Le Corbusier was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the first generation of the so-called International school of architecture.
Intrigued by burrs that stuck to his clothing, in 1956, Swiss engineer George de Mestral invented the popular fastener now known as Velcro®.
Esther Dyson, named by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in American business, is regarded as one of the most influential voices in technology.
Tennis pro Roger Federer was the first Swiss man to win a Grand Slam title. In 2012, he became a seven-time Wimbledon champion, tying with Pete Sampras for the world No. 1 ranking record of 286 weeks.
Paul Klee was a prolific Swiss and German artist best known for his large body of work, influenced by cubism, expressionism and surrealism.
Psychologist Jean Piaget identified stages of mental development, called Schema, and established the fields of cognitive theory and developmental psychology.
Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychoanalyst who created the controversial Rorschach Inkblot Test to measure social behavior.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is best known as an influential 18th-century philosopher who wrote the acclaimed work A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi was an 18th-19th century economist and author who espoused pioneering ideas on governmental structures.
During the Civil War, Confederate soldier Henry Wirz commanded the Andersonville Prison, where many Union prisoners-of-war died as a result of poor conditions.