List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field
Those known as the father or mother of a scientific field are considered to be the founder of that scientific field. In some fields several people are considered the founders, while in others the title of being the "mother" or "father" is debatable. The father of science is Thales.Medicine and physiology
| Subject | Father/mother of … | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Audiology | Raymond Carhart | |
| Cognitive therapy | Aaron T. Beck | |
| Emergency medicine | Peter Safar Frank Pantridge |
Safar: Pioneered CPR, intensive-care units, developed standards for EMT, ambulance design and equipment. |
| Fitness | Jack LaLanne | |
| Gynaecology | J. Marion Sims | |
| Human anatomy (modern) | Vesalius | Book: De humani corporis fabrica (1543) |
| Medical genetics | Victor McKusick | Created Mendelian Inheritance in Man |
| Medicine (early) | Imhotep Charaka |
Wrote the first medical treatise, the Edwin Smith papyrus. Wrote the Charaka Samhitā and founded the Ayurveda system of medicine. |
| Medicine (modern) | Hippocrates | Prescribed practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Oath, establishing the profession. |
| Modern dentistry | Pierre Fauchard | |
| Modern nutrition | Justus von Liebig
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier |
|
| Modern psychology | Wilhelm Wundt | Founded the first laboratory for psychological research. |
| Nursing (modern) | Florence Nightingale | |
| Organ transplantation | Thomas Starzl | Performed the first human liver transplant and established the clinical utility of anti-rejection drugs including ciclosporin. Developed major advances in organ preservation, procurement, and transplantation. |
| Pediatrics | Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) | Wrote The Diseases of Children, the first book to deal with pediatrics as an independent field |
| Physiology | Claude Bernard | Publication: An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865) |
| Physical culture | Bernarr Macfadden | |
| Plastic surgery | Sushruta | Wrote the Sushruta Samhita |
| Psychoanalysis | Sigmund Freud | |
| Psychophysics | Gustav Fechner | Founded the discipline of psychophysics in his Elements of Psychophysics (1860) |
| Space medicine | Hubertus Strughold | |
| Surgery (early) | Sushruta | Wrote the Sushruta Samhita, the first surgical treatise |
| Surgery (modern) See also : Father of modern surgery |
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) Guy de Chauliac Ambroise Paré John Hunter Joseph Lister William Stewart Halsted |
Publication: Kitab al-Tasrif (1000). Publication: Chirurgia magna. Leader in surgical techniques, especially the treatment of wounds. Experimental, scientific approach to surgery. Use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic. Introduction of residency system to the U.S. |
