Science Stars

Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Abdera. He is considered one of the first to propose an atomic theory of matter, many centuries before modern science confirmed that atoms exist.

He proposed that all matter is made of indivisible, invisible particles called atoms that move through empty space, and that atoms differ in shape, size and position — which explains the variety of the world.

His atomist vision was the seed of modern physics and, ultimately, of quantum physics. It marks the beginning of the rational, naturalistic attempt to understand the fundamental structure of reality.

English chemist and physicist who helped formulate modern atomic theory. He studied gases and proposed that matter is made of indivisible atoms that combine with one another.

He proposed atomic theory (1803): elements are made of atoms; atoms of the same element are identical and combine in simple proportions to form compounds.

He laid the foundations of modern chemistry and of the atomic thinking that would later be essential to understanding the structure of matter and quantum physics.

British physician and scientist, famous for his double-slit experiment. A polymath, he also studied light and even helped decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.

He carried out the double-slit experiment (1801), showing that light behaves like a wave and produces interference patterns. Centuries later this experiment became central to understanding wave–particle duality.

It is one of the most important experiments in the history of physics and is still used to explain the heart of quantum mechanics: that particles can also behave like waves.

German theoretical physicist and one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. He developed the theory of relativity and made fundamental contributions to the study of the photoelectric effect and the nature of light.

He explained the photoelectric effect in 1905, showing that light is quantized into packets called photons — work that earned him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics and was key to the birth of quantum physics.

His work connected classical light with the idea of energy quanta, opening the way to modern quantum theory. His deep view of nature still shapes science and philosophy today.

Austrian physicist and a central figure of quantum mechanics. He developed one of the most famous equations in physics and played a key role in interpreting quantum theory.

He formulated the Schrödinger equation, which describes how a system's quantum state evolves over time. He also introduced the famous “Schrödinger's cat” to illustrate the problem of quantum superposition.

His equation lets us calculate the behaviour of quantum systems across many fields, from atoms to molecules and materials. His ideas on interpretation remain central to today's debates in quantum physics.

German theoretical physicist and one of the creators of quantum mechanics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for his work.

He formulated the uncertainty principle (1927): we cannot know a particle's exact position and speed at the same time. He also developed matrix mechanics, one of the first formulations of quantum theory.

His principle changed forever how we understand nature, showing that in the quantum world we can only speak of probabilities. It is one of the deepest ideas in modern physics.

Dutch physicist interested in quantum theory, thermodynamics and solid-state physics. He carried out theoretical research with important experimental implications.

In 1948 he predicted the Casimir effect: an attractive force between two neutral metal plates placed very close together, caused by fluctuations of the quantum vacuum. Together with Dirk Polder he also studied related forces between atoms and surfaces, known today as the Casimir-Polder interaction.

The Casimir effect was confirmed experimentally decades later and shows that the quantum vacuum has real, measurable physical effects. It is key to surface physics, nanotechnology and the search for new fundamental forces.

Northern Irish physicist specialising in quantum field theory and the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics. His work connected theory with real experiments.

He formulated Bell's inequalities, which make it possible to tell apart the predictions of quantum mechanics from those of local hidden-variable (deterministic) theories. His inequalities have been verified experimentally.

Bell's work made it possible to test whether quantum particles could be explained by hidden local properties. Later experiments violated Bell's inequalities and strongly supported the predictions of quantum mechanics: particles can stay correlated no matter how far apart they are.

American physicist known for proposing a radical and elegant interpretation of quantum mechanics. His work has had a great influence on philosophy and physics.

He proposed the many-worlds interpretation, in which every possible outcome of a quantum event happens in continually branching parallel universes. It requires no collapse of the wave function.

His idea offers a coherent, deterministic way to understand quantum theory and resolves the measurement problem. It has inspired debate, research and new ways of thinking about reality and the multiverse.

American physicist and a pioneer of quantum information. Far ahead of his time, his ideas laid the foundations of quantum cryptography.

He proposed the concept of “quantum money” and quantum coding in the late 1960s — ideas that later inspired the first protocols for secure communication using quantum physics.

His work gave rise to quantum cryptography, today essential for imagining communications that are impossible to copy or eavesdrop on. He was a visionary whose ideas arrived decades before the technology.

American physicist and a pioneer of quantum information science. He joined IBM Research in 1973 and is an IBM Fellow. He has been key to uniting quantum physics with information theory.

He helped develop quantum teleportation and the superdense coding and entanglement protocols. He was one of the first to study the fundamental limits of information from a quantum perspective.

His work is essential to quantum computing, secure communications and quantum cryptography. He laid the foundations for harnessing quantum effects to handle information.

Russian-American particle theorist and cosmologist, and a professor at Stanford University. He is known for his ideas about the early universe and the concept of eternal cosmic inflation.

In the 1980s he developed the model of cosmic inflation, which explains the uniformity and flatness of the universe. He proposed the inflationary multiverse, where bubble universes continually arise from inflation.

His ideas connect quantum physics with cosmology on enormous scales. They offer answers to big questions about the origin, structure and fate of the universe.

British physicist and a pioneer of quantum computing, and a professor at the University of Oxford. He has worked on quantum theory, logic and the philosophy of science, and is an enthusiastic communicator of the potential of quantum technologies.

In the early 1980s he proposed the idea of a universal quantum computer and developed the quantum Turing machine, a generalisation of classical computing. He argues that quantum computing is more powerful than the classical kind.

His ideas helped found the modern theory of quantum computing. He inspires research and debate about the limits of knowledge, reality and machines' ability to solve complex problems.