Arturo Alcaraz (Philippines) - Instrumental in a team of scientists, who in 1967 were able to harness steam from a volcano resulting in the production of electricity.

Diosdado Banatao (Philippines) - Improved computer performance throughthe development of accelerator chips, helping to make the Internet a reality.

Marie Curie (Poland) - Winner of two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physicsfor her studies into Radioactivity and her discoveries of Radium and Polonium.

Paul Dirac (England) - An important contributor in the fields of QuantumMechanics and Electro Dynamics, Dirac was co-winner of the Nobel Prize inPhysics (1933).

Albert Einstein (Germany) - Arguably needing no introduction, the most famous scientist that lived and a name that has become synonymous in popular culture with the highest intelligence.

Enrico Fermi (Italy) - Heavily involved in the development of the world's first nuclear reactor and his work in induced radioactivity saw him awarded with the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Vitaly Ginzburg (Russia) - One of three recipients of the 2003 Nobel inPhysics for their pioneering work in the theory of superconductors and superfluids.

Christiaan Huygens (Netherlands) - Most well known for his wave theory of light, Huygens is credited with discovering the first of Saturn's moons.

Werner Israel (Canada) - In 1990 Israel co-pioneered a study on black hole interiors.

Ali Javan (Iran) - Born in Tehran, Ali Javan is listed as one of the top 100 living geniuses and co-inventor of the helium-neon laser.

Makoto Kobayashi (Japan) - In 2008 Kobayshi shared the Nobel Prize inPhysics for his contribution in the discovery of the origin of broken symmetry.

Philipp Lenard (Hungary) - 1905 recipient of Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with Cathode Rays.

Felix Maramba (Philippines) - Built a coconut oil fuelled power generator.

Holger Bech Nielsen (Denmark) - Most notable for his work in the field of String Theory.

Mark Oliphant (Australia) - Noted for this co-discovery of deuteron, triton and helium-3, also had a strong role in the development of the atomic bomb.

Joseph Plateau (Belgium) - Inventor of the Phenakistoscope, a device which demonstrated illusion of moving images.

Henry Jacala Ramos (Philippines) - Famous for his development of patented Titanium Nitrade films.

George Stokes (Ireland) - Among Stokes's many contributions he is most known for his work with fluid dynamics.

Nikola Tesla (Serbia) - Although Edison is regarded as the father of electricity it is Tesla's alternative current which is more commonly used.

Stanislaw Ulam (Ukraine) - A fundamental contributor to the infamous 'Manhattan Project'.

Emile Verdet (France) - A champion of energy conservation, Verdet's work lay in magnetism and pptics.

Emil Wolf (Czechoslovakia) - Known primarily for his discovery of the 'Wolf Effect' in the field of optics.

Basilis Xanthopoulos (Greece) - Best known for his dedicated study in colliding plane waves.

Francisco Yndurain (Spain) - An expert in the field of Quantum Theory, co-writing over a hundred scientific papers.

Gregorio Zara (Philippines) - Credited for the discovery of the law of electric kinaesthetic resistance.
----- Famous Filipino physicists have not received the same amount of recognition as their North American or European counterparts. We hope the following provides some balance to this perspective. Some of the individuals listed below were trained in or worked in the United States. Although not all the following were strictly physicists, their contributions are in areas closely related to physics and are included in this list of famous Filipino physicists. Alcaraz, Arturo: was a leading member of a team that used steam produced from the heat of a volcano to produce electric power in 1967. Banatao, Diosdado: introduced or developed accelerator chips that improved computer performance, helped make the internet possible by contributing to the development of the Ethernet controller chip, created the local bus concept for personal computers. Campos, Paulo: wrote many papers in the field of nuclear medicine and was instrumental in building the first radioisotope lab in the Philippines. Comiso, Josefino: the first person to discover a recurring area of open water in sea ice in the Cosmonaut Sea. Comiso was studying global warming at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Maramba, Felix: developed a profitable biogas system, building a power generator fuelled by coconut oil. Zara, Gregorio: discovered around 1930 the law of electrical kinetic resistance (“Zara Effect”). In 1955 he patented a two-way videophone. In the 1950’s and 1960’s he developed or improved alternate energy technologies.

--
Filipino Physicists:
Gregorio Zara
- he discovered the physical “Law of Electrical KineticResistance”. It states that "allcontacts, turning or sliding,between metals, or betweencarbon and metals, or betweenmetals and mercury, or betweenconductors, produce a resistance to the passage of electric currentwhich may be kinetic and/orpermanent electrical resistance. This is observed at currents of verylow amperage. Kinetic electricalresistance is the resistance to thepassage of electric current whencontacts are in motion. Permanentelectrical resistance manifestsitself when contacts are at rest”.

Julian Banzon researchedmethods of producing alternativefuels.

Alcaraz, Arturo: was a leadingmember of a team that used steamproduced from the heat of avolcano to produce electric powerin 1967.

Banatao, Diosdado: introducedor developed accelerator chips thatimproved computer performance.He also helped make the internetpossible by contributing to thedevelopment of the Ethernetcontroller chip, created the localbus concept for personalcomputers.

Campos, Paulo: wrote manypapers in the field of nuclearmedicine and was instrumental inbuilding the first radioisotope lab inthe Philippines.

Comiso, Josefino: the firstperson to discover a recurring areaof open water in sea ice in the Cosmonaut Sea. Comiso wasstudying global warming at theNASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Maramba, Felix: developed aprofitable biogas system, building apower generator fuelled by coconutoil.

Foreign Physicists:
AlessandroVolta
was an Italianphysicist invented the first chemicalbattery in 1800.

Alexander Graham Bell
-Contributing to the invention andspread of the telephone-Founding the Bell Telephone Company

Robert Boyle
- Formulating Boyle'slaw, which states that the volume of agas is directly related to the pressureto which it is subjected-Helping to found modern chemistryby introducing experimental methodsand the idea that elements are thebasic building blocks of matter

Marie Curie
- Pioneering the study of radioactivity and discovering theradioactive elements radium andpolonium-Winning the 1903 Nobel Prize inphysics with her husband, Pierre Curie,and Antoine Henri Becquerel-Winning the 1911 Nobel Prize inchemistry, and becoming the firstscientist to receive the award in twodifferent scientific categories

Thomas Edison
-Inventing numeroususeful devices, including a practicalelectric light bulb and the phonograph-Discovered that incandescentmaterials emit electrons. Thisphenomenon is known as the Edisoneffect or thermionic emission

Albert Einstein
-Proposing the theoryof relativity, a physical theory of gravity, space, and time-Explaining the photoelectric effectand Brownian motion

Enrico Fermi
-Initiating the firstcontrolled nuclear chain reaction-The element fermium, discovered in1952, was named in honor of EnricoFermi.

Benjamin Franklin
-Experimentingwith electricity and developinginventions-Franklin invented bifocals and thelightning rod, and charted the courseof the Gulf Stream.

Galileo
-Proposing that falling bodieswould all fall at the same rate,regardless of mass, if there were no airresistance-Galileo helped develop the scientificmethod by using experimentation totest physical theories. Galileoconstructed the first thermometer.

Stephen William Hawking
-Makingadvances in the field of cosmology–Discovering several new properties of black holes Explaining theoreticalphysics to the public through books,films, and lectures-Hawking's present objective is aunified field theory that, if successful,will combine quantum mechanics withrelativity.

Isaac Newton
-Inventing, in part, thebranch of mathematics now known ascalculus-Formulating the three laws of motionwhich describe classical mechanics-Proposing the theory of universalgravitation, which explains that allbodies are affected by the force calledgravity

Blaise Pascal
-Deriving Pascal's law,which states that pressure exertedupon a liquid is transmitted equally inall directions-Proving experimentally that theheight of the mercury column in abarometer depends on thesurrounding air pressure-Formulating the mathematical theoryof probability with Frenchmathematician Pierre de Fermat-Inventing the first mechanical addingmachine Johannes Diderik Van der Waals
-Van der Waals was interested primarilyin thermodynamics; he developed atheory of corresponding states on thecontinuity of the liquid and gaseousstates of matter expressed in the vander Waals equation. For thesediscoveries he was awarded the 1910Nobel Prize in physics. He also studiedthe attractive forces holding the atomsof molecules together. These arecalled van der Waals forces, in hishonor.

