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460 BCE
Hippocrates (460-370 BCE, Island of Kos, Greece)
A Greek physician in the age of Classical Greece (5th-4th centuries BC). He is often referred to as the Father of Medicine. He is credited with coining the Hippocratic Oath, and is also credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine. He was the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally. However, many Hippocratic convictions were also incorrect, such as Humorism. (Source: Wikipedia) -
424 BCE
Plato (424-348 BCE, Athens, Greece)
Founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of Western philosophy, and a foundational figure in science and mathematics. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the very foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy. (Source: Wikipedia) -
965
Ibn al-Haytham (965 -1040 CE, Basra, Iraq)
A Muslim scientist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. Ibn al-Haytham made significant contributions to the principles of optics, astronomy, mathematics and visual perception. He has been dubbed the "father of optics". Ibn al-Haytham was an early proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—hence understanding the scientific method five centuries before Renaissance scientists. (Source: Wikipedia) -
1514
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564 CE, Brussels, Belgium)
An anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body). Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. He was the first to doubt the conclusions of Galen, and then to disprove many of them. Vesalius performed dissection as the primary teaching tool, in contrast to reading from classical texts, urging students to perform dissection themselves. (Source: Wikipedia) -
Thomas Khun (1922-1966 CE, Ohio, USA)
An American physicist, historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles, and introduced the term paradigm shift (new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered valid before. He also proposed that the notion of scientific truth cannot be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a scientific community. (Source: Wikipedia)
