Thomas Andrews (1813 – 1885)

Born in Belfast, Thomas Andrews studied in Scotland, France and at Trinity College Dublin, before setting up a medical practice in Belfast.

Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

Charles Babbage was one of the key figures of a great era of British history. Born as the industrial revolution was getting into its swing, by the time Babbage died Britain was by far the most industrialized country the world had ever seen

Sir Francis Beaufort (1774 - 1857)

The Irish-British hydrographer Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort was born in Navan in Ireland. His father was a cleric of Huguenot origin who took an active interest in geography and topography, publishing in 1792 one of the earliest detailed maps of Ireland.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)

Alexander Graham Bell, (1847-1922), American inventor and teacher of the deaf, who invented the telephone was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782)

Born on January 29th 1700, he came from a long line of mathematicians. His father Johann was head of mathematics at Groningen University in the Netherlands.

George Boole (1815-1864)

The inventor of "Boolean algebra"
Born in Lincoln, England, the son of a shoemaker and a lady's maid, George Boole left school early to support his family. He earned money from teaching and had set up his own school by 1834.

William “Guillermo” Bowles (1720-1780)

William Bowles was born near Cork in 1720 (some references state 1705). Little is known about his early life. He studied law in London and then went to Paris (1740) where he studied natural history, chemistry, metallurgy and astronomy.

Robert Boyle (1627-1691)

Known as "… the son of the Earl of Cork and the father of Chemistry", Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, Co. Waterford, the youngest of fourteen children of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, and his second wife, Katherine Fenton. Robert played a key role in establishing the experimental method, on which all modern science is based.

Harriet Brooks (1876 – 1933)

Harriet Brooks was born on New Year's Day 1876, and became one the pioneer workers in the new science of radioactivity, a science that had begun in 1896 with the discovery of radioactivity in uranium.

Mary Bruck (1925-2008)

DR MARY (Máire) Brück, who has died aged 83, was an astronomer who wrote extensively on the role of women in science.

Nicholas Callan (1799 – 1864)

The reverend Nicholas Callan was born near Ardee, Co. Louth and was Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from 1826 until his death.

Edward Conway (1894 – 1968)

Born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Edward Conway graduated in physiology and chemistry from University College Dublin in 1916, and went on to graduate in medicine in 1921.

Polish name: Mikolaj Kopernik. Polish astronomer and mathematician who, as a student, studied canon law, mathematics, and medicine at Cracow, Bologna, Rome, Padua, and Ferrara. Copernicus became interested in astronomy and published an early description of his "heliocentric" model of the solar system in Commentariolus (1512).

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)

Born Marja Sklodowska, Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. Her father taught high school physics.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. Like several scientists before him, Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved (developed gradually) over millions of years from a few common ancestors.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Florentine artist, one of the great masters of the High Renaissance, celebrated as a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and scientist.

Maude Jane Delap (1866-1953)

Maude Jane Delap was born in 1866, in Templecrone Rectory, Co. Donegal. In 1874, when she was 8 eight years old, her family arrived by boat onto Valentia Island, a small island off the south west coast of Ireland.

Henry Horatio Dixon (1869-1953)

When Henry Dixon retired from the Chair of Botany in Trinity College Dublin in 1949, he had occupied it for 45 years. Dixon entered Trinity College in 1887 and won a foundation scholarship in classics in 1890 but subsequently changed to natural science in which he graduated with a gold medal in 1891.

John Dunlop (1840 – 1921)

Born into a farming family in Ayrshire in Scotland, John Boyd Dunlop was a veterinary surgeon by profession, having qualified at Edinburgh University when he was only 19.

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

American inventor, who developed an incandescent electric light bulb was born in Milan, Ohio.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate best known as the creator of the theory of relativity was born in Ulm, Germany.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

English Chemist and Physicist, who discovered of electromagnetic induction and the laws of electrolysis, was born in Newington, Surrey, England.

Harry Ferguson (1884-1960)

Ferguson was born at Growell, near Hillsborough, Co Down, on 4 November l884. In l902, he joined his brother Joe in a car and bicycle repair business in Belfast, and in 1904 began to race motor-cycles. In 1909, at Hillsborough, he made the first powered flight in Ireland, travelling 130 yd (118.5 m) in a monoplane he had built.