Amadeo Avogadro
- fundamentallaw of chemistry stating that underidentical conditions of temperatureand pressure, equal volumes of gasescontain an equal number of molecules.

Jacques Charles
- he discovered therelationship between the volume of gas and temperature, known variouslyas Gay-Lussac's law or Charles's law.

William Thomson, 1st BaronKelvin
-, the absolute or Kelvin scaleis most widely used wherein in thisscale, absolute zero is at -273.15°C,which is zero K, and the degreeintervals are identical to thosemeasured on the Celsius scale. Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
-Frenchchemist and physicist, known for his studies on the physical properties of gases John Dalton
- the law of partialpressure wherein the total pressureexerted by a mixture of gases is equalto the sum of the separate pressuresthat each of the gases would exert if italone occupied the whole volume

Maxwell, James Clerk
-Discoveringthat light is an electromagnetic wave- Providing a mathematical basis forthe kinetic theory of gases, thisexplains that gases behave as they dobecause they are composed of particles in constant motion-Explaining that the human eye seescolor by detecting combinations of theprimary colors red, blue, and green
André Marie Ampère
-He was thefirst to show that two parallelconductors carrying currents travelingin the same direction attract eachother and, if traveling in oppositedirections, repel each other.

Daniel Bernoulli
-Known as thediscoverer of the Bernoulli principle,which applies the law of conservationof energy to fluids.

Louis de Broglie
-French physicistand Nobel laureate, who made majorcontributions to the theory of quantummechanics with his studies of electromagnetic radiation

Isaac Newton quantified and qualified the laws of motion and gravity. He also invented the reflecting telescope and co-invented the mathematic process of calculus.
Albert Einstein developed theories of relativity, and won a Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect.

Galileo Galilei improved on the refracting telescope and discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, but he is most well-known for standing up for Copernican theories of a heliocentric universe against church authority and opposition.

Michael Faraday showed how a changing magnetic field can be used to generate an electric current, used today in modern electric generators.

Johannes Kepler outlined the three laws of planetary motion and described the motion of planets around the sun as elliptical. Much of Kepler's work laid the groundwork for Newton's discoveries.

Archimedes was an ancient Greek, one of the first physicists. He developed many formulas for area of various shapes, and he also worked extensively with levers. In addition, he described the concept of buoyancy and invented Archimedes' screw to raise water.

Nikola Tesla championed the alternating current of electric flow, which is the means by which electric current is carried in the modern world. Tesla also improved upon the transformer and the electric bulb, and invented the Tesla coil.

Max Planck is known as the father of quantum mechanics, and showed how the energy of a photon is proportional to its frequency.

James Maxwell developed equations for electromagnetism and the kinetic theory of gases, and predicted that there were types of radiation beyond visible light.

Marie Curie discovered radioactivity and isolated plutonium and radium.

Great Physicists

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

An Italian genius, Galileo created the telescope and observed the galaxy in so much depth, that his ideas were deemed irrational. He not only discovered the phases of Venus, the four satellites of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede, but also proved that the ocean tides were caused due to the gravitational pull of the moon and not due to the earth's rotation. Compass and thermometer were also his inventions. This stalwart, who had magnified the galaxy a thousand times for us, died after he had turned completely blind.

Willebrord Snellius (1580 - 1626)
His Law of Refraction was published 70 years after he died. He had discovered that light bends when it falls on any material, and the angle at which it bends depends on the angle of its incidence. This Law of Refraction is called the Snell's law.

Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703)
Hooke's Law of Elasticity puts forth the relationship between the force applied to an object and the level of deformation it undergoes. Also, Hooke was the first person to observe the plants and fossils under a microscope, and coin the term 'Cell'. In 1665, he published his book named 'Micrographia', in which he had put forth some of his original observations of biology.

Christian Huygens (1625 - 1695)
He had put forth the wave theory, which said that if a wave is traveling at a particular speed, then all the points on the wavefront serve as sources for new wavelets, which would travel at the same speed.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)

Newton's Laws of Motion and universal gravitation laid the foundation for most of the modern physics. He was not only a physicist but also a Mathematics wizard. With equal originality, he also immersed himself in chemistry and left a few manuscripts on the subject, which later served as a base for the future scientists to develop on.
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Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

He was an American physicist who discovered two electric charges, 'positive' and 'negative'. Franklin was a fantastic inventor who never patented any of his inventions. Even today, his famous invention of the lightning rod, protects many buildings and ships from getting damaged by lightning. He was a versatile personality, being an author, satirist, diplomat, statesman, politician and musician, all into one.
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736 - 1806)

Coulomb's Law was one of his greatest contribution to physics. He invented a device called 'torsion balance' with the help of which, he measured the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged bodies. After exhaustive research and huge amount of findings, he finally put forth the fundamental Coulomb's Law of electromagnetism.
James Watt (1736 - 1819)

While repairing a damaged steam engine, Watt found out that it was hopelessly inefficient and tried to improve its design. He tried to minimize the steam losses by designing a condensing chamber for the steam. This design made the machine more cost-efficient and also improved its power. While the SI unit of power, 'Watt', is named after him, the concept of 'horsepower' was also his brainchild.
André-Marie Ampère (1775 - 1836)

Rightly known as the Father of Electrodynamics, the SI unit for measuring current, 'Ampere', is named after him. He was the one who laid the foundation of electrodynamics. The galvanometer was his invention, and he stated that it can be used for measuring the magnitude of current by the deflection of the compass needle, caused by a flowing electric current. He not only made giant strides in physics, but also mathematics and chemistry.
Amedeo Avogadro (1776 - 1856)

As a tribute to his work, a constant was named after him. Avogadro's constant or number (6.0221415 x 1023) is the number of elementary entities like the atoms, ions, molecules present in 1 mole of a substance. Another contribution of Avogadro was the law which stated that 'same number of molecules are present in equal volumes of gas at equal temperature and pressure'. He was the one who helped solve the debate on what an atom or molecule is.
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Georg Ohm (1776 - 1856)

While in school, Ohm was more interested in dancing, ice skating and playing billiards, than studying. He received recognition very late in his life, because of his mathematical approach to topics, in the time when people approached them in a non-mathematical way. Also, he was an introvert. In spite of these shortcomings, Ohm became a household name today for his most important contribution, the Ohm's Law. The law states that 'applied voltage is directly proportional to the resultant electric current divided by the resistance of the material'.
Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867)

If it was not for Faraday, electricity would not have come to practical use. He was the one who invented electromagnetic rotary devices, and formed the foundation of electric motor technology. He was also a chemist who discovered benzene. He tried to popularize terms such as cathode, anode and electrode. Faraday explained his ideas in a clear and simple way, and is considered one of the greatest discoverers of all time.
Lord William Thomson Kelvin (1824 - 1907)

He not only formulated the first and second Law of Thermodynamics, but also had improved the reliability of the mariner's compass. Due to his maritime interests, he became involved with the transatlantic telegraph project and was knighted by Queen Victoria, after which he became Sir William Thomson. He was the one who put forth the correct value of absolute zero as -273.15 celsius. Also, in his honor, unit of absolute temperature is known as 'Kelvin'.
Heinrich Hertz (1857 - 1894)

He was the pioneer who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves. The term 'Hertz' was named in his honor as the unit of frequency. He had published several papers and articles on diverse topics like meteorology and contact mechanics.
Lord Ernest Rutherford (1871 - 1937)

He is also known as the father of nuclear physics. He was one who stated that whenever there is radioactivity, the chemical element emitting the radiowaves undergoes transmutation from one form to another. He differentiated the emitted radiations and named them as alpha and beta. He had also put forth the famous Rutherford model of atom in 1911.
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Nikola Tesla (1857 - 1943)

