# List of people considered father or mother of a field

Often, discoveries and innovations are the work of multiple people, resulting from continual improvements over time. However, certain individuals are remembered for making significant contributions to the birth or development of a field or technology. These individuals may often be described as the "father" or "mother" of a particular field or invention.

## Fine art

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| Cowboy sculpture | Frederic Remington | Created first bronze cowboy sculpture in 1895 |
| Japanese Manga (comics) and Anime (animation) | Osamu Tezuka | Creator of Manga (Japanese comics) and Anime (Japanese Animation) |

## Games

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| Collectible card game | Richard Garfield | Creator of Magic: The Gathering |
| Miniature wargaming | H. G. Wells | Publication of Little Wars |
| Modern video game | Ralph H. Baer Nolan Bushnell | Magnavox Odyssey, Pong |
| Role-playing game | Gary Gygax Dave Arneson | Creators of Dungeons & Dragons |
| Stealth game | Hideo Kojima | Creator of the Metal Gear stealth-action games |
| Video game | Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. | Inventor of the first video game |
| Video game industry | Ralph H. Baer | Creator of the Magnavox Odyssey; inventor of the first home video game console |
| Wargaming | Charles S. Roberts | Designer of Tactics |

## Military

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| Atomic bomb | Enrico Fermi Robert Oppenheimer Leó Szilárd | |
| Blitzkrieg | Heinz Guderian | |
| Hydrogen bomb | Edward Teller | Member of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s |
| Atomic submarine and "nuclear navy" | Hyman G. Rickover | |
| Fourth Generation Warfare | William S. Lind | |
| The Soviet Union's Hydrogen Bomb | Andrei Sakharov | |
| Tank | Ernest Swinton (British), Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne (French) | The need for armored and armed tracked vehicles to break the stalemate of trench warfare in WWI was noticed early on in the war by Winston Churchill and the British Landship Committee with Ernest Swinton working on British development and Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne credited for coming up with the French version |

## Technology
### Fields

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| Aerodynamics (modern) | Sir George Cayley | Founding father of modern aerodynamics; first to identify the four aerodynamic forces of flight—weight, lift, drag, and thrust; modern airplane design is based on those discoveries |
| American manufacture | Samuel Slater | described by Andrew Jackson |
| American landscape architecture | Frederick Law Olmsted | Olmsted designed Central Park in New York City |
| Architecture | Imhotep | Built the first pyramid |
| Astronautics | Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Sergei Korolev Robert H. Goddard Hermann Oberth | |
| Aviation | Father Francesco Lana-Terzi and Abbas ibn Firnas Ibn Firnas built the first human carrying glider and is reputed to have attempted two successful flights. | Wrote Prodromo alla Arte Maestra (1670); first to describe the geometry and physics of a flying vessel |
| Bionanotechnology | Carlo Montemagno | The development of biomolecular motors for powering inorganic nanodevices while at Cornell and muscle-driven self-assembled nanodevices while at UCLA. |
| British watchmaking | Thomas Tompion | |
| Clinical trials | James Lind | Conducted the first controlled clinical trial in the modern era of medicine, an investigation on using citrus food as a treatment for scurvy aboard HMS Salisbury in 1747 |
| Computing | Charles Babbage | Inventor of the analytical engine, which was never constructed in his lifetime |
| Cybernetics | Norbert Wiener | |
| Gastrointestinal physiology | William Beaumont | |
| Genetics | Gregor Johann Mendel | Founder of genetics. |
| Green Revolution | Norman Borlaug | |
| Microscopy | Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | |
| Information theory | Claude Shannon | |
| Modern bladesmithing | William F. Moran | Founder of the American Bladesmith Society |
| Modern kinematics | Ferdinand Freudenstein | Applied digital computation to the kinematic synthesis of mechanisms |
| Modern Knifemaking | Bob Loveless | Founder of the Knifemakers' Guild |
| Nanotechnology | Richard Smalley | Nobel Prize Biography |
| Photography | Louis Daguerre Nicéphore Niépce William Henry Fox Talbot Thomas Wedgwood | |
| Robotics | Ismail al-Jazari Banū Mūsā brothers | Ismail al-Jazari Invented the first programmable humanoid robot in 1206 The Bānu Musā brothers invented an automatic flute which may have been the first programmable machine |

