Germain, Michelangelo, Mendel (Score 1)

• Sophie Germain: Self-educated math geek that got flak on all sides for being a female and a non-aristocrat 18th century France. For years, she could only share her research through correspondence using a false identity.

• Michelangelo Buonarroti: Renaissance art geek that produced brilliant work in every media he touched. Among other inspired hacks, he re-invented the horrendously difficult art of sculpting in marble that had been lost since antiquity.

• Gregor Mendel: Bio-geek/hacker/monk that pioneered in the study of genetics by painstakingly breeding pea plants and forging his results. He also figured out how to cross ill-tempered honey bees that produced lots of honey with docile but non-productive bees to produce ill-tempered, non-productive bees.

I also second the votes for Nikola Tesla, Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace, and Marie Curie.

Darian
~O~