Sir William Ramsay and the Discovery of the Noble Gases

Sir William Ramsay, born on October 2, 1852, in Glasgow, Scotland, was a pioneering chemist whose discoveries profoundly transformed the periodic table and modern science. Educated at the University of Glasgow and later the University of Tübingen, Ramsay earned his doctorate in 1872. Initially focused on organic chemistry, he shifted to physical and inorganic chemistry, where he made his most enduring contributions.

Ramsay is most renowned for discovering the noble gases—a previously unknown group of chemically inert elements. In 1894, working with physicist Lord Rayleigh, Ramsay identified argon, a discovery that challenged existing scientific models. Driven by this breakthrough, he isolated helium in 1895, a gas first observed in the solar spectrum but never before found on Earth. Over the next few years, Ramsay discovered neon, krypton, and xenon (1898) using fractional distillation of liquid air. These discoveries expanded the periodic table, prompting the creation of a new group—Group 18—to accommodate the noble gases.

His work revolutionized the understanding of atmospheric chemistry and atomic structure. For example, helium's later use in cryogenics and as a safe lifting gas, and neon's role in lighting and advertising, reflect Ramsay’s wide-reaching impact. His research also laid foundational principles for quantum chemistry and spectroscopy.

In recognition of his scientific achievements, Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904, the first for a British scientist in this category. He was knighted in 1902 and held the position of Professor of Chemistry at University College London, where he inspired a generation of chemists.

Ramsay's legacy continues to influence modern technologies. Noble gases are critical in applications ranging from medical imaging and semiconductor manufacturing to deep-sea diving and space exploration. For instance, xenon is now used as a propellant in ion thrusters for spacecraft.

Sir William Ramsay passed away on July 23, 1916, in High Wycombe, England. His pioneering work not only redefined the periodic table but also set the stage for major scientific and technological advances in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Sir William Ramsay and the Discovery of the Noble Gases

Fritz Strassmann: Pioneer of Nuclear Fission and Humanitarian Scientist

Fritz Strassmann was a German chemist born on February 22, 1902, in Boppard, Germany. He is best known for his pivotal role in the discovery of nuclear fission alongside Otto Hahn. Strassmann's expertise in analytical chemistry was instrumental in identifying barium as a byproduct of bombarding uranium with neutrons, a key observation that led to the recognition of nuclear fission. This discovery revolutionized nuclear physics, leading to both the peaceful use of atomic energy and the development of nuclear weapons.

Strassmann began his formal education in chemistry at the Technical University of Hannover, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1929. Early in his career, he specialized in radiochemistry, an emerging field at the time. In 1934, he joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin, where he collaborated with Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner. Their research initially focused on transuranium elements, but in 1938, they made their groundbreaking discovery of nuclear fission.

The identification of barium in the fission process was crucial because it contradicted prevailing scientific theories that suggested only minor changes in atomic nuclei were possible. Strassmann’s precise chemical techniques provided definitive proof that uranium atoms could split, releasing immense amounts of energy. This finding was further interpreted by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, who coined the term "nuclear fission."

Despite his scientific achievements, Strassmann remained an ethical scientist. During World War II, he and his wife helped hide a Jewish friend, risking their lives in Nazi Germany. His moral integrity was later recognized when he was honored as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations" by Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial.

After the war, Strassmann continued his scientific career, taking on academic positions at the University of Mainz and contributing to the development of nuclear chemistry. He became a leading advocate for the peaceful use of nuclear energy and received numerous accolades, including the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award in 1966.

Strassmann’s contributions to science had a lasting impact, shaping modern nuclear research and energy applications. He passed away on April 22, 1980, in Mainz, Germany, leaving behind a legacy of scientific innovation and humanitarian courage.
Fritz Strassmann: Pioneer of Nuclear Fission and Humanitarian Scientist

Martin Heinrich Klaproth: A Pioneer of Modern Chemistry

Martin Heinrich Klaproth, born on December 1, 1743, in Wernigerode, Brandenburg, is celebrated as one of the key figures in the evolution of modern chemistry. Initially trained as an apothecary, Klaproth's career transitioned to chemical research, where he demonstrated an exceptional ability to isolate and identify new elements. His landmark discovery of uranium in 1789, derived from the mineral pitchblende, marked the first time this element was recognized and set the stage for its eventual role in nuclear science. In the same year, he also identified zirconium, a metal now crucial in various industrial and scientific applications. Later, in 1803, he co-discovered cerium, a rare earth element.

Klaproth’s work was foundational in the development of analytical chemistry. He championed gravimetric analysis, a method that involves precise measurement of mass to determine the composition of chemical substances. This technique enhanced the accuracy of quantitative chemical analysis, enabling chemists to better understand the structure of compounds and reactions. His meticulous methods laid the groundwork for modern chemical analysis, ensuring reproducibility and precision in experimental results.

