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List of the most influential people in Physics,

#10701

Ulrich Wahn

#10702

Nicephorus Gregoras

1295 - 1360 (65 years)

Nicephorus Gregoras was a Byzantine Greek astronomer, historian, and theologian. His 37-volume Byzantine History, a work of erudition, constitutes a primary documentary source for the 14th century. Life Gregoras was born at Heraclea Pontica, where he was raised and educated by his uncle, John, who was the Bishop of Heraclea. At an early age he settled at Constantinople, where his uncle introduced him to Andronicus II Palaeologus, by whom he was appointed chartophylax . In 1326 Gregoras proposed certain reforms in the calendar, which the emperor refused to carry out for fear of disturbances; ...

#10703

George C. McVittie

1904 - 1988 (84 years)

George Cunliffe McVittie was a British mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for his contributions towards radio astronomy. Life McVittie was born on 5 June 1904 in Smyrna in Turkey, where his father, Frank S. McVittie, was a merchant. His mother, Emily Caroline Weber, lived in Greece but was of British descent. George was raised bilingual in French and English.

#10704

Johann Jakob Huber

1733 - 1798 (65 years)

Johann Jakob Huber was a Swiss astronomer. Life and work Huber was the eldest of two sons born to the Basle trader Johann Jakob Huber and his first wife Anna Maria Winkelblech . He studied at the usual Basle schools. His father had originally envisioned a career for his eldest son similar to his own, but as he showed early on his inclination towards mathematics and astronomy, he allowed him to receive a correspondingly suitable education. Among his university lecturers in his home town of Basle were the mathematicians Daniel Bernoulli and Johann II. Bernoulli.

#10705

Guido Bonatti

1210 - 1296 (86 years)

Guido Bonatti was an Italian mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, who was the most celebrated astrologer of the 13th century. Bonatti was advisor of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Ezzelino da Romano III, Guido Novello da Polenta and Guido I da Montefeltro. He also served the communal governments of Florence, Siena and Forlì. His employers were all Ghibellines , who were in conflict with the Guelphs , and all were excommunicated at some time or another. Bonatti's astrological reputation was also criticised in Dante's Divine Comedy, where he is depicted as residing in hell as punishmen...

#10706

Carolyn Parker

1917 - 1966 (49 years)

Carolyn Beatrice Parker was a physicist who worked from 1943 to 1947 on the Dayton Project, the polonium research and development arm of the Manhattan Project. She was one of a small number of African American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project. She then became an assistant professor in physics at Fisk University.

#10707

Samuel Herrick

1911 - 1975 (64 years)

Samuel Herrick was an American astronomer who specialized in celestial mechanics and made important studies preceding the development of manned space flight. Life Herrick was born in Madison County, Virginia, in 1911.

#10708

Bernhard Haurwitz

1905 - 1986 (81 years)

Bernhard Haurwitz was a German-born American meteorologist and physicist. Haurwitz was Chair of Department of Meteorology at New York University , a member of the National Academy of Sciences , and a recipient of the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal. He was awarded the William Bowie Medal in 1970.

#10709

John Stanley Griffith

1928 - 1972 (44 years)

John Stanley Griffith was a British chemist, mathematician and biophysicist. He was the nephew of the distinguished British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith. Career Beginning as an undergraduate in mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1946–1949, he went on to read Part II biochemistry in 1949–1951. His research career continued in theoretical chemistry at Oxford and Cambridge, where he held a Berry-Ramsey research fellowship at King's College. He had several appointments in Britain and the US in his different disciplines. These included professorships in chemistry at Indiana Universi...

#10710

Leland John Haworth

1904 - 1979 (75 years)

Leland John Haworth was an American particle physicist. In his long career he was head of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation, and was assistant to the president of Associated Universities, Inc.

#10711

Frank Elmore Ross

1874 - 1960 (86 years)

Frank Elmore Ross was an American astronomer and physicist. He was born in San Francisco, California and died in Altadena, California. In 1901 he received his doctorate from the University of California. In 1905 he became director of the International Latitude Observatory station at Gaithersburg, Maryland. In 1915 he became a physicist for Eastman Kodak Company at Rochester, New York. He accepted a position at Yerkes Observatory in 1924 and worked there until his retirement in 1939.

