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Polymath Geniuses

Masters of multiple disciplines

151 Geniuses

Polymath Geniuses

Discover 151 polymath geniuses who excelled across multiple fields — from scientist-artists to mathematician-philosophers who refused to be defined by a single discipline.

Aristotle
b. 384 · Greece
A genius whose philosophical ideas are still taught, but his contributions to physics retarded progr
IQ 200
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Edith Stern
b. 1952 · United States
Holding over 100 US patents and being awarded the ASME Kate Gleason Award.
IQ 200
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Leonardo Da Vinci
1452–1519 · Italy
Painting, drawing, sculpting, science, engineering, architecture, anatomy
IQ 200
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Pierre-Simon Laplace
1749–1827 · France
Predicting the existence of black holes
IQ 195
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Richard G. Rosner
b. 1960 · United States
IQ 192
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Athanasius Kircher
1602–1680 · Germany
IQ 190
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Carl Friedrich Gauss
1777–1855 · Germany
Gaussian elimination, also known as "row reduction" or "Gaussian method" <br> Gauss–Jordan eliminati
IQ 190
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Francis Bacon
1561–1626 · England
IQ 190
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Isaac Newton
1643–1727 · England
Newtonian mechanics <br> Universal gravitation <br> Calculus <br> Newton's laws of motion <br> Optic
IQ 190
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John von Neumann
1903–1957 · Hungary
Abelian von Neumann algebra Affiliated operator Amenable group Arithmetic logic unit Artificial visc
IQ 190
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Joseph-Louis Lagrange
1736–1813 · Italy
Analytical mechanics, celestial mechanics, mathematical analysis, number theory, theory of equations
IQ 190
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Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot
1796–1832 · France
Carnot cycle <br> Carnot efficiency <br> Carnot theorem<br> Carnot heat engine
IQ 190
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Auguste Comte
1798–1857 · France
Formulating the doctrine of positivism.
IQ 185
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Ctesibius
285–222 · Egypt
IQ 185
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Epicurus
341–270 · Greece
IQ 185
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Gerald Massey
1828–1907 · United Kingdom
The Ballad of Babe Christabel (1854), War Waits (1855), Havelock's March (1860), and A Tale of Etern
IQ 185
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Hero of Alexandria
10–70 · Greece
Aeolipile <br> Heron's fountain <br> Heron's formula <br> Vending machine
IQ 185
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Immanuel Kant
1724–1804 · Germany
Critique of Pure Reason
IQ 185
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Pierre Louis Maupertuis
1698–1759 · France
Principle of least action, precursor of transmutation
IQ 185
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Satyendra Nath Bose
1894–1974 · India
Bose–Einstein condensateBose–Einstein statisticsBose–Einstein distributionBose–Einstein correlations
IQ 185
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Thomas Edison
1847–1931 · United States
The phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb
IQ 185
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Thomas Young
1773–1829 · United Kingdom
Wave theory of light <br> Double-slit experiment <br> Astigmatism <br> Young–Dupré equation <br> You
IQ 185
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1646–1716 · Germany
Discourse on Metaphysics,Théodicée, integral calculus
IQ 182
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Alexander Graham Bell
1847–1922 · Scotland
Invention of the telephone.
IQ 180
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Alexander von Humboldt
1769–1859 · Germany
Biogeography, Kosmos (1845–1862), Humboldt Current, magnetic storm, Humboldtian science, Berlin Roma
IQ 180
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Avicenna
980–1037 · UZ
The Book of Healing <br> The Canon of Medicine
IQ 180
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Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 · United States
Being the founding father of the USA <br> Shaping the understanding of electricity <br> Inventing th
IQ 180
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Bertrand Russell
1872–1970 · United Kingdom
IQ 180
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Denis Papin
1647–1713 · France
Steam digester
IQ 180
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Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
1845–1926 · United Kingdom
Being the founding editor of The Economic Journal.
IQ 180
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François Fénelon
1651–1715 · France
The Adventures of Telemachus
IQ 180
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James Prescott Joule
1818–1889 · England
First law of thermodynamicsDisproving caloric theory
IQ 180
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Joseph Fourier
1768–1830 · France
Fourier number <br> Fourier series <br> Fourier transform <br> Fourier's law of conduction <br> Four
IQ 180
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John Toland
1670–1722 · Ireland
Christianity not Mysterious (1696)
IQ 180
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John Stuart Mill
1806–1873 · United Kingdom
On Liberty, The Subjection of Women
IQ 180
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John Locke
1632–1704 · United Kingdom
Being known as the "Father of Liberalism"
IQ 180
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Jorge Luis Borges
1899–1986 · Argentina
A Universal History of Infamy (1935), Ficciones (1944), El Aleph (1949), Labyrinths (1962) and The B
