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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Research skills × Problem solving × Page 1 of 3
Mathematics
Al-Khwārizmī
c. 780-c. 850 · Persia / Abbasid Caliphate (active in Baghdad)
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was a Persian scholar born around 780, probably in Khwarezm, a region in what is now Uzbekistan. His family name, al-Khwārizmī,…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Critical thinking Research skills +1
"That fondness for science, by which God has distinguished the Imām al-Ma'mūn... has encouraged me to compose a short work…"
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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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Mathematics
Archimedes
c. 287 BCE - c. 212 BCE · Syracuse, Sicily (Hellenistic Greek world)
Archimedes was a Greek mathematician, scientist, and engineer. He was born around 287 BCE in Syracuse, a Greek city on the island of Sicily. We…
Scientific thinking Problem solving Critical thinking Creative expression +1
"Eureka! I have found it!"
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Philosophy
Aristotle
384-322 BCE · Ancient Greece (Stagira, Macedonia)
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher. He is one of the most important thinkers in the history of Western philosophy and science. He was born…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"All human beings by nature desire to know."
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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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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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Economics
Dambisa Moyo
born 1969 · Zambia
Dambisa Moyo is an economist and writer. She was born in 1969 in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, in southern Africa. She spent part of…
Critical thinking Problem solving Ethical thinking Research skills +1
"Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing…"
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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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Economics
Esther Duflo
1972-present · France / United States
Esther Duflo is a French-American economist. In 2019 she became, at age 46, the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic…
Scientific thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"It is not the magnitude of the problem that determines whether we can do something about it."
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Mathematics
Euclid
c. 325 BCE - c. 265 BCE · Alexandria, Egypt (Hellenistic Greek world)
Euclid was a Greek mathematician who lived in Alexandria, in Egypt, around 300 BCE. He is sometimes called the 'father of geometry'. We know almost…
Scientific thinking Critical thinking Problem solving Research skills +1
"There is no royal road to geometry."
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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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Law
Hugo Grotius
1583-1645 · Dutch Republic (Netherlands)
Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, philosopher, and diplomat. He is often called the father of international law. He was born on 10 April 1583…
Critical thinking Ethical thinking Research skills Problem solving +1
"I observed in the whole Christian world a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush."
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Arts
Imhotep
c. 2650 BCE - c. 2600 BCE · Ancient Egypt (probably Memphis area)
Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian architect, doctor, and high official. He lived around 2,650 BCE, more than 4,500 years ago. This makes him one of…
Scientific thinking Creative expression Problem solving Cultural heritage and identity +1
"Imhotep, son of Ptah, the great chief of artists."
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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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Mathematics
Isaac Newton
1643-1727 · England, United Kingdom
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English mathematician, physicist, and natural philosopher. He was born prematurely in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, and his father died before he was…
Scientific thinking Research skills Numeracy and mathematical thinking Critical thinking +1
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
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Economics
Jeffrey Sachs
born 1954 · United States
Jeffrey Sachs is an American economist. He was born in 1954 in Detroit, in the United States. He studied economics at Harvard University, where he…
Problem solving Ethical thinking Critical thinking Research skills +1
"Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but in our own time."
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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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