Blog Posts Tagged Featured Scientists
Happy Birthday, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
In 1925, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin made a revolutionary discovery about hydrogen that unfortunately wasn’t believed at the time. This didn’t stop her from breaking new ground in astronomy.
Who Discovered the Integrated Circuit?
Like many of the world’s greatest innovations, credit for developing the integrated circuit is shared by many names, including Geoffrey Dummer, Jack Kilby, and Robert Noyce.
Happy Birthday, Olga Ladyzhenskaya
Olga Ladyzhenskaya wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge. In fact, through her research, she proved the convergence of a finite difference method for the Navier–Stokes equations.
Happy Birthday, Edith Clarke
Once hired as a “human computer”, electrical engineer Edith Clarke is known for inventing the Clarke Calculator, which solves capacity and inductance calculations for long transmission lines.
Happy Birthday, Joseph-Louis Lagrange
Calculus of variations, Lagrange multipliers, deforming geometries, and Lagrange polynomials — These are just a few of Joseph-Louis Lagrange’s many contributions to the world of mathematics.
Happy Birthday, Sofia Kovalevskaya
Aside from her contributions to analysis, differential equations, and mechanics, Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya was also an accomplished playwright and novelist.
Happy Birthday, Andrew Fielding Huxley
As a child, Andrew Fielding Huxley was given a lathe as a gift. This sparked an interest in science and invention that blossomed into a career in research and physiology.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Celebrates Li-Ion Battery Research
John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino, winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, come from different places and researched lithium-ion batteries at different times.
Happy Birthday, Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr’s work in physics started in college, when he solved a surface tension problem for the Academy of Sciences. He went on to work in atomic structure and quantum mechanics.
Happy Birthday, Sir William Ramsay
Argon got its name, which means “lazy”, because it doesn’t react with other elements in air — or seem to do much of anything. The chemist behind this discovery went on to find the noble gases.
Happy Birthday, Adrien-Marie Legendre
From polynomials and functions to a moon crater and main belt asteroid, French mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre has quite a few namesakes.
Zeiss, Abbe, and the Evolution of Microscopes and Optical Research
The story of Carl Zeiss and Ernst Abbe involves a picturesque town in Germany, compound microscopes, and a hammer and anvil. See for yourself with a glimpse into the history of optical research.
The Origin Story of the Sampling Theorem and Vladimir Kotelnikov
Less than a century ago, we didn’t have the theorem that is fundamental to our understanding of electronic communication today. Fortunately, Vladimir Kotelnikov entered the picture.
Happy Birthday, James Joseph Sylvester
Ever heard the word combiants? What about plagiograph, allotrius, or zetaic? The Shakespeare of mathematics, James Joseph Sylvester used his love of poetry to find new ways to describe theories.
Happy Birthday, Samuel P. Langley
The person behind the NASA Langley Research Center, Samuel P. Langley once invented a system of standardized time in order to get more funding for his astronomical observatory.
Happy Birthday, Frederick Sanger
Thanks to English biochemist Frederick Sanger, we have a method for sequencing DNA, which has enabled us to learn more about the building blocks of life.
Happy Birthday, Joseph Keller
Mathematician Joseph Keller is best known for his geometrical theory of diffraction, but he also pursued other areas of study, even developing a teapot spout that doesn’t spill.
Happy Birthday, Friedrich Bessel
Friedrich Bessel could have led a comfortable life had he stayed in his career at a commercial firm. Instead, he was inspired to study astronomy, physics, and planetary behavior and movement…
Happy Birthday, Maria Goeppert Mayer
2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126 were the “magic numbers” that led Maria Goeppert Mayer to develop the first mathematical model for nuclear shells in an atom.
Happy Birthday, James Clerk Maxwell
Maxwell’s equations, which describe how electric and magnetic fields behave and interact, revolutionized electromagnetics. Did you know that James Clerk Maxwell also took the first color photo?
Happy Birthday, Esther M. Conwell
Esther M. Conwell’s list of accolades is almost as long as her list of accomplishments in semiconductor research. Just as impressive, this physicist inspired a new generation of STEM learners.
Happy Birthday, Elsie Eaves
Elsie Eaves was one of the first female civil engineers and is celebrated as a role model for future engineers.
Happy Birthday, Carl Friedrich Gauss
Gauss’ perfectionism in the field of mathematics paid off: Today, there is a statistical distribution curve and entire electromagnetics unit system named in his honor.
Happy Birthday, Max Planck
When Max Planck was young, a teacher told him that there was nothing left to discover in the world of physics. Fortunately for us, and the field of quantum mechanics, Planck had other plans…
