The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word EINSTEIN
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
E
I
N
S
T
E
I
N
More clues leading to the result EINSTEIN
- Genius that is returning playing tennis
- Brainbox stumped by probing articles abroad
- Physicist - German one with beer mug there
- One foreign mug and one foreign genius
- Nineties eccentric or exceptional intellectual?
- German's a mug or a genius
- A German beer mug for renowned scientist
- One German mug? On the contrary!
- One German saint and one German genius
- Unconventional nineties genius
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "brilliant scientist" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case brilliant scientist = einstein.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.