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.
| Name | Lifespan | Other Names | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michel Adanson | 1727-1806 |  | |
| Aglaonice | ?-c. 100 BC | | |
| Gaja Alaga | 1924-1988 | | |
| André-Marie Ampère | 1775-1836 | | |
| Apollonius of Perga | c. 262-c. 190 BC | | |
| Aristarchus of Samos | c. 310-c. 230 BC | | |
| Richard Arkwright | 1733-1792 | | |
| Svante Arrhenius | 1859-1927 | | |
| David Attenborough | 1926- | | |
| John James Audubon | 1785-1851 | | |
| Amedeo Avogadro | 1776-1856 | | |
| Charles Babbage | 1791-1871 | | |
| Emanoil Bacaloglu | 1830-1891 | | |
| John Logie Baird | 1888-1946 | | |
| Robert Ball | 1802-1857 | | |
| Robert Stawell Ball | 1840-1913 | | |
| Valentine Ball | 1843-1894 | | |
| Asım Orhan Barut | 1926-1994 | | |
| Adolf Bastian | 1826-1905 | | |
| Adolf Beck | 1863-1942 | | |
| Henri Becquerel | 1852-1908 | | |
| Alexander Graham Bell | 1847-1922 | | |
| Karl Benz | 1844-1929 | | |
| Claude Bernard | 1813-1878 | | |
| Hugo Bernatzik | 1897-1953 | | |
| Tim Berners-Lee | 1955- | | |
| Daniel Bernoulli | 1700-1782 | | |
| Jöns Jacob Berzelius | 1779-1848 | | |
| Adriaan Blaauw | 1914-2010 | | |
| Jean-Pierre Blanchard | 1753-1809 | | |
| Louis Blériot | 1872-1936 | | |
| Franz Boas | 1858-1942 | | |
| Niels Bohr | 1885-1962 | | |
| Ludwig Boltzmann | 1844-1906 | | |
| Max Born | 1882-1970 | | |
| Robert Boyle | 1627-1691 | | |
| C. V. Boys | 1855-1944 | | |
| Tycho Brahe | 1546-1601 | | |
| Louis Braille | 1809-1852 | | |
| Karl Ferdinand Braun | 1850-1918 | | |
| John Browning | 1855-1926 | | |
| David Dunbar Buick | 1854-1929 | | |
| Vannevar Bush | 1890-1974 | | |
| C. H. D. Buys Ballot | 1817-1890 | (Buis) | |
| Niccolò Cacciatore | 1770-1841 | | |
| Cai Lun | 50-121 | (Ts'ai) | |
| Guy Stewart Callendar | 1898-1964 | | |
| Samuel Warren Carey | 1911-2002 | | |
| Willis Carrier | 1876-1950 | | |
| Rachel Carson | 1907-1964 | | |
| Giovanni Domenico Cassini | 1625-1712 | | |
| Henry Cavendish | 1731-1810 | | |
| Anders Celsius | 1701-1744 | | |
| Britton Chance | 1913-2010 | | |
| Samuel Colt | 1814-1862 | | |
| Nicolaus Copernicus | 1473-1543 | | |
| George Henry Corliss | 1817-1888 | | |
| Francis Crick | 1916-2004 | | |
| Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot | 1725-1804 | | |
| Marie Curie | 1867-1934 | | |
| Pierre Curie | 1859-1906 | | |
| Georges Cuvier | 1769-1832 | | |
| Louis Daguerre | 1787-1851 | | |
| Gottlieb Daimler | 1834-1900 | | |
| John Dalton | 1766-1844 | | |
| Charles Darwin | 1809-1882 | | |
| Amil Kumar Das | 1902-1961 | | |
| Leonardo da Vinci | 1452-1519 | | |
| Humphry Davy | 1778-1829 | | |
| Richard Dawkins | 1941- | | |
| Louis de Broglie | 1892-1987 | | |
| Charles-Augustin de Coulomb | 1736-1806 | | |
| Guidobaldo del Monte | 1545-1607 | | |
| Rudolf Diesel | 1858-1913 | | |
| Paul Dirac | 1902-1984 | | |
| Freeman Dyson | 1923-2020 | | |
| Charles Eastman | 1858-1939 | | |
| George Eastman | 1854-1932 | | |
| Arthur Eddington | 1882-1944 | | |
| Thomas Edison | 1847-1931 | | |
| Albert Einstein | 1879-1955 | | |
| Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit | 1686-1736 | | |
| Michael Faraday | 1791-1867 | | |
| Leo Fender | 1909-1991 | | |
| Enrico Fermi | 1901-1954 | | |
| Richard Feynman | 1918-1988 | | |
| Adolf Fick | 1829-1901 | | |
| Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick | 1852-1937 | | |
| Hermann Emil Fischer | 1852-1919 | | |
