Who is famous in their specialty but not appreciated by the public?
February 21, 2025 12:04 AM Subscribe
Most people have heard of Einstein. Lots of people have heard of Stephen Hawking. Fewer people have heard of Niels Bohr. Very few people have heard of Hans Bethe. And yet his body of work is deeply impressive by any physicist's standard. Who are the Hans Bethe's of the world? And as a bonus, can you recommend a good bibliography of them?
Another example might be the boxer Pernell Whitaker, who has a decent claim to be one of the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters of all time, but outside the boxing world he's relatively unknown. (I say this as a boxing fan who constantly finds no non-boxing fan knows who he is, and even a lot of boxing fans have only vaguely heard of him, despite him being truly brilliant at his craft)
I want to know about more people like this. I've used a physicist and a boxer as examples but there is no limit on the fields you can choose from.
Do you know of other people who are highly regarded in their field but largely unknown outside it?
(If you can recommend a good bibliography, either a book or a decent web link, that would be an excellent bonus but it's not necessary to answer the question)
Another example might be the boxer Pernell Whitaker, who has a decent claim to be one of the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters of all time, but outside the boxing world he's relatively unknown. (I say this as a boxing fan who constantly finds no non-boxing fan knows who he is, and even a lot of boxing fans have only vaguely heard of him, despite him being truly brilliant at his craft)
I want to know about more people like this. I've used a physicist and a boxer as examples but there is no limit on the fields you can choose from.
Do you know of other people who are highly regarded in their field but largely unknown outside it?
(If you can recommend a good bibliography, either a book or a decent web link, that would be an excellent bonus but it's not necessary to answer the question)
Best answer: I have a PhD in physics and only had the name Bethe ring a bell once I got to the spin-chain part. Of course I studied plasma physics which is kind of the other end of things from the solid state physics Bethe did most of his work in - studying classical mechanics of things that are very much flowing rather than the quantum behaviors of things in structured lattices
Of course having been a physicist, I mostly have more physicists (and mathemeticians!) to offer. Physics is really vast and there's so many people who have done so much.
For things more related to the astrophysics side of things, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is probably the first name that comes to mind - working out how stars evolve and collapse, the formation of black holes. Just like so much about how stars *work* in general.
And the other top two names that come to mind as being "how did no one tell me about this person before" when I was a physics student would be William Rowan Hamilton and Emmy Noether. Both mathematicians who made major contributions to the tools physicists use.
Hamilton's equation is basically the generalized form of how you calculate the motion of objects under classical physics. And was subsequently built on to describe quantum and relativistic motion as well.
He also invented quaternions, which are like imaginary numbers with a couple more dimensions and turn out to be a very good way to represent rotations in 3D space and are used all over in 3D graphics.
Emmy Noether among numerous contributions to abstract algebra, proved a result known as Noether's (first) Theorem establishing one to one relations between conservation laws and symmetries of the universe: The laws of physics being unchanging in time implies energy must be conserved, the laws of motion not changing with direction in space implies (angular) momentum is conserved. Like serious peering past the veil of the universe stuff.
It's a bit too late for me to be searching for good references, but if anyone does know a good book on Emmy Noether and her work, I'd love to read it.
posted by Zalzidrax at 1:58 AM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Of course having been a physicist, I mostly have more physicists (and mathemeticians!) to offer. Physics is really vast and there's so many people who have done so much.
For things more related to the astrophysics side of things, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is probably the first name that comes to mind - working out how stars evolve and collapse, the formation of black holes. Just like so much about how stars *work* in general.
And the other top two names that come to mind as being "how did no one tell me about this person before" when I was a physics student would be William Rowan Hamilton and Emmy Noether. Both mathematicians who made major contributions to the tools physicists use.
Hamilton's equation is basically the generalized form of how you calculate the motion of objects under classical physics. And was subsequently built on to describe quantum and relativistic motion as well.
He also invented quaternions, which are like imaginary numbers with a couple more dimensions and turn out to be a very good way to represent rotations in 3D space and are used all over in 3D graphics.
Emmy Noether among numerous contributions to abstract algebra, proved a result known as Noether's (first) Theorem establishing one to one relations between conservation laws and symmetries of the universe: The laws of physics being unchanging in time implies energy must be conserved, the laws of motion not changing with direction in space implies (angular) momentum is conserved. Like serious peering past the veil of the universe stuff.
It's a bit too late for me to be searching for good references, but if anyone does know a good book on Emmy Noether and her work, I'd love to read it.
posted by Zalzidrax at 1:58 AM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Do you know of other people who are highly regarded in their field but largely unknown outside it?
Some people are highly regarded for their work in their field, and some work is highly regarded but the people less so. The latter case is common with women scientists of the 18th-20thC, particularly if they are not white.
