Neuroscience · Curated list
Sigmund Freud, Galen, Ivan Pavlov and 37 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
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Most written-about first. Each description summarises the neuroscientist's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)
An Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis: a clinical method that assesses and treats disorders born of conflict within the psyche by means of conversation between patient and analyst, together with the particular theory of the mind and of human agency that grew out of it.
Wikidata · Photo: Max Halberstadt, Public domain
2
Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher (c. 129–216 AD)
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus, often anglicised as Galen or Galen of Pergamon, a Greek and Roman philosopher, surgeon and physician, regarded as one of the most accomplished medical researchers of the ancient world. He influenced various sciences, among them neurology, pharmacology, pathology, physiology and anatomy, as well as logic and philosophy.
Wikidata · Photo: Georg Paul Busch (engraver), Public domain
3
Russian physiologist (1849–1936)
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, a Russian and Soviet physiologist and experimental neurologist, known for discovering classical conditioning in experiments with dogs. He also did important research on how digestion works, which won him the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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4
Italian neurologist (1909–2012)
An Italian neurobiologist. With her colleague Stanley Cohen she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1986 for discovering nerve growth factor (NGF).
Wikidata · Photo: Kurt Hagblom , Firma Hagblom-Foto, restored by Adam Cuerden, Public domain
5
English physicist and biologist (1916–2004)
Francis Harry Compton Crick, an English neuroscientist, biophysicist and molecular biologist. He, Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and James Watson were key to working out the helical structure of the DNA molecule.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0
6
Spanish neuroscientist (1852–1934)
A Spanish histologist, pathologist and neuroscientist who specialised in the central nervous system and neuroanatomy. He and Camillo Golgi shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1906.
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7
American biologist
Linda Brown Buck, an American biologist known above all for her work on the sense of smell, the olfactory system. With Richard Axel she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2004, for their work on olfactory receptors.
Wikidata · Photo: Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0
8
Austrian neurologist (1905–1997)
Viktor Emil Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and philosopher who survived the Holocaust. He founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that sees the search for meaning in life as the central force driving human beings; logotherapy belongs to humanistic and existential psychology.
Wikidata · Photo: Prof. Dr. Franz Vesely, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
9
Italian biologist and pathologist (1843–1926)
An Italian pathologist and biologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1906 for his work on the central nervous system. From 1860 to 1868 he was a medical student at the University of Pavia, taught by Cesare Lombroso.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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10
Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist (born 1963)
A Norwegian neuroscientist and psychologist, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). With Edvard Moser, her former husband, she shared half of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for work on the entorhinal cortex's grid cells and several other cell types in the same circuit that represent space, together forming the brain's positioning system.
Wikidata · Photo: NTNU Trondheim, CC BY-SA 2.0
11
English footballer, neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize recipient (1857–1952)
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, a British neurophysiologist and academic. His experiments established many parts of modern neuroscience, such as the spinal reflex seen as a system of connected neurons, and how transmission of signals between neurons can be potentiated or depotentiated.
Wikidata · Photo: No known restrictions on publication. Creator(s): Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain
12
Austria-born otologist (1876–1936)
An otologist born in Austria. The 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to him for studying how the vestibular apparatus works and what goes wrong with it.
13
English physiologist and biophysicist (1917–2012)
Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, an English biophysicist and physiologist, born into the prominent Huxley family.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
14
German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (1864–1915)
A German neuropathologist and psychiatrist who worked alongside Emil Kraepelin. He is credited with the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin later named Alzheimer's disease.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
15
English electrophysiologist (1889–1977)
Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, an English electrophysiologist who won the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, shared with Sir Charles Sherrington, for work on how neurons function. His experiments supported the all-or-none law of nerves.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
16
Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist
An Italian pharmacologist born in Switzerland, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering drugs that block the actions of particular neurotransmitters. He is best known for discovering antihistamines, in 1937; they block histamine, a neurotransmitter, and are taken for allergies.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
17
Japanese scientist (1939–2026)
A Japanese scientist who alone received the 1987 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, for discovering V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism behind the diversity of antibodies. Though his Nobel was for immunology, he was trained as a molecular biologist, and after the prize he moved into neuroscience, studying the molecular, cellular and neuronal basis of how memories form and are recalled.
Wikidata · Photo: User9131986 A cropped version, CC BY-SA 4.0
18
Hungarian-American biophysicist (1899–1972)
A biophysicist, Hungarian and American.
