Great minds have hailed from all over the globe. Here is a look at some of the great European thinkers and scientists of the modern era, and the revolutionary minds who paved the way for their discoveries.
An array of scientific fields have felt the impact of Italian thinkers: mathematics from Leonardo Fibonacci, astronomy from Galileo Galilei, and physics of electricity from Alessandro Volta, to name a few. The 20th century offered us equally important Italian thinkers, however. At the beginning of the century, Maria Montessori--the first female in Italy to earn an M.D.--pioneered the children's learning movement. In physics, Enrico Fermi broke new ground with his pivotal discoveries.
Fermi was not alone, however, in his quest for answers in the field of physics; Pavel Cherenkov of Russia was a key mind in the world of physics during the 20th century. In the philosophical community, Russian native Ayn Rand made a global impact on audiences when she published her politically charged novels, which develop an "objectivist" philosophy on the human struggle.
Three famous Swiss thinkers lived during the 18th century: the great mathematician Leonhard Euler, the philosopher and literary genius Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the renowned chemist Daniel Bernoulli, who is the premiere figure in the development of fluid mechanics. In the 20th century, however, Carl Jung turned the microscope inward and made landmark discoveries about human psychology.
Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein paved the way for modern logic and the philosophy of language. Also from Austria were the renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud, and the great physicist Kurt Godel, who gave us his "Incompleteness Theorem."
Hungarian native Nicola Tesla is one of the most admired scientists of the 20th century. He is revered for his work in Electrical Engineering. The Hungarian prodigy Jon Von Neumann pioneered game theory and computer science, and contributed valuable insights into quantum mechanics.
Poland was home to one of the most prominent astronomers in history, Nicholaus Copernicus, who--500 years ago--furthered our understanding of nature, breaking old paradigms and shattering dogma. In the 20th century, Polish icon Marie Curie broke new ground in medicine.
Several great English thinkers have made a significant impact during the 20th century, too. The logic of A.N. Whitehead and Bertrand Russell at the beginning of the century paved the way for the father of the modern computer: another Englishman, Alan Turing. Paul Dirac is a keystone quantum physicist of the century, and Steven Hawking is the greatest theoretical cosmologist of our time. One of the most significant discoveries of the century, the double helix of DNA, was made by a pair of scientists: Englishman Francis Crick and James Watson from the United States.
While, in the 20th century, Frenchman Henry Poincare played a substantial role in the development of mathematics, some of France's greatest contributions to global thinking were made in the area of existential philosophy. Simone De Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre broke new ground with their reflections on the human existence, while others, like Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault examined language, literature, and political structures in a new light.
The 20th century offered no less for German thought. Gottlob Frege and Edmund Husserl were two of the fathers of modern logic, offering insights which would eventually lead to the evolution of the computer. Yet it was in physics that Germany touched the world the most in the 1900's. Albert Einstein gave insights into general and special relativity. Quantum mechanics was pioneered by Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Karl Schwarzschild, and Wolfgang Pauli's "Exclusion Principle"... all of which contributed to current quantum cosmology.
The Spanish also contributed much to scientific understanding during the last century. The worldly and very well accomplished biologist, Severo Ochoa de Luarca, broke new ground in biochemistry, physiology and enzymology in the first half of the century, offering valuable insights into metabolism. Another leader in his field, Spaniard Santiago Ramón y Cajal, was Ochoa de Luarca's mentor. At the turn of the century, Ramón y Cajal, born in Aragon, was a world leader in pathological anatomy. His study of pathology and the nervous system contributed to the current understanding of these vital subjects.
The list of influential thinkers in the fields of science and technology will continue almost indefinitely as we travel the world to uncover each culture's contribution.
