Genealogy

Antoine Francois Comte de Fourcroy (1755-1809) worked on the use of saltpeter in the manufacture of gunpowder for the revolutionary armies of France and was a member of the French Assembly from 1793. He prevented the execution of the physician Darcet , but was unjustly accused of countenancing the death of lavoisier, who was his friend and collaborator. He became an eminent physiologist and chemist. He authored “Philosophie Chimique” and other books, and he helped found the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Louis Nicolas Yauquelin (1763-1829) succeeded Fourcroy on the faculty of medicine in Paris in 1809. He was the codiscoverer of asparagine. Yes, it’s in asparagus.

Baron Louis Jacques Thenard (1777-1857) [Yes, he was titled] was a collaborator of Gay Lussac. In 1818 he discovered hydrogen peroxide. From 1840 he was professor at the College de France .

Jean Baptiste Andre Dumas (1800-1884) was professor of organic chemistry in the faculty of medicine in Paris, one of the most distinguished and honored scientists of his day. Not only was he responsible for the Dumas bulb, but according to one reference could be called the “father of organic chemistry” on the basis of his development of the concept of homology. His most important book was entitled “Traite de chimie applique aux arts.”

Josiah Parsons Cooke (1827-1894) was professor of chemistry at Harvard from 1850. In 1860 he published a book entitled “Elements of Chemical Physics.”

Theodore William Richards (1868-1928) was the son of the great American artist William Trost Richards. He was awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his accurate determination of molecular weights.

Farrington Daniels (1889-1971) was the distinguished chemical kineticist, longtime professor at Wisconsin, and author of the great undergraduate physical chemistry text which has been in continuous use since 1931. Harnessing the sun’s energy was one of his special interests.

Paul C. Cross (1907- ) just recently retired from his position as Vice President of Carnegie-Mellon University .Previously he had been President of Mellon Institute, Chairman of the Chemistry Departments of the University of Washington and Brown University, and on the faculty of Stanford. He was a postdoctoral with Pauling at Cal Tech. His main research field is molecular spectroscopy.

Bryce L. Crawford, Jr. (1914-1985) is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, where for many years he was Dean of the Graduate School. Before that he was Chairman of the Minnesota Chemistry Department, and on the faculty of Yale. He was a postdoctoral with E. B. Wilson at Harvard. He has worked in molecular spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, and the structure of liquids.

Robert G. Parr (1921 – 2017 ) is Wassily Hoeffding Research Professor of Chemical Physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a member of both the National Academy of Science and The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He once worked in Carnegie-Mellon University and then in John Hopkins University. His specialty is ab initio theory and density functional theory.

What’s this all about? Yes, you guessed it: SBL got his Ph.D. from RGP at UNC who got his Ph. D. from BLC at Minnesota who got his Ph.D. from PCC at Stanford who got his Ph.D. from FD at Wisconsin who got his Ph .D. from Richards at Harvard. Richards worked with Cooke who worked with Dumas who worked with Thenard who worked with Vauquelin who worked with Fourcroy. [Information kindly supplied by Oliver Ludwig.]