Tesla worked for Thomas Edison before starting his own chain of laboratories that developed electrical devices. He holds a patent for alternating current induction motor. It is believed that Tesla is the first person in North America who accidentally captured an X-ray image.
John Dalton (1766 - 1844)

Dalton is the pioneer of modern atomic theory. He put forth the five main points of the atomic theory, one of which said that atoms cannot be created or destroyed but can be combined, separated or re-arranged. Dalton's law of partial pressure was put forth in 1801, and has now become very valuable in the chemistry lab.
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686 - 1736)

The everyday household mercury thermometer was developed by him. He also determined the temperature scale called Fahrenheit, which was named after him. The Fahrenheit scale has undergone alterations, and now the body temperature is taken as 98.6 degrees, as opposed to the initial 96 degrees.
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

His inventions include the first calculation machine know as the Pascal's calculator (later Pascaline), which he constructed at the age of eighteen. His other inventions were hydraulic press, followed by a syringe. He had demonstrated exceptional grasping ability at a very young age, which his father had noticed, and kept him at home so that he does not get overworked.
Christian Doppler (1803 - 1853)

Now called the doppler effect or the doppler shift, this theory laid the foundation for the sonar and radar. The theory says, that the observed frequency of any type of waves is dependent on the speed of the source and observer. He had rightly said that his theory would someday help the astronomers to measure the distances and speed of the stars.
Satyendra Nath Bose (1894 - 1974)

Bose hailed from India. While giving a lecture to his students, he realized that there is a discrepancy in the theory of radiation. Thus, he wrote a letter to Albert Einstein, stating the discrepancy. Einstein agreed and extensively worked upon his idea, which led to the development of Bose-Einstein condensate. After that, many related concepts like bosons, Bose-Einstein statistics came into existence.
James Prescott Joule (1818 - 1889)

Joule studied how heat was related to mechanical work. The first law of thermodynamics was born out of this relationship. To honor his work, the SI unit of energy, 'Joule', is named after him. He also put forth the Joule's law, worked in close collaboration with Lord Kelvin, and carried out some investigations on magnetostriction.

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Nobel Laureates

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (1845 - 1923)

It was on 8th November 1895, that Rontgen detected a specific wavelength of electromagnetic radiation now known as X-rays. This discovery helped him bag the Nobel prize in 1901. Also, a very radioactive element, Roentgenium, was named after him to honor his achievements.
Pierre Curie (1859 - 1906) and Marie Curie (1867 - 1934)

A pioneer of radioactivity, piezoelectricity and magnetism, he shared his Nobel prize, received in 1903, with his wife Marie and Prof. Henri Becquerel, for their contribution to the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel. He also put forth the Curie's law, which shows the effect of temperature on paramagnetism. Pierre, along with his wife Marie, were the first to use the term 'radioactivity' and successfully isolated 'polonium' and 'radium'. The unit of radioactivity, 'Curie', is also coined after their names.
Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852 - 1908)

Becquerel shared his Nobel with doctoral student Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie. His interest in phosphorescence led to his discovery that when uranium salts are illuminated by bright sunlight, they emit penetrating X-ray like rays. But these rays differed from X-rays in the property that they could be bent by electric or magnetic fields. Later, discovery of a few more radioactive elements like thorium etc., was done.
Lord Rayleigh (1842 - 1919)

He earned the Nobel prize for his discovery of argon gas in 1904. But there was another phenomenon called 'Rayleigh scattering' which was discovered by him. 'Rayleigh waves', that travel on the solid surfaces, were also discovered by him. He was an outstanding scientist whose work ranged over almost all the fields of physics.
Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837 - 1923)

He established the equation of state for liquids and gases that describes the behavior of gases and their condensation on the liquid phase. He received the Nobel prize in 1910. Some more terms like, 'van der Waals forces', 'van der Waals molecules' and 'van der Waals radii' are coined after his name to honor his accomplishments.
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Max Planck (1858 - 1947)

Planck established the Quantum Theory, that earned him the Nobel prize in 1918. He had made several other contributions to physics, but this theory reformed the human understanding of atomic and sub-atomic activities. It was one of the fundamental theories on which physics rests.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

A stalwart, who needs no introduction, Einstein put forth one of the pillars of modern physics, 'General theory of Relativity'. E=mc2 has been dubbed as the 'world's famous equation', and it also earned him a Nobel prize in 1921. In his lifetime, he published nearly 300 scientific papers. His exceptional wisdom has made the word 'Einstein' synonymous with 'intelligence'
Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)

He put forth the theory of nuclear reactions and nuclear fission. His foundational contributions in the field of quantum mechanics earned this ardent football player a Nobel prize in 1922. It was Bohr who showed to the world that nucleus lies in the center and the electrons revolve around it, just like the sun and the planets revolving around it.
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888 - 1970)

His research on scattering of light and establishing the Raman effect got him a Nobel prize in 1930. He was an Indian physicist, who helped India grow by his influential work. He was the founder and editor of 'The Indian Journal of Physics'. He also carried out many other investigations, and also approached the basic problems of crystal dynamics with a different mindset.
James Chadwick (1891 - 1974)

Discovery of neutron was his path-breaking discovery that helped him bag the coveted Nobel in 1935. Neutrons lacked electrical charge and therefore, were not required to overcome the coulomb barrier, that makes it easy for them to penetrate the nuclei of the heaviest element. This was important for the understanding of the nuclear fission of Uranium 235.
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Carl David Anderson (1905 - 1991)

While studying the energy distribution of cosmic-rays for his doctoral thesis, he discovered positron (positive electron) which bagged him the Nobel prize in 1936. He had many honors bestowed upon him, apart from the Nobel.
Wolfgang Pauli (1900 - 1958)

Establishing the Pauli principle, which is also called the exclusion principle, Pauli received the Nobel prize in 1945. He was nominated for the Nobel by Albert Einstein. His major contribution was in the field of 'quantum mechanics.' Pauli often kept his work unpublished, due to which much of his work went uncredited.
Dennis Gabor (1900 - 1979)

He discovered holography in 1947, for which he received the Nobel prize in 1971. However, it became commercially available only after 1964. Granular synthesis was another finding of Gabor, which was not related to his original field of study. It was the result of his investigations on how human beings communicate with each other and hear the voices. This work of his was radical for the development of time-frequency analysis.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-famous-physicists.html
Famous Physicists

