Best Chemist

Through X-ray crystallography, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin revealed the three-dimensional structures of biologically important molecules. This method interprets how crystals scatter X-rays to determine the arrangement of their atoms. The British chemist used it to resolve structures that were difficult...

K. Barry Sharpless is an organic chemist associated with two distinct contributions: asymmetric catalytic oxidation and click chemistry. His oxidation methods help chemists control molecular handedness, producing a preferred spatial form of a compound. Such selectivity matters in medicinal chemistry...

Jennifer A. Doudna is an American biochemist whose research on RNA and bacterial defense systems helped establish CRISPR-Cas9 as a programmable tool for genome editing. Working with Emmanuelle Charpentier and colleagues, she showed how an RNA-guided system could be adapted to cut DNA at selected seq...

Complex natural molecules were the central challenge of Robert Burns Woodward's career. This twentieth-century American organic chemist became known for total synthesis, the construction of a target molecule from simpler starting materials. His work included landmark syntheses involving strychnine,...

Linus Pauling helped connect chemical bonding with the quantum-mechanical behavior of atoms, giving chemists new ways to explain molecular structure and reactivity. His work crossed into molecular biology, including research linking sickle-cell disease to abnormal hemoglobin. That connection helped...

Careful measurement helped Antoine Lavoisier reshape chemistry in late eighteenth-century France. By weighing substances before and after reactions, he established a clear experimental basis for the conservation of mass: in an ordinary chemical reaction, matter is rearranged rather than simply creat...

Gilbert N. Lewis helped make the behavior of electrons central to explanations of chemical bonding. An American chemist working in the twentieth century, he developed the electron-pair account of the covalent bond. Lewis structures express this idea through diagrams showing bonds and nonbonding elec...

John B. Goodenough was an American materials scientist and solid-state physicist whose research made a crucial contribution to lithium-ion batteries. At Oxford, he and his colleagues identified lithium cobalt oxide as a cathode material capable of supporting a higher battery voltage. This advance he...

Jöns Jacob Berzelius was a significant 19th-century Swedish chemist. He is known for pioneering work in determining atomic weights, establishing the first modern system of chemical notation using letters to represent elements. His discoveries included selenium and thorium. Berzelius’s contributions...

Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff was a Dutch chemist influential in physical chemistry during the early 20th century. His work established fundamental connections between thermodynamics, solution behavior, and chemical reactions. He notably investigated osmotic pressure and stereochemistry, significantl...

Frances H. Arnold is a chemist recognized globally for her groundbreaking work in directed evolution. She developed techniques to intentionally guide the natural process of enzyme adaptation within laboratory settings. Her research significantly advances the creation of enzymes with tailored propert...

Glenn T. Seaborg was a pioneering American chemist whose work fundamentally shaped nuclear chemistry during the 20th century. He co-discovered plutonium and nine other transuranic elements, significantly expanding our understanding of atomic structure and radioactivity. His research contributed dire...

Omar M. Yaghi is a prominent chemist specializing in materials science. His research focuses on metal-organic frameworks or MOFs – crystalline porous materials exhibiting exceptional properties for applications like gas storage, chemical separations, and catalytic reactions. He achieved significant...

August Kekulé was a 19th-century German chemist whose work significantly advanced organic chemistry. He is best known for his discovery in 1865 of the hexagonal ring structure of benzene. This insight provided a crucial framework for understanding aromatic compounds and their unique chemical behavio...

Irving Langmuir (1881-1957) was a pioneering American physical chemist. His research fundamentally shaped our understanding of surfaces and interfaces. He developed theories regarding adsorption, particularly concerning monolayers, which proved critical for advancements in catalysis, vacuum technolo...

Carolyn R. Bertozzi is a chemist renowned for pioneering bioorthogonal chemistry. Her work develops reactions that selectively modify biomolecules without disrupting surrounding structures, crucial for studying complex biological processes in real-time. This technique allows researchers in chemical...

Victor Grignard was a French chemist whose work fundamentally changed organic chemistry. He developed Grignard reagents, compounds of magnesium that react with carbon-containing molecules to form new ones. This method proved exceptionally useful for synthesizing complex organic compounds, particular...

Friedrich Wöhler was a German chemist of the 19th century whose synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate in 1828 fundamentally altered chemistry. This achievement demonstrated that organic compounds, previously thought to require biological origins, could be created through chemical reactions. His wo...

Robert H. Grubbs was a pioneering American chemist renowned for his groundbreaking work in organometallic catalysis specifically concerning olefin metathesis. His development of this technique revolutionized chemical synthesis by allowing precise creation and rearrangement of carbon-carbon double bo...

Paul J. Crutzen (1933-2022) was a prominent Dutch chemist whose research fundamentally shaped our understanding of atmospheric processes. He is best known for his discovery of ozone depletion caused by human activities and his subsequent work on the global nitrogen cycle. His Nobel Prize recognized...

Akira Suzuki (1930–2023) was a prominent Japanese chemist recognized globally for his pioneering work in palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. These techniques dramatically improved methods for forming carbon-carbon bonds within organic molecules. His innovations are fundamental to modern ph...

George A. Olah (1927-2017) was a prominent chemist specializing in organic chemistry. His research significantly advanced understanding of carbene compounds and superacids. He developed innovative methods for synthesizing hydrocarbons, earning him the 1994 Nobel Prize. Olah’s work remains crucial fo...

Ada E. Yonath is a chemist renowned for her groundbreaking work in structural biology. Her research focused on determining the detailed three-dimensional structure of the ribosome, a crucial cellular component responsible for protein synthesis. This work significantly advanced our understanding of f...

Walter Kohn was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to the fields of quantum mechanics and physical chemistry. He is best known for developing density functional theory (DFT), which revolutionized the way scientists calculate the electronic structure o...

Karl Ziegler (1894-1973) was a German chemist whose research fundamentally changed polymer science. He developed innovative catalytic methods, notably the Ziegler–Natta catalysts, which enabled the mass production of high-performance plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene. This work is crucial...

Susumu Kitagawa is a prominent Japanese chemist specializing in materials science. He achieved international recognition for his groundbreaking research on metal-organic frameworks or MOFs. These porous materials are notable for their potential applications including gas storage and separation techn...

Petrus Debye was a prominent Dutch chemist whose work fundamentally shaped physical chemistry in the early 20th century. He is most recognized for his development of the concept of dipole moments and its application to understanding molecular properties like those of solutions. His research utilizin...

Mario J. Molina is a Mexican chemist recognized globally for his pioneering research on atmospheric chemistry. His critical findings demonstrated that chlorofluorocarbons, widely used as refrigerants, were causing significant damage to the ozone layer. This work led directly to international agreeme...

Francis William Aston developed innovative techniques in analytical chemistry centered around mass spectrometry. His work significantly advanced our understanding of elemental isotopes and their relative abundances. Aston’s precise measurements were crucial for scientific research and industrial app...