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Eureka 100: the Science List

By Jon Agar, on 7 October 2010

So, as Alice Bell hinted in her comment on the key concepts team’s recent post on the most influential people in UK science policy here on the STS Observatory, The Times produced its own list: the Eureka 100. It’s behind a pay-wall, but here it is:

  1. Paul Nurse
  2. Mark Walport
  3. Stephen Hawking
  4. Alex Jeffreys
  5. Jonathan Ive
  6. John Sulston
  7. David Attenborough (note!)
  8. Martin Rees (Astronomer Royal, President of the RS)
  9. Andre Geim (a very late entry, or just good timing?)
  10. Nancy Rothwell (VC of Manchester)
  11. John Rose (Rolls-Royce)
  12. Iain Lobban (director of GCHQ)
  13. Philip Campbell (Editor, Nature)
  14. Andrew Witty (on our list too, CEO of GSK)
  15. Jocelyn Bell Burnell (pulsars, a long time ago)
  16. John Beddington (GCSA)
  17. Richard Friend (plastics)
  18. David Mackay (CSA, Department of Energy and Climate Change)
  19. Ross Brawn (Formula 1, boys toys)
  20. John Bell (Oxford medical science)
  21. James Dyson (polulist inventor, Conservative advisor)
  22. Fred Sanger (Cambridge sequencer)
  23. Sally Davies (CMO)
  24. Brian Cox (not just a pretty face)
  25. Richard Dawkins (‘atheist campaigner’ ho ho)
  26. Wendy Hall (computer science)
  27. Paul Davies (SETI)
  28. Peter Mansfield (MRI scanning)
  29. Kay Davies (Oxford gene therapy)
  30. Martin Evans (stem cells)
  31. Simon Campbell (viagra)
  32. David Bulcombe (Cambridge botany)
  33. Simon Singh (science writer, accidental libel campaigner)
  34. Peter Higgs (of possible particle fame)
  35. Tim Hunt (Nobellist, cancer research)
  36. Mike Stratton (cancer research)
  37. Ann Dowling (Cambridge engineer)
  38. Harry Kroto (Nobellist, carbon)
  39. Anthony Hollander (stem cells)
  40. Chris Whitty (chief scientist, DFID)
  41. Andrew Wiles (top mathmo)
  42. John Houghton (IPCC)
  43. Phil Jones (UEA climate scientist)
  44. Kim Shillinglaw (BBC science head)
  45. David Brennan (CEO AstraZeneca)
  46. Greg Winter (Cambridge molecular biology/medicine)
  47. Leszek Borysiewicz (VC Cambridge)
  48. John Pendry (Imperial invisibility cloak)
  49. Steven Ley (Cambridge organic chemist)
  50. Adrian Owen (neuroscience)
  51. Hermann Hauser (cambridge IT)
  52. Tim Berners-Lee (WWW)
  53. Chris Stringer (very ancient humans)
  54. David King (ex-GCSA, pro-nuclear)
  55. Philip Cohen (Dundee biochemist, note recent Willetts speech)
  56. David Payne (optic fibres)
  57. John Young (Pfizer UK)
  58. Steven Cowley (Culham fusion)
  59. Harpal Kumar (on our list too, CEO Cancer Research UK)
  60. Peter Ratcliffe (Oxford medical science)
  61. Ian King (CEO BAE Systems – rather low?)
  62. Jim Virdee (CERN)
  63. Fiona Fox (Science Media Centre)
  64. Colin Blakemore (Oxford neuroscience – rather low too, or maybe had more influence under Labour?)
  65. Graham Richards (Isis Innovations)
  66. James Lovelock (Gaia, pro-nuclear)
  67. Peter Knight (quantum optics)
  68. John Browne (President of RAE, ex-BP)
  69. George Efstathiou (Cambridge astronomer)
  70. Adrian Smith (BIS civil servant)
  71. John Krebs (one of science’s great and good)
  72. John McCloskey (earthquakes)
  73. Heston Blumenthal (super science chef)
  74. Robin Millar (Association for Science Education)
  75. Simon Donaldson (mathematician)
  76. Marcus du Sautoy (popular mathematician)
  77. Ben Goldacre (bad science, bad hair)
  78. David Sainsbury (former science minister)
  79. David Nutt (former drugs advisor)
  80. Fiona Goldlee (editor, BMJ)
  81. Robert Winston (fertility)
  82. Steve O’Rahilly (Cambridge clinical biochem)
  83. Guang-zhong Yang (robotic surgery)
  84. Mark Welland (nano, CSA to MoD, should be much higher)
  85. Mike Richards (cancer research)
  86. Janet Thornton (genetics)
  87. Steve Sparks (volcanoes)
  88. Ottoline Leyser (plant genetics)
  89. Mark Miodownik(KCL materials)
  90. Michael Rawlins (chair of NICE)
  91. Callum Roberts (marine biology)
  92. John Armitt (Olympics engineer)
  93. Paul Smith (Millennium Seed Bank)
  94. Prince Charles (oh yes)
  95. Shankar Balasubramanian (sequencing)
  96. Sue Ion (BNFL)
  97. Paul Westerbury (more big tent engineering)
  98. Richard Fortey (writer, NHM)
  99. Steve Bramwell (magnetricity)
  100. Roy Anderson (remember foot and mouth?)

