American People Famous Chemists from the United States

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List of notable or famous chemists from the United States, with bios and photos, including the top chemists born in the United States and even some popular chemists who immigrated to the United States. If you're trying to find out the names of famous American chemists then this list is the perfect resource for you. These chemists are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known chemist from the United States is included when available.

Examples of people on this list: George Washington Carver, Linus Pauling and more.

This historic chemists from the United States list can help answer the questions "Who are some American chemists of note?" and "Who are the most famous chemists from the United States?" These prominent chemists of the United States may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected American chemists.

Use this list of renowned American chemists to discover some new chemists that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. (631 items)

1
George Washington Carver is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
George Washington Carver, was an American botanist and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he was born in Missouri, either in 1861, or January 1864. Carver's reputation is ...more

2
Gordon Moore is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 89 Gordon Earle Moore is an American businessman and co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation and the author of Moore's law. As of January 2015, his net worth is $6.7 billion.

3
Linus Pauling is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 93 (1901-1994) Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists ...more

4
Leo Baekeland is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 81 (1863-1944) Leo Henricus Arthur Baekeland FRSE was a Belgian-born American chemist. He invented Velox photographic paper in 1893 and Bakelite in 1907. His invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, ...more

5
Arnold Orville Beckman is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 104 (1900-2004) Arnold Orville Beckman was an American chemist, inventor, investor, and philanthropist. While a professor at Caltech, he founded Beckman Instruments based on his 1934 invention of the pH meter, ...more

6
Gregory Goodwin Pincus is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 64 (1903-1967) Dr. Gregory Goodwin Pincus was an American biologist and researcher who co-invented the combined oral contraceptive pill.

7
Henry Eyring is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 80 (1901-1981) Henry Eyring was a Mexican-born American theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates. A prolific writer, he authored more than ...more

8
Stephanie Kwolek is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 91 (1923-2014) Stephanie Louise Kwolek was an American chemist, whose career at the DuPont company covered over forty years. She is best known for inventing the first of a family of synthetic fibers of ...more

9
Leland Clark is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 87 (1918-2005) Leland C. Clark Jr. was an American biochemist born in Rochester, New York. He is most well known as the inventor of the Clark electrode, a device used for measuring oxygen in blood, water and ...more

10
Catherine Coleman is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 57 Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman is an American chemist, a former United States Air Force officer, and a current NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, and ...more

11
George M. Church is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 63 George Church is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics. With degrees from Duke University in chemistry and zoology, he co-authored ...more

12
Tracy Caldwell Dyson is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 48 Tracy Caldwell Dyson is an American chemist and NASA astronaut. Caldwell Dyson was a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Endeavour flight STS-118 in August 2007. She was part of the Expedition ...more

13
Albert C. Barnes is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 79 (1872-1951) Albert Coombs Barnes was an American physician, chemist, businessman, art collector, writer, and educator, and the founder of the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.

14
Millie Hughes-Fulford is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 72 Millie Elizabeth Hughes-Fulford is an American medical investigator and molecular biologist who flew aboard a NASA Space Shuttle mission as a Payload Specialist.

15
John Fenn is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 93 (1917-2010) John Bennett Fenn was an American research professor of analytical chemistry who was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002. Fenn shared half of the award with Koichi Tanaka for ...more

16
Robert S. Mulliken is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 90 (1896-1986) Robert Sanderson Mulliken ForMemRS was an American physicist and chemist, primarily responsible for the early development of molecular orbital theory, i.e. the elaboration of the molecular ...more

17
Herbert Henry Dow is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 64 (1866-1930) Herbert Henry Dow was a Canadian born, American chemical industrialist. He was a graduate of Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio. His most significant achievement was the founding ...more

18
Neil Bartlett is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 76 (1932-2008) |family = Dee Bartlett, Ava Bartlett Neil Bartlett was a chemist who specialized in fluorine and compounds containing fluorine, and became famous for creating the first noble gas compounds. He ...more

19
Melvin Calvin is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 86 (1911-1997) Melvin Ellis Calvin was an American chemist most famed for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He ...more

20
John Pemberton is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 57 (1831-1888) John Stith Pemberton was an American pharmacist, and is best known for being the inventor of Coca-Cola.

21
Calvin Souther Fuller is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 92 (1902-1994) Calvin Souther Fuller was a physical chemist at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he worked for 37 years from 1930 to 1967. Fuller was part of a team in basic research that found answers to ...more

22
Leopold Godowsky, Jr. is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 83 (1900-1983) Leopold Godowsky, Jr. was an American violinist and chemist, who together with Leopold Mannes created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome.

23
Marie Maynard Daly is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 82 (1921-2003) Marie Maynard Daly was an American biochemist. She was the first African American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.

