Here’s the latest instalment in TIR’s longest-running posting series, the definitive guide to scientist moustaches! A Movember-themed celebration of some great minds and the great moustaches that went (just) before them. Links to parts I-VIII in the series can be found at the end of the posting.

The Movember Foundation is a charity focused on men’s health issues – prostate cancer, testicular cancer, suicide prevention, and mental health in particular. “Mo Bros” grow moustaches – sometimes dashing, sometimes daft – for the 30 days of November in order to help raise awareness of these issues. It’s fun, and it’s an important cause that TIR is proud to support (and participate in!) each year.

PHYSICIST MOUSTACHES

Name: Max Planck 🇩🇪

Known for: Being one of the founders of modern physics, thanks to his work on thermodynamics and entropy. This led to the Planck postulate, namely that energy is quantised – an insight that birthed quantum mechanics. He was also instrumental in the foundation of the German Physical Society (DPG) and became the leader of the German physics community. In Philip Ball’s “Serving the Reich” he emerges as a tragic and morally compromised figure, unable to reconcile his credo of public service to a democratically-elected government with the depravity of the Nazi regime.

Moustache: Handlebar, of a fairly low-maintenance kind

Moustache rating: 8/10. As Planck aged and the cares of the world weighed upon him (as well they might!) his moustache got droopier and droopier, but let’s take him here in his youthful prime. It’s a fairly low-maintenance handlebar, growing over the top lip, no heavy waxing, and only the merest uplift at the tips, but its volume makes it assertive and it’s a fantastic complement to his punk rock hair, giving his face a gravitas and focal point it might otherwise lack. Modern men, take note. 

Name: Venkatraman Radhakrishnan 🇮🇳

Known for: Radioastronomy, and being one of the founders of observational astronomy in India. His theory of curvature radiation from the polar caps of neutron stars remains a touchstone in studies of pulsar emission mechanisms. Served as director of the Raman Research Institute, which became an internal centre of work in liquid crystals and pulsar astronomy under his tenure.

Moustache: Chevron

Moustache rating: 6/10. If in doubt, you can’t beat an honest Chevron. It’s got bulk, it’s got shape, and at his age, it’s also got silver highlights. Look at what a fantastic accompaniment it makes to his smiling face and wavy hair, and helps to focus attention on his smiling eyes.

Name: Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk 🇺🇦

Known for: Developing the concept of the lunar orbit rendezvous (in 1919!), which was used for the Apollo missions, and proposing the use of a gravitational slingshot to accelerate spacecraft. His contributions to the theory of spaceflight were so legendary that Neil Armstrong even collected some soil from outside his house when visiting the Soviet Union after the moon landings. Astonishingly, “Kondratyuk” was an assumed identity and his birth name was Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei. He fought in both World Wars, dying in action in the second.

Moustache: Painter’s brush, with soul patch and scruff goatee

Moustache rating: 5/10. I’m calling this a painter’s brush on the grounds that it’s clearly had some trimming over the top lip, corners, and possibly also below the nose. It’s neat, tidy, and quiet, and helps lessen the hypnotic intensity of his gaze.

CHEMIST MOUSTACHES

Name: Kotaro Honda 🇯🇵

Known for: Inventing KS steel, a form of permanent magnetic steel  with three times the magnetic resistance of tungsten steel. This had a major impact on domestic Japanese steel production and he is nowadays remembered as one of the great Japanese inventors.

Moustache: Handlebar, unorthodox

Moustache rating: 5/10. This is a slightly unorthodox one, with all the grooming you’d associate with a high-maintenance Handlebar (clean top lip, clear lines) but without the curling tips. That downward pull imparts a seriousness to the whole look, in keeping with his close-cropped hair. 

Name: John Howard Northrup 🇺🇸

Known for: Being the first to isolate and crystallise a bacteriophage, and showing that it was composed of protein and nucleic acid. Isolating and crystallising the gastric enzyme pepsin (and its precursor pepsinogen) and showing that they were proteins. His interest in enzymes stemmed from wartime work on the production of ethanol and acetone through fermentation. 

Moustache: Chevron

Moustache rating: 6/10. Bluff, brisk, and businesslike, Northrup’s tache sets the tone for any encounter – it’s well looked-after but not over-groomed, the sign of a man who cares but not to the point of vanity. A nice accompaniment to the shorter-cropped hairdo and a way of adding more force and vigour to his calm, soulful eyes.

Name: Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran 🇫🇷

Known for: Discovering the chemical elements gallium, samarium, and dysprosium. Contributed to the development of the periodic table, and predicted that argon was a member of a then-unknown group of elements we now call the noble gases. An early pioneer of spectroscopy, which he used in particular to characterise rare-earth elements.

Moustache: Handlebar

Moustache rating: 7/10. Anyone who’s grown a tache knows that to achieve a look like this takes work, patience, and a lot of care. Lecoq has a tidy arrangement over the top lip, with the handlebar is impeccably parted in the middle. The ends extend in a beautifully symmetrical bow. Magnificent; even if this guy walked around in rags he’d still look elegant.

BIOLOGIST MOUSTACHES

Name: Davidson Nicol 🇸🇱

Known for: His work on insulin, being the first black African to graduate with first-class honours from Cambridge University (1947) and the first black African to be made a fellow of a Cambridge college (Christ’s). Served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone (1966-1968) and later became Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (1972-1982). He also wrote prolifically on non-scientific topics.

Moustache: Pencil

Moustache rating: 6/10. For people with a blond tache (like me), the pencil is as much of a non-starter as the toothbrush, but Nicol pulls it off perfectly. The trimness of the hair shouldn’t disguise the effort that goes into maintaining something this small and exquisite – it sits above (not on) his top lip, with a clear gap to the nose.

Name: Harry Marshall Ward 🇬🇧

Known for: His work on plant pathology, particularly coffee rust disease (caused by the fungus Hemileia vestatrix). He promoted the co-cultivation of multiple strains of coffee to avoid monoculture, and showed that disease spores were spread by the wind. Later became president of the British Mycological Society.

Moustache: Walrus

Moustache rating: 9/10 It’s preposterous and it’s not a great match with his face and it must have been hell when he was eating, but as Stalin observed, quantity has a quality all of its own. This is a BEAST. Anyone capable of growing and keeping something of that size (it’s practically a house pet) deserves every Mo Bro’s admiration. 

Name: Karl Landsteiner 🇦🇹/🇺🇸

Known for: Being the father of transfusion medicine due to his discovery of blood groups and co-discovering Rhesus Factor. Also isolated polio virus in 1909, having earlier shown that poliomyelitis was an infectious disease. 

Moustache: Hungarian. 

Moustache rating: 8/10. Landsteiner was another whose moustache was a lifelong companion but its style evolved with time. In later age he mostly sported a rather dour and downward-pointing Chevron but appears to have experimented with a kind of mini-Imperial for at least a while, but we’ll take him here in his youthful glory with a full-blown Hungarian. It’s full, it’s brash, it’s aggressive, and the long straight lines are a nice counterpart to the roundness of his face. Here too we see the fierce, thoughtful and confident expression that was replaced, sadly, by a much more haunted look after his experiences in the Second World War.

Mo fan? Want mo’ Mo’s?

Then click on the links for more “Great scientists, great moustaches” from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024!

More information on the Movember Foundation and its work can be found here.

My winter 2024 Handlebar Mo – 4 months of growth!