Elizabeth Blackburn (1948) is the leading researcher in the field of telomeres, the
'telomerase' enzyme, and their effect on the aging of cells and propogation of cancer
Kary Mullis (1944) he invented the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a central
technique in molecular biology which allows the amplification of specified DNA sequences
Rupert Sheldrake (1942)
Richard Dawkins (1941) is best known for popularising
the Williams Revolution in his book "The Selfish Gene"
Stephen Jay Gould (1941- 2002) was a paleontologist, evolutionary biologist as well
as the most influential and widely read writer of popular science of his generation
Stuart Alan Kauffman (1939) is a biologist and complex systems researcher, and is most widely
known for his promotion of self-organization as a factor that is at least as important as Darwinian
natural selection in producing the complexity of biological systems and organisms
Daniel Janzen (1939) founded "Area de Conservación Guanacaste", probably the oldest, largest
and most successful habitat restoration project in the world, 1.430 km2, located just south of
the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border, between the Pacific Ocean and the Talamanca mountain range
David Suzuki (1936) is a geneticist who has attained prominence as a
science broadcaster ("The Nature of Things") and an environmental activist
William Donald Hamilton (1936-2000) can be seen as one of the forerunners
of the discipline of sociobiology founded by Edward Osborne Wilson
Charles DeLisi (19??) succeeded to identify all 30000000000 genes in the human genome
Robert Rosen (1934-1998) focused his scientific work on
the question: "what is life?" ("why are organisms alive?")
Allan Wilson (1934–1991) is best known for his "Mitochondrial Eve" hypothesis
Richard Alexander (1930) his scientific pursuits integrate the fields
of systematics, ecology, evolution, natural history and behaviour
Edward Osborne Wilson (1929) coined the term biodiversity
Desmond Morris (1928) author of " the Naked Ape"
Carl Woese (1928) is an American microbiologist famous for defining the Archaea (a new domain
or kingdom of life) in 1977 by phylogenetic analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique pioneered
by Woese which is now standard practice, he was also the originator of the RNA world hypothesis in 1967
George Christopher Williams (1926) is noted for starting the Williams revolution,
presenting a gene-centric basis for biology with his book "Adaptation and Natural Selection"
John Maynard Smith (1920-2004) was instrumental in the application of game theory to
evolution and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958) made important contributions
to the understanding of the fine structures of coal, DNA and viruses
Francis Crick (1916-2004), James Dewey Watson (1928) are the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule
Eugene Odum (1913-2002) is often referred to as "the father of ecosystem ecology"
George Emil Palade (1912) described the structure and function of organelles in cells
Lucien Lison (1908-1979) histochemistry
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (1907-2004) was the South African museum official
who in 1938 brought to the attention of the world the existence of the coelacanth,
a fish thought to have been extinct for seventy million years
Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964) was a zoologist and biologist whose landmark book,
Silent Spring is often credited with having launched the global environmental movement
Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) helped develop the modern evolutionary
synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian evolution
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) founder of ethology
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (1903-1972) was an archaeologist whose work
was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa
George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) was the most influential scientists in paleontology (the
study of the developing history of life on earth based on the fossil record) of the twentieth century
Ronald Fisher (1890-1962) has been described by Richard Dawkins as "the greatest of Darwin’s
successors," was one of the founders of the neo-Darwinian modern evolutionary synthesis
Sir Albert Howard (1873-1947) is an organic farming pioneer,
and a principal figure in the early organic movement
David Grandison Fairchild (1869-1954) was responsible for the introduction of more than
20,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including
mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, dates, horseradish, bamboos and flowering cherries
James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934)
Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen (1857-1927) coined the word gene
Hermann Müller (1850-1927)
Robert Koch (1843-1910) is considered one of the founders of bacteriology, he became famous for the
discovery of the tubercle bacillus and the cholera bacillus and for his development of Koch's postulates
Gustav Heinrich Theodor Eimer (1843-1898) is credited with popularizing the term "Orthogenesis"
to describe an intrinsic drive in life towards perfection, a form of directed evolution
Anton Dohrn (1840-1909) was a prominent Darwinist
Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) popularized Charles Darwin's work in Germany
John Lubbock (1834-1913) was responsible for inventing the names Palaeolithic
and Neolithic to denote the Old and New Stone Ages respectively
Anton de Bary (1831-1888) is considered a founding father of
plant pathology (phytopathology) and coined the term symbiosis
Charles Wyville Thomson (1830-1882) chief scientist on the Challenger expedition
George Jackson Mivart (1827-1900) author of "the Origin of Human Reason"
Armand David (1826-1900) found in China altogether 200 species of wild animals, of which
63 were hitherto unknown to zoologists (such as the Giant Panda or the Père David's Deer),
and 807 species of birds, 65 of which had not been described before
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his defence of Charles Darwin's
theory of evolution. He also coined the term "agnosticism" to describe his stance on religious belief
