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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 <i>The Proton in Chemistry</i>
  • 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

  • Paul Berg (1926–2023), American biochemist known for research on nucleic acids, especially recombinant DNA, 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Friedrich Bergius (1884–1949), German chemist known for known for production of synthetic fuel from coal, 1931 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Helen M. Berman (born 1943), American chemist who worked on structural analysis of protein-nucleic acid complexes
  • Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907), French chemist, a prominent anti-vitalist who synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substances, and developed thermochemistry
  • Claude Louis Berthollet (1748–1822), French chemist who developed the theory of chemical equilibria
  • Carolyn R. Bertozzi (born 1966) American chemist who studies chemical reactions compatible with living systems ("bioorthogonal chemistry"), 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Guy Bertrand (born 1952) French chemist working on carbenes, nitrenes, phosphinidenes, radicals and biradicals
  • Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848), Swedish chemist who discovered several elements
  • Johannes Martin Bijvoet (1892–1980), Dutch chemist and crystallographer who determined the absolute configuration of sodium rubidium tartrate
  • Leonora Bilger (1893–1975), American chemist who studied nitrogenous compounds
  • Katherine Bitting (1869–1937), Canadian and American food chemist for the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Canners Association
  • Joseph Black (1728–1799), British chemist known for discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide

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

  • E. J. Bowen (1898–1980), English physical chemist known for research into fluorescence
  • Humphry Bowen (1929–2001), English analytical chemist known for radioisotopes and trace elements
  • Paul D. Boyer (1918–2018), American biochemist known for studying the biosynthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Robert Boyle (1627–1691), Irish-English pioneer of modern chemistry, best known for Boyle's law
  • Henri Braconnot (1780–1855), French chemist who worked on plant chemistry and discovered chitin and pectin
  • Henning Brand (c. 1630–c.1692 or c. 1710), German alchemist, who accidentally discovered phosphorus while searching for the "philosopher's stone"
  • Mary Bidwell Breed (1870–1949), American chemist focusing on aromatic acids and the atomic mass of palladium
  • Ronald Breslow (1931–2017), American organic chemist who designed and synthesized new molecules with interesting properties, such as the cyclopropenyl cation
  • Alan Brisdon (21st century), British chemist known for <i>Inorganic Spectroscopic Methods</i>
  • Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (1879–1947), Danish chemist known for work on reaction kinetics, especially acid–base reactions
  • Herbert C. Brown (1912–2004), American chemist known for work on organoboranes, 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Jeannette Brown (born 1934), American organic medicinal chemist, historian, and author, known for research on drug development targeting tuberculosis and coccidiosis
  • Jeanette Grasselli Brown (1928–2025), American analytical chemist and spectroscopist
  • Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980), American chemist who co-developed the first useful antifungal antibiotic, nystatin

Buc–But

C

Ca

Ce–Ci

  • Thomas Cech (born 1947), American biochemist, 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery of catalytic RNA
  • Martin Chalfie (born 1947), American scientist, 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the green fluorescent protein
  • Christopher Chang (born 1974) American chemist known for molecular imaging sensors as applied to neuroscience and immunology, metal catalysts for renewable energy cycles, and green chemistry
  • Michelle Chang (born 1977), American chemist known for work on biosynthesis of biofuels and pharmaceuticals
  • Yves Chauvin (1930–2015), French chemist, 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for deciphering the process of olefin metathesis
  • Michel Eugėne Chevreul (1786–1889), French chemist, the first scientist to define the concept of a chemical compound and to formally characterize the nature of organic compounds
  • Christine S. Chow (PhD 1992), American chemist who uses fluorescence spectroscopy and mass spectrometry to study drug-RNA interactions
  • Aaron Ciechanover (born 1947), Israeli biologist, 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on ubiquitination
  • Giacomo Luigi Ciamician (1857–1922) Italian chemist, pioneer in photochemistry and green chemistry, and the earliest to anticipate artificial photosynthesis

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

  • Sandra Eaton (PhD 1972), American chemist notable for work on electron paramagnetic resonance
  • John Tileston Edsall (1902–2002), American protein chemist, and co-author of Proteins, Amino Acids and Peptides
  • Eilaf Egap (21st century), American chemist who works on imaging techniques and biomaterials for early diagnostics and drug delivery
  • Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), German chemist, winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for contributions to immunology
  • Arthur Eichengrün (1867–1949), German chemist known for developing the anti-gonorrhea drug Protargol
  • Manfred Eigen (1927–2019), German chemist, winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on measuring fast chemical reactions
  • Mostafa El-Sayed (born 1933), Egyptian-American physical chemist known for the El-Sayed rule in spectroscopy
  • Fausto Elhuyar (1755–1833), Spanish chemist, the first to isolate tungsten
  • Lorne Elias (PhD 1956), Canadian chemist, inventor of the explosives vapour detector EVD-1
  • Gertrude B. Elion (1918–1999), American biochemist and recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for innovative methods of rational drug design
  • Conrad Elvehjem (1901–1962), American biochemist who identified two vitamins, nicotinic acid (niacin) and nicotinamide
  • Harry Julius Emeléus (1903–1993), British inorganic chemist known for work on fluorine chemistry
  • Gladys Anderson Emerson (1903–1984), American chemist and early nutritionist, and the first person to isolate Vitamin E
  • Emil Erlenmeyer (1825–1909), German chemist known for the early development of the theory of chemical structure and formulating the Erlenmeyer rule.
  • Richard R. Ernst (1933–2021), Swiss physical chemist, 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
  • Gerhard Ertl (born 1936), German physical chemist who laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry, 2007 Nobel prize in chemistry
  • Margaret C. Etter (1943–1992), American chemist and developer of solid state chemistry for crystalline organic compounds
  • Hans von Euler-Chelpin (1873–1964), Swedish chemist, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on the fermentation of sugar and enzymes
  • Henry Eyring (1901–1981), Mexico-born American theoretical chemist known for the absolute rate theory of chemical reactions

