List of biologists

A

Ab–Ag

• John Jacob Abel, American biochemist and pharmacologist, founder of the first department of pharmacology in the United States.
• John Abelson, American biologist with expertise in biophysics, biochemistry, and genetics
• Richard J. Ablin, American immunologist. Research on prostate cancer. Discovered prostate-specific antigen which led to the development of the PSA test
• Erik Acharius, Swedish botanist who studied lichens
• Gary Ackers, American biophysicist who worked on thermodynamics of macromolecules.
• Gilbert Smithson Adair, British protein chemist who identified cooperative binding of oxygen binding haemoglobin.
• Arthur Adams, English physician and naturalist who classified crustaceans and molluscs
• Michel Adanson, French naturalist who studied the plants and animals of Senegal
• Julius Adler, American biochemist and geneticist known for work on chemotaxis.
• Monique Adolphe, French cell biologist, pioneer of cell culture
• Edgar Douglas Adrian , British electrophysiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research on neurons
• Adam Afzelius, Swedish botanist who collected botanical specimens later acquired by Uppsala University
• Carl Adolph Agardh, Swedish botanist who classified plant orders and classes
• Jacob Georg Agardh, Swedish botanist known for classification of algae
• Louis Agassiz, Swiss zoologist who studied the classification of fish; opponent of natural selection
• Alexander Agassiz, American zoologist, son of Louis Agassiz, expert of marine biology and on mining
• Nikolaus Ager , French botanist, author of ''De Anima Vegetativa''

  Al–An

• Nagima Aitkhozhina, Kazakh molecular biologist, structural and functional organisation of the genome of higher organisms and the molecular mechanisms of regulation of its expression.
• William Aiton, Scottish botanist, director of the botanical garden at Kew
• Bruce Alberts, American biochemist, former President of the United States National Academy of Sciences, known for studying the protein complexes involved in chromosome replication, and for the book Molecular Biology of the Cell
• Robert Alberty, American physical biochemist, with many contributions to enzyme kinetics.
• Alfred William Alcock, British systematist of numerous species, aspects of biology and physiology of fishes
• Nora Lilian Alcock, British pioneer in plant pathology who did research on fungal diseases
• Boyd Alexander, English ornithologist who made surveys of birds in the Gold Coast, and the Bonin Islands
• Richard D. Alexander, American evolutionary biologist whose scientific pursuits integrated systematics, ecology, evolution, natural history and behaviour
• Salim Ali, Indian ornithologist who conducted systematic bird surveys across India
• Frédéric-Louis Allamand, Swiss botanist who described several plant genera
• Warder Clyde Allee, American zoologist and ecologist, identified the Allee effect
• Joel Asaph Allen, American zoologist who studied birds and mammals, known for Allen's rule
• Jorge Allende, Chilean biochemist known for contributions to the understanding of protein biosynthesis
• George James Allman, British naturalist who did important work on the gymnoblasts
• June Dalziel Almeida, Scottish virologist who pioneered techniques for characterizing viruses, and discovered Coronavirus
• Tikvah Alper, South African radiobiologist who showed that the infectious agent of scrapie contains no nucleic acid
• Prospero Alpini, Italian botanist, the first in Europe to describe coffee and banana plants
• Sidney Altman, Canadian-born molecular biologist, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on RNA

  Am–As

• Bruce Ames, American biochemist, inventor of the Ames test for mutagenicity
• John E. Amoore, British biochemist and zoologist, originator of the stereochemical theory of olfaction.
• José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta, Portuguese naturalist who identified many new species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles
• Mortimer Louis Anson, American biochemist and protein chemist who proposed that protein folding was reversible
• Jakob Johan Adolf Appellöf, Swedish marine zoologist who made important contributions to knowledge of cephalopods
• Agnes Robertson Arber, British plant morphologist and anatomist, historian of botany and philosopher of biology
• Aristotle, Greek philosopher, sometimes regarded as the first biologist, he described hundreds of kinds of animals
• Emily Arnesen, Norwegian zoologist who worked on sponges
• Frances Arnold, American biochemist and biochemical engineer, pioneer of the use of directed evolution to engineer enzymes.
• Ruth Arnon, Israeli biochemist, who works on anti-cancer and influenza vaccinations. She participated in developing the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
• Peter Artedi, Swedish naturalist who developed the science of ichthyology
• Gilbert Ashwell, American biochemist, pioneer in the study of cell receptor
• Ana Aslan, Romanian biologist who studied arthritis and other aspects of aging
• William Astbury, British physicist, molecular biologist and X-ray crystallographer

  At–Az

• David Attenborough, British natural history broadcaster
• Jean Baptiste Audebert, French naturalist. Primarily an artist, he illustrated books of natural history, including Histoire naturelle des singes, des makis et des galéopithèques
• Jean Victoire Audouin, French zoologist: entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist and malacologist
• John James Audubon, French and American ornithologist and illustrator, who identified 25 new species
• Charlotte Auerbach, German and British geneticist, founded the discipline of mutagenesis after discovering the effect of mustard gas on fruit flies
• Caroline Austin, British molecular biologist known for her work on human DNA topoisomerase enzymes
• Richard Axel, American Nobel Prize–winning physiologist who discovered how to insert foreign DNA into a host cell
• Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on catecholamine neurotransmitters
• Francisco Ayala, Spanish-American evolutionary biologist and philosopher
• William Orville Ayres, American physician and ichthyologist with publications in popular sources
• Félix de Azara, Spanish naturalist who described more than 350 South American birds

