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Category
Disciplines in Natural Sciences
Physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and the sciences of the earth and brain.
Era
Countries (85)
12 figures
Dorothy Hodgkin
1910 – 1994Solved the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin by X-ray.
Primo Levi
1919 – 1987Chemist whose Auschwitz testimony is the standard of moral witness.
Rosalind Franklin
1920 – 1958Photographed the shape of the molecule that makes us.
César Milstein
1927 – 2002Monoclonal antibodies — now a $200bn class of medicines.
Alan MacDiarmid
1927 – 2007Conductive polymers — flexible screens and printed electronics.
Tu Youyou
b. 1930Extracted artemisinin from ancient texts; millions of malaria deaths averted.
Ada Yonath
b. 1939Mapped the ribosome, the cell's protein factory and antibiotic target.
Mario Molina
1943 – 2020Proved CFCs destroy ozone; his work produced the Montreal Protocol.
Ahmed Zewail
1946 – 2016Founded femtochemistry, filming chemical bonds as they break.
Jeffrey Bland
b. 1946Coined and codified functional medicine; founded the Institute for Functional Medicine in 1991.
Katalin Karikó
b. 1955Demoted, defunded, and right: her mRNA work produced the COVID vaccines.
Jennifer Doudna
b. 1964CRISPR gene editing, now in approved sickle-cell therapy.