Scientists Flashcards
Albert Einstein
Born: 14 March 1879, Ulm, Germany
Died: 18 April 1955, Princeton Medical Center at Plainsboro, New Jersey, United States
Other academic advisors: Heinrich Friedrich Weber
Education: University of Zurich (1905), ETH Zürich (1896–1900), MORE
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics, Copley Medal, Max Planck Medal, MORE
Quotes
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Marie Curie
French-Polish physicist
Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Poland
Died: 4 July 1934, Sancellemoz
Discovered: Radium, Polonium
Isaac Newton, Mathematician
Born: 4 January 1643, Woolsthorpe Manor House
Died: 31 March 1727, Kensington, London
Buried: Westminster Abbey, London
Education: Trinity College (1667–1668)
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was a British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. In 1953, he co-authored with James Watson the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
Born: 8 June 1916, Weston Favell, Northampton
Died: 28 July 2004, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States
Thesis: Polypeptides and proteins: X-ray studies (1954)
Education: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, MORE
Discovery: DNA
Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Galileo has been called the “father of observational astronomy”, the “father of modern physics”, the “father of the scientific method”, and the “father of modern science”
Born: 15 February 1564, Pisa, Italy
Died: 8 January 1642, Arcetri
Discovered: Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Io, Rings of Saturn
Known for: Kinematics, Analytical dynamics, Telescopes, Heliocentrism
Charles Robert Darwin, FRS FRGS FLS FZS was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.
Born: 12 February 1809, The Mount House, Shrewsbury
Died: 19 April 1882, Home of Charles Darwin - Down House, Downe
Awards: Copley Medal, Wollaston Medal, Royal Medal
Sir Alexander Fleming FRS FRSE FRCS was a Scottish biologist, physician, microbiologist, and pharmacologist discovered penicillin
Born: 6 August 1881, Darvel
Died: 11 March 1955, London
Education: St Mary’s Hospital Medical School (1903–1906), Kilmarnock Academy, University of Westminster- Law school
Nicolaus Copernicus
Born: 19 February 1473, Torun, Poland
Died: 24 May 1543, Frombork, Poland
Known for: Heliocentrism, Quantity theory of money, Gresham’s law
Education: University of Padua (1501–1503)
Johannes Kepler
Born: 27 December 1571, Weil der Stadt, Germany
Died: 15 November 1630, Regensburg, Germany
Residence: Württemberg; Styria; Bohemia; Upper Austria
Known for: Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Kepler conjecture, Rudolphine Tables
Enrico Fermi was an Italian and naturalized-American physicist and the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the “architect of the nuclear age” and the “architect of the atomic bomb”
Born: 29 September 1901, Rome, Italy
Died: 28 November 1954, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Other notable students: Jack Steinberger; Chen Ning Yang
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics, Hughes Medal, Max Planck Medal, Franklin Medal, Matteucci Medal, Rumford Prize
Louis Pasteur was a French biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of diseases, and his discoveries have saved many lives ever since.
Born: 27 December 1822, Dole, France
Died: 28 September 1895, Marnes-la-Coquette, France
Invention: Pasteurization
Education: École Normale Supérieure (1847)
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.
Born: 25 July 1920, Notting Hill, London
Died: 16 April 1958, Chelsea, London
Known for: Structure of DNA; Fine structure of coal and graphite; Virus structures
Education: University of Cambridge (1945)
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
Born: 6 April 1928 (age 91 years), Chicago, Illinois, United States
Education: Indiana University (1947–1950), MORE
Discovery: DNA
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Copley Medal
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardo, was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpting,
Born: 15 April 1452, Anchiano, Italy
Died: 2 May 1519, Château du Clos Lucé, Amboise, France
On view: Ambrosian Library, Louvre Museum, MORE
Periods: High Renaissance, Early renaissance, Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Florentine painting
Known for: Art (painting, drawing, sculpting), science, engineering, architecture, anatomy
Buried: Chapel of Saint-Hubert, Amboise, France
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.
Born: 7 October 1885, Copenhagen, Denmark
Died: 18 November 1962, Carlsberg, Copenhagen, Denmark
Education: Copenhagen University (1911), MORE
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics, Copley Medal, Max Planck Medal,
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model
Born: 11 May 1918, Queens, New York, United States
Died: 15 February 1988, Los Angeles, California, United States
Spouse: Gweneth Howarth (m. 1960–1988), Mary Louise Bell (m. 1952–1958), Arline Greenbaum (m. 1942–1945)
Movies: The Challenger, Infinity, Genghis Blues, Anti-Clock, Day One
Michael Faraday FRS was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.
