Science & invention · 1911–1997
Melvin CalvinbiochemistNobel Prize–winning chemist who traced how plants turn carbon dioxide into sugar; he grew up in Detroit, where his parents kept a grocery store, and finished Central High School in 1928.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 1,949 famous people
- 516 Detroit places
- 21 fields
Hungarian ties 31 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Origin and citizenship
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17 people
Clear filtersScience & invention · 1911–1997Melvin CalvinbiochemistNobel Prize–winning chemist who traced how plants turn carbon dioxide into sugar; he grew up in Detroit, where his parents kept a grocery store, and finished Central High School in 1928.
Science & invention · 1912–2004
Herbert C. BrownchemistNobel Prize–winning chemist of boron compounds who taught at Wayne University in Detroit from 1943 to 1947, early in his career.
Science & invention · 1915–2008Thomas Huckle Wellervirologist, physicianVirologist who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize for growing poliovirus in tissue culture, the step that made polio vaccines possible; born and raised in Ann Arbor.
Business & brands · 1913–2001Bill Hewlettengineer, entrepreneurCo-founder of Hewlett-Packard, born in Ann Arbor, where his father taught at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Science & invention · 1919–1974Clyde CowanphysicistCo-discoverer of the neutrino in the 1956 Cowan–Reines experiment, born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1918–2011Robert Ettingerphysics teacher, author, founder of cryonics'Father of cryonics' who taught physics and mathematics at Wayne State and Highland Park Community College and founded the Cryonics Institute, now in Clinton Township.
Science & invention · 1919–2009Russell L. Ackofforganizational theorist, operations researcherPioneer of operations research and systems thinking in management, who began his academic career at Wayne State University in Detroit (1947–1951).Leonard Jimmie Savagemathematician, statisticianDetroit-born statistician whose Foundations of Statistics (1954) laid the groundwork for modern Bayesian statistics and decision theory.
Science & invention · 1919–1997Robert B. Leightonexperimental physicist, astronomerCaltech physicist who co-edited The Feynman Lectures on Physics, discovered the Sun's five-minute oscillations and helped take the first close-up pictures of Mars; born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1919–2011Mildred Rebstockpharmaceutical chemistParke-Davis research chemist in Detroit who led the first complete synthesis of an antibiotic, chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin), in 1947.
Science & invention · 1915–1994Jerome Wiesnerelectrical engineer, science adviser, university presidentPresident John F. Kennedy's science adviser and later president of MIT, born in Detroit and raised in Dearborn, where he attended Fordson High School.Ernest Kirkendallchemist, metallurgistMetallurgist raised in Highland Park who discovered the Kirkendall effect in atomic diffusion while teaching at Wayne State University in 1947.
Abraham Nemethmathematician, inventor of Nemeth BrailleBlind mathematician from a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant family who taught at the University of Detroit for three decades and created the Nemeth Braille Code for mathematics.
Science & invention · 1914–1978Ethelene Crockettphysician, obstetrician-gynecologist, activistMichigan's first African American woman board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, who practiced in Detroit for decades and led public health and women's rights campaigns.Jerome Horwitzchemist, cancer researcherDetroit chemist who in 1964 first synthesized AZT, which two decades later became the first approved drug against HIV.Charles H. Wrightobstetrician-gynecologist, museum founderDetroit obstetrician who founded the museum of African American history that now bears his name, one of the largest of its kind in the world.Neal Vernon Lovingaviator, aircraft designer, aeronautical engineerDetroit aviator and designer, the first African American and the first double amputee licensed as a racing pilot, who co-founded Michigan's first Black-owned aircraft company.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗
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