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Democritus
He was an ancient Greek philosopher. He discovered the atomic theory – He discovered that all matter was made up of tiny, invisible particles, which he called atoms. Although his discovery was ignored for over 2000 years, it was later discovered to be true. He was the first to describe invisible “atoms” as the basis of all matter and that they had no internal structure. He was born in 460 BC in Abdera, Thrace and his death was in 370 BC, whereabouts of death remain unknown. -
Isaac Newton
He was an English physicist and mathematician. He discovered the basic laws of gravity – that light is three different colours put together and a type of math called calculus (discovered in 1687). He was born on the 25th of December 1642, in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England and his date of death was on the 20th of March 1727, in Kensington, Middlesex, England at the age of 84. -
Antoine Lavoisier
He was a French scientist. He discovered and named oxygen, and hydrogen. He introduced the metric system and he invented the first periodic table including thirty-three elements (discovered in 1775). He was born on the 26th of August 1743, in Paris, France and his date of death was on the 8th of May 1794, in Paris, France at the age of 50. -
John Dalton
He was an English chemist, meteorologist, physicist. He was one of the first to develop an atomic model. He thought that the atom was the smallest possible component of matter. But he was then proved wrong when J.J. Thomson found smaller components – the electron. He estimated what the atom would look like (discovered in 1803). He was born on the 6th of September, 1766 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England and his date of death was the 27th of July, 1844 in Manchester, England at the age of 77. -
Michael Faraday
He was an English scientist. He discovered that a changing magnetic field could generate an electric field and vice versa. This made it possible for later generations to create electric generators as well as motors (discovered in 1831). He was born on the 22nd of September 1791, in Newington Butts, England and his date of death was on the 25th of August 1867, in Hampton Court, Middlesex, England at the age of 75. -
J.J. Thomson
He was a British physicist and Nobel laureate. Thomson discovered that there were electrons surrounding the nucleus of the atom. He proposed a model for the structure of the atom. He knew that electrons had a negative charge and thought that matter must have a positive charge. His model was called “raisin bun” because his model looked like raisins stuck on the surface of a pudding/bun. He was born on the 18th of December, 1856 in Manchester, Lancashire, UK and his date of death was 30/08/1940. -
Robert Millikan
He was an American physicist. He won the 1923 Nobel Peace Prize for his oil drop experiment and his photoelectric effect experiment. He used this to discover the electron’s charge independently (discovered in 1909). He was born on the 22nd of March 1868, in Morrison, Illinois, U.S. and his date of death was on the 19th of December 1853, in San Marino, California at the age of 85. -
Ernest Rutherford
He was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist. Rutherford discovered that atoms have a small charged nucleus and that atoms are composed of mostly empty space by conducting his famous gold foil experiment. He was born on the 30th of August, 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand and his date of death was the 19th of October, 1937 in Cambridge, England at the age of 66. -
Albert Einstein
He was a German theoretical physicist. He (didn’t really contribute to the atomic theory) discovered that the theory of relativity and the mass energy equivalence: e = mc2, energy is the mass multiplied by the speed of light squared (discovered in 1905) – this formula lead to atomic bombs and nuclear power. He was born on the 14th of March 1879, in Ulm, Kingdom of Wurttemberg, German Empire and his date of death was on the 18th of April 1955, in Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. at the age of 76. -
Niels Bohr
He was a Danish physicist, philosopher, and footballer. Bohr discovered that electrons move in orbit around the nucleus, and that electrons in atoms are arranged according to the energy levels. He formulated his atomic model in 1913. He was born on the 7th of October, 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark and his date of death was the 18th of November, 1962 in Copenhagen, Denmark at the age of 77. -
Erwin Schrodinger
He was an Austrian physicist, he discovered an equation that could describe energy waves. Not only did he discover the wave equation but he also discovered that electrons had properties of both matter and energy (in 1926). He was born on the 12th of August, 1887 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary and his date of death was the 4th of January, 1961 in Vienna, Austria at the age of 73. -
James Chadwick
He was an English Noble laureate in physics. He contributed to the atomic theory because he discovered the existence of the neutron (in 1932). He was born on the 20th of October, 1891 in Bollington, Cheshire, England and his date of death was the 24th of July, 1974 in Cambridge, England at the age of 82. -
Werner Heisenberg
He was a German theoretical physicist. He was known for his ‘uncertainty principle’, which states the exact location, and energy of an electron cannot be determined simultaneously (discovered in 1925). He was born on the 5th of December 1901, in Wurzburg, Bavaria, Germany and his date of death was on the 1st of February 1976, in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany at the age of 74. -
Aristotle
He was a Greek philosopher and polymath. Even though he has contributed to the atomic theory, he did not discover any atoms, however, he believed that all matter was continuous and was composed of four elements – that is earth, air, fire and water (in 350 BC). He was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice and his death was in 322 BC in Euboea.
