Alois Alzheimer

Alois Alzheimer was a German psychiatrist who discovered the pathological condition of dementia
and diagnosed the disease that bears his name.

Synopsis
Alois Alzheimer was born in Marktbreit, Germany, in 1864, and showed an early aptitude for
science. After obtaining his medical degree, he worked in hospitals in Frankfurt, where he met
Auguste Deter, a 51-year-old woman suffering from progressive short-term memory loss. He was
eventually able to isolate the pathological causes of severe dementia, work so extensive that the
condition became known as Alzheimer's disease.
Franois Jacob
Biologist, Scientist, Physiologist (19202013)

Franois Jacob won a Nobel Prize in Physiology for

discoveries involving the regulatory activities of bacteria.
Synopsis
Born on June 17, 1920, in Nancy, France, Franois Jacob joined the Pasteur Institute in 1950. He
became the head of the genetics department in 1960. He, along with coworkers, explored
bacteria genes and discovered they were arranged in a ring. He discovered regulatory genes and
proposed the existence of an RNA messenger. His work earned him a Nobel Prize for Physiology
in 1965.

Chien-Shiung Wu
Physicist (19121997)

Chinese-American nuclear physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, also

known as "the First Lady of Physics, contributed to the
Manhattan Project and made history with an experiment
that disproved the hypothetical law of conservation of parity.
Synopsis

Born in 1912, Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese American nuclear physicist

who has been dubbed "the First Lady of Physics," "the Chinese Madame

Curie," and the "Queen of Nuclear Research." Her research contributions

include work on the Manhattan Project and the Wu experiment, which
contradicted the hypothetical law of conservation of parity. During her career,
she earned many accolades including the Comstock Prize in Physics (1964),
the Bonner Prize (1975), the National Medal of Science (1975), and the Wolf
Prize in Physics (inaugural award, 1978). Her book Beta Decay (1965) is still
a standard reference for nuclear physicists. Wu died in 1997 at the age of 84.
Jonas Salk
Scientist, Doctor (19141995)

Jonas Salk was an American physician and medical

researcher who developed the first safe and effective
vaccine for polio.
Synopsis

Jonas Salk was born October 28, 1914, in New York City. In 1942 at the
University of Michigan School of Public Health he became part of a group that
was working to develop a vaccine against the flu. In 1947 he became head of
the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh he began
research on polio. On April 12, 1955, the vaccine was released for use in the
United States. He established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1963.
Salk died in 1995.

Nicolaus Copernicus
Religious Figure, Astronomer, Scholar, Scientist, Mathematician (14731543)

Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was instrumental in

establishing the concept of a heliocentric solar system, in

which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the
solar system.
ynopsis

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, Poland. Circa
1508, Copernicus developed his own celestial model of a heliocentric
planetary system. Around 1514, he shared his findings in theCommentariolus.
His second book on the topic, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was
banned by the Roman Catholic Church decades after his May 24, 1543 death
in Frombork.

Stephen Hawking
Physicist, Scientist (1942)

Stephen Hawking is known for his work regarding black

holes and for authoring several popular science books. He
suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Synopsis

Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. At an

early age, Hawking showed a passion for science and the sky. At age 21,
while studying cosmology at the University of Cambridge, he was diagnosed
with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Despite his debilitating illness, he has done
groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology, and his several books have
helped to make science accessible to everyone. Part of his life story was
depicted in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell

British astrophysicist, scholar and trailblazer Jocelyn Bell

Burnell discovered the space-based phenomena known as

pulsars, going on to establish herself as an esteemed

leader in her field.
Synopsis

Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in

1943. As a research assistant, she helped build a large radio telescope and
discovered pulsars, providing the first direct evidence for the existence of
rapidly spinning neutron stars. In addition to her affiliation with Open
University, she has served as dean of science at the University of Bath and
president of the Royal Astronomical Society. Bell Burnell has also earned
countless awards and honors during her distinguished academic career.
Walter Kohn
Chemist, Physicist, Scientist (19232016)

Walter Kohn was a physicist who won the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry in 1998 for his work in quantum chemistry.
Synopsis

Walter Kohn's work centered on the use of quantum mechanics to understand

electron bonding between atoms to form molecules. He found that the total
energy of an atomic or molecular system could be calculated if the spatial
distribution of all electrons within that system were known, which simplified the
computations needed to understand the electron bonding between atoms
within molecules. He died of cancer at his home in Santa Barbara, California,
on April 19, 2016.

