10 of the Most Famous British Scientists

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10 of the Most Famous British Scientists

United Kingdoms, referred to as Britain is made up of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. They were one of the African nation colonizers on their struggles to get greener pastures to exercise their inventions and practice.

Currently, Britain has a population figure of about 67.22 million people. It is the most urbanized country and has one of the best transport systems in the world which is very much developed.

The country has been having formal education for a very long time as it is the home of the century-old universities; the Oxford University as well as the Cambridge University. This explains that the country has very many knowledgeable people and learned too.

Since the 1700s, amongst the citizens of Britain there are is a good number of scientists who did and are doing great things to improve various fields in science. The scientists are inclusive of physicists, chemists, biologists, and mathematicians.

Some of the inventions and discoveries done by these scientists include physics theory, studies on DNA structure as well as biomolecules by use of x-ray crystallography, computer program writing, electromagnetism, invention of penicillin that helped in discovery of antibiotics, and many more works.

The following are the most famous British scientists.

1. Stephen William Hawking

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One of the most famous British scientist was Stephen William Hawking. He was born on the 8^th of January, 1942 in Oxford, United Kingdom.

His fame was in the area of English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. He died as a director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He was married to Jane Hawkings and they had three children.

Most importantly, he was famous for his theory derivations in theoretical physics. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history. His most famous theory is the black hole area theorem which he derived from Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

It was sad that he died on the 14^th of March, 2018 in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

2. Charles Robert Darwin

At the Mount House Shrewsbury, United Kingdom was born a boy named Charles Robert Darwin on the 12^th of February in 1809. The boy grew to be a famous English naturalist, geologist, and biologist. Later in life he married and had seven children.

Darwin, as he was commonly called was famous for his contribution to evolutionary biology in the theory of natural selection. He brought out the theory explaining how individuals in species show variation in physical characteristics that is caused by differences in genes.

He died on the 19^th of April, 1882 in Downe, United Kingdom.

3. Rosalind Elsie Franklin

Franklin was born on the 25^th of July, 1920 in Notting Hill London, United Kingdom. She was an English chemist and x-ray crystallographer, whose work was to understand the molecular structures of various components.

She is famous for the discovery of the helical shape of the DNA molecule by the use of the x-crystallography technique. Her study provided clues of DNA structures as well as quantitatively confirmed the Watson-Crick DNA model.

Rosalind died on the 16^th of April 1958 in Chelsea London, United Kingdom.

4. Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was born on the 22^nd of September, 1791 in Newington Butts London, United Kingdom. He was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He was married to Sarah Barnard.

Understanding electricity is what earned him fame but inventions like the principles underlying electromagnetism induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis gave him a higher level of recognition.

However, he was awarded the Royal Medal, Copey Medal, Rumford Medal, and many more awards. He died on the 25^th of August, 1867 in Hampton Court Palace Molesey, United Kingdom.

5. Alexander Flemings

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Alexander Flemings was born in the United Kingdom, Darvel, on the 6^th of august, 1881. He was a Scottish physician and a microbiologist.

Flemings was famous for the invention of penicillin, which later led to the discovery of antibiotics. They helped deaths reduction from infectious diseases. He once said that the unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.

After the great achievement, he died on the 11^th of March, 1995 in London. His body was laid in St. Paul’s cathedral in London, United Kingdom.

6. Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin

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Professor Hodgkin was born on the 12^th of May, 1910 in Cairo, Egypt. She was an English Nobel Prize-winning chemist who advanced the technique of x-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules.

She was famous for her discovery in solving the atomic structure of molecules such as penicillin and insulin using the x-ray crystallography technique. For this invention, she was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Unfortunately, she died on the 29^th of July, 1994 in Ilmington, United Kingdom.

7. Peter Ware Higgs

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Peter Ware Higgs was born on the 29^th of May, 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. He is currently 92 years old. He is a British theoretical physicist and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh.

He is famous for proposing the existence of the Higgs boson which explains why other elementary particles have the basic building blocks of the universe and have mass. He also discovered that the boson is the particle that gives all the other fundamental particles mass.

The winner of Nobel Prize in Physics plus he  had also been rewarded the Wolf Prize in Physics, Sakurai Prize, Hughes Medal, and many more awards.

8. Augusta Ada King Lovelace

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was born on the 10^th of December, 1815 in London, United Kingdom. She was an English mathematician and writer. She was a mother of three children and had published several books.

She is famous for being the first person to write a computer program in the world. Even though there were no computers at the time.

Besides, she realized that after they were brought into existence, they would follow a series of simple instructions, a program to perform complex calculations.

Her death has been recorded to have happened on the 27^th of November, 1852 in Marylebone London, United Kingdom.

9. Timothy Berners-Lee

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee was born on the 8^th of June, 1955, and he is one of the living inventors who is currently at the age of 66 years.

Berners-Lee is famous for the development of the World Wide Web (WWW), web browser, the hypertext transfer protocol among others.

He was granted several rewards like the millennium technology prize, the president’s medal, Japan prize, and many more awards.

The title of profession was both as a computer scientist who is a professorial fellow in the Oxford University, computer science department and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of technology.

10. Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton was born on the 4^th of January, 1643 in the Woolsthorpe manor house, United Kingdom.

In addition, he was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. He is among the most influential scientist in mathematics and physics.

Newton is famous for being a key figure of the Enlightenment philosophical revolution. He was behind inventions like; the white light composition optics, calculus in mathematics.

Further, he is the father of the formulation of the three laws of motion referred to as Newton’s laws. He also discovered the reflecting telescope and the laws of gravitational force.

His death was on the 31^st of March, 1727 in London, United Kingdom. His body is buried in Westminster Abby in London, United Kingdom.

All the above scientists from Britain can be said to have contributed a lot to the current world more so in fields related to chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics.

Moreover, the scientists invented things like the computer program even without the physical computer machine which shows that they were not only creative but also predictive of what will come to be someday.

These scientists and others have and did play a great role to bring Britain to its current status as well as the entire world.