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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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Humphry Davy

Davy was a charismatic English chemist, poet, inventor, fisherman, and scientific administrator. How have biographers approached his multifaceted story?

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Portrait of Sir Humphrey Davy Bar’t., after 1821.
Science History Institute
Portrait of Sir Humphrey Davy Bar't., after 1821.

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A mannequin wearing an 18th-century style blue dress with lace and elaborate hairstyle.
Blue Silk Dress
ca. 1700s
St. Elmo Brady in a chemistry lab at Fisk University. He is pouring a liquid from one beaker into another. There are counters of lab equipment surrounding him.
St. Elmo Brady
1884 - 1966
black and white photo of George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver
ca. 1864 - 1943
An image of Marie Maynard Daly, a black woman scientist in a lab coat works with test tubes in a laboratory.
Marie Maynard Daly
1921 - 2003
Charles Drew is seated at a counter wearing a lab coat and touching a microscope
Charles Richard Drew
1904 - 1950
Henry Aaron Hill
1915 - 1979
photo of older man wearing glasses
Roald Hoffmann
b. 1937
Dr. Percy Lavon in a suit and tie, wearing glasses, stands in front of vertical striped wallpaper.
Percy Lavon Julian
1899 - 1975
Harold Kroto
Harold W. Kroto
1939 - 2016
Undated photograph of Lee Riley
Lee W. Riley
1949 - 2022
Portrait of Jokichi Takamine
Jokichi Takamine
1854 - 1922
black and white portrait of a man wearing a bowtie
Thomas Washington Talley
1868 - 1952
James Watson and Francis Crick
James Watson
1928 - 2025

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.