Great Catholic Scientists (next 48)


*Blaise Pascal (easter) 1623–1662 France: philosopher, mathematician & physicist; invented the theory of probability, projective geometry & the mechanical calculator; contributed to hydrostatics, number theory & the communication of sound (at 12!); the unit of pressure, a programming language & Pascal's triangle are named after him; a very religious catholic
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (little oak) 1625–1712 Italy: observational astronomer; discovered four of Saturn’s moons, the Cassini Division, the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, explained zodiacal light and measured the size of the Solar System; set up the Paris Observatory, and was its director until his death; the Cassini space probe named after him; wrote a manuscript on the Immaculate Conception for it to be celebrated as a special feast
Marcello Malpighi (badly pressed) 1628–1694 Italy: microscope pioneer, made many important discoveries in anatomy, histology, physiology, and embryology e.g. capillaries; many parts of animals and plants named after him; first Italian member of the Royal Society of London and papal physician 
*Bl Niels Stensen (stone-son) 1638–1686 Denmark: convert, bishop, father of geology & stratigraphy; pioneer of anatomy (brain, heart, nervous system, Stensen conductor); widely known for helping the poor

1700–1800 AD
Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri 1667–1733 Italy: Jesuit priest & mathematician; discovered many theorems of non-Euclidean geometry 100 years before the discovery of the field; the Saccheri Quadrilateral named after him
Giovanni Battista Morgagni 1682–1771 Italy: father of modern pathology; aortic synapse, columns of Morgagni, foramina of Morgagni, hydatid of Morgagni & Morgagni's hernias are named after him; eight daughters became nuns & a son a respected Jesuit and scientist
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis 1698–1759 France: philosopher & mathematician; director of the (French) Academy of Sciences & 1st president of the Berlin Academy of Sciences; formulated the principle of the least action & hoped to prove God's existence by unifying the laws of the universe 
Vincenzo Riccati (rich) 1707–1775 Italy: mathematician, physicist & Jesuit priest; introduced and named the hyperbolic functions in his treatise Opusculorum ad res physicas et mathematicas pertinentium; the catenary curve of a freely suspended chain is a everyday example; BTW the Riccati equation is named after his father and his younger brother was the first to measure the Young’s modulus, 25 years before Thomas Young
Georges-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon (Count above) 1707–1788 France: naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist; wrote a 36-volume encyclopedia about the natural world; ”father of all the thinking in natural history in the 2nd half of the 18th century;” showed the electric nature of lightning; Buffon's needle is named after him
Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich (son of God) 1711–1787 Croatia: Jesuit, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, poet, diplomat & important advisor to the pope; made sure the decision against Copernicus was dropped; contributed to the shape of the earth, gravity, the orbit of comets & church designs; "inventor of modern atomism" according to Mendeleev
Christian Mayer (greater) 1719–1783 Czech Republic: Jesuit, astronomer & teacher; pioneer in the study of binary stars; a lunar crater is named after him
Lazzaro Spalanzani (wide open) 1729–1799 Italy: priest, biologist, physiologist; did volcanic research, classical regeneration studies & famous research on spermatozoa; co-founder of modern volcanology and meteorology; deeply religious
Jan Ingen-Housz (young-house)1730–1799 The Netherlands: physicist, plant physiologist & personal physician of the austrian empress; discovered photosynthesis, cell respiration & Brownian motion
Charles-Auguste de Coulomb (dove) 1736–1806 France: physicist; worked on electricity & friction; Coulomb's law & de unit of charge are named after him
Luigi Galvani (cheerful drunkard?) 1737–1798 Italy: anatomist, physiologist, physician; famous for his experiments with bioelectricity; the Galvanic cell is named after him; persecuted because of his faith
*Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (the neighbour) 1743–1794 France: chemist, economist, philosopher; father of chemistry and quantitative analysis & introduced the standard notation; became tax collector to be able to do more science & stimulated agricultural and industrial developments to help the lower classes; beheaded with a crucifix in his hand
René-Just Haüy (beech tree) 1743–1822 France: priest and mineralogist; 'father of modern crystallography,' gave a systematic geometric classification of all then-known minerals; imprisoned during the French Revolution
Alessandro Volta (vault) 1745–1827 Italy: professor of physics, studied atmospheric electricity; invented the electrophore & voltaic battery, which is named after him, just like the unit for electromotive force, the Volt
Guiseppi Piazzi (town square) 1746–1826 Italy: theatine monk, astronomer, theology & mathematics professor; discovered the first asteroid Ceres, published catalogs containing seven thousand stars
Thaddäus Derfflinger (town-person) 1748–1824 Austria: astronomer and Benedictine monk; made continuous observations of sunspots from 1802 onwards around the so-called Dalton Minimum from which astronomers recently could draw important conclusions
Pierre-Simon Laplace (the place) 1749–1827 France: mathematician, astronomer, politician; 'the Newton of France,' showed the stability of the solar system; Laplace coefficients, Laplace equation, Laplace transformation & Laplace differential operators are all named after him; died after receiving the last rites
Barnaba Oriani 1752–1832 Italy: Barnabit priest & astronomer; calculated the orbit & element table of Uranus; the asteroid Oriani is named after him
Fausto de Elhuyar y de Suvisa (Swiss) 1755–1833 Spain: mineralogist & chemist; wrote about the theory of amalgamation; best known for separating & naming tungsten, an important element used in high-speed steel

