Scientists From California
California has produced a number of Scientists who have made it big. These include Steve Wozniak, Sally Ride, Luis Walter Alvarez, Dian Fossey, Alexander Shulgin and others.
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Birthdate: August 11, 1950
Sun Sign: Leo
Widely recognized as one of the two important pioneers of the personal computer revolution, Steve Wozniak is credited with co-founding Apple Inc. along with Steve Jobs. Not surprisingly, he has been described as one of the men that changed the course of history through technology. Apart from being a programmer and technology entrepreneur, Steve Wozniak is also a well-known philanthropist.
Birthdate: January 16, 1932
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Died: December 26, 1985
Zoologist, primatologist, and conservationist Dian Fossey conducted research on mountain gorillas in Rwanda from 1966 until she was murdered in 1985. She was part of the Trimates assigned to study apes by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. She wrote Gorillas in the Mist, which was later turned into a film.
3
Michio Kaku
(Theoretical Physicist and Author of the Best-Selling Books ‘Physics of the Impossible’ and ‘Physics of the Future')
Birthdate: January 24, 1947
Sun Sign: Aquarius
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.
4
Sally Ride(The First American Woman and The Third Woman in Space)
Birthdate: May 26, 1951
Sun Sign: Gemini
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.
5
Barbara Liskov
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: November 7, 1939
Sun Sign: Scorpio
6
Eric Weinstein
(Mathematician)
Birthdate: October 26, 1965
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Apart from being the MD of Thiel Capital, mathematician and economist Eric Weinstein is also a researcher at Oxford. The Harvard alumnus had quit academia for 20 years before he returned again. He coined the term “intellectual dark web” and works on topics such as gauge theory, risk management, and immigration.
Birthdate: March 9, 1961
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthdate: June 13, 1911
Sun Sign: Gemini
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.
9
Leonard Adleman
(American Computer Scientist Who is One of the Creators of 'RSA' Encryption Algorithm)
Birthdate: December 31, 1945
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Leonard Adleman is a computer scientist best known as a co-creator of the RSA encryption algorithm. He was honored with the 2002 Turing Award, often called the Nobel prize of Computer science, for this work. He is also a pioneer in the field of DNA computing and one of the original discoverers of the Adleman–Pomerance–Rumely primality test.
10
Robert Tarjan
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: April 30, 1948
Sun Sign: Taurus
11
Eugene Merle Shoemaker
(American Geologist Best Known for Co-Discovering the 'Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9')
Birthdate: April 28, 1928
Sun Sign: Taurus
Died: July 18, 1997
Best known for discovering the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, with his wife, Carolyn, and David H. Levy, Eugene Merle Shoemaker was an American astrogeologist who had also worked with the U.S. Geological Survey. He had been part of NASA’s lunar exploration missions. Following his death, his ashes were transported to the Moon.
12
Philippe Cousteau Jr.
(Oceanographer and Environmental Activist)
Birthdate: January 20, 1980
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Known for the documentary Ocean's Deadliest, which he co-hosted with Steve Irwin, oceanographer Philippe Cousteau Jr. also earned an Emmy nomination for his work in Awesome Planet. The grandson of naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Philippe had lost his father, sailor and filmmaker Philippe Cousteau, 6 months before his birth.
13
Hans Reiser
(Programmer, Entrepreneur, Computer scientist, Homicide)
Birthdate: December 19, 1963
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthdate: June 17, 1925
Sun Sign: Gemini
Died: June 2, 2014
A pioneer of psychedelic drug synthesis, Alexander Shulgin came to be known as The Godfather of Ecstasy, for reinventing the drug MDMA, or ecstasy, for medical use. The Harvard drop-out, who later studied psychiatry and pharmacology, would often experiment his newly invented drugs on himself, his wife, and his friends.
Birthdate: October 6, 1950
Sun Sign: Libra
16
Jim Gray
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: January 12, 1944
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Died: January 28, 2012
17
Larry Wall
(Programmer, Engineer, Writer, Computer scientist)
Birthdate: September 27, 1954
Sun Sign: Libra
18
Jon Postel
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: August 6, 1943
Sun Sign: Leo
Died: October 16, 1998
19
Suzanne Eaton
(American Scientist and Professor of Molecular Biology)
Birthdate: December 23, 1959
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Died: July 2, 2019
American molecular scientist Suzanne Eaton had spent most of professional life at the Max Planck Institute. The WICB Junior Award winner had initially also considered alternative academic careers in comparative literature and math. She was raped and murdered by a Greek man in Crete, where she had gone for a conference.
20
Fernando J. Corbató
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: July 1, 1926
Sun Sign: Cancer
Died: July 12, 2019
21
Alan Cooper
(Computer scientist, Writer)
Birthdate: June 3, 1952
Sun Sign: Gemini
22
Ralph Merkle
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: February 2, 1952
Sun Sign: Aquarius
23
Jelani Nelson
(Creator of AddisCoder)
Birthdate: June 28, 1984
Sun Sign: Cancer
24
Stanley Miller
(Chemist, Biologist, University teacher)
Birthdate: March 7, 1930
Sun Sign: Pisces
Died: May 20, 2007
Stanley Miller was an American chemist best remembered for conducting several important experiments in abiogenesis. His 1952 Miller–Urey experiment proved that inorganic precursors could be used to synthesize complex organic molecules. Often referred to as the father of prebiotic chemistry, Miller was honored with the prestigious Oparin Medal in 1983.
