About the Scottish Science Hall of Fame
The 'Scottish Science Hall of Fame' features the top 10 Scottish scientists chosen by the public in an online poll.
Between December 2005 and October 2006, we invited votes for a favourite scientist out of 24 nominees. These scientists were all:
- Figures from the past, rather than people currently involved in science
- Scientists and engineers who were giants in their field
- People who were born in or worked mainly in Scotland.
In total we received 13,895 votes.
The winner
James Clerk Maxwell was the outright winner in our online poll.
Without his work in the 1800s, we might not have mobile phones and televisions today. Maxwell also produced the first colour photograph.
Top 10 votes breakdown
The votes received for each scientist were:
- James Clerk Maxwell – 1,500 votes
- John Logie Baird – 1,249 votes
- Alexander Graham Bell – 962 votes
- Robert Watson-Watt – 938 votes
- Alexander Fleming – 864 votes
- Joseph Black – 790 votes
- James Hutton – 770 votes
- James Watt – 633 votes
- Lord Kelvin – 467 votes
- John Napier – 422 votes.
Scottish pioneers of science
Over the past 300 years or so, Scottish scientists have provided the world with important ideas and inventions. Many of these shape our lives today.
Science is behind many objects we take for granted, such as Alexander Graham Bell's telephone and John Logie Baird's television. It is thanks to scientists like Alexander Fleming that we now have life-saving advances in medicine.
Imagine what life would be like without the work of these, and other, pioneering Scottish scientists.
Images on this page
The colour line drawings on this page were created for our voting site by cartoonist Frank Boyle. Contact us for permission to download and use any of these images.
