Famous American Physicists

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 1 
Albert Einstein
(One of the Greatest Physicists of All Time, Best Known for Developing the Theory of Relativity)
Albert Einstein
38
Birthdate: March 14, 1879
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Ulm, Germany
Died: April 18, 1955
Deemed as the most influential physicist of the 20th century, the German-born physicist Albert Einstein was one of the greatest minds to have ever lived. Even his name is now synonymous with the term genius. The father of Modern Physics is credited with developing the theory of relativity and explaining the photoelectric effect. The latter won him the Nobel Prize.
 2 
Nikola Tesla
(Inventor, Engineer & Futurist, Who Obtained Over 300 Patents)
Nikola Tesla
19
Birthdate: July 10, 1856
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Smiljan, Croatia
Died: January 7, 1943

Inventor, engineer and futurist, Nikola Tesla, is best remembered for his contribution to the development of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. A prolific inventor, he had around 300 patents for his inventions. Even though he earned a considerable amount of money, he had poor money management skills and died a poor man.

 3 
Richard Feynman
(One of the Joint Winners of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965)
Richard Feynman
26
Birthdate: May 11, 1918
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Died: February 15, 1988

Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, for his research on quantum electrodynamics. He also contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Feyman made it to Physics World’s list of the 10 greatest physicists of all time.

 4 
J. Robert Oppenheimer
(American Theoretical Physicist and Former Wartime Head of the ‘Los Alamos Laboratory’)
J. Robert Oppenheimer
22
Birthdate: April 22, 1904
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Died: February 18, 1967

Hailed as a brilliant scientific mind, American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, led the Manhattan Project which resulted in the development of atomic bomb during the World War II. The bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. However, Oppenheimer was in a constant conflict over the moral issue of the weapons of mass destruction and rallied against nuclear proliferation.

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 5 
Enrico Fermi
(Italian Physicist, Nobel Laureate and Creator of the World's First Nuclear Reactor)
Enrico Fermi
7
Birthdate: September 29, 1901
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Rome, Italy
Died: November 28, 1954
Italian physicist Enrico Fermi created the Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor. Known widely as the "architect of the atomic bomb," he was equally proficient in theoretical and experimental physics, and won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on radioactivity and for discovering transuranium elements.
 6 
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
(Astrophysicist Known for his 'Theoritical Studies of the Physical processes of importance to the Structure and Evolution of the Stars')
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
10
Birthdate: October 19, 1910
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Lahore, Pakistan
Died: August 21, 1995

Remembered for his varied contribution to astrophysics, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is perhaps best known for his work on the evolution of massive stars. Today known as Chandrasekhar limit, it contributed to final understanding of supernovas, neutron stars, and black holes. A prolific writer, he also did significant work on energy transfer by radiation in stellar atmospheres and convection on solar surface.

 7 
Michio Kaku
(Theoretical Physicist and Author of the Best-Selling Books ‘Physics of the Impossible’ and ‘Physics of the Future')
Michio Kaku
33
Birthdate: January 24, 1947
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: San Jose, California, United States

Apart from teaching at the City College of New York, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku also often pens his thoughts in blogs and has written several bestselling books, such as The God Equation. His research is focused on the string theory. He also believes in the existence of aliens.

 8 
Sally Ride
(The First American Woman and The Third Woman in Space)
Sally Ride
25
Birthdate: May 26, 1951
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Encino, Los Angeles, California, United States
Died: July 23, 2012
Astronaut and physicist Sally Ride was the first American woman and the youngest American astronaut to enter space. Following her death, it was revealed that she had been in a 27-year lesbian relationship with tennis player and professor Tam O'Shaughnessy. Sally herself was a ranked junior tennis player, too.
 9 
Edward Teller
(physicist)
Edward Teller
8
Birthdate: January 15, 1908
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
Died: September 9, 2003

Edward Teller was one of the famous "Martians,” or eminent Hungarian scientists who had migrated to the U.S. A prominent chemical engineer and nuclear physicist, he was part of the team that created the world’s first atomic bomb and also designed the first hydrogen bomb, or thermonuclear bomb.