Born: 22 September 1791, Newington Butts, London
Died: 25 August 1867, Hampton Court Palace, Molesey
Known for: Faraday’s law of induction, Electrochemistry, MORE
Awards: Copley Medal, Royal Medal, Rumford Medal, Royal Society Bakerian Medal, Albert Medal
James Clerk Maxwell FRS FRSE was a Scottish scientist in the field of mathematical physics. His most notable achievement was to formulate the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism, and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon.
Born: 13 June 1831, Edinburgh
Died: 5 November 1879, Cambridge
Buried: Parton Church, The Church of Scotland, Parton
Education: Trinity College (1850–1854), MORE
Awards: Rumford Medal
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was a Russian chemist and inventor. He formulated the Periodic Law, created a farsighted version of the periodic table of elements, and used it to correct the properties of some already discovered elements and also to predict the properties of eight elements yet to be discovered
Born: 8 February 1834, Tobolsk, Russia
Died: 2 February 1907, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Nationality: Russian
Known for: Formulating the Periodic table of chemical elements
Education: Saint Petersburg State University (1855–1856), Saint Petersburg State University (1850–1855), Heidelberg University
Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the “father of modern taxonomy”
Born: 23 May 1707, Råshult, Älmhult Municipality, Sweden
Died: 10 January 1778, Uppsala, Sweden
Known for: Binomial nomenclature; Scientific classification; Taxonomy
Education: University of Harderwijk (1735), MORE
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity.
Born: 288 BC, Syracuse, Italy
Died: 212 BC, Syracuse, Italy
Full name: Archimedes of Syracuse
Nationality: Greek
Parents: Phidias
Antoine Lavoisier
Born: 26 August 1743, Paris, Died: 8 May 1794, Paris
Known for: Combustion; Identified oxygen; Identified hydrogen; Stoichiometry
Discovered: Hydrogen, Carbon, Silicon
Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier was a French nobleman and chemist who was central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and who had a large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of biology. He is widely considered in popular literature as the “father of modern chemistry”.
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician and microbiologist. As one of the main founders of modern bacteriology, he identified the specific causative agents of tuberculosis, cholera…..
Born: 11 December 1843, Kingdom of Hanover
Died: 27 May 1910, Baden-Baden, Germany
Discoveries: Koch’s postulates, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium, Anthrax bacterium, Asiatic cholera
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck, ForMemRS was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Born: 23 April 1858, Kiel, Germany
Died: 4 October 1947, Göttingen, Germany
Known for: Planck constant, Planck postulate, Planck’s law, Third law of thermodynamics, Fokker–Planck equation
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics, Max Planck Medal, Copley Medal,
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, FRS, HFRSE, LLD, was a New Zealand physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday
Born: 30 August 1871, Brightwater, New Zealand
Died: 19 October 1937, Cambridge
Residence: New Zealand, United Kingdom
Discoveries: Rutherford model, Proton, Atomic nucleus, MORE
Education: University of Cambridge (1895–1898)
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was an Italian physicist, chemist, and pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane.
Born: 18 February 1745, Como, Italy
Died: 5 March 1827, Camnago Volta, Italy
Full name: Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta
Education: The University of Pavia
Known for: Invention of the electric cell; Discovery of methane; Volt; Voltage; Voltmeter
Gregor Johann Mendel was a scientist, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas’ Abbey in Brno, Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics.
Born: 20 July 1822, Hynčice, Vražné, Czechia
Died: 6 January 1884, Brno, Czechia
Full name: Gregor Johann Mendel
Known for: Creating the science of genetics
Education: Palacký University Olomouc (1840–1843), University of Vienna, Palacký University Olomouc
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system.
orn: 10 July 1856, Smiljan, Croatia
Died: 7 January 1943, The New Yorker, A Wyndham Hotel, New York, New York, United States
The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.
The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.
Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek FRS was a Dutch businessman and scientist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as “the Father of Microbiology”, and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists.
Born: 24 October 1632, Delft, Netherlands
Died: 26 August 1723, Delft, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Books: The Select Works of Antony Van Leeuwenhoek: Containing His Microscopical Discoveries in Many of the Works of Nature
John Dalton FRS was an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist. He is best known for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry, and for his research into color blindness, sometimes referred to as Daltonism in his honour.