Eight lesser-known women scientists who defied the norm, excelled and made lasting impacts in their fields and beyond.
posted by Thella at 2:17 AM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Some people are highly regarded for their work in their field, and some work is highly regarded but the people less so. The latter case is common with women scientists of the 18th-20thC, particularly if they are not white.
Eight lesser-known women scientists who defied the norm, excelled and made lasting impacts in their fields and beyond.
posted by Thella at 2:17 AM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Best answer: In the acting world, the most famous teacher is Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863 - 1968), the Russian theorist, actor, teacher, and director who pretty much invented the modern acting style, moving it from a craft of stereotyped gesture to one based in psychology. You can't watch a movie, TV show, or play without seeing his influence. Actors are either directly trained in his techniques or have learned them by osmosis, having worked with other actors who use them. There are small group of later teachers (all influenced by Stanislavsky) that everyone in the small world of acting has heard of: Lee Strasberg (father of Method Acting, an offshoot of Stanislavsky's methods, and not what most people think it is), Uta Hagan, Michael Chekhov, and Sanford Meisner.
If you're interested in this, I highly recommend the Isaac Butler's The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned How to Act.
The most famous prose-poet in the English-speaking world is Russell Edson. Here's an example of his surreal work;
---
Summer, Forty Years Later
He struggles out of a closet where his mother had hung him forty years ago. She didn't understand children; she probably thought he was something made of cloth. He thinks he as waited long enough for her to understand children, even though he is no longer a child.
After forty years a man has a right to seek the hallway; after all, he might even hope for the front door--and who knows, perhaps even a Nobel Prize for patience!
From the front porch he sees that the midday sky is darker than he remembered it; the green of the lawn and trees has also darkened: too many nights, too many coats of varnish. . . .
This is not the same summer, the color is gone. . .
. . . That little boy who is always passing the house with his wagon has turned into a little old man collecting garbage. . .
---
In the small world of YouTubers who have achieved what Buddhists call "awakening" or "enlightenment," Angelo Dillulo is the star.
There are some diet gurus who advocate for what's sometimes call a whole-food, plant-based diet or an SOS-free diet. These are vegan diets that disallow processed foods, and which also disallow added salt, sugar, and oil, and which limit grains to whole grains. Perhaps the most famous guru (in this niche communities) is Dr. Gregor.
She may be a little-but more well-known that some of the other folks I've mentioned, but Maria Bamford is not a household name. Still, she is currently the stand-up comic I hear most-often admired by other stand-up comics.
posted by grumblebee at 3:34 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]
If you're interested in this, I highly recommend the Isaac Butler's The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned How to Act.
The most famous prose-poet in the English-speaking world is Russell Edson. Here's an example of his surreal work;
---
Summer, Forty Years Later
He struggles out of a closet where his mother had hung him forty years ago. She didn't understand children; she probably thought he was something made of cloth. He thinks he as waited long enough for her to understand children, even though he is no longer a child.
After forty years a man has a right to seek the hallway; after all, he might even hope for the front door--and who knows, perhaps even a Nobel Prize for patience!
From the front porch he sees that the midday sky is darker than he remembered it; the green of the lawn and trees has also darkened: too many nights, too many coats of varnish. . . .
This is not the same summer, the color is gone. . .
. . . That little boy who is always passing the house with his wagon has turned into a little old man collecting garbage. . .
---
In the small world of YouTubers who have achieved what Buddhists call "awakening" or "enlightenment," Angelo Dillulo is the star.
There are some diet gurus who advocate for what's sometimes call a whole-food, plant-based diet or an SOS-free diet. These are vegan diets that disallow processed foods, and which also disallow added salt, sugar, and oil, and which limit grains to whole grains. Perhaps the most famous guru (in this niche communities) is Dr. Gregor.
She may be a little-but more well-known that some of the other folks I've mentioned, but Maria Bamford is not a household name. Still, she is currently the stand-up comic I hear most-often admired by other stand-up comics.
posted by grumblebee at 3:34 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Hans Bethe is best known to a wider audience for being coat-tailed onto the 1948 Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper [αβγ - geddit] about the origin of chemical elements by George "always up for a jape" Gamow. The paper's conclusions were mostly superseded by inter alia Bethe.
In my field, evolutionary biology, Motoo Kimura 木村 資生 completely refigured our thinking about how changes accumulate in populations. His 1968 paper "Evolutionary rate at the molecular level" [PDF] in Nature said that most variation is 'neutral': has zero implications for Darwinian natural selection.
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:45 AM on February 21 [2 favorites]
In my field, evolutionary biology, Motoo Kimura 木村 資生 completely refigured our thinking about how changes accumulate in populations. His 1968 paper "Evolutionary rate at the molecular level" [PDF] in Nature said that most variation is 'neutral': has zero implications for Darwinian natural selection.
