Curated category
Recipients of the Copley Medal
- J. J. ThomsonJoseph John Thomson entered the world on the 18th of December 1856 in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. His mother Emma Swindells came from a local textile family…
- James ChadwickJames Chadwick was born on the 20th of October 1891 in Cheshire, England. His father John Joseph Chadwick worked as a cotton spinner while his mother Anne…
- Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin was born on the 12th of February 1809 at his family's home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He was the fifth of six children of…
- James CookJames Cook was born on the 7th of November 1728 in the village of Marton, located in the North Riding of Yorkshire. His father worked as a Scottish farm…
- James Prescott JouleJames Prescott Joule was born on the 24th of December 1818 in Salford. His father Benjamin owned a brewery that provided wealth and stability for the family.
- Francis CrickFrancis Harry Compton Crick was born on the 8th of June 1916 in Weston Favell, a small village near the English town of Northampton.
- Ernest RutherfordErnest Rutherford was born on the 30th of August 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand. He was the fourth child among twelve siblings born to James Rutherford and…
- Joseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley was born in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on the 24th of March 1733. He grew up as the oldest of six children to Mary Swift and Jonas Priestley…
- Hendrik LorentzHendrik Antoon Lorentz entered the world on the 18th of July 1853 in Arnhem, Netherlands. He was born to Gerrit Frederik Lorentz and Geertruida van Ginkel.
- Max PlanckMax Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born on the 23rd of April 1858 in Kiel, Holstein. He entered the world into a family where theology and law ruled supreme.
- Louis PasteurOn the 6th of July 1885, Louis Pasteur faced a choice that could have ended in his prosecution. A 9-year-old boy named Joseph Meister had been badly mauled…
- Carl Friedrich GaussOn the 30th of April 1777, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was born in Brunswick within the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
- Alexander von HumboldtOn the 14th of September 1769, a boy named Alexander von Humboldt drew his first breath in Berlin. His father held the rank of major in the Prussian Army and…
- Paul DiracPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac was born on the 8th of August 1902 at his parents' home in Bristol, England. His father Charles Adrien Ladislas Dirac came from…
- Stephen HawkingStephen William Hawking was born on the 8th of January 1942 in Oxford to Frank and Isobel Eileen Hawking. His mother came from a family of doctors in Glasgow…
- Humphry DavyHumphry Davy was born on the 17th of December 1778 in Penzance, Cornwall. He grew up as the eldest of five children to Robert Davy and Grace Millett.
- Dmitri MendeleevDmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev entered the world in 1834 within the village of Verkhnie Aremzyani near Tobolsk. His father Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev worked as a…
- Michael FaradayMichael Faraday could not do trigonometry. His mathematical abilities were limited to the simplest algebra. Yet James Clerk Maxwell, the physicist who turned…
- Arthur EvansArthur Evans entered the world on the 8th of July 1851 at Nash Mills in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. His father John Evans ran a paper mill business…
- Niels BohrOn the 7th of October 1885, Niels Henrik David Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He grew up as the second of three children to Christian Bohr and Ellen…
- Ivan PavlovIvan Petrovich Pavlov entered the world on the 26th of September 1849 in the town of Ryazan. He was the first child among ten siblings born to a village…
- Élie MetchnikoffIlya Ilyich Mechnikoff entered the world on the 15th of May 1845 in a village within the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire.
- John SmeatonJohn Smeaton was born on the 8th of June 1724 in Austhorpe, Leeds. He initially joined his father's law firm after attending Leeds Grammar School.