The following is a list of centenarians – specifically, people who became famous as scientists and mathematicians – known for reasons other than their longevity. For more lists, see lists of centenarians.
Name | Lifespan | Age | Notability |
---|---|---|---|
Charles Greeley Abbot | 1872–1973 | 101 | American astronomer and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution [1] |
Fred Aftalion | 1922–2022 | 100 | French chemical engineer [2] |
Saleh Ajeery | 1920–2022 | 101 | Kuwaiti astronomer [3] |
Horace Alexander | 1889–1989 | 100 | British biologist and ornithologist [4] |
Doris Twitchell Allen | 1901–2002 | 100 | American psychologist and founder of Children's International Summer Villages [5] |
Franz Alt | 1910–2011 | 100 | Austrian mathematician [6] |
Heinz Ansbacher | 1904–2006 | 101 | German-American psychologist [7] |
Guacolda Antoine Lazzerini | 1908–2015 | 107 | Chilean mathematician and educator [8] |
Rudolf Arnheim | 1904–2007 | 102 | German psychologist of visual perception [9] |
Ira Baldwin | 1895–1999 | 103 | American bacteriologist and educator [10] |
David Bannett | 1921–2022 | 100 | Israeli-American electrical engineer [11] |
Paddy Bassett | 1918–2019 | 101 | New Zealand agricultural scientist [12] |
Preston Bassett | 1892–1992 | 100 | American inventor and aeronautics pioneer [13] |
Henry Beachell | 1906–2006 | 100 | American developer of "miracle rice" [14] |
Wilfried de Beauclair | 1912–2020 | 108 | Swiss-born German engineer and computer scientist [15] |
Arnold Orville Beckman | 1900–2004 | 104 | American chemist and businessman who founded Beckman Instruments [16] |
Bei Shizhang | 1903–2009 | 106 | Chinese biologist and educator [17] |
Julia Bell | 1879–1979 | 100 | English human geneticist [18] |
Harry Benjamin | 1885–1986 | 101 | German sexologist [19] |
Leo Beranek | 1914–2016 | 102 | American acoustical scientist [20] |
Theodor Bergmann | 1916–2017 | 101 | German agronomist and author [21] |
Bob Berry | 1916–2018 | 102 | New Zealand dendrologist [22] |
Adam Bielański | 1912–2016 | 103 | Polish chemist [23] |
Sidney W. Bijou | 1908–2009 | 100 | American child psychologist [24] |
Heinz Billing | 1914–2017 | 102 | German physicist and computer scientist [25] |
Marcel Boiteux | 1922–2023 | 101 | French economist [26] |
William M. Boothby | 1918–2021 | 102 | American mathematician [27] |
Winnett Boyd | 1916–2017 | 100 | Canadian engineer [28] |
Per Vilhelm Brüel | 1915–2015 | 100 | Danish physicist and engineer [29] |
Boris Yakovlevich Bukreev | 1859–1962 | 103 | Ukrainian mathematician [30] |
Margaret Burbidge | 1919–2020 | 100 | British-American astrophysicist [31] |
Colin Gasking Butler | 1913–2016 | 102 | British entomologist [32] |
Cai Qirui | 1914–2016 | 102 | Chinese chemist [33] |
Eugenio Calabi | 1923–2023 | 100 | Italian-American mathematician [34] |
Pierre Camu | 1923–2023 | 100 | Canadian geographer and civil servant [35] |
Beatrice De Cardi | 1914–2016 | 102 | British archaeologist [36] |
Henri Cartan | 1904–2008 | 104 | French mathematician [37] |
Hung-ta Chang | 1914–2016 | 101 | Chinese botanist and ecologist [38] |
Chen Jingxiong | 1921–2022 | 100 | Chinese engineer [39] |
Cheng Kaijia | 1918–2018 | 100 | Chinese nuclear physicist and engineer [40] |
Georgy Chernov | 1906–2009 | 102 | Russian geologist [41] |
Michel Eugène Chevreul | 1786–1889 | 102 | French chemist [42] |
Dame Harriette Chick | 1875–1977 | 102 | British microbiologist, protein scientist and nutritionist [43] |