25
Walter Alvarez
(US Professor and Geologist Who Stated that Dinosaurs Were Killed by an Asteroid)
Birthdate: October 3, 1940
Sun Sign: Libra
The son of Nobel Prize-winning US physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, Walter Alvarez is remembered for his theory that dinosaurs died due to an asteroid impact, a theory he developed with his father. The theory stemmed from their discovery of an iridium-rich layer of clay, since iridium is commonly found in asteroids.
26
Michael Freedman
(Mathematician)
Birthdate: April 21, 1951
Sun Sign: Taurus
27
Allan Alcorn
(Computer scientist, Engineer)
Birthdate: January 1, 1948
Sun Sign: Capricorn
28
Dana Scott
(Mathematician, Computer scientist, Engineer, Topologist, University teacher)
Birthdate: October 11, 1932
Sun Sign: Libra
29
Barry Boehm
(Computer scientist, Engineer)
Birthdate: May 16, 1935
Sun Sign: Taurus
30
Eric Allin Cornell
(Physicist)
Birthdate: December 19, 1961
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
31
Allen Newell
(Psychologist, Computer scientist, Mathematician, University teacher)
Birthdate: March 19, 1927
Sun Sign: Pisces
Died: July 19, 1992
Birthdate: November 1, 1950
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthdate: March 16, 1918
Sun Sign: Pisces
Died: August 26, 1998
34
Curtis T. McMullen
(Mathematician)
Birthdate: May 21, 1958
Sun Sign: Gemini
35
Alexei Filippenko
(Known for Studies of Supernovae, Active Galaxies, Black Holes, Accelerating Expansion of the Universe)
Birthdate: July 25, 1958
Sun Sign: Leo
Renowned astrophysicist Alexei Filippenko, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, is primarily focused on supernovae and galaxies. Apart from writing 900 research papers, he has also penned a bestselling book and appeared on programs such as The Universe. He loves tennis and often travels to view solar eclipses.
36
Andrew Fire
(American Biologist and Professor of Pathology Known for Discovering RNA Interference)
Birthdate: April 27, 1959
Sun Sign: Taurus
Geneticist Andrew Fire is best known for his Nobel Prize-winning work on the double-stranded RNA. The MIT alumnus did most of his research under the guidance of Nobel laureate Philip A. Sharp. His discovery of the RNAi later aided scientists work on the cure for ailments such as AIDS and cancer.
37
John Ousterhout
(Computer science researcher who created the Tcl scripting language and the Tk platform-independent widget toolkit, and proposed the idea of coscheduling)
Birthdate: October 15, 1954
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthdate: July 12, 1913
Sun Sign: Cancer
Died: May 15, 2008
39
Jon Bentley
(computer scientist)
Birthdate: February 20, 1953
Sun Sign: Pisces
40
Tim D. White
(Anthropologist, Archaeologist, Prehistorian, Paleoanthropologist, University teacher)
Birthdate: August 24, 1950
Sun Sign: Virgo
41
Owen Chamberlain(American Physicist and Winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics)
Birthdate: July 10, 1920
Sun Sign: Cancer
Died: February 28, 2006
42
Frederick Seitz
(Physicist)
Birthdate: July 4, 1911
Sun Sign: Cancer
Died: March 2, 2008
Birthdate: June 18, 1932
Sun Sign: Gemini
44
Leland H. Hartwell
(Researcher)
Birthdate: October 30, 1939
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthdate: September 18, 1907
Sun Sign: Virgo
Died: September 7, 1991
46
Charles P. Thacker
(Computer scientist)
Birthdate: February 26, 1943
Sun Sign: Pisces
Died: June 12, 2017
47
W.E. Moerner
(Nobel Prize-Winning American Chemist)
Birthdate: June 24, 1953
Sun Sign: Cancer
Nobel Prize-winning American chemist W.E. Moerner is best known for developing super-resolved fluorescence microscopy and for detecting a single molecule in condensed phases. He has been associated with prestigious institutes such as UC San Diego and Stanford University, and has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University.
48
Deborah S. Jin
(Physicist)
Birthdate: November 15, 1968
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Died: September 15, 2016
49
Louis Leithold
(Mathematics Teacher)
Birthdate: November 16, 1924
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Died: April 29, 2005
50
Jule Gregory Charney
(US Meteorologist Who Developed Numerical Weather Prediction)
Birthdate: January 1, 1917
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Died: June 16, 1981
US meteorologist Jule Gregory Charney is remembered for his pioneering work on modern dynamical meteorology. He developed numerical weather prediction. Starting as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he later headed the meteorology department at the same institute. His work won him honors such as the Hodgkins Medal.