10 most brilliant chemists of all the time, here is the list. There is chemistry in everything. Our body undergoes chemical reactions in order to keep us alive. There are chemical reactions that happen in nature and play a vital role in keeping us alive. And even the breathing process happens because plants make oxygen through chemical processes. Many scientists gave up their life in finding answers to various questions that this branch of science had to offer. We got major breakthroughs because of them. So here is the list of top ten most brilliant chemists of all times that contributed to the mankind.
1. Alice ball (1892-1916)
Alice ball, born on 24th July 1892, was an American chemist. She studied pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Washington and was the brain behind the “Ball Method”. She found the treatment to leprosy and her method helped a lot of people to free themselves from the hospitals. Alice was also the first African American women who received a master’s degree in chemistry. Unfortunately due to her untimely death, she couldn’t publish her paper and her work was stolen by another chemist. In the year 1922, Hollmann published a paper giving her the credits of Ball Method, where she made injectable oil.
Also Read: Top 10 chemical Reactions in human body
2. Dmitri Mendeleev ( 1834-1907)
The periodic table which gives nightmares to most of the students was developed by Dmitri Mendeleev and was known as Mendeleev’s periodic system that had an arrangement of chemical elements in order of their atomic weight. He made it so easier for everyone to understand the groups of nobel gases and the alkaline earth metals. The table has gaps for elements that are yet to be discovered but still the nature of it meant that he had a capability to precisely predict the properties of absent elements.
3. Alfred noble (1833-1896)
Dynamite that is used for various important activities like blasting tunnels, construction of roads and building of railways, was found by Alfred Nobel who was born in the year 1833. He was one of the best chemists in the world and still remains one. His genius got him a lot of prestigious awards because of his highly valuable contribution in the field of chemistry. Not only was he brilliant in chemistry but also knew four different languages and was fluent in them. Nobel earned fortunes through his contribution to science and wanted that money to be used in giving awards in the field of literature and peace, medicine, physics, chemistry and later economics was added too. The most prestigious award, the Nobel prize is named after him.
4. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
You must have seen your mothers boiling milk before consuming. It is done to kill harmful pathogens and make milk safe to drink. This was taken from the research by Louis Pasteur. He did a research that made him understand the concept of souring of beer and wine that is also done by microorganisms. Vaccination was also promoted by him as he was able to prove that the deadly diseases humans get are from the microorganisms that expand themselves in our body. Once these microbes become weak, our body develops resistance towards the disease. Thus, has made it to the list of top10 most brilliant chemists of all times.
5. Joseph priestly (1733-1804)
Joseph was born in the year 1733 and was a philosopher, political theorist and a rebellious clergyman. Oxygen in the air that we all take for granted was discovered by this great chemist. He conducted numerous experiments to isolate the compound which he called “air” that was completely new to him. In March 1975, he told many people about this new discovery through letters. And he did an experiment with mice by putting it in sealed a container with the new ‘air’ he discovered and noticed that mice could survive longer with it.
6. Marie curie (1867-1934)- one of the 10 most brilliant chemists
One of the greatest minds of all times, Marie Curie, born in 1867 has always been an inspiration to women all over the world. She was once rejected by the university because of being a woman, who knew later on she will go on discovering polonium and radium. She was the first women to receive the Nobel Prize in the year 1903 for physics. Marie made huge contributions in the field of physics and chemistry both and hence she went on to receive her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry which made her the only women to receive two noble prizes. Nobody has broken this record till now.
7. Mario Molina (1943-2020)
We all know how world has decreased CFC emissions considerably and saved the ozone layer to a great extent. The scientist Mario Molina is the hero behind it. Mario started a research on CFCS (chlorofluorocarbons) that are as refrigerants and chemical propellants. People did not know how harmful CFCs were proving to the earth but Molina’s research gave an in-depth insight on where these CFC’s go and how they affect the environment. Only after that people got to know that CFC’s are destroyed by the radiations coming from the sun, after which chlorine is developed that harms the ozone layer.
8. Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994)
Dorothy was a British chemist born in the year 1910 .She did her PHD from the University of Cambridge and was the brain behind the advancement of the technique of X- ray. This crystallography also helped in determining the 3D structure molecule. She won a noble prize for her research in protein crystallography. And decoded the structure of penicillin and the structure of vitamin B12 among some of her major science contributions. And thus makes in the 10 most brilliant chemists list.
9. Rosalind franklin (1920-1958)
Rosalind was an English chemist born in the year 1920. She worked on the x-ray diffraction images of DNA, she discovered the helical structure of DNA which is one of the most iconic images in chemistry. Her work became the basis of understanding molecular structure of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite. And her contributions in the field are unparalleled. Sadly, she died young at the age of 37 just one day before she wished to unveil the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus.
10. Marie Maynard Daly (1921- 2003)
Marie was a biochemist and got her PhD in chemistry from the Colombia university. She became the first African America to earn a P. At university Marie started her research about compounds and their effects on digestion and the body. She researched about proteins, sugar and cholesterol. And thus, was the first person who found about the effects of smoking cigarettes on our lungs. She thus falls under the list of 10 most brilliant chemists of all time.