Born: 6 September 1766, Eaglesfield
Died: 27 July 1844, Manchester
Known for: Atomic theory, Law of multiple proportions, Dalton’s law, Color blindness
Awards: Royal Medal
Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines.
Born: 28 October 1914, New York, New York, United States
Died: 23 June 1995, La Jolla, California, United States
Known for: First polio vaccine
Education: NYU School of Medicine (1934–1939)
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, educator, and husband of American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics.
Born: 28 February 1901, Portland, Oregon, United States
Died: 19 August 1994, Big Sur, California, United States
Awards: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize, MORE
Education: California Institute of Technology (1925), College of Engineering, Oregon State University, Washington High School
Ibn Sina, also known as Abu Ali Sina, Pur Sina, and often known in the west as Avicenna was a Persian Muslim polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. He has been described as the father of modern medicine.
Born: 22 August 980 AD, Afshona, Uzbekistan
Died: 21 June 1037, Hamedan, Iran
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of existing natural causes in explaining Earth history.
Born: 14 November 1797, Kinnordy House
Died: 22 February 1875, Harley Street, London
Field: Geology
Spouse: Mary Horner Lyell (m. 1832–1873)
Education: Exeter College, University of Oxford, King’s College London
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French scholar whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Mécanique Céleste.
Born: 23 March 1749, Beaumont-en-Auge, France
Died: 5 March 1827, Paris, France
Education: Caen-Normandy University
Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.
Born: 28 July 1635, Freshwater
Died: 3 March 1703, London
Known for: Hooke’s law; Microscopy; Coining the word ‘cell’
Education: Wadham College, Oxford, Westminster School, Christ Church, University of Oxford
Structures: Monument to the Great Fire of London
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac OM FRS was an English theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century. Dirac made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.
Born: 8 August 1902, Bristol
Died: 20 October 1984, Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Education: University of Bristol, St John’s College, Cambridge, Cotham School
Robert Boyle FRS was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method.
Born: 25 January 1627, Lismore, Ireland
Died: 31 December 1691, London
Siblings: Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, MORE
Discovery: Boyle’s law
Education: Eton College (1635–1638), University College
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”, Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science.
orn: 7 December 1928 (age 90 years), East Oak Lane, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Thesis: Transformational Analysis (1955)
Education: University of Pennsylvania
George Washington Carver, was an American agricultural scientist and inventor. He actively promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. While a professor at Tuskegee Institute, Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton.
Born: 1 January 1864, Diamond, Missouri, United States
Died: 5 January 1943, Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
Nationality: American
Education: Iowa State University (1894–1896
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as America’s greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.
Born: 11 February 1847, Milan, Ohio, United States
Died: 18 October 1931, West Orange, New Jersey, United States
Education: The Cooper Union (1875–1879)
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Born: 22 April 1904, New York, New York, United States
Died: 18 February 1967, Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Education: Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Harvard University,
I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology and is regarded as one of the most important astronomers of all time.
Born: 20 November 1889, Marshfield, Missouri, United States
Died: 28 September 1953, San Marino, California, United States
William Harvey was an English physician who made seminal contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and …
Born: 1 April 1578, Folkestone
Died: 3 June 1657, Roehampton, London
Education: Royal College of Physicians
All we know is still infinitely less than all that remains unknown.
I profess both to learn and to teach anatomy, not from books but from dissections; not from positions of philosophers but from the fabric of nature.
There is a lust in man no charm can tame: Of loudly publishing his neighbor’s shame: On eagles wings immortal scandals fly, while virtuous actions are born and die.
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, and polymath.
Born: 28 December 1903, Budapest, Hungary
Died: 8 February 1957, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda
Nationality: Hungarian, American
Education: Eötvös Loránd University, ETH Zürich, Fasori Gimnázium
Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.
There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.
Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin.
Edward Jenner, FRS FRCPE was an English physician and scientist who was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world’s first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae, the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox.
Born: 17 May 1749, Berkeley
Died: 26 January 1823, Berkeley
Nationality: English
Residence: Berkeley, Gloucestershire
Education: University of St Andrews (1792), St George’s, University of London (1770–1774)
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German polar researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist. During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research, continental drift.
Born: 1 November 1880, Berlin, Germany
Died: November 1930, Clarinetania, Greenland
Education: Humboldt University of Berlin (1905)
Known for: Continental drift
Books: The Origin of Continents and Oceans