 10 
Ronald McNair
(American NASA Astronaut and Physicist)
Ronald McNair
12
Birthdate: October 21, 1950
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Lake City, South Carolina, United States
Died: January 28, 1986

A doctorate in physics from MIT Cambridge, Ronald McNair worked on chemical lasers before joining NASA and in 1984 flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B aboard Challenger, becoming the second African-American to do so. In January 1986, he was selected to fly on STS-51-L, but was killed along with rest of the crews when Challenger disintegrated soon after liftoff.

 11 
Kip Thorne
(Physicist)
Kip Thorne
7
Birthdate: June 1, 1940
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Logan

American theoretical-physicist Kip Thorne, who is noted for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics, is known for Thorne-Żytkow object, Thorne-Hawking-Preskill bet, LIGO, gravitational waves and the book Gravitation. Thorne along with Rainer Weiss and Barry C. Barish received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017 for their contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.

 12 
Vera Rubin
(American Astronomer Known for Her Pioneering Work on Galaxy Rotation Rates)
Vera Rubin
6
Birthdate: July 23, 1928
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: December 25, 2016

American astronomer Vera Rubin is best known for her pioneering discoveries on galaxy rotation rates, her groundbreaking work confirming the existence of dark matter and for her life-long advocacy for women in science. She studied the galactic rotation curves and provided strong evidence of the existence of dark matter. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is named after her.

 13 
William Shockley
(American Physicist, Inventor and Winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics)
William Shockley
10
Birthdate: February 13, 1910
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: London, England
Died: August 12, 1989

American physicist, inventor and Nobel laureate William Bradford Shockley Jr received the Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in 1956 for their researches on semiconductors and for discovering the transistor effect while working at the Bell Labs. He later became a proponent of eugenics while serving as a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.

 14 
Murray Gell-Mann
(Physicist)
Murray Gell-Mann
6
Birthdate: September 15, 1929
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Died: May 24, 2019

Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Murray Gell-Mann is best remembered for his research on elementary particles. The Yale and MIT alumnus later taught at Caltech and is credited with coining the terms "quark" and "strangeness" in quantum physics. A linguistic enthusiast, he also co-established the Evolution of Human Languages program.

 15 
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. 

 16 
Robert H. Goddard
4
Birthdate: October 5, 1882
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Died: August 10, 1945

The son of a machine shop owner, Robert H. Goddard grew up to become a pioneer of rocketry. Interested in physics and mechanics since childhood, he dreamed of space flight. He developed the world’s first rocket that ran on liquid fuel. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is named after him.

 17 
John Bardeen
(American Physicist, Engineer and the Only Person to Win the Nobel Prize in Physics Twice)
John Bardeen
4
Birthdate: May 23, 1908
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Died: January 30, 1991

American engineer, physicist and Nobel laureate John Bardeen is the only person who received the Nobel Prize in Physics twice. He shared the first Nobel with William Shockley and Walter Brattain in 1956 for inventing the transistor, and the second with Leon N Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer in 1972 for proposing the BCS theory, a microscopic theory of superconductivity.

 18 
John G. Trump
(Scientist)
John G. Trump
12
Birthdate: August 21, 1907
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Died: February 21, 1985

Better known as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s uncle, John G. Trump was an MIT physicist and engineer. Though he had initially aspired to be an architect and join his brother Fred’s real-estate business, John later concentrated on his research that led to the invention of high-voltage generators.

 19 
Bernhard Caesar Einstein
(Swiss-American Engineer and One of the Three Known Biological Grandchildren of Albert Einstein)
Bernhard Caesar Einstein
11
Birthdate: July 10, 1930
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Dortmund, Germany
Died: September 30, 2008

Swiss-American physicist and engineer Bernhard Caesar Einstein was better known as the only grandchild of Albert Einstein to have survived beyond childhood. While two of his biological brothers died in infancy, his parents adopted a girl child, too. He grew up to work on night vision and laser technology.