#10712

Jonathan M. Spergel

#10713

Zhang Zongsui

1915 - 1969 (54 years)

Zhang Zongsui was a Chinese physicist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences . Biography Zhang was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, on 1 June 1915, to Zhang Dongsun, a philosopher and social activist, and Wu Shaohong . His elder brother Zhang Zongbing was an entomologist. His younger brother Zhang Zongying and younger sister Zhang Zongye are physicists. In 1930, he was accepted to the Yenching University, at the next year, he was transferred to Tsinghua University, where he studied physics under Wu Youxun and Chung-Yao Chao. After university, he worked in the Purple Mountain Observatory.

#10714

Alfred M. Mayer

Alfred M. Mayer

1836 - 1897 (61 years)

Alfred Marshall Mayer was a United States physicist. Biography He was born to Charles F. Mayer, a lawyer and state senator, and Eliza C. Mayer. He attended St. Mary's College, but left for the workshop and drafting room of a mechanical engineer, where he remained two years, acquiring a knowledge of the use of tools, mechanical drawing, and methods of constructing machines. He then spent two years in obtaining a thorough knowledge of analytical chemistry by laboratory practice. In 1856 he was called to the chair of physics and chemistry in the University of Maryland, and from 1859 to 1861 he h...

#10715

James Whitbread Lee Glaisher

James Whitbread Lee Glaisher

1848 - 1928 (80 years)

James Whitbread Lee Glaisher FRS FRSE FRAS , son of James Glaisher and Cecilia Glaisher, was a prolific English mathematician and astronomer. His large collection of English ceramics was mostly left to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

#10716

Giovanni Bianchini

Giovanni Bianchini

1410 - 1469 (59 years)

Giovanni Bianchini was a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Ferrara and court astrologer of Leonello d'Este. He was an associate of Georg Purbach and Regiomontanus. The letters exchanged with Regiomontanus in 1463–1464 mention works by Bianchini entitled: Primum mobile , Flores almagesti, Compositio instrumenti.

#10717

Karl Eugen Guthe

Karl Eugen Guthe

1866 - 1915 (49 years)

Karl Eugen Guthe was a German-born American academic and physicist, notable for being the first Dean of the Graduate Department at the University of Michigan. Education Guthe was born in Hanover, Germany, and educated at the Hanover Technical School and at the universities of Strassburg, Berlin, and Marburg. He received his PhD from the University of Marburg in 1892 for a thesis entitled: Über das mechanische Telephon . Guthe was the nephew of Hermann Guthe , a noted German geographer and professor in Hanover and Munich.

#10718

Eilhard von Domarus

1893 - 1958 (65 years)

Eilhard von Domarus was a German-born American psychiatrist. He played an important role in the development of the interdisciplinary study of philosophy and neurology. Warren McCulloch regarded him as the “great philosophic student of psychiatry.”

#10719

John Viriamu Jones

John Viriamu Jones

1856 - 1901 (45 years)

John Viriamu Jones, FRS , was a Welsh scientist, who worked on measuring the ohm, and an educationalist who was instrumental in establishing the University of Sheffield and Cardiff University. Early life and studies John Viriamu Jones was born on 2 January 1856 in Pentrepoeth in Swansea, the third of the six children of Thomas Jones, a celebrated Independent clergyman, and Jane Jones. He was named after the missionary and martyr John Williams – 'Viriamu' being the Erromanga for "Williams". His older siblings were David Brynmor and Annie; his younger brothers were Irvonwy, Leifchild Stratten and Morlais Glasfryn.

#10720

Louis Fabry

1862 - 1939 (77 years)

Louis Fabry was a French astronomer who was born in Marseille, April 20, 1862, and died in Les Lecques, January 26, 1939. Biography Louis Fabry was born in 1862 to a Provençal family with five boys. His brothers Charles, Eugène and Auguste were, respectively, a physicist, a mathematician and a magistrate.

#10721

Jacques Errera

1896 - 1977 (81 years)

Jacques Errera was a Belgian physicochemist, specialized in the molecular constitution of matter. During the 1930s he worked at the Free University of Brussels , and participated in the Solvay Conference of 1933. In 1938 he was awarded the Francqui Prize in Exact Sciences. Shortly after the first atomic bombs were used in 1945, he authored an optimistic article about the peaceful future potential of atomic energy. After WW2, Errera represented Belgium at both the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was the son of Isabelle Errera.

