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.Chemistry
| Subject | Father/mother of … | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Atomic theory (early) | Democritus | Founder of atomism in cosmology |
| Atomic theory (modern) | Father Roger Boscovich John Dalton | First coherent description of atomic theory, well over a century before modern atomic theory emerged First scientific description of the atom as a building block for more complex structures |
| Chemical thermodynamics (modern) | Gilbert Lewis, Willard Gibbs, Merle Randall, and Edward Guggenheim (founders) | Books: Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances (1923) and Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs (1933); because of the major contributions of these two books in unifying the applications of thermodynamics to chemistry |
| Chemistry (early) | Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) | Introduced the experimental method in alchemy (d. 815) |
| Chemistry (modern) | Antoine Lavoisier Robert Boyle Jöns Berzelius John Dalton (founders) |
Book: Elements of Chemistry (1787) Book: The Sceptical Chymist (1661) Development of chemical nomenclature (1800s) Revival of atomic theory (1803) |
| Nuclear chemistry | Otto Hahn | Book: Applied Radiochemistry (1936) First person to split an atomic nucleus (1938) Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery of nuclear fission (1944) |
| Periodic table | Dmitri Mendeleev | Arranged sixty-six elements (known at the time) in order of atomic weight by periodic intervals (1869) |
| Physical chemistry | Svante Arrhenius Wilhelm OstwaldHermann von Helmholtz Willard Gibbs (founders) |
Devised much of the theoretical foundation for physical chemistry through their publications off, On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances(1876), and Thermodynamik chemischer Vorgange(1882) |
Earth sciences
| Subject | Father/mother of … | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Geochemistry (modern) | Victor Goldschmidt | For developing the Goldschmidt classification of elements. |
| Geodesy | Eratosthenes | |
| Geology (modern) | Father Nicholas Steno James Hutton |
For setting down most of the principles of modern geology. For formulating uniformitarianism and the Plutonic theory of thought. |
| Limnology (modern) | G. Evelyn Hutchinson | |
| Mathematical geography | Eratosthenes (founder) | |
| Mineralogy | Georgius Agricola | |
| Meteorology | Matthew Fontaine Maury | |
| Plate tectonics | Alfred Wegener | |
| Acoustical oceanography | Leonid Brekhovskikh | |
| Naval oceanography (modern) | Matthew Fontaine Maury | |
| Stratigraphy | Father Nicholas Steno |
