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Scientific Biographies

Science is a human pursuit. Meet the people behind some of the most significant achievements and discoveries in the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.
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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

By building connections between disciplines, the British-born astronomer transformed 20th-century understanding of stellar chemistry.

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Undated photograph of biochemist Maud Leonora Menten.
Maud Leonora Menten
1879 - 1960
Julius Lothar Meyer.
Julius Lothar Meyer
1830 - 1895
Leonor Michaelis in 1946.
Leonor Michaelis
1875 - 1949
man dressed in a suit with a yellow tie
Mario Molina
1943 - 2020
Bryan B. Molloy
Bryan B. Molloy
1939 - 2004
Gordon E. Moore
1929 - 2023
Giulio Natta, 1963.
Giulio Natta
1903 - 1979
Alfred Nobel
1833 - 1896
black and white photo of a man
Isaac Ochoterena
1895 - 1950
A professional portrait of Donald Othmer as a young man, wearing a suit and tie.
Donald F. Othmer
1904 - 1995
black and white photo of a man in a lab
Robert W. Parry
1917 - 2006
Louis Pasteur
1822 - 1895
Linus Carl Pauling
1901 - 1994
b/w photo of a women seated in a dress
Mary Engle Pennington
1872 - 1952
Portrait of William Henry Perkin, 1906.
William Henry Perkin
1838 - 1907
Roy J. Plunkett
1910 - 1994
Illustration of Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
1733 - 1804
Undated portrait of William Ramsay.
William Ramsay
1852 - 1916
black and white photo of a man in a lab
Petr Rehbinder
1898 - 1972
portrait of Ellen Richards in a cap and gown
Ellen H. Swallow Richards
1842 - 1911
Theodore William Richards
1868 - 1928
Rosenkranz in a suit and tie, smiling
George Rosenkranz
1916 - 2019
Rutherford with a thick mustache wearing a dark three-piece suit
Ernest Rutherford
1871 - 1937
Albert Sabin demonstrates how the oral vaccine for polio is given to children.
Albert Bruce Sabin
1906 - 1993
Jonas Salk
1914 - 1995
Black and white photograph of Glenn T. Seaborg in an office
Glenn Theodore Seaborg
1912 - 1999
Phillip Sharp
b. 1944
Hideki Shirakawa
Hideki Shirakawa
b. 1936
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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.