Scientists From California

Apart from teaching at the City College of New York, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku also often pens his thoughts in blogs and has written several bestselling books, such as The God Equation. His research is focused on the string theory. He also believes in the existence of aliens.

Experimental physicist and Nobel laureate Luis Walter Alvarez is best remembered for inventing the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber, which enabled the discovery of countless short-lived resonance particles. The University of California, Berkeley professor and MIT scientist had also been part of the development of the atomic bomb.

Leonard Adleman is a computer scientist best known as a co-creator of the RSA encryption algorithm. He was honored with the 2002 Turing Award, often called the Nobel prize of Computer science, for this work. He is also a pioneer in the field of DNA computing and one of the original discoverers of the Adleman–Pomerance–Rumely primality test. 

Known for the documentary Ocean's Deadliest, which he co-hosted with Steve Irwin, oceanographer Philippe Cousteau Jr. also earned an Emmy nomination for his work in Awesome Planet. The grandson of naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Philippe had lost his father, sailor and filmmaker Philippe Cousteau, 6 months before his birth.

Best known for discovering the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, with his wife, Carolyn, and David H. Levy, Eugene Merle Shoemaker was an American astrogeologist who had also worked with the U.S. Geological Survey. He had been part of NASA’s lunar exploration missions. Following his death, his ashes were transported to the Moon.

A pioneer of psychedelic drug synthesis, Alexander Shulgin came to be known as The Godfather of Ecstasy, for reinventing the drug MDMA, or ecstasy, for medical use. The Harvard drop-out, who later studied psychiatry and pharmacology, would often experiment his newly invented drugs on himself, his wife, and his friends.

American molecular scientist Suzanne Eaton had spent most of professional life at the Max Planck Institute. The WICB Junior Award winner had initially also considered alternative academic careers in comparative literature and math. She was raped and murdered by a Greek man in Crete, where she had gone for a conference.

Stanley Miller was an American chemist best remembered for conducting several important experiments in abiogenesis. His 1952 Miller–Urey experiment proved that inorganic precursors could be used to synthesize complex organic molecules. Often referred to as the father of prebiotic chemistry, Miller was honored with the prestigious Oparin Medal in 1983.

Carol W. Greider is a molecular biologist who discovered the enzyme telomerase in 1984. Her discovery was honored several years later when she received the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak for their work on telomeres.  The trio also shared the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for the same work.  

The son of Nobel Prize-winning US physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, Walter Alvarez is remembered for his theory that dinosaurs died due to an asteroid impact, a theory he developed with his father. The theory stemmed from their discovery of an iridium-rich layer of clay, since iridium is commonly found in asteroids.

Renowned astrophysicist Alexei Filippenko, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, is primarily focused on supernovae and galaxies. Apart from writing 900 research papers, he has also penned a bestselling book and appeared on programs such as The Universe. He loves tennis and often travels to view solar eclipses.

Geneticist Andrew Fire is best known for his Nobel Prize-winning work on the double-stranded RNA. The MIT alumnus did most of his research under the guidance of Nobel laureate Philip A. Sharp. His discovery of the RNAi later aided scientists work on the cure for ailments such as AIDS and cancer.

Nobel Prize-winning American chemist W.E. Moerner is best known for developing super-resolved fluorescence microscopy and for detecting a single molecule in condensed phases. He has been associated with prestigious institutes such as UC San Diego and Stanford University, and has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University.

US meteorologist Jule Gregory Charney is remembered for his pioneering work on modern dynamical meteorology. He developed numerical weather prediction. Starting as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he later headed the meteorology department at the same institute. His work won him honors such as the Hodgkins Medal.

Widely known for his groundbreaking two-hit hypothesis of cancer development and his prediction of recessive-acting tumor suppressor genes, Alfred G. Knudson was an American physician, who specialized in cancer genetics, beginning his research on observing retinoblastoma in children he treated. A much-loved academic, he was also a supportive and approachable mentor, affiliated with Fox Chase Cancer Center until his death.

Frederick Gardner Cottrell was an American inventor, physical chemist, and philanthropist. Cottrell is best remembered for inventing the electrostatic precipitator. He is also remembered for founding the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Frederick Gardner Cottrell won several prestigious awards, such as the Willard Gibbs Medal. In 1992, he was made an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.