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Sir John Maddox
Editor of Nature magazine for 23 years and now Editor Emeritus. He was inducted into the American Academy of Science.

Madhvacharya
Madhvacharya (c.1238-1317) was the most fascinating of the Hindu sage-philosophers and one of the greatest theistic thinkers of all time. Born near Udupi in South India, he left his family at the age of 16 (some accounts say 12) to take up life as a religious ascetic. As was common in those times, he had a guru (teacher) who was responsible for his intellectual and spiritual formation. The guru, like most of his contemporaries, was under the spell of Advaita (monist) Vedanta. But from the beginning, Madhvacharya would trust only his own experience and the principles of reason. Rejecting Advaita on rational and religious grounds, he systematically laid out the case for theism, eventually convincing even his guru. He visited the major intellectual centers of the day, debating monists and drawing attention to the theism of the Hindu scriptures. The primary basis of the monism of Sankaracharya and Advaita Vedanta was a particular interpretation of the Vedas and the Upanishads. Madhvacharya authored several studies of these works to show that they were clearly theistic and were interpreted as theistic in the first commentaries. By the time of his death he had written 37 books, converted the most prominent Advaita scholars in India to theism, and assembled eight disciples to carry on his work. His defense of theism and his critique of monism were continued by numerous subsequent thinkers, most notably Jayatirtha and Vyasatirtha, the two greatest logicians in the history of Indian thought. more on Madhvacharya

Moses Maimonides
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam), was the most influential Jewish thinker since, well, Moses. A Jewish saying makes this very point: "From Moses [of the Torah] to Moses [Maimonides] there was none like Moses." Born in Cordoba, Spain, he fled to Morocco and then settled down in Egypt after the intolerant Almohads gained power. In later life he became the court physician of the Sultan Saladin and the head of the Jewish community in Cairo. Maimonides' most famous work is Guide to the Perplexed, an explanation of God's infinite perfection addressed to a disciple who was troubled by disputes in philosophy and theology. He also authored several classic works of Jewish law and scriptural commentary. more on Moses Maimonides

Karl Marx
Marx (1818-83) was the founder of the most influential and destructive political and socio-economic ideology of the 20th century: variously called Marxism and Communism. He adapted Hegel's view of history by replacing Hegel's Spirit/Mind with matter. His most famous work is Das Capital. The ideal society envisioned by Marx would abolish classes and private ownership of the means of production.

James Clerk Maxwell
Maxwell (1831-1879) gave mathematical form to Michael Faraday's discovery of the electromagnetic field. Maxwell's Equations, which describe the production of electromagnetic energy by accelerating charged particles, are enduring testaments to his genius.

Julian de la Mettrie
Julien de La Mettrie (1709-1751), a French physician, was the author of L'Homme Machine, a work in which he claimed that humans were self-moving machines.

Stanley Miller
Pioneering origin of life researcher.

Harold Morowitz
One of the leading contemporary origin-of-life researchers in the US.