List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field

See also: List of people considered father or mother of a field

The following is a list of people who are considered a "father" or "mother" (or "founding father" or "founding mother") of a scientific field. Such people are generally regarded to have made the first significant contributions to and/or delineation of that field; they may also be seen as "a" rather than "the" father or mother of the field. Debate over who merits the title can be perennial.

Science as a whole

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Science (modern)	Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)[1] Isaac Newton (1643–1727)[2][3]	For systemic use of experimentation in science and contributions to scientific method, physics and observational astronomy. The work of Principia by Newton, who also refined the scientific method, and who is widely regarded as the most important figure of the Scientific Revolution.[4][5]
Science (ancient)	Thales (c. 624/623 – c. 548/545 BCE)[6][7]	Attempted to explain natural phenomena without recourse to mythology

Natural sciences

Biology

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Zoology	Aristotle (384–322 BCE)	His contributions to the field include vast quantities of information about the variety, structure, and behavior of animals
Bacteriology	Robert Koch (1843–1910) Ferdinand Cohn (1828–1898)[8] Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)	First to produce precise, correct descriptions of bacteria.
	Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723)[9]
Biogeography	Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913)	"... Often described as the Father of Biogeography, Wallace shows the impact of human activity on the natural world."[10]
Bioinformatics	Margaret Oakley Dayhoff (1925–1983)	"... the mother and father of bioinformatics", according to David J. Lipman, former director of the National Center for Biotechnology Information.[11]
Biology[note 1]	Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
Botany	Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BCE)
	Otto Brunfels (1488–1534) Hieronymus Bock (1498–1554) Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566)	The three German fathers of botany.[12][13]
Bryology	Johann Hedwig (1730–1799)
Cheloniology	Archie Carr (1909–1987)	[14][15][16][17][18]
Ecology	Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) Eugenius Warming (1841–1924)[19]	Linnaeus founded an early branch of ecology that he called The Economy of Nature (1772), Haeckel coined the term "ecology" (German: Oekologie, Ökologie) (1866), Warming authored the first book on plant ecology. Plantesamfund (1895).
Modern elk management	Olaus Murie (1889–1963)[20]
Entomology	Jan Swammerdam (1637–1680)	[21]
	Johan Christian Fabricius (1745–1808)[22]	Fabricius described and published information on over 10,000 insects and refined Linnaeus's system of classification.
	William Kirby (1759–1850)	[23]
Ethology	Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988) Karl von Frisch (1886–1982) Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)	The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, joint awardees of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[24]
Evolution Natural selection	Charles Darwin (1809–1882)[25][26][27][28]	On the Origin of Species (1859).
Genetics	Gregor Mendel (1822–1884)	For his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants, which forms the basis for Mendelian inheritance[29]
	William Bateson (1861–1926)	Proponent of Mendelism.[30]
Gerontology	Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916)	Coined the term "gerontology" (1903). He was the first to perform systematic research on the effects of certain foods on lifespan and healthspan, developed the concept of probiotic diet that promotes long healthy life.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
Herpetology	John Edwards Holbrook (1796–1871)	"John Edwards Holbrook... was considered by many to be the Father of Herpetology."[38][39]
Ichthyology	Peter Artedi (1705–1735)	"Far greater than either of these... was he who has been justly called the Father of Ichthyology, Petrus (Peter) Artedi (1705–1735)."[40]
Immunology	Edward Jenner (1749–1823)	Pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine (in 1796).[41][42][43][44]
Innate (natural) immunity	Élie Metchnikoff (1845–1916)	Research of phagocytosis by macrophages and microphages as a critical host-defense mechanism.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51]
Humoral immunity	Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915)	Described the side-chain theory of antibody formation and the mechanisms of how antibodies neutralize toxins and induce bacterial lysis with the help of complement.[45]
Lichenology	Erik Acharius (1757–1819)	"Erik Acharius, the father of lichenology..."[52]
Microbiology	Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) / Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)[53]	The first to microscopically observe micro-organisms in water and the first to see bacteria.
Molecular biology	Linus Pauling (1901–1994)	[54]
Molecular biophysics	Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran (1922–2001)[55]	Founded the [world's first?] molecular biophysics unit (1970).
Paleontology	Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Georges Cuvier (1769–1832)	[56]
Parasitology	Francesco Redi (1626–1697)	The founder of experimental biology and the first person to challenge the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies.[57]
Population genetics	Ronald A. Fisher, Sewall Wright, J. B. S. Haldane	[58]
Protozoology	Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723)[9]	First to produce precise, correct descriptions of protozoa.
Quantitative genetics	Ronald A. Fisher	[59]
Taxonomy	Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778)[60]	Devised the system of naming living organisms that became universally accepted in the scientific world.
Virology	Martinus Beijerinck (1851–1931)[61]	Studies of agricultural microbiology and industrial microbiology that yielded fundamental discoveries.

