physicist

a scientist trained in physics

• acoustician — a physicist who specializes in acoustics
• astronomer, uranologist, stargazer — a physicist who studies astronomy
• biophysicist — a physicist who applies the methods of physics to biology
• nuclear physicist — a physicist who specializes in nuclear physics
• Anderson, Philip Anderson, Philip Warren Anderson, Phil Anderson — American physicist who studied the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems (1923-)
• Appleton, Edward Appleton, Sir Edward Victor Appleton — English physicist remembered for his studies of the ionosphere (1892-1966)
• Archimedes — Greek mathematician and physicist noted for his work in hydrostatics and mechanics and geometry (287-212 BC)
• Arrhenius, Svante August Arrhenius — Swedish chemist and chemist noted for his theory of chemical dissociation (1859-1927)
• Avogadro, Amedeo Avogadro — Italian physicist noted for his work on gases; proposed what has come to be called Avogadro's law (1776-1856)
• Bardeen, John Bardeen — United States physicist who won the Nobel Prize for physics twice (1908-1991)
• Becquerel, Henri Becquerel, Antoine Henri Becquerel — French physicist who discovered that rays emitted by uranium salts affect photographic plates (1852-1908)
• Bernoulli, Daniel Bernoulli — Swiss physicist who contributed to hydrodynamics and mathematical physics (1700-1782)
• Boltzmann, Ludwig Boltzmann — Austrian physicist who contributed to the kinetic theory of gases (1844-1906)
• Carnot, Sadi Carnot, Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot — French physicist who founded thermodynamics (1796-1832)
• Cavendish, Henry Cavendish — British chemist and physicist who established that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen and who calculated the density of the earth (1731-1810)
• Charles, Jacques Charles, Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles — French physicist and uathor of Charles's law which anticipated Gay-Lussac's law (1746-1823)
• Coulomb, Charles Augustin de Coulomb — French physicist famous for his discoveries in the field of electricity and magnetism; formulated Coulomb's Law (1736-1806)
• Crookes, William Crookes, Sir William Crookes — English chemist and physicist; discovered thallium; invented the radiometer and studied cathode rays (1832-1919)
• Curie, Pierre Curie — French physicist; husband of Marie Curie (1859-1906)
• Dalton, John Dalton — English chemist and physicist who formulated atomic theory and the law of partial pressures; gave the first description of red-green color blindness (1766-1844)
• Dewar, Sir James Dewar — Scottish chemist and physicist noted for his work in cryogenics and his invention of the Dewar flask (1842-1923)
• Doppler, Christian Johann Doppler — Austrian physicist famous for his discovery of the Doppler effect (1803-1853)
• Einstein, Albert Einstein — physicist born in Germany who formulated the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity; Einstein also proposed that light consists of discrete quantized bundles of energy (later called photons) (1879-1955)
• Esaki, Leo Esaki — physicist honored for advances in solid state electronics (born in Japan in 1925)
• Fahrenheit, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit — German physicist who invented the mercury thermometer and developed the scale of temperature that bears his name (1686-1736)
• Faraday, Michael Faraday — the English physicist nd chemist who discovered electromagnetic induction (1791-1867)
• Fechner, Gustav Theodor Fechner — German physicist who derived Fechner's Law on the basis of early work by E. H. Weber (1801-1887)
• Foucault, Jean Bernard Leon Foucault — French physicist who determined the speed of light and showed that it travels slower in water than in air; invented the Foucault pendulum and the gyroscope (1819-1868)
• Fourier, Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, Baron Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier — French mathematician who developed Fourier analysis and studied the conduction of heat (1768-1830)
• Franck, James Franck — United States physicist (born in Germany) who with Gustav Hertz performed an electron scattering experiment that proved the existence of the stationary energy states postulated by Niels Bohr (1882-1964)
• Fresnel, Augustin Jean Fresnel — French physicist who invented polarized light and invented the Fresnel lens (1788-1827)
• Fuchs, Klaus Fuchs, Emil Klaus Julius Fuchs — British physicist who was born in Germany and fled Nazi persecution; in the 1940s he passed secret information to the USSR about the development of the atom bomb in the United States (1911-1988)
