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– | 109 | 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– | 100 | 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] |