1. Joseph Henry (1797)

American Physicist

Pioneering electrical engineer who discovered the electrical properties that formed the basis for the telegraph machines. The SI unit of inductance, the henry, is named after him.

2. Edwin Hall (1855)

American Physicist

Physicist credited with the discovery of the "Hall Effect," which describes the voltage difference across an electrical conductor. He served as a Professor of Physics at Harvard University from 1895...

3. Harvey Fletcher (1884)

American Physicist

'Father of stereophonic sound' who became a leading authority on how humans hear, and how sound devices should be made. He was President of the American Physical Society and was...

4. Mária Telkes (1900)

American Physicist

Notable for her work in the field of solar energy, this prominent scientist invented the thermoelectric generator; the debut solar heat system; and a thermoelectricity-operated refrigerator.

5. Chester Carlson (1906)

American Physicist

Patent lawyer who tired of redrawing schematics and re-typing documents by hand and invented the very first copy machine.

6. John Mauchly (1907)

American Physicist

Co-creator of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer. He and his partner, J Presper Eckert, were the first to establish fundamental computer concepts such as the stored program and programming...

7. John Bardeen (1908)

American Physicist

Electrical engineer who brought about the electronic age, and was the only person in over 100 years to win the Nobel Prize in Physics twice. He appeared on LIFE Magazine's...

8. Clifford Shull (1915)

American Physicist

Physicist who received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994 for work on the development of the neutron scattering technique, which he began in 1946. This was the longest ever...

9. Julian Schwinger (1918)

American Physicist

American theoretical physicist whose work on quantum electrodynamics won him the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physics. He also received the US National Medal of Science in 1964 and was the...

10. Owen Chamberlain (1920)

American Physicist

American physicist known for his discovery of anti-protons, a sub-atomic antiparticle. He was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and he was one of 21 Nobel Laureates who signed...

11. Gene Amdahl (1922)

American Physicist

Famous for formulating a computer science concept known as Amdahl's Law and for establishing a major IT company called the Amdahl Corporation, Amdahl is also notable for his work with...

12. Walter Kohn (1923)

American Physicist

A theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his research in understanding electronic properties of materials. He also played an integral role in the development...

13. Jack Kilby (1923)

American Physicist

Inventor and electrical engineering pioneer who created the first integrated circuit, which paved the way for the microchip. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to science...

14. Burton Richter (1931)

American Physicist

Physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1976 for his co-discovery of a subatomic particle with Samuel Ting. He was the longtime president of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

15. Donald Keck (1941)

American Physicist

Renown physicist who is best known for creating the optical fiber that's used in fiber optics. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1993 for his...

16. James Hansen (1941)

American Physicist

Best known for his research on climate change, he taught in Columbia University's Earth and Environmental Sciences Department. For three decades, he headed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's)...

17. John Marburger (1941)

American Physicist

Physicist who worked as the Science Advisor to President George W. Bush and was accused of suppressing evidence about global warming and stem cell research. However, others argue that he...

18. Girsh Blumberg (1959)

American Physicist

Physicist who is best known for experimenting with condensed matter, Raman scattering, and nano-optics. In his long career he was awarded over thirty patents and authored or co-authored dozens of...

19. Steven Weinberg (1933)

American Physicist

Theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics. In 1991, he received The National Medal of Science. During his long and illustrious career, he won numerous awards for his work on...

20. Brian Greene (1963)

American Physicist

American theoretical physicist and string theorist best known for his book The Elegant Universe. He guest-starred as himself in the films Frequency and The Last Mimzy.

21. James M. Bardeen (1939)

American Physicist

James Maxwell Bardeen is an American physicist well known for his work in general relativity particularly his role in formulating the laws of black hole mechanics. He also discovered the...

22. Eric Weeks (1970)

American Physicist

Eric R. Weeks is an American physicist. He completed his B. Sc. at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1992. He obtained a Ph. D. in physics from the...

23. Charles Kittel (1916)

American Physicist

Charles Kittel is an American physicist. He was a Professor at University of California Berkeley from 1951 and has been Professor Emeritus since 1978.

24. Scott J. Bolton (1958)

American Physicist

Dr. Scott J. Bolton is a theoretical and experimental space physicist. He is the Director of the Southwest Research Institute Space Science and Engineering Division. His research area is planetary...

25. Gerald Holton (1922)

American Physicist

Gerald James Holton is Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of the History of Science Emeritus at Harvard University. Born 1922 in Berlin he grew up in Vienna...