Beyond his laboratory achievements, Klaproth contributed significantly to academia. In 1810, he became a professor at the newly founded University of Berlin, where he shaped the next generation of chemists. His influence extended internationally; he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London and an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, reflecting his global reputation.

Klaproth’s career coincided with a critical period in chemistry’s history, as the discipline transitioned from alchemy to systematic science. His discoveries and analytical advancements helped establish chemistry as a rigorous scientific field. Klaproth's work not only expanded the periodic table but also fostered a culture of precision and systematic inquiry in chemical research.

When Klaproth passed away on January 1, 1817, he left a legacy of innovation that shaped modern chemistry. His contributions continue to influence fields as diverse as nuclear physics, materials science, and environmental chemistry.
Martin Heinrich Klaproth: A Pioneer of Modern Chemistry

Otto Hahn: Pioneer of Nuclear Chemistry and Discoverer of Nuclear Fission

Otto Hahn, born on March 8, 1879, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was a pioneering chemist whose work significantly advanced the field of nuclear chemistry. His early academic prowess was evident as he completed a doctorate from the University of Marburg in 1901, where he gained a solid foundation in organic chemistry. Hahn’s career took a pivotal turn when he broadened his horizons by working with prominent scientists abroad. In London, he collaborated with Sir William Ramsay, a Nobel laureate known for his discovery of noble gases. This experience allowed Hahn to delve into the study of radioactivity, a field still in its infancy. Later, in Montreal, Hahn worked with Ernest Rutherford, a key figure in nuclear physics, where he identified several new radioactive isotopes. These early contributions laid the groundwork for his future breakthroughs in nuclear chemistry.

In 1906, Hahn returned to Germany and joined the University of Berlin, where he began a long-term collaboration with Austrian physicist Lise Meitner. Their partnership was particularly productive, with Hahn focusing on chemistry and Meitner on physics, enabling them to complement each other's expertise. Together, they made groundbreaking discoveries, including the identification of the longest-lived isotope of protactinium in 1918, a finding that was critical in advancing the understanding of radioactive decay chains.

Hahn’s most notable achievement came in 1938 when he, along with Meitner and Fritz Strassmann, discovered nuclear fission. While Meitner provided the theoretical explanation, it was Hahn’s chemical experiments that demonstrated the splitting of uranium atoms into lighter elements, a discovery that had enormous implications for both energy generation and weaponry. This work laid the foundation for the development of nuclear reactors and atomic bombs, and in 1944, Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in the discovery, although Meitner’s contributions were notably overlooked by the Nobel Committee.

Throughout his career, Hahn received numerous accolades, including the Enrico Fermi Award in 1966, which he shared with Meitner and Strassmann. His lifelong dedication to science continued until his death on July 28, 1968, in Göttingen, Germany. Otto Hahn’s legacy endures as a testament to his profound impact on both science and humanity.
Otto Hahn: Pioneer of Nuclear Chemistry and Discoverer of Nuclear Fission

The Life and Innovations of Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès: Inventor of Margarine

Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, born on October 24, 1817, in Draguignan, France, was a pioneering French chemist who made significant contributions to applied chemistry, most famously for inventing margarine. His early career began at the central pharmacy of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris, where he honed his skills as a pharmacist. This work laid the foundation for a series of notable innovations, particularly in the fields of medicine and food chemistry. One of his early contributions was the refinement of the syphilis medicine Copahin, making it more effective for medical use. Additionally, Mège-Mouriès secured patents for a wide range of innovations, including effervescent tablets, which became a popular delivery method for medications, and advancements in paper-making and leather tanning techniques. These accomplishments underscore his versatility as a chemist who sought practical solutions to industrial and medical challenges.

In the 1860s, France faced a severe butter shortage, prompting Emperor Napoleon III to announce a competition for a satisfactory butter substitute that could meet the demands of the military and lower-income populations. Mège-Mouriès rose to the occasion, beginning experiments with animal fats and dairy. He ultimately developed a product made from processed beef tallow and skimmed milk, which he named oleomargarine. This product, later shortened to margarine, mimicked butter’s qualities while being far cheaper and more accessible. His innovation won the prize in 1869, and the recognition of margarine soon spread beyond France, gaining patents in other countries, including the United States, where he obtained a patent in 1873. This invention revolutionized the food industry, offering a low-cost alternative to butter that became a staple in kitchens worldwide.

