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Top 100 scientists & thinkers of all time

The top 100 scientists & thinkers of all time, ranked by everyone, one head-to-head pick at a time.

  1. Albert Einstein 1879–1955
  2. Isaac Newton 1643–1727
  3. Marie Curie 1867–1934
  4. Christopher Columbus 1451–1506
  5. Socrates 469–398 BC
  6. Karl Marx 1818–1883
  7. Plato 428–348 BC
  8. Pythagoras 582–490 BC
  9. Aristotle 383–321 BC
  10. Galileo Galilei 1564–1642
  11. Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900
  12. Confucius 550–478 BC
  13. Augustine of Hippo 354–430
  14. Nikola Tesla 1856–1943
  15. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778
  16. Charles Darwin 1809–1882
  17. Bill Gates 1955–
  18. Immanuel Kant 1724–1804
  19. Elon Musk 1971–
  20. Sigmund Freud 1856–1939
  21. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646–1716
  22. Marco Polo 1254–1324
  23. Steve Jobs 1955–2011
  24. Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi 780–850
  25. Nicolaus Copernicus 1473–1543
  26. Stephen Hawking 1942–2018
  27. René Descartes 1596–1650
  28. Yuri Gagarin 1934–1968
  29. J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904–1967
  30. Alan Turing 1912–1954
  31. Archimedes 286–211 BC
  32. Ada Lovelace 1815–1852
  33. Thomas Edison 1847–1931
  34. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770–1831
  35. John Locke 1632–1704
  36. Khadija bint Khuwaylid 557–619
  37. Avicenna 980–1037
  38. Laozi 579–500 BC
  39. Louis Pasteur 1822–1895
  40. Euclid 333–284 BC
  41. Neil Armstrong 1930–2012
  42. Carl Linnaeus 1707–1778
  43. Thales 624–545 BC
  44. Alfred Nobel 1833–1896
  45. Francis Bacon 1561–1626
  46. Heraclitus 534–470 BC
  47. Giordano Bruno 1548–1600
  48. Martin Heidegger 1889–1976
  49. Adam Smith 1723–1790
  50. Ferdinand Magellan 1480–1521
  51. Leonhard Euler 1707–1783
  52. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951
  53. Alexander Graham Bell 1847–1922
  54. Max Planck 1858–1947
  55. Benedictus de Spinoza 1632–1677
  56. Henry Ford 1863–1947
  57. Werner Heisenberg 1901–1976
  58. George Soros 1930–
  59. Ibn Khaldun 1332–1406
  60. Vasco da Gama 1469–1525
  61. Richard Feynman 1918–1988
  62. Jeff Bezos 1964–
  63. Herodotus 483–424 BC
  64. Warren Buffett 1930–
  65. John Dalton 1766–1844
  66. Thomas Aquinas 1225–1274
  67. Carl Jung 1875–1961
  68. Ted Bundy 1946–1989
  69. Jan Hus 1370–1415
  70. Erwin Schrödinger 1887–1961
  71. Johannes Kepler 1572–1630
  72. Albert Schweitzer 1875–1965
  73. Arthur Schopenhauer 1788–1860
  74. Ernest Rutherford 1871–1937
  75. John Calvin 1509–1564
  76. Auguste Comte 1798–1857
  77. Johannes Gutenberg 1400–1468
  78. Hippocrates 459–369 BC
  79. Omar Khayyám 1048–1131
  80. Noam Chomsky 1928–
  81. James Watson 1928–2025
  82. Hannah Arendt 1906–1975
  83. James Watt 1736–1819
  84. B. R. Ambedkar 1891–1956
  85. James Clerk Maxwell 1831–1879
  86. Max Weber 1864–1920
  87. Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777–1855
  88. Diogenes of Sinope 399–322 BC
  89. Thomas Hobbes 1588–1679
  90. Enrico Fermi 1901–1954
  91. Hildegard of Bingen 1098–1179
  92. Richard Stallman 1953–
  93. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905–1980
  94. Bertrand Russell 1872–1970
  95. Wernher von Braun 1912–1977
  96. Niels Bohr 1885–1962
  97. John D. Rockefeller 1839–1937
  98. Epicurus 341–269 BC
  99. Montesquieu 1689–1755
  100. Alexander Fleming 1881–1955

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