Lives and Times of Great Pioneers in Chemistry

(Lavoisier to Sanger)

Chemical science has made major advances in the last few decades and has gradually transformed in to a highly multidisciplinary subject that is exciting academically and at the same time beneficial to human kind. In this context, we owe much to the foundations laid by great pioneers of chemistry who contributed new knowledge and created new directions. This book presents the lives and times of 21 great chemists starting from Lavoisier (18th century) and ending with Sanger. Then, there are stories of the great Faraday (19th century) and of the 20th century geniuses G N Lewis and Linus Pauling. The material in the book is presented in the form of stories describing important aspects of the lives of these great personalities, besides highlighting their contributions to chemistry. It is hoped that the book will provide enjoyable reading and also inspiration to those who wish to understand the secret of the creativity of these great chemists.

Contents:

• Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) — Father of Chemistry
• John Dalton (1766–1844) — Proponent of the Concept of the Atom
• Humphry Davy (1778–1829) — The Great Discoverer and Showman)
• Jons Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848) — Swedish Pioneer Who Wrote the First Chemistry Textbook
• Michael Faraday (1791–1867) — The Greatest Scientist of All Time
• Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882) — The One Who Made the First Organic Compound
• August Kekule (1829–1896) — First to Predict Organic Structures
• Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907) — Designer of the Greatest Table
• Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (1852–1911) — First Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
• Emil Fischer (1852–1919) — A Multi-Faceted Organic Chemist
• Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) — High Priest of Physical Chemistry
• Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927) — Some Compounds Dissociate, and Some Cause Climate Change
• Alfred Werner (1866–1919) — Inorganic Kekule
• Richard Willstätter (1872–1942) — Ecstasy and Agony of Willstätter
• Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946) — The 20th Century Chemical Genius who Did Not Get the Prize
• Robert Robinson (1886–1975) — The Quintessential Organic Chemist
• Christopher Kelk Ingold (1893–1970) — Founder of Physical Organic Chemistry
• Henry Eyring (1901–1981) — A Simple Man with an Active Mind
• Linus Pauling (1901–1994) — The Irrepressible Scientist and Crusader, with Two Unshared Nobel Prizes
• Robert Burns Woodward (1917–1979) — Artist in Organic Synthesis
• Frederick Sanger (1918–2013) — A Modest Man with Two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry

Readership: Students and teachers of chemistry, young scientists and chemists.