My favourite scientist is Marie Curie, because she was such a great scientist and an example for women in science. She won two nobel prizes (the first person and only women to do so) and was the first woman to teach at the famous Sorbonne University in Paris.
Marie Curie is best know for discovering the elements Radium and Polonium, coining the term radioactivity and paving the way to therapeutic uses of radiation, such using X-rays to see inside the body.
A scientist whose work I really like is Alan Turing. He was an amazing mathematician and came up with some equations that explain the patterns we see when chemicals interact with each other. One example of a solution to his equations can be seen here:
These equations are being used a lot by chemists and biologists now to understand pattern formation (e.g. the stripes on the skins of zebras or tigers). He also made lots of important contributions to computer science.
Alan Turing had a really hard life sadly :(. He lived about 60 years ago and was homosexual and people and the state gave him a very hard time about it which is very sad…
Comments
Zena commented on :
I also have to back up Isabel in praising Marie Curie, she was indeed a role model scientists at a time when there was very few women doing science!