Home › Science & Medicine › Science & Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Role:
Any
Physicist 21
Chemist 13
Astronomer 11
Author 8
Biologist 7
Inventor 7
Mathematician 7
Earth Scientist 5
Educator 5
Activist 4
56 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.
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.
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.
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.
Jennifer 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 begun
Benjamin Banneker 1731–1806Science & MathematicsFree Black astronomer and almanac author who helped survey the federal district and challenged Jefferson on race.
Leo Szilard 1898–1964Science & MathematicsConceived the nuclear chain reaction, started the American bomb program, then petitioned against using it
Albert A. Michelson 1852–1931Science & MathematicsThe Michelson-Morley experiment and the measurement of the speed of light
Glenn T. Seaborg 1912–1999Science & MathematicsCo-discovered plutonium and nine other transuranium elements and chaired the Atomic Energy Commission.
Charles Richter 1900–1985Science & MathematicsCreator of the earthquake magnitude scale
John Bardeen 1908–1991Science & MathematicsOnly person to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics, for the transistor and superconductivity theory.
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 electron
Charles David Keeling 1928–2005Science & MathematicsMeasured atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa from 1958 until his death, producing the Keeling Curve.
Stephen Jay Gould 1941–2002Science & MathematicsPaleontologist and essayist who advanced punctuated equilibrium and became a leading public interpreter of evolution.
George Ellery Hale 1868–1938Science & MathematicsBuilt four telescopes that were each the largest in the world, and found that sunspots are magnetic
Barbara McClintock 1902–1992Science & MathematicsCytogeneticist who discovered transposable elements and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Marie Tharp 1920–2006Science & MathematicsMapped the ocean floor by hand and found the Mid-Atlantic rift valley
Harold Urey 1893–1981Science & MathematicsDiscovered deuterium and founded cosmochemistry
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 thermoelectrics
Roger Revelle 1909–1991Science & MathematicsOceanographer and early scientist of human-caused global warming
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.
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.
Stanley Miller 1930–2007Science & MathematicsThe 1953 experiment that made amino acids from a simulated early atmosphere
Murray Gell-Mann 1929–2019Science & MathematicsTheoretical physicist who discovered quarks and won the Nobel Prize for his standard model of particle physics.
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.
Harlow Shapley 1885–1972Science & MathematicsDetermined the size of the Milky Way and displaced the Sun from its center.
Percy Lavon Julian 1899–1975Science & MathematicsPioneered synthesis of cortisone and other steroids from plant sterols.
Percival Lowell 1855–1916Science & MathematicsFounded Lowell Observatory and initiated the search that led to Pluto's discovery.
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.
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.
Willard Libby 1908–1980Science & MathematicsDeveloped radiocarbon dating — transforming archaeology and geology — and won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Maria Goeppert Mayer 1906–1972Science & MathematicsPhysicist and Nobel laureate who developed the nuclear shell model, a fundamental account of atomic nuclei.
George Beadle 1903–1989Science & MathematicsGeneticist who won the Nobel Prize for showing that genes control biochemical reactions in cells.