Top 10 poll: vote for biologists who have changed the world
We're asking you to tell us which biologist you think has changed the world the most.
We've gone through scientists with commemorative plaques, historically recognised greats of the past, and sought nominations from the public. We've taken 40 of these individuals with links to the UK, and now we want your help to find the top 10!
The poll has now closed, and we'll be announcing the top ten shortly!
| English mathematician who worked on the early mechanical general-purpose computer and has become a figurehead of women in STEM | |
| English physiologist and biophysicist who shared the Nobel Prize in 1963 | |
| British geneticist who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting | |
| British naturalist best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection | |
| English surgeon who discovered electrolysis with William Nicholson | |
| British botanist with a special interest in the domestication of crops | |
| English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist who created several mycological illustrations | |
| Australian and British scientist who studied the immune responses to nematodes and was director of the Wellcome Trust | |
| English entomologist and ecologist | |
| English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory | |
| English broadcaster and naturalist who has been the face and voice of natural history programmes for over 60 years | |
| British microbiologist and geneticist | |
| British biochemist credited with the development of protein crystallography | |
| English physician and scientist who was the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine | |
| English social reformer and statistician who helped popularise the graphical representation of statistical data | |
| British biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry twice | |
| English bateriologist and the original discoverer of bacteriophages | |
| English naturalist who worked as a zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter, founding the Durrell Wildlife Park on the Channel Island of Jersey | |
| British rheumatologist who did pioneering work into the causes of osteoarthritis | |
| British scientist whose contributions included the development of 'organ culture method' | |
| British scientist and environmentalist who proposed the Gaia hypothesis | |
| British primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist best known for her 45 year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees | |
| British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist | |
| British phycologist from Lancashire whose research on edible seaweed led to a breakthrough for commercial growing | |
| British biochemist who was one of the first female Fellows of the Royal Society | |
| British fossil collector, dealer and paleontologist | |
| British pathologist and bacteriologist who studied antibiotic resistance and was a pioneer in documenting penicillin resistance | |
| English geneticist who is best known for her discovery of X-chromosome inactivation | |
| English physicist and molecular biologist best known for work on the scientific understanding of phosphoresence | |
| Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who moved to England to work at the University of Oxford following World War II | |
| British obstetrician and gynaecologist and pioneer of fertility treatment | |
| English geneticist and cell biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine | |
| English ethologist and evolutionary biologist | |
| Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made contributions to botany through his use of the microscope | |
| English statistician and one of the chief architects of neo-Darwinian synthesis | |
| British biophysicist and x-ray crystallographer who made contributions to the understanding of the structure of DNA | |
| British scientist, writer and broadcaster who is researching a novel approach to the treatment of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease | |
| English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001 | |
| English geneticist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance | |
| English physician and the first to describe completely the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped around the body |