Bohr was a Danish physicist who worked on the structure and behavior of the atom as well as on quantum mechanics. He won a Nobel Prize in physics for his work with atoms. He created and ran an institute for theoretical physics that was enormously successful. He had six children, one of whom, Aage Neils, went on to become an exceptional scientist himself in the field of nuclear physics. "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
Chase, Martha; Biologist, Geneticist:
Chase is best known for her work with DNA, discovering the molecule of heredity. She worked with a scientist named Hershey to conduct experiments determining the genomic properties of DNA; Hershey was awarded a Nobel Prize for this work but Chase was not. A native of Ohio, she eventually settled in California where she married and continued her studies. In later life she encountered personal and professional difficulties that prevented her from having additional career success, including a debilitating illness that destroyed her short-term memory.
Champollion, Jean-Francois; Eygptologist:
Champollion was a French scholar who is credited with the establishment of Eygptology. As a young man, Champollion learned of the Rosetta Stone, a famous archaeological find with three distinct segments of writing on it, and vowed to decipher its secrets. Champollion achieved his childhood dream by solving the mystery of the Rosetta Stone in 1824. He learned that the three segments of writing on the Stone actually contain only two different languages, not three; the difference is between scripts. Thus, the Rosetta Stone contains Greek and two forms of Eygptian, coptic and hieroglyphic. It is firmly believed that Champollion was able to decipher the Rosetta Stone because of his genius in languages. By the age of 20 he had mastered over a dozen different languages. In later life he was a professor of languages, a professor of history and geography, a curator and conservator of the Louvre's Eygptian collection, and participated in archaeological expeditions.
Copernicus, Nicolas; Astronomer:
Copernicus was a Polish scientist who is known for his widely varied talents and abilities and for his heliocentric view of Earth's solar system. His many accomplishments included mathematician, astronomer, physician, governor, diplomat, economist, and soldier. Of these, he considered astronomy a hobby. His heliocentric conceptualization of the planets and stars in our system placed the Sun at the center with the planets orbiting around it. This idea was considered outrageous at the time and is now regarded as one of the most important scientific theories in history. Copernicus' work has been considered valuable for a long time; at one point his notebooks were carried off as spoils of war. Copernicus spent much of his career as a canon, a religious occupation, and as a government offical in different capacities. Near the end of his life he was convinced to publish his findings, and legend says that the first printed copy of his life's work was brought to him on the day he died.
Courtenay-Latimer, Marjorie; Zoologist:
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was a South African zoologist who is most famous for finding a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for sixty-five million years. Courtenay-Latimer originally trained to become a nurse, but her expert qualifications in orinthology, botany, and zoology led to her being hired as the first curator of the East London Museum. She spent all of her professional life working at this museum, fufilling a childhood dream. She single-handedly gathered the museum's excellent collection of specimens and continued to attend and speak at conferences until the age of 96.
Curie, Marie; Chemist:
Curie is one of only two scientists to have won the Nobel Prize twice and in two different fields. Her first Nobel was awarded in physics for work in radiation, work she completed with her husband, the scientist Pierre Curie. Her second Nobel was awarded in chemistry, individually, for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in France and the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. She was born and raised in Poland, but later lived and worked in France, becoming a French citizen. Her eldest daughter also became a famous scientist who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Marie Curie was known personally for her extraordinary memory and her self-discipline in and devotion to her work. Her portrait has appeared on Polish and French money.
Earle, Sylvia; Biologist:
Earle is famous for her research and discoveries in the field of marine biology and oceanography, as well as her expeditions: she has conducted over 50 ocean expeditions, including living on the sea floor in an underwater marine station. Earle has been chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and has been heavily involved in the National Geographic Society. In 1992 Earle founded Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER) to design and operate both manned and robotic undersea systems. She has become an advocate of sea farming, anti-pollution laws, and marine sanctuaries. "You have to love it before you are moved to save it."
Einstein, Albert; Physicist:
Einstein is possibly the most famous and beloved scientist who has ever lived. He was a theoretical physicist and is most revered for his theory of relativity, but it was for his explanation of the photoelectric effect that he was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics. Einstein worked in a patent office and as a professor. He published many ground-breaking scientific papers and often shared his knowledge through lectures and speaking appearances. He married a mathematician and they had two sons together. Later in life Einstein became an American citizen, completed work on statistics with the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, invented a new kind of refrigerator with Leo Szilard, served on the committee that founded Brandeis University, and worked at Princeton University. He was also a pacifist and social activist who spent much time and effort on the Civil Rights movement. He called racism "America's greatest disease." In 1999 Einstein was named Person of the Century by Time magazine.
