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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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painting of a women in a lab
Elisabeth Bakker *
ca. 1600s
Jacqueline K. Barton
b. 1952
A sepia-toned portrait of a woman with wavy hair, smiling, wearing a dark top.
Florence Ogilvy Bell
1913 - 2000
Ruth Benerito
1916 - 2013
Reinhold and Ruth Benesch.
Ruth Benesch
1925 - 2000
Joan Berkowitz
1931 - 2020
Katherin Blodgett at General Electric Research Laboratories, 1938.
Katharine Burr Blodgett
1898 - 1979
Portrait of Helia Bravo-Hollis, 2001.
Helia Bravo-Hollis
1901 - 2001
Rachel Fuller Brown
1898 - 1980
black and white portrait of a woman
Mary Letitia Caldwell
1890 - 1972
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
1907 - 1964
illustration from Grounds of Natural Philosophy book
Margaret Lucas Cavendish
1623 - 1673
Nancy Chang
b. 1950
Undated portrait of mycologist Vera Charles
Vera Katherine Charles
18771954 - 1954
Uma Chowdhry wearing green shawl and glasses, hand on a rail, cherry blossoms in background
Uma Chowdhry
1947 - 2024
Mildred Cohn
1913 - 2009
Edith Coleman
1874 - 1951
Gerty and Carl Cori working in a lab
Gerty Theresa Cori
1896 - 1957
Simone Courvoisier.
Simone Courvoisier
n.d.
Marie Sklodowska Curie
1867 - 1934
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
Hitchings and Elion in a lab wearing lab coats and smiling. They both hold black, blue, red, and white plastic models
Gertrude Elion
1918 - 1999
Mary Fieser, fall 1951.
Mary Peters Fieser
1909 - 1997
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
Mary Lowe Good
1931 - 2019
black and white photo of an older woman wearing glasses
Kathryn C. “Kitty” Hach-Darrow
1922 - 2020
Alice Hamilton
1869 - 1970
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