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) his independent proposal of a theory of
evolution by natural selection prompted Charles Darwin to reveal his own more
developed and researched, but unpublished, theory sooner than he had intended
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) is often called the "father of genetics"
for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants
Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) one of his most famous rules is
Omnis cellula e cellula ("every cell originates from another cell")
Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817-1891) discovered what would later become known as chromosomes
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Claude Bernard (1813-1878) is the father of the concept of homeostasis
Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) was the co-founder of cell theory and invented the term metabolism
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) achieved lasting fame as originator
of the theory of evolution through natural selection
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was the first to come up with the idea that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age
Richard Owen (1804-1892) gave a spur to the inception of Darwin's theory of natural selection
Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881) was the first to formulate the cell theory
Alcide d'Orbigny (1802-1857) was the first scientist to describe
geological timescales and defined numerous geological strata
David Douglas (1799-1834)
Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876) German naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist,
geologist, and microscopist, was one of the most famous and productive scientists of his time
Karl Ernst von Baer (1792-1876) formulated what would later be called the Baer's laws for embryology
Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869)
Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788-1865) related the classification of artifacts to technology,
that
is, according to the
materials in which they were made (stone, bronze, and iron), thereby
defining the Stone
Age, the Bronze Age, and
the Iron Age
John James Audubon (1786-1851) American ornithologist. He
painted, catalogued, and described the birds of North America
Lorenz Oken (1779-1851) defined five animal classes: Invertebrates, Fish, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) his system of zoological
classification led him toward the development of paleontology
William Kirby (1759-1850) entomology
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) was a German physiologist and anthropologist.on the basis
of his craniometrical research (analysis of human skulls), he divided the human species into five races:
the Caucasian or white race, the Mongolian or yellow, the Malayan or brown race, the Negro or black race,
and the American or red race
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) known for his literary works but also a scientist. In biology
his theory of plant metamorphosis stipulated that all plant formation stems from a modification of the leaf
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) coined the term biology and
taught that evolution fuctions by inheritance of acquired characteristics
Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was the English naturalist and botanist on Cook's first great
voyage (1768-1771) and some 75 species bear Banks' name. He is credited with the introduction
to the West of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa, and the genus named after him, Banksia
Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) his most important scientific work is his Zoönomia,
which contains a system of pathology, and a treatise on "generation," in which he,
anticipated the views of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who in turn is regarded
to have foreshadowed the theory of evolution
Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799) is best known for his discovery of the process of photosynthesis
Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798) made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe
and North America. He is best known as the naturalist on James Cook's second Pacific voyage,
when he was accompanied by his son Georg Forster
Charles Bonnet (1720-1793)
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) influenced the next two generations
of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin with his views such as
the high similarity between humans and apes, and the possibility of a common ancestry
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy
Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698-1759)
Mark Catesby (1683-1749) produced the first published account of the flora and fauna of
North America. It included 220 plates of birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish, insects, and mammals
Robert Hooke (1635-1703) coined the biological term cell
Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) was an Italian doctor, who gave his name to several
physiological features. He was pioneer in using a microscope and he has also been
described as a founder of comparative physiology and microscopic anatomy
John Ray (1627-1705)
Gaspard Bauhin (1560-1624) introduced binomial nomenclature
into taxonomy, which was much later taken up by Linnaeus
Andrea Cesalpino (1519-1603)
Rembert Dodoens (1517-1585) Dodoens' herbal Cruydeboeck with 715 images (1554)
was influenced by that of Leonhart Fuchs. He divided the plant kingdom in six groups
Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) his three-volume Historia Animalium is considered the beginning of modern zoology
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is known as an artist but was also an anatomist.
He dissected hundreds of specimens and drew exact copies of them
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23-79)
Theophrastus (372-287 bc) was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic
school, the most important of his books are two large botanical treatises,
On the History of Plants and On the Causes of Plants
Aristotle (384-322 bc)
Speusippus (408-339 bc) wrote books on biological classification before Aristotle
Xenophanes (570-475 bc) examined fossils