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:45 AM on February 21 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I think a lot of the great session musicians would count. A guy like Michael Bland has been heard by millions on top hit songs (from Prince, Backstreet Boys, etc), but nobody knows his name. Similar for James Gadson. Many of the best session drummers have been recorded on thousands of projects, here's a list of some of the biggest names, which tend to be known by drummers and some music wonks, but not much further.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:53 AM on February 21 [9 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:53 AM on February 21 [9 favorites]
Best answer: And to continue with evolutionary biology, Lynn Margulis "transformed and fundamentally framed current understanding of the evolution of cells with nuclei by proposing it to have been the result of symbiotic mergers of bacteria." Her work was not appreciated at first, due to systemic sexism for sure but also because it just turned a lot of conventional wisdom on its head. But as the years rolled by and more detailed genetic evidence came in, she's been vindicated many times over. And because of her development the endosymbiotic theory, it is now widely accepted as the explanation for how eukaryotic cells developed from prokaryotes: mitochondria and chloroplasts came about because one critter subsumed another, and somehow they worked together as a whole!
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:07 AM on February 21 [5 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:07 AM on February 21 [5 favorites]
The answers to Who are some lesser known GOATs? should scratch this itch.
posted by Lemkin at 7:09 AM on February 21 [3 favorites]
posted by Lemkin at 7:09 AM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Claude Shannon is important to information science on the level of Turing, and his concepts have spilled over into biodiversity/ecology and other fields. Indeed, I've worked a video-compression developer who jumped into ecology informatics.
posted by bendybendy at 7:33 AM on February 21 [4 favorites]
posted by bendybendy at 7:33 AM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Best answer: There is the not-well-known Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who worked with British mathematician GH Hardy. There is a book (The Indian Clerk) and it's really really fascinating.
posted by whatevernot at 7:36 AM on February 21 [6 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 7:36 AM on February 21 [6 favorites]
Best answer: Absolutely Alexander Grothendieck, the top mathematician of the 20th century, - he revolutionized mathematics! He has a fascinating and sometimes enigmatic life story. Unfortunately it is not too easy to explain his work to non-mathematicians; he invented modern algebraic geometry, but also was part of the development of category theory, the modern language of (pure) mathematics.
posted by Vegiemon at 1:15 PM on February 21
posted by Vegiemon at 1:15 PM on February 21
(bendybendy, category theory has now spilled over into biodiversity also! look at Tom Leinster's book "Entropy and Diversity", freely (and legally) available on the web, at arxiv.org.)
I don't know of a popular book on Grothendieck but the Wikipedia article should be a good start.
posted by Vegiemon at 1:21 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
I don't know of a popular book on Grothendieck but the Wikipedia article should be a good start.
posted by Vegiemon at 1:21 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Emmy Noether is a mathematician I'd say every math major has at least heard of, but I think if you asked any random member of the general population if they believed there had ever been a prominent woman mathematician they'd say no.
posted by potrzebie at 3:48 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 3:48 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
This is a great question mainly as it reminded me of Pernell Whittaker who I'd forgotten about from the days when I last paid boxing any attention. Sorry I don't have an actual answer for ya, but thanks.
posted by iboxifoo at 8:03 PM on February 21
posted by iboxifoo at 8:03 PM on February 21
Seconding Emmy Noether. Noether's Theorem (1918) was an important contribution to physics.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:48 AM on February 22
posted by SemiSalt at 4:48 AM on February 22
Best answer: If people know an opera singer it's probably Maria Callas or possibly someone modern like Renee Fleming. I suspect among people younger than 50, nobody who isn't actively interested in opera has heard of Leontyne Price, one of the great voices of the 20th century who turned 98 a week or so ago. I don't know any serious opera people who would dispute her status as the creme de la creme.
posted by less-of-course at 3:42 PM on February 22
posted by less-of-course at 3:42 PM on February 22
Response by poster: Thanks to everyone who answered, some excellent leads there. Emmy Noether in particular looks like someone I should know more about but I'm going to follow up on all of these names.
posted by underclocked at 8:14 AM on February 26
posted by underclocked at 8:14 AM on February 26
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Second, I am not sure if you want historical or people who are long dead, but there are several people I would nominate in my profession, trading. One of the greatest short sellers of all time is well known for other things. He even has a college named after him and he is appreciated for his government service, but rarely do you ever hear about his trading prowess. That person is Bernard Baruch. He wrote a two volume autobiography titled The Autobiography of Bernard Baruch (natch). Volume one is about his career before his government service during the war years. Volume two is the war years and government service. He truly excelled at trading and short selling. Many of the lessons he talks about are still relevant today and ones I try to adhere to to this day.
Along the same lines, although not as under appreciated as Baruch is Jesse Livermore. If I wanted to learn more about Livermore, I would read "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" that he wrote under the pseudonym of Edwin Lefevre. It reads more as a novel, but it is chock full of trading knowledge. If there were 5 books I could take to a desert island, this would be one of them.
Btw, I love the question. I love to learn about people like this. Most of my reading is biography (or spy novels). I hope what I wrote is responsive.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:47 AM on February 21 [2 favorites]