Chemists and their Contribution to Chemistry

Marie Curie
Born: Nov 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland
Died: July 4, 1934 (at age 66) in Passy, Haute-Savoie, France
Nationality: Polish, French
Famous For: Radium, Polonium, Radioactivity
Awards: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911), Matteucci Medal (1904), Davy Medal (1903), Nobel
Prize in Physics (1903)
Marie Curie was a famous Polish chemist. Marie and her husband Pierre Curie were early
researchers in radioactivity. She received her first Nobel Prize in 1903 for physics, together with
Pierre and Henri Bequerell, for research in the area of radioactivity. In 1911, she was given a
second Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in discovering radium and polonium.

Early Life
Marie Curie was born in Poland in 1867 and was the daughter of a secondary school teacher. She
learned to read when she was only four years old and was fascinated by the scientific instruments
her father kept at their home. She later took work as a teacher and also created a free university
where she would accept other females as students since institutes of higher learning in Poland
did not enroll women at the time.
In 1891, Marie went to Paris and joined Sorbonne University to study physics and mathematics
where she met Pierre Curie. They got married him in 1895. Pierre Curie was the professor of the
school of physics and chemistry.

Discovery
Both Marie and Pierre worked together investigating radioactivity, based on the work conducted
by the French Physicist Henry Becquerell and German Physicist Roentgen. In 1898 the Curies
discovered the elements polonium and radium. They received the Nobel Prize for Physics in the
year
1903
along
with
Henry
Bequerel.
Pierre Curie died in the year 1906, after which Marie took over the job Pierre was doing, making
her the first lady to teach in Sorbonne. She was devoted to continue the work she and Pierre
Curie started together. In 1911, Marie received her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for
her discovery and isolation of radium and its compounds. Marie Curie also proved that radium
can successfully cure certain illnesses. Even today, it plays an important role in the treatment of
cancer. She is noted for being the person who introduced the use of X-ray technology and radium
in medicine. Marie Curie was the first person to hold two Nobel Prizes in the sciences; Physics
and chemistry.

Death

During WWI, Marie Curie drove ambulances equipped with X-ray equipment to help victims.
The International Red Cross made Marie Curie the head of its radiology services, where she and
her co-workers would conduct classes for doctors and medical orderlies on how to utilize the
new technique. Due to continued exposure to hazardous radioactive elements, Marie became ill
and died on July 4th, 1934. She is recognized as one of the greatest researchers as well as an
outstanding female scientist.

John Dalton
Born: Sept 6, 1844 in Eaglesfield, Cumberland, England
Died: Jul 27, 1844 (at age 77) in Manchester, England
Nationality: English
Famous For: Modern atomic theory
Legacy: Atomic mass unit (dalton), building named after John Dalton at Manchester
Metropolitan University, University of Manchester named Dalton Hall, Dalton
Township, OH named after Dalton, inorganic section (Dalton Division) of Royal
Society of Chemistry in UK is named after Dalton

John Dalton was born in Eaglesfield, England in the year 1766. He is acknowledged for his
research work in the formation of modern atomic theory as well as color blindness. He is often
regarded as the father of modern chemistry.
Early Life and Education

John Dalton was born into a Quaker family, where his father
Joseph was a weaver and his grandfather Jonathan Dalton was a
shoemaker. Dalton was the youngest child in his family who
survived till adulthood. He attended the Quaker Grammar
school in the Eaglesfield lead by John Fletcher. When John was
12 years old, Fletcher handed over the responsibilities of the
school to Jonathan, Johns elder brother who then called John
Dalton to assist him. After teaching in the Quaker school for a
couple of years, the brothers bought a school in Kendal and
offered various subjects to do with science and math.
During this period, John gained some popularity that was enough to get noticed by Elihu
Robinson, a rich Quaker who taught him mathematics, meteorology, and other sciences. Dalton
was also mentored by a blind person named John Gough, a wealthy merchant who lived near
Kendal school.
Through their support, John entered the New School in Manchester in 1793 as a teacher in
mathematics and natural philosophy. The very next year, he was made part of the Manchester

Literary and Philosophical Society. Dalton, being color blind himself, wrote a paper on color
blindness, explaining how these people perceive things and why. This paper later became very
famous and even the word Daltonism was referred commonly to color blindness.
Development of Atomic Theory