• Gabor, Dennis Gabor — British physicist (born in Hungary) noted for his work on holography (1900-1979)
• Gamow, George Gamow — United States physicist (born in Russia) who was a proponent of the big-bang theory and who did research in radioactivity and suggested the triplet code for DNA (1904-1968)
• Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac — French chemist and physicist who first isolated boron and who formulated the law describing the behavior of gases under constant pressure (1778-1850)
• Geiger, Hans Geiger — German physicist who developed the Geiger counter (1882-1945)
• Gilbert, William Gilbert — English court physician noted for his studies of terrestrial magnetism (1540-1603)
• Goddard, Robert Hutchings Goddard — United States physicist who developed the first successful liquid-fueled rocket (1882-1945)
• Hawking, Stephen Hawking, Stephen William Hawking — English theoretical physicist (born in 1942)
• Heaviside, Oliver Heaviside — English physicist and electrical engineer who helped develop telegraphic and telephonic communications; in 1902 (independent of A. E. Kennelly) he suggested the existence of an atmospheric layer that reflects radio waves back to earth (1850-1925)
• Helmholtz, Hermann von Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, Baron Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz — German physiologist and physicist (1821-1894)
• Henry, Joseph Henry — American physicist who studied electromagnetic phenomena (1791-1878)
• Hertz, Heinrich Hertz, Heinrich Rudolph Hertz — German physicist who was the first to produce electromagnetic waves artificially (1857-1894)
• Hess, Victor Hess, Victor Franz Hess — United States physicist (born in Austria) who was a discoverer of cosmic radiation (1883-1964)
• Huygens, Christiaan Huygens, Christian Huygens — Dutch physicist who first formulated the wave theory of light (1629-1695)
• Joliot, Jean-Frederic Joliot, Joliot-Curie, Jean-Frederic Joliot-Curie — French nuclear physicist who was Marie Curie's assistant and who worked with Marie Curie's daughter who he married (taking the name Joliot-Curie); he and his wife discovered how to synthesize new radioactive elements (1900-1958)
• Joliot-Curie, Irene Joliot-Curie — French physicist who (with her husband) synthesized new chemical elements (1897-1956)
• Joule, James Prescott Joule — English physicist who established the mechanical theory of heat and discovered the first law of thermodynamics (1818-1889)
• Kastler, Alfred Kastler — French physicist (1902-1984)
• Kelvin, First Baron Kelvin, William Thompson — British physicist who invented the Kelvin scale of temperature and pioneered undersea telegraphy (1824-1907)
• Kirchhoff, G. R. Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff — German physicist who with Bunsen pioneered spectrum analysis and formulated two laws governing electric networks (1824-1887)
• Landau, Lev Davidovich Landau — Soviet physicist who worked on low temperature physics (1908-1968)
• Lenard, Philipp Lenard — German physicist who studied cathode rays (1862-1947)
• Lippmann, Gabriel Lippmann — French physicist who developed the first color photographic process (1845-1921)
• Lodge, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge — English physicist who studied electromagnetic radiation and was a pioneer of radiotelegraphy (1851-1940)
• Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz — Dutch physicist noted for work on electromagnetic theory (1853-1928)
• Mach, Ernst Mach — Austrian physicist and philosopher who introduced the Mach number and who founded logical positivism (1838-1916)
• Maxwell, J. C. Maxwell, James Clerk Maxwell — Scottish physicist whose equations unified electricity and magnetism and who recognized the electromagnetic nature of light (1831-1879)
• Meissner, Fritz W. Meissner — German physicist (1882-1974)
• Michelson, A. A. Michelson, Albert Michelson, Albert Abraham Michelson — United States physicist (born in Germany) who collaborated with Morley in the Michelson-Morley experiment (1852-1931)
• Millikan, Robert Andrews Millikan — United States physicist who isolated the electron and measured its charge (1868-1953)
• Neel, Louis Eugene Felix Neel — French physicist noted for research on magnetism (born in 1904)
• Nernst, Walther Hermann Nernst — German physicist and chemist who formulated the third law of thermodynamics (1864-1941)
• Newton, Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton — English mathematician and physicist; remembered for developing the calculus and for his law of gravitation and his three laws of motion (1642-1727)