Classical Period | William Gilbert | 1544-1603
English | hypothesized that the Earth is a giant magnet | Galileo Galilei | 1564-1642
Italian | performed fundamental observations, experiments, and mathematical analyses in astronomy and physics; discovered mountains and craters on the moon, the phases of Venus, and the four largest satellites of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede | Willebrod Snell | 1580-1626
Dutch | discovered law of refraction (Snell's law) | Blaise Pascal | 1623-1662
French | discovered that pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted undiminished to every part of the fluid and to the walls of its container (Pascal's principle) | Christiaan Huygens | 1629-1695
Dutch | proposed a simple geometrical wave theory of light, now known as ``Huygen's principle''; pioneered use of the pendulum in clocks | Robert Hooke | 1635-1703
English | discovered Hooke's law of elasticity | Sir Isaac Newton | 1643-1727
English | developed theories of gravitation and mechanics, and invented differential calculus | Daniel Bernoulli | 1700-1782
Swiss | developed the fundamental relationship of fluid flow now known as Bernoulli's principle | Benjamin Franklin | 1706-1790
American | the first American physicist; characterized two kinds of electric charge, which he named ``positive'' and ``negative'' | Leonard Euler | 1707-1783
Swiss | made fundamental contributions to fluid dynamics, lunar orbit theory (tides), and mechanics; also contributed prolifically to all areas of classical mathematics | Henry Cavendish | 1731-1810
British | discovered and studied hydrogen; first to measure Newton's gravitational constant; calculated mass and mean density of Earth | Charles Augustin de Coulomb | 1736-1806
French | experiments on elasticity, electricity, and magnetism; established experimentally nature of the force between two charges | Joseph-Louis Lagrange | 1736-1813
French | developed new methods of analytical mechanics | James Watt | 1736-1819
Scottish | invented the modern condensing steam engine and a centrifugal governor | Count Alessandro Volta | 1745-1827
Italian | pioneer in study of electricity; invented the first electric battery | Joseph Fourier | 1768-1830
French | established the differential equation governing heat diffusion and solved it by devising an infinite series of sines and cosines capable of approximating a wide variety of functions | Thomas Young | 1773-1829
British | studied light and color; known for his double-slit experiment that demonstrated the wave nature of light | Jean-Babtiste Biot | 1774-1862
French | studied polarization of light; co-discovered that intensity of magnetic field set up by a current flowing through a wire varies inversely with the distance from the wire | André Marie Ampère | 1775-1836
French | father of electrodynamics | Amadeo Avogadro | 1776-1856
Italian | developed hypothesis that all gases at same volume, pressure, and temperature contain same number of atoms | Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss | 1777-1855
German | formulated separate electrostatic and electrodynamical laws, including ``Gauss' law''; contributed to development of number theory, differential geometry, potential theory, theory of terrestrial magnetism, and methods of calculating planetary orbits | Hans Christian Oersted | 1777-1851
Danish | discovered that a current in a wire can produce magnetic effects | Sir David Brewster | 1781-1868
English | deduced ``Brewster's law'' giving the angle of incidence that produces reflected light which is completely polarized; invented the kaleidoscope and the stereoscope, and improved the spectroscope | Augustin-Jean Fresnel | 1788-1827
French | studied transverse nature of light waves | Georg Ohm | 1789-1854
German | discovered that current flow is proportional to potential difference and inversely proportional to resistance (Ohm's law) | Michael Faraday | 1791-1867
English | discovered electromagnetic induction and devised first electrical transformer | Felix Savart | 1791-1841
French | co-discovered that intensity of magnetic field set up by a current flowing through a wire varies inversely with the distance from the wire | Sadi Carnot | 1796-1832
French | founded the science of thermodynamics | Joseph Henry | 1797-1878
American | performed extensive fundamental studies of electromagnetic phenomena; devised first practical electric motor | Christian Doppler | 1803-1853
Austrian | experimented with sound waves; derived an expression for the apparent change in wavelength of a wave due to relative motion between the source and observer | Wilhelm E. Weber | 1804-1891
German | developed sensitive magnetometers; worked in electrodynamics and the electrical structure of matter | Sir William Hamilton | 1805-1865
Irish | developed the principle of least action and the Hamiltonian form of classical mechanics | James Prescott Joule | 1818-1889
British | discovered mechanical equivalent of heat | Armand-Hippolyte-Louis Fizeau | 1819-1896
French | made the first terrestrial measurement of the speed of light; invented one of the first interferometers; took the first pictures of the Sun on daguerreotypes; argued that the Doppler effect with respect to sound should also apply to any wave motion, particularly that of light | Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault | 1819-1868
French | accurately measured speed of light; invented the gyroscope; demonstrated the Earth's rotation | Sir George Gabriel Stokes | 1819-1903
British | described the motion of viscous fluids by independently discovering the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid mechanics (or hydrodynamics); developed Stokes theorem by which certain surface integrals may be reduced to line integrals; discovered fluorescence | Hermann von Helmholtz | 1821-1894
German | developed first law of thermodynamics, a statement of conservation of energy | Rudolf Clausius | 1822-1888
German | developed second law of thermodynamics, a statement that the entropy of the Universe always increases | Lord Kelvin
(born William Thomson) | 1824-1907
British | proposed absolute temperature scale, of essence to development of thermodynamics | Gustav Kirchhoff | 1824-1887
German | developed three laws of spectral analysis and three rules of electric circuit analysis; also contributed to optics | Johann Balmer | 1825-1898
Swiss | developed empirical formula to describe hydrogen spectrum | Sir Joseph Wilson Swan | 1828-1914
British | developed a carbon-filament incandescent light; patented the carbon process for printing photographs in permanent pigment | James Clerk Maxwell | 1831-1879
Scottish | propounded the theory of electromagnetism; developed the kinetic theory of gases | Josef Stefan | 1835-1893
Austrian | studied blackbody radiation | Ernst Mach | 1838-1916
Austrian | studied conditions that occur when an object moves through a fluid at high speed (the ``Mach number'' gives the ratio of the speed of the object to the speed of sound in the fluid); proposed ``Mach's principle,'' which states that the inertia of an object is due to the interaction between the object and the rest of the universe | Josiah Gibbs | 1839-1903
American | developed chemical thermodynamics; introduced concepts of free energy and chemical potential | James Dewar | 1842-1923
British | liquified nitrogen and invented the Dewar flask, which is critical for low-temperature work | Osborne Reynolds | 1842-1912
British | contributed to the fields of hydraulics and hydrodynamics; developed mathematical framework for turbulence and introduced the ``Reynolds number,'' which provides a criterion for dynamic similarity and correct modeling in many fluid-flow experiments | Ludwig Boltzmann | 1844-1906
Austrian | developed statistical mechanics and applied it to kinetic theory of gases | Roland Eötvös | 1848-1919
Hungarian | demonstrated equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass | Oliver Heaviside | 1850-1925
English | contributed to the development of electromagnetism; introduced operational calculus and invented the modern notation for vector calculus; predicted existence of the Heaviside layer (a layer of the Earth's ionosphere) | George Francis FitzGerald | 1851-1901
Irish | hypothesized foreshortening of moving bodies (Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction) to explain the result of the Michelson-Morley experiment | John Henry Poynting | 1852-1914
British | demonstrated that the energy flow of electromagnetic waves could be calculated by an equation (now called Poynting's vector) | Henri Poincaré | 1854-1912
French | founded qualitative dynamics (the mathematical theory of dynamical systems); created topology; contributed to solution of the three-body problem; first described many properties of deterministic chaos; contributed to the development of special relativity | Janne Rydberg | 1854-1919
Swedish | analyzed the spectra of many elements; discovered many line series were described by a formula that depended on a universal constant (the Rydberg constant) | Edwin H. Hall | 1855-1938
American | discovered the ``Hall effect,'' which occurs when charge carriers moving through a material are deflected because of an applied magnetic field - the deflection results in a potential difference across the side of the material that is transverse to both the magnetic field and the current direction | Heinrich Hertz | 1857-1894
German | worked on electromagnetic phenomena; discovered radio waves and the photoelectric effect | Nikola Tesla | 1857-1943
Serbian-born American | created alternating current | Nobel Laureates | | | Johannes van der Waals | 1837-1923
