Famous British Physicists

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 1 
Isaac Newton
(One of the Most Influential Scientists of All Time)
Isaac Newton
19
Birthdate: January 4, 1643
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Lincolnshire, England
Died: March 31, 1727

One of the most influential and popular scientists of all time, Sir Isaac Newton played a prominent role in our understanding of natural phenomena. He formulated the law of universal gravitation and laws of motion. He also developed the Newtonian telescope among other devices. Apart from science, Newton was also intrigued by religion, occult, and alchemy.

 2 
Stephen Hawking
(Theoretical Physicist - First to Set Out a Theory of Cosmology)
Stephen Hawking
73
Birthdate: January 8, 1942
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Oxford, England
Died: March 14, 2018

Stephen Hawking was an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, who despite being afflicted motor neurone disease that severely limited his physical abilities, was able to build a phenomenally successful career. He was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Hawking was ranked 25 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2002.

 3 
Michael Faraday
(English Scientist Who Contributed to the Study of Electromagnetism and Electrochemistry)
Michael Faraday
16
Birthdate: September 22, 1791
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Newington Butts, London, United Kingdom
Died: August 5, 1867

Michael Faraday was an English scientist known for his contribution to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. Considered one of the most influential scientists ever, Faraday's inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices established the basis for electric motor technology. His research also helped understand the concept of the electromagnetic field. Ernest Rutherford called him one of the greatest scientific discoverers ever.

 4 
Ernest Rutherford
(New Zealand Physicist Who is Known as the Father of Nuclear Physics)
Ernest Rutherford
9
Birthdate: August 30, 1871
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Brightwater, New Zealand
Died: October 19, 1937

New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford is remembered as the father of nuclear physics. His discovery of radioactive half-life and of radon, and his differentiation of alpha and beta radiation, won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. Element 104 was named rutherfordium in his honor.

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 5 
Robert Hooke
(Philosopher)
Robert Hooke
9
Birthdate: July 28, 1635
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Freshwater, Isle of Wight
Died: March 3, 1703

Scientist Robert Hooke, also called England's Leonardo, initially gained recognition as an architect, conducting surveys following the Great Fire of London. He also taught geometry and was part of the Royal Society. He assisted Robert Boyle and eventually developed his own microscope, thus becoming the first to visualize micro-organisms.

 6 
J. J. Thomson
(British Physicist Who is Credited With the Discovery of the Electron)
J. J. Thomson
7
Birthdate: December 18, 1856
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
Died: August 30, 1940

J. J. Thomson was a British physicist credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases. In 1884, he was appointed Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge. 

 7 
Lord Kelvin
(Mathematician, Physicist)
Lord Kelvin
7
Birthdate: June 26, 1824
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Belfast
Died: December 17, 1907

Lord Kelvin was a British mathematical physicist and engineer. He studied at the Glasgow University and proceeded to teach there as well. Besides his academic career, he also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883. Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honor.

 8 
Paul Dirac
(One of the Most Significant Physicists of the 20th Century and Nobel Laureate)
Paul Dirac
5
Birthdate: August 8, 1902
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Bristol, England
Died: October 20, 1984

English theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Paul Dirac OM FRS, counted among leading physicists of the 20th century, made fundamental contributions in the early development of quantum electrodynamics and quantum mechanics. He derived the Dirac equation while the modern theory of antimatter began with one of his papers. His book The Principles of Quantum Mechanics remains an influential monograph on the subject.

 9 
John Dalton
(Chemist, Physicist and Meteorologist Best Known for Developing the 'Atomic Theory')
John Dalton
6
Birthdate: September 6, 1766
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England
Died: July 27, 1844

John Dalton was an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist most famous for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry. He also contributed a lot to the study of color blindness, sometimes referred to as Daltonism in his honor. He was the first scientist to refer to the smallest particle of matter as an “atom.” He was a Quaker and lived modestly. 

 10 
James Chadwick
(Discoverer of Neutron)
James Chadwick
8
Birthdate: October 20, 1891
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Bollington
Died: July 24, 1974

Best remembered as a Nobel laureate who discovered neutron, Sir James Chadwick began his career at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he worked with Ernest Rutherford to investigate the nature of atomic nucleus, a work that led to the epoch-making discovery. Credited with writing the final draft of the MAUD Report, he also headed the British team at the Manhattan Project

 11 
James Prescott Joule
7
Birthdate: December 24, 1818
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Salford, Lancashire, England, UK
Died: October 11, 1889

English physicist, and mathematician, James Prescott Joule primarily worked on the nature of heat, in course of which he established that all forms of energy are fundamentally same and therefore inter-convertible. His findings resulted in the development of the first law of thermodynamics and negation of calorie theory. The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him.

