John Witherspoon left Scotland in 1768 and became president of the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University) for eight years. Witherspoon tutored American luminaries such as James Madison, imparting to them the beliefs of the Scottish Enlightenment, such as separation of church and state. Witherspoon later became involved in American politics and served in Congress from 1776-1782, he was also one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence.

John Kay and Samuel Bard established the first medical school in New York, King's College, both medical graduates of Edinburgh University. James Blair (1656-1743) was the first president and founder of the College of William and Mary; he emigrated from Scotland in 1685.

On the bench of the first sitting of the Supreme Court in 1789 sat two Scottish Americans - John Blair and James Wilson.

Andrew Carnegie, a poor Scots immigrant, found fame and fortune in the US where he became the Pittsburgh steel millionaire.

James Craik, originally from Dumfriesshire, was President Washington's Army surgeon. His service record prompted Washington to promote him to physician and surgeon of the whole US army in 1781.

Ayrshire-born Robert Gibson Eccles immigrated to the US where, in 1848, he discovered the properties of benzoic acid and benzoate as a food preservative.

The creator of the garden of the Golden Gate, San Francisco, John McLaren was born in Bannockburn, Stirlingshire.

Scottish naturalist, explorer, and writer, John Muir was an influential conservationist in America. John Muir worked to preserve wilderness areas and wildlife from commercial exploitation and destruction, in which his efforts helped to establish Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park.

Harvard Medical School was founded by three doctors - of the three, only Dr Benjamin Waterhouse, a graduate of the medical school at Edinburgh University, was a qualified doctor.

Alexander Wilson, who emigrated from Scotland in 1794, was the first person to study North American birds. He was the author of the first seven volumes of the American Ornithology.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and promoted communication for the disadvantaged.

Scotsmen involved in the fur trade and Native American affairs in the territory we now call the United States included such figures as Alexander Ross, Hugo Reid, Charles McKenzie, Finan MacDonald, William Dunbar, Andy Hall, Lachlan McGillivray, and John Stuart.

More Great Scots

John Logie Baird, scientist and inventor
Pioneer developer of television and other optical equipment.

Devorguilla Balliol
The daughter of Alan, the last Celtic lord of Galloway; founded Balliol College.

Sir James Matthew Barrie, writer
The novelist and playwright who created Peter Pan, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.

Henry Bell, engineer
Successfully built and launched the first commercially successful steamship in Europe.

James Boswell, writers
Great diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson.

John Brown
The Highland ghillie who rose to become Queen Victoria's esquire and personal retainer.

Robert Brown, biologist
First to name the cell nucleus in plant cells.

Robert Burns, poet
The national poet of Scotland and a great collector and writer of songs.

Sir James Dewar, scientist and inventor
Produced the Dewar flask, an early Thermos bottle, and cordite, an explosive.

David Hume, philosophers
One of the greatest of all philosophers.

James Hutton, geologist
His theories led to the science of modern geology.

John Paul Jones, military
A pirate who went on to found the American Navy.

John Knox, religion
The key figure of the Scottish reformation.

Lord Joseph Lister, medicine
Founder of antiseptic medicine, believing that bacteria should never enter an operation wound.

Robert Liston, medicine
Pioneering surgeon who demonstrated the use of ether as an anaesthetic

Dr David Livingstone, explorer
Missionary and African explorer whose work helped eliminate slavery.

James Clerk Maxwell, science
One of the most prominent and influential physicists of the 19th century.

Charles Macintosh, scientist and Inventor
Invented the waterproof coat which now bears his name.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect
Visionary Glasgow architect who became internationallyrenowned as a pioneer of the Modern Movement.

John Napier, engineer
Mathematician regarded as inventor of logarithms.

James Nasmyth, engineer
Engineer best known for his invention of the steam hammer.

Sir Andrew Noble, scientist
A founder of the science of ballistics.

Sir William Ramsay, scientist
A brilliant experimenter who discovered the noble gases, including neon and xenon.

John Scott Russell, Engineer
Designed the world's first iron battleship.

John Duns Scotus, philosophers
A philosopher who separated religious thought from general logical argument.

Henry Shrapnel, scientist
Devised a more efficient shell for the battlefield by making it fragment, coining the word shrapnel.

Adam Smith, philosophers and economist
A well-balanced genius of philosophy and political economics.

John Stenhouse, scientist
Chemist whose research into air filters led to the development of the gas mask.

Sir David Stirling, military
Founder and leader of the British Special Air Service (SAS) regiment during World War II.

Robert William Thomson, inventor
Inventor of the india-rubber pneumatic tire.

James Thomson, poet
Poet and writer of 'Rule Britannia'

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, scientist
A great mathematical physicist and scientific entrepreneur.

James Watt, inventor
Invented the efficient steam engine which fuelled the Industrial Revolution.

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, scientist and inventor
Developed radar and the cathode-ray direction finder.

For more Great Scots, see the book The Scottish 100: Portraits of History's Most Influential Scots, by Duncan A. Bruce. This compendium of one hundred biographies celebrates seven centuries of Scots whose lives changed their world and ours such as Rupert Murdoch, Rachel Carson, Immanuel Kant, Edgar Allan Poe, and Elizabeth Arden.