Chemistry

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Atomic theory (early)	Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BCE)[62]	Founder of atomism in cosmology.
Atomic theory (modern)	Father Roger Boscovich (1711–1787)[63]	First coherent description of atomic theory.
	John Dalton (1766–1844)[64]	First scientific description of the atom as a building block for more complex structures.
Atomic bomb	J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)	Served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in overseeing the development of the first nuclear weapons.
Chemical thermodynamics (modern)	Gilbert Lewis (1875–1946) Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) Merle Randall (1888–1950) Edward Guggenheim (1901–1970)[65]	Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances (1923) and Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs (1933), which made a major contribution to the use of thermodynamics in chemistry.
Chemistry (modern)	Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)[66]	Elements of Chemistry (1787)
	Robert Boyle (1627–1691)[66]	The Sceptical Chymist (1661)
	Jöns Berzelius (1779–1848)[67][68]	Development of chemical nomenclature (1800s)
	John Dalton (1766–1844)[66]	Revival of atomic theory (1803)
Green chemistry	Paul Anastas (born 1962)	Design and manufacture of chemicals that are non-hazardous and environmentally benign.
Nuclear chemistry	Otto Hahn (1879–1968)[69]	Applied Radiochemistry (1936) First person to split an atomic nucleus (nuclear fission, 1938) Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery (1944)
Periodic table	Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907)[70]	Arranged the sixty-six elements known at the time in order of atomic weight by periodic intervals (1869).
Physical chemistry	Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765)	The first to read lectures in physical chemistry and coin the term (1752).
	Jacobus van 't Hoff (1852–1911)	Jacobus van 't Hoff is considered one of the founders of the discipline of physical chemistry. His work helped found the discipline as it is today.[71][72][73]
	Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927)[74]	Devised much of the theoretical foundation for physical chemistry. On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876), Thermodynamik chemischer Vorgange (1882).
	Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932)	"Wilhelm Ostwald is considered one of the founders of the discipline of physical chemistry..."[75]
	Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894)	[citation needed]
Theory of Chemical structure	August Kekulé (1829–1896)	Discovered the structure of the benzene ring (1865) and pioneered structural chemistry in general

Earth sciences

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Geochemistry (modern)	Victor Goldschmidt (1888–1947)	For developing the Goldschmidt classification of elements.
Early geodesy (mathematical geography)	Eratosthenes (c. 276 – 195/194 BCE)[76][77]	Eratosthenes was first to write the word Geography (from Geo- and -graphy, literally "writing about the Earth")
Geodesy (modern)	Al-Biruni (973 – c. 1050)[78][79]
Geology (modern)	Georgius Agricola (1494–1555)[80]	Wrote the first book on physical geology, De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum (1546)
	Nicolas Steno (1638–1686)[81]	For setting down most of the principles of modern geology.
	James Hutton (1726–1797)[82]	For formulating uniformitarianism and the Plutonic theory.
Geotechnical engineering (Soil mechanics)	Karl von Terzaghi (1883–1963)[83]
Limnology (modern)	G. Evelyn Hutchinson (1903–1991)[84]
Mineralogy	Georgius Agricola (1494–1555)[85]
Meteorology Naval oceanography (modern)	Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873)[86]
Plate tectonics	Alfred Wegener (1880–1930)[citation needed]
Acoustical oceanography	Leonid Brekhovskikh (1917–2005)[87]
Stratigraphy	Nicolas Steno (1638–1686)[81]
Speleology	Édouard-Alfred Martel (1859–1938)	Began the first systematic exploration of cave systems and promoted speleology as a field separate from geology.