 12 
Robert Boyle
(Founder of Modern Chemistry, Boyle's Law)
Robert Boyle
7
Birthdate: January 25, 1627
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Ireland
Died: December 30, 1691

Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish chemist, natural philosopher, inventor, and physicist. Regarded as the first modern chemist, Boyle is often counted among the founders of modern chemistry. One of the pioneers of the scientific method, Robert Boyle is also remembered for his books, including The Sceptical Chymist, which is viewed as a keystone book in chemistry.

 13 
Roger Penrose
(English Mathematician, Mathematical Physicist and Winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics)
Roger Penrose
6
Birthdate: August 8, 1931
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Colchester, England

Roger Penrose’s contribution to the research related to the black hole and general relativity earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020. The Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, Roger is also a fellow of Wadham College, St John's College of Cambridge, and University College London.

 14 
Henry Moseley
(Physicist)
Henry Moseley
7
Birthdate: November 23, 1887
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Weymouth, Dorset, England
Died: August 10, 1915

Henry Moseley was an English physicist best known for his development of Moseley's law in X-ray spectra. He made major contributions to the fields of atomic physics, nuclear physics, and quantum physics. He was working at the University of Oxford when World War I broke out, following which he went to volunteer for the Royal Engineers of the British Army. 

 15 
Brian Cox
(Physicist Best Known as the Presenter of Science Programme 'Wonders of Life')
Brian Cox
24
Birthdate: March 3, 1968
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Oldham, Lancashire, England

Brian Cox is an English physicist and former musician. He has presented numerous science programs for BBC radio and TV, especially the Wonders of... series. He is also the author of several popular science books. He has been lauded for his efforts to publicize science and was awarded the British Association's Lord Kelvin Award in 2006. 

 16 
Thomas Young
(Physician)
Thomas Young
6
Birthdate: June 13, 1773
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Milverton
Died: May 10, 1829

Often referred as The Last Man Who Knew Everything, British polymath Thomas Young made significant contributions to a wide range of subjects like vision, light, energy, musical harmony etc. Especially famous for Wave Theory of Light, he also made significant contribution in deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Young-Helmholtz theory, Young temperament and Young's Modulus carry his legacy to these days.

 17 
David Bohm
(One of the Most Significant Theoretical Physicists of the 20th Century)
David Bohm
4
Birthdate: December 20, 1917
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: October 27, 1992
Born to Jewish immigrants, David Bohm went against his father’s wish of joining his family’s furniture business and ventured into science instead. He later grew up to be an influential physicist and is now revered for his contribution to quantum mechanics and for introducing concepts such as Bohm’s diffusion.
 18 
Peter Higgs
(British Theoretical Physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate for His Work on the Mass of Subatomic Particles)
Peter Higgs
8
Birthdate: May 29, 1929
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Peter Higgs is a British theoretical physicist. He studied at King's College London and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1954. He went on to have a brilliant academic career and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983. In 2013, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Belgian physicist François Englert.  

 19 
Freeman Dyson
(Mathematician)
Freeman Dyson
7
Birthdate: December 15, 1923
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Crowthorne, England
Died: February 28, 2020

Freeman Dyson was a British-American theoretical and mathematical physicist, mathematician, and statistician. He made major contributions in the fields of quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, quantum mechanics, and nuclear physics. He originated the concept that went on to be known as Dyson's transform. He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1986. 

 20 
Andre Geim
(Dutch-British Physicist Known for His Discovery of 'Graphene')
Andre Geim
4
Birthdate: October 21, 1958
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Sochi, Russia

Andre Geim is a Russian-born Dutch-British physicist. He has been associated with the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester for several years. In 2010, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Konstantin Novoselov in recognition of his work on graphene. He is also a recipient of the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. 

