Throughout history, some of the greatest inventors and scientists were born in April. Their contributions to science have transformed our understanding of the world. They inspire us to strive for better, question more, and trust our instincts to reach our goals. Hence, learn from these remarkable individuals and find out your passion.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Date of Birth: April 15, 1452
Profession: Italian polymath, painter, engineer, scientist, sculptor, and architect.
Notable Works: Vinci is recognized as the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture. His sketches of the flying machine and other scientific futuristic technologies often credit him with the invention of the parachute, and helicopter. Known as the greatest painter of all time, Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the iconic Vitruvian Man.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Although Leonardo da Vinci did not receive any awards during his lifetime, in 1975, the Rotary Club of Florence established the Leonardo da Vinci Award to recognize exceptional young people in the fields of science, technology, literature, and the arts.
Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty
Date of Birth: 4 April 1938
Profession: Indian American microbiologist, scientist, and researcher
Notable Works: Chakrabarty worked in the field of genetics, and he is known for his pivotal role in the genetic engineering of a new species of Pseudomonas bacteria in 1971. This achievement, which involved the development of oil-eating bacteria, represented a breakthrough in the field and paved the way for further research into genetics and nucleic acids.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Scientist of the Year Award by the Industrial Research Organisation of the United States (1975), Golden Eurydice Award (2007) and Padma Shri (2007).
Sir Carl Wilhelm Siemens
(anglicized to Charles William Siemens)
Date of Birth: April 4, 1823
Profession: German-British electrical engineer and businessman
Notable Works: In 1861 he patented an open-hearth furnace that was heated by gas produced from low-grade coal outside the furnace. This invention was first used in glassmaking
The Siemens cycle is a technique used to cool or liquefy gases; patented in 1857
In 1859 William Siemens devoted to electrical invention and research; and the number of telegraph apparatus of all sorts – telegraph cables, landlines– which have emanated from the Siemens Telegraph Works
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Bessemer Gold Medal (1875), Albert Medal (1874); Bakerian Medal (1871); FRS (1862)
Marie-Sophie Germain
Date of Birth: April 1, 1776
Profession: French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher
Notable Works: Germain’s work on Fermat’s Last Theorem laid a foundation for other mathematicians who were exploring the subject for years.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Germain was the first woman to win the Mathematics Prize awarded by the French Academy of Prizes.
Wilbur Wright
Date of Birth: April 16, 1867
Profession: American aviation pioneer
Notable Works: Wilbur with his brother, Orville Wright invented, built, and flew the world’s first successful motor-operated airplane, the Wright Flyer; pioneering the use of flight control systems for fixed-wing aircraft
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
Date of Birth: April 30, 1777
Profession: German mathematician and physicist
Notable Works: The Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, a book on number theory, was authored by Gauss who was only 21 years old at the time. His remarkable contributions to mathematics earned him the nickname of the greatest mathematician since ancient times. Among his many achievements, he formulated the Gauss Law of Magnetism and introduced the concept of degaussing.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Lalande Prize (1809) and Copley Medal (1838)
Robert Burns Woodward
Date of Birth: April 10, 1917
Profession: American organic chemist.
Notable Works: Woodward worked closely with Roald Hoffmann in synthesizing vitamin B-12; formulated the Woodward-Hoffmann Rules. He is known for the organic synthesizing of cholesterol and chlorophyll, Woodward cis-hydroxylation, and molecular structure determination.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: ForMemRs (1956), Davy Medal (1959), National Medal of Science (1964); Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1965), Willard Gibbs Award (1967), and Copley Medal (1978).
William Harvey
Date of Birth: April 1, 1578
Profession: English physician
Notable Works: He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and the rest of the body by the heart, though earlier writers.
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Several medical buildings and institutions are named after William Harvey
Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
Date of Birth: April 1, 1865
Profession: Austrian-born chemist; Nobel laureate.
Notable Works: He was researching colloids and co-inventing the slit-ultramicroscope and different membrane filters.
Zsigmondy improved his optical equipment for the observation of the finest nanoparticles suspended in a liquid solution. As a result, he introduced the immersion ultramicroscope in 1912.
Together with Wilhelm Bachmann, Zsigmondy developed a new membrane filter (1916).
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1925). The crater Zsigmondy on the Moon is named in his honour.
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
Date of Birth: April 1, 1933
Profession: French physicist; Nobel laureate.
Notable Works: He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms. Currently, he is still an active researcher, working at the École normale supérieure (Paris).
Prestigious Honours and Awards: Prix Paul Langevin (1963); Young Medal and Prize (1979)
Ampère Prize (1979); Lilienfeld Prize (1992); Matteucci Medal (1994); Harvey Prize (1996); Nobel Prize in Physics (1997)
Alain Connes
Date of Birth: April 1, 1947
Profession: French mathematician, theoretical physicist
Notable Works: Connes studies operator algebras. In his early work on von Neumann algebras in the 1970s. He also formulated the Connes embedding problem. Following this, he made contributions to operator K-theory and index theory, which culminated in the Baum–Connes conjecture. He also introduced cyclic cohomology in the early 1980s
Prestigious Honours and Awards: CNRS Silver Medal (1977); Prize Ampère (1980); Fields Medal (1982); Clay Research Award (2000); Crafoord Prize (2001); CNRS Gold Medal (2004)
This post first appeared on IDiyas Blog On Prolific Inventors And Their Inventions And Patents, please read the originial post: here