Dutch | worked on equations of state for gases and liquids | Lord Rayleigh
(born John William Strutt) | 1842-1919
British | discovered argon; explained how light scattering is responsible for red color of sunset and blue color of sky | Wilhelm Röntgen | 1845-1923
German | discovered and studied x rays | Antoine Henri Becquerel | 1852-1908
French | discovered natural radioactivity | Albert A. Michelson | 1852-1931
German-born American | devised an interferometer and used it to try to measure Earth's absolute motion; precisely measured speed of light | Hendrik Antoon Lorentz | 1853-1928
Dutch | introduced Lorentz transformation equations of special relativity; advanced ideas of relativistic length contraction and relativistic mass increase; contributed to theory of electromagnetism | Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes | 1853-1926
Dutch | liquified helium; discovered superconductivity | Sir Joseph John Thomson | 1856-1940
British | demonstrated existence of the electron | Max Planck | 1858-1947
German | formulated the quantum theory; explained wavelength distribution of blackbody radiation | Pierre Curie | 1859-1906
French | studied radioactivity with wife, Marie Curie; discovered piezoelectricity | Sir William Henry Bragg | 1862-1942
British | worked on x-ray spectrometry | Philipp von Lenard | 1862-1947
German | studied cathode rays and the photoelectric effect | Wilhelm Wien | 1864-1928
German | discovered laws governing radiation of heat | Pieter Zeeman | 1865-1943
Dutch | discovered splitting of spectral lines in a strong magnetic field | Marie Curie | 1867-1934
Polish-born French | discovered radioactivity of thorium; co-discovered radium and polonium | Robert Millikan | 1868-1953
American | measured the charge of an electron; introduced term ``cosmic rays'' for the radiation coming from outer space; studied the photoelectric effect | Charles Wilson | 1869-1959
British | invented the cloud chamber | Jean Baptiste Perrin | 1870-1942
French | experimentally proved that cathode rays were streams of negatively charged particles; experimentally confirmed the correctness of Einstein's theory of Brownian motion, and through his measurements obtained a new determination of Avogadro's number | Lord Ernest Rutherford | 1871-1937
New Zealander | theorized existence of the atomic nucleus based on results of the alpha-scattering experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden; developed theory of Rutherford scattering (scattering of spinless, pointlike particles from a Coulomb potential) | Guglielmo Marconi | 1874-1937
Italian | invented the first practical system of wireless telegraphy | Johannes Stark | 1874-1957
German | discovered splitting of spectral lines in a strong electric field | Charles Glover Barkla | 1877-1944
British | discovered that every chemical element, when irradiated by x rays, can emit an x-ray spectrum of two line-groups, which he named the K-series and L-series, that are of fundamental importance to understanding atomic structure | Albert Einstein | 1879-1955
German-born American | explained Brownian motion and photoelectric effect; contributed to theory of atomic spectra; formulated theories of special and general relativity | Otto Hahn | 1879-1968
German | discovered the fission of heavy nuclei | Max von Laue | 1879-1960
German | discovered diffraction of x rays by crystals | Sir Owen Richardson | 1879-1959
British | discovered the basic law of thermionic emission, now called the Richardson (or Richardson-Dushman) equation, which describes the emission of electrons from a heated conductor | Clinton Joseph Davisson | 1881-1958
American | co-discovered electron diffraction | Max Born | 1882-1970
German-born British | contributed to creation of quantum mechanics; pioneer in the theory of crystals | Percy Williams Bridgman | 1882-1961
American | invented an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures; made many discoveries in high-pressure physics | James Franck | 1882-1964
German | experimentally confirmed that atomic energy states are quantized | Victor Franz Hess | 1883-1964
Austrian | discovered cosmic radiation | Peter Debye | 1884-1966
Dutch-born German | used methods of statistical mechanics to calculate equilibrium properties of solids; contributed to knowledge of molecular structure | Niels Bohr | 1885-1962
Danish | contributed to quantum theory and to theory of nuclear reactions and nuclear fission | Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn | 1886-1978
Swedish | made important experimental contributions to the field of x-ray spectroscopy | Gustav Hertz | 1887-1975
German | experimentally confirmed that atomic energy states are quantized | Erwin Schrödinger | 1887-1961
Austrian | contributed to creation of quantum mechanics; formulated the Schrödinger wave equation | Sir Chandrasekhara Raman | 1888-1970
Indian | studied light scattering and discovered the Raman effect | Otto Stern | 1888-1969
German-born American | contributed to development of the molecular beam method; discovered the magnetic moment of the proton | Frits Zernike | 1888-1966
Dutch | invented the phase-contrast microscope, a type of microscope widely used for examining specimens such as biological cells and tissues | Sir William Lawrence Bragg | 1890-1971
British | worked on crystal structure and x rays | Walther Bothe | 1891-1957
German | devised a coincidence counter for studying cosmic rays; demonstrated validity of energy-momentum conservation at the atomic scale | Sir James Chadwick | 1891-1974
British | discovered the neutron | Sir Edward Appleton | 1892-1965
English | discovered the layer of the Earth's atmosphere, called the Appleton layer, which is the part of the ionosphere having the highest concentration of free electrons and is the most useful for radio transmission | Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie | 1892-1987
French | predicted wave properties of the electron | Arthur Compton | 1892-1962
American | discovered the increase in wavelength of x rays when scattered by an electron | Sir George Paget Thomson | 1892-1975
British | co-discovered electron diffraction | Harold Clayton Urey | 1893-1981
American | discovered deuterium | Pjotr Leonidovich Kapitsa | 1894-1984
Soviet | heralded a new era of low-temperature physics by inventing a device for producing liquid helium without previous cooling with liquid hydrogen; demonstrated that Helium II is a quantum superfluid | Igor Y. Tamm | 1895-1971
Soviet | co-developed the theoretical interpretation of the radiation of electrons moving through matter faster than the speed of light (the ``Cerenkov effect''), and developed the theory of showers in cosmic rays | Robert S. Mulliken | 1896-1986
American | introduced the theoretical concept of the molecular orbital, which led to a new understanding of the chemical bond and the electronic structure of molecules | Lord Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett | 1897-1974
British | developed an automatic Wilson cloud chamber; discovered electron-positron pair production in cosmic rays | Sir John Cockcroft | 1897-1967
British | co-invented the first particle accelerator | Irène Joliot-Curie | 1897-1956
French | co-discovered artificial radioactivity | Isador Isaac Rabi | 1898-1988
Austrian-born American | developed the resonance technique for measuring the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei | Frédéric Joliot-Curie | 1900-1958
French | co-discovered artificial radioactivity | Dennis Gabor | 1900-1979
Hungarian | invented and developed the holographic method whereby it is possible to record and display a three-dimensional display of an object | Wolfgang Pauli | 1900-1958
Austrian-born American | discovered the exclusion principle; suggested the existence of the neutrino | Enrico Fermi | 1901-1954
Italian-born American | performed experiments leading to first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; developed a theory of beta decay that introduced the weak interaction; derived the statistical properties of gases that obey the Pauli exclusion principle | Werner Heisenberg | 1901-1976
German | contributed to creation of quantum mechanics; introduced the ``uncertainty principle'' and the concept of exchange forces | Ernest Orlando Lawrence | 1901-1958
American | invented the cyclotron | Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac | 1902-1984
British | helped found quantum electrodynamics; predicted the existence of antimatter by combining quantum mechanics with special relativity | Alfred Kastler | 1902-1984
French | discovered and developed optical methods for studying the Hertzian resonances that are produced when atoms interact with radio waves or microwaves | Eugene Wigner | 1902-1995
Hungarian-born American | contributed to theoretical atomic and nuclear physics; introduced concept of the nuclear cross section | Cecil F. Powell | 1903-1969
British | developed the photographic emulsion method of studying nuclear processes; discovered the charged pion | Ernest Walton | 1903-1995
Irish | co-invented the first particle accelerator | Pavel A. Cherenkov | 1904-1990
Soviet | discovered the ``Cerenkov effect'' whereby light is emitted by a particle passing through a medium at a speed greater than that of light in the medium | Carl David Anderson | 1905-1991
American | discovered the positron and the muon | Felix Bloch | 1905-1983
Swiss-born American | contributed to development of the NMR technique; measured the magnetic moment of the neutron; contributed to the theory of metals | Sir Nevill F. Mott | 1905-1996