 21 
George Paget Thomson
(British Physicist Who Won the Nobel Prize in Physics for Discovering the Wave Properties of the Electron)
George Paget Thomson
3
Birthdate: May 3, 1892
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Died: September 10, 1975

George Paget Thomson was a British physicist best remembered for his discovery of the wave properties of the electron by electron diffraction. The son of physicist and Nobel laureate J. J. Thomson, he himself went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1937. He spent several years of his career at Imperial College London. 

 22 
Lord Rayleigh
(Discoverer of Argon)
Lord Rayleigh
4
Birthdate: November 12, 1842
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Langford Grove, Maldon, Essex, England
Died: June 30, 1919

Although John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, received the Nobel Prize for his discovery and isolation of the inert gas argon, his contributions to Physics is not limited to that. Known to make extensive contributions to theoretical and practical physics, especially in the fields of acoustics and optics, his works are now considered to mark the beginning of modern acoustics.

 23 
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
(British Astrophysicist Who Discovered the First Radio Pulsars)
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
4
Birthdate: July 15, 1943
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Lurgan, Northern Ireland

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland. As a postgraduate student, she discovered the first radio pulsars. She graduated from the University of Glasgow and pursued an academic career. In 2018, she received the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her discovery of radio pulsars. She donated the three million dollars she received as prize money.  

 24 
Arthur Eddington
(Astronomer)
Arthur Eddington
4
Birthdate: December 28, 1882
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Kendal
Died: November 22, 1944

Arthur Eddington was an English physicist, astronomer, and mathematician. He wrote numerous articles that explained Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world. He began his career in academics and eventually shifted to astronomy, becoming the chief assistant to the Astronomer Royal at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. He was a recipient of the Henry Draper Medal. 

 25 
William Henry Bragg
(Physicist and Mathematician Who Invented the ‘X-Ray’ Spectrometer)
William Henry Bragg
4
Birthdate: July 2, 1862
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Wigton, England, United Kingdom
Died: March 12, 1942

William Henry Bragg was an English physicist, chemist, and mathematician. He is best known for sharing the  1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his son Lawrence Bragg for their work in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays. William Henry Bragg had an illustrious academic career and was elected president of the Royal Society in 1935. 

 26 
Joseph Swan
(Chemist, Physicist, Inventor)
Joseph Swan
4
Birthdate: October 31, 1828
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Sunderland
Died: May 27, 1914

Joseph Swan was an English chemist, physicist, and inventor known for being an independent early developer of a successful incandescent light bulb. He developed and supplied the first batch of incandescent lights used for illuminating houses and public buildings. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1894 and knighted by King Edward VII in 1904. 

 27 
Stephen Wolfram
(Mathematician, Physicist, Computer scientist, Businessperson, University teacher, Patent inventor, Writer)
Stephen Wolfram
4
Birthdate: August 29, 1959
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: London

Stephen Wolfram is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and businessman, best known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. He is a  fellow of the American Mathematical Society. As a businessman, he is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, a software company. 

 28 
Oliver Heaviside
(Mathematician, Physicist, Engineer, Telegraphy)
Oliver Heaviside
3
Birthdate: May 18, 1850
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Camden Town
Died: February 3, 1925

Oliver Heaviside was an English mathematician and physicist. He invented a new technique for solving differential equations and independently developed vector calculus. He is also credited with rewriting Maxwell's equations in the form commonly used today. He formulated the telegrapher’s equations and invented the Heaviside step function as well. In 1922, he received the Faraday Medal.

 29 
Jan Ingenhousz
(Physiologist, Biologist and Chemist.)
Jan Ingenhousz
3
Birthdate: December 8, 1730
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Breda, Netherlands
Died: September 7, 1799

The man who discovered photosynthesis, Jan Ingenhousz was born in the Netherlands but later settled in England. He is also remembered for his pioneering research on thermal conduction and the prevention of smallpox and even successfully inoculated the Habsburg family against smallpox. He was also Maria Theresa’s personal doctor.

 30 
William Crookes
(British Chemist and Physicist Known for His Discovery of the Element 'Thallium' and Invention of 'Crookes Tubes')
William Crookes
3
Birthdate: June 17, 1832
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: London, England
Died: April 4, 1919

William Crookes was a British chemist and physicist remembered as a pioneer of vacuum tubes. He was the inventor of what became known as the Crookes tube. He is also credited with the discovery of the element thallium. He was the first person to describe the spectrum of terrestrial helium. He was interested in spiritualism and occultism as well. 

