Encyclopedia of World Scientists, Updated Edition is a comprehensive reference tool for learning about scientists and their work. It includes 500 cross-referenced profiles of well-known scientific "greats" of history and contemporary scientists whose work is verging on prominence. More than 100 entries are devoted to women and minority scientists.

Each entry includes the subject's full name, dates of birth/death, nationality, and field(s) of specialization. A biographical essay focuses primarily on the subject's scientific work and achievements; it also highlights additional information, such as place of birth, parents' names and occupations, name(s) of spouse(s) and children, educational background, jobs held, and awards earned.

Profiles include:

• Archimedes (c. 287–212 BCE): Mathematician 
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543): Astronomer 
• Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): Astronomer 
• Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782): Mathematician 
• John James Audubon (1785–1851): Biologist 
• Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910): Medical scientist 
• Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833–1896): Chemist 
• Albert Einstein (1879–1955): Physicist 
• Niels Bohr (1885–1962): Physicist 
• George Washington Carver (c. 1861–1943): Chemist
• Marie Curie (1867–1934): Physicist and chemist 
• Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882–1945): Aerospace engineer 
• Edwin Powell Hubble (1889–1953): Astronomer 
• Grace Murray Hooper (1906–1992): Computer scientist 
• Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910–1994): Chemist 
• Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997): Earth scientist 
• Alan Turing (1912–1954): Computer scientist 
• Jonas Edward Salk (1914–1995): Medical scientist 
• Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958): Chemist 
• Jewel Plummer Cobb (1924–2017): Biologist 
• Stephen Hawking (1942–2018): Astronomer.