health science

Rene Laennec

French musician who invented the stethoscope in 1816.

Clara Barton

American Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross.

Ben Carson

American neurosurgeon known for the first successful separation of conjoined twins.

Louis Pasteur

French scientist who invented pasteurization and the rabies vaccine.

Florence Nightingale

Founder of modern nursing and manager/trainer of nurses during the Crimean War.

Gregor Mendel

Known as the father of genetics for discovering inheritance.

Edward Jenner

Recognized as the father of vaccines for creating the smallpox vaccine.

Hippocrates

Known as the father of modern medicine; introduced the concept of humors.

Joseph Murray

Performed the first successful human kidney transplant.

Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins

Discovered growth-stimulating vitamins.

William Kouwenhoven

Invented the defibrillator and closed chest cardiac massage.

William Harvey

Correctly described blood circulation.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Discovered X-rays.

Watson and Crick

Identified DNA as a 3-D double helix structure.

Frederick Banting

Invented/discovered insulin.

Alexander Fleming

Discovered penicillin.

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek

Discovered microorganisms, referred to as animalcules.

James Lind

Found that citrus cured scurvy.

Henry Heimlich

Developed the Heimlich maneuver.

William Morton

Discovered ether as anesthesia.

James Blundell

Treated hemorrhage.

Joseph Lister

Prevented infection in wounds pre- and post-surgery.

Karl Landsteiner

Discovered major blood groups.

Elizabeth Blackwell

First woman to graduate from medical school and opened a women's medical college in New York.

Robert Jarvik

Invented the permanently plantable artificial heart, Jarvik 7.

William Hounsfield

Known as the father of CAT/CT scans.

Ignaz Semmelweis

Introduced antisepsis and discovered the cause of childhood fever; known as the "hand washing guy."

Marie Curie

Discovered radium and polonium and contributed to cancer treatment.

Robert Gallo & Luc Montagnier

Discovered the AIDS virus.

Sir Humphry Davy & Horace Wells

Discovered the use of nitrous oxide to prevent pain during dental and surgical procedures; Wells was the first dentist to use it.