Plenty to talk about there. UCL does not do well in the Eureka 100 but does spectacularly well in the also-ran ‘just missed out’ column…

The list was chosen by Lord Waldegrave, Alice Bell, Dame Athene Donald and Dr Evan Harris.

15 Responses to “Eureka 100: the Science List”

  • 1
    Alice Bell wrote on 7 October 2010:

    “the list was chosen by Lord Waldegrave, Alice Bell, Dame Athene Donald and Dr Evan Harris”

    Nope, it was chosen by the Times, we just helped them talk through it. They also asked a load of scientific institutions (Wellcome, IoP, etc…) to provide lists of nominations.

  • 2
    Scientific “importance” « through the looking glass wrote on 7 October 2010:

    […] The Times’ have just published a list of the “100 most important people in British science”. I was one of the judges. It’s online behind the Times paywall, or you can buy a paper copy (added 11:35am: or read it on the UCL STS blog). […]

  • 3
    Jane Gregory wrote on 7 October 2010:

    Not sure whose comment it is against Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s name – ‘pulsars, a long time ago’ – but she was just finishing her term as President of the Institute of Physics when the list was written. Her significance for women in science over the last 40 years has been immense.

  • 4
    Alice Bell wrote on 7 October 2010:

    @ – Jane

    Bell Burnell was in top 10 until the very last draft.

  • 5
    Chris Stringer wrote on 7 October 2010:

    Might be worth checking who are ex-UCL though – I was an undergrad (Anthropology) 1966-1969..

  • 6
    Sarah wrote on 7 October 2010:

    No Patrick Moore?

  • 7
    Kathrin Cohen Kadosh wrote on 7 October 2010:

    UCL are also represented in these Eureka lists today:

    Top 5 Science Couples: Chris and Uta Frith

    Top 5 Academic Power Brokers: Malcom Grant

    Top 10 Science people under 40:
    Sarah Brindle
    Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
    Lucie Green

  • 8
    Kajsa-Stina Magnusson wrote on 7 October 2010:

    12 women out of 100… sigh.

  • 9
    Quick Links | A Blog Around The Clock wrote on 8 October 2010:

    […] Scientific “importance” and Eureka 100: the Science List […]

  • 10
    robert may wrote on 11 October 2010:

    where am I?

  • 11
    Jonathan Balkind wrote on 5 October 2011:

    What happened to Sydney Brenner’s place on this list – plenty of other geneticists, most of whom rely on ground-breaking work done by Brenner at the Cambridge MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology previously headed by Francis Crick and before him by max Perutz. Even John Sulston (who is on the Eureka! list) shared his Nobel Prize with Robert Horvitz and with Sydney Brenner, who is the “father” of thiss whole field. Perhaps the selectors don’t realise that he is still alive – and still working on his trademark huge range of ground-breaking projects, including – yes – the seemingly fashionable stem cells.

  • 12
    Silver Coins wrote on 6 March 2012:

    Kajsa,
    Well the 21st Century should be a whole different story since the influx of women in the universities didn’t happen until the late 1970’s.

  • 13
    Hayes Arianna wrote on 10 July 2012:

    This rich list seems to mention the top scientists of the World.

    Have any of these lost their ranks to new scientist in last two years.

    A latest version with a link to each of their profile would have been a broader source of information for students like me.

  • 14
    Anderson wrote on 30 July 2012:

    Yes Hayes Arianna completely agree with you a latest list with links to profiles of each scientist will be great resource of information and everyone can get to know more about them. Looking forward for your new post regarding this. Well Wishes.

  • 15
    Blake wrote on 24 August 2012:

    You missed my name in list, Is it some typing mistake or you forgot my name. 😛 LOL

    Just looking for the updated list to be posted by you its nearly two years now. Please provide the latest list soon, I think there will be many changes in the list.