Famous Physicists - List of Famous Physicists - page 7
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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Birthday | Nationality | Bio |
| Henry Cavendish | October 10, 1731 | British | Henry Cavendish was a theoretical chemist and physicist, renowned for discovery of hydrogen and calculation of the mass of earth |
| Walter Kohn | March 9, 1923 | Austrian | Nobel Laureate Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical chemist and physicist |
| Isaac Newton | January 4, 1643 | British | Isaac Newton was an English scientist and mathematician, who discovered gravitation and Newtonian Mechanics |
| Ernst Ruska | December 25, 1906 | German | Ernst Ruska was a German physicist who invented the electron microscope |
| Amedeo Avogadro | August 9, 1776 | Italian | Amedeo Avogadro was an Italian scientist who formulated what is now known as Avogadro's law |
| Paul Dirac | August 8, 1902 | British | Paul Dirac was an English theoretical physicist known for his contributions to quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics |
| Nikola Tesla | July 10, 1856 | American | Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, best known for his development of alternating current electrical systems |
| Franklin Chang Díaz | April 5, 1950 | Chinese, Costa Rican, American | Franklin Chang-Diaz is an American-Costa Rican physicist and former NASA astronaut |
| Richard Feynman | May 11, 1918 | American | Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning American physicist who proposed the theory of quantum electrodynamics |
| J. J. Thomson | December 18, 1856 | British | J.J |
Robert S. Mulliken
Robert Sanderson Mulliken was an American physicist and chemist who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1966 for his work on the structure of molecules
Edwin McMillan
Edwin Mattison McMillan was an American nuclear physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951
Allan McLeod Cormack
Allan McLeod Cormack was a South African-American physicist, who received the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
William P. Murphy
William Parry Murphy was a renowned American physician who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the year 1934
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Frederic Joliot Curie was a French physicist and Nobel laureate who along with his wife discovered artificial radioisotope
Dennis Gabor
Dennis Gabor was a Hungarian-born British electrical engineer and physicist, best known for inventing holography
Walther Nernst
Walther Hermann Nernst was a German scientist who won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contribution to the field of thermochemistry.
Francis William Aston
Francis William Aston was a British scientist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Walter Gerlach
Walter Gerlach was a German physicist who is known for his discovery of spin quantization in a magnetic field
Kenneth G. Wilson
Kenneth Geddes Wilson was an American theoretical physicist and a pioneer in leveraging computers for studying particle physics