People
Adler, Mortimer J. (1902–2001): American philosopher and educator.
Akera, Takashi: Japanese cytologist and molecular biologist.
Alais, David: Australian psychologist.
Alzheimer, Alois (1864–1915): German physician and psychiatrist, credited with discovering the disease that bears his name.
Anaximander of Miletus (610–547 bce): Turkish-Greek philosopher, astronomer, geographer, mathematician, and proponent of science.
Anderson, Philip W. (1923–): American physicist.
Andersson, Leif: Swedish evolutionary geneticist.
Andolfatto, Peter: Canadian evolutionary biologist.
Andrews, George A.: American mathematician.
Andrulis, Erik D.: American microbiologist who works on gyre theory.
Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109): English Benedictine monk who made an ontological argument for the existence of God in his book Proslogion (1077–1078).
Archimedes (287–212 bce): Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer; considered one of the leading scientists in antiquity, and one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Archimedes was killed during the Siege of Syracuse by an impatient Roman soldier, despite explicit orders that Archimedes was not to be harmed. The solder got ticked off because Archimedes told him to wait until he finished a problem he was working on. The soldier was executed for his indiscretion.
Arendt, Johanna (Hannah) (1906–1975): German-born Jewish American philosopher.
Aristotle (384–322 bce): Greek philosopher and polymath.
Asch, Solomon E. (1907–1996): American Gestalt psychologist and social psychologist, known for his study of conformity.
Asperger, Hans (1906–1980): Austrian pediatrician, medical theorist, and professor who identified Asperger’s syndrome.
Astington, Janet Wilde: Canadian developmental psychologist.
Bacon, Francis (1561–1626): English philosopher, scientist, and jurist. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism.
Bain, Alexander (1818–1903): Scottish philosopher.
Baldwin, Ian T. (1958–): American ecologist.
Barrett, Jonathan: English particle physicist.
Baudrillard, Jean (1929–2007): French sociologist and philosopher.
Bell, John Stewart (1928–1990): Irish physicist who developed Bell’s theorem, which posits nonlocality.
Ben-Jacob, Eshel (1952–2015): Israeli physicist, interested in self-organization, particularly among bacteria.
Bettini, Alessandro: Italian particle physicist.
Bierbach, David: ichthyologist and ecologist.
Bohm, David J. (1917–1992): American theoretical physicist.
Bohr, Niels (1885–1962): Danish physicist who contributed to atomic theory and quantum mechanics.
Boltzmann, Ludwig (1844–1906): Austrian physicist who made significant contributions to mechanics and thermodynamics. Boltzmann advocated atomic theory when it was still quite controversial.
Bomphrey, Richard J.: English biomechanist, interested in animal flight.
Boorstin, Daniel J. (1914–2004): American historian.
Boothby, Thomas: American biologist, interested in the fundamental mechanisms of extreme stress tolerance.
Bose, Satyendra Nath (1894–1974): Indian mathematician and physicist who worked on electromagnetic radiation and statistical mechanics.
Boulanger, Lisa: American molecular biologist.
Boutroux, Pierre (1880–1922): French mathematician and historian of science, best known for his accounts of the history and philosophy of mathematics.
Braakman, Rogier: Dutch chemical physicist.
Bradbury, Ray (1920–2012): American author and screenwriter who wrote fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror fiction.
Bragg, William Henry (1862–1942): English physicist, chemist, and mathematician who discovered the elemental dynamics of ionizing radiation in 1903.
Brusini, Perrine: French psychologist.
Buddha (563–483 bce): Indian guru whose teachings were the foundation of Buddhism.
Burd, Martin: Australian evolutionary ecologist.
Buric, Ivana: Croatian psychologist.
Caetano-Anollés, Gustavo: Argentinian biologist.
Cairns-Smith, A. Graham (1931–): English chemist and molecular biologist.
Cajal, Santiago Ramón y (1852–1934): Spanish neurologist.
Calle, Carlos I.: American physicist.
Camus, Albert (1913–1960): French philosopher, author, and journalist. Camus’ writings contributed to the rise of the philosophical school known as absurdism.
Cantor-Graae, Elizabeth: Swedish psychologist, interested in the contribution of social interaction to mental illness.
Capra, Fritjof (1939–): Austrian-born American physicist and systems theorist.
Cardona, Tanai: Columbian biologist, interested in photosynthesis.
Carlson, Linda E.: American physician.
Caro, Tim: English zoologist, interested in animal coloration and wildlife conservation.