#10722

Östen Bergstrand

Östen Bergstrand

1873 - 1948 (75 years)

Carl Östen Emanuel Bergstrand was a Swedish astronomer. He was Professor of Astronomy at Uppsala University from 1909 until 1938 and from where he received his Ph.D. in astronomy in 1899 under Nils Christoffer Dunér. His early work was focused on astrometrics, particularly in the examination of photographic plates to measure stellar parallax. He used the orbital motions of the moons of Uranus to measure the rotation period and equatorial flattening of the planet. He also made studies of the solar corona, using photographs from the 1914 solar eclipse expedition.

#10723

Axel Möller

1830 - 1896 (66 years)

Didrik Magnus Axel Möller was a Swedish astronomer. He matriculated as a student at Lund University in 1846, received his Ph.D. in 1853 and was Professor of Astronomy there from 1863 until 1895. He calculated the orbits of comets and asteroids. He notably calculated the orbit of the periodic comet 4P/Faye, as well as the perturbations of the asteroid 55 Pandora.

#10724

Vladimir Arkadiev

1884 - 1953 (69 years)

Vladimir Konstantinovich Arkadiev was a Russian and Soviet physicist who studied magnetism and related phenomena. He was among the first to make use of the Meissner effect to levitate magnets as a test of superconductivity.

#10725

Anders Spole

1630 - 1699 (69 years)

Anders Spole was a Swedish mathematician and astronomer. He was born at a farm in , the son of blacksmith Per Andersson and his wife Gunilla Persdotter. At the age of twelve he started studying at Jönköpings skola and was sent to the University of Greifswald in 1652. After three years of studies he continued at other universities in Prussia and Saxony, until his return to Barnarp in 1655, where he started preaching in the local church. He continued to study mathematics at Uppsala University, while at the same time being a tutor baron Sjöblad's sons. In 1663, he became a master craftsman of fireworks and the arts of navigation.

#10726

Johannes Stöffler

Johannes Stöffler

1452 - 1531 (79 years)

Johannes Stöffler was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, priest, maker of astronomical instruments and professor at the University of Tübingen. Life Johannes Stöffler was born on 10 December 1452, in Justingen on the Swabian Alb. Having received his basic education at the Blaubeuren monastery school, he registered at the newly founded University of Ingolstadt on 21 April 1472, where he was consequently promoted Baccalaureus in September 1473 and Magister in January 1476. After finishing his studies he obtained the parish of Justingen where he, besides his clerical obligations, c...

#10727

Melville S. Green

1922 - 1979 (57 years)

Melville Saul Green was an American statistical physicist. He is known for the Green–Kubo relations. He was born in Jamaica, New York, and studied at Columbia University, where he was awarded M.A. in 1947, and Princeton University where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1952. He became a faculty member at the University of Chicago from 1947 to 1951 and a research associate at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics of the University of Maryland from 1951 to 1954. He was appointed head of the statistical physics section of the then National Bureau of Standards from 1954 to 1968. He wor...

#10728

Robert Thalén

1827 - 1905 (78 years)

Tobias Robert Thalén Hon. FRSE was a Swedish physicist. He was awarded the Rumford Medal in 1884 for his spectroscopic researches. He was an expert on terrestrial magnetism and spectrum analysis. He gives his name to the crystalline mineral Thalenite.

#10729

Adolf Wüllner

1835 - 1908 (73 years)

Adolf Wüllner was a German physicist. He studied physics at the universities of Bonn, Munich and Berlin, qualifying as a lecturer at the University of Marburg in 1858. In 1862 he became director of the vocational school in Aachen, and three years later taught classes in physics at the Poppelsdorf agricultural academy. In 1867 he was named an associate professor at the University of Bonn, and from 1869 onward, was a professor of physics at the Technical University of Aachen. In 1883–86 he served as academic rector.

#10730

Joseph Howey

1901 - 1973 (72 years)

Joseph H. Howey was a physicist and academic administrator at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was the director of Georgia Tech's School of Physics for 28 years, from 1935 to 1963. Early life Howey received a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster in 1923, and a PhD from Yale University in 1930. Howey was also a physicist in Firestone Tire and Rubber Corp's research laboratory from 1929 to 1931, after which he returned to Yale as an instructor.