Sir Rickard Christophers | 1873–1978 | 104 | British protozoologist [44] |
Muazzez İlmiye Çığ | 1914– | 110 | Turkish archaeologist [45] |
Thomas H. Clark | 1893–1996 | 102 | Canadian geologist [46] |
Seymour S. Cohen | 1917–2018 | 101 | American biochemist [47] |
H. Basil S. Cooke | 1915–2018 | 102 | Canadian geologist and paleontologist [48] |
William D. Coolidge | 1873–1975 | 101 | American engineer and developer of the Coolidge tube for production of x-rays [49] |
Morton Coutts | 1904–2004 | 100 | New Zealand inventor and developer of the continuous fermentation method [50] |
Ray Crist | 1900–2005 | 105 | American chemist [51] |
Kathleen Curtis | 1892−1994 | 102 | New Zealand mycologist and first female Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand [52] |
Max Day | 1915–2017 | 101 | Australian ecologist [53] |
Theodor Otto Diener | 1921–2023 | 102 | Swiss-American plant pathologist, discoverer of viroids [54] |
Nikolay Dollezhal | 1899–2000 | 101 | Russian mechanical engineer [55] |
Sergio Donadoni | 1914–2015 | 101 | Italian archaeologist [56] |
William Gould Dow | 1895–1999 | 104 | American scientist and inventor [57] |
Marion Downs | 1914–2014 | 100 | American audiologist [58] |
Alicia Dussán de Reichel | 1920–2023 | 102 | Colombian anthropologist [59] |
Dan Eley | 1914–2015 | 100 | British chemist [60] |
Frank Ellis | 1905–2006 | 100 | British radiologist [61] |
Rica Erickson | 1908–2009 | 101 | Australian naturalist [62] |
Henri Fabre | 1882–1984 | 101 | French aviation pioneer and inventor [63] |
D.J. Finney | 1917–2018 | 101 | British statistician [64] |
Sir Raymond Firth | 1901–2002 | 100 | New Zealand anthropologist [65] |
Edmond H. Fischer | 1920–2021 | 101 | American biochemist and 1992 Nobel Laureate [66] |
Ron Fitch | 1910–2015 | 105 | Australian railroad engineer and executive [67] |
James C. Floyd | 1914– | 109 | Canadian aerospace engineer [68] |
Yves Oscar Fortier | 1914–2014 | 100 | Canadian geologist [69] |
John S. Foster Jr. | 1922– | 101 | American physicist [70] |
Ronald Martin Foster | 1896–1998 | 101 | American engineer [71] |
Henry Jacques Gaisman | 1869–1974 | 104 | American philanthropist and inventor [72] |
Mohammad Hassan Ganji | 1912–2012 | 100 | Iranian meteorologist [73] |
Augusto Gansser-Biaggi | 1910–2012 | 101 | Swiss geologist [74] |
Theodore H. Geballe | 1920–2021 | 101 | American physicist [75] |
Oliver Holmes Gish | 1883–1987 | 103 | American geophysicist [76] |
Maria Glazovskaya | 1912–2016 | 104 | Russian soil scientist [77] |
Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch | 1907–2007 | 100 | German-American geneticist [78] |
Arthur Goddard | 1921–2022 | 101 | English-Australian engineer [79] |
Maurice Goldhaber | 1911–2011 | 100 | American nuclear physicist [80] |
David W. Goodall | 1914–2018 | 104 | Australian botanist and ecologist [81] |
John B. Goodenough | 1922–2023 | 100 | German-American physicist and Nobel chemist [82] |
Richard M. Goody | 1921–2023 | 102 | British-American atmospheric physicist [83] |
Dieter Grau | 1913–2014 | 101 | German rocket scientist [84] |
Jean-Michel Guilcher | 1914–2017 | 102 | French ethnologist [85] |
Richard K. Guy | 1916–2020 | 103 | British mathematician [86] |
Bill Haast | 1910–2011 | 100 | American director of the Miami Serpentarium [87] |
Viktor Hamburger | 1900–2001 | 100 | German professor and embryologist [88] |
Alice Hamilton | 1869–1970 | 101 | American toxicologist [89] |