Isaac Newton
Philosopher, Astronomer, Physicist, Scientist, Mathematician (16431727)

English physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton,

most famous for his law of gravitation, was instrumental in
the scientific revolution of the 17th century.
Synopsis

Born on January 4, 1643, in Woolsthorpe, England, Isaac Newton was an

established physicist and mathematician, and is credited as one of the great
minds of the 17th century Scientific Revolution. With discoveries in optics,
motion and mathematics, Newton developed the principles of modern physics.
In 1687, he published his most acclaimed work, Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), which
has been called the single most influential book on physics. Newton died in
London on March 31, 1727.

Albert Einstein
Physicist, Scientist (18791955)

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who

developed the general theory of relativity, among other
feats. He is considered the most influential physicist of the
20th century.
Synopsis

Born in Ulm, Wrttemberg, Germany in 1879, Albert Einstein had a passion

for inquiry that eventually led him to develop the special and general theories
of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of
the photoelectric effect and immigrated to the U.S. in the following decade
after being targeted by the Nazis. Einstein is generally considered the most
influential physicist of the 20th century, with his work also having a major

impact on the development of atomic energy. With a focus on unified field

theory during his later years, Einstein died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton,
New Jersey.
Robert Woodrow Wilson
Astronomer, Physicist, Scientist (1936)
Robert Woodrow Wilson is a Nobel Prizewinning radio astronomer and physicist best known for
a discovery that advanced the Big Bang model of creation.

Synopsis
Born in Texas in 1936, Robert Woodrow Wilson began studying radio astronomy as a graduate
student at Caltech. While working at Bell Labs in New Jersey, he and associate Arno Penzias
discovered the presence of a background signal through the lab's antenna. The two determined
that the signal was evidence of the universe's creation via the Big Bang, a discovery that
garnered them the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics. Wilson went on to serve as head of Bell's Radio
Physics Research Department, before joining the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
in 1994.

James Parkinson
Geologist, Scientist, Neurologist, Activist, Doctor (17551824)
English born, English bred, forgotten by the English and the world, James Parkinson identified the
"shaking palsy" as a disease of the central nervous system.

Synopsis
Though best known for the nervous disorder that bears his name, James Parkinson was a man of
many interests. Medicine, social reform and geology also occupied his attention, and he wrote
numerous publications in each of these areas. Parkinson's work on shaking palsy was notable,
but as the author his name fell into obscurity until 40 years later, when his name was attached to
the disease.

Alfred Nobel
Business Leader, Engineer, Chemist, Scientist, Inventor (18331896)

Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and other

explosives. He used his enormous fortune from 355 patents
to institute the Nobel Prizes.
Synopsis

Born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden, Alfred Nobel worked at his
father's arms factory as a young man. Intellectually curious, he went on to
experiment with chemistry and explosives. In 1864, a deadly explosion killed
his younger brother. Deeply affected, Nobel developed a safer explosive:
dynamite. Nobel used his vast fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes, which
has come to be known for awarding the greatest achievements throughout the
world. He died of a stroke in 1896.
Linus Pauling
Chemist, Scientist (19011994)

Linus Pauling was a theoretical physical chemist who

became the only person to have won two unshared Nobel
Prizes.
Synopsis

Linus Pauling was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his
research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the
elucidation of the structure of complex substances. He was awarded another
Nobel in 1962, for peace, for his crusade to stop the atmospheric testing of
nuclear weapons; it was awarded on October 10, 1963, the date that the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty went into effect.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Physicist, Scientist (18531926)

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his
work in low-temperature physics after he liquefied helium.

