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Chemists in Science & Medicine

25 people, across 5 fields.

Linus Pauling 1901–1994Science & MathematicsChemist and peace activist who won two unshared Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Peace.Jennifer Doudna b. 1964Science & MathematicsBiochemist who co-developed CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, revolutionizing genetics and medicine.Glenn T. Seaborg 1912–1999Science & MathematicsCo-discovered plutonium and nine other transuranium elements and chaired the Atomic Energy Commission.Katalin Karikó b. 1955Medicine & Public HealthBiochemist whose work on modified messenger RNA enabled highly effective mRNA vaccines and new therapeutic platforms.Charles David Keeling 1928–2005Science & MathematicsMeasured atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa from 1958 until his death, producing the Keeling Curve.Harold Urey 1893–1981Science & MathematicsDiscovered deuterium and founded cosmochemistrySelman Waksman 1888–1973Medicine & Public HealthRan the soil-screening programme that produced streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.Stanley Miller 1930–2007Science & MathematicsThe 1953 experiment that made amino acids from a simulated early atmosphereJames Smithson 1765–1829Science & MathematicsBritish scientist whose bequest founded the Smithsonian Institution, America's museum complex.Josiah Willard Gibbs 1839–1903Science & MathematicsFounded chemical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics through his work on heterogeneous equilibrium at Yale.Percy Lavon Julian 1899–1975Science & MathematicsPioneered synthesis of cortisone and other steroids from plant sterols.Frances Arnold b. 1956Science & MathematicsChemical engineer who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for directed evolution of enzymes.Stephanie Kwolek 1923–2014Science & MathematicsInvented Kevlar aramid fiber while working as a DuPont research chemist.Gerty Cori 1896–1957Medicine & Public HealthBiochemist and first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, honored for discoveries about carbohydrate metabolism.Wallace Carothers 1896–1937Science & MathematicsLed the DuPont research that produced neoprene and nylon and established polymer science.Gertrude B. Elion 1918–1999Medicine & Public HealthPharmacologist whose rational drug-design work produced treatments for leukemia, infections, gout, and organ rejection.Willard Libby 1908–1980Science & MathematicsDeveloped radiocarbon dating — transforming archaeology and geology — and won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.