An Incomplete List of Scientists with Disabilities and their
Contributions
Sir Humphrey Davy- a chemist with a visual impairment and a
chronic health impairment who discovered Sodium, Potassium, Chlorine, Boron,
Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium, and Barium
Stephen Hawking- a physicist with ALS who has made many important
discoveries in physics
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen- a chemist with a visual impairment that
discovered Ruthenium and Cesium
Ralph Braun- an engineer with muscular dystrophy who made the
first battery powered wheelchair lift.
Geerat Vermeij-
a paleontologist who is blind and has brought much insight about evolution that
might have gone unnoticed otherwise
John Forbes Nash- a mathematician with schizophrenia who
contributed greatly to mathematics and business education through his theory of
Nash Equilibrium that at a certain point you can’t back off a position without
losing tings and ending with less than you started with.
Anders Ekeberg- a chemist with a
hearing and visual impairment who discovered Tantalum
Temple Grandin- An animal behaviorist with autism who
revolutionized how the livestock industry treated animals
Dirk Coster- a chemist with a
chronic health impairment who discovered Hafnium
Richard Leaky- a paleontologist who had both legs amputated below
the knee after a plane crash yet continued finding near complete skeletons in
his native Kenya
Edwin Krebs- a biochemist with a hearing impairment who won a
Nobel Prize in 1992 because of his research on hormones, cell life spans, and
how organ donation rejection can occur.
Thomas Edison- a scientist who after a bout of Scarlet Fever had a
resulting hearing impairment revolutionized electricity and has 1000 other
patents
Eugene-Anatole DeMarcay- a chemist
with a visual impairment who discovered Europium and Radium
Gustav Kirchhoff- a physicist with a mobility impairment whose
work with electrical rules are still relevant today
Albert Einstein- a famous physicist with a learning disability and
is considered by many to be one of the smartest people ever.
William H. Wollaston- a chemist with a visual impairment who
discovered Rhodium and Palladium
Karl Auer von Welsbach- a chemist with a hearing impairment who
discovered Praseodymium, Neodymium, and Lutetium
Ferdinand Reich- a chemist with a vision impairment who discovered
Indium
Joseph Priestly- a chemist with a visual impairment who discovered
Oxygen and whom the prestigious Priestly medal is named for
Pierre Janssen- a chemist with a physical disability who
discovered Helium
Dr. Tim Cranmer- blind by the age of nine, Dr. Cranmer has been
called the Edison of the Blind. His inventions include but are not limited to
the Cranmer Abacus, Say When, Talking telephone
Directory, Cranmer Modified Perkins Brailler, the
Pocket Braille and a board that allowed access to PCs.
Dr.
Emerson Foulke- Blind by the age of two, He became a
psychologist and researched the processes by which people who are blind learn
from braille and tactile graphics.
Ralph
Teetor- Blind at age five, Ralph Teetor went on to
receive a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Ralph Teetor solved problems in dynamic balancing,
invented the cruise control, was president of the Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE).
Sources: several Wikipedia pages and the help of American
Chemical Society Chemists with Disabilities members
Future Reflections special issue on STEM:https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr35/2/fr3502tc.htm One
Man’s Vision: The Life of Automotive Pioneer Ralph R. Teetor.
Marjorie
Teetor Meyer,
ISBN:
1-87820-867-5 (available from the NLS)
https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm98/bm980214.htm
https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm98/bm980502.htm