Synopsis
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was born on September 21, 1853, in Groningen, Netherlands. The
scientist studied properties of matter at low temperatures. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in
1913 after he succeeded in liquefying helium. He discovered superconductivity, a phenomenon
where materials lose electrical resistance at extremely low temperatures. Kamerlingh Onnes died
on February 21, 1926.
Jean Piaget

20th-century scholar Jean Piaget created highly influential

theories on the stages of mental development among
children, becoming a leading figure in the fields of cognitive
theory and developmental psychology.
Synopsis

Jean Piaget was born on August 9, 1896, in Neuchtel, Switzerland,

becoming an expert on the study of mollusks by his teen years. Over the
course of his later career in child psychology, he identified four stages of
mental development that chronicled young people's journeys from basic object
identification to highly abstract thought. The recipient of an array of honors,
Piaget died on September 16, 1980, in Geneva, Switzerland.
Edwin Hubble

Astronomer, Scientist (18891953)

Astronomer Edwin Hubble revolutionized the field of

astrophysics. His research helped prove that the universe is
expanding, and he created a classification system for
galaxies that has been used for several decades.

Synopsis

Edwin Hubble was born on November 20, 1889. He graduated from the
University of Chicago and served in WWI before settling down to lead
research in the field of astrophysics at Mount Wilson Observatory in
California. Hubble's revolutionary work includes finding a constant relationship
between galaxies' redshift and distance, which helped to eventually prove that
the universe is expanding. Additionally, a classification system that he created
for galaxies has been used by other researchers for decades, now known as
the Hubble sequence.
Robert Hooke

Academic, Scholar, Physicist, Scientist (16351703)

Robert Hooke is known as a "Renaissance Man" of 17th century England for his work in the
sciences, which covered areas such as astronomy, physics and biology.

Synopsis
Born in Freshwater on England's Isle of Wight in 1635, scientist Robert Hooke was educated at
Oxford and spent his career at the Royal Society and Gresham College. His research and
experiments ranged from astronomy to biology to physics; he is particularly recognized for the
observations he made while using a microscope and for "Hooke's Law" of elasticity. Hooke died
in London in 1703.
Galileo

Astronomer, Scientist (15641642)

Italian scientist and scholar Galileo made pioneering

observations that laid the foundation for modern physics
and astronomy.

Synopsis

Born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy, Galileo Galilei was a mathematics
professor who made pioneering observations of nature with long-lasting
implications for the study of physics. He also constructed a telescope and
supported the Copernican theory, which supports a sun-centered solar
system. Galileo was accused twice of heresy by the church for his beliefs, and
wrote books on his ideas. He died in Arcetri, Italy, on January 8, 1642.
Christian Doppler

Physicist, Scientist, Mathematician (18031853)

Christian Doppler was an Austrian mathematician and physicist best known for articulating a
principle known as the 'Doppler effect.'

Synopsis
Christian Doppler was born in Salzburg, Austria, on November 29, 1803. He taught mathematics
and physics at the university level while conducting his own research. Doppler is best known for
articulating an influential principle known as the "Doppler effect" in an 1842 paper. He was often
ill and died while convalescing in Venice, Italy, on March 17, 1853.
Marie Curie

Marie Curie was a Polish-born French physicist famous for

her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel
Prize.
Synopsis

Born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, Marie

Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win
the award in two different fields (physics and chemistry). Curie's efforts, with
her husband Pierre Curie, led to the discovery of polonium and radium and,

after Pierre's death, the further development of X-rays. She died on July 4,
1934.
Blaise Pascal

Theologian, Philosopher, Physicist, Scientist, Mathematician (16231662)

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, who laid the
foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.

Synopsis
Mathematician Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand, France. In the
1640s he invented the Pascaline, an early calculator, and further validated Evangelista Torricelli's
theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations. In the 1650s, Pascal laid the foundation
of probability theory with Pierre de Fermat and published the theological work Les Provinciales,
a groundbreaking series of letters that defended his Jansenist faith. Pascal is also widely known
for his body of notes posthumously released as the Penses. He died in Paris on August 19, 1662.
Benjamin Franklin

Diplomat, Scientist, Inventor, Writer (17061790)

Benjamin Franklin is best known as one of the Founding

Fathers who drafted the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution of the United States.
Synopsis

Born in Boston in 1706, Benjamin Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of

Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of
Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. His scientific pursuits included
investigations into electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. A printer and
writer known for his wit and wisdom, Franklin was a polymath who
publishedPoor Richards Almanack, invented bifocal glasses and organized
the first successful American lending library.

