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Mary Anning (1799–1847) was a pioneering English paleontologist. Born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, she made significant fossil discoveries along the Jurassic Coast. Despite facing gender and class barriers, Anning's expertise challenged scientific conventions. Notable finds include the first complete Ichthyosaurus skeleton and the first British Plesiosaurus. Anning's work laid foundations for understanding prehistoric life, influencing Darwin's theory of evolution. She gained recognition posthumously for her contributions to science, although her achievements were often overshadowed during her lifetime. Anning's legacy endures as a symbol of perseverance and scientific achievement in the face of adversity.

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Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) was a renowned British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. Diagnosed with ALS at 21, he defied medical odds, achieving groundbreaking work in theoretical physics, notably on black holes and the origins of the universe. His book "A Brief History of Time" brought complex scientific concepts to the masses. Hawking held prestigious academic positions and received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He communicated profound ideas about the cosmos despite his physical limitations, becoming an iconic figure in science and popular culture, known for his brilliance, resilience, and wit.

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Jane Goodall is a world-famous scientist and explorer who studied chimpanzees in the forests of Africa. When she was young, she loved animals and dreamed of working with them. In the 1960s, she travelled to Tanzania and spent years living in the jungle, carefully watching the chimps. She discovered amazing things – like the way they hug to show affection and how they use sticks as tools to catch food, just like people. Her discoveries changed what scientists thought about animals and showed how similar humans and chimps can be.

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George Washington Carver was a scientist and inventor who loved plants. He discovered more than 300 different uses for peanuts – including peanut butter, cooking oil, glue, paint, and even paper! He also found dozens of uses for sweet potatoes. Carver wanted to help farmers and families by showing how plants could be turned into useful products. His clever ideas made him one of the most famous scientists in American history.

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Mae Jemison is a trailblazing engineer, doctor, and astronaut. In 1992, she became the first Black American woman to travel into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Jemison tested NASA's Fluid Therapy System, a set of procedures and equipment to produce water for injection. She then used IV bags and a mixing method to use the water from the previous step to produce saline solution in space. Jemison was also an investigator of bone cell research experiments. Before joining NASA, Jemison worked as a general practitioner and served as a medical officer in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She holds degrees in Chemical Engineering and African and African-American Studies from Stanford University and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from Cornell. Since leaving NASA, she has promoted STEM education for all, especially girls and under-represented groups, through her foundation ‘The Earth We Share (TEWS)’.

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Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a Commissioner for the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE is an award-winning space scientist, broadcaster and author who has worked with several educational institutions to promote the study of STEM subjects.

She holds a degree in Physics and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College.

Her acclaimed work has ranged from making novel, bespoke, scientific instruments including hand-held land mine detectors and optical sub-systems for spacecraft, to co-hosting the BBC mainstay astronomy programme The Sky at Night.

As a Science Educator and the founder of Science Innovation Ltd, she has engaged some 350,000 school children, mainly in UK inner-city schools, but also around the world. She credits her deep passion for science as the tool that allowed her to break through social mobility barriers.

She received an MBE in 2009 for services to science and science education.

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Katherine Johnson was an incredible mathematician whose calculations helped astronauts travel into space and land on the Moon for the first time. She was a "human computer" at NASA before modern computers, solving complex math problems to help rockets fly safely.

One of her biggest accomplishments at NASA was helping calculate the trajectory of the country’s first human spaceflight in 1961, ensuring that astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., had a safe trip. A year later she helped figure out John Glenn’s orbit of the planet.

In 1969, she calculated the trajectories of Neil Armstrong’s historic mission to the moon on Apollo 11.

Katherine Johnson was also a trailblazer who broke barriers for women and African Americans in science, inspiring kids to dream big and pursue their love for numbers and science.

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Dr. Bath discovered and invented a new device and technique for cataract surgery known as laserphaco. She was an ophthalmologist and laser scientist, and an advocate for blindness prevention, treatment and cure. She created a new discipline known as "community ophthalmology" and was appointed as the first woman chair of ophthalmology in the United States, at Drew-UCLA in 1983.

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Charles Darwin was born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England.

Developed his ideas after a 5 year voyage on the HMS Beagle. He studied plants and animals in particular, in the Galápagos Islands. He explained how species change and develop over many generations, challenging different views on the idea of creation. He proposed that natural selection is the driving force behind evolution with the environment being the thing that selects organisms that are best suited for survival. His theory also mentions how humans and animals share common ancestors - an idea that was not looked at before.

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Marie Curie was a Polish scientist who discovered two new elements, polonium and radium. She lived over 100 years ago, at a time when people didn't think that women were clever enough to be scientists... But she proved them wrong! She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences: Physics and Chemistry.

Her work helped people understand radioactivity, which is now used to treat illnesses like cancer. She also helped put x-ray machines in ambulances in World War One, which helped doctors see where bullets were in the body of a soldier.

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Dr. Patricia Bath (1942–2019) was an American ophthalmologist, inventor and humanitarian who made groundbreaking contributions to eye health. She was the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent for the Laserphaco Probe, a device that uses a laser to remove cataracts and help people see again. Dr. Bath also co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, believing that everyone has the right to good vision. Through her inventions and compassion, she restored sight to thousands of people and inspired many young scientists to follow their dreams.

