Famous Physicists - List of Famous Physicists - page 13

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
Charles Édouard Guillaume

Charles Édouard Guillaume

Charles Édouard Guillaume was a renowned Swiss physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920

SwissFebruary 15, 1861121 views

Johannes Stark

Johannes Stark was a German scientist who won the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the Stark Effect

GermanApril 15, 1874155 views

Klaus Fuchs

Emil Julius Klaus Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and an atomic spy who provided valuable information to the Soviet Union

GermanDecember 29, 1911195 views

Georges Lemaître

Georges Lemaitre was a Belgian scientist and priest

BelgianJuly 17, 1894248 views

John Tyndall

John Tyndall was an Irish physicist

IrishAugust 2, 1820117 views

Gustav Ludwig Hertz

Gustav Ludwig Hertz was Nobel Prize winning German physicist who did path breaking work in the field of inelastic electron collisions in gases

GermanJuly 22, 1887144 views

Léon Foucault

Leon Foucault was a famous French scientist who explained rotation of earth about its own axis using a pendulum

FrenchSeptember 18, 1819162 views

Leó Szilárd

Leo Szilard was a renowned nuclear physicist who is credited for design of a nuclear reactor

AmericanFebruary 11, 1898134 views

Kip Thorne

Kip Thorne is a renowned American scientist whose work was an inspiration for the Hollywood movie ‘Interstellar’

AmericanJune 1, 1940151 views

Henry Moseley

Henry Moseley was a renowned English physicist who developed the Moseley’s Law in the field of x-ray spectroscopy

BritishNovember 23, 1887196 views