| Camille Flammarion | 1842-1925 | | |
| Alexander Fleming | 1881-1955 | | |
| Williamina Fleming | 1857-1911 | | |
| Henry Ford | 1863-1947 | | |
| Adolf Froelich | 1887-1943 | | |
| Robert Fulton | 1765-1815 | | |
| Galen | 129-c. 216 | | |
| Galileo Galilei | 1564-1642 | | |
| Luigi Galvani | 1737-1798 | | |
| Maus Gatsonides | 1911-1998 | | |
| Carl Friedrich Gauss | 1777-1855 | | |
| Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac | 1778-1850 | | |
| Jane Goodall | 1934- | | |
| John B. Goodenough | 1922- | | |
| Ward Goodenough | 1919-2013 | | |
| Charles Goodyear | 1800-1860 | | |
| David Graeber | 1961-2020 | | |
| James Gregory | 1638-1675 | | |
| Ayyub Guliyev | 1954- | | |
| Johannes Gutenberg | c. 1395-1468 | | |
| Ernst Haeckel | 1834-1919 | | |
| Otto Hahn | 1879-1968 | | |
| Edmond Halley | 1656-1742 | | |
| Stephen Hawking | 1942-2018 | | |
| Bruce C. Heezen | 1924-1977 | | |
| Werner Heisenberg | 1901-1976 | | |
| Hermann von Helmholtz | 1821-1894 | | |
| Adolf Hempt | 1874-1943 | | |
| Caroline Herschel | 1750-1848 | | |
| John Herschel | 1792-1871 | | |
| William Herschel | 1738-1822 | | |
| Ejnar Hertzsprung | 1873-1967 | | |
| Rowland Hill | 1795-1879 | | |
| Hipparchus of Nicaea | c. 190-c. 120 BC | | |
| Hippocrates of Cos | 460-370 BC | | |
| Adolf Hoel | 1879-1964 | | |
| Herman Hollerith | 1860-1929 | | |
| Robert Hooke | 1635-1703 | | |
| Edwin Hubble | 1889-1953 | | |
| William Huggins | 1824-1910 | | |
| Julian Huxley | 1887-1975 | | |
| Thomas Henry Huxley | 1825-1895 | | |
| Christiaan Huygens | 1629-1695 | | |
| Ibn al-Haitham | c. 965-c. 1040 | | |
| Jabir ibn Hayyan | c. 721-c. 815 | | |
| Joseph Marie Jacquard | 1752-1834 | | |
| Edward Jenner | 1749-1823 | | |
| James Prescott Joule | 1818-1889 | | |
| Annie Jump Cannon | 1863-1941 | | |
| Jacobus Kapteyn | 1851-1922 | | |
| Charles David Keeling | 1928-2005 | | |
| Johannes Kepler | 1571-1630 | | |
| Gustav Kirchhoff | 1824-1887 | | |
| Sheila Kitzinger | 1929-2015 | | |
| Hedwig Kohn | 1887-1964 | | |
| Hermann Kolbe | 1818-1884 | | |
| Vincas Kudirka | 1858-1899 | | |
| Gerard Kuiper | 1905-1973 | | |
| Adolf Kussmaul | 1822-1902 | | |
| Jean-Baptiste Lamarck | 1744-1829 | | |
| Pierre-Simon Laplace | 1749-1827 | | |
| Antoine Lavoisier | 1743-1794 | | |
| Henrietta Swan Leavitt | 1868-1921 | | |
| Primo Levi | 1919-1987 | | |
| Justus von Liebig | 1803-1873 | | |
| Carl Linnaeus | 1707-1778 | | |
| Gabriel Lippmann | 1845-1921 | | |
| Mikhail Lomonosov | 1711-1765 | | |
| Hendrik Lorentz | 1853-1928 | | |
| Konrad Lorenz | 1903-1989 | | |
| Ernst Mach | 1838-1916 | | |
| Guglielmo Marconi | 1874-1937 | | |
| Antonia Maury | 1866-1952 | | |
| James Clerk Maxwell | 1831-1879 | | |
| Wilhelm Maybach | 1846-1929 | | |
| Michel Mayor | 1942- | | |
| Lise Meitner | 1878-1968 | | |
| Gregor Mendel | 1822-1884 | | |
| Dmitriy Mendeleev | 1834-1907 | | |
| Charles Messier | 1730-1817 | | |
| Antonio Meucci | 1808-1889 | | |
| Albert Abraham Michelson | 1852-1931 | | |
| Gustav Mie | 1868-1957 | | |
| Marcel Minnaert | 1893-1970 | | |
| Samuel Morse | 1791-1872 | | |
| Augustin Mouchot | 1825-1911 | | |
| Otto Friedrich Müller | 1730-1784 | | |
| Thomas Newcomen | 1664-1729 | | |
| Isaac Newton | 1642-1727 | | |
| Basarab Nicolescu | 1942- | | |
| Nicéphore Niépce | 1765-1833 | | |
| Alfred Nobel | 1833-1896 | | |
| Georg Ohm | 1789-1854 | | |
| Jan Oort | 1900-1992 | | |
| J. Robert Oppenheimer | 1904-1967 | | |
| Barnaba Oriani | 1752-1832 | | |
