LIBAN, ALIZA-JOY T.

E243 SCI-55A FLUID MECHANICS

10 Physicists That I Admire The Most
1.Albert Einstein (One of the Greatest Physicists of All Time, Best Known for
Developing the Theory of Relativity)

• He is known as the Father of Modern Physics. Interestingly, his

surname has been adjudged with the meaning ‘genius’, and is used by
the world all over.
• A mastermind and impeccable theoretical physicist, he is responsible for
creating new waves in the field of modern physics. However, as a child,
he faced speech difficulty and had a slow cadence in speaking.
• There are two instances that had a marked effect on the life of this
Nobel Prize winning physicists – the encounter with the compass and
discovering Euclid’s Element a geometry book which he fondly called
‘holy little geometry book’.
• Post death, the pathologist of Princeton Hospital, Thomas Stoltz
Harvey, removed this proficient scientist’s brain for preservation without
the permission of his family, in the hope that the neuroscience of the
future would be able to discover what made the man who developed the
theory of relativity so intelligent.
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• In 1905, Einstein came up with his revolutionary works, which were

focused on photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, the special theory of
relativity and the equivalence of matter and energy.
• He worked on thermodynamic fluctuations and statistical physics. He
even worked on general relativity and applied the same to explain
cosmology. The other work carried out by Einstein include Schrodinger
gas model and Einstein refrigerator.
2.Galileo Galilei (Known as “Father” of Observational Astronomy who Invented the
‘Thermoscope’ and Various Military Compasses)
• He is known as the ‘Father of Modern Science’ for playing a major role
in the scientific revolution.
• His heliocentric view of the solar system contradicted with the views of
the Roman Catholic Church which believed that the earth was
stationary.
• This great scientist, with the help of his telescope, discovered that the
Moon had uneven and rocky surface, dismissing the general Aristotelian
belief that it was a perfect sphere.
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• Galileo learned the art of lens grinding, which helped him produce
increasingly powerful telescope. He presented the same to the Venetian
Senate, which was impressed by the invention. Subsequently, his salary
was doubled, thanks to his invention.
• Working further on the functioning of the telescope, Galileo bettered the
instrument, so much so that it could magnify up to 20 times. The
telescope helped him have a clear vision of the Moon and its surface. It
was through Galileo’s telescope that the Moon’s rocky and uneven
surface was first noticed.
• In 1610, Galileo discovered the moons revolving around Jupiter. He also
claimed that there was more number of stars in the universe than those
visible through naked eyes. He even discovered that Venus goes
through phases just as the Moon does and that Saturn looks different
from that of other planets.

3.Stephen Hawking (Theoretical Physicist - First to Set Out a Theory of

Cosmology)

• To honor his contribution, several museums and buildings have been

named after him. These are 'Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum' in
 San Salvador, El Salvador; the 'Stephen Hawking Building' in
Cambridge, and the 'Stephen Hawking Centre' at the Perimeter Institute
in Canada.
• He participated in zero-gravity flight in a ‘Vomit Comet,' courtesy of
'Zero Gravity Corporation,' and experienced weightlessness eight times
in 2007.
• His first wife, Jane, wrote several books, including, ‘Travelling to Infinity’
and ‘My Life with Stephen.'
• Jane met organist Jonathan Hellyer Jones while singing in a church
choir in 1977 and developed a romantic relationship, but Hawking did
not object to it saying that as long as she loved him, he had no
problems with their platonic relationship.
• He appeared on the famous American sitcom, ‘Big Bang Theory.'
• Hawking believed that human life is at risk and said that, "a sudden
nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have
not yet thought of" can wipe us off the earth.
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• Hawking’s main focus of research was in the field of theoretical
cosmology, focusing on the evolution of the universe as governed by
the laws of general relativity. His most important work is believed to be
the study of 'Black Holes.'

4.Marie Curie (The First Woman to Win a Nobel Prize)

• She is the first woman to be awarded the prestigious ‘Nobel Prize’ and
the only person to win ‘Nobel Prize’ in two different field of science. She
is responsible for coining the term ‘radioactivity.’
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• She was responsible for coining the term ‘radioactivity’ and theorizing
the concept. She was also responsible for discovering two elements
‘polonium’ and ‘radium.’ Additionally, she came up with techniques to
isolate radioactive isotopes.
 5.Richard Feynman (One of the Joint Winners of Nobel Prize in Physics in
1965)

• During his years at ‘Caltech,’ Feynman offered prizes for creating the
world’s smallest motor and writing the contents of ‘Encyclopedia
Britannica’ on a pinhead.
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• He completed his thesis ‘The Principle of Least Action in Quantum

Physics’ which laid the foundation for his Nobel Prize winning work on
quantum electrodynamics. The theory consisted of two parts; while the
first catered to path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the
other dealt with pictorial representation of sub-atomic particles, better
known as the ‘Feynman Diagrams.’
• ‘The Feynman Lectures on Physics’ was published in 1964, becoming
arguably the most popular physics textbook.

