The British mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-52) is recognised as the first computer programmer. Her magnum opus is an academic paper on a computer dubbed the ‘Analytical Engine’, which was never built. But her work as a visionary, from conceptualising a flying machine at age 12, to writing the first algorithm to be carried out by a machine, is still recognised today.

An all-time great scientist with the wit to match, German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) developed elemental theories – Special and General Relativity – that transformed views on the nature of space-time. Over 100 years later, the gravitational waves caused by the collision of two neutron stars reached Earth and confirmed his predictions.

It sounded like a fairy tale and travellers worldwide convened in Bucharest to find the secret to eternal youth. Crucial to the development of gerontology, Ana Aslan (1897-1988) was hunted out by the likes of de Gaulle, Salvador Dali and Charlie Chaplin for her anti-ageing wonder drug. The visionary Romanian biologist and physician founded the world's first Institute of Geriatrics - and lived to age 91.

The first European to set foot in South America; Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer from Genoa. His four Renaissance voyages across the Atlantic changed the course of global history. Funded by Spanish royalty, he sailed west with wooden ships, finding the ‘New World’ instead of China. He lived in Portugal and is buried in Spain.

The founder of modern nursing, Britain’s Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) rebelled against the expected role of a woman of her status in Victorian Britain, training in Germany and visiting hospitals in Paris and Rome. The support of her humanitarian efforts in the Crimean War enabled ‘the Lady with the Lamp’ to push for healthcare reform in Europe.

With his own fashioned spyglass, the ‘father of modern science’ Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons, spots on the sun, and mountains on the moon. For his promotion of the Copernican model of heliocentrism, the Italian polymath, who lived in Pisa and Padua, was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition for heresy.

After the very first flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903, Henri Coandă (1886-1972) left a military career to build and allegedly fly the world’s first jet aircraft, inventing the ‘Coandă effect’ as he went. The Romanian aeronautical engineer studied in Berlin, Liège and Paris, where he was friends with Gustave Eiffel, and exhibited his flying device in 1910.

‘In the beginning was the word…’ Little is known of German inventor Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), who ushered in a revolution with his movable printing press. By cutting letters into wood, and printing them onto molten metal squares, the businessman paved the way for mass book production. His Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1456; just 49 copies survive today.

This Polish-French chemist and physicist Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934) changed the world of science. Her revolutionary works in the field of radioactivity and radioactive isotopes helped to develop modern x-rays and new methods of cancer treatment. She was the first female double Nobel Prize winner and gave name to the EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions.

People once thought that the Earth was the centre of the universe, until Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) presented a new view of the world. The Renaissance-era polyglot and polymath’s heliocentric model placed the Sun at the centre of the solar system. Despite being banned by the church for over 200 years, the mathematician's book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, formed the basis of modern astronomy.

Often referred to as ‘the man who invented the 20^th century’, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), a European engineer and physicist, revolutionised the form in which electricity is delivered to consumers. His invention resulted in the rapid development of industry and laid the groundwork for the modernisation of power systems. Tesla even experimented with wireless technologies, building one of the first wirelessly-controlled boats. 

The first person to brew an espresso in space, Samantha Cristoforetti (born 1977) is an Italian astronaut and military pilot who has spent almost 200 days on the International Space Station in 2014 and 2015. Until recently, it was the longest single mission for women in space. She believes the mix of ‘great education, hard work and luck’ helped her to fulfil her ‘dream of flying into space’. She took part in Erasmus+ three times, studying in Germany, France and Italy.