Environmental Engineering - Notable Scientists / People

Amadeo Avogadro

- Molecular hypothesis "equal volumes of all gases at same temperatures and pressure contains equal number of molecule".

Antoine Lavoisier

- Father of Modern Chemistry

- Established the "Law of Conservation of Masses"

- Discovered the nature of combustion

Carl Wilhelm Scheele

- He was the first person to discover the adsorption of gases by charcoal

- He discovered Mn, Cl, tartaric acid, glycerin, Molybdenum, Barium, and lactic acid

- Discovered oxygen in the air long before Priestley discovered oxygen

Daniel Rutherford

- Discovered Nitrogen in 1772

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev

- Creation of periodic table of elements

- Mendelevium (atomic number 101) and the crater on the moon (Mendeleev) are named after him.

Dorothy Mary Hodgkin

- Confirmation of the structure of penicillin

- Won Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for work on the structure of Vitamin B12

Francois Raoult

- Raoult's Law (relates vapor pressure of a solution the number of molecules of solute dissolved in it)

Frederick Sanger

- Received Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1958 for his work on the structure of protein (insulin) and in 1980 for determination of base sequences in nucleic acids.

Friedrich Wöhler

- Regarded as pioneer of organic chemistry and best known for the synthesis of urea.

Fritz Haber

- Awarded as Nobel Prize in 1918 for his work on ammonia

- Father of chemical warfare

Germain Hess

- Best known for the Law of Thermodynamics

Gilbert Lewis

- Discovered covalent bond, purification of heavy water, and Lewis theory of acids and bases

Harold Clayton Urey

- Best known for the discovery of Deuterium and played important role in the development of atom bomb

- Miller-Urey experiment (development of organic life from non-living matter)

Henri Moissan

- Worked on isolating fluorine from its compounds

Henry Cavendish

- Discovered Hydrogen, described the density of water, and determined the density of Earth

Humpry Davy

- Discovered several alkalis, discovered several elements like Chlorine and Iodine and invented Davy lamp (miner's safety lamp)

Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff

-The first person to be awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901 and was a pioneer in the field of stereochemistry

Jacques Charles

- Charles' Law

John Dalton

- Pioneer of modern atomic theory

Jöns Jacob Berzelius

- Discovered Silicon, Cesium, Thorium, and Selenium

- Along with Lavoisier, Boyle, and Dalton, he is known as Father of Modern Chemistry

John Priestley

- Best known as co-discoverer of Oxygen, invented soda water, discovered HCl, NO, CO, and SO2

Marie Curie

- Discovered the radioactive elements Radium and Polonium

- Established theory of radioactivity and the first woman to receive Nobel Prize

Michael Faraday

- Made significant contribution in the field of electrochemistry and electromagnetism and discovered the aromatic compound benzene

Robert Boyle

- Best known for Boyle's Law

- Inventor of litmus paper

Svante Arrhenius

- First person to discover the effect of global warming

- His experiments focus effect of doubling of the amount of CO2 on the environment

- Made the earliest definition of molecular nature of acids and bases

Thomas Graham

- Pioneering works on dialysis and diffusion of gases

Wilhelm Ostwald

- He is credited for the process of producing nitric acid by oxidizing ammonia

William Ramsay

- Discoverer of noble gases - Argon, Neon, Krypton, Xenon, Helium, and Radon

William Henry Perkin

- Discovered the first aniline dye (mauveine)