Michael Heidelberger | 1888–1991 | 103 | American immunologist [90] |
Rudolf Hell | 1901–2002 | 100 | German inventor [91] |
Joel Henry Hildebrand | 1881–1983 | 101 | American chemist [92] |
Polly Hill | 1907–2007 | 100 | American horticulturist [93] |
Arthur R. von Hippel | 1898–2003 | 105 | German-American physicist and co-developer of radar [94] |
Dorrit Hoffleit | 1907–2007 | 100 | American research astronomer [95] |
Albert Hofmann | 1906–2008 | 102 | Swiss discoverer of LSD [96] |
Bernard Holden | 1908–2012 | 104 | British railway engineer [97] |
Philip Hollom | 1912–2014 | 102 | British ornithologist [98] |
Hu Chengzhi | 1917–2018 | 100 | Chinese paleontologist and paleoanthropologist; discoverer of Keichousaurus [99] |
Holly Hu | 1910–2012 | 102 | Chinese botanist [100] |
Friedrich Hund | 1896–1997 | 101 | German physicist [101] |
Harry Huskey | 1916–2017 | 101 | American computer designer [102] |
Kees de Jager | 1921–2021 | 100 | Dutch astronomer [103] |
Katherine Johnson | 1918–2020 | 101 | American mathematician, physicist and NASA employee [104] |
Robert L. Kahn | 1918–2019 | 100 | American social psychologist [105] |
Alex Karczmar | 1917–2017 | 100 | American neuroscientist [106] |
Ke Jun | 1917–2017 | 100 | Chinese metallurgist [107] |
Frances Oldham Kelsey | 1914–2015 | 101 | Canadian-American pharmacologist and physician [108] |
Ancel Keys | 1904–2004 | 100 | American biologist [109] |
Isaak Khalatnikov | 1919–2021 | 101 | Soviet and Russian physicist [110] |
Barys Kit | 1910–2018 | 107 | Belarusian scientist [111] |
Charles Kittel | 1916–2019 | 102 | American theoretical solid-state physicist. [112] |
Nathaniel Kleitman | 1895–1999 | 104 | American sleep researcher [113] |
Paul E. Klopsteg | 1889–1991 | 101 | American physicist [114] |
Frank L. Lambert | 1918–2018 | 100 | American chemist [115] |
Stanley Leavy | 1915–2016 | 101 | American psychoanalyst [116] |
S. Y. Lee | 1918–2018 | 100 | American engineer, physicist and inventor [117] |
Jerome F. Lederer | 1902–2004 | 101 | American engineer [118] |
Inge Lehmann | 1888–1993 | 104 | Danish seismologist [119] |
Emma Lehmer | 1906–2007 | 100 | Russian-American mathematician [120] |
Rita Levi-Montalcini | 1909–2012 | 103 | Italian neurologist ( Nobel laureate) and senator [121] |
Paul A. Libby | 1921–2021 | 100 | American fluid dynamicist [122] |
Edward J. Lofgren | 1914–2016 | 102 | American physicist [123] |
James Lovelock | 1919–2022 | 103 | British chemist [124] |
Lu Yuanjiu | 1920–2023 | 103 | Chinese physicist, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Engineering [125] |
August Luebs | 1889–1989 | 100 | American mechanical engineer [126] |
John Walter Guerrier Lund | 1912–2015 | 102 | British phycologist [127] |
James Ross MacDonald | 1923–2024 | 101 | American physicist [128] |
Amaro Macedo | 1914–2014 | 100 | Brazilian botanist [129] |
Karl Maramorosch | 1915–2016 | 101 | Austrian-born American virologist [130] |
Rudolph A. Marcus | 1923– | 101 | Canadian-American chemist and recipient of the 1992 Prize in Chemistry [131] |
Harris Mayer | 1921–2023 | 102 | American physicist ( Manhattan Project) [132] |
Ernst Mayr | 1904–2005 | 100 | German-American biologist [133] |
John J. McKetta | 1915–2019 | 103 | American chemical engineer [134] |
Brockway McMillan | 1915–2016 | 101 | American government official and scientist; Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (1963–1965) [135] |