Louis Pasteur
Chemist, Scientist, Inventor (18221895)

Scientist Louis Pasteur came up with the food preparing

process known as pasteurization; he also developed a
vaccination for anthrax and rabies.
Synopsis

Born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, France, Louis Pasteur discovered that
microbes were responsible for souring alcohol and came up with the process
of pasteurization, where bacteria is destroyed by heating beverages and then
allowing them to cool. His work in germ theory also led him and his team to
create vaccinations for anthrax and rabies

Humphry Davy
Chemist, Scientist, Inventor (17781829)
Humphry Davy was a British chemist best known for his contributions to the discoveries of
chlorine and iodine and for his invention of the Davy lamp, a device that greatly improved safety
for miners in the coal industry.

Synopsis
Sir Humphry Davy was an English chemist best known for his contributions to the discoveries of
chlorine and iodine. In 1798, he was appointed chemical superintendent of the Pneumatic
Institution to study the therapeutic uses of various gases, after which he made several reports on
the effects of inhaling nitrous oxide (laughing gas). On a related front, in 1815, he invented the
Davy lamp, which allowed miners to work safely in close contact with flammable gases. Davy
was also a charismatic speaker, and his scientific presentations at the Royal Institution of Great
Britain were extremely popular among Londoners of the day.

Pierre Curie
Academic, Chemist, Physicist, Scientist (18591906)

French physicist Pierre Curie was one of the founding fathers of modern physics and is best
known for being a pioneer in radioactive studies.

Synopsis
French physicist Pierre Curie was one of the founding fathers of modern physics and is best
known for being a pioneer in radioactive studies. He and his wife, Marie Curie, won the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1903, and the curie, a unit of radioactivity, was named after him. Curie died in
1906 after being run over by a horse-drawn carriage in Paris.

J. Robert Oppenheimer
Academic, Engineer, Physicist, Scientist (19041967)
J. Robert Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for leading the Manhattan
Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapon during World War II.

Synopsis
Born in New York City in 1904, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer served as director of the Los
Alamos Laboratory during the development of the atomic bomb. After the 1939 invasion of
Poland by Nazi Germany, Oppenheimer was selected to administer a laboratory to carry out the
Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapon during World War II.
After resigning from his post in 1945, he became the chairman of the General Advisory
Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission. Prior to his assassination in 1963, President John
F. Kennedy announced Oppenheimer would receive the Enrico Fermi Award for his
achievements in physics. He was presented with the award by President Lyndon B. Johnson in
December of that year. The Father of the Atomic Bomb died from cancer at the age of 62 in
Princeton, New Jersey in 1967.

Elizabeth Stern
Scientist, Medical Professional, Doctor (19151980)
Pathologist Elizabeth Stern identified 250 stages of a cervical cells' progression from normal to
cancerous, a breakthrough in womens health that enabled early cancer detection and treatment.

Synopsis
Pathologist Elizabeth Stern was born on September 19, 1915, in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada, and
joined the faculty of the University of California in 1963 as an associate professor of
epidemiology. Stern identified 250 stages of a cervical cell's progression from normal to
cancerous, making early cancer detection and treatment possible. Stern also discovered a link
between oral contraceptives and cervical cancer. She died on August 18, 1980, in Los Angeles,
California.

John Dalton
Chemist, Scientist, Meteorologist (17661844)

Chemist John Dalton is credited with pioneering modern atomic theory. He was also the first to
study color blindness.

Synopsis
Chemist John Dalton was born September 6, 1766, in Eaglesfield, England. During his early
career, he identified the hereditary nature of red-green color blindness. In 1803 he revealed the
concept of Daltons Law of Partial Pressures. Also in the 1800s, he was the first scientist to
explain the behavior of atoms in terms of the measurement of weight. Dalton died July 26, 1844
in Manchester, England.

Joseph Priestley
Theologian, Philosopher, Minister, Scientist (17331804)
Joseph Priestley was a clergyman, political theorist, and scientist whose work advanced liberal
political and religious thought and experimental chemistry.

Synopsis
Joseph Priestley was born March 13, 1733 in Birstall Fieldhead, England. He was an English
clergyman, political theorist, and physical scientist whose work contributed to advances in liberal
political and religious thought and in experimental chemistry. He is best remembered for his
contribution to the chemistry of gases. He died on February 6, 1804 in Northumberland,
Pennsylvania.

James C. Maxwell
Scholar, Physicist, Scientist (18311879)
James C. Maxwell was a 19th century pioneer in chemistry and physics who articulated the idea
of electromagnetism.