Medicine and physiology

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Anatomy (modern)	Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694)
Biophysics	Henri Dutrochet (1776–1847)	Discovered osmosis
	Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894)	Explained hearing and vision.
Biomechanics	Christian Wilhelm Braune (1831–1892)	First to describe the methodology of human gait (walking).
Bioelectromagnetics	Luigi Galvani (1737–1798)	First to discover animal electricity through a series of experiments in 1780.
Cardiovascular physiology	Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288)	Father of circulatory and cardiovascular physiology.[88][89][90]
Cognitive therapy	Aaron T. Beck (1921–2021)	"In developing ways to do this, Beck became the father of cognitive therapy, one of the most important developments in psychotherapy in the last 50 years."[91]
Cryonics	Robert Ettinger (1918–2011)	1962 book, The Prospect of Immortality[92]
Dentistry	Pierre Fauchard (1679–1761)	Widely known for writing the first complete scientific description of dentistry, Le Chirurgien Dentiste.
Electrophysiology	Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896)	The discoverer of nerve action potential.
Emergency medicine	Peter Safar (1924–2003)[93][94] Frank Pantridge (1916–2004)	Safar pioneered CPR, intensive-care units and developed standards for EMT, ambulance design and equipment. Pantridge: [95]
Epidemiology (modern)	John Snow (1813–1858)	Determining the cause of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak with a combination of public interviews and mapping
Gastrointestinal physiology	William Beaumont[96] (1785–1853)
Gynaecology	J. Marion Sims (1813–1883)[97][98]
Histology	Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694)
Human anatomy (modern)	Vesalius (1514–1564)[99]	De humani corporis fabrica (1543)
Medical genetics	Victor McKusick (1921–2008)	Mendelian Inheritance in Man (started publishing in 1966)
Medicine (early)	Imhotep[100] (late 27th century BCE) Charaka[101] (3rd century BCE) Hippocrates[102][103] (c. 460 – 370 BCE) Ibn-Sina (980–1037)	Historical legends following his death, with little evidence. Wrote the Charaka Samhitā and founded the Ayurveda system of medicine. Prescribed professional practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Oath.
Medicine (modern)	Sir William Osler (1849–1919)
Neurosurgery	Harvey Cushing[104] (1869–1939)	Developed techniques that considerably reduced the risks involved with brain surgery in the early 20th century.[104]
Nutrition (modern)	Justus von Liebig (1803–1873) Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794)	"Justus Von Liebig, the 'father of modern nutrition', developed the perfect infant food. It consisted of [...]"[105] "In addition to being known as the Father of Modern Chemistry, Lavoisier is also considered the Father of Modern Nutrition, as the first to discover the metabolism that occurs inside the human body..."[106]
Organ transplantation	Thomas Starzl[107] (1926–2017)	Performed the first human liver transplant and established the clinical utility of anti-rejection drugs including ciclosporin. Developed major advances in organ preservation, procurement and transplantation.
Orthopedic surgery (modern)	Hugh Owen Thomas[108] (1834–1891)	He stressed the importance of rest in treatment and was responsible for many landmark contributions to orthopaedic surgery. He was especially celebrated for his design and use of splints; the famous Thomas knee splint was still in wide use at the end of World War II.
Psychology	Wilhelm Wundt[109] (1832–1920)	Founded the first laboratory for psychological research, thereby establishing psychology as a distinct science.[110] Wundt is also regarded as the father of experimental psychology.[111]
Pediatrics	Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi ("Rhazes")[112] (c. 865 – 925 CE)	Wrote The Diseases of Children, the first book to deal with pediatrics as an independent field.
Physiology	François Magendie (1783–1855)	Précis élementaire de Physiologie (1816)
Physical culture	Bernarr Macfadden (1868–1955)	"It delighted the heart of our old friend Bernarr Macfadden, 'the Father of Physical Culture,' when we told him how much athletic activity and good sportsmanship had to do with the rehabilitation of boys."[113]
Plastic surgery	Sushruta[114][115] (sixth century?) Harold Gillies (1882–1960)	Wrote the Sushruta Samhita (ancient)
Psychoanalysis	Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)	[116]
Psychophysics	Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795–1878)[117] Gustav Fechner (1801–1887)[118]	Formulating the Weber–Fechner law in Elements of Psychophysics (1860).[119] This publication is regarded as the beginning of psychophysics.[120] Fechner also coined the term psychophysics.[121]
Space medicine	Hubertus Strughold (1898–1986)	"After Wernher von Braun, he was the top Nazi scientist employed by the American government, and he was subsequently hailed by NASA as the 'father of space medicine'"[122]
Surgery (early)	Sushruta[114][115] (sixth century?)	Wrote the Sushruta Samhita (878 CE?)
Surgery (modern)	Abu al-Qasim ("Abulcasis") al-Zahrawi[123] (936–1013) Guy de Chauliac[124] (1300–1368) Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) John Hunter (1728–1793) Joseph Lister (1827–1912) William Stewart Halsted (1852–1922) See also Father of modern surgery	Kitab al-Tasrif (1000 CE). Chirurgia magna Leader in surgical techniques, especially the treatment of wounds.[125] Experimental, scientific approach to surgery.[126][127] Use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic.[128][129] Introduction of residency system in the United States.[130]
Toxicology	Paracelsus (1493/1494 – 1541)	[131]

