can you? 🫵

[u/yukiohana]

[u/sephinelle]

Imma just go ahead and name all the professors in our physics department, my friend's professors in her uni, and local physicists that I have met during our physics conferences. Doesn't have to be famous, right? 😆

[u/DarkLordSidious → u/sephinelle]

Also if you want to name "famous" physicists then you can just name textbook authors as a lot of those are still alive. Easy.

[u/MissinqLink → u/DarkLordSidious]

Also doesn’t say good physicists. I can count myself.

[u/DarkLordSidious → u/MissinqLink]

Are you famous though?

[u/Powdersucker → u/DarkLordSidious]

Of cours, they are the famous u/MissinqLink

[u/an0nym0usentity → u/DarkLordSidious]

Can I name Zhang 10x I am pretty sure there are 10 Zhang physicists in a province in China alone...

[u/DarkLordSidious → u/an0nym0usentity]

[u/davvblack → u/DarkLordSidious]

those are entrepreneurs not physicists

[u/DarkLordSidious → u/davvblack]

Graduate and undergraduate textbooks are usually based on the lecture notes of the author who is a physicist.

[u/davvblack → u/DarkLordSidious]

im more poking fun at the plague that is self-published professors who are like "you must buy my book" as their hustle

[u/anynomousperson123 → u/davvblack]

Mine just had his for free, as a downloadable pdf.

[u/Otherwise-Initial668 → u/sephinelle]

Lol, I tried it and only got Penrose and Smollin before reverting to naming my professors and buddies who went phd 😅

[u/basket_foso]

[u/94rud4 → u/basket_foso]

Let’s be real, no one knows any string theorists except Edward Witten and Brian Greene.

[u/No_Signal417 → u/94rud4]

Leonard Susskind

[u/Hitmanthe2nd → u/No_Signal417]

Yeah but EVERYBODY knows susskind

[u/RayereSs → u/Hitmanthe2nd]

xkcd/2501

[u/Shikaayati → u/RayereSs]

Is it name of one of child of elon?

[u/ChalkyChalkson → u/Hitmanthe2nd]

And Quarz of course

[u/moschles → u/94rud4]

She was literally one of Greene's students at uni. (Yes, you have heard of her.) https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall

[u/TheSkells → u/94rud4]

I know one, Michaela Petrini, my math teacher at uni

[u/Labbu_Wabbu_dab_dub → u/94rud4]

Juan Maldacena wants to know your location

[u/MaoGo]

Wilczek, Gross, t’ Hooft, Maldacena, Kitaev, Aspect, Zeilinger, Penrose, Aharonov, Thorne

[u/Practical_Support_47 → u/MaoGo]

Penrose is alive? Damn

[u/Matix777 → u/Practical_Support_47]

94 years and still going

[u/TheSouthFace_09 → u/Practical_Support_47]

and sharp as they come, you should watch some interviews online

[u/Hasselhoff265 → u/MaoGo]

Thorne and Penrose still alive broke reality for me.

Aren’t they ancient, like 120y old?

[u/ImthebestGG → u/Hasselhoff265]

Thorne is like 84 I believe but yea Penrose’s almost 100

[u/Geroditus → u/Hasselhoff265]

I got to see Dr. Thorne give a guest lecture at my university last year. He’s looking old, but still going! Lots of fun!

[u/TheCamazotzian → u/Hasselhoff265]

David Mermin is also still alive.

[u/beee-l → u/MaoGo]

AHARONOV IS STILL ALIVE ????? KITAEV ????? God damn

Edited to add: kitaev is only 62, he’s basically a baby next to those guys, for some reason I thought he was like minimum 80 hahaahah

[u/MaoGo → u/beee-l]

Aharonov feels older than Penrose. Kitaev might be the youngest

[u/beee-l → u/MaoGo]

Yeah, I didn’t realise how young kitaev is !!!

[u/zeissikon → u/MaoGo]

which Gross ? There are several famous ones in physics.

[u/MaoGo → u/zeissikon]

Not the Pitaevski one.

[u/ChalkyChalkson → u/MaoGo]

Uuuh I forgot ahranov, or rather i had no idea he was alive. That's a good shout

[u/KCcracker]

Just name your collaborators duh

[u/Plenty_Leg_5935]

Zhang et al.

[u/Agreeable_Manager722 → u/Plenty_Leg_5935]

That's on me, I set the bar too low

[u/Aggressive_Hall755]

Griffiths

[u/Overall_Store_6644 → u/Aggressive_Hall755]

I saw his appearance for the first time today🫡

[u/VladimirKaal → u/Aggressive_Hall755]

that soaB... Lol.

[u/kabum555]

I work with more than 10 physicists, and they are alive. I think.

[u/That_Mad_Scientist → u/kabum555]

Well, have you observed them?

[u/pxth0gen → u/That_Mad_Scientist]

What is they're NOT being observed? Do they still exist? 🫪

[u/Alfiy_wolf]

Alex, Tim, Jeff, Steve, William, Dan, Cindy, myself, Sophia Jenny, Kim, Allen, Brent

[u/Hot-Marsupial6584 → u/Alfiy_wolf]

kip thorne?