### Computing

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| C (programming language) | Dennis Ritchie | |
| Assembler | Nathaniel Rochester | |
| Concurrent computing/Concurrent programming | Edsger W. Dijkstra | In his 2004 memoir, "A Programmer's Story: The Life of a Computer Pioneer", Per Brinch Hansen wrote that he used "Cooperating Sequential Processes" to guide his work implementing multiprogramming on the RC 4000, and described it saying, "One of the great works in computer programming, this masterpiece laid the conceptual foundation for concurrent programming." |
| Compiler | John Backus | Credited as having introduced the first complete compiler in 1957, although rudimental compilers (linker) were created by Grace Hopper in 1952 and by J. Halcombe Laning and Neal Zerlier (Laning and Zierler system) in 1954. |
| Computer | Charles Babbage | The concepts he pioneered in his analytical engine later formed the basis of modern computers. |
| Computer | Alan Turing | Secret code breaker during WWII; invented the Turing machine (1936) |
| Computer | John V. Atanasoff | Invented the digital computer in the 1930s |
| Computer | Konrad Zuse | Invented world's first functional program-controlled computer |
| Computer | John von Neumann | Became "intrigued" with Turing's universal machine and later emphasised the importance of the stored-program concept for electronic computing (1945), including the possibility of allowing the machine to modify its own program in useful ways while running. John von Neumann is also considered to be the inventor of flowchart. |
| Computer | John W. Mauchly J.Presper Eckert | Invented the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) in 1946. ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. |
| Computer program | Ada Lovelace | Recognized by historians as the writer of the world's first computer program which was for the Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, but was never completed. |
| Internet | Vint Cerf Bob Kahn | Developed the Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) during 1973-81, the two original protocols of the Internet protocol suite. There were many other Internet pioneers involved in the creation of the Internet. |
| Logo (programming language) | Seymour Papert |
| Microprocessor | Federico Faggin Marcian Hoff Stanley Mazor Masatoshi Shima | Designers of the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. |
| Packet switching | Paul Baran Donald Davies | Recognized by historians and the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame for independently inventing the concept of digital packet switching used in modern computer networking including the Internet. Baran published a series of briefings and papers about dividing information into "message blocks" and sending it over distributed networks between 1960 and 1964. Davies conceived of and named the concept of packet switching in data communication networks in 1965. Many of the wide-area packet-switched networks built in the 1970s were similar "in nearly all respects" to Davies' original 1965 design. Larry Roberts learned about Davies' and Baran's work at the inaugural Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in October 1967. He and Leonard Kleinrock subsequently worked on the ARPANET, but their claims to have originated the concept of packet switching are disputed by other Internet pioneers, including by Robert Taylor, Paul Baran, and Donald Davies. |
| Pentium microprocessor | Vinod Dham | The original Pentium (P5) was developed by a team of engineers, including John H. Crawford, chief architect of the original 386, and Donald Alpert, who managed the architectural team. Dror Avnon managed the design of the FPU. Dham was general manager of the P5 group. Some media sources have called him the "father of the Pentium". |
| Personal computer | Chuck Peddle | Developed the 6502 microprocessor, the KIM-1 and the Commodore PET |
| Personal computer | Henry Edward "Ed" Roberts André Truong Trong Thi | |
| Programmable logic controller | Dick Morley | |
| Python (programming language) | Guido van Rossum | |
| Search engine | Alan Emtage | Created Archie, a pre-Web search engine which pioneered many of the techniques used by subsequent search engines |
| SGML | Charles Goldfarb |
| Spreadsheet | Dan Bricklin | Invented the VisiCalc spreadsheet program, which was the killer application of the Apple II. VisiCalc is considered the first killer app in computer history. |
| Self-stabilization (Self-stabilizing distributed systems) | Edsger W. Dijkstra | |
| Structured programming | Edsger W. Dijkstra | |
| World Wide Web | Tim Berners-Lee | The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). |
| Visual Basic | Alan Cooper | |
| XML | Jon Bosak | |
| Wi-Fi | Vic Hayes | |

