Notable Scientists and Inventors

This list is comprised of some of the most recognizable names from the world of science and invention. These lists do not include philosophers, mathematicians, psychologists, theologians who are instead listed with the famous thinkers.
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NameLifespanOther Names
Abbas ibn Firnasc. 809-887
Ernst Abbe1840-1905
Alexei A. Abrikosov1928-2017
Michel Adanson1727-1806
Thomas Addison1795-1860
Aglaonice?-c. 100 BC
Akasaki Isamu1929-2021
Abu Rayhan Muhammad al-Biruni973-c. 1050
Kurt Alder1902-1958
Zhores Alferov1930-2019
Hannes Alfvén1908-1995
Ismail al-Jazari1136-1206
Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi865-925(Rhazes)
Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi903-986
Luis Walter Alvarez1911-1988
Alois Alzheimer1864-1915
Amano Hiroshi1960-
André-Marie Ampère1775-1836
Carl David Anderson1905-1991
Philip W. Anderson1923-2020
Mary Anning1799-1847
Virginia Apgar1909-1974
Apollonius of Pergac. 262-c. 190 BC
Nicolas Appert1749-1841
Edward Victor Appleton1892-1965
Aristarchus of Samosc. 310-c. 230 BC
Richard Arkwright1733-1792
Frances Arnold1956-
Svante Arrhenius1859-1927
Aryabhata476-550
Arthur Ashkin1922-2020
Hans Asperger1906-1980
Francis William Aston1877-1945
David Attenborough1926-
John James Audubon1785-1851
Amedeo Avogadro1776-1856
Charles Babbage1791-1871
John Logie Baird1888-1946
Robert Stawell Ball1840-1913
Valentine Ball1843-1894
Frederick Banting1891-1941
Róbert Bárány1876-1936
Marius Barbeau1883-1969
John Bardeen1908-1991
Charles Glover Barkla1877-1944
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi1947-
Asım Orhan Barut1926-1994
Nikolay Basov1922-2001
Adolf Bastian1826-1905
Henri Becquerel1852-1908
Georg Bednorz1950-
Alexander Graham Bell1847-1922
Ruth Benedict1887-1948
Carl Benz1844-1929(Vaillant)
Paul Berg1926-2023
Friedrich Bergius1884-1949
Emile Berliner1851-1929
Claude Bernard1813-1878
Hugo Bernatzik1897-1953
Tim Berners-Lee1955-
Daniel Bernoulli1700-1782
Carolyn Bertozzi1966-
Jöns Jacob Berzelius1779-1848
Friedrich Bessel1784-1846
Hans Bethe1906-2005
Gerd Binnig1947-
László Bíró1899-1985
Adriaan Blaauw1914-2010
Elizabeth Blackburn1948-
Patrick Blackett1897-1974
Jean-Pierre Blanchard1753-1809
Louis Blériot1872-1936
Felix Bloch1905-1983
Nicolaas Bloembergen1920-2017
Franz Boas1858-1942
Aage Bohr1922-2009
Niels Bohr1885-1962
Ludwig Boltzmann1844-1906
Jules Bordet1870-1961
Norman Borlaug1914-2009
Max Born1882-1970
Carl Bosch1874-1940
Satyendra Nath Bose1894-1974
Walther Bothe1891-1957
Robert Boyle1627-1691
Willard Boyle1924-2011
C. V. Boys1855-1944
William Henry Bragg1862-1942
William Lawrence Bragg1890-1971
Tycho Brahe1546-1601
Louis Braille1809-1852
Walter Houser Brattain1902-1987
Karl Ferdinand Braun1850-1918
Sydney Brenner1927-2019
Percy Williams Bridgman1882-1961
Robert Brown1773-1858
John Browning1855-1926
Giordano Bruno1548-1600
Eduard Buchner1860-1917
Linda B. Buck1947-
David Dunbar Buick1854-1929
Robert Bunsen1811-1899
Jocelyn Bell Burnell1943-
Vannevar Bush1890-1974