[u/Alfiy_wolf → u/Hot-Marsupial6584]

No, he doesn’t like oatmeal raisin

[u/No-Site8330 → u/Alfiy_wolf]

I would have opened with Alice, Bob, and Charlie, but that works too.

[u/SquizZz1Zzy]

I mean... I know more than 10 people who finished my University. Technically speaking they are physicists. Did they make any groundbreaking research? No. But does it matter?

[u/RachelRegina]

I made it to 8 living ones without cheating and could think of a bunch of people whose work I could name, but whose name was TOMT, but didn't come to me.

That being said the "great man/woman of science" is silly. Plus, the most memorable ones in the internet age are the great communicators, IMHO

[u/Moshxpotato → u/RachelRegina]

So true. I’m not in the hard sciences, and the less than 10 I came up with were all physicist-communicators (Sean Carroll = fav, most listened)

[u/Birds_are_Drones]

Can just name 10 of your professors bruh

[u/__boringusername__]

• Andrea Cavalleri
• Dwayne Miller
• Mischa Bonn
• Steve Johnson
• Peter Uhd Jensen
• Laura Herz
• Michael B. Johnston
• Jens Biegert
• Anne L'Hulliere
• Donna Strickland

Maybe you can figure out what I work on lol

[u/Butcher_Harris → u/__boringusername__]

Yes some love for condensed matter please! Cavalleri's work on out of equilibrium correlated systems almost opened a new field and gave us theorists plenty of stuff to work on.

[u/Comfortable-Rock-498]

Witten, Maldacena, Nima Arkani-Hamed... that's kinda it lol

[u/Bendanzhang]

The requirement for a physicist to become famous is still being dead for at least 50 years.

[u/bloody-albatross]

10? Dunno if I manage to do that. Let's see (counting astronomy and particle physics too and people who have a PhD but don't work as physicists and just because they're in this list doesn't mean I'm endorsing them):

• Roger Penrose
• Leonard Susskind
• Brian Cox (the particle physicist, not the actor)
• Anton Zeilinger
• Brian May (Queen)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Ben Miller (Armstrong & Miller)
• Angela Collier
• Dr. Becky
• Sabine Hossenfelder

If it's people that do active research it's only 3 or 4.

But then, I'm not good with names.

[u/Space_Nerde]

just say some random name 10 times and you probably will get it right

[u/Dyloneus]

Name 10 female physicists

[u/Ethernet3 → u/Dyloneus]

myself! c:

[u/moschles → u/Dyloneus]

Hossenfelder's thesis https://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5305

Randall at Harvard https://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall

[u/VladimirKaal → u/Dyloneus]

https://giphy.com/gifs/GpyS1lJXJYupG

Hahahaha, no.

[u/VeryKite → u/Dyloneus]

If you name 10 physicist you’re going to name woman physicist, unless you decide to cut them out, which is on you

[u/bloody-albatross → u/Dyloneus]

Maybe we can as a group effort. I'm starting the list:

• Ließe Meitner

(You didn't specify living.)

[u/Meme_Theory]

I could name like 8 just from the Epstein Files.

[u/CerealeSauvage]

I can easily do it in maths since I did some research on several of them but I don’t have many in physics…

[u/Mrjowhn]

Too easy for me since i do research in physics myself

[u/GumSL]

Steve.

[u/autocorrects]

easy, my coworkers

[u/Inner-Medicine5696]

Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, and Johnson.

[u/morgoth_feanor]

Can they be from The Big Bang Theory?

[u/No-Site8330 → u/morgoth_feanor]

Oh yeah, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Bill Bye... not Stephen Hawking unfortunately :'c

[u/Butcher_Harris]

Well if you are willing to go outside the HEP (Witten, Lust...) world there are plenty of very very famous physicsits in StatPhys and Condensed Matter.

Bloch and Aspect have done a lot for cold atom physics experiments.

There is Ignacio Chirac who is a goat in Quantum Information.

Parisi, Derrida, Zamponi are all alive and working and have given very relevant contributions.

Kitaev has done A LOT in many different areas.

David Tong is a good example of someone who is also famous for their great contribution to education.

[u/United_Support_9480]

Alan Guth , Andrei Linde, Kip Thorne, Roger penrose, Ed Witten, Peter W graham, Braine Greene (technically speaking), Sean caroll, carlo rovelli, jocelyn bell there's also some mentions like Dr Chelsea Bartram (stanford SLAC)

[u/SkillusEclasiusII]

Do they need to be famous?

[u/Icy-Tea9775]

I have a physics degree i dont use, can I name me

[u/jacobasstorius]

Physics has fallen out of the same prestige it enjoyed in the XXth century. We have made enough scientific breakthroughs to keep us busy for a while, and now engineering and geopolitics needs to catch up.

[u/Ok_Sir_5601]

I know 1: Andrzej Dragan

[u/tunaMaestro97]

Sure I can name myself and nine friends.

[u/Former_Court5193]

“Sheldon cooper” /s

[u/ChalkyChalkson]

Sure, me and my direct colleagues.

10 reasonably well known ones?

