-dimensional thermoelectricsRoger Revelle 1909–1991Science & MathematicsOceanographer and early scientist of human-caused global warmingMartin Seligman b. 1942Medicine & Public HealthLearned helplessness and the founding of positive psychologySelman Waksman 1888–1973Medicine & Public HealthRan the soil-screening programme that produced streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.Rosalyn Yalow 1921–2011Medicine & Public HealthInvented radioimmunoassay with Solomon Berson, refused to patent it, and took the 1977 Nobel alone.Kip Thorne b. 1940Science & MathematicsTheoretical physicist whose work on gravitational waves earned a Nobel Prize and inspired the film Interstellar.Hans Bethe 1906–2005Science & MathematicsPhysicist who explained stellar energy production and led theoretical work at Los Alamos before becoming a prominent arms-control voice.Paul Farmer 1959–2022Medicine & Public HealthPhysician and anthropologist who built influential models for delivering high-quality care in impoverished communities.Atul Gawande b. 1965Medicine & Public HealthSurgeon and writer who popularized surgical checklists and led global health work at USAID.Ernest Lawrence 1901–1958Science & MathematicsInvented the cyclotron and built the Berkeley model of large-scale team physics.Charles Townes 1915–2015Science & MathematicsPhysicist who invented the maser and co-invented the laser, earning a Nobel Prize.ZBZabdiel Boylston 1679–1766Medicine & Public HealthThe first physician to perform smallpox inoculation in North AmericaStanley Miller 1930–2007Science & MathematicsThe 1953 experiment that made amino acids from a simulated early atmosphereMurray Gell-Mann 1929–2019Science & MathematicsTheoretical physicist who discovered quarks and won the Nobel Prize for his standard model of particle physics.Alice Hamilton 1869–1970Medicine & Public HealthFounded American industrial toxicology and documented workplace lead and chemical poisoning.James Smithson 1765–1829Science & MathematicsBritish scientist whose bequest founded the Smithsonian Institution, America's museum complex.Norbert Wiener 1894–1964Science & MathematicsMathematician who founded cybernetics, influencing computing, automation, neuroscience, and theories of communication and control.Josiah Willard Gibbs 1839–1903Science & MathematicsFounded chemical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics through his work on heterogeneous equilibrium at Yale.Harvey Cushing 1869–1939Medicine & Public HealthSurgeon who established modern neurosurgery as a specialized medical discipline.Harlow Shapley 1885–1972Science & MathematicsDetermined the size of the Milky Way and displaced the Sun from its center.William Stewart Halsted 1852–1922Medicine & Public HealthEstablished aseptic surgical technique and the American surgical residency training system.Maurice Hilleman 1919–2005Medicine & Public HealthVirologist who developed or improved more than forty vaccines, preventing millions of deaths and transforming public health.Percy Lavon Julian 1899–1975Science & MathematicsPioneered synthesis of cortisone and other steroids from plant sterols.Rebecca Lee Crumpler 1831–1895Medicine & Public HealthFirst Black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States and an early advocate for care in underserved communities.Percival Lowell 1855–1916Science & MathematicsFounded Lowell Observatory and initiated the search that led to Pluto's discovery.ASAlbert Schatz 1920–2005Medicine & Public HealthIsolated streptomycin, the first drug effective against tuberculosis, and went to court for the credit.HBHelen B. Taussig 1898–1986Medicine & Public HealthFounder of pediatric cardiology whose work helped create the first successful treatment for blue-baby syndrome.Frances Arnold b. 1956Science & MathematicsChemical engineer who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for directed evolution of enzymes.Annie Jump Cannon 1863–1941Science & MathematicsDeveloped the stellar spectral classification system still used to categorize stars.Stephanie Kwolek 1923–2014Science & MathematicsInvented Kevlar aramid fiber while working as a DuPont research chemist.Maria Mitchell 1818–1889Science & MathematicsFirst American woman professional astronomer who discovered a comet and taught at Vassar College.Gerty Cori 1896–1957Medicine & Public HealthBiochemist and first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, honored for discoveries about carbohydrate metabolism.Wallace Carothers 1896–1937Science & MathematicsLed the DuPont research that produced neoprene and nylon and established polymer science.Henrietta Swan Leavitt 1868–1921Science & MathematicsDiscovered the Cepheid period-luminosity relation that made measuring cosmic distances possible.Gertrude B. Elion 1918–1999Medicine & Public HealthPharmacologist whose rational drug-design work produced treatments for leukemia, infections, gout, and organ rejection.David Ho b. 1952Medicine & Public HealthPhysician-scientist whose research helped establish combination antiretroviral therapy as the standard treatment for HIV/AIDS.Drew Weissman b. 1959Medicine & Public HealthImmunologist whose collaboration with Katalin Karikó made mRNA vaccines practical and safe.Willard Libby 1908–1980Science & MathematicsDeveloped radiocarbon dating — transforming archaeology and geology — and won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Mary-Claire King b. 1946Medicine & Public HealthGeneticist who identified the BRCA1 locus and applied DNA science to human-rights investigations.Maria Goeppert Mayer 1906–1972Science & MathematicsPhysicist and Nobel laureate who developed the nuclear shell model, a fundamental account of atomic nuclei.Stanley Prusiner b. 1942Medicine & Public HealthNeurologist who discovered prions, establishing a new biological mechanism for infectious neurodegenerative disease.Joseph Goldberger 1874–1929Medicine & Public HealthShowed that pellagra was a dietary deficiency rather than an infectious disease.Baruch Blumberg 1925–2011Medicine & Public HealthPhysician-scientist whose discovery of the hepatitis B virus led to diagnostic tests and a widely used vaccine.George Beadle 1903–1989Science & MathematicsGeneticist who won the Nobel Prize for showing that genes control biochemical reactions in cells.Florence R. Sabin 1871–1953Medicine & Public HealthPioneering medical researcher and public-health reformer who advanced knowledge of the lymphatic and immune systems.