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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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Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins

These four scientists codiscovered the double-helix structure of DNA, which formed the basis for modern biotechnology.

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Rosalind Franklin on vacation in Italy, 1950.
Science History Institute/Vittorio Luzzati

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man standing at a table looking down
Eizi Matuda
1894 - 1978
portrait of a man with a beard
Hudson Maxim
1853 - 1927
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
b. 1953
Lise Meitner
1878 - 1968
Portrait of Dmitri Mendeleev, ca. 1900.
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev
1834 - 1907
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
Margery Milne
1914 - 2006
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
woman with glasses seated at a table reading a book
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
1900 - 1979
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
Theodore William Richards
1868 - 1928
portrait of Ellen Richards in a cap and gown
Ellen H. Swallow Richards
1842 - 1911
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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.