Physics and astronomy

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Acoustics	Ernst Chladni[132]	For important research in vibrating plates
Atomic bomb	Enrico Fermi J. Robert Oppenheimer Leslie Groves Edward Teller	For their role in the Manhattan Project
Aerodynamics	Nikolai Zhukovsky George Cayley[133]	Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow, was the first engineer scientist to explain mathematically the origin of aerodynamic lift. Cayley Investigated theoretical aspects of flight and experimented with flight a century before the first airplane was built
Civil engineering	John Smeaton[134]
Classical mechanics	Isaac Newton (founder)[135]	Described laws of motion and law of gravity in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
Electrical Engineering	Michael Faraday[136][137]	Invented the generator, the first DC electric motor, the transformer, and also discovered Faraday's Law of Induction (1831)
Pre-Maxwell Electrodynamics	André-Marie Ampère[138]	Book: Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena, Uniquely Deduced from Experience (1827)
Energetics	Willard Gibbs[139]	Publication: On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876)
Meteoritics	Ernst Chladni[140]	First to publish in modern Western thought (in 1794) the then audacious idea that meteorites are rocks from space.[141]
Modern astronomy	Nicolaus Copernicus[142]	Developed the first explicit heliocentric model in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543)
Nuclear astrophysics	Hans Bethe[143]	Wrote a famous paper in 1938 on stellar nucleosynthesis
Nuclear physics	Ernest Rutherford[144]	Developed the Rutherford atom model (1909)
Nuclear science	Marie Curie Pierre Curie[145]
Optics	Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)[146]	Correctly explained vision and carried out the first experiments on light and optics in the Book of Optics (1021).
Physical cosmology	Georges Lemaître (founder) Albert Einstein Henrietta Leavitt (mother)[147] Edwin Hubble (father)[147]	Monsignor Lemaître is considered "the Father of the Big Bang" and the first to derive what is now known as Hubble's law. Leavitt discovered Cepheid variables, the "Standard Candle" by which Hubble later determined galactic distances. Einstein's general theory of relativity is usually recognized as the theoretic foundation of modern cosmology.
Physics (modern)	Galileo Galilei[148]	His development and extensive use of experimental physics, e.g. the telescope
Plasma physics	Irving Langmuir Hannes Alfvén[149]	Langmuir first described ionised gas as plasma and observed fundamental plasma vibrations, Langmuir waves. Alfvén pioneered the theoretical description of plasma by developing magnetohydrodynamics.
Quantum mechanics	Max Planck[150]	Stated that electromagnetic energy could be emitted only in quantized form
Relativity	Albert Einstein (founder)[151]	Pioneered special relativity (1905) and general relativity (1915)
Spaceflight (rocketry)	Robert Hutchings Goddard Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Hermann Oberth Wernher von Braun	Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. Tsiolkovsky created the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation. Oberth was the first, who presented mathematically analyzed concepts and designs of space ships.[152] Braun´s V2 rocket was the first man made object in space.[153] He led the Apollo program.
Thermodynamics	Sadi Carnot (founder)[154] Rudolf Clausius (one of the founding fathers)	Publication: On the Motive Power of Fire and Machines Fitted to Develop that Power (1824) Restated Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle and gave so the theory of heat a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, "On the Moving Force of Heat",[155] published in 1850, first stated the second law of thermodynamics. In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy. In 1870 he introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat.[156]

