Gauss is reputed to have said that everything Kant wrote was either trivial or false. In any case, I think either Gauss or R. A. Fisher should be on the list.
One of Turing, Weiner, or Von Neumann.
And one of Goddard or Von Braun.
Possibly Fibonacci, not because he invented anything, but for introducing Hindu-Arabic numerals into the west. I'm tempted to believe that he (along with a few others whose names I can't recall, but all of whom prodded europeans) may have been very responsible (in a James Burke connections kinda way) of laying the groundwork for the later scientific revolutions.
Also at least one of the inventors of the transistor should be on the list (or listed collectively as was done for The Beatles).
And if this is a popularity contest which is what I think it is, then I vote for Charles Steinmetz, mostly because his was the first scientific biography I ever read (sixth grade, thanks to Mrs Clark letting me use my spare time as I wished), but also because he was cool guy. There's a great anecdote (probably apocryphal) about him at
http://makeashorterlink.com/?D67814AD. (Hope this works. It's my first time using it. I'm really a stubborn cuss about not wanting to learn new-fangled stuff.)
k