Adolf Butenandt1903-1995
C. H. D. Buys Ballot1817-1890(Buis)
Niccolò Cacciatore1770-1841
Cai Lun50-121(Ts'ai)
Guy Stewart Callendar1898-1964
Melvin Calvin1911-1997
Samuel Warren Carey1911-2002
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot1796-1832
Alexis Carrel1873-1944
Willis Carrier1876-1950
Rachel Carson1907-1964
Howard Carter1874-1939
Giovanni Domenico Cassini1625-1712
Henry Cavendish1731-1810
Anders Celsius1701-1744
James Chadwick1891-1974
Owen Chamberlain1920-2006
Britton Chance1913-2010
Jean-Martin Charcot1825-1893
Georges Charpak1924-2010
Emmanuelle Charpentier1968-
Pavel Cherenkov1904-1990
Steven Chu1948-
Rudolf Clausius1822-1888
John Cockcroft1897-1967
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji1933-
Samuel Colt1814-1862
Arthur Compton1892-1962
Leon Cooper1930-
Martin Cooper1928-
Nicolaus Copernicus1473-1543
Gerty Cori1896-1957
George Henry Corliss1817-1888
Francis Crick1916-2004
Bartolomeo Cristofori1655-1731
Burrill Bernard Crohn1884-1983
James Cronin1931-2016
Paul J. Crutzen1933-2021
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot1725-1804
Marie Curie1867-1934
Pierre Curie1859-1906
Georges Cuvier1769-1832
Louis Daguerre1787-1851
Gottlieb Daimler1834-1900
Gustaf Dalén1869-1937
John Dalton1766-1844
Charles Darwin1809-1882
Amil Kumar Das1902-1961
Leonardo da Vinci1452-1519
Raymond Davis Jr.1914-2006
Clinton Davisson1881-1958
Humphry Davy1778-1829
Richard Dawkins1941-
Louis de Broglie1892-1987
Peter Debye1884-1966
Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis1792-1843
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb1736-1806
John Deere1804-1886
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes1932-2007
Guidobaldo del Monte1545-1607
Otto Diels1876-1954
Rudolf Diesel1858-1913
Paul Dirac1902-1984
Gerhard Domagk1895-1964
Christian Doppler1803-1853
Jennifer Doudna1964-
John Langdon Down1828-1896
Karl Drais1785-1851
John Boyd Dunlop1840-1921
Freeman Dyson1923-2020
Charles Eastman1858-1939
George Eastman1854-1932
Arthur Eddington1882-1944
Thomas Edison1847-1931
Robert Edwards1925-2013
Olin J. Eggen1919-1998
Paul Ehrlich1854-1915
Gustave Eiffel1832-1923
Manfred Eigen1927-2019
Christiaan Eijkman1858-1930
Albert Einstein1879-1955
Willem Einthoven1860-1927
Gertrude B. Elion1918-1999
Douglas Engelbart1925-2013
François Englert1932-
Gerhard Ertl1936-
Reona Esaki1925-
Arthur Evans1851-1941
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit1686-1736
Michael Faraday1791-1867
Leo Fender1909-1991
Enrico Fermi1901-1954
Albert Fert1938-
Richard Feynman1918-1988
Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick1852-1937
Niels Ryberg Finsen1860-1904
Emil Fischer1852-1919
Hans Fischer1881-1945
Val Logsdon Fitch1923-2015
Camille Flammarion1842-1925
Alexander Fleming1881-1955
Williamina Fleming1857-1911
Howard Florey1898-1968
Henry Ford1863-1947
Dian Fossey1932-1985
Léon Foucault1819-1868
William Alfred Fowler1911-1995
James Franck1882-1964
Ilya Frank1908-1990
Rosalind Franklin1920-1958
James George Frazer1854-1941
Augustin-Jean Fresnel1788-1827
Jerome Isaac Friedman1930-
