<Table> <Tr> <Th> Field </Th> <Th> Person / s considered `` father '' or `` mother '' </Th> <Th> Rationale </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Acoustics </Td> <Td> Ernst Chladni </Td> <Td> For important research in vibrating plates </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Atomic bomb </Td> <Td> Enrico Fermi J. Robert Oppenheimer Leslie Groves Edward Teller </Td> <Td> For their role in the Manhattan Project </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Aerodynamics </Td> <Td> Nikolai Zhukovsky George Cayley </Td> <Td> Zhukovsky was the first to undertake the study of airflow , was the first engineer scientist to explain mathematically the origin of aerodynamic lift . Cayley Investigated theoretical aspects of flight and experimented with flight a century before the first airplane was built </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Physical cosmology </Td> <Td> Albert Einstein ( founder ) <P> Henrietta Leavitt ( mother ) Edwin Hubble ( father ) </P> </Td> <Td> Leavitt discovered Cepheid variables , the `` Standard Candle '' by which Hubble later determined galactic distances . Einstein 's general theory of relativity is usually recognized as the theoretic foundation of modern cosmology . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Classical mechanics </Td> <Td> Isaac Newton ( founder ) </Td> <Td> Described laws of motion and law of gravity in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( 1687 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Electricity </Td> <Td> William Gilbert Michael Faraday </Td> <Td> Book : De Magnete ( 1600 ) Discovered electromagnetic induction ( 1831 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Electrodynamics </Td> <Td> André - Marie Ampère </Td> <Td> Book : Memoir on the Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena , Uniquely Deduced from Experience ( 1827 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Energetics </Td> <Td> Willard Gibbs </Td> <Td> Publication : On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances ( 1876 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Experimental physics ( founder ) </Td> <Td> Ibn al - Haytham ( Alhazen ) </Td> <Td> For introducing experimental method into physics with his Book of Optics ( 1021 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Modern astronomy </Td> <Td> Nicolaus Copernicus </Td> <Td> Developed the first explicit heliocentric model in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( 1543 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Nuclear physics </Td> <Td> Ernest Rutherford </Td> <Td> Developed the Rutherford atom model ( 1909 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Nuclear science </Td> <Td> Marie Curie Pierre Curie </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Optics </Td> <Td> Ibn al - Haytham ( Alhazen ) </Td> <Td> Correctly explained vision and carried out the first experiments on light and optics in the Book of Optics ( 1021 ) . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Physics ( early ) </Td> <Td> Ibn al - Haytham ( Alhazen ) Francis Bacon </Td> <Td> Alhazen developed rigorous experimental methods of controlled scientific testing to verify theoretical hypotheses and substantiate inductive conjectures . <P> Developed Baconian method in his Novum Organum ( 1620 ) . </P> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Physics ( modern ) </Td> <Td> Galileo Galilei </Td> <Td> His development and extensive use of experimental physics , e.g. the telescope </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Plasma physics </Td> <Td> Irving Langmuir Hannes Alfvén </Td> <Td> Langmuir first described ionised gas as plasma and observed fundamental plasma vibrations , Langmuir waves . Alfvén pioneered the theoretical description of plasma by developing magnetohydrodynamics . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Quantum mechanics </Td> <Td> Max Planck ( founder ) Werner Heisenberg </Td> <Td> Stated that electromagnetic energy could be emitted only in quantized form </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Relativity </Td> <Td> Albert Einstein ( founder ) </Td> <Td> Pioneered special relativity ( 1905 ) and general relativity ( 1915 ) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Spaceflight ( rocketry ) </Td> <Td> Robert Hutchings Goddard Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Hermann Oberth </Td> <Td> Goddard launched the first liquid - fueled rocket . Tsiolkovsky created the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Thermodynamics </Td> <Td> Sadi Carnot ( founder ) </Td> <Td> Publication : On the Motive Power of Fire and Machines Fitted to Develop that Power ( 1824 ) </Td> </Tr> </Table>
who is considered the father of modern cosmology
Edwin Hubble