F

Fa–Fi

Fl–Fu

  • Edith M. Flanigen (born 1929), American chemist known for synthesizing emeralds and zeolites
  • Nicolas Flamel (c. 1330–1418), French alchemist who was believed to have created and discovered the philosopher's stone
  • Paul Flory (1910–1985), American chemist, 1974 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on the physical chemistry of macromolecules
  • Maria Forsyth (PhD 1990), Australian chemist known for work on energy storage and on corrosion
  • Margaret D. Foster (1895–1970), Manhattan Project chemist and the first female chemist to work for the United States Geological Survey
  • Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (1775–1809), co-discovered the element Iridium and developed modern chemical notation
  • Joanna Fowler (born 1942), American neural chemist who studied effects on the human brain and radiotracers in brain chemistry
  • Michelle Francl (PhD 1983), American computational chemist known for the 6-31G* basis set for Na to Ar and electrostatic potential charges
  • Edward Frankland (1825–1899), English chemist, one of the originators of organometallic chemistry who introduced the concept of valence
  • Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), British chemist and crystallographer whose work was central to understanding the molecular structure of DNA
  • Katherine Franz (born 1972), American chemist noted for work in metal ion coordination in biological systems
  • Herman Frasch (1851–1914), German mining engineer and inventor, pioneered the Frasch process
  • Bertram Fraser-Reid (1934–2020), Jamaican synthetic organic chemist who developed the armed-disarmed principle in glycosylation chemistry
  • Helen Murray Free (1923–2021), American chemist who developed self-testing systems for diabetes
  • Carl Remigius Fresenius (1818–1897), German chemist known for work in analytical chemistry
  • Ida Freund (1863–1914), British chemist known for texts on chemistry teaching, andy first woman university chemistry lecturer in the UK
  • Charles Friedel (1832–1899), French chemist, developer of Friedel–Crafts reaction
  • Alexander Naumovich Frumkin (1895–1976), electrochemist and chemist who develped applied electrochemical processes related to chemical sources of electrical power
  • Kenichi Fukui (1918–1998), 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for investigating mechanisms of chemical reactions
  • Elizabeth Fulhame (18th–19th centuries), British chemist, pioneer in the study of catalysis and discoverer of photoreduction
  • Vera Furness (1921–2002), English chemist and industrial manager who worked on the production of the acrylic Courtelle

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

Ma–Me

Mi

Mo–Mu

N

  • Robert Nalbandyan (1937–2002), Armenian protein chemist known for discovery of photosynthetic protein plantacyanin
  • Sergey Nametkin (1976–1950), Russian organic chemist known the cracking of petrochemicals, and rearrangement of camphenes
  • Louise Natrajan (PhD 2003), British chemist who ortks on actinide chemistry and luminescence spectroscopy
  • Giulio Natta (1903–1979), Italian chemical engineer worked on high density polymers, 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Costin Nenițescu (1902–1970), Romanian chemist who studied the oxidation of open-chain and aromatic hydrocarbons with chromic acid and chromic oxychloride
  • Antonio Neri (1576–1614), Florentine priest, author of L’Arte Vetraria (The Art of Glass), the first general treatise on the systematics of glassmaking
  • Walther Nernst (1864–1941), German physical chemist whose heat theorem led the way to the third law of thermodynamics, 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • John Alexander Reina Newlands (1837–1898), British analytical chemist, precursor of the periodic order of elements
  • William Nicholson (1753–1815), British chemist and civil engineer, the first to achieve electrolysis
  • Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou (born 1946), Cypriot-American chemist known for total synthesis of natural products
  • Julius Nieuwland (1878–1936), Belgian and American prirest and chemist who worked on synthetic rubber
  • Mathias Nilsson, Swedish physical and analytical chemist concerned with liquid NMR spectroscopy
  • Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and established the Nobel Prizes

O

  • Marilyn Olmstead (1943–2020), American chemist, expert in small-molecule crystallography
  • Fred Olsen (1891–1986), British-born American chemist, inventor of the ball propellant manufacturing process
  • Lars Onsager (1903–1976), Norwegian and American physical chemist and theoretical physicist who cirrected the Debye-Hückel theory of electrolytic solutions, 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Tony Orchard (1941–2005), British inorganic chemist whose research helped to lay the foundations of much modern consumer electronic technology
  • Joan Oró (1923–2004), Spanish (Catalan) biochemist known for studies of the origin of life
  • Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851), Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields
  • Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932), Baltic German physical chemist, 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions to the fields of catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities
  • Larry E. Overman (born 1943), American organic chemist developing chemical reactions, particularly transition metal catalyzed reactions
  • Geoffrey Ozin (DPhil 1967), British materials chemist known for research on nanomaterials

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Chemists famous in other areas

See also

References