 20 
Brian Greene
(American Theoretical Physicist and Mathematician)
Brian Greene
8
Birthdate: February 9, 1963
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

American theoretical physicist, mathematician, and string theorist Brian Greene is noted for popularising string theory through his books like The Elegant Universe, and The Fabric of the Cosmos and related PBS television specials. Greene taught as professor of physics at Cornell University, and presently serves as a professor at Columbia University. He is the co-founder and chairman of the World Science Festival.

 21 
Ernest Lawrence
(Physicist)
Ernest Lawrence
4
Birthdate: August 8, 1901
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Canton, South Dakota, United States
Died: August 27, 1958
 22 
Arthur Compton
(Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics)
Arthur Compton
3
Birthdate: September 10, 1892
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Wooster, Ohio, USA
Died: March 15, 1962

American physicist Arthur Compton is best-known for introducing Compton wavelength, discovering Compton scattering, first identifying the Compton–Getting effect in the intensity of cosmic rays along with Ivan A. Getting, and for the Compton generator. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for discovering Compton effect. He also remained a prominent figure during the Manhattan Project.

 23 
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.
 24 
Steven Chu
(Former United States Secretary of Energy)
Steven Chu
9
Birthdate: February 28, 1948
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: St. Louis

American physicist, politician and Nobel laureate Steven Chu, who served as United States Secretary of Energy, presently serves as Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. His research on cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light led him to share the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with William Daniel Phillips and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji.

 25 
John Archibald Wheeler
3
Birthdate: July 9, 1911
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Jacksonville
Died: April 13, 2008

American theoretical-physicist John Archibald Wheeler, who worked as professor of physics at Princeton University for most of his career, is best-known for co-developing the concept of Breit–Wheeler process, popularising the term black hole, and helping in designing and building the hydrogen bomb. He also invented several terms like quantum foam and wormhole, and hypothesized the one-electron universe.

 26 
Taylor Wilson
(American Nuclear Scientist and the Youngest Person in History to Achieve Controlled Nuclear Fusion)
Taylor Wilson
5
Birthdate: May 7, 1994
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Texarkana, Arkansas, United States

Taylor Wilson is an American nuclear physics enthusiast who is the youngest person ever to produce nuclear fusion using a fusor. He achieved this feat in 2008, at the age of 14.

 27 
Luis Walter Alvarez
3
Birthdate: June 13, 1911
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: San Francisco
Died: September 1, 1988

Experimental physicist and Nobel laureate Luis Walter Alvarez is best remembered for inventing the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber, which enabled the discovery of countless short-lived resonance particles. The University of California, Berkeley professor and MIT scientist had also been part of the development of the atomic bomb.

 28 
Leó Szilárd
(Physicist)
Leó Szilárd
4
Birthdate: February 11, 1898
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Budapest
Died: May 30, 1964

Physicist Leó Szilárd, one of the "Martians," or eminent scientists who had migrated from Hungary to the U.S., was the first to initiate a controlled nuclear chain reaction and was closely associated with the Manhattan Project, meant to develop the atomic bomb. He later advocated for responsible use of nuclear powers.

 29 
Hans Bethe
(Physicist)
Hans Bethe
6
Birthdate: July 2, 1906
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Strasbourg
Died: March 6, 2005

A physiology professor’s son, Hans Bethe had shown immense talent in math as a child. The German-American theoretical physicist and Cornell professor was a pioneer of quantum physics and later won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on stellar nucleosynthesis, or the formation of energy in stars.

 30 
Steven Weinberg
(American Theoretical Physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics)
Steven Weinberg
4
Birthdate: May 3, 1933
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: New York City, USA
Died: July 23, 2021

Nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg is known for establishing the electroweak theory, along with Sheldon Lee Glashow and Abdus Salam. He was born to Jewish immigrants in New York and made it to Cornell and Princeton. He is an atheist and supports the Israeli cause.