 31 
Sir William Lawrence Bragg
(British Physicist, X-Ray Crystallographer and Winner of the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics)
Sir William Lawrence Bragg
2
Birthdate: March 31, 1890
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Adelaide, Australia
Died: July 1, 1971

Born to a math and physics professor in Australia, Sir William Lawrence Bragg later moved to England, where his father was posted for work. He and his father jointly won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their research on X-ray diffraction through crystals. Bragg was an avid shell collector, too.

 32 
David Deutsch
(British Physicist Known for Pioneering the Field of 'Quantum Computation')
David Deutsch
3
Birthdate: May 18, 1953
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Haifa, Israel

David Deutsch is a British physicist, currently serving as a visiting professor at the University of Oxford. He is a pioneer in the field of quantum computation and gave a description for a quantum Turing machine. He is a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He received the Dirac Prize of the Institute of Physics in 1998. 

 33 
John Polkinghorne
(Physicist, Theoretical physicist)
John Polkinghorne
3
Birthdate: October 16, 1930
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Weston-super-Mare

Templeton Prize-winning English theoretical physicist and priest John Polkinghorne championed the relationship between science and religion. He served as Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge before becoming an ordained Anglican priest and later served as president of Queens' College, Cambridge. He penned books like Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion and Questions of Truth.

 34 
John Cockcroft
(British Physicist and Winner of 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics)
John Cockcroft
4
Birthdate: May 27, 1897
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Todmorden, England
Died: September 18, 1967

Sir John Douglas Cockcroft was a British physicist credited with designing the Cockcroft-Walton generator with Earnest Walton. Their relentless research on spitting various types of atoms helped to establish the importance of accelerators in disintegrating atoms, which in turn paved the way for the development of nuclear power.  For his pioneering work,John Cockroft was one of the recipients of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics

 35 
Dennis W. Sciama
(Physicist and Astrophysicist Who Played a Major Role in Developing British Physics After the Second World War)
Dennis W. Sciama
3
Birthdate: November 18, 1926
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Died: December 18, 1999

Dennis W. Sciama was a British physicist credited to have played a major role in the development of British physics following World War II. He is considered a co-father of modern cosmology and supervised the doctoral works of many famous cosmologists, including Martin Rees and Stephen Hawking.  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983. 

 36 
David Brewster
(Scientist)
David Brewster
4
Birthdate: December 11, 1781
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Jedburgh, Scotland
Died: February 10, 1868

David Brewster was a British scientist, inventor, and author. He conducted many experiments in physical optics, especially concerned with the study of the polarization of light. Fellow scientist William Whewell dubbed him the "father of modern experimental optics." He was also a pioneer in photography and invented an improved stereoscope. He wrote numerous works of popular science as well. 

 37 
Joseph Black
(Chemist, Physicist, Scientist, University teacher)
Joseph Black
3
Birthdate: April 16, 1728
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Bordeaux
Died: December 6, 1799

Joseph Black was an 18th-century Scottish physicist and chemist. He is remembered for his discoveries of magnesium, specific heat, latent heat, and carbon dioxide. He spent several years of his career as a professor of medicine and chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. In 1783, he became one of the founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

 38 
Derek J. de Solla Price
(Historian)
Derek J. de Solla Price
4
Birthdate: January 22, 1922
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Leyton, London, England
Died: September 3, 1983

Derek J. de Solla Price was a British physicist, information scientist, and historian of science. He is credited as the father of scientometrics. He received a Doctor of Philosophy in experimental physics from the University of London and began his academic career. He was posthumously awarded the ASIS Research Award for outstanding contributions in the field of information science.

 39 
Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell
(British Physicist Who Was Prime Scientific Adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II)
Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell
3
Birthdate: April 5, 1886
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Baden-Baden, Germany
Died: July 3, 1957

Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell was a British physicist known for serving as the prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II. Much respected for his scientific brilliance, he was notorious for being arrogant and quarrelsome as a person. He formed a close bond with Churchill and was given a  cabinet seat in Churchill’s second government. 

 40 
David J. Thouless
(British Condensed-Matter Physicist and 2016 Nobel Laureate in Physics)
David J. Thouless
3
Birthdate: September 21, 1934
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Bearsden, Scotland
Died: April 6, 2019

David Thouless was a British physicist specializing in condensed-matter physics. He had a brilliant academic career and was the first director of studies in physics at Churchill College, Cambridge. He also taught at the University of Birmingham and the University of Washington. He won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz. 

