Science
Scientists, doctors and engineers whose discoveries changed what we know. 127 people are remembered here. Light a candle, read their story, and add a memory of your own.
Jeffrey Goldstone1933 – 2026 · Theoretical physicistPhysicist who showed that broken symmetries bring massless particles, the Goldstone bosons.
7 candles · 1 tributes
Ren-Ke Li (Li Renke)† 2026 · Cardiovascular scientistCardiac regenerative scientist who linked stem cells, biomaterials and ageing biology.
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Valentyn Smyntyna1948 – 2026 · PhysicistPhysicist who gave almost sixty years to Odesa University and led it as rector from 1995 to 2010.
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T. Randall Lee1962 – 2026 · ChemistHouston chemist, editor and mentor who built new materials one molecular layer at a time.
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Bruce J. Mabine, M.D.1950 – 2026 · Obstetrician-gynecologistPhiladelphia OB-GYN and Temple educator who delivered thousands of babies and mentored generations of clinicians.
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Milton Windler1932 – 2026 · NASA flight directorMaroon Flight director who helped send Apollo crews to the Moon and bring Apollo 13 home.
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Maksim Ovodenko1930 – 2026 · Metallurgical engineerHero of Socialist Labour who rebuilt Samara's aviation metalworks and its workers' town.
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Kenneth Lane1942 – 2026 · Theoretical particle physicistPhysicist who helped chart the search for new particles at the world's great colliders.
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Albertas Vitkus1929 – 2026 · Histologist and professor of medicineLithuanian histologist who taught generations of doctors and wrote the first histology textbook in Lithuanian.
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Joe Romm1960 – 2026 · PhysicistPhysicist and America's fiercest climate blogger, who fought for clean energy now, with facts, wit and urgency.
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Michael M. Cernea1931 – 2026 · Sociologist and anthropologistHe made the World Bank put people first, and gave the displaced a voice in development.
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Gianpaolo Bellini1935 – 2026 · PhysicistThe physicist who taught the world to hear the Sun's neutrinos.
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Tomasz Szarota1940 – 2026 · HistorianThe historian who told how Warsaw lived under occupation.
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Peer Bork1963 – 2026 · bioinformaticianEMBL bioinformatician who opened the human microbiome to computational science.
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John Searle1932 – 2025 · PhilosopherPhilosopher who showed that syntax is not semantics, and that minds are biological.
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Léon Ghosez1934 – 2026 · Organic chemistLouvain chemist who built a school of organic chemistry and trained a generation of scientists.
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Juha Kallas1941 – 2026 · Chemical engineerAn Estonian chemical engineer who linked the universities of Tallinn and Lappeenranta.
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Palle Rama Rao1937 – 2026 · Metallurgist and science administratorPhysicist turned metallurgist who built India's materials science institutions and guided generations of scientists.
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Michael James Gaffey1945 – 2026 · Planetary scientistAsteroid mineralogist who taught the solar system to speak in spectra.
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Paul Butzer1928 – 2026 · German mathematician (not Paul Butler)Aachen analyst who linked approximation theory to Fourier analysis, sampling, and the long history of mathematics.
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Jan-Åke Gustafsson1943 – 2026 · Molecular biologistSwedish nuclear-receptor pioneer who found estrogen receptor beta.
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Dietmar Wolter1941 – 2026 · SurgeonGerman trauma surgeon and inventor whose locking-plate technology changed fracture care worldwide.
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Desmond Morris1928 – 2026 · ZoologistThe zoologist who held up a mirror to the human animal, and a surrealist who painted the creatures of his imagination.
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Henry Lee1938 – 2026 · Forensic scientistFrom Taipei police captain to the world's best-known crime scene scientist, he lived by one motto: make the impossible possible.
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Andrej Gogala1962 – 2026 · EntomologistSlovene entomologist who catalogued his country's wild bees.
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Sergio Spagnolo1941 – 2026 · MathematicianHe found order in the convergence of equations and friendship in the work.
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Joachim Heiden1955 – 2026 · Classical archaeologistAn archaeologist of Olympia and Samos who read ancient Greece through its roofs, waters and hills.
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Georgy Sidorov1961 – 2026 · EngineerEngineer and inventor whose cleaner, energy-saving refining methods reached plants across Russia.
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Jan Drabina1939 – 2026 · Historian and scholar of religionKrakow historian of Christianity who wrote the modern history of Bytom and its Silesian neighbours.
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Pierre Joliot1932 – 2026 · Biologist and photosynthesis researcherGrandson of Marie Curie who showed how plants release oxygen, one flash of light at a time.
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Josef Settele1961 – 2026 · Biodiversity researcher and agricultural ecologistHe counted butterflies and helped the world count what it was losing.
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Otto E. Rössler1940 – 2026 · Biochemist and chaos theoristBiochemist who gave chaos theory the Rössler attractor.
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Margaret Hamilton1936 – 2026 · Computer scientist and software engineerShe wrote the code that helped land Apollo on the Moon and named software engineering.
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Remo Calzona1939 – 2026 · Civil engineerSapienza engineer who built Italian bridges and argued for structural honesty.
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Cyril Hilsum1925 – 2026 · PhysicistEast End physicist who made liquid crystals and gallium arsenide work for the screens in our pockets.
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Charles K. Williams II1930 – 2026 · ArchaeologistArchitect and archaeologist who gave his life to uncovering Ancient Corinth.
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Bryan Isacks1936 – 2026 · GeophysicistHe made sinking plates visible in earthquakes, and taught a generation to see Earth's surface anew.
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Megan Povey1947 – 2026 · Food physicistFood physicist who taught the world to listen to its food, and a lifelong fighter for fairness.
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Bernard Haisch1949 – 2026 · Astrophysicist and authorAstrophysicist who searched the stars and the quantum vacuum for the deepest questions of existence.
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Igor Grekhov1934 – 2026 · Russian physicist and electrical engineerA physicist who helped build Soviet power electronics and kept climbing for forty years.
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M. P. Parameswaran1935 – 2026 · Nuclear engineer and people's science activistA nuclear scientist who gave up the laboratory to bring science and literacy to ordinary people.
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Iván Szelényi1938 – 2026 · SociologistA sociologist exiled for his ideas who became one of the leading scholars of inequality in Eastern Europe.
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Herman Chernoff1923 – 2026 · Applied mathematician and statisticianStatistician, mentor and gentle wit whose bound and faces taught the world to see uncertainty clearly.
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François Englert1932 – 2026 · Theoretical physicistHidden child of the Holocaust who showed how the universe gives matter its mass.
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Béla Balogh1936 – 2026 · Historian and archivistArchivist and historian who gave Baia Mare back its past.
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Ronald Lancaster1931 – 2026 · Anglican priestThe Master Blaster Pastor: priest, chemist and founder of Kimbolton Fireworks, who lit Britain's skies for jubilees and the 2012 Olympics.
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Yevgeny Babosov1931 – 2026 · Philosopher and sociologistPhilosopher who founded Belarusian academic sociology and taught generations of scholars.
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Lizzy van Leeuwen1958 – 2026 · Cultural anthropologistAnthropologist and writer who told the Netherlands hard truths about its Indisch and colonial past.
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