PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION

Founded in 1603 as Accademia de Lincei (Academy of Lynxes), named for the animal believed to have exceptional vision. Charter members included Galileo Galilei, but regular meetings were discouraged during and after the Inquisition, and the Academy existed as only a library until the late 18th century. Thrived in the early 19th century until banned in 1840 by Pope Gregory XVI, then restored by Pope Pius IX in 1847 as the Pontifical Academy of New Lynxes. Renamed Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, by order of Pope Pius XI. Members are appointed by the Pope, but need not be Catholic.

Location:
Rome, Italy

Founding Date:
1603

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
Christian Anfinsen	Chemist	26-Mar-1916	14-May-1995	Protein structure and folding
Edward Victor Appleton	Physicist	6-Sep-1892	21-Apr-1965	Ionosphere, shortwave radio
Werner Arber	Scientist	3-Jun-1929		Restriction enzymes (DNA cleavage)
David Baltimore	Biologist	7-Mar-1938		Co-Discoverer, reverse transcriptase
Gary S. Becker	Economist	2-Dec-1930	3-May-2014	Human Capital
Pope Benedict XVI	Religion	16-Apr-1927		Pope Emeritus
Paul Berg	Chemist	30-Jun-1926		Pioneer in recombinant DNA
Sune K. Bergström	Scientist	10-Jan-1916	15-Aug-2004	Prostaglandins
George David Birkhoff	Mathematician	21-Mar-1884	12-Nov-1944	Modern theory of dynamical systems
Günter Blobel	Scientist	21-May-1936		Protein signaling in cells
Aage N. Bohr	Physicist	19-Jun-1922	8-Sep-2009	Determined shapes of nuclei
Niels Bohr	Physicist	7-Oct-1885	18-Nov-1962	Father of Quantum Theory
Alexis Carrel	Doctor	28-Jun-1873	5-Nov-1944	Sutured blood vessels
James Chadwick	Physicist	20-Oct-1891	24-Jul-1974	Discovered the neutron
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji	Physicist	1-Apr-1933		Trapped atoms with laser light
Paul J. Crutzen	Physicist	3-Dec-1933		Ozone depletion
Peter Debye	Physicist	24-Mar-1884	2-Nov-1966	Studied molecular structure, dipoles
Paul Dirac	Physicist	8-Aug-1902	20-Oct-1984	The Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Christian de Duve	Scientist	2-Oct-1917	4-May-2013	Microstructure of the cell
John Eccles	Scientist	27-Jan-1903	2-May-1997	Membrane potential of nerves
Manfred Eigen	Physicist	9-May-1927		Studied fast chemical reactions
Alexander Fleming	Scientist	6-Aug-1881	11-Mar-1955	Discovered penicillin
Kenichi Fukui	Chemist	4-Oct-1918	9-Jan-1998	Frontier orbitals
Galileo Galilei	Astronomer	15-Feb-1564	8-Jan-1642	Copernican observational astronomer
Otto Hahn	Chemist	8-Mar-1879	28-Jul-1968	Demonstrated fission
Stephen Hawking	Physicist	8-Jan-1942		Wheelchair-bound physicist
Werner Heisenberg	Physicist	5-Dec-1901	1-Feb-1976	Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Gerhard Herzberg	Physicist	25-Dec-1904	3-Mar-1999	Molecular spectroscopy
Victor Francis Hess	Physicist	24-Jun-1883	17-Dec-1964	Proved cosmic origin of radiation
George de Hevesy	Chemist	1-Aug-1885	5-Jul-1966	Radioisotope researcher
Raymond Hide	Physicist	17-May-1929		Earth's rotation
Sir Cyril Hinshelwood	Chemist	19-Jun-1897	9-Oct-1967	The Kinetics of Chemical Change
H. Gobind Khorana	Scientist	9-Jan-1922	9-Nov-2011	RNA's role in protein synthesis
Klaus von Klitzing	Physicist	28-Jun-1943		Quantization of resistance
Max von Laue	Physicist	9-Oct-1879	23-Apr-1960	X-ray crystallography
Joshua Lederberg	Biologist	23-May-1925	2-Feb-2008	Genetic properties of bacteria
Tsung-Dao Lee	Physicist	25-Nov-1926		Violations of parity law
Yuan T. Lee	Chemist	29-Nov-1936		Crossed molecular beam experiments
Jean-Marie Lehn	Chemist	30-Sep-1939		Synthesis of molecules
Luis Leloir	Chemist	6-Sep-1906	2-Dec-1987	Conversion of carbohydrates
Rita Levi-Montalcini	Scientist	22-Apr-1909	30-Dec-2012	Nerve and skin cell growth factors
Guglielmo Marconi	Scientist	25-Apr-1874	20-Jul-1937	Inventor of radio
Mario J. Molina	Chemist	19-Mar-1943		Ozone depletion
William W. Morgan	Astronomer	3-Jan-1906	21-Jun-1994	Spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy
Rudolf Mössbauer	Physicist	31-Jan-1929	14-Sep-2011	Discovered Mössbauer effect
Marshall W. Nirenberg	Scientist	10-Apr-1927	15-Jan-2010	RNA's role in protein synthesis
Ryoji Noyori	Chemist	3-Sep-1938		Chiral catalysts
George E. Palade	Scientist	19-Nov-1912	7-Oct-2008	Microstructure of the cell
Max F. Perutz	Chemist	19-May-1914	6-Feb-2002	X-Ray analysis of hemoglobin
William D. Phillips	Physicist	5-Nov-1948		Trapped atoms with laser light
Max Planck	Physicist	23-Apr-1858	4-Oct-1947	Originator of quantum theory
John C. Polanyi	Chemist	23-Jan-1929		Infrared chemiluminescence
George Porter	Chemist	6-Dec-1920	31-Aug-2002	Rapid chemical and biological processes
C. N. R. Rao	Chemist	30-Jun-1934		Chemistry of superconductivity
Martin Rees	Astronomer	23-Jun-1942		President of the Royal Society
Carlo Rubbia	Physicist	31-Mar-1934		Co-Discovered W and Z particles
Vera Rubin	Astronomer	23-Jul-1928		Structure of galaxies
Ernest Rutherford	Physicist	30-Aug-1871	19-Oct-1937	Father of nuclear physics
Abdus Salam	Physicist	29-Jan-1926	21-Nov-1996	Electroweak Theory
Allan R. Sandage	Astronomer	18-Jun-1926	13-Nov-2010	Quasars and Hubble-Sandage variable stars
Erwin Schrödinger	Physicist	12-Aug-1887	4-Jan-1961	Schrödinger's wave equation
Kai M. Siegbahn	Physicist	20-Apr-1918	20-Jul-2007	Electron spectroscopy
Charles H. Townes	Physicist	28-Jul-1915	27-Jan-2015	Invention of the maser and laser
Artturi Virtanen	Chemist	15-Jan-1895	11-Nov-1973	AIV method of fodder preservation
Edward Witten	Physicist	26-Aug-1951		String theorist at Princeton
Chen Ning Yang	Physicist	1-Oct-1922		Particle physicist
Hideki Yukawa	Physicist	23-Jan-1907	8-Sep-1981	Predicted existence of mesons
Ahmed H. Zewail	Chemist	26-Feb-1946		Femtochemistry

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