History Profiles

The Greatest Scientists of All Time

Science has been driven forward by a handful of extraordinary minds. This ranking gathers history's most influential scientists by their lasting impact on human knowledge.

  1. 1

    Albert Einstein

    Physicist · 1879 – 1955

    Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize.

    99
  2. 2

    Isaac Newton

    Physicist · 1643 – 1727

    Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician whose laws of motion and universal gravitation laid the foundation of classical mechanics and the Scientific Revolution.

    99
  3. 3

    Aristotle

    Philosopher · 384 BC – 322 BC

    Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath whose writings on logic, ethics, biology, politics and metaphysics shaped Western thought for over two millennia.

    98
  4. 4

    Leonardo da Vinci

    Artist · 1452 – 1519

    Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath — painter, inventor, anatomist and engineer — whose curiosity and genius made him the archetype of the 'Renaissance man'.

    97
  5. 5

    Siddhartha Gautama

    Spiritual Leader · 563 BC – 483 BC

    Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was a spiritual teacher of ancient India whose insights into suffering and liberation founded Buddhism, now one of the world's major religions.

    97
  6. 6

    Charles Darwin

    Biologist · 1809 – 1882

    Charles Darwin was an English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection became the unifying foundation of modern biology and transformed humanity's understanding of life.

    96
  7. 7

    Plato

    Philosopher · 428 BC – 348 BC

    Plato was a Greek philosopher who founded the Academy in Athens, wrote the foundational dialogues of Western philosophy, and developed the influential theory of Forms.

    96
  8. 8

    Carl Friedrich Gauss

    Mathematician · 1777 – 1855

    Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and physicist whose profound contributions to number theory, statistics, geometry, astronomy and magnetism earned him the title "Prince of Mathematicians."

    95
  9. 9

    Galileo Galilei

    Astronomer · 1564 – 1642

    Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, the "father of modern science", whose telescopic discoveries and championing of heliocentrism transformed our understanding of the cosmos.

    95
  10. 10

    Archimedes

    Mathematician · 287 BC – 212 BC

    Archimedes was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist and inventor, widely regarded as the greatest mathematician of antiquity and a founder of mathematical physics and engineering.

    94
  11. 11

    Immanuel Kant

    Philosopher · 1724 – 1804

    Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the Enlightenment, one of the most influential thinkers in history, who reconciled rationalism and empiricism and transformed ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.

    94
  12. 12

    Laozi

    Philosopher · 571 BC – 471 BC

    Laozi was a semi-legendary ancient Chinese philosopher traditionally regarded as the founder of Daoism and the author of the Tao Te Ching, the foundational text on living in harmony with the Dao.

    93
  13. 13

    Leonhard Euler

    Mathematician · 1707 – 1783

    Leonhard Euler was a Swiss mathematician and physicist, the most prolific mathematician in history, whose work shaped modern analysis, number theory, graph theory and mathematical notation.

    93
  14. 14

    Michael Faraday

    Physicist · 1791 – 1867

    Michael Faraday was an English scientist whose discoveries in electromagnetism and electrochemistry, above all electromagnetic induction, laid the experimental foundation of the electrical age.

    93
  15. 15

    Nicolaus Copernicus

    Astronomer · 1473 – 1543

    Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer who formulated the heliocentric model placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the universe — a revolution in human thought.

    93
  16. 16

    James Clerk Maxwell

    Physicist · 1831 – 1879

    James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish physicist whose equations unified electricity, magnetism and light into a single electromagnetic theory, one of the greatest achievements in the history of physics.

    92
  17. 17

    Marie Curie

    Physicist · 1867 – 1934

    Marie Curie was a Polish-French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity and became the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.

    92
  18. 18

    René Descartes

    Philosopher · 1596 – 1650

    René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, the "father of modern philosophy", famous for "I think, therefore I am" and for founding analytic geometry.

    92
  19. 19

    Alan Turing

    Mathematician · 1912 – 1954

    Alan Turing was an English mathematician and computer scientist who founded theoretical computer science, helped break the German Enigma cipher in World War II, and pioneered the study of artificial intelligence.

