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100
this French philosopher lived from 1596 until 1650. As well as being an expert mathematician and physicist, he has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy. He wrote Meditations on First Philosophy, influenced the Cartesian coordinate system, and is credited as the father of analytical geometry. A major figure of 17th century rationalism, besides writing Principles of Philosophy and Discourse on Method, he is most famous for his philosophical statement, which in Latin is Cogito Ergo Sum.
Who is Rene Descartes?
100
this Polish-German polymath lived from 1473 until 1543. An expert mathematician, astronomer, physician, linguist, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat, and economist, he made his mark upon the world with the publishing of his book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. His formulation of the heliocentric model, displacing earth from the center of the universe, is often considered the starting point of the Scientific Revolution.
Who is Nicholas Copernicus?
100
this Italian polymath lived from 1452 until 1519. An expert painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, he has been labeled the archetype of a Renaissance man. Two of his paintings, one being an image of a lady with an ever-elusive smile, and the other, a final dinner for a rather famous man, are examples of sfumato painting techniques. His most famous sketch depicts a male figure in a circle based on the ideal proportions of the human body in geometry.
Who is Leonardo da Vinci?
200
this English polymath lived from 1643 until 1727. An expert physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, he is often considered one of the most influential people in human history. His 1687 book, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, outlined his theories on classical mechanics, universal gravitation, and the three laws of motion. His discovery of the three laws of motion showed that objects on earth and celestial bodies are actually governed by the same laws. By removing the last doubts of heliocentrism, discovering optics, building the first reflecting telescope, and developing infinitesimal calculus, this man significantly advanced the Scientific Revolution.
Who is Sir Isaac Newton?
200
this French polymath lived from 1623 until 1662. An expert mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Catholic philosopher, he was a child prodigy who eventually wrote Lettres Provinciales and Pensees. His work varied from the natural and physical sciences, where he contributed to the study fluids, pressure, and vacuum, to mathematics, where he wrote a treatise on projective geometry at sixteen and helped develop probability theory. His name is now immortalized as a unit, a wager, a triangle, a law, and a theorem.
Who is Blaise Pascal?
200
this German mathematician lived from 1571 until 1630. An expert astronomer and physicist, he is best known for his laws of planetary motion, which showed the world how the orbit of every planet is an ellipse, and his mathematical conjecture. Both of his achievements laid the foundations to the theory of universal gravitation and were based off his works Astronomia Nova and The Harmonies of the World. While he incorporated God and astrology into his work, he is definitively known as a central figure in the Scientific Revolution.
Who is Johannes Kepler?
200
this Italian physicist lived from 1564 until 1642. A major mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, he improved the telescope, discovered kinetics and dynamics, and has been called the father of modern observational astronomy, physics, and modern science. His public support of the heliocentric view, which placed the sun at the center of the universe, led him to be denounced by the Roman Inquisition in 1615 and ultimately put under house arrest after the publishing of “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” in 1632.
Who is Galileo Galilei?
200
this Dutch scientist lived from 1632 until 1723. Considered to be the “Father of Microbiology,” he was also the first microbiologist. He was best known for his pioneering work on the microscope, his discovery of protozoa, and his description of red blood cells, which happened to be the first description by a human. While he didn’t author any books, he was the first to record observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, sperm, and blow flow in capillaries. He was even visited by William III of Orange and Peter the Great, who both wanted to gaze at the tiny creatures this man discovered through his much improved microscope.
Who is Antonie van Leeuwenhoek?
300
this English philosopher lived from 1561 until 1626. An expert statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, and author, he famously contracted pneumonia and died while examining the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. Called the father of empiricism, he wrote New Atlantis and coined the phrase, “Knowledge is power.” His pioneering methodologies and practices are now called the scientific method.
Who is Sir Francis Bacon?
300
this French-born scientist lived from 1647 until 1712. An expert physicist, mathematician, and inventor, he became interested in the vacuum as a way to move power. His interests and inventions led him to pioneer the steam digester, the predecessor of the pressure cooker and the steam engine. A Huguenot, he fled first to Germany and then to London, where he continued to invent, and developed the first piston steam engine.
Who is Denis Papin?
300
this German mathematician and philosopher with a crazy black wig lived from 1646 until 1716. While writing primarily in French and Latin, he developed infinitesimal calculus, the binary number system, was integral to the history of calculus, and even invented his own mathematical notation system. In philosophy he was one of the great 17th century advocates of rationalism, a priori optimism, and anticipated modern logic and analytic philosophy.
Who is Gottfried Leibniz?