Carpenter, William T.: American psychiatrist, interested in severe mental illness, especially schizophrenia.
Carr, John P.: English plant pathologist.
Carroll, Sean M. (1966–): American astrophysicist.
Carson, Rachel (1907–1964): American marine biologist, famous for Silent Spring (1962), which chronicled the environmental devastation caused by synthetic pesticides, especially DDT. American chemical companies were incensed by the book.
Chamovitz, Daniel: American botanist.
Chandrasekhar, Subramanyan (1910–1995): Indian astrophysicist.
Chang, Roger Larken: American biologist.
Cheng Chin: Chinese quantum physicist.
Chess, Barry: American molecular biologist.
Chunharas, Chaipat: Indian neurobiologist.
Churchill, Winston (1874–1965): English politician (Labour); UK Prime Minister (1940–1945, 1951–1955).
Clark, Andy: English philosopher and psychologist.
Clarke, Arthur C. (1917–2008): English science and science fiction writer, and futurist.
Clifford, William Kingdon (1845–1879): brilliant English mathematician and philosopher who anticipated the most important developments in 20th-century physics, including relativity and quantum field theory.
Coffey, Kimberly A.: American psychologist.
Cohen, Itai: American physicist.
Cohen, Lisa J.: American psychologist.
Cole, Steven W.: American immunologist and geneticist, interested in the impact of human sociality on genomes.
Cook, John: Australian psychologist.
Cooper, Leon (1930–): American physicist who contributed to understanding superconductivity.
Copernicus, Nicolaus (1473–1543): Prussian astronomer who developed a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, displacing the Earth from the center of the universe. Copernicus’s work was published posthumously, as he worried about the scorn that his crazy idea would provoke.
Cosby, Bill (1937–): American comedian, actor, and author.
Costa, Fabio: quantum physicist.
Cowper, William (1731–1800): English poet, admired by his contemporaries; one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry.
Cuthill, Innes C. (1961–): English ethologist.
da Vinci, Leonardo (1452–1519): Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, musician, inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, geologist, cartographer, anatomist, botanist, and writer. Best known for a small portrait of a drab woman with a half-smile (Mona Lisa).
Danyluck, Chad: American health physiologist.
Darch, Sophie E.: English molecular biologist.
Darimont, Chris: Canadian evolutionary ecologist.
Darwin, Charles (1809–1882): English naturalist, famous for his hollow hypothesis of evolution by “natural selection.”
Davidson, Richard J.: American psychologist.
Davies, Paul C.W. (1946–): English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist, intent on finding extraterrestrial life. Davies generated controversy by noting that the faith of scientists is in the immutability of physical laws; a faith with roots in Christian theology. Davies called the claim that science is “free of faith”: “bogus.”
Davis, Tamara M.: Australian astrophysicist and ultimate Frisbee player.
Dawkins, Richard (1941–): English evolutionary biologist.
de Broglie, Louis (1892–1987): French physicist who developed the pilot wave theory.
de Fermat, Pierre: see Fermat, Pierre.
de La Rochefoucauld, François (1613 –1680): French author.
de Swart, Rik: Dutch virologist.
de Vries, Hugo (1848–1935): Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. de Vries coined the term mutation.
Dehnel, August (1903–1962): Polish zoologist, known for discovering Dehnel phenomenon.
Descartes, René (1596–1650): French rationalist philosopher and mathematician.
Diderot, Denis (1713–1784): French philosopher, writer, and art critic; a prominent figure in the Enlightenment.
Dirac, Paul (1902–1984): brilliant English theoretical physicist who contributed to the early development of quantum physics. Dirac was a precise and taciturn man. Raised Catholic, Dirac once remarked, “religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality.”
Dobzhansky, Theodosius (1900–1975): Ukrainian geneticist and evolutionary biologist.
Dombeck, Mark: American physician, interested in autism.
Doppler, Christian (1803–1853): Austrian physicist who proposed the Doppler effect in 1842.
Doyle, Arthur Conan (1859–1930): Irish-Scots novelist and physician, best known for the crime fiction tales of detective Sherlock Holmes.
Duffy, Ken R.: Irish immunologist.
Dyer, Adrian: Australian vision scientist.
Dyson, Freeman (1923–): English-born American physicist, cosmologist, and mathematician.
Ecker, Ullrich K.H.: Australian psychologist.
Einstein, Albert (1879–1955): German theoretical physicist, best known for his theories of relativity.
Elf, Johan: Swedish molecular biologist.