### Inventions

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| AC induction motor | Nikola Tesla | Inventor of the AC induction motor, the foundation of the electric power grids worldwide for the transmission and distribution of electric power. |
| Airplane | Wright brothers | Invented the first successful powered fixed-wing aircraft, upon which further aircraft designs, methods of flight, and aircraft control systems were based. |
| Air conditioning | Willis Carrier | |
| Battery | Alessandro Volta | Invented the first electrical battery, the Voltaic pile. |
| Canning | Nicolas Appert | |
| Chronograph | George Graham | Referred so by Bernard Humbert of the Horology School of Bienne on his 1990 book The Chronograph as Graham was the first to construct a horological mechanism |
| Color photography | Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky | A Russian chemist and photographer. He is best known for his pioneering work in color photography of early 20th-century Russia. |
| Compact Disc | Kees Immink | |
| Ekranoplan | Rostislav Alexeev | Alexeyev revolutionised the shipbuilding industry (though in secrecy) by inventing craft that use ground effect, whereby a wing traveling close to the ground is provided with a better lift-drag ratio - thereby enabling a combination of greater aircraft weight for less power and/or enhanced fuel economy. |
| Electric generator | Michael Faraday | Discoverer of electromagnetism. Inventor of the Faraday disk, the first electric generator and the Faraday cage. |
| Modern firearms | John Moses Browning | Browning revolutionized the firearm industry with his automatic rifles that were manufactured by Winchester, Colt, Remington and Savage |
| Glow plug engine | Ray Arden | Invented the first glow plug for model engines |
| Helicopter | Igor Sikorsky | Invented the first successful helicopter, upon which further designs were based. |
| Instant noodle | Momofuku Ando | Inventor of the instant noodle, also founder of Nissin Foods to produce and market them. |
| Japanese television | Kenjiro Takayanagi | |
| Jet engine | Frank Whittle Hans von Ohain | Von Ohain´s design, an axial-flow engine, as opposed to Whittle's centrifugal flow engine, was eventually adopted by most manufacturers by the 1950s. |
| Karaoke | Daisuke Inoue | Inventor of the machine as a means of allowing people to sing without the need of a live back-up. |
| Laser | Charles Hard Townes | |
| Lightning prediction system | Alexander Stepanovich Popov | The first lightning prediction system, the Lightning detector, was invented in 1894 by Alexander Stepanovich Popov. |
| Marine chronometer | John Harrison | |
| Mobile phone | Martin Cooper | |
| Periodic table | Dmitri Mendeleev | Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev, arranged the elements in an order that we would now recognise. He realised that the physical and chemical properties of elements were related to their atomic mass in a 'periodic' way, and arranged them so that groups of elements with similar properties fell into vertical columns in his table. |
| Plastics | Leo Baekeland | Baekeland was responsible for the creation of Bakelite, an early marketable plastic, in 1907. |
| Printing press | Johannes Gutenberg | Inventor of the movable type printing press, which led to a sharp worldwide increase in literacy, education and mass communication. It also led to the spread and sharing of knowledge. |
| Radio (radio communication) | Guglielmo Marconi | Developed the first form of radio wireless telegraphy |
| Radio (Radio broadcasting) | Reginald Fessenden David Sarnoff | Fessenden is credited as the first to broadcast radio signals on Christmas Eve, 1906. Sarnoff proposed a chain of radio stations to Marconi's associates in 1915. |
| Radio (FM radio) | Edwin H. Armstrong | Obtained the first Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to operate an FM station in Alpine, New Jersey at approximately 50 megahertz (1939) |
| Radiotelephony | Reginald Fessenden | |
| Spread spectrum | Paul Beard | Inventor of the spread spectrum, created Spektrum to promote its use. |
| Telephone | Johann Philipp Reis Antonio Meucci Alexander Graham Bell | See Invention of the telephone |
| Television | Paul Gottlieb Nipkow Philo T. Farnsworth Vladimir Zworykin John Logie Baird | Co-inventors of the electronic television, Farnsworth invented the Image dissector while Zworykin created the Iconoscope, both fully electronic forms of television. Logie Baird invented the world's first working television system, also the first electronic color television system. Fundamental to Baird's system was the Nipkow disk, invented by Paul Gotlieb Nipkow. |
| Tokamak | Lev Artsimovich | |
| Tube structure | Fazlur Rahman Khan | One of the greatest engineers of the 20th century. Invented the tube structural system and first employed it in his designs for the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartments, John Hancock Center and Sears Tower. |
| Video game console | Ralph H. Baer | Creator of the Magnavox Odyssey; inventor of the first video game console |