George Francis Fitzgerald (1851 – 1901)

George Francis Fitzgerald was a brilliant 19th century Irish physicist who is best remembered today as one of the proposers of a theory on the relativity of space with speed, now known as the Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction. This was the first incomplete theory of relativity and was later used by Einstein in his special theory of relativity.

Alexander Fleming (1881 – 1955)

Born in a remote, rural part of Scotland. The seventh of eight siblings and half-siblings, his family worked an 800-acre farm a mile from the nearest house.

Howard Florey (1898 – 1968)

Sir Howard Walter Florey was born on September 24, 1898, at Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Joseph and Bertha Mary Florey. His early education was at St. Peter's Collegiate School, Adelaide, following which he went on to Adelaide University where he graduated M.B., B.S. in 1921.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790), American printer, author, diplomat, philosopher, and scientist who invented the lightning rod was born in Boston.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Italian physicist and astronomer whose observations with a telescope revolutionized astronomy was born in Pisa, Italy.

Robert (Roy) Geary (1896 – 1983)

Apart from a few years in Paris, Cambridge and New York, Ireland’s greatest statistician spent the whole of his working life in Dublin, the place of his birth.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941 – 2002)

Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard's outspoken and often controversial paleontologist whose groundbreaking work on evolutionary theory — coupled with his award-winning writings — brought an expanded world of science to thousands of readers

Howard Grubb (1844 – 1931)

In 1833 – 34, Thomas Romney Robinson commissioned Thomas Grubb (1800 – 1878) to build a reflecting telescope with a fifteen inch mirror for Armagh Observatory.

William Rowan Hamilton (1805 – 1865)

In 1863, The American National Academy of Sciences appointed an Irishman, Dublin-born William Rowan Hamilton, its first Foreign Associate: he was considered by them to be the greatest of living scientists.

Walter Heinrich Heitler was born in Karlsruhe in Germany on 2 nd January 1904. He spent the formative stages of his career studying physics at a time when the subject was in a state of flux due to the development of quantum mechanics.

Augustine Henry (1857 – 1930)

Most of Ireland’s forests were cut down over the years. One of the key people in reversing this situation was Augustine Henry.

John Philip Holland (1841 – 1914)

John Holland, from Liscannor in Co. Clare, developed in America the first modern submarine which could travel 800km on the surface of the sea and 40km submerged.

Ellen Hutchins (1785 - 1815)

Ellen Hutchins was born in 1785 in Ballylickey, Co. Cork in a house that stood at the head of Bantry Bay with beautiful views of the mountains on all sides. Her father Thomas Hutchins, a fair man, was a Protestant magistrate, who severely opposed the penal laws in force against Catholics at that time

Christiaan Huygens (1629-95)

Dutch astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who developed the wave theory of light and the pendulum clock was born in The Hague.

Robert Kane (1809 – 1890)

The famous book, “The Industrial Resources of Ireland”, was published in 1844 and was a pioneering work which sought to improve Ireland’s wealth by promoting industry, at the same time increasing employment.

Richard Kirwan (1733 - 1812)

Richard Kirwan, famed for being a scientist and eccentric, was born the second son of four, in 1733, in Cloghballymore, Co. Galway. His family lived in the historic Cregg Castle which was built by their ancestors, originally for defence.

Joseph Larmor (1857-1942)

Joseph Larmor was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the Queens College Belfast. He then took another degree at St. Johns College Cambridge.

Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865 – 1953)

One of the most productive of Ireland’s natural historians was Robert Lloyd Praeger. Son of William Praeger of the Hague, a linen merchant, and Maria Patterson, daughter of Robert Patterson of Belfast, he was born 1st August 1865 in Holywood, County Down.

Cynthia Longfield (1896 - 1991)

Born in 1896, Cynthia Longfield came from an Anglo-Irish family. She and her sisters had an enchanting lifestyle, sharing their time between their Cork home at Castle Mary in Cloyne (18 miles from Cork city) and their London home.

Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971)

Kathleen Lonsdale (nee Yardley) was born on the 28th. January 1903 in Newbridge, Co.Kildare. She played a fundamental role in establishing the science of crystallography and found the planar hexagonal structure of benzene.

Alexander Mitchell (1780 – 1868)

Alexander Mitchell was born on 13 th April, 1780 in South William Street, Dublin. When he was young, he saw little of his father, who was an Inspector-General of British Barracks in Ireland.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

English mathematician and physicist who formulated the law of universal gravitation and was born in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England.

Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)

She was a famous nurse, of course. She also was an accomplished mathematician. She is the first person in the English speaking world to apply statistics to the study of public health. She is attributed to inventing the pie chart so beloved of business and government. However, she in fact invented a similar model, the Polar Area Model.

Professor Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh (1933 – 2000)

A physicist of international repute, Prof Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh died on November 18th 2000 aged 67. He was one of the world leaders in the theory of elementary particles. Like the institution he served, he was far better known outside Ireland than within.

Charles Parsons (1854 – 1931)

You could say that Charles Parsons changed the world. In 1884 he invented the steam turbine, making cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionising marine transport and naval warfare.

Mary Parsons (1813 - 1885)

Mary Parsons, the Countess of Rosse (as she became in 1841), was a pioneer photographer and a remarkable woman who added greatly to the estate at Birr, Co. Offaly.

William Parsons (1800 - 1867)

In the early 1840s, , using local labour, William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse, built what has been nicknamed the Leviathan of Parsonstown (Leviathan being a monster, and Parsonstown an old name for Birr).

Louis Pasteur (1822-95)

World-renowned French chemist and biologist, who founded the science of microbiology, proved the germ theory of disease, invented the process of pasteurization, and developed vaccines for several diseases, including rabies.

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

Beatrix Potter was born in England and lived there all her life. She is known today for her wonderful children's stories, especially Peter Rabbit.

Thomas Romney Robinson (1792-1882)

Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist, was born in Dublin on the 23rd April 1792. Educated at Dr Bruce’s Academy in Belfast and Trinity College Dublin, he became a fellow of the college in 1814 and lectured on natural philosophy for some years.

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923)

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany, as the only child of a merchant in, and manufacturer of, cloth. His mother was Charlotte Constanze Frowein of Amsterdam, a member of an old Lennep family which had settled in Amsterdam.

Derek Romer (1935 – 2004)

Derek Romer, an outstanding geologist who was responsible in 1970 for the discovery of Europe's largest lead-zinc deposit near Navan, has died recently at his home in Kilmaley, Co Clare.

George Salmon (1819 – 1904)

George Salmon's father, Michael Salmon, was a linen merchant while his mother was Helen Weekes, the daughter of the Reverend Edward Weekes. Michael and Helen Salmon had our children; George being their only son.

Ernest Shackleton (1874 - 1922)

A man of restless energy and a lover of adventure, Ernest Shackleton is famed for his initiative and endurance in exploring the Antarctic.

George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911)

George Johnstone Stoney was born in Oakley Park, Co. Offaly and was one of a group of Irish scientists who made significant contributions to the study of spectra.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824 - 1907)

William Thomson, who was knighted in 1866 and was raised to the peerage in 1892 (as Baron Kelvin of Largs) in recognition of his work in engineering and physics, was foremost among the small group of British scientists who helped to lay the foundations of modern physics.

Douglas Thornes (1926 – 2004)

Robert Douglas Thornes, who died recently, was a dedicated researcher in the science of medicine, who believed that the intuitive instinct should not be totally subservient to the scientific method that now governs medical research.

John Tyndall (1820-1893)

John Tyndall was born in Co. Carlow and he received his early education in Carlow before going to work for the Ordnance Survey, first in Ireland and later in England.

Ernest Walton (1903 – 1995)

Born in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, Ernest Walton entered Trinity College Dublin in 1922, where he had a distinguished career.

Mary Ward (1827 – 1869)

Mary Ward was born in Ballylin, near Ferbane, Co. Offaly in April 1827. She belonged to an aristocratic family and had two sisters and one brother. She was a first cousin of the famous astronomer Lord William Rosse and was a frequent visitor to his home at Birr Castle.

David Allerdice Webb (1912 – 1994)

David Webb was born in Dublin in 1912, educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College Dublin where he graduated four years later in Natural Sciences. He was well known and widely respected for his work on the classification of plants.

Frank Whittle (1907-1996)

Born into a working class family in Coventry, England, he had been fascinated by aviation since he was a young boy.

Frank Winder (1928– 2007)

Frank Winder, who has died aged 79, was a professor of biochemistry, a naturist, adventurer and a dedicated scholar who lived a tremendously energetic, inspiring and fruitful life.