#10731

Dai Chuanzeng

1921 - 1990 (69 years)

Dai Chuanzeng was a Chinese nuclear physicist who made fundamental contributions to China's nuclear research and industry. Life Dai was born on 21 December 1921 in Dayan Village, Yin County of Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Dai graduated from the famous Xiaoshi High School in Ningbo. Dai studied physics and graduated in 1942 from the National Southwestern Associated University . Dai taught as an assistant at NSAU, Sun Yat-sen University and Tsinghua University. Dai topped the Sino-British Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program.

#10732

Marino Ghetaldi

Marino Ghetaldi

1568 - 1626 (58 years)

Marino Ghetaldi was a Ragusan scientist. A mathematician and physicist who studied in Italy, England and Belgium, his best results are mainly in physics, especially optics, and mathematics. He was one of the few students of François Viète and friend of Giovanni Camillo Glorioso.

#10733

Mikhail Subbotin

1893 - 1966 (73 years)

Mikhail Fedorovich Subbotin was a Soviet mathematician and astronomer who calculated orbits of planets and comets. He worked on general properties of motion in the n-body problem. Biography and education Subbotin was born on 29 June 1893 in Ostrolenka, Russian Empire .

#10734

Francesco Maurolico

Francesco Maurolico

1494 - 1575 (81 years)

Francesco Maurolico was a mathematician and astronomer from Sicily. He made contributions to the fields of geometry, optics, conics, mechanics, music, and astronomy. He edited the works of classical authors including Archimedes, Apollonius, Autolycus, Theodosius and Serenus. He also composed his own unique treatises on mathematics and mathematical science.

#10735

Samuel Walter Johnson Smith

1871 - 1948 (77 years)

Samuel Walter Johnson Smith FRS was an English physicist. He studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge and became Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham in 1919, where he succeeded J.H. Poynting.

#10736

Adriaan Metius

1571 - 1635 (64 years)

Adriaan Adriaanszoon, called Metius, , was a Dutch geometer and astronomer born in Alkmaar. The name "Metius" comes from the Dutch word meten , and therefore means something like "measurer" or "surveyor."

#10737

L. A. Ramdas

1900 - 1979 (79 years)

Lakshminarayanapuram Ananthakrishnan Ramdas was an Indian physicist and meteorologist, known for discovering the atmospheric phenomenon of the Ramdas layer or Lifted Temperature Minimum where the lowest temperature in the atmosphere is not on the ground but a few tens of centimeters above the ground resulting. This can be seen in thin layer fogs which are at some height above the ground. He has been called the father of agricultural meteorology in India.

#10738

Arthur Mason Worthington

1852 - 1916 (64 years)

Arthur Mason Worthington was an English physicist and educator. He is best known for his work on fluid mechanics, especially the physics of splasheses; for observing those, he pioneered techniques of high speed photography. He also proposed the slug as a unit of inertial mass, and the pound-foot as a dedicated unit of torque.

#10739

William Pearson

William Pearson

1767 - 1847 (80 years)

William Pearson was an English schoolmaster, astronomer, and a founder of the Astronomical Society of London. He authored Practical Astronomy . Biography William Pearson was born at Whitbeck in Cumberland on 23 April 1767. After graduating from Hawkshead Grammar School near to Lake Windermere, Westmorland, Pearson began his career as a schoolmaster at Hawkshead. After which, moving to Lincoln as undermaster of the Free Grammar School. Through Pearson's interest in astronomy, Pearson constructed an astronomical clock and an orrery, which was probably used for public lectures. Although enrolled at Cambridge University, he does not appear to have earned a degree.

#10740

Max Clara

1899 - 1966 (67 years)

Max Clara was a German anatomist and Nazi Party member, who conducted research on the corpses of executed prisoners. Biography Early life Max Clara was born on February 12, 1899, in South Tyrol, at that time part of the Habsburg Empire. His father, Dr. Josef Clara, graduated with honors at the University of Innsbruck and started working as a general practitioner. Max Josef Maria Clara was born as the first of three sons: his younger brothers Josef "Sepp" Franz and Oswald were born on August 18, 1900, and July 12th, 1902, respectively. After their mother's death , Josef Clara moved his resid...