British | contributed to theoretical condensed-matter physics by applying quantum theory to complex phenomena in solids; calculated cross section for relativistic Coulomb scattering | Emilio Segrè | 1905-1989
Italian-born American | co-discovered the antiproton; discovered technetium | Hans Bethe | 1906-2005
German-born American | contributed to theoretical nuclear physics, especially concerning the mechanism for energy production in stars | Maria Goeppert-Mayer | 1906-1972
German-born American | advanced shell model of nuclear structure | Ernst Ruska | 1906-1988
German | designed the first electron microscope | Shin-Ichiro Tomonaga | 1906-1979
Japanese | co-developed quantum electrodynamics | J. Hans D. Jensen | 1907-1973
German | advanced shell model of nuclear structure | Edwin M. McMillan | 1907-1991
American | made discoveries concerning the transuranium elements | Hideki Yukawa | 1907-1981
Japanese | predicted existence of the pion | John Bardeen | 1908-1991
American | co-discovered the transistor effect; developed theory of superconductivity | Il'ja M. Frank | 1908-1990
Soviet | co-developed the theoretical interpretation of the radiation of electrons moving through matter faster than the speed of light (the ``Cerenkov effect''), and carried out experimental investigations of pair creation by gamma rays | Lev Landau | 1908-1968
Soviet | contributed to condensed matter theory on phenomena of superfluidity and superconductivity | Subramanyan Chandrasekhar | 1910-1995
Indian-born American | made important theoretical contributions concerning the structure and evolution of stars, especially white dwarfs | William Shockley | 1910-1989
American | co-discovered the transistor effect | Luis Walter Alvarez | 1911-1988
American | constructed huge bubble chambers and discovered many short-lived hadrons; advanced the impact theory for the extinction of the dinosaurs | William Fowler | 1911-1995
American | studied nuclear reactions of astrophysical significance; developed, with others, a theory of the formation of chemical elements in the universe | Polykarp Kusch | 1911-1993
American | experimentally established that the electron has an anomalous magnetic moment and made a precision determination of its magnitude | Edward Mills Purcell | 1912-1997
American | developed method of nuclear resonance absorption that permitted the absolute determination of nuclear magnetic moments; co-discovered a line in the galactic radiospectrum caused by atomic hydrogen | Glenn T. Seaborg | 1912-1999
American | co-discovered plutonium and all further transuranium elements through element 102 | Willis E. Lamb, Jr. | 1913-2008
American | made discoveries concerning fine structure of hydrogen | Robert Hofstadter | 1915-1990
American | measured charge distributions in atomic nuclei with high-energy electron scattering; measured the charge and magnetic-moment distributions in the proton and neutron | Norman F. Ramsey, Jr. | 1915-2011
American | developed the separated oscillatory fields method, which is the basis of the cesium atomic clock (our present time standard); co-invented the hydrogen maser | Clifford G. Shull | 1915-2001
American | developed a neutron scattering technique in which a neutron diffraction pattern is produced that may be used to determine the atomic structure of a material | Charles H. Townes | 1915-
American | created first maser using ammonia to produce coherent microwave radiation | Francis Crick | 1916-2004
English | co-proposed the double-helix structure of DNA | Maurice Wilkins | 1916-2004
British | investigated the structure of DNA | Bertram N. Brockhouse | 1918-2003
Canadian | developed the technique of neutron spectroscopy for studies of condensed matter | Richard P. Feynman | 1918-1988
American | co-developed quantum electrodynamics; created a new formalism for practical calculations by introducing a graphical method called Feynman diagrams | Frederick Reines | 1918-1998
American | established, together with Clyde L. Cowan, Jr., the existence of the electron antineutrino by detecting them using a reactor experiment | Julian Schwinger | 1918-1994
American | co-developed quantum electrodynamics | Kai M. Siegbahn | 1918-2007
Swedish | contributed to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy | Nicolaas Bloembergen | 1920-
Dutch-born American | contributed to the development of laser spectroscopy | Owen Chamberlain | 1920-2006
American | co-discovered the antiproton | Yoichiro Nambu | 1921-
Japanese-born American | contributed to elementary particle theory; recognized the role played by spontaneous symmetry-breaking in analogy with superconductivity theory; formulated QCD (quantum chromodynamics), the gauge theory of color | Andrei Sakharov | 1921-1989
Russian | father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb; awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle for human rights, for disarmament, and for cooperation between all nations | Arthur L. Schawlow | 1921-1999
American | contributed to the development of laser spectroscopy | Jack Steinberger | 1921-
German-born American | made many important discoveries in particle physics; co-discovered the neutral pion via photoproduction; co-discovered the muon neutrino | Nikolai Basov | 1922-2001
Soviet | worked in quantum electronics; independently worked out theoretical basis of the maser | Aage Bohr | 1922-2009
Danish | contributed to theoretical understanding of collective motion in nuclei | Leon Lederman | 1922-
American | contributed to the discovery of the muon neutrino and the bottom quark | Chen Ning Yang | 1922-
Chinese-born American | co-proposed parity violation in weak interactions | Val Logsdon Fitch | 1923-
American | co-discovered that decays of neutral kaons sometime violate CP conservation | Jack S. Kilby | 1923-2005
American | invented the monolithic integrated circuit - the microchip - which laid the foundation for the field of microelectronics; co-invented the hand held calculator | Willard S. Boyle | 1924-2011
Canadian | co-invented the CCD (charge-coupled device) | Georges Charpak | 1924-2010
French | invented the multiwire proportional chamber | Roy J. Glauber | 1925-
American | made important contributions to the theoretical understanding of quantum optics and high-energy collisions | Simon van der Meer | 1925-2011
Dutch | contributed to experiments that led to the discovery of the carriers (W± and Z°) of the weak interaction | Donald A. Glaser | 1926-
American | invented the bubble chamber | Henry W. Kendall | 1926-1999
American | co-discovered, through investigations of deep-inelastic electron scattering, clear signs that there exists an inner structure (quarks and gluons) in the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus | Ben Mottelson | 1926-
American | contributed to theoretical understanding of collective motion in nuclei | Tsung-Dao Lee | 1926-
Chinese-born American | co-proposed parity violation in weak interactions | Abdus Salam | 1926-1996
Pakistani | co-developed gauge field theory of the electroweak interaction; suggested that the proton might be unstable | K. Alexander Müller | 1927-
Swiss | co-discovered the first ceramic superconductors | Martin L. Perl | 1927-
American | discovered the tau lepton | Murray Gell-Mann | 1929-
American | advanced an explanation of strange particles; predicted the existence of the Omega- particle; postulated existence of quarks; founded the study of QCD | Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer | 1929-
German | experimented with resonance absorption of gamma radiation; discovered ``Mössbauer effect,'' the recoilless emission of gamma rays by nuclei | Richard E. Taylor | 1929-
Canadian | co-discovered, through investigations of deep-inelastic electron scattering, clear signs that there exists an inner structure (quarks and gluons) in the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus | Leon Cooper | 1930-
American | contributed to condensed matter theory on phenomena of superconductivity | Jerome I. Friedman | 1930-
American | co-discovered, through investigations of deep-inelastic electron scattering, clear signs that there exists an inner structure (quarks and gluons) in the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus | George E. Smith | 1930-
American | co-invented the CCD (charge-coupled device) | James W. Cronin | 1931-
American | co-discovered that decays of neutral kaons sometime violate CP conservation | David M. Lee | 1931-
American | co-discovered that the isotope Helium-3 becomes a quantum superfluid near absolute zero | Burton Richter | 1931-
American | carried out an experiment leading to the discovery of charmonium | J. Robert Schrieffer | 1931-
American | contributed to condensed matter theory on phenomena of superconductivity | Pierre-Gilles de Gennes | 1932-2007
French | developed theories in condensed matter physics applicable to liquid crystals and polymers | Sheldon Glashow | 1932-
American | co-developed gauge field theory of the electroweak interaction | Melvin Schwartz | 1932-2006
American | proposed that it should be possible to produce and use a beam of neutrinos; co-discovered the muon neutrino | Claude Cohen-Tannoudji | 1933-
French | developed methods, with his colleagues, of using laser light to cool helium atoms to a temperature of about 0.18 µK and capturing the chilled atoms in a trap | Charles K. Kao | 1933-
Chinese-born British-American | pioneer in the development and use of fiber optics in telecommunications | Arno A. Penzias | 1933-
German-born American | co-discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation | Heinrich Rohrer | 1933-