 41 
Duncan Haldane
(British Physicist Known for His Work on Explaining Properties of One-Dimensional Chains of Atomic Magnets)
Duncan Haldane
3
Birthdate: September 14, 1951
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: London, England

Duncan Haldane is a British-born physicist who is currently serving as the Sherman Fairchild University Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He has made numerous fundamental contributions to condensed matter physics. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2016, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics along with David J. Thouless and J. Michael Kosterlitz. 

 42 
Konstantin Novoselov
(Russian-British Physicist Best Known for Isolating 'Graphene' at the University of Manchester)
Konstantin Novoselov
3
Birthdate: August 23, 1974
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Nizhny Tagil, Russia

Konstantin Novoselov is a Russian-British physicist, currently serving as a professor at the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, National University of Singapore. He is the Langworthy Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester as well. Along with Andre Geim, he jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. 

 43 
Benjamin Thompson
(Physicist and Inventor)
Benjamin Thompson
3
Birthdate: March 26, 1753
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Woburn, Massachusetts, United States
Died: August 21, 1814
 44 
Antony Hewish
(Radio Astronomer)
Antony Hewish
3
Birthdate: May 11, 1924
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Fowey, Cornwall, England
Died: September 13, 2021

Radio astronomer and physicist Antony Hewish is best known for his Nobel Prize-winning research on pulsars. Apart from teaching at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, he has also served as an advisory council member for the Campaign for Science and Engineering. He also has six honorary degrees to his credit.       

 45 
David J. C. MacKay
(Physicist, Computer scientist, Professor)
David J. C. MacKay
3
Birthdate: April 22, 1967
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Stoke-on-Trent
Died: April 14, 2016

David J. C. MacKay was a British mathematician, physicist, and academic. He studied at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology. As an academic, he served as the Regius Professor of Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). 

 46 
Otto Robert Frisch
(Physicist, Nuclear scientist, University teacher)
Otto Robert Frisch
2
Birthdate: October 1, 1904
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: September 22, 1979

The son of a painter father and a pianist mother, Otto Robert Frisch surprisingly developed an interest in physics. Along with his physicist aunt Lise Meitner, he described and named the process of nuclear fission. He was part of the Manhattan Project and was also a Fellow of The Royal Society.

 47 
William Whewell
(Economist, Physicist, Historian, Philosopher, Writer, University teacher, Mathematician)
William Whewell
4
Birthdate: May 24, 1794
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Lancaster
Died: March 6, 1866

William Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He worked in a wide range of fields, publishing works in the disciplines of physics, mechanics, geology, economics, and astronomy. He also wrote poetry, sermons, and theological tracts. He is credited with coining the terms linguistics, physicist, consilience, scientist, catastrophism, and uniformitarianism.

 48 
Brian Josephson
(British Physicist and Winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics)
Brian Josephson
2
Birthdate: January 4, 1940
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Cardiff, Wales

Brian Josephson was a 22-year-old graduate student when he discovered the Nobel Prize-winning Josephson effect. The British physicist had initially studied mathematics before deviating to physics. He was one of the few who believed in the credibility of parapsychological phenomena such as telepathy and also practiced Transcendental Meditation.

 49 
George Biddell Airy
(British Mathematician and Astronomer)
George Biddell Airy
2
Birthdate: July 27, 1801
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Alnwick, Northumberland, England
Died: January 2, 1892
English astronomer George Biddell Airy is best known for locating Greenwich as the prime meridian. He was ripped apart by critics for allegedly failing to help British astronomer John Couch Adams to discover Neptune. The Astronomer Royal was also the first to cure astigmatism by using cylindrical lenses.
 50 
Oliver Lodge
(British Physicist, Inventor and Prinicpal Patent Holder and Developer of 'Radio')
Oliver Lodge
2
Birthdate: June 12, 1851
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Penkhull, England
Died: August 22, 1940

Best known for developing the radio-wave detector named coherer, Oliver Lodge had also served as the first principal of Birmingham University. He was made a Knights Bachelor and had also been a Royal Institution lecturer. His inventions revolutionized early wireless telegraph technology, though they were replaced by modern instruments later.