Elgar, Mark A.: Australian zoologist, interested in unusual animal behaviors and use of chemical communication.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803–1882): American essayist and poet.
Emons, Anne Mie C.: Dutch botanist and cytologist.
Empedocles (490–430 bce): Greek philosopher, best known for originating the cosmogenic theory of the 4 classical elements.
Engelhardt, Netta: American physicist.
Ertter, Barbara: American botanist.
Euclid of Alexandria (~300 bce): Greek mathematician, the father of geometry. Euclid wrote the most influential mathematics book of all time: Elements, the primary textbook for math, especially geometry, for over 2,000 years, into the early 20th century. Euclidean geometry was extended into higher dimensions via independent work by János Bolyai and Nikolai Lobachevsky.
Faraday, Michael (1791–1867): influential English scientist of little formal education, remembered for his contributions to understanding electrical phenomena, particularly electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis.
Feldman, Ruth: Israeli psychologist.
Fermat, Pierre de (1607–1665): French lawyer and mathematician who contributed discoveries in calculus, including the concept of adequality (approximate equality), analytic geometry, probability, and optics; best known for Fermat’s principle for light propagation and Fermat’s last theorem, a number theory.
Fermi, Enrico (1901–1954): Italian-born physicist, best known for his work on developing a nuclear reactor. Fermi was a rare physicist in excelling in both experimental and theoretical work.
Feynman, Richard (1918–1988): eccentric American theoretical physicist who made contributions to particle physics, electrodynamics, and superfluidity.
Fields, R. Douglas: American neurobiologist.
Fodor, Jerry (1935–): American cognitive scientist and philosopher.
Fosse, Roar: Norwegian psychologist.
Fredrickson, Barbara L. (1964–): American social psychologist, interested in emotions and positive psychology.
Fresnel, Augustin (1788–1827): French engineer and physicist whose study of optics led to widespread acceptance of light as a waveform phenomenon, as contrasted to Newton’s earlier particle (corpuscular) theory.
Fukuyama, Francis (1952–): American political scientist and political economist.
Galen of Pergamon (129–216): Greek physician, surgeon, anatomist, and philosopher. Galen’s theories influenced Western medical science for over 1,300 years.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. Galileo was a seminal figure in development of science as a discipline, and a scourge to the Catholic Church for buying into Copernicus’ notion of heliocentricity.
García-Seisdedos, Héctor: molecular biologist.
George, Henry (1839–1897): American political economist, journalist, and philosopher.
Gerum, Richard: German zoologist.
Geula, Changiz: American cognitive neurologist, interested in Alzheimer’s disease.
Glicksman, Martin: American materials scientist who in 2017 discovered the energy field which creates fractal patterns during metal solidification.
Glover, Beverley J. (1972–): English botanist.
Gödel, Kurt (1906–1978): Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher, best known for his incompleteness theorems, which pointed out the inherent limitations of mathematical systems.
Goff, Jon: English physicist.
Gold, Vicki: English biochemist, interested in proteins.
Goldstein, Richard A.: English molecular biochemist.
Golgi, Camillo (1843–1926): Italian physician and pathologist, known for his work on the human central nervous system.
Goodman, Noah D.: American psychologist.
Gopnik, Alison: American psychologist and philosopher.
Gorb, Stanislav N.: Ukrainian entomologist, interested in biomechanics.
Gould, Carol G. & James L.: American ethologists and evolutionary biologists.
Gribbin, John (1946–): English astrophysicist.
Griffiths, Thomas L.: American psychologist.
Grosseteste, Robert (1175–1253): English scholastic philosopher, theologian, and scientist who proposed that the universe began by expanding from a singularity of light. Grosseteste also posited the possibility of a multiverse.
Gruson, V.: French quantum physicist.
Haeckel, Ernst (1834–1919): German biologist who conceptualized biological diversity as an evolutionary tree of life.
Haldane, J.B.S. (1892–1964): British-born Indian scientist, interested in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics.
Hamilton, Paul: American astrophysicist.
Hamilton, William Rowan (1805–1865): Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who contributed to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra.
Hardy, G.H. (1877–1947): English mathematician, known for his work in mathematical analysis and number theory.
Harms, Michael J.: American evolutionary biochemist.
Harris, Sam B. (1967–): American neurobiologist and philosopher.
Harrison, George (1943–2001): spiritually-oriented English musician; lead guitarist of The Beatles (1960–1970).
Hayes, Terry: (1951–): English author and screenwriter.