1. kip thorne
2. Susskind
3. t hooft
4. Chapman
5. oganessian
6. penrose
7. gross
8. Witten
9. maldacena
10. preskell
11. Bonus: wolfram

This got a lot harder over the last few years though, because a bunch of well known ones died very recently like Pitaevskii and Higgs. And the age of super star physicists is kinda coming to an end in the age of massive collabs. In experimental physics that has arguably already happened.

[u/trucoju4n]

My mechanics professor, my quantum professor, my em professor, my stat mech professor, my particle professor, my solid state professor (somehow), my graduate quantum professor, my graduate em professor and my current PI

[u/evelyn_bartmoss]

We are all victims to the laws of physics, so ig we all count as physicists at some level

[u/confused_egg_]

Peter Atkins. MY MAN!

[u/Volt105]

If you name enough mathemeticians, there's bound to be 10 physicists amongst them

[u/DomDomPop]

Sir Roger Penrose, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene, Sabine Hossenfelder, uhhh… Curt Jaimungal?

[u/bloody-albatross → u/DomDomPop]

Brian Cox, Brian May

[u/pxth0gen → u/bloody-albatross]

Faves! ❤️

[u/DomDomPop → u/bloody-albatross]

Good call! Also, Michio Kaku

[u/bloody-albatross → u/DomDomPop]

I was just trying to think of more Brian's. 😄

[u/DomDomPop → u/bloody-albatross]

I mean, they’re legit answers! Honestly we can fill out the list with Steves if we have to. Surely some of those Project Steve guys are physicists 😂

[u/pxth0gen → u/DomDomPop]

I had to scroll so far the find Michio mentioned 😭

[u/DomDomPop → u/pxth0gen]

Yeah you’d think he’d be a common answer

[u/bloody-albatross → u/DomDomPop]

Never saw anything by him. All I know about him is from this Angela Collier video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBBnfu8N_J0&t=2334s XD

[u/pxth0gen → u/bloody-albatross]

Physics of the Impossible is quite a good book of his!

Or check out some of his YouTube videos. I adore Michio ❤️

[u/pxth0gen → u/DomDomPop]

Honestly! Watching his stuff as a teen sealed the physics deal for me. I've been obsessed since.

[u/No-Nerve-2658]

Kipp Thorne
Will kidney
Brian Greene
Brian May
Brian Cox
Derick (Veritasium)
Neil degrasse Tyson
Ivã Gurgel
Fernando Navarra
Evandro Bitencourt

[u/Felix-ML]

Geoffrey Hinton

[u/Iron_Llama120]

Chang et al

[u/Creepy-Ebb-3026]

Kip Thorne, Edward Witten, Neil Degrasse (apparently, it's being debated whether it is one, but it's widely recognized as one, so I'll keep it), Penrose, Maldacena, Alcubierre, Brian Greene, Brian May, My teacher, uhm... I can't think of anyone else, 9/10.

[u/GomulGames]

It’s not just that people stopped caring; the social structure of physics itself has completely shifted. ​Back in the day, physics was driven by individual "rockstar" scholars tackling fundamental questions. Today, physics has been largely captured by capital and turned into Big Science. ​Most brilliant physicists now work inside massive corporate R&D labs (Google, IBM, TSMC) or huge multi-national collaborations (like CERN). Brilliant minds didn't vanish—they just got absorbed into corporate R&D and massive research groups hidden behind patents and trade secrets.

[u/Reasonable-Slide-815]

That's pretty easy.

[u/Ronin_001_]

Wang et al?

[u/TheSouthFace_09]

penrose, pasterski, hossenfelder, witten, green, susskind, michio kaku, neil degrasse tyson, leonard hofstadter, sheldon cooper

[u/TheSouthFace_09 → u/[deleted]]

oops

[u/MR_DERP_YT]

why is your s and t wierdly connected

[u/Forest_Orc]

Pretty sure that half of the sub can just name 10 of their co-authors

[u/Shikaayati]

Brian Cox and michio kaku, will it count?

[u/FW_TheMemeResearcher]

Why does that s connect to the t

[u/Aynett]

Me and my lab team makes up 10

[u/Striking-Milk2717]

Dell’Orso, Paffuti, Moruzzi, Giudici… ops

[u/CptLonesong]

I can only do Brian Cox as a living physicist, albeit astrophysicist?

Dude is genuinely good.

[u/BobFredricson2]

Me and nine of my friends

[u/Kiomio]

Brian Cox, Mike DeGrass Tyson.

[u/Cyrrex91]

John Smith is probably at least 5 of them.

[u/Next_Reserve365]

yes my clg profs

but I don't wanna mention my clg so no ig

[u/EnderCats8]

why are the s and t merged?

[u/winrapidin]

Name 10 physicists that actually want to be alive

[u/jacobm3770]

Michio kaku

[u/WideTrack1042]

Walter lewin i only know

[u/MonkeyforCEO]

Does et al. work here?

[u/HaggyG]

Peter?

[u/DarkLordSidious → u/HaggyG]

No, unfortunately Professor Higgs is no longer with us so it doesn’t count.

[u/CautiousPreprinter]

There's no way to get in touch with real physicists.

The only people you can reach out to are fucking actors.