Scientist | Lifespan | Primary field | Note |
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Thomas Addison | 1881–1949 | physician | nephrology pioneer |
James Edward Tierney Aitchison | 1836–1898 | botanist | surgeon; collected plants in India and Afghanistan |
John Aitken | 183–1919 | meteorologist, physicist and marine engineer | inventor of the koniscope, (also known as the Aitken dust counter) |
William Aiton | 1731–1793 | botanist |
Adam Anderson | 1783–1846 | physicist | contributor to Edinburgh Encyclopædia and Encyclopædia Britannica |
Alexander Anderson | 158?–162? | mathematician | c. 1582– c. 1620 |
John Anderson | 1833–1900 | zoologist and anatomist | curator of the Indian Museum |
Thomas Anderson | 1832–1870 | botanist | director of the Calcutta Botanic Garden |
William Arthur | 1894–1979 | mathematician |
John Logie Baird | 1888–1946 | engineer | television inventor |
William Baird | 1803–1872 | zoologist | author of The Natural History of the British Entomostraca |
Thomas Barker | 1838–1907 | mathematician | professor of pure mathematics at Owens College |
Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour | 1853–1922 | botanist | Sherardian Professor of Botany |
John Hutton Balfour | 1808–1884 | botanist |
John Barclay | 1758–1826 | anatomist | donor of the Barclay Collection at Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh |
Robert Barclay | d.1973 | statistician | scholar of Orkney |
James Bassantin | fl 16th century | astronomer and mathematician | author of Astronomique Discours, Lyons, 1557 |
Alexander Graham Bell | 1847–1922 | engineer, scientist | telephone inventor |
Eric Temple Bell | 1883–1960 | mathematician | science fiction writer |
Robert J. T. Bell | 1876–1963 | mathematician | Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University of Otago |
James W. Black | 1924–2010 | physician | Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1988 |
Joseph Black | 1728–1799 | scientist | carbon dioxide discoverer |
Robert Blair | 1748–1828 | astronomer | inventor of the aplanatic lens |
John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr | 1880–1971 | nutritionist | Nobel Peace Prize winner |
David Brewster | 1781–1868 | scientist | Royal Scottish Society of Arts founder |
Thomas Brisbane | 1773–1860 | astronomer |
Robert Brown | 1773–1858 | botanist | Brownian Motion discoverer |
David Bruce | 1855–1931 | pathologist, microbiologist |
Alexander Buchan | 1829–1907 | meteorologist, oceanographer and botanist | established the weather map as the basis of weather forecasting |
Elaine Bullard | 1915–2011 | self-taught botanist | Official Recorder of Orkney for the Botanical Society of the British Isles for 46 years |
country=GBR|FRS|FRSE}} | 1945-2015 | Organometallic chemist | Contributed to the synthesis and structural chemistry of transition metal complexes |
Phillip Clancey | 1917–2001 | ornithologist | ornithology pioneer |
John Craig | 1663–1731 | mathematician | Newton colleague |
James Croll | 1821–1890 | scientist | astronomical theory of 19th-century climate change, leading proponent |
Alexander Crum Brown | 1838–1922 | chemist | organic chemistry |
William Cullen | 1710–1790 | physician, chemist |
David Cuthbertson | 1900–1989 | physician, biochemist, medical researcher, nutritionist | leading authority on metabolism |
James Dewar | 1842–1923 | physicist | low temperature, vacuum flask inventor |
George Dickie | 1812–1882 | botanist | specialist in algae |
Alexander Dickson | 1836–1887 | botanist | morphological botanist |
David Drysdale | 1877–1946 | mathematician |
James Alfred Ewing | 1855–1935 | physicist, engineer | discoverer of hysteresis |
William Fairbairn | 1789–1874 | engineer | structural |
Hugh Falconer | 1808–1865 | palaeontologist |
James Ferguson | 1710–1776 | astronomer, instrument maker |
Alexander Fleming | 1881–1955 | microbiologist | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945 |
Williamina Fleming | 1857–1911 | astronomer | cataloguing of stars contributor, discoverer of the Horsehead Nebula |