IQ 180
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Lord Byron
1788–1824 · England
Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
IQ 180
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Marquis de Condorcet
1743–1794 · France
Girondin constitutional project and Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Min
IQ 180
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Mary Somerville
1780–1872 · United Kingdom
Self-taught mathematician and polymath; bestselling popularizer of science; acclaimed for her transl
IQ 180
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Nicholas of Cusa
1401–1464 · Germany
IQ 180
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Oliver Heaviside
1850–1925 · England
Heaviside cover-up method <br> Heaviside step function <br> Heaviside condition <br> Heaviside-Feynm
IQ 180
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Pythagoras
b. 570 · Greece
Communalism <br> Metempsychosis <br> Musica universalis
IQ 180
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Roger Bacon
United Kingdom
IQ 180
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Willem Jacob 's Gravesande
1688–1742 · Netherlands
Developing experimental demonstrations of the laws of classical mechanics.
IQ 180
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Erasmus
1469–1536 · Netherlands
In Praise of Folly <br> Handbook of a Christian Knight <br> On Civility in Children <br> Julius Excl
IQ 177
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Antoine Arnauld
1612–1694 · France
Being one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal.
IQ 175
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Averroes - Ibn Rushd
1126–1198 · Spain
Andalusian polymath, Aristotle commentator, and middle ages genius; his work on atheism was influent
IQ 175
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Dante Alighieri
1265–1321 · Italy
Divine Comedy
IQ 175
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Gerolamo Cardano
1501–1576 · Italy
Cardano–Tartaglia formulaFirst systematic use of negative numbers in Europe
IQ 175
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Herodotus
484–425 · Turkey
The Histories
IQ 175
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James Thomson (poet, born 1700)
1700–1748 · Scotland
Writing the lyrics for the song "Rule, Britannia!".
IQ 175
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Theophrastus
371–287 · Greece
Greek philosopher, not to be confused with the Anon Theophrastus (c.1609-1665), pupil and successor
IQ 175
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Thomas Browne
1605–1682 · England
Religio Medici, Urne-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Christian Morals
IQ 175
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William Kingdon Clifford
1845–1879 · United Kingdom
Clifford algebra
IQ 175
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William Whewell
1794–1866 · United Kingdom
Coining the words scientist and physicist
IQ 175
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Nicolaus Copernicus
1473–1543 · Poland
HeliocentrismQuantity theory of moneyGresham–Copernicus law
IQ 173
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Adam Smith
1723–1790 · United Kingdom
Invisible hand theory, The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments
IQ 170
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Charles Babbage
1791–1871 · United Kingdom
Originating the concept of a digital programmable computer.
IQ 170
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Christian Doppler
1803–1853 · Austria
Discovering the Doppler effect
IQ 170
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807–1882 · United States
Being the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy
IQ 170
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Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais
1782–1854 · France
One of the most influential intellectuals of Restoration France
IQ 170
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Hypatia
350–415 · Egypt
The greatest mathematician of her time, Hypatia’s murder signaled the coming of the dark ages.
IQ 170
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Isaac Asimov
1920–1992 · United States
The Foundation series
IQ 170
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Laozi
6–4 · China
Supposed author of Tao Te Ching, the book that founded of Taoism ("Daoism")
IQ 170
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Marion Tinsley
1927–1995 · United States
Never losing a world championship match
IQ 170
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Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
854–932 · Iran
The first to write up limited or extensive notes on diseases such as smallpox and chickenpox, a pion
IQ 170
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Nicolaas Hartsoeker
1656–1725 · Netherlands
Contributions to microscopy, preformationism
IQ 170
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Norbert Wiener
1894–1964 · United States
Cybernetics
IQ 170
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Pedro Calderón de la Barca
1600–1681 · Spain
IQ 170
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Pietro Metastasio
1698–1782 · Italy
Demetrio, Olimpiade, Demofoonte, La clemenza di Tito, and Attilio Regolo
IQ 170
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Pyrrho
Greece
Founding Pyrrhonism
IQ 170
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Robert M. Pirsig
1928–2017 · United States
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991)
IQ 170
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William Butler Yeats
1865–1939 · Ireland
Leda and the Swan
IQ 170
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William Penn
1644–1718 · United Kingdom
IQ 170
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Ben Jonson
1572–1637 · England
Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew
IQ 170
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Solon
