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.

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  Robert Williamson

  1938 – 2026 · Molecular geneticist

  Geneticist who helped find the genes behind cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
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  Timothy Herbert

  1941 – 2026 · Orthopaedic hand surgeon

  Hand surgeon whose headless Herbert screw changed how broken wrist bones are mended worldwide.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Martin Klingenberg

  1928 – 2026 · Biochemist

  Munich biochemist who showed how the energy made in mitochondria reaches the rest of the cell.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
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  Louis Mukwaya

  1939 – 2026 · Medical entomologist and Uganda Virus Research Institute scientist

  First Ugandan UVRI scientist who kept Entebbe's virus laboratory alive through war.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Mayer Hillman

  1931 – 2026 · Architect

  Architect turned social scientist who fought for children, walkers and cyclists, and warned the world early about climate change.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Johannes Doerfert

  1989 – 2026 · Computer scientist

  LLVM OpenMP and Attributor pioneer who made compilers serve the people who write code.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
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  Robert E. Dickinson

  1940 – 2026 · Climate scientist

  Pioneer who put vegetation and land surfaces into global climate models

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Wolfgang Haber

  1925 – 2026 · Biologist and landscape ecologist

  A founder of landscape ecology who helped give Germany its first national parks.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Wang Xiji

  1921 – 2026 · Aerospace engineer

  Bai-born aerospace pioneer who paved China's road to space from sounding rockets to recoverable satellites.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Günther Jung

  1937 – 2026 · Chemist

  Tübingen chemist whose peptide school helped seed modern mRNA vaccine science.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Kari Hag

  1941 – 2026 · Mathematician

  Norwegian mathematician who advanced quasiconformal theory and opened doors for women in science.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Iain Douglas-Hamilton

  1942 – 2025 · Zoologist and elephant conservationist

  Pioneering zoologist who lived among elephants and helped ban the ivory trade.

  4 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Zvi Kohavi

  1935 – 2026 · Computer scientist and electrical engineer

  Technion professor whose switching-theory textbook shaped generations of engineers.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Árpád Néda

  1937 – 2026 · Physicist

  The Cluj physicist whose clear lectures and textbooks taught generations of Hungarian students.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Omar Ribeiro Thomaz

  1965 – 2026 · Anthropologist

  Anthropologist of war and Haiti's second homeland; Unicamp teacher who opened doors.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
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  Andrew Goudie

  1945 – 2026 · Physical geographer and college head

  Oxford's desert geomorphologist who led St Cross and shaped a discipline.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  John Rudnicki

  1951 – 2026 · Engineer and Northwestern University professor of civil

  Northwestern engineer who taught the world how rocks deform, fail and shake, and taught students for 45 years.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
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  James M. Adovasio

  1944 – 2026 · Archaeologist

  Doc to thousands of students, he dug deep at Meadowcroft and showed people reached the Americas far earlier than anyone believed.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Yousef Majidzadeh

  1936 – 2026 · Archaeologist

  Iranian archaeologist who led the Jiroft excavations and brought the Bronze Age Halil Rud civilisation to the world's attention.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Steve Selvin

  1941 – 2026 · Biostatistician

  He showed the world why you should switch doors, and showed generations of students that statistics could be fun.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Dominique Foata

  1934 – 2026 · Mathematician (combinatorics)

  He found the hidden order in permutations and made Strasbourg a home for combinatorics.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Jacek Furdyna

  1933 – 2026 · Physicist and academic

  Polish-American pioneer of diluted magnetic semiconductors and Notre Dame Marquez Chair physicist.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
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  Yevgeny Sverdlov

  1938 – 2026 · biochemist

  Russian biochemist who led the Institute of Molecular Genetics and shaped a generation of scientists.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Frank Pieter Israel

  1946 – 2026 · Astronomer

  Leiden astronomer who modelled star-forming regions and championed sceptical inquiry.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
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  Rosa Fung Pineda

  † 2026 · Archaeologist

  Peruvian archaeologist who opened San Marcos teaching to women and mapped the coastal Preceramic.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
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  Neville Fay

  † 2026 · Arboriculturist

  He founded Tree Aid and taught a generation to care for ancient trees.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Kurt Danziger

  1926 – 2026 · Psychologist and historian of psychology

  A refugee and apartheid opponent who showed that psychology's ideas have histories of their own.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Susumu Tonegawa

  1939 – 2026 · Molecular biologist

  Nagoya-born Nobel laureate who explained antibody diversity and later mapped how the brain stores memory.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Anthony Leggett

  1938 – 2026 · Theoretical physicist

  Classicist turned physicist who explained superfluid helium-3 and tested quantum mechanics at everyday scales.

  3 candles · 1 tributes
• 
  Toyohiro Akiyama

  1942 – 2026 · Television journalist (TBS)

  First Japanese in space. Journalist on Mir. Farmer after the flight.

  0 candles · 0 tributes
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  Hideki Shirakawa

  1936 – 2026 · Chemist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tsukuba

  The chemist who made plastic conduct electricity and opened a new era of materials.

  0 candles · 0 tributes