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Dr. Charles R. Drew born 3rd June 1904 was an African American surgeon and medical researcher who pioneered the storing of blood plasma. During World War II Drew’s work saved thousands of lives. His work laid the foundation for modern blood banking.

In 1940, Drew was appointed medical director of the "Blood for Britain" project, which collected and shipped blood plasma to British soldiers and civilians during the war. He streamlined the process, ensuring that all plasma was tested and handled under strict, sterile conditions.

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Brian Cox was born in 1968 in Oldham, England. He went to Hulme Grammar School and it was here that his passion for science developed, inspired by the book 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan. Cox found A-Level mathematics particularly difficult but this did not stop him earning a first-class Bachelor of Science Physics degree at the University of Manchester and ultimately a Doctor of Philosophy in High-Energy Particle Physics. Cox has not always been a scientist: He started a successful career as a musician, playing keyboard in the rock band, Dare and later joining the dance group D:Ream before becoming a Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester. To this day, Cox contributes to groundbreaking research, exploring fundamental questions about the universe as part of the Atlas experiment at CERN'S Large Hadron Collider and is widely-known for his ability to explain complex scientific concepts to non-scientific, everyday people. He has presented numerous programmes for the BBC, including 'Wonders of the Universe' and his charisma, engaging style and passion for science, has made him a relatable and effective ambassador for and figure in science communication.

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Tu Youyou (born 1930) is a Nobel Prize-winning Chinese malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist. She discovered artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. Her discovery, inspired by ancient Chinese medicinal texts, involved isolating a compound from the plant sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) and developing an extraction method that retained its antimalarial properties.

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Sir David Attenborough is a British naturalist, biologist, and broadcaster who has spent his life studying and sharing the wonders of the natural world. Born in 1926, he developed a passion for nature at a young age and went on to become one of the most respected and beloved science communicators in the world. Through his work, he has helped millions of people understand and appreciate the beauty and complexity of life on Earth.

He is best known for creating and narrating famous nature documentaries such as Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Life on Earth, and Our Planet. These programs use real scientific research and incredible footage to show how animals live, survive, and interact with their environments. Attenborough’s calm and engaging storytelling has inspired generations to care about wildlife and the planet.

Although he is not a laboratory scientist, David Attenborough’s work is deeply scientific. He studies animals and ecosystems, works closely with biologists and conservationists, and uses his programs to explain scientific ideas to the public in a way that everyone can understand. His contribution to environmental education has made science accessible and exciting to people of all ages.

Throughout his long career, Sir David has received numerous awards for his achievements, including a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. He continues to speak about the urgent need to protect nature, tackle climate change, and preserve biodiversity. His lifelong dedication to exploring and protecting the natural world has made him one of the most admired figures in modern science and environmental conservation

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Isaac Newton was an English scientist, mathematician, and inventor who made many important discoveries about how the world works. He is best known for discovering the laws of motion and gravity, which explain how and why things move.

When Newton was a young man, he saw an apple fall from a tree and began to wonder why it fell straight down. This led him to think deeply about gravity, the invisible force that pulls objects towards the Earth.

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A Northern Irish Physicist who discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The source was identified as a rapidly rotating neutron star. She identified them as a new class of celestial object. In 2018 she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and used the prize money (£2.3 million) to establish a fund to help female, minority and refugee students to become research physicists.

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Steve Irwin (1962–2006), widely known as “The Crocodile Hunter,” was an Australian zoologist, wildlife expert, conservationist, and television presenter celebrated for his passionate approach to animals and nature. Through his hit documentary series The Crocodile Hunter, Irwin brought wildlife conservation into mainstream culture, educating millions about the importance of protecting animals and their habitats. Alongside his wife, Terri, he managed Australia Zoo and founded the Wildlife Warriors Foundation, both dedicated to preserving endangered species. As a zoologist, Irwin contributed to scientific understanding through his work capturing, tagging, and studying crocodiles, which provided valuable insights into their behavior and ecology. His infectious enthusiasm and commitment to wildlife conservation inspired a global audience, leaving a lasting legacy that continues through his family’s ongoing environmental work.

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Rachel Carson was an American biologist well known for her writings on

environmental pollution and the natural history of the sea. Her book, Silent Spring, exposed the environmental and biological dangers of synthetic pesticides and chemicals that humans use. While the chemical industry attempted to discredit Rachel Carson, her well-researched book swayed public opinion.

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Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) While sitting in a garden, Newton watched as an apple fell in front of him from a tree. He wondered why the apple fell straight down rather than sideways or even upwards, which led to him proposing that there is an unseen force, identified as gravity, that was pulling the apple straight down towards the Earth. Through much questioning and observing he theorised that the same force that pulled the apple straight down towards the Earth, is also the same force that held the Moon to orbit the Earth and the Earth around the Sun also. Later developing Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation which stated that all objects with mass attract each other thus, the strength of this force will depend on its mass as well as distance between them. His theory became the first to explain why planets orbit the Sun. Also then becoming the theory that predicted the discovery of planet Neptune.