Greece
Greek statesman, lawmaker, philosopher, and poet, one of the seven sages (Ѻ); credited with being th
IQ 170
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Charles Dickens
1812–1870 · England
The Pickwick Papers <br> Oliver Twist <br> Nicholas Nickleby <br> A Christmas Carol <br> David Coppe
IQ 165
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Marquis de Sade
1740–1814 · France
IQ 165
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Emanuel Swedenborg
1688–1772 · Sweden
Hs book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758)
IQ 165
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Évariste Galois
1811–1832 · France
Work on the theory of equations and Abelian integrals
IQ 165
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Geoffrey Chaucer
1340–1400 · England
The Canterbury Tales
IQ 165
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Gilbert Burnet
1643–1715 · Scotland
IQ 165
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Guglielmo Marconi
1874–1937 · Italy
Radio
IQ 165
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Jean de La Bruyère
1645–1696 · France
French philosopher, moralist, and satirist,
IQ 165
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Karl Pearson
1857–1936 · England
Common Sense of the Exact Sciences and History of the Theory of Elasticity
IQ 165
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Pierre Beaumarchais
1732–1799 · France
Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable
IQ 165
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John Henry Newman
1801–1890 · United Kingdom
Anglican priest, poet, and theologian.
IQ 165
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Ludvig Holberg
1684–1754 · Norway
Norwegian writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright.
IQ 165
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Vincenzo Galilei
1520–1591 · Italy
The astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei
IQ 165
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Ada Lovelace
1815–1852 · United Kingdom
The mother of computing science; contributed to the first published computer program; was the first
IQ 160
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Alphonse de Lamartine
1790–1869 · France
Graziella (1852)
IQ 160
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Ayn Rand
1905–1982 · Russia
The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged
IQ 160
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Christoph Martin Wieland
1733–1813 · Germany
Oberon and Bildungsroman
IQ 160
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Diodorus Siculus
90–30 · Greece
Bibliotheca historica
IQ 160
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Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
1486–1535 · Germany
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
IQ 160
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John Bunyan
1628–1688 · England
The Pilgrim's Progress, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, The Holy War
IQ 160
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Omar Khayyam
1048–1131 · Iran
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
IQ 160
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Peter Paul Rubens
1577–1640 · Netherlands
Painting, drawing, tapestry design, print design
IQ 160
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Samuel Clarke
1675–1729 · United Kingdom
English philosopher and Anglican clergyman; was a Boyle anti-atheism lecturer for two years.
IQ 160
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William Cowper
1731–1800 · United Kingdom
Light Shining out of Darkness
IQ 160
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Peter Abelard
1079–1142 · France
French scholastic philosopher, theologian, and logician, characterized a “fine genius” (Bayle, c.169
IQ 160
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Albert Camus
1913–1960
The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.
IQ 155
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Diagoras of Melos
Greece
Chopping up a wooden statue of Heracles and used it to roast his lentils and revealed the secrets of
IQ 155
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Edward Bulwer-Lytton
1803–1873 · England
Vril: the Power of the Coming Race
IQ 155
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Pierre-Jean de Béranger
1780–1857 · France
"The old flag", 1820
IQ 155
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Clive Staples Lewis
1898–1963 · United Kingdom
The Chronicles of Narnia <br> Mere Christianity <br> The Allegory of Love <br> The Screwtape Letters
IQ 150
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Robert Burns
1759–1796 · Scotland
"Auld Lang Syne" "To a Mouse" "A Man's a Man for A' That" "Ae Fond Kiss" "Scots Wha Hae" "Tam O'Sha
IQ 150
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Alan Watts
1915–1973 · United Kingdom
IQ 145
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Francis Galton
1822–1911 · United Kingdom
Galton board <br> Galton distribution <br> Galton–Watson process <br> Galton's problem <br> Galton'
IQ 145
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Edgar Allan Poe
1809–1849 · United States
American writer, editor, and literary critic; best-known for his poem “The Raven” (1845) noted for i
IQ 145
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Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban
1633–1707 · France
French military engineer and marshal.
IQ 140
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Stephen Wiltshire
b. 1974 · United Kingdom
His ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once
IQ 52
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Abu Rayhan al-Biruni
973–1048 · Iran
Iranian-born Afghanistan astronomer, mathematician, physicist, comparative religions scholar, a univ
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Alexandre Dumas
1802–1870 · France
The Three Musketeers (1844), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1845)
