Impactful Scientists

Below is a compendium of impactful scientists. Comment if you’d like to see anyone added to the compilation.

Alphabetized by Last Name.

A

  1. Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780 – 850) – Persian mathematician, astronomer, pioneer of algebra
  2. Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE) – Greek philosopher

B

  1. Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) – English philosopher, statesman, scientist
  2. Joseph Black (1728 – 1799) – Scottish chemist and physician
  3. Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962) – Danish physicist
  4. Robert Boyle (1627-1691) – English pioneer of chemistry
  5. Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601) – Danish nobleman, astronomer

C

  1. Henry Cavendish (1731 – 1810) – English physicist and chemist
  2. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) – Polish astronomer
  3. Charles Coulomb (1736 – 1806) – French physicist, engineer
  4. Marie Curie (1867 – 1934) – Polish physicist and chemist

D

  1. John Dalton (1766 – 1844) – English meteorologist, chemist, physicist
  2. Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) – English biologist, naturalist, pioneer of evolutionary biology
  3. Richard Dawkins (1941 – present) – English zoologist, biologist
  4. Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) – French mathematician, scientist, pioneer of modern philosophy

E

  1. Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) – German physicist

F

  1. Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) – British physicist and chemist.
  2. Pierre de Fermat (1607 – 1665) – French mathematician
  3. Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790) – American entrepreneur, inventor, diplomat

G

  1. Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) – Italian polymath, pioneer of modern science
  2. Luigi Galvani ( 1737 – 1798) – Italian physicist, pioneer of bioelectricity

H

  1. Edmond Halley (1656 – 1742) – English astronomer, mathematician
  2. William Harvey (1578 – 1657) – English physician
  3. Heinrich Hertz (1857 – 1894) – German physicist
  4. Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) – English scientist, architect
  5. James Hutton (1726 – 1797) – Scottish geologist, pioneer of modern geology
  6. Christiaan Huygens (1629 – 1695) – Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist

I

J

  1. James Prescott Joule (1818 – 1889) – English physicist

K

  1. Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) – German mathematician, astronomer

L

  1. Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749 – 1827) – French mathematician and astronomer
  2. James Lind (1716 – 1794) – Scottish physician
  3. Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778) – Swedish botanist, zoologist, pioneer of modern taxonomy
  4. Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875) – Scottish geologist

M

  1. Matthew Maury (1806 – 1873) – American oceanographer, pioneer of oceanography
  2. James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879) – British physicist
  3. Gregor Mendel (1822 – 1884) – German botanist, pioneer of genetics
  4. Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 – 1907) – Russian chemist, pioneer of periodic table of elements

N

  1. John Napier (1550 – 1617) – Scottish mathematician
  2. Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) – English physicist, mathematician

O

P

  1. Max Planck (1858 – 1947) – German physicist, pioneer of quantum theory
  2. Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804) – English chemist
  3. Pythagoras (570 – 495 BCE) – Greek mathematician, philosopher

Q

R

  1. Ernest Rutherford ( 1871 – 1930) – New Zealand physicist

S

  1. Carl Sagan (1934 – 1996) – American astronomer and physicist
  2. Theodor Schwann (1810 – 1882) – German physiologist, pioneer of modern Cell Theory

T

  1. Benjamin Thompson (1753 – 1814) – American physicist
  2. Joseph John Thomson (1856 – 1940) – English physicist, mathematician
  3. William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824 – 1907) – Scottish physicist, mathematician

U

V

  1. Antony Van Leewenhoek (1632 – 1723) – Dutch pioneer of microbiology
  2. Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564) – Flemish anatomist, physician
  3. Alessandro Volta (1745 – 1827) – Italian physicist, chemist

W

  1. James Watt (1736 – 1819) – Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer

X

Y

Z

To read more about the discoveries of these scientists, be sure to check out the History of Science Timeline section.

Comments

  1. Amanda @ Healthy House on the Block says:

    Wow! This is a great list of influential scientists. For work I recently had to do some continuing education about radon and I learned so much about Marie Curie. My girls have loved learning about her recently too. So great to have these historical individuals to learn about!

  7. Jen says:

    Such a great list of Scientists. These lists could help a lot of students they will be thankful to you. Thanks for sharing.

  8. Courtney says:

    Oooo such a great list!! An awesome resource for people to use!! Thanks for compiling it for us!!

  9. Angela Tolsma says:

    I’ve heard of a few of these names. To be honest it’s a very white and male heavy list and there are some awesome woman and people of color scientists out there! Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Grace Hopper, Margaret Hamilton, Margheita Hack, Marie Curie, Mary AnningNettie Stevens, Rita Levi Montalcini.

  10. Christa says:

    This is such a comprehensive list! I can’t wait to read about some of the names that are newer to me.

  11. Natural Beauty And Makeup says:

    Wow, this is a great list of scientists! Not sure, if I am allowed to add the names of best scientists from my country India like Sir CV Raman, Homi J. Bhabha, Satyendra Nath Bose,Vikram Sarabhai, Acharya Jagadish C Bose to this list. They are all eminent scientists ☺

  12. Nati says:

    Oh yes! these are definitely impactful scientists, I’d say they’re are the ground of modern science. However there have been many new technologies in the XXth and XXIst century and I don’t see any of the more recent scientists!

  13. Jonah says:

    First of all, an absolutely excellent list! Some seriously amazing thinkers mentioned thus far. One I would love to see added to said list is J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was an amazing critical thinker and broke ground in adding to our understand of the basic powers of the universe!

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