#10741

Sima Tan

165 BC - 110 BC (55 years)

Sima Tan was a Chinese astronomer/astrologer and historian during the Western Han dynasty. His work Records of the Grand Historian was completed by his son Sima Qian, who is considered the founder of Chinese historiography.

#10742

Édouard Roche

1820 - 1883 (63 years)

Édouard Albert Roche was a French astronomer and mathematician, who is best known for his work in the field of celestial mechanics. His name was given to the concepts of the Roche sphere, Roche limit, and Roche lobe. He also was the author of works in meteorology.

#10743

Al-Farghani

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī also known as Alfraganus in the West , was an astronomer in the Abbasid court in Baghdad, and one of the most famous astronomers in the 9th century. Al-Farghani composed several works on astronomy and astronomical equipment that were widely distributed in Arabic and Latin and were influential to many scientists. His best known work, Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūmi , was an extensive summary of Ptolemy's Almagest containing revised and more accurate experimental data. Christopher Columbus used Al Farghani’s calculations for his voyages to America .

#10744

Gilbert Stead

1888 - 1979 (91 years)

Gilbert Stead was a British professor of physics and pioneer in the development of radiology as a recognized medical specialty. Stead worked at the Cavendish Laboratory and graduated from Cambridge in 1913. During WWI he was at HM Signals School in Portsmouth. After the war, he returned to Cavendish Laboratory and taught. Beginning in 1923 he also taught classes at Guy's Hospital where he brought his knowledge of radiology to the practice of medicine. He relinquished his Cambridge professorship in 1938 when he became a governor at Guy's Hospital. He retired from Guy's Hospital in 1953.

#10745

Abu Sahl al-Quhi

Abu Sahl al-Quhi

940 - 1000 (60 years)

was a Persian mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was from Kuh , an area in Tabaristan, Amol, and flourished in Baghdad in the 10th century. He is considered one of the greatest geometers, with many mathematical and astronomical writings ascribed to him.

#10746

Josip Franjo Domin

1754 - 1819 (65 years)

Josip Franjo Domin was a Croatian-Hungarian physicist, priest, physician and a pioneer of electrotherapy. Biography Domin was born in Zagreb where he died. He was educated in Zagreb, Vienna, Leoben, Graz. In 1774 he graduated philosophy at the Royal Academy of Sciences and theology in 1776 in Zagreb. In 1777 in Trnava he received a doctorate in mathematics and became a full professor of theoretical and experimental physics, mechanics and economics at the Royal Academy of Sciences in Győr and Pécs . At the Faculty of Arts in Budapest since 1792 he was a physics professor having succeeded Ionnes B.

#10747

Václav Zenger

1830 - 1908 (78 years)

Václav Karel Bedřich Zenger was a Czech physicist, meteorologist, professor and rector of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Life Zenger was born on 17 December 1830 in Chomutov. He was born into the family of a military physician. He attended secondary school in Hradec Králové, Prague and Čáslav, then the Cistercian grammar school in Německý Brod, the German grammar school in Malá Strana and the Piarist grammar school in Prague.

#10748

Adalbert Krueger

Adalbert Krueger

1832 - 1896 (64 years)

Karl Nikolaus Adalbert Krueger was a German astronomer. Born in Marienburg, Prussia , he was editor of Astronomische Nachrichten from 1881 until his death. Krueger died of a heart condition in Kiel at the age of 63.

#10749

Maria Margaretha Kirch

1670 - 1720 (50 years)

Maria Margaretha Kirch was a German astronomer. She was one of the first famous astronomers of her period due to her writing on the conjunction of the sun with Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter in 1709 and 1712 respectively.

#10750

Sonia Cotelle

1896 - 1945 (49 years)

Sonia Cotelle, née Slobodkine , was a Polish radiochemist. Life and work Sonia Cotelle was born in Warsaw, capital of the Vistula Land, in the Russian Empire on 19 June 1896. She was married, but later divorced. She graduated from the University of Paris in 1922, where she majored in chemistry. While still a student she began working in 1919 as an assistant in the Institute of Radium founded by the Nobel Laureates, Marie Curie and her husband Pierre, in the university's Faculty of Science . Cotelle was in charge of the measurement service between 1924 and 1926, after which she was appointed as a chemist in the Faculté des sciences.

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