Synopsis
Born on June 13, 1831, in Edinburgh, Scotland, James C. Maxwell studied at the University of
Cambridge before holding a variety of professorship posts. Already known for his innovations in
optics and gas velocity research, his groundbreaking theories around electromagnetism,

articulated in the famed Maxwell's Equations, greatly influenced modern physics as we know it.
Maxwell died in England on November 5, 1879.

Frederick Sanger Biography

Chemist, Scientist (19182013)
Frederick Sanger received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice. He discovered the structure of
insulin and researched of DNA molecule sequencing.

Synopsis
Frederick Sanger was born on August 13, 1918, in Rendcombe, England. He was raised in a
wealthy, Quaker family. He received his doctorate in biochemistry from St. Johns College in
1943. In 1958, he was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of insulin. He
received his second Nobel Prize in 1980 for his research regarding the sequencing of DNA
molecules. He retired three years later. Sanger died on November 19, 2013 at the age of 95.

Gregor Mendel
Botanist, Scientist (18221884)

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk who discovered the

basic principles of heredity through experiments in his
garden. Mendel's observations became the foundation of
modern genetics and the study of heredity, and he is widely
considered a pioneer in the field of genetics.
Synopsis

Gregor Mendel, known as the "father of modern genetics," was born in Austria
in 1822. A monk, Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity through
experiments in his monastery's garden. His experiments showed that the
inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns,
subsequently becoming the foundation of modern genetics and leading to the
study of heredity.

Alexander Fleming
Biologist, Scientist (18811955)

Alexander Fleming was a doctor and bacteriologist who

discovered penicillin, receiving the Nobel Prize in 1945.
Synopsis

Alexander Fleming was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on August 6, 1881, and

studied medicine, serving as a physician during World War I. Through
research and experimentation, Fleming discovered a bacteria-destroying mold
which he would call penicillin in 1928, paving the way for the use of antibiotics
in modern healthcare. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945 and died on
March 11, 1955.

Alexander Graham Bell

Educator, Scientist, Inventor, Linguist (18471922)

Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of

the telephone, did important work in communication for the
deaf and held more than 18 patents.
Synopsis

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

His education was largely received through numerous experiments in sound
and the furthering of his fathers work on Visible Speech for the deaf. Bell
worked with Thomas Watson on the design and patent of the first practical
telephone. In all, Bell held 18 patents in his name alone and 12 that he shared
with collaborators. He died on August 2, 1922, in Cape Breton Island, Nova
Scotia, Canada.

Charles Darwin
Biologist, Scientist (18091882)

Charles Darwin is best known for his work as a naturalist,

developing a theory of evolution to explain biological
change.
Synopsis

Naturalist Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England, on February 12,

1809. In 1831, he embarked on a five-year survey voyage around the world
on the HMS Beagle. His studies of specimens around the globe led him to
formulate his theory of evolution and his views on the process of natural
selection. In 1859, he published On the Origin of Species. He died on April 19,
1882, in London.
Charles Henry Turner

Educator, Zoologist, Scientist (18671923)

Charles Henry Turner, a zoologist and scholar, was the first person to discover that insects can
hear and alter behavior based on previous experience.

Synopsis
Born in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Charles Henry Turner was a pioneering African-American
scientist and scholar. Among his most notable achievements, Turner was the first African
American to receive a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago, and the first person to
discover that insects can hear and alter behavior based on previous experience. He died in
Chicago, Illinois, in 1923.

Francis Bacon Biography

Scientist, Lawyer (15611626)
Francis Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, best known for his
promotion of the scientific method.

Synopsis
Francis Bacon was born on January 22, 1561 in London, England. Bacon served as attorney
general and Lord Chancellor of England, resigning amid charges of corruption. His more
valuable work was philosophical. Bacon took up Aristotelian ideas, arguing for an empirical,
inductive approach, known as the scientific method, which is the foundation of modern scientific
inquiry.

Ferdinand Braun
Physicist, Scientist, Inventor (18501918)
German physicist Ferdinand Braun was the co-recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for his
developments with wireless technology.

