Browse the index

Filter by category and discipline, then by continent, country and century of birth. Countries not yet represented can be drafted at the research desk.

15 figures

Carlos Juan Finlay

1833 – 1915

Identified the mosquito as the vector of yellow fever.

Cuba·Medicine

Weston A. Price

1870 – 1948

Dentist whose global survey of traditional diets tied refined food to physical degeneration.

Canada·Nutrition · Medicine

Oswaldo Cruz

1872 – 1917

Eradicated yellow fever from Rio and founded Brazilian public health.

Brazil·Medicine

Carlos Chagas

1879 – 1934

Described a disease, its parasite and its vector single-handedly.

Brazil·Medicine · Biology

Bernardo Houssay

1887 – 1971

First Latin American science laureate; pituitary role in glucose metabolism.

Argentina·MedicineNobel

Frederick Banting

1891 – 1941

Co-discovered insulin and sold the patent for one dollar.

Canada·MedicineNobel

Jonas Salk

1914 – 1995

Polio vaccine, unpatented — 'could you patent the sun?'

United States·Medicine

Abram Hoffer

1917 – 2009

Ran the first double-blind trials in psychiatry and founded orthomolecular medicine with high-dose niacin.

Canada·Functional Medicine · Psychology · Medicine

César Milstein

1927 – 2002

Monoclonal antibodies — now a $200bn class of medicines.

Argentina·Medicine · ChemistryNobel

Herbert Benson

1935 – 2022

Documented the relaxation response at Harvard and made mind-body medicine measurable.

United States·Integrative Medicine · Medicine

Sidney MacDonald Baker

b. 1936

Framed clinical practice around the tack rule — take out what harms, put in what's missing.

United States·Functional Medicine · Medicine

Ted Kaptchuk

b. 1947

Wrote The Web That Has No Weaver, then founded Harvard's programme in placebo studies.

United States·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

Joseph Pizzorno

b. 1948

Co-founded Bastyr University, the first accredited natural-medicine university in the United States.

United States·Functional Medicine · Education · Medicine

Dean Ornish

b. 1953

Proved lifestyle change can reverse coronary artery disease; first such programme reimbursed by Medicare.

United States·Integrative Medicine · Medicine

Katalin Karikó's collaborator Drew Weissman

b. 1959

Co-discovered nucleoside-modified mRNA.

United States·MedicineNobel