 31 
Robert Andrews Millikan
3
Birthdate: March 22, 1868
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Morrison
Died: December 19, 1953

Nobel Prize-winning experimental physicist Robert Andrews Millikan had begun his career as a faculty member at the University of Chicago and penned countless physics books. He later devoted himself to his research on elementary electronic charge and the photoelectric effect. His famous oil-drop experiment is known to all physics enthusiasts.

 32 
Sean M. Carroll
(American Physicist Known for His Contributions to the Studies of Quantum Mechanics, Gravity and Cosmology)
Sean M. Carroll
7
Birthdate: October 5, 1966
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll is a renowned Caltech professor who considers himself an old-school theorist and often maps his research using pencil and paper. Interested in field theory, gravitation, and cosmology, he blogs often, had written popular books, and has also appeared on shows such as The Universe.

 33 
Eugene Wigner
(Physicist & Mathematician)
Eugene Wigner
4
Birthdate: November 17, 1902
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
Died: January 1, 1995

One of the “Martians,” or eminent Hungarian scientists who had migrated to the U.S., Eugene Wigner won a Nobel Prize for his work on nuclear physics and the law of conservation of parity in particular. He taught at Princeton and Wisconsin and was also associated with the Manhattan Project.

 34 
David D. Friedman
(Economist, Physicist, Blogger, Writer, University teacher)
David D. Friedman
4
Birthdate: February 12, 1945
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York City

Eminent scholar David D. Friedman has excelled in a wide range of academic areas, including economics, physics, law, and business. The Harvard alumnus is best known for his anarcho-capitalist theories and the book The Machinery of Freedom but has penned countless other books, too, including two science-fiction fantasy novels.

 35 
Ashton Carter
Ashton Carter
9
Birthdate: September 24, 1954
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Philadelphia

Yale and Oxford alumnus Ashton Carter had interestingly bagged his first job at a car wash at 11. He grew up to teach at Harvard and Stanford and also served as the U.S. Secretary of Defense under Barack Obama. The physicist now heads the Belfer Center for Science at Harvard.

 36 
Edward Witten
(Mathematician, Physicist, University teacher, Theoretical physicist)
Edward Witten
5
Birthdate: August 26, 1951
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Baltimore

American mathematical and theoretical physicist Edward Witten is regarded as the practical founder of M-theory. His proof of positive energy theorem led him to become the first physicist who received the Fields Medal by International Mathematical Union. His research works mainly include the areas of string theory, supersymmetric quantum field theories and quantum gravity, besides other areas of mathematical physics.  

 37 
Jim Yong Kim
(American Physician and Anthropologist Who Served as the 12th President of the World Bank (2012 - 2019))
Jim Yong Kim
6
Birthdate: December 8, 1959
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea

Jim Yong Kim, or Kim Yong, was born in South Korea and later moved to the US, where he grew up to be the president of the World Bank. The physician and anthropologist has also taught at Harvard Medical School, his alma, and co-owns the medical care company Partners in Health.

 38 
Michael P. Anderson
(Officer, Astronaut, Physicist)
Michael P. Anderson
5
Birthdate: December 25, 1959
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Plattsburgh (city), New York
Died: February 1, 2003

Michael Phillip Anderson began his career with the United States Air Force, logging more than 3,000 hours of flight time before joining NASA. Selected as a mission specialist first on STS-89 Endeavour and then on STS-107 Columbia, he was killed along with the rest of the crew when the later disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

 39 
Wernher Von Braun
(Known as Father of Rocket Science)
Wernher Von Braun
5
Birthdate: March 23, 1912
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Wyrzysk, Poland
Died: June 16, 1977

German-born American aerospace engineer and space architect, Wernher Von Braun, worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program as a young man. After World War II, he moved to the United States where he became a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the nation. In his later career, he became director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center.

 40 
Chen Ning Yang
(Physicist)
Chen Ning Yang
3
Birthdate: October 1, 1922
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Hefei, Anhui Province, China

Chen Ning Yang is a Chinese theoretical physicist known for his significant contributions to statistical mechanics, gauge theory, integrable systems, and both particle physics and condensed matter physics. He and Tsung-Dao Lee were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on parity nonconservation of weak interaction. The men also elucidated the Lee-Yang circle theorem. 