Dalton had a great interest in meteorology and the atmosphere. This led him to the study of
gasses and forming the atomic theory. He published a paper explaining that when two different
gasses were mixed together they acted independently as if the other one is not present. Dalton,
also postulated the law of thermal expansion.
In the year 1803, Dalton was able to submit another paper, The law of multiple proportions,
which states that elements always combine in whole number ratios. He created the first table of
atomic weights, hydrogen being the first one having a mass of 1.
In a way to expand his theory, Dalton published A new system of chemical philosophy in the
year 1808 which states that atoms of different elements can be distinguished from one another by
their varying atomic weights. Thus he became the first scientist to describe atoms behavior in
terms of the measurement of weight. He also explained that atoms cannot be created or
destroyed. Though Daltons work was welcomed by some people, it received much debate and
hype among scientists. However, people began accepting Daltons work when more experiments
were made on the subject matter in the later years.
Final Years

John Dalton got a small pension from the government that helped him live a normal life. He had
a minor stroke in 1837, and yet another one in the next year that affected his speech. In 1844, he
had another stroke and died in the same year.

Antoine Lavoisier
Born: Aug 26, 1743 in Paris, France
Died: May 8, 1794 (at age 50) in Paris, France
Nationality: French
Famous For: Father of modern chemistry, metric system, first extensive list of
elements, named hydrogen and oxygen, and others

Antoine Lavoisier was a French nobleman who was a very

prominent figure in biology and chemistry. He gave hydrogen
and oxygen their names. He made very valuable contributions
to the metric system. This French chemist is also known as
the father of modern chemistry.
Early Years and Marriage

Lavoisier was born into a very affluent family in Paris. When

he was five, his mother passed away, and she left him a large
fortune. In the mid 1700s he attended the Collge Mazarin
and studied astronomy, botany, chemistry and mathematics.
He obtained a law license in 1764 before embracing a career
in science. When he was 25, he became a member Frances
elite scientific organization, the French Academy of Sciences.
His first science publication occurred in 1764. He worked on
Frances first geological map in 1769.
Research on Water, Gases, and Combustion

He discovered oxygens role in corroding metal, along with its role in plant and animal
respiration. Lavoisier conducted experiments with Pierre-Simon Laplace that demonstrated
respiration was fundamentally a very slow type of combustion of inhaled oxygen. His description
of combustion showed that the phlogiston theory was incorrect, because it postulated that organic
materials released phlogiston components.
Contributions to Science

Lavoisiers primary contributions to science were due to his conscious efforts to make all
experiments fit into the model of a single concept or theory. He set up the steady utilization of
the chemical balance, which used oxygen to rule out the phlogiston theory. He also helped to
develop a whole new chemical nomenclature system that stated oxygen was an important
component of all acids, later this was proved to be erroneous.
He conducted many research studies in physical chemistry and thermodynamics. He used a
calorimeter to calculate the amount of heat that was produced for each carbon dioxide unit that
was generated. He eventually discovered the identical ratio for animals, suggesting that animals
also generated energy by a certain kind of combustion reaction.
Lavoisier did not discover any new substances. He was basically a theorist, and was successful at
taking over experimental work that other scientists were working on or he collaborated with
them. He finished the works of Black, Cavendish, and Priestley, offering accurate explanations of
their various experiments.

He helped to create the metric system when he worked for the government. This system secured
the uniformity of all weights and measures in France. His contributions were very important in
advancing chemistry to the same levels that mathematics and physics had reached during the
eighteenth century. In 1999, his work was acknowledged by the American Chemical Society, and
also the Socit Chimique in France.
Death

He was a very powerful figure in the Ferme Gnrale, which was a privately-held business that
collected taxes for the royal government. This organization was unpopular with the citizens who
thought it was corrupt because they profited greatly with their position. In 1794, he was labeled a
traitor during the Reign of Terror. Lavoisier was tried, found guilty, and guillotined in May, 1794.
Lavoisier was exonerated, eighteen months later by the government.

Robert Boyle
Born: Jan 25, 1627 in Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland
Died: Dec 31, 1691 (at age 64) in London, England
Nationality: English, Irish
Famous For: Boyles law, modern experimental scientific method, founder of modern chemistry
Awards: Fellow of the Royal Society
Commonly referred to as the Father of Chemistry, Robert Boyle was one of the most
influential scientists of his time. His vast knowledge and influence in chemistry has been
recognized for a long time. Besides his work in chemistry,
Boyle also made other contributions to science in the area
of
physics.
Boyle was born in Lismore Castle, Ireland, and was the
youngest son of Richard Boyle and Katherine Fenton. His
father Richard, accumulated wealth in Ireland and was a
highly respected figure in the country. Robert Boyle
displayed a scholarly disposition from a young age.