Formal sciences

Mathematics

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Algebra (see also The father of algebra)	Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi (Algorismi)[157] Diophantus[158][159][160]	Full exposition of solving quadratic equations in his Al-Jabr and recognized algebra as an independent discipline. First use of symbolism (syncopation) in his Arithmetica, influenced Arabic development of algebra.
Algebraic topology	Henri Poincaré[161]	Published Analysis Situs in 1895,[162] introducing the concepts of homotopy and homology, which are now considered part of algebraic topology.
Analysis	Augustin-Louis Cauchy[163] Karl Weierstrass[164]
Analytic geometry	René Descartes Pierre de Fermat[165] (founders)	For their independent invention of the Cartesian Coordinate System
Artificial intelligence	Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, John McCarthy, Allen Newell, Marvin Minsky, Herbert A. Simon, Nathaniel Rochester	For their numerous contributions to the field, such as Turing's 1950 paper on AI, or Shannon's 1950 paper on how to program a computer for chess.[166] Also for either the organization of or participation in the famous 1956 Dartmouth workshop, the founding event of AI.[167]
Calculus	Isaac Newton[168] Gottfried Leibniz	See Leibniz and Newton calculus controversy.
Computer science	Charles Babbage Alan Turing	In the history of computer science Babbage is often regarded as one of the first pioneers of computing and Turing invented the principle of the modern computer and the stored program concept that almost all modern day computers use.
Computer programming	Ada Lovelace Charles Babbage	Work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine
Cryptanalysis	Al-Kindi[169][170][171]	Developed the first code breaking algorithm based on frequency analysis. He wrote a book entitled "Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages", containing detailed discussions on statistics.
Cryptography (modern)	Claude Shannon[172][173]	Wrote a revolutionary paper that was released in 1949, and did work during WWII
Descriptive geometry	Gaspard Monge[174] (founder)	Developed a graphical protocol that creates three-dimensional virtual space on a two-dimensional plane
Fractal geometry	Benoit Mandelbrot
Geometry	Euclid[175]	Euclid's Elements deduced the principles of Euclidean geometry from a set of axioms.
Graph theory	Leonhard Euler[176]	See Seven Bridges of Königsberg
Italian school of algebraic geometry	Corrado Segre[177]	Publications and students developing algebraic geometry
Modern algebra	Emmy Noether[178] Emil Artin	Provided the first general definitions of a commutative ring, and suggested that topology be studied algebraically.[179] Combined the structure theory of associative algebras and the representation theory of groups into a single arithmetic theory of modules and ideals in rings satisfying ascending chain conditions.[180]
Non-Euclidean geometry	Carl Friedrich Gauss, János Bolyai, Nikolai Lobachevsky[181] (founders)	Independent development of hyperbolic geometry in which Euclid's fifth postulate is not true
Number theory	Pythagoras[182]
Probability	Gerolamo Cardano Pierre de Fermat Blaise Pascal Christiaan Huygens[183] (founders)	Fermat and Pascal co-founded probability theory, about which Huygens wrote the first book
Projective geometry	Girard Desargues[184] (founder)	By generalizing the use of vanishing points to include the case when these are infinitely far away
Set theory	Georg Cantor
Statistics (modern)	Ronald A. Fisher	[185][186][187]
Tensor calculus	Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro[188] (founder)	Book: The Absolute Differential Calculus
Topology	Leonard Euler	Seven Bridges of Königsberg and Euler's polyhedron formula
Trigonometry	Hipparchus[189][190]	Constructed the first trigonometric table.
Vector algebra, vector calculus	Willard Gibbs[191] Oliver Heaviside[192] (founders)	For their development and use of vectors in algebra and calculus

Systems theory

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Chaos theory	Henri Poincaré[193] Mary Cartwright[194][195] Edward Lorenz[196]	Poincaré's work on the three-body problem was the first discovered example of a chaotic dynamical system. Cartwright made the first mathematical analysis of dynamical systems with chaos. Lorenz introduced strange attractor notation.
Cybernetics	Norbert Wiener[197]	Book Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 1948.
Dynamic programming	Richard E. Bellman
Fuzzy logic	Lotfi Asker Zadeh
Information theory	Claude Shannon[198]	Article: A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948)
Optimal control	Arthur E. Bryson[199]	Book: Applied Optimal Control[200]
Robust control	George Zames[citation needed]	Small gain theorem and H infinity control.
Stability theory	Alexander Lyapunov[citation needed]	Lyapunov function
System dynamics	Jay Wright Forrester[201]	Book: Industrial dynamics (1961)