 41 
Vannevar Bush
(Engineer)
Vannevar Bush
4
Birthdate: March 11, 1890
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Everett, Massachusetts, United States
Died: June 28, 1974

Apart from teaching and working as an electrical engineer, Vannevar Bush had also been the dean of the MIT School of Engineering. Working with the government, he initiated military funding of research projects, later known as the military-industrial complex. He also penned books such as Modern Arms and Free Men.

 42 
Theodore Hall
(American Physicist Who was One of the Atomic Spies for the Soviet Union During World War II)
Theodore Hall
3
Birthdate: October 20, 1925
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States
Died: November 1, 1999

Theodore Hall was an American physicist. He was one of the atomic spies for the Soviet Union during World War II. Hall gave a detailed description of a plutonium bomb named Fat Man to the Soviet Union. He also passed on vital information such as the processes involved for purifying plutonium. His life inspired a documentary titled A Compassionate Spy.

 43 
Lisa Randall
(Physicist, University teacher)
Lisa Randall
4
Birthdate: June 18, 1962
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Queens, New York, United States

Apart from teaching at Harvard, theoretical physicist Lisa Randall has also held professorships at MIT and Princeton. She has also written several popular books, such as Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Door. One of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2007, she has also written a libretto for an opera.

 44 
Max Tegmark
(Physicist, Astronomer, Astrophysicist)
Max Tegmark
4
Birthdate: May 5, 1967
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Sweden

Born to math professor Harold S. Shapiro, Max Tegmark grew up to co-establish the Future of Life Institute, with funding from Elon Musk. The MIT professor is a specialist in cosmology, physics, and machine learning and had also penned a book on artificial intelligence, titled Life 3.0.

 45 
Julian Schwinger
(Physicist)
Julian Schwinger
3
Birthdate: February 12, 1918
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York City
Died: July 16, 1994
 46 
John Vincent Atanasoff
(American Physicist and Inventor Known for Inventing the First Electronic Digital Computer)
John Vincent Atanasoff
4
Birthdate: October 4, 1903
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Hamilton, New York, United States
Died: June 15, 1995

Born to an electrical engineer father and a math teacher mother, John V. Atanasoff grew up to invent the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, which was declared the world’s first electronic digital computer after a legal dispute. The physicist was also an active part of the atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll.

 47 
Annie Jump Cannon
(Astronomer)
Annie Jump Cannon
4
Birthdate: December 11, 1863
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Dover
Died: April 13, 1941

After studying physics and astronomy at Wellesley College, Annie Jump Cannon traveled across Europe and focused on photography for a decade, before venturing to study astronomy again. At the Harvard Observatory, she made a considerable contribution to the classification of stellar bodies. She was almost deaf due to scarlet fever.

 48 
Chien-Shiung Wu
(Pioneering Chinese-American Particle and Experimental Physicist Remembered for the 'Wu Experiment')
Chien-Shiung Wu
3
Birthdate: May 31, 1912
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Liuhe, Taicang, China
Died: February 16, 1997

Known as the Chinese Marie Curie, Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American physicist who specialized in particle and experimental physics. She is best known for her Wu experiment. A National Medal of Science winner, she was part of the Manhattan Project, too. She taught at various institutes, including Princeton and Columbia.

 49 
Albert A. Michelson
4
Birthdate: December 19, 1852
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Strzelno, Poland
Died: May 9, 1931
 50 
Tsung-Dao Lee
(Physicist)
Tsung-Dao Lee
3
Birthdate: November 24, 1926
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Shanghai, China

Tsung-Dao Lee is a Chinese-American physicist renowned for his work on particle physics, parity violation, soliton stars, nontopological solitons, and the Lee Model. In 1957, he became the third-youngest person to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in the science fields; he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is also the first Chinese Nobel laureate.