## Transport

| Subject | Father/mother | Reason |
| Automotive industry | Carl Benz | His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and first car put into series production. |
| 20th century American car industry | Henry Ford | Noted for introducing a simple and affordable car for the ordinary American masses. |
| American Interstate Highway System | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Proposed and signed the act which created the System. |
| Automatic transmission | Oscar Banker | |
| Bicycle industry | James Starley | Developed the differential gear and the bicycle chain. |
| Erie Canal | De Witt Clinton |
| Electric traction | Frank J. Sprague | Developed electric elevator, electric railway and electric motor. |
| Flight simulator | Edwin Albert Link | Developed the Link Trainer. |
| Full-suspension mountain bike | Jon Whyte | Used his suspension design expertise at Benetton Formula to design the first full-suspension mountain bike for Marin Bikes. |
| Gasoline Automobile (Benz Patent-Motorwagen) | Carl Benz | |
| Gasoline Omnibus | Carl Benz | |
| Gasoline Motorcycle (Daimler Reitwagen) | Gottlieb Daimler/Wilhelm Maybach | |
| Gasoline Truck | Gottlieb Daimler (DMG Lastkraftwagen)/Carl Benz | |
| High-performance VW industry | Gene Berg | |
| Hot rod | Ed Winfield | |
| Import car culture | RJ DeVera | Influential for popularizing the import car scene in the mid-1990s. |
| Kustom Kulture | Von Dutch | |
| Maglev | Hermann Kemper, Eric Laithwaite | German engineer Hermann Kemper built a working model linear induction motor in 1935. In the late 1940s, professor Eric Laithwaite of Imperial College in London developed the first full-size working model, an important and necessary precursor to maglev trains. |
| Monster truck | Bob Chandler | Famed for building Bigfoot, which was the first to be capable of driving over cars and subsequently became one of the most famous monster truck in history. |
| Mountain bike | Gary Fisher | |
| Railways | George Stephenson | Pioneered rail transport, steam locomotives and invented standard-gauge railway track gauge. |
| Rock Crawling | Marlin Czajkowski | In 1994, Marlin made final drive ratios of 200:1 and lower possible in typical off road vehicles (primarily Toyota Hilux trucks) and changed the way people access remote off-roading destinations. |
| Rotary engine | Felix Wankel | |
| Route 66 | Cyrus Avery | |
| Tailfin | Harley Earl | |
| Tunneling (Modern) | Alan Muir Wood | Involved in the Channel Tunnel and Jubilee line extension. |
| Traffic safety | William Phelps Eno | |
| Trolleybus | Ernst Werner von Siemens | Built the Electromote in 1882. |
| Turbocharged engine | Paul Rosche | A lifetime employee of BMW, he evolutionized the turbocharged engine into automobile use. He also developed the first European turbocharged car, the racing 1969 BMW 2002 TiK that evolved into the production 1972 2002 Turbo. |
| Vehicular cycling | John Forester | Effective cycling founder |
| Yellow school bus | Frank W. Cyr | |