Rogers McVaugh | 1909–2009 | 100 | American botanist and educator [136] |
Wilhelm Meise | 1901–2002 | 101 | German ornithologist [137] |
Foil A. Miller | 1916–2016 | 100 | American chemist [138] |
William F. Milliken Jr. | 1911–2012 | 101 | American aerospace engineer and racing driver [139] |
Brenda Milner | 1918– | 105 | Canadian neuroscientist [140] |
Beatrice Mintz | 1921–2022 | 100 | American embryologist [141] |
Russell L. Mixter | 1906–2007 | 100 | American biologist [142] |
Ralph S. Moore | 1907–2009 | 102 | American horticulturalist [143] |
Walter Munk | 1917–2019 | 101 | American physical oceanographer [144] |
Margaret Murray | 1863–1963 | 100 | British anthropologist [145] |
Nellie May Naylor | 1885–1992 | 107 | American chemistry professor [146] |
Sterling Newberry | 1915–2017 | 101 | American microscopist [147] |
Sergey Nikolsky | 1905–2012 | 107 | Russian mathematician [148] |
Georg Nöbeling | 1907–2008 | 100 | German mathematician [149] |
Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw | 1912–2014 | 101 | British mathematician [150] |
Antoni Opolski | 1913–2014 | 100 | Polish physicist [151] |
Nicanor Parra | 1914–2018 | 103 | Chilean mathematician, physicist and poet [152] |
Borys Paton | 1918–2020 | 101 | Ukrainian metallurgist, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine since 1962 [153] [154] [155] |
Ruth Patrick | 1907–2013 | 105 | American limnologist [156] |
Ralph Pearson | 1919–2022 | 103 | American chemist ( HSAB theory) [157] |
Luboš Perek | 1919–2020 | 101 | Czech astronomer [158] |
Luigi Poletti | 1864–1967 | 103 | Italian mathematician [159] |
Pelageia Yakovlevna Polubarinova Kochina | 1899–1999 | 100 | Russian mathematician [160] |
Martin Pope | 1918–2022 | 103 | American chemist and educator [161] |
G. Baley Price | 1905–2006 | 101 | American mathematician [162] |
Maria Matilde Principi | 1915–2017 | 102 | Italian entomologist [163] |
Elsie Quarterman | 1910–2014 | 103 | American plant ecologist [164] |
Simon Ramo | 1913–2016 | 103 | American physicist [165] |
C. R. Rao | 1920–2023 | 102 | Indian-American statistician [166] |
Karl Rawer | 1913–2018 | 104 | German physicist [167] |
Ren Xinmin | 1915–2017 | 101 | Chinese rocket scientist [168] |
Malcolm Renfrew | 1910–2013 | 103 | American chemist [169] |
Robert Hallowell Richards | 1844–1945 | 100 | American metallurgist [170] |
Henry Nicholas Ridley | 1855–1956 | 100 | British biologist [171] |
George Rosenkranz | 1916–2019 | 102 | Hungarian-born Mexican steroid chemist [172] |
Nancy Sandars | 1914–2015 | 101 | British archaeologist and prehistorian [173] |
Tadashi Sasaki | 1915–2018 | 102 | Japanese engineer [174] |
Victor Blanchard Scheffer | 1906–2011 | 104 | American zoologist and author [175] |
Waldo Semon | 1898–1999 | 100 | American chemist [176] |
Shen Panwen | 1916–2017 | 100 | Chinese chemist [177] |
Shen Shanjiong | 1917–2021 | 103 | Chinese microbiologist and geneticist [178] |
Shen Qihan | 1922–2022 | 100 | Chinese geologist, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [179] |
Sharadchandra Shankar Shrikhande | 1917–2020 | 102 | Indian mathematician [180] |
David Shugar | 1915–2015 | 100 | Polish-Canadian physicist [181] |
Louis Siminovitch | 1920–2021 | 100 | Canadian molecular biologist [182] |
Robert Simpson | 1912–2014 | 102 | American meteorologist [183] |
Hobart Muir Smith | 1912–2013 | 100 | American herpetologist [184] |
Ralph Solecki | 1917–2019 | 101 | American archaeologist [185] |