Mège-Mouriès’s interests extended beyond margarine. He worked to improve the nutritional value of food, enhancing chocolate by adding calcium phosphate and protein. His research into bread production also earned him international acclaim and multiple gold medals. His work in food chemistry helped address issues of nutrition and food scarcity, making him a key figure in 19th-century science. He passed away on May 31, 1880, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, leaving behind a legacy of innovation that continues to be celebrated.
The Life and Innovations of Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès: Inventor of Margarine

The Legacy of Gustav Georg Embden: Pioneer of Carbohydrate Metabolism

Gustav Georg Embden, born on November 10, 1874, in Hamburg, Germany, was a pioneering physiological chemist whose work significantly advanced our understanding of carbohydrate metabolism. Embden’s academic journey was marked by a series of studies at some of Europe’s most prestigious institutions, including Freiburg, Strasbourg, Munich, Berlin, and Zurich. At these institutions, he had the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with several of the era’s most prominent scientists, such as Johannes von Kries, known for his work in sensory physiology, and Paul Ehrlich, a Nobel laureate renowned for his contributions to immunology and chemotherapy. These formative experiences under eminent scholars laid a solid foundation for Embden’s future research in physiological chemistry.

In 1904, Embden took a significant step in his career by becoming the director of the chemistry laboratory at the Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen municipal hospital. His tenure there was transformative, as his innovative research led to the establishment of the Physiological Institute by 1907. This institution was later expanded into the University Institute for Vegetative Physiology in 1914, reflecting the growing importance and recognition of Embden’s work. His research primarily centered on the chemical processes occurring in living organisms, with a particular focus on intermediate metabolic processes in liver tissue, which was relatively unexplored at the time.

One of Embden’s most significant contributions was his work on the metabolic pathway that converts glycogen to lactic acid, now known as the Embden-Meyerhof pathway. This pathway is a crucial component of cellular metabolism, particularly in muscle tissue, and its discovery has had a profound impact on the field of biochemistry, providing essential insights into how cells generate energy. Additionally, Embden’s development of techniques to prevent tissue damage during his experiments contributed to a deeper understanding of the liver’s role in metabolism, as well as the pathology of diabetes. His work in this area not only advanced scientific knowledge but also had practical implications for the treatment and management of metabolic disorders.

Despite his groundbreaking work and being nominated for the Nobel Prize multiple times, Embden never received the award. Nevertheless, his legacy endures, as his contributions have continued to influence the field of biochemistry long after his death on July 25, 1933, in Nassau, Germany. Today, Embden is remembered as a key figure in the development of modern biochemistry, particularly in our understanding of cellular metabolism and the chemical processes that sustain life. His work laid the foundation for future research in the field, and his contributions remain integral to our current understanding of metabolic processes.
The Legacy of Gustav Georg Embden: Pioneer of Carbohydrate Metabolism

George Hevesy: Pioneering Chemist and Nobel Laureate

Hevesy George Charles von (1885-1966) was a Hungarian-born Swedish chemist renowned for his pioneering work on radioactive tracers, which earned him the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Born into affluence, he was the son of a wealthy industrialist and received his PhD from the University of Freiburg in 1908. Despite a career marked by frequent disruptions due to war and politics, Hevesy made significant contributions to the field of chemistry across seven different countries.

After brief stints in Zurich and Karlsruhe, Hevesy joined the eminent scientist Ernest Rutherford in Manchester. There, he was tasked with the challenging job of separating radioactive radium D from lead. Given that radium D is an isotope of lead, traditional chemical methods failed. However, this apparent failure led to a groundbreaking realization: if radioactive lead and ordinary lead were chemically indistinguishable, the radioisotope could serve as a tracer to monitor lead’s path through complex systems. By 1923, Hevesy demonstrated how radioactive lead could label salts absorbed by plants. By 1934, using radioactive phosphorus, he successfully applied his tracer technique to animals, revolutionizing biological and medical research by enabling the study of dynamic processes within living organisms.

Hevesy’s career was a testament to resilience and adaptability. After leaving Manchester in 1913, he moved to the University of Vienna. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 prompted his return to Budapest. Post-war, he worked in Copenhagen from 1920 to 1926 before accepting the chair in physical chemistry at the University of Freiburg. The rise of Hitler’s regime forced Hevesy to flee Germany in 1934, returning to Denmark. In 1942, the advancing threat of the Nazis once again compelled him to seek refuge, this time in Sweden, where he completed his academic career.

Apart from his work on radioactive tracers, Hevesy is also credited with the discovery of the element hafnium in 1923, in collaboration with Dirk Coster. This discovery was significant as hafnium was the last element predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table to be found in nature, underscoring the accuracy of the periodic law and filling a crucial gap in the periodic table.