Swiss | co-designed the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a type of microscope in which a fine conducting probe is held close the surface of a sample | Steven Weinberg | 1933-
American | co-developed gauge field theory of the electroweak interaction | Carlo Rubbia | 1934-
Italian | contributed to experiments that led to the discovery of the carriers (W± and Z°) of the weak interaction | Robert W. Wilson | 1936-
American | co-discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation | Samuel C. C. Ting | 1936-
American | carried out an experiment leading to the discovery of charmonium | Kenneth Wilson | 1936-
American | invented renormalization group methods to develop a theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions; contributed to solving QCD using lattice gauge theory | Robert C. Richardson | 1937-
American | co-discovered that the isotope Helium-3 becomes a quantum superfluid near absolute zero | Albert Fert | 1938-
French | co-discovered Giant Magnetoresistance, which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disks | Peter Grünberg | 1939-
German | co-discovered Giant Magnetoresistance, which brought about a breakthrough in gigabyte hard disks | Brian Josephson | 1940-
British | contributed to theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier | Toshihide Maskawa | 1940-
Japanese | contributed to theoretical understanding of CP-violation; co-discovered the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks | David J. Gross | 1941-
American | co-discovered ``asymptotic freedom'' in non-Abelian gauge theories; contributed to the development of string theory | Klaus von Klitzing | 1943-
German | discovered the quantized Hall effect | Makato Kobayashi | 1944-
Japanese | contributed to theoretical understanding of CP-violation; co-discovered the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks | Douglas D. Osheroff | 1945-
American | co-discovered that the isotope Helium-3 becomes a quantum superfluid near absolute zero | Gerard t' Hooft | 1946-
Dutch | contributed to theoretical understanding of gauge theories in elementary particle physics, quantum gravity and black holes, and fundamental aspects of quantum physics | Gerd Binnig | 1947-
German | co-designed the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a type of microscope in which a fine conducting probe is held close the surface of a sample | Steven Chu | 1948-
American | developed the Doppler cooling method of using laser light (optical molasses) to cool gases and capturing the chilled atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) | William D. Phillips | 1948-
American | developed, with his colleagues, a device called a Zeeman slower, with which he could slow down and capture atoms in a purely magnetic trap | H. David Politzer | 1949-
American | co-discovered ``asymptotic freedom'' in non-Abelian gauge theories; co-predicted the existence of charmonium - the bound state of a charm quark and its antiparticle | J. Georg Bednorz | 1950-
German | co-discovered the first ceramic superconductors | Robert Laughlin | 1950-
American | developed a theory of quantum fluids that explained the fractional quantum Hall effect | Frank Wilczek | 1951-
American | co-discovered ``asymptotic freedom'' in non-Abelian gauge theories; contributed to the study of ``anyons'' (particle-like excitations in two-dimensional systems that obey ``fractional statistics'') | Andre Geim | 1958-
Dutch-Russian | co-discovered a simple method for isolating single atomic layers of graphite, known as graphene | Konstantin Novoselov | 1974-
Russian-British | co-discovered a simple method for isolating single atomic layers of graphite, known as graphene | Others | | | Wallace Clement Sabine | 1868-1919
American | founded the science of architectural acoustics | Arnold Sommerfeld | 1868-1951
German | generalized the circular orbits of the atomic Bohr model to elliptical orbits; introduced the magnetic quantum number; used statistical mechanics to explain the electronic properties of metals | Lise Meitner | 1878-1968
Austrian-born Swedish | co-discovered the element protactinium and studied the effects of neutron bombardment on uranium; introduced term ``fission'' for splitting the atomic nucleus | Paul Ehrenfest | 1880-1933
Austrian | applied quantum mechanics to rotating bodies; helped develop the modern statistical theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics | Theodor von Kármán | 1881-1963
Hungarian-born American | provided major contributions to our understanding of fluid mechanics, turbulence theory, and supersonic flight | Walther Meissner | 1882-1974
German | co-discovered the ``Meissner effect'', whereby a superconductor expells a magnetic field | Hans Geiger | 1883-1945
German | helped measure charge-to-mass ratio for alpha particles; invented Geiger counter for detecting ionizing particles | Hermann Weyl | 1885-1955
German | attempted to incorporate electromagnetism into general relativity; evolved the concept of continuous groups using matrix representations and applied group theory to quantum mechanics | Arthur Jeffrey Dempster | 1886-1950
Canadian-born American | discovered the isotope uranium-235 | Henry Moseley | 1887-1915
British | developed the modern form of the period table of elements based on their atomic numbers | Sir Robert Watson-Watt | 1892-1973
Scottish | developed radar | Satyendra Bose | 1894-1974
Indian | worked out statistical method of handling bosons (a group of particles named in his honor) | Oskar Klein | 1894-1977
Swedish | introduced the physical notion of extra dimensions that helped develop the Kaluza-Klein theory; co-developed the Klein-Gordon equation describing the relativistic behavior of spinless particles; co-developed the Klein-Nishina formula describing relativistic electron-photon scattering | Vladimir A. Fock | 1898-1974
Russian | made fundamental contributions to quantum theory; invented the Hartree-Fock approximation method and the notion of Fock space | Leo Szilard | 1898-1964
Hungarian-born American | first suggested possibility of a nuclear chain reaction | Pierre Auger | 1899-1993
French | discovered the Auger effect whereby an electron is ejected from an atom without the emission of an x-ray or gamma-ray photon as the result of the de-excitation of an excited electron within the atom; discovered cosmic-ray air showers | Ernst Ising | 1900-1998
German-born American | developed the Ising model of ferromagnetism | Fritz London | 1900-1954
German-born American | co-developed the phenomenological theory of superconductivity; co-developed the first quantum-mechanical treatment of the hydrogen molecule; determined that the electromagnetic gauge is the phase of the Schrödinger wave function | Charles Francis Richter | 1900-1985
American | established the Richter scale for the measurement of earthquake intensity | George E. Uhlenbeck | 1900-1988
Dutch | co-discovered that the electron has an intrinsic spin | Robert J. Van de Graaf | 1901-1967
American | invented the Van de Graaf electrostatic generator | Samuel Abraham Goudsmit | 1902-1978
Dutch | co-discovered that the electron has an intrinsic spin | Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov | 1903-1960
Soviet | headed the Soviet atomic and hydrogen bomb programs | John von Neumann | 1903-1957
Hungarian-born American | formulated a fully quantum mechanical generalization of statistical mechanics | George Gamow | 1904-1968
Russian-born American | first suggested hydrogen fusion as source of solar energy | J. Robert Oppenheimer | 1904-1967
American | headed Manhattan Project to develop the nuclear fission bomb | Sir Rudolf Peierls | 1907-1995
German-born British | many contributions in theoretical physics, including an improved calculation of the critical mass needed to make a fission bomb | Edward Teller | 1908-2003
Hungarian-born American | helped develop atomic and hydrogen bombs | Victor F. Weisskopf | 1908-2002
Austrian-born American | made theoretical contributions to quantum electrodynamics, nuclear structure, and elementary particle physics | Homi Jehangir Bhabha | 1909-1966
Indian | initiated nuclear research programs in India; carried out experiments in cosmic rays; calculated cross section for elastic electron-positron scattering | Nikolai N. Bogolubov | 1909-1992
Russian | theoretical physicist and mathematician who contributed to the microscopic theory of superfluidity; also contributed to theory of elementary particles, including the S-matrix and dispersion relations, and to nonlinear mechanics and the general theory of dynamical systems | Maurice Goldhaber | 1911-2011
Austrian-born American | first measured (with James Chadwick) an accurate mass for the neutron; participated in experiments proving that beta rays are identical to atomic electrons; developed (with Edward Teller) the concept of coherent oscillations of protons and neutrons in nuclei leading to the giant dipole resonance; performed an experiment showing that neutrinos are created with negative helicity, which provided conclusive evidence for the V-A theory of weak interactions; participated in experiments that obtained an upper limit on the rate of proton decay and that provided evidence for neutrino oscillations | Chien-Shiung Wu | 1912-1997
Chinese-born American | experimentally proved that parity is not conserved in nuclear beta decay | Henry Primakoff | 1914-1983
Russian-born American | co-developed the theory of spin waves; first described the process that became known as the ``Primakoff effect'' (the coherent photoproduction of neutral mesons in the electric field of an atomic nucleus); contributed to understanding of various manifestations of the weak interaction, including muon capture, double-beta decay, and the interaction of neutrinos with nuclei | Robert Rathbun Wilson | 1914-2000