Synopsis
Physicist Ferdinand Braun was born on June 6, 1850, in Fulda, Germany. Among his
groundbreaking accomplishments were the invention of the cathode-ray tube, which became the
basis for television and computer displays, and the development of wireless technology to cover
significant distances. The co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909, Braun passed away in
Brooklyn, New York, on April 20, 1918.

Erwin Schrdinger
Scholar, Physicist, Scientist (18871961)
Erwin Schrdinger was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist whose groundbreaking wave
equation changed the face of quantum theory.
QUOTES
A real elimination of metaphysics means taking the soul out of both art and science, turning them
into skeletons incapable of any development.
Erwin Schrdinger

Synopsis
Born on August 12, 1887, in Vienna, Austria, Erwin Schrdinger went on to become a noted
theoretical physicist and scholar who came up with a groundbreaking wave equation for electron
movements. He was awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with British physicist
P.A.M. Dirac, and later became a director at Ireland's Institute for Advanced Studies. A published
author with works like What Is Life?, he died on January 4, 1961, in his home city.

Mary Leakey
Academic, Anthropologist (19131996)

Mary Leakey was a paleoanthropologist who, along with

husband Louis, made several prominent scientific
discoveries. Skull fossils found by the Leakeys advanced
our understanding of human evolution.
Synopsis

Mary Leakey was born on February 6, 1913, in London, England. She married
Louis Leakey and the pair soon became one of science's best-known
husband-wife teams. Among several prominent archaelogical and
anthropological discoveries, the Leakeys discovered a skull fossil of an
ancestor of apes and humans while excavating the Olduvai Gorge in Africa in
1960a find that helped to illuminate the origins of humankind. Mary
continued working after her husband's death. She died in Kenya in 1996.

John Hall
Physicist, Scientist (c. 1934)
American physicist John Hall shared the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physics for his contributions to the
development of laser spectroscopy.

Synopsis
John Hall was born August 1934, in Denver, Colorado. Hall's research with Theodor W. Hnsch
on measuring optical frequencies led to the pair sharing (also with Roy Glauber) the 2005 Nobel
Prize for Physics. Practical applications of the research included improvements in satellite-based
navigation systems, such as the global positioning systems (GPS), and advances in the
synchronization of computer data networks.

Francis Crick
Biologist, Scientist, Physiologist (19162004)

Francis Crick is responsible for discovering, along with James Watson, the double-helix structure
of the DNA strand.

Synopsis
Biophysicist Francis Crick was born in Northampton, England, in 1916. He helped develop radar
and magnetic mines during World War II. After the war, he began researching the structure of
DNA with the University of Cambridge Medical Research Council at its Cavendish Laboratory
with James D. Watson. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for his
work and continued conducting research until his death in 2004.

Niels Bohr
Physicist, Scientist (18851962
Niels Bohr was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and humanitarian whose revolutionary theories on
atomic structures helped shape research worldwide.
QUOTES
Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking
in order to find it.
Niels Bohr

Synopsis
Born on October 7, 1885, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Niels Bohr went on to become an
accomplished physicist who came up with a revolutionary theory on atomic structures and
radiation emission. He won the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics for his ideas and years later, after
working on the Manhattan Project in the United States, called for responsible and peaceful
applications of atomic energy across the world.

Maurice Wilkins
Academic, Biologist, Physicist, Scientist (19162004)
Biophysicist Maurice Wilkins was known for his contributions to the discovery of DNA's molecular
structure, for which he won the 1962 Nobel Prize.

Synopsis
Born on December 15, 1916, in Pongaroa, New Zealand, scientist Maurice Wilkins worked with
the Manhattan Project before turning to biophysics. He produced the first image of DNA fibers,
which, amidst conflict between he and colleague Rosalind Franklin, contributed to the Watson

and Crick double-helix model shared in 1953. Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for his work. He
died on October 6, 2004.

Walter H. Brattain
Physicist, Scientist (19021987)
Physicist Walter H. Brattain was known for having created the transistor, a landmark invention for
which he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956.

Synopsis
Born on February 10, 1902, in China, Walter H. Brattain was an experimental physicist who coinvented the transistor, a breakthrough in electronics. The invention came as a result of AT&T's
request to improve upon their telephone service. By amplifying the elecritcity needed for
telephone service with the transistor, as opposed to using inefficient vacuum tubes, Brattain is
believed to have helped introduce the "Information Age." Brattain, in addition to his team,
received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956. He died on October 13, 1987, in Seattle.