| Hans Christian Ørsted | 1777-1851 | | |
| Wilhelm Ostwald | 1853-1932 | | |
| Nikolaus Otto | 1832-1891 | | |
| Friedrich Paneth | 1887-1958 | | |
| Anton Pannekoek | 1873-1960 | | |
| Denis Papin | 1647-c. 1712 | | |
| Paracelsus | 1493-1541 | | |
| Louis Pasteur | 1822-1895 | | |
| Clair Patterson | 1922-1995 | | |
| Wolfgang Pauli | 1900-1958 | | |
| Linus Pauling | 1901-1994 | | |
| Ivan Pavlov | 1849-1936 | | |
| Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin | 1900-1979 | | |
| Jim Peebles | 1935- | | |
| Slavoljub Eduard Penkala | 1871-1922 | | |
| Roger Penrose | 1931- | | |
| Edward Charles Pickering | 1846-1919 | | |
| William Henry Pickering | 1858-1938 | | |
| Adolf Pinner | 1842-1909 | | |
| Max Planck | 1858-1947 | | |
| Pliny the Elder | 23-79 | (Plinius, Secundus) | |
| Ferdinand Porsche | 1875-1951 | | |
| Claude Pouillet | 1790-1868 | | |
| Ptolemy | c. 90-c. 168 | (Ptolemaeus) | |
| Didier Queloz | 1966- | | |
| Kathy Reichs | 1948- | | |
| Eliphalet Remington | 1793-1861 | | |
| David Rittenhouse | 1732-1796 | | |
| Ole Rømer | 1644-1710 | | |
| Wilhelm Röntgen | 1845-1923 | | |
| John Shipley Rowlinson | 1926-2018 | | |
| Ernő Rubik | 1944- | | |
| Vera Rubin | 1928- | (Cooper) | |
| Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge | 1794-1867 | | |
| Henry Norris Russell | 1877-1957 | | |
| Ernest Rutherford | 1871-1937 | | |
| Carl Sagan | 1934-1996 | | |
| Andrei Sakharov | 1921-1989 | | |
| Jonas Salk | 1914-1995 | | |
| Alberto Santos-Dumont | 1873-1932 | | |
| Adolphe Sax | 1814-1894 | | |
| Heinrich Schliemann | 1822-1890 | | |
| Erwin Schrödinger | 1887-1961 | | |
| Adolf Seilacher | 1925-2014 | | |
| Alois Senefelder | 1771-1834 | | |
| Christian Sharps | 1810-1874 | | |
| Frank Shuman | 1862-1918 | | |
| Werner von Siemens | 1816-1892 | | |
| Igor Sikorsky | 1889-1972 | | |
| Vesto Slipher | 1875-1969 | | |
| Adolf Smekal | 1895-1959 | | |
| Horace Smith | 1808-1893 | | |
| George Stephenson | 1781-1848 | | |
| Mijat Stojanović | 1818-1881 | | |
| Adolph Strecker | 1822-1871 | | |
| Bengt Strömgren | 1908-1987 | | |
| Almon Brown Strowger | 1839-1902 | | |
| Ivan Supek | 1915-2007 | | |
| Henry Fox Talbot | 1800-1877 | | |
| Edward Teller | 1908-2003 | | |
| Nikola Tesla | 1856-1943 | | |
| Marie Tharp | 1920-2006 | | |
| Peter Adolf Thiessen | 1899-1990 | | |
| Benjamin Thompson | 1753-1814 | | |
| J. J. Thomson | 1856-1940 | | |
| William Thomson | 1824-1907 | (Kelvin) | |
| Evangelista Torricelli | 1608-1647 | | |
| Linus Torvalds | 1969- | | |
| Johannes Diderik van der Waals | 1837-1923 | | |
| Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | 1632-1723 | | |
| Andreas Vesalius | 1514-1564 | | |
| Rudolf Virchow | 1821-1902 | | |
| Alessandro Volta | 1745-1827 | | |
| Joseph von Fraunhofer | 1787-1826 | | |
| Erik Adolf von Willebrand | 1870-1949 | | |
| Ferdinand von Zeppelin | 1838-1917 | | |
| Alfred Russel Wallace | 1823-1913 | | |
| James Watson | 1928- | | |
| James Watt | 1736-1819 | | |
| Alfred Wegener | 1880-1930 | | |
| Adolf Weil | 1848-1916 | | |
| Daniel B. Wesson | 1825-1906 | | |
| George Westinghouse | 1846-1914 | | |
| Sarah Frances Whiting | 1847-1927 | | |
| Wilhelm Wien | 1864-1928 | | |
| William Hyde Wollaston | 1766-1828 | | |
| Orville Wright | 1871-1948 | | |
| Wilbur Wright | 1867-1912 | | |
| Thomas Young | 1773-1829 | | |
| Pieter Zeeman | 1865-1943 | | |
| Konrad Zuse | 1910-1995 | | |
| Fritz Zwicky | 1898-1974 | |