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Scientific Biographies

Science is a human pursuit. Meet some of the people who have contributed to the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.
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Percy Lavon Julian

The grandson of enslaved people, Julian overcame racial barriers to achieve scientific, business, and personal success.

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Dr. Percy Lavon Julian is pictured at the newly constructed chemistry building named in his honor at MacMurray College, 1972.
Science History Institute
Dr. Percy Lavon Julian honored at MacMurray College

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Edward Goodrich Acheson
1856 - 1931
Signed portrait of a man
Svante August Arrhenius
1859 - 1927
Jacqueline K. Barton
b. 1952
portrait of Jons jokob Brezelius
Jöns Jakob Berzelius
1779 - 1848
Katherin Blodgett at General Electric Research Laboratories, 1938.
Katharine Burr Blodgett
1898 - 1979
Robert Curl
Robert F. Curl
1933 - 2022
Portrait of Sir Humphrey Davy Bar't., after 1821.
Humphry Davy
1778 - 1829
Portrait of Herbert H. Dow, ca. 1900
Herbert Henry Dow
1866 - 1930
Michael Faraday
1791 - 1867
sepia-toned portrait of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
1778 - 1850
Charles M. Hall
1863 - 1914
alan heeger photo
Alan J. Heeger
b. 1936
Harold Kroto
Harold W. Kroto
1939 - 2016
Irving Langmuir at home enjoying Harper’s Magazine.
Irving Langmuir
1881 - 1957
Alan MacDiarmid
Alan MacDiarmid
1927 - 2007
Rutherford with a thick mustache wearing a dark three-piece suit
Ernest Rutherford
1871 - 1937
Hideki Shirakawa
Hideki Shirakawa
b. 1936
Richard E. Smalley
1943 - 2005
black and white portrait of a man wearing a bowtie
Thomas Washington Talley
1868 - 1952
Joseph John “J. J.” Thomson
1856 - 1940

About Scientific Biographies

Everything you need to know about our scientific biographies, including how to contact us, cite a biography, pitch a scientist, write a biography, or republish a biography.