  B

Ba

• Charles Cardale Babington, British botanist and archaeologist
• Churchill Babington, British classical scholar, archaeologist and botanist
• John Bachman, American ornithologist; also one of the first scientists to argue that blacks and whites are the same species
• Curt Backeberg, German horticulturist, known for classification of cacti
• Karl Ernst von Baer, German naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer, and a founding father of embryology
• Liberty Hyde Bailey, American botanist, one of the first to recognize the importance of Gregor Mendel's work
• Donna Baird, American epidemiologist and evolutionary-population biologist, concerned with women's health
• Spencer Fullerton Baird, American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist who collected and classified many species
• Scott Baker, American marine biologist, cetacean expert
• John Hutton Balfour, Scottish botanist, author of numerous books, including Manual of Botany
• Clinton Ballou, American biochemist who worked on the metabolism of carbohydrates and the structures of microbial cell walls
• Henri Heim de Balsac, zoologist.
• David Baltimore, American biologist, known for work on viruses. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975
• Outram Bangs, American zoologist who collected many bird species; author of more than 70 books and articles, 55 of them on mammals
• Joseph Banks, English naturalist, botanist who collected 30,000 plant specimens and discovered 1,400.
• Robert Bárány, Austro-Hungarian physician. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of the vestibular system
• Horace Barker, American biochemist and microbiologist
• Ben Barres, American neurobiologist who studied mammalian glial cells of the central nervous system
• Ewa Bartnik, Polish biologist and university professor
• Benjamin Smith Barton, American botanist, author of Elements of botany, or Outlines of the natural history of vegetables, the first American textbook of botany
• John Bartram, American botanist, described by Carl Linnaeus as the "greatest natural botanist in the world"
• William Bartram, American botanist, ornithologist, natural historian, and explorer, author of Bartram's Travels
• Anton de Bary, German surgeon, botanist, microbiologist, and mycologist, considered a founding father of plant pathology as well as the founder of modern mycology
• Dorothea Bate, Welsh palaeontologist and pioneer of archaeozoology who studied fossils
• Henry Walter Bates, English naturalist who gave the first scientific account of mimicry
• Patrick Bateson, English biologist and science writer, president of the Zoological Society of London
• August Johann Georg Karl Batsch, German botanist, mycologist who discovered almost 200 species of mushrooms
• Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist who introduced binomial nomenclature into taxonomy, foreshadowing Linnaeus

  Be–Bi

• George Beadle, American geneticist. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1958 for discovery of the role of genes in regulating biochemical reactions within cells. 7th president of the University of Chicago.
• Johann Matthäus Bechstein, German naturalist, ornithologist, entomologist and herpetologist known for his treatise on singing birds Naturgeschichte der Stubenvögel
• Rollo Beck, American ornithologist known for collecting birds and reptiles, including three of the last four individuals of the Pinta Island tortoise
• Jon Beckwith, American microbiologist and geneticist who worked on bacterial genetics.
• Charles William Beebe, American biologist, known for work on pheasants, and numerous books on natural history
• Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist who discovered viruses and investigated nitrogen fixation by bacteria
• Helmut Beinert, German-American biochemist, a pioneer of the use of electron paramagnetic resonance in biological systems
• Chase Beisel, university biology professor
• Thomas Bell, English zoologist, surgeon and writer who described and classified Darwin's reptile specimens and crustaceans
• David Bellamy, English broadcaster, activist and ecologist
• Boris Pavlovich Belousov, Soviet chemist and biophysicist who discovered the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction
• Stephen J. Benkovic, American bioorganic chemist specializing in mechanistic enzymology
• Edward Turner Bennett, English zoologist who described a new species of African crocodile
• George Bentham, English botanist, known for his taxonomy of plants, written with Joseph Dalton Hooker, Genera Plantarum
• Jacques Benoit, French biologist, physician. One of the pioneers of neuroendocrinology and photobiology.
• Robert Bentley, English botanist, known for Medicinal Plants
• Wilson Teixeira Beraldo, Brazilian physician and physiologist, co-discoverer of bradykinin
• Paul Berg, American biochemist known for work on gene splicing of recombinant DNA.
• Hans Berger, German neuroscientist, one of the founders of electroencephalography
• Carl Bergmann, German anatomist, physiologist and biologist who developed Bergmann's rule relating population and body sizes with ambient temperature
• Rudolph Bergh, Danish physician and zoologist who studied sexually transmitted diseases, and also molluscs
• Claude Bernard, French physiologist, father of the concepts of the milieu intérieur and homeostasis
• Samuel Stillman Berry, American zoologist who established 401 mollusc taxa, and worked on chitons, cephalopods, and also land snails
• Thomas Bewick, English ornithologist and illustrator, author of A General History of Quadrupeds
• Gabriel Bibron, French zoologist, expert on reptiles and author of Erpétologie Générale
• Klaus Biemann, Austrian chemist, the "father of organic mass spectrometry"
• Ann Bishop, English biologist who specialized in protozoology and parasitology
• Biswamoy Biswas, Indian ornithologist who studied, in particular, the birds of Nepal and Bhutan