Fermat, Pierre de; Mathematician:
Pierre Fermat was a French mathematician, lawyer, and civil servant best known for his Last Theorem, a problem that was not solved until 1995: 357 years after his death. He worked with number theory and helped to invent calculus. He liked to find all possible answers for an equation, not just one. He did not consider math to be his primary job and spent his career as a minor government official. A characteristic of his work and his personality was that he did not like to keep notes and records nor reveal what he had learned to others. It was common for him to tell a friend or fellow mathematician that he had solved a certain problem or found a particular proof but require that person to find the answer for themselves instead of explaining it. This explains why his Last Theorem did not include a proof, but only a note that the proof was wonderful. Fermat has entered popular culture, and stories about and references to his Last Theorem appear in literature, drama, television, and film. There is a high school in France named after him and the house he lived in is now a museum.
Feynman, Richard; Physicist:
Feynman was one of the most significant and popular scientists of modern times, making major contributions to the field of physics and acquiring a personal following. His achievements include work in quantum electrodynamics, superfluidity, and the building of the A bomb. He was also known as "the Great Explainer" and is considered the greatest teacher of physics ever. Although already one of the most famous and popular scientists of his time, he became a household name after finding out and explaining the cause of the space shuttle Challenger disaster in the 1980's. His personal popularity was based in part on his endearing, quirky personality and his penchant for interesting hobbies, such as playing the bongo drums and cracking combination locks. He was also the first person to decipher a system of Mayan hieroglyphics, an activity he took up on vacation to pass the time. His complete ease with and mastery of mathematics remains a legend. He won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1965.
Galilei, Galileo; Scientist:
Galileo was an Italian scientist who excelled at many pursuits, including science, music, art, medicine, astronomy, and philosophy. He is well known for advocating Copernicanism, a heliocentric view of the universe which states that the planets of our system orbit around the Sun; a view that contradicted established beliefs of the time and caused Galileo many difficulties. He also proposed the first and second laws of motion, was one of the first to follow the scientific method, and made significant improvements to the telescope. In 1610 Galileo used the telescope he had made to discover four of Jupiter's moons. He was the first person to discover landforms and craters on the Moon. He was also the first person to realize that the Milky Way is made up of stars. In 1612 Galileo discovered Neptune, but thought it was a star rather than a planet. Galileo remains a major figure in the history of science and astronomy. Landforms on many planets are named after him, space missions and rockets are named after him, and schools and even stadiums are named after him.
Hawking, Steven; Physicist:
Hawking is a well-known physicist who has brought science to non-scientists by writing several best-selling books, most notably A Brief History of Time. Hawking was born and raised in England and has two sisters and one brother. His work has centered on theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. He has worked on space-time theory as well as the properties of black holes. Hawking is disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). Conditions of this disease make it necessary for him to use a voice synthesizer, a wheelchair, and to calculate many complex operations and processes in his head. Hawking's popularity in English and American culture is evident by his many appearances in film, television, and even cartoons.
Honda, Taira; Mathematician:
Taira Honda was a Japanese mathematician who studied and worked at Tokyo University. His work included research and teaching. In his career he became interested in algebraic number theory and in particular algebraic number fields. He made significant contributions to this field and was well-liked by both his students and his colleagues. For reasons that remain unexplained, Honda took his own life in 1975.
Kimura, Motoo; Biologist:
Kimura was a Japanese biologist whose work was interdisciplinary, incorporating mathematics and genetics. He was a highly regarded scientist whose work focused on theoretical population genetics. He studied in Japan and in the USA and worked in Japan. His primary theory was the neutral theory of molecular evolution. His work concerning evolution was new, alternative, and widely influential. He was a prolific writer, authoring hundreds of papers and half a dozen books. He was married and had one son.
Matzinger, Polly; Immunologist:
Polly Matzinger is an American immunologist from California who is known for her danger model of the human immune system, a model which proposes that antigen-presenting cells respond to danger signals, or damage messages, alerting the body to a problem, and thereby triggering an immune response. Before becoming a scientist, Matzinger was a jazz musician, a waitress, a carpenter, and a dog trainer. She is currently a department chair at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a world class sheepdog trainer. Matzinger is also known for her carefree and eccentric behavior, such as listing her pet dog as a co-author on one of her scientific papers and dyeing her hair green before speaking at conferences.
Maurolico, Francisco; Mathematician:
Maurolico was an Italian mathematician who became a priest and then a Benedictine monk and who worked with geometry, number theory, optics, conics, and mechanics. He published serval books on these topics. Interestingly, he spent some years in charge of the mint in Sicily and was also commisioned to write a history of Sicily. He also contributed much to the field of mathematics through his numerous translations of ancient texts. Maurolico devised a method for measuring the Earth that was used over a hundred years later. His work is not well known by the general public but has been cited, discussed, and respected by other mathematicians through the centuries.
Mendel, Gregor; Geneticist:
Gregor Mendel was born in what is now the Czech Republic and became a monk, then a priest, and later a teacher. He became the abbot of the monastery in which he lived. As a child he had worked as a gardner, and this, combined with his love of nature and the encouragment of his peers, led him to study plants. In his work on genetics he used peas and at one point had over 20,000 pea plants. Mendel discovered the laws of heredity and for this has been given the name "the father of genetics." Although Medel published his findings and gave a lecture about plants, genetics, and heredity, it was not until the twentieth century that scientists realized the importance of his work. Today, all study of genetics begins with the study of Mendel's achievements.
