List of chemists

This is a list of chemists. It should include those who have been important to the development or practice of chemistry. Their research or application has made significant contributions in the area of basic or applied chemistry.

A

Ab–An

An–Av

B

Bab–Bar

Bas–Ben

  • Fred Basolo (1920–2007), American chemist known for the mechanisms of inorganic reactions
  • Esther Batchelder (1897–1987), American chemist, educator and specialist in nutrition
  • Sir Alan Battersby (1925–2018), English organic chemist known for work on biosynthetic pathways
  • Antoine Baumé (1728–1804), French chemist, inventor of the Baumé scale hydrometer for measuring the density of liquids
  • Karl Bayer (1847–1904), Austrian chemist who invented the Bayer process of extracting alumina from bauxite
  • Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), German who developed the phlogiston theory of combustion
  • Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (1838–1906), German-Russian chemist, created Beilstein database
  • Joseph Achille Le Bel (1847–1930), French chemist, early work in stereochemistry addressing the relationship between molecular structure and optical activity
  • Angela Belcher (PhD 1997), American chemist, materials scientist, and biological engineer
  • Irina Beletskaya (born 1933), Russian organometallic chemist known for studies on aromatic reaction mechanisms
  • R. P. (Ronnie) Bell (1907–1996), English physical chemist known in particular for The Proton in Chemistry
  • Andrey Belozersky (1905–1972), Soviet biologist and biochemist, pioneer of molecular biology and the chemistry of nucelic acids
  • Ruth R. Benerito (1916–2013), American chemist known for inventions relating to textiles, including wash-and-wear cotton fabrics

Ber–Bla

Blo–Bou

  • Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898–1979), American surface chemist and physicist and inventor of nonreflective glass
  • Suzanne Blum (born 1978), American chemist developing single-molecule and single-particle fluorescence microscopy
  • Katharine Blunt (1876–1954), American chemist and nutritionist focusing on home economics, food chemistry and nutrition
  • Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) Dutch chemist, botanist, Christian humanist & physician, first to isolate urea from urine
  • Kristie Boering (born 1963), American chemist and planetary scientist studying atmospheric chemistry and mass transport in the extraterrestrial atmosphere
  • Alexei Bogdanov (born 1935), Soviet and Russian biochemist and molecular biologist known for fundamental contributions to ribosome structure and function, nucleic acid-protein interactions, and protein biosynthesis mechanisms.
  • Olga Bogdanova (1896–1982), Soviet chemist who specialized in organic catalysis
  • Dale L. Boger (born 1953), American chemist working on natural product synthesis, synthetic methodology, medicinal chemistry, and combinatorial chemistry
  • Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838–1912), French chemist who discovered gallium, samarium and dysprosium
  • Jan Boldingh (1915–2003), Dutch chemist known for new analytic techniques such as gas-chromatography and others
  • Alexander Borodin (1833–1887), Russian chemist and composer. As a chemist he is known best for his work on organic synthesis, including discovery of the aldol reaction
  • Hans-Joachim Born (1909–1987), German radiochemist who participated in the Soviet nuclear weapons programme
  • Carl Bosch (1872–1940), German chemist, pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1991
  • Octave Leopold Boudouard (1872–1923), French chemist who discovered the Boudouard reaction: combination of carbon and carbon dioxide to form carbon monoxide at high temperatures
  • Jean-Baptiste Boussingault (1802–1887), French chemist with work in agricultural science, petroleum science and metallurgy

