Scientists

(George Washington) Goethals

American army officer and engineer. Chief engineer for Panama Canal who saw canal construction through to completion

(Carl) Linnaeus

Came up with the system of naming, ranking, and classifying organisms that we still use today. He separated all living things into 3 kingdoms; animals, plants and minerals. Father of modern taxonomy.

(William) Herschel

Discovered Infrared Light

(Joseph) Priestley

English chemist who discovered that plants produce oxygen and that sunlight was necessary for planet growth.

Euclid

Greek geometer. Developed the theory of plane geometry. His mathematical treatise, Elements, became the staple for later works in geometry until the 19th century, when math started departed from that system.

(Albert) Einstein

His theory states that the speed of light always remains the same (186,000 miles/sec) regardless of how fast someone or something is moving toward or away from it. This theory of special relativity explains the relationships between speed, time & distance.

Hypatia (of Alexandria)

Neoplatonic philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. Advanced algebraic theory.

Rhazes

Persian physician who identified differences between smallpox and measles; one of the earliest examples of a doctor being able to identify a disease.

(S. P. L.) Sørensen

developed the pH scale

Abul Wafa

Persian astronomer and mathematician. Determined several astronomical parameters and calculated tables of tangents, cotangents, advancing the study of trigonometry

(Wilhelm) Roentgen

A German physicist, discovered X-rays in 1895. For this discovery, he was awarded the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.

(Steve) Jobs

Advanced the appeal and usefulness of computing through such innovative, elegantly designed products as the Mac, which introduced the mouse and graphical user interface, the iPod, iPhone and the first tablet, the iPad.

Mary the Jewess (1st century BC)

Alchemist. Invented the prototype of an autoclave, a device used for distilling liquids, a double boiler, and the kerotakis--an apparatus used to make alloys.

(Samuel) Morse

American artist and inventor. Created a namesake code and telegraph received a patent for it in 1837.

(Edwin) Hubble

American astronomer who studied the redshift in galaxies' light spectra, he helped confirm that the universe is expanding. He first discovered the Milky Way galaxy is one of billions.

(Leo Hendrick) Baekeland

American chemist and inventor. Discovered Bakelite, a synthetic resin.

(Wallace Hume) Carothers

American chemist who patented the synthetic material nylon in 1937.

(Thomas) Edison

American credited for creating 1000+ inventions including: electric vote recorder, printing telegraph, microphone, phonograph, incandescent electric light bulb, alkaline storage battery, high speed camera & kinetograph.

(Charles Franklin) Kettering

American electrical engineer who created the first electric cash register, automotive self-starter engine, and numerous other automobile improvements.

(Robert) Fulton

American engineer. Built first affordable steamboat, opening up river transportation routes to commercial steamboats. Designed first submarine & war steamboat.

(George) Eastman

American inventor who developed Kodak box camera in 1888 after perfecting the process for making photographic dry plates and flexible film.

(John Wesley) Hyatt

American inventor who developed composition billiard balls, water filter & purifier, designed a new type of sewing machine and process for solidifying hardwood.

(Charles) Goodyear

American inventor who developed vulcanization process for treating rubber in 1839.

(Ernest) Lawrence

American physicist who produced radioactive isotopes and used radioactivity in medicine. Introduced use of neutron beams in cancer treatment. Invented the cyclotron.

(Benjamin) Franklin

American statesman, inventor and philosopher. Created foundation of public libraries, invented an improved heat stove, experimented with electricity and kites.

(Mary) Leakey

Archaeologist that discovered the skeleton of a primitive ape in 1948, a skull of 1.75 million year old hominid in 1959, and a fossilized footprint of a human so old it led her to deduce that humans walked upright 3.6 mil years ago.

(Sigmund) Freud

Austrian neurologist/psychologist. Theorized that repressed memories lead to unhealthy mental states. Id, Ego, Superego make up the mind. Described the Oedipus Complex; children are jealous of the same-sex parent and lustful for the opposite sex one.

(J. Robert) Oppenheimer

Became chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission to lobby for international control of nuclear power to avoid an arms race with the Soviet Union. American physicist who directed the Manhattan Project (1942-1945) which developed the atomic bomb.

(Jane) Goodall

British primate research. First to document that chimpanzees used objects as tools, communicated with facial expressions, body language and sound and sometimes ate meat.

(Nikola) Tesla

Created artificial lighting and demonstrated wireless communication. Principle of rotating magnetic field. Installed electric power machinery at Niagara Falls. Designer of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

(Nicholas) Copernicus

Polish astronomer & physician. Deduced that the Earth rotates on its axis and that the planets revolve around the sun: the heliocentric theory. Founder of modern astronomy.

