Great Catholic Scientists (last 60)

*Louis Pasteur (pastor) 1822–1895 France: chemist, biologist, father of microbiology, bacteriology, immunology & bacterial theory; developed pasteurization, the rabies vaccine & discovered the molecular basis for crystal asymmetry; a man of deep, simple devotion

Lorenzo Respighi (respite) 1824–1889 Italy: mathematician, astronomer; notable because of his observation of the corona, spectroscopy & scintillation of stars, the discovery of 3 comets & making a catalog of the absolute declinations of 2534 northern stars; a lunar crater is named after him; lost appointments because of his faith

Bl Francesco Faà di Bruno (brown) 1825–1888 Italy: priest, leading mathematician, musician; contributed to elimination theory & elliptic functions; the Faa-di-Bruno formula is named after him; founder of the Minor sisters of St Zita and a friend of the poor

Armand David 1826–1900 France: lazarist priest, missionary, zoologist, botanist; discovered many new species; Fr David's tit, Fr David's deer & Davidia involucrata named after him 

Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan 1838–1922 France: mathematician; helped to found group theory, generally important in physics, and wrote the first book on it; pioneer in linear algebra, mathematical analysis, and topology (e.g. introduced 'homotopy');  proved the Jordan Theorem; received the Prix Poncelet of the Académie des sciences, inducted into the Légion d'Honneur; member of the Société scientifique de Bruxelles of catholic scientists 

Jozef Štefan 1835–1893 Austria: physicist and mathematician; discovered the Stefan-Boltzmann Law (or Stefan’s Law, Boltzmann was his student), contributed to heat conduction, diffusion, evaporation, and phase transitions; a.o. the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, Stefan flow, Stefan problem, Stefan equation, Stefan formula, and Stefan number named after him, as well as the famous research center Institut Jozef Štefan in Slovenia; considered becoming a Benedictine priest before choosing science

Joseph Valentin Boussinesq 1842–1929 France: mathematician and physicist; pioneer of fluid dynamics and turbulence; largely self-taught and by his uncle, a priest; famously explained a 'solitary wave' or 'soliton' by deriving the Boussinesq equations, now the basis of most ocean circulation models, and a famous simplification 'the Korteweg-de Vries equation'; devout catholic, a leader of the Société scientifique de Bruxelles of catholic scientists 

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen 1845–1923 Germany: physicist; discovered X-rays & received the first physics Nobel prize for it

Julius Fényi 1845–1927 Hungary: Jesuit priest and astronomer; extensively observed the sun for nearly forty years; spectroscopically studied solar prominences and showed a connection of them with sunspots

Wilhelm Karl Joseph Killing 1847–1923 Germany: mathematician; contributed to Lie groups, Lie algebras (which he independently discovered, and classified), and non-Euclidean geometry; discovered the Cartan subalgebra and the Cartan matrix before Cartan; a.o. Killing vector, Killing spinor, Killing tensor, Killing equation, Killing horizon, Killing form, and the Killing-Hopf theorem named after him; devout catholic and Third Order Franciscan

Giuseppe Mercalli 1850–1914 Italy: volcanologist, seismologist and priest; invented the scale of Mercalli, an alternative to the Richter scale; developed an accurate registration system for  earthquakes before a volcanic eruption; made the first seismological map of Italy; named the syndrome of Mercalli, the unexplainable animal nervosity before an earthquake; taught St Giuseppe Moscati (see below) and the later P Pius XI

1900–1960 AD

Henry Louis le Chatelier (castle-steward) 1850–1936 France: chemist; researched industrial chemistry, metallurgy, cements, and the combustion and explosion of mixtures of gases; discovered the fundamental Le Chatelier’s Principle for systems in equilibrium, also physical and economic ones; Grand officier in the Légion d'honneur & ardent catholic  

Santiago Ramon y Cajal 1852–1934 Spain: physician, anatomy professor, founder of neurobiology; his work on the structure of the nervous system earned him the Nobel Prize for medicine; later returned to his catholic roots

Gregorio Ricci(-Corbastro) (curly) 1853–1925 Italy: mathematician; co- developed the field of tensor calculus, particularly important for the General Theory of Relativity; the Ricci curvature tensor and Ricci scalar curvature named after him; his faith was his comfort and sure guide