Heisenberg, Werner (1901–1976): German theoretical physicist, best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum field theory, which states that measurement of subatomic particles is tricky to the point of indeterminate.
Heller, Robert (1826?–1878): English magician, mentalist, and musician.
Heraclitus (535–475 bce): Turkish-Greek energyist philosopher.
Herbert, Frank (1920–1986): American science fiction novelist, best known for the space opera Dune (1965) and its 5 sequels.
Hero of Alexandria (10–70 ce): Greek mathematician and engineer; considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity.
Hiley, Basil J. (1935–): Burma-born British quantum physicist.
Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679): English sociologist and political philosopher who established social contract theory and advocated despotism.
Hobson, Art: American theoretical physicist.
Hoffman, Dustin (1937–): American actor, known for his portrayal of antiheroes and vulnerable characters.
Holmes, Sherlock: English fictional private detective, created by Irish-Scots writer Arthur Conan Doyle.
Holyst, Robert: Polish chemist.
Horava, Petr: Czech string theorist who works on D-brane theory.
Hoy, Ronald R.: American zoologist, interested in neurobiology and animal communication.
Hoyle, Fred (1915–2001): English astronomer, mathematician, and science fiction writer. One of Hoyle’s science-fiction beliefs was in a steady-state universe. Einstein shared that belief for a time.
Hubble, Edwin (1889–1953): American astronomer, often incorrectly credited with discovery of other galaxies and galactic Doppler shift (inaptly termed Hubble’s law). Hubble did devise the Hubble sequence: a simple way of classifying galaxies by how they look.
Hume, David (1711–1776): Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist; a logician known for empiricism and skepticism. In stark contrast to rationalists, such as Descartes, Hume believed that desire, not reason, drove human behavior.
Hutton, James (1726–1797): Scottish geologist.
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825–1895): English biologist and anatomist, known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his staunch advocacy of Darwinian evolution.
Huygens, Christiaan (1629–1695): Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist, probabilist, and horologist.
Iovino, Nicola: Italian geneticist.
Iyengar, M.T. Narayana: Indian mathematician.
Jäger, Peter: German taxonomist.
James, William (1842–1910): American physician, psychologist, and philosopher.
Jami, Criss: American poet and philosopher.
Jenkins, Pegi Joy (1932–2014): American author of educational books.
Jesus (of Nazareth) (aka Jesus Christ) (7–2 bce–30–33 ce): Israeli Jewish carpenter and preacher who is regarded by Christians to have been the awaited Messiah (or Christ) referred to in the Old Testament. Though presumed literate, Jesus left no writings.
Jung, Carl (1875–1961): Swiss psychiatrist.
Justice, Steve: American engineer and technologist.
Kamppinen, Matti: Finnish psychologist and philosopher of mind.
Kant, Immanuel (1724–1804): influential German philosopher and rationalist.
It always remains a scandal of philosophy and universal human reason that the existence of things outside us should have to be assumed merely on faith, and that if it occurs to anyone to doubt it, we should be unable to answer him with a satisfactory proof. ~ Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
Yet Kant rejected positivism, warning of the seduction of perception as truth.
Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects; but let us once try whether we do not get farther with the problems of metaphysics by assuming that the objects must conform to our cognition.
Karbstein, Katrin: American molecular biologist.
Kazantzakis, Nikos (1883–1957): Greek writer and philosopher, best known for his novel Zorba the Greek.
Keen, Steve (1953–): Australian economist.
Keller, Helen (1880–1968): American author who was blind and deaf through illness at 19 months old.
Kemp, Charles: American psychologist.
Kilcher, Jewel (1974–): American singer-songwriter, actress, author, and poet.
Kirchhoff, Gustav (1824–1887): German physicist who contributed to understanding electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and black-body radiation.
Kleinteich, Thomas: German biomechanist interested in vertebrate functional morphology, especially in amphibians.
Koch, Christof (1956–): American neurobiologist, known for his ridiculous work on the neural bases of consciousness.
Kröger, Roland: physicist and physical chemist.
Krystal, John H.: American psychiatrist, interested in alcoholism, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kuhlmann, Meinard: German philosopher and physicist.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1922–1996): American physicist, historian, and philosopher of science.
Kuriyama, Takeo: Japanese zoologist.
Lagrange, Joseph-Louis (1736–1813): Italian French mathematician and astronomer.
Lampson, Michael A.: American cytologist.
