The following is a list of people who are considered a "father" or "mother" (or "founding father" or "founding mother") of a scientific field. Such people are generally regarded to have made the first significant contributions to and/or delineation of that field; they may also be seen as "a" rather than "the" father or mother of the field. Debate over who merits the title can be perennial.
Science as a whole Field Person/s RationaleScience (modern) Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)Pamela Gossin, Encyclopedia of Literature and Science, 2002.Isaac Newton (1643–1727) For systemic use of experimentation in science and contributions to scientific method, physics and observational astronomy. The work of Principia by Newton, who also refined the scientific method, and who is widely regarded as the most important figure of the Scientific Revolution. Science (ancient)Thales (c. 624/623 – c. 548/545 BCE)Attempted to explain natural phenomena without recourse to mythology
Natural sciences Biology Field Person/s Rationale Zoology Aristotle (384–322 BCE) His contributions to the field include vast quantities of information about the variety, structure, and behavior of animals Bacteriology Robert Koch (1843–1910)Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898)Drews G. (1999). "Ferdinand Cohn, a Founder of Modern Microbiology". ASM News 65 (8).Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) First to produce precise, correct descriptions of bacteria. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) Biogeography Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) "... Often described as the Father of Biogeography, Wallace shows the impact of human activity on the natural world." Bioinformatics Margaret Oakley Dayhoff (1925–1983) "... the mother and father of bioinformatics", according to David J. Lipman, former director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Biology Aristotle (384–322 BCE) Botany Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BCE) Otto Brunfels (1488–1534)Hieronymus Bock (1498–1554)Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566) The three German fathers of botany. Bryology Johann Hedwig (1730–1799) Cheloniology Archie Carr (1909–1987) Ecology Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) Eugenius Warming (1841–1924) Linnaeus founded an early branch of ecology that he called The Economy of Nature (1772), Haeckel coined the term "ecology" (German: Oekologie, Ökologie) (1866), Warming authored the first book on plant ecology. Plantesamfund (1895). Modern elk management Olaus Murie (1889–1963) Entomology Jan Swammerdam (1637–1680) Johan Christian Fabricius (1745–1808) Fabricius described and published information on over 10,000 insects and refined Linnaeus's system of classification. William Kirby (1759–1850) Ethology Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988)Karl von Frisch (1886–1982) Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, joint awardees of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Charles Darwin (1809–1882)Moore, James (2006), "Evolution and Wonder - Understanding Charles Darwin", Speaking of Faith (Radio Program), American Public Media, < On the Origin of Species (1859). Genetics Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) For his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants, which forms the basis for Mendelian inheritance William Bateson (1861–1926) Proponent of Mendelism.p. 91, Theory change in science: strategies from Mendelian genetics, Lindley Darden, Oxford University Press US, 1991, . Gerontology Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916) Coined the term "gerontology" (1903). He was the first to perform systematic research on the effects of certain foods on lifespan and healthspan, developed the concept of probiotic diet that promotes long healthy life. Herpetology John Edwards Holbrook (1796–1871) "John Edwards Holbrook... was considered by many to be the Father of Herpetology."Worthington, R. D.; Worthington, P. H. (1976). "John Edwards Holbrook, father of American herpetology". pp. xiii–xxvii. '''''In'':''' Holbrook J. E. ''North American Herpetology'' ... [second edition, 1842], reprint edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology series. Ichthyology Peter Artedi (1705–1735) "Far greater than either of these... was he who has been justly called the Father of Ichthyology, Petrus (Peter) Artedi (1705–1735).", online at Google Books, p. 390. Immunology Edward Jenner (1749–1823) Pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine (in 1796). Innate (natural) immunity Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916) Research of phagocytosis by macrophages and microphages as a critical host-defense mechanism. Humoral immunity Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) Described the side-chain theory of antibody formation and the mechanisms of how antibodies neutralize toxins and induce bacterial lysis with the help of complement. Lichenology Erik Acharius (1757–1819) "Erik Acharius, the father of lichenology..."Department of Cryptogamic Botany at the Swedish Museum of Natural History (1999-12-17). Microbiology Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) / Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)Madigan M., Martinko J. (editors) (2006). Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 11th ed., Prentice Hall. The first to microscopically observe micro-organisms in water and the first to see bacteria. Molecular biology Linus Pauling (1901–1994) Molecular biophysics Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran (1922–2001) Founded the [world's first?] molecular biophysics unit (1970). Paleontology Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) Parasitology Francesco Redi (1626–1697) The founder of experimental biology and the first person to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies. Population genetics Ronald A. Fisher, Sewall Wright, J. B. S. Haldane Protozoology Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723)p. 18, Foundations in microbiology: basic principles, Kathleen Park Talaro, 6th ed., international ed., McGraw-Hill, 2007, . First to produce precise, correct descriptions of protozoa. Quantitative genetics Ronald A. Fisher Taxonomy Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778)Hovey, Edmund Otis, "The Bicentenary of the Birth of Carolus Linnaeus", New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1908. Devised the system of naming living organisms that became universally accepted in the scientific world. Virology Martinus Beijerinck (1851–1931)Chung, King-Thom and Ferris, Deam Hunter (1996). Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851–1931): pioneer of general microbiology. AMS News 62, 539–543. Studies of agricultural microbiology and industrial microbiology that yielded fundamental discoveries.