Paul Sabatier (shoemaker) 1854–1941 France: chemist; contributed to catalytic organic chemistry that revolutionized industrial chemical production and academic research and earned him the Nobel Prize; the Sabatier Reaction and Sabatier Principle named after him; a life-long, pious catholic

Jean-Baptiste Senderens (transmitter) 1856–1937 France: priest and chemist; pioneer in catalytic chemistry with Paul Sabatier; got the Jecker Prize of the French Academy of Sciences for discovering the Sabatier-Senderens Process e.g. for making margarine; also discovered how to produce major types of natural petroleum 

Charles Émile Picard (hacker) 1856–1941 France: mathematician; contributed to complex analysis, differential equations, function theory, and the theory of algebraic surfaces; the Picard theorems in complex analysis, the Picard group, Picard-Vessiot theory, the Picard-Lefschetz formula, and the Picard-Lindelöf theorem all named after him; believing and practicing catholic

Frederick Louis Odenbach 1857–1933 USA: Jesuit; father of american seismology, inventor of the ceraunograph & electric seismograph; founder of the Jesuit seismological service

Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem 1861–1916 France: physicist, mathematical, historian & philosopher of science; known for his work on experimental indeterminacy & medieval science to show its support by the church; contributed significantly to hydrodynamics, elasticity & thermodynamics; the Gibbs-Duhem relationship, the Duhem-Margules equation & the Duhem-Quine theses are named after him

Charles Jean de la Vallée Poussin (chick) 1866–1962 Belgium: mathematician; contributed to number theory and analysis, and proved the Prime Number Theorem; first president of the International Mathematical Union; supervised Georges Lemaître's  masters thesis; devout Catholic; leader in the Sociêtê Scientifique de Bruxelles which promoted the harmony of science and faith; speeched at the inauguration of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

François Auguste Victor Grignard (winker) 1871–1935 France: chemist; discovered the Grignard reaction for the synthesis of organic molecules which earned him the Nobel Prize; the Grignard reagent named after him; got the Lavoisier Medal and was Commandeur in the Légion d’Honneur; returned to his faith later in life, he "overcame his earlier ignorance” 

Alexis Carrel (crossbow-bolt) 1873–1944 France: surgeon and biologist; pioneer of vein bonding, invented the perfusion pump (key for organ transplants) & received the medicine Nobel Prize; returned later to his catholic roots

Gilbert Keith Chesterton 1874–1936 England: philosopher, writer, theologian, poet, dramatist, journalist, public speaker, literary & art critic, biographer & apologist; 'the prince of paradox,' 'man of colossal genius,' 'greatest thinker of the 20th century;' convert, knight commander with star of the papal order of St Gregory the Great; a mercury crater is named after him

Wilhelmus Hendrikus Keesom 1876–1956 Texel (NL): physics professor in Leiden; produced solid helium and discovered the Lambda point; member at the foundation of the Academia Pontificia & devout catholic

Henri Breuil (woodland) 1877–1961 France: Sulpician priest and archaeologist; the authority on prehistoric cave art, 'Pope of Prehistory;' wrote "Four Hundred Centuries of Cave Art," was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal by the American National Academy of Sciences

Julius Aloysius Nieuwland (new-land) 1878–1936 Belgium/USA: Holy Cross priest, chemistry & botany professor; his lifelong interest in acetylene created lewisite & synthetic rubber (neoprenic)

St Giuseppe Moscati (grape) 1880–1927 Italy: biochemist, physiologist and medical doctor; anticipated Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Pathology and the modern laboratory in the oncological field; dedicated his life to helping the sick

James B Macelwane 1883–1956 USA: Jesuit, pioneering seismologist; the Macelwane medal for promising young geophysicists & the Macelwane scholarship are named after him

Victor Francis Hess 1883–1964 Austria/USA: physicist; discovered cosmic rays which inaugurated the fields of Cosmic Ray Physics and Astroparticle Physics, and got the Nobel Prize for it; a devout catholic

Hugh Stott Taylor 1890–1974 England: chemist; contributed to catalytic reactions and the structure of proteins; awarded the American Chemical Society’s Remsen Award and the Franklin Institute’s Franklin Medal; knighted by Queen Elizabeth; a devout catholic, outspoken on the harmony between science and faith; Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great 

Corneille Jean François Heymans 1892–1968 Belgium: pharmacologist and medical researcher; discovered the mechanisms for the regulation of blood pressure and respiration important for anesthesia, emergency and intensive care, and the treatment of circulatory and respiratory disorders; this earned him the Nobel Prize; was president of the International Union of Physiological Sciences and the International Council of Pharmacology; also active in a Flemish Catholic student organization, member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences; awarded the Pius XI Medal and the title of Commander of the Knightly Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

Harold Calvin Marston Morse 1892–1977 USA: mathematician; contributed to variational calculus and topology, and developed Morse theory; worked at Princeton, the world's top mathematical institute, from 1935 to his retirement; received the National Medal of Science and was president of the American Mathematical Society; was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star for bravery in WWI; deeply religious convert, the Vatican's representative at a UN conference

*George HJE Lemaître (the master) 1896–1963 Belgium: Jesuit, mathematician, astronomer, physics professor & prelate in the papal household; father of cosmology; derived Hubble's law, estimated Hubble's constant & proposed the big bang theory; Lemaître coordinates, a lunar crater and an asteroid are named after him

Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori 1896–1957 Czech Republic: jewish convert, biochemist; first american woman who won a Nobel prize (for medicine, with her husband) for clarifying the carbohydrate metabolism; the Cori cycle, Cori ester & craters on the moon and Venus are named after her

Albert Claude (lame) 1899–1983 Belgium: professor of medicine; his pioneering work on modern cell biology earned him a Nobel prize for medicine

Enrico Fermi (firm) 1901–1954 Italy: physicist; contributed to quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics & statistical mechanics; excelled both theoretically and experimentally; received the physics Nobel prize for induced radioactivity & transuranic elements; Fermi statistics, the fermion, a particle accelerator, space telescope & element are named after him; non-practicing catholic

*John von Neumann (newman?!) 1903–1957 Hungary: jewish convert, pure & applied mathematician, physicist & inventor; contributed to the quantum foundations, hydrodynamics (of explosions), nuclear physics, ergodic theory, statistics, computer theory, cellular automata, the universal constructor, linear programming, stochastic arithmetic, self-replicating machines, game theory, functional analysis, group theory, topology, numerical analysis, geometry & economy; vN-Bernays-Gödel group theory, vN algebra, vN architecture, vN entropy, vN bicommuting theorem, vN conjecture, vN programming languages, vN regular circuit, vN universal constructor, vN universe, vN's trace inequality & a lunar crater are all named after him; returned to his faith in the end

After 1960 AD

John Eccles (church) 1903–1997 Australia: neuro-physiologist; received the medicine Nobel prize for his work on the synapse; wrote about the mind–brain problem; believer, yet not always practicing catholic

Miriam Michael Stimson (stone settlement) 1913–2002 USA: chemist & Dominican nun; contributed to the structure of the DNA molecule by means of spectroscopy, and developed a prepation technique with potassium bromide; studied wound-healing hormones leading to "Preparation H"; second woman ever to lecture at the Sorbonne (after Marie Curie)

John A O'Keefe (gentle) 1916–2000 USA: planetary scientist & geodesist at NASA; godfather of astrogeology; suggested the scanning microscope, discovered the terrestrial 'pear shape' & the YORP effect, developed the tektite theory & the lunar scientific program; practicing catholic

Bertram N Brockhouse 1918–2003 Canada: physicist; pioneer of neutron scattering techniques and developed neutron spectroscopy; got the Nobel Prize for it; first an agnostic, later an anglican, and finally a catholic  

Clemens CJ Roothaan (red-cock) 1918–2019 Netherlands/USA: physicist; developed a method for calculating atomic and molecular wave functions leading to the Hartree-Fock-Roothaan equations and helped develop supercomputers; involvement in the Dutch Resistance in WWII got him imprisoned in concentration camps; returned to the practice of his faith at the end, which made his wife convert from a Jewish background

Clyde Cowan 1919–1974 USA: physicist; co-discoverer of neutrinos for which the Nobel prize was awarded long after his death; devout & active catholic, member of a.o. the Knights of Columbus

Joseph Edward Murray (sea-settlement) 1919–2012 USA; surgeon; pioneer in organ and cell transplantation which earned him the Nobel Prize; devout life-long catholic, titled his autobiography: Surgery of the Soul

Stephanie L Kwolek (prized) 1923–2014 USA: chemist; invented Kevlar (poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide), a lightweight, heat-resistant, and extremely strong material widely used e.g. in bullet-proof vests; received a.o. the Lavoisier Medal & ASC's Perkin Medal; lifelong practicing Catholic 

Ennio de Giorgi (farmer) 1928–1996 Italy: mathematician; solved one of the Hilbert's Problems related to the calculus of variations; only eight others (of 23) have been solved since 1900; also solved Bernstein’s Problem; received the Wolf Prize in mathematics; wrote of himself as catholic

Edith Marie Flanigen (ruddy) b.1929 USA: chemist; developed zeolites for use as molecular sieves (important in refining petroleum) and synthetic emeralds for use in masers; holds 109 patents, received the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (from the US president); life-long catholic and daily communicant

*Charles Kuen Kao (depend on) 1933–2018 Hong Kong: electrical engineer and physicist; 'father of optical communication'; revolutionalised telecommunications through optical fibers and got the Nobel Prize for it as well as a knighthood; converted after attending a Jesuit school and organized theological debates in college; a humble and cheerful man

*Nicola Cabibbo 1935–2010 Italy: theoretical particle physicist; developed the Cabibbo theory of Weak force quark interaction, now part of the Standard Model; Cabibbo angle and Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix named after him; should have gotten the Nobel Prize with the two Japanese; received a.o. the P.A.M. Dirac Medal and the Benjamin Franklin Medal; devout catholic and president of the Pontifical Academy of Science

Xavier le Pichon (little dove) b.1937 France: geophysicist; proved the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift through his comprehensive computer model; received the Maurice Ewing Medal from the American Geophysical Union and the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London; devout lifelong catholic, raised his six children at the original L'Arche community

Stanley Jaki 1924–2009 Hungary: Benedictine priest, theologian & physicist; contributed to the philosophy & history of science; got the Templeton prize for that; "christianity played a key role for science”

*Bl Jérôme JLM Lejeune (the youth) 1926–1994 France: pediatrician & geneticist; father of modern genetics; discovered the genetic causes of Down's syndrome; received the William-Allan award; pro-life testimonies cost him the Nobel prize

Michal Kazimierz Heller (brighter) b.1936 Poland: priest, mathematical cosmologist & philosophy professor; seeks unification of general relativity & quantum mechanics through non-commuting geometry; Templeton prize winner 

Anthony James Leggett (representative) b.1938 Great Britain: physicist; world leader in low temperatures physics theory, got the physics Nobel prize for superfluidity; does not practice his faith

Peter Andreas Grünberg (green-mountain) 1939–2018 Bohemia: received the physics Nobel prize for the giant magnetoresistance effect (key to large data storage)

Anton Zeilinger b.1945 Austria: pioneer of modern quantum physics; received the Nobel prize in 2022 for his research on quantum-entanglement; practicing catholic 

Michael J Behe ​​b.1952 USA: biochemistry professor; introduced the irreducible complexity argument, author of "Darwin's Black box” & “The edge of evolution”; deeply religious catholic

Stephen M Barr b.1953 USA: physics & astronomy professor; contributed to large unification theories, CP violation & baryogenesis; author of ”Modern Physics and ancient Faith"; practicing catholic

*Brian Kobilka b.1955 USA: physician & medicine professor; his work on cell receptors (the key to drug development) got him a chemistry Nobel prize already 1 year later(!); practicing catholic

Carlo WJ Beenakker (leg-field) b.1960 The Netherlands: physics professor in quantum informatics; winner of the Physica prize & NWO/Spinoza price; published ~400 articles with Hirsch index ~100; board member of the Niels-Stensen foundation & practicing catholic