John Flett | 1869–1947 | geologist | Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain |
James David Forbes | 1809–1868 | physicist, geologist |
Professor George Forbes | 1849–1936 | scientist | electrical engineering, hydro-electric power generation |
Robert Fortune | 1813–1880 | botanist |
John Fraser | 1750–1811 | botanist, plant collector |
Patrick Geddes | 1854–1932 | biologist | urban theorist |
Alexander Gibson | 1800–1867 | botanist | worked on forest conservation in India |
Sir David Gill | 1843–1914 | astronomer | astrophotography pioneer |
John Goodsir | 1814–1867 | anatomist | pioneer in the study of the cell |
Isabella Gordon | 1901–1978 | zoologist | carcinologist |
Robert Graham | 1786–1845 | botanist | Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh |
Thomas Graham | 1805–1869 | chemist | discovered dialysis |
Robert Edmond Grant | 1793–1874 | biologist | Swiney lecturer in geology to the British Museum |
Marion Cameron Gray | 1902–1979 | mathematician | discovered Gray graph |
David Gregory | 1659–1708 | astronomer, mathematician | Savilian Professor of Astronomy |
Duncan Farquharson Gregory | 1813–1844 | mathematician | also worked in chemistry and physics |
James Gregory | 1638–1675 | astronomer, mathematician | Gregorian reflecting telescope, first described, Robert Hooke later built |
James Gregory | 1832–1899 | mineralogist | believed claims of diamond discoveries in South Africa were false |
William Gregory | 1803–1858 | mineralogist |
James Hall | 1761–1832 | geologist |
M R Henderson | 1899–1982 | botanist |
Thomas Henderson | 1798–1844 | astronomer | Alpha Centauri, first measured distance |
John Hope | 1725–1786 | botanist | botanist who had genus Hopea named after him |
Thomas Charles Hope | 1766–1844 | chemist and physician | discoverer of strontium |
James Hutton | 1726–1797 | geologist | scientific basis of geology established |
Ninian Imrie of Denmuir | c.1750-1820 | geologist | Provided the first geological description of the Rock of Gibraltar |
Robert T. A. Innes | 1861–1933 | astronomer | Proxima Centauri discoverer |
James Ivory | 1765–1842 | mathematician |
William Jardine | 1800–1874 | naturalist |
George Johnston | 1800–1874 | naturalist | also physician and mayor of Berwick |
Henry Halcro Johnston | 1856–1939 | botanist | also army surgeon and rugby union international |
John Keill | 1671–1721 | mathematician and astronomer | disciple and defender of Isaac Newton, Savilian Professor of Astronomy |
John Kerr | 1824–1907 | physicist | electro-optics pioneer, discovery of Kerr effect |
Norman Boyd Kinnear | 1882–1957 | zoologist |
Cargill Gilston Knott | 1856–1922 | physicist and mathematician | pioneer in seismology |
Johann von Lamont | 1805–1879 | astronomer | Uranus and Saturn moon orbits calculated |
Arthur Pillans Laurie | 1861–1949 | chemist | pioneered scientific analysis of paint |
Malcolm Laurie | 1866–1932 | zoologist | specialist in arachnids, especially scorpions |
John Leslie | 1766–1832 | mathematician, physicist | heat research |
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM, FRS | 1827–1912 | surgeon | Antiseptic surgery introduced, eponymous Listerine |
William Lochead | c.1753–1815 | botanist | surgeon, curator of the St Vincent Botanical Garden |
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet | 1797–1875 | geologist, lawyer | geology pioneer, (British), foremost of his day |
John Macadam | 1827–1865 | botanist | (Scottish-born Australian) |
William McNab | 1844–1889 | botanist | physician |
William MacGillivray | 1796–1852 | naturalist |
Sheila Scott Macintyre | 1910–1960 | mathematician |
Colin Maclaurin | 1698–1746 | mathematician | Maclaurin series developer |
Anna MacGillivray Macleod | 1917–2004 | botanist, biochemist, | professor of brewing |
John James Rickard Macleod | 1876–1935 | biochemist, physiologist | Nobel Prize laureate, 1923 |
John George Macleod | 1915–2006 | physician | author of medical books |
William Maclure | 1760–1843 | geologist |
Alan MacMasters | 1865–1927 | scientist, inventor, industrialist | inventor of the toaster |
