Famous Chemists And

Their Discoveries

remarkable contribution to science was

the

creation

of

periodic

table.

He

predicted that many more elements would

Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856)

be discovered. He even predicted their

Amedeo Avogadro was born in Turin, Italy.

properties. Mendelevium- element number

He was from a family of established

101 of the periodic table and the crater on

lawyers, and had studied law. However,

the Moon-Mendeleev, are named after

due to his interest in natural sciences, he

him.

privately

studied

mathematics

and

physics. He is mainly remembered for his

molecular hypothesis, which states, "equal
volumes of all gases at same temperature
and pressure contains equal number of
molecules." It later came to be known as
Avogadro's principle. He was also the
first one to distinguish between atoms and
molecules. As a tribute to his contributions
to molecular theory, a number was named
after him. It is known as Avogadro's
number or constant, and has the value of
6.0221367x10^23

as

the

'father

of

modern

chemistry', Antoine Lavoisier established

the law of conservation of masses (The
total mass of the universe is constant
within measurable limits; whenever matter
undergoes a change, the total mass of the
products

of

the

change

is,

Frederick

within

measurable limits, the same as the total

mass of the reactants. ). He disapproved
the phlogiston theory, and discovered the

Soddy

was

British

radiochemist. In 1912, he proposed the

theory of isotopes stating the presence
of

chemically
but

elements,
masses.

His

indistinguishable

with
theory

controversial,

different
was

atomic

considered

until the discovery of

neutron in 1932 by James Chadwick. In

collaboration with Ernst Rutherford, he
explained radioactivity. He received Nobel
prize

Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794)

Regarded

Frederick Soddy (1877-1956)

for

chemistry

in

1921.

Friedrich kekule (1829-1896)

Friedrich Kekul was one of the prominent
names in the field of theoretical chemistry
in Europe, in the later half of the 18th
century. He was the founder of the theory
of chemical structure. He also deduced
the tetravalence of carbon and the
structure

of

benzene.

chemical nature of combustion. He named

Friendrich Wohler (1800-1882)

oxygen and hydrogen, helped construct

Friedrich Whler, a German chemist, is

the metric system, and reformed the

chemical nomenclature.

Ivanovich

Mendeleev

as

pioneer

of

organic

chemistry. He is best known for his

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907)

Dmitri

regarded

was

Russian chemist and a scientist. His most

synthesis of urea. He co-discovered

beryllium, silicon, and silicon nitride. He
was also the first one to isolate Aluminum.

Gilbe Lewis rt (1875 - 1946)

ascents of over 7000 meters in hot air

balloon to draw samples of the Earth's

Gilbert Lewis was an American physical

chemist. He is known for a number of

atmosphere and analyze them. He was

also the co-discoverer of Boron.

works in the field of chemistry. Discovery

John Dalton was an English physicist,

of covalent bond, purification of heavy

chemist, and a meteorologist. Today, he is

water, theory of Lewis acids and bases,

best known for his pioneering work on

and

chemical

modern atomic theory. He proposed that,

thermodynamics in a chemically rigorous

matter is made up of fundamental units

manner, are some of his most important

called atoms. These units cannot be

works.

created or destroyed. He also explained

reformulation

of

the

Dalton

law

of

partial

pressure.

1911)

Atomic Theory: all matter was composed

of atoms, indivisible and indestructible
building blocks. While all atoms of an
element were identical, different elements
had atoms of differing size and mass.

The first person to be awarded Nobel prize

Johannes Nicolaus Brnsted (1879 -

Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (1852 -

in chemistry in 1901, Jacobus Henricus

van't Hoff was a Dutch scientist and
chemist. He was a pioneer in the field of
stereochemistry, dealing with the threedimensional structure of a molecule. His
other

remarkable

accomplishments

include, his work on carbon bonds,

osmotic pressure, chemical kinetics, and
chemical equilibrium. He received the
Nobel prize for his work on solutions,
wherein he stated that, they behave as per
the law of gases in very diluted conditions.

1947)
Johannes

Nicolaus

Brnsted

was

Danish physical chemist, best known for

his theory of acids and bases similar to
that of Thomas Martin Lowry of England.
Though they had independently deduced
the theory, it is now commonly known as
Brnsted-Lowry theory. It defines acids, as
proton donates to bases in an acid/base
reaction. Johannes Nicolaus Brnsted was
also regarded as a master on the catalytic
properties and strengths of acids and
bases.

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778 - 1850)

Known for his law on gasesthe GayLussac law, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
was a French chemist and physicist. The
Gay-Lussac law states that, if the mass
and pressure of a gas is held constant,
then the gas volume increases linearly as
the temperature rises. In 1804, along with
Jean-Baptiste Biot,

he

made

several

Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994)

He received a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in
1954, for his research into the nature of
the chemical bond and its application to
the elucidation of the structure of complex
substances. He received another one for
Peace

in

1962.

Michael Faraday was an English physicist

and

chemist,

who

made

significant

contribution in the field of electrochemistry

and electromagnetism. It was Michael
Faraday, who discovered the aromatic
compound

benzene.

Peter Debye (1884 - 1966)

The application of dipole moment to the
charge

distribution

in

asymmetric

molecules was one of his early significant

works. Other important works include, the
Debye model, Debye temperature, and
Debye

relaxation.

Thomas Martin Lowry (1874 - 1936)

Thomas Martin Lowry was an English
physical chemist best known for the
Brnsted-Lowry acid-base theory, which,
he

developed

independently

from

Johannes Nicolaus Brnsted.

Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli
Aufbau principle- The principle takes its
name from the German, Aufbauprinzip,
"building-up principle", rather than being
named for a scientist. This was an early
application of quantum mechanics to the
properties of electrons, and explained

chemical properties in physical terms.

Each added electron is subject to the
electric field created by the positive
charge of the atomic nucleus and the
negative charge of other electrons that are
bound to the nucleus. Although in
hydrogen there is no energy difference
between orbitals with the same principal
quantum number n, this is not true for the
outer electrons of other atoms.