Famous Physicists - List of Famous Physicists - page 3

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
Gerd Binnig

Gerd Binnig

Gerd Binnig is a German physicist known for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope

GermanJuly 20, 1947153 views

David Morris Lee

David Morris Lee is an American physicist who was a joint winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics

AmericanJanuary 20, 1931105 views

Samuel C. C. Ting

Samuel Chao Chung Ting is an American physicist of Chinese ethnicity who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of ‘J’ particle

AmericanJanuary 7, 1936106 views

Ben Roy Mottelson

Ben Roy Mottelson is an American-Danish nuclear physicist

DanishJuly 9, 1926141 views

Aage Bohr

Aage Niels Bohr was a Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist

DanishJune 19, 1922265 views

Pyotr Kapitsa

Pyotr Kapitsa was a leading Soviet physicist who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1978

RussianJuly 8, 1894174 views

Arthur Leonard Schawlow

Arthur Leonard Schawlow was an American physicist who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics

AmericanMay 5, 1921143 views

Jerome Isaac Friedman

Jerome Isaac Friedman is an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1990

AmericanMarch 28, 193084 views

Leon Cooper

Leon N Cooper is an American physicist renowned for his contributions in developing the BCS theory

Antony Hewish

Antony Hewish is a British radio astronomer, best known for his discovery of the first pulsar

BritishMay 11, 1924146 views