24
Jheri Redding is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 91 (1907-1998) Jheri Redding was an American hairdresser, chemist, hair care products entrepreneur and businessman. Redding is best known for having created the Jheri curl. Redding is credited with being the ...more

25
Rachel Fuller Brown is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 82 (1898-1980) Rachel Fuller Brown was a chemist best known for her long-distance collaboration with microbiologist Elizabeth Lee Hazen in developing the first useful antifungal antibiotic, Nystatin, while ...more

26
Joseph George Davidson is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 77 (1892-1969) Joseph George Davidson was an American chemist and inventor. Davidson was born February 7, 1892, in New York City, a son of John Wellington and Theresa Davidson. The family moved to California ...more

27
Marcel Vogel is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 74 (1917-1991) Marcel Joseph Vogel was a research scientist working at the IBM San Jose Research Center for 27 years. He is sometimes referred to as Dr. Vogel, although this title was based on an honorary ...more

28
Norman Gaylord is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 84 (1923-2007) Norman Gaylord was an American industrial chemist and research scientist credited with playing a key role in the development of the gas-permeable rigid contact lens which allows oxygen to reach ...more

29
John S. Waugh is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 85 (1929-2014) John Stewart Waugh was an American chemist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for developing average hamiltonian theory and using it to extend NMR ...more

30
George Poe is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 68 (1846-1914) George Poe, Jr. was a pioneer of mechanical ventilation of asphyxiation victims. He was the first person to manufacture nitrous oxide for commercial use in his Trenton, New Jersey company.

31
Lloyd Hall is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 77 (1894-1971) Lloyd Augustus Hall was an African American chemist who contributed to the science of food preservation. By the end of his career, Hall had amassed 59 United States patents, and a number of his ...more

32
Tracy Hall is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 89 (1919-2008) Howard Tracy Hall was an American physical chemist, and the first person who grew a synthetic diamond according to a reproducible, verifiable and witnessed process, using a press of his own

33
Farrington Daniels is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 83 (1889-1972) Farrington Daniels, was an American physical chemist, is considered one of the pioneers of the modern direct use of solar energy.

34
Frederick Gardner Cottrell is listed (or ranked) 34 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 71 (1877-1948) Frederick Gardner Cottrell was an American Physical Chemist, Inventor and Philanthropist. He is best known for his invention of the electrostatic precipitator, one of the first inventions ...more

35
Victor Gustav Bloede is listed (or ranked) 35 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 88 (1849-1937) Victor Gustav Bloede, was a chemist and manufacturer of chemicals, president of the Victor G. Bloede Company, and businessman.

36
Ernest H. Volwiler is listed (or ranked) 36 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 99 (1893-1992) Ernest Henry Volwiler spent his entire career at Abbott Laboratories working his way from staff chemist to CEO. A Hamilton, Ohio native, Volwiler received a bachelor's degree from Miami ...more

37
Walter Lincoln Hawkins is listed (or ranked) 37 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 81 (1911-1992) Walter Lincoln Hawkins was an African-American scientist and inventor who, while working at Bell Laboratories in the 1940s, helped to make universal service possible. Hawkins developed a plastic ...more

38
Henry Cecil McBay is listed (or ranked) 38 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 81 (1914-1995) Henry Ransom Cecil McBay was an African - American chemist and a teacher.

39
John Whiteside Parsons is listed (or ranked) 39 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 38 (1914-1952) John Whiteside Parsons, better known as Jack Parsons, was an American rocket and chemical engineer, rocket propulsion researcher, inventor, businessman, writer, and Thelemite occultist. Parsons ...more

40
Hudson Maxim is listed (or ranked) 40 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 74 (1853-1927) Hudson Maxim, was a U.S. inventor and chemist who invented a variety of explosives, including smokeless gunpowder, Thomas Edison referred to him as "the most versatile man in America". ...more

41
Spencer Silver is listed (or ranked) 41 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 77 Spencer Ferguson Silver is an American chemist who, together with Arthur Fry, invented Post-it notes in 1970. Silver was born in San Antonio, Texas. He majored in chemistry at Arizona State ...more

42
Ahmed Zewail is listed (or ranked) 42 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 69 Ahmed Hassan Zewail is an Egyptian- American scientist, known as the "father of femtochemistry", he won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry and became the ...more

43
Wallace Carothers is listed (or ranked) 43 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 41 (1896-1937) Wallace Hume Carothers was an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont, credited with the invention of nylon. Carothers was a group leader at the DuPont ...more

44
Benjamin Rush is listed (or ranked) 44 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 68 (1745-1813) Benjamin Rush was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush was a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, educator and humanitarian, as well as ...more

45
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe is listed (or ranked) 45 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 81 (1832-1913) Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, ...more

46
Patsy O'Connell Sherman is listed (or ranked) 46 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 78 (1930-2008) Patsy O’Connell Sherman was an American chemist and co-inventor of Scotchgard, a 3M brand of products, a stain repellent and durable water repellent.

47
Eloy Rodriguez is listed (or ranked) 47 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
age 71 Eloy Rodriguez is a Mexican-American biochemist. He is the James Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University. He was born in Edinburg, Texas. Collaborating with ...more

48
Percy Lavon Julian is listed (or ranked) 48 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 76 (1899-1975) Percy Lavon Julian was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and ...more

49
Robert Chesebrough is listed (or ranked) 49 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 101 (1837-1938) Robert Augustus Chesebrough, was a chemist and the inventor of petroleum jelly, which he trade-named as Vaseline. In 1875 he founded the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company that in 1955 became ...more

50
Samuel Andrews is listed (or ranked) 50 on the list Famous Chemists from the United States
Dec. at 68 (1836-1904) Samuel Andrews was a chemist and inventor. Born in England, he immigrated to the United States before the American Civil War, and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He is best known as a partner in the ...more