Social sciences

Field	Person/s considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Anthropology	Herodotus[202] Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī[203][204]
Bibliometrics	Paul Otlet	The term bibliométrie was first used by Paul Otlet in 1934[205] and defined as "the measurement of all aspects related to the publication and reading of books and documents".[206]
Egyptology	Father Athanasius Kircher[207] Jean-François Champollion[208]	First to identify the phonetic importance of the hieroglyph, and he demonstrated Coptic as a vestige of early Egyptian, before the Rosetta Stone's discovery. Translated parts of the Rosetta Stone.
Ethnography	Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705–1783)	Described and categorized clothing, religions and rituals of the Siberian ethnic groups.[209]
Historiography	Thucydides	Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the deities, as outlined in his introduction to his work.
History	Herodotus (who also coined the term)	The first writer to apply a scientific method to historical events.
Indology	Al-Biruni[204][210]	Wrote the Indica[211]
International law	Alberico Gentili Francisco de Vitoria Hugo Grotius	Influential contributions to the theory of international law, war and human rights
Linguistics (early)	Panini	Wrote the first descriptive grammar (of Sanskrit)
Linguistics (modern)	Ferdinand de Saussure
Media studies	Marshall McLuhan	Emphasized the importance of medium, and coined terms like "global village" and "the medium is the message"[212]
Political science	Aristotle Niccolò Machiavelli* Thomas Hobbes**	Aristotle is called the father of political science largely because of his work entitled Politics. This treatise is divided into eight books, and deals with subjects such as citizenship, democracy, oligarchy and the ideal state.[213] *Machiavelli is considered the 'modern father of political science'[214] **Hobbes is considered the Father of Modern Political Philosophy for his postulation of the State of Nature in Leviathan.
Sociology	Ibn Khaldun[215] Adam Ferguson[216] Auguste Comte (who also coined the term)[217] Marquis de Condorcet (founder)[218]	Wrote the first sociological book, the Muqaddimah (Prolegomena). "Father of modern sociology" Introduced the scientific method into sociology.

Economics

Field	Person(s) considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Accounting and bookkeeping	Luca Pacioli (c. 1447–1517)[219]	Establisher of accounting and the first person to publish a work on bookkeeping.[219]
Economics (early)	Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406)[220] Chanakya / Kautilya (375 – 283 BCE)[221]	Publication: Muqaddimah (1370) Publication: Arthashastra (400 BCE – 200 CE)
Economics (modern)	Richard Cantillon (1680s – 1734)[222] Anders Chydenius (1729–1803)[223] Adam Smith (c. 1723–1790)[224]	First specific treatise on economics. The National Gain (1765), a pamphlet that included key ideas about free trade.[225] The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Evolutionary economics Ecological economics Thermoeconomics bioeconomics	Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906–1994)[226][227][228][229][230]	The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971)
Macroeconomics	John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946)[231]	Author of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money and groundbreaking economist, Keynes spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking. Prior to Keynes, the general consensus among economists was that the economy was self-fixing. During the Great Depression, when people began to realize that the economy would not fix itself, Keynes proposed that the government needed to intervene to combat excessive boom and bust. This idea was the largest influence in U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.[232][233]
Mathematical economics	Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782)	Forerunner of the Tableau économique.[234]
Monetary economics	Nicole Oresme (c. 1322–1382)[235] Irving Fisher (1867–1947) Milton Friedman (1912–2006)	Oresme's De Moneta. "Irving Fisher [...] spent his career studying questions about money and the economy - how money affects interest rates, how money affects inflation, and the impact of money on overall economic activity. For this work, he is regarded as the father of monetary economics."[236] "[...] no less an authority than the University of Chicago's Milton Friedman, the father of monetary economics, [...]"[237]
Microcredit	Muhammad Yunus (born 1940)[238]	Founded Grameen Bank
Personnel economics	Edward Lazear (1948–2020)	Published the first paper in the field.
Family and consumer science	Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911)	Founded the American Association of Home Economics, currently the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. "Bringing science into the home, Richards hoped to '...attain the best physical, mental, and moral development' for the family, which she believed was the basic unit of civilization."[239]

Schools of thought

Field	Person(s) considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Austrian School	Carl Menger (1840–1921)[240]
School of Salamanca	Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546)[241]	Highly influential teacher and lecturer on commercial morality

Theories

Field	Person(s) considered "father" or "mother"	Rationale
Expectations theory	Thomas Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534)[242]	Recognised the effect of market expectations on the value of money
Modern portfolio theory	Harry Markowitz (1927–2023)[243]
Social choice theory	Kenneth Arrow (1921–2017)	Created the field with his 1951 book Social Choice and Individual Values.
Game theory	John von Neumann (1903–1957) Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977) John Forbes Nash Jr. (1928–2015)	Von Neumann and Morgenstern created the field with their 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Nash created the Nash equilibrium.

See also

• Founders of statistics

Notes

1. A name suggested in 1802 by the German naturalist Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus and introduced as a scientific term later that year by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.