Landau, Lev (1908–1968): Azerbaijanian quantum physicist who made important contributions to many areas of theoretical physics.
Lao Tzu (aka Laozi, Lao-Tsu, Lao-Tze) (6th or 5th century bce): Chinese scholar and philosopher; inadvertent founder of Daoism, which teaches reverence of Nature, the value of patience, and a path to judicious existence. A legendary figure, when and even whether actually Lao Tzu lived is speculative. His name is an honorary title.
Laplace, Pierre-Simon (1749–1827): French mathematician and astronomer who made important contributions to mathematical astronomy, physics, and statistics.
LaPoint, Scott: American zoologist.
Lázaro, Javier: zoologist, interested in ornithology (birds).
Lemaître, Georges (1894–1966): Belgian Roman Catholic priest and astrophysicist who conceived the Big Bang origin of the universe and discovered Hubble’s law.
Lenin, Vladimir (1870–1924): Russian communist revolutionary and political theorist.
Lentink, David: Dutch American mechanical engineer, interested in biomechanics.
Leong, Victoria: Singaporean psychologist.
Levy, Emmanuel D.: French structural biologist.
Lewandowsky, Stephan (1958–): Australian psychologist interested in the public’s understanding of science, and why people belief in falsity.
Lewis, Gilbert N. (1875–1946): American physical chemist, known for his discovery of the covalent bond, and his concept of electron pairs. His valence bond theory shaped current theories of chemical bonding. Lewis also contributed to thermodynamics, photochemistry, isotope separation, and an electronic theory of acid-base reaction.
Lieberman, Daniel (1964–): American paleoanthropologist.
Lifshitz, Evgeny: Russian physicist, interested in relativity and quantum electrodynamics.
Linnaeus, Carl (1707–1778): Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who is widely considered the father of taxonomy, despite numerous wrong guesses, including lumping amphibians and reptiles together.
Lisi, Antony Garrett (1968–): American theoretical physicist and adventure sports enthusiast.
Locke, John (1632–1704): English philosopher and physician.
Lopez, Régis: French psychiatrist.
Luisi, Pier Luigi (1938–): Italian chemistry professor.
Lyons, S. Kathleen: American paleobiologist.
Mach, Ernst (1838–1916): Austrian physicist and philosopher.
Machiavelli, Niccolò (1469–1527): Italian historian, politician, and writer. Men who pursue their goals without regard to legal or moral limits may be called Machiavellian.
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. ~ Niccolò Machiavelli
Macknik, Stephen L.: American neurobiologist.
Maeder, André: Swiss theoretical astrophysicist.
Maharaj, Nisargadatta (born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli) (1897–1981): lucent Indian guru, best known for the book I Am That (1973).
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008): Indian guru who taught meditation under the brand name Transcendental Meditation® (TM).
Majorana, Ettore (1906–?): gifted Italian physicist who first predicted the neutron and Majorana fermions. Majorana’s life ended mysteriously. On 27 March 1938, he took a boat trip from Palermo to Naples. Majorana disappeared. His body was never found. Majorana had emptied his bank account prior to the trip. 2 days before he left, Majorana wrote a note to the Director of the Naples Physics Institute, apologizing for the inconvenience that his disappearance would cause.
Makin, Simon J.: English auditory perception researcher, psychologist, and science journalist.
Malraux, André (1901–1976): French novelist and art theorist.
Margulis, Lynn (1938–2011): American evolutionary theorist, science writer, and educator.
Markham, Edwin (1852–1940): American poet.
Marsh, Henry (1950–): English neurosurgeon.
Martinez-Conde, Susana: American neurobiologist.
Mason, Malia: American psychologist.
Maupertuis, Pierre Louis (1698–1759): French mathematician and philosopher, who worked in classical mechanics, heredity, and natural ecology. Maupertuis made the first reputed suggestion that all life had a common ancestor.
Maus, Gerrit: American psychologist.
Maxwell, James Clerk (1831–1879): Scottish physicist, most famous for formulating classical electromagnetic theory in 1865. Maxwell is widely considered the 19th-century physicist most influential on 20th-century physics. In 1861, Maxwell invented the first durable color photograph.
McGaugh, Stacy: American astrophysicist.
McNally, Francis J.: American biochemist, interested in cell division.
McNutt, Marcia (1952–): American geophysicist.
McShea, Dan: American evolutionary biologist.
Medawar, Peter Brian (1915–1987): Brazilian-born British biologist, interested in immunology.
Melcher, David: American psychologist.