American | driving force behind creation of Fermilab and Cornell University's Laboratory of Nuclear Studies; a leader in the formation of the Federation of Atomic Scientists; did extensive measurements of kaon and pion photoproduction in which he made the first observation of a new state of the nucleon, N(1440) | Vitaly L. Ginzburg | 1916-2009
Russian | contributed to theory of superconductivity and theory of high-energy processes in astrophysics; co-discovered transition radiation, emitted when charged particles traverse interface between two different media | Robert E. Marshak | 1916-1993
American | contributed to theoretical particle physics; independently proposed (with George Sudarshan) the V-A theory of weak interactions; developed explanation of how shock waves behave under conditions of extremely high temperatures | Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky | 1919-2007
German-born American | co-discovered the neutral pion via photoproduction; studied gamma rays from pi- captured in hydrogen and first measured the ``Panofsky ratio'' | Robert V. Pound | 1919-2010
Canadian-born American | used the Mössbauer effect to measure (with Glen A. Rebka, Jr.) the gravitational redshift predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity | Vernon W. Hughes | 1921-2003
American | participated in experiments to test the fundamental QED interaction using the muonium atom | Freeman J. Dyson | 1923-
British-born American | made many important contribututions to quantum field theory, including the demonstration that the Feynman rules are direct and rigorous consequences of quantum field theory; advocated exploration of the solar system by humans; speculated on the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations | Calvin F. Quate | 1923-
American | made pioneering contributions to nanoscale measurement science through the development and application of scanning probe microscropes | Lincoln Wolfenstein | 1923-
American | contributed to theory of weak interactions, especially concerning neutrino masses, the origin of CP violation, lepton number violation, the solar neutrino problem, and Higgs boson properties | James E. Zimmerman | 1923-1999
American | co-invented the radio-frequency superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), a practical magnetometer/amplifier with extreme sensitivity limited only by the uncertainty principle | Felix Hans Boehm | 1924-
Swiss-born American | pioneered the use of nuclear-physics techniques for exploring fundamental questions concerning the weak interactions and the nature of neutrinos | Ernest M. Henley | 1924-
German-born American | contributed to the theoretical understanding of how symmetries place restrictions on theories and models; the connection of quarks and gluons to nucleon-meson degrees of freedom; the changes that occur when hadrons are placed in a nuclear medium | Benoit Mandelbrot | 1924-2010
French-American | developed theory of fractals | D. Allan Bromley | 1926-2005
Canadian | served as Science Advisor to the President of the United States; carried out pioneering studies of nuclear structure and dynamics; considered the father of modern heavy-ion science | Sidney D. Drell | 1926-
American | made important theoretical contributions to particle physics and quantum electrodynamics; specialist in arms control and national security | Albert V. Crewe | 1927-2009
British-born American | developed the first practical scanning electron microscope | John Stewart Bell | 1928-1990
Irish | proved the inherent nonlocality of quantum mechanics | Stanley Mandelstam | 1928-
South African | contributed to the modern understanding of relativistic particle scattering through his representation of the analytic properties of scattering amplitudes in the form of double dispersion relations (Mandelstam representation); applied path-integral quantization methods to string theory | Peter Higgs | 1929-
British | proposed with others the Higgs mechanism by which particles are endowed with mass by interacting with the Higgs field, which is carried by Higgs bosons | Akito Arima | 1930-
Japanese | co-developed the Interacting Boson Model of the atomic nucleus | Mildred S. Dresselhaus | 1930-
American | contributed to the advance of solid-state physics, especially involving carbon-based materials, including fullerenes and nanotubes (a.k.a., buckyballs and buckytubes) | Joel Lebowitz | 1930-
Swiss-born American | contributed to condensed matter theory, especially involving statistical mechanics: phase transitions; derivation of hydrodynamical equations from microscopic kinetics; statistical mechanics of plasmas | John P. Schiffer | 1930-
American | studied nuclear structure, pion absorption in nuclei, ion traps and crystalline beams, heavy-ion physics, and the Mössbauer effect | T. Kenneth Fowler | 1931-
American | contributed to the theory of plasma physics and magnetic fusion | Tullio Regge | 1931-
Italian | developed the theory of Regge trajectories by investigating the asymptotic behavior of potential-scattering processes through the analytic continuation of the angular momentum to the complex plane | Oscar Wallace Greenberg | 1932-
American | introduced color as a quantum number to resolve the quark statistics paradox | | | | John Dirk Walecka | 1932-
American | contributed to the theoretical understanding of the atomic nucleus as a relativistic quantum many-body system; provided theoretical guidance in exploiting electromagnetic and weak probes of the nucleus | Daniel Kleppner | 1932-
American | co-invented the hydrogen maser; explores quantum chaos by optical spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms | Jeffrey Goldstone | 1933-
American | contributed to understanding the role of massless particles in spontaneous symmetry breaking (Goldstone bosons) | John N. Bahcall | 1934-2005
American | made important theoretical contributions to understanding solar neutrinos and quasars | James D. Bjorken | 1934-
American | formulated the scaling law for deep inelastic processes and made other outstanding contributions to particle physics and quantum field theory | Ludvig Faddeev | 1934-
Russian | made many theoretical contributions in quantum field theory and mathematical physics; developed the Faddeev equation in connection with the three-body system; co-developed the Faddeev-Popov covariant prescription for quantizing non-Abelian gauge theories; contributed to the quantum inverse scattering method and the quantum theory of solitons | David J. Thouless | 1934-
American | contributed to condensed matter theory, especially vortices in superfluids, the quantum Hall effect, and topological quantum numbers | Peter A. Carruthers | 1935-1997
American | contributed to several areas of theoretical physics, including condensed matter, quantum optics, elementary particle physics, and field theory; statistics and dynamics of galaxy distributions | Gordon A. Baym | 1935-
American | contributed to several areas of theoretical physics, including condensed matter, low-temperature physics including superfluidity, statistical physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics; made advances in quantum statistical mechanics and the study of neutron stars | Stanley J. Brodsky | 1940-
American | contributed to theoretical understanding of high-energy physics, especially the quark-gluon structure of hadrons in quantum chromodynamics | Haim Harari | 1940-
Israeli | predicted the existence of the top quark, which he named; also named the bottom quark | Kip S. Thorne | 1940-
American | contributed to theoretical understanding of black holes and gravitational radiation; co-founded the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory Project (LIGO) | Francesco Iachello | 1942-
Italian-born American | co-developed the Interacting Boson Model of the atomic nucleus; introduced supersymmetry in nuclei (1980); developed the Vibron Model of molecules (1981) | Gabriele Veneziano | 1942-
Italian | first introduced string theory to describe the strong force without using quantum fields | Chris Quigg | 1944-
American | contributed to theoretical understanding of high-energy collisions and the fundamental interactions of elementary particles | Thomas A. Witten | 1944-
American | contributed to theory of soft condensed matter; structured fluids | Howard Georgi | 1947-
American | co-developed the SU(5) and SO(10) grand unified theories of all elementary particle forces; developed the modern QCD-inspired quark model; helped develop the modern theory of perturbative QCD | Nathan Isgur | 1947-2001
American | contributed to understanding the quark structure of baryon resonances; discovered a new symmetry of nature that describes the behavior of heavy quarks | Edward Witten | 1951-
American | made fundamental contributions to manifold theory, string theory, and the theory of supersymmetric quantum mechanics | Ralph Charles Merkle | 1952-
American | leading theorist of molecular nanotechnology; invented the encryption technology that allows secure translations over the internet | K. Eric Drexler | 1955-
American | father of nanotechnology | Nathan Seiberg | 1956-
American | contributed to the development of supersymmetric field theories and string theories in various dimensions | Stephen Wolfram | 1959-
British | created Mathematica, the first modern computer algebra system; contributed to development of complexity theory |