Science has been what has allowed the world to be as it is today, and this would never have happened the way it has without the emergence of great minds.

From mathematics, biology, medicine and even theoretical physics, great scientists have emerged who have helped advance the human species. Below we will see some famous scientists from history .

The 30 most famous scientists in history

Fortunately, there are thousands of scientists, all of them collaborating in the advancement and progress of the human species, however, not all have contributed in the same way. That is why we are now going to see the 30 most outstanding scientists in history, a little of their lives and their main scientific milestones.

1. Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

He is considered the greatest scientist of the last century . There is no person on earth who does not know how to identify this German Jewish physicist in photographs. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. His theory of relativity is probably the greatest scientific advance of modern times, and his equation is known to all: E=mc^2.

Although his work is considered the foundation for the creation of the atomic bomb, this scientist always advocated peace.

2. Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727)

Isaac Newton was about as much of a man as he could be in his day. Physicist, alchemist, astronomer, mathematician and inventor .

The story is well known that he elaborated his law of gravity after an apple fell on his head while he was taking a nap under a tree, even if it is only a myth.

3. Stephen Hawking (1942- 2018)

Stephen Hawking is perhaps the most famous scientist after Einstein. He was a theoretical physicist known for his theories on the universe and general relativity .

Also known for suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and probably being the person who has survived the disease the longest, his genius helped make this disease visible.

He received up to twelve honorary doctorates and several awards, and is known outside the world of physics for having been very televised, making cameos in series such as The Big Bang Theory or even offering his particular humor while being interviewed.

4. Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)

Marie Curie, of Polish origin but living in France, is probably the best known woman scientist .

She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. In addition, she is known to be the only person to have won not one but two Nobel prizes, one in physics and one in chemistry.

Pioneer, together with her husband Pierre, in the study of radioactivity, discovering radium and polonium , what made her famous was also the way in which her exposure to radiation was wearing out her health.

5. Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)

Galileo Galilei is the symbol of the scientific revolution , which took place between the 16th and 17th centuries.

As a great character of his time, he touched all the fields of knowledge he had at hand, such as astronomy, the arts and physics . He is considered by many to be the father of science as we know it today.

6. Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)

Charles Darwin, who was originally going to be an Anglican clergyman, theorized about biological evolution, which was a real controversy in Victorian England, deeply Christian. Today, his findings on evolution and natural selection lay the foundation for modern biology.

His journey aboard the Beagle visiting the Galapagos Islands and studying the morphological and behavioral differences of the finches of that archipelago is one of the best known studies in history, along with his work The Origin of Species (1859).

7. Nicolas Copernicus (1473 – 1543)

Nicolas Copernicus is considered the most important astronomer in history, as well as laying the foundations for the scientific revolution together with Galileo Galilei.

This Polish scientist developed the heliocentric theory , which held that it was not the Sun that revolved around the Earth, but the Earth that revolved around this star.

8. Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895)

Louis Pasteur reformulated the ideas of infectious diseases , founding the moderation of microbiology.

His most notable achievement is the discovery of the rabies vaccine, in addition to creating the technique that sterilizes food, which was later called pasteurization in his honor.

9. Alexander Fleming (1881 – 1955)

Alexander Fleming is responsible for the availability of effective drugs today against diseases that were a death sentence up to a century ago.

His most important discovery, almost by serendipity, was the penicillin fungus , a substance which is an antibiotic. This substance is still used today, and has been responsible for saving millions of lives around the globe.

10. Gregor Mendel (1822 – 1884)

Gregor Mendel was a Czech monk who, thanks to his work with pea plants, laid the foundations for the field of genetics .

He discovered how traits were inherited, according to relationships of dominance and recession, and formulated a series of laws that today are called Mendel’s laws.

11. Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931)

The figure of Thomas Alva Edison, although well-known, is also controversial. He has been the author of countless inventions , although it can be said that many people consider that he really borrowed many ideas when creating new devices.

What you can recognize about this character is that, besides being a great inventor, he knew how to take advantage of his creations by becoming an important businessman.

12. Archimedes of Syracuse (287 B.C. – 212 B.C.)

Archimedes of Syracuse is known for his advances in physics and mathematics, and is also seen as the most important scientist of the Classical Period. The principles of the lever and Archimedes are widely known.

13. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)

Leonardo da Vinci, besides being a great artist, was an impressive inventor . He devoted himself to botany, astronomy, engineering and biology, as well as carrying out important studies and detailed drawings of human anatomy.

Sometimes he would get bodies from the morgues in a somewhat murky manner so that he could dissect them at home in peace.

Among his drawings, the most remarkable are those referring to a prototype of a flying machine, which has allowed the development of the modern helicopter.

14. Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943)

The main scientific breakthrough of Nikola Tesla is on the study of electromagnetism , which years later would allow a better study and application of the concepts of alternating current and polyphase system.

He patented nearly three hundred new ideas, among which was the radio.

15. Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852 – 1934)

Santiago Ramon y Cajal is one of the few Spanish scientists who have managed to gain wide recognition worldwide, winning the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1906, along with Camillo Golgi.

He specialized in the study of the tissues of the human body and diseases of the organism , being very well known his studies on the neuron and having formulated the doctrine of this cell regarding its functioning and reproduction.

16. Aristotle (384 B.C.-322 B.C.)

Aristotle, although in a still primitive way, is considered the first person to make use of something similar to the scientific method .

His work is widely known for having been devoted to classifying hundreds of animal and plant species according to their anatomy and similar characteristics.

17. Erwin Schr̦dinger (1887 Р1961)

Erwin Schrödinger is known for his contributions to and development of quantum physics, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics . He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933.

The Schrödinger Paradox is a mental exercise conceived by this same great scientist which allows us to understand his interpretations of quantum physics.

18. Severo Ochoa (1905 – 1993)

Being another of the few great Spanish scientists known worldwide, Severo Ochoa was a specialist in biochemistry and molecular biology .

Like Ramon y Cajal, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1959 for his study of RNA synthesis.

19. Alfred Nobel (1833 – 1896)

Alfred Nobel is known not only for the prize in his honor, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but also for having invented dynamite .

The invention of this one was not accidental. He was interested in the manufacture and experimentation of substances with warlike purposes.

20. Pythagoras (579 BC – 475 BC)

Pythagoras is well known for his contributions to mathematics , being Pythagoras’ theorem something that is not lacking in the educational curriculum of any country.

But he didn’t just focus on numbers and geometry. He also studied about music, ethics and astronomy.

21. John Dalton (1766 – 1844)

John Dalton was a chemist and mathematician and, coincidentally, the discoverer of colour blindness , a visual disorder that receives his surname and that he himself presented.

He discovered this problem by chance, when he saw how people were surprised by colours he saw as grey, or when he was confused in the laboratory thinking that a chemist was someone else when he saw the same colour.

But his great contribution is to the study of the atom, formulating a model to explain what is considered the fundamental particle of our universe.

22. Ren̩ Descartes (1596 Р1650)

René Descartes is studied in high schools for his facet as a philosopher, but he also contributed to the fields of mathematics and physics .

This great French thinker is one of the forerunners of modern philosophy, as well as having contributed to shaping science as we understand it today.

23. Jane Goodall (1934-present)

Jane Goodall is one of the most influential women of the 20th and 21st century, as well as being a UN messenger of peace.

She is considered the greatest expert on chimpanzees, dedicating her life to the study of social interactions between these apes. Her work has not been solely descriptive. She has contributed to the preservation of many species threatened by hunting and by climate change.

24. Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992)

Isaac Asimov is known for his laws on robotics , although he was a professor of biochemistry. He is best known for being the author of innumerable works of science fiction in which he sets out the laws that should govern future robots with artificial intelligence.

25. Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922)

Alexander Graham Bell is known for having contributed to the development of telecommunications .

This scientist is like Edison, since he is involved in an aura of controversy due to the fact that there are certain inventions that he patented but it is not completely known if it was he who really tried them, an example being the telephone.

26. Hippathia of Alexandria (350/370-415)

Hippathia of Alexandria was a philosopher and neoplatonic teacher , of Greek origin and resident in Egypt. She excelled in mathematics and astronomy.

At a time when the Roman Empire was collapsing and giving way to Christianity, she educated both aristocrats who were followers of the old faith and those who had accepted the word of Christ.

His life is quite faithfully depicted in Alejandro Amenábar’s 2009 film ‘Agora’.

27. Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)

Rosalind Franklin is the woman who basically discovered the structure of life: DNA . This is probably the greatest discovery in biology in history.

His contributions on RNA structure, viruses, graphite and carbon are also famous.

28. Charles Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Charles Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist, known to be the creator of the modern taxonomic system , which uses two words to identify each species.

During his lifetime, the importance of this man’s findings was so great in his native Sweden that thousands of people have since named his children Linnaeus, Linné and Linnea in his honor.

29. Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907)

Dmitry Mendeleev is the most important Russian chemist . His popularity lies in the fact that he has managed to organize the chemical elements in a table according to their atomic weight and other properties.

30. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov is widely known in psychology due to his studies on classical conditioning in animals , being especially famous the experiment with dogs and bells as a stimulus associated with the arrival of food.

Bibliographic references:

  • Hawking, S. (2009), Galileo and the Birth of Modern Science. American Heritage’s Invention & Technology, 24(1). 36.