Famous Physicists - List of Famous Physicists - page 10

Physicists are the scientists who study the field of physics in great detail. They conduct research into physical phenomena or the natural science that involve the study of matter and related concepts. They analyze the general happenings in nature and try to understand how the universe behaves. On the basis of research through observation and experiments, they discover physical laws and propound theories that explain the functioning of natural forces like gravity, electromagnetism, and nuclear interactions. The discovery of new physical laws and theories contribute to the existing base of theoretical knowledge and can also be used for more practical applications such as development of medial equipment, electronic devices, nuclear reactors, etc. During the earlier days, physics was considered a field of philosophy; it was only during the 19th century that physics was realized as a discipline separate from philosophy. Some of the major branches of physics are classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, theory of relativity and electromagnetism. Since physics covers a vast number of fields, most physicists specialize in one of the many subfields. However, the various subfields may overlap with each other and also with other sciences resulting in interdisciplinary fields such as biophysics, geophysics, meteorology, etc. Browse through this section to explore the biographies, life and works of various famous physicists from all over the world.

The Most Famous Physicists

NameBirthdayNationalityBio
Henry CavendishOctober 10, 1731BritishHenry Cavendish was a theoretical chemist and physicist, renowned for discovery of hydrogen and calculation of the mass of earth
Walter KohnMarch 9, 1923AustrianNobel Laureate Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical chemist and physicist
Isaac NewtonJanuary 4, 1643BritishIsaac Newton was an English scientist and mathematician, who discovered gravitation and Newtonian Mechanics
Ernst RuskaDecember 25, 1906GermanErnst Ruska was a German physicist who invented the electron microscope
Amedeo AvogadroAugust 9, 1776ItalianAmedeo Avogadro was an Italian scientist who formulated what is now known as Avogadro's law
Paul DiracAugust 8, 1902BritishPaul Dirac was an English theoretical physicist known for his contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics
Nikola TeslaJuly 10, 1856AmericanNikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, best known for his development of alternating current electrical systems
Franklin Chang DíazApril 5, 1950Chinese, Costa Rican, AmericanFranklin Chang-Diaz is an American-Costa Rican physicist and former NASA astronaut
Richard FeynmanMay 11, 1918AmericanRichard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning American physicist who proposed the theory of quantum electrodynamics
J. J. ThomsonDecember 18, 1856BritishJ.J
Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Maria Goeppert Mayer was a German-born American theoretical physicist and a joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics

AmericanJune 28, 1906116 views

Murray Gell-Mann

Murray Gell-Mann is an American physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in the classification of subatomic particles

AmericanSeptember 15, 1929141 views

Carlo Rubbia

Carlo Rubbia is an Italian physicist

ItalianMarch 31, 193499 views

Lev Landau

Lev Landau was a well-known Soviet theoretical physicist

RussianJanuary 22, 1908301 views

Edward Mills Purcell

Edward Mills Purcell was a well-known American physicist

AmericanAugust 30, 1912105 views

Donald A. Glaser

Donald Arthur Glaser was a prominent American physicist and neurobiologist who won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics

AmericanSeptember 21, 1926151 views

Eugene Wigner

Eugene Paul "E

AmericanNovember 17, 1902120 views

Philip Warren Anderson

Philip Warren Anderson is an American physicist and one of the recipients of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics

AmericanDecember 13, 1923100 views

Burton Richter

Burton Richter is an American scientist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976 for his work on the discovery of a new subatomic particle ‘psi’

AmericanMarch 22, 1931107 views