Masters
Galileo Galilei
Galileo pioneered "experimental scientific method," and was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries.
Isaac Newton
Newton is clearly the most influential scientist who ever lived. His accomplishments in mathematics, optics, and physics laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the world.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau's profound insight can be found in almost every trace of modern philosophy today.
Jonas Salk
Jonas (Edward) Salk is best known for developing the first successful vaccine for polio.
Lao Tzu
Lao Tzu is attributed with the writing of the "Tao-Te Ching," (tao-meaning the way of all life, te-meaning the fit use of life by men, and ching-meaning text or classic).
Louis Leakey
Leakey was largely responsible for convincing scientists that Africa was the most significant area to search for evidence of human origins.
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur's discovery that most infectious diseases are caused by germs, known as the "germ theory of disease," is one of the most important in medical history.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
In the words of Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein 'was perhaps the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense and domineering'.
Machiaveli
Niccolo Machiavelli was a political philosopher and diplomat during the Renaissance, and best known for his famous work, "The Prince".
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell became the first acknowledged woman astronomer in the United States.