6. Archimedes (Mathematician)
• In 1960s, a tomb was discovered in a hotel courtyard in Syracuse and
was claimed to be his but the location of it today is not known to
anyone.
• He was referred as “Superhuman” by Galileo who time and again
praised his works and drew inspiration from them.
• A crater on the Moon has been named Archimedes and a lunar
mountain range has been named as Montes Archimedes to honor him.
• Asteroid 3600 Archimedes bears his name. The Fields of Medal for
outstanding achievement in mathematics carries a portrait of
Archimedes.
• Archimedes featured on postage stamps that were issued in 1963 in
Spain, 1971 Nicaragua, 1973 in East Germany, 1982 in Marino and
1983 in Greece and Italy.
 • “Eureka” was the word that he uttered in excitement, now forms the
state motto of California. It relates to the discovery of gold near Sutter's
Mill in 1848 that ignited the California Gold Rush.
• In 213 B.C he played a pivotal role in the defense of Syracuse by
constructing war machines. These machines were so effective that they
delayed the capture of the city against the siege laid by the Romans.
• There is no reliable evidence to prove this but it is said that the last
words of this great scientist and mathematician were “Do not disturb my
circles”.
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• He was a great scientist and mathematician who made several
discoveries and inventions. Some of his most important works were
Archimedes' principle, Archimedes' screw, hydrostatics, levers, and
infinitesimals.
7. Michael Faraday (Scientist)

• Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791, in Newington Butts,

England to James and Margaret Faraday as the third one among four
children. His family had moved to Newington Butts in 1791, a few
months before Michael was born.
• Michael was raised in a poor family. His father was originally from
Yorkshire and wasn’t a well-educated man. He had been working as an
apprentice of a blacksmith. Michael mostly attended a day school,
where he learned the basics of reading and writing. He did not get
access to good education and hence, for the larger part of his
childhood, he educated himself.

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• His greatest contribution is considered to be his work in the field of

electromagnetism. He discovered electromagnetic induction and
 electrolysis. He is known to have played a great role in the invention of
refrigerators, freezers and electric motors. Through his research and
experiments, he also proved that light was also related to
electromagnetism.

8. Niels Bohr (Physicist)

• He was born on October 7, 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark, to Christian

Bohr, a physiology professor, and his wife, Ellen Adler Bohr, daughter of
a wealthy Danish Jewish family. He had an elder sister, Jenny, and a
younger brother, Harald.
• He received his early education from the Gammelholm Latin School
which he joined when he was seven. From 1903 he attended the
Copenhagen University where his major was physics, which he studied
under Professor Christian Christiansen.
• In 1909, he earned a master’s degree in physics and went on to
complete his PhD in physics in 1911, both from the University of
Copenhagen. His doctoral dissertation was on the electron theory of
metals.

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• He proposed an atomic model in which he postulated that electrons

travel in fixed orbits around the atom's nucleus, and further explained
how electrons emit or absorb energy. He introduced the idea that an
electron could drop from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one, in the
process emitting a quantum of discrete energy.
• He is also known for conceiving ‘the complementarity principle’ which
defined that wave and particle aspects of nature are complementary,
and can never be experienced simultaneously. The principle states that
items could be separately analyzed in terms of contradictory properties,
like behaving as a wave or a stream of particles.
 9.Werner Heisenberg (Physicist)
• This famous personality’s grave stone is inscribed with the words "He
lies here, somewhere." This is a joke about his famous Uncertainty
Principle.

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• His paper on quantum mechanics in 1925 was a major scientific

breakthrough and led to developments in matrix mechanics. He
worked with the Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the two
became close friends.
• He developed the uncertainty principle in 1927 while researching at
the ‘University of Copenhagen’. This theory established the inverse
relationship between the precise position of a particle and its
momentum which became a fundamental principle in further physics
research.
• James Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932, leading to
Heisenberg's neutron-proton model in the same year. His three
papers on the topic were monumental in the field of quantum
physics.

10.Erwin Schrödinger (Physicist)

• Schrodinger had started an interesting mind experiment known as
the Schrödinger’s Cat, where he explained the unusual behaviour
of electrons. A cat was put inside a box with a source of poison
gas. The unpredictable behaviour of electrons confused the
onlooker at one point of time, making it difficult to figure out
whether the cat was dead or alive.
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• Schrodinger laid the foundation of wave mechanics which is

fundamental in understanding the behaviour of light and
subatomic particles. In the theory known as ‘Schrodinger
Equation’, he explained that the different stages of atom’s
electrons can be described and their state of energy can also be
predicted via wave equation. His findings were published in the
paper ‘Quantisierungals Eigenwert problem’ or ‘Quantization as
an Eigenvalue Problem’.

References: Famous Physicists - List of World Famous Physicists

(thefamouspeople.com)