Galileo

Discovered isochronism of the pendulum. Created hydrostatic balance. Illustrated that bodies of different weights fall with the same velocity. Improved the refracting telescope. Tried by the Inquisition for supporting heliocentrism.

(Keith) Campbell (and) (Ian) Wilmut

Duo famous for being the first scientists to clone a mammal (Dolly the Sheep).

(Antoni van) Leeuwenhoek

Dutch inventor. Redesigned the microscope, achieving magnifications of more than 250. Discovered protozoa and was the first to publish drawings of bacteria.

(Hans) Lippershey

Dutch spectacle maker credited with inventing the first telescope in 1608.

(Georges) Lemaître

Proposed a theory that says that all the matter in the universe was originally compressed into a tiny dot. In a fraction of a second, the dot expanded, & all the matter instantly filled what is now our universe. In 1927 he proposed this Big Bang theory of the universe.

(Sir William Henry) Perkins

English chemist and mathematician who at 19 was the first person to produce an artificial dye (it was accidental; he was trying to synthesize quinine)

(John) Dalton

English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of modern atomic theory.

(Michael) Faraday

English chemist/physicist who made advances in electricity/magnetism. Invented electric motor & generator and the transformer. Deduced the principle of electromagnetic induction (Law of Electrolysis)

(Roger) Bacon

English philosopher, scientist, and Franciscan monk. Made gunpowder and experimented in optics & alchemy. Wrote on logic, grammar, math, philosophy, philology. Imprisoned on heresy

(William) Harvey

English physician. First to accurately describe the human circulatory system and the function of the heart.

(Edward) Jenner

English physician. In 1796, after observing that milkmaids who had cowpox did not get smallpox, he vaccinated an 8-year-old boy with cowpox vesicles, therefore successfully testing a vaccine for smallpox

(William) Talbot

English physicist who invented the calotype, a photographic process faster than Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype. The calotype was the first to use a negative for making multiple prints.

(Ernest) Rutherford

Father of nuclear physics. Differentiated alpha & beta radiation. Discovered the concept of radioactive half-life. Famous for his gold-foil experiment. Discovered the proton and nucleus of an atom.

(Dorothy Crowfoot) Hodgkin

First scientist to use computer analysis to study the molecular structure of vitamin B12, penicillin and insulin. Awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964.

(Christiaan) Huygens

First to use a pendulum in clocks to help regulate time. Designed new method of grinding/polishing lenses. Solved questions about centrifugal force. Designed wave theory of light that stated light moved in waves of constant vibrations

(James) Watson (and) (Francis) Crick

Found that DNA is made up of two strands that twist around each other and have an almost endless variety of chemical patterns that create instructions for the human body to follow. These two scientists found the double-helix structure of DNA.

(Alexander Graham) Bell

Founded the journal Science, a school for the deaf, the Aerial Experiment Association and was President of the National Geographic Society. American Inventor of the telephone and induction balance for finding metal objects in the body.

(Gregor) Mendel

Founder of modern genetics. He used peas to discover and demonstrate the laws of genetic inheritance, coining the terms dominant and recessive genes in the process. Created his three laws: Law of Independent Assortment, Law of Segregation, and Law of Dominance.

(Antoine-Lauren) Lavoisier

French chemist and father of modern chemistry. He named oxygen and proposed law of conservation of matter (nothing is destroyed or created in a chemical reaction, merely altered). Killed during the French Revolution

Montgolfier Brothers

French inventors who built the first hot-air balloon in 1783, which stayed aloft for 10 minutes. Later, built balloon that carried the first person in air.

(Johannes) Kepler

German astronomer. Deduced ray theory of light to explain vision; founder of modern optics. Established 3 laws of planetary motion. His work contributed to the development of calculus. Newton built his theories on this man's work.

(Paul) Ehrlich

German chemist and bacteriologist. Made great innovations in immunology and chemotherapy. Won Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Elie Metchnikoff in 1908

(Carl Friedrich) Benz

German engineer and auto manufacturer. Leader in construction of motor-driven vehicles. In 1883, he founded a company in Mannheim to produce stationary engines. Started making cars in 1893.

(Gottlieb Wilhelm) Daimler

German engineer, inventor, and auto manufacturer. Received patent for small, high-speed internal combustion engine. Leader in developing the automobile.

(Maria) Merian

German naturalist. Her observations & paintings of insect metamorphoses were collected in her book "Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium" and advanced biological classification.

