Margaret Floy Washburn (1871 - 1939)

Born July 25, 1871 in New York City, Margaret Floy Washburn was raised in Harlem by her father Francis, an Episcopal priest, and her mother, Elizabeth Floy, who came from a prosperous New York family. Her ancestors were of Dutch and English descent and were all in America before 1720. Washburn was an only child; […]

Rosalie Rayner (1898 - 1935)

Rosalie Rayner was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 25, 1898. Her father and grandfather, Albert William Rayner and William Solomon Rayner, respectively, were successful businessmen. Her mother, Rebecca Selner Rayner, and father had one other daughter, Evelyn. Albert William Rayner made a living dealing with railroads, mining, and shipbuilding. The Rayner family also supported […]

John Garcia (1917 - 2012)

John Garcia was born to a farm family on June 12, 1917, near Santa Rosa, California, and died a world-renowned member of the National Academy of Sciences on October 12, 2012. He was a farmer, a cartoonist, a ship fitter, an Air Corps Cadet, an amateur boxer, a high school teacher and a college professor, […]

Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Вы́готский or Выго́тский, born Лев Симхович Выгодский [Lev Simkhovich Vygodskiy], November 17 [O.S. November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of an unfinished theory of human cultural and bio-social development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, the prominent advocate for the new theory […]

Ivan Sechenov (1829 - 1905)

Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov (Russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Се́ченов; August 13 [O.S. August 1] 1829, Tyoply Stan (now Sechenovo) near Simbirsk, Russia – November 15 [O.S. November 2] 1905, Moscow), was a Russian physiologist, named by Ivan Pavlov as “The Father of Russian physiology”. Ivan Sechenov authored the classic Reflexes of the Brain introducing electrophysiology and neurophysiology […]

Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

After completing his doctorate, Pavlov went to Germany where he studied in Leipzig with Carl Ludwig and Eimear Kelly in the Heidenhain laboratories in Breslau. He remained there from 1884 to 1886. Heidenhain was studying digestion in dogs, using an exteriorized section of the stomach. However, Pavlov perfected the technique by overcoming the problem of […]

Mary Calkins (1863 - 1930)

Mary Calkins began her serious study of psychology under William James, shortly after his highly renowned textbook, The Principles of Psychology, was printed in 1890. Calkins highly regards one of her first experiences with James in her autobiography, claiming “what I gained from the written page, and even more from tete-a-tete discussion was, it seems […]

Mary Cover Jones (1897 - 1987)

Mary Cover Jones was the middle child of three born to Carrie Louise Higson and Charles Blair Cover. She had a brother who was five years older than her, and a sister who was four years younger than her. Jones’ mother was a homemaker involved in several local community organizations while her father was a […]

Louis Thurstone (1887 - 1955)

Louis Thurstone was responsible for the standardized mean and standard deviation of IQ scores used today, as opposed to the Intelligence Test system originally used by Alfred Binet. He is also known for the development of the Thurstone scale. Thurstone’s work in factor analysis led him to formulate a model of intelligence center around “Primary Mental […]

David Wechsler (1896 - 1981)

David Wechsler is best known for his intelligence tests. He was one of the most influential advocates of the role of nonintellective factors in testing. He emphasized that factors other than intellectual ability are involved in intelligent behavior. David Wechsler objected to the single score offered by the 1937 Binet scale. Although his test did […]

Bénédict Morel (1809 - 1873)

Bénédict Morel was born in Vienna, Austria in 1809, of French parents. In the aftermath of the War of the Sixth Coalition Morel was abandoned by his parents, and left with the Luxembourgish Abbé Dupont and his servant Marianne, who raised him. Morel received his education in Paris, and while a student, supplemented his income by […]

Carl von Rokitansky (1804 - 1878)

Carl von Rokitansky was born in Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz), Bohemia. He studied at the Charles University in Prague (1821–1824) and attained a doctorate in medicine on 6 March 1828 at the University of Vienna. In 1830, he became assistant to Johann Wagner, the professor of pathological anatomy, and succeeded him in 1834 as prosector, […]

Robert Remak (1815 - 1865)

Robert Remak (26 July 1815 – 29 August 1865) was a Jewish Polish/German embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist, born in Posen, Prussia, who discovered that the origin of cells was by the division of pre-existing cells. as well as several other key discoveries. According to historian Paul Weindling, Rudolf Virchow, one of the founders of modern cell […]

Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902)

Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (English /ˈvɪərkoʊ, ˈfɪərxoʊ/; German: [ˈvɪɐ̯çoː]; 13 October 1821 – 5 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician, known for his advancement of public health. He is known as “the father of modern pathology” because his work helped to discredit humourism, bringing more science to […]

Alexander Oparin (1894 - 1980)