James D. Watson
Academic, Biologist, Geneticist, Zoologist, Scientist (1928)

James D. Watson is a Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist and

researcher credited with co-discovering the double-helix
structure of DNA.
Synopsis

Born on April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, James D. Watson worked at the

University of Copenhagen and the Cavendish Laboratory before formulating
the theory of a double-helix structure for DNA along with Francis Crick.
Watson received a 1962 Nobel Prize and went on to do work in cancer
research and mapping the human genome. He later came under fire for
several controversial remarks on subjects ranging from obesity to race-based
intelligence.

Henry Taube
Academic, Chemist, Scientist (19152005)
Henry Taube was a 20th century scientist who earned the 1983 Nobel Prize for trailblazing work in
inorganic chemistry.

Synopsis
Born on November 30, 1915, in Neudorf, Canada, Henry Taube earned his Ph.D. at the
University of California and later taught in Chicago. In addition to other research, Taube made
groundbreaking discoveries about the nature of electron transfers in ion oxidation, thus earning
the 1976 National Medal of Science and 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died on November
16, 2005.

Edward Tatum
Scientist (19091975)
Biochemist Edward Tatum won the 1958 Nobel Prize for his research, which helped create the
field of molecular genetics.

Synopsis
As a research assistant at Stanford University, Edward Tatum worked with collaborator George
Beadle to confirm that all biochemical processes are controlled by genes, and that each gene in
some way determines the structure of a specific enzyme (the one-geneone-enzyme hypothesis).
Tatum and Beadle won the 1958 Nobel Prize for this research, which helped create the field of
molecular genetics.

Johannes Purkinje
Physicist, Scientist (17871869)
Czech experimental physiologist Johannes Purkinje discovered the Purkinje effect,
Purkinje cells and Purkinje fibers and first introduced the term protoplasm.

Synopsis
Johannes Purkinje was born December 17, 1787, in Libochovice, Bohemia. He discovered the
Purkinje effect, Purkinje cells, and Purkinje fibers. At Breslau he created the world's first
independent physiology department and first official physiology laboratory. He introduced the
term protoplasm, devised new methods for preparing microscope samples and recognized the
uniqueness of fingerprints.

Walter Reed
Scientist, Medical Professional, Doctor (18511902)
Walter Reed was a U.S. Army pathologist and bacteriologist who led the experiments that proved
that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquito bite.

Synopsis
During the Spanish-American War, Walter Reed investigated the spread of typhoid fever in
military camps. His report revealed new facts regarding this disease and was a brilliant
investigation in epidemiology. He then turned his attention to yellow fever and determined that it
could not be spread via clothing, bedding etc. and only by mosquito bites, which led to stopping
the deadly disease.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

Scientist, Physiologist (18491936)
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov developed his concept of the conditioned reflex through a
famous study with dogs and won a Nobel Prize Award in 1904.

Synopsis
Born on September 14, 1849, in Ryazan, Russia, Ivan Pavlov abandoned his early theological
schooling to study science. As the Department of Physiology head at the Institute of
Experimental Medicine, his groundbreaking work on the digestive systems of dogs earned him
the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904. Pavlov remained an active researcher until
his death on February 27, 1936.

Wolfgang Pauli
Physicist, Scientist (19001958)
Wolfgang Pauli was a physicist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery
in 1925 of the Pauli exclusion principle.

Synopsis
After Wolfgang Paulis return to Hamburg in 1924, he participated in the creation of quantum
mechanics. His analysis of the philosophical foundations and methodology of physics played a
central role in the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The outbreak of
World War II and the possible threat of Nazi persecution led him to the U.S., but he returned to
Europe in 1946.

George E. Palade
Biologist, Scientist (19122008)
Biologist George Emil Palade studied cell structure and discovered ribosomes. He won a 1974
Nobel Prize for his research.

Synopsis
George Emil Palade was born on November 19, 1912, in Jassy, Romania. After World War II, he
immigrated to the United States. Palade worked at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, where
he studied cell structures and discovered ribosomes. In 1974, he received the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for his research. He taught at Yale and the University of California
before retiring in 2001. He died on October 7, 2008, in Del Mar, California.