List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field
The following is a list of people who are considered a "father" or "mother" of a scientific field. Such people are generally regarded to have made the first significant contributions to and/or delineation of that field; they may also be seen as "a" rather than "the" father or mother of the field. Debate over who merits the title can be perennial.
Natural sciences
Medicine and physiology
| Field | Person/s | Rationale |
| Anatomy | Marcello Malpighi | |
| Biophysics | Henri Dutrochet | Discovered osmosis |
| Biophysics | Hermann von Helmholtz | Explained hearing and vision. |
| Biomechanics | Christian Wilhelm Braune | First to describe the methodology of human gait. |
| Bioelectromagnetics | Luigi Galvani | First to discover animal electricity through a series of experiments in 1780. |
| Cardiovascular physiology | Ibn al-Nafis | Father of circulatory and cardiovascular physiology. |
| Cognitive therapy | Aaron T. Beck | |
| Cryonics | Robert Ettinger | 1962 book, The Prospect of Immortality |
| Dentistry | Pierre Fauchard | Widely known for writing the first complete scientific description of dentistry, Le Chirurgien Dentiste. |
| Electrophysiology | Emil du Bois-Reymond | The discoverer of nerve action potential. |
| Emergency medicine | ||
| Epidemiology | John Snow | Determining the cause of the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak with a combination of public interviews and mapping |
| Gastrointestinal physiology | William Beaumont | |
| Gynaecology | J. Marion Sims | |
| Histology | Marcello Malpighi | |
| Human anatomy | Vesalius | De humani corporis fabrica |
| Medical genetics | Victor McKusick | Mendelian Inheritance in Man |
| Medicine | ||
| Medicine | ||
| Neurosurgery | Harvey Cushing | Developed techniques that considerably reduced the risks involved with brain surgery in the early 20th century. |
| Nutrition | ||
| Organ transplantation | Thomas Starzl | Performed the first human liver transplant and established the clinical utility of anti-rejection drugs including ciclosporin. Developed major advances in organ preservation, procurement and transplantation. |
| Orthopedic surgery | Hugh Owen Thomas | He stressed the importance of rest in treatment and was responsible for many landmark contributions to orthopaedic surgery. He was especially celebrated for his design and use of splints; the famous Thomas knee splint was still in wide use at the end of World War II. |
| Psychology | Wilhelm Wundt | Founded the first laboratory for psychological research, thereby establishing psychology as a distinct science. Wundt is also regarded as the father of experimental psychology. |
| Pediatrics | Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi ("Rhazes") | Wrote The Diseases of Children, the first book to deal with pediatrics as an independent field. |
| Physiology | François Magendie | Précis élementaire de Physiologie |
| Physical culture | Bernarr Macfadden | "It delighted the heart of our old friend Bernarr Macfadden, 'the Father of Physical Culture,' when we told him how much athletic activity and good sportsmanship had to do with the rehabilitation of boys." |
| Plastic surgery | Wrote the Sushruta Samhita | |
| Psychoanalysis | Sigmund Freud | |
| Psychophysics | Formulating the Weber–Fechner law in Elements of Psychophysics. This publication is regarded as the beginning of psychophysics. Fechner also coined the term psychophysics. | |
| Space medicine | Hubertus Strughold | "After Wernher von Braun, he was the top Nazi scientist employed by the American government, and he was subsequently hailed by NASA as the 'father of space medicine'" |
| Surgery | Sushruta | Wrote the Sushruta Samhita |
| Surgery | ||
| Toxicology | Paracelsus |