Hevesy’s contributions extend beyond his technical achievements; his work laid the foundation for modern nuclear medicine and biological research, showcasing how scientific inquiry can transcend political and social upheavals. His legacy is a testament to the enduring impact of scientific perseverance and innovation.
George Hevesy: Pioneering Chemist and Nobel Laureate

Joseph William Kennedy: American Chemist

Born on May 30, 1916, in Nacogdoches, Texas, Joseph William Kennedy achieved his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College in 1935. He then pursued advanced studies at the University of Kansas, culminating in a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1937. His academic journey led him to the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his PhD in chemistry in 1939.

In the year 1940, Kennedy collaborated with Glenn Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, and Arthur Wahl to make a momentous breakthrough, identifying the element plutonium. Through Kennedy's innovative approach to designing and constructing crucial apparatus, they successfully verified the presence of plutonium. Additionally, this group revealed that plutonium possessed fissile properties, a pivotal revelation with substantial implications for the Manhattan Project's investigations.

After the conclusion of World War II, Kennedy embarked on an academic career at Washington University in St. Louis. His pivotal role involved transforming the university's primary emphasis from undergraduate instruction to a prestigious establishment renowned for its robust research and graduate programs. Eventually, he assumed leadership as the head of the Chemistry Department.

Tragically, Joseph William Kennedy's life was prematurely curtailed by cancer on May 5, 1957, when he was just 40 years old.
Joseph William Kennedy: American Chemist

William Christopher Zeise: Danish organic chemist

William Christopher Zeise was born on October 15, 1789, in Slagelse, Denmark, as the child of Friedrich Zeise, a pharmacist, and Johanna Helena Hammond. His interest in the natural sciences developed during his time in secondary school, although he left in 1805 without completing his studies.

Subsequent to his departure from school, Zeise engaged in an apprenticeship under Gottfried Becker, the Royal Court pharmacist in Copenhagen, who was also involved in teaching chemistry at the university. A decline in his health necessitated Zeise's temporary return to his home country.

Upon returning to Copenhagen in 1806, Zeise took residence with Oersted and his family. Oersted, who had recently assumed the role of an extraordinary professor of physics and chemistry at Copenhagen, assigned Zeise the role of his lecture assistant.

In 1809, Zeise commenced his studies in medicine, physics, and chemistry. His efforts culminated in the award of a pharmacy degree in 1815. The subsequent year marked his achievement of a master's degree. In 1817, he presented his doctoral thesis titled ‘The Impact of Alkalies on Organic Substances.’

Following the completion of his doctorate, William Christopher Zeise chose to relocate abroad due to the absence of a chemistry lectureship and a specialized scientific laboratory for the subject at the University of Copenhagen.

In 1823, his investigation into organic sulfur compounds led to the recognition of a novel classification of organic compounds known as xanthates. These were subsequently isolated as yellow potassium salts. Additionally, he made significant discoveries concerning thioalcohols, also recognized as mercaptans, and sulfides, alternatively termed thioethers.

On November 12, 1847, Zeise passed away in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the age of fifty-eight.
William Christopher Zeise: Danish organic chemist

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) - Swedish German chemist

Carl Wilhelm Scheele was born in Stralsund in Pomerania which was German-speaking even though it was a part of Sweden. His parentage was German, and throughout his life he used this language to write down his laboratory notes.

Wilhelm left school aged fourteen and he moved to Goteborg to replace his brother Johann Martin, who had been· a pharmacist apprentice and who had died at the age of twenty. There he developed an interest in chemistry and apparently carried out experiments late in the night using the chemicals available in the pharmacy. He also read widely including the work of Georg Ernst Stahl (1659 –1734), who was one of the main proponents of the phlogiston theory.

The apothecary was sold in 1765. He then went to work with an apothecary called Kjellström who also had scientific interests at the Spread-Eagle Apothecary in Malmö. There Scheele also made contact with Anders Retzius, who was a prominent chemist at Lund University.

A little later Scheele went to Stockholm to work in another Pharmacy. In 1770 he moved to Uppsala, where he worked in the pharmacy for Christian Ludwig Lokk, who provided him with a workbench and allowed him one day a week for research.

From the start he studied the materials that were available at apothecaries. This would form the foundation for his future work in organic chemistry and mineralogy. Over the years he developed a significant ability to experiment with organic substances without spoiling the inherent materials.

Living only for 44 years, this Swedish pharmacist discovered more elements (seven) than any other scientist -all before the era of modem chemistry of Lavoisier's Traite.

Scheele’s work in chemical mineral analysis led to a number of discoveries, including several metal acids and metals such as molybdenum, manganese and tungsten.