Early Studies
After his early education in Ireland, he was sent to Eton
College in England. At 11 years old, he was sent around
Europe for a tour that lasted for six years. In 1649, he
returned to Dorset, England, where he began writing. He then set up a laboratory three years later
and started to write scientific work. It was at this time that he expressed the importance of the
use of experiments in science.

He then moved to Oxford in 1655, where he joined a group of philosophers who established the
Royal Society. Another famous scientist, Robert Hook, entered into Boyles life during this time
and aided him in experiments. It was here that they came up with an air pump that was used to
create vacuums, with Boyle carrying out several trials to elucidate the importance of air and also
its nature. Boyle then demonstrated the importance of air for breathing and for combustion as
well as for sound transmission. Before Boyle moved to London from Oxford in the year 1688, he
published some of his work including: The Spring and Weight of Air (1660), New Experiments
Physio-Mechanical, and The Sceptical Chymist (1661).

Contributions to Chemistry
He continued to carry out many experiments that helped him understand the relationship between
the volume and pressure of gas. This resulted in Boyles Law that states, when temperature is
held constant, the volume of gas is inversely proportional to pressure. Robert Boyle also carried
out several tests on gold, silver and copper. He also tested for the presence of salt in water using
silver nitrate and it is here where he devised a test for mineral-water analysis. During that time,
many people believed that salt and water elements could not be broken down any further. He was
largely opposed to these ideas and other basic element theories.

Later life and Death

In 1680, he was offered the presidency of the Royal Society, but he declined on the basis of his
religion. Robert Boyle never married and he lived with his sister Katherine. He died at the age of
64 in 1691 in London.

Dmitri Mendeleev
Born: Feb 8, 1834 in Verkhnie Aremzyani, Russian
Empire
Died: Feb 2, 1907 (at age 72) in St. Petersburg,
Russian Empire
Nationality: Russian
Famous For: Periodic table of elements

Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian scientist who is best known

for creating the Periodic Table of elements. He was born in
Siberia in 1834 into a large and reasonably well-off family. His
surname is sometimes spelled Mendeleyev or Mendeleef.

Early Life

When his father went blind and could no longer work, his mother revived a glass factory that the
family had once owned. She built it into a successful business again. When Dmitri was 14 the
glass factory was destroyed in a fire. Shortly after, the family moved to St. Petersburg. Here
Dmitri would receive a good education at the Institute of Pedagogy. This was a big decision,
requiring a trip of about 4,000 miles. His mother died soon afterward.
Shortly after graduating from the Institute, Mendeleev contracted tuberculosis, often a fatal
disease at the time. He moved to the Black Sea in hopes that the climate there would aid in
recovery. Here he obtained a position as a science teacher at the Simeferopol Gymnasium. He
remained there for two years, returning to St. Petersburg in good health in 1857.
Advancement

Mendeleev quickly established a reputation as a formidable scientist for his work in a number of
fields, including spectroscopy and the capillary action of liquids. In 1864, he was made professor
at the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute, and the following year became professor at Saint
Petersburg State University.
His reputation began to spread outside of Russia, and he received many honors and awards from
foreign institutions, including the Copley Medal, bestowed on him by the Royal Society in
London. In 1890, Mendeleev relinquished his educational posts, moving into the commercial
sector, where he conducted research in petrochemicals. During this period, he became Russias
Director for Weights and Measures. In this role, he developed a standard for the quality and
production methods of vodka.
Mendeleev was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1905, and the
following year there were significant efforts to have the Nobel Prize for Chemistry presented to
him. However, some influential individuals were opposed to him receiving the prize, and it went
elsewhere. Attempts to have the prize awarded to him the following year were also unsuccessful.
The Periodic Table

Mendeleev had begun working on a better system for classifying elements as early as 1863. At
the time, most chemists used one of two systems to classify elements. These were ordering them
by atomic number, or ordering them by their properties.
In 1869, Mendeleev tried to determine if it was possible to combine these two systems into a
single system. He constructed a table, after much experimentation, where elements were ordered
by their atomic number in horizontal rows, which he called groups, and by their properties
(specifically electron valence) in horizontal rows that he called periods.
When he built his table, there were gaps in it, and Mendeleev correctly predicted that these gaps
would one day be filled by elements yet to be discovered. Mendeleevs Periodic Table has

undergone some minor changes, but fundamentally is unchanged, and it was a remarkable
scientific achievement.

Home Work!!
Further Study: Look up the lives and works of Arrhenius and Avogadro and do a write up of 100
words each to be submitted next class.