Buckminster Fuller1895-1983
Robert Fulton1765-1815
Dennis Gabor1900-1979
Galen129-c. 216
Galileo Galilei1564-1642
Luigi Galvani1737-1798
Maus Gatsonides1911-1998
Carl Friedrich Gauss1777-1855
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac1778-1850
Andre Geim1958-
Murray Gell-Mann1929-2019
Conrad Gessner1516-1565
Andrea Mia Ghez1965-
Riccardo Giacconi1931-2018
Ivar Giaever1929-
Josiah Willard Gibbs1839-1903
William Gilbert1544-1603
Georges Gilles de La Tourette1857-1904
Vitaly Ginzburg1916-2009
Donald A. Glaser1926-2013
Sheldon Lee Glashow1932-
Roy J. Glauber1925-2018
Robert H. Goddard1882-1945
Maria Goeppert-Mayer1906-1972
Camillo Golgi1843-1926
Jane Goodall1934-
John B. Goodenough1922-2023
Ward Goodenough1919-2013
Charles Goodyear1800-1860
David Graeber1961-2020
John Edward Gray1800-1875
James Gregory1638-1675
Carol W. Greider1961-
Victor Grignard1871-1935
David Gross1941-
Peter Grünberg1939-2018
Charles Édouard Guillaume1861-1938
Ayyub Guliyev1954-
Allvar Gullstrand1862-1930
Johannes Gutenbergc. 1395-1468
Fritz Haber1868-1934
Ernst Haeckel1834-1919
Otto Hahn1879-1968
Duncan Haldane1951-
John L. Hall1934-
Edmond Halley1656-1742
Margaret Hamilton1936-
William Rowan Hamilton1805-1865
Theodor W. Hänsch1941-
Arthur Harden1865-1940
Serge Haroche1944-
William Harvey1578-1657
Stephen Hawking1942-2018
Bruce C. Heezen1924-1977
Henry Heimlich1920-2016
Werner Heisenberg1901-1976
Hermann von Helmholtz1821-1894
Caroline Herschel1750-1848
John Herschel1792-1871
William Herschel1738-1822
Gustav Ludwig Hertz1887-1975
Heinrich Hertz1857-1894
Ejnar Hertzsprung1873-1967
Victor Francis Hess1883-1964
Johannes Hevelius1611-1687
George de Hevesy1885-1966
Antony Hewish1924-2021
Jaroslav Heyrovský1890-1967
Peter Higgs1929-
Rowland Hill1795-1879
Hipparchus of Nicaeac. 190-c. 120 BC
Hippocrates of Cos460-370 BC
Dorothy Hodgkin1910-1994
Albert Hofmann1906-2008
Robert Hofstadter1915-1990
Herman Hollerith1860-1929
Robert Hooke1635-1703
Frederick Gowland Hopkins1861-1947
Grace Hopper1906-1992
Jack Horner1946-
Edwin Hubble1889-1953
William Huggins1824-1910
Russell Alan Hulse1950-
George Huntington1850-1916
Andrew Huxley1917-2012
Julian Huxley1887-1975
Thomas Henry Huxley1825-1895
Christiaan Huygens1629-1695
Ibn al-Haythamc. 965-c. 1040
Jabir ibn Hayyanc. 721-c. 815
Joseph Marie Jacquard1752-1834
Edward Jenner1749-1823
J. Hans D. Jensen1907-1973
Frédéric Joliot-Curie1900-1958
Irène Joliot-Curie1897-1956
Brian David Josephson1940-
James Prescott Joule1818-1889
Annie Jump Cannon1863-1941
Kajita Takaaki1959-
Michio Kaku1947-
Mikhail Kalashnikov1919-2013
Charles K. Kao1933-2018
Pyotr Kapitsa1894-1984
Jacobus Kapteyn1851-1922
Paul Karrer1889-1971
Alfred Kastler1902-1984
Charles David Keeling1928-2005
Johannes Kepler1571-1630
Wolfgang Ketterle1957-
Har Gobind Khorana1922-2011
Jack Kilby1923-2005
Gustav Kirchhoff1824-1887
Harry Klinefelter1912-1990
Robert Koch1843-1910
Emil Theodor Kocher1841-1917
Hedwig Kohn1887-1964
Hermann Kolbe1818-1884
Roger D. Kornberg1947-
Sergei Korolev1907-1966
Sergei Korsakov1854-1900(Korsakoff)