Mendeleyev, Dmitry (aka Dmitri Mendeleev) (1834–1907): Russian chemist who created the modern table of periodic elements.
Menon, Vinod: Indian American psychiatrist, interested in autism.
Michell, John (1724–1793): English clergyman, natural philosopher, and geologist who made contributions in various sciences, including astronomy, geology, optics, and gravitation.
Miescher, Friedrich (1844–1895): Swiss physician and biologist who first identified nucleic acid.
Miesenböck, Gero: Austrian neurobiologist.
Miller, Roger (1936–1992): American musician, best known for the mid-1960s country/pop hits “King of the Road,” “Dang Me,” and “England Swings.”
Mitchell, David (1969–): English novelist.
Monaghan, Dominic (1976–): English actor.
Morr, Dirk K.: German American physicist.
Moser, Jason S.: American psychologist.
Moyroud, Edwige: French botanist, cytologist, and molecular biologist.
Muhammad (570–632): Arabian religious and political leader, believed by Muslims to be the prophet of Allāh.
Mulder, Bela M.: Dutch atomic and molecular physicist.
Mullainathan, Sendhil (1973–): Indian economist, interested in behavioral economics.
Müller, Johannes Peter (1801–1858): German physiologist, most impressively known for his ability to synthesize knowledge. Müller’s book Elements of Physiology initiated a new phase in the study of physiology, drawing from several previously distinct disciplines.
Murdoch, Iris (1919–1999): Irish author and philosopher.
Nagel, Thomas (1937–): Yugoslavian-born American philosopher.
Newton, Isaac (1642–1727): English physicist, astronomer, alchemist, mathematician, natural philosopher, and theologian; widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists. Classical mechanics are typically termed Newtonian physics.
Nisbett, Richard E. (1941–): American social psychologist.
Noel, Alexis C.: American mechanical engineer.
Ono, Ken (1968–): Japanese American mathematician who specializes in number theory.
Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904–1967): American theoretical physicist who worked alongside Enrico Fermi in developing the first nuclear weapons. After helping let the thermonuclear cat out of the bag, Oppenheimer later lobbied for arms control. Whatever analytic intelligence he possessed, Oppenheimer was naïve in the ways of the world.
Papazian, Stefano: Swedish botanist, interested in plant physiology.
Pasteur, Louis (1822–1895): French chemist and microbiologist, renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, fermentation, and pasteurization. Pasteur is credited with breakthroughs in understanding the causes and prevention of diseases.
Patañjali (~250 bce): Indian yogi.
Pauli, Wolfgang (1900–1958): sharp-tongued and sharp-witted Austrian theoretical physicist; a pioneer of quantum physics.
Paulsson, Johan: Swedish systems biologist and mathematician.
Paley, William (1743–1805): English philosopher, clergyman, and Christian apologist, best known for his theological argument for the existence of God as a natural force, using the watchmaker analogy.
Peek, Laurence Kim (1951–2009): American brain-damaged savant.
Penrose, Roger (1931–): English mathematical physicist, mathematician, and philosopher of science.
Petrarch (Petrarca), Francesco (1304–1374): Italian poet and scholar who coined the term Dark Ages; one of the earliest humanists.
Pfanzelte, Julia: Austrian cytologist.
Pinker, Steven (1954–): Canadian experimental cognitive psychologist; considered by some to currently be one of the world’s most influential intellectuals, which is a sad statement of how momentous misinformation can be.
Planck, Max (1858–1947): German physicist who founded quantum field theory, then rejected it out of philosophic revulsion, owing to the indeterminate nature of wave/particle duality (Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle). Planck philosophically preferred determinism.
Plato (427–347 bce): Greek philosopher and mathematician.
Poe, Edgar Allen (1809–1849): American writer.
Polchinski, Joseph (1942–): American string theorist, working on D-brane theory and interested in wormholes.
Ponting, Clive: English historian.
Popper, Karl (1902–1994): Austrian British philosopher, interested in the philosophy of science. Popper rejected the classical inductivist view on the scientific method (attributed to Francis Bacon) in favor of inductive (empirical) falsifiability. See falsifiability, inductivism.
Porter, Mason A.: English mathematician.
Pratchett, Terry (1948–2015): English fantasy novelist.
Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1809–1865): French philosopher who politically was a libertarian socialist.
Proust, Marcel (1871–1922): French novelist.
Pusey, Matthew F.: English particle physicist.
Putnam, Hilary (1926–2016): American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist.
