Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Born October 24, 1632Delft, Netherlands

Died August 26, 1723 (aged 90)Delft, Netherlands Residence Netherlands

Nationality Dutch

Fields Microscopist and Biologist Known for Discovery of protozoaFirst red blood cell description

Van Leeuwenhoek's interest in microscopes and a familiarity with glass processing led to one of the most significant, and simultaneously well-hidden, technical insights in the history of science. By placing the middle of a small rod of soda lime glass in a hot flame, Van Leeuwenhoek could pull the hot section apart to create two long whiskers of glass. Then, by reinserting the end of one whisker into the flame, he could create a very small, high-quality glass sphere. These spheres became the lenses of his microscopes, with the smallest spheres providing the highest magnifications. An experienced businessman, Leeuwenhoek realized that if his simple method for creating the critically important lens was revealed, the scientific community of his time would likely disregard or even forget his role in microscopy. He therefore allowed others to believe that he was laboriously spending most of his nights and free time grinding increasingly tiny lenses to use in microscopes, even though this belief conflicted both with his construction of hundreds of microscopes and his habit of building a new microscope whenever he chanced upon an interesting specimen that he wanted to preserve.

William Harvey

Born 1 April 1578Folkestone

Died 3 June 1657 (aged 79)Roehampton

Nationality English

Fields Medicine Anatomy Doctoral advisor Hieronymus Fabricius

Known for Systemic circulation

Harvey continued to participate in the Lumleian lectures while also taking care of his patients at St. Bartholomew's Hospital; he thus soon attained an important and fairly lucrative practice, which climaxed with his appointment as 'Physician Extraordinary' to King James I on 3 February 1618. He seems to have similarly served various aristocrats, including Lord Chancellor Bacon.

In 1628 he published in Frankfurt his completed treatise on the circulation of the blood, the De Motu Cordis. As a result of negative comments by other physicians Harvey "fell mightily in his practice",[8] but continued advancing his career. He was re-elected 'Censor' of the College of Physicians in 1629, having been elected for the first time in 1613 and the second time in 1625. Eventually, Harvey was also elected Treasurer of the College.

Louis Pasteur

Born December 27, 1822Dole, Jura, Franche-Comté, France

Died September 28, 1895 (aged 72)Marnes-la-Coquette, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Residence France

Nationality French

Fields Chemistry Microbiology Institutions Dijon Lycée University of Strasbourg Université Lille Nord de France École Normale Supérieure

Alma mater École Normale Supérieure

Notable students Charles Friedel [1]

Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole in the Jura region of France, into the family of a poor tanner. Louis grew up in the town of Arbois.[2] This fact probably instilled in the younger Pasteur the strong patriotism that later was a defining element of his character. Louis Pasteur was an average student in his early years, but he was gifted in drawing and painting. His pastels and portraits of his parents and friends, made when he was 15, were later kept in the museum of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He earned his bachelor of arts degree (1840) and bachelor of science degree (1842) at the École Normale Supérieure. After serving briefly as professor of physics at Dijon Lycée in 1848, he became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg,[2] where he met and courted Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector, in 1849. They were married on May 29, 1849, and together had five children, only two of whom survived to adulthood; the other three died of typhoid. These personal tragedies inspired Pasteur to try to find cures for diseases such as typhoid.

Aristotle

Born 384 BCStageira, Chalcidice

Died 322 BC (age 61 or 62)Euboea

Nationality Greek

Era Ancient philosophy

Region Western philosophy

School Peripatetic schoolAristotelianism

Main interests Physics, Metaphysics, Poetry, Theatre, Music, Rhetoric, Politics, Government, Ethics, Biology, Zoology

Notable ideas Golden mean, Reason, Logic, Syllogism, Passion

Aristotle "says that 'on the subject of reasoning' he 'had nothing else on an earlier date to speak of'".[15] However, Plato reports that syntax was devised before him, by Prodicus of Ceos, who was concerned by the correct use of words. Logic seems to have emerged from dialectics; the earlier philosophers made frequent use of concepts like reductio ad absurdum in their discussions, but never truly understood the logical implications. Even Plato had difficulties with logic; although he had a reasonable conception of a deductive system, he could never actually construct one and relied instead on his dialectic.[16] Plato believed that deduction would simply follow from premises, hence he focused on maintaining solid premises so that the conclusion would logically follow. Consequently, Plato realized that a method for obtaining conclusions would be most beneficial. He never succeeded in devising such a method, but his best attempt was published in his book Sophist, where he introduced his division method.[17]

Ronald Ross

Born 13 May 1857Almora, India

Died 16 September 1932 (aged 75)London, England, United Kingdom

Nationality British

Fields Medicine

Alma mater St. Fratbore Hospital

Known for Malaria parasite discovery

Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1902)

Ross studied malaria between 1882 and 1899. He worked on malaria at the Presidency General

Hospital, Calcutta. Ross built a bungalow with a laboratory at Mahanad village, where he used to stay

from time to time collecting mosquitoes in Mahanad and adjoining villages and conducting research. In

1883, Ross was posted as the Acting Garrison Surgeon at Bangalore during which time he noticed the

possibility of controlling mosquitoes by controlling their access to water.

