List of Scottish scientists

Last updated September 01, 2023

This is a list of notable scientists born in Scotland or associated with Scotland, as part of the List of Scots series.

Scientist	Lifespan	Primary field	Note
Thomas Addison	1793-1860	physician	nephrology pioneer
James Edward Tierney Aitchison	1836–1898	botanist	surgeon; collected plants in India and Afghanistan
John Aitken	1839–1919	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
John Campbell Brown	1947-2019	astronomer	Investigated Solar physics
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
Malcolm H. Chisholm	1945-2015	Organometallic chemist	Contributed to the synthesis and structural chemistry of transition metal complexes
Phillip Clancey	1917–2001	ornithologist	ornithology pioneer
A. Catrina Coleman	born 1956	physicist: Semiconductor lasers	Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas
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
Sir Alexander Fleming	1881–1955	microbiologist	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945
John Fleming	1785–1857	naruralist	person after whom Fleming Fjord is named
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
Alexander King	1909–2007	chemist	co-founder of the Club of Rome and pioneer of sustainable development
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	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 Macleod	1876–1935	biochemist, physiologist	Nobel Prize laureate, 1923
John George Macleod	1915–2006	physician	author of medical books
William Maclure	1760–1843	geologist
Sheina Marshall	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
Marjorie Ritchie	1948–2015	animal researcher	part of the team who first cloned a mammal (Dolly the sheep) from an adult cell
Muriel Robertson	1883–1973	protozoologist and bacteriologist	Made key discoveries of the life cycle of trypanosomes
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
Robert Stirling	1790–1878	engineer, clergyman	inventor of the Stirling engine
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
Andrew White Young	1891–1968	mathematician	researched temperature seiches in Loch Earn and presented on Mathieu function and Lagrange polynomials

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