Wikidata · Photo: The Nobel Foundation, Public domain
19
Austrian physician and nobelist (1857–1940)
An Austrian physician, and the first psychiatrist ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1927. The citation read: “for his discovery of the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica”.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
20
English pharmacologist and physiologist (1875–1968)
Sir Henry Hallett Dale, an English physiologist and pharmacologist. His study of acetylcholine as a chemical carrier of nerve impulses (neurotransmission) earned him a share of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Otto Loewi.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
21
French-American neuroscientist (1924–2024)
Roger Charles Louis Guillemin, a French and American neuroscientist, awarded the National Medal of Science in 1976 and, in 1977, the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on neurohormones, shared that year with Rosalyn Sussman Yalow and Andrew Schally.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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22
American neurologist and chemist (born 1942)
Stanley Ben Prusiner, an American biochemist and neurologist, who founded and directs the “Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases” (IND) at the “University of California, San Francisco” (UCSF).
Wikidata · Photo: Christopher Michel, CC BY 4.0
23
English physiologist and biophysicist
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, an English biophysicist and physiologist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with John Eccles and Andrew Huxley.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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24
German-British biophysicist (1911–2003)
Sir Bernard Katz, FRS, a British biophysicist and physician born in Germany, known for his work on the physiology of nerves, and above all on synaptic transmission at the junction of nerve and muscle. He shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod.
Wikidata · Photo: Willy Pragher, CC BY 3.0 de
25
Australian neurophysiologist (1903–1997)
Sir John Carew Eccles, an Australian philosopher and neurophysiologist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on the synapse, sharing it with Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley.
26
American scientist
Martin Lee Chalfie, an American scientist and University Professor at Columbia University.
Wikidata · Photo: Prolineserver ( talk ), GFDL 1.2
27
Swiss physiologist (1881–1973)
A Swiss physiologist who won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Egas Moniz, for mapping the parts of the brain that control the internal organs.
Wikidata · Photo: Nobel Foundation, Public domain
28
American neuropsychiatrist
Eric Richard Kandel, an American medical doctor born in Austria, who specialised in psychiatry. He was also a neuroscientist, and professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.
29
Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist
Edvard Ingjald Moser, a Norwegian neuroscientist and psychologist. As of May 2024 he holds a professorship at the “Norwegian University of Science and Technology” (NTNU) in Trondheim.
Wikidata · Photo: Foto: Henrik Fjørtoft/NTNU Komm.avd., CC BY-SA 2.0
30
American physiologist (1874–1965)
An American physiologist best known for his contributions to neuroscience. With Herbert Spencer Gasser he identified several kinds of nerve fibre and showed how a fibre's diameter relates to the speed of its action potential.
Wikidata · Photo: The Nobel Foundation, Public domain
31
French neurologist (1825–1893)
A French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology, who did pioneering work on hysteria and hypnosis, notably with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes.
Wikidata · Photo: Unidentified photographer, Public domain
32
British neurologist and writer (1933–2015)
Oliver Wolf Sacks, a British neurologist, writer, historian of science and naturalist.
Wikidata · Photo: Maria Popova, CC BY-SA 3.0
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33
American molecular biologist (born 1946)
An American molecular biologist, a university professor in Columbia University's Department of Neuroscience and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. For work on the sense of smell, he and Linda Buck, once a postdoctoral researcher in his group, won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Wikidata · Photo: Royal Society uploader, CC BY-SA 4.0
34
Finnish and Swedish neurophysiologist (1900–1991)
Ragnar Arthur Granit, a Swedish and Finnish neurophysiologist, awarded the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George Wald and Haldan Keffer Hartline "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye". At the University of Helsinki he did basic research on the retina and on how colour vision works physiologically, and later, at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, he studied how the nerves control movement.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
35
American physiologist (1888–1963)
An American physiologist who received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, jointly with Joseph Erlanger, for work on action potentials in nerve fibres done at Washington University in St. Louis.
36
American biochemist (1912–2004)
An American biochemist who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ulf von Euler and Bernard Katz.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
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37
American biologist
Gerald Maurice Edelman, an American biologist. He and Rodney Robert Porter shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on the immune system; what his prize-winning research found was how antibody molecules are built.
Wikidata · Photo: Bernard Gotfryd, Public domain
38
German pharmacologist (1873–1961)
A pharmacologist and psychobiologist born in Germany, who discovered that acetylcholine acts as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For that he received the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Sir Henry Dale, a lifelong friend who helped inspire the neurotransmitter experiment.
Wikidata · Photo: Albert Hilscher, Public domain
39
American biophysicist, neuroscientist, and businessman (born 1956)
An American biophysicist, neuroscientist and businessman, professor of molecular neurobiology and biophysics at Rockefeller University. He shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Peter Agre, for work on how ion channels are built and how they work.
Wikidata · Photo: PotassiumChannel, CC BY-SA 3.0
40
Nobel Prize-winning American Scientist and Activist
An American scientist and activist who studied the retina's pigments, and shared the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffer Hartline.
Wikidata · Photo: Molendijk, Bart / Anefo, CC0
Every Wikidata item that is a person whose occupation, on Wikidata, is neuroscientist or a kind of one, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 40 are shown.
Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-26. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
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