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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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Signed portrait of a man
Svante August Arrhenius
1859 - 1927
portrait of Amedeo Avogadro
Amedeo Avogadro
1776 - 1856
Katherin Blodgett at General Electric Research Laboratories, 1938.
Katharine Burr Blodgett
1898 - 1979
painting of Robert Boyle wearing a long wig
Robert Boyle
1627 - 1691
It's a sepia-toned portrait of a man (John Dalton) wearing glasses, dressed in 19th-century attire.
John Dalton
1766 - 1844
Portrait of Sir Humphrey Davy Bar't., after 1821.
Humphry Davy
1778 - 1829
Michael Faraday
1791 - 1867
sepia-toned portrait of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
1778 - 1850
Autographed etching of Fritz Haber, 1922
Fritz Haber
1868 - 1934
Irving Langmuir at home enjoying Harper’s Magazine.
Irving Langmuir
1881 - 1957
•\tLavoisier. Engraved by François Séraphin Delpech, after a drawing by Belliart, after the painting by Jacques Louis David.
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
1743 - 1794
Carl von Linde
1842 - 1934
woman with glasses seated at a table reading a book
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
1900 - 1979
Roy J. Plunkett
1910 - 1994
Illustration of Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
1733 - 1804
Undated portrait of William Ramsay.
William Ramsay
1852 - 1916
Susan Solomon
b. 1956

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.