Alexander Oparin outlined a way he thought that basic organic chemicals might have formed into microscopic localized systems, from which primitive living things could have developed. He cited work done by de Jong on coacervates and research by others, including himself, into organic chemicals which, in solution, might spontaneously form droplets and layers. Oparin suggested […]

James Hutton (1726 - 1797)

James Hutton inherited from his father the Berwickshire farms of Slighhouses, a lowland farm which had been in the family since 1713, and the hill farm of Nether Monynut. In the early 1750s he moved to Slighhouses and set about making improvements, introducing farming practices from other parts of Britain and experimenting with plant and […]

Ronald Fisher (1890 - 1962)

Ronald Fisher gained a scholarship to study Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in 1909, gaining a First in Astronomy in 1912. In 1915 he published a paper The evolution of sexual preference on sexual selection and mate choice. He published The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance in 1918, in which […]

Ernst Mayr (1904 - 2005)

Ernst Mayr was the second son of Helene Pusinelli and Dr. Otto Mayr. His father was a jurist (District Prosecuting Attorney at Würzburg)[4] but took an interest in natural history and took the children out on field trips. He learnt all the local birds in Würzburg from his elder brother Otto. He also had access […]

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913)

Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin’s writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to […]

Joseph Jukes (1811 - 1869)

A Sketch of the Physical Structure of Australia … could be considered as Joseph Jukes’ finest or most important contribution to Australian geology. It contained the very first ever complete map of the continent of Australia, imperfect as it was. He designed this map based on a vast collection of notes he had gathered, and […]

Michael Foster (1836 - 1907)

Michael Foster was born in Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, in March 1836, the son of Michael Foster, FRCS. He was educated at Huntingdon Grammar school and University College School, London. After graduating in medicine in 1859, he began to practise in his native town, but in 1867 he returned to London as teacher of practical physiology at […]

Adam Sedgwick (1785 - 1873)

Adam Sedgwick (22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on Welsh rock strata, he proposed the Cambrian period in 1835, in a joint publication in which Roderick Murchison also proposed the Silurian […]

Laura Scudder (1881 - 1959)

Born in Philadelphia, Laura Scudder worked as a nurse before moving to California. While there she became the first female attorney in Ukiah, California before moving south to Monterey Park, California, where she started her food company in 1926. At first, potato chips were packaged in barrels or tins, which left chips at the bottom stale […]

Randy Shilts (1951 - 1994)

Born August 8, 1951, in Davenport, Iowa, Randy Shilts grew up in Aurora, Illinois, with five brothers in a conservative, working-class family. He majored in journalism at the University of Oregon, where he worked on the student newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald, becoming an award-winning managing editor. During his college days, he came out publicly […]

Gilbert Baker (1951 - 2017)

Gilbert Baker (June 2, 1951 – March 31, 2017) was an American artist and gay rights activist who designed the rainbow flag in 1978. Baker’s flag became widely associated with LGBT rights causes, a symbol of pride that became ubiquitous in the decades since its debut. Gilbert Baker was born on June 2, 1951 in Chanute, […]

Anna of Austria (1528 - 1590)

Anna of Austria (Prague, July 7, 1528 – Munich, October 16, 1590) was the daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547). Anna was the third of fifteen children. Her siblings included: Elizabeth, Queen of Poland, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, Catherine, Queen […]

Ernest of Bavaria (1554 - 1612)

Ernest of Bavaria (German: Ernst von Bayern) (17 December 1554 – 17 February 1612) was Prince-elector-archbishop of the Archbishopric of Cologne from 1583 to 1612 as successor of the expelled Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. He was also bishop of Münster, Hildesheim, Freising and Liège. Ernest of Bavaria was born in Munich, the son of Albert V, […]

Karl Joseph Schulte (1871 - 1941)

Karl Joseph Schulte (14 September 1871 – 11 March 1941), was a German Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1920 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1921. Karl Joseph Schulte was born in Haus Valbert (part of Lennestadt), to Oswald and Antonetta (née Schlünder) Schulte. […]

Anton Hubert Fischer (1840 - 1912)

Anton Hubert Fischer (Antonius Fischer) (30 May 1840, in Jülich, Rhine Province – 30 July 1912, in Neuenahr) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne and Cardinal. The son of a professor, he was educated at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium at Cologne, making his theological studies at the University of Bonn and the Academy of Münster. […]

Paul Melchers (1813 - 1895)

Paul Melchers was born in Münster. He studied law at Bonn (1830–33), and a few years practice at Münster, took up theology at Munich under Heinrich Klee, Joseph Görres, Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann and Ignaz von Döllinger. Ordained in 1841, Paul Melchers was assigned to duty in the village of Haltern. In 1844 he became […]