Free PDF: The Genius Workout — 50 brain teasers + the 25 highest IQs in history.

The Greatest Doctors and Medical Pioneers in History

From Hippocrates to Jonas Salk, the medical minds who saved millions of lives.

60 Geniuses

Modern medicine is built on the discoveries of a small group of geniuses. Hippocrates separated medicine from superstition. Pasteur proved germs cause disease. Salk eradicated polio.

This list ranks the doctors and medical scientists whose work most extended human life.

Marnen Laibow-Koser
b. 1970 • US
IQ 268
Being a child prodigy, proficient with multiple musical instruments and programming techniques.
Read full biography →
William James Sidis
b. 1898 • d. 1944 • US
IQ 250
The Animate And The Inanimate
Read full biography →
Terence Chi-Shen Tao
b. 1975 • AU
IQ 220
When he was two years old, he was able to perform simple arithmetic. By the time he was nine, he was studying college-level math courses. An
Read full biography →
Kim Ung-yong
b. 1962 • KR
IQ 210
Having one of the biggest IQs in the world.
Read full biography →
Aristotle
b. 0384 • GR
IQ 200
A genius whose philosophical ideas are still taught, but his contributions to physics retarded progress for almost two millennia.
Read full biography →
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
b. 1749 • d. 1832 • DE
IQ 200
Faust
Read full biography →
Leonardo Da Vinci
b. 1452 • d. 1519 • IT
IQ 200
Painting, drawing, sculpting, science, engineering, architecture, anatomy
Read full biography →
Michael Grost
b. 1954 • US
IQ 200
Starting university at the tender age of 10, the maths prodigy is now a computer scientist, according to reports.
Read full biography →
Michael Kearney
b. 1984 • US
IQ 200
Child prodigy, youngest person to ever graduate from college (age 10)
Read full biography →
Nadia Camukova
b. 1976 • RU
IQ 200
It's been previously reported Camukova has the highest IQ in the world, and the talented linguist has mastered seven languages.
Read full biography →
Leopold and Loeb
b. 1905 • d. 1971 • US
IQ 200
Being murderer obsessed with committing the “perfect crime.” Their murder of a 14 years old was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s movie
Read full biography →
Sho Yano
b. 1990 • US
IQ 200
The youngest student at the University of Chicago to receive an MD, Yano had one degree under his belt at the age of 12.
Read full biography →
Vitalik Buterin
b. 1994 • RU
IQ 200
Ethereum founder, Bitcoin Magazine
Read full biography →
Evangelos Katsioulis
b. 1976 • GR
IQ 198
<br> Highest adult IQ in the world (2012): IQ 198, sd 15 or IQ 205, sd 16 <br>
Read full biography →
Empedocles
b. 0490 • GR
IQ 195
An ancient theory of natural selection; mass conservation; and the four elements which are now often misattributed to Aristotle.
Read full biography →
Gilbert N. Lewis
b. 1875 • d. 1946 • US
IQ 195
Covalent bondLewis dot structuresValence bond theoryElectronic theory of acids and basesChemical thermodynamicsFugacityHeavy waterNamed phot
Read full biography →
Henry Adams
b. 1838 • d. 1918 • US
IQ 195
The Education of Henry Adams, The History of the United States of America 1801–1817
Read full biography →
Hermann von Helmholtz
b. 1821 • d. 1894 • DE
IQ 195
His mathematics of the eye, theories of vision, ideas on the visual perception of space, color vision research, and on the sensation of tone
Read full biography →
Ludwig Boltzmann
b. 1844 • d. 1906 • AT
IQ 195
The development of statistical mechanics
Read full biography →
Nikola Tesla
b. 1856 • d. 1943 • HR
IQ 195
Inventing the Tesla coil, alternating current machinery, and a transatlantic communications system. Is regarded as one of the most important
Read full biography →
Pierre-Simon Laplace
b. 1749 • d. 1827 • FR
IQ 195
Predicting the existence of black holes
Read full biography →
Athanasius Kircher
b. 1602 • d. 1680 • DE
IQ 190
Read full biography →
Carl Friedrich Gauss
b. 1777 • d. 1855 • DE
IQ 190
Gaussian elimination, also known as "row reduction" or "Gaussian method" • Gauss–Jordan elimination • Gauss–Seidel method • Gauss's cyclotom
Read full biography →
Enrico Fermi
b. 1901 • d. 1954 • IT
IQ 190
Demonstrating first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction Fermi–Dirac statistics Fermi's golden rule Fermi paradox Fermi method Fermi theo
Read full biography →
Erwin Schrödinger
b. 1887 • d. 1961 • AT
IQ 190
Schrödinger's cat
Read full biography →
Francis Bacon
b. 1561 • d. 1626 • ENG
IQ 190
Read full biography →
Voltaire
b. 1694 • d. 1778 • FR
IQ 190
The novel Candide
Read full biography →
Friedrich Nietzsche
b. 1844 • d. 1900 • DE
IQ 190
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good & Evil
Read full biography →
Giordano Bruno
b. 1548 • d. 1600 • IT
IQ 190
His cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then-novel Copernican model
Read full biography →
Isaac Newton
b. 1643 • d. 1727 • ENG
IQ 190
Newtonian mechanics • Universal gravitation • Calculus • Newton's laws of motion • Optics • Binomial series • Principia • Newton's method
Read full biography →
John von Neumann
b. 1903 • d. 1957 • HU
IQ 190
Abelian von Neumann algebra Affiliated operator Amenable group Arithmetic logic unit Artificial viscosity Axiom of regularity Axiom of limit