Scheele also discovered a score of fundamental organic compounds and gases including tartaric acid, lactic acid, oxalic acid, citric acid, malic acid, uric acid, casein, glycerol, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride, and hydrogen cyanide. Scheele also has an important place in the history of the discovery of respiratory gases because he was undoubtedly the first person to prepare oxygen and describe some of its properties.

Scheele produced oxygen by heating a variety of substances including mercuric oxide, as did Priestley. Scheele also obtained the gas by heating potassium nitrate, silver carbonate, manganese nitrate, and manganese oxide.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) - Swedish German chemist

Glenn Theodore Seaborg - an American nuclear chemist

Glen Seaborg was born on 19 April 1912 in the small mining town of Ishpeming, MI, USA. When he was 10, his family moved to a suburb of Los Angeles. Seaborg graduated from high school at the top of his class, then studied for a Chemistry degree at UCLA, where he graduated in 1933, aged 21.

He entered the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1929, and earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley in chemistry in 1937. He stayed on at Berkeley as the personal laboratory assistant of Gilbert N. Lewis from 1937 to 1939 with whom he published a number of scientific papers.

In 1939, Dr. Seaborg was appointed an instructor in chemistry at Berkeley, where he was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1941, and to Professor of Chemistry in 1945.

In 1946, he also took responsibility for direction of nuclear chemical research at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, operated for the Atomic Energy Commission by the University of California; from 1954 to 1961, he was Associate Director of LRL.

In 1938, Seaborg and Emilio Segrè discovered technetium-99m, the most-used medical radioisotope ever. It is used it tens of millions of scans every year.

Between December 1940 and February 1941, Seaborg, together with Edwin McMillan, Emilio Segrè, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl, by deuteron bombardment of uranium in the 60-inch (150 cm) cyclotron at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. This experimental achievement proved to be a major contribution in physicists' understanding of atomic fission.

Dr. Seaborg was given a leave of absence from the University of California from 1942-1946, during which period he headed the plutonium work of the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory. His team was responsible for devising the chemical process for the separation, concentration and isolation of plutonium. This process was used at the pilot plant, the Clinton Engineer Works, at the Oakridge site and the production Plant at Hanford.

Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of 10 elements. Element 106 is named seaborgium in his honor. He received patents for the element americium and curium. After the war Seaborg returned to Berkeley as an academic while also directing the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, part of the US Atomic Energy Commission.

Dr. Seaborg is an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society of London and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, the New York Academy of Sciences, the California Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Glenn T. Seaborg died on February 25, 1999 in Lafayette, CA, USA.
Glenn Theodore Seaborg - an American nuclear chemist

Paul Christian Lauterbur - Pioneer in the development of magnetic resonance imaging

Lauterbur was born on May 6, 1929, in Sidney, Ohio, to Edward and Gertrude Lauterbur. Lauterbur’s father was an engineer and co-owner of a company that manufactured bread-making machinery.

At Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul enrolled in the industrial chemistry program where he learned all forms of science and engineering. Lauterbur received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962. He served as a professor at the University of New York at Stony Brook from 1969 to 1985.

He was drafted in 1953, spending most of his service at the Army Chemical Center, where he established a new nuclear MR (NMR) laboratory.

In 1971 during working at Stony Brook University, he created the first multi-dimensional image using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), he sparked a new age of medical technology and clinical care. NMR is a key tool in chemical analysis, using the absorption measurements to provide information about the molecular structure of various solids and liquids.

His discovery made it possible to get a clear look inside the human body without surgery or x-rays. The non-invasive technique was later improved for practical application by Peter Mansfield, an English physicist.

Lauterbur left Stony Brook in 1985 for the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he served until his death as a Professor in the College of Medicine and the Department of Chemistry.

Lauterbur and Mansfield shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for their work with MRI, now widely used.

Lauterbur died aged 77 in March 2007 of kidney disease at his home in Urbana, Illinois.
Paul Christian Lauterbur - Pioneer in the development of magnetic resonance imaging

Alexander Borodin – Russian doctor and chemist

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887) was born in Saint Petersburg, the illegitimate son of a Georgian noble, Luka Simonis dze Gedevanishvili, who had him registered instead as the son of one of his serfs, Porfiry Borodin.

Since a rather young age, Alexander Borodin was intelligent, with an innate gift for music. Young Borodin grew up becoming fluent in German, French and English, besides his native Russian. He later learned Italian and was able to write a technical essay in that language.

Borodin studied medicine at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg from 1850 to 1855 and defended his doctoral thesis on the similarity between arsenic and phosphoric acid in 1858.

During the first 2 years at the Academy, Borodin developed a deep interest in chemistry while attending the brilliant lectures given by Professor Nikolai N. Zinin.

