Scientific Biographies
Science is a human pursuit. Meet the people behind some of the most significant achievements and discoveries in the history of chemistry, chemical engineering, and the life sciences.
Jonas Salk and Albert Bruce Sabin
In the 1950s Salk and Sabin developed separate vaccines—one from killed virus and the other from live virus—to combat the dreaded polio disease.
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/salk-profile-640x500.jpg)
![Mary Fieser, fall 1951.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/mary_fieser1-new-300x300.jpg)
Mary Peters Fieser
1909 - 1997
![Fischer wearing pinch nose glasses resting his head on his hand](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-fischer-e-efsmithcoll-300x300.jpg)
Emil Fischer
1852 - 1919
![Alexander Fleming working in a lab holding a petri dish](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/alexander_fleming_wikimedia-300x300.jpeg)
Alexander Fleming
1881 - 1955
![Howard Florey.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/florey1-profile1-1-300x300.jpg)
Howard Walter Florey
1898 - 1968
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/rosalind-franklin-300x300.jpg)
Rosalind Franklin
1920 - 1958
![The Frees wearing lab coats and standing in a research lab. Alfred holds what seems to be an animal test subject while Helen injects something.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-free-and-free-300x300.jpg)
Helen M. Free
1923 - 2021
![Helen and Alfred Free](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/alfred_free-300x300.jpeg)
Alfred Free
1913 - 2000
![Fuller in a white button up and tie, wearing glasses and sitting in front of a dry erase board](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-fuller_only-300x300.jpg)
Ray W. Fuller
1935 - 1996
![sepia-toned portrait of Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/joseph_louis_gay_portrait-300x300.jpeg)
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
1778 - 1850
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/good_at_desk-profile-300x300.jpg)
Mary Lowe Good
1931 - 2019
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bob_gore-gore-tex-1-300x300.jpg)
Robert W. Gore
1937 - 2020
![Autographed etching of Fritz Haber, 1922](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/autographed_etching_fritz_haber-300x300.jpeg)
Fritz Haber
1868 - 1934
![Clifford and Kathryn Hach.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/kitty_and_cliff_retouched-profile-1-300x300.jpg)
Kathryn C. “Kitty” Hach-Darrow
1922 - 2020
![Otto Hahn.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/hahn_otto_1930_edgar_fahs_smith-300x300.jpg)
Otto Hahn
1879 - 1968
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/hall-profile-300x300.jpg)
Charles M. Hall
1863 - 1914
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/hamilton-300x300.jpg)
Alice Hamilton
1869 - 1970
![Paula Hammond in her lab at MIT.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/paula_hammond_bg_lighter-300x300.jpeg)
Paula Hammond
b. 1963
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/harrison_anna_mt._holyokeprofile-300x300.jpg)
Anna Jane Harrison
1912 - 1998
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-hazen_brown-300x300.jpg)
Elizabeth Lee Hazen
1885 - 1975
![alan heeger photo](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/alan-heeger-300x300.jpeg)
Alan J. Heeger
b. 1936
![Paul Héroult.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/paulheroult_large-300x300.jpg)
Paul Héroult
1863 - 1914
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-hill_henry_aaron_acs-300x300.jpg)
Henry Aaron Hill
1915 - 1979
![Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings in the laboratory, 1948.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/george_hitchings_and_gertrude_elion_1948-300x300.jpg)
George Hitchings
1905 - 1998
![Dorothy Hodgkin in 1991 is shown seated and smiling. Her hair is half up and she is wearing a floral dress with brown panels.](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/hodgkin_dorothy_chf-profile-300x300.jpg)
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
1910 - 1994
![](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bio-hoffman-300x300.jpg)
Darleane C. Hoffman
b. 1926
![old photo of Felix Hoffman](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/felix_hoffmann_bayer-300x300.jpeg)
Felix Hoffmann
1868 - 1946
![Hoffman stands](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/roald-hoffmann-photo-credit-michael-grace-martin-hd-300x300.jpg)
Roald Hoffmann
b. 1937
![photo from an old driver's license](https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/eugene_houdry_drivers_license-300x300.jpeg)
Eugene Houdry
1892 - 1962
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