The year 1601 CE in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

• January 1 – Retrospectively the epoch reference date from which ANSI dates are counted in COBOL and other computer languages, and the base of Windows FILETIME timestamps which are stored as a 63 bit counter, whose last valid timestamp is 30828/9/14 02:48:05.4775807.^[1][2]

• August 26 – Olivier van Noort completes his circumnavigation of the world.

• Johannes Kepler is appointed imperial mathematician to the Habsburg Empire.

• Giulio Cesare Casseri publishes a treatise on the anatomy of the vocal and auditory organs Latin: De vocis auditusque organis historia anatomica in Ferrara.

• possible date – Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, English inventor (d. 1667)

• October 24 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (b. 1546)