List of geodesists
This is a list of geodesists, people who made notable contributions to geodesy, whether or not geodesy was their primary field. These include historical figures who laid the foundations for the field of geodesy.
Geodesists before 1900 (arranged by date)
- Pythagoras, 580–490 BC
- Eratosthenes, 276–194 BC
- Hipparchus, 190–120 BC
- Posidonius, 135–51 BC
- Menelaus of Alexandria, AD 70–140
- Claudius Ptolemy, AD 83–168 Roman Empire,
- Al-Ma'mun, 786–833
- Abu Rayhan Biruni, 973–1048
- Muhammad al-Idrisi, 1100–1166
- Regiomontanus, 1436–1476
- Abel Foullon, 1513–1563 or 1565
- Pedro Nunes, 1502–1578
- Gerhard Mercator, 1512–1594
- Snellius, 1580–1626
- Christiaan Huygens, 1629–1695
- Pierre Bouguer, 1698–1758
- Pierre de Maupertuis, 1698–1759
- Alexis Clairaut, 1713–1765
- Johann Heinrich Lambert, 1728–1777
- Roger Joseph Boscovich, 1711–1787
- Pierre Méchain, 1744–1804
- Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, 1749–1822
- Ino Tadataka, 1745–1818
- Georg von Reichenbach, 1771–1826
- Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749–1827
- Adrien-Marie Legendre, 1752–1833
- Johann Georg von Soldner, 1776–1833
- George Everest, 1790–1866
- Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, 1784–1846
- Heinrich Christian Schumacher, 1780–1850
- Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1777–1855
- Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, 1793–1864
- Johann Jacob Baeyer, 1794–1885
- George Biddell Airy, 1801–1892
- Carl Christopher Georg Andræ, 1812–1893
- Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind, 1818–1894
- Wilhelm Jordan, 1842–1899
- Hervé Faye, 1814–1902
- George Gabriel Stokes, 1819–1903
- Carlos Ibáñez e Ibáñez de Ibero, 1825–1891
- Henri Poincaré, 1854–1912
- Alexander Ross Clarke, 1828–1914
- Charles Sanders Peirce, 1839–1914
- Friedrich Robert Helmert, 1843–1917
- Heinrich Bruns, 1848–1919
- Loránd Eötvös, 1848–1919
- Otto Hilgard Tittmann, 1850–1938
A
- Oscar S. Adams, 1874–1962
B
- Tadeusz Banachiewicz, 1882–1954
- Michael Bevis, 1954
- Arne Bjerhammar, 1917–2011
- Giovanni Boaga, 1902–1961
- Guy Bomford, 1899–1996
- William Bowie, 1872–1940
C
- Éric Calais, 1964
- André-Louis Cholesky, 1875–1918
- Luís Cruls, 1848–1908
D
- James de Graaff-Hunter, 1881–1967
F
- Irene Kaminka Fischer, 1907–2009
- Buckminster Fuller, 1895–1983
H
- John Fillmore Hayford, 1868–1925
- Veikko Aleksanteri Heiskanen, 1895–1971
- Reino Antero Hirvonen, 1908–1989
- Friedrich Hopfner, 1881–1949
- Martin Hotine, 1898–1968
J
- Harold Jeffreys, 1891–1989
K
- William M. Kaula, 1926–2000
- Karl-Rudolf Koch, 1935
- Feodosy Nikolaevich Krasovsky, 1878–1948
L
- Walter Davis Lambert, 1879–1968
- Laurence Patrick Lee, 1913–1985
M
- Mikhail Sergeevich Molodenskii, 1909–1991
O
- John A. O'Keefe, 1916–2000
P
- Georges Perrier, 1872–1946
R
- Karl Ramsayer, 1911–1982
S
- Hellmut Schmid, 1914–1998
T
- Pierre Tardi, 1897–1972
- Peter J. G. Teunissen, 1957
V
- Yrjö Väisälä, 1889–1971
- Petr Vaníček, 1935
- Felix Andries Vening-Meinesz, 1887–1966
- Thaddeus Vincenty, 1920–2002
W
- Alfred Wegener, 1880–1930
- Hans-Georg Wenzel, 1949–1999
- Gladys West, 1930–2026