Physics

Greek philosopher and student of Plato who founded the Lyceum and wrote the first systematic treatises on motion, the cosmos, formal logic, zoology and meteorology, which framed natural science until the Scientific Revolution.

natural philosophy, physics, cosmology

Holder of the Ramus chair at the Collège Royal who squared the cycloid, drew tangents by composing motions, integrated powers and the sine, and invented the Roberval balance.

geometry, method of indivisibles, kinematic geometry

Quaker teacher in Manchester who founded the chemical atomic theory, stated the law of partial pressures and gave the first scientific account of colour blindness.

chemistry, physics, meteorology

Piedmontese physicist who proposed in 1811 that equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules and that elementary gases are polyatomic, the foundation of molecular formulas and of the constant that bears his name.

physics, chemistry, molecular theory

Founder of modern number theory and the intrinsic geometry of surfaces, and author of least squares, the normal law and Gauss's law.

number theory, algebra, differential geometry

Danish physicist and chemist who discovered in 1820 that an electric current deflects a magnetic needle, founding electromagnetism.

electromagnetism, physics, chemistry

Cornish chemist who used the voltaic battery to isolate potassium, sodium and the alkaline-earth metals, showed chlorine to be an element and invented the miner's safety lamp.

chemistry, electrochemistry, physics

French chemist and physicist who established the uniform expansion of gases and the law of combining volumes, isolated boron, named iodine and cyanogen, and founded precise volumetric analysis.

chemistry, physics, analytical chemistry

Austrian physicist who in 1842 proposed that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative motion of source and observer.

physics, mathematics, astronomy

Physician and physicist who gave the first general statement of the conservation of energy, measured the speed of the nerve impulse, invented the ophthalmoscope, founded vortex dynamics and introduced free energy.

physics, physiology, thermodynamics

French physicist who discovered the spontaneous radioactivity of uranium in 1896 and showed that beta rays are fast electrons.

physics, radioactivity, optics

French physicist who discovered piezoelectricity with his brother Jacques, formulated the symmetry principle and Curie's law of magnetism, and co-discovered polonium and radium with Marie Curie.

physics, crystallography, piezoelectricity

Polish-French physicist and chemist who showed that radioactivity is an atomic property, discovered polonium and radium with Pierre Curie, and was the first person awarded two Nobel Prizes.

physics, chemistry, radioactivity