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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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group of noted scientists including William Astbury and Lawrence Bragg
William Astbury
1898 - 1961
painting of a women in a lab
Elisabeth Bakker *
ca. 1600s
Arnold O. Beckman
1900 - 2004
A sepia-toned portrait of a woman with wavy hair, smiling, wearing a dark top.
Florence Ogilvy Bell
1913 - 2000
old portrait of two men in suits
Robert Bunsen
1811 - 1899
Mildred Cohn
1913 - 2009
Rosalind Franklin
1920 - 1958
The Frees wearing lab coats and standing in a research lab. Alfred holds what seems to be an animal test subject while Helen injects something.
Helen M. Free
1923 - 2021
Helen and Alfred Free
Alfred Free
1913 - 2000
Mary Lowe Good
1931 - 2019
Yeast Art portrait of Fanny Angelina Hesse
Fanny Angelina Hesse
1850 - 1934
Dorothy Hodgkin in 1991 is shown seated and smiling. Her hair is half up and she is wearing a floral dress with brown panels.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
1910 - 1994
A vintage portrait of Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (left) and Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen.
Gustav Kirchhoff
1824 - 1887
Harold Kroto
Harold W. Kroto
1939 - 2016
Portrait of Dmitri Mendeleev, ca. 1900.
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev
1834 - 1907
Julius Lothar Meyer.
Julius Lothar Meyer
1830 - 1895
color portrait of a man sitting in a chair
Friedrich Mohs
1773 - 1839
A professional portrait of Donald Othmer as a young man, wearing a suit and tie.
Donald F. Othmer
1904 - 1995
b/w photo of a women seated in a dress
Mary Engle Pennington
1872 - 1952
Julius Richard Petri pictured at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, ca. 1800s
Julius Richard Petri
1852 - 1921
sepia toned portrait of a man in coat and riding boots
Ignaz Semmelweis
1818 - 1865
Richard E. Smalley
1943 - 2005
Undated photo of Danish chemist Soren Sorensen working in a lab.
Søren Sørensen
1868 - 1939
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

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