In 1897, Ross was posted in Ooty and fell ill with malaria. After this he was transferred to Secunderabad,

where Osmania University and its medical school is located. He discovered the presence of the malarial

parasite within a specific species of mosquito, of the genus Anopheles. He initially called them dapple-

wings.He was able to find the malaria parasite in a mosquito that he artificially fed on a malaria patient

named Hussain Khan.

In 1902, Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his remarkable work on malaria. His Indian

assistant Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay was awarded a gold medal.In 1899, Ross went back to Britain

and joined Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine as a professor of tropical medicine.[2][3] In 1901 Ross

was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and also a Fellow of the Royal Society,[4] of which

he became Vice-President from 1911 to 1913. In 1902 he was appointed a Companion of the Most

Honourable Order of Bath by King Edward VII, and discovered how malaria was transmitted. In 1911 he

was elevated to the rank of Knight Commander of the same Order.

During his active career Ross advocated the task of prevention of malaria in different countries. He

carried out surveys and initiated schemes in many places, including West Africa, the Suez

Canal zone, Greece, Mauritius, Cyprus, and in the areas affected by the First World War. He also initiated

organisations, which have proved to be well established, for the prevention of malaria within the planting

industries of India and Ceylon. He made many contributions to the epidemiology of malaria and to

methods of its survey and assessment, but perhaps his greatest was the development of mathematical

models for the study of its epidemiology, initiated in his report on Mauritius in 1908, elaborated in his

Prevention of malaria in 1911 and further elaborated in a more generalised form in scientific papers

published by the Royal Society in 1915 and 1916. These papers represented a profound mathematical

interest which was not confined to epidemiology, but led him to make material contributions to both pure

and applied mathematics.

Through these works Ross continued his great contribution in the form of the discovery of the

transmission of malaria by the mosquito, but he also found time and mental energy for many other

pursuits, being a poet, playwright, writer and painter. Particularly, his poetic works gained him wide

acclamation which was independent of his medical and mathematical standing.

Honors and awards

Ross received many honours in addition to the Nobel Prize, and was given Honorary Membership of

learned societies of most countries of Europe, and of many other continents. He got an honorary M.D.

degree in Stockholm in 1910 at the centenary celebration of the Caroline Institute and his 1923

autobiography Memoirs, Etc. was awarded that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Whilst his

vivacity and single-minded search for truth caused friction with some people, he enjoyed a vast circle of

friends in Europe, Asia and the United States who respected him for his personality as well as for his

genius.

In India Ross is remembered with great respect. Because of his relentless work on malaria, the deadly

epidemic which used to claim thousands of lives every year could be successfully controlled. There are

roads named after him in many Indian towns and cities. In Calcutta the road linking Presidency General

Hospital with Kidderpore Road has been renamed after him as Sir Ronald Ross Sarani. Earlier this road

was known as Hospital Road. In his memory, the regional infectious disease hospital at Hyderabad was

named after him as Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases in recognition of

his services in the field of tropical diseases. The building where he worked and actually discovered the

malarial parasite, located in Secunderabad near the old Begumpet airport, is a heritage site and the road

leading up to the building is named Sir Ronald Ross Road.

In Ludhiana, Christian Medical College has named its Hostel as "Ross Hostel". The young doctors often

call themselves "Rossians".

The University of Surrey, UK, has named a road after him in its Manor Park Residences.[6]

Ronald Ross primary school near Wimbledon Common is named after him. The school's coat of arms

includes a mosquito in one quarter.[7]

Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Parasitology is established in memory of Ronald Ross in Hyderabad,

under Osmania University.[8]

James Dewey Watson

Born April 6, 1928 (age 84)

Chicago, United StatesNationality American

Fields Genetics

Institutions Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Harvard University

University of Cambridge

National Institutes of Health

Alma mater University of Chicago

Indiana University

Known for DNA structure

Molecular biology

Notable awards Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1962)

Copley Medal (1993)

James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick. Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine"for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

Yellapragada Subbarao

Born 12 January 1895

Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh,India

Died 9 August 1948 (aged 53)

Nationality  Indian

Fields Medicine

Institutions Lederle Laboratories, a division of American

Cyanamid(Acquired by Wyeth in 1994, now Pfizer)

Alma mater Madras Medical College

Harvard University

Known forDiscovery of the role

ofPhosphocreatine and Adenosine

Triphosphate (ATP) in muscular activity

Synthesis of Folic Acid

Synthesis of Methotrexate

Discovery of Diethylcarbamazine

M. S. Swaminathan

M. S. Swaminathan

Born 7 August 1925 (age 86)

Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu

Residence Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Nationality India

Fields Agricultural science

Institutions MS Swaminathan Research Foundation

Alma mater Maharajas College

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

University of Cambridge

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Known for High-yielding varieties of wheatin India

Influences Dr. Norman Borlaug

Notable

awardsPadma Shri (1967)

Padma Bhushan (1972)

Padma Vibhushan (1989)

World Food Prize (1987)

Har Gobind Khorana

Born January 9, 1922

Raipur, Punjab, British Raj (now part of Pakistan)

Died November 9, 2011 (aged 89)

Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.

