Ranking the world’s top scientists is challenging because there are different fields and no measure. However, we gave it a try and gathered information about the Top 10 famous scientists who are still alive and revolutionized science.
We focus on medical, biological, and physical sciences, technology, and engineering.
The people who have made a revolution in science are those who made our life easier – they gave us an understanding of the way the world works. They also gave us technology, medicine, and much more. But today, we will focus on those still among us who have influenced the world in recent years.
Timothy John Berners-Lee

Photo: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Timothy John Berners-Lee, also famous as TimBL, is an English scientist also known as the person who invented the ‘World Wide Web.’ His discovery changed the world of technology and shaped it as we see it today.
Furthermore, the first successful transmission done by a hypertext, with the help of the Internet, was executed by Timothy. What is this? Well, we know it as HTTP. In 1991 he built the first-ever website at CERN. In 2013 he helped launch the first affordable Internet by spearheading the federation of the private and public sectors of the famous giants of Intel, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Can you imagine? If TimBL did not make all those notable discoveries, the Internet would have been entirely different, and maybe our website wouldn’t exist?
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Shinya Yamanaka

Photo: Nobel Media, Alexander Mahmoud
Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese cell researcher who won a Nobel Prize in 2012. He helped discover that mature cells could be converted to stem cells. He made that discovery alongside the famous British developmental biologist Sir John Gurdon.
Multicellular organisms, also known as stem cells, can lead to cell proliferation. This is a scientific process of a particular cell growing and dividing into two other, smaller cells. Shinya also received a great Prize in Life Sciences in 2013, worth 3 million dollars.
Alan Guth

Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice/National Geographic Image Collection/Alamy
Alan Guth is an American cosmologist and theoretical physicist. He developed the Cosmic Inflation Theory, essential for answering all the questions connected with the Bing Bang Theory. (read more here) He’s arguably one of the world’s top scientists today.
Currently, Alan is a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sharing his incredible knowledge in the books he is writing. In 2012 he received the Fundamental Physics Prize, years after authoring his book – The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins. He’s one of the most famous scientists that are still alive.
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Allen J. Bard

Photo: Energy.gov
Allen J. Bard is an American chemist working as a director and professor at the Center for Electrochemistry, located at the University of Texas. Bard is also known for being the father of modern electrochemistry, the one we know today.
He made significant innovations in developing the electrochemical microscope and helped discover electrochemiluminescence. Furthermore, he has some outstanding contributions to semiconductor electrodes and photoelectrochemistry.
Allen J. Bard authored three books and published many chapters and papers about the Chemical System, Electroanalytical Chemistry, and the Elements.
He is now focused on using natural sunlight to produce sustainable energy. He firmly believes this is essential for humanity because fossil fuels will soon run out.
Jane Goodall

Photo: Johanna Lohr
Jane Goodall is a British primatologist, also known as one of the greatest female scientists, who studied the family and social interactions of chimpanzees for more than 55 years. She discovered that wild chimpanzees can learn skills such as making and using specific tools, just as we – humans do.
She also found that the species can become violent in some situations, and they can also find smaller monkeys to use as food if they need to survive. Jane is also a founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and advocates for biodiversity, conservation, and environmental causes.
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David Baltimore

Photo: Bob Paz
David Baltimore is an American biologist who studied the immune system and viruses all around the globe. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology because he discovered reverse transcriptase. He found that an enzyme is being used to transfer information from RNA to DNA.
His research helped discover the retroviruses, which helped develop a treatment for HIV and cancer. Furthermore, he demonstrated that retroviruses can replicate, and this leads to infection of the cells.
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Tu Youyou

Photo: Bengt Nyman
Tu Youyou is the first Chinese female to win a Nobel Prize in 2015. She is famous for her creation – an anti-malaria drug. The drug saved more than a million lives in Africa and Asia.
Youyou also made a lot of discoveries by relying on traditional Chinese medicine; some of them focused on dihydroartemisinin and artemisinin. Her findings significantly improved the condition of hundreds of people in tropical climates. She’s one of the most famous scientists that are still alive.
James Watson

Photo: Jan Arkesteijn
James Watson is a molecular biologist famous for discovering the double helix structure of DNA. He helped the discovery in 1953, and after that, he received a Nobel Prize. Thanks to James Watson, we know so much about DNA today.
This brilliant man taught us how DNA can transmit genetic data from parents to children. Furthermore, he wrote thousands of papers that are currently being used in many universities all around the world.
Margaret J Geller

Photo: Wikipedia
Margaret J Geller is an American astrophysicist, currently part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She contributed to the astronomy we know today by discovering the existence of the Great Wall of galaxies – the most immense superstructure in the whole Universe and structuring the actual map of the Universe.
Furthermore, Geller also impacted the discovery of hypervelocity stars. Those are the stars traveling with an extremely high speed, needed for the black holes and the distribution of the dark matter we know so little about.
Elizabeth Blackburn

Bengt Oberger
Elizabeth Blackburn is another famous scientist who won a Nobel Prize in 2009. Her research on anti-aging was terrific, and she received worldwide attention. She discovered more about the telomeres – this is a structure that is capable of protecting the chromosomes.
Furthermore, the telomerase is Elizabeth’s founding – the enzyme which can replenish the telomere. She’s arguably one of the most famous scientists that are still alive.
Now you know more about the best living scientists in the world and how some of their most significant discoveries have shaped our lives. We should be extremely thankful to all those people and wish them a long, healthy life!