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Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to the scientific field of star structures, stellar evolution and black holes.

Beginning to study physics from his father he would go on to obtain his bachelor’s degree of Physics in June, 1930. During this time, he would begin theorising what happens when a star ‘runs out of fuel / energy’. He discovered that if a star weighs more than approximately 1.4x the mass of our sun, it cannot simply stop burning and cool down. Instead its own gravity will crush it. This became known as the Chandrasekhar limit. The boundary line that dictates whether a star is light enough to shrink into White Dwarfs or too heavy to do so and as a result collapse into supernovas, neutron stars or black holes.

In the early days of his theories, he was mocked for his work, but was eventually proved correct and his research became a cornerstone for most modern physics research into black holes.

He won the Nobel Prize for contributions to physics in 1983 and he also has a NASA telescope named after him that is used to specifically look at and monitor black holes today.

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Chien- Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was known as "the First Lady of Physics" and she was an American-Chinese nuclear physicist who contributed to the Manhattan Project and made history with an experiment( the Wu experiment) that disproved the hypothetical law of conservation of parity. She was also known as "Queen of Nuclear Research" and "the Chinese Madame Curie."

After being approached by two male theoretical physicists, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, "Wu's experiments using cobalt-60, a radioactive form of the cobalt metal" disproved "the law of parity (the quantum mechanics law that held that two physical systems, such as atoms, are mirror images that behave in identical ways)."

Unfortunately, although this led to a Nobel Prize for Yang and Lee in 1957, Wu was excluded, as were many other female scientists during this time.

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Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958) was a British chemist and x-ray crystallographer. She is known for her involvement in the discovery of the structure of DNA alongside Francis Crick and James Watson. Crick and Watson used images taken by Franklin in order to build a model establishing the double helical structure of DNA. Her work was fundamental in discovering the structure of DNA molecules. This knowledge has, in turn, allowed humans to develop our understanding of genetics and illnesses and how to begin to fight these diseases. She also began to study the polio virus before her death, which it has been suggested, came about as a result of her exposure to x-ray radiation in her line of work.

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Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was an English scientist best known for his discoveries in electricity and magnetism. He showed how electric current could be produced by moving a magnet through a coil of wire, leading to the invention of the electric generator. Faraday also discovered benzene and studied gases, investigating how they changed under different conditions. His experiments helped explain how energy moves and how materials behave when they change from one state to another. Faraday’s careful observations and experiments laid the foundations for much of modern physics and chemistry.

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Nikola Tesla was an inventor and engineer whose ideas helped shape modern technology. Born in 1856, Croatia, he’s best known for developing alternating current (AC) electricity, which powers our homes and cities today. Tesla had a wild imagination and was always thinking ahead of his time, experimenting with things like wireless power and radio waves long before anyone else. He worked alongside famous inventor, Thomas Edison (best known for creating the lightbulb), though they had many disagreements and soon became rivals. Tesla struggled with money and didn’t always get the credit he deserved, however his inventions and creativity continue to inspire scientists around the world.

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Dr Gladys West is an American mathematician whose pioneering work laid the foundations for the Global Positioning System (GPS), a technology that now guides billions of people around the world every day. Born in 1930 in rural Virginia, West grew up in a farming community during a time of racial segregation and limited opportunities for Black women. Despite these challenges, she excelled academically and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College, where she studied mathematics.

In the 1950s, West began working at the U.S. Naval Proving Ground (now the Naval Surface Warfare Center) as one of only a few Black women employed there. Her expertise in complex mathematical modelling and early computer programming contributed to highly accurate calculations of the Earth’s shape, known as the geoid. These calculations were essential for the development of satellite-based navigation systems, including GPS.

West’s achievements went largely unrecognised for decades, but in recent years her contributions have been celebrated publicly. In 2018, she was inducted into the U.S. Air Force Hall of Fame, and she has since become an inspiring figure representing perseverance, intellect, and the often-overlooked role of Black women in science and technology.

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Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (née Swallow; December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century. Her pioneering work in sanitary engineering, and experimental research in domestic science, laid a foundation for the new science of home economics. She was the founder of the home economics movement characterized by the application of science to the home, and the first to apply chemistry to the study of nutrition.

Richards was a pragmatic feminist, as well as a founding ecofeminist, who believed that women's work within the home was a vital aspect of the economy. At the same time, however, she did not directly challenge the prevailing cult of domesticity that valorized women's place and work in the home.

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Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) was a French scientist best known for his groundbreaking work in microbiology and chemistry. He made major contributions to the understanding of germs and how they cause disease, leading to the development of the germ theory of disease. Pasteur discovered that microorganisms were responsible for fermentation and spoilage, and he developed the process of pasteurisation, which involves heating liquids like milk and wine to kill harmful bacteria. His research also led to the creation of the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax, transforming modern medicine and public health. Pasteur’s work not only revolutionised hygiene and food safety but also laid the foundation for immunology and the development of future vaccines, making him one of the most influential scientists in history.