Residence India, United States, United Kingdom

Nationality American[1]

Fields Molecular Biology

Institutions MIT (1970–2007)

University of Wisconsin, Madison (1960–70)

University of British Columbia(1952–60)

Cambridge University (1950–52)

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,

Zurich (1948–49)

Alma mater University of the Punjab

University of Liverpool

Known for First to demonstrate the role

ofNucleotides in protein synthesis

Notable

awardsNobel Prize in Medicine (1968),Gairdner Foundation

International Award, Louisa Gross Horwitz

Prize, Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical

Research, Padma Vibhushan

Birbal Sahni

Birbal Sahni

Born 1891

Behra, Saharanpur District, West Punjab

Died 1949

Lucknow

Citizenship India

Nationality Indian

Fields Paleobotany

Institutions Lucknow

Alma mater Government College University, Lahore,

Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Doctoral advisor Professor Seward

Other

academic advisorsGoebel

Known for Bennettitalean plant, Homoxylon - a new

type of petrified wood

Honors

Sahni was recognized by several academies and institutions in India and abroad for his research. He was

elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1936, the highest British scientific honor,

awarded for the first time to an Indian botanist. He was elected Vice-President, Palaeobotany section, of

the 5th and 6th International Botanical Congresses of 1930 and 1935, respectively; General President of

the Indian Science Congress for 1940; President, National Academy of Sciences, India, 1937–1939 and

1943-1944. In 1948 he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Another high honor which came to him was his election as an Honorary President of the International

Botanical Congress, Stockholm in 1950, but he died before he could serve.

After his demise, Sahni's samadhi was placed within the Institute of Paleobotany as a reminder of his

groundbreaking work.

Sir.T.S. VENKATARAMAN

Sir.T.S. VENKATARAMAN: Venkataraman was the head of the imperial cane breeding station at Coimbatore. He produced hybrid variety of sugar cane by crossing sugar cane with jowar. This sugar cane produced a lot of sugar. The Queen of England gave him in 1942

Honors and Awards

Recipient of College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award-TDEC (1999)

Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Excellence in Teaching Award (1993)

Laura S. Campbell Excellence in teaching award (1985)

Panchanan Maheshwari

Born In November 190 in Jaipur (Rajasthan). During his college days, he was inspired bu Dr. W Dudgen, American missionary teacher, to devlop interest in botany and especiallly morphology. he pursued his postgraduate university education in botany at Allahabad University.

He worked on ebryological aspects, especially the embryo sac of many plants belonging to more than 1000 families. He popularised the use of embryological characters in taxonomy. He estalished the department of Botany, University of Delhi as an important center of reseaech in embryology and tissue culture. The department was recognised by University Grand Commmision as center of advanced study in Botany. Panchanann Maheshwari was assisted by his wife in preparation of slides in addition to her household duties. Way back in 1950 he talked of contacts between embryology, physiology and genetics. He also emphasised the need of initiation of work on artificial culture of immature embryos. These days tissue culture has become a landmark in science. His work on test tube fertilisation and intra- ovarian pollination won worldwide acclaim. The book considered "magnum opus",the Introduction to the Embryology of Angiosperms was completed by him in 1950. He also founded an international research journal 'Phytomorphology' and popular magazine 'The Botanica' in 1950. Volume on recent advances in embryology of angiosperms (1963), edited by Maheshwari, became a refferal for researchers in embryology.

he dovoted his life to science. Many of his wellwishers and studnts felt pride in naming their new findings after him, such as Panchanania jaipurensis (fungus), Oldenlandia maheshwarii(Rubiaceae member).

he was honoured with fellowship of Royal society of London (FRS), Indian national Science Academy and several other insitutions of excellence. His interest in science also made a significant contribution to school education in the form of textbooks of Biology for secondary schools published by NCERT in 1964

Salim Ali

Born November 12, 1896

Mumbai, British India

Died July 27, 1987 (aged 90)

Mumbai, India

Nationality India

Fields ornithology

natural history

Influences Erwin Stresemann

Notable awards Padma Vibhushan (1976)

Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali [saːlɪm əliˑ] (November 12, 1896 – July 27, 1987) was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. Known as the "birdman of India", Salim Ali was among the first Indians to conduct systematic bird surveys across India and his bird books helped develop ornithology. He became the key figure behind the Bombay Natural History Society after 1947 and used his personal influence to garner government support for the organization, create the Bharatpur bird sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park) and prevent the destruction of what is now the Silent Valley National Park. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan in 1976.