12 Scientists With Disabilities Who Made the World a Better Place

You don’t have to follow science news to know the name of physicist Stephen Hawking. The groundbreaking physicist not only made a splash by discovering that black holes emit radiation, but also as a pop-culture icon who even appeared on The Simpsons speaking in his signature computerized voice, an adaptive technology he used due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Let’s take a look at 12 other scientists with disabilities who made their mark.

1. John Forbes Nash, Jr.
2. Thomas Edison
3. Temple Grandin
4. Albert Einstein
5. Ralph Braun
6. Geerat Vermeij
7. Edwin Krebs
8. Leonardo da Vinci
9. Gustav Kirchhoff
10. Richard Leakey
11. Charles Steinmetz
12. Farida Bedwei

John Forbes Nash, Jr.

An acclaimed mathematician, Nash focused his work on the idea of economic conflict: his “Nash equilibrium” theory put forth the notion that in certain situations, no one can back off from their chosen position without winding up with less than what they started with. Nash’s thinking was hugely inspirational to business and political strategizing, and he won a Nobel Prize in 1994 for his efforts based on a simple, one-page explanation of his theories. Nash had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1960s, and at various points its symptoms cost him personally and professionally. Though episodes of paranoid delusions requiring hospitalization often kept him from his work, he conducted complex research and taught at Princeton University into the 1990s. His remarkable life was captured in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind.

Thomas Edison

As the holder of more than 1000 U.S. patents, including those for light bulbs, phonographs, and more, Thomas Edison was a quantifiable genius. Around the age of 12, he lost almost all of his hearing, which may have been the result of scarlet fever or a head injury. Edison believed his deafness existence was a positive, though: The intensely driven inventor said he could become deeply absorbed in his work without distractions.

Temple Grandin

Animal behaviorist and autism advocate Temple Grandin, who was diagnosed with autism as a child, has said that she thinks in pictures. Her unique way of seeing the world is an asset to her research and teaching at Colorado State University and in the cattle industry, where her understanding of livestock behavior has resulted in more humane practices in the meat industry. She even designed enclosures that reduce stress on the animals that are now used throughout the world.

Albert Einstein

If he’s not the most famous physicist in history, he’s certainly close. Albert Einstein’s achievements in mathematics and physics didn’t come without challenges. Einstein is believed to have had a learning disability that may have been dyslexia. The future scientist did not learn to talk until age 3 and was often scolded by teachers about his slow grasp of school subjects, yet exhibited plenty of traits—concentration, interest in books, imagination—that would serve him well in his extraordinary career.

Ralph Braun

You may not recognize his name, but you have certainly seen, or even used, Ralph Braun’s inventions. Braun was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy when he was 6 years old and began using a wheelchair to maintain his mobility. A born engineer, he invented his first mobility scooter, called the Tri-Wheeler, to make getting around his workplace easier. As orders for the scooter came in from consumers, Braun continued to improve on the original scooter and devised additional machines to assist people with disabilities in their daily lives. He founded a company, BraunAbility, and helped pioneer a series of revolutionary mobility-assistance devices, including the world's first vehicle wheelchair lift and hand controls for cars—allowing millions of kids to ride school buses and countless wheelchair users to take public transportation. Though Braun passed away in 2013, he is still known as the innovative "father of mobility.”

Geerat Vermeij

Geerat Vermeij is a world-renowned expert on the history of life of Earth whose research has led to deeper understanding of how fossilized creatures once interacted with their predators. And he does it all by touch. Vermeij was born with glaucoma and has been blind since age 3, yet forged a unique path in the field of paleoecology. His tactile examination of fossils and shells, sensitive to morphological variations that sighted people may overlook, has detected evolutionary adaptations in the organisms’ response to predation and enriched the study of the ancient past.

Edwin Krebs

Edwin Krebs was one of the last people to find out he’d won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine because he didn’t hear the phone ring. The biochemist, who was partly deaf, and his colleague Edmond H. Fischer discovered a crucial protein process in the body that can change and regulate how cells act. The finding led to greater understanding about hormones, cell life spans, and even how the body rejects transplanted organs.

Leonardo da Vinci

It would take less time to list all of the subjects Leonardo didn’t excel in. A master of painting, drawing, anatomy, physics, mathematics, astronomy, and dozens of other pursuits, his inventions have inspired hundreds of years’ worth of ingenuity. His sketches and notebooks hint that he may have had dyslexia: nearly all of his handwritten notes are in reverse.

Gustav Kirchhoff

Prussian physicist Gustav Kirchhoff and his colleague Robert Bunsen (of burner fame) pioneered the field of spectroscopy, the study of how matter emits or absorbs wavelengths of light. Using spectroscopic instruments, scientists can ascertain, for example, how dense an object is or what it’s made of. Kirchhoff first applied his theories to the sun to determine its composition. Later, he established a series of laws used to quantify electrical networks, which are is still used in electricity distribution today. Kirchhoff lived for most of his life with limited mobility and used a wheelchair while teaching at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin.

Richard Leakey

The famed anthropologist Richard Leakey was best known for his discoveries of intact hominin fossils from Lake Turkana and other sites in his native Kenya, as well as his leadership of wildlife conservation organizations in that country. As the son of legendary anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, Richard was practically destined to follow in their footsteps. He teamed up with Kenyan fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu and, in the 1960s and 1970s, unearthed significant specimens from hominin species including Parathropus boisei, Homo habilis and Homo erectus. His work almost came to an end in 1993, however, when the small plane he was piloting crashed. Both of his lower legs were amputated and he used prosthetic limbs after the accident. Many presumed the plane had been sabotaged in retaliation against Leakey’s work with the Kenyan government to protect wildlife and eliminate poaching.

Charles Steinmetz

The engineer Charles Steinmetz lived with congenital kyphosis, a condition in which the vertebrae are not formed correctly and cause a forward curve in the spine. Because of his self-described "gnome-like" figure, he was nearly turned away from Ellis Island when his family immigrated from Germany to the United States—which would have been the world's loss. Steinmetz was a brilliant mathematician and worked closely with Thomas Edison at General Electric, making important contributions to electrical engineering and solving questions about power loss that helped govern how direct and alternating currents were developed.

Farida Bedwei

Ghana-born Farida Bedwei is currently a software engineer at Microsoft working in the company’s “mixed reality” applications, but prior to that, she co-founded and served as CTO of Logiciel, a financial software provider that supplied more than 300 banks and other institutions. Bedwei was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of 1 and uses her prominence in the tech world to advocate for disability rights and issues. She even collaborated with a Ghanaian gaming company to produce Karmzah, a comic starring an African girl with cerebral palsy who turns out to be a super heroine.

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A version of this story was published in 2016; it has been updated for 2024.