(Konrad van) Megenberg

German scientist who wrote the first German handbook of astronomy and physics.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher and scientist. He taught and wrote about logics, metaphysics, natural science, rhetoric, ethics and poetics. He was a student of Plato and tutored Alexander the Great.

Hippocrates

Greek physician known as the father of medicine. Developed a code of medical ethics that all new doctors swear to uphold.

Archimedes

Greek who discovered that any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.

(Robert) Hooke

He had an extraordinary ability to manipulate microscopes, and when applying this ability to looking closely at a thin slice of cork observed empty spaces contained with walls - terming them cells. Famous for discovering the cell.

(Louis) Pasteur

He not only discovered that disease came from microorganisms, but he also realized that bacteria could be killed by heat and disinfectant. Developed inoculation for anthrax, cholera, and rabies in animals

(Niels) Bohr

He won a 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on the structure of an atom and for his work in the development of the quantum theory. Although he help develop the atomic bomb, he frequently promoted the use of atomic power for peaceful purposes.

(Marie and Pierre) Curie

Husband and wife remembered for her discovery of radium and polonium and described radioactivity. Wife invented the mobile x-ray unit and receive Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911.

(JJ) Thomson

In 1897 this British physicist discovered the electron.

(James) Chadwick

In 1932, this man proved that neutrons exist; confirming what Ernest Rutherford had predicted years before.

(Luc) Montagnier (and Robert) Gallo

In 1983 and 1984 they discovered the HIV virus and determined that it was the cause of AIDS.

(Isaac) Newton

Remembered for his law of universal gravitation. In 1664, he figured out that gravity is the force that draws objects toward each other. It explained why things fall down & why the planets orbit around the Sun. Invented calculus.

(Jonas) Salk

Invented the first successful vaccine for polio in 1954

(Alfred) Nobel

Inventor of Dynamite

(Jacques) Cousteau

Inventor of Scuba Gear

(George) Westinghouse

Inventor of air brakes, mainly for transportation

(Joseph) Glidden

Inventor of barbed wire

(Johannes) Gutenberg

Inventor of the Printing Press

(Tim) Berners-Lee

Inventor of the World Wide Web

(Eli) Whitney

Inventor of the cotton gin

(Cyrus) McCormick

Inventor of the mechanical mower-reaper

(Samuel) Colt

Inventor of the revolver

(Elias) Howe

Inventor of the sewing machine

(John) Deere

Inventor of the steel plow

(Philo) Farnsworth

Inventor of the television

(Whitcomb) Judson

Inventor of the zipper

(Mondino) d'Luzzi

Italian anatomist in the Middle Ages. Wrote textbook on human anatomy that was standard text until Andreas Vesalius published his opus on human anatomy in 1543.

(Alessandro) Volta

Italian physicist who pioneered electric studies. Invented the voltaic battery; the first electric battery. The SI unit for electrical potential is named after him.

(Robert) Goddard

Launcher of the first liquid-fuel rocket

(Guglielmo) Marconi

Made improvements in wireless communication, allowing messages to be sent across English Channel. Worked on developing shortwave wireless communication. Italian inventor of the radio.

(Albert) Einstein

Made key contributions to quantum theory. Received Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Served at in Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Deduced the theory of relativity, Brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect.

(Charles) Babbage

Mathematician and inventor. He perfected a calculating machine and invented the ophthalmoscope; instrument used to view interior of the eye. Credited with building one of the first programmable computers.

(Bill) Gates

Nearly 90% of consumers & business use his work. By licensing Windows, web browsers and productivity software to manufacturers of IBM-compatible PCs, he became software maker to the world. Co-founder of Microsoft.

Galen

Notable discoveries include the identification of the differences between veins and arteries, and recognizing that the larynx generates voice. Famous for introducing medical experimentation

(Charles) Darwin

Sailed on the HMS Beagle collecting flora, fauna and fossil from the Galapagos Archipelago. English naturalist best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection.

(Sir Alexander) Fleming

Scottish bacteriologist. Won Nobel Prize for physiology/medicine in 1945. Accidentally discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928, one of the most important contributions in 20th century medicine.

(James) Watt

Scottish inventor and engineer. Invented modern condensing steam engine in 1765 and double-acting engine in 1782. A single unit of power was named after him.

(Christiaan Neethling) Barnard

South African surgeon. In 1967, he performed the first successful human heart transplant.

(Nicéphore) Niépce

The first partially successful photograph of a camera image was made in approximately 1816 by this man.

(Dmitri) Mendeleev

This man noticed that, when arranged by atomic weight, the chemical elements lined up to form groups with similar properties. The Periodic Table is based on the 1869 Periodic Law proposed by this Russian chemist.