Esther Somerfeld-Ziskind | 1901–2002 | 101 | American psychiatry researcher [186] |
Arnold Spielberg | 1917–2020 | 103 | American electrical engineer [187] |
Jeremiah Stamler | 1919–2022 | 102 | American scientist [188] |
Epaminondas Stassinopoulos | 1921–2022 | 101 | German-born American astrophysicist [189] |
Gerolf Steiner | 1908–2009 | 101 | German professor of zoology [190] |
Clarence F. Stephens | 1917–2018 | 100 | American mathematician [191] |
Ralph Randles Stewart | 1890–1993 | 103 | American botanist [192] |
Dirk Jan Struik | 1894–2000 | 106 | Dutch-born American mathematician [193] |
Su Buqing (aka Su Bu-Chin) | 1902–2003 | 101 | Chinese mathematician, educator and poet [194] |
F. William Sunderman | 1898–2003 | 104 | American physician and scientist [195] |
Ralph Tambs-Lyche | 1890–1991 | 100 | Norwegian mathematician [196] |
Tang Youqi | 1920–2022 | 102 | Chinese physical chemist, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [197] |
Wilmer W. Tanner | 1909–2011 | 101 | American zoologist [198] |
Harold Neville Vazeille Temperley | 1915–2017 | 102 | British mathematician [199] |
John Kenneth Terres | 1905–2006 | 100 | American naturalist and author [200] |
Lise Thiry | 1921–2024 | 102 | Belgian scientist and politician [201] |
Dorothy Burr Thompson | 1900–2001 | 100 | American classical archaeologist and art historian [202] |
Peter Thonemann | 1917–2018 | 100 | Australian-born British physicist [203] |
Georg von Tiesenhausen | 1914–2018 | 104 | German-American rocket scientist [84] |
Germaine Tillion | 1907–2008 | 100 | French anthropologist [204] |
Constance Tipper | 1894–1995 | 101 | British metallurgist and crystallographer [205] |
László Tisza | 1907–2009 | 101 | Hungarian-American physicist [206] |
Graham Turbott | 1914–2014 | 100 | New Zealand ornithologist and zoologist [207] |
Victor Vacquier | 1907–2009 | 101 | Russian-American geophysicist [208] |
Joan Henri van der Waals | 1920–2022 | 102 | Dutch physicist [209] |
Ruth van Heyningen | 1917–2019 | 102 | British biochemist [210] |
Gordon John Van Wylen | 1920–2020 | 100 | American physicist and textbook author [211] |
Leopold Vietoris | 1891–2002 | 110 | Austrian mathematician [212] |
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya | 1861–1962 | 100 | Indian engineer [213] [214] |
Marthe Vogt | 1903–2003 | 100 | German-English neuroscientist [215] |
Wang Xiji | 1921– | 102 | Chinese aerospace engineer [216] |
Sir Frederick Warner | 1910–2010 | 100 | British chemical engineer [217] |
Floyd R. Watson | 1872–1974 | 101 | American physicist and acoustician [218] |
Walter Francis Willcox | 1861–1964 | 103 | American statistician [219] |
Evelyn M. Witkin | 1921–2023 | 102 | American geneticist [220] |
Xu Xurong | 1922–2022 | 100 | Chinese physicist, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [221] |
Yang Chen-Ning | 1922– | 101 | Chinese theoretical physicist and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics [222] |
Filippo Zappata | 1894–1994 | 100 | Italian aircraft designer and pioneer [223] |
Zhang Guangdou | 1912–2013 | 101 | Chinese engineer [224] |
Zhang Tianfu | 1910–2017 | 106 | Chinese agronomist and tea expert [225] |
Zhang Xingqian | 1921–2022 | 100 | Chinese metal physicist, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [226] |
Zheng Ji | 1900–2010 | 110 | Chinese nutritionist and biochemist [227] |
Zhuang Qiaosheng | 1916–2022 | 105 | Chinese plant geneticist [228] |
She said the cause of death was pneumonia