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27 figures

Galen of Pergamon

129 – 216

Physician to gladiators and emperors whose anatomy ruled medicine for 1,400 years.

Türkiye·Medicine · Philosophy · BiologyFull profile

Zhang Zhongjing

150 – 219

Treatise on Cold Damage remains a foundation of Chinese medicine.

China·Medicine

Al-Razi (Rhazes)

854 – 925

Distinguished smallpox from measles and pioneered clinical case records.

Iran·Medicine · Chemistry

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

980 – 1037

Wrote the medical textbook that trained Europe's doctors until 1650.

Uzbekistan·Medicine · Philosophy · AstronomyFull profile

Avicenna's student Al-Juzjani

980 – 1070

Preserved and completed Ibn Sina's corpus.

Afghanistan·Medicine · History

Zhang Xichun

1860 – 1933

First great synthesiser of Chinese and Western medicine; his case records still teach clinicians.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

José Rizal

1861 – 1896

Ophthalmologist whose novels ignited the Philippine revolution; executed at 35.

Philippines·Literature · Medicine

Hakim Ajmal Khan

1868 – 1927

Physician of Unani medicine who built its modern colleges and led the Indian National Congress.

India·Integrative Medicine · Education

P. S. Varier

1869 – 1944

Founded Arya Vaidya Sala at Kottakkal and industrialised classical Ayurvedic pharmacy.

India·Ayurveda · Education

Cheng Dan'an

1899 – 1957

Rescued acupuncture from abolition and rebuilt it on anatomical terms with filiform needles.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine

Keisetsu Otsuka

1900 – 1980

Revived Kampo in Japan and secured its place inside the national health insurance system.

Japan·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

Shiv Sharma

1906 – 1980

Led the campaign that won Ayurveda statutory recognition in independent India.

India·Ayurveda · Education

Zhu Lian

1909 – 1978

Wrote New Acupuncture (1951) and led the state institute that standardised the practice.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Public Health

Yoshio Manaka

1911 – 1989

Surgeon-acupuncturist who built a biophysical model of meridian therapy.

Japan·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

Deng Tietao

1916 – 2019

Master physician of Guangzhou whose spleen-stomach theory shaped modern TCM curricula.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Education

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

1918 – 2008

Exported Transcendental Meditation and revived classical Ayurveda as a global health programme.

India·Ayurveda · Integrative Medicine

B. K. S. Iyengar

1918 – 2014

Turned yoga into a precise therapeutic method taught in clinics and studios worldwide.

India·Integrative Medicine · Education

Brihaspati Dev Triguna

1920 – 2013

The century's most celebrated pulse diagnostician; chaired India's central Ayurvedic council.

India·Ayurveda

Tenzin Choedrak

1922 – 2001

Personal physician to the Dalai Lama who preserved Tibetan medicine through 17 years of imprisonment.

China·Integrative Medicine · Medicine

Michio Kushi

1926 – 2014

Carried macrobiotics from postwar Japan to the West and into the diet-and-disease debate.

Japan·Nutrition · Integrative Medicine

Tu Youyou

b. 1930

Extracted artemisinin from ancient texts; millions of malaria deaths averted.

China·Medicine · ChemistryNobel

Daniel Kahneman

1934 – 2024

Prospect theory founded behavioural economics and modern policy 'nudging'.

Israel·Economics · PsychologyNobel

Ashok Vaidya

1940 – 2023

Pioneer of reverse pharmacology, translating classical formulas into clinical trials.

India·Ayurveda · Medicine

Vasant Lad

b. 1943

Founded the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico and trained the first Western practitioners.

India·Ayurveda · Education

Deepak Chopra

b. 1946

Endocrinologist turned global voice of mind-body medicine; contested by clinical researchers.

India·Integrative Medicine · Ayurveda

Shinya Yamanaka

b. 1962

Reprogrammed adult cells into stem cells, remaking regenerative medicine.

Japan·Medicine · BiologyNobel

Baba Ramdev

b. 1965

Made yoga and Ayurveda a mass movement and a corporate empire; repeatedly censured over health claims.

India·Ayurveda