    91
  20. 20

    Euclid

    Mathematician · 325 BC – 265 BC

    Euclid was an ancient Greek mathematician, the "father of geometry", whose treatise the Elements is the most influential mathematics textbook ever written.

    91
  21. 21

    Thomas Aquinas

    Theologian · 1225 – 1274

    Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian theologian and philosopher whose synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy became central to Catholic thought and the high point of scholasticism.

    91
  22. 22

    Avicenna

    Physician · 980 – 1037

    Avicenna was a Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, one of the greatest physicians and philosophers of the medieval world, whose Canon of Medicine was a standard text for six centuries.

    90
  23. 23

    Benjamin Franklin

    Inventor · 1706 – 1790

    Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath — a founding father, scientist, inventor, writer and diplomat — whose work on electricity and statesmanship made him one of the most admired figures of the 18th century.

    90
  24. 24

    Louis Pasteur

    Chemist · 1822 – 1895

    Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist whose work on germ theory, vaccination, and pasteurization revolutionized medicine and saved countless lives.

    90
  25. 25

    Niels Bohr

    Physicist · 1885 – 1962

    Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who created the first quantum model of the atom and became a leading architect of quantum mechanics through the Copenhagen interpretation.

    90
  26. 26

    Nikola Tesla

    Inventor · 1856 – 1943

    Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer whose pioneering work on alternating current and electromagnetism helped electrify the modern world.

    90
  27. 27

    Pythagoras

    Mathematician · 570 BC – 495 BC

    Pythagoras was an ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who founded the Pythagorean school and is remembered for the Pythagorean theorem and the idea that number underlies the cosmos.

    90
  28. 28

    Al-Khwarizmi

    Mathematician · 780 – 850

    Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician and scholar of the Islamic Golden Age, the "father of algebra", whose name gave us the word "algorithm".

    89
  29. 29

    Max Planck

    Physicist · 1858 – 1947

    Max Planck was a German physicist who originated quantum theory by introducing the quantum of action, a discovery that launched modern physics and earned him the 1918 Nobel Prize.

    89
  30. 30

    Dmitri Mendeleev

    Chemist · 1834 – 1907

    Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian chemist who created the periodic table of the elements, one of the most important organizing principles in all of science.

    88
  31. 31

    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

    Philosopher · 1770 – 1831

    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and the leading figure of German idealism, whose dialectical method and grand vision of history as the self-development of Spirit profoundly shaped modern philosophy.

    88
  32. 32

    Baruch Spinoza

    Philosopher · 1632 – 1677

    Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of the early modern era whose rationalist masterpiece, the Ethics, advanced a radical monism identifying God with Nature and made him a foundational figure of modern thought.

    87
  33. 33

    Werner Heisenberg

    Physicist · 1901 – 1976

    Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who founded matrix mechanics and formulated the uncertainty principle, two of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics.

    87
  34. 34

    Erwin Schrödinger

    Physicist · 1887 – 1961

    Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist who formulated the wave equation governing quantum systems and devised the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.

    86
  35. 35

    Rosalind Franklin

    Chemist · 1920 – 1958

    Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose images of DNA were crucial to discovering its double-helix structure, a contribution long under-recognized.

    85
  36. 36

    Ada Lovelace

    Mathematician · 1815 – 1852

    Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician widely regarded as the first computer programmer, who saw that Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine could go beyond calculation to manipulate symbols of any kind.

    84
  37. 37

    Gregor Mendel

    Biologist · 1822 – 1884

    Gregor Mendel was an Austrian friar and scientist whose experiments on pea plants revealed the basic laws of heredity, earning him recognition as the father of modern genetics.

    84
  38. 38

    Hypatia

    Mathematician · 360 – 415

    Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer and Neoplatonist philosopher of late-antique Alexandria, the most prominent woman scholar of the ancient world, whose brutal murder came to symbolize the end of classical learning.

    84