Koshiba Masatoshi1926-2020
Albrecht Kossel1853-1927
J. Michael Kosterlitz1943-
Emil Kraepelin1856-1926
Hans Adolf Krebs1900-1981
Vincas Kudirka1858-1899
Gerard Kuiper1905-1973
Polykarp Kusch1911-1993
Adolf Kussmaul1822-1902
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck1744-1829
Willis Lamb1913-2008
Lev Landau1908-1968
Karl Landsteiner1868-1943
Irving Langmuir1881-1957
Pierre-Simon Laplace1749-1827
Max von Laue1879-1960
Robert B. Laughlin1950-
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran1845-1922
Antoine Lavoisier1743-1794
Ernest Lawrence1901-1958
Henrietta Swan Leavitt1868-1921
Georges-Louis Leclerc1707-1788
Leon M. Lederman1922-2018
Lee Tsung-Dao1926-
Anthony James Leggett1938-
Inge Lehmann1888-1993
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz1646-1716
Georges Lemaître1894-1966
Philipp Lenard1862-1947
Rita Levi-Montalcini1909-2012
Willard Libby1908-1980
Justus von Liebig1803-1873
Carl Linnaeus1707-1778
Hans Lipperheyc. 1570-1619
Gabriel Lippmann1845-1921
Joseph Lister1827-1912
Mikhail Lomonosov1711-1765
Hendrik Lorentz1853-1928
Konrad Lorenz1903-1989
Charles Lyell1797-1875
Ernst Mach1838-1916
Bronisław Malinowski1884-1942
Guglielmo Marconi1874-1937
Antoine Marfan1858-1942
Barry Marshall1951-
Toshihide Maskawa1940-2021
John C. Mather1946-
Antonia Maury1866-1952
James Clerk Maxwell1831-1879
Wilhelm Maybach1846-1929
Michel Mayor1942-
Barbara McClintock1902-1992
Arthur B. McDonald1943-
Edwin McMillan1907-1991
Margaret Mead1901-1978
Ilya Mechnikov1845-1916(Metchnikoff)
Lise Meitner1878-1968
Gregor Mendel1822-1884
Dmitriy Mendeleev1834-1907
Prosper Menière1799-1862
Maria Sibylla Merian1647-1717
Charles Messier1730-1817
Antonio Meucci1808-1889
Adolf Meyer1866-1950
Albert Abraham Michelson1852-1931
Gustav Mie1868-1957
Robert Andrews Millikan1868-1953
Marcel Minnaert1893-1970
Henri Moissan1852-1907
Mario Molina1943-2020
Jacques Monod1910-1976
Luc Montagnier1932-2022
Lewis H. Morgan1818-1881
Thomas Hunt Morgan1866-1945
William G. Morgan1870-1942
Samuel Morse1791-1872
May-Britt Moser1963-
Rudolf Mössbauer1929-2011
Nevill Francis Mott1905-1996
Ben Roy Mottelson1926-2022
Augustin Mouchot1825-1911
K. Alex Müller1927-2023
Otto Friedrich Müller1730-1784
James Naismith1861-1939
Nakamura Shuji1954-
Yoichiro Nambu1921-2015
Giulio Natta1903-1979
Louis Néel1904-2000
Walther Nernst1864-1941
Thomas Newcomen1664-1729
Isaac Newton1642-1727
Nicéphore Niépce1765-1833
Alfred Nobel1833-1896
John Howard Northrop1891-1987
Konstantin Novoselov1974-
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard1942-
Georg Ohm1789-1854
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes1853-1926
Lars Onsager1903-1976
Jan Oort1900-1992
J. Robert Oppenheimer1904-1967
Barnaba Oriani1752-1832
Hans Christian Ørsted1777-1851
Wilhelm Ostwald1853-1932
Yoshinori Ōsumi1945-(Ohsumi)
Nikolaus Otto1832-1891
Svante Pääbo1955-
Friedrich Paneth1887-1958
Anton Pannekoek1873-1960
Denis Papin1647-c. 1712
Paracelsus1493-1541
James Parkinson1755-1824
Louis Pasteur1822-1895
Clair Patterson1922-1995
Les Paul1915-2009
