1930 in science

Astronomy and space exploration

• January 15 – The Moon moves into perigee at the same time as the lunar phase reaches its fullest. This is the closest moon distance in recent memory and it will not come closer until 2257.
• February 18 – Pluto is identified by Clyde Tombaugh from photographs taken during January at the Lowell Observatory.
• Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.

  Atmospheric sciences

• January 30 – Pavel Molchanov launches a radiosonde from Pavlovsk in the Soviet Union.
• Sydney Chapman explains the ozone-oxygen cycle, the process by which ozone is continually regenerated in Earth's stratosphere.

  Botany

• Elena Ivanovna Barulina produces the first study of the international distribution of lentils.

  Chemistry

• April 17 – Neoprene is invented by DuPont.

  History of science

• Soviet Orientalist Vasily Vasilievich Struve, with Boris Turaev, provides solutions to the problems in the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus.

  Mathematics

• Vojtěch Jarník first discovers 'Prim's algorithm'.
• Kazimierz Kuratowski characterizes his planar graph theorem.
• Bartel van der Waerden publishes Moderne Algebra.

  Medicine

• March 5 – Danish painter Einar Wegener begins to undergo sexual reassignment surgery in Germany and takes the name Lili Elbe.
• July 10 – Mental Treatment Act 1930 in the United Kingdom provides for free voluntary treatment for psychiatric conditions and for psychiatric outpatient clinics, replaces the term "asylum" with "mental hospital" and reorganises the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency.
• November 25 – Cecil George Paine, a pathologist at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary in England, achieves the first recorded cure using penicillin.
• DPT vaccine is first used.

  Physics

• December 4 – Wolfgang Pauli postulates the existence of the particle later identified as the electron neutrino.

  Technology

• August 18 – Salginatobel Bridge in Switzerland, designed by Robert Maillart, opened.
• November 13 – Rotolactor rotating platform milking machine first operates.

  Zoology

• Israel Aharoni collects golden hamsters near Aleppo from which all modern domesticated specimens will be bred.

  Awards

• Lyell Medal – Frederick Chapman
• Nobel Prizes
• * Physics – C. V. Raman
• * Chemistry – Hans Fischer
• * Physiology or Medicine – Karl Landsteiner

  Births

• January 9 – Jacob T. Schwartz, American mathematician and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
• January 13 – Harold Furth, Austrian-born expert in plasma physics and nuclear fusion.
• January 20 – Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut, lunar module pilot on Apollo 11.
• February 7 – Ikutaro Kakehashi, Japanese electronic music engineer.
• February 23 – Goro Shimura, Japanese mathematician.
• February 28 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
• March 15 – Martin Karplus, Austrian-born theoretical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• April 9 – Nathaniel Branden, Canadian American psychotherapist.
• April 16 – Louis Herman, American marine biologist, investigator in animal communication.
• April 20 – Gordon Hamilton Fairley, British oncologist.
• May 9 – Susan Leeman, American neuroendocrinologist.
• May 11 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.
• May 28 – Frank Drake, American radio astronomer, pioneer in SETI
• June 2 – Pete Conrad, American astronaut.
• June 22 – Yury Artyukhin, Soviet Russian cosmonaut.
• June 28 – William C. Campbell, Irish-born parasitologist and Nobel Prize winner.
• August 5 – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, first person to walk on the Moon.
• August 7 – Joe Farman, British geophysicist working for the British Antarctic Survey.
• September 12 – Akira Suzuki, Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• September 24 – John Young, American astronaut.
• October 10 – Yves Chauvin, Belgian-born chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• October 17 – Robert Atkins, American nutritionist.
• November 11 – Mildred Dresselhaus, née Spiewak, American nanotechnologist.
• November 14 – Ed White, American astronaut.
• December 17 – Dorothy Rowe, née Conn, Australian psychologist.
• December 30 – Tu Youyou, Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.

  Deaths

• January 13 – Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, British-born electrical engineer and inventor.
• January 19 – Frank P. Ramsey, English mathematician.
• August 6 – Joseph Le Bel, French chemist.
• August 15 – Florian Cajori, Swiss-born American historian of mathematics.
• August 18 – Gabrielle Howard, British plant physiologist.
• October 15
• * Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian American industrial chemist.
• * E. H. "Chinese" Wilson, English plant collector.
• September 1 – Peeter Põld, Estonian politician and pedagogical scientist.
• November 5 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physiologist.
• Albertina Carlsson, Swedish zoologist.