Pauling, Linus; Chemist:
Pauling was a Nobel Prize-winning chemist who worked in many fields, including primarily chemistry but also biology, metallurgy, immunology, anesthesiology, and psychology. He is one of only two people to win two Nobel prizes in different fields, his first one for work in chemistry regarding the nature of chemical bonds, and his second one being the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in banning above-ground nuclear testing. Pauling was born and raised in Oregon and in childhood spent countless hours reading. He married while a senior in college and he and his wife Ava had four children. He became a peace activist during World War II, helped to create the first electric car in the 1950's, and became involved in the study of the effect of enzymes in the brain. In his later life his work centered on the effects of vitamin C and on the establishment and management of the institute in California that bears his name.
Pythagoras of Samos; Mathematician:
Pythagoras was a Greek mathematician who is most famous for the Pythagorean Theorem that bears his name, a thousand-year-old problem that he was the first to prove. Pythagoras traveled to Eygpt to study and to tour the temples and rites. During his stay, a war broke out between Persia and Eygpt and Pythagoras was taken prisoner. It is not known how Pythagoras regained his freedom, but he returned to Samos. Later, Pythagoras founded a society in Italy which ran a school with very strict rules and requirements; it was, however, open to all who were willing and able to meet its standards. Pythagoras came to belive that reality was mathematical in nature and spent a great deal of time studying the abstract concepts of math and mathematical thinking. He was also an accomplished musician and believed that music could help heal those who were sick. Due to his thinking and teachings regarding conceptual mathematics he is also considered to have been a philosopher.
Schliemann, Heinrich; Archaeologist:
Heinrich Schliemann was a German archaeologist who learned 13 languages by studying independently at home and who became famous as the archaeologist who discovered the ancient cities of Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns. He lost his mother to illness as a child, a traumatic event that affected him for the rest of his life. As a young man, Schliemann survived a shipwreck, washing up on the shores of the Netherlands. He later became a successful businessman, founding a bank in the USA, building a successful indigo business in Russia, and dealing successfully in the components of ammunition. In this way he acquired the enormous sums necessary to fund his archaeological research. Schliemann was successful in discovering the lost city of Troy, something most believed to be impossible. His generosity with his fortune and his willingness to accomplish tasks in all areas of excavation, research, and publication of findings made him an extraordinary contributor to the field of archaeology.
Turner, Charles Henry; Entomologist:
Charles Henry Turner was an African-American entomologist who made many important discoveries in the field of insect research. The child of slaves who were freed after the Civil War, Turner spent much of his childhood observing nature, especially the behavior of insects. His work focused on wasps, bees, spiders, ants, and cockroaches. He was the first person to prove that insects can hear and the first person to prove that cockroaches can learn. He also proved that bees can recognize and remember color patterns. Midway through his career, Turner gave up his teaching position at the University of Chicago and became a high school teacher so that he and his students would have time to observe insects first-hand.
Washington Carver, George; Botanist, Inventor:
George Washington Carver was an African-American scientist who is considered the father of modern agriculture and is particularly known for popularizing the cultivation, uses, and products of the peanut in American culture. Originally born a slave, Carver was raised as the adopted son of his owners after the end of slavery. He attended several schools and was the first African-American student to attend Simpson College in Iowa. Carver's career focused on plants and his personal concern was farmers and farming; he desired to make a contribution to agriculture and to assist farmers. He found over 300 practical uses for the peanut, and numerous uses for hundreds of other plants as well. Presidents, royalty, and high-powered businessmen all sought Carver's advice throughout his life. An institute and a museum were founded in his honor; he has been depicted on postage stamps and coins; and he has received numerous awards both during and after his life. His epitaph reads: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."
Wegener, Alfred; Geologist:
Wegener was a geologist who also had a strong interest in meterology. His work in plate tectonics proposed the Pangaea theory of the origin of the continents and continental drift. This theory suggests that in the past the Earth had one large landmass which gradually became the contintents and islands we see today, and that these landmasses continue to move and drift. Although Wegener was not the first scientist to study and discuss these views, he was the first to propose them in a fully articulated theory. Wegener's work was ridiculed during his lifetime but since the 1950's has been accepted as fact. Later in life Wegener focused on his interest in meterology and in particular the behavior of global wind patterns.
Wiles, Andrew; Mathematician:
Wiles is best known for having solved Fermat's Last Theorem. Long thought to be unsolveable, the theorem was cracked by Wiles in 1995. He spent seven years working to solve this problem, largely in isolation. A documentary about Wiles not only traces the course of events leading to his solving of Fermat's famous theorem but also shows his delight in mathematics and the warmth of his personality. His work has also focused on elliptic curves and he is now a professor at Princeton University. Wiles grew up in England and first became interested in math at the age of 10. "Certainly one thing that I've learned is that it is important to pick a problem based on how much you care about it. However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it. Always try the problem that matters most to you."