Wolfgang Paul1913-1993
Wolfgang Pauli1900-1958
Linus Pauling1901-1994
Ivan Pavlov1849-1936
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin1900-1979
Jim Peebles1935-
Slavoljub Eduard Penkala1871-1922
Roger Penrose1931-
Arno Allan Penzias1933-
Martin Lewis Perl1927-2014
Saul Perlmutter1959-
Jean Baptiste Perrin1870-1942
Melba Phillips1907-2004
William Daniel Phillips1948-
Giuseppe Piazzi1746-1826
Edward Charles Pickering1846-1919
William Henry Pickering1858-1938
Max Planck1858-1947
Pliny the Elderc. 23-79(Plinius, Secundus)
Hugh David Politzer1949-
Ferdinand Porsche1875-1951
Claude Pouillet1790-1868
Cecil Frank Powell1903-1969
Fritz Pregl1869-1930
Vladimir Prelog1906-1998
Ilya Prigogine1917-2003
Alexander Prokhorov1916-2002
Ptolemyc. 100-c. 168(Ptolemaeus)
Edward Mills Purcell1912-1997
Didier Queloz1966-
Isidor Isaac Rabi1898-1988
James Rainwater1917-1986
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan1952-
C. V. Raman1888-1970
Santiago Ramón y Cajal1852-1934
William Ramsay1852-1916
Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.1915-2011
Maurice Raynaud1834-1881
Kathy Reichs1948-
Tadeusz Reichstein1897-1996
Frederick Reines1918-1998
Eliphalet Remington1793-1861
Theodore William Richards1868-1928
Owen Willans Richardson1879-1959
Robert Coleman Richardson1937-2013
Charles Richet1850-1935
Burton Richter1931-2018
Charles Francis Richter1900-1985
Adam Riess1969-
Dennis Ritchie1941-2011
David Rittenhouse1732-1796
Heinrich Rohrer1933-2013
Ole Rømer1644-1710
Wilhelm Röntgen1845-1923
Hermann Rorschach1884-1922
Ronald Ross1857-1932
John Shipley Rowlinson1926-2018
Carlo Rubbia1934-
Ernő Rubik1944-
Vera Rubin1928-2016(Cooper)
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge1794-1867
Ernst Ruska1906-1988
Henry Norris Russell1877-1957
Ernest Rutherford1871-1937
Leopold Ružička1887-1976
Martin Ryle1918-1984
Paul Sabatier1854-1941
Carl Sagan1934-1996
Andrei Sakharov1921-1989
Abdus Salam1926-1996
Jonas Salk1914-1995
Aziz Sancar1946-
Frederick Sanger1918-2013
Alberto Santos-Dumont1873-1932
Adolphe Sax1814-1894
Arthur Leonard Schawlow1921-1999
Carl Wilhelm Scheele1742-1786
Heinrich Schliemann1822-1890
Brian Schmidt1967-
John Robert Schrieffer1931-2019
Erwin Schrödinger1887-1961
Theodor Schwann1810-1882
Melvin Schwartz1932-2006
Julian Schwinger1918-1994
Glenn T. Seaborg1912-1999
Emilio G. Segrè1905-1989
Adolf Seilacher1925-2014
Ignaz Semmelweis1818-1865
Nikolay Semyonov1896-1986
Alois Senefelder1771-1834
Claude Shannon1916-2001
Dan Shechtman1941-
William Shockley1910-1989
Frank Shuman1862-1918
Kai Siegbahn1918-2007
Manne Siegbahn1886-1978
Werner von Siemens1816-1892
Igor Sikorsky1889-1972
Isaac Singer1811-1875
Henrik Sjögren1899-1986
Vesto Slipher1875-1969
George E. Smith1930-
Horace Smith1808-1893
George Smoot1945-
Willebrord Snellius1580-1626(Snel van Royen)
John Snow1813-1858
Frederick Soddy1877-1956
Arnold Sommerfeld1868-1951
Wendell Meredith Stanley1904-1971
Johannes Stark1874-1957
Hermann Staudinger1881-1965
Nicolas Steno1638-1686(Steensen)
George Stephenson1781-1848
Otto Stern1888-1969