300
this Italian Renaissance philosopher lived from 1469 until 1527. While he is not technically a member of the Scientific Revolution, he is one of the main founders of political science. His separation of politics from theology and moral philosophy was looked favorably upon by the thinkers of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. His most famous book, The Prince, draws its conclusions from evidence in history, and while critics detracted the book as nonmoral, he chose this angle in order to be scientific. Readers in the Scientific Revolution saw this book as both a scientific description of fact and a maxim of conduct.
Who is Niccolo Machiavelli?
300
this Dutch mathematician lived from 1629 until 1695. He was also a prominent astronomer, physicist, horologist (study of time), and one of the earliest writers of science fiction. He refined the telescope, discovered the rings of Saturn and Saturn’s moon Titan, invented the pendulum clock, and discovered centrifugal force. His role in the development of modern calculus and his understanding of wave-particle duality, that light consists of waves, constitutes this man as the father of theoretical physics.
Who is Christian Huygens?
400
this English scientist lived from 1656 until 1742. An astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist, he is most well known for discovering, calculating the orbit, and being able to predict the comet that now shares his name. While famous for that single comet, he also published papers on sunspots, Venus’s transit, and solar eclipses.
Who is Edmund Halley?
400
this French philosopher lived from 1647 until 1706. A writer, he published the Historical and Critical Dictionary in 1695. Its rigorous, skeptical, and scientific approach served as the greatest influence to the Enlightenment’s Encyclopedists. A Huguenot and a believer in fideism, he advocated for the separation of church and state and tolerance of divergent beliefs.
Who is Pierre Bayle?
400
this German scientist lived from 1686 until 1736. An expert physicist, engineer, and glass blower, he invented the alcohol thermometer and the mercury thermometer in 1709 and 1714, respectively. He is most known however for developing the temperature scale that is now named after him, and while not as widespread as it once was, this temperature scale is still used in the United States and Belize.
Who is Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit?
400
this Italian doctor lived from 1628 until 1694. An expert in medicine, anatomy, botany, and the workings of the body, he is regarded as the father of physiology. His use of the microscope to study the skin, the kidney, and the liver greatly expanded the science of embryology. The Swedish scientist, Linnaeus, named a flower plant genus in honor of this man, and this man’s discovery of the tubule system now bears his name.
Who is Marcello Malpighi?
400
this Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin lived from 1632 until 1677. Considered one of the great rationalists of the 17th century and one of Western philosophy’s most important philosophers, he laid the groundwork for modern bible criticism and the Enlightenment. His greatest work, Ethics, was published posthumously and opposed Descartes, during his lifetime however, he was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam and lived quietly as a lens grinder.
Who is Baruch Spinoza?
500
this English scientist lived from 1627 until 1691. A natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor, and theologian, he is largely regarded as the father of modern chemistry. He was the author of The Skeptical Chemist and he refined the air pump, but he is most famous for the chemistry law that bears his name.
Who is Robert Boyle?
500
this French lawyer in the parlement lived from 1601 until 1665. An amateur mathematician, he is credited with the early developments of infinitesimal calculus, differential calculus, and number theory. His notable contributions to analytical geometry, probability, and optics, are shadowed by his greatest contribution, his Last Theorem which is named after him. Other mathematical principles named after him include a cubic, pseudoprime, a factorization method, a principle, a spiral, and a room. However, he should be also recognized as one of the founders of analytical geometry and the theory of probability.
Who is Pierre de Fermat?
500
this Danish-German nobleman-scientist lived from 1546 until 1601. Well known in his lifetime for the most accurate astronomical and planetary observations to date, this astronomer mentored Johannes Kepler, created his own model of the universe, destroyed the theory of celestial spheres with the publishing of De Nova Stella in 1573, and proved parallax. He lost part of his nose in a duel, tamed a moose, kept a dwarf named Japp, owned 1% of the entire wealth of Denmark at one point, and his discovery and observation of the 1572 supernova was referenced in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Who is Tycho Brache?
500
this Italian scientist lived from 1608 until 1647. An expert physicist and mathematician, his most famous invention was that of the barometer, which is used to measure atmospheric pressure. His contributions to physics are extensive and diverse, including the first scientific description of wind and his discovery of a scientific law that shares his name regarding the speed of fluid flowing out of an opening.
Who is Evangelista Torricelli?
500
this Dutch scientist lived from 1641 until 1673. An expert physician and anatomist, he is considered the father of reproductive biology. He is most widely known for inventing the syringe and for his discovery of the ovarian follicles. His keen interest in biological processes allowed him to understand the reproductive function of the Fallopian tube, testicular tubes, and female infertility.
Who is Regnier de Graaf?