Pynchon, Thomas (1937–): American novelist, noted for his densely woven, complex novels.
Qingdi Wang: Chinese physicist.
Ramachandran, Vilayanur S. (1951–): Indian neurobiologist, interested in vision.
Ramanujan, Srinivasa (1887–1920): brilliant Indian mathematical savant.
Reid, Noah M.: American evolutionary geneticist.
Relman, David A.: American microbiologist and immunologist.
Revonsuo, Antti: Finnish psychologist, cognitive neurobiologist, and philosopher of mind.
Reynolds, Tammy: American psychologist, interested in autism.
Richens, Jonathan G.: English quantum physicist.
Rippon, Isla: English gerontologist.
Rogers, Carl (1902–1987): American psychologist who was a leading light of humanistic psychology.
Rosen, Nathan (1909–1995): American Israeli physicist.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–1778): Genevan philosopher and composer.
Rovelli, Carlo: Italian theoretical physicist.
Rudolph, Terry: English particle physicist.
Russell, John Scott (1808–1882): Scottish engineer who discovered solitons. Russell was a naval architect and shipbuilder.
Rutherford, Ernest (1871–1937): English physicist and chemist, known as the father of nuclear physics.
Sagan, Carl (1934–1996): American astronomer and science writer.
Salam, Abdus (1926–1996): Pakistani theoretical physicist who worked on the unification of electromagnetic and weak forces (electroweak unification).
Sankara (aka Sri Sankara, Adi Shankara) (8th century?): Indian guru and prolific author who established the main currents of thought in Hinduism.
Schaller, Mark (1962–): American psychologist.
Schlegel, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (1772–1829): German poet, philosopher, literary critic, philologist, and Indologist.
Schleich, Wolfgang P. (1957–): German theoretical physicist, interested in the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1788–1860): German philosopher.
Schrödinger, Erwin (1887–1961): Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum field theory, and later disowned it. Best known for Schrödinger’s equation, regarding the dynamics of quantum systems.
Schulz, Richard: American psychologist and gerontologist.
Schwarz, Norbert: German American psychologist, interested in social psychology and consumer psychology, particularly how people form opinions and make decisions.
Schwarzschild, Karl (1873–1916): German physicist, best known for deriving the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity. Einstein was only able to produce an approximate solution.
Scott, Ridley (1937–): English filmmaker.
Searle, John R. (1932–): American philosopher.
Seiberg, Nathan (1956–): Israeli theoretical physicist who works on string theory.
Seifert, Colleen M.: American psychologist.
Shapiro, James A.: American molecular biologist and bacterial genetics maven.
Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950): Irish playwright, angered by the exploitation of the working class; an ardent socialist.
Shafir, Eldar: American behavioral scientist.
Shrestha, Mani: Australian evolutionary ecologist, interested in pollination.
Simpson, George Gaylord (1902–1984): American paleontologist, influential in evolutionary theory.
Smith, Adam (1723–1790): Scottish moral philosopher, remembered for his musings on economics.
Smith, D. Eric: American chemical physicist.
Smith, John Maynard (1920–2004): English theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Smith applied game theory to evolution and studied the evolution of sex and the nature of communication.
Socrates (469–399 bce): Athenian Greek philosopher.
Sommerfeld, Arnold (1868–1951): German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics.
Sorel, Georges (1847–1922): French philosopher.
Spinoza, Baruch (born Benedito de Espinosa) (1632–1677): Dutch rationalist philosopher who laid the philosophic foundation for the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Stenger, Victor J. (1935–2014): American particle physicist, atomist philosopher, and godless heathen who advocated science and reason.
Steptoe, Andrew: English psychologist.
Symonds, Matthew R.E.: Australian evolutionary biologist.
Szent-Györgyi, Albert (1893–1986): Hungarian physiologist who discovered vitamin C.
Szücs, Marianna: American entomologist, interested in evolution.
Sztarker, Julieta: Argentinian neurobiologist.
‘t Hooft, Gerard (1946–): Dutch theoretical physicist.
Talaro, Kathleen Park: American molecular biologist.
Tamm, Igor (1895–1971): Russian physicist who conceptualized phonons in 1932.
Taroni, Andrea: English physicist.
Tegmark, Max (1967–): Swedish-American cosmologist.
Tenenbaum, Joshua B.: American cognitive scientist.
Tertullian (Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus) (155–240): North African Roman Christian theologian. Unlike many Catholic church founders, Tertullian was never favored, as his teachings were unorthodox to later church leaders.
