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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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Julius Richard Petri

A physician who studied bacteria, Petri’s name became associated with small covered dishes that are essential to laboratory research in the life sciences.

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Julius Richard Petri pictured at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, ca. 1880s.
Courtesy of the Museum of the Robert Koch Institute
Julius Richard Petri pictured at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, ca. 1800s

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Paul Héroult.
Paul Héroult
1863 - 1914
Yeast Art portrait of Fanny Angelina Hesse
Fanny Angelina Hesse
1850 - 1934
Henry Aaron Hill
1915 - 1979
Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings in the laboratory, 1948.
George Hitchings
1905 - 1998
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
woman with gray hair wearing glasses
Darleane C. Hoffman
1926 - 2025
old photo of Felix Hoffman
Felix Hoffmann
1868 - 1946
photo of older man wearing glasses
Roald Hoffmann
b. 1937
photo from an old driver's license
Eugene Houdry
1892 - 1962
Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie in their laboratory in 1935
Frédéric Joliot
1900 - 1958
old photograph of two people in a lab
Irène Joliot-Curie
1897 - 1956
Dr. Percy Lavon Julian honored at MacMurray College
Percy Lavon Julian
1899 - 1975
August Kekulé
1829 - 1896
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (left) and Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen.
Gustav Kirchhoff
1824 - 1887
Harold Kroto
Harold W. Kroto
1939 - 2016
Stephanie L. Kwolek
1923 - 2014
man in a lab
Henri-Marie Laborit
1914 - 1995
Ralph Landau
1916 - 2004
Robert S. Langer
b. 1948
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
Lewis wearing a dark suit and tie
Gilbert Newton Lewis
1875 - 1946
Warren K. Lewis
Warren K. Lewis
1882 - 1975
Portrait of Justus von Liebig, after 1845.
Justus von Liebig
1803 - 1873
Carl von Linde
1842 - 1934
Arthur Dehon Little.
Arthur Little
1863 - 1935
Alan MacDiarmid
Alan MacDiarmid
1927 - 2007
John Macleod, 1923.
John Macleod
1876 - 1935
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