Between 1859 and 1862 Borodin held a post-doctorate in Heidelberg. He worked on benzene derivatives in the laboratory of Emil Erlenmeyer. He also spent time in Pisa, working on organic halogens. One experiment published in 1862 described the first nucleophilic displacement of chlorine by fluorine in benzoyl chloride.

In 1864 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy. In 1861, Borodin attended the first international congress of chemistry in Karlsruhe, and he was among the founders of the Russian Chemical Society in 1868.

He published 42 articles and was a friend of Dmitri Mendeleev, the scientist who described the periodic system. He is co-credited with discovering the Aldol Reaction which is, apparently, a way of forming carbon-to-carbon bonds.

Borodin played an active role in the administration of the Medico-Surgical Academy and, together

with Botkin. Sechenov, and other professors of the Academy, in 1872, Borodin started the first medical courses for women in Russia.

Borodin is also best known for his symphonies, his opera Prince Igor, and for later providing the musical inspiration for the musical Kismet. Borodin started the work on his first symphony in 1862, under the tutelage of Mily Balakirev and completed the work by 1869, when it was premiered under the baton of Mily Balakirev.
Alexander Borodin – Russian doctor and chemist

Théophile-Jules Pelouze (1807-1867)

He was one of the most important French chemists of the first half of the XIXth century. Théophile-Jules Pelouze was born on February 26, 1807, in Valognes, La Manche, Normandie. Pelouze was the son of Edmond Pelouze, whose interests in industrial technology and invention were reflected in many publications.

In 1827 he became an assistant to Gay-Lussac and Joseph-Louis Lassaigne (1800-1859); the latter became famous in connection with the sodium fusion test for the elements.

After some time at his laboratory Gay-Lussac proposed Pelouze for a teaching post at Lille where the town council had established a chemistry course to be given by Frédéric Kuhlmann.

He was elected to the Académie des Sciences (1837); he taught and was professor of chemistry at the École Polytechnique (1831–1846) and at the Collège de France (1831–1850).

Pelouze had many students but probably the most famous was Claude Bernard. He also opened his laboratory to the young Marcelin Berthelot who was soon to collaborate in a study of chemical equilibrium with another of Pelouze’s students, Péan de Saint-Gilles.

Pelouze taught chemistry to Alfred Nobel, who used his knowledge of chemical explosives to accumulate the fortune that endows annual prizes in science and literature given in his name.

He was an outstanding analytical and experimental chemist. His early investigations included studies of salicin (1830), with Jules Gay-Lussac; sugar beet (1831); fermentation (1831), with Frédéric Kuhlmann; conversion of hydrocyanic acid into formic acid; and decomposition of ammonium formate into hydrocyanic acid and water.

Pelouze published several books: Cours de chimie générale, Notions générales de chimie, Abrégé de chimie, Traité de chimie générale
Théophile-Jules Pelouze (1807-1867)

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804): English chemist

A dissenter, of a Calvinist family, born near Leeds, Yorkshire, in 1733, he was started early in the way of preparation for the ministerial calling.

Aside from what he learned in the local schools, he taught himself Latin, Greek, French, Italian, German and a smattering of Middle Eastern languages, along with mathematics and philosophy.

At the age of 19, the first student to enroll at the new dissenting academy in Daventry. He became a minister, but his interests and writings also encompassed science, history, education, and grammar.

Priestley’s scientific interests expanded to include the study of various gases, or “airs,”

as they were called at the time. Priestley was the first person to report the discovery of oxygen and describe some of its extraordinary properties.

He became a good friend of Benjamin Franklin who encouraged him to take up natural philosophy. In 1772 he began experiments on different airs (gases).

Priestley systematically analyzed the properties of different "airs" using the favored apparatus of the day: an inverted container on a raised platform that could capture the gases produced by various experiments below it.

Priestley called his discovery "dephlogisticated air" on the theory that it supported combustion so well because it had no phlogiston in it. Hence it could absorb the maximum amount during burning.

Lavoisier (1743–1794) repeated Priestley’s initial experiment and went on to describe the true nature of oxygen that had eluded Priestley, who never abandoned the erroneous phlogiston theory.

Joseph  set sail for America on April 8, 1794. He died on February 6, 1804 at the age of seventy.
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804): English chemist

John Dalton: English scientist

John Dalton is best known for his atomic theory and research in color blindness. John Dalton was born on 6 September 1766 at the village of Eaglesfield near Cockermouth in Cumberland, a stronghold of the Society of Friends.

Both his parents came of Quaker stock from which Dalton inherited his love of learning. Quaker schoolmaster in the village school taught him mathematics with a practical bent.

At the early age of twelve, Dalton started to teach mathematics, under the influence of his teacher Elihu Robinson—a Quaker interested in natural philosophy and meteorology. His village school was in an old barn and later in the Quakers’ Meeting House.

