







The Most Famous
Physicists from United Kingdom
Trending Physicists from United Kingdom This Week
The top 10 Physicists from United Kingdom trending on Wikipedia in the past 7 days, with a quick note on what drove the spike.
- #1

Brian Cox
b. 1968
Trending in Dutch (#34) Wikipedia (610 views, on Apr 1).
- #2

Stephen Hawking
1942 - 2018
Trending in Hungarian (#65), Spanish (#115), Dutch (#189), Chinese (#201), German (#219), Russian (#232), and Portuguese (#246) Wikipedia...
- #3

Isaac Newton
1643 - 1726
Trending in Dutch (#76), Portuguese (#124), Spanish (#179), and Italian (#256) Wikipedia (499 views, on Mar 31).
This page contains a list of the greatest British Physicists. The pantheon dataset contains 851 Physicists, 91 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 3rd most number of Physicists behind United States and Germany.
Top 10 British Physicists
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary British Physicists of all time. This list of famous British Physicists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of British Physicists.
- #1

Isaac Newton
1643 - 1726
HPI 99.44235 langsIsaac Newton is most famous for his three laws of motion, which he formulated in 1687. The first law states that every object will remain at...Read moreShow less
Isaac Newton is most famous for his three laws of motion, which he formulated in 1687. The first law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force. The second law states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass. The third law states that when one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.
- #2

Stephen Hawking
1942 - 2018
HPI 88.36151 langsStephen Hawking is most famous for his contributions to physics and cosmology, in particular his theory that black holes emit radiation.
- #3

Michael Faraday
1791 - 1867
HPI 86.08151 langsMichael Faraday was a British scientist who is most famous for his work with electricity and electromagnetism. He is credited with inventing...Read moreShow less
Michael Faraday was a British scientist who is most famous for his work with electricity and electromagnetism. He is credited with inventing the electric motor and dynamo.
- #4

J. J. Thomson
1856 - 1940
HPI 83.98107 langsJ. J. Thomson was a British physicist who discovered the electron. He also discovered the first subatomic particle, the proton.
- #5

James Prescott Joule
1818 - 1889
HPI 83.91119 langsJames Prescott Joule was most famous for his work in thermodynamics. He was the first to calculate the mechanical equivalent of heat, which...Read moreShow less
James Prescott Joule was most famous for his work in thermodynamics. He was the first to calculate the mechanical equivalent of heat, which is the amount of work that can be done by a certain amount of heat.
- #6

Edward Victor Appleton
1892 - 1965
HPI 83.6481 langsEdward Victor Appleton was a British physicist who is most famous for his discovery of the ionosphere.
- #7

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
1824 - 1907
HPI 83.3985 langsWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin is most famous for his work in thermodynamics and the invention of the Kelvin scale.
- #8

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
1842 - 1919
HPI 83.1290 langsJohn William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh is most famous for his contributions to the fields of acoustics and optics. He was awarded the Nobel...Read moreShow less
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh is most famous for his contributions to the fields of acoustics and optics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904 for his discovery of argon.
- #9

Robert Hooke
1635 - 1703
HPI 82.9395 langsRobert Hooke was an English scientist who is most famous for his discovery of the law of elasticity.
- #10

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson
1869 - 1959
HPI 82.5887 langsCharles Thomson Rees Wilson is most famous for his work in the field of X-ray crystallography.
People by Birth Decade
Browse notable British Physicists grouped by birth decade. Each decade shows the top 10 by HPI; expand to see everyone.
1980s(1)
1960s(1)
1950s(2)
1940s(7)
1930s(10)
1890s(6)
1790s(2)
1780s(2)
1770s(2)
1760s(1)
1740s(1)
1730s(1)
1710s(2)
1700s(1)
1670s(1)
1660s(1)
1640s(1)
1630s(1)
1540s(1)
Overlapping Lives
Which Physicists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Physicists since 1700.
















































































