Scottish Innovators Menu

Scots have been at the fore of innovation and discovery for centuries - there is hardly an aspect of modern life that isn't owing to the ingenuity of a Scot. With inventions and discoveries ranging from the steam engine to modern physics to television and antibiotics, Scots have been shaping the world since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. The following biographies represent only a smattering of some of Scotland's most influential innovators.

• John Napier - Mathematician, Physicist, & Astronomer


• Joseph Black - Physician, Physicist, & Chemist


• James Watt - Inventor & Mechanical Engineer


• Charles Macintosh - Chemist & Inventor


• Rev. Patrick Bell - Inventor & Church of Scotland Minister


• Thomas Graham - Chemist


• Kirkpatrick Macmillan - Blacksmith & Inventor


• Alexander Bain - Instrument Inventor, Technician, & Clockmaker


• Sir James Young Simpson - Doctor & Researcher


• Sir William Thomson - Mathematical Physicist & Engineer


• James Clerk Maxwell - Mathematician & Theoretical Physicist


• Alexander Crum Brown - Organic Chemist


• Sir Alexander Fleming - Biologist & Pharmacologist


• John Logie Baird - Engineer & Inventor


• Dolly - Cloned Ewe