History of science topics tend to be underrepresented in NHD, so here are chemistry and biology topic suggestions for this year's theme! Some of these might be a bit of a stretch of the theme or might interpret it in an unusual way.
Something I find cool about this topic is that the 'legacy' bit explicitly requires discussing the impact in the present, so think about all of these with that in mind! Another thing to keep in mind is something that is specifically called out in this year's theme handbook: not everyone who "leads the way" shows leadership. The handbook actually specifically calls out scientists: "Does a scientist display leadership because he or she invents something that is historically significant? Not necessarily." The people I've listed here did great things in their field. The question to consider is whether they displayed leadership of others.
Chemistry
Kathleen Lonsdale, one of the first women elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and a pioneer of x-ray crystallographyElsie Widdowson and nutrition
Dorothy Hodgkin, x-ray diffraction, worked out the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12
Anne McLaren and in vitro fertilization
Louis Pasteur and pasteurization or vaccination
Svante Arrhenius, founder of physical chemistry
Otto Hahn, father of nuclear chemistry
Fritz Haber, father of chemical warfare. This could make for an interesting argument about leadership.
Dmitri Mendeleev and the periodic table
Robert Boyle and modern chemistry (also the modern scientific method...)
Antoine Lavoisier and modern chemistry (also the metric system)
Linus Pauling and molecular structure (esp. protein, so also bio-ish!)
John Dalton and atomic theory
Paul Flory and polymers
Alice Hamilton, industrial chemicals, and workers' health
Biology
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and women doctorsMarjory Stephenson, one of the first women elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. Microbiology.
Frederick Sanger and DNA sequencing
Gregor Mendel and genetics. This would be interesting given how little known/appreciated his results were during his lifetime, so "leader" is pretty arguable.
Vesalius and anatomy. He was breaking laws, so again, there's a possibility for very interesting arguments about leadership.
Antoine van Leeuwenhoek and microbiology
Galen and physiology
Hippocrates and medicine
Joseph Lister and sterile surgical procedures. This is one of my favorites on this list. It could be super cool, I think.
Edward Jenner and immunology
Claude Bernard and blind experiments for objectivity
Mary Anning and paleontology, especially extinction
George Beadle and Edward Tatum, one gene/one enzyme
Charles Darwin and natural selection
Barbara McClintock and gene transposition
Florence Sabin and women in American science
Margaret Sanger and birth control
Several people were really influential in nursing. Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton are the most famous, but also look at Mary Seacole, Agnes Jones, and Linda Richards.
More on nursing: General Anna Mae Hayes and the Army Nurse Corps
More on wartime medicine: George Crile and/or Harvey Cushing
William Harvey and blood circulation
Marcello Malpighi and the use of the microscope
National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Program in Louisiana
Woodrow Wilson, the Organic Act, and the National Park Service
John Muir and the Sierra Club
International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling
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