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1809–1892 · England
'In Memoriam,' 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Idylls of the King'.
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Barbara McClintock
1902–1992 · United States
Work in genetic structure of maize
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Caroline Herschel
1750–1848 · United Kingdom
Being the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and to hold a government position in Englan
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Felix Klein
1849–1925 · Germany
Erlangen program <br> Klein bottle <br> Beltrami–Klein model <br> Klein's Encyclopedia of Mathematic
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Cleanthes
330–230 · Greece
Hymn to Zeus
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Daniel Bernoulli
1700–1782 · Switzerland
Bernoulli's principle <br> Early kinetic theory of gases
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David Hilbert
1862–1943 · Germany
Hilbert's basis theorem <br> Hilbert's axioms <br> Hilbert's problems <br> Hilbert's program <br> E
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Meister Eckhart
1260–1328 · Germany
His work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God
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Emily Bear
b. 2001 · United States
Composed and released her first piano album at age five
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Ernest Lawrence
1901–1958 · United States
Invention of the cyclotronManhattan Project
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George Washington Carver
1860–1943 · United Kingdom
Improved the agricultural economy of the United States by promoting nitrogen-providing peanuts as an
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Grace Hopper
1906–1992 · United States
Pioneer of electronic computers: invented the first compiler; was the principal architect of COBOL,
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John Herschel
1792–1871 · United Kingdom
The invention of photography
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John Milton
1608–1674 · United Kingdom
Paradise Lost
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Paul Cézanne
1839–1906 · France
Mont Sainte-Victoire (1885–1906) <br> Apothéose de Delacroix (1890–1894) <br> Rideau, Cruchon et Com
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Robert Hooke
1635–1703 · England
Hooke's law <br> Microscopy <br> Coining the term 'cell'
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Ruth Lawrence
b. 1971 · United Kingdom
Lawrence–Krammer representation
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Saul Kripke
b. 1940 · United States
Kripke-Platek set theory.
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Scott Aaronson
b. 1981 · United States
Quantum Turing machine with postselection <br> Algebrization <br> Boson sampling
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Shakuntala Devi
1929–2013 · India
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Thomas Digges
1546–1595 · United Kingdom
Proposing that the universe is infinite in extent
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Émilie du Châtelet
1706–1749 · France
Translation of Newton's Principia into French, natural philosophy which combines Newtonian physics w
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Heraclides Ponticus
390–310 · Greece
Suggesting that the Earth rotates on its axis, from west to east, once every 24 hours
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Akiane Kramarik
b. 1994 · United States
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Brahmagupta
598–668 · India
Writing the Brahmasphutasiddhānt
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Federico Faggin
b. 1941 · United States
MOS silicon-gate technology and Intel 4004
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GZA
b. 1966 · United States
Being the founding member of Wu-Tang Clan
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Tatyana Afanasyeva
1876–1964 · Ukraine
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Shen Kuo
1031–1095 · China
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Plutarch
46–119 · Greece
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L. L. Zamenhof
1859–1917 · Poland
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Jane Marcet
1769–1858 · United Kingdom
Author of Conversations on Chemistry, a unique textbook for its time written for people with little
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Joseph Henry
1797–1878 · United States
Electromagnetic induction, Inventor of a precursor to the electric doorbell and electric relay
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William Armstrong Fairburn
1876–1947 · United States
English-born American naval architect, marine engineer, chemical engineer, and industrial executive;
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Kelvin Doe
b. 1996 · SL
Teaching himself engineering at the age of 12 and building his own radio station in Sierra Leone
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Kazuo Ishiguro
b. 1954 · Japan
An Artist of the Floating WorldThe Remains of the DayWhen We Were OrphansNever Let Me GoKlara and th
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a polymath?

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans multiple different subject areas. They draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Famous polymaths include Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin.

Who is the greatest polymath in history?

Leonardo da Vinci is often cited as history's greatest polymath, with mastery spanning art, science, engineering, anatomy, and invention. Aristotle and Leibniz are other strong contenders.

How many polymaths are in the database?

Geniuses.Club features 151 geniuses classified as polymaths or known for contributions across multiple fields.

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