-
Feb 15, 1564
Galileo Galilei
Italian scientist, astronomer, and philosopher, known for his contributions to physics, astronomy, and the scientific method. -
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch art, science and technology. He is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists -
Robert Hooke
He is credited as one of the first scientists to investigate living things at microscopic scale using a compound microscope that he designed -
Jean-Baptiste de Monet (Lamarck)
Lamarck was a French naturalist and early evolutionist. He proposed that traits acquired during life could be inherited. Though later disproven, his ideas influenced evolutionary thought. He coined the term “biology.” -
Mary Anning
She was a British fossil collector and paleontologist. She discovered the first complete ichthyosaur and other marine reptiles. Her findings contributed to the early development of paleontology. -
Matthias Schleiden
Matthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow. He published some poems and non-scientific work under the pseudonym Ernst. -
Charles Darwin
He was an English naturalist and geologist. He proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection in On the Origin of Species (1859). His work transformed biology and our understanding of life. -
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk and botanist. He is known as the "Father of Genetics" for his work with pea plants. Mendel discovered the basic laws of inheritance. His work became fundamental to genetics after his death. -
Alfred Russel Wallace
He was a British naturalist and explorer. He independently developed the theory of natural selection around the same time as Darwin. Both men presented their findings jointly in 1858. -
Hugo de Vries
He was a Dutch botanist and geneticist. He is known for rediscovering Mendel’s work and proposing the mutation theory. His research helped revive interest in genetics at the start of the 20th century. -
Nettie Stevens
She was an American geneticist. She discovered that sex is determined by specific chromosomes X and Y. Her findings were crucial to understanding chromosomal inheritance. She worked independently of her male peers. -
Edith Rebecca Saunders
Edith Saunders was a British geneticist and botanist. She collaborated with William Bateson and was a pioneer in Mendelian genetics. She was one of the first women to contribute significantly to plant genetics. -
Thomas Hunt Morgan
He was an American geneticist. He demonstrated that genes are carried on chromosomes using fruit flies. His work confirmed and expanded Mendelian genetics. He received the Nobel Prize in 1933. -
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields -
Alfred Sturtevant
He was an American geneticist. He created the first genetic map of a chromosome. His work with fruit flies helped clarify gene linkage and recombination. He was a student of Thomas Hunt Morgan. -
Barbara McClintock
She was an American cytogeneticist. She discovered transposons or “jumping genes” in maize. Her work explained how genes can change position. She won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983. -
Mary Leakey
She was a British paleoanthropologist. She discovered fossilized footprints at Laetoli and early human skulls in Africa. Her work was vital to understanding human evolution. -
Francis Crick
Francis Crick was a British molecular biologist. Alongside James Watson, he discovered the double helix structure of DNA. This breakthrough laid the foundation for modern genetics. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. -
Fred Sanger
He was a British biochemist. He developed techniques to sequence proteins and DNA. He is one of the few people to win two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, one in 1958 and another in 1980. -
Rosalind Franklin
She was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her famous Photo 51 was key to identifying DNA’s structure. Though she died before the Nobel Prize was awarded, her contributions were critical to the discovery. -
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
She is an American anthropologist and evolutionary biologist. She studied maternal behavior and parenting in primates. Her work challenged assumptions about motherhood and shaped evolutionary psychology. -
Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1984, she co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere. For this work, she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine becoming the first Australian woman Nobel laureate. -
James Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material. -
Jennifer Doudna
She is an American biochemist. She co-invented CRISPR-Cas9 with Emmanuelle Charpentier. This discovery allows scientists to edit genes with precision. She also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. -
Emmanuelle Charpentier
He is a French microbiologist. She co-developed CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary gene-editing technology. Her work has transformed genetic engineering. She received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020.