Chemistry Field Person/s Rationale Atomic theory (early) Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BCE) Founder of atomism in cosmology. Atomic theory (modern) Father Roger Boscovich (1711–1787)Woods, Thomas. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, pp. 4, 107. (Washington, DC: Regenery, 2005); . First coherent description of atomic theory. John Dalton (1766–1844) First scientific description of the atom as a building block for more complex structures. Atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) Served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in overseeing the development of the first nuclear weapons. Chemical thermodynamics (modern) Gilbert Lewis (1875–1946)Willard Gibbs (1839–1903)Merle Randall (1888–1950)Edward Guggenheim (1901–1970) Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances (1923) and Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs (1933), which made a major contribution to the use of thermodynamics in chemistry. Chemistry (modern) Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) Elements of Chemistry (1787) Robert Boyle (1627–1691) The Sceptical Chymist (1661) Jöns Berzelius (1779–1848)Berzelius, Jöns (1779–1848) - Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific BiographyJons Jacob - Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2007-08-02 Development of chemical nomenclature (1800s) John Dalton (1766–1844) Revival of atomic theory (1803) Green chemistry Paul Anastas (born 1962) Design and manufacture of chemicals that are non-hazardous and environmentally benign. Nuclear chemistry Otto Hahn (1879–1968)O. Hahn and F. Strassmann Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle (On the detection and characteristics of the alkaline earth metals formed by irradiation of uranium with neutrons), Naturwissenschaften Volume 27, Number 1, 11–15 (1939). The authors were identified as being at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie, Berlin-Dahlem. Received 1938-12-22. Periodic table Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907)Chemistry Contexts. by Irwin, D; Farrelly, R; Garnett, P. Longman Sciences, (2001) Arranged the sixty-six elements known at the time in order of atomic weight by periodic intervals (1869). Physical chemistry Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) The first to read lectures in physical chemistry and coin the term (1752). Jacobus van 't Hoff (1852–1911) Jacobus van 't Hoff is considered one of the founders of the discipline of physical chemistry. His work helped found the discipline as it is today. Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927) Devised much of the theoretical foundation for physical chemistry. On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876), Thermodynamik chemischer Vorgange (1882). Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) "Wilhelm Ostwald is considered one of the founders of the discipline of physical chemistry..." Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) Theory of Chemical structure August Kekulé (1829–1896) Discovered the structure of the benzene ring (1865) and pioneered structural chemistry in general
Earth sciences Field Person/s Rationale Geochemistry (modern) Victor Goldschmidt (1888–1947) For developing the Goldschmidt classification of elements. Early geodesy (mathematical geography) Eratosthenes (c. 276 – 195/194 BCE)p. 12, Plotting the globe: stories of meridians, parallels, and the international date line, Avraham Ariel and Nora Ariel Berger, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, .p. 389, "Eratosthenes", D. R. Dicks, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles Coulston Gillispie, vol. 4, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. Eratosthenes was first to write the word Geography (from Geo- and -graphy, literally "writing about the Earth") Geodesy (modern) Al-Biruni (973 – c. 1050)Ahmed, Akbar S. (1984). "Al-Beruni: The First Anthropologist". RAIN. 60 (60): 9–10. Geology (modern) Georgius Agricola (1494–1555)Wrote the first book on physical geology, De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum (1546) Nicolas Steno (1638–1686)Woods, Thomas. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, pp. 4, 96. (Washington, DC: Regenery, 2005); . For setting down most of the principles of modern geology. James Hutton (1726–1797)Jack Repcheck: The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity. London and Cambridge, Massachusetts: Simon & Schuster (2003). For formulating uniformitarianism and the Plutonic theory. Geotechnical engineering (Soil mechanics) Karl von Terzaghi (1883–1963)B. M. Das, Principles of Geotechnical Engineering, Cengage Learning, 2010, p. 7 Limnology (modern) G. Evelyn Hutchinson (1903–1991) Mineralogy Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873) Plate tectonics Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) Acoustical oceanography Leonid Brekhovskikh (1917–2005) Stratigraphy Nicolas Steno (1638–1686) Speleology Édouard-Alfred Martel (1859–1938) Began the first systematic exploration of cave systems and promoted speleology as a field separate from geology.
Medicine and physiology