Horst Ludwig Störmer1949-
Adolph Strecker1822-1871
Donna Strickland1959-
Bengt Strömgren1908-1987
Almon Brown Strowger1839-1902
John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh1842-1919
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar1910-1995
James B. Sumner1887-1955
Ivan Supek1915-2007
Theodor Svedberg1884-1971
Albert Szent-Györgyi1893-1986
Henry Fox Talbot1800-1877
Igor Tamm1895-1971
Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.1941-
Richard E. Taylor1929-2018
Edward Teller1908-2003
Nikola Tesla1856-1943
Marie Tharp1920-2006
Benjamin Thompson1753-1814
Ken Thompson1943-
George Paget Thomson1892-1975
J. J. Thomson1856-1940
William Thomson1824-1907(Kelvin)
Gerard 't Hooft1946-
Kip Thorne1940-
David J. Thouless1934-2019
Samuel C. C. Ting1936-
Arne Tiselius1902-1971
Clyde Tombaugh1906-1997
Tomonaga Shin'ichirō1906-1979
Evangelista Torricelli1608-1647
Linus Torvalds1969-
Charles H. Townes1915-2015
Richard Trevithick1771-1833
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky1857-1935
Tu Youyou1930-
Edward Burnett Tylor1832-1917
Neil deGrasse Tyson1958-
Ulugh Beg1394-1449(Taraghay)
Harold Urey1893-1981
Antonio Maria Valsalva1666-1723
Simon van der Meer1925-2011
Johannes Diderik van der Waals1837-1923
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek1632-1723
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff1852-1911
John Hasbrouck Van Vleck1899-1980
Martinus J. G. Veltman1931-2021
Andreas Vesalius1514-1564(van Wezel)
Rudolf Virchow1821-1902
Artturi Ilmari Virtanen1895-1973
Alessandro Volta1745-1827
Adolf von Baeyer1835-1917(Baeyer)
Emil von Behring1854-1917(Behring)
Wernher von Braun1912-1977
Joseph von Fraunhofer1787-1826
Karl von Frisch1886-1982
Otto von Guericke1602-1686
Klaus von Klitzing1943-
Adolf von Strümpell1853-1925(Strümpell)
Erik Adolf von Willebrand1870-1949
Ferdinand von Zeppelin1838-1917
Selman Waksman1888-1973
Alfred Russel Wallace1823-1913
Otto Wallach1847-1931
Ernest Walton1903-1995
James Watson1928-
James Watt1736-1819
Wilhelm Eduard Weber1804-1891
Alfred Wegener1880-1930
Steven Weinberg1933-2021
Chaim Weizmann1874-1952(Vaytsman)
Alfred Werner1866-1919
Daniel B. Wesson1825-1906
George Westinghouse1846-1914
Sarah Frances Whiting1847-1927
Eli Whitney1765-1825
Carl Wieman1951-
Wilhelm Wien1864-1928
Eugene Wigner1902-1995
Frank Wilczek1951-
Maurice Wilkins1916-2004
Richard Willstätter1872-1942
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson1869-1959
Kenneth G. Wilson1936-2013
Olin Chaddock Wilson1909-1994
Robert Woodrow Wilson1936-
Adolf Windaus1876-1959
David Jeffrey Wineland1944-
Edward Witten1951-
Friedrich Wöhler1800-1882
William Hyde Wollaston1766-1828
Robert Burns Woodward1917-1979
Steve Wozniak1950-
Orville Wright1871-1948
Wilbur Wright1867-1912
Rosalyn Yalow1921-2011(Sussman)
Yang Chen-Ning1922-
Ada Yonath1939-
Thomas Young1773-1829
Yukawa Hideki1907-1981
Pieter Zeeman1865-1943
Frits Zernike1888-1966
Ahmed Zewail1946-2016
Karl Ziegler1898-1973
Richard Adolf Zsigmondy1865-1929
Harald zur Hausen1936-2023
Konrad Zuse1910-1995
Fritz Zwicky1898-1974