Thales of Miletus (624–546 bce): Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer who first suggested the scientific method. Thales believed in a material monism (matterism), thereby establishing the religion that poses as modern science. To Thales, water was the primordial substance, as it is essential to life, can move and flow, and change form.
Thomas, Lynne H.: English physiochemist.
Thompson, Benjamin (aka Count Rumford) (1753–1814): American-born English physicist, inventor, and military man who helped shape the modern understanding of thermodynamics.
Thomson, George P. (1892–1975): English physicist.
Thomson, Joseph John (J.J.) (1856–1940): English physicist, credited with discovering electrons and isotopes.
Thorton, Joseph W.: American evolutionary biologist.
Tomsic, Daniel: Argentinian neurobiologist.
Tooker, John: American entomologist.
Torquato, Salvatore: Italian American theoretical scientist who has contributed to physics, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, engineering, and biological physics.
Townshend, Pete (1945–): English musician who founded the musical group The Who (1964–).
Trivers, Robert (1943–): American evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist.
Turin, Luca (1953–): Lebanese biophysicist.
Turkheimer, Eric: American behavioral geneticist.
Turner, Michael S. (1949–): American theoretical cosmologist and physicist. Turner coined the term dark energy.
Twain, Mark (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835–1910): talented American author, prized for his satire and wit. Best known for the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
Unruh, William G. (Bill) (1945–): Canadian physicist, interested in gravity. Among other eccentricities, Unruh thinks that quantum nonlocality is actually local, as quantum bits need not subscribe to Bell’s theorem.
Vallortigara, Giorgio: Italian cognitive psychologist.
van der Kooi, Casper J.: Dutch evolutionary biologist, interested in reproductive modes and pollination biology.
van Dyke, Henry (1852–1933): American author, educator, and clergyman.
Van Raamsdonk, Mark: Canadian theoretical physicist, working on wormhole entanglement, which is a unified field theory.
Vasistha (aka Vashistha): ancient Indian guru; credited as the chief author of the 7th mandala (book) of Rig Veda, comprising 104 hymns.
Veneziano, Gabriele (1942–): Italian string theorist.
Versace, Elisabetta: Italian evolutionary biologist.
Vogel, Steven (1940–2015): American zoologist and biomechanist.
von Jolly, Philipp (1809–1884): German physicist and mathematician.
Wass, Sam: English psychologist.
Watson, Richard A.: English evolutionary biologist.
Way, Michael: English cytologist, interested in how pathogens work.
Weinstein, Brent M.: American developmental biologist.
Wellesley, Arthur (1769–1852): Anglo Irish soldier and statesman who defeated Napoléon at Waterloo; 1st Duke of Wellington.
West, Stuart A.: English microbiologist.
Westerhoff, Jan C.: German British philosopher.
Weyl, Hermann (1885–1955): German mathematician and theoretical physicist; one of the first to conceive of combining electromagnetism with general relativity.
Wheeler, John A. (1911–2008): American theoretical physicist who worked on the principles behind nuclear fission. Wheeler collaborated with Albert Einstein on a relativity-based unified field theory which came to naught. Wheeler later bought into the idea that information is fundamental to physics. Wheeler coined the terms black hole, wormhole, and quantum foam.
Whewell, William (1794–1866): English polymath, scientist, science historian, economist, philosopher, theologian, and Anglican priest. Whewell’s legacy was wordsmithing: he coined the terms scientist, physicist, linguistics, consilience, catastrophism, and uniformism, among others. To Michael Faraday, Whewell suggested: ion, dielectric, anode, and cathode.
Wilczek, Frank (1951–): American theoretical physicist.
Williams, Loren D.: American biochemist.
Wilson, John (1943–): English cytologist.
Witten, Ed (1951–): American theoretical physicist who developed M-theory.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1889–1951): Austrian philosopher and logician, interested in mathematics, language, and the mind.
The world is the totality of facts, not of things. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wolpert, David H.: American mathematician, physicist, and computer scientist.
Yap, Jeff: evolutionary physiologist.
Yeboah, Ernest Agyemang: Ghanaian writer.
Young, Thomas (1773–1829): English polymath and physician who contributed to understanding energy, light, vision, solid mechanics, physiology, language, musical harmony, and Egyptology.
Zheng-Hui He: Chinese botanist.
Zink, Andrew G.: American ethologist.
Zitterbart, Daniel P.: German physicist.
Zwicky, Fritz (1898–1974): Swiss astronomer who termed dark matter.
