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Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).
Greek philosopher and early scientist. Often called the "father of biology." -
Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605).
(1522-1605). Italian naturalist and physician. Together with Conrad Gesner, he led the Renaissance movement that put a new emphasis on the study of the nature. -
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)
French naturalist and zoologist. Founder of the fields of vertebrate paleontology and comparative anatomy. One of the most prolific authors of scientific literature in the history of biology -
Mary Anning (1799-1847).
(1799-1847). British paleontologist. Often described as the greatest fossil hunter ever known. -
Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876).
(1792-1876). German biologist and scientific explorer. One of the founders of embryology, von Baer discovered the notochord and the embryonic blastula. -
Charles Darwin (1809-1882).
(1809-1882). English naturalist. One of the most famous scientists who ever lived. His book, On the Origin of Species, convinced many of the reality of evolution. Remembered for the theory of natural selection, the credit for which he had to share with Alfred Wallace, who formulated it independently. -
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
The theories of heredity attributed to Gregor Mendel, based on his work with pea plants, are well known to students of biology. But his work was so brilliant and unprecedented at the time it appeared that it took thirty-four years for the rest of the scientific community to catch up to it. The short monograph, Experiments with Plant Hybrids, in which Mendel described how traits were inherited, has become one of the most enduring and influential publications in the history of science -
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873).
(1807-1873). Swiss-born American zoologist, geologist, and paleontologist, with a special expertise in ichthyology. Founder and director of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, one of the most famous scientists of his day -
Rudolf Virchow (1821- 1902)
Rudolf Virchow was a German pathologist, anthropologist and statesman, widely credited for his advancements in public health. Known as the "father of pathology," his scientific contribution of cell theory explained the effects of disease on the body. He also developed a standard method of autopsy procedure. In 1869 he founded a society which greatly intensifying German archaeological research. -
Robert Koch (1843 -1910)
best known for isolating the tuberculosis bacterium, the cause of numerous deaths in the mid-19th century. He won the Nobel Prize in 1905 for his work. He is considered one of the founders of microbiology and developed criteria which he named Koch's postulates that were meant to help establish a causal relationship between a microbe and a disease. -
David Baltimore (1938-).
American biologist. Shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Temin and Renato Dulbecco for their discovery of reverse transcriptase -
Alexandar Flemming (1881-1945)
a Scottish bacteriologist, famous for his discovery of penicillin. Flemming grew up on a farm. As a young man, he served in World War I in the Medical Corps, giving him an opportunity to witness the death of many soldiers from infected wounds. After the war, he accidentally discovered antibiotics. In 1945, he was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. -
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides. Her best-known book, Silent Spring, led to a presidential commission that largely endorsed her findings and helped to shape a growing environmental consciousness. Carson died of cancer in 1964 and is remembered as an early activist who worked to preserve the world for future generations. -
George Beadle (1909-1975).
(1909-1975). American geneticist. By means of x-ray irradiation of the mold Neurospora crassa and screening of the resulting mutants, Beadle showed, with Edward Tatum, that mutations induced in genes corresponded to alterations in specific enzymes. This finding led to the acceptance of the one gene/one enzyme hypothesis. Shared with Tatum half the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine -
Werner Arber (1929-).
Swiss microbiologist and geneticist. Shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans for the discovery of restriction endonucleases, which led to the development of recombinant DNA technology. -
Raymond Dart (1893-1988).
(1893-1988). Pioneering paleoanthropologist. Discoverer of the Taung Child, he was the first scientist to provide hard evidence that humans first evolved in Africa. -
Erwin Chargaff (1905-2002).
Austro-Hungarian-born American biochemist whose experiments provided crucial information allowing Watson, Crick, and Wilkins to elucidate the double-helix structure of DNA.