Great Scottish Innovators
During the period that came to be called the Scottish
Enlightenment, Edinburgh was known as 'a hotbed of genius', famed
throughout Europe for its great philosophers, scientists and
artists.
Outstanding Scottish thinkers and scientists
blazed a trail for radical new ideas across Europe and the New
World.
Joseph Black - advanced the science of
thermodynamics
Robert Burns - poet and a lyricist
James Clerk Maxwell - pioneer in electromagnetism, astrophysics
and colour photography
William Cullen -produced the first modern
pharmacopoeia
Adam Ferguson -philosopher and historian,
"the father of modern sociology
George Forrest - botanist, specimens for
Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden
David Hume - economist, historian
James Hutton - 'Father of modern Geology'
Joseph Lister - pioneer of antiseptic surgery
John Napier - mathematician, inventor of
logarithms, popularised the decimal point
John Playfair - scientist and
mathematician, professor of natural philosophy
Daniel Rutherford - chemist and physician,
most famous for the isolation of nitrogen
James Young Simpson - physician and pioneer of anaesthetics and
chloroform
Adam Smith - Scottish moral philosopher
and a pioneer of political economy