1800–1900 AD
Pierre-André Latreille (vine) 1762–1833 France: priest, zoologist, founder of modern entomology; grouped generations in families; sentenced to death in the revolution, but saved by finding a new species of beetle(!?)
Jean-Baptist Biot 1774–1862 France: physicist, astronomer & mathematician; helped to standardize the meter, went up in a balloon to study the atmosphere; discovered the laws of circular polarization & birefringence of light; the Biot number of heat conduction is named after him
André-Marie Ampère 1775–1836 France: physicist, mathematician, chemist & zoologist; founder of electrodynamics through the discovery of the law of force between currents; the unit of electric current is named after him
Amadeo Avogadro 1776–1830 Italy: Count, chemist, physicist & canon law scholar; most known for his contributions to molecular theory; Avogadro's gas law, Avogadro's constant & a lunar crater are named after him
Guiseppe Zamboni (good-John) 1776–1846 Italy: priest & physicist; invented the dry battery used in the electrostatic clock & in the Oxford electric bell since 1840
René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec 1781–1826 France: physician; invented the stethoscope, indispensable in medicine since, and wrote his magnum opus De l’auscultation médiate ou Traité du Diagnostic des Maladies des Poumon et du Coeur about it; deeply devout
Bernhard Bolzano (odd) 1781–1848 Bohemia: priest, mathematician & philosopher; his theory of parallel lines anticipated Legendre, co-developer of the theory of functions of one real variable, made remarkable additions to the theory of differentiation, to the concept of infinity and to the binomial theorem
Jacques Philippe Marie Binet (little pine) 1786–1856 France: mathematician, physicist and astronomer; contributed to number theory and gave the rule for matrix multiplication; Binet’s Theorem, the Binet-Cauchy identity, the Cauchy-Binet formula, and the Binet equation named after him; president of the Académie de Sciences; modest and devout
Michel Eugène Chevreul (roe deer) 1786–1889 France: chemist; researched fats and oils which revolutionized the manufacture of soaps and candles; connected diabetes with glucose; pioneer of color perception (useful to Van Gogh:) & gerontology (study of aging); received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society of London; devout catholic, spoke for religion and against reductionist science 
Joseph von Fraunhofer (women court) 1787–1826 Bavaria: physicist; invented the modern spectroscope and the diffraction spectroscope; discovered the Fraunhofer lines in the sun’s (and other stars') spectrum which inaugurated stellar spectroscopy and thus modern astrophysics; a thoroughly loyal adherent to catholicism
Augustin-Jean Fresnel 1788–1827 France: physicist; confirmed the wave theory of light, extended the theory of double diffraction, formulated the interference laws of polarized light and developed the Fresnel theory; revolutionized lenses of lighthouses; deeply religious
*Antoine-Cesar Becquerel (wooden-vessel turner?) 1788–1878 France: physicist; published 500+ articles on electricity, electrochemistry & thermoelectricity; developed the electric thermometer; his son Alexandre Edmont, grandson Antoine-Henri (1852–1908) & great-grandson Jean Becquerel were also physicists; Antoine-Henri started the study of radioactivity, got the unit of radiation named after him & a Nobel Prize for it; declared: his "very researches led him back to God and to the faith"
*Augustin-Louis Cauchy (horseman?) 1789–1857 France: mathematician; founder of complex analysis and initiated the study of permutation groups; proved a theorem of Fermat that, among others, astounded Gauss & Euler; ”more concepts and theorems are named after Cauchy than after any other mathematician;” made a public confession of faith & was a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society
Gustave-Gaspard de Coriolis (golden?) 1792–1843 France: mathematician, experimented with friction & hydraulics and reformed the education of mechanics; the Coriolis force is named after him
Jean-Baptist Dumas (from farmstead) 1800–1884 France: pharmacist, chemist, senator; wrote about the physiology of the nervous system, the law of substitution in organic compounds & hydrogen, and the amide composites; best known for determining molar & atomic masses; defended the faith against materialism
Theodor Schwann (swan) 1810–1882 Germany: physiologist; proved that all cells resemble each other & are part of all the tissue; discovered the Schwann cells on nerve fibres, the organicity of yeast, Tomes fibres in teeth & coined the term metabolism
Urbain le Verrier (glassworker) 1811–1877 France: mathematical astronomer; predicted the position of Neptune & helped observe it; made valuable tables of the planets, discovered Mercury's precession, founded the International Meteorological Institute; lunar and martian craters, a ring of Neptune & an asteroid named after him; defended the faith against materialism
Ignaz-Philipp Semmelweiss (bread white) 1818–1865 Hungary: physician; discovered the cause of cot fever & developed the antiseptic method; the 'savior of mothers'
Angelo Secchi (dried) 1818–1878 Italy: Jesuit, astronomer, physicist & meteorologist; father of astrophysics; applied spectrography to stars, determined the temperature of the core of the sun, made a catalog of ten thousand double stars, discovered the five Secchi star types & the flash spectrum, started the sun tables & invented the meteorograph
Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau 1819–1896 France: physicist; measured the speed of light; came up with the Fizeau experiment, important for special relativity; convinced and practicing catholic
Jean-Bertrant-Leon de Foucault (people-rule) 1819–1868 France: physicist; measured the speed of light in various media, debunked particle theory of light & made electric lighting applicable in practice; invented Foucault's pendulum & a gyroscope to demonstrate the rotation of the earth; Eddy flows are named after him too 
Édouard Albert Roche (rock cliff) 1820–1883 France: astronomer and mathematician; theorised the origin of Saturn’s rings & contributed to celestial mechanics e.g. Roche lobe, Roche limit, and Roche sphere; life-long, devout catholic 
Charles Hermite (hermit) 1822–1901 France: mathematician; contributed to number theory, elliptic functions and orthogonal polynomials with applications in modern physics; proved that the number e is transcendental; member of the Académie des Sciences and a grand officer of the Légion d’honneur; returned to the faith influenced by the great mathematician Cauchy and then it became the stay and center of his life
*Gregor Johann Mendel (little man) 1822–1884 Moravia: Augustinian abbot, science & mathematics teacher; father of genetics; not understood / ignored by Darwin; a research station in Antarctica is named after him