26. Harry Suhl (1922)

American Physicist

Harry Suhl is a German-American physicist. He was born in Leipzig Germany on October 18 1922. He received a B. Sc. degree from the University of Wales in 1943 and...

27. Hans Frauenfelder (1922)

American Physicist

Hans Frauenfelder is a physicist and biophysicist notable for his discovery of perturbed angular correlation in 1951. In the modern day PAC spectroscopy is widely used in the study of...

28. Christopher Stubbs (1958)

American Physicist

Christopher Stubbs is an experimental physicist currently on the faculty at Harvard University in both the Department of Physics and the Department of Astronomy. He is a former Chair of...

29. Bryce DeWitt (1923)

American Physicist

Bryce Seligman DeWitt was a theoretical physicist who studied gravity and field theories.

30. Ira B. Bernstein (1924)

American Physicist

Ira Borah Bernstein is an American physicist specializing in theoretical plasma physics. Bernstein studied chemical engineering at the City College of New York and in 1950 received his PhD from...

31. Emil Martinec (1958)

American Physicist

Emil John Martinec is an American string theorist born in 1958. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 and obtained his Ph. D. from Cornell University in 1984. He spent...

32. Stanley Schmidt (1944)

American Physicist

Stanley Albert Schmidt is an American science fiction author. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.

33. Betsy Ancker-Johnson (1927)

American Physicist

Betsy Ancker-Johnson is an American plasma physicist. She is known for her research into instabilities that can occur in plasmas in solids and for her invention of a gigacycle range...

34. Richard Arnold Epstein (1927)

American Physicist

Richard Arnold Epstein also known under the pseudonym E. P. Stein is a notable American game theorist.

35. Mark G. Kuzyk (1958)

American Physicist

Mark G. Kuzyk is an American physicist. He received his Ph. D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 then was a member of technical staff at Bell Labs...

36. Ann Nelson (Unknow)

American Physicist

This article is about Ann Elizabeth Nelson the physicist not actress Ann Nelson who played Mrs. Berg on Fame. Ann Elizabeth Nelson is a particle physicist at the University of...

37. Richard Garwin (1928)

American Physicist

Richard Lawrence Garwin is an American physicist. He received his bachelor's degree from the Case Institute of Technology in 1947 and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of...

38. Francis F. Chen (1929)

American Physicist

s F. Chen is a Chinese-born American plasma physicist.

39. Jerome Isaac Friedman (1930)

American Physicist

Dr. Jerome Isaac Friedman Ph. D is an American physicist.

40. Stanley Deser (Unknow)

American Physicist

Stanley Deser is an American physicist known for his contributions to general relativity. Currently he is the Ancell Professor of Physics at Brandeis University in Waltham Massachusetts. Deser earned his...

41. Fred Cummings (1931)

American Physicist

Cummings is a theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at University of California Riverside. He specialises in cavity quantum electrodynamics many-body theory and non-linear dynamics.

42. John Boardman (1927)

American Physicist

Jack Melton Boardman commonly known as John Boardman is an American physicist. He is a former professor of physics at Brooklyn College; a noted science fiction fan author and fanzine...

43. James Charles Phillips (1933)

American Physicist

James Charles Phillips is an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Science. Phillips invented the exact theory of the ionicity of chemical bonding in semiconductors as...

44. Goetz Oertel (1934)

American Physicist

Goetz Oertel is an American physicist and science manager.

45. Carl H. Brans (1935)

American Physicist

Carl Henry Brans is an American mathematical physicist best known for his research into the theoretical underpinnings of gravitation elucidated in his most widely publicized work the Brans–Dicke theory. A...

46. Harold E. Puthoff (1936)

American Physicist

Harold E. Puthoff is an American physicist and parapsychologist.

47. Robert W. Bower (1936)

American Physicist

Dr. Robert W. Bower was born in Santa Monica CA and is an applied physicist. Immediately after receiving his Ph. D. from The California Institute of Technology in 1973 he...

48. Jogesh Pati (1937)

American Physicist

Jogesh C. Pati is an Indian American theoretical physicist at the University of Maryland College Park.

49. James Trefil (1938)

American Physicist

James S. Trefil is an American physicist and author of more than thirty books. Much of his published work focuses on science for the general audience. Dr. Trefil has previously...

50. James W. York (1939)

American Physicist

James W. York Jr. is an American mathematical physicist who is well known for his many important contributions to the theory of general relativity.