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chemical industry

(Encyclopedia)chemical industry, the business of using chemical reactions to turn raw materials, such as coal, oil, and salt, into a variety of products. During the 19th and 20th cent. technological advances in the...

Moissan, Henri Ferdinand Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Moissan, Henri Ferdinand Frederick, 1852–1907, French chemist, Ph.D. École Pratique des Haute Études, Paris, 1880. Moissan was a professor at the School of Pharmacy in Paris (1886–1900) and at t...

Sakmann, Bert

(Encyclopedia)Sakmann, Bert, 1942–, German biophysicist, M.D. Univ. of Göttingen, Germany, 1974. He has been a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen since 1974. Sakmann r...

rare earths

(Encyclopedia)rare earths, in chemistry, oxides of the rare-earth metals. They were once thought to be elements themselves. They are widely distributed in the earth's crust and are fairly abundant, although they we...

Todd, Sir Alexander Robertus

(Encyclopedia)Todd, Sir Alexander Robertus, 1907–97, Scottish biochemist, Ph.D., Univ. of Frankfurt am Main, 1931; Oxford, 1933. Todd held posts at Edinburgh Univ. (1934–36), the Lister Institute of Preventive ...

Semyonov, Nikolay Nikolayevich

(Encyclopedia)Semyonov, Nikolay Nikolayevich, or Nikolai Nikolaevic Semenov, 1896–1986, Soviet physical chemist, Ph.D. Petrograd Univ., 1917. Semyonov was a professor at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute ...

Fischer, Emil

(Encyclopedia)Fischer, Emil fĭshˈər [key], 1852–1919, German organic chemist. He is especially noted for his researches on the structure and synthesis of sugars and of purines and purine base derivatives, e.g...

Fischer, Ernst Otto

(Encyclopedia)Fischer, Ernst Otto, 1918–2007, German chemist, Ph.D. Technical Univ. of Munich (TUM), 1952. Fischer was a professor at TUM (1954–57) and the Univ. of Munich (1957–64). He returned to TUM in 196...

Fukui, Kenichi

(Encyclopedia)Fukui, Kenichi kĕnˈēchē fo͝oko͞oˈē, fo͝okˈo͞o-ē [key], 1918–98, Japanese chemist, b. Nara, Japan, Ph.D. Kyoto Univ., 1948. As a professor at Kyoto Univ., Fukui developed the theory that ...

Elion, Gertrude Belle

(Encyclopedia)Elion, Gertrude Belle ĕlˈēən [key], 1918–99, American pharmacologist, b. New York City, B.S. Hunter College, 1937. Unable to find research work (largely because she was a woman), she taught high...