Read full biography →
Henri Poincaré
b. 1854 • d. 1912 • FR
IQ 190
Poincaré conjecture
Read full biography →
Leonhard Euler
b. 1707 • d. 1783 • CH
IQ 190
See full list
Read full biography →
Linus Pauling
b. 1901 • d. 1994 • US
IQ 190
Alpha sheet • Ancestral sequence reconstruction • Backbonding • Beta sheet • Bond order
Read full biography →
Max Planck
b. 1858 • d. 1947 • DE
IQ 190
On the Second Principles of Mechanical Heat Theory (1879)
Read full biography →
Pierre Gassendi
b. 1592 • d. 1655 • FR
IQ 190
Calor vitalis (vital heat)
Read full biography →
Vilfredo Pareto
b. 1848 • d. 1923 • IT
IQ 190
The Pareto Principle
Read full biography →
Wilhelm Ostwald
b. 1853 • d. 1932 • LV
IQ 190
Catalysis, Coining the term 'Mole' and HSL and HSV
Read full biography →
William Shakespeare
b. 1564 • d. 1616 • GB
IQ 190
Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, King Lyr
Read full biography →
Marilyn vos Savant
b. 1946 • US
IQ 186
Penning the 'Ask Marilyn' column in Parade magazine and solving the 'Monty Hall Problem' in the process.
Read full biography →
Alan Turing
b. 1912 • d. 1954 • ENG
IQ 185
Cryptanalysis of the Enigma • Turing's proof • Turing machine • Turing test • Unorganised machine • Turing pattern • Turing reduction • The
Read full biography →
Arthur Schopenhauer
b. 1788 • d. 1860 • DE
IQ 185
The World as Will and Representation (1818)
Read full biography →
Auguste Comte
b. 1798 • d. 1857 • FR
IQ 185
Formulating the doctrine of positivism.
Read full biography →
Blaise Pascal
b. 1623 • d. 1662 • FR
IQ 185
Pascal's law
Read full biography →
Epicurus
b. 0341 • d. 0270 • GR
IQ 185
Read full biography →
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
b. 1775 • d. 1854 • DE
IQ 185
Naturphilosophie
Read full biography →
Heraclitus
b. 0535 • d. 0475 • GR
IQ 185
Read full biography →
Humphry Davy
b. 1778 • d. 1829 • GB
IQ 185
Electrolysis, aluminium, sodium, potassium, calcium, strontium, magnesium, barium, boron, Davy lamp
Read full biography →
Immanuel Kant
b. 1724 • d. 1804 • DE
IQ 185
Critique of Pure Reason
Read full biography →
James Clerk Maxwell
b. 1831 • d. 1879 • SCT
IQ 185
Statistical mechanics • Maxwell's equations • Displacement current • Maxwell relations
Read full biography →
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
b. 1717 • d. 1783 • FR
IQ 185
D'Alembert criterion • D'Alembert force • D'Alembert's form of the principle of virtual work
Read full biography →
Percy Bysshe Shelley
b. 1792 • d. 1822 • ENG
IQ 185
"Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), and “The Mask of Anarchy” (1819)
Read full biography →
Percy Williams Bridgman
b. 1882 • d. 1961 • US
IQ 185
High-pressure physics • Operationalism • Operational definition
Read full biography →
Robert Boyle
b. 1627 • d. 1691 • IE
IQ 185
Boyle's law and Corpuscularianism
Read full biography →
Satyendra Nath Bose
b. 1894 • d. 1974 • IN
IQ 185
Bose–Einstein condensateBose–Einstein statisticsBose–Einstein distributionBose–Einstein correlationsBose gasBosonIdeal Bose Equation of Stat
Read full biography →
Sigmund Freud
b. 1856 • d. 1939 • AT
IQ 185
Psychoanalysis, including the theories of id, ego and super-ego, oedipus complex, repression, defense mechanism
Read full biography →
Thomas Edison
b. 1847 • d. 1931 • US
IQ 185
The phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb
Read full biography →
Thomas Young
b. 1773 • d. 1829 • GB
IQ 185
Wave theory of light • Double-slit experiment • Astigmatism • Young–Dupré equation • Young–Helmholtz theory • Young–Laplace equation • Young
Read full biography →
William Gilbert (physician)
b. 1544 • d. 1603 • GB
IQ 185
Studies of magnetism, De Magnete
Read full biography →
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
b. 1824 • d. 1907 • GB
IQ 185
Joule–Thomson effect Thomson effect (thermoelectric) Mirror galvanometer Siphon recorder Kelvin material Kelvin water dropper Kelvin wave K
Read full biography →

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is considered the greatest doctor of all time?

Hippocrates is the most common answer for ancient medicine. For modern medicine, Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner (vaccination) are most often cited.

What medical pioneer had the highest IQ?

Several doctors on this list have IQs estimated above 180, including Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna.

Who invented the polio vaccine?

Jonas Salk developed the first effective polio vaccine, announced in 1955. Albert Sabin developed the oral version a few years later.

Want to chat with any of these geniuses?

Open Geniuses.Club Chat →

Trending Comparisons

Albert Einstein vs Isaac NewtonLeonardo Da Vinci vs Nikola TeslaMarie Curie vs Stephen HawkingAda Lovelace vs Alan TuringBobby Fischer vs John Von Neumann

Top IQ Rankings

Highest IQ in HistorySmartest People Alive TodayHighest IQ Child ProdigiesGreatest PhysicistsGreatest Mathematicians

Child prodigies

Gregory SmithMacaulay CulkinRay UshikuboWilliam Maillis
Child prodigies →Highest IQ child prodigies →

Play & come back tomorrow

🔥 Daily Genius Challenge · Genius trivia
Who famously said 'I think, therefore I am'?
🧠 Which Genius Are You?📊 Free IQ Test