Dalton never had a formal education in chemistry, but it was probably at this point that he had his first contact with popular books on Newtonianism from which he began to build his scientific ideas. In 1780, Dalton moved to Kendal, where he became a teacher in a Quaker school.

At Kendal Dalton was lucky in meeting a remarkably able blind man, John Gough, who taught him languages and mathematics and encouraged him to start a meteorological journal in 1787, which Dalton continued until the day before his death.

He worked on color-blindness and meteorology. Dalton realized that he and his brother were both unable to see red. He had discovered this, apparently, when sent by his mother to buy some thread matching her grey Quaker dress; he returned with scarlet, which looked the same to him.

His initiative in making his own barometer, thermometer, rain gauge and hygrometer, shows Dalton’s innate experimental ingenuity. With these instruments Dalton made daily observations for five years, 1788 to 1792, of the barometric pressure and the wind, of the temperature of the air, of its hygrometric state and rainfall, and also of the occurrence of snow and ice, of thunder, and in great detail of the aurora borealis.

He is chiefly remembered for his atomic theory. Dalton proposed the Atomic Theory in 1803. The theory held that all matter was composed of small particles, elements possess unique characteristics and weight, and that there are three types of atoms simple, compound, and complex. He was the first to suggest the mass of one atom of hydrogen as the atomic mass unit. The unit became the dalton.

He was elected into the Royal Society in 1822 and was awarded the first Royal Medal in 1826. On 27 July, in Manchester, Dalton fell from his bed and was found lifeless by his attendant.
John Dalton: English scientist

Robert Boyle: Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor

Robert Boyle (25 January, 1627 – 31 December, 1691), ‘The Father of Chemistry’, was the most influential scientist ever born in Ireland.

Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, Co. Waterford, the youngest son of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, and his second wife Katherine Fenton. Richard accumulated a great fortune in Ireland and enjoyed a high social standing. Robert displayed a quiet scholarly disposition and was his father’s favorite son.

After early education at home, Robert together with his brother were sent for a while to Eton College in England for four years. Then at the age of 11 he was sent, with a French Protestant tutor, on a grand tour of Europe which lasted for 6 years.

After spending some time on the Continent, during which he met Galileo in Florence in 1641–1642, he returned to England and lived in London. In 1649 he set up a scientific laboratory, and he began to write accounts of his scientific work, promulgating the use of experiment and the scientific method.

His research intensified after 1654, when he took lodgings in Oxford, UK. There, he met regularly with another group of experimentalists convened by the mathematician John Wilkins. Its members included the multi-talented Christopher Wren and Boyle’s gifted assistant, Robert Hooke. Robert Hooke helped him in his experiments. Boyle referred to the group as the “invisible college.” This later became the Royal Society in 1662.

Boyle demonstrated the necessity of air for combustion, for animal breathing, and for the transmission of sound.

Using an improved air pump built for him by Hooke, Boyle began to study the physics of gases. The results appeared in 1660 as New Experiments Physico-mechanical Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects, in which he described the first controlled experiments of the effects of reducing the pressure of the air. Soon afterwards, he stated for the first time the inverse relationship between gas pressure and volume we now call ‘Boyle’s law’.
Robert Boyle: Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor

Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Jöns Jacob Berzelius was born on August 20, 1779, in Väversunda, Sweden. His father, Samuel, a provincial schoolmaster and died when Jöns Jacob was four years old. His mother, Elizabeth Dorothea, remarried to Anders Ekmarck, a pastor and died shortly afterward.

In the autumn of 1796, after finishing four years of secondary school, he went to Uppsala to begin medical studies. He began his medical studies at the age of seventeen but was forced to withdraw when his scholarship was withdrawn, not, however, before learning much chemistry from Anders Gustav Ekeberg (1767 -1813), the discoverer of tantalum.

At an early age Berzelius had been impressed with the chemistry of Jeremias Benjamin Richter (1762-1807), who discovered the Law of Neutrality and coined the term stoichiometry, and Joseph Louis Proust (1754- 1826), who discovered the Law of Constant Proportions.

In May 1802 he presented his doctor’s thesis where he reported on his experiments in the medical use of galvanic current for curing all kinds of complaints from swollen knees to St. Vitus’s dance. In his list of treated cases Berzelius was able to cite only one positive result: a certain improvement in the locomotive faculty of a man suffering from numb fingers, but the thesis, a mere fourteen pages, was nevertheless a pioneer work in a new field of medical Science.

After graduation, he became an assistant to the professor of surgery at Stockholm. Although he preferred chemistry to medicine economic reasons forced him to serve as regional physician near Stockholm.