• Oersted, Hans Christian Oersted — Danish physicist (1777-1851)
• Ohm, Georg Simon Ohm — German physicist who formulated Ohm's Law (1787-1854)
• Planck, Max Planck, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck — German physicist whose explanation of blackbody radiation in the context of quantized energy emissions initiated quantum theory (1858-1947)
• Powell, Cecil Frank Powell — English physicist who discovered the pion (the first known meson) which is a subatomic particle involved in holding the nucleus together (1903-1969)
• Rayleigh, Third Baron Rayleigh, Lord Rayleigh, John William Strutt — English physicist who studied the density of gases and discovered argon; made important contributions to acoustic theory (1842-1919)
• Reaumur, Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur — French physicist who invented the alcohol thermometer (1683-1757)
• Roentgen, Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, Rontgin, Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen — German physicist who discovered x-rays and developed roentgenography (1845-1923)
• Rutherford, Ernest Rutherford, First Baron Rutherford, First Baron Rutherford of Nelson — British physicist (born in New Zealand) who discovered the atomic nucleus and proposed a nuclear model of the atom (1871-1937)
• Shockley, William Shockley, William Bradford Shockley — United States physicist (born in England) who contributed to the development of the electronic transistor (1910-1989)
• Thompson, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford — English physicist (born in America) who studied heat and friction; experiments convinced him that heat is caused by moving particles (1753-1814)
• Thomson, Joseph John Thomson, Sir Joseph John Thomson — English physicist who experimented with the conduction of electricity through gases and who discovered the electron and determined its charge and mass (1856-1940)
• Thomson, George Paget Thomson, Sir George Paget Thomson — English physicist (son of Joseph John Thomson) who co-discovered the diffraction of electrons by crystals (1892-1975)
• Torricelli, Evangelista Torricelli — Italian physicist who invented the mercury barometer (1608-1647)
• Tyndall, John Tyndall — British physicist (born in Ireland) remembered for his experiments on the transparency of gases and the absorption of radiant heat by gases and the transmission of sound through the atmosphere; he was the first person to explain why the daylight sky is blue (1820-1893)
• Van Allen, James Alfred Van Allen — United States physicist who discovered two belts of charged particles from the solar wind trapped by the Earth's magnetic field (born in 1914)
• Van Vleck, John Van Vleck, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck — United States physicist (1899-1980)
• Volta, Count Alessandro Volta, Conte Alessandro Volta, Conte Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta — Italian physicist after whom the volt is named; studied electric currents and invented the voltaic pile (1745-1827)
• Weber, Wilhelm Eduard Weber — German physicist and brother of E. H. Weber; noted for his studies of terrestrial magnetism (1804-1891)
• Weinberg, Steven Weinberg — United States theoretical physicist (born in 1933)
• Wheatstone, Sir Charles Wheatstone — English physicist and inventor who devised the Wheatstone bridge (1802-1875)
• Wilson, Robert Woodrow Wilson — United States physicist honored for his work on cosmic microwave radiation (born in 1918)
• Wollaston, William Hyde Wollaston — English chemist and physicist who discovered palladium and rhodium and demonstrated that static and current electricity are the same (1766-1828)
• Yang Chen Ning, Chen N. Yang — United States physicist (born in China) who collaborated with Tsung Dao Lee in disproving the principle of conservation of parity (born in 1922)
• Young, Thomas Young — British physicist and Egyptologist; he revived the wave theory of light and proposed a three-component theory of color vision; he also played an important role in deciphering the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone (1773-1829)
• Zeeman, Pieter Zeeman — Dutch physicist honored for his research on the influence of magnetism on radiation which showed that light is radiated by the motion of charged particles in an atom (1865-1943)
• Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin — United States physicist who invented the iconoscope (1889-1982)

• scientist, man of science — a person with advanced knowledge of one of more sciences