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1880s
Famous Minds Born 1880–1889
The height of the Gilded Age saw electricity, steel, and the modern corporation transform daily life and the economy at…
31 Documented Geniuses
31
Total Geniuses
Born 1880–1889
190
Highest IQ
In this decade
171
Average IQ
Of ranked geniuses
Erwin Schrödinger
#1 Genius
Highest ranked

Top 15 Ranking — 1880s

Rank Name IQ Born Known For
1 1st Erwin Schrödinger 🇦🇹 190 1887 Schrödinger's cat
2 2nd Alfred J. Lotka 🇺🇸 185 1880 The Lotka–Volterra equations
3 3rd Percy Williams Bridgman 🇺🇸 185 1882 High-pressure physics <br> Operationalism <br> Operational definition
4 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 🇫🇷 180 1881 Co-developing the concept of the noosphere.
5 Niels Bohr 🇩🇰 180 1885 Bohr magneton <br> Bohr model <br> Bohr radius <br> Bohr–Einstein debates <br> Bohr–Kramers–Slater t…
6 Pablo Picasso 🇪🇸 175 1881 Painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, stage design, writing
7 Marcel Duchamp 🇫🇷 175 1887 Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) <br> Fountain (1917) <br> The Bride Stripped Bare By Her B…
8 R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz 🇫🇷 175 1887 Esotericism, alternative Egyptology
9 Srinivasa Ramanujan 🇮🇳 175 1887 Landau–Ramanujan constant, Mock theta functions, Ramanujan conjecture, Ramanujan prime, Ramanujan–So…
10 Ludwig Wittgenstein 🇦🇹 175 1889 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
11 Pitirim Sorokin 🇷🇺 175 1889 Leaves of a Russian Diar
12 Oswald Spengler 🇩🇪 170 1880 The Decline of the West
13 John Maynard Keynes 170 1883 Changing the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments
14 Edwin Hubble 🇺🇸 170 1889 Hubble sequence <br> Hubble's law
15 Igor Stravinsky 🇷🇺 165 1882 The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913)

More Geniuses of the 1880s

Martin Heidegger 🇩🇪
IQ: 165
b. 1889
Being and Time (1927)
Alfred Wegener 🇩🇪
IQ: 160
b. 1880
Continental drift theory.
Otto Weininger 🇩🇪
IQ: 155
b. 1880
Sex and Character
Franklin D. Roosevelt 🇺🇸
IQ: 151
b. 1882
Being the 32nd President of the United States
Charlie Spencer Chaplin
IQ: 140
b. 1889
The Great Dictator (1940) <br> Modern Times (1936) <br> City Lights (1931) <br>…
Alexander Fleming
IQ: N/A
b. 1881
Discovery of penicillin and Lysozyme
Hermann Staudinger 🇩🇪
IQ: N/A
b. 1881
Polymer chemistry
Emmy Noether 🇩🇪
IQ: N/A
b. 1882
Abstract algebra <br> Theoretical physics <br> Noether's theorem <br> Noetherian…
J Harlen Bretz 🇺🇸
IQ: N/A
b. 1882
Missoula Floods hypothesis, overturning uniformitarianism
Virginia Woolf
IQ: N/A
b. 1882
Mrs Dalloway (1925) <br> To the Lighthouse (1927) <br> Orlando (1928) <br> A Roo…
Franz Kafka 🇨🇿
IQ: N/A
b. 1883
The Metamorphosis <br> The Trial <br> The Judgment <br> The Castle <br> Contempl…
George de Hevesy 🇭🇺
IQ: N/A
b. 1885
HafniumRadioactive tracer
Henry Moseley 🇬🇧
IQ: N/A
b. 1887
Atomic number, Moseley's law
C. V. Raman 🇮🇳
IQ: N/A
b. 1888
Raman effect
Inge Lehmann 🇩🇰
IQ: N/A
b. 1888
Analyzed earthquake waves to discover that within our planet’s liquid core, at t…
Selman Waksman 🇺🇦
IQ: N/A
b. 1888
Discovered antibiotics made by soil-dwelling bacteria including streptomycin, th…

Historical Context — The 1880s

The height of the Gilded Age saw electricity, steel, and the modern corporation transform daily life and the economy at a pace that left contemporaries dizzy. Edison's light bulb was electrifying cities, Pasteur and Koch were revolutionizing medicine with germ theory, and the skyscraper was beginning to reshape urban skylines. The gap between rich and poor had never been wider, and progressive movements were beginning to push back.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was the highest IQ genius born in the 1880s?

Erwin Schrödinger is ranked #1 among geniuses born in the 1880s with an estimated IQ of 190, known for Schrödinger&#39;s cat.

How many famous geniuses were born in the 1880s?

Our database includes 31 notable geniuses born between 1880–1889, spanning fields from science and mathematics to philosophy, literature, and the arts.

What was the average IQ of geniuses born in the 1880s?

The average estimated IQ of documented geniuses born in the 1880s is 171, with the highest recorded being 190.

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