HomeScience & Medicine

Science & Medicine

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

All Science & Mathematics Medicine & Public Health
Role: Any Physician 29 Physicist 22 Biologist 17 Chemist 17 Public Health Leader 12 Astronomer 11 Author 11 Educator 10 Inventor 9 Mathematician 7 Activist 6 Earth Scientist 5
Order: Most notable By term A–Z Born earliest Born latest Longest lived Shortest lived

9 people

Leo Szilard 1898–1964Science & MathematicsConceived the nuclear chain reaction, started the American bomb program, then petitioned against using itMichael DeBakey 1908–2008Medicine & Public HealthCardiovascular surgeon who invented the roller pump and the Dacron arterial graftJohn Bardeen 1908–1991Science & MathematicsOnly person to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics, for the transistor and superconductivity theory.Vivien Thomas 1910–1985Medicine & Public HealthDevised the blue-baby heart operation without a medical degree, and went unnamed on the paper.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.Percy Lavon Julian 1899–1975Science & MathematicsPioneered synthesis of cortisone and other steroids from plant sterols.Stephanie Kwolek 1923–2014Science & MathematicsInvented Kevlar aramid fiber while working as a DuPont research chemist.Wallace Carothers 1896–1937Science & MathematicsLed the DuPont research that produced neoprene and nylon and established polymer science.