People who changed the world

Albert EinsteinGerman-born theoretical physicist (1879–1955)

Aristotle4th-century BCE Classical Greek philosopher and polymath

Leonardo da VinciItalian Renaissance polymath (1452−1519)

Isaac NewtonEnglish mathematician and physicist (1642–1727)

Mahatma GandhiIndian independence activist (1869–1948)

Charles DarwinEnglish naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)

The BuddhaIndian philosopher and the founder of Buddhism (623 or 563 BCE – 543 or 483 BCE)

René DescartesFrench philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (1596–1650)

Immanuel KantGerman philosopher (1724-1804)

Martin Luther King Jr.American Baptist minister and civil rights leader (1929–1968)

Marie CuriePolish-born French physicist and chemist (1867–1934)

ArchimedesGreek mathematician and physicist (c. 287 – c. 212 BC)

Bill GatesAmerican businessman, investor, and philanthropist (born 1955)

Jimmy WalesCo-founder of Wikipedia (born 1966)

Jean-Jacques RousseauGenevan philosopher, writer, and composer (1712-1778)

Nikola TeslaSerbian-American engineer and inventor (1856–1943)

Neil ArmstrongAmerican astronaut and lunar explorer (1930–2012)

Carl LinnaeusSwedish botanist, physician, and zoologist (1707–1778); developed the foundations of modern taxonomy

Louis PasteurFrench chemist and microbiologist (1822-1895)

EuclidAncient Greek mathematician (fl. 300 BC)

Mother TeresaAlbanian-Indian Catholic nun and missionary (1910–1997)

Blaise PascalFrench mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher (1623-1662)

AvicennaPersian polymath, physician and philosopher (c. 980–1037)

Alfred NobelSwedish chemist and inventor (1833–1896)

Leonhard EulerSwiss mathematician, physicist, and engineer (1707–1783)

Alan TuringEnglish computer scientist (1912–1954)

Noam ChomskyAmerican linguist and activist (born 1928)

Johannes KeplerGerman mathematician and astronomer (1571–1630)

Niels BohrDanish physicist (1885–1962)

Bertrand RussellBritish philosopher and logician (1872–1970)

Max PlanckGerman theoretical physicist (1858–1947)

Michael FaradayBritish scientist (1791–1867)

Dmitri MendeleevRussian chemist (1834–1907)

Baruch SpinozaDutch philosopher (1632–1677)

Lech WałęsaPresident of Poland from 1990 to 1995 (born 1943)

HippocratesGreek physician (c. 460 – c. 370 BC)

Ludwig WittgensteinAustrian philosopher and logician (1889–1951)

Enrico FermiItalian–American physicist (1901–1954)

Helen KellerAmerican deafblind author, political activist, lecturer, scholar (1880-1968)

Mark ZuckerbergAmerican Internet entrepreneur

Al-Khwarizmi9th-century Persian mathematician and astronomer

David HilbertGerman mathematician (1862–1943)

Erwin SchrödingerAustrian physicist (1887–1961)

Tim Berners-LeeEnglish computer scientist (born 1955)

James Clerk MaxwellScottish physicist (1831–1879)

Thales of MiletusAncient Greek philosopher and mathematician

Alexander Graham BellCanadian-American scientist inventor of telephone (1847–1922)

Wilhelm RöntgenGerman physicist (1845–1923)

Malala YousafzaiPakistani children's education activist

Greta ThunbergSwedish climate protection activist (born 2003)

Linus TorvaldsFinnish software engineer (born 1969)

DemocritusGreek philosopher (c. 460–c. 370 BC)

Giordano BrunoItalian Dominican friar, philosopher and mathematician (1548–1600)

John Stuart MillBritish philosopher and political economist (1806–1873)

Diana, Princess of WalesMember of the British royal family and Princess of Wales (1961–1997)

Eleanor RooseveltAmerican diplomat and activist, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (1884–1962)

HeraclitusGreek philosopher (late 6th/early 5th-century BC)

Henry David ThoreauAmerican essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)

L. L. ZamenhofPolish-Jewish physician and inventor of Esperanto (1859-1917)

Werner HeisenbergGerman theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner (1901–1976)

Ptolemy2nd-century Roman mathematician, astronomer, geographer

Malcolm XAmerican Black rights activist (1925–1965)

Galen2nd-century Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher

Gregor MendelMoravian scientist and Augustinian friar (1822–1884)

Joseph FourierFrench mathematician and physicist (1768 – 1830)

Auguste ComteFrench philosopher, mathematician and sociologist (1798–1857)

Ada LovelaceEnglish mathematician (1815–1852)

Alexei NavalnyRussian jurist and opposition leader (1976-2024)

AverroesArab Andalusian Muslim writer and philosopher (1126–1198)

Henri PoincaréFrench mathematician, physicist and engineer (1854–1912)

Pierre CurieFrench physicist and chemist (1859–1906)

J. Robert OppenheimerAmerican theoretical physicist (1904–1967)

Antoine LavoisierFrench nobleman and chemist (1743–1794)

Karl PopperAustrian-British philosopher of science and social and política e falsificationism and for criticism of Plato, Hegel and Marx as totalitarian opponents of open society (1902-1994)

Rosa ParksCivil rights activist

Pliny the ElderRoman military commander and writer (AD23/24–79)

FibonacciItalian mathematician (c.1170–c.1240/50)

Émile DurkheimFrench sociologist (1858–1917)

William JamesAmerican philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist (1842–1910)

Ivan PavlovRussian physiologist (1849–1936)

Tycho BraheDanish astronomer and alchemist, 1546–1601

Paul DiracBritish theoretical physicist (1902–1984)

Diogenes4th-century BC Greek Cynic philosopher

Jane GoodallEnglish primatologist and anthropologist (1934–2025)

Christiaan HuygensDutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer (1629–1695)

André-Marie AmpèreFrench physicist and mathematician (1775–1836)

Desmond TutuSouth African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner (1931–2021)

Harriet Beecher StoweAmerican abolitionist and author (1811–1896)

Hendrik LorentzDutch physicist (1853–1928)

Liu XiaoboChinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist (1955–2017)

Alessandro VoltaItalian chemist and physicist (1745–1827)

Jeff BezosAmerican business magnate (born 1964)

Georg CantorGerman mathematician, inventor of set theory (1845–1918)

Buzz AldrinAmerican astronaut (born 1930)

Kurt GödelAustrian-American logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (1906–1978)

HypatiaGreek Neoplatonist philosopher

Edward JennerEnglish physician, scientist and pioneer of vaccination (1749–1823)

Rosalind FranklinBritish chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer (1920–1958)

Shirin EbadiIranian lawyer, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Friedrich HayekAustrian and British economist (1899–1992)