Berzelius was one of the most prominent chemists of the 19th century; his scientific contributions were fundamental to the understanding of chemistry and the setting of standards for experimental work.

In 1803 Berzelius and Hisinger, independent of each other, succeeded in isolating a new element which they named cerium after the recently-discovered asteroid Ceres.

Berzelius also discovered the elements, selenium, and thorium, and was the first to isolate silicon, calcium, barium, strontium, tantalum, and zirconium in pure form.

In 1807, Berzelius became Professor of Medicine and Pharmacy at Stockholm’s School of Surgery (where he had previously worked as an unpaid assistant). He gave up this post after being elected secretary of Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademien (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences).

In 1807 Berzelius and six other physicians founded the Swedish Medical Society, and in 1812 he was appointed permanent secretary of the recently created Academy of Agriculture, a position he retained for the rest of his life. He died in 1848, four decades after being elected to Sweden’s Royal Academy of Science in the eventful year of 1808.
Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Michael Faraday (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867): British physicist and chemist

Michael Faraday was born in 1791 in the village of Newington, now part of the urban area of London. His father was a blacksmith who had migrated from the north of England earlier in 1791 to look for work and his family was able to allow him but the most basic education.

He was hired in a London bookshop, run by Mr. George Riebau. This work enabled Michael Faraday to read many books, that passed through the bookshop of Mr. Riebau. In his spare time he was an avid reader, teaching himself many scientific concepts.

With the help of a customer of the shop, in 1812 Faraday was able to attend the public lectures of one of the most famous scientists of the day, the chemist Humphry Davy, director of the Royal Society. For our Michael it was a veritable godsend, and perhaps precisely for this reason, also thanks to his curiosity and his initiative, he was able to exploit this opportunity more than anyone else.

In 1813 he was appointed as Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution. During his stay at the Royal Institution, Faraday managed to obtain the two fundamental laws of electrolysis.

*First LAW: For a given solution, the quantity of matter that is deposited on the electrodes is proportional to the amount of charge which passes through the solution. This implies that the ions carrying the charge through the solution have a well-defined electric charge.

*Second LAW: The monovalent ions of different sub-stances carry an equal quantity of electric charge, while the bi- or tri-valent ones carry a correspondingly higher charge.

Faraday, who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century, began his career as a chemist. He wrote a manual of practical chemistry that reveals his mastery of the technical aspects of his art, discovered a number of new organic compounds, among them benzene, and was the first to liquefy a “permanent” gas.

His major contribution, however, was in the field of electricity and magnetism. He was the first to produce an electric current from a magnetic field, invented the first electric motor and dynamo, demonstrated the relation between electricity and chemical bonding, discovered the effect of magnetism on light, and discovered and named diamagnetism, the peculiar behaviour of certain substances in strong magnetic fields.

Faraday was the author of numerous publications in scientific journals. his main contributions are collected in his Laboratory Journal, which he hold regularly from 1820 until 1862.

History of Faraday’s scientific discoveries·
*1810-1820 First Electrochemical Experiments·
*1820-1830 Electrical conduction experiments·
*1831 Law of electromagnetic induction·
*1832-1833 Laws of electrolysis·
*1837-39 Dielectric materials·
*1845-1846 Diamagnetism and Faraday effect·
*1855 Studies on paramagnetism

In 1833 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution and step by step he became famous worldwide. He also distinguished himself for his oratory, communication and outreach skills.

Michael Faraday (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867): British physicist and chemist

Bosch, Carl (1874-1940): German industrial chemist

Bosch, Carl (1874-1940)
Bosch was a German industrial chemist. His development of high pressure chemical plant enabled the laboratory Haber process to be translated into the immensely important industrial Haber-Bosch process. He was awarded the 1931 Nobel Price for Chemistry.

The son of engineer, Bosch began his career in a foundry, before being allowed by his father to pursue a formal education at the University of Leipzig. After gaining his PhD in 1898, Bosch joined the research staff of Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF) in Ludwigshafen. There he became involved in the major task facing German industry: the synthetic of ammonia, for use in both agriculture and the armaments industry.

In 1907, Fritz Haber had demonstrated that, with high temperature and pressures and appropriate catalysts, ammonia could be synthesized from atmospheric nitrogen and nitrogen. The Haber process, however, then was restricted to the laboratory. Bosch was assigned the task of transforming the process into an industrial plant: he did this at Oppau, where BASF’s first high pressure ammonia plant opened in 1909.

By 1930 well over 2 million tons of ammonia were being produce annually. Remaining at BASF, Bosch rose to become chairman of its successor, IG Farben, and continued to hold the position until his death.
Bosch, Carl (1874-1940): German industrial chemist