Who are Today's Prominent Scientists in America?

[kuahji]

In Literature class we were discussing a particular article & the subject came up about American icons. Today, most people look up to sports stars, American Idol, etc. Overall, we seem to lack a modern day Albert Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton. The teacher asked if anyone could name a prominent modern scientist. I thought for sure at least someone would say Stephen Hawking... but the class was silent. Anyway, just curious as to what you all think that says about America. Also, who do you believe are todays prominent scientists?

 

[fourier jr]

In Literature class we were discussing a particular article & the subject came up about American icons. Today, most people look up to sports stars, American Idol, etc. Overall, we seem to lack a modern day Albert Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton. The teacher asked if anyone could name a prominent modern scientist. I thought for sure at least someone would say Stephen Hawking... but the class was silent. Anyway, just curious as to what you all think that says about America. Also, who do you believe are todays prominent scientists?

i'm not even in the science business (i'm sort of in the math business) & off the top of my head i can think of feynman, wheeler, thorne, pauling, fefferman, witten, jaffe, cohen, quillen...

 

[Rach3]

i'm not even in the science business (i'm sort of in the math business) & off the top of my head i can think of feynman, wheeler, thorne, pauling, fefferman, witten, jaffe, cohen, quillen...

Pauling died years ago...

 

[Rach3]

Which is sort of the point, isn't it? Today's most famous scientists, are the dead ones.

 

[Rach3]

Science popularizers, though, are well known - Dawkins, Greene, Susskind...

 

[siddharth]

John Baez is young and a prominent scientist, isn't he?

 

[Rach3]

John Baez is young and a prominent scientist, isn't he?

He's a mathematician, and his thesis was in 1986.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/this.week.html