Great Thinkers

Meet the great minds whose ideas have shaped the world — philosophers, scientists, artists, leaders, and revolutionaries whose thinking still matters today.

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48 thinkers
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Era: Modern × Problem solving × Page 1 of 2
Mathematics
Alan Turing
1912-1954 · United Kingdom
Alan Turing was an English mathematician, codebreaker, and founder of modern computer science. He was born in London on 23 June 1912. His father worked…
Critical thinking Problem solving Scientific thinking Creative expression +1
"We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done."
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Physics
Albert Einstein
1879-1955 · Germany / United States
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He is widely seen as the most influential scientist of the twentieth century. He was born on 14…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
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Politics
Albert Maori Kiki
1931-1993 · Papua New Guinea
Sir Albert Maori Kiki was a Papua New Guinean pathologist, trade unionist, politician, and writer. He was a co-founder of the Pangu Pati (Pangu Party),…
Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity Ethical thinking Problem solving +1
"I have lived ten thousand years in one lifetime."
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Economics
Angus Deaton
born 1945 · United Kingdom
Angus Deaton is an economist. He was born in 1945 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a coal miner who valued education highly. Deaton won…
Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking Problem solving +1
"Life is better now than at almost any time in history, but this is a story with two sides."
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Economics
Arthur Lewis
1915-1991 · Saint Lucia
Arthur Lewis was an economist. He was born in 1915 on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, which was then a British colony. His parents…
Critical thinking Problem solving Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge."
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Philosophy
Bernard Narokobi
c. 1943-2010 · Papua New Guinea
Bernard Mullu Narokobi was a Papua New Guinean philosopher, jurist, parliamentarian, and poet, best known for developing the concept of 'the Melanesian Way' as a…
Ethical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Critical thinking Problem solving +1
"We are a nation of villages."
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Business & Management
Chester Barnard
1886-1961 · United States
Chester Irving Barnard (1886-1961) was an American business executive whose book The Functions of the Executive (1938) became one of the foundational works of mid-twentieth-century…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"An organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons."
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Mathematics
Claude Shannon
1916 - 2001 · United States
Claude Shannon was an American mathematician and engineer. He invented the field of information theory. His work made the digital age possible. Almost every technology…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Creative expression Research skills +1
"Information is the resolution of uncertainty."
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Chemistry
Dorothy Hodgkin
1910-1994 · United Kingdom
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was an English chemist. She remains the only British woman ever to win a Nobel Prize in any of the sciences. She…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals."
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Anthropology & Culture
Eduardo Mondlane
1920-1969 · Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa)
Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane was a Mozambican anthropologist and revolutionary who founded FRELIMO, the movement that led Mozambique's independence struggle against Portugal. He was born in…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills Cultural heritage and identity +1
"We must build a society that is free from the exploitation of man by man."
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Mathematics
Emmy Noether
1882-1935 · Germany (later United States)
Emmy Noether was a German mathematician who changed how we understand algebra and physics. She was born in 1882 in Erlangen, Germany. Her father was…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"My methods are really methods of working and thinking; this is why they have crept in everywhere anonymously."
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Literature
Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim
c. 1933-2017 · Sudan
Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim was a Sudanese feminist, socialist, writer, and political leader. She was the first woman elected to the Sudanese parliament and, according to…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Problem solving +1
"We did not want to become another copy of the Western woman. We wanted to be free as Sudanese women,…"
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Medicine & Health
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
1947-present · France
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist. She is one of the two scientists who discovered the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. She…
Scientific thinking Research skills Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"We are not making science for science. We are making science for the benefit of humanity."
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Technology & Engineering
Frederick Winslow Taylor
1856-1915 · United States
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was an American mechanical engineer whose systematic approach to industrial work created the school of thought known as scientific management and…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first."
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Economics
Friedrich Hayek
1899-1992 · Austria
Friedrich Hayek was an economist and political thinker. He was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1899 and died in 1992. His full name was Friedrich…
Critical thinking Problem solving Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"The curious task of economics is to show men how little they really know about what they imagine they can…"
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Language & Linguistics
Henry Widdowson
born 1935 · United Kingdom
Henry Widdowson is a British linguist. A linguist is someone who studies language in a scientific way. Widdowson was born in 1935. He became one…
Critical thinking Research skills Creative expression Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Language learning is not just a matter of acquiring knowledge, but of learning how to put that knowledge to use."
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Philosophy
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804 · Prussia (Germany)
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher. He is one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. He was born on 22…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity."
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Philosophy
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832 · England
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher and legal reformer. He was the founder of modern utilitarianism. He was born on 15 February 1748 in London,…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."
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Economics
Joan Robinson
1903 - 1983 · United Kingdom
Joan Robinson was a British economist. She was one of the most important economists of the 20th century. Many people think she should have won…
Critical thinking Scientific thinking Research skills Ethical thinking +1
"The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all."
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Philosophy
John Dewey
1859-1952 · United States
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educator. He was one of the most important thinkers in the United States during the first half…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Creative expression +1
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
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Economics
John Kenneth Galbraith
1908-2006 · Canada / United States
John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist and writer. He was born in 1908 on a farm in Ontario, Canada, and died in 2006. He later…
Critical thinking Creative expression Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never…"
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Politics
Judith Heumann
1947-2023 · United States
Judith Heumann was an American disability rights activist. She is often called 'the mother of the disability rights movement'. She was born on 18 December…
Ethical thinking Critical thinking Cultural heritage and identity Emotional intelligence +1
"Some people say that what I did changed the world. But really, I simply refused to accept what I was…"
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Philosophy
Karl Popper
1902-1994 · Austria / United Kingdom
Karl Popper was an Austrian-British philosopher of science and politics. He was born in 1902 in Vienna into a well-off, secular Jewish family that had…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory…"
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Mathematics
Katherine Johnson
1918 - 2020 · United States (African American)
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician. She did the calculations that helped send the first American astronauts into space and to the Moon. She worked…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Critical thinking Ethical thinking +1
"We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away,…"
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