Bow–Bro

Buc–But

C

Ca

Ce–Ci

Cl–Cor

Cot–Cz

D

Da–Di

Do–Dy

  • Martha Doan (1872–1960), American chemist who studied thallium compounds
  • William von Eggers Doering (1917–2011), American chemist known for the total synthesis of quinine
  • Edward Doisy (1893–1986), American biochemist, winner of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • Davorin Dolar (1921–2005), Slovenian physical chemist who studied polyelectrolyte solutions, and is regarded as a founder of modern physical chemistry teaching in Slovenia
  • Vy Maria Dong (born 1976), American chemist who studies enantioselective catalysis and natural product synthesis
  • David Adriaan van Dorp (1915–1995), Dutch chemist known for the first full synthesis of vitamin A
  • Israel Dostrovsky (1918–2010), Russian (Ukraine)-born Israeli physical chemist known for separating oxygen isotopes in water
  • Herbert Henry Dow (1866–1930), American industrial chemist, known for bromine extraction
  • Cornelius Drebbel (1572–1633), Dutch inventor, alchemist and chemist who contributed to develop measurement and control systems, optics and chemistry
  • Jean Baptiste Dumas (1800–1884), French chemist, best known for the determination of atomic and molecular masses weights by measuring vapor densities
  • Helen Dyer (1895–1998), American biochemist and early cancer researcher known for studies of carcinogenesis mechanisms

E

F

Fa–Fi

Fl–Fu

G

Ga–Gl

Gm–Gu

H

Ha

He–Hi

Ho–Hu

I

  • Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold (1893–1970), English chemist known for introducing concepts such as nucleophile, electrophile, inductive and resonance effects
  • Vladimir Ipatieff (1867–1952), Russian-American chemist who worked in petroleum chemistry and catalysts

J

  • Nancy B. Jackson (1956–2022), American chemist who worked on heterogeneous catalysis and the development of alternative fuels
  • Marilyn E. Jacox (1929–2013), American chemist who worked on the spectroscopy of free radicals and other unstable chemical species
  • Hope Jahren (born 1969), American chemist and isotope analyst known for using stable isotope analysis to analyze fossil forests
  • Paul Janssen (1926–2003), Belgian physician and entrepreneur who discovered the antispasmodic drug ambucetamide
  • Allene Jeanes (1906–1995), American chemist who developed Dextran to replace plasma in the Korean War
  • Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958), French chemist and physicist, 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of induced radioactivity
  • Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956), French chemist and physicist, 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of induced radioactivity
  • Madeleine M. Joullié (born 1927), French-American-Brazilian organic chemist who worked on synthesizing organic compounds such as tilorone, furanomycin, and numerous cyclopeptides
  • Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975), African American organic chemist who was a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine.

K

Ka--Kj

  • Henri B. Kagan (born 1930) French chemist, pioneer of asymmetric catalysis, 2001 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
  • Isabella Karle (1921–2017), American chemist instrumental for extracting plutonium chloride from a mixture containing plutonium oxide
  • Jerome Karle (1918–2013), 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the direct analysis of crystal structures by X-ray scattering
  • Paul Karrer (1889–1971), Swiss organic chemist known for research on vitamins, 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Alan R. Katritzky (1928–2014), British-American organic chemist, pioneer of heterocyclic chemistry
  • Joyce Jacobson Kaufman (1929–2016), American chemist and inventor of conformational topology
  • Melinda H. Keefe (PhD 2001), American chemist known for identifying solvents that can be used to remove dirt without damaging layers of paint
  • August Kekulé (1829–1896), German organic chemist known for the theory of chemical structure, especially the structure of benzene
  • John Kendrew (1917–1997), British biochemist and crystallographer known for solving the structure of myoglobin, 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Ann Kiessling (born 1942), American chemist and reproductive biologist known for discovering reverse transcriptase activity in normal human cells
  • Ann Kimble-Hill (21st century), American biochemist studying structure-function relationships of membrane proteins and lipids
  • Petrus Jacobus Kipp (1808–1864), Dutch chemist, inventor of Kipp's apparatus
  • Johan Kjeldahl (1849–1900), Danish chemist who developed a method for determining the amount of nitrogen in organic compounds

Kl--Ku

L

La–Li

Li–Lu

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Chemists famous in other areas

See also

References

  1. ^ Smeaton, W. A. (1967). "Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, F.R.S. (1737-1816) and His Relations with British Scientists". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 22 (1/2): 113–130. ISSN 0035-9149.
  2. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (10 November 1986). "Dr. Fred Olsen, Industrial Chemist, Art Collector and Scholar, is Dead". New York Times. Retrieved 20 February 2015.