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.
Jonas Salk and Albert Bruce Sabin
In the 1950s Salk and Sabin developed separate vaccines—one from killed virus and the other from live virus—to combat the dreaded polio disease.
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/salk-profile-640x500.jpg)
![Donald wears a suit and maroon tie. There is an orange background.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/donald_tomalia-profile-300x300.jpg)
Donald A. Tomalia
b. 1938
![Portrait of Jacobus van't Hoff, before 1898.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/portrait_jacobus_henricus_vant_hoff-300x300.jpeg)
Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff
1852 - 1911
![Portrait of William Walker](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/portrait_william_walker-300x300.jpeg)
William Walker
1869 - 1934
![James Watson and Francis Crick](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/james_watson_profile-300x300.jpeg)
James Watson
b. 1928
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-wiley-300x300.jpg)
Harvey Washington Wiley
1844 - 1930
![Maurice Wilkins with X-ray crystallographic equipment about 1954.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/wilkins1-300x300.jpg)
Maurice Wilkins
1916 - 2004
![half-length portrait of German chemist Friedrich Wöhler](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/portrait_professor_friedrich_wohler-300x300.jpeg)
Friedrich Wöhler
1800 - 1882
![David T. Wong](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/david_wong-300x300.jpeg)
David T. Wong
b. 1935
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/woodward-profile-300x300.jpg)
Robert Burns Woodward
1917 - 1979
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/yalow_berson_veterans_affairs-300x300.jpeg)
Rosalyn Yalow
1921 - 2011
![Karl Ziegler (center) with members of the Hercules group that commercialized high-density polyethylene as Hi-fax.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ziegler-profile-1-300x300.jpg)
Karl Ziegler
1898 - 1973
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