Sheina Marshall FRSE, FRS, OBE | 1896–1977 | marine biologist |
Francis Masson | 1741–180? | botanist | 1741– c. 1805 |
James Clerk Maxwell | 1831–1879 | scientist | thermodynamics, electromagnetics theorist |
Anderson Gray McKendrick | 1876–1943 | physician, epidemiologist | pioneer of the use of mathematical methods in epidemiology |
John Gray McKendrick | 1841–1926 | physiologist |
Archibald Menzies | 1754–1852 | botanist, explorer |
Philip Miller | 1691–1771 | botanist |
Roderick Murchison | 1792–1871 | geologist | Silurian period first described, investigated |
Alexander Murray | 1810–1884 | geologist |
James Napier | 1810–1884 | chemist | antiquarian |
John Napier | 1550–1617 | mathematician | logarithms |
William Robert Ogilvie-Grant | 1863–1924 | ornithologist |
James Bell Pettigrew | 1834–1908 | naturalist | Croonian Lecturer; authority on animal locomotion |
Sir William Ramsay | 1852–1916 | chemist | Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1904 |
William John Macquorn Rankine | 1820–1872 | engineer, physicist | Rankine thermodynamic scale (absolute temperature), proposer |
John Richardson | 1787–1865 | naturalist |
William Roxburgh | 1759–1815 | botanist |
John Scott Russell | 1808–1882 | civil engineer, naval architect | solitons |
Daniel Rutherford | 1749–1819 | chemist | nitrogen element discoverer |
John Scouler | 1804–1871 | naturalist | Enicurus scouleri is named after Scouler |
Sir James Young Simpson | 1811–1870 | physician | anaesthetic chloroform discoverer, midwifery pioneer |
Andrew Smith | 1797–1872 | zoologist |
Charles Piazzi Smyth | 1819–1900 | astronomer | Astronomer Royal for Scotland |
Robert Angus Smith | 1817–1884 | chemist | environmental chemistry, acid rain, discoverer |
Mary Somerville | 1780–1872 | mathematician, astronomer |
Matthew Stewart | 1717–1785 | mathematician |
James Stirling | 1692–1770 | mathematician |
John Struthers | 1823–1899 | anatomist |
Peter Guthrie Tait | 1831–1901 | mathematical physicist | proposer of the Tait conjectures in Knot theory |
Thomas Telford | 1757–1834 | engineer, architect | civil engineer, canal builder |
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson | 1860–1948 | biologist and mathematician | author of On Growth and Form |
Charles Wyville Thomson | 1830–1882 | marine zoologist | chief scientist on the Challenger expedition |
Thomas Thomson | 1817–1878 | botanist | Superintendent of the Honourable East India Company's Botanic Garden at Calcutta |
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin | 1824–1907 | mathematician, physicist, engineer |
James Wallace | 1684–1724 | botanist | participated in the Darien Scheme, and obtained plants from that area |
James Watt | 1736–1819 | mathematician, engineer | steam engine improvements contributed key stage in the Industrial Revolution |
Robert Watson-Watt | 1892–1973 | scientist | radar inventor |
Joseph Wedderburn | 1882–1948 | mathematician |
Thomas Webster | 1773–1844 | geologist | geologist who had websterite, now normally called aluminite, named after him |
Alexander Wilson | 1714–1786 | astronomer and meteorologist | also surgeon, type-founder, and mathematician; the first scientist to record the use of kites in meteorological investigations |
Alexander Wilson | 1766–1813 | ornithologist | ornithology pioneer pre-Audubon (American) |
Charles Wilson | 1869–1959 | physicist | cloud chamber inventor |
James Wilson | 1795–1856 | zoologist | contributor to Encyclopædia Britannica |
Patrick Wilson | 1743–1811 | astronomer | type-founder, mathematician and meteorologist |
Thomas Wright | 1809–1884 | geologist | also physician |
William Wright | 1735–1819 | botanist | botanist who had genera Wrightia and Wrightea named after him |
James 'Paraffin' Young | 1811–1883 | chemist |
Dr William Alexander Young | 1889–1928 | physician, yellow fever researcher | posthumously awarded the Médaille des Epidémies du ministère de la France d'outre-mer, 1929 |
Udny Yule | 1871–1951 | statistician | Yule–Simon distribution |
{{Scotland topics}}{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Scottish Scientists}}