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Table of Contents

Recently I presented an overview of my ideas in an ITEST seminar called Black Holes & Free Will  (my part starts at the 41 minute mark) Science&Faith Great Catholic Scientists (first 43 , next 48 , last 60) Catholic Civilization (part I , part II) La Milagrosa Guadalupana Eucharistic Miracles God's Fingerprints Why Science&Religion? The Anthropic Principle The Origin of the human Family (part I , part II , part III) On the Science of Medjugorje (part I , part II) The Mother of all Proofs of God Faith St Michael's Spear (part I , part II , part III) Rosary Miracles Charles Williams, a first encounter Mini-catechism for Non-conformists What happened to the Apostles Chronology of Redemption The Trinity in the Old Testament God's Immanence Jesus' Self-claims Three Pope Parrallels Catholic Dogma in the Koran St Joseph, patron of the Universal Church Mary Magdalene, of Bethany The Womb of Salvation Paradise Musings on the Soul The 'Terrible' Truth Science ...
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The 'Terrible' Truth

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The brilliant author and lay-theologian Charles Williams ( CW , see another Blogpost ) stated: "Most people are, effectively, dualists." It is very natural to look at the world in terms of opposites: male / female, light / dark, we / them, good / bad, pleasant / painful. We certainly need to make distinctions in order to make the world intelligible. And we definitely need to have preferences in order to make decisions, to live our lives. One preference we naturally share for sure is that we abhor pain (and emotional probably even more than physical). Pain also makes us feel that the world was not meant that way. As the great apologist G.K. Chesterton remarked: "Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved." Then pain must somehow be a punishment, if not for our personal faults then for those of our anchestors, right? Thus pain is to make us suffer for some bad act and happines...
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Great Catholic Scientists (first 43)

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It is often said that science and (especially the catholic) faith would not go together. This collection shows the opposite: 151 people who are (world) famous for their science, and catholics. Of each of them is briefly described where and when they lived, what they accomplished and, if known, how they lived their faith. This thus makes for an instructive reference of scientific developments by catholics and a nice starting point for further investigation; it contains men as well as women, from the fourth century until today, it even contains some popes, saints and Dutch! In short, let yourself be surprised, enjoy and perhaps let other interested ones know as well {:-)  Introduction   In making a collection of great catholic scientists many questions need to be answered regarding the approach, implementation